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We are following together the story of the early church. And the story of the early church is a wildly exciting story. We are looking at what happens in the days following Jesus' ascension into heaven. So we celebrated Easter recently, Jesus rises. Fifty days after that, we read the story of Pentecost, and we read the story about the gospel or the good news of Jesus going forth in power from the lips of Peter. There's a crowd there who hears the message of the gospel. They feel the conviction of the Spirit, and they ask the question, What should we do? Peter's answer is simple. Repent and be baptized. So repent, which is a change in thinking, it's a turning from an old way of living, turning from sin, turning from unbelief, turning toward Christ in faith, faith in what he accomplished on the cross, faith that he is the risen, reigning Messiah and Lord. Repent, so change your thinking, and be baptized, which, as Pete just talked about, that's a picture of the cleansing that's happened as a result of our faith. It's a sign of identification with Jesus. And again, it's something we get to celebrate in the lives of people this afternoon. And the promise is that you will receive the Holy Spirit or the gift of the Holy Spirit, the one who regenerates, the one who indwells, the one who unites us as followers of Christ, and the one who transforms our lives. As followers of Jesus, our transformation, our transformation of our characters, our natures, the way we behave, is not because of the way that we're acting, it's because of the work that's going on in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. That's our hope. So Paul proclaims Jesus: 3,000 people repent and are baptized. 3,000 are filled with the Spirit. 3,000 are transformed by the gospel, and it's an incredible story. And today we get to see what happens next. So that's where we're picking up the story. All that's going on, and we're going to pick up in Acts chapter 2, verse 42. That's what's printed near bull, and then that's what's up here. I'm going to read one verse prior just to help us see the context. Acts chapter 2, and I'm going to start at verse 41. So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3,000 souls. And they devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, and all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. That's a pretty credible story, isn't it? And remember that the people that are being talked about here are normal people, right? People not unlike you and I. These people hear the message of the gospel, they repent, they're baptized, they're filled with the Spirit, they begin to follow Jesus, to live like Jesus, to tell the stories about Jesus. All these people are doing is being obedient, open to God's work in their life, and obedient to what the Lord would have for them. And it's beautiful to see the transformation that's gone inside them, going on in their inside, being lived out. What's being described here are symptoms. Now, normally when you have symptoms, anyone had some like bad symptoms lately, like the symptoms where you go to the doctor? Normally you think of symptoms in a negative way. What we're seeing here are positive symptoms. Symptoms of the gospel at work in people, symptoms of the work of his spirit. We see a transformation in these people's attitudes, and we see a transformation then that flows into action, the things they did. And I would encourage you, this isn't just a story about things that happened 2,000 years ago. This is normal people filled with the same Holy Spirit that's given to us, and it should inspire you even today. So the first attitude that we see is that in the context of the story, and that's what Pete led us through powerfully last week. They experience conviction. They hear the story about Jesus, who he was, they're reminded that they're the ones that put him on the cross, the ones that killed him, and there's a conviction, there's a humility in the people. Their hearts are bowed low, they know their sin, they know their dependence on God, their need for a Savior. So this is a humble group. They're hungry for the word and the work of God. They're humble, and then the next attitude we see in verse 43. Awe comes upon every soul. There's awe or wonder, even excitement, seeing the hand of God move. Yes, in the signs and wonders done by the apostles, but I think more so their excitement is over the fact that the truth of, that the kingdom of God is here. The Messiah has come, the Spirit has been poured out, prophecy has been fulfilled, and they are it. Can you even imagine what this like for what was like for this largely Jewish audience? For their entire lives they've been reading these prophecies. For their entire lives they've been looking forward to the Messiah. They've been longing for that hope. They've had that hope in. These are the things that their nation has clung to for centuries. And they're experiencing the fulfillment of it. More importantly, they are the fulfillment of it. The stuff they've been reading about their whole lives. They're the fulfillment of that. These have an awe over the power of the gospel, the awe over its transforming effect on people. The same awe or fear that led to their initial question when they heard the rushing of the wind and the proclamation of the mighty works of God in their own language, and they said, What does this mean? What should we do? That awe continues as they see the hand of God at work among them. Another attitude that we see here is glad and generous hearts, or glad and sincere hearts. Glad, hearts that are full, exulterate, full of joy that are overflowing. Remember, these are normal people that had normal lives, not