They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer.And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.
20 sermons cite this verse
… The church is still expanding. When you look at Acts 2.42, it said they were meeting home from home, sharing meals, sharing everything they had. And their numbers were growing daily because they weren't building brick and mortar. They were building minds, bodies, and souls. And what I'm asking you is if you stop focusing on the organization for a second, because honestly, the organization has been a lot of our excuses. Well, that church hurt me. Well, I ain't never doing no, because they just want my money. And we've blamed organizations. And if we can be honest, it was one or two organisms who really messed over you. It was some people who hadn't given God full control. and on behalf of those people who were pastors and leaders and people in your life who you thought was the church and that's why you haven't come back to church because you saw somebody do it wrong and they fell short of the glory of God, I want to apologize because I know that has hurt you because the only thing that can hurt another organism is an organism and we blamed it on the church, but now we can't blame it on an organization. …
… We gather together. Acts chapter 2 verse 42 they devoted themselves to the apostles doctrine the breaking of bread fellowship and prayer and the Lord added daily those who were being saved so primarily we do that we get together with other Christians why because they encourage us we hear about their walk we listen to how they're processing spiritual truth applying it to their lives. And all of that is encouraging when we pray with them, sing with them, read the scriptures with them. However, all of those are communal practices. There must also be a personal dimension, a private personal devotional life, what we often call your quiet time, your quiet time. and one of the scriptures that comes to my mind is one that we covered in the gospel of mark on our weekend services in mark chapter one it says jesus rising up a long while before the day departed went to a solitary place and there he prayed he was getting ready early in the day for what the rest of the day would bring. Now, I will admit to you the phrase daily devotions is not a biblical phrase. You'll never find daily devotion. You look it up in your concordance, you won't find it. …
… It means we are as committed to each other as we are to Jesus Christ. Now the Bible says this, Acts 2.42, they took part in the fellowship and sharing in the fellowship meals and in praying together. CEV translation says they were like family to each other, circle family. Over and over again, the church is called a family. It's not a business, it's not an organization, it's not a social club, the church is a family. In fact, the Bible tells us that you are to treat older men in the church as spiritual fathers. You are to treat the older women in our church as spiritual mothers. You are to treat other women in the church as sisters, and you are to treat other men in our church family as brothers, because we're in family. Everybody's sitting on the row with you right now, you may not know them, but they're your brother and sister. In fact, for thousands of years in the church, the church has called each other brother and sister. They say brother so-and-so and sister so-and-so, sister Mary and brother John. And they use the term brother and sister because God says, you guys aren't just members of an organization. You're part of the family of God. …
… changed the world. The church that was accused of turning the world upside down. I'm reading from Acts chapter 2 verses 42 to 47. And I'm reading from the New King James Version. Just to get context, remember this is on the heels of the day of Pentecost. So the Holy Spirit has been poured out. And 3,000 people have come to believe in Jesus after Simon Peter delivered the inaugural message of the church. Acts 2.42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, the breaking of bread and in prayers. and fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together. They had all things in common. They sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as everyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. …
… changed the world. The church that was accused of turning the world upside down. I'm reading from Acts chapter 2 verses 42 to 47. And I'm reading from the New King James Version. Just to get context, remember this is on the heels of the day of Pentecost. So the Holy Spirit has been poured out. And 3,000 people have come to believe in Jesus after Simon Peter delivered the inaugural message of the church. Acts 2.42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, the breaking of bread and in prayers. and fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together. They had all things in common. They sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as everyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. …
… as well in Acts chapter 2 verse 42 we have this amazing statement of the ordinary Christian life that the early church was engaging in when the power of the Holy Spirit fell in extraordinary ways. It was like this little honeymoon moment in the early church before the persecution comes. And what does Acts say they were doing? This is Acts 2, verse 42. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. What's that? That's Word. That's what we have in the New Testament. The apostles' teaching. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, the Word, and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and prayers. So Acts 2 has four categories for us there. The apostles' teaching were the fellowship, that's our focus this morning, the breaking of the bread, which that happens as Christians eat together, share life together. That probably includes the Lord's Supper. There's that ceremonial celebration of Jesus' death in the Lord's Supper and then the prayers. Maybe my favorite quote outside the Bible on the means of grace is from this old British Bishop end of the 19th century named J.C. Ryle. …
