May 10, 2026 - The Way: Acts 21:42-47

Listen to this week's sermon from Dan MacGillivray as we continue in our series "The Way" through the book of Acts.

For further information about Fort St John Alliance Church, check out our website fsjalliance.ca

Our desire is to become a community of people who practice the Way of Jesus together, and through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, live on mission to meet the social and spiritual needs of the world around us. Each week, we gather as a community to worship, learn from God’s Word, and be encouraged in our walk with Christ.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Welcome to the Fort St. John Alliance Church Sermon Podcast. I'm Aaron Peters, the Executive Ministry Director. We're so glad you decided to join us today. Our desire is to become a community of people who practice the way of Jesus together and through the empowering of the Holy Spirit live on mission to meet the social and spiritual needs of the world around us. Each week we gather as a community to worship, learn from God's Word, and be encouraged in our walk with Christ. In this podcast, you'll hear the latest message from our Sunday service. Whether you're listening from right here in Fort St. John or from afar, our prayer is that God will speak to your heart and strengthen your faith. Let's lean in together as we hear today's sermon.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Please remain standing while we read the word. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

She's the best. She's great. But she does watch every week, and uh which is fantastic. Both my parents do. They're just deeply invested in our lives as kids, and I'm so grateful for my mother, so grateful for all the ways in which she has loved me over the years and which she has uh put up with me over the years as well. Um, as well as my mother-in-law, I should say happy Mother's Day to her as well. So she she's probably not watching, but I should say it anyway. That way you can tell her I did. Um so um, but what I recognize the one a daily today is it comes with a lot of emotion. Uh there is uh some emotion is actually really great. There's just a lot of great, just I mean, memories around Mother's Day. There's a lot of moments to celebrate, to pause and reflect. It's great. And for others, it's harder. It's not an easy day. It actually brings up a lot of pain and a lot of grief and just a lot of heartache. And so what I want to do is just simply in this one, we'll just kind of pause and recognize all of these things at once. Right? That everyone in this exact moment is feeling a certain way about this day. And so I want to pray for you. I want to pray for us just that we would just pause and reflect on what this day is. For some, it's great. Like I say, for others it can be hard. And so we just want to recognize that. So let's pray together. Lord, today we just want to say thank you for moms. Thank you for the rides given, thank you for the meals made, for the prayers whispered, for the hugs offered, for the thousand little things that go unseen. Thank you for the gift that they are to us. And Lord, today we're especially grateful, not just for moms, but for all of those, just for just, I mean, all uh women who have loved, nurtured, encouraged, and have cared for others along the way. For aunts, for mentors, for grandmas, for spiritual mothers, for teachers, for faithful women who have shown up in quiet and meaningful ways. Lord Jesus, thank you for them. So many of us, Lord, can look back and see those who have helped shape our lives simply through presence, through kindness, wisdom, and care. And we are thankful for them today. And Lord, on a day like today, we know that there can be many, many different emotions in the room. Joy, gratitude, exhaustion, perhaps, as a mom. Maybe even grief. And so, Lord, would you meet each person where they are today? Would you give strength and grace to the moms in the middle of all of the chaos of everyday life? Lord, for new moms and expected moms, bring peace in the unknowns and confidence in what lies ahead. Lord, as well, for the single moms who are carrying so much on their shoulders, would they know that you are near and that they are not alone? Lord, for moms who are raising kids with needs that are difficult and hard, give them patience, endurance, moments of deep joy along the way. For those who are opening their hearts through just through things like uh uh uh fostering and adoption, Lord, would you just lead and encourage them? Lord, for moms learning to release their kids who are adults into the world, give them wisdom and trust. Lord, for those who are longing to be mothers and who are carrying that ache quietly around, would you draw especially close to them today and hold their hearts with tenderness? Lord, for those moms who are strained between them and their children, Lord, where the relationship is just not what they would have it be. Bring healing, bring grace. And Lord, we pray that those relationships would indeed be just, I mean, reconciled. For those this morning, Lord, who are grieving the loss of a child or the loss of their own mother, surround them with your comfort and your peace today. Lord, may our homes and our families and our churches be places where your presence is felt and your love is lived out. And so, Jesus, we thank you for the women in our lives today. We ask for your hand of a blessing on them. And we ask all of these things in your name. Amen. Well, this morning, as we dive into uh the word, going to invite you to turn to Acts chapter 2. We're gonna be starting in verse 42, just as we read here just a minute ago. We are in our series called Uthe Way, and we are walking through the book of Acts, looking at what it means for us to be the church. And as you're flipping there, I have a question for you just to get us started. Sometime later today or tomorrow at work, if someone approached you who didn't know just Jesus, and they asked you this question, what does a follower