unlike you and I. Glad, joy-filled, overflowing hearts. So something's going on there. Their generous hearts could be translated as sincere or simple, not simple tons, but having a single-minded devotion devoted to Christ and the gospel. These attitudes well up the defect of the Spirit in people's lives and they transform into action. Starts out with their devotion to the apostles' teaching. So they respond to the message Peter preached. And let's be reminded of what the simple message of the gospel is. All you need to remember are three letters, okay? A, B, and C. Can you handle that, right? A, admit your sin. B, believe in the work that Christ did, and C, commit your way to Him. That's the gospel. It's super simple. They hear that message, and then moving forward, they want to learn about Jesus. It's a priority for them. They're hungry and thirsty for me or more. For the one who's done so much for them, saving them from their sins. They want to know more about this Jesus. And it's a beautiful evidence of the gospel at work in their lives. They devote themselves to it, they attend constantly to it. So it's neat to see these people being obedient. First, the apostles are doing what they were told. They were told by Jesus to go and make disciples. And these people are becoming disciples, becoming followers of Jesus. The apostles are teaching about Jesus, about his life and his ministry, about his ethical and moral teachings, about his warnings about persecution and false teaching. Also, they're talking about the Old Testament because that's the foundation for, that's what points toward Christ. They're devoting themselves to that in church. We have the same opportunity, don't we? The New Testament, the Bible, what you read from Matthew forward, that is the teaching of the apostles. So we can devote ourselves to the same teaching. And the Old Testament, the pages that precede it, are the teachings that lead us toward Christ. They're pointing forward to Him. Ours is the same opportunity. We can devote ourselves to it, attend to it constantly. And that action is a result of what the Spirit is doing in their hearts. It's a response. Notice something in these verses. The emphasis is not first on what the apostles did. Do you notice that as you move into the book of Acts? Yes, Peter preaches, but then note where the emphasis is. It's on the desire of these followers. They choose Jesus. Discipleship is following Jesus, and that is only something that you can do. I can't do that for you. I can help you in that. As a church, we can help you in that. But you need to choose to follow Jesus. In the group that we've been doing at 9:30, this was highlighted. They talk about how the word disciple is a noun and not a verb. Listen to these quote. If disciple is something that is done to you, a verb, then that puts the onus of responsibility for your spiritual formation on someone else, like your pastor, church, or mentor. And maybe that's how you had come to think about the word disciple. But if disciple is a noun, if it's someone you are or are not, then no one can disciple you but Rabbi Jesus himself. You must choose to accept Jesus' invitation to a life of apprenticeship. You need to choose to follow Jesus. That's a decision that you make, that we help you in. And that is a beautiful, life-transforming, life-giving invitation. The invitation to follow Jesus is not to follow a set of facts or doctrines. It's not an invitation to follow merely his moral or ethic teaching. Do this, don't do that. Religion, this is what we're following as followers of Christ, is not first a list of rules. And if you've grown up in the church or been around the church, maybe you thought that's what it was. It's just a bunch of don'ts, right? Religion is just don't do a bunch of fun stuff. That's not what this invitation is from Jesus. It's an invitation to relationship with him, an invitation to become like him, and an invitation to do what he did. And if you read the life of Jesus, you will want to be like him. If you've seen any of the recent portrayals of Jesus' life, they portray Jesus as someone you would want to be like because he's the kind of person that everyone wants to be around. We are drawn to Christ. They devote themselves to Christ, and we have an opportunity to help one another do this. They also devote themselves to the fellowship, to one another, to community, to joint participation, to cooperation, to sharing, partnering on for ministry and mission together. As believers of Jesus that are called together in the church, what unites us is our fellowship with another and with God. Listen to these verses, this verse from 1 John. That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you. So that's talking, this is an apostle talking about the life of Christ. He saw it and heard it, he's teaching it to them, so that you may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. Relationship with one another around relationship or built on our relationship with God. Christian fellowship or community is stronger than the community in this world can ever be because our unity is around something that does not and will not change. Think about some of the communities that you're a part of in life. Often they're temporary, aren't they? Like our kids are involved in youth soccer right now. So we have this strong fellowship or this strong community built around Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings when we get together for soccer. Well, guess what? Our kids aren't gonna play soccer forever. And that community is gonna dwindle, it's gonna go away. Some of your communities in your life built around sports or hobbies or your kids, they're not lasting. The community that we come to together