Book of Acts

THE BOOK OF ACTS – Chapter 2
WEEK SIX
Last week we did an acronym for JESUS. Now we will do another….CHURCH
C – COMMUNION
 “And they devoted themselves to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” 
Here, what we are acknowledging is Jesus’ cross. Communion has two elements, bread and wine. We also use juice so that, according to conscience, you’re not forced to violate conscience, even though you do have freedom in Christ.
This hearkens back to Jesus’ last supper 
Luke 22:17-20 New King James Version
17 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves;18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
19 And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
20 Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.
So, when we partake of Communion, we’re remembering Jesus’ last supper, we’re remembering that the bread is about his broken body and the drink is about his shed blood, and we’re reminding ourselves of the sacrifice of our Savior.
It’s an opportunity for you to see if there’s any sin in your life that you need to talk to God about before you partake. For those who are not Christian, it’s an opportunity to become a Christian. And it’s an opportunity for you to do business with the Lord Jesus and to remember his broken body and his shed blood, given out of love for you so that your sins could be forgiven, amen?
We have ‘Meal at the Hill’ every 5th Sunday. We get together and have a meal together after service. And I consider those Communion meals. Those are remembering the meal that Jesus ate with his disciples, and it reminds us that heaven is typified—An eternal, awesome feast party. 
In the Bible, we call that fellowship.
H – HUGE GENEROSITY
Next one is H, ‘Church,’ C-H, “Huge Generosity.” 
Acts 2:44–45, “And all who believed were together, had all things in common”—that’s their possessions—“And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.”
So, in generosity, we’re remembering that Jesus is the most generous giver ever. Jesus is the most generous giver ever. God gave us the earth. God made us in his image and likeness. We sinned against God. God gave us his Son. 
John 3:16 ESV
For  God so loved  the world,  that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not  perish but have eternal life.
Side note: I believe if you want to check what or who you love…look at who you give yourself, your money, your time, etc. too. 
1 John 3:16 ESV
16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 
Here comes Jesus. Jesus lives without sin. Jesus gives us his life, and he dies. Jesus rises, and he gives us his righteousness. He ascends into heaven. He gives us the Holy Spirit. He gives us the Word of God. He gives us the people of God. He’s preparing a place for us. He’s got more gifts for us. He’s got an inheritance for us in his kingdom that’ll endure forever. Our Jesus is hugely generous.
Once you meet Jesus and you receive the Holy Spirit, unless you really fight the Holy Spirit, he awakens in you a desire to be generous. You say, “Man, if I’ve received so much, I want to give.”
You know, there was only one of Jesus’ disciples who wasn’t a giver. What was his name? Judas. He was a taker. Jesus is a giver. Jesus’ disciples are givers. Judas was the taker. God’s people have the Holy Spirit. They’re the givers, not the takers. We live in a world filled with takers, not a lot of givers.
Here, we see God’s people becoming hugely generous. They’re giving their possessions to other people. Some of them are selling their possessions, and they’re giving the proceeds to other people. You’re going to see, in a few chapters, there are people selling their land and giving the proceeds to the church as a large gift. This is huge generosity.
Now, let me say this—I’ve got to clarify this: immediately, there will always be at least one person in every church who, when they hear this, are like, “Yay, Communism!” No, not Communism, right? This is not Communism, right? They’re like, “Well, look, they didn’t even own their stuff. It was all in a big pot and you could just take what you want, OK?” 
No, that’s not the way it works, because Communism denies private property ownership. The government owns your land. The government owns your house. The government owns everything.
Does the Bible teach private property ownership, yes or no? Yes, so thou shall not steal. You know what that means? It’s not yours. It’s not yours. That’s theirs, not yours. Don’t take it. That’s stealing. That’s stealing. 
The Bible does not believe in Communism but generosity.
Your house, your car, your income, your wealth, your possessions—those are yours. They come from the Lord. The church doesn’t have any right to them. 
