First Things First | Tom Wadsworth

A woman moves to Philadelphia because her brother calls and says "God is here." College students sell their stuff to help a stranger. Three thousand strangers become one family overnight. This is the early church in Acts 2 — and it wasn't built by strategy or social engineering. It was built one heart at a time. This week we explore what it looks like when a community is actually devoted.

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Hey guys, good morning. Kids, we're excited to have you with us. So bring some energy, okay? So we are going through the book of Acts. We're working through the book of Acts for like the next 20-something weeks, I think, right? And um last week, Matt was introducing us to the birth of Jesus' church, which is Acts chapter 2, and it's the Pentecost Sunday. And if you remember, the uh the birth of Jesus' church was it went off like a bang. It was a big bang. And if you remember the story, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, like the presence of the living God descended upon a group of 120 people. They were empowered to do something impossible. They started to speak in unknown languages, but they were real languages. And then all these people in Jerusalem heard someone declaring the wonders of God in their own private language, their own language. And so this huge crowd of people gathered around the disciples. And then Peter, the apostle Peter, stands up and preaches the first gospel message of the New Testament, of the church age. And he preaches the good news of Jesus. And if you know the story, 3,000 people, 3,000 people said yes to Jesus, repented, and were baptized. Can you imagine like having a baptism service for 300 people? Like they weren't near a lake. I mean, I don't know how they I don't know how they executed that, but um amazing story. And and so we're actually picking up on the same storyline today. And um uh and you know, I I I mentioned that that uh Pentecost was the birth of Jesus' church, and that is not insignificant, it's Jesus' church. He is the one that says has the right to say who we are, what we're about, what we should look like, what his plans are for us, and that's what we're gonna look at today. And so let's pray and then we'll we'll jump into some some text. So so, Father, thank you for this morning, and uh Lord, I do ask that you would shine a light on the possibility of what a community of faith can be, what you want it to be. And we ask, Lord, that you would make this place, this church, your church here in Lakewood Vineyard look just like you want it to look. Would you do that, Lord? Amen. So Jesus' church, Jesus is the the key component, and I want to just give you some perspectives. Before um before the church was birthed, Jesus was teaching his disciples about what he wanted it to look like, what it would be. And the first passage we're gonna look at is in John chapter 17, and this is in the upper room discussion, it's the last meeting he had with his disciples before he was crucified. He was telling them like all the really important stuff. And in in chapter 17, verse 22, Jesus tells the disciples, he's actually telling the 12 disciples this, and he's praying to his father. It's a it's actually a prayer. We read it. Um, and it says, This I've given them glory, the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one, I in them and you in me, so that they may be brought to complete unity, then the world will know that you've sent me and have loved them just as you've loved me. Jesus is saying something pretty astounding. He's saying, just like the Father, the God the Father's presence through the Spirit of God was present within Jesus. And he says that Jesus is saying, I'm gonna be present within my people, within the church. Like my presence will be there. The father's in me, I'm in the people, uh, he's in us, and that we're gonna be united, we're gonna be one. The same way that God the Father is one with God the Son. This is what he has, this is the promise, this is what he is offering. He's praying for this, that the churches that call upon his name, that we would be really intimately powerfully connected to God, that we would overlap and there would be intersection and union and that we'd be one to the same measure that Jesus was one with his father. That's a staggering claim. And he says that when that happens, when the church is connected to God, and if we actually, the churches in the city and in the world, if we would start to become one, if we would start being united and loving and serving and not divided, then somehow, in some way, this unity of the church will be a declaration of who Jesus is, that his glory would rest on us, and people would look at the church and say, Wow, I see Jesus in this church, and I think Jesus is from God. It's an amazing and it's an amazing prayer. And if Jesus prayed it, you know it's the will of God, and you know it's gonna happen. The second thing is that Jesus not only prayed for what the church looked like, he made some promises. And in in the beginning of the series, one of the major promises that