The Church Living

Alright, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, we're going to go right back to Acts. And we're going to go right back to Acts chapter 2. So Acts chapter 2 is where we're going to be once again in God's Word tonight. Say a few things before we get started. Number one, it may not sound like it, but my voice does feel a little better tonight. So we'll just see where it goes. Hopefully it's going to hold out.

I actually texted my wife last night and I said, "I can text you tomorrow, but don't call me because I'm trying to save what voice I've got left to finish these meetings out." And so she was not real happy about that, but she was glad to oblige and understand that I needed my voice to preach. So pray for me. Pray that my voice will hold out. Secondly, I don't know, Brother Chris, the one thing that might drive me from the ministry is a seven-day VBS. That's a lot of work. Five-day VBS is tough. Seven-day VBS, that would be something else. But those are always fun. Third, again, church, just let me tell you, I'm just so encouraged.

I don't get out of my little corner of Northwest Alabama very often. I don't get out of my office at Grace Life Church for the shoals very often. Most of the time, my role at Grace Life Church is to be the guy that stays so that Brother Jeff and Brother Steve and Dr. Seal and some of our other brothers can be the ones that go and travel. And that's wonderful. I enjoy Grace Life Church for the shoals. It doesn't bother me at all. But just being here with all of you this week has been just a blessing to my soul. I have been encouraged. I hope you have been encouraged from God's Word as well. I've said it a couple of times.

I just want you to know how special what we have as Anchored in Truth partners is. You may not get to see that as much, but I know Pastor Chris and Keith get to talk to some of the other brothers. Of course, I do as well. Just to have an international brother and sisterhood around the gospel to where you don't have to wonder, "What's that church like? What do they believe? What do they teach? What do they preach? What's their methodology?" It just all fits together in the Anchored in Truth family. We're so glad that you are a part of that. I hope that you are as well. So I have been encouraged this week.

I hope that you will be encouraged once again from God's Word. So we've been in Acts and we've been talking about the work of the Spirit in the life of the church. We did begin on Sunday morning in Acts 1 and Acts 2. There we saw the church waiting. They were waiting for the person of the Holy Spirit to come, to clothe them with power from on high, to empower them to do gospel ministry. Of course, the Holy Spirit did come. Of course, the Holy Spirit for us today is dwelling within us. The command for us is no longer to wait, but to go and to share the gospel. That's exactly what the early church did.

Once they had waited on the person of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit came, then they became the church preaching. We saw that Peter began to preach the Word of God. We know it was someone who stuck his foot in his mouth a lot. Peter was someone who made a lot of mistakes as a disciple, but when the Holy Spirit empowered him he began to boldly preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Of course, many, many were converted. So we saw the church waiting, the church preaching. Of course, last night we saw the church multiplying.

When you have gospel-centered preaching, Holy Spirit empowerment, and those two things come together then in the Lord's timing you will see real church growth, real disciples made, real lives transformed from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. And that's what we desire. That's what we want to see in the local church, not just transfer of memberships, although as Pastor Chris said last night, that does happen from time to time and we understand that. But ultimately we want to see people born again.

We want to see lost sinners here in Brookhaven, or lost sinners there in Muscle Shoals, Alabama come to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and when they come they repent, they make a public profession of faith in believers' baptism and they are added to the church. We saw that 3,000 souls were added in our text last night. So what we come to tonight from Acts chapter 2 verses 43 through 47 is what I'm entitled the church living, the church living. Or you might think of it this way, truths that define the life of the local church body. Truths that define the life of the local church body.

The Jerusalem church is being formed and founded on the message of the gospel as we have seen and people are having their lives turned upside down in a good way, in a wonderful way as God is saving them. As this is happening, as their lives are being transformed, as their lives are really being turned upside down through the gospel, they then begin to live their lives in the community of the local church. And we see in these verses that there are some defining characteristics of the early church that are timeless, that are still applicable for us today as we live our lives in the modern local church.

Now some of you might be familiar with a book written by Mark Devern known as "9 Marks of the Healthy Church." It's a wonderful book. I read it many years ago. Sometimes, I still read that book, pull it out as a reference of sort. But what I want us to look at tonight are not the nine marks, but what I have are seven marks of a healthy church. As a matter of fact, we're only going to look at five of them. But let me go ahead and just give you the seven that I see from this text as a way of introducing the material. The seven marks of a healthy church. Number one, reverence. Reverence. Number two, regenerate church membership.

