Beyond the Pulpit
Beyond the Pulpit: Exploring the life and ministry of Walnut Creek Church Downtown. The mission of Walnut Creek Church is to glorify God by making authentic disciples of Jesus Christ who love and worship Him in all they do. Join us as we dive deep in to the word of God and provide updates about life in the church.
Beyond the Pulpit
#40: When We Live as One, the World Sees Christ
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This week on Beyond the Pulpit we explore how the early church's unity became a powerful witness to the reality of Christ. When believers devoted themselves to fellowship, outsiders saw something compelling that drew them to faith.
• Acts 2:42-47 shows how the early Christians' devotion to life together attracted others to Christ
• Jesus prayed for Christian unity "so that the world may believe" (John 17:21)
• Our unity reflects the Trinity and serves as evidence that Christianity is real
• The church represents a new "generation" defined by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus
• Christians across all times and places are united by sharing in the life of Christ
• Powerful examples like public forgiveness demonstrate the gospel's transforming power
• Our relationships with fellow believers serve as a witness to the reality of salvation
Join us in displaying the glory of God through our unity as believers. When we truly love one another, the world sees Christ.
Introducing Beyond the Pulpit
Speaker 1Welcome to Beyond the Pulpit, exploring the life and ministry of Walnut Creek Church downtown. Walnut Creek Church exists to glorify God by making authentic disciples of Jesus Christ who love and worship Him in all they do. Well, all right, welcome to Beyond the Pulpit. My name is Derek Wadley and I'm joined by Lou Cookie. Hey, good morning everybody, and Dan Rude.
Speaker 2What's up everyone?
Speaker 1I don't know if y'all read the transcript or not, but every week the transcript says Lou Cookie Not surprised and Dan Root.
Speaker 3At least I know I'm not the only one. That's right.
Speaker 2Dan Root Root. That's not bad.
Speaker 1Anyway, now, if you call me that, lou Cookie, Lou Cookie, lou Cookie, lou Cookie.
Speaker 3That's right Little.
Speaker 2Cookie.
Speaker 1Some of you just found out that my name is not Lou Cookie. Yeah, that's right. Some people Luke.
Speaker 3L-U-K-E, not L-O-U. You know, I did tell my parents one time. I said did you ever think about saying Luke Cookie when you named me?
Speaker 2And they're like no, and I'm like you should have. You should have. Thanks, mom, yep, that's right.
Acts 2: Devotion to Life Together
Speaker 1They're like no, I'm sorry, we were going to talk about something else. That just kind of came to my mind as we were going. Yeah, you know, it's good, that's how these things go.
Speaker 1But, this week we were in week three or four of our mini-series on Acts 2. We've been looking at how the church really began as the gospel was preached with boldness and as the church was committed to the Word of God, and this last week we looked at what happened to the churches. They were devoted to life together. There really was something very powerful that happened. That still happens today, when the church lives life together.
Speaker 2Pete, that's right, and the word of God creates the people of God. So where do the people of God come from? We come from the seed of God's word that gives us new life, and so you see Peter preaching the word of God at Pentecost, and then the spirit of God gives life to 3,000 people in one day. So it's a pretty good day, pretty good day in ministry, pretty solid revival. Peter's preaching statistics are pretty high.
Speaker 1One sermon, that's right, 3,000. Peter's like well.
Speaker 3I'm retiring, that's right.
Speaker 23,000 comments Peter's like well, I'm retiring, that's right, it's pretty good, and I mean it's incredible to think about all that happened on that first day, the day of Pentecost, when the church is born, and so now you have these people in. Verses 42 through 47 are a description. They're like a summary of the early church.
Speaker 2I'm sure if you were there you're one of the 3,120 other details would have stood out to you. You probably would have other stories. But God in his wisdom, this is what he gives us and so, like you said, dee, last week we looked at devotion to fellowship and something that I wish I would have had more time to get into. I just ran out of time in my preparation. I wish I would have emphasized more verse 47, where it says well, the end of verse 46 says they ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts potlucks.
Speaker 3So they had good meals together, lots of potlucks Amen, come on.
Speaker 2And verse 47, praising God. So they ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Now, in verse 47, all the people are people outside of the church. That's what's going on. So they're having a good time together, they love each other, they're devoted to each other, they're devoted to the word of God. And then the people in the city in Jerusalem are observing this and they're like, okay, we don't quite understand what's going on with these people, but it's good, it's a good thing.