Jesus spoke to the early church was in Acts chapter 1, verse 8. This is a famous passage, and he he's telling the disciples, hey, hold on, wait in Jerusalem, hang out, I've got something for you. It's the promise of the Father. And it's verse 8 says this, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea, and Samaria to the ends of the earth. So the presence of God is going to fall upon the church for a purpose. And the purpose is to show Jesus off to the world, to witness to who Jesus is. And when Jesus uh made this promise, it didn't happen, but it's happened. It's happened and it's happening. Both are true. And so when in Acts chapter 2, it's the Spirit of God is poured out, and the mission field is Jerusalem. And he said, I will put power on you to witness in the city, in the city of Jerusalem, and that is where we're at right now. The last thing that Jesus said about his church, he said lots of things about truth. There's three things I picked out, but I thought they're important. And in John chapter 15, Jesus says, When the Spirit comes, when the helper comes in verse 26, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness. So when the Spirit of God comes, the Spirit of God is going to be testifying and witnessing and showing who Jesus is. And the Lord is basically telling his people, you got to witness to, you got to speak up to. And that that paradigm of us partnering together with the Spirit of God, showing who Jesus is in the church of Jesus, declaring who Jesus is together is the formula for expansive and significant evangelism and growth. And that's what we see happen in the book of Acts. Supernatural phenomenon, speaking in other languages, declaring the glory and the wonders of God, everyone coming around, thinking, what in the world is happening? But someone had to stand up. Peter, a man, had to stand up and preach the gospel. It's both a demonstration of the Spirit of God and a presentation of who Jesus is in words by a human being preaching the gospel. Both of those things are true and both of them are absolutely essential. One without the other is incomplete, it's ineffective. And what we've seen is the miracle of the empowerment. Like when you receive power when the spirit comes on you, that means you can do things that you couldn't do before. You can do things that are impossible for humans to do. You can do things that God gives you ability to do his bidding. And it's not only for the apostles, it's not only for special people. What we're going to look at today is what the witness of the church would look like, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and how that is just as effective and just as necessary as the apostolic ministry. So that's what we're looking at. And we're going to be looking, our main text again is in Acts chapter 2, and we're going to pick up from verse 42 through 47. This is our this is our text for today. So starting in verse 42, it says this, and they devoted themselves, they being 3,000 new converts, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. So when Luke is talking of the doctor the Luke the Doctor, who wrote Book of Acts, when he's talking about the early church, he said that they devoted themselves to the apostolic teaching and to fellowship. And the word devoted is it you mean uh it has meaning and substance to it in the sense that that like when when when you're hearing me speak, I'm I'm hoping that it's gonna be impactful and you're gonna think about it. But these guys, when they would hear the apostles preach, that it they um they gave themselves to it. They wanted to experience it. It wasn't just like, hey, I just want to be entertained, I just want to like have information. Like when you give yourself to to apostolic teaching, that means I'm gonna live what my leaders are telling me. Like I want to do the very things that they're they're they're they're talking about. And the apostolic preaching, they were they were telling all the teachings of Jesus, they were taking the Old Testament and they were making sense of it in terms of who the Messiah would be. And they were preaching about this new age, this church age where God would reach the whole world. And people, they they wanted to hear the teaching, they wanted to live the teaching, they wanted to do it. Being a disciple is not just learning, it's living. It's living out the very things that Jesus is teaching. It's incomplete just to know doctrine. It's it's incomplete. You can be unchanged. And they were thinking devotion in the way that you have devotion towards someone that you love. When the apostles preached, they felt affection for the words that they spoke and wanted to live them out. Some translations say that they continued steadfastly. They didn't just try it one time, they tried to make it a lifestyle. Oh, if the church would obey Jesus like that today, right? Oh, if we take him seriously and do what he says and do what he asks of us, we'd look different. And it says that they gave themselves to the apostles' teaching, and what else? Fellowship. That's not a word that we use very often. Fellowship. Unless you're a Lord of the