One Mission pt. 2

            Last week we began a book study on the book of Acts. This book in the New Testament is a very significant book for our spiritual faith journey with Jesus. It’s a book the bridges the gap between the Gospels and the letters and apostles that go out to the church. We see in the Gospels the life of Jesus, his death and resurrection; we see that he purchased the church with his shed blood. And in the book of Acts we see that church being birthed, and being established; first among the Jews then in Palestine, then amongst the Gentiles, and then it began to sweep through the entire new world. Imagine the New Testament without the book of Acts. You go from the Gospels and Jesus’ death to some guy named Paul writing to a church in Rome. Acts is about what happened in between those two events. Today in Acts were going to look at 5 verses, of course if we can fit all of them in, these are 5 very powerful verses. In Acts chapter 2 verse 42, we see the first of the 5 versus that begin to lay down a foundation for how the church began. We read in these passages the very first church. A lot of churches have “first church of_____” out in front of their church, but this is the very first church period. The scripture is significant because it tells us a lot about how the church did life. What was important to them, and how they grew spiritually. See I’m not trying to give you a history lesson, I’m trying to help you understand that the bible is not a book of information it’s a book of transformation. It’s a book about what the spirit of God wants to change inside of us. Be asking yourself this, do I see myself in these scriptures, am I living this way? Lets go ahead and read Acts chapter 2 verses 42-47: “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord's Supper*), and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity* all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.” You know we tend to look at the description of this church as like a super church. Actually this is what the normal church was, back in the day. This is an example to us of what the normal church should look like. In this part of the book of Acts we also see an incredible unity among the church. The church meaning all of those who are followers of Christ could learn from this church’s unity, and we need that today. Three traits that these churches had in common with this unity is that they had a Common Devotion. Verse 42 “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord's Supper*), and to prayer.” The word devoted means steadfastly committed. It means that their lives were fully engaged in this, they put God first in their lives. So let me ask you this what are you devoted to? What are you steadfastly committed to?  The second quality we see here in the early church is that they had a Common Generosity look at verse 44 “They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity*” The third thing the church had in common was a Common Passion. See they came together for one goal, to know God, and to join in the fellowship of others. I can go into so much more detail, but I’m writing this after coming home from a weekend trip, and I will be honest I wanted no part in typing this up. I couldn’t focus, I was getting distracted easily and all I wanted to do was go to bed. But I have this passion to share the good news with you, and so I took a little more time, gained some focus and typed this thing out. So I’m sorry if this was not as good as maybe you anticipated it to be, but I promise next week’s will be much, much better.