Since we can't pray too much, let's pray again. Heavenly Father, it's our desire to have hearts that love you more than anything. And we know ourselves. We know that many things compete for our affections. And many times, we have a lack.
But we pray for your help, Lord. We pray that you, by the power of the Holy Spirit, would turn our affections towards you, that as we study your word and meditate on it, that it would have the taste of honey and the honeycomb to us. It would be sweet. We ask that you would use the giving of your word to be a blessing to your people, to cause us to be more faithful than we've ever been before, to love you with all our hearts, soul, mind, strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself. For in these things we know we fulfill the law of Christ.
We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. So as we start, there are many, many, many, many books on church practices and church growth, but there's one in particular that I want to commend to you because it's a book that talks intensively about the practices that have been used in some of the most significant revivals in history, and it chronicles the personalities involved, and it talks about the areas, the categories that they relied on their God and they saw the blessing of God and they saw the multiplication of believers. And this is the book that I want to commend to you. Now we laugh, we laugh and we chuckle, but there are there are many many church growth books out there. And in some ways I fear that the Bible has fallen into disfavor, that it's at a disadvantage when we talk in terms of church practices, because while it is a popular book and many people do not buy it, I fear that though it's on the shelves in many homes is that it's not read like, we're not reading it like we should and when we do read it we don't trust it with all our hearts like we should so this is the exhortation of this session that we would look at the Bible again and that we would that we would call it the masterpiece work on the subject of church growth, church practices, church everything, because Christ is the head of the church and he's spoken clearly through his word.
This is the basis for this, of course. 2 Timothy 3 16 and 17, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and as profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." So David are you paying attention? I just turned, there it is, it's back on. Okay, I'm out of hot water, never mind, David. You're doing a fine job.
So this is our foundation that what we find in the scriptures is complete and it can thoroughly equip us, that we've been given everything that we need for life in godliness. Now when we approach the scriptures there's two competing principles. There's the regulative principle and there's the normative principle. So I'd like to see by a show of hands how many of you would just consider yourself well familiar with these two principles. You heard it a lot or heard it a little?
Okay, I heard it a little. That has been true of me until recently and yet it's so fundamental that Christians who embrace one or the other of these competing principles finding themselves drawing very different conclusions when they approach the scriptures. So it's foundational to how we think about church practice or life in the home or anything in life. Well what are these things? The Regulative principle says this, and this is an oversimplification but at least it's a short definition, the regulative principle says whatever is not clearly, excuse me, whatever is not clearly warranted by Scripture is forbidden.
If we don't have a clear foundation for it in Scripture than it's hands-off for believers. Calvin held to this along with many other men of God through the ages, and it's the merging of inerrancy and sufficiency. Inerrancy just says there are no mistakes there, and we affirm that, but going further is sufficiency to say that not only is what we've been given perfect, it's also sufficient. It's enough. It tells us what we need so that when we're desiring to understand what our practices should be, then that can be our sourcebook for it.
At our church, the statement of faith is the Baptist Confession of Faith 1689 and this is a very good definition of the Regulative Principle and here's what it says, the light of nature shows that there is a God who has lordship and sovereignty overall, is just and good and who does good to all. Therefore he is to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served with all the heart and all the soul and with all the might. So far so good. The regulative principle people are nodding their heads. The normative principle people are nodding their heads and then we hit the trouble spot on slide two.
But the acceptable way of worshiping the true God has been instituted by himself and therefore our method of worship is limited by his own revealed will. He may not be worshiped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan. He may not be worshiped by way of visible representations or by any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures. This is an excellent definition of the Regulative Principle. So what's the competing principle?
The competing principle is the normative principle, and it says something that seems on the surface like it's very compatible, but you can't, but it drives a very different thought pattern, and it's this. Whatever is not forbidden by Scripture is permitted. Whatever does not have an explicit command against, if it's not expressly forbidden, then it's fair game. So the regulative person would look at the scriptures and say, everything that I need is there, I am only allowed to spend my time and my energy and my resources on the things that I see there. And the normative person would look at the scriptures and say, well, here are the options that I perceive to be on the table.
