A Timeless Display of a Healthy Church (Acts Sermon 6)

Turn in your Bibles to Acts 2:41-47. We continue our series in the Book of Acts. The most powerful weapon in the hands of the Lord for the building of the kingdom of Christ is a healthy church, a healthy church. God has ordained the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth and to the end of time to be done primarily through the ministry of healthy churches. It is true that God uses the Christian family as the single greatest disciple-making entity in the world. All over the world, babies are born into Christian families and then have the gospel poured into them from infancy. There is no more effective pathway for the conversion of individuals from darkness into light than the Christian family. However, those converts must be brought into a vibrant and living connection with other Christians who are not in their family and that is done primarily by healthy churches.

It is also true that across time God has used what’s known as para-church entities. These are Christian organizations that are not local churches, so there’d be campus ministries like the one that discipled me at MIT, Campus Crusade for Christ which it was called at that time, called Cru Now, and many other para-church campus ministries. There are mission agencies like the IMB, Southern Baptist Mission Agency, also Wycliffe, New Tribes Mission and many other mission agencies. There are dedicated works like Samaritan’s Purse and Young Life and Voice of the Martyrs and all of the kinds of ministries that address poverty, disaster relief, hunger, clean water, orphans, sex trafficking, and all of the kinds of issues that do and should captivate the Christian heart in this dark world of suffering. But all of them I contend, are subordinate to Christ’s commitment to local churches around the world.

The Book of Revelation begins with an overpowering vision given to the apostle John in exile on the island of Patmos, a vision of the resurrected and glorified Christ. Christ was dressed like our great high priest. He’s seen moving in and around seven golden lampstands. These we are told represent seven local churches, in Asia minor, modern-day Turkey, all very near where John the Apostle was exiled. The vision showed Christ’s intimate knowledge of and care for those local churches. He calls them by name, the church at Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. These are actual local churches alive at the time. In Revelation chapters 2 and 3, He describes each of those local churches in great detail. He knows their circumstances. He knows their strengths and their weaknesses. He knows their specific challenges and their sin patterns. He knows there are open doors of opportunity. His judgment awaits all of them that overcome those challenges and use their time well to spread the gospel and establish His kingdom. His rewards are His to give to those that overcome in those local church settings.

The number seven, the seven churches, is not an accident for many scholars believe, and I agree, it represents a number of perfection or fullness. By extension, every local church that ever will be established from the first century until the end of time in every geographical location, Jesus Christ knows each and every one of them. He’s actively involved, ministering, walking around through them, speaking to them by His spirit and by His spirit alone does He do that speaking. For at the end of each of Christ’s letters in Revelation 2 and 3, He says, “He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” All seven churches were supposed to read all seven letters. But us, 20 centuries removed, it’s right for us to hear the present tense. “He who has an ear now let him hear what the Spirit is saying now to the seven churches.”

All Christians in all places at all times over these 20 centuries should listen to what the Spirit is saying. Not what He said some time ago, a long time ago. What He is saying right now, the Word of God is living and active, and the Spirit is constantly displaying in the words of the New Testament, what He wants to say to every local church. I say not just in Revelation 2 and 3, the letters to the seven churches, but in all the epistles of the New Testament, the Spirit is speaking to the churches. Many of those epistles are written directly to local churches in specific settings, again with strengths and weaknesses, with challenges that they were facing. Then the Apostles would write to them in Corinth or in Galatia and Ephesus or Thessalonica or other locations and all the doctrines and the warnings and the exhortations and the promises, all of them are available for all time, for all local churches to drink in and learn from.

The Spirit is still constantly speaking to every church through the words of the Bible.

The Spirit is still constantly speaking to every church through the words of the Bible. We at First Baptist Church in the year 2024, we need to listen. We have an ear. “He who has an ear, let him hear.” We have the capacity because we’re born again, because we’re alive, we’re not dead and we can hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches and we need to hear what the Spirit of Christ is saying because He bought the church with His own blood. He invested himself completely in the church and in the churches. That includes the passage we’re going to study today, Acts 2:41-47. The Holy Spirit in this passage has not given us some dry history of some events 20 centuries ago. No, He has given us a perfect record of the healthy local church that was established on the day of Pentecost and then the time beyond, by the preaching of the gospel in Jerusalem, a timeless display of a healthy and fruitful church.

Listen to the passage again. Acts 2:41 through 47, “Those who accepted His message were baptized and about 3,000 were added to their number that day. They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and 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.”

In this passage I’ve drawn out seven elements of a healthy church. I do not believe this is an exhaustive list, but it’s the list that comes from this passage. We will see a church devoted to the Lord. Secondly, a church devoted to doctrine. Thirdly, a church devoted to each other. Fourth, the church devoted to spiritual duties. The fifth, the church displaying godly character. Six, the church built on miracles. And seventh, a church daily winning souls.

I. A Church Devoted to God

First, a church devoted to the Lord. In other words, it was a believer’s church. It was a local church made up of genuine believers in Jesus Christ. Everyone in that local church was a person who had trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and had testified to that faith by believer’s baptism. Look at verse 41, “Those who accepted His message were baptized and about 3,000 were added to their number that day.” Let’s step back and look at the context here in the Book of Acts. We’re at the end of chapter 2. We’re jumping right in the middle of Luke’s account of the day of Pentecost. The Lord Jesus Christ after a perfect life and a perfect ministry died an atoning death on the cross, was raised from the dead on the third day. And then after that, over a period of 40 days He appeared to His Apostles, giving them many convincing proofs that He was alive. He told them to wait in Jerusalem for the power that would come from on high, enabling them to do His mission, the power of the Holy Spirit.

