Word of Salvation – Vol.49 No.17 – May 2004

 

Word + Spirit = Church!

 

A Pentecost Sermon by Rev S Bajema

on Acts 2: 42-47

 

Scripture Readings:  Galatians 5:22-26; Acts 2:22-47

 

Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts chapter 2 is the great story of Pentecost. There’s that sound like a roaring wind, the tongues of fire coming down, that speaking in all those different languages. There’s the sermon the apostle Peter preached about why it happened to that huge crowd that gathered. There’s the amazing response of many of those listening as they are dramatically converted.

This is all quite clearly the work of the Holy Spirit. Because God’s Word is being fulfilled. The promise of Jesus Christ is fulfilled.

But then there’s a break. Well, at least in many of our Bibles. The NIV, for example, puts a subject heading in, “The Fellowship of the Believers”. The New King James entitles it, “A Vital Church Grows”.

So there’s this thought that this is something different, or it’s something happening later. It’s about when they start up as a church. And that’s not quite the same. That’s just everyday stuff.

And then it’s a church fellowship that is a bit unusual. We don’t see it repeated in exactly the same way later on in the New Testament. I mean, where else do you read of people selling all their possessions and joining in like this? It just didn’t happen again. The enthusiasm was too much. They couldn’t keep up this type of utopian society – it couldn’t last.

So we can easily think that the verses 42 to 47 aren’t really that relevant to us today. It’s an interesting little historical story Luke has remembered.

The text doesn’t suggest this at all, though. Rather, it gives every indication of this being an important part of the great work that God has just done. And why not? This is still part of Pentecost. For isn’t Pentecost the actual birth date of the New Testament Church?

Congregation, this is why the first aspect to our text this morning is that THE LORD DOES THIS TO RULE OVER US TOGETHER. Through the work of His Word and Spirit He is calling out for Himself a special people. For these are the people who bow before Him as the King of kings – their Lord and Saviour.

That was vividly shown with the response of the people in verse 37. They were cut to the heart. And that repentance meant they were taught and baptised.

What we see, congregation, is how much this is all the Lord’s work. It is God who brings His elect into the church. It was the Holy Spirit who brought those three thousand in. And it’s the Lord who – we read in verse 47 – keeps adding every day to the church.

Much as it’s marvellous that so many were saved on Pentecost day, that’s only because this is about the church. It’s through the Body of Christ that the Lord’s saving plan for this world is being carried out. As it should be – it’s a part of Himself. It’s His Body!

So our text is only the beginning of how Christ’s Church is carrying out His will for the world. The challenge to make this Jesus both Lord and Christ of this world begins under the new covenant here. And, indeed, the book of Acts will tell the story of how the gospel goes out into the world – it’s last chapter ending in Rome, the capital of the Empire!

So how does the church begin here in carrying out Christ’s will? They start in worship. For what is verse 42 but simply the basic parts to when we come together in Jesus’ Name. There is the teaching of the apostles. That’s nothing less than the preaching of the Word, for they were eyewitnesses of the Living Word! There is ‘fellowship’ – koinonia. No casual social meeting is this. Here it’s Christ Himself with His own. As He says in Matthew 18 verse 20, “Where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

There is “the breaking of bread.” This is more than having a meal together. The name used by Luke is his equivalent for what Paul calls the Lord’s Supper. And there is ‘prayer’. This would be referring to their set time for prayer, just as they continued to keep to public Jewish prayers as well.

The church begins in worship. She is clearly identified as those gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the four parts to their meeting together, there’s a constant looking to the Lord.

So our text tells us that THE LORD DOES THIS TO RULE OVER US TOGETHER. And with that focus in place, we see in the second place, THE LORD BLESSES US AS WE ARE TOGETHER.

This is the teaching of verses 43 to 47. You can see the Lord is here! Indeed, verse 43 speaks as though Jesus hasn’t really left. And He hasn’t! The miracles done by the apostles are the same as the miracles of Jesus when He was on earth. They are the “signs” of the kingdom of God. And as those miracles were a special sign, so too was the way the church then shared everything together. While the gifting of the apostles was especially for this foundation time, so also was the gifting of the church to be altogether like this. Because it was what was needed then.

And it wasn’t that somehow their enthusiasm died out later. I mean, those believers were from all over the known world. They had to go home sometime. But in this unique Pentecost time the Lord gave them what they needed to establish the church. And, notice, He hasn’t let that church go for a moment ever since!

Despite what the cults and sects and even many Christians say, the Lord has kept and blessed His Church in the most powerful way ever since. That’s all because it started His way. And He’s kept it that way. THE LORD BLESSES US AS WE’RE TOGETHER.

R B Kuiper pictures the scene well. He says:

“The harmony that prevails among the members of Christ’s body is made to stand out strikingly in relation to their diversity. Harmony presupposes diversity. When identical voices sing identical notes, no one thinks of harmony. But when different voices singing different notes blend with one another, the product is harmony. If the human body consisted of several parts, all of the same size and shape, harmony would be out of the question. Now that it consists of widely differing members, all aiding one another, the quality of harmony is outstanding. There is much diversity among the members of Christ’s church. Some have five talents, others but one. Some have attractive characters, others are relatively unattractive. Some are leaders, others followers. Some are rich, others poor. Some are highly educated, others unlearned. Some are strong in the faith, others weak. But each needs all the others. They complement one another. They co-operate with each other. Collectively they constitute one body. And all are bound together by the greatest of Christian virtues – love.”