Rings fan, you're like fellowship of the ring, yeah, right? Um, but it's a really rich word. The biblical world is koinania, and it it it's a it's a picture of community in a way that is like almost idyllic. It's a sense of community where everyone matters, where everyone is seen, where everyone is valued, everyone participates and brings something. And it's a it's a community where you're known and loved and you can love other people. It's this beautiful picture of family, but koinany in the Bible is is multidimensional because it means that we're having participation with God and we're having intimacy with God, but also we're having participation on this level and intimacy on this level. It's both family and it's like a community of that God is in the midst. And so the early church was like, I just want to live the teachings of the apostles, and I want to hang out with this people, I want to be with them. It says that awe, like awe and wonder fell upon every person in the in the gathering. Every person that claimed Christ, that they were like, wow, wow. When's the last time you went to church and went, wow, right? Wow. This is amazing. Actually, the word there is fear. It's actually a fear, not in the sense that I'm cowering because God's mad. It's just he is so enormous. He's not, you know, he's not little baby Jesus that's cute and cuddly, he's the risen sovereign savior that is ruling over all of creation in the cosmos. And he wants to come and visit his church through his Holy Spirit. And he was showing up in the gatherings of the early church, and they knew it, and it both excited them and terrified them. Because when God shows up, anything is possible. That's cool. That's a I think that's a play-doh lid, right? Did you guys see that? If you didn't back, you don't see it. You know, my wife and I work um in in missions, and one of the missionary couples that we support, there they do missions work in Bolivia and South America. Amazing people. And um, I can't remember a while back. We were the the couples, Paul and Kristen Hoffman. They're just amazing, I just real, real deal followers of Jesus. And Kristen was telling telling us this story that she was living in New York, she was in her early 20s, and her brother was living in Philadelphia, and he called her up and said, Kristen, you've got to come to Philadelphia. She said, Why? And she said, because God's in Philadelphia. She said, What are you talking about? God's in Philadelphia. I I found this group of people that that that that are walking with Jesus, and and it's amazing. Like, like people come and they never want to leave, and there's miracles happening, and and and like there's there's people are getting uh radically changed, and drug addicts are being set free, and people that led messed up lives are being cleaned up, and you gotta come because Jesus is in Philadelphia. True story. And so she trusted her brother because she knew her brother wasn't a freak. And I mean, having a credible witness is actually helpful, right? It makes a huge difference. So it's like, I'm gonna go to Philadelphia and see um and see what this thing is. And she showed up and she never left. She moved to Philadelphia because God was there. And God was not just in the city of Brotherhood, but he was working in this new church that was forming that was gathering lots of people, and God was on the move. And when you gathered in the meetings, you had a sense that the Lord was here. And every time you gathered, you think, what can happen? Like God is here, and people were just attracted to it. They weren't attracted because it was slick, you know what I mean? It didn't have air conditioning and carpeting and all the amenities. People were attracted because when they came, they encountered the living God. And this is what's happening in the book of Acts, and this is what's happening all over the world. The awe and wonder of the gospel and of who Jesus is. This is the community of faith. Let's read on. In verse 44, it says this all who believed were together and had all things in common. Now, if you remember last week when Matt was talking about this 3,000 people that came to Jesus, they were from all over the world. They were from everywhere. And in the prophecy that he was talking about was Joel's prophecy. It was about this whole idea that everyone's going to be the same. That it doesn't matter whether you're a male or female, or whether you're Jewish or you're European, it doesn't matter whether you're young or old. That in Jesus, when the Spirit of God is poured out, everyone is the same. Everyone, not that we're the same, but that we have a similar value, not that we're all like unisex or anything, you to age. You know what I mean? But there was this democratization that happened within the people of God where everyone was valued, everyone brought something. And and we see that in in the church. They basically say that people were together. I want to be here. And we don't focus in our differences. What unites us is our love for Jesus and our love for each other. And that great commonality is what made the church in Jerusalem