We talked about that a little bit last night, so I'm going to skip over that one tonight. Number three, generous love. Number four, unity. Number five, joyous fellowship. Number six, God-centered praise. And number seven, evangelistic witness. There's your seven marks of a healthy church. So let's jump in here and let's begin to look at the church living, these defining characteristics of the life of the local church. Number one, church life should be characterized by reverence. Let's read our text together here tonight. Acts 2 beginning in verse 43.

Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe, and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common. And they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need, day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. Verse 47, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you once again for your word tonight. And once again, we acknowledge to you that we need to be taught from it. Father, I thank you for these people that are here on a Tuesday night. And Father, as has already been mentioned, Lord, we can grow tired at times. Lord, I know that everyone here has had a busy day and they have families and they have life happening at home and they have jobs. But Lord, I pray that tonight you be gracious and in the midst of us possibly being physically or mentally tired that you would, by a work of your spirit, once again open our eyes to see the truths that we need to see from your word.

Father, I pray that we would leave here changed, that we would leave here challenged, that we would leave here having been conformed a little bit more to the image of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray these things in his name. Amen. Point number one, church life should be characterized by reverence. Verse 43, they're the first phrase that we see of this church that has been transformed by the gospel. It says of them that everyone kept feeling a sense of awe. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe. This is a great place for us to start when examining the defining characteristics, the marks of a healthy local church.

Because awe and reverence and holy terror, which is also another phrase that could be used for this word awe, but awe and reverence and holy terror are so often missing in local church life today. It says here in this text that everyone, I believe that's including both those in the church and those who are just simply here witnessing outside the church what God was doing in the church of Jerusalem, everyone kept feeling a sense of awe, a sense of holy terror, a sense of reverential fear.

This points to the truth that both those inside the church family and those unbelievers who were witnessing what God was doing through this church family and in this church family had a sense of reverence due to the fact that God was working so mightily among them. Now this is not the only place in the book of Acts that we see this holy fear, this reverential fear, this awe and amazement at what God is doing. Just a couple chapters later in Acts chapter 5 we have an incident with two characters known as Ananias and Sapphira.

Ananias and Sapphira had lied to the Holy Spirit about an offering that they had brought and because of their sin God ultimately disciplines them and he disciplines them by killing them. And in Acts 5.11 after Ananias and Sapphira have been put to death as the Lord disciplined them it says this, "And great fear came over the whole church and over all who heard of these things." So both within the church and outside the church as they were witnessing what God was doing great fear, reverence, a holy terror came over these people.

In Acts 5.13 just a couple verses later in this same account it says, "But none of the rest as those outside the church dared to associate with them." That's those inside the church. However those people did hold them in high esteem. Church did you know that God is capable of working in such a way that entire communities of people take notice and respond with a reverential fear of God and His awesome presence. Now I think many times we know that but I think sometimes we forget that the same God who was working in this way in Acts is the same God that we serve today.

He can still work in such magnificent and marvelous ways that not only will Grace Life Church of Brookhaven be in awe of Him but also the whole community of Brookhaven will say God is doing something down there at that church. Something that's supernatural, something that's bigger than them, something that's grander than them, something that's more amazing than what they could do on their own. Sadly there's not enough of God in many local church settings today to even evoke an attitude of holy reverence or fear or awe of Him by the people either inside or outside of the local church.

If we're not careful the church can devolve into nothing more than a social gathering where one attends to hang out with his or her friends or to fulfill a merely felt need and where the God of the Scriptures is never truly worshiped in spirit and in truth. Brothers and sisters in our worship of God we should never be trite or flippant or irreverent or silly. You know I see more silly things being done in corporate worship gatherings in the name of God than we ever have and that is not what God desires. The kind of worship that God desires is reverential.

Something that produces a holy fear in our hearts of our Lord a holy awe and amazement of who He is. In the church we're not just playing games when we gather together. We're not just showing up because well I got nothing else to do on that Sunday or well that's just kind of where my friends will be. Now your friends may be here and we're going to talk about fellowship here in just a moment but we are here to worship the triune God of the universe and to stand in awe of Him and to be amazed at who He is.