of Jesus look like? How would you answer that? What would be your response? How would you answer them? If I were to ask you something similar, like what is a uh runner look like, right? We'd probably in this room be able to come up with a pretty good idea of what a runner is and what a runner does, who they are. I have about uh three or four friends that are avid runners, and when I say avid runners, I mean they are runners. They are getting up like almost every morning and running. That sounds exhausting. Um, they train for just I mean a marathons, which just in case you needed to know is 42 kilometers long. That is also incredibly exhausting. I might need a nap just thinking about that. Uh the life they live is all about running. They wake up early and run. They go for a run in the afternoon. Some of them go for runs late into the evening. They eat incredibly well while they are trying to just I mean, train for things like marathons. They drink loads of water, they never drink Coca-Cola, anything like that. They also go to bed at a really good time, right? All of my friends who run go to bed at least at the very latest 10 o'clock, right? They are in bed at good times, they're up early. They are students of running, they are constantly learning how to run more. They wear all the cool running gear that if I put it on, I would look ridiculous, but they look really cool. I'm like, man, they look good. So I'm watching them, right? And they talk about running, right? Everywhere they go, they talk about running. Every time I'm with those guys, we talk about running. Just for a moment, can we not talk about running? Can we do something different in this moment? I get exhausted just listening to them. But it's who they are, it is a part of what has shaped them, informed them. It is the lens in which they see the world around them. It's how they experience everything. Or maybe I can ask you a different question. What is a uh musician look like? Okay, so a friend of mine, he is a avid, just I'm a musician, and he is a former uh college uh professor of music. He plays multiple instruments really well, like maddeningly well. Like it's the kind of guy you look at and be like, how are you so talented? And I didn't get any of that, right? It's a little frustrating to look at him, right? He is just incredibly gifted, but music is always on his mind. It just pours out of him. He listens to music constantly. He loves to teach others how to play music and find joy in it. It's always on his mind, always on his lips. One of the first meals I ever had with this guy, he was someone that I just I mean, he worked with before. We were at a restaurant with a bunch of other people we were working with. And as we're waiting for food to come out, everybody's talking at the restaurant, right? Because that's what you do as you wait for food to come out. You're just talking back and forth. It's a loud restaurant, right? But then all of a sudden, he stops everyone from talking. He's like, Everyone just be quiet for a moment. And everyone just gets all silent in the room and he kind of points up, he's like, Man, you guys hear that song? He starts doing that. He's like, Man, so good. Okay, okay, fine. Keep going, keep going. Okay, right? But right, but this is just the lens in which he sees his world. This is how he experiences everything. He hears music wherever he goes, it just pours out of him. But a follower of Jesus, what does that look like? How would you describe a follower of Christ? What would you say about them? Think about this for a moment. What do they do? What do they look like? What lens do they view the world from if you had to describe it? In this current moment of history, when the world feels so polarized and so just just hard and difficult and tribal, when we are more anxious than ever before, in a time where truth is subjective, where we are so easily offended by the ideas of other people we don't even want to hear them, where our trust and authority is questioned daily, where a time when to be happy is to do whatever you want. What does a follower of Jesus look like in this kind of world? How do they act? What do they do? What are the markers of someone who is practicing the way of Jesus? How does it happen? Is it seen in what you wear? Right? Is it seen in our clothing? Is it maybe like a bracelet, like the one I have on? WWJD, right? Is it that one? Is it someone who drinks alcohol? Is that a follower of Jesus or they don't drink alcohol? Or they attend a rock concert that isn't playing music that's done by a Christian band? Is it them? Are they defined by who they vote for? Is that what makes a believer? Where you send your kids to school? Is that one of the markers? Is the marker of somebody who just goes online and posts things on Facebook just to get their point across? Is that what a follower of Jesus looks like? Or they only post just, you know, good nights, just having a Bible verses on Instagram? Is that a marker of Jesus? Is it someone who gets offended every time at Christmas when someone doesn't say just when in when uh instead of saying uh uh Merry Christmas, they say something like maybe happy holidays? Right, right, because that the marker of a believer? Do they attend church every Sunday and then after we're done we go to Wendy's for lunch? Is that what makes a Christian? Is that the marker? What does a follower of Jesus look like? Right? How do we describe them? How do we mention them? And so this morning, this is what I want to look at. What does a follower of Christ look like? And I think the early church answered this question really well. And at the risk of rushing to the end, where maybe you'll tune me out for the next, here is the answer to that question. It is a follower of Jesus, is someone who has been formed in the way of Jesus. Deeply formed in the way of Jesus, someone who is fully surrendered and obedient to the Spirit, who is compelled to live on mission. And is and it is someone who is witnessed and seen and experienced by those in the church and those outside