spectacular. And there were challenges too, because there was people that, you know, Jews, the Jews were really particular folks about tradition, and and and then you have, you know, these um uh you know gentile Jews that became Christians and they're uh they're they're from the Greek world. There was just some tension that happens. There were some things that they just weren't quite as good as the you know as the the Jewish Christians. But in this context, when everyone was together, they didn't focus in on pedigree, they focused in on Jesus. And they loved each other and they welcomed new people. I mean, this is like an invitation for our place. I mean, I just love the fact last Sunday, there was like three guys that walked in the church, like, hey, I heard the music. Can I come? Like, like, yeah, man, come, you can come, come. He was like walking down the street and he heard the music. He said, I want to come. And he and he he was just like curious, what's this singing about? Like when God starts to move, when He's He wants to come and He wants to meet us in ways that we haven't yet experienced as a family, as a as a church. And He wants us to love each other because He loves all of us. And I I've actually experienced this like in a really significant way. When I first came to faith, it was a vineyard church in Wycliffe, and the uh the pastor, his name's Brent Paulson, and I was part of a small group, and in this group, it made no sense that we were together. We were the oddest group of people that loved each other. You know, we had like a bartender, and we had like we we had some some young adults, we had this old old woman, her name was Joan, she was like 65, and she wore like sweaters with little button-down collars, and she was in our small group, and we had, you know, my friend Dick, and it was just it was it made no sense. Different education levels, different, we had African American, Oliver Porter. We don't it made no sense that we we were together, other than the fact that we loved God and we were pursuing Jesus. And it was it was in that context that I looked. Learned so much. I learned about who Jesus was. I learned how to worship. I mean, not like perform worship, but actually like pray and praise God in a way that it just moved my heart in this little this little group. And even though we were so different, I remember one time the Dick Bokel and I were talking. This is a long time ago, guys. It's a long time ago. And and Dick was a computer guy. And we were super excited because Windows 3.1 came out. Like we had a graphic user interface. It was like, wow, graphic user interface. No more C, you know, whatever. No one. And so Dick, he loved computers. He was talking to me. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And he got this new computer. It was a 286 and 256 megabyte RAM. And Joan was sitting there and she like raised her hands. And this wasn't like part of the small group, but she said, What language are you speaking? This little old woman. And we just laughed. We said, Joan, you're awesome. Like she was like one of my friends. Like, I just loved her. And Joan, she would go every week to a nursing home to like people that were in a nursing home that had no family, and sit with them and pray with them and share the love of God. She was a faithful witness. But we were the oddest group. And I think the church, when it's Jesus built it, it's an odd group of people. Because it makes no sense of why we're together other than Him. And we what we share in common overshadows any differences in race or education or pocketbook. All that stuff doesn't mean very much. So in verse 45, it says this, and they began selling their possessions and belongings and distributing that the proceeds to all, to any who had need. So you know you start loving people when you start selling your Xbox and your PlayStation. And people, because of love, because they realized what we have together is so valuable. It's more precious than stuff. Do you see what they're getting rid of? It's stuff. It's stuff. And you know, in our culture, we trip over this. Stuff owns us. We give our affections to stuff, we pursue stuff, we collect stuff. And these guys, when the spirit of God is on them and they're in community and they're obeying the teaching of their leaders, they're like, they're like, they're gladly selling their stuff and bringing the money to help other people. You know, we as Americans, we don't get this. My wife and I said we work in missions, we we work in East Africa. And it is Africa's got some problems with money for sure. There's some big problems with money. But one of the things that they that in the African culture, if you have something and you withhold it, to it is like sin. If you have provision to help someone and you like like hide it and think, oh no, no, no. I don't, you know, it's almost like within the church, within family, that's that that it's expected that you share. It's so different from how we think. I mean, I love all the like minimalist living and tiny home stuff. I dream about like, what if we had nothing? And we my wife, we we we want something, but