Pattern of Internal Church Activity in Acts 2

Introduction to Church Membership and the Jerusalem Church

0:02 This sermon was preached on Sunday evening, November 23, 1986, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:13 Now may I encourage you to turn with me in your own Bibles to the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, Acts chapter 2, and follow as I read, beginning at verse 37, those of you which I would imagine constitutes the bulk of the congregation who are familiar with the preceding part of the chapter will remember that it is a synopsis of Peter's sermon, some of the main strands of emphasis in the sermon preached on the day of Pentecost, and as he preached, we read in Acts 2.37, Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him.

1:38 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. They then that received his word were baptized, and there were added unto them, that day, about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.

2:13 Now two Lord's days ago we began a series of studies on the very unglamorous but vital subject of church membership. On that occasion I mentioned that in the light of the many who are present in the church, who are present in the church, who are presently coming into the membership, the elders judged that it would be wise and expedient at this time that a series of messages should be brought on this subject, not only for the benefit of those who are coming into the membership, but also in the light of Peter's words, that we have our pure minds stirred up by way of remembrance who are already members in this visible assembly, of God's people. And in that initial study, two Lord's day evenings ago, I attempted to introduce the subject by three lines of thought. We thought for a few moments on the vital importance of the subject, and its importance derives primarily from the nature and identity of the church of Jesus Christ. And we will never have an appreciation for the privileges and responsibilities of church membership unless we have a biblical view of the dignity, of the glory, of the wonder of what the church is,

3:39 and something of the majesty and the overwhelming glory of what the church is purposed to do in the will and design of God in any given generation. We then spent a few moments considering the regularity, regulating authority for all of our thinking about church membership. And I hope you will remember the illustration about our neighborhood club. The church is not our club.

4:09 It is Christ's church. And with reference to all that pertains to His church, His word, found in the Old and the New Testaments, must regulate all of our thinking. And then I spent just a few minutes concerning the necessity, the necessity of a biblical realism in treating the subject of church membership. The Bible, which sets before us the highest ideals for the church, also records the realism of the church in its imperfect state, a state that will exist until the glorious consummation, when the Lord Jesus will come and then rub out every last spot, smooth out every last wrinkle, and present us to Himself, a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. We then turned to the second chapter of Acts to examine the part, at least, of this watershed passage in which the record tells us 3,000 became church members in one day. I rather humorously named this church the First Pentecostal Church of Jerusalem, because that's precisely, at least in theological and historical terms, what it was.

5:35 It was at Jerusalem, it was a church that came to birth on the day of Pentecost, and it was the first and only church in Jerusalem. And we read in Acts 2 and verse 41b that there were added, and you will notice in the old American standard, the words unto them are in italics. They are not there in the original. You have a verb which simply means there were added.

6:01 It doesn't say by whom, but we know by whom. There were added in that day 3,000 souls. So indeed, it is speaking about a recognizable church membership, one that could be numbered and identified. And then we ask the all-important question, what did these people have to know and experience in the first place?

6:27 What did they experience and do in order to be added unto the 120? Indicating that perhaps few questions are of greater importance with regard to the whole subject of the nature and function of the church than the question, what does one have to know, experience, and do in order to come in the front door of church membership? And Luke very simply describes, what they had to know and do and experience in these words. Verse 41, Then they that received his word were baptized, and there were added unto them. And so the entrance requirements were apparently very simple. They received the word preached by Peter, and they were baptized. And then we went back into the chapter to see what that word was in its major components.

7:32 And we had occasion to see that it was God's saving word concerning His Son, Jesus Christ. It was God's indicting word concerning their own sin. It was God's promising word concerning forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit. And it was God's inviting, commanding word, to repentance, faith, separation from the world, and baptism.

8:01 And it was those who embraced that word in the obedience of faith who were then received into that church in Jerusalem. And in conclusion, we drew then these deductions, that no church that claims to be regulated by biblical standards has any warrant to receive anyone who is ignorant, who is unrighteous, who is ignorant of the fundamental facts of saving truth. Ignorance of saving truth means that there can be no saving experience. We then noted, secondly, that we have no warrant to receive any who cannot testify to a manifest and powerful application of saving truth to their hearts. These who receive the message are those who were pricked in their hearts. They broke into Peter's sermon under great spiritual distress. They did not simply import some intellectual baggage concerning Christ and their sin.

9:08 Rather, these things were experientially, inwardly felt in their application by the power of the Spirit. And then, thirdly, we deduced that we have no warrant to receive any who are not prepared to break with the world and to be identical to him. with Christ and His people. Verse 40, Peter said that they should save themselves from this crooked generation, that there had to be a clean, decisive, radical break with the existing world system and a willingness to be identified with Christ and His people.