Speaker 2And then the second half of verse 47, it says every day, the Lord added to their number those who are being saved. And so, as the church was devoted to the word, devoted to prayer, breaking bread and devoted to fellowship, as the church was being the church, the Lord Jesus was adding to their number. And it doesn't say it's kind of interesting. Some commentators make the observation that in 242 through 47, it doesn't talk about how early Christians were going out and evangelizing, like I think it'd be right to assume that was probably happening but it doesn't mention that.
Speaker 2What is mentioned is that they were just together, they loved each other, they were devoted to each other, that God was at work among them. And what I wish I would have had more time to talk about is what did the people actually see? So the people outside of the church, in the city, they saw the church and God was using yeah, non-believers probably mostly Jewish people saw something in this new thing the church and God was using what they saw to bring them into the kingdom of God. Certainly the word of God, but they saw something. And so what did they see?
Unity as Witness to Christ
Speaker 2Well, in John chapter 17, this is Jesus's high priestly prayer, and I'm going to flip to it. I should have had it open, but I didn't. John chapter 17, it says Jesus says this. He says in verse 20, he says in verse 20, I pray. This is right. Before Jesus goes to the cross. In chapter 18, he's going to be arrested in the garden of Gethsemane. But this is the very end of John chapter 17. It says I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their message. So that would be us today. We believe through the message of the apostles recorded in the New Testament. May they all be one. Here's his prayer. May they all be one. So here's Jesus praying for us. May they all be one. As you, father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe. You sent me. What a statement. What a statement. So he's praying for our unity.
Speaker 1What a statement what a statement.
Speaker 2So he's praying for our unity, and he's praying for a unity that the world would see, because, he says, may they also be in us so that the world may believe. You sent me. So there's a relationship between a unified church and the lost world coming to faith in Christ. Wow.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean that.
Speaker 2so that is like I mean that of you like your bible reading things you got to pay attention to is when it says so that okay.
Speaker 1That means that the next thing cause and effect the end goal of the thing before that and so our unity isn't necessarily so that we don't feel lonely, or or so that, uh, uh, we are better individual, better human beings, uh, but it's so that, uh, our unity would be a proclamation of the gospel and believe that Christ has been sent by the father.
Speaker 3Yeah, how do you know that Christianity is real? How do we know Jesus is actually, uh, has risen. He has risen, um? Well, one of the ways we know is by the people who claim to like be in relationship with him, that they are living as one, that they're loving and serving one another, walking in fellowship, or, as we see in the Acts of the Apostles, how they're. You know, all believers were together, held all things in common. They're selling their possessions, they're giving to one another. Each has a need. Every day they're gathering together and you see this love and fellowship, and that is the testimony, or the witness to the resurrection of Christ.
Speaker 2No doubt, no doubt. And this assumes that the world, apart from Christ, is going to be divided, that people are going to be competitive with one another, that people are going to be serving themselves, that people are going to be competitive with one another, that people are going to be serving themselves, that people are willing to fight and break relationships and when they're hurt they don't apologize. When they're hurt, they double down on their positions. The people are going to lie to each other, sin against each other, and it just explodes relationships.
Speaker 2But in the church, because of what Christ has done, they're supposed to see something different, not perfect people. They're supposed to see things imperfect people who come from different walks of life, who actually love each other because we share in the life of Christ. And what they're seeing in verse 21, jesus doesn't just say his prayer is not oh God, make them united so that the world may believe. There's a detail here that is incredible. Verse 21,. May they all be one. And then he says as you, father, are in me and I am in you, and I think we can include the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, yes, for sure.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2That we serve a triune God. Yeah, that God is one. How many gods are there?
Speaker 3One One.
Speaker 2How many persons? Three, three, three, three in one, three in one. And that means that God is a community, yeah, that he's in relationship with himself. He's in relationship with himself. One God, three persons. One eternal God, three eternal co-eternal persons and that sounds grammatically incorrect, but it's actually correct Persons One God, three persons. It's awesome. And that means that God himself is a community and we have been created in his image. That means that human beings are actually designed to be in community. It's not good for a man to be alone. Now, certainly that applies to marriage, but it also applies to all of life.