but you know what I mean? What would it be like to live simple, right? That's what they did. When you can tell when the Spirit of God, when God is present with the community, because radical generosity just happens. And something really cool happened just two two weeks ago, three weeks ago. One of our young adult guys came up to me and he after service, he said, I was talking to this new guy, and I just realized he has all these needs. Like he was saying, Hey, he, you know, I just have some needs. And he didn't he didn't approach him saying, I have needs. This young guy was just talking to him. He said, This guy is so sweet. He's like, I really like him. And he found out through the conversation that he had some real challenges. Well, afterwards, he comes to me and says, I've got like everything I think he needs, just like laying around at my house. I'm gonna put together a bag and bring it to the office because I'm gonna be traveling for a couple weeks. Would you give it to him? And we did last week. You know what's cool about this story is it he it wasn't like you need to do this. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I want you to find a person that you can, you know, collect your sell your stuff or give your stuff away. This was birthed out of someone that noticed in the person, and they need something, and I have it. Why wouldn't I share it? Right? I was so proud. I was so like, this is this is a sign of the Spirit of God moving when people are spontaneously without you know someone guilting them, being generous. I think I think this challenges the American culture. It just does because we're collectors of stuff, and so much of our identity isn't is in these things. And to the early church, their identity was in a person, not possessions. Plain and simple. Verse 46 says this, and day by deep day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God, verse 47, and having the favor of all people in the Lord added to their number day by day, those who are being saved. Do you see that? Day by day, every day, the people were going to the temple. They were going to church every day, big church, like this. They would go to the temple, and in the afternoon, a good Jew would pray in the afternoon. They pray three times a day, but oftentimes they'd, if they were in Jerusalem, they at three o'clock, they would go to the temple and they would pray. And this became the meeting place for the church. There was like a uh like a um, it was Solomon's colonnade, it was like a porch with pillars and it was a covering, but there was no walls. And that's where the church met. They would go pray together, then they would go over underneath the roof. It was like a church without walls. It was like the first church without walls. And then the apostles would teach there. They would teach, and it would be open air so everyone could hear the apostles' teaching. People would gather under the porch because it was it's sunny, it's hot, right? So get under the shade. And then after that, they would, what does it say? They would go to their homes and eat together. It was a picture of community. Like every day they did this, not just one day a week. They're hanging, they can't get enough of each other. Like they didn't have electricity, but it's it's like you went, you almost need to turn, like, guys, go home, go, go. They couldn't, you couldn't break up the party. Did you ever go to a good party and you couldn't break it up? It's a good thing, but it's also like it's like you gotta go home, man. It's like, but they did not want to leave because they were in love with God and they love being together, you know. And when we're together, the dynamic, like when I I'm a worshiper, so I listen to worship music and I walk and I praise God. It's different, and it's good, but it's different when I'm here with you. It's different. Because there's a dynamic of us being together, worshiping. There's a dynamic of us being together, praying together. Next week, there's a dynamic of us being together, eating together. There's something about us living life together in the most basic, simple ways. And I love this. It says that they they received their food with a glad and generous heart. I don't like, I think that's interesting that you receive food with a jet like with generosity. I would think I receive food with thankfulness, but but that means they're that their posture of receiving something that they desire is to give it away right away. Just to give it away. Like you put something in my hand, God, you give me pita and hummus and tubuli. I mean, I would run around the back of the building and eat it myself. But these guys were were like, they were, you know what I mean? They were just they were generous with what they what they had. It's a it's just a beautiful picture. And actually, the word generosity means single. They had a single heart, they weren't divided, they weren't fragmented, they didn't have all these passions, they had one passion, and everything flowed out from that. And you know the amazing thing is that this community bore fruit. It says at the end of verse 47 that the Lord