praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.praising God and having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved.Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved.
14 sermons cite this verse
… 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. …
… 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. Community, connection, commitment, power, all the presence of God, all the power of God, all the miracles that God was doing, giving of themselves so that no one would even have need. And I want to show you in these few short verses how these first century Christians depended on God and depended on each other. Let me show you just briefly a quick summary of what the early church did. They studied the Bible together. They shared meals together. They prayed together. Help me out if you want to. They fellowshiped together. They worshiped God together. They served others together and they celebrated together. They didn't look at a screen and observe someone else's life. They were together. And what you need to know is that in the ancient world, this was unheard of, completely unheard of, because the Roman Empire was built on division. The rich avoided the poor. The Jews stayed away from the Gentiles. Those who were free, they stayed away from the slaves. And the first century church filled with the power of Jesus and the love of Jesus, they shattered that division. The rich ate with the poor. And the Jews fellowshiped with the Gentiles. …
… and he does this periodically throughout the book of Acts. And I want to show you some verses that kind of mirror what's going on here in Acts chapter 2, verse 47. Then once we look at these verses, we'll kind of put them together in a package and ask the question, how was Jesus adding to their number daily those who were being saved? So 2, 47 is the first one. Then turn over to Acts chapter 4, verse 4. What we're going to see is Luke being very intentional to show us how the church was growing. And I maybe encourage you to underline these different verses that show the growth of the church. Acts chapter 4, verse 4 says, The many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about 5,000. Remember, it was about 3,000 in Acts chapter 2. Now it's up to over 5,000. That's just the men alone there. When you come to chapter 5, chapter 5, verse 14, right after Ananias and Sapphira are struck down before the Lord, what happens? …
… Look at verse 47. praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily those who are being saved so take the whole story in context there's a big evangelistic event 3,000 people get saved the church grows enormously from this huge altar call 3,000 people those 3,000 people get plugged into the church. They start reading the Bible. They understand what God is speaking to them. They're fellowshipping with other believers. They're giving to one another's needs. And then they go back out. And those people who got saved are telling other people about this Jesus they serve. And God is adding to the church daily. This is the way God intended to build his church. This is why we do things like freedom celebration and Easter sunrise, to cast a big net, to see many come to know Christ so that they can get plugged into the church and fed and taught and discipled and grow so that they can go back out in the world and the Lord will add to the church daily those who are being saved. …
… 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 I want you to see another summation that Luke gives us of the early church. And it kind of mirrors what we just read. Look at Acts chapter 4 verse 32. All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power, the apostles continued to testify the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time, those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales, and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had 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. Every day, the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. There are at least four things that marked that community that I'm believing must mark ours as well. And the first thing that marked their community was that they were marked by the word. And as a church, we must be marked by the word. Notice that in verse 41, the way that they entered into the community was by accepting the message. That word for message is the word logos. It means word. They accepted the word. And then when they accepted the word, if you read a few sentences earlier, they were filled with the spirit. And yet you'll notice that even though they were filled with the spirit in a significant way at that time, they didn't consider that being filled with the spirit eliminated their need to study the word. …
… 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. …
… 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 pluralism and moral relativism and biblical skepticism like we have in our country today will we be a faith family who knows truth and proclaims truth? …
… 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. Community, connection, commitment, power, all the presence of God, all the power of God, all the miracles that God was doing, giving of themselves so that no one would even have need. And I want to show you in these few short verses how these first century Christians depended on God and depended on each other. Let me show you just briefly a quick summary of what the early church did. They studied the Bible together. They shared meals together. They prayed together. Help me out if you want to. They fellowshiped together. They worshiped God together. They served others together and they celebrated together. They didn't look at a screen and observe someone else's life. They were together. And what you need to know is that in the ancient world, this was unheard of, completely unheard of. Because the Roman Empire was built on division. …
… 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. In actual fact, the opening section of the Acts of the Apostles focuses largely on that church and the work of God in that church and the character of the church. And you may have noticed in your reading of the Acts of the Apostles that the author Luke does a very interesting thing. He punctuates these opening chapters with a series of reports, a kind of state of the nation reports except they are state of the church reports. …
… 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. there was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet. And it was distributed to each as any had need. I would read that and go, gosh, people would say that can't. …
… 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. Like Jesus' prayer, when he says, God, I want you to make them one. Like you and I are one, I want them to be one. Like one, like unified, where it's like, okay, if part of my arm hurts, this finger hurts, man, I'm going to help take care of that. And it's like, no, I want to be a part of a body like that. Because not everyone wants that. Okay? It's like, no, no, no. I got a busy life and this and that. I just want to go for an hour and get it done. Sometimes you guys even go long. You go beyond that hour. Bugs me. Chaz was good today. Usually whoever does testimony takes the whole time and I got like two minutes. But today, grateful for you. Now I'm glad you're part of our body. You know, it's just, okay, this is, this, you know, it's like this type of connection. Like, do you want that? If not, this is our final destination. And if that's not your …
… in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day, those who were being saved. Now, the first function of the church is worship. That is a priority over evangelism and a priority over missions. Worship is the first function. Now, God wants his people worshiping together. He says, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. And when you come together, he says, you are to encourage one another. What I want us to look at today, I want us to look at three facets of worship in the body of Christ in the church. and in this chapter here in verse 46 and 47 here they are. First of all the activity of worship in the church and I believe according to the scriptures there are two activities that are involved in true worship. That is true worship is going to involve two activities on our part and the first activity is there is going to be praise of God with our lips. …