The ABC's of the Christian Life (5): Following Jesus Christ Rightly (Joining the Local Church) (1)

First Baptist Church Leominster

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Well, let's turn to Acts chapter 2, please. We'll begin there. Today we begin a third division of our study that we have entitled

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The ABCs of the Christian Life, or perhaps better, The ABCs of Christian Living. We first dealt with what it is initially to come to Jesus Christ for salvation, and we addressed that important matter on two

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Sundays several weeks ago. Having become aware of our personal guilt and condemnation of sin before God, knowing our inability to bring about our own remedy, we humbly come to Jesus Christ as our

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Lord and Savior in faith, trusting Him even as we repent of our sin.

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And then after having dealt with that first division or matter, we then, for the last two weeks, emphasized what it is to follow

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Jesus Christ onto our full and final salvation. Jesus is our

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Lord who leads us out of our sin, out of this fallen world, and forward in the

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Kingdom and towards the Kingdom. There's a present reality as well as a future prospect of the

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Kingdom. A Kingdom, the Father's promise to all who follow His Son.

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But today we begin to consider the third division, and this is going to be rather extended, and I have no clue really how many

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Sundays we're going to spend on this, but I want to begin to address the matter of how we may follow

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Jesus Christ rightly. And so the division of our study may be shown in the little outline you have in your notes.

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Coming to Jesus, following Jesus, following Jesus rightly. Now the content of the first two points are absolutely essential to salvation.

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You've got to come to Jesus rightly. You have to follow Jesus rightly in order to have salvation.

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Those are essentials. You can't be wrong there, or it's damning.

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But now we begin this third matter, following Jesus rightly. And we would say that this is not essential.

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We're going to deal with matters that are not essential to salvation, but nevertheless they are important. And so it's important that the disciples of Jesus Christ follow the

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Lord rightly, as prescribed in the Holy Scriptures. And so these matters are not essential, but they are very important issues, very important matters, not to be disregarded.

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Indeed, our Lord has given to all His people all things that pertain to life and godliness, the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, as we read in 2

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Peter 1. He's given to all Christians exceeding great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, as Peter wrote, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

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All Christians, every Christian has been given these promises. But not all Christians have these promises realized in their lives, because they're not walking with Jesus, they're not following Jesus rightly.

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For God has not only commanded us to follow Jesus, but He's prescribed in His Word how we may follow Him in a right manner, in a manner that we'll receive

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His blessing on the way. And so that's what we're going to be dealing with today and in coming weeks.

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And I would say at the head of this list of important teachings we want to consider is a new believer joining himself to a local church.

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Critical to follow Jesus rightly, to be part of a good, solid local church.

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And so for a Christian to follow the Lord rightly he should be baptized, and then he should join himself to the local church, and experience his

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Christian life within the fellowship of that local church, as he moves forward, as he follows

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Christ. We'll not address the matter of baptism today, which is really the door into the church, but rather we'll address the nature and importance of the

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Christian joining the church, and what kind of church that the Holy Scriptures prescribe for Christians.

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And so to begin our consideration of this subject, we want to look at the passage in Acts 2, which describes the events that transpired on the day of Pentecost, some 50 days after the

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Passover, after our Lord was crucified. On this day, the day of Pentecost, the

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Lord poured out upon His church the gift of the Holy Spirit, which gave great credence and spiritual power to the apostolic witness of the gospel.

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And it resulted, of course, in thousands of souls being converted on that day, and Peter gave instruction to them as to what they were to do, initially coming to Jesus, and to begin following Jesus.

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And he also speaks about what it is to follow Jesus rightly. The day began, of course, with 120 disciples gathered together in an upper room.

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They were praying and waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit, whom the Lord Jesus said would come upon them.

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When the day of Pentecost arrived, the Holy Spirit came upon them with audible and visible effects.

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To such a degree, to such an extent, it resulted in great commotion in the Jerusalem community, at least initially.

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And so we can read of this in Acts 2, verse 2 and following. Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind.

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The Holy Spirit is commonly associated with wind in the Holy Scriptures.

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The Hebrew word for wind, ruach, is the same Hebrew word for spirit.

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Holy Spirit, ruach, wind, an association there. Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire.

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One sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, or languages, as the

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Spirit gave them utterance. And they were dwelling in Jerusalem. Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.

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And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language.

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And so the crowds gathered. They were confused and they were errant in their perception of what was happening.