… If you know it with me, let's quote verse 42 together. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Over the last couple of months, we've been looking at each of these priorities in the early church, how they devoted themselves to the Word and the centrality of the Word in the early church. It's what made them different. How they devoted themselves to the fellowship, the way they cared for each other. How they devoted themselves to worship, exemplified in how they participated in the Lord's Supper. and we've looked at that in the last couple of weeks. We come to that fourth one this morning. They devoted themselves to prayer. And what we're going to see this morning is that prayer was the driving force behind everything the early church did. It was fundamental for them. It was the air they breathed. And one of the diseases, I'm convinced, of the modern evangelical church in America today is we have taken that which was fundamental to the early church, and we have made it supplemental in our churches. …
… so you don't even need to turn there. Acts chapter 2, verse 42. If you know it, say it with me. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. What I want us to do this morning and next week is begin to look at the worship life of the early church. You know, it's really interesting when you see this summation in Acts chapter 2 that we've been studying about the things they devoted themselves to, you don't see worship listed anywhere. We're looking at the things that made the early church different. And many times when we think today about what makes churches different, we talk about worship. Well, our worship is different in this way. We've got different worship, but that's not one of the things that made them different. Now, that doesn't mean worship wasn't extremely important. I think it was. I think it infiltrates a lot of what we're seeing in Acts chapter 2. But we're going to get a pretty strong clue about the worship life of the early church as we think about this third thing they devoted themselves to, the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, and the breaking of bread. …
It says, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Stop there. It says they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. That is to say that the early church in the book of Acts was a learning church. Jesus' people grow. We learn and we grow in our understanding and our knowledge of the scripture. And this is really important to understand because first of all, you need to understand that as a pastor, God has given me a very clear direction as to what I should be doing. As a matter of fact, he has given all pastors a very clear direction of what they should be doing, what their focus should be. Paul wrote in 1 Timothy chapter 4 as an admonishment to pastors, he said this, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and all teaching. This is the charge to pastors. Now, why is this important? Well, he continues on and he tells us, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers who will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. Now, in the Greek, there is an urgency stressed in those words. Preach the word. It literally means to preach the word with alertness, with carefulness, with insistence, with urgency. And this is really important because in our day and age, some would …
… at the church at Brick Hills based on this picture. Acts chapter 2, verse 42. This is a passage that many of you have been memorizing. You could quote it with me. It says this whole picture of the New Testament church. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. Verse 44, many of you have been memorizing this week. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Now I want you to flip over two chapters to Acts chapter 4. …
… And so let's do that. The rest of our time, we're going to spend looking at Acts 2, verses 41 through 46. Let's read it together. Peter's just preached an amazing message. And almost three, or exactly 3,000 people were added by putting their faith in Jesus that day. Here's what it says about them. Those who accepted his message were baptized. And that day, about 3,000 people were added to them. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers. Everyone was filled with awe. And many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all as any had a need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. …
… day. Now let's say verse 42 together. Many of you have it in your hearts. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. I want you to see the effects of the word, three different effects that come out of this. Number one, I want you to see the word awakens conviction. The word awakens conviction. As soon as Peter finishes the sermon, verse 37 says, when the people heard this, they were cut to the heart. That's quite an interesting phrase that Luke would use here to describe what happened. They were cut to the heart. We've already talked about how way back in Exodus, we saw 3,000 people who were struck down by the sword when the law came down. They disobeyed against the law. They were cut to the heart here. We're reminded, Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12 says, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates to our hearts and our souls and our minds. Ephesians 6, 17 says, the word of God is the sword of the spirit. That's kind of the picture we've got here. This is not just man's words, not just another book. This is the sword through which God and his voice penetrates our hearts and our minds. …
… of the word and the proclamation of the word that goes throughout the building of the church. It is the foundation for the power in the church. Now we know in Acts chapter 2, verse 42 through 47, the Bible says not only did they devote themselves to these things, but everyone was filled with awe And many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. And what you've got is a picture of the Word going forward. It's advancing, being proclaimed. And what's happening is miraculous signs and wonders are being done that kind of validate the Word and show, help enlighten the power of the Word. It happens all throughout the book of Acts, particularly when the Word is going to new places that it hasn't gone before. The thing is, it's happening all around the world today. You go to other countries, particularly countries where the Word is not known, you're seeing miraculous things happen. And you hear testimonies, even in Indonesia, when Larry and Dan and I were there in June to hear stories of what God is doing to bring Muslims to Christ. …