In the Old Testament when Isaiah was in the presence of the Lord seeing this vision this is what he saw in the year of King U's highest death Isaiah 6 1 through 3 a familiar text. I saw the Lord sitting on a throne lofty and exalted with the train of His robe filling the temple. Saraphim stood above Him each having six wings with two He covered His face and with two He covered His feet and with two He flew and one called out to another and said holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of His glory. Look that's something that evokes a referential fear of God. That's the way worship is being conducted in the presence of God.

We turn all the way to Revelation chapter 4 we see some visions of the throne room of God here. Listen to Revelation 4 5 through 11 and notice there's nothing trite there's nothing silly there's nothing flippant about what's going on here in this text about the worship that's being seen. Revelation 4 5 through 11 out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and pills of thunder and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne which are the seven spirits of God and before the throne there was something like a sea of glass like crystal and in the center and around the throne four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind.

The first creature was like a lion and the second creature like a calf and the third creature had a face like that of a man and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle and the four living creatures each one of them having six wings are full of eyes around and within and day and night day and night day and night they do not cease to say holy holy holy is the Lord God the Almighty who was and who is and who is to come.

And the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne to him who lives forever and ever the 24 elders will fall down before him who sits on the throne and will worship him who lives forever and ever and will cast their crowns before the throne say worthy are you our Lord and our God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and because of your will they existed and were created.

When the church truly encounters God and the church truly learns of God from the scriptures as the scriptures are exposited and we learn more of our God and we learn more of our Savior and more of how he is at work through his gospel we will worship with reverence and awe and wonder. She will be characterized with a holy fear of her creator Savior God and all triteness and all flippancy and all silliness will evaporate from her worship. Now just to be sure that you don't misunderstand what I'm getting at I don't equate flippancy with joy. Okay reverence and awe include joy. I mean it's a fruit of being filled with the spirit love joy.

So I'm not talking about a joyless stoic type of worship but what I'm talking about is a reverential worship that includes the joy of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we see here in Acts as they were in awe of him. Now you may be tempted to say yes we see that they were feeling a sense of awe but look at what was going on there in that church. It says many wonders and signs were taking place there through the apostles.

You might be tempted to say yeah I see the awe but this was a time when God was performing wonders and signs through the apostles and we know from our studies of the scripture that those things are no longer these wonders and signs are no longer needed for today. We have the finished canon of God's word and we look to the scriptures for those things but you might be saying well yeah if I could see signs and wonders I'd be more in awe of God. You might be saying if Pastor Chris would show up and heal everyone every Sunday I'd be more in awe of God. I'd have more reverential fear. Well here's what I would say to that.

I would submit to you that as powerful as the signs and wonders that were being performed by the apostles were no less powerful was the testimony of the 3,000 souls who by God's grace had been transformed by the preaching of the gospel. Sometimes we want to talk about signs and wonders and I'm like look the greatest miracle of all is the conversion of a dead sinner to someone who now loves the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what we're seeing that miracle still today. God is still saving sinners. John MacArthur said it this way the greatest of all miracles is the transformation of rebellious sinners into his beloved children.

No one here in the early church was in all of the structures that they built. No one here in the early church was in all of the leaders. They were in awe of God and of what he was doing among them. Show me a church that is characterized by flippancy and triteness in their worship and I can tell you that that is a church with a deficient view of God and a lack of the presence of God's spirit in their times of worship. We can't be silly in the presence of a holy God. Now we can be filled with joy but that joy is also combined with holy fear of who he is. A.W.T.

Hosier said this worship is pure or base in large part due to our thoughts about God. Therefore, he says what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. Church you know what Pastor Chris's job is when he stands before you each time to preach is to give you as much of God and his glory and his grandeur as is humanly possible so that you may be more in awe of who God is than when you came in this building. That's his job. That's what preaching is. Give the people more of God so that your worship may rise higher and higher and higher to the standard that God's word desires it to be.

You know what Pastor Keith's job is when he sings? It's to sing songs that are so filled with truth that you forget about the piano or the guitar or whatever else, the screen, the background and you're caught up in worshiping God for who he is. That you're amazed that you're filled with a reverential joy that you get to worship God because of what he's done in your life. This reverence should characterize church life. Well, Greysoft Church of the Shoals is known for a lot of things in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. But you know what we've had people tell us before? We've had people say you know what? Y'all are kind of church for grown-ups.