9:47 And finally, we deduced in the fourth place that we have no warrant to receive any who refuse the badge of discipleship, which is God's ordinance or institution of baptism. Now, it's interesting that in many churches, many other things are made essential to church membership, but we dare not raise the door of membership any higher than God has raised it, just as we dare not lower it any lower than God has placed it. And so these essential principles, then, are found in this specimen passage of the membership as constituted on the day of Pentecost. Now we come tonight to ask a second question. Next to the question, what does someone have to know, experience, and do to get into a church, perhaps no question is more revealing about the state and condition of that church than this question. What happens?

The Manner of Internal Corporate Church Activity: Inclusiveness and Continuance

10:53 What happens to them after they get in? What happens to them once they become members? And so Luke goes right on in verse 42 and tells us, after they were added unto them, this is what characterized their life together in church fellowship. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and bread.

11:24 The prayers, as Luke describes in this very succinct but beautiful summary of what I am calling their internal corporate church life, it's not describing their external witness and ministry to the world, but the description focuses upon their internal corporate church life. He does so in two categories. First of all, he describes the manner of their internal corporate church activity, and then secondly, the substance of their internal corporate church activity and life. Since Luke describes it that way, I'm going to preach it that way. So we have, first of all, the manner of their internal corporate activity as church members. Notice.

12:24 Notice how he describes it. And they continued steadfastly.

12:35 And two things are told us in these words. As to the manner of their internal corporate church activity, it was inclusive of all the members. They continued steadfastly. And it was continuous or steadfast by all the members.

12:57 They continued steadfastly in. So the manner, then, of their internal corporate activity as church members is, first of all, described as inclusive of all the members. To whom does the they refer? Well, if you look back to verse 41, it obviously speaks of the 3,000 who were added unto the 120.

13:25 Comprising, approximately, a church membership on that first day of 3,120. Then they that received his word were baptized, and there were added unto them in that day about 3,000 souls, and they, the 3,000 who were added, are described in their internal corporate activity. And the first thing that...

13:56 Luke emphasizes is that it was an inclusive activity involving all of the members. In that healthy, spirit-filled church, there was a fundamental sense of corporate identity and mutual commitment to corporate means of grace. And although the glorious truth of the church as the body of Christ had not yet been revealed, had not yet been articulated, the reality was constituted on the day of Pentecost. And instinctively, before the head could even articulate the concept, the entire body was functioning in terms of its true identity. When my body got up from that pew to come to this pulpit to preach, every member of the body came with me. I didn't leave a foot behind. I didn't leave a hand behind.

14:59 I obviously didn't leave my nose behind, and most obviously, I didn't leave my tongue and my mouth behind. When my body moves to perform a function, all that constitutes the body moves as an organic whole. When I place my body on the bed to sleep, all of the body goes to rest. When it awakes and the feet hit the floor, the rest follows.

15:26 And goes into the activities of the day. And so when Luke describes, and the description was probably written perhaps 30 years after the fact, he could write that by and large of that entire number who were added to the church, there was an inclusiveness of all the members in all of the avenues of their internal church life. And when you read through the epistles, you find that this was the assumed pattern, even in a church with all of the problems that they had at Corinth. And as I was preparing, it struck me afresh.

16:12 Paul had to rebuke that church for all kinds of nonsense and sin, but to my knowledge, not once did he have to rebuke them for a fragmenting of their body so that only some were present at some activity. Even when they came to the Lord's table, people who had no business being there were still there. And this character that was living in this horribly incestuous relationship with his stepmother apparently was still coming to church meetings. So Paul can write in 1 Corinthians 5, 1 Corinthians 11, when you come together, when you come together.

16:49 It's only when we turn to the book of Hebrews, in a context where apostasy is threatening even people in the Jerusalem church. That he says, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is.

17:05 And this is a vital issue with respect to church membership and church life, that the manner of our internal corporate activity be one that can be described as inclusive of all the members. There is no notion supported by the New Testament of a multi-tiered activity within the membership of church. There is no notion supported by the New Testament of a multi-tiered activity within the membership of church. In which you have some hyper, super-dedicated members who continue steadfastly in all the appointed means of grace.

17:38 And then some not quite so hyper, super-spiritual who are found present at most of the internal activities of the church. And then you've got some sort of C-level people, you know, just the average type found most of the time. And that concept is utterly foreign to the description of the church. The church here, in its healthy, spirit-filled state, and it is utterly inconsistent in any church that is healthy and is full of the life of the Holy Spirit.

18:11 This is why we state in our Constitution, and we make it evident in our membership interviews, that we expect of everyone who voluntarily identifies himself with this assembly, that there will be attendance at all times. All the stated meetings, unless providentially hindered. Now, don't squeeze into the word providence all of the effusions of your remaining sin. Providence is providence.