of it. They would say that about you. Those are the markers, or put another way, it is a uh uh uh uh community of people who practice the way of Jesus together, who are empowered by the Holy Spirit, and who live on mission to meet the social and spiritual needs of the world around them. That's our vision statement. That is a follower of Christ, that's what it means. That you would practice the way of Jesus together as the church, that you would be empowered by the Holy Spirit and that you might be on mission to meet the spiritual and social needs of the world around us. This is what the church is. You know, Mike said this quote here uh last week in his sermon. And if you've been here for any just a length of time, you've probably heard it that the most important thing about you is who you are becoming. This is the kind of person, these are the kind of people that we want to become as a church. And so this morning we're gonna look at how you and I become that kind of church. How does that happen? How are we formed by Jesus? How are we empowered by the Spirit? How do we live on mission? How do we become a church that is marked by a love for God's word, for prayer, for generosity, togetherness and partnership and building the kingdom? How do we do that? And so, whether you've been here for a long time or a short time, my prayer this morning is that you and I might strongly consider what is forming us. Like what is actually shaping you? What is the kind of person that you are being formed to be? And that we would see that we are being invited into the deeper life, this expression of life in Christ, that we would long to be formed in the way of Jesus and have a compelling vision for life in the kingdom. Okay, so this is where we're going today. So just a reminder of where we've been so far in Luke's letter. We have seen a lot go on in the first two chapters, maybe almost two full chapters here. We have seen just, I mean, had Jesus ascend to heaven. He tells his followers, you will be my witnesses, starting right here in the city and then moving out from there. And he says, But before you do anything, what are you gonna do? You're gonna wait, right? So don't do a thing because you don't have everything you need yet. You're gonna stay put, you're gonna wait for the just I'm gonna spirit to come. And then once he comes, you will have everything that you need. So after waiting and loads of just I'm gonna have prayer, we finally see the spirit fall there on the day of Pentecost, and we see people start to proclaim Jesus in other tongues. Peter gets up to preach, and 3,000 people join the church after that one sermon. Come on. That's a that is a great start, right? That is a great start. They are moving, but in many ways, this movement is still fragile, right? Like there's lots on the go here. There's lots that they are still trying to figure out for themselves. And one of the most important things that they are working out is how to be a follower of Jesus in Roman culture. How do we do this now? How do we live this out? Rome had this incredible skill of taking people and making them Roman. This is what they were good at, especially smaller, just I mean, minority groups. They would assimilate them to become Roman. If you were not attached to a bigger, just I mean a social construct, you were swallowed up by Rome. This happened all the time. It's not that you couldn't hold on to your faith and your religious identity, but the idea was that you were Roman first. You were Roman before you were in the church. That's how it is. And you were rewarded for being Roman first. Rome was really just amini, proud. They loved people who could, I mean, yeah, do a lot. They loved people who had a lot of just I mean, say and authority, they loved just amini, power and wealth. You were rewarded for being Roman first, right? There was something that came with that that was appealing to so many people to be Roman first. And so the question came down to how do we the church be a faithful witness in a pagan culture that looks so counter to the way of Jesus? How do we live that way? Right? And this is the same question that we're asking. How do we as the church in this cultural moment practice his way? How do we practice the way of Jesus? How do we live empowered by the Spirit? How do we live on mission? What does it look like today? What are the markers of that? Right? So we see 3,000 people get saved, right? And Luke gives us this detailed description after this moment of what the church did, of who they were in response to that. Okay, so it says in verse 42 in Acts 2. They devoted themselves. We're gonna pause right there because that's enough to pause on. This word devoted matters. Luke understands this phrase the way that they would have heard it back in the first century. Devotion here carries this sense of persistent engagement, meaning that they are after this more than anything else. There is a longing to be a part of it. There is this, we're gonna work at this, we're gonna keep going. They are persistent in it. Like anyone else who would decide to just, I mean it, to just I mean it give themselves over to something, right? They give their time and their energy, right? We see this all the time with just athletes. They devote themselves to their sport, they exercise properly, they are masters of their craft, they are right, right? But like they just are after what they're doing. This is the same kind of devotion. It's not casual, it's not half-hearted, it is everyday commitment. It says they are devoted deeply. That's a moment to pause and ask the question. How devoted are you to the way of Jesus? How much does it take the top spot in your life to do everything that he did to practice his way? It is an everyday commitment, and they are devoted to it. They are in it. Right? But what are they devoted to? Let's read this here. Acts 2 42 still. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, meaning all the things that Jesus' first followers learned from Jesus, all that they heard him say, all that they watched him do, everything that he explained out of the Old Testament scriptures, they listened to that, they internalized it, they it just was, I mean, on their hearts, and they devoted themselves to learning and understanding it further, to knowing even more what Jesus said. Jesus spent three full years teaching these guys and modeling for them what life in the kingdom of God looks like. Just constantly. That is persistent devotion right there. And all throughout their time, he's opening up what it says in scripture, he's explaining who he is in light of what it says. He taught out loud in the synagogues, he shared it in the midst of just, I mean, a story and parables when he was out with the crowds, and they devoted themselves. They were persistent in their understanding of all that Jesus taught them. And remember, they added 3,000 people just recently to the church. Who they are becoming matters, and what they know and what they understand matters. And so they know they need to learn all the things that we learned. They need to hear who just I mean Jesus was, they need to embody who he was, they need to practice his way time and time again. And so that was what they did. They were devoted to teaching others here is who Jesus is, and then to living out themselves. Knowing and living what Jesus taught was key. Secondly, in verse 42, they devoted themselves to the fellowship. Sort of Lord of the Ringsish, right? To the fellowship, meaning that they were committed to community living, actually. They were committed to one another. Jesus modeled this for them time and time again with this true expression that to follow Jesus is done with other people, not on your own. Do you notice that about Jesus? He brings other people in and says, I want you to follow me, I want you to follow me, I want you to follow me, and we're all gonna do this together. He did not say to any of them, you follow me, but go do it on your own. He said, Everyone's gonna do this together. We are committed to the fellowship, to community together. You and I were saved into community. You are not saved into a lone wolf faith. That is not how it works. I just want to say something in love, though. I fully get that sometimes the church doesn't get it right and that we hurt each other. I'm sure that if we were just to just I mean it takes some time this morning, we could hear loads of stories of how the churches hurt me, how the churches hurt you. Right? It it happens. We hurt one another. We can be exclusive, we can ignore the stranger, we can show, I mean, you have favoritism, right? You know, to those we like best. But a follower of Jesus is deeply committed to everybody in the church that way. We are deeply committed, no matter how messy it looks, right? It is always looking to bring people in no matter the mess that we have. We are always looking to bring people into what Jesus has for them. We are committed to one another. Thirdly, they uh devoted themselves to the uh uh uh Breaking of bread. In this case, meaning the sacrament of the table of communion. This is what they came to, to remembering the Lord's table. This is what it means here. That they would make a practice of remembering what Jesus has done for them. This is why we still do this today. We want to practice. We want to remember what Jesus has done. Right? It would look a lot like how we do it today, like in many different kinds of ways. But the early church knew that you never outgrow or outlearn that table. You never outlearn it. You never move past the simplicity of the gospel message. So they returned to it often. And then lastly, they uh devoted themselves to prayer. They devoted themselves to prayer. Prayer was not on the fringes of this movement, as we've already seen, right? But it was central to everything they did. It was practiced corporately and personally. It was done out in the open and it was done privately. They practiced prayer all the time. Already, the church, before the spirit comes, what do we find them doing? They are praying. They are praying. What are they doing after the spirit comes? They are praying. And remember, they are devoted to it. They are persistent about it. Now, this is something just important for us to know and understand. All of these things that they are doing are not new ideas. Right? It's not something brand new and fresh. It's not some kind of like, man, let's do something totally that no one else has ever done before. They right, it's not new ideas. They didn't just add all these people at Pentecost and think, okay, now we ought to do something. But what they are doing, they are just doing everything that they saw Jesus do. They are, right, like that, right? For everything that he did, they are doing it now too. Jesus was devoted to the word. They heard him just constantly in the word, looking at what it says in scripture, teaching on it, constantly explaining it to others. Jesus was committed to other people as well. Again, that's why he brought other people in. They experienced that with him. And so they are committed to others just as Jesus is. Jesus lived this lifestyle of prayer. They watched Jesus pray constantly. He prayed for the Father to act. He prayed in the moments of just, I mean, little things and big things. He taught us how to pray in the Sermon of the Mount. He would often get away to a quiet place to pray. And they watched him do that. Even on the cross, as he was dying, he was praying. They saw him pray. After three years of spending every day with Jesus, they knew that the way forward for the church would be to do life as he did. That they just thought, man, let's just keep doing everything that he told us to do. Let's just keep that going. Let's not stop it. Here's a quote from uh John Tyson. He describes the church this way it is a Christian, Christian uh uh uh uh uh Christian uh excuse me, Christian uh community in a web of stubbornly loyal relationships, knotted together in a living network of persons who are committed to practicing the way of Jesus together for the