I can’t come to your house and say, “I was reading Acts 2. Give me the keys. 
So, we have no right to take. But you’re invited to give. Do you see the difference? 
What is the difference between a tax and a tithe?
A tax is where the government does what? Have you noticed this? They take. Did you agree to it? No. Can you negotiate it? You could try. You could do prison ministry from the inside, but you could try, OK? The government just takes.
The church doesn’t have a tax.  It doesn’t belong to us. Instead, there’s a tithe. This is where you give. And if you are filled with the Holy Spirit and you love the church and you love people, you’re going to give.
Malachi 3:10 English Standard Version
10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
Can you imagine if the government passed the plate? Can you imagine if the government had on their website, “We’ve decided to do away with taxes. We want you to pray about an amount and just give as you feel led.” Do you think our revenue might decrease? Oh yes. You’d be like, “I prayed about it, and the Lord said [silence], so you know.” 
The government doesn’t trust that regenerated hearts out of love and concern for others will give generously. So, they take.
The church has no right to take, but we have every right to invite others to give.

Immediately, some of you will be like, “Oh, here we go. Church talking about money again.” No, we’re talking about your god? 
If you have a different god, my job is not to walk up around your god and be like, “Oh, how’s he doing? I want to be nice.” No, my job is to run up, steamroll it, and knock your little god called Money over. 
Jesus says that some have, as their god, Mammon, which means money. Oh, that God can save them, keep them healthy, make them beautiful, make their life secure, take care of their family, and give them heaven on earth, and if something should go wrong, that’s OK, because they can go to the bank, get their savior, and then pay for it to be fixed.
Who’s your god? What’s your priority? Where’s your investment? These people are hugely generous. 
U – UNDERWATER BAPTISM
In addition, “Underwater Baptism,” U. You knew this was coming. Acts 2:41, “So those who received his word were baptized.” 
Dunked, wet, underwater, right? Jesus was dunked in a river. John the Baptizer was dunking people in a river. It says in the Bible that they baptized in certain places because there was plenty of water.
OK, how many of you were baptized as infants? Actually, you were made wet by believing parents who had good intentions, but you were not baptized, right? That was a decision your parents made, not a decision you made, and they sprinkled you. This word means, “dunk underwater,” right? In ancient Greek literature, this word is used for a ship that sank. It says the ship was baptized, OK? That’s really wet.
Baptism is for adults. We get baptized as a believer in Jesus Christ to show his death, burial, resurrection for me, newness of life.
Have you been baptized? That’s the question. Have you been baptized? If not, let us know. We’d love to dunk you, and yes, we will bring you back up. 
R – REGULAR GATHERINGS
The next one, “Regular Gatherings.” Acts 2:46, “And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes.” 
So it’s regularly gathering. God’s people generally meet on Sunday. 
Why Sunday? 
It’s the day of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, so we gather to remember the resurrection of Jesus. Even just going to a church meeting on a Sunday indicates some sort of public affiliation with the resurrection of Jesus.
Now, there is a myth that I need to correct, and that is sometimes people come along and say, “Oh, the early church only had small meetings, not big ones. They only met in homes. They didn’t have large get-togethers. We should only meet in homes,” and “The church should be very small and disorganized,” and “We don’t need all that leadership,” and “We don’t need all that preaching,” and “Not everybody needs to get together. It should just be little group, after little group, after little group.” Or, “That’s the pure church,” or, “That’s the best church,” or “That’s the real church.”
And I’d say, “That’s not what the Bible says.” Temple courts, small group or large group? Any time you hear the word “temple” and “court,” think big, OK? It’s a big room, and they didn’t have seats. Seats didn’t come along until much, much later. They didn’t have amplification, so people would stand up for meetings. You get a lot of people in a room, just stand them up. Have you been to a concert? You get a lot of people in a room. You don’t sit them down; you stand them up.