18:43 A broken leg, a sick child, the care of the family where husband and wife switch off in coming to church, a broken down car, that's a providential hindrance, not the motions of indisposition. That are the pumping up into the level of consciousness of the remaining corruption in our own hearts. And it's when we catch a vision of the glory of what the church is, that we will not regard this concept as an unbearable yoke or as a legalistic burden. We will be excited at the thought that something happens when the body gathers in its corporate identity that happens nowhere else. We are described in 1 Peter as the living temple, constituted of living stones, who are made into a spiritual priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God. And when something of the glory of that grips us, we say, would I want that there should be a hole in that temple, that hole which is me? That hole which I have made by my willpower?

19:58 Should there be a fearful absence from the coming together of the people of God? Should there be one less priest to offer up the spiritual sacrifices of praise and adoration of a broken and a contrite heart and the giving of substance? Should God be robbed of that which He died in the person of His Son to have? A people worshipping Him in spirit and in truth.

20:28 The very form of God. God is abhorrent to every regenerate mind. And so we see in this early church, with respect to the manner of their internal corporate activity, it was inclusive of all the members. But then secondly, it was continuous by all the members.

20:51 Now the word translated, they continued steadfastly, is one of Luke's favorite words. Here in the Book of Acts. He used it earlier in chapter 1 in verse 14. These all with one accord, here it is, continued steadfastly in prayer.

21:12 And the words continued steadfastly are used to describe one word. Then we find it again in chapter 6 verse 4. But we will continue steadfastly. He says it.

21:29 God is steadfastly. in prayer. And then again, a beautiful description of it as far as what it means in a human relationship is found in Acts 8.13. And Simon himself believed in being baptized. He continued with, that's the same word in the original, he continued with Philip. He attached himself constantly to Philip. There was a continuous tag-along relationship between Simon and Philip. And then in chapter 10 in verse 7, another beautiful illustration of the significance of the word when it's used in relationship to spiritual disciplines. And when the angel that spoke

22:19 unto him, that is, unto Cornelius the centurion, was departed, he, Cornelius, called two of his household servants and the devout soldier of them. Here's our word, that waited on him continually. Those who were constantly attending to his needs, waiting for his commands. So you get something of the emphasis of Luke in the passage.

22:43 As he's describing the manner of their internal corporate activity, he not only underscores that it was inclusive of all the members, but it was continuous by all the members. And for you fledgling Greek students, he uses a construction called a paraphrastic imperfect. You have an imperfect use of the verb to be, and then you have a present participle. And so by this construction, Luke is underscoring that in all of these points, there was continuous, steady, consistent activity. In other words, the life of this church is not described in terms of fits. The life of this church is not described in terms of fits and starts, of seasons of great flurry and a flutter of activity and excitement, and then periods in which people were caught in the doldrums and were indifferent. He describes them in terms of the grace of holy stick-to-itiveness. Holy stick-to-itiveness! These continued steadfastly, and that was

23:57 the manner of their corporate activity. And just as surely as the inclusiveness of all the members is the mark of a spirit-filled and healthy church, so the continuance in the means of grace deposited in the corporate life of the church is another telling index of precisely where that church is. These were ordinary people. They got cold.

24:30 They had sicknesses. They had burdens and responsibilities of meeting bills, trying to make ends meet, caring for their little ones, burying their loved ones. These people were not some kind of half-glorified human beings. All of the cares of life that we have, that intrude upon us unannounced and at times with such tremendous disruption to our ordinary plans, they were made of the same stuff of which we are made.

25:02 They had to live out life in the same circumstances in which we live it out. And while on the one hand it may be true that there are greater complexities to the pace and nature of life in our present day, remember, they didn't have...

25:17 They didn't have the conveniences we do, which simplify many aspects of our life. And so ordinary people, in the midst of the ordinary patterns of life, with its ebb and flow, with its carting cares and unexpected interruptions, yet Luke can say of this people, there was a steady, holy stick-to-itiveness. They continued steadfastly. Now there were seasons of unusual grace.

25:48 There was a gracious disruption that came in the course of their ordinary life. Some of them were described. God didn't shake the building every time they met. There is a description of a time when in the midst of an emergency they prayed and God shook the building.

26:04 But you see, the people that were there for the unusual visitation were those who had been locked into the pattern of the mundane and the ordinary. Those who had learned to be present as a matter of...

26:19 A matter of spiritual commitment. They were there to enjoy and to understand the glory of the special seasons of divine nearness. But they also understood that life was not sustained by the unusual and the exceptional, but by the ordinary, the steady, the unglamorous, the plain-Jane means of grace, instituted by Christ, the head of the church, by which he is committed to nourish. His own precious body.

The Substance of Internal Corporate Church Activity: Apostles' Teaching

26:53 Well then, after Luke describes the manner of their corporate internal activity as church members, then he goes on to describe the substance of that internal corporate activity of the church members. Now, obviously, in summarizing, we do not have set before us the totality of their Christian experience, the extent...

27:20 The intensiveness of their Christian service. But what we have is the substance of their internal corporate life. And Luke describes that in terms of two groups of two. Linguistically, you have a group joined together with an and, and then another group joined together with an and.