renewal of the world. That is a great descriptor of the church. Stubbornly loyal. I love that line. Stubbornly loyal. I love that quote. This is who they were, but this is who we are being invited to be, to be stubbornly loyal, to be tied together by the Spirit who understands that we need one another and who practice the way of Jesus together for just for the uh uh renewal of the world. There was an end goal in mind in what they were doing. The early church had a responsibility to model to anyone new to the church what it meant to practice the way of Jesus. Here's a quote from uh uh John Mark Comer. He describes it this way when it comes to uh uh uh practicing the way of Jesus, this is what he says. To practice the way of Jesus is to be with Jesus, to become like him, and to do as he did. That is what it means to practice the way of Jesus, to be with Jesus, to become like Jesus and to do as he did. That's what we mean. It's arranging your life in such a way that the things you do, the rhythms of your daily life, are forming you to become more and more like Jesus. You know, in the midst of a Roman culture all around them, they knew that with every new just, I mean a convert right that came to join the church, that either Jesus would form them or Rome would form them. They knew it's gonna be one or the other. It's either gonna be the church that's gonna help them be formed by Jesus, or Rome is gonna take them and they are going to be formed to be Roman. And so they knew they had to help people be formed by Jesus. Because it wasn't just Roman rule that took over a nation, it was Roman ideology and Roman comfort. There was so much that Rome had to offer that would pull people away. Not only did they bring just, I mean yeah, government, but they brought just I mean theaters, they brought, I mean yeah, music and arenas and halls and all kinds of things to enjoy Roman life, regular, normal things. It would have been so easy to be casually committed to the way of Jesus. Sounds familiar. So easy to be casually committed to the way of Jesus. You see, whether you realize it or not, you and I, every moment of the day are being formed by something. Did you know that? You are being shaped and formed by something. Every moment of the day, by just what by just by the um by the uh uh movies you watch, by the books you read, by the podcasts you listen to, by the vacations you take, by the things you buy, by the friendships you have, by the news that you pay attention to and listen to avidly. You're just, I mean, a family is forming you, you're just I mean, an environment is forming you, your past has formed you, your experiences have formed you and will continue to form you. Everything is forming you into someone. It is shaping you. John Mark Homer says it this way: everyone is a uh disciple of something. The question is, what or whom are you a uh disciple of? That's the real question. You are already a disciple, but the question is, who or what are you a disciple of? That's the real question. And the invitation here is that you and I would understand if we're going to live as faithful witnesses in a pagan culture, because we live in one, two. It is a pagan culture all around us, that we would need to be deeply formed in the way of Jesus. That we need to be doing what he did, that we need to be with him, that we would do life as he did it, to recognize our lives both corporately and personally around intentional rhythms and practices that form us to look more like Jesus. We need to practice his way. And so I'm gonna come back to this more at the end as to how we practice his way, just with some ways that are more just, I mean, a tangible and practical. But for now, let's look at what happens when this community of faith, when they are stubbornly loyal and they are practicing the way of Jesus together, what begins to happen? What did they see? Verse 43. Everyone was filled with thought, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. They were regularly experiencing the work and the power of the Holy Spirit. This was a this was something that was just happening normally and naturally. That the more that they practiced the way of Jesus, the more that they saw the things of Jesus happening, right? The more that they did what he did, the more that they saw the things of Jesus starting to happen. He even said this to them, you will do all the things you see me doing, and even greater things than that. He said that to them. And yet here they are experiencing it now. And it says, Everyone was in awe. This is not only implying those in the church, but this is outside the church. Everyone means everyone here in the Greek. So everybody, outside the church and inside, are in awe of what is going on. They can tell this is a divine movement. There is something happening there, something rich, something so great. They were captivated by what God was doing. It was undeniable what was going on. Let's keep going. Verse 44 and 45. This is what else we see. All the believers were together and had everything in common, selling their things and goods they gave to anyone as he had need. Don't misunderstand here, everything that they had in common did not mean that they saw all things the same way, or that never, ever, ever did they ever have a fight or disagree. That happened all the time. In fact, we're going to see that later on in the book. They did not always see eye to eye on things, just like we don't always see eye to eye today. That's encouraging. That we can still do this and we don't always have to see the same way all the time. But what they had in common was the same spirit-filled mind. They shared this sense of mission together. And what they found is that they would be spurred on by the Spirit to meet the needs of those around them, to meet the needs of the poor, to meet the needs of those within the church and outside the church. They had a practice of generosity. They were generous, incredibly generous. As much as they could help it, that no one that they knew of would go without. That's what they