We read of other places in the Bible that they had big meetings. It says that in the city of Ephesus from which Paul wrote, he rented the hall of Tyrannus (picture) and he lectured there, so it’s some hall, some big room. Jesus had big crowds—5,000 men, plus the women, plus the children—some 20,000 people, maybe. We’re talking a huge gathering to hear Jesus.
And there are smaller gatherings in the homes, but let me say that not all those gatherings were really, really small. See, in the hill country of Judea where Jesus grew up, the homes are very small. The people were peasants. Their homes are about the size of a parking stall for one of our cars. Boy, you go to a city like Laodicea, one of the cities mentioned in the Bible, these people lived on a plateau. These people are very, very rich. They have huge homes. Archeological digs show indoor plumbing, outdoor fountains, three-thousand-plus-square-foot homes. These people are living very nice.
So, just because they’re in a home doesn’t mean there’s a small group of people. In the archeological dig in the city of Ephesus they discovered that they had great rooms for entertaining in the homes of the more affluent people that could easily house hundreds, hundreds of people. While in the city of Corinth, many of the homes were in more of the shape of a square, and the home would be constructed with a huge inner courtyard that was open because the weather afforded a lot of outdoor time, kind of like Southern California. On an archeological dig, they discovered one of these homes had a menorah, representing Judaism, and a cross, representing Christianity, on the home, showing that this probably belonged to a Jewish believer, and this is where they met, and this courtyard would house hundreds of people.
I want you to blow out the myth that Christianity was forever this small movement of a couple people meeting in a home and nothing more. They have large meetings and small meetings, and even some of the meetings in the homes were not necessarily small meetings. Some of those were very large meetings as well—because God’s people love to get together.
C – COMMUNITY
Acts 2:42, “They devoted themselves to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” 
Hospitality is where we welcome strangers. 
Fellowship is where we welcome believers. 
So, you get this idea of community here. They’re getting together, they know each other, they love each other, they serve one another, they do life together. 
Acts 2:44, “All who believed were together.” T
here’s a community there. 
And Acts 2:46, 
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, .” 
So, a lot of the language here is language of community.
What we’re talking about here is this is a reflection of Jesus’ kingdom. In Jesus’ kingdom, all of Jesus’ people are going to be together forever. In Jesus’ kingdom, we’re going to eat together with gladness. It’s typified as a huge celebration meal around Jesus.
When we gather together in community, it’s called fellowship for God’s people. This is community, friendship, life, love, joy, and unity. It’s foreshadowing—it’s a foretaste of the coming of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, where we’ll eat with him together forever.
H – HARVESTING 
Our mission has always been to make disciples, right? We want people to meet Jesus and people to become more like Jesus. 
Acts 2:41, “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” How big was the church prior to that? 120—to three thousand. 
They don’t have enough leaders. They don’t have enough buildings. They don’t have enough systems. Everything just broke. It’s a mess! There are people showing up to church like, “Oh my goodness, everything’s changed. I’m so frustrated!” “That’s my seat!” “How come I can’t hang out with the apostles?” They’re very frustrated. How do I know? 
But you know what? It’s a good thing when a family grows, right? More kids, more work, more problems, more joy. You know what I’d rather have? A big family than things never changing. I love the idea of a big family. Obviously—I have four kids.
Let me say this, Pebble Hill. They had a little family and it became a big family, and that was a good thing—and that’s what the Holy Spirit did. So what you see is, three thousand souls were added. All these new Christians come.
Acts 2:47, “The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” 
This is my prayer:  “Lord Jesus, please, someday let us see people get saved day by day. Every day, every day, let us get to the point where we see people saved.”
And so as a church, we get excited as the church grows. And some of you say, “Oh, it’s all about the numbers.” “Three thousand,” somebody’s counting, right? A guy with a clipboard like, “One, two, three, four, five. Anymore wet people?” He’s counting, right? We count people because people count.
You know how many kids I have? Four. You know why? I count them, right? We’re on a trip, jumping on an airplane, “Do you have all the kids?” “I don’t know. I don’t count. I’m not into the numbers.” No, I count, right? 