27:41 But there seems to be no clear purpose for the two groupings of two, except perhaps a stylistic concern. So I will take them as four separate activities with no regard to the structure of two groups of two. Now, if one of you comes up with an insight that goes beyond anything I found in the commentaries, I would welcome that insight. And the next time, if I have the opportunity to preach on the passage, I'll preach according to the more strict grammatical construction.

28:14 First of all, then, he describes the substance of their internal... ...internal corporate activity in these words.

28:23 These continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching. And I'm calling this an all-inclusive, continuous attendance upon the Word of God. An all-inclusive, continuous attendance upon the Word of God. Now, why do I do that?

28:47 Well, because the teaching... ...of the apostles means the thing taught.

28:53 It is not describing them so much as sitting before the apostles and continuing in their teaching, that is, in the sphere in which the apostles taught. They did that. But the emphasis falls upon the fact that they continued steadfastly in their exposure to their belief in and obedience...

29:19 ...and obedience...

29:19 ...and obedience...

29:19 ...and obedience...

29:19 ...and obedience...

29:19 ...and obedience...

29:19 ...and obedience...

29:19 ...and obedience...

29:19 ...and obedience to apostolic instruction.

29:23 And what was apostolic instruction to them? Nothing less than the Word of God. For the apostles were the inspired spokesmen of Jesus Christ. They were not only the elders of the church at Jerusalem, but according to Ephesians 2, they are the Christ-given foundation blocks in His church.

29:45 The church that He has constituted has as its foundation... ...the church that He has constituted has as its foundation...

29:50 ...the church that He has constituted has as its foundation...

29:50 ...the church that He has constituted has as its foundation...

29:50 ...the church that He has constituted has as its foundation...

29:50 ...the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself, the chief cornerstone.

29:57 And so I have said, we have a description of an all-inclusive, continuing attendance upon the Word of God. Now, I believe Luke does put this first, because there is nothing that is more significant to ordering the life of any Christian...

30:20 ...Christian church than the quality of its public ministry of the Word of God.

30:29 This is the structural backbone of any healthy, spirit-filled church. And I want to emphasize, because I know we have not a few who have come out of varying forms of Pentecostal and charismatic background, that we need to see that in the presence of real apostles, not these jokers running around calling themselves apostles in our day, but real apostles who had such real power, like Peter, that people could walk by and if his shadow touched them, without him asking for a buck before he let his shadow touch them, they were healed.

31:12 Now, that's real miracle power.

31:15 He could raise the dead for no money.

31:21 He could heal the sick for no money. He was a real apostle. Paul could say, the signs of an apostle were wrought in me, mighty signs and wonders. But here are men who have the power to perform miracles when God induced them with His Spirit, and yet the multitude attended not upon owing and awing and jumping and hollering, because they saw miracles.

31:48 They sat at their feet to learn the Word of God. You get it? So if you're waffling, this Trinity, church, but everywhere you turn, you're getting Bible, Bible, Bible, read the Old Testament, read the New Testament, preach for an hour, but I want something exciting. My friend, listen to me.

32:14 If you don't come to the place where you get cited about the Word of God, you better question whether or not you're a child of God. Because this Word is the divinely constructed mirror of Jesus, the will of God, the glory of God, the purpose of God. And if you're taken up with, you'll be taken up with His Word. Madison Square Garden is filled week after week with people that want a circus.

32:44 Your excitement goes to the circus and watch the monkeys and the lions.

32:50 If your excitement must be rooted in the spectacular and something that makes you ooh and ah, then watch the people on the trapeze. Ooh, ooh, and then go ahead, go ahead. Don't come here looking for that kind of carnal excitement.

33:06 We are committed. We are committed to the centrality of the preaching of the Word of God as the structural backbone of this church. Why? Because this is the pattern set by the first Pentecostal church of Jerusalem with real apostles ordering its life under the Lordship of Christ.

33:29 Now, I say that's pretty convincing stuff. Now, you may try to wiggle out from underneath it, but be bold enough to do your wiggling to my face. Come to me after and say, your arguments don't convince me, Pastor Martin. Don't go home with someone who doesn't know his Bible and get very brave and give your arguments to them.

33:47 You come face the issue that when Luke describes this spirit-filled church in terms of the substance of its internal corporate activity by the membership, he says, there was this all-inclusive, continuing adherence to the ministry of the Lord. This is the Word of God. Why? Because Ephesians 4 tells us Christ has given apostles, pastors, and teachers for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of service, unto the building up of the body of Christ.

34:29 Christ prays, Father, sanctify them in thy truth. Thy Word is truth. He doesn't say sanctify them in the oohing and aahing in the face of miracles. He doesn't say, sanctify them in the presence of special music.

34:45 Sanctify them in the context of the exciting. He says, sanctify them in the truth. And then he identifies that truth. Thy Word is truth.

