The First Fellowship

Acts 2:42-47

In Acts chapter 2 there are from verses 42 to 47 are some of the key characteristics of the church in its ideal character.  There are really two main ways in which the new testament exhibits to us the ideal of the church.  One of them is doctrinal and that is in Ephesians.  The other is historical and that is in Acts particularly here in chapter 2.

We see the church purity in doctrine in Ephesians.  We see the church purity in actuality in Acts.  We see this beautiful new born church in its splendid prime when the memory of Jesus was vivid, when the gifts of the Spirit were fresh and new and when there was a vitality that was beautiful and glorious.

To review for our own understanding, Jesus had arrived, He had died, He had resurrected, He had ascended into heaven, He had then sent the Spirit to finish His unfinished work.  He formed His body, called out those of His own choosing, brought them together to form the church.  Baptized them into the body, filled them with His Spirit, they began to speak the wonderful works of God in the languages of the people who were there, the crowd was gathered, Peter stood up in the midst of that, explained what miracle was going on and then proceeded to announce to the Jewish population of Jerusalem that Jesus of Nazareth whom they had crucified was both Lord and Messiah.  And this fantastic message that Peter gave running fifty days on the heels of the execution of Jesus brought a response that was remarkable in verse 4l it says, "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day there were added unto them about three‑thousand souls".

l2O disciples, the addition of three thousand, the church that was born in Jerusalem on the first day had three‑thousand, one‑ hundred and twenty members.  Now this is some indication, as a footnote, that they kept rolls, the fact that they knew how many.  They evidently knew who was a part of the church by a profession of faith and by baptism and this is really the precedent for such a thing as membership rolls in a church.  So they are able to keep track of who it is that's committed himself to Christ and for whom they are responsible in ministries.  So the first fruits of the church were gathered on the day of Pentecost which was a feast celebrating First‑Fruits.

Now as we see this little church beginning, as we go through the book of Acts we're going to see how it was born, how it grew and how it reproduced.  And we're going to see the expansion of the church clear on out to the end of the book of Acts and this is the birth right here.  There were already the l2O who believed, there were already disciples up in Galilee but here is the first local assembly of believers ever brought together in the city of Jerusalem.  There is no!church in the old testament this is the birth of the church.

Now what was this first church like?  And even perhaps more significant then that question is, Can we be like that church?  It had a certain genius that every really evangelical church has tried to capture all through the ages since that time.  It had a certain kind of vitality and a certain kind of life that all churches that are really committed to the word of God have desired to emulate throughout history.  Can we do it?  Is it possible to be what that church was?  Or are there some restrictions that eliminate it?

But before we can know if we can be that church we've got to know what that church was and in ninety‑eight Greek words Luke really gives us some identification tags for that church, very brief and yet very rich with very much insight.

Now as we look at this passage and we're going to consider 42 to 47 and not in great depth as we perhaps do other passages but just in kind of a general way.  We see to begin with a little group of humble disciples who have counted the cost.  willingly identified by public baptism with Jesus Christ thus ostracizing themselves from their historic Judaism, they have named the name of the crucified blasphemer Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah their Lord.  The church has been born of which Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against it.  The hour of divine dispensation has struck and a new thing was begun.  The church, the new dispensation is born and men and women filled with the Holy Spirit and possessing the power promised by Christ begin to do what Christ did not finish.  They finished the unfinished work of Christ which was His design for His church.

Now if you'll look at your outline you'll see that this church was an ideal church for three major reasons.  Number one, it had the proper content Number two, because of proper content it had proper character.  Number three because of proper character it had the proper consequences.  And this is a progressive outline.  To affect the proper consequence which is at the bottom of your outline, to be a growing church, you go all the way back to the very church beginning and begin with content.  Thi?/had the proper input and it resulted in the proper out‑go.  Evangelism was the last thing on the list in verse 47 Long before that ever happened we have to begin in verse 42 with the proper content.

Now this is where the effective church begins.  Our immediate task in the church is not evangelism.  In Ephesians 4 it tells us that there were apostles and prophets and teaching shepherds and evangelists given to the church for the perfecting of the saints.  Later on evangelism is a by‑product And here we have the same thing.  There is content to be pumped into the church itself before it is able to reproduce.  Before the church is effective in evangelism and winning others to Christ it must be the right church, there must be the right content.