Is there a commandment forbidding these? And if I can't find a commandment then I can engage in any of these. Luther was a normative principle man by and large and it comes with this additional caveat to be fair as long as it is agreeable to the peace and the unity of the church. Now I'm personally not sure how you what the standard for that is, but at least there's an additional caveat that puts it that puts a parameter around it to safeguard. Now you'll notice by the advocates Regulated Principal Calvin, Normative Principal Luther, that there are giants, spiritual giants, on both sides embracing both of these competing principles.
And so the intent of the talk isn't to say that we'll never have fellowship again with those normative principle people or those regulative principle people. I think there's room for charity and an acknowledgement that there are giants on both sides, but there should also be an acknowledgement that these are two radically different ways to approach the scripture. And by the way, There can be wrong application defining both ends of the continuum. This is a continuum. I don't think anybody's perfectly regulative, and I don't know anyone who's perfectly normative.
It's a continuum. And probably you have some wackiness defining both ends of the continuum. On the regulative side you would say, well there's no warrant for instruments in the New Testament. No instruments ever. Sinful people.
And on the normative side we would say there's no express prohibition for polygamy so I'm going wife shopping online this afternoon. And most of us would find ourselves somewhere in between on the continuum. But at this conference, we're going to strongly advocate and make impassioned pleas for the regulative principle. Why? Why are we so passionate about this?
It's verses like 1 Timothy 3.15 that says, and it's Paul writing to his son in the Lord Timothy, and Paul says, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth. Two things to emphasize here. One, the church is the pillar and the ground of the truth in our world. If the world can't get truth from the church, where can it get it from? And the second thing is, is there is a way that we ought to conduct ourselves in the church.
This isn't open to all our best intentions or all our creativity. God has prescribed ways that we should worship him and serve him and engage all the best of our time and our energy and our resources and we should limit ourselves to those. We should bet all of the farm on those things that have a clear warrant in Scripture. God has always been specific in defining how we should conduct ourselves in church. Always, from the Old Testament straight through, and he hasn't left us to our own devices today, praise the Lord that we're not left to our own best thoughts on where we should put our time and energy and resources.
The church has been given specific practices by her head the Lord Jesus Christ and Acts 2 is a wonderfully distilled concentration of of the principles that Jesus Christ has given to his church. And so please now turn to Acts 2. And right now I'm just going to flick through the six principles that we'll talk about today. And one note I want to make about these principles is that we find them in Acts 2, but then after Acts 2 when we look at the life of the church and then when we look at the apostolic letters after Acts 2 and when we look at the gospel we find just a resounding consistency of these principles being given to the Church of God, of worthy of all of our continual devotion to them. First one, evangelism.
Number two, baptism. Number three, the Apostles doctrine. I'm not spending any time here because we're going to come back to them individually. Number four, fellowship. Number five, the breaking of bread.
Number six, prayer. In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit has been sent finally and he's superintending all of these things and he's giving these practices to the Church so that the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ continues forward even though the Lord has been resurrected and has ascended. Our text for today will be Acts 2 starting in 37 and concluding at the end of the chapter. As a background, Acts begins with the risen Lord Jesus Christ appearing to the eleven disciples, and he appears to them over a period of 40 days, and he's teaching them about the kingdom of God. These men are going to be kingdom builders and so he spends 40 days with them teaching them intensively about the kingdom of God and Jesus gives them one final admonition to wait for the promised Holy Spirit in Jerusalem, and then he ascends into heaven.
And they return to Jerusalem, and they pray like crazy. And Acts 1.14 paints this picture of the 11 disciples and Mary, Jesus's mother, and the other women, and Jesus's brothers engaging in fervent prayer. It says these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication. So they're waiting but they're not waiting idly. They're giving themselves to prayer.
And then the day of Pentecost comes and the Spirit descends and a massive crowd gathers because something very supernatural is happening. You remember the account. And Peter preaches the gospel with great power and conviction and clarity. And God saves about 3, 000 people in one day. And that's where our text begins.
The church has been born and the Holy Spirit tells us what practices this fledgling, but this really big, starting with 3, 000 people, so it's a fledgling church, it's right at the beginning, it's just been born, but there's 3, 000 people in it, and it tells us what they've continually devoting themselves to, what they are continually devoting themselves to. What a rich treasure this is, that after 40 days of intense instruction on the kingdom of God where the Holy Spirit comes and the church is born that we would see, we would find what these people are continually devoting themselves to. And I just want to make the case now that we can give ourselves continually. We should preserve and conserve our devotion for these same practices that we see the Holy Spirit giving to the disciples in Acts 2. Acts 2, 37 through 47.
