Acts 2 Church

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0:00 Good morning. Glad you made it. Hope you got a comfy place and people you like around you. To get us started this morning I want to start with the call to worship. Just remind you that the call to worship is our line of demarcation that says wherever you are right now whatever has been happening the next few minutes are time you're setting apart for something different. For a time to connect with the God to be available to the God and the call to worship says

0:33 okay we're moving into this time and these are the sorts of things I'll let my heart and my mind dwell on for the next few minutes together and our call to worship for this morning comes from Psalm 46 and it says this God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea though its waters roar and foam though the mountains tremble at its

1:09 swelling there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God the holy habitation of the Most High and God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved God will help her when the morning dawns the nation's rage and the kingdom's totter he utters his voice and the earth melts but the Lord of hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our fortress or Gabby with us this morning though our earth

1:44 is confusing and our governments are confused and frustrated and no one knows what to do Lord we know that you are with us yet so be with us this morning in Jesus name and for his sake amen well last week we wrapped up the story of Pentecost we we have been looking for several weeks since Easter on the reality of the poverty of spirit how the answer to the frailty of humanity is

2:19 to lean into our limitations when people of faith lean into our limitations we encounter the God who meets us there and then he empowers our weaknesses with the strength of the God and last week we looked at God's capacity even propensity to choose solidarity with the suffering that our God the God of creation and

2:50 life God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the God of Christ and the church always chooses solidarity with the suffering and it's right in that space in in solidarity with pain and injustice and suffering it's in that moment of Easter to Pentecost that that Christ launches the church on earth of course the people of God have been in existence since the beginning of the world but something changes in that

3:22 moment where the people of God living on earth are empowered with the spirit of God much like we were in the garden where he breathed a breath of life into us he breathed again on his people at Pentecost his great original spirit and then with that spirit launched us out in the world to be the church together this week I want to look at what happens to the church so for the next several weeks we're going to move through the story of the acts of the apostles and begin to

3:54 ask the question how did the church get here to where we are we may not run through every permutation of the church but we're going to start the story at least and we're going to pick it up where we left off from Pentecost last week in Acts chapter 2 if you want to look there if you have a paper copy of the scriptures it goes Matthew Mark Luke John Acts Romans 1st and 2nd Corinthians it's towards the back of the Bible and I'm looking at the end of Acts chapter 2

4:27 because Acts chapter 2 is where like if you hear about oh we want to be an Acts 2 church you might have heard someone say that like we want to be a church like the story of scripture you have to remember what happened in Acts chapter 2 at the moment of Pentecost is like an unprecedented and unrepeatable experience Pentecost is called the Feast of Weeks it's called called the Feast of Harvest it's called several different names because it exists in several different cultures because Israel had like spread out

5:03 through all countries all over the world and they called this festival different things in different places but it was broad enough that they all came back to Jerusalem and so in that first Pentecost when they launched the church where we see in Acts chapter 1 and Acts chapter 2 they've come to Pentecost not knowing they would encounter that original spirit not knowing that the 11 or so folks that were the followers of Jesus the maybe two dozen total would still be there in Jerusalem after the Passover waiting for the Holy Spirit

5:38 having experienced the risen Christ they didn't know that that was there waiting for them when they journeyed from Rome and from Crete and from Asia and minor and up from them from the Syrian peninsula into Jerusalem for Pentecost they just came for the festival the first weeks and what happened there as as Peter preached we saw last week and thousands of people were converted was people just stayed people just stayed and in Acts chapter 2 right at the end where my scripture says has a heading that says the fellowship of the

6:10 believers this is where it's like summer camp man it's like if summer camp didn't ever send you back home you left your job and your responsibilities to come to a festival in Jerusalem and you encountered for the first time in humanity this unbridled spirit of God that's breaking out in Jerusalem right people are healing you hear stories of Jesus being raised from the dead and so now there's a new king and no one knows what's happening next you're gonna stick

6:44 around and wait and see that's the situation that's happening in Acts chapter two when we get to verse 42 it says and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and the prayers and all came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles and all who believed were together and all had all things in common and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the

7:16 proceeds to all as they had need and day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes they received their food with glad and generous hearts praising God having favor with all the people and the Lord added to their number day by day those who are being saved that sounds really great like they are but notice what they're doing they're selling everything they have and bringing the money to the group and then they're going every day to the temple

7:46 every day I'm telling you this is like the greatest summer camp experience I think it's beautiful and I would love to have been there but the church will not recapture that moment this side of the grave we we won't experience the long-awaited release of the Holy Spirit like that this side of the grave I

8:17 think that we the question I want to ask of this story the acts of the apostles for the next several weeks is what can we learn from what happened right there in the first century that is relevant and helpful for us today you and I can experience deep community but it is a rare calling to find a group of people where you hold all your possessions in common to become monastic

8:51 like that most of us won't encounter that type of community and I think that's okay I think there are some principles here though that I of that translate for us and they play out as we go further the first one that plays out is this this notion this overarching notion that Jesus actually is the authority that they follow and listen to this is maybe the bedrock of of this new season of the