did what? He added to their number every single day. More people kept coming, more people kept coming, more people kept coming. And frankly, as important as it is to have supernatural signs and wonders, which is it is important, that God moves and does miracles and healings and like things that are just amazing. It's it is important when leaders get up and preach the gospel and preach the word of God, like when when Peter did. It's all good, it's all important. But according to this text, a community of people living together, loving God and loving each other is a witness that is powerful. It's an empowered witness. It's an empowered witness. Like it's not doing spectacular, it's eating together, loving each other, sharing your your hummus and taboole, you know, selling your PlayStation. It's all these things of living together in practical ways, of seeing people and caring for them, of welcome. What is mine is yours. This this is a miracle of the church. This is this may be one of the most powerful witnesses that we can have in this hour. Is that we would live radically different from how the culture is. Radically generous, radically committed to each other, radically committed to the goodness and the beauty and the wonder of Jesus. And I think that this is what God wants to do with every church, not just us, every church, he's wanting to do this. And he wants us to be open to it and desire it too. And you may ask yourself, how do we do it? I ask myself, how do we do that? How do you make that? We don't. We can't, but he can't. What made this group unique, this 3,000 people unique, was Matt's message last week. Is that someone preached the gospel? And Peter, when he preached the gospel, he said, he said, you know, the Jesus of Nazareth, you know, that guy that you knew that was Nazareth. I'm telling you, he's not Jesus of Nazareth only. He's Jesus who's Lord and Messiah, he's Lord and King. You got him wrong. You got him wrong, and you killed him. We killed him, you know. Not sure surely not everyone that was that was there, you know, was shouting, crucify him, but but they did kill him. We killed him too, because of our rebellion and our sin. We were complicit to the death of Jesus. And he and Peter said that you you you got Jesus wrong. He is king and he's lord, he's not just a guy from Nazareth. And then he tells them to repent, every one of you, and be baptized. And if you would do this very thing of repentance, is like changing your mind, saying, Okay, I was wrong. I totally was wrong. I didn't know. I didn't know who Jesus was, how good you were, I didn't know. Change your mind and say, I believe you are Lord, I believe you are the King. He's the coming King, guys. He's coming back. He's come I mean He's coming back, and He won't, it's gonna be amazing. It's gonna be amazing, and every knee will bow before Him. Either we do it out of love or we do it because we can't stand in His presence, and you collapse before Him in terror because He's so beautiful and powerful. And so Peter says, Repent and be baptized in water, baptized in water, and there's a promise is that you will be forgiven, and you will receive a gift, a gift of the Holy Spirit. Are you forgiven? Like, like for real. You may like if you're do you know that you're forgiven? Do you know that like everything, all the messed up stuff you've thought about that you've done, all the ways that that you've hurt God, you know, our greatest sin is against Him. It's our crazy that's like the ultimate offense. But when you know that you're forgiven, not because of what you've done, because what he did for you, it's it is liberating. It's like a it's like a load of bricks being lit. All the guilt. If you live in guilt, either, you know, it's just horrible to live in guilt, and it's inescapable. It'll build your whole life and then it'll crush you at the end. You don't have to, Jesus made a way so we don't have to do that. But Peter called them to repentance and baptism. You need to repent, turn to him, he's the boss, you're not the boss, and you need to follow him into the waters of baptism. That means your life dies and you raised again in the power of the Holy Spirit. And you too can do the impossible then. You too can walk in purity, you too can do things that you're incapable of doing before. But it happens one person at a time. How this community happens, it's not by social engineering, it's not by coercion by leaders, it's because one heart comes alive and another heart comes alive, and before you know it, you've you know you got a couple flames, and the flames become a wildfire, and then it consumes and cleanses. That's how it happens. It's it's old-time religion, right? It's old time it's repentance and baptism and surrender to Jesus, and He will give you a gift of new life, a clean heart, and power empower you to live the life that you've always wanted to live, but you couldn't do before him. This is the community, and it's possible. Jesus prayed for it, he promised it, and he's gonna do it. And we have a choice whether we say, I'm in or I'm not. We got a choice. No one can no one can uh no one can force you.