Peter has just preached. Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles men and brethren what shall we do then Peter said to them repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call." And with many other words he testified and exhorted them saying, be saved from this perverse generation. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about 3, 000 souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers.
Then fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the Apostles. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone 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 the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." We see in verse 42 that there's this set of things that the early church is continuing steadfastly in, or in the NASB they were continually devoting themselves. There's continuity, there's consistency, they're continually doing it, and there's a devotion to it.
The best of their time and their energy and their resources are going towards these practices that have been handed to them. Let's carefully look at these. Number one, evangelism. The last words before Jesus ascended into heaven are this, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." And that's what's happening in Acts 2. Evangelism serves as the bookends for today's passage and verse 40 says this, and with many other words Peter testified and exhorted them saying be saved from this perverse generation.
And then at the very end of the passage, and there three thousand people are saved, and then at the end of the passage in verse 47 it says, and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. And this isn't just an apostolic phenomenon, is it? No, if you flip over to Acts 8 you see that Stephen has just been stoned to death and in verse 4 it says, therefore those who had been scattered went about preaching the Word. So the church understands their mission and the Holy Spirit has given them power for it and they're busy doing it. And this is just like the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22.
The king has prepared a wedding feast and he sent his servants out to the highways and they're inviting everyone they can find to come and participate in the wedding feast. This is the work of the church and we see this so clearly in Acts 2 and we should be giving ourselves to this today. Secondly, baptism. Verse 41, then those who gladly received his word were baptized and that day about 3, 000 souls were added to them. Peter's preached, they asked him, what shall we do, Peter?
And he says, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And then it says later on they were added. That day there were added about 3, 000 souls. Baptism is how people are added to the church. If we're going to do evangelism, we need to devote ourselves to baptism as well because it's how people are added.
They receive the Word of God through repentance and faith and then we baptize them in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Holy Spirit, and we say, you're one of us now. And it's a line of demarcation where a person makes a public profession. Not in a strange way where we would say that Baptism is the salvation of a person, but nonetheless it's a significant public confession of Christ where they say, we're one of you, and we say, yes, you're one of us. People are added to the church through baptism. Matthew Henry says this, those who are joined to Christ are added to the disciples of Christ and join with them.
When we take God for our God, we must take his people to be our people. And this is what happens in Acts 22. The people of God receive a whole new group of people in through baptism. They're joined to them. Number three, The Apostles Doctrine, or in the NASB, the Apostles Teaching.
There's this body of teaching that's been given to the church, and the early church is devoting themselves to it. I'd like to take you, and you don't have to turn your Bibles there because I'm going to put it on the screen, to successive passages in John 14, in John 15, and John 16, where Jesus is foretelling, he's prophesying what's going to happen during this period of time when the Holy Spirit is sent. So we get a sense of exactly what the Apostles doctrine is. It's not this nebulous body of who knows what, it's something very specific. And Jesus told them what he was going to do during this period of time.
John 14, These are the words of Jesus. These things I have spoken to you while being present with you, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you." John 15, Jesus continues, "...but when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of me. And you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning." And finally in John 16, However, when he, the Spirit of Truth, has come. He will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will tell you things to come.
He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. And all things that the Father has are mine. Therefore I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you." And these verses are what caused John Gill to say this, and which is the same with the doctrine of Christ, of which he, of which Christ is the author, preacher, and subject, the substance of which is peace, pardon, righteousness, and salvation by Him. This the apostles received from Christ and constantly taught in their ministry for which reason it is called theirs. So the apostles doctrine is what Jesus had received from the Father and sent to the Apostles through the Holy Spirit, which he had prophesied in advance.
How do we do this? How can we devote ourselves to the Apostles' teaching, to the Apostles' doctrine? One, through the expository preaching of Scripture, through having our Scripture emanate from the pages, from having our preaching emanate from the words of Scripture, not just finding things in the scripture that will support a point that we'd like to make from the pulpit. Giving the scripture the honor of driving the agenda when a teacher stands before the people of God to explain something about God's nature, something about God's ways. The expository preaching of the Word.
