Chewing on Sunday's message...sermon post #11 - Acts 5:17-42

 

As you travel through a book of the Bible you will start to collect some principles that emerge over and over again.  So it is with our study of the Acts of the Apostles.  This Sunday's sermon was Acts 5:17-42 and #11 in our time with this book.  I would like to share with you some of my common observations.

Persecution is followed by bolder proclamation and praise.

It seems when we feel a little pressure from the world pushing against the claims of Christ, we tend to go in the opposite direction than the 1st century church.  We look for a place to hide and protect ourselves or we resort to not doing what the angel told the apostles to do, "God and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the worlds of this Life" (Acts 5:20, ESV).

The purging of sin from the church produced more faith.

We would think it would be a downer Sunday if some walked into the church physically alive only to be carried out of the church physically dead.  The opposite occurs.  Actually two things happen.  The first is an awareness by all that being a follower of Christ is serious business and not to be played with and therefore the insincere thought twice about just showing up because everyone else was.  Cultural Christianity received a gut punch from God.  The second was the response of the faithful to bring more to the apostles who did heal but moreover taught about the risen Savior.  Lingering sin not dealt with Biblically (confession and repentance) results in a church body whose God is shrinking because we think we have a better plan than His.

The 4 pillars: teaching, fellowship, worship, prayer and the byproduct of service.

Sometimes the 4 pillars are altogether in a very neat package with the byproduct following right behind them but other times you spot one here and one there.  The point is that these 4 define what they focused on.  They gather for worship, fellowship, prayer, and the teaching of the apostles.  The result is a greater love of God and each other and therefore they serve out of that ever enlarging love.  It has made me and the church I now serve question our focus on these 4 pillars.  We are defining what they are and what they look like so we can evaluate if we are going in the same direction as the 1st century church.  We need to because opposition to Christianity is growing in our current environment as it was in theirs and therefore we need to respond as they did.  Their response was based off of their devotion to these 4 pillars.

Look for the summary verses (statements).

One from this Sunday is the last verse of chapter 5 which reads, "And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus" (Acts 5:42, ESV).  These summary verses let us know that we are going into a new section and they also bring us back to what we need to be reminded of as we leave the church building after a gathering of the saints.  Here are the basic questions answered in this summary verse.

When? - every day

Where? - the temple (marketplace) and the home

How? - persistently (did not cease)

What? - preach and teach

Who? - Jesus

Why? - He is the Christ

Will we do the same?  

Will we every day, in the marketplace and in the home, persistently preach and teach that Jesus is the Christ?  

Pastor Adam