Charting and following the 4 Pillars through Acts...sermon post

 


As we go through the Acts of the Apostles, I have been on the look out for the 4 pillars of the first century church and also those first converts to Christianity.  We are introduced to them in Acts 2:42.  The new converts and collective church were devoted to the:  1) teaching of the apostles, 2) fellowship of the family of God, 3) worship of God, and 4) prayers.  The by-product of the 4 pillars is service to one another.  These 4 pillars are actually stated again in Acts 2:46-47.  This response comes after Peter's opening sermon on the Day of Pentecost and it is in light of the new Christians and church "having favor with all the people."

The next time they appear is in Acts 3:27-34.  The church is gathered for prayer; the prayer includes worship of God; it is stated they were of one heart and soul; and the testimony of the apostles was increasing in power.  The by-product of service is stated with "there was not a needy person among them."  This siting of the 4 pillars follows not favor with all the people but actually trials and persecution from the some important leadership of the day.  Good or bad, the 1st century church and Christians held to these 4 pillars.  

I am going to continue to look for these pillars as I go through the Acts of the Apostles.  I am also going to strive to follow through on being devoted in these areas so that my service will be a genuine worship of God. 

In the sermon this week, sin has slipped into the church and God acts swiftly to purge His church of Ananias and Sapphire's scheme to serve two masters.  Walking in and being carried out caused pause from some joining up but for others it fueled their faith to bring others to be healed in the name of Jesus.  These physical healings gave opportunity to speak of the spiritual healing that only come in the name of Jesus.  

We typically don't think of greater spiritual growth with the exposing or confessing of sin.  We tend to hide our sin thinking we will escape the consequences or that it won't affect those around us.  God shows us again that His ways are higher than our ways.  For the Christian, there is only one thing to do with sin and that is to repent of it.  Repenting might involve us experiencing consequences for what was done wrong but trust God that those who seek first His kingdom, His way, will receive all that they need.

Pastor Adam






A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians #15 - Galatians 6:11-18 - "On The Road Again..."

Image
  Another week closer and it involves some more travel for the Wolfgangs.  I feel like the Willy Nelson song, " On the road again... "  I don't know if I agree with the next line though. " ...I can't wait to get on the road again. " One of the members of the church in Wisconsin calculated that I will travel well over 10,000 miles to make this transition.  Traveling mercies prayers please. Last Sunday we will look at Paul's final words to the churches in Galatia.  He brought them the gospel (good news) message of Jesus and what resulted were churches forming throughout the region.  The letter is to defend that message that our salvation comes from and is in Christ alone.  Christ's sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins.  The summary statement of the letter is found in  Galatians 6:15 (LSB) .  " For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. "  Translated another way earlie...
Read more

God gave us a good weather window to travel...yeah God!!!

Image
  Berthoud Pass Here we are at the top of Berthoud Pass.  It was a whirlwind week to conduct a " hand off " service in Wisconsin on 3/17 and then preach a Palm Sunday sermon in Colorado on 3/24.  We give God all the glory for this happening.  So there are two video links at the bottom of this blog.  One is for the Wisconsin service and the other is for the Colorado service.  I racked up over 12,000 in the last 7 weeks.   I love to take these pictures sitting from the front row of chairs and listening to the one God has provided for the church I had been serving for 20 months.  I now have 3 and I am so thankful for the opportunity God gave us to serve Him in this type of ministry over the last 5 years.  It has been great to add to our daily prayer list Zach in Maine, Chris in Ohio and now Stephen in Wisconsin. This was our set up for the 2000+ mile trip.  No " hiccups " except for the strong eastern winds in Kansas.  Of course e...
Read more

Resurrection Sunday in a new space...Matthew 27.62-28.20

Image
  Resurrection Sunday has come and gone but it was a sweet day to be with the gathered saints of the Stillwater Community Chapel .  We are venturing through the Gospel of Matthew and this Sunday will take us back to Matthew 1.1 but last Sunday we were in Matthew 27.62-28.20.  It was a lot to cover so the white board was truly a help to keep me on track.  This year in my Resurrection Sunday message, I focused on the contrast of the cover-up story of the disciples stealing the body of Jesus fueled by a bride and the commission of speaking of a risen Lord fueled by boldness . After the service upstairs, we ventured downstairs to the lower level and had a great meal together.  The conversations around the tables allowed us to continue to talk about the passage of Scripture we covered upstairs.  Maybe this is a very informal picture of what happens at the  Waushara Community Church called the " Going Deeper " classes of the Come For More hour following t...
Read more