And that just simply means that the sermons about the text, sermons about the text. Sermons about the text. Paul, again, addressing his son in the faith, Timothy. This passage starts with one of the most stark charges that you'll ever hear in your life. If you ever get a charge like this, your radar had better go up.
Paul says this to Timothy, I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom. Preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and teaching for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but according to their own desires because they have itching ears they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables but you be watchful in all things. Endure afflictions.
Do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry? I fear that the church today has many in it whose ears are itching, who desire to heap up for themselves, teachers who will say pleasant things consistently. And Paul gives to us in this passage the antidote for it, and what is the antidote? Preach the Word. Not your best thoughts, not your own ideas, the Word.
You've been given a deposit as a trust, as a stewardship. You're not an inventor, you're a steward of the deposit that's been handed down to you. Preach the Word. How else can we devote ourselves to the Apostles teaching? Through the public reading of Scripture.
I don't know of a more neglected practice than this. Man, if we read a couple of verses, woohoo! It's a big Sunday. If we read ten verses, I would just say that the church is beautified, is benefited, is helped, is comforted, is built up anytime that will devote time to extended times of the public reading of Scripture. Paul also writes this to Timothy, until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.
Give attention to the public reading of Scripture. This reading of Scripture. This is very difficult. This is not seeker-sensitive, But it's beautiful. It's an acquired taste.
So we have to continually devote ourselves to it. And what we find is, is that we get more of it and we start to see the fruit of it, that we love it. And it's a beauty to be continually devoted to it. It's not a duty, it's a wonderful blessing. Takes work, takes concentration.
Rather just have a winsome sermon. Can't we just have a winsome sermon? Sometimes, yes. But like Timothy, we should give attention to the public reading of Scripture. Why?
Hebrews 4-12, for the Word of God is living and powerful, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We should have a desire in our hearts to return to the pure words of Scripture. I love preaching, I love to preach, I love to hear good preaching. I love commentaries, I love study Bibles, all that can be wonderful, but our steady diet needs to be giving ourselves to the pure, unfiltered words of Scripture. How would this change us?
We would give ourselves to the unfiltered words of Scripture. We would let the Bible have its own say. The church needs more of the pure milk of the Word. Unfiltered, uncensored Bible, read publicly, read privately. We should continually devote ourselves to the Apostles Doctrine because the Apostles Doctrine was given to them by the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the head of the church. He knows what we need. Number four, fellowship. Fellowship. They were called out from and they were saved from a perverse generation.
Anybody know anything about a perverse generation? They were called out from that, they were saved from that. They didn't become hermits. They weren't called out to the cloister, to the monastery, not at all. Here's what Matthew Henry says.
I love this. They not only had a mutual affection to each other, but a great deal of mutual conversation with each other. They were much together. When they withdrew from the untoward generation, they did not turn hermits, but were very intimate with one another and took all occasions to meet. When God saves us out of a perverse generation, he rescues us from the penalty of our own sin.
That births a love in our hearts for God's people, to be with them, to be near them, to give ourselves to them, to serve them. And I would say for people who have a profession but have no love in their hearts for the church, search your hearts. That is not the heart of God. To have a profession of your lips that is not accompanied by a love for the church. And by the way, if anyone has interpreted anything here to say that what we're doing today and tomorrow is because we don't love the church, then stop now.
We think that there are reforms that need to take place in the church, we want to be part of that, but that was true ten years ago and fifty years ago and a hundred years ago and a thousand years ago, it will be true in ten years and fifty years and a hundred years and a thousand years. Reformation is never behind us. It's always before us. And when everybody embraces this, God will show us some other area where we're completely off track, where we've abandoned the Scriptures, and we'll have to go reform that thing too. There's always something to be reformed.
So we're not standing up here to say, don't love the church. No, the heart of God is love for the church, And that should be in our hearts as well. So what is the nature of this fellowship? Well, we don't even have to leave Acts 2 to understand the nature of the fellowship that's being described here. Look at Acts 2.