thought. That as long as there are those around us in need, we will make sure no one has need. We will just go for it time and time again. And again, this was Jesus. They saw him do it as he gave away himself, his time, his attention, his affection, his resources to those in need. The church said, if Jesus did it, we're gonna do it too. They are just simply practicing everything he did. This is what it means to give your life away. It is the reality of knowing that they weren't building up treasures on earth, but the real prize is waiting for them. So they didn't hold on to anything too tightly. See, the kingdom of God cares both about spiritual and social needs at the same time. This is why, as a church, we care about what goes on in our city, in our community. We want to be neighbors who are good neighbors, want to meet practical needs of people who otherwise feel marginalized, to care for just, I mean, have families and friends in tangible ways. We have a team of people here at this church who are constantly looking to care for those in need right here in our community, in our neighborhood. These aren't social issues, friends, these are gospel issues. These are Jesus issues. He cares about these deeply. Jesus cared for the whole person. He cared for the whole person, and so do we, because we are to do what he did. This is what the early church knew. This is what they were practicing. Verse 46 and 47. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. It says they broke bread in their homes and they ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. You see, they met together daily, not only in the temple, but they met together in each other's homes. Small group ministry breaking out here in the early church, right? Getting together. And when they would get together, they would eat, they would feast, they would sit down for a good meal all the time. This is different language than what we see before where they broke bread there, the two at the just having a table for communion. This is different. It's included here, but it goes past that to sharing meals with one another. They knew that that was one of the most intimate things that you could do was to sit down with somebody who doesn't look like you, who doesn't maybe think exactly like you, who maybe socially should be on the outside, but you include them in. This is what it means to be the church. That we would share meals. And the reason why they would do this, the reason why this is important, because Jesus did this too. Jesus loved to eat if you didn't know. He so enjoyed a good food. He loved to celebrate. Luke's just, I mean, his first letter about the life of Jesus shows this really well how much he enjoyed the table. In nearly every story that is told in Luke's gospel, Jesus was either going to a meal, at a meal, or leaving from a meal. Jesus is concerned about the table. Like deeply so. In fact, do you know how Jesus, in this, I mean, at Luke's gospel, this is what he says about himself. He says that the Son of Man came eating and drinking. That's Jesus describing himself. He said, I have come eating and drinking. In fact, Jesus was often criticized by the religious teachers so much they called him a glutton and a drunkard because they would find him eating and drinking. He loved it. Eating a meal, spending time with one another. These are things that they saw Jesus do, that they sat down with Jesus for. And they did it with sincere hearts. I love this in the Greek. It's actually better this way. That they did all of these things with open-handed generosity. Open-handed generosity. They had open hands to everything that they had because they realized that none of it is theirs. It belongs to Jesus. It's all the Lord's. They had open hands to all that they had, to their money, to their food, to their time, even to their homes. They would open them up. They would make space for people. They were able to fully enjoy community because they were firmly committed to practicing the way of Jesus. They had moments where they disagreed. But yet they were stubbornly loyal because Jesus is stubbornly loyal. They just did what he did. And then look what happens. The culture around them looks at them and says, there is something different there. There's something that is so not Roman. There is something that is so not what we normally see. There is something so captivating. So I want to be a part of that kind of place where you are seen and known, where you are offering up your things, where others are offering up what they have to you. That is a beautiful picture of the church. People who are devoted to the word, devoted to prayer, devoted to one another. This is what it means. And their numbers grew. People were attracted to that. They saw people practicing the way of Jesus and decided to join in. The greatest evangelistic strategy that we have ever seen is when the church actively is choosing to say, Jesus, you can form me deeply. And then out of that we live the way that He's invited us to live. Because out of that, there is greater room for Him to work, greater room for the Spirit to work, to use our gifts, our talents, our abilities to empower us for mission, to partner us with Jesus in seeing his kingdom break out for the renewal of the world. And so let me ask you that question. This does have any question. Is that the kind of place? Is that the kind of church that you want to be a part of? Because it actually is for me. Deeply so. And at the same time, don't ever hear me say this as a rebuke. We are a generous church. We are a loving church. We are a kind church. And here is the invitation. There is more. There is more. We have not all of a sudden peaked. There is more that we are being invited into by Jesus. There is more that we are being invited into by the Spirit. In this cultural moment, He's extending it to us. This invitation to be this kind of church. This is the kind of person that I want to become. I want to become more loving. I want to become more just, I mean yeah, generous. I want to be more, just