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They initially assumed the disciples of Jesus were drunk. And so this resulted in the apostle

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Peter standing before them in order to preach the word of God to them. And after Peter initially explained what they were witnessing was actually a fulfillment of prophecy, the prophecy of Joel, Peter proclaimed these words, and here is the extended passage.

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Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, the man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which

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God did through him in your midst. As you yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death.

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Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be held by it.

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For David says concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is in my right hand that I may not be shaken.

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And therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Hades, the abode of the dead.

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Nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You've made known to me the ways of life.

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You will make me full of joy in your presence. Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch

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David, that he's both dead and buried. And his tomb is with us to this day. In other words, what

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Peter is saying, these words that we just read of David, they were not referring to David directly, but rather to Jesus Christ, who was prophetic of this resurrection and exaltation of Jesus.

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And therefore being a prophet, that would have been King David, and knowing that God sworn with an oath to him that the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the

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Christ, the promised King, the Anointed One, to sit on his throne. He, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the

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Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption, this

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Jesus God raised up, of which we are all witnesses. And therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the

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Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this, which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into heavens, but he says himself,

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The Lord said to my Lord, quoting David from Psalm 110, The Lord said to my

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Lord, sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool. And therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this

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Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. And so Peter proclaimed to them that the long -anticipated and desired

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Kingdom of God had been inaugurated. The promised Son of David had come, and he had become the exalted

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King over the Kingdom of God. Israel's rejection, crucifixion, and burial of Jesus had not thwarted

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God's purpose to exalt David's Son. Rather, Jesus Christ's rejection, death, and resurrection had been the very path that led to and resulted in the enthronement of Jesus as Lord and Christ over the

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Kingdom of God. He is Lord. And the Jews who had rejected and crucified this one, the

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Father had exalted and enthroned. And so we now read of their response to Peter's announcement that King Jesus is ruling now, sitting on the throne of God in heaven.

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Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do?

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And Peter said to them, repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the

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Holy Spirit for the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off, that means

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Gentile believers too, thankfully, as many as the Lord our God will call.

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And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Be safe from this perverse generation.

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And then I am bold and italicized, verses 41 and 42. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about 3 ,000 souls were added to them, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers.

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And then fear came upon every soul, and wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

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Now all who believed were together and had all things in common, sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need.

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And then verses 46 and 47 is a summary statement that Luke provided.

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So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising

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God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

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That, of course, is bold and italicized for our emphasis also.

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Well, I would like us to consider the nature of the church at Jerusalem to which these new Christians join themselves, even while we extrapolate how all new

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Christians are to order their lives. How are we to follow Jesus rightly? And we may conclude from this portion of God's Word new

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Christians are to join the church. This might seem to be a rather simplistic matter, but it isn't, because a lot of people don't do it.

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They don't follow the Lord rightly in this matter. I was in the home of some folks just recently, and this was a glaring issue, a problem in their spiritual lives.

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It was apparent. Although they claim to love Jesus, they have not been in a local church of any duration for decades, and the problems in their life clearly reflected this.

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And so I went right here, and this is what I addressed in their lives. There are many people that depreciate the role and the value of the local church.

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They don't follow the Lord Jesus rightly when they fail or refuse to align with a local church.

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In verse 41 we read, "...the ones who gladly received Peter's word regarding the Lord Jesus were first baptized."

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And the result was 3 ,000 souls were added to the church that day. And then in verse 47 we read again this summary statement of what had transpired in those early days of the church at Jerusalem.

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The Lord added to the church daily those who are being saved. New Christians are to join themselves with other believers in a local church.

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Now we addressed this matter not long ago. In fact, it was in July of last year we addressed this very matter. But I felt we couldn't pass over it in addressing our subject that we're dealing with now.

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This is so critically important, and yet one that is not necessarily believed or emphasized a great deal.

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Now some would argue that the Lord was adding these new Christians to the Universal Invisible Church. In fact, that's one argument that many put forth in setting aside their responsibility to join a local church.

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They claim they need not join a local church for they are members of the Universal Church. I can't tell you the number of times

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I've heard that argument over the years. And yes, the Holy Scriptures do speak of the

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Universal Church. Our own Confession of Faith states this biblical doctrine. This is consistent with all

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Reformed churches. The Catholic, or Universal, and that's what

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Catholic means, Universal, lowercase c. The Catholic, or Universal Church, which, with respect to the internal work of the

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Spirit, truth, and grace, may be called invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one under Christ, the head thereof, and is the spouse, the body, the fullness of him that fills all in all.