9:28 church not that God hasn't always been the authority but that the person of Jesus Christ now carries supreme authority this will create all sorts of problems for them with the church of the Jewish church and then with the Roman government but it first plays out in really beautiful ways if we go down from where we were in Acts chapter two and go into Acts chapter three it says now Peter and John were going up to the temple and they were at the hour of prayer the ninth hour and a man lame from birth was being carried in whom they had laid

10:00 daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate to ask for alms and seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple he asked to receive alms hey dudes give me some money verse four and Peter directed his gaze at him as did John and said him in look at us now you can imagine the dude who's who's gotten good at asking for money knows just how much pressure to put on the people that he's asking for money and if he makes eye contact it might be a

10:30 little bit too much pressure people would avoid him so when he asks for money he doesn't look at them and he does the same thing to to Peter and John here and so Peter directed his gaze at him Peter is walking by and he hears the guy asking for money and he stops and looks at him and then he tells the guy hey look at me and Peter says I have no silver or gold but what I do have I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk and he took him by the right

11:05 hand and raised him up immediately and his feet his ankles were made strong and leaping he stood and began to walk and enter the temple with them walking and leaping and praising God and all the people saw him walking and praising God and recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what happened to him and when he clung to Peter and John they're like how did this happen and and Peter says men of Israel why do you wonder at this why do you stare at us as though our as though our own power or piety we have made him walk the God of

11:39 Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob the God of our fathers glorified his servant Jesus he says it's Jesus who did it and this is the first step all the miracles in Acts all the way through happen at the name of Jesus of Nazareth Jesus the Christ and it's not like that's some sort of magical incantation like you announce the words of Jesus or you say the name Jesus the Christ and this this miracle happens it's that people like Peter and John understand

12:11 themselves in a very real way as emissaries of the reign of God like people who carry the authority of this new King Jesus the Christ Christ means liberating King and so they understand that much like an emissary would carry the authority of the King down into a situation when Peter makes eye contact with the lame man he looks at him and says by the authority of the one who's

12:41 in charge of flesh and bone body and spirit I command your body to work now well and his body does this line of authority is the key part in the growth of the church remember that when Jesus assembled his followers at the hill of Galilee before he ascended into heaven he said all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me and I now give it to you to go out and make disciples in

13:13 all the world he's convert conferring on them a very real authority that in acts we see carried out in miracles but not just that the idea that they would share all of their things in common comes from that notion as well look further in Acts chapter three we're in Acts chapter three and we're looking forward into Acts chapter four in three after they heal that beggar the Jewish

13:46 authorities start to get really frustrated with Peter and John because as people see the real power of Jesus this one that they tried to kill to slow down his growth then he he rises from the dead and he has new followers three thousand in one day and their numbers are growing to five thousand in Jerusalem they start to shut it down so they grab grab Peter and John and they start to inquire them and Peter and John say in verse 19 of chapter three but Peter and

14:18 John answer them whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God you must judge for we cannot but speak what we have heard and seen when they had further them they let them go finding no way to punish them they Peter and John are saying we cannot obey the authority of the church when it contradicts the authority of God this is a founding principle in the church in the beginning much of Acts chapter two three and four we can't recreate as the

14:51 church but this idea that that God is the authority to whom we submit and under whom we live we can and that's what motivates them to hold everything in common when they when they go back then at the end of chapter four and and they talk back to the people after the Jewish leaders let them go and they pray and more people come to believe and then down in verse 32 now the full number of

15:24 those who believed were of one heart and soul and no one said that any of the things that belong to him was his own but they held everything in common and with the great power and apostles they were giving testimony and there was not a needy person among them for as many as were owners of lands or houses they sold them and they brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid at the Apostles feet and even it goes on to say that that Barnabas sold a land he had in Crete and brought the Apostles and they did this in this great summer camp that

15:57 doesn't end because they recognized that Jesus actually was in charge of their future and their present and that in that moment animated by the Spirit together they represented the reign of God on earth and as they lived under his authority they could be who they needed to be for the world and I think that's

16:28 a question that I am curious about that what happens when we start to ask that what does it mean for you and for me that Jesus really is the authority that we live under the authority under whom we live and with whom we live that he has empowered us with the Spirit to be the his reign of God on earth what might

17:05 we be called to be together I think that that question in the first century they took very seriously and no matter what you think about the reality of God or the presence of Christ history marks what happens when that generation of people took seriously the notion that perhaps something happened among them

17:37 because it started with a few dozen then grew to a few thousand and as we'll see over the next several weeks spread throughout the whole known world and that happens because as people step under the authority of Jesus tangible change experience is experienced in their life some people it's miraculous healing other it's the weight of responsibility of the future lifted off others it's a new fresh beginning when they've been carrying the past with them

18:09 forever life is better under the reign of God and that is born out in the growth of the church and the thing I want us to begin to consider as the church of God in Orlando is what does it look like when we live under the reign of God as they did in that first century I hope that we can be people who ask that question and take seriously its answer