Now let's look at just four things that indicate this church had the proper content.  Number one, it was a saved church.  In verse 4l it says, they were gladly received and were baptized and in verse 42 it says that they continued steadfastly.  Now here we saw last week was a basic identify mark of a truly saved individual, continuing.  Jesus said in John l5, "That a true branch does", what?  "Abides in the vine", it stays there.  Jesus said in John ?:3O that, "If you continue in My word then are you My disciples for real", aleethos.  In other words, continuing in Christ is a proof of real salvation.  People always say, ‑ What about so‑and‑so, they believed for awhile and then they dropped away?  I John 2:l?  says, "They went out from us that it might be made known that they never were of us,"  for if they had been of us they would have remained with us".  Continuation, it's all over the book of Hebrews.  Continuation is a sign of true salvation.

If an individual is really born again, if they really come to know Jesus Christ they abide in Christ.  Now this was a church of saved individuals.

You say, ‑ Is that anything shocking?  It is today.  There are churches all over the place that are populated in the majority by unsaved people.  This morning in our elders prayer meeting one of our elders brought to our attention the fact that he wanted us to pray for a particular pastor of a church that he might be saved.  Now you know if there are pastors and there are multitudinous pastors who don't have the faintest idea what salvation is that there are churches jammed with people who don't know what salvation is either.  This church began by being a redeemed church.  All the professors were also possessors and that eliminated a lot of problems.  You know, there are people who say, ‑ We've got to invite all of these people in any way, we've got to make them feel a part, we've got to bring them in and put them into positions and then if they feel that we love them then maybe they accept our Christ.  No way.  That's like inviting Satan to come in and make your plans with you.  That's like saying our church is working well it's a combination of God and Satan.  They work together.  That is absurd.  There no place within the church for the activity of those who do not claim to love Jesus Christ.  We're about His business.  We're not about the business of a social club.  We're not about the business of being so palatable to everybody that we make God sick.  We're about the business of a unique and separated identity of believers in Jesus Christ.  You say,  Are you saying that you don't welcome unbelievers into the church?  Absolutely not.  I welcome you to come and hear about Jesus Christ.  I welcome you to come and sense the love that we have for you because we want you to know the Christ we know but there's no place for a such in the church to teach or to minister or to serve or to work with us or to be a part of the intimacy of our fellowship for that puts Satan in a place where he can do his work.

The beginning key to this church was it was a saved church.  And I hope that you understand that I'm not saying that we're unloving toward unbelievers, God forbid that.  We have a love and a compassion for those who don't know Jesus Christ that's the ultimate end for which we exist that we might reach you with the gospel but when we come together to seek the power of God and to express our desires and to express the will of God we must be of one mind in Christ.  Unbelievers are welcome to hear the message, they're welcome to learn about Jesus Christ but the fellowship of the church, the membership o the church, those who serve and those who work must be redeemed.  I've had more people then I'd like to think of tell me, ‑ You know, our church will never be anything that God can really use because there are too many unbelievers in positions of leadership.  That's common all over the country in liberal churches.  That's common everywhere.  It's sad to say even evangelical churches have allowed themselves to get infiltrated by Satan and even those who try to stop it find that Satan is wily and cleaver.  And you know that he appears as an angel of what?  Of light.  But in this church, they that gladly received were for real and they began with a real group of people.  And, boy, that's the heart of the thing.  They all really loved Jesus Christ.  And if you try to mingle believers and unbelievers in a church you get the same kind of confusion as if you ask God and Satan to work together.  It can't be done.