more everything that we see in this passage. And it's the kind of church that others take notice of. Back in the second century, there was a letter that was written to a man by the name of uh Diogenetus. And it's a second, it's a uh a uh second century letter that has been shared over the years around what somebody was sharing with someone else. This is a letter written to uh Diogenetus. He was asking this individual, tell me about the church, tell me about those who would call themselves just just who would be in the church. What are they like? Because he knew something was going on in the second century. He thought there's something different about this, just just there's something different about them. I want to learn all they can about them. And this is what was written back to this man as a descriptor for what the church looked like in the second century. This is what it says, just listen to this. For just I mean, Christians are not uh uh uh distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom. For nowhere do they live in cities on their own, nor do they speak some unusual dialect, nor do they practice an eccentric lifestyle. This teaching of theirs has not been discovered by the thought and reflection of ingenious men, nor do they pitch or promote any human doctrine as some do. But while they live in both Greek and uh uh uh uh barbarian cities, as each one's lot was cast, and follow the local customs and dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship. They live in their own countries but only as aliens. They are invested in everything as citizens and endure everything as foreigners. They live on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws indeed in their private lives as they transcend the laws. They love everyone, and by everyone they are persecuted. They are unknown, yet they are condemned. They are put to death, yet they are brought to life. They are poor, yet they make many rich. They are in need of everything, yet they abound in everything. They are dishonored, yet they are glorified in their dishonor. They are slandered, yet they are vindicated. They are cursed, yet they bless. They are insulted, yet they offer respect. When they do good, they are punished as evildoers. When they are punished, they rejoice as they're brought to life. By the Jews, they are assaulted as foreigners, and by the Greeks they are persecuted. Yet those who hate them are unable to give a reason for their hostility. What a beautiful, beautiful description of the church. I want to be described that way. Not defined by my politics, not defined by where I stand, just I mean, socially. I don't want us to be defined about what we are against, but be defined by what we are for. That we might be that kind of church, that we might be shaped that way. I'm gonna invite the band to come forward at this time. I've got a practice for us to do here, just as we wrap up here this morning. And so I was just, I mean, thinking about how do we just, I'm gonna practice the way of Jesus together. And as we move forward as a church, there's gonna be many other ways later on down the road that we are going to just just get you thinking about, right? Just to be invested in these things. But to practice the way of Jesus can be done personally and altogether corporately. And so personally, I want to just share just a few things that I know some of you are already doing, but maybe you just kind of need a gentle reminder this morning just to maybe pick up something new today, or maybe to go back to something that you were doing. And so the first thing that you can start personally doing, that you can practice the way of Jesus, that you can be more like him, is be in the word, be reading scripture. Back in January, I gave a challenge out to read the Bible for the entire year. Now, without raising hands, without anyone feeling bad, I just want to ask you, how's that going? How's that going so far? How are you spending time on the word? How is it shaping and molding you? I want to recommend if you have let that kind of go to the wayside, there is loads and loads of time left in the air to keep reading. There is loads of grace as well. You can always start again. You can always pick it back up. If you're looking for an app to use, I always use the uh the uh uh the uh uh uh uh Bible app. It's uh just you know, it's a super handy app to do. There's all kinds of reading plans in there. It can send you just all kinds of things to let you know to read, all those sorts of things. So that's one way in which you can personally start to practice the way of Jesus. Be in the word. Know what it says, learn from it, sit in it, meditate in it, sit in the word. Secondly, prayer. Prayer is an important one. You know, it was a couple weeks ago or a few weeks back, I you know, kind of gave this challenge out just to start praying morning, noon, and night. That might sound like a huge challenge for some, but that is regular practice amongst a lot of the church, actually. That's been a regular practice for thousands of years in the church. To practice morning, noon, and night in prayer. There's an app, it's called uh Lectio Uh 365. I want to encourage you, it is a great app that will give you morning, noon, and nighttime prayers. It's fantastic. I've been using it for months, if not years now. It's it it has been fantastic. It's a great way to practice. Here's another thing you can start. Doing, you can start to share a meal with other people. This is something that I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, we used to do this all the time in church. I can remember at the end of the service, we would get invited somewhere for a meal, or someone would come over to ours for a meal. Now I know some of you are doing that really well. I know for others, it might be an encouragement to say, How can that be a practice that I start doing? How can I share a meal with other people? It can even start right after church today. You can head to Wendy's, because that's one of the markers, right? You can head there.