The theme verse of the entire Book of Acts, we hear again and again, Acts 1:8, “He said to them, ‘You’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.'” After He said that, He ascended into heaven and the church went and waited in prayer. Finally this great day of Pentecost has arrived. The day of the formal beginning of the New Testament church, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the assembled believers there in the room, that upper room in Jerusalem. There was the sound of a mighty rushing wind like a tornado perhaps or a hurricane. And the Spirit descended on each of them appearing as tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them, we  are told, were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in other languages as the spirit moved them and gave them power.

A crowd gathered, having heard the sound, gathered around the place where they were staying. So the Apostles poured out into the streets and began preaching the gospel. Amazingly, they preached in ways that they each heard in their own native languages, their own mother tongues. It was a miracle both their ability to speak languages they’d never studied, and then the hearers, the ability to hear in their heart language, that same message they were hearing that declared the wonders of God in their own tongues. Then Peter got up and began to preach the great Pentecost sermon that we studied over the last few weeks that we’ve looked at Acts. He talked about what they were experiencing there, a fulfillment of promises made in the Old Testament of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit quoting Joel Chapter 2. They were experiencing the outpouring of the spirit of God, the baptism of the Holy Spirit on these followers of Jesus Christ.

He then preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, the simple facts of Jesus, how He had been anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit and went around doing miracles, signs and wonders, and they themselves had seen, many of them had seen them with their own eyes. These testified plainly to His identity as the Son of God, as the Lord, as the Messiah, but that they had rejected Him and with the hands of wicked men had put Him to death, nailing Him to the cross. But how God had raised Him from the dead and all of them were witnesses.

He then proved this from scripture, Psalm 16 and Psalm 110, and He commanded them to repent of their sins, chief of which is that they had been instrumental in rejecting Jesus and crucifying Him and killing Him. “When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart. They were convicted of their sins and asked, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord your God will call.’” [Acts 2:37-39] Then in verse 40, “With many other words, he warned them and exhorted them, pleaded with them, save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” There was a fervency and an urgency and a fire in his words.

That’s the context to the statement in verse 41, “Those who accepted that message, the message of the gospel, those who accepted that message were baptized and about 3,000 were added to their number that day.” The phrase “accepted the message” is powerful. The Greek word implies that they welcomed it, they received it gladly as let’s say, a host to some welcome guests. They welcomed it and wanted it in. There was a gladness about the message. They saw it as good news from Almighty God concerning their internal condition and the forgiveness of their sins. They welcomed this message, the message, the good news, they’ve been yearning for all their lives. Now it’s here in Jesus. So they mingle the external message that they heard with their ears with an internal faith and that combination saved their souls. They became genuine believers.

That moment by the power of the Holy Spirit, for the first time they saw Jesus properly, they understood who He was. As 2 Corinthians 4:6 says, “The God who said ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” They could see in Christ the glory of God. They saw it by faith, they believed and they were saved, they were justified. They loved Him from that moment and for the rest of eternity. They love Him still, and they were devoted to Christ.

What about you? Do you love Him? Have you been cut to the heart knowing you’re a sinner, you’ve violated the laws of God? If you don’t have a savior, you will die and go to hell. Do you believe that? Do you believe Jesus is that Savior, the only Savior, your only hope? Have you called on Him? Have you repented of your sins, turned away from wickedness, turned away from yourself and self-salvation and have you trusted in Christ? There’s no point in you listening to this sermon apart from that. You can’t be part of a healthy local church without first hearing and believing this message. Nothing is more important. Have you trusted in Christ? Could it be that God brought you here today for this moment to know that your sins would be forgiven by hearing a message spoken and you combining it with faith?

Those that accepted the message were baptized. It means they were immersed in water. The Greek word  used means “to immerse”. I don’t know how you can immerse by sprinkling, but that’s another sermon for another day. That word means to immerse, to plunge in a vat of liquid, and so they were plunged, they were immersed united with Christ in His death, raised in His resurrection spiritually. A water baptism, an outward and visible sign of the true baptism that Jesus alone can do, the baptism of the Spirit.  John the Baptist said, “I baptize with water for repentance. But after me, who comes one more  powerful than I, the thongs of whom sandals I’m not worthy to untie, He, Jesus, will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” [Matthew 3: 11]  Jesus alone can do that.  They, having been already baptized by the Spirit, were now baptized in water, immersed in it.

We’re going to see this again and again in the Book of Acts, this pattern of hearing a message, repenting, believing, and then being baptized. It’s the same every time. There’s no exceptions. Here I am a Baptist, talking about baptism. But that’s what it is. There’s a hearing and a believing, and then water baptism. So above all, this was a church devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything they did in this passage, all of the elements that flow after that, start with this. They’re devoted to the Lord. Jesus said, “I’m the vine and you are the branches. Whoever abides or dwells or remains in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing.” [John 15:5] All the elements that flow come from their abiding in Jesus, their love for Jesus.,

What follows in Acts 2:42 is a list of other things to which the church was devoted. Verse 42, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” I want to focus for a minute on this word “devoted”. It means they “adhere to it”, they “persisted in it”, they “held fast to it”, they “gave themselves” to these things. This devotion to these things flowed from their overpowering love for Jesus Christ. It was a lifestyle of total dedication of everything in their life to Jesus. Jesus demands this, total devotion to Him not holding anything back. Luke 9: 23, “Then he said to them all, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.'” That’s the Christian life, where He said very convictingly in Luke 14:33, “Any of you who does not give up everything he has, cannot be my disciple.” I have been seared by that verse. I’ve asked, is that me? Have I given up everything I have to follow Jesus? Do I know anyone who has? That’s the standard.This devotion of the early church came from a total commitment to King Jesus.