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And we would affirm that as biblical teaching. But to argue that the

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Universal Church is what is meant in Acts 2 .47 is simply untenable. The Lord was adding daily to the local church at Jerusalem those who were being saved.

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Now we would acknowledge this church was in its simplistic and primitive form, and it developed certainly over time, but clearly they were being added to the local fellowship of Christians there at Jerusalem.

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And so let's consider the nature of the local church reflected here in this passage.

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When we consider the Greek word that we translate into English as church, it helps us better define what a church is before God.

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The Greek word for church is the word ekklesia. And this word is a combination of two words.

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It has a preposition. The first two letters join to the following word, two words, ek meaning out of, kleo meaning call, to call.

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And so the word for church denotes an assembly of called out people. That's what a church is. It's a called out assembly, a called out people.

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And the Greek word of the New Testament era was commonly used to describe really any group that was called out for a purpose, even in civil matters.

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And so people called to a public meeting within a community would be referred to as an ekklesia.

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And similarly, Christians are ones whom God has called out of the fallen world in order that they would gather together to be his people.

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The church is comprised of called out people, called out from the world, called together by the

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Lord to meet together. And that's only going to be seen in the local church. Now granted, the universal church will be gathered one day also.

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All the redeemed will be gathered together before the Lord, and then the universal church will clearly be manifest and seen.

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The Lord's calling us out now in history, but we haven't assembled together as a universal church, have we?

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That's not possible, and it really isn't possible until the Lord Jesus returns and summons us, and then we will truly be the universal church, glorified and visible and gathered in the presence of our

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Lord. Now we use the word church in the English language to describe a number of ideas that are not in accordance with the scriptures.

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It is so commonplace, we may not recognize it as such. And so we call this building the church, the

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First Baptist Church, which is okay, but it's not biblical. We need to understand that.

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The Bible does not use the term in this way. We use the word church many times to refer to a denomination.

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The Bible does not use the word church for that purpose. We speak of the Methodist Church or the

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Lutheran Church. The Bible does not use the term church in this way. We speak of national churches, the

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American church, the church in China, the African church. The Bible does not use the word church in this way.

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It's a non -biblical usage. We speak of the church as all professing Christians everywhere.

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I don't believe the Bible uses the term church in this way either. Only when we use the term to describe either the universal church, as we've already cited, or a local assembly of disciples of Jesus Christ do we use the word church in a biblical sense.

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The word ekklesia occurs 115 times in the Greek New Testament. Three times it's used to describe a secular gathering of citizens to a town meeting.

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On one occasion, the word is used to describe Israel in the wilderness. In Stephen's speech, he referred to Israel as the church.

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God had called out Israel from Egypt. He called them out. Ekklesia, out. Call out.

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Called them out of Egypt. Ekklesia is used 111 times to describe a

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Christian assembly of believers. And if we were to examine each of those 111 occasions, and I have in the past, each of those 111 occasions, it may be determined that the church refers to, one, a local church.

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Two, the local church as an institution. In other words, not a specific local church, but local church as an institution.

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Or to the universal church that's being gathered and will be completed at the end of the age.

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The universal church is really not addressed directly in very many instances. In fact, as I was looking this week,

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I think there were five that were quite clear references to the universal church out of these 111 occurrences.

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Out of the 111 occurrences in which the word church is used in the New Testament, it's apparent that 92 of these, the vast majority of these, refer to a local church.

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In fact, one described the Greek word ekklesia in this way. Its ordinary use in the

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New Testament is to designate a specific local assembly of Christians organized for the maintenance of the worship, the doctrines, the ordinances, and the discipline of the gospel united under special covenant with Christ and one another, as the church at Jerusalem, the churches of Galatia, plural, churches.

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The word occurs in this local sense in 92 instances. This is by far the most common use of the word church.

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The first century Christians would not have understood our use of the term church when we use it to describe our buildings, our denominations, or our national churches.

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A church that could not gather together would have been no church. How could it be an ekklesia if it couldn't gather together?

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And so we see the Greek word for church, ekklesia, assists us in better understanding the church for it excludes itself many uses of the word church that's used today.

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Biblically speaking, there's no such thing as a denomination as called a church. Biblically speaking, say like the

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Presbyterian Church or the Methodist Church or the Roman Catholic Church that is not used in a biblical fashion.

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There's no biblical example of a national church like the Church of England or the

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Church of Scotland. There's no use of the word church to describe all the Christians of a geographic or national border such as a church in America or the church in Asia.

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It's not biblical to speak of the Evangelical Church or let's say even the Church of New England and yet this is so common, isn't it?