is one united through the gospel, united around the gospel. And it's a strong and lasting community. One of the things that we do in this community is we remind one another of the gospel. That's what is getting at here. To the breaking of bread, then in verse 36, breaking bread in their homes. They are learning together, spending time together, sharing meals together, and it's likely from the context and the language that they used their males as a time to remember the sacrifice of Christ. Often a Jewish meal would start with bread, which is the kind of meal we want to go to. Anyone love bread? Yeah, it's like the best part of the meal. They start with bread and they would simply break the bread. It's a reminder of Christ's broken body. Less formal than we practice it. They didn't have their own church building to come to where they could together remember the body and blood of Christ. They were meeting in Jewish synagogue where they could not do that. So they did it in their homes, less formally, still beautifully. Why do it so often? Well, I think that becomes obvious from the context. If 3,000 souls are added to their number in one day, and then day by day there's more followers of Christ, you're going to use every meal to talk about Jesus, right? Because they are all hungry and desperate to know more. It's a beautiful picture of their celebration of what Jesus had done, and they do it together. They devote themselves to it, to the breaking of bread, and then it says, and the prayers. They prayed in the days leading up to Pentecost, and they keep praying after Pentecost. That which started in the upper room continues. They devote themselves to it. And prayer is not just looking at your list or praying about the things that you have going on that day, your cares and concerns. Prayer is first relationship with Jesus. How could these very normal people possibly accomplish the work that Jesus gave them to do under his guidance and his strength? They did that by daily, constantly spending time with him in relationship through prayer. Talks about the prayers. Probably, maybe they used the Lord's prayer, our Father who art in heaven. Maybe, possibly, probably it included Jewish prayers in the temple where they were reading scripture. Scripture given new meaning in Christ. This is a picture of an intimacy with God the Father, not praying through a list or vote, like wrote repeating the Lord's Prayer, but using those things to draw closer to Him. One of the things we talked about a few weeks ago is building a rhythm into our lives of prayer. And so we talked about a simple one where you start the day with the Lord's Prayer, not just, you know, kind of spitting it out, thinking about it, and actually praying it to the Father, praying for people in your life that need the Lord at noontime, and then at the end of the day, spend some time in gratitude, remembering his blessings. So that's a very simple rhythm of prayer that we can build into our lives that helps us draw closer to him, that helps us draw closer to him in relationship. The next thing we see here, verse 44, and all who believed were together and had all things in common. They were together, they spent time together, had all things in common. They shared their lives with each other, they shared their stuff with each other. I see this beautifully, not just in our church community, but in larger community. People sharing their lives. We longed to do this. They truly enjoyed each other. They saw Christ and celebrated Christ in each other. They truly cared for one another. They were generous with one another. They are together, they have all things in common. And then it gets a little scary. Look at this verse. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. That can be a little scary to me. That sounds radical, doesn't it? Doesn't that sound a little bit radical? Maybe they just went a little too far. They got a little carried away with this Jesus stuff. Next level generosity. That is not convenient generosity, that is costly generosity. How many of you have some stuff collecting dust? Two hands, anyone? Just keep getting more, right? Did you hear about a need? Now they did not get rid of all their personal property. That's not what it's talking about. You read later in Acts and it becomes clear. Everything was not everyone's. That's not what this is. The idea is that they held their stuff with an open hand. We believe that we are stewards of the resources God has given to us. Everything I have, literally everything I own, I am only a steward of it. It's his. And I want to hold it with an open hand. God, if that person needs it, you want me to give it to them? Give me wisdom on how to apply that. So we've got a team going to Panama this summer. There's six of us going. The cost is about $2,000 each. So that's $12,000 that we need as a group to raise. If you can do something to help with any amount of that, do it. That's what we're seeing here. Do it. Be obedient and be blessed as you do it. What an incredible joy. Their fellowship and love for one another extended to the wallet or the pocketbook. And this wasn't their duty. It was an overflow of their hearts. It was their joy. They were glad and generous with a single-minded devotion to Christ. A few more things we see them doing. It says day by day, they were attending the temple together. So they were coming together for worship. The reason they went to the temple, because it was the only place big enough to hold a group of them. So they would gather and they would worship regularly and frequently. Day by day, attending the temple, day by day, breaking bread in their homes, eating together, sharing what they had with each other. A word that we would say, we call that