II. A Church Devoted to Doctrine

 The second element, it was a church devoted to doctrine. They devoted themselves, it says, to the apostles’ teaching. It was belief in doctrine, the basic milk of the Gospel that united them to begin with, but they weren’t done learning. There was more to learn. There was more doctrinal instruction that needed to be poured into these converts. They believed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But now there’s some detailed doctrines that were going to be flowing to them through the ministry of the apostles. What were these Apostles’ teachings?  Keep in mind that at that point, of course, the New Testament didn’t exist. In the course of time in the decades that followed, the apostles would write the 27 books of the New Testament. So if you want to know what the apostles were teaching, read the New Testament. Book of Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Thessalonians. That’s the kind of stuff the apostles were teaching, but back then they didn’t have anything written down. It was just teaching and preaching. It was verbal and they were hearing and believing these apostolic teachings.

Later in the course of time, praise God, the apostles’ recollections of the life and ministry of Jesus were written down and we have four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But they all flowed from the eyewitness testimony of the apostles who had been with Him during those years. Jesus had said the night He was arrested that the counselor would come. He said in John 14:26, “But the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send to my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” That’s essential. Have you ever had a conversation with somebody and then two hours later someone says, “How was your day?” And you say, “Fine. I saw so-and-so.” “Oh really? What did you do?” “We went to a coffee shop.” “What’d you talk about?”  “Huh? We just talked about life, how things were.” I’m like, oh wait. This is happening more and more to me as I get older. “So what’d you discuss in the elders meeting?” my wife asked me. It’s like I bring home the itinerary because without that, I’m hopeless, especially tired at the end of a long day. I can’t really remember. 

The New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, meticulous details and the context and the reactions and all that. Where did that come from? They came from the Holy Spirit as Jesus said it would happen. “The counselor will bring those things to your mind.” The focus there is the apostles, not all of us. We are second handers getting it from them, but that’s vital. They were the eyewitnesses. Again, John 16:13-14, “When, He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears and He will tell you what is yet to come. And He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.” That’s doctrine, it’s truth.  I’m going to give the Holy Spirit a portion of my truth to disseminate to my people. He will take from what is mine and make it known to you. That’s the New Testament. That’s what the apostles were teaching that early church. The apostles were gifted by the Holy Spirit to speak truths without error as they were teaching, and the church was correspondingly gifted to receive it and delight in it. There’s an anointing working both sides of the equation, an anointing on the apostles and then anointing on the church and they match together.  John writes about this in his epistle, 1 John 2:20-21. He’s speaking to the people, to Christians, “You have an anointing from the Holy One and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know the truth and because no lie comes from the truth.” I ponder that passage and what it means is that genuinely converted people know the truth when they hear it. It doesn’t mean they don’t need good teachers. It means when the good teachers do good teaching, the people receive it and love it and recognize it. You have an anointing. So also every healthy church since that time has been a church devoted to the apostolic doctrine.

FBC will flourish if we continue in that pattern. We will fail, we will die, and we should die if we don’t.  If we don’t keep focused on the Word of God, we will shrivel and die as so many other churches have done. We must never shrink back from the full counsel of the Word of God. We must teach it no matter how popular it is, and especially if it’s unpopular. We need to be courageous and teach it. By the Holy Spirit, we understand this doctrine. The Holy Spirit made sure that they entrusted the doctrine to writing in good time and we have the New Testament. What a gift that is, is it not?  Twenty-seven perfect books of the New Testament and the blessing of Psalm 1 will be on this church if we continue in this pattern. “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the council of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on His law, he meditates day and night. He’s like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit and season and whose leaf never withers. Whatever he does prospers.” I want that kind of a church, don’t you? Whatever we do prospers. It will be, if we base it on the apostolic teaching.

III. A Church Devoted to Each Other

Thirdly, a church devoted to each other. They really loved each other. They loved to be together with each other. It is foundational to Christ’s vision for the church, John 13:34, “A new command I give you. Love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another.” As a matter of fact, Jesus effectively gave permission to the world in the next verse to judge whether we were Christians by how well we did that. “By this will all men know that you’re my disciples if you love one another.”

It says they were devoted to the fellowship. “Koinonia,” is a very famous Greek word, one of the few Greek words most average Christians know. You hear this word in teaching. “Koinonia” means “a sharing of things in common”, they held together. The strongest image of this or metaphor of this koinonia, this togetherness, this oneness is the body image. We are part of one body. Many members, each of us are part of it. We share life together. Look at the text in verse 42, “They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and to the fellowship.” They gave themselves to the fellowship. Koinonia, the sharing. Then verse 44-46, “So 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 temple courts. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer would write, “Life together. They had a common life together.” They enjoyed being together. Elements of that fellowship, that koinonia, is being together, time spent together. It seems like many of them were together at some point every day. 3,000 people joined, so people were getting together throughout the week as they had time, as their schedules allowed, they would be together and they enjoyed it. It would involve simple hospitality. Look at verse 46, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes.” They’re meeting in the temple courts and they’re also meeting in their homes. They just can’t get enough of each other. That’s not any Baptist church I’ve ever been part of. It’s like, but it could be, should be. They just wanted to be together. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.