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We hear it all the time and what I'm saying is because of this broad and unbiblical use of the word church oftentimes the

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New Testament emphasis on the local church falls into a lack of emphasis.

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We're not saying it's wrong to use the word church in these ways. Please understand that.

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We're simply saying that it's not how the Bible uses the word church. And so we're not saying to stop calling this building church although some do.

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Many times here in New England they weren't called churches they were called meeting houses, right?

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And this is pretty common especially among the Puritans. And I'm not saying we should stop calling a denomination a church, the

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Methodist Church. I'm not saying that. But we should be aware that when we do that we not infuse biblical teachings about the local church into these unbiblical uses of the word church.

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And again, what I'm arguing is that many times the New Testament local church falls into disinterest and sometimes a lack of attention and emphasis because of this broad use of the word church.

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We might put a New Testament local church where on notes top of page 5 a church is a congregation of Christ -baptized disciples.

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By the way, every denomination believes that baptism is essential for entrance into membership of the church.

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I don't know of a... well, obviously there are some evangelical churches that don't believe that it's necessary but all historic traditional denominations whether they be evangelical or liberal or modernist understand baptism as entrance to the church.

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But we would understand a church as a congregation of Christ -baptized disciples acknowledging Him, Christ, as their head relying on His atoning sacrifice for justification before God depending on the

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Holy Spirit for sanctification united in the belief of the gospel agreeing to maintain its ordinances and obey its precepts meeting together for worship and cooperating for the extension of Christ's kingdom in the world.

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That's a local church. Here's another good definition. Now this would be more of a baptistic understanding.

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A Christian church, according to the point of view of traditionally held by Baptists is a company of regenerate persons in other words, people who are born again people who have new life in Christ.

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Baptized on profession of faith in Christ united in covenant for worship, instruction the observance of Christian ordinances and for such service as the gospel requires recognizing and accepting

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Christ as their Supreme Lord and Lawgiver taking the New Testament as a divinely inspired record and therefore a trustworthy, authoritative and all -sufficient rule of faith and practice.

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That's not a denial of the Old Testament being a rule it is a rule too but if you want to find clear, direct instruction for local churches you're going to find it in the

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New Testament, obviously. And so that's the emphasis. Now let's consider the spiritual life of the church and Luke described for us the author of Acts here in Acts 2.

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What then does the New Testament teach about the nature of the local church? In our passage in Acts 2 we may identify some qualities of the spiritual life of a local church if it's true to the word of God.

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We read in verse 32 Peter's command to the people who were under conviction after hearing him preach

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Christ to them he commanded them, repent and let everyone who would be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission or with view to the remission of sins.

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It was seen as one event. Not that they're saving efficacy in baptism and we'll address that,

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Lord willing, next week. But in the New Testament there was no thought of a Christian not being baptized.

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And it was seen as one event. Repent, believe, be baptized you're in the fellowship, you're in the church the congregation of the

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Lord. It was one great salvific event. And Peter's telling them to carry through with this.

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Repent, let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the

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Holy Spirit for the promises to you, to your children to all who are far off as many as the

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Lord our God will call. Speaking of an effectual call to salvation. Then we read of the response of the people to Peter's words.

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With many other words he testified. None of the speeches of Acts this is an interesting thing even though you read any speech of Acts and it seems to be complete an introduction, a body, a conclusion it seems to be complete.

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Actually they are really synopsis of a larger sermon that was proclaimed.

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And here we see an indication of that with many other words Peter spoke these things to the people.

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And so he declared the will of God and the word of God to them with many other words testified exhorting them to be saved from this perverse generation.

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And those who gladly received his word were baptized and that day were added about 3 ,000 souls.

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They continued steadfastly and here is the life of the local church they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship breaking of bread and in prayers.

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And that is a summary of life within the local church.

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And we may say several things about the nature of a New Testament local church from these words.

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First, a New Testament church is comprised of those who repented of their sins and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

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We see in these verses that those who are saved were added to the church.

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Verse 47 and we would argue this is a distinctive of a New Testament church. A local church is to be comprised of those who have been saved.

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The Lord added to the church daily those who are being saved. And historically we would argue that Baptists or Baptistic churches have held to this principle of a regenerate church membership.

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When somebody wants to join the church we look for evidence of new life in Christ of the new birth.

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We don't just look for a nominal affirmation of faith we look for evidence of new life in Christ.

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Is there a concern for the people of God? A concern for the word of God? A concern for righteousness?

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A concern about sin? A love for the people of God? We look for things like this.