unknown 44:28

Right?

SPEAKER_02 44:28

So something to think about, right? Start sharing a meal. Have open hands with what you have, including your time.

unknown 44:36

Right?

SPEAKER_02 44:37

Start sharing a meal. Small group is another good one. Here's a way in which you can invest in the small group. This summer, we want you to be invested in the book uh Soul Care. And so there's gonna be a few of these groups starting up where they're just simply just, I mean, going through the book. I want to encourage you, have a chat afterwards with Aaron. If that's you, you're like, you know what, I want to be invested in that kind of thing. It's a great way for your summer to be spent. To invest it with just other people as you are in a group learning about the Lord, learning about your own soul and all the things going on in there. I want to encourage you in that. You know, all of these things, and I said this a few weeks ago, it comes down to long obedience in the same direction. We are formed over a long period of time, doing small habits that just continue to build and shape and form you. It's not always in the big things, it's in the little things that you decide to do faithfully, day after day after day, to be formed by Jesus. And then corporately, here's something that we're gonna start doing as a church corporately together. We want to be a church that practices the way of Jesus together. And as we continue to work out these ways, one of the things in which we have felt as a team that maybe the Lord has invited us into is to practice a prayer of uh uh uh uh generosity. It's just a prayer that just helps to form us week after week, just something that we can say out loud together that just helps to form and shape us, that we might become the kind of people that Jesus wants us to become. And so here's what I'm gonna do this morning. I'm gonna pray this prayer. Somebody on the screen behind me. You can sit with your eyes closed if you want, you can sit with your eyes open if you want. You don't have to share anything or say anything when I say it. Just simply listen along in your own heart. But this is a prayer that I think helps to form us corporately, that helps to shape us. So let me pray this together. Lord God Almighty, I know that everything I have is given by you. And it is not on my own strength or understanding that I have earned it. It is only through your generosity that I have been bought with the blood of Jesus and I'm a child of God. To hold anything back for myself is not your way, but it's the way of the world, which I reject. The world tells me to hold on tightly to my time, money, and energy and keep it all for my own personal gain and uh uh uh security. But I want to choose the way of Jesus that is generous and gives freely, serving and loving without holding back in all I do. That is the way I want to choose to live because all I have has been freely given to me. Practicing the way of Jesus means that I care that others are in need and reject the idea that if I am generous, there will not be enough for me. I choose to trust you for all my needs, both present and future. To the Holy Spirit's wisdom and uh discernment, I want to give all I have to you with open hands of giving all I have to you. Open my eyes, see the needs of the world around me. Shape and for me to be generous like you, Jesus, and help me resist the way of the world. Amen. These are the kind of people that we want to become, that might be shaped more and more like Jesus, that we might be open-handed with all that we have, that we might be devoted to one another, to prayer, to the word, that he might deeply shape and form us. And so here's my prayer as we kind of lead over the next several months here, as we look at the book of Acts, that we might further become this kind of church, that we might be shaped deeply over the next while. And that we would just give more and more room for the Holy Spirit to move. So let me pray for us, let me pray for you. So, Lord Jesus, thank you for this morning. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you that it is sharp and active, that it still resonates today. And we just thank you, Holy Spirit, that you are the one who takes the word and you apply it to our lives. Lord, I share and confess in my own way that I have not always put myself in a position where I am shaped and formed by you. Jesus, as I look at my life, sometimes I have been shaped and formed by the movies I watch, Lord, by the things I read, Lord, by the friends I've had over the years. Lord, I'm shaped by the world around me. Jesus, I know that I am not the only one that would say that. So much of what we experience, both intentionally and unintentionally, has shaped and formed us in a certain way. And Jesus, I pray that as a church, that over the next number of months and even years ahead, that we might become the kind of people that are deeply formed by you. That we would practice your way, that we would put in just amini place, just I'm in daily rhythms of what it looks like to follow after you. Lord, through the word, through aminia prayer, through just sharing a meal with other people, perhaps. Lord, that we would have everything with open hands. Jesus, would you teach us to become more and more like yourself? Lord Jesus, I thank you for the example of the early church. Jesus, may we become like them just as they were becoming like you. So Lord Jesus, thank you, Lord, for the invitation. Lord, thank you that you are not done with us yet, and thank you that there is more. So, Lord, we just offer you these things in your name. Amen.