Again, 44 through 46. We've already read the words but we'll read them again. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house, they eat their food together with gladness and simplicity of heart." doesn't that make your heart just go sign me up for that church I want to go to the church membership course next figure out how to sign up for that church being together in that way sharing in life and possessions enjoying one another's company being of one mind eating our food together with gladness and sincerity of heart, simplicity of heart. They were together.
Nelson's study Bible points out that the Greek word translated as fellowship means sharing in the lives of other believers. Fellowship is sharing the lives of other believers. It's sharing life together. This should be our life in the church and we should be continually devoted to it. They were selling their possessions and sharing with anyone as they might have need and they were continuing with one mind.
This continual devotion to the Apostles teaching and the ministry of the Holy Spirit had brought about unity of mind among these people. They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. It's the one anothers of the New Testament. Have you ever studied the one anothers? The phrase one another or each other in the New Testament appears 44 times.
We're gonna flash through them. We're not gonna have time to talk about the one anothers. We're just gonna flash through them. I'll just read a couple from the top because they're beautiful. And it's the character of the relationships we should have in the church as we're continually devoted to fellowship.
This is what it means to be continually devoted to fellowship. Here are the New Testament, one another's. Be at peace with one another, Mark 9.50. Wash one another's feet, John 13.14. Love one another, John, John.
Love one another, Romans. Number 11, greet one another with a holy kiss. Number 12, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. Have equal concern for each other. Serve one another with love.
Skip a few. Number 20, forgiving each other. 21, speak to one another with Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Skip a few.
Encourage one another. Build each other up. Encourage one another daily. Spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Skip a few more.
Love one another deeply from the heart. Live in harmony with one another. So does the New Testament say anything about fellowship? About the character of our fellowship together? You better believe it.
And it's a beautiful picture and it's what we would all want for ourselves and what it's what we should be prepared to give to our brethren. The breaking of bread. There's a strong consensus among commentators that the breaking of bread referred to early in this passage is the Lord's Supper, it's communion. Matthew Henry and John Gill and John Calvin and Nelson and MacArthur all take this view. So that's a couple of reformers of Puritan and two dispensationalists.
That's a pretty wide range and they're in agreement that this is referring to communion. It has to do with word usage. Let's just build the foundation. Matthew 26 26. And as they were eating, it's the Last Supper, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body.
These are the disciples, these are the ones that we find here in Acts 2, implementing these things, And this is the instruction from the end of Jesus's earthly ministry where he's telling them, he's giving them a pattern and telling them to do it in remembrance of him. 1 Corinthians 10 16. Paul says this, the cup of blessing which we bless, Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break. Is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
Finally, 1st Corinthians 11, Paul says, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said, take eat this is my body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me." Now here's an interesting one, also in the book of Acts. Acts 20 verse 7. Now on the first day of the week, by the way the first day of the week has become the Christian Sabbath. Before Jesus it was always the last day of the week, Saturday. Now we have a what has been referred to as a Christian Sabbath where we gather together on Sunday on the first day of the week.
Now on the first day of the week, and this is one of the key reasons why because the reformers saw this or the early church saw the pattern developing here. Now on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread Paul ready to depart the next day spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. So here's the clear scriptural warrant for sermons lasting until midnight. Only ten more hours. So if we take the breaking of bread in this passage to be communion, I do, you may not be convinced.
There are some things I'm going to stand up here and I'm going to pound the pulpit on. This is not one of them, but I do have a conviction on it and I'm sharing it with you now. Now on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to take bread, I take that as they were gathering and one of the central purposes of their gathering was communion. And if that's true, then it's an indication that the early church under the direction of the Apostles had communion as a central purpose of the gathering. Look at the words, when the disciples came together to break bread.
It was a central purpose of their gathering and that they observed it weekly. Observed it weekly. Why so often? Why so often? I'm not convinced that every church should go do it weekly now.
Our church has gone to doing it weekly, and it's been a great blessing. I'll say that. I can pound the pulpit on that. It's been a blessing for us. We do it weekly.
And we found the objections to do it, some of the pragmatic objections to doing it weekly like, doesn't that make it too familiar, doesn't make it lose significance to be exactly the opposite. And So why so often? Well let's look at what the New Testament says about communion. I'm just going to run you through some of the things that the New Testament says about communion. We remember the Lord Jesus, that his body was broken and his blood was shed, that his body was broken, his blood were shed, and they were given for us so that our sins would be forgiven.