Congregation, this Pentecost church models that love to us. Though it wasn’t long after this that the church suffered attacks by the devil, yet this continues to be the hallmark of the true church. There’s love there. As Jesus said in John 13 verse 35, “All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”

Friend, THE LORD BLESSES US AS WE’RE TOGETHER. And if you find yourself apart from the church of the Lord, don’t straightaway think, as we easily do, that it’s the church’s fault. It’s probably you who’s moved! Because there are a lot of Christians who move these days. In fact, the majority of Christians in this country won’t be staying at the church they began with. Any little unhappiness and people quickly try to find their fulfilment elsewhere. Happiness as a modern ‘right’ has affected the church, too.

But tell me – would you treat your mother that way? Yes, your mother! You see, as Christians we know that God is our Father and that Christ is the Bridegroom. But few modern Christians know that we have spiritual mother – the Church.

In the same way that young people aren’t offering up their seats in respect to older people on public transport, so Christians aren’t respecting the very one who has given them their birth and everything else that matters for this life and all eternity.

The “awe”, the “gladness”, and the “sincerity” of these early New Testament believers aren’t meant to stay only in the lines on this page. They are meant to be alive today. Because, as verse 47 begins, then we are “praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people.”

You see, the devil loves it when Christians worship here, there, and everywhere! There’s not enough time to really get to know anyone then – especially the Lord by a faithful commitment to His Church. And the more this goes, on the worse it gets.

I mean, who would treat their own families like that? Fancy walking out of your family, time and time again, without trying to resolve your differences? That’s no family then. So is it any surprise there’s no church then?

Some may point out here, however, the difference between the visible and invisible church. They say you can’t say that your church is the only church. But we say to them, “You show me the church! Where is she found?”

It’s in your local congregation. It’s the place where the saints in that area gather together as the fellowship in Christ. This is where you have your membership. This is where you play a vital part. A part that has the privileges, but also the responsibilities. Here you can raise concerns, but it’s also here that you’re accountable to others. As Paul says to the Ephesian church in Ephesians 5 verse 20, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

And so we come to the third aspect to this text. For THE LORD IS BRINGING US ALL HERE TOGETHER! In verse 47, when those new believers are being added to the church, it’s clear that there is a visible, local church. It was the church in Jerusalem that they became a part of. There is no reference to people coming to faith without being part of that church in that place.

This is what the true church has confessed ever since. The Westminster Confession of Faith says, in chapter 25 section 2, that outside the visible church “there is no ordinary possibility of salvation.” This doesn’t mean that in rare circumstances someone might be saved apart from the church. The repentant murderer on the cross couldn’t be baptised. But he was an exception. For us the way of salvation is by being born of this mother. She is the one who nurtures you in the faith. She knows best.

Sometimes you get people who say they would be quite happy living on their own, on some desert island. They believe they can manage quite well without anybody else. They don’t need anyone. A good question to ask them is how they would get to that island. Someone would probably have to bring them. And you could trace their dependence on other people all the way back to when they were born. Because everyone has a mother.

We have all been babies, cared for and fed until we could it do it for ourselves. And if it had not been for that being born and being cared for as a child, you wouldn’t be here today.

It is the same spiritually. We have been born and nurtured in the church. To turn away from the church is to insult someone far more important than a biological mother. It is to slap Jesus in the face. Because this is His Bride!

So when the church you’re a member of calls you to worship the Lord twice on His Day you should try whatever you can to do it. When the church celebrates the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper you should do whatever you can to join in. And if you haven’t yet professed your faith, or you’re not right with the Lord, then you ought to get that sorted out so that you do come.

It’s the same with all the others activities of the church. You have a part to play. It could be even to pray! And if you don’t play your part, there’s a missing part! As 1 Corinthians 12 verse 13 says, “For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”

John Calvin makes the perceptive comment about verse 47 that the fact the Lord was adding daily to the church shows His blessing on their hard work. He says they strove to the best of their ability to gather into the Lord’s sheepfold those who are wandered away and were straying. And then he says, “the fact that the Church is diminishing rather than increasing is to be ascribed to our slothfulness, or indeed our sinfulness.”

That’s cutting! And some may even say that it’s most un-Calvinistic! For they would argue that it’s all God’s work. But God’s work through who? Ah, the Church! And who is the church?

Amen.

PRAYER:

Let’s pray…

O God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we bow before you now as those whom you planned to love in your dear Son, Jesus Christ. We thank you for that love from way before our time began, the love which joins us to our Saviour and which brings us to all eternity with you. May we now show that love in our lives – whether through the celebration of what Jesus has done for us, or in lives that live out what He has done. And then there is what Christ is still doing in us and through us. May the Holy Spirit help us to reflect Him.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.