They also thought of their possessions as belonging to the Lord more than to themselves. They were not … It says they thought about the possessions, the Lord had given it to them and they shared with others as they had need. They were not proto-communists. I’ve heard some of the strangest things about these passages. Not at all. You look at the Communist Revolution, October Revolution in Russia and all that, what is it? Benevolence at gunpoint, feeding an oligarchy that got all the droppings eventually it came for. That’s not what we’re talking about here. There’s no gunpoint. People wanted to share. They were delighted to share. They couldn’t wait to give as there was a need, a genuine need, they can meet it. It was not proto-communism because they still own their homes, they had homes to meet in. If they sold them, the money was theirs and they could do what want with it. It was not that kind of communism. But they just weren’t selfish and they weren’t materialistic. They didn’t care about those things in that way anymore. They’ve been freed from that.

They’re willing to sell things and give to the needy among them. 2 Corinthians 8:15, “He who gathered much did not have too much. He who gathered little did not have too little.” Some people are just good at gathering. They’re good at making money. They’re rich. It’s not a bad thing if you see it properly. It’s like, “He who gathered much did not have too much.” And why? Because they gave it away as there was a need. Or again, Jesus said in Luke 16:9, “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves so that when it is gone, you’ll be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” In other words, you have your money for a short time, you have a window of opportunity, use it wisely. And the best way you can do it says Jesus in Luke 69 is make friends with it. It’s an interesting verse.  It’s like use your money to build horizontal relationships, that’s what Jesus says. Fellowship therefore is found throughout the New Testament in other passages, what the Lord wants us to do and be for each other. For example, “Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.” Do one another things together.

IV. A Church Devoted to Spiritual Duties

Fourthly, it was a church devoted to spiritual duties. There are certain spiritual duties or patterns that are part of a healthy church life. They’re just things we’re going to do together. Verse 42, “They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and the fellowship to the breaking bread and prayer.” Verse 46, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.” As the author to Hebrews says, “Not forsaking the assembling of themselves together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day approaching.” [Hebrews 10:25]  Some people are in the habit of not going to church. That’s a very dangerous habit to get into. I’m not talking about people that are sick. I’m not talking about people physically unable to be there. Those people need prayer and care if they’re not able to come.  But there should be a desire, a yearning to come. If you don’t want to go to church, something’s wrong with you. Something’s wrong with your walk with Christ. That’s a big deal if you don’t want to go to church.  What are your actions? What do your habits show? What is your pattern? Are you in that habit of forsaking the assembling of yourselves together or in the habit of not? Do you want to be together? They were together. They loved being together. 

Why did they meet in the temple courts? That’s an interesting question. They knew or should have known by then that the curtain in the temple had been torn into from top to bottom. What did that signify? The end of animal sacrifice, the end of the Temple being any special place. Did they fully understand that? Probably not. It was like a dimmer switch. They were waiting for the Book of Hebrews to be written.  Steven got it. We’ll get to that in due time. He understood. But they still met. I think it’s because that’s where Jesus did His teaching. Every day, He was there in the Temple courts teaching right up until … So there was a habit of Jesus teaching there. The Jews came there every day. It was a huge assembly of lost Jews that they could reach with the gospel. It was just a large open space where they could meet and they were in the habit, so they met in the Temple courts. They devoted themselves as they met, as I’ve said to the apostles’ teaching. They learned they were coming there for doctrine.

It also says they devoted themselves to the breaking of bread. This is almost certainly the Lord’s Supper, which we celebrate every other month.  It says in 1 Corinthians 11, “The Lord Jesus on the night He was betrayed, took bread. And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And in the same way after supper, He took the cup saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant. My blood do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.'” They did this. They broke bread together. They did the Lord’s Supper. This spiritual observance was richly blessed by the Holy Spirit in them. It was not a dry memorial, certainly was not transubstantiation, but it was a rich experience through the Word and through faith of the Lord’s death and His resurrection and His future coming. That’s what the Lord’s Supper was for them.

It also says they devoted themselves to prayer. We’re going to see the role of prayer in the Book of Acts, again and again. This was a praying church and God was a prayer-hearing God. He did many amazing things in answer to prayer through this church. The Holy Spirit descended and worked prayer in them. The Holy Spirit taught them how to pray. We don’t know how to pray. The Spirit helps us in our weakness. Romans 8:26 says, “The Spirit teaches us what we should pray.” The Holy Spirit Himself came in response to Jesus’ prayer. “I’ll ask the Father and He will send another counselor to be with you forever.” [John 14:16]  The Spirit is a spirit of prayer among other things. The Spirit works that in them and their fruitfulness came by a beautiful combination of the ministry of the word and prayer. Jesus said, “If you remain in me and my words remain or dwell or abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory that you bear much fruit and show yourself to be my disciples.”[John 15: 7-8]

A healthy church combines what they’re learning in the Word and prayer.

A healthy church combines what they’re learning in the Word and prayer. You find out what God’s doing and what He wants to do in the Word and you pray it up to Him. You pray for what you think the will of God is revealed in the Word that He hasn’t done yet. It was a praying church, they devoted themselves to it, and I want to be part of that. We are. We’re a church that prays, but I want to pray more. My whole Christian life, I have struggled to try to learn prayer. But Jesus said, “If you have faith like a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Go throw yourself in the sea and it will obey you.'” [Matthew 17: 20] Let’s be a praying church.