Speaker 1Well, it goes further with like to be fruitful and multiply, Like the whole idea was not even just for the community of humanity to be Adam and Eve husband and wife Totally. Like the whole idea was to fill the earth with the people of God, the image bearers who live Like part of the reflection of the Imago Dei is living in unity together. Yes, yes.
A New People in a Corrupt Generation
Speaker 2And that instruction is given before the fall. So it's part of the original design that we live in community, but sin fractures our relationships. Sin fractures our relationships, and so what people are seeing, lord willing, in the church? It's people who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, imperfect people, who are humble before God, who share in a common life. They share in a common life together, and that gives testimony to the reality of, like you said, luke, a resurrected Christ.
Speaker 2And I think it's fascinating because Jesus could have given us the power to do miracles. Yeah, but miracles don't cause people to believe.
Speaker 3As we saw in the Gospel of John, Miracles do not. Many people saw miracles and they said no, no, yeah.
Speaker 2And when they saw the miracles they just decided oh, that means we got to kill you, I guess.
Speaker 3Well, we just want more of that stuff. And when you don't give us that stuff?
Speaker 2I guess you want to die, and so that's, that's the actual result. And so, naturally, I think if I had supernatural power, that'd make people believe. If I had supernatural wisdom, that would make people believe. Supernatural intelligence, that would make people believe. Supernatural intelligence, that would make people believe. But that's not what it is. If I had the ability to fly, you know, like you, know, whatever man.
Speaker 2Superman you know like but that would make people believe none of that. God in the wisdom of God, that's not what makes people believe. What Jesus is praying for is our unity, a demonstrated love and unity for one another. That reflects the Trinity Father, son, holy Spirit. It testifies to Christ, and I think that's what was happening in Acts 2. Yep.
Speaker 3I think so. Yeah, seems like that's what was happening in Acts 2.
Speaker 2That's what's happening in Acts 2. So I think, first, what are they seeing? They're seeing a unified body. There's another little detail in Acts 2 that I think is it's fascinating. What did they see? What did these unbelievers see? Well, in Acts 2, this is part of what Peter preached originally in Acts, chapter 2, verse 39.
Speaker 3Does anyone have that open? I do you want to read it? Yeah, for the, the promises for you and for your children and for all who are far off. As many as the Lord, our God, will call verse 40 with many other words. He testified and strongly urged them, saying be saved from this corrupt generation be saved from this corrupt generation.
Speaker 2So be saved from this corrupt generation. So the word corrupt there it means like bent, twisted, twisted, perverted, a generation that is. That is off. And I think it's it's interesting that he says be saved from this corrupt generation. This is. It's not that the, the, the generation of Jesus's day, was like corrupt, but the generation before Jesus was like good and then the ones before it were all good. He's just saying, like this current generation is obviously corrupt.
Speaker 3It's just corrupt, just like every other generation Along with all the other ones.
Speaker 2Along with all the other ones.
Speaker 1But all the ones before us, right, right, because we are modern. Modernity serves us well. We know better. That's exactly right.
Speaker 2Yeah, we have ascended to the heights of perfection as a society.
Speaker 3That's right.
Speaker 2Clearly. So what Peter says to them is be saved from this corrupt generation. And then it says in verse 41, so meaning there's a logical relationship between verse 40 and verse 41. 41. So those who accepted his message that they needed to be saved, saved from this corrupt generation who needed Christ not only for eternity but for this life, those who accepted his message were baptized. And that day about 3000 people were added to them.
Speaker 2And so one way to think about one way to think about the church is that it is a new generation, it's a new people. That's what a generation is. It's like a collection of people, and one scholar says that a generation it's a collection of people who are defined by common events. So there's, uh, there are events that mark a generation. There's usually one, maybe two or three or four. And I was thinking about that. I was like I think that's right. Like you think about the generation that went through the Great Depression, or World War I, or the greatest generation, world War II. Or you think about the generation that went through Vietnam and the sexual revolution, and you know, you think about it.
Speaker 1I mean, it's like millennials with 9-11. 9-11.
Speaker 2The explosion of the internet. Oh wait, financial crisis, the financial crisis.
Speaker 1The floods of 93. The floods I don't want, the floods of 1993. I woke up floating on water, the flood of 93.
Speaker 31993. Seriously, in the basement? Yeah, isn't that crazy.