hospitality, right? Hospitality. Having people into their homes. And that is a mark of Christ's followers. Hospitality. Christ modeled it. Our Savior, Jesus, was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard. Jesus was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard because of how much time he spent with people sharing meals and the context, the places he would go to share those meals. That's pretty wild, isn't it? That's our Savior. That's the one we're following. He shared meals, he shared life with people. Remember, when he comes back from the dead, the invitation to his disciples is come and dine. Hospitality, let's be honest, it's costly. It costs time and money and energy. You've got to set up before they get there. You've got to clean up after they leave. It costs us our pride. Our houses are not perfect. Our kids are not perfect. We don't have it all together. So let's stop pretending. You don't need to pretend that. I think another issue that we have is we've just been served our whole lives. And so we just never stop being the one being served. We're served as children, spoon fed, we're served in college, college has become all about us. Served in church. Church is all about us. Youth groups are all about us. My encouragement to you is that stop being the one being served and be the one to serve. It is your turn. Your turn to serve, your turn to invite. True hospitality has nothing to do with impressing people and everything to do with making them feel welcome and wanted. No idea. I got this quote forever ago, and it's apparently some pastor's wife said it, which I think makes it even funnier, like even better. That's something that you can do. Doesn't matter how nice your house is, doesn't matter how good of a cook you are, doesn't matter how well behaved your children are, you can make people feel welcome and wanted by inviting them into your home. If you are not a good cook, just get takeout, right? Keep it simple. If you don't have a house, bring a meal to someone else's house. That's what Jesus did. Never owned a house. You might have to get creative, but there's no excuse for you not being hospitable. When was the last time you had someone over for dinner? Maybe someone that wasn't a family or a friend. Oh, friends, you're that's what I'm talking about. Let me go back to family. Someone over who wasn't family. I pray you're experiencing some conviction. You have an opportunity, and you can make people feel welcome and wanted. That's what your Savior did, and that's your joy. Day by day they gather to share meals. Day by day they spend time praising God, worshiping God, giving thanks to God, celebrating God. These attitudes that we see first in them then overflow into these beautiful actions, and then look at the effect it has on people, having favor with all the people. Attitude and action is in there having favor with all the people. They are transforming culture by the way that they live. As you look around at our culture, would you say that people need hope? I think they do. Would you say that people need to hear some good news? I think so. Would you say that people need to be loved? Yeah, absolutely. You and I have an opportunity to transform culture, and we do that one person at a time. It's not a big event. Okay? If you're waiting for a big event to transform the lives of your family and coworkers and friends, you might be waiting a long time. But you have an opportunity to transform their lives by loving them and inviting them. They have favor with all the people. The culture's being transformed, the gospel message is being proclaimed through their lives, and the Lord is adding to their number day by day those who are being saved. So the Holy Spirit is continuing to work. Their hearts are softened by what they're seeing in people. And then the gospel is bearing fruit. It's going forth in power. And it's not so much about the preaching, it's through the favor of the people, it's through personal relationships, it's through exposure to the gospel in community. They are given an opportunity to give reason for the obvious transformation in their lives. People are seeing it, responding to it, and the Lord is multiplying the church. It's incredible to read about what God did here. We've already thought a little bit about application, but let's think a little bit more. Application for us. The attitudes we see in these early followers. Do they describe your heart? So just take a second. Think about your attitudes, the attitudes of your heart. Humility? You asked someone to describe you, maybe your significant other, for instance. Would they say, oh, that's a there's a humble person? Maybe not. Maybe you got some room to grow. Coming before God with nothing and relying on God for everything? Awe? You exhibiting much awe? We know it all, we've seen it all, been there, done that, have the t-shirt, right? It's hard to get us excited about anything. Awe? What about awe at the hand of God at work? What about awe over the gospel and its power? The gospel, the good news of Jesus, is incredible and it should continue to fill us with awe. In word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. Glory is of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And from his fullness we, even we, have all received grace upon grace. That should cause awe to well up within you. Always, forever, no matter how many times you've heard it. I, like you, struggle in the awe department. And what's helped me recently has been that rhythm of thankfulness toward the end of the day. I've been trying to do it on my way home. I usually have 20 minutes at least. Not listening to something, not consuming more information. Just going through all the ways God has been