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Evidence of saving grace in the soul. Only those who have given evidence of having been born again are to be admitted to church membership we would argue.

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The formal membership of a local church should be comprised only of those who have manifested their new life in Christ through turning from sin to the

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Lord and showing a willingness and commitment to follow the Lord in all aspects of life.

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Secondly, we see that persons added to the church were ones who had believed and then were baptized. Those who gladly received

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His word were baptized. First came faith, baptism followed. As many as received

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His word that is believed and embraced His message they and they only were baptized.

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Only believers should be baptized we would argue. And I would assert that one of the reasons that local churches are as weak as they are is because unconverted people are commonly baptized and brought into the church.

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I would argue that many times churches are really not looking for an evidence of saving grace in the lives of people.

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If they're just merely an affirmation oh yeah I believe that well you qualify, you're one of us.

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I remember reading about Spurgeon and his elders he had a large church a church of 5 ,000 members in London in the mid -1800s and I remember reading of people coming to interview to become members of the church and they would scrutinize them very carefully looking for evidence of saving grace.

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I remember one they said I'm sorry but we don't think that you're quite there and we would urge you to consider this and do this and come back in three months and we'll talk again.

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I mean the 5 ,000 that were added they were scrutinized carefully for evidence of true saving grace in their lives.

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And we would argue that a local church should be comprised of only those that have experienced new life in Christ.

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If the church becomes filled with those who are void of new life then that church will not experience the life of Christ in its gatherings and that church will fail to manifest the life of Christ to the world.

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In fact, I would argue it even ceases to be a true church of Jesus Christ. Thirdly, a local church is to be comprised of persons who continue steadfastly in the apostolic teaching.

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That's what Peter said or this is what Luke wrote regarding these people.

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Again, verse 42 they continue steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. A true church of Jesus Christ must be based upon the clear and full declaration of apostolic teaching.

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This is what is declared. The church must be comprised of only those who are committed to and submitted to that teaching.

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And so in order for us to understand what's meant by apostolic teaching it's important that we understand what apostles are.

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And one of the reasons I'm emphasizing this is because I've been in contact with Dennis Husted, our friend in South Africa, and every other year we've been going down there and participating in conferences with Dennis and several of our friends down there.

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And I received a note I'm not going this coming January but I received a note Dennis was writing to his friends and they're going to address a major errant movement that's permeating

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South Africa. And it's a new apostolic movement. Basically there are men all over South Africa in local churches claiming to be apostles.

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And claiming to have the authority of apostles. And so Dennis and our friends are going to be addressing that in the three conferences this coming

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January. It ought to be interesting. And Dennis sent me a copy of an e -book of one of these so -called apostles who is arguing his position and asserting his claim.

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They're like little popes and it's a great danger. And so it's important that we understand who the apostles were.

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And clearly they were finite in number. There were twelve of them and only them. Apart from Paul, an apostle called out of season.

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The apostles were the designated authoritative witnesses to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

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Jesus had many disciples but he only chose twelve to be his apostles. They were a distinct group of men of unique qualifications called to the special task of starting and grounding churches in the faith.

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And actually the expression the twelve you notice how I capitalize that T -H -E the twelve became somewhat of a title to distinguish these men and the supreme role they served among the churches.

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They were known as the twelve. So Matthew 10 speaks of Jesus calling and appointing these twelve.

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Verse 1 When Jesus he had called his twelve disciples to him he gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out to heal all kinds of sicknesses and all kinds of disease.

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The people in South Africa are claiming they had these apostolic gifts. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these and then the list of the twelve.

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Verse 5 These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them saying do not go into the way of the Gentiles do not enter the city of the

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Samaritans but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and as you go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons, freely receive, freely give, provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics nor sandals nor staffs for workers worthy of his food.

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And so they were chosen men they are described as twelve disciples in verse 1 they are called twelve apostles in verse 2 they are called these twelve in verse 5

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I put that the in parenthesis because in Greek there is a definite article the twelve and these twelve were clearly called upon by our

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Lord Jesus and commissioned by him for a special task, a unique task. They traveled with him they learned of him, they preached in regions through which he was traveling, they performed miracles through the power the

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Lord had given them. Elsewhere in the gospels we learn more about them the

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Lord Jesus promised they would rule over the twelve tribes of Israel this is very important that is they were to be the new leaders of Israel, Jesus deposed the false leaders of Israel and put his twelve apostles in their place there is continuity between the

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Israel of the Old Testament and Israel of the New Testament, which is the church of Jesus Christ.