Paul writing to the Thessalonians, who really had an ideal situation they had a beautiful church kind of gave them his finest commendation when he said this, "Paul and Silas and Timothy under the church of the Thessalonians I Thessalonians l:l, "Which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ and in verse 5, "And in the Holy Spirit".  Now that was a group that was in They were in the Trinity.  What does that mean?  That means they were saved Verse ?, I remember your work of faith, labor of love and patience of hope, also

they exhibited the triad of Christian virtues, faith, hope and love.  The next verse he says, "Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God".  That was a saved crew and that's why they had what they had.  That's why it was said of them, They've come and turned the world upside down.  That's why their testimony got spread all over the world in only a matter of weeks because to begin with they were all committed to Christ.  From time to time we have folks who will come and they'll come to see me, make an appointment and say, ‑ I'd like to join your church‑ and I say, ‑ Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?  I'll get into the gospel and find out they are not even a Christian.  And I'll say to them, ‑You know, before you can become a part of the fellowship here and join this church and minister with us you need to know the Christ that we exalt.  That's no different then saying we want the players on our side to be on our team.  You say, ‑ Well, does the bible really say that we are not to mingle with unbelievers in the fellowship of the church?  Let me give you an illustration.  In Revelation chapter 2, and I don't know of a stronger one than this.  I prayed that the Lord would give me an illustration for this and as you well know by now I like to illustrate bible truth with other bible truth because then it's illustrating and teaching at the same time.  And this just came to my heart and I began to study it and reviewing it in my mind and this is a good illustration, better than that it's a divine one.  Revelation 2:l4 writing to the church of Pergamos Jesus says this, "But I have a few things against thee", and that's a terrible enough statement to think that Jesus Christ has something against a church.  You say, ‑ Well, I thought it was the church of Jesus Christ?  Yes, but just being just having the title of the church of Jesus Christ doesn't mean you are what He wants you to be.  He had something against this church.  He had something against a lot of churches, you read all those letters.  "I have a few things against thee because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam."  Now that was the problem.  It says there, I have a few things against thee because thou hast there them.  Now the problem was they had the them there.  That's the problem.  You say, ‑ Who are the them?  I'll tell you.  The them are they that hold the doctrine of Balaam.  The them are they that hold the doctrine of Balaam.  You say, ‑Well, what's the doctrine of Balaam?  Well, it says the doctrine of Balaam was, "Who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication".  You know what that is?  That's compromise.  That's compromise.  Let me show you what I mean by that.  Now you remember the story of Balaam, and this is reflecting back to Balaam, Numbers 22 to 25, Balaam had a donkey who was more intelligent then he was, you remember that story.

But nevertheless, Balak, Balak was the king of Moab.  And the Moabites hated the Jews and so Balak wanted to get rid of the Jews.  Well, he figured the best way to do it was to hire a prophet to curse Israel, and Balaam had perverted his prophetic office to the point where he was for hire.  And so he hired Moab's king Balak,hired Balaam to curse Israel but all kinds of circumstances came up and it never came off right.  So Balak decided then, if we cannot curse them we'll corrupt them.  So the plot got all worked out and this is what they decided.  Moab would get their women to seduce the men of Israel.  They would then bring them in to intermarriage and into the orgies of prostitution that characterized the Moabite worship.  And once the intermingling had occurred and all the foul idolatries of Moab had been mixed with Israel the purity would be lost, the power would be sapped and Israel for all intents and purposes would be destroyed.  You know what, it worked.

It worked.  The Moabites infiltrated the Israelites, intermarriage, fornication which is sexual sin, idolatry, foul things began to happen, the power was lost, the power was sapped.  Now this is exactly what happened in the church of Pergamos.  Satan's strategy was simple, infiltrate the church with unbelievers.  It's exactly what he did.  And they got in there and he began to teach spiritual adultery.  They began to teach immorality, they even had the doctrine of the Nicholatians which apparently, it's an obscure term, but apparently refers to some kind of gross immorality connected with a man named Nicholas.  But anyway this immorality began to grow inside the church in Pergamos as it had grown inside Israel when Moab infiltrated.  An it was so much of a concern to Jesus that look at verse l6.  Can you imagine Him saying this about His church?  "Repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth."  Jesus deals very harshly with the church.  Just because you're a church doesn't mean you're sacred.  Just because you're a little sign out front says church or church, like ours does, just because you have the title doesn't necessarily mean that you're free and clear, Kings X, you know, spiritually.  If there is something wrong in that church then believe me the Lord Himself will fig against that church.  People say to me, ‑You know, I go to a liberal church and the pastor doesn't believe anything but we're praying for this and that and ...  Brother, if God doesn't even go there who do you go there?  If that a church that the Lord is going to fight against with the sword of His mouth the best thing for you to do would be to leave it.  There certainly comes a time when God writes Ichabod, the glory hath departed.  You see what happened in Pergamos is what can happen in any church.  When you open your arms on a social basis or on whatever basis you want to let everybody come in that wants to come in you have then infiltrated.  the church and that's exactly the thing the bible warns about.  In case you'd like an explicit warning I give you one that is extremely explicit.  It says this, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with", what?  "Unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness."  Are we to let that unrighteousness enter our fellowship?  No.  "And what communion fellowship, same word)  hat light with darkness?  And what concord has Christ with Satan?"  Or what par hath he that believeth with an unbeliever?  There is no fellowship there.