34:57 The prayer of Jesus for those that he travailed for in Gethsemane and upon Golgotha, his prayers are answered when he graciously gives to his church safe guides in the Scriptures, who help the church to an all-inclusive, continuous attendance upon the Word of the living God.

35:24 That's why our adult class is called a stated meeting of the church. You say, I'm too old for Sunday school. Oh, are you?

35:33 Well, you really must have a very high and inflated opinion of yourself that you don't feel you need to learn more of the Word of God.

35:43 Well, I only need one service a week. I can't. I covet your level of spirituality.

35:49 I've had people come to me and say, Pastor Martin, it shocked me because all I knew of Trinity Church in some way or another, your name had the highest profile. And when I came here, you weren't even preaching on a given Lord's Day. And I saw you sitting there with your notebook and your Bible with your eyes glued on the preacher. And it shocked me.

36:07 I said, why? If I'm going to get to heaven, I'll get there in the way of holiness, in the way of persevering faith in Jesus Christ. And I need to know that. I need that Word preached to me as much as any other sinner needs it preached to him.

36:24 And I sit with my notebook in the Sunday school class, not to make a show, but because I need the Word of God. If I'm to please my Savior, we all need it. And if we're to be a healthy church, there must be an all-inclusive, continuous attendance upon the Word of God. But then notice, secondly, Luke describes an all-inclusive, continuous involvement with the people of God.

The Substance of Internal Corporate Church Activity: Fellowship (Koinonia)

36:57 The language he uses is this. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship. Now, he uses just the word koinonia, which has a rich variety of nuances in the New Testament. In some places, it speaks of shared concern at a material level.

37:24 Paul uses it several times with the Philippians in terms of their sharing in material things, in helping him in his gospel endeavors. Then he speaks more generally of their fellowship with him in the gospel. But there are very compelling reasons to my judgment and the judgment of many commentators to think of the Word here in its broadest usage because later on, Luke will descend, into some of the particular ways in which there was specific koinonia, specific shared life. Here we have the generic.

38:03 Here we have the broad canopy, overarching use of the Word, and therefore I've described it as all-inclusive, continuous involvement with the people of God. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and having received it, they didn't pack their bags and run off home and say, well, I've seen the face of Christ in the Word. I've heard the voice of Christ in the Word. That's all I need.

38:33 Split. Goodbye. Until the next time the apostles stood to teach. No.

38:39 From their continual adherence to the Word of God, there very naturally flowed out this all-inclusive, continuous involvement with the people. of God.

38:56 In other words, in the broadest sense of the word, they cultivated a joyful, voluntary, shared life as God's people. Now later on we'll see how the shared life involved voluntary sharing of goods, voluntary sharing of burdens and concerns, the care of the widows. We can read later on in Acts of the Particulars, but here it is that general description. Now why so significant?

39:28 Follow me very closely. One of the purposes of God, as we saw two weeks ago with the church, is that the presence of the church on the earth might be God's theater in which He displays to principalities and powers and then also to the world His manifold wisdom and His manifold grace. The church is God's new humanity come to expression in terms of living interaction of living people. And what is our God ordained that the church should be? It should be, among other things, the monumental witness that the salvation of God not only blows off the roof that has cut man off from fellowship with God, thus giving him freedom of access into the presence of God through the blood of the everlasting covenant, but God's salvation knocks down the wall. And all the barriers that keep men at a distance from one another are knocked down by the same grace revealed in the same Savior and applied by the same Spirit. That's why Paul, in writing his epistles three times, I believe it is, uses this terminology. Hearing of your faith in the Lord Jesus,

40:48 the roof is off, and your love to all the saints, the walls are flat. And Jesus said, By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. And how can men know that we have love if they do not see it manifested in attitudes and deeds? And surely if it's to be manifested in attitudes and deeds, we've got to be close enough to talk to one another and do things for one another.

41:19 And so the mark of this healthy, Spirit-filled church and the entire membership was, and all, inclusive, continuous involvement with the people of God. And this is why the epistles are full of duties that pertain, as we mentioned this morning, to horizontal relationships.

41:42 Now that's not by accident, because sin has not only tragically cut us off from fellowship with God, it has set us at odds with those who are made in the image of God. And that's the great glory of the church, in its full new covenant manifestation, according to Ephesians 2, that in Christ Jew and Gentile, the greatest symbols of people who had reinforced concrete walls between them, and some of the reinforced concrete was put there by God Himself. But He says the wall has been broken down and God has constituted one new man in Christ! And oh dear people, when we get hold of the concept of what that means, in any age, but particularly this age, where the glue of common grace has well nigh been eroded from society, where in all kinds of relationships there is mistrust, suspicion, covenant breaking, dishonesty, lack of whole soul commitment! Oh, what it means when people can come among a gathering of all colors, all ethnic, social, economic, racial, national backgrounds, and find them delighting in sharing a common life!