Speaker 2We had T-shirts. I don't know where they came from, but someone said I saw some.
Speaker 3I still remember this as a kid, I survived the flood.
Speaker 2I had those. Yeah, I had one of those, you had one, I had one. Yeah, oh man, good job yeah.
Speaker 1We spent nine hours trying to. My dad thought it would be a good idea. It's like yeah the whole state's flooded. Let's go to Adventureland. By the time we got there we're like this is the worst thing that we've ever decided to do.
Speaker 2I survived the floods of 1993. By going to Adventureland we didn't even get in Like this thing.
Speaker 3It was flooded and that's pre-internet. Pre-internet that's right.
Speaker 2I know, yeah, so every generation is marked. I've heard people say there's the COVID generation as well. People talk about the COVID generation and so every generation is marked by different events. So there's different breakthroughs or different things that happen, or a crisis, or two or three or four, and then a crisis plus events equals attitudes, the attitudes of generation. So, like the Great Depression, part of what marked that generation was there's an attitude we're not going to throw anything away. We're going to reuse everything that we have, we're going to fix everything that we have, we're going to hoard, hold on to our stuff. I remember my grandpa telling me that his grandpa used to. He didn't trust the banking system, so he had old coffee cans and he would put cash in the coffee cans and he would bury them different places and only he knew where they were at. I'm like that's a bad idea.
The Church's Unity Displays Gospel Power
Speaker 2But it made sense in his head. Because if you went through that, you're like I'm not saying it made sense, but it made sense in his head. Right, and that's not an uncommon thing, right? Or the greatest generation, the generation that defeated Hitler in Germany and Japan. They had an attitude like we can do anything, we can do anything, we can do anything, we're going to do whatever, we're going to win.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2The grit there, there's a grit there, and then there's the Vietnam generation and you're like, oh, that's totally different.
Speaker 1It's marked mostly by existential crises. Exactly yeah exactly LSD.
Speaker 2I mean it's crazy Sexual revolution Totally reminds me it's way back now too. So, okay, why do I bring that up? Well, the church is to be a new generation and we're all marked by the same events. Okay, what are the events? The life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension of Jesus Christ and the mission that he's given us, and that. Those are the defining events. And he has solved the greatest crisis of all time, the crisis that threatens every person namely our own sin that damns us before God.
Speaker 1And the church is not a generation like a 40-year span. It's like it doesn't span from like AD 33 to 73, you know, like the 75. Yeah, in year 75, they got planning center and that radically changed everything.
Speaker 2Church online, wow. And so what that means is that, since we share in the same life I mean thinking about how the church is we share. We are united not only to one another in our local church, walnut Creek Church, but we're united with all Christians throughout the world, today, globally, yeah, globally, and we are united to the saints of the past and the future saints, and we will be united together because we all share in the same life, namely the life of of jesus. Same spirit, yeah, same. We've been made to drink from one spirit, and so that's an incredible truth.
Speaker 2It's an incredible truth about who we are. But when peter says at the very beginning be saved from this generation, part of part of the way we experience the salvation of God now is in the church. That's right, that that's part of how we experience our salvation and I think that's what the unbelievers in Jerusalem saw in the in the first church in Acts two. They saw a people who were being saved. They were experiencing the salvation of God and it is. It is attractive, it is very attractive.
Speaker 3It's a glory. The life, a lot of people's lives completely change, I mean, and then you're, you're moving from a place of where I mean living in corruption or rebellion toward God, and now you're moving to a place where you're trying to pursue righteousness and holiness before God. And it's not something that you're just doing in yourself, but there's like a real power. One of the things about Acts is there's this constant going back to the power of God's spirit in the lives of the believers. And so you see, okay, there's something powerful happening amongst these people that is drawing people to Christ, and it's the church, it's the salvation of the church, of God's people, who he's, you know, reconciling people to himself and to one another.
Speaker 2Amen. It's a glorious thing, and so we are. As a church, we're supposed to show off the salvation of God. I think that's why some scholars talk about. In the church, people should see the reality of the gospel and what they mean is the power of God for salvation. It should be seen in our relationships, and so that means that there's way more at stake when we gather in our relationships. There's way more at stake than what we even understand. As John Piper says, the glory of God is at stake in our relationships.
Speaker 1And I think that's exactly right.