We count people because people count. We don’t want to—“Hey, did we miss anybody?” Right? Any of our people playing spiritual Home Alone? You know, how’s everybody doing? We believe in evangelism. People should meet Jesus. We believe in church planting. As more people meet Jesus, more churches should be planted.
And here’s the big idea: Kings and kingdoms will come and go. Businesses and headquarters will come and go. Teams and stadiums will come and go. And bands and venues will come and go. But the church of Jesus Christ endures forever. It’s the biggest thing on the earth. It’s the biggest thing in the history of the earth. It’s the one thing that Jesus started. It’s the one thing that Jesus died for. It’s the one thing that Jesus loves. And it’s the one thing that will end when everything else ends. God’s people will march together into God’s kingdom to sing God’s praises because they are God’s people, amen? Amen!
A CHANCE TO OBEY
I don’t know if you’ve caught this: 
I really love our church, Jesus really loves our church, and the Holy Spirit really loves to show up at our church.
This is a chance for you to obey, yeah. 
•    If you’re not a Christian, this is where you give your sin to Jesus and become a Christian. 
•    Then we’re going to take Communion so you can obey. 
•    We’re going to sing so you can obey. 
•    We’re going to sign you up to serve so you can obey. 
•    We’re going to invite you to love and serve one another so that you can obey. 
Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says, amen? I like this. 
A community to belong, believe, and become!!!

That’s why we’re here. Religion does not save. Philosophy does not save. Spirituality does not save. Morality does not save. The faith of your parents does not save. The faith of your grandparents does not save. Only Jesus saves. 
That’s the good news: we have a Savior in Jesus!
I would rather have health than growth. If I have to choose between a really healthy child and a really big child—well, what I would like is, you know, a very healthy big church. But if we’ve got to choose between big and healthy, we choose healthy. 
I want it to be strong. I want it to have loving, committed, stable local leaders, pastors, and board members who are going to love and care for that family. I want to work through the hard issues of life together and doing what the church family’s supposed to do together on mission in their community. 
We want a church. We want a Godly, healthy church.
So, the emphasis really now is on being a healthy family. 
So things like a strong Pebble Rock Kids department are more important than ever. As you have heard in our sermon series on Sunday, the enemy is after our kids and grandkids.
The Hill Student Ministry is vital for our teen and college students to graduate not just in scholastics and careers but into a lifetime of following Jesus.
I want to be able to add things like a Redemption Group which is to help those who are suffering and hurting, 
or a Next Steps Class, where we teach the basics of Christianity to newcomers and newly saved attenders with the idea of plugging them into membership and ministry (or place to belong)
‘bloom’ Women’s Ministry, which allow our women and enabling our women to bloom by using their gifts and meeting together in community.
Isaiah 40:8 ESV
the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. 
The Rock Men’s Ministry, where our men can come together and learn to be real men of God. The enemy is out to destroy fathers and men of God. 
1 Corinthians 16:13 ESV
Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
It’s about people. It’s about people meeting Jesus. It’s about people being loved by Jesus. It’s about people loving Jesus. It’s about people loving each other. It’s about people then doing life together as family; walking through the hard times; being there to celebrate the good times; when there are problems or sin, it’s about helping people get unstuck and corrected; when people are growing in wisdom, having them become leaders and help look after the younger kids in the family. Those are the things that, in my heart right now, are important. 
Here’s the truth: I really love our church, and by God’s grace, I want to pastor one church my whole life. Everybody’s different and everybody needs investment, love, care, concern, and correction differently. And so, here’s what is on my heart: 
Jesus says it this way, “A good tree bears good fruit.” Our focus, really, is just to be a good tree—love Jesus, love one another, love lost people, love hurting people, love rebellious people, heck, love our enemies while we’re at it, because Jesus told us to, and may they even join our family.

Excerpts from 

The Book of Acts by Chuch Smith and 

Book of Acts by Mark Driscol