Finally, it says they devoted themselves to worship, so they worshiped. Verse 46-47, “Every day they continue to meet together in the temple courts with glad and sincere hearts praising God.” They were praising God for what He had done. When you come here on Sunday, come ready to praise Him. Be like that one Samaritan leper who got cleansed and came back and fell at Jesus’ feet, thanking God with a loud voice for his cleansing. Have you not been cleansed from more than that leper was? All of your sins, decades of sins cleansed. You’re pure in the sight of God. You ought to come back and thank Him, don’t you think? This is a good time for us to do that with other people who have been similarly cleansed. We praise God for His greatness and for His marvelous love to us. It was a disciplined church. They were devoted to the Word, devoted to fellowship, devoted to Lord’s Supper, devoted to prayer, devoted to public worship.

V. A Church Displaying Godly Character

Fifth, they displayed godly character. They’re not hypocrites. They were what they appeared to be. We see a number of elements of their emotional life. First of all, in verse 43, “Everyone was filled with awe.” There was a sense of awe or wonder. God is a majestic being, a majestic, infinite, glorious being. They expected to have an encounter with God. They were filled with awe at the majesty of God. I think one of the most exciting things I’ve ever studied is, I wrote a book about heaven, [The Glory Now Revealed] , realizing how much that will be our experience in heaven. We’ll be overwhelmed with awe at the majesty of God again and again, and this church was that way. They were filled with awe. The apostles continued to do amazing miracles. Those miracles were amazing, but they gave them a sense of the immediate presence of the Lord.

A healthy church is what it appears to be. We actually are filled with awe and filled with joy, and we love each other.

Also, we see a true unity of mind. Verse 46, “They continued with one mind in the temple.” They thought alike. They agreed together. Their character was majesty, a sense of majesty toward God, unity with each other. And then verse 46, “with glad and sincere hearts.” They were truly filled with joy. They weren’t faking it. They really felt joy in the Lord. Christ hates hypocrisy. He hates the Scribes and Pharisees that are the whitewashed tombs. They look beautiful on the outside and inside full of dead men’s bones and everything corrupt. A healthy church isn’t that way. A healthy church is what it appears to be. We actually are filled with awe and filled with joy, and we love each other. It’s genuine. So there’s that Godly character.

VI. A Church Built on Miracles

Six. It was a church built on miracles. You’re like, “I was waiting for this pastor. What are we going to say about that?” A signs and wonders church. Read it carefully. Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. I don’t think there are any apostles left. I’m not an apostle. I’m a pastor teacher. I’m an elder in this church. I’m not an apostle. I believe that church history has shown that the apostolic age, with the end of the apostolic age was the end of the common experiences of these miracles. I do believe God does amazing things in answer to prayer, miracles even. But the idea of a miracle worker, an apostle-like person that goes around from place to place, laying hands on people and healing them and all that so that there’s authority and miraculous power in that individual, I think ended with the apostolic age.  That is my conviction. I think church history has shown that out to be the case. But at that time, the signs and wonders were essential to the building of the early church. We’ll have opportunities to see that throughout the Book of Acts. They were doing miraculous healings.

VII. A Church Daily Winning Souls

Seventh, it was a church daily winning souls. Verse 47, “They enjoyed the favor of all the people and the Lord added to their number daily, those who were being saved.” This is the fruit of a healthy church. Jesus said, “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good. Make a tree bad and fruit will be bad. A tree is known by its fruit.” Some of the fruit of a healthy church should be conversions. People who are rescued from darkness, rescued from sin, they cross over from death to life and they testify to it by water baptism and by their changed lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. Wouldn’t you love this statement to be made about our church. “And the Lord added to their number daily or day by day, those who were being saved?”

Why was it happening? Luke says in Acts 4:20, Peter and John, when arrested said, “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” I would commend that verse to you. It’s not in my outline. The Holy Spirit I think wanted me to say it to you. Acts 4:20, “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” I looked it up in the Greek. It’s literally, “We are not able to not speak.” Paul would later say, “And now compelled by the Spirit, I’m going to Jerusalem.” I would just say, for us to be healthy, I want us to be compelled by the Spirit, to speak about what we believe about Jesus. If we do that more and more, we’re going to see more and more persecution, and we’re going to see more and more conversions. “The Lord added to their number daily, those who were being saved.”

VIII. Diagnostic Questions from the Great Physician

As I end here, some diagnostic questions for First Baptist Church. Jesus said, “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” [Matthew 9: 13] If you think you’re fine, Jesus can’t do anything for you. If you think you’re sick, He can heal you. I believe that our church is a healthy church, but I think we could be healthier. I wanted to look at these elements and and walk through them.

Are we fully devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ? Do we love Him with a strong passion or have we forsaken our first love? Do we devote ourselves fully to the Word of God? Are we founding our entire church’s life and purpose on the principles of the Word of God? Are individual members of our church doing this as well? Are individual members in the Word daily? Are they feeding on the Word daily, having good quiet times and prayer times themselves? Do we have a strong community together? Are we devoted to each other in brotherly love? Are our home fellowships strong? Do the individual members of our church feel loved and cared for? Do we shepherd one another? Do we pray for one another? When trials come in each other’s lives, are the members of FBC there with those people walking with them through those trials? Do the members of our church have a habit of attending church or not attending church? Do we practice hospitality?

Do we open up our homes and share that with each other? Do we display a healthy amount of awe and reverence at the majesty and the holiness of God? Do we also have a joyful delight in Him expecting that for us the best is yet to come? Are we characterized by glad and sincere hearts? Are we what we appear to be or are we a bunch of whitewashed tombs, hypocrites who look good and then the truth is otherwise? Are we seeing a regular pattern of people being rescued from Satan’s clutches, from this dark, evil, age, rescued by the gospel and brought into light? Are we sacrificially sharing the gospel with co-workers, neighbors, total strangers for the glory of God?