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He called twelve apostles because there were twelve tribes of Israel the new leaders of Israel Revelation 21 describes the foundation levels of the new

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Jerusalem, the city whose builder and maker is God, and the twelve foundations are named after the twelve apostles.

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And by the way the twelve gates of the new Jerusalem are named after the twelve tribes of Israel one

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Israel, one church of all the redeemed of all ages the Israel of God the elect of God and the twelve apostles

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Jesus appointed to be the foundation of the church and Paul wrote to the

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Christians in Ephesus that the church had been built upon the foundation of the apostles the twelve were an important group of men, they were leaders of the

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Israel of God twelve tribes comprised Israel, twelve apostles, the

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Lord placed over them, as a Israel entered its new covenant relationship with God which was proclaimed, prophesied by the

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Old Testament prophets realized in this church age you and I are members of the household of faith you and I are members of Israel, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the patriarchs were our fathers, and we are part of that nation though most of us probably are

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Gentiles who believe on Jesus it's because we believe in Jesus that brings us into the true

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Israel, the people of God and the twelve apostles the Lord Jesus appointed to be our leaders, our rulers and we would argue they do so through the

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New Testament, which is a record of the apostolic witness and so the twelve were such an important group that when one of them died,

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Judas Iscariot through his betrayal and subsequent suicide the eleven felt compelled to replace him, we can't have eleven apostles, we've got to have twelve and so we read of that in Acts chapter one, they appointed one to replace

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Judas and so the twelve apostles role is extremely significant for churches they were official representatives of the

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Lord Jesus Christ they were eye witnesses of Jesus' ministry when

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I first came here nineteen years ago there were some in our church they didn't stay long,

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I'm sure Pastor Dewar had to deal with them throughout his tenure here but they rejected some of what

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Paul said and only embraced what Jesus said it was a denial of the apostolic ministry that we're talking about right here what

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Paul wrote and declared was authoritative as what Jesus wrote, or what Jesus said because Paul was an official apostle of Jesus Christ as were all the twelve what they said, they were saying on behalf of Jesus, and what they said and wrote is as binding upon you and me as what

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Jesus himself said, it's important to realize that, but not all people believe it the apostles were eye witnesses of Jesus' ministry they were first hand hearers of his public teaching, and they were privy to his personal training and instruction.

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The Greek word for apostle is apostolos and literally it means one who is sent each of the apostles were sent forth by the

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Lord Jesus Jesus himself is called an apostle in Hebrews he was sent by God the

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Father the apostle of our profession the Lord gave his twelve apostles authority over the churches and as he commissioned them to teach in such a manner that their teaching was to be regarded as true and as binding as his personal teaching to hear them was to hear him, to disregard their teaching was to incur great guilt in his rejection and so we read in Mark 6 of the apostles authority and responsibility of those who hear them to respond to their teaching and Jesus called the twelve to himself he began to send them out two by two and drop down to verse 11 whoever will not receive you nor hear you when you depart from there shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them assuredly

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I say to you will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that city he entrusted them with absolute authority to represent him and speak on his behalf, and so the apostles were witnesses, authoritative witnesses of the

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Lord's words and deeds he gave them authority to be his twelve their teachings were authoritative their writings were authoritative our

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New Testament is a record of the teaching of the apostles if people refuse to hear an apostle they are refusing to hear the

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Lord Jesus who sent them, this is foundational and so important again because it is being challenged and denied by some and apparently in a movement that is beginning to spread across the evangelical world well again

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Peter wrote that these new Christians in the church at Jerusalem followed the apostles doctrine what is that?

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well Luke the author of the book of Acts recorded in Acts 2 .42 the members of the local church at Jerusalem kept the apostles doctrine the doctrine or teaching and that is what doctrine is, teaching the teaching of the apostles is contained in the

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New Testament which are the writings of the apostles a record of their speaking and teaching

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Matthew wrote a gospel he was an apostle Mark was not an apostle he wrote a gospel but his early church history records how

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Mark basically gave a summary and expression of Peter's testimony and we read at the end of 1

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Peter didn't we? about Mark and so Mark's gospel was a record really of Peter's eyewitness testimony

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Luke who wrote his gospel in the book of Acts was a follower and recorder of Paul and Luke had also had an opportunity, occasion to research many of the details when

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Paul was in Caesarea for two years Luke was probably able to research for the details we find in the infancy narratives with Mary perhaps herself and others and so they

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Luke was not an apostle but he wrote on behalf of and reflected and recorded the words of Paul aside from the