And so we believe that the church must be purely those who love Jesus Christ And this church was and that's the beginning of the proper content.

Notice the second thing, and we'll hurry.  They were not only a saved church they were a studying church.  Now I like this because this talks about doctrine.  "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine."  They studied.  The thing they committed themselves to was study, that's the basis of it.  Now when we say the word doctrine that is not some great mystical word, it is the word didakee it means teaching, that's all.  They gave themselves to being instructed and teaching others.  Paul said to Timothy in II Tim.  2:2, Here's the way it goes, Timothy, you have been taught by me, you teach faithful men, they will teach others also.  Reproductive cycles of teaching That's the pattern for the church.  The church is not, never was intended t be, a spectator organization.  It never was intended to be an entertainment center.  It was intended to be a reproductive teaching cycle where faithful men are taught who in turn teach others.  Now this church had it right.

They had the right content.  They were committed to studying, to studying.

Now if you're going to teach you've got to do what Paul says in II Tim.  2:2 teach.  So then in verse l5 he says, first of all, "Study to show yourself approved".  You can't teach if you don't study.  A lot of people try but you can't do it.  It's not too effective.  The pattern for growth in the church is simply given in I Peter 2:2 which says, "As babies desire milk you desire the word that you may", what?  "That you may grow by it."  Growth comes from teaching.  And, I believe, you can count I counted in my own life, a wasted day when I haven't learned a new truth from the word of God or plumbed deeper than ever before into an old truth.  I count it a wasted day.

Teaching, studying, content, doctrine is the basis of the church.  Not emotion‑doctrine.  Paul said to the Romans, What you need to do is not conformed to the world but transformed by the renewing of your what?  Of your mind.  Of your mind.  You say, ‑ Oh, that's an isolated text.  No, that not isolated.  Listen to this one, here's another isolated one, Col.  3:10, "Put on the new man that is renewed in knowledge."  Pun on the new man that is renewed in knowledge?  That's talking about what you know.  Listen to I Peter l:l3, "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind".  That's where to begin.  You need to learn.  You've got to have the right input.  Doctrine is the basis of everything.  And that's why we're committed to teaching the word of God.  Not doing all kinds of other things.  And you know there are books out by the truckload that you can look at on how to do it in the church and every once in awhile you find one that says anything about teaching Reproductive cycles of teaching is the church.  But we have degenerated into all kinds of things.  A sort of a Sunday Circus and teaching somewhere gets lost.  We must teach doctrine.  The great commission of Jesus was to teach the world, the gospel and the word of God.  Doctrine is the heart of everything.  It is absolute stupidity to come along and say that the curse of the church is teaching.  Hosea said this, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge".  Doctrine is the heart of everything.  Paul said to Titus, here' how to do it.  You want to be a minister, Titus?  Do this.  "Speak thou the things that become sound doctrine."  Fairly straight statement, I'd say.

Titus l:?, "Holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine to exhort and confute the imposers."  I Tim.  4:6, "If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things thou shall be a good minister of Jesus Christ nourished up in the words of faith and good doctrine".  Verse 11, "These things command and teach".  Now that's pretty straight.  Verse l3, 'Till I come give attendance to reading to exhortation, to doctrine".  Verse l6, "Take heed unto thyselves and unto the doctrine continue in them".  And then he says to Timothy in II Tim.  chapter 4, "Preach the word, Preach the word, Preach the word".  And he says because the time will come when men will not endure what?  Sound doctrine.  That times come.