That's Luke 22, that's Matthew 26. How many pastors struggle with how can I get a clear presentation of the gospel into this sermon? I'm in a genealogy passage in Numbers. Is this genealogy passage? Probably are.
And I'm all for finding Christ in every passage that we preach. He's there, and we should mine him out, we should talk about it. But pastors struggle with this. How do I get a clear gospel presentation for this? Well, I tell you that it simplifies that on the days where you're having communion, because it's the body of the Lord broken.
It's the blood of the Lord spilled for his people. It's a graphical representation and a perfect opportunity to talk about it. And this is the perfect time to take your three-year-old in your lap and whisper to her that she's a sinful little devil and that the body of our Lord was broken for her. And his blood was poured out for her. Some of the most, some of the sweetest times at church have come with one of my children in my lab during communion time, where you just tell them the gospel.
It's a double whammy, you get evangelism in there with another practice that's been passed down to us. We recognize the new covenant in his blood. The death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ changed everything. We were enemies of God and now we can be children. We abide in Christ and he and us.
We eat His body and we drink His blood, and this creates an abiding relationship. John 6. We look ahead to the marriage feast of the Lamb. Do you know we're doing that when we take communion? That it's representative of a feast that's going to take place in the future, and it gets our mind off of 608 Montalban court and all the things that happen there during the week and gets our mind fixed on heaven and the great marriage feast of the Lamb that's coming.
It's a beautiful picture. We proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. We remember that he died. How about this? We examine ourselves so that we don't eat or drink in an unworthy manner, and we judge ourselves carefully and frequently so that we don't require our brothers to judge us and we don't require the Lord to discipline us.
1 Corinthians 11, very explicit about this. When we have communion and we have it regularly and we have it weekly even, it's a careful and frequent inspection of our own hearts under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit so that we would catch things fast before they fester and boil over into all manner of things that we can't get out of. It helps us to judge ourselves, to be self-governing, to discipline ourselves so that the Lord doesn't have to discipline us. Can your church have too much of that kind of ministry? Can it become too familiar so that we would begin to despise it?
Well the real answer is yes, it can be, but it doesn't have to be. Number six, prayer. We've already looked at this verse, we're going to look at it briefly again. The ascensions just happened. The Eleven go back to Jerusalem and they're waiting but they're not idle?
Here it is Acts 1 13 and 14. When they had entered they went up into the upper room where they were staying. Peter, James, John, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers. They continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.
So if they're doing this, while they're waiting for the Holy Spirit in Acts 1, it should be no surprise at all that we get to Acts 2 in the church's birth and we find themselves continually devoting themselves to a certain group of things, and one of those things is prayer. I love this next account. It's 11 chapters to the right in your Bibles and the church is being persecuted. Having favor with all the people didn't last very long, and the church is being persecuted. I'm gonna wait just a second.
Okay, the church is being persecuted. Peter has been in prison on the heels of James being executed, and he's rescued by an angel only... Am I coming through the mic at all? I am. Only he doesn't know he's being rescued, he thinks it's a vision.
And then all of a sudden he wakes up on the street and says, oh this isn't a vision, this is real, I've really been delivered from prison. And Acts 12, 11 and 12, registers this moment for us. And when Peter had come to himself he said, now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and has delivered me from the hands of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people. So when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. Many were gathered together praying.
Now this is late at night. I don't know exactly what time it was, but if you read from the passage, this is not 7 p.m. Or 8 p.m. Or 9 p.m. This is probably the wee hours.
And yet, when Peter comes to his senses, he knows he's really been delivered, he goes to the right house, Presumably he knows they would have been praying, but that's exactly what he finds them doing. There's a great number of people gathered and they're praying. These are a praying people. They're continually devoting themselves to the practice of prayer. Now I have withheld from bragging on our fellowship up until this point, but I do want to brag on our fellowship on this one point.
At every church I've ever been to, heaven help you if you're in charge of prayer night. If you want to bring snacks to an event, you want to bring snacks to prayer night, because one bag will do it, of whatever. Nobody comes to prayer night, and I don't say that condemningly because I never went to prayer night. And when I did, I was lonely. But for whatever reason, at Hope, we'll have conservatively half, but regularly two-thirds of the people in our fellowship show up every Wednesday night just to pray.