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New Testament books themselves it could be said that there was a body of apostolic teaching, the apostles doctrine to which the

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New Testament gives evidence apart from our New Testament books there was apostolic teaching that was communicated to the churches and we read of this described in different places of the scripture, the book of Hebrews the writer refers to the word of righteousness and he's speaking of a body of doctrine sometimes it's just described as the word sometimes it's referred to in other ways, the traditions

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Paul refers to the truth, a body of teaching a body of doctrine that was common with the apostles that they proclaim and eventually that was put down in our

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New Testament that we have recorded for us sometimes it's called the faith Jude spoke about the need to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints, a body of doctrine, the apostolic doctrine that is recorded for and mentioned repeatedly in the

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New Testament and so we should consider the importance of the doctrine of the apostles to the life of the church and the point we want to make is this, there is a body of teaching to which the early churches gave themselves that's what

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Luke recorded they followed the apostles doctrine and we are also to do so as a local church, that's what local churches do, they attempt to understand and set forth the doctrine of the apostles the teaching of the apostles again as recorded and reflected in the

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New Testament in particular although all scripture has been given to this church age and to Christians to know and study and to submit to well we also read not only did they give themselves to the apostolic doctrine but they gave themselves over to fellowship and so a local church is to be comprised of persons who continue in fellowship, they continued in the apostles doctrine and fellowship is what is recorded it's very important to understand what true biblical fellowship is, and I don't think that a lot of people do understand what true biblical fellowship is, because there are substitutes that are assumed to be fellowship which in reality are not and so here's a definition, what is fellowship?

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Biblical fellowship exists when there is a mutual shared appreciation and application of the truth among a gathering of Christians those who enjoy a mutual relationship with one another through Jesus Christ that's a very important, it's a very specific definition, but I think it reflects biblical fellowship fellowship is present when there is a sharing and enjoyed with one another of the common life that we have in Christ it may seem elementary to say but we would argue that true fellowship can only be enjoyed by people who have both a common belief and a common experience of life from God through Jesus Christ, and I would argue this is a very powerful argument for what we understand to be a regenerate church membership only those who have new life in Christ ought to be joined to local churches those who are born again are quite different from the unregenerate, those who are not born again, they have a whole different view of life and of the world, how can you have fellowship with those that are not

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Christians, especially when they are in the same local church and I have dear friends who are pastors in congregations,

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I was sitting at lunch at one of our NERF meetings a couple of years ago and this poor pastor was relating to the kind of problems he was having in his congregation, and one of the other men at the table rightly asked him, are these people born again?

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and the nature of his church this was not something that was essential that their church be comprised there are a lot of churches that just want to have the vast number of people that they can get under the building, and they see that as a measure and the standard of a church the more people the better the church but if you infuse within your church family people who have no common life in Christ, that's a prescription for problems, because there's not a shared, there's no shared values, no shared beliefs no shared desires that come only with those who experience new life in Jesus Christ Paul wrote we won't read it because of the time, but Paul wrote in 2

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Corinthians 6 there is no basis of fellowship between the believer and the unbeliever and he asks a series of rhetorical questions, you know, can light have fellowship with darkness?

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Absolutely not, and so he says you know, you can't have fellowship with unbelievers either, and therefore come out and be separate from them he's telling the church at Corinth that their church needed to be comprised of regenerate people only, because only in that setting can you have true fellowship and there's a promise that comes with that you separate yourselves from these unregenerate people, and you join yourself together, and God says

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I'll manifest myself to you as a father only those that are, a local church is characterized by Christians, okay that truly know the

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Lord have new life in him it's to that body that God the Father promises to manifest his life to them, and through them, it's so very important and this is what true fellowship is and so, fellowship is present when there's a mutual sharing or mutual exchange, or joint participation of common knowledge the apostles doctrine common knowledge about God, and how we relate to God through Jesus Christ and so the local church of the

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New Testament is to be made of people who continue steadfastly in both the apostles doctrine and in fellowship and so, again, we see a local church, they have a right understanding of the truth they continue in the apostles doctrine but there also must be a right response to the truth it's not just where the doctrine is rightly taught but a rightly response to the truth, and I would argue that that's what true fellowship is a right response to the truth again, some believe no, a true church is wherever the truth is proclaimed and there are some there are some good reformed men in the church of England for example which is a church, which denomination is almost wholly apostate there's evangelicals there but because they view the church anywhere