Members of FBC devote yourselves in prayer over these points. God speaks truth into His people and then brings it to pass. If what I’ve said today from Acts 2:41-47 is in fact a beneficial list of elements of healthy church, it is right for us to say, “God, make it so. Make it so.” It’s fine for us to say thank you to the degree it already is. We give you praise and glory, but we could be better, could be healthier. Our responsibility in this is to repent where needed and to act differently, we’re called on by the Spirit to do it. Close with me in prayer.

Lord, we thank you for the time that we’ve had to walk through this incredible text and the display of the early church and its incredible elements. We pray that you would make it so in this church. Thank you for the things that I see in this church that are healthy. I thank you for the love that I and my family have received for years from church members, sacrificial love and not just me, but I’ve seen it done with many others. I thank you for the love that the people of this church, the elders have for the Word of God. I thank you for the many baptisms and the many conversions we’ve seen. I thank you for the good things you’ve done, but Lord I yearn for more. Make us healthier than we’ve ever been before based on this scripture. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

The most powerful weapon in the hands of the Lord for the building of the Kingdom of Christ is a healthy church.

God has ordained the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth and to the end of time to be done primarily through healthy churches. It is true that God uses the Christian family as the single greatest dispel-making entity in the world… all over the world, babies are born into Christian families and then have the gospel poured into them from infancy. There is no more effective pathway for the conversion of single individuals from darkness into light than the Christian family. However, those converts must be brought into a vibrant and living connection with other Christians who are not in their family. And that is done by healthy churches.

It is also true that God uses parachurch entities… campus ministries like Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ), mission agencies like the IMB, Wycliffe, and New Tribes Missions… dedicated works like Samaritan’s Purse, Young Life, Voice of the Martyrs and all other kinds of ministries that address poverty, disaster relief, hunger, clean water, orphans, trafficking, and all other kinds of issues that captivate the Christian heart in this world of suffering.

But all of them are subordinate to Christ’s commitment to local churches around the world.

The Book of Revelation begins with an overwhelming vision given to the apostle John in exile on the Island of Patmos of the resurrected, glorified Christ. Christ was dressed like our Great High Priest and he was seen moving in and around seven golden lampstands. These represented seven churches, local churches, in Asia Minor… modern-day Turkey, all very near where John was exiled. The vision showed Christ’s intimate knowledge of and care for these seven local churches… he calls them by name—the church at Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea. These were actual local churches alive at that time. And in Revelation 2-3 he describes each of them in great detail, knowing their circumstances, their strengths and weakness, their specific challenges and sin patterns, their open doors of opportunity, and his judgment that awaits all of them that overcome the challenges and use their time well to spread the gospel and establish his kingdom.

The number seven—the seven churches—is not an accident, for it represents the number of perfection or fullness… by extension, every local church that will ever be established from the first century till the end of time, in every geographical location. Jesus knows and cares for each one… is walking amidst each one by his Spirit. By his Spirit alone! For at the end of each of Christ’s letters to these seven churches, he says “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

All Christians in all places at all times should listen to what the Spirit IS SAYING… not what he once said nineteen centuries ago. The word of God is living and active! And the Spirit is constantly displaying in the words of the New Testament what he wants to say to every local church. Not just in the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3, but in all the epistles of the New Testament, many of them similarly written to local churches in specific times and places—in Corinth, in Galatia, in Ephesus, in Thessalonica. All the doctrines, warnings, exhortations, promises… all of them are for all churches to drink in at all times.

The Spirit is STILL CONSTANTLY speaking to every church through the words of the Bible. And we at FBC in 2024 need to listen… we have an ear, we need to hear what the Spirit of Christ is saying to the church that Jesus bought with his own blood.

And that includes the passage that we are going to study today. For the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:41-47 has not given us some dry history of events that happened in the ancient near east almost two thousand years ago. No, he has given us a perfect record of the healthy church that was established right away by the preaching of the gospel in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost… a timeless display of a healthy and fruitful church.

Acts 2:41-47  Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.  ⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.  ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.  ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common.  ⁴⁵ Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.  ⁴⁶ 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,  ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

In it we will see the following elements:

·      A Church Devoted to the Lord

·      A Church Devoted to Doctrine

·      A Church Devoted to Each Other

·      A Church Devoted to Spiritual Duties

·      A Church Displaying Godly Character

·      A Church Built on Miracles

·      A Church Daily Winning Souls

I. A Church Devoted to the Lord

In other words… a believers’ church. Everyone in that local church was a person who had trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and had testified to that faith by water baptism.

Acts 2:41  Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

A. The Context

1. We’re obviously jumping into the middle of Luke’s account of the great day of Pentecost

2. The Lord Jesus Christ had risen from the dead and appeared over a period of forty days to his apostles and the rest of the small group of assembled followers… he gave them many convincing proofs that he was alive, that he had risen from the dead

3. He also told them to wait in Jerusalem for the gift of the Holy Spirit

Acts 1:8  you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

4. Finally the great Day of Pentecost has arrived! The day of the formal beginning of the New Testament church

5. The Holy Spirit was poured out on the assembled believers there in the room in Jerusalem… there was the sound of a mighty rushing wind, like a tornado or a hurricane… and the Spirit descended on each of them, appearing as tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them

6. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Spirit gave them power

7. Hearing the sound of the wind, a great crowd assembled around the house; so the apostles went down and began proclaiming the gospel to the Jews there assembled…

8. Those Jews and converts to Judaism had made the pilgrimage for the feast of Pentecost from all the parts of the Roman world