gracious and blessed me in that day. And awe. It develops awe. Thursday, I got to meet with some other pastors from churches like ours from up and down the Hudson Valley. It is awesome to hear what God is doing. Churches like ours that are being faithful to preach the gospel, the truth about Jesus, who are living in community like we're being called to here, they're all growing. Seems like all we hear about is churches dying, right? Not the ones that are faithful to this word. They're all growing. They're all needing more space to meet. It's incredible. It causes awe. I hope that story helps you with some awe. God is working, God is moving. Don't believe everything you see or hear or read. The gospel is good news that is transforming lives. They have, so let's think about another attitude, glad and generous hearts. Hearts that are glad, hearts that are full, hearts that are exultant or exhibiting joy that are overflowing. This is a challenge. I think it's a challenge the older you get. Just, I don't want to point any fingers, but it seems as the older you get, the more negative you can become. Or the more TV you watch or news you consume, the more negative you can become. They're glad. People are seeing joy. So what's your heart like? Is it full of joy? Is that what's oozing from you? Or is it just constant negativity? They're generous. Because of their single-minded devotion to the gospel, to Christ, to following him, they're generous. Those are the attitudes of their hearts. So be honest about where you're at. Ask for his help. Let's look at the symptoms real quick. See if these are the kind of actions that characterize your life. I think for a lot of us, we're just surviving. You ever feel like that? Like you're just making it through the week. Like you have your day by day, so it's talking about your day by day, they're doing these things. Think about your day by day. Day by day I'm doing fill in the blank. So a lot of you have work, you're doing that day by day, right? Or school, or you're a parent, so you have some obligations with family, or you own a house, so your life is over. Not really, but you have responsibilities. Sometimes the list is endless. The yard needs mowing, the garden needs weeding, the house keeps breaking. But if that is the extent of your day by day, you're missing the opportunity that's before you. With the pressures of life, I feel like sometimes our vision just gets narrower and narrower. Do any of you experience that? It's like it just tunnel vision. Ben was kind of talking about a version of this yesterday. You can only focus on one thing. You get tunnel vision. The next thing you know, another day goes by. Another week goes by. Who can't believe it's like late in May? What happened to the whole year so far? As you get older, the time only speeds up, right? Over 50, the years are going like that. Over 60, the five years are going like that, from what I've heard. That's not what God would have for us. It's not to just survive. It's not to just make it through another week. Let's start, as the early church did, with humility. Lord, we need your help because that's the way our lives are going. And we have an opportunity to devote ourselves to things that matter. I think one of the things that's most helpful so that these days and weeks aren't just ticking off, is we need to adopt daily and weekly rhythms that will draw us closer to Jesus. Daily and weekly rhythms to help us draw closer to Jesus. We already talked about one, the rhythm of daily prayer. The rhythm of daily spending time getting to know Jesus and his word. We need those kind of daily rhythms. We need weekly rhythms of coming together for worship. It's so fun to join, like this. It's why we do this every week. It's so the weeks aren't just ticking by. It's so that our eyes can be opened and expanded to see the work of God. We get together to share meals. We do potlucks. We'll do one in June. We haven't got a date yet, but we will do one. Things like that. Weekly, monthly rhythms. My encouragement to you is to have someone over this week. Or make a plan to have someone over next week. Start to practice holitality. That's a rhythm that helps the weeks just not go by. We have an incredible opportunity to press into community together, to press into one another, to share life together, to share meals together, to share our stuff with one another. Let's with glad and generous hearts praise God. Let's with glad and generous hearts have favor with the people. Let's transform culture. And then let's pray that God would add to our number day by day those who are being saved. Amen? Let's have that vision for our lives for this church. Join me in prayer. Lord, thank you for this beautiful picture that we're given in Scripture of a bunch of normal people who are simply being obedient. And God, I pray that like these, Lord, we wouldn't just get caught up in the busyness and the chaos of life, God, but we would be, our lives would be characterized, filled with these kinds of attitudes that we read about. God, that our lives would be, we would be more and more having these kind of actions. God, day by day, we would be looking like the people that you've called us to, the opportunity that you've given us. God, I pray that our lives would make a difference in this world. God, that we would have favor with people. And Lord, we do pray, God, that because of what we're doing, the way we're living, how we're responding to the gospel, how we're following you, Jesus, that day by day people would be added. God would come to saving faith in you. Lord, we look forward to seeing this happen. God, we look forward to walking in this together as a church. Pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.