The Church Begins! (Acts 2)

Dave Cherrie and Zane discuss the earliest days of the church.

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SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hey Dave.

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hey Zion. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 0:08

I'm doing good, man. Uh, hello everybody. This is the this is our first ever shot at recording a Clear Path Scripture podcast over Zoom. And uh Dave and I were just talking and not able to be in the same place at the same time, but we still wanted to talk about some scripture. And so we just chose this uh this ending of Acts chapter two. I'm glad we just started talking about or reading the book of Acts together because it's gotta be one of the most exciting uh books in the Bible in many ways. And uh so Acts chapter one, Jesus tells them to go wait. And Acts chapter two, he sends the gift of the Holy Spirit. At the beginning of this chapter, we have wind and fire and people speaking in other languages, and everyone's confused, and all of a sudden Peter preaches and explains what's going on, and 3,000 people get saved. So quite a day. And then we end up right here. So I'm gonna read verse 42 through the end of the chapter, and then we will talk about whatever comes to mind. Acts 2, 42. 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. Dave?

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Whenever you just read that, uh anything that anything that jumped to your mind first?

SPEAKER_01 2:08

This is gonna s come across a bit uh a bit crazy, but last night we had young adults, and so we were literally talking about this. Um uh unbeknownst to me, I'd be on this Zoom cast podcast with you, uh kind of chatting about it. But we had an interesting chat, and it's it's actually it's actually, I think, kind of it takes maybe a little bit of a political turn. Uh, so I won't get political, but uh we were talking about um you know the differences and the different p you know political theories and ideologies, and it was like, okay, you've got this thing called capitalism, which we're all a part of, and it's you know very um very decentralized, and it's sort of predicated on the basis that all men are kind of inherently greedy and corrupt, and so the you know, power should be decentralized, and and if you're greedy, you want to kind of create products to to make your life as best as possible, and that could be your labor or products, and blah, blah, blah. And then, but there's this impulse, and this impulse is, but it needs to be like there should be like care for the the poor, and there should be like the the rich should distribute their wealth, and that's this impulse that like this natural kind of human impulse we have. And unfortunately, that impulse has an ideology that it hasn't worked anywhere. And the reason is because what it ultimately has is a uh it centralizes power, and uh, you know what that old adage is absolute power corrupts absolutely. And so as soon as you get somebody who has a corrupt human nature in their, the, you know, uh, and they have all this power, it turns bad. Um, and we were laughing at like, well, the model where socialism has worked actually really well is in Acts 2 with the early church. Um and so this is this is the model of where socialism seems to have worked really well. And why? Because the king, the ultimate authority is Jesus. And he is the he is the perfect leader. And and I think it's just I don't know, it it was just funny that we kind of talked about that last night. It's a very off, you know, tangent kind of thing, but but I think what I take away from this uh passage is um that if we are truly living with Jesus as the King, so in our household, in our church, then that's what life and community looks like. Truly.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Yeah, and one of the things that we I feel like commonly have come back to on this this podcast, these discussions, is understanding the character of God from reading the scriptures. And so when we read the scripture, we realize that yeah, we have a God who, when put as king, allows people to empowers people to live together with such a love and such a camaraderie and unity that it actually can work. And uh, this is not a system that most people would think would work. Jordan and I have joked many times over the years. We used to have a game that we played, which is who can come up with the best idea of how we could get all the members of the church to leave on one Sunday without sinning. You're not allowed to sin. And so we had all these different crazy ideas, and then one day somebody walked in and they were like, that's easy. Just tell everyone they have to give all their money to the church, like Acts 2. Wow. We were like, Oh, I think you might have just won. Um, I mean, I just wanted to cook like roast a lamb in the corner during worship just for lunch. But you know, if people assumed it was for sacrifice, that's their own problem.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