43:10 It blows their minds. And they've got to ask, what in the world is it that makes you people tick? You see, in a situation where people simply come, drawn perhaps by a strong pulpit ministry, in some cases by overpowering charismatic personalities, and then they go their separate ways, there's nothing astounding about that. That happens in the world. The world has its charismatic leaders who have its followers. But when they see when the ministry of the Word is completed, that there is a voluntary joyful involvement, one with another, not only within the walls of the place we meet, but long after we leave those walls, our telephones are not primarily a means of sinning against one another with gossip and slander, but a means of communicating in each other's needs. Our contacts in our homes are an expression that we just delight in one another so much that the time we have here is not enough to satisfy the

44:25 deepest longings of our hearts.

44:29 Now that's what happened to that membership. Now notice, it didn't say, and those who were of a more social disposition, those who were of the more latinized, outgoing, warm, aggressive temperament continued in the fellowship. Don't say that! It says these all continued, hiding behind the fact, well, I come from the background where people are reserved.

44:55 So what? You've got the Holy Ghost in you?

45:00 Then don't you limit Him. He can take the starch out of you. He can oil the joints of your personality and loosen you up. If the Son shall make you free, you'll be free indeed.

45:15 Yes, He can free you from emotional bondage. He can free you from social bondage. He can free you from all of that bondage and liberate you to be a joyful, involved part of this blessed koinonia. That's what He can do.

45:35 He's done it for many of us. It isn't often that Highlanders chuckle, but when I was emphasizing this aspect of truth in another context in Scotland recently, it came to my mind that some of them might think when I was emphasizing it, oh, you're just projecting your own gregarious outgoing American temperament, and I said, wait a minute, dear people, don't you call this native temperament. I've got pure Swedish stock on one hand, and what's the image of the average Swede? Very reserved, emotionally staid.

46:09 And then I've got Highlander stock coming from the other side. And what's the average image of the doer Highlander? Just that, the doer Highlander. I said, between the Swede and the Tweed, I ought to be as bound as any man.

46:25 Between the Swede and the Tweed. Yes.

46:29 But there's a song, I wouldn't sing it now, but I say the words of it because it's got a lot of truth in it. Brother, are you bound? Christ can set you free. Brother, are you bound? Christ can set you free. Brother, are you bound? Christ can set you free. Shouting glory, hallelujah.

46:53 Christ can set you free. That's a little ditty, but I tell you, it's got a lot of good theology in it. Now, I want to change it. Brother, sister, are you free? Brother, sister, are you free to let all the masks come off and really be known for who you are? Confident enough that people will love you for Christ's sake? Even if they know who you really are? To me, that's one of the most liberating things of true koinonia. It's what makes a godly marriage so precious that another human being can so completely know me, and yet so unqualifiedly love me.

47:41 Well, it's wonderful to be married to all of God's people in the pure, holy bonds of true koinonia. Oh, my dear Christian brother, sister, do you know what it is to continue steadfastly in the fellowship? It's costly.

48:03 It's threatening to some of us who were reared in homes where we were taught to keep a stiff upper lip, where we were taught to mask who we really were. It's costly. You feel naked when you begin to let yourself be known and start obeying such simple instructions as these. Confess your sins one to another.

48:25 Pray one for another. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Weep with those who weep. Rejoice with those who rejoice. You start obeying those injunctions. And for some of you who live behind your masks, don't sting anyone. Hearing that if they really know they won't love me, all come out from under your masks.

48:53 Be prepared for the shock, for the cost, but for the sheer delight of true koinonia. Well, I must hasten. The third thing we'll touch on this more briefly.

The Substance of Internal Corporate Church Activity: Breaking of Bread

49:10 Not only were they marked by this all-inclusive continuing adherence to the word of God, this continuing involvement with the people of God, but notice in the third place they continued steadfastly in the breaking of bread. And again, there is some debate. Does this refer to a common meal culminating in the Lord's Supper? Well, later on, Luke describes their sharing common meals together. So I rather think with the majority of the commentators that he's using the term exactly as he uses it in chapter 20 and verse 7, when they were gathered on the first day of the week to break bread. It refers to that supper of remembrance instituted by the Lord Jesus. So what do we have here? Well, we have what I'm calling an all-inclusive continuing remembrance of the Son of God.

50:09 Remembrance of Him in the peculiar way of His own appointment. Now you ask, why is that so vital? We don't hold a sacramentalist view of the Supper. We do not believe when that table is spread with the fruit of the vine and with bread that there is any magical infusion of grace into the molecules of bread and the molecules of the fruit of the vine.

50:35 What then can be the great significance for a healthy spirit-filled church? Well, let me just trace out a couple of lines of thought for you. How can a church ever descend into cursed self-righteousness when periodically it gathers to a simple meal of remembrance in which the whole body says, vile and full of sin I am. Thou art full of truth.