… This is the first picture of the church. they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship to the breaking of bread and to prayer everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles all the believers were together and had everything in common selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts they broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. That first picture that we see of the early church is going to drive the rest of our time in this series about different to make a difference. And I want you to see that this early church prioritized some things in their lives. And there's some things I want to challenge us to prioritize. Priorities of the church, number one, speak boldly. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching that's the whole story we see happening in acts chapter 2 so we see the people of god propelled out into the streets they'd gathered together in this small room praying for the holy spirit when the holy spirit comes they are propelled out into the streets where they proclaim truth in their culture and it wasn't a popular message and we must be a people who know truth and proclaim truth in a culture marked by religious …
… Go ahead, stand to your feet today. Acts chapter 2, verse 42. it says they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, that's church, and a fellowship that's living together to the breaking of bread and a prayer. I was like, wow, this is a carb church, the breaking of bread. And you know what it's saying there is they came together in communion with one another. They came together not just as acquaintances, but they shared their lives together. You know what I'm concerned about? Is that people are having conversations on social media that should be had around dinner tables. And then judging people for it. But if I'm going to be honest, as Christians we're called to grow together, mature together, to find freedom together. And it can't be found on a screen. It'll be found around a dinner table. It'll be found around the breaking of bread. It'll be found in a connect group. It'll be found at a beach. It'll be found after a movie together with a bunch of friends. …
… These are the events that follow the day of Pentecost. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers, and awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need, and day Day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. Of the many passages in the New Testament that we might focus on in thinking about the importance of the local church, I thought it might be instructive for us if we focused on the very first local church in the pages of the New Testament, the church in Jerusalem. …
… may be a surprise to many of you. You might have thought that in Acts 2.42 it would have said, and they gave themselves continually to the apostles' doctrine, worship, fellowship, prayer, and the breaking of bread. But no, we don't have that. There's no time that we see a church meeting in the New Testament, the book of Acts, in a worship service by definition. And why is that? Why is that seemingly such a serious omission when we are so committed to a worship service? And the answer is because the New Testament never isolates worship to an event anymore that it isolates worship to a location. It's not in Mount Gerizim. It's not in Jerusalem. It's not at a temple. It's not in any specific place. And it's not generated by any external behaviors. It's a way of life. We worship when we come together because we are worshipers. This is not when we worship, this is just when we worship together. Worship is not in a place, and it's not induced by any external design. …
No, when they started, they're like, let's devote ourselves to things that he commanded. And it says that they devoted themselves. Listen to this. It says in Acts 2.42, they devoted themselves to fellowship. Like devoted. Not they showed up for an hour a week. They devoted themselves and said, you know what? This is what God wants. He doesn't want just me talking about God. he wants everyone talking about him. That means if God had it his way, then all of us would have shown up talking about him to each other. That's what would have pleased him the most. Not everyone show up and listen to Francis or listen to John. It's like he would have loved it, like God would have loved it. And maybe the next time you gather as a church, you think this through. And really, he wanted this every day. You know what would please him? You know the kind of party he'd want? It's like every time you run to another believer, you go, man, here's what God did for me this week. …
… to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship and the breaking of bread and the prayers and awe came upon every soul and many, many, I can't even, wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they're selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any 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 and having favor with all the people. and the Lord added to the number day by day those who were being saved. Then read in chapter 4 and verse 32, it says, now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own but they had everything in common and with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. …
… like in a like like that early church um you know when the church first started in acts chapter 2 verse 42 it says they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching into the fellowship to the breaking of bread and prayers awe came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles listen to this and all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any 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 and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number every day those who were being saved. Like, do you ever look at that with jealousy? Like, I want to be a part of that. I want to be with a group of people where it's like, we're that close, that we're just one. …