But yeah. No, but you're right. I think it is it is it's challenging. And it's, you know, like the the rich young ruler who comes to Jesus and says, I, you know, commit, I I keep the commandments, I do all this, and and Jesus says, Great, sell everything, give it to the poor and follow me. Like, and I think if if we're real about it, why is acts so exciting? Yeah, there's fire, there's people speaking in tongues, there's people coming to know Jesus en masse. Um, but also the church is living radically. And if if we want to see that, like I, you know, and I think we do see that actually around the world in places where the church is under persecution and and other places in the world where people are living like Acts 2 and they're seeing the same sort of things happen.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Um and I think there's a connection here. So let me tell you the first thing I thought when I read this today. So I'm thinking from the context of we just had the Holy Spirit poured out. So I'm thinking, what do people live like right when the Holy Spirit's poured out in their life? So I take this as somewhat of a commentary as how do people respond? What do people actually live like whenever they're full of the spirit, right? So yeah, like we want to ask for a fullness of the spirit. There's nothing that we need more as a church, and it's going to play out and look like something. And then the interesting thing about it is also the last line of this paragraph has sort of an outcome that I think all of us would consider to be a very desired outcome. It says, and the Lord added to their number number daily those who were being saved. So I've always wanted to be in a community where we saw people literally getting saved constantly every day, right? But I think that all of these things they flow out of being full of the spirit and they flow into the they result in people being constantly saved. Because um, and maybe we can go through a few of these things individually, but one thing that sticks out to me is that Jesus told his disciples, they will know you are my disciples by the way that you love one another, right? And so I think that we see the fullness of the spirit playing out into the fullness of loving one another and forming a community that is more heaven-like than maybe anybody would have imagined that they would see on earth. And then we have all the people that are around being able to observe this even as outsiders, even from a distance, and going, ooh, maybe I want to be a part of that.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

It's that's um spot on, I think. I think it's it's as you bear fruit in your life. So you see that the Holy Spirit's leading to fruit in their life. And that fruit looks like generosity, care for each other, community, um, all those things, that that is then what attracts the external fruit that we see and that we want, which is people coming to know Jesus. And so, like the Holy Spirit sort of it's almost, you know, Ali and I would talk about it's like, how do you, how do you kind of live this Christian life and not make it too metric-based? But we're very metric-based people. And and this, I think we just came to this realization of like forget the metrics, focus on the fruit in your own life and what the Holy Spirit's doing in your life. And I think if you can see if you can see that God is working on you and that you are yielding fruit in your life, um, in the various areas, then that is ultimately what then the spirit uses to attract others to him and lead others to him.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Yeah, exactly. And it's not like they were tormenting themselves to do so. Like the implication here, they broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. It's not like they were putting something on, it's not like they're like, oh, gotta go to Dave's house tonight for dinner. They are doing what they want to be doing, right? It's it's genuine.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

And on top of that, they're also they've they've got favor with the community. So, so that's the other thing. It's like, you know, you kind of feel like sometimes as a Christian, you're on the outside, like, or the you know, society's against you. It's like, but why? Maybe because as as Christians, we haven't really lived like Christians to be uh part of like something that the society has favor over as well, you know. And I do know that there's forces against the the church and things like that, and and certainly persecution happens, but you can just see this favor. And I think that when we do live like that, and we can see that in in in our community, right? Like people want to open the door to you. You're the church, you're the people that they actually want because you have something about you that they want and that's attractive. Um, so you're right. Yeah, they're not living under like, they're not getting, you know, thrown to the lions and living in completely impoverished. Um, they're living actually out of uh abundance and favor and yet still giving and yet still being radically generous.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Yeah, and this this first sentence, I feel like kind of tells us how they do that, how they live that life, how they respond to this sermon that Peter just preached, which is a follow-up to this bomb of the Holy Spirit moment, right? And so just if we take a second and just look at each thing here individually in the sentence, which by the way, I just encourage people as you read your Bible. Sometimes it's really good to just slow down and read a sentence really slowly and make sure you pay attention to each part, especially if it feels like an important sentence. So, like this sentence has been a big had a big effect on me in just the way that I feel like it's most beneficial to live my life. So it says, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. So that immediately tells me something along the lines of for one thing, they didn't devote themselves to everyone's teaching. Like they they listened to certain people that God had clearly appointed to be listened to, and that's good advice because sometimes people are like, Well, I have this friend who says they're a Christian and they told me this thing I should do in life. You probably shouldn't just listen to everyone who is your friend or everyone that claims to be a Christian, but you really should listen to people that you feel like God puts in your life with some sort of weighty voice, weighty anointing to have that role in your life. Um and then if you move to the next line there and to fellowship, they devoted themselves. Oh, actually, let me say this too. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. That doesn't mean they're just devoted to listening to it, but it it means they're devoted to practicing it. That because it says they're meeting together in daily, and so that means they're coming, they're listening to what the apostles are saying, these words from God that are being delivered to them, and then they're going and practicing it with devotion, right? And then they're being devoted to fellowship. So that just, I mean, I think that we highly underplay the communal aspect of what it is to be a Christian and how much people think they can be a Christian on their own. And we don't have to go really far into that, but they the right way to do it is to be devoted to each other in fellowship, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:34