9. They all heard the apostles speaking of the wonders of God in Jesus Christ in their own native languages

10. Peter then preached his amazing Pentecost sermon

a. He showed that what they were seeing and experiencing—the sound of the rushing wind, and the supernatural gift of languages—was the baptism of the Holy Spirit on these followers of Jesus Christ

b. He preached the gospel of Jesus Christ… how Christ had been sent by God, had done amazing miracles and signs which testified plainly to his identity as the Son of God

c. BUT that they had rejected him and had contrived to have Jesus killed by the hands of wicked men; this death was God’s atonement for sins

d. God had therefore raised Jesus from the dead

e. Now, he commanded them to repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord

f. This was the clear application of the message:

Acts 2:37-40  When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”  ³⁸ Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  ³⁹ The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off– for all whom the Lord our God will call.”  ⁴⁰ With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”

B. Those Who Accepted This Message

Acts 2:41  Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

1. The phrase “accept his message” is powerful

a. The Greek word means to receive gladly as good news, to welcome in

b. It implies a gladness and heart assent to the message… to see it as it actually is, the GOOD NEWS they had been yearning for all their lives

2. They mingled the external words with internal faith

3. At that moment, for the first time, they saw Jesus Christ as he really is… the glory of God in this dark world

2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

4. They saw the glory of God in Christ and they LOVED him and were attracted to him and delighted in him

5. They were devoted to Christ from that moment on to eternity… they love him still!

STOP: Have you trusted in Christ????

C. Water Baptism

1. They were baptized by immersion, an outward and visible symbol of the baptism of Spirit Christ gave them the moment they believed

2. They were immersed in Jesus spiritually… they cast themselves on him wholly

3. This is the first of much evidence in the Book of Acts of believers’ baptism resulting in a believers’ church

4. Only believers should be a part of a church… as much as possible, this is the goal of a healthy local church

D. SO… Above All Things, a Church Devoted to the Lord

Everything else they did in this passage flowed from their delight in and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ

John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Now… what follows in Acts 2:42 is a list of things the early church was DEVOTED TO…

Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

I want to focus for a moment on that word “devoted”… it means to adhere to, persist in, hold fast to…this devotion to these things flowed from their overpowering love for Jesus Christ was a lifestyle of total DEDICATION to various things…

Jesus demands total devotion, not a half-hearted or hypocritical SHOW, like a “whitewashed tomb”

Luke 9:23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Luke 14:33 Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

The DEVOTION of the early church came from this total commitment to King Jesus!

II. A Church Devoted to Doctrine

A. They Devoted Themselves to the Apostles’ Teaching

1. It was belief in doctrine that unified these 3000 believers

2. They believed the gospel of Jesus Christ

3. Then, they believed the detailed doctrines the Apostles taught them

B. What Were the Apostles’ Teachings?

1. Keep in mind, the early church did not yet have the New Testament in writing

2. So, the doctrine flowed directly fresh and new through the apostles to the early church

3. It must have included the details and doctrines of Jesus’ ministry… what we read in the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

4. Jesus said the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, would come specifically on the apostles to enable them to teach

John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

John 16:13-14  when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.  ¹⁴ He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.

This is the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit on all the church

The apostles were gifted by the Spirit to speak truths, and the church was gifted by the Spirit to receive all those truths gladly and believe them

1 John 2:20-21  But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.  ²¹ I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.

C. So Also Every Healthy Church For Twenty Centuries is Devoted to Sound Doctrine

1. FBC will flourish if we continue steadfastly in the truth of the Word of God

2. We must never shrink back from the full counsel of the Word of God

3. The apostles have all died and gone to heaven

4. But the Holy Spirit made sure they entrusted their doctrines to writing, and that is what the New Testament is

D. The Blessings of Psalm 1 on Every Health Church

Psalm 1:1-3  Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  ² But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  ³ He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

If we want everything we do to PROSPER, we will meditate on the word of God day and night

We will devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching and that of all the prophets… that is, the whole WORD OF GOD!

III. A Church Devoted to Each Other

A. Foundational to Christ’s Vision for the Church

John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

As a matter of fact, Jesus effectively gave permission to the world to judge whether or not we are Christians by whether we love one another:

John 13:35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

B. Devoted to the Fellowship

1. DEVOTED to each other

2. The word is famous… koinonia… sharing of things in common

3. The strongest image of this is that of the Body… one body, many members… all of us a part of it… sharing life together

4. Evidence in this text

Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship

Acts 2:44-46  All the believers were together and had everything in common.  ⁴⁵ Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.  ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.

C. Elements of Fellowship

1. Here it has to do with life together… time spent together… it seems many of them were together at some point every day

2. They just LOVED being together… including simple hospitality

Acts 2:46 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

3. They also thought of their possessions as belonging to the Lord first and to others as they had need of it

a. They were not proto-communists… not at all! The communist revolution in Russia was forced on everyone whether they agreed or not

b. This generosity was VOLUNTARY… people owned their properties and possessions still… as proven by the fact that they still had homes to meet in

c. But they were NOT selfish and materialistic

d. They were willing to sell things and give to the needy among them

2 Corinthians 8:15   “He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.”

Luke 16:9  I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

4. “Fellowship” is also found throughout the New Testament in the “one another passages”… what the Lord wants us to do and be for one another… the ties that bind us together

Romans 12:15  Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

IV. A Church Devoted to Spiritual Duties

Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Acts 2:46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.

A. First, They Did Not Forsake the Assembly

Hebrews 10:25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.

Why the temple courts?

They knew that the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom when the Lord Jesus died.

They were beginning to understand that this meant the Old Testament sacrificial system was obsolete.