And they do it even in the name of Jesus Christ.  Doctrine, proper content is the basis of everything.  If we do not teach the truth how do we then know an error is there?  And any shepherd who does not teach the truth to his sheep does not protect them.  So you see they had the right content, they had doctrine, they learned the word of God.

Beloved, you don't need to be entertained.  You don't need to be cajole you don't need to be anything but taught the word of God.  And the Spirit or God in your willing heart will activate that teaching into the dynamic of living where it's got to be there.  You can't operate on the content you don't have.  You got that?  You can't function on the principles you don't know.

Now it's an interesting note here also that they still were involved in doctrine even after they had been baptized by the Holy Spirit and filled with the Spirit.  Because many people, today, assume that when you get filled with the Spirit in some ecstatic experience or you receive the so‑called Baptism of the Spirit, that at that point you never need to be taught again you've arrived at a point of spiritual maturity.  You have a ripe spiritual knowledge.  Well, that sure didn't happen to them and they were right there at the hottest part of the fire.  They received the Spirit of God in Acts 2, they spoke in languages the wonderful works of God.  They had all of those miracles going on and they were still ignorant.  They had to be taught doctrine.  And so they began with the right content.

So it was a saved and a studying church.  Well, I'm preaching too much I've got to get going.  Third, they were a fellowshipping church.  It says in verse 42, "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and they continued steadfastly in fellowship".  Fellowship we're going to be studying in a couple of weeks, I'm not going to take a lot of time.  It just means spiritual togetherness.  The fellowship of the body is the interaction of believers with each other in ministering their spiritual gifts and various other ministries.  And this church was involved in that.

Now let me say that fellowship is a positional word in the first sense.

The word comes from a word that means partner.  When you receive Jesus Christ you became a partner with Christ.  You also became a partner with every other Christian, that can never change.  So in the purest sense we talk about being out of fellowship, that's an impossibility.  You can never be out of partnership with God or with other believers.  You're always in that fellowship.  But you lose the joy of that fellowship when you sin, that's I John l:4, "These things I write unto you that your joy may be full", see.  Fellowship is permanent but the joy comes and goes as you participate in the fellowship.  So these people were one in position and they were really experiencing their oneness.  They were moving through each other and sharing with each other and living with each other and having commonness with each other.  They were together.  Down in verses 44 to 46 they had things in common.  "They were daily in one accord in the temple, breaking bread at home and private houses, eating their food with gladness and singleness of heart."  They were one group.  They had a beautiful kind of fellowship.  Their partnership that was positional was also experiential Now I just want to pick off one point here and then we'll go.  This idea is very important and germane to us this morning for many reasons but let me just pull one.  Many people fail to participate fully in a local congregation.  There are a lot of things about the organized church that I don't like.  Like one man said, when Christians become organized they become very unChristian.  There are a lot of things about the system church that I react against.  I was raised all my life in the church.  You know, I've bee in the church so long I had sticker stains on my head from turkeys and star you know, all through my life, see.  But I know what the church is like and I've been inside the church for enough years to know there are a lot of things about the church that I really don't like in terms of the establishment churches we think about.  But may I hasten to add that I also react violently to somebody who says, ‑Well, I went to church one time and I got turned off.  I went over there and the pastor didn't treat me right so I'm out here and I worship God with my nine‑iron and my one‑wood or I worship God in my camper or I worship God in the surf or whatever it is, you know, and I love the Lord but I don't have anything to do with the church because they turn me off.  I reject that attitude.  And I reject it biblically.  For example, the fellowship of believers is what it's all about, beloved.  That's why we're here.  And if we can't come together and exercise the fellowship as the Spirit wants us to then it is not for us to leave but it is for us to deal with the issue that restricts our fellowship from being what it ought to be.  The genius of the church there is no separation between the visible church and the invisible in the mind of God.  Let me show you what I mean.  Take for examp