51:07 Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Foul lie to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior.

51:18 Ere I die,

51:22 the dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day, and there have I, as vile as he, washed all my sins away. How can a church ever become a company of Pharisees who are shocked when they see a real-life sinner, who are crusty in their self-righteousness, if they are coming with discernment to that supper of remembrance, the very foundation of which is acknowledged and owned sinnerhood? This due in remembrance of me, of me as your only Savior who saves in the virtue of my obedience unto death, even the death of the cross? How can a church ever become corporately hardened to sin when it comes to that feast of remembrance and thinks that sin demanded nothing less than the bloodletting of the incarnate God? How can we review in our minds eyes Gethsemane with its bloody sweat-blocks, Golgotha with its shroud of darkness, its piercing cloy of how in the name of all that is rational, let alone spiritual, can we become a church

52:50 hardened in sin and carnality when continuing steadfastly in the breaking of bread? How can we be a church indifferent to missions and evangelism when we come to remember the shedding of blood that was shed to purchase a great multitude who masterpiece are all but men? There is no man to number out of every kindred – tribe and tongue and people and nation. You see how vital is that simple supper of remembrance – Our people I remember why?

53:28 Because though li feed upon Christ continually in the general ministry of the Word. And we feed upon Christ in our ministry one to another. And that's a biblical concept, our treatment of one another is regarded as of Him. He who receives the least of my little ones receives me. Inasmuch as you do it unto the least of my little ones, you do it unto me. Christ is present in the preaching of the Word, in our involvement with the people of God, but in a unique way. All of the faculties of the mind and the soul are concentrated as the gentle rays of the sun bring more diffusive heat upon the whole countryside, but when you bring them through the magnifying glass, they are focused upon a point, and they can burn through wood. So it is that the general diffusive rays of light and warmth from the Son of God in the preaching of the Word, in

54:28 the fellowship of the saints, always present when the Spirit is present, but at the supper they pass through the magnifying glass, and they are all concentrated, and they burn afresh, and they consume sin, they consume self-righteousness, they consume narrow-heartedness. And that's why this healthy church was marked by all-inclusive, continuing remembrance of the Son of God. And then finally, Luke concludes the description by saying, they continued steadfastly in the breaking of bread. And the prayers. Now I know there's a student here who almost venerates and has raised to sainthood the Lutheran commentator named Lenski, and I'll not look in any direction lest I embarrass that student. He knows who he is. But on this point, dear Mr. Lenski, he's all

The Substance of Internal Corporate Church Activity: Prayers

55:30 wet. I'd like to see him get all wet in one respect. But Lenski says, this has nothing to do with prayer meetings as we know them. This refers to all services of worship.

55:49 Well, the word prosentiae, as far as I know, never refers to the general worship of the people of God. It refers to what it says, the prayers. And the most general word for prayer is used. There are other words that speak of prayer more as petition, as entreaty, as supplication. That's why Paul can say, I will that prayers, supplications, intercessions, giving of thanks, he makes the general term and then descends to the specifics. And that's what he's saying. And the particulars. So what is he saying? Luke is saying that the corporate internal life of this healthy, spirit-filled church was marked not by part of the membership being the praying part, but they, the whole membership, continued steadfastly in the prayers, that is, in the stated seasons of corporate prayer. And why did they do this? Well, they could not forget how their hearts were prepared for that mighty outpouring of the Spirit. Yes, we firmly believe that Pentecost was

57:04 rooted in divine purpose, founded upon divine provisions, and was all of grace. But God prepared them for the blessing which He so freely and sovereignly conferred. These all confirmed. And they continued steadfastly in prayer, with one accord. And in that context of prayer, and according to the end of Luke, of praise in the temple, that great inrush of the Spirit came as an act of grace, a sovereign act, a great, epical point in redemptive history. But it did not come irrespective of the state of those upon whom it came. The God who graciously prepared them, and they remembered the words of their Lord, If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? And they knew that the weapons of their warfare were not carnal but mighty, through God to the pulling down of strongholds. And they were determined to give themselves to prayer.

58:13 And therefore we have in this fourth element of the life of that church what I am calling the all-inclusive, continuous calling upon the presence and power of God. They knew that human hearts would not budge before human eloquence. They knew that blindness would not give way to sight before mere persuasiveness. If men were to continue to be pricked in the heart, and those so blind as to say, Take him away and crucify him, if they are going to fall down in order to be crucified, they would not give way to sight. They would not give way to sight. They would not give way to sight. They would not give way to sight. God had those hands on them. There were noamis. They were Luke's hands on him as Lord.

58:52 In Christ Almighty, God's got to mess around with their hearts. God's got to do something. God's got to penetrate the darkness, the rebellion, the blindness, the love of sin. And so they continued in that supreme appointed means to secure the presence and the power of God.