That's all we do. There are no adornments. You want food? You better eat before you come. You want a sermon?
You better listen to the radio on the way. We're only going to pray. And a half or two-thirds of the church will show up and there are fervent prayers, and it's a blessing. Why? Well, first God has done this.
God births desire for prayer in our hearts, and that can't be imitated or contrived or anything like that. God has to do that. But there are some other things as well alongside that. At Hope Baptist, there's nothing else to do. We've removed the competition for prayer.
We don't have other programs so that when it comes to prayer night, people aren't so tuckered out from small group night and worship team practice. Inawana is in youth group and Sunday night service and Wednesday night service. How many nights in the week are there anyway? How many? How many practices can the church be continually devoted to?
How many is it? And we've got six that have clear scriptural warrant here in Acts 2. How many else can we pile on top of that and be continually devoted? Do you know what devoted means? Anybody work for a corporation?
And they will talk about we're going to focus on this. We're going to focus on these top 77 things. And you're thinking, but you don't dare say it. I do not think that word means what you think it means. Focus means focus.
It means that there's a few things. And you give yourself to those things and then you see the results in those areas. People always undervalue prayer, but if we'll clear away all the other baloney, just get it out of the way, We'll kill the competitors and devote ourselves to it and we'll say it's really important that God's people gather together for corporate prayer. By making it one of the few things that we do, then what we'll find is that people acquire the appetite for it. It's an acquired taste.
Prayer night's lousy the first time, and it's only a little better the second time, and it's passable the third time. But we find ourselves praying more, learning how to do it under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, and the things that we're praying for we're seeing God answer, and it's an acquired taste, and before long it's a blessing and we love it and we can't wait to get to prayer night because we're going to lay siege on heaven and we're going to be like the persistent widow that keeps coming back and keeps coming back, and we're not going to be those who don't have because we don't ask. In what area is God waiting for us to pray? I'm a big advocate of the sovereignty of God, so I know in some senses he's not waiting on me for anything. His purposes will be perfectly fulfilled, but I also know that sometimes we don't have because we don't ask.
What area is he waiting for us to pray? He's waiting for us to seek him in an area. So in conclusion, in conclusion, the church has been given practices by the head, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this wasn't a comprehensive study, but I think the real pillars of church practices are all found there without exception in Acts 2. There are other ones that belong in there.
Worship through song giving, there might be some other ones we could name, but the pillars are there in Acts 2. And so I want to pose this question. Are these practices really enough to get the church where it needs to be? Are they really enough? Can we really be successful by constraining the overwhelming bulk of our energies and our time and our resources to just these practices?
Here's the answer. Depends. Depends. Depends on if we're willing to let God define the terms so that success means what God says success means. Is faithfulness and obedience to the Word of God the target for us?
Are we looking for something else? Do we have another target? Is it faithfulness and obedience or do we think there's a better target we should shoot at? Does the church have the stomach to trust God's revealed Word for the means to his own ends? There's no debate about the ends.
Adding people to the church is good. The church should be giving itself to evangelism, locally and internationally. The debates about the means. How are we going to get there? And my argument, my contention, our contention, is that God's given us the means and he's waiting on his people to be faithful and obedient to him so that he can give us whatever harvest he wants to give us.
Are we thinking that we need something a little slicker to win and then disciple our target demographic? You need something a little shinier to attract our target demographic? What deplorable arrogance! No, we must declare that God is true and every man is a liar and continually devote ourselves to the practices that have a clear warrant in Scripture. These are the practices that will win and then make beautiful a bride for the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we'll trust him and abandon ourselves to these things with gusto and then look to him to provide the increase. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we're humbled by the treasure of your word, and we know that we're always in need of reform, And that if we should ever get this right, you'll show us something else that will pierce us to the heart as to our obedience in ways that we've thought that we were smarter than your word, but I pray God wherever you show us something in your word that will at least be faithful to the light that we have, we'll never think that we're smarter than you, that our ways produce better results. But there will be like this young fledgling church continually devoting ourselves to the things that you've clearly shown us, betting everything that your means will get us to your ends. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.