I believe they chose to meet in the Temple daily because that was the Lord’s custom and their custom as a people

Luke 19:47 Every day he was teaching at the temple.

Also this gave them access to the unconverted among the Jewish nation

B. Secondly, they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching… as I’ve said… They knew they need to grow daily in the word

C. Third, they devoted themselves to the BREAKING OF BREAD

1. This is almost certainly the Lord’s Supper

2. This foundational ordinance Jesus established for all time

1 Corinthians 11:23-25  The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread,  ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”  ²⁵ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

3. They did this constantly proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes… reminding themselves of the once-for-all sacrifice he paid for their sins

4. This spiritual observance was richly blessed in their minds and hearts, for they ate and drank with sincere hearts in fullness of faith

D. They devoted themselves to PRAYER

1. The Holy Spirit descended on the church in answer to prayer… while they were all together in one place of one accord in prayer

2. Also the Spirit came in direct response to the Lord Jesus’ prayer as well

John 14:16-17  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever–  ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth.

3. Jesus himself taught that his disciples should advance his Kingdom by the Word and prayer

John 15:7-8  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.  ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Matthew 21:21-22  “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.  ²² If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

E. Finally, they devoted themselves to WORSHIP

1. When they assembled together, it was for the sake of public worship

Acts 2:46-47  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts… with glad and sincere hearts,  ⁴⁷ praising God

2. They were filled with praises to God and to Christ

3. They loved to gather and worship God sincerely and with full hearts

F. SO… this Healthy Church was a DISCIPLINED Church

1. Devoted to the word… devoted to the fellowship… devoted to the Lord’s Supper… devoted to prayer… devoted to public worship

V. A Church Displaying Godly Character

A. As Said, None of this was HYPOCRITICAL or a fraud

B. They were DEVOTED to these things genuinely… it flowed from deep and true love for Christ

C. Godly Fear, True Unity of Mind, Genuine Joy

1. Godly fear

Acts 2:43 Everyone was filled with awe

The apostles continued to do amazing miracles… and those miracles, along with the immediate sense of the Lord by the power of the Spirit, made the people tremble with awe… a deep rich fear of the Lord

2. True Unity of Mind

Acts 2:46 And day by day continuing with one mind in the temple

They agreed with each other based on sound doctrine and the working of the Spirit

3. Genuine joy

Acts 2:46  with glad and sincere hearts

“Glad” comes from a Greek word meaning to EXULT! Their joy was overflowing!

“Sincere” means single-minded, pure, focused on one thing

Christ hates hypocrisy!

Jesus said of the Pharisees and scribes…

Matthew 23:5  Everything they do is done for men to see

Matthew 23:27-28  Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.  ²⁸ In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

The early church were genuine and sincere from their hearts… they truly loved Christ and each other and their faith brought them supernatural joy.

VI. A Church Built on Miracles

Acts 2:43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.

Though these miracles were limited to the apostolic age, they were essential to the early spread of the gospel

The unified testimony of church history is that these miracles marked the apostolic age and ceased with them

God still does miracles now in direct answer to prayer… but miracle workers that go around from place to place doing miracles has ceased

But as we will see in the Book of Acts, God used miracles done by the apostles, Peter and Paul especially, to establish the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ

VII. A Church Daily Winning Souls

Acts 2:47 … enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

A. This is the Fruit of Such a Healthy Church!!

Matthew 12:33  Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.

B. Note their Reputation with Outsiders

1. They enjoyed the favor of onlookers

2. People admired them and wanted to join them

C. The Lord Added DAILY to their Number those being saved

1. Every day, some new converts!!

2. Oh how we long for this here!

D. There are people in heaven right now because of the health of that early church

E. They were daily witnessing and testifying and preaching the gospel boldly… and the Lord was working by his Spirit in the hearts of unconverted people winning them!

VIII. Diagnostic Questions from the Great Physician

Luke 5:31-32  Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  ³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

A. All Individuals… listen to the gospel… repent and believe!

B. All Churches Should Line Themselves Up to this Plumbline

1. The Holy Spirit has given us Acts 2 to see these timeless elements of a healthy church

2. The connection between health and fruitfulness is evident… is our tree healthy according to these standards?

3. Are we fully devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ? Do we love him with a strong passion? Or have we forsaken our first love?

4. Do we devote ourselves fully to the Word of God? Are we founding our church’s entire life and purpose on the principles of the Word of God? Are the individual members of the church doing this as well? Are our members having their daily times in the word and prayer?

5. Do we have a strong community together? Are we devoted to each other in brotherly love? Are our Home Fellowships strong? Do the individual members of our church feel loved and cared for? Do we shepherd one another? Pray for one another? When trials come in each other’s lives, are members of FBC there with those people, walking through those trials with them? Do members of our church make a habit of not attending church? Do we practice hospitality?

6. Do we display a healthy amount of awe and fear of the Lord as well as joyful delight in him? Are we characterized by glad and sincere hearts? Or are we hypocrites, looking good on the outside but dying on the inside?

7. Are we seeing a regular pattern of souls won to Christ? Are we growing a culture of evangelism in which our members are sacrificially sharing the gospel with neighbors, coworkers, people in the community?

C. Members of FBC: Devote Yourselves to Prayer Over these Points!

1. God speaks truth into his people than brings it to pass. God says, “Let there be light!” and then there is light. God says “Let there be health!” and he makes us healthy

2. But we have a responsibility in all this… to repent and to act according to what this message says.

3. Take Acts 2:41-47 before God in prayer and pray these things for FBC… for its elders and for it members.

4. Ask God to work in a mighty way in us… to work his standards of health into us