Speaker 2The reality of God is on display, is to be on display, and one, I think, powerful example I don't know if I can use this example or not but I think it's a good example. Is you know the Charlie Kirk funeral was on.
Speaker 3Sunday.
Speaker 2And I understand that there are a lot of people who are not Christians who are there. I know there's a lot of people who a lot of people who maybe are Christians, but they've been carried along in an unhealthy way. I understand that, but there is something that was truly glorious about that funeral. If you watched any of it or you have a hundred.
The Power of Public Forgiveness
Speaker 2I don't know how many people are there hundreds of thousands 200,000 people, yeah there, but then you think about millions and millions of people are watching it, and it was this interesting dynamic where you know, you have Phil Wickham and Chris Tomlin and Brandon Lake and they're singing songs that exalt not a generic God, but these songs are Christ-centered worship songs that are exalting Christ, and the good news of the gospel is that many of the speakers obviously not all of them, but many of the speakers that were there they weren't preaching God wants to give you a better life, so follow God. They were preaching the substitutionary atonement of Jesus. Frank Turek. Frank.
Speaker 2Turek I mean, these guys, they're just crushing it. And then there's the kind of the culminating moment when Erica Kirk gets up on stage and she forgives age and she forgives. Uh. Well, first she, she talks about how, um, the gospel is for all people.
Speaker 2But charlie kirk, he, he invested his life in young men and how, charlie, he saw the person who who killed them, people like that, young men who who are disillusioned for a variety of reasons, that they needed someone to reach them, and that's what Charlie gave a lot of his life to. And then she forgives Publicly, publicly forgives In the name of Christ, she publicly forgives the man who killed her husband, the father of her children, the father of her children and I thought, I thought that is a Christian gospel witness and I think what the world saw is part.
Speaker 2It is the fruit of our salvation.
Speaker 3It's a testimony to the resurrected Christ.
Speaker 2It points to the reality of Christ in our lives.
Speaker 3And it's an incredible thing. Well, and not only that. I think what's fascinating is you have her publicly forgiving her husband's murderer and saying because this is what Christ would do and didn't do when he was on the. You know, she referenced the thieves on the cross, and then what do the people of God? She referenced the thieves on the cross, and then what do the people of God do? They?
Speaker 2applaud it. They applaud and we say amen.
Speaker 3That's right. So you're like she forgives and and people aren't like no, I mean maybe somewhere, but the overwhelming response was praise. God, praise God Amen.
Speaker 2Amen, praise God, amen, amen. It bears witness to the, the, the truth of the gospel, and I think that's that is a and what's wild to think about is like all of the cabinet of the president of the United States is there. It's wild like bearing witness to the gospel of grace, because you have to leave one back in case.
Speaker 3Yeah yeah but you're thinking like all these people have heard the gospel, they haven't just heard it like where Rob McCoy, the pastor, explains it and then Frank Turek, you know, gets into substitutionary atonement and very clearly they both very clearly articulate the gospel. But you have it demonstrated. It's a demonstration, it's wild.
Speaker 2And it's demonstrated among the people of God, and now that's like a. It's an event that we can't really recreate, you know. It's like how do we?
Speaker 1it's like yeah, not certainly. I mean, in a service of our size of 350-400 people, people are there who aren't Christians who are? Applauding and cheering for the things that we say.
Speaker 2But, like.
Speaker 1It's like the. It doesn't matter that not everybody there was a Christian or not. It's like, it's like the, the testimony, the power of that testimony, is what really matters and that's what we want to aim at, like, as a church. Like we want to like celebrate the grace of God and we want to display it to a very corrupt generation.
Speaker 2Amen, amen. And I think when people see the glory of the new life that we have in Christ, when that comes out among the people of God, I think it is powerful. It's more powerful than what we understand. And so when I see that, I think well, powerful, it's more powerful than what we understand. And so when I see that, I think well, we don't just have to wait for some tragic event to unfold, and you know, we're tens of millions of people are paying attention to it, watching it. Rather, I think we can show that same power, the same reality, as we love one another, we're devoted to one another, we lean in to each other, we encourage each other, we pray for each other, we support one another, we correct each other when we need to be corrected we forgive one another when we need to be forgiven and in our communities we're spread out throughout the city we can demonstrate the power of the gospel, and so I think it's just a thrilling thought that God would use our relationships to bear witness to the gospel of grace.