And and you I think what you said is really pertinent. You highlighted the the keyword is devoted. What does it mean to be devoted? It doesn't mean to be obliged, it doesn't mean to uh, you know, to placate and just do it because you have to. It means to be like to be devoted. Think about the things in your life you're devoted to. Maybe it's your family, your kids, maybe it's a your study or work or creative project. It's like, okay, well, that's what it looks like to be devoted to both the apostles' teaching, which by the way, we have, you know, in summary in the New Testament, and to each other, to fellowship. And so, you know, that I think is a really powerful takeaway for me. Um, and it and a challenging thing for me, honestly, because yeah, life is busy. I'm exhausted. You know, like you've got a lot going on, and it's like, okay, but what does it like look like to be not just devoted to the apostles' teaching, but also to each other as in fellowship?

SPEAKER_00 14:36

Yeah. And then it finishes that sentence with, and to the breaking of bread. So you could just kind of take that as an add-on to fellowship, but it seems to be something a little more than that. There's a real sharedness of life that's happening when you're constantly breaking bread together and eating together each day. I think we all marvel over the conversations and the magic that happens around meals. But also, maybe there's some kind of implication here of communion that Jesus had established the sacrament of communion. So they're partaking in these meals and having moments where they're remembering Jesus. It's not just casual, but there's a real sacredness to these moments. And then it says and to prayer. And so they're actively getting together and praying for each other, praying together. I wish I could have like a video of what it looks like for them to pray together every day. I kind of want it to be some really crazy eye-opening thing, but it would probably wasn't. It probably was mostly just really consistent, you know, and caring and loving.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

And and it like to that end, I think what is prayer? Prayer is communion with God. So it's it's almost like we commune with each other, and then we break bread and we remember what Jesus did for us, and then we actually commune with God. God is personal. So we invite God into that, into our midst. And it's like it's this trinity, if you will, of yourself, other humans, the church, and then with God. And it's this perfect, like, way of living the Christian life. And that is what you you mentioned is the how to then empower you to have the fruit in your life that leads to good works that attracts the the rest of the world to come to know him.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Absolutely. So, you know what? I have one last thing to say, and then and then I'll just pray us out of here and we'll we'll call it a call it a podcast for the day. Um, but lately I've had a lot of people that will ask me something like, Hey, you're doing a lot as a pastor. What can I do to help? And sometimes I have other maybe additional answers for certain people or whatever, but the answer that I will give to almost every single person that asks this question is invite people to your house for dinner. It's the simplest answer. And people, I feel like people kind of blow it off because they don't understand the gravity of what I'm saying. But like I'm so involved in so many people's lives around our church and even outside of our church community. And people just really need people, and they're really just not as connected as they need to be to be living this fully healthy Christian life. And so if anyone's listening, please take me seriously, please set aside time regularly and say, on these nights, we're gonna invite someone over to our house for dinner and we're gonna at least take a minute and pray together while they're there. That will revolutionize everybody's life if everyone will just take that challenge to do that regularly.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

I love it. And and I can say you gave me that advice, and uh, and in the times that we've we've done that, it's it's been enriching. So great, great advice.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Well, I'm gonna pray us out. Lord, we thank you that you give us this picture of how beautiful it can be to follow you and to be in unity with your people. Thank you for showing us what's possible, God. And this was just the start. This wasn't even the finish. This wasn't even supposed to be some fully finished product. This was the start of something beautiful that we're able to partake in. So, God, I pray that you would give us hearts ready and willing to wait, that you the gift of your Holy Spirit would come to us, and that then we would react out of that with complete devotion of our lives to your will and your way and to your people. God, where our hearts are not aligned with this, please change our hearts and let us see that you are a God of unity and you want to give yourself away to all of those who are willing to live in unity and love with their brothers and sisters. God, we love you, we bless you. You are so good to us. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Dave, it's wonderful to see your face, my friend.

SPEAKER_01 19:05

You too, Rella. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Bye, everybody. Love you all.