59:16 And it is prayer. Do you have not the energy in your heart because you ask not of God and ask and you shall receive seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you I could not help but think the last Saturday morning prayer meeting we were together I wonder what the neighbors would think if curiosity overcame one or two of them and I was almost hoping and praying it would and they come by at 8.30 and they see a parking lot half full of cars I know what the average person would probably think if you had any acquaintance with professional religion probably thinking well you know I bet they're about to launch some kind of fundraising scheme some kind of bazaar to raise some money for some cause and they're probably all gathered early Saturday morning in little groups and committees I wonder what they would have thought if they had the nerve to sneak in the doors tiptoe up the stairs find where we were and then see a hundred people heads bowed and one after another someone standing and with earnest tones addressing God words to an unseen being they'd think we were crazy and little would they know that the most significant thing we could do was to do exactly what we were engaged in in that place that the hope that God might visit this community

60:45 with spiritual grace and power and save not a few but many it lies from the human standpoint in our willingness to to do what we do give ourselves to prayer and pray to God that he who alone can make dead bones live and cover them with flesh would come with the wind of his spirit and do his mighty work I'm still convinced after close to 25 years in one pastoral situation that the most telling matter with respect to the health of a local church is the attendance and the quality of its prayer meetings you can bluff many things even in a good church but I tell you there's nothing better than a dead prayer meeting where God doesn't come with the spirit of grace and supplication there's something in good preaching that's exciting intellectually at least I find it so when someone is carrying my thoughts along I find my mind is stirred when someone is speaking with some degree of urgency and conviction or something that's beautifully manly about convictions being expressed in words whether it's Churchill or someone else I'm thrilled to listen to anyone

62:12 who speaks and speaks well and speaks with conviction and has something worth saying and lays it out so I can understand it well you see there can be an aesthetic intellectual stimulation in preaching there can be a self-centered attraction to koinonia there can even be a miscommunication there can be a mystical attraction to the Lord's table even superstitious but I tell you there's not much you can bluff when you come to pray and if God is not real and if your walk with Him is not a sensitive walk and if you cannot come with an uncondemned conscience into His presence and if you know nothing of experimental communion with God a prayer meeting is the last place you want to be the greatest evidence is to my own heart that God had saved me after making so many mistakes and so many false starts as a kid was that for the first time in my life I loved to pray and it was no burden to pray with some of my teenage buddies as a senior in high school three, four, sometimes five hours a week I've never prayed so much in my life God is witness half nights, whole nights of prayer prayer was a reality God was real God was real we knew enough to know that only the God who had touched our hearts could touch the hearts of others oh dear people who are coming into this membership

Concluding Challenge: Personal Faithfulness and Church Health

63:39 if you're not prepared to come and give yourself to prayer pause on the threshold you who are members ask yourself and with this question I close and it has searched my own heart as I've asked it of myself follow closely loose glue could say that the substance of the activity of that church was this all-inclusive continuance in the word of God? involvement with the people of God remembrance of the Son of God and crying for the presence and power of God now here's my question if everyone in Trinity Church was as faithful to these four categories of vigorous churchmanship as you are could Luke write this of Trinity Church? see my question? if every member of Trinity Church was as faithful to the people of God as you are As devoted to the Apostles' Doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers as you are, could Luke write of Trinity Church and these continued steadfastly? Or would he have to write, there were added unto them thirty at the end of 1986,

65:10 and of the thirty, ten continued steadfastly? It's a searching question, isn't it? You've heard the statement, everybody's job is nobody's job? Everybody's responsibility to maintain the spiritual vigor of this church.

65:31 Everybody's job is nobody's job. My friend, as a member of this assembly, it is your God-given privilege and responsibility to see to it that for you and your house there will be continuance in the Apostles' Doctrine. Doctrine in fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and of prayers. Well, may God give us a renewed appreciation, as well as a renewed commitment to the significance of membership in the visible church of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Application

66:06 Let us pray.

66:13 Our Father, how we thank you for the record of your mighty works there in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. And while we record, we recognize that there are aspects of that mighty work that are non-repeatable, yet we believe there are principles operative in every healthy church, under the ordinary means of grace, under the guidance of ordinary leadership. While all the Apostles have gone to their reward, their teaching now embodied in Scripture is part of the foundation of the church. O Lord, give us as a people to be those of whom it can be said accurately that we continue steadfastly in these graces and disciplines by which your very life and presence are known and manifested in the church. We pray for those among us who are strangers to any of the realities of which we've spoken. God, make them thirsty to know these realities. Give them the strength to know the truth.

67:24 Give them the strength to know the truth. Give them the strength to know the truth. See the emptiness of the mere form and ritual of religion. And, O, make them hungry to know that reality that can only be known.

67:34 When pricked in their hearts, owning their sinfulness, they flee to your Son. Seal your word to our hearts, and may it bear fruit for many years to come. We ask these mercies in Jesus' name. Amen.