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I am proclaiming the truth rightly and administering the sacraments correctly or biblically, that's a true church and so they justify themselves continuing in denominations that are wholly corrupt and no longer true to the gospel no, the truth must be not only believed rightly, but must be practiced rightly as well it must be preached faithfully proclaimed faithfully and then it must be regarded as such by the people of God and responsive and therefore

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I would argue that the order of this in Acts chapter 2 is very important they are described as having followed the apostles doctrine and fellowship and I would argue that that order is important there must be a common understanding and embracing of doctrine in order for fellowship to truly exist and if the doctrine is loosey goosey and everybody believes all kinds of aberrant things, the fellowship is not going to be what it ought to be and could be, because it must be based and founded on apostolic doctrine and so what is biblically defined fellowship, we are moving down toward bottom page 9, we are going to have to wrap things up biblical fellowship exists when there is a mutual sharing or mutual exchange or joint participation of common knowledge about God and our relationship with Him through Jesus Christ however many

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Christians good people who love the Lord do not have this understanding of fellowship and so they actually argue that doctrine is disconnected with fellowship there are some that say doctrine is counter to true fellowship and so they downplay the distinctiveness of doctrine thinking that fellowship is therefore going to be enhanced and we would argue that no, true fellowship is forfeited when doctrine is compromised or people are kept in ignorance and so I fear that there are many attendees of bible believing churches who really don't understand the nature of true biblical fellowship and they commonly make assertions of what fellowship is when in actuality they are mistaken some mistakenly believe they are experiencing biblical fellowship when they enjoy the company of other

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Christians with whom they have common interests likes or dislikes but which are not central to biblical fellowship biblical fellowship is not based on what we have in common as families,

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Americans age groups marital status shared interests and hobbies

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I remember I was talking about this years and years ago and somehow people remember it

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I happen to say I like guns and I like guys who like guns guns is no basis of fellowship it doesn't correlate no connection whatsoever and it's clear that we are a disparate group of people we have different interests and different likes and dislikes and some of these may be in common so we develop friendship but that's not biblical fellowship biblical fellowship has to be our understanding and embrace of the common life we have in Jesus Christ and therefore true fellowship can be experienced between a 15 year old girl and 85 year old man if he is in Christ she is in Christ and they are relating and enjoying one another for the common life they have in Jesus Christ and if that's not being experienced, fellowship is not being experienced and this is so very important some think they have biblical fellowship because they have common social interests or common cause we have fellowship with one another because we are all united vehemently against abortion that is not the basis of fellowship although it may be an appropriate basis of common action

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Christian action fellowship must be based on something more than we go to the same school together we are of the same age group we are of the same interests we have the same personality we have the same problems we have the same likes or dislikes no, those are not valid basis of fellowship biblical fellowship speaks of a mutual shared appreciation and application of the truth among a gathering of Christians those who enjoy a mutual relationship with one another in God, in Christ and so this is what fellowship is, this is what koinonia the

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Greek word for fellowship is fellowship, our fellowship is not just with one another but our fellowship is with God and so John the

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Apostle wrote of our fellowship with one another in other words with us and with God and that's what true fellowship is and so I would suggest that true biblical fellowship as related here in Acts chapter 2 is not necessarily the common experience of many and even a lot of churches sadly we want to have true fellowship when we gather after church today at lunch or other occasions, we ought to make our conversation

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Christ centered and we ought to be encouraging and exhorting one another in the light of the Apostles doctrine the

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Holy Scriptures it's very easy to get diverted there are concerns that we all have, each of us have, pressing things in our life, and I'm not saying that you don't address those, but we all, as we address these we ought to try and bring them back to our understanding of the

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Scriptures, our understanding of Christ and seek to encourage and exhort one another in the common life that we enjoy in Him is that not right?

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and to the degree we do this will be to the degree we can experience true biblical fellowship and true biblical fellowship is enriching and it's empowering and it's encouraging but it has to be based on a common understanding and affirmation of truth and that's what we have reflected here in Acts chapter 2, may the

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Lord help us to be all that we can be and should be as a church and may the

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Lord move each of us to facilitate this, you know one person can have a great deal of influence in these matters and foster and encourage true spiritual life within a body of believers may the

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Lord help us to do so let's pray thank you Father for your word thank you our

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God for the clarity of instruction that we have and we just lament our

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Lord that these things don't characterize us completely fully and always help us our

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Lord to be true to you, help our church Lord to be what a church can be and should be in this fallen world so that the life of Christ may be not only enjoyed by us but also manifest through us to a needy and lost world for we pray in Jesus name,

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Amen John wrote that which we have seen and heard we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the