Here's what they mean by that. At least this is what I think they mean by that. I think what they mean by that is that we're serious about it. We don't play games with it. We're not messing around. When it comes to the things of the Lord, we're very serious about it. I'll take it. I'll take that description. It doesn't bother me. So church life is to be characterized by reverence. Secondly, church life should be characterized by generous love. Church life should be characterized by generous love. Let's continue reading our text.

"Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe, how many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles, and all those who had believed were together and had all things in common. And they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need." Down through the ages, people have often looked at these verses and wrongly assumed that they indicate some sort of communal living. I don't know if y'all have any "Christian communes" here in the Brookhaven area. We actually have one not too far from the shoals.

If you're on highway 157, which eventually gets you down through Coleman, Alabama and connects you to I-65, if you're ever on that highway, you'll actually see some signs for a Christian commune. It's a little community where they've separated themselves from the rest of the world, and they all just live right there together. No one goes outside the community, not letting a whole lot of people inside the community, and they have taken these verses and many times said, "Okay, we're going to pull away from everything.

We're going to live in a commune where we just all gather together and share our things." Down through the ages, have wrongly assumed that this was a sort of primitive form of communism, even a primitive form of socialism, a political ideology where we're just to share everything and no one's to have personal property and no one's to actually own anything, but we just all pull it together and everyone just takes what they need from it. But these assumptions are both wrong and should be discarded.

What these verses do teach us is that the early church community was characterized by a love that fleshed itself out in the form of generosity among the members of the church. In the context of this passage, we see that church members were selling their property and possessions so that any who might have need could be well taken care of and have their needs met. This was no law that compelled them to give in such a manner. There was no political ideology that compelled the church to give in this manner.

It was Christian love, Christian love that compelled the church to hold their possessions loosely so that at times they might sell them for the good of their brothers and sisters in Christ. Now we see this in other portions of scripture in 1 John chapter 3 verses 16 through 18. It says, "We know, loved by this, that he laid down his life for us." There we have the example of our love, Christ himself. He laid down his life for us. Mr.

John said since that is our example, he goes on in verse 16, "And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." Now we can't lay down our lives in a substitutional way that Jesus did, but we can lay them down in another way in verse 17 of 1 John 3. "Whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?" Little children let us not love with word or with tongue, but indeed and in truth. That is exactly what the early church was doing.

Many that were now a part of the early church, some of them were traveling to Jerusalem to be a part of the Pentecost festivities, and while they were there, God had saved them and they were displaced from their home. They needed some housing. They needed some meals, and so people were willing to do that. Some no doubt had been converted there on the day of Pentecost, and they had been persecuted to the point that they had lost their job. They had been displaced from their work, and now they were in need. And so the church is not going to just say, "You know, brother, I love you and I'll pray for you." That's what we do sometimes, right?

It's kind of an out umbrella, "I'll pray for you." And by the way, we should pray for each other. But sometimes we should take that extra step of Christian love and say, "What do you need?" And that's what they were doing here in the early church. They weren't loving in word only, but indeed and in truth. They should characterize the church, John 1335, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another." Now brothers and sisters, that's not talking about love for the world. We should do that too, but that's talking about love for one another in the church.

That's talking about love for your brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul said it this way in Galatians 6.10, "So then while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people and especially to those who are of the household of the faith." Now, since you guys are very similar to us at Grace Life Church of the Shoals, I know that you have a structure here in place in the local church that allows you to easily carry out the command to generously love one another in tangible and practical ways. You know what that structure is? We call it small group ministry. I know y'all do some small group ministry here as well.

For us, small group ministry is that venue where we're in little smaller groups and so we can practically, tangibly love one another in real ways. They come up through the course of that small group time. You know what? It doesn't matter if you help with the bed babies or if you're in the ladies' small group class or the men's small group class. When you learn of someone who has a need, Christian love should compare you to say, "How can we help this brother? How can we help this sister? How can we help this couple?

How can we help this young man or this young lady?" One of the things that we're efforting at in small groups is to provide fellowship to meet individual needs. That's exactly what the local church here in Jerusalem was doing at this time. Sometimes the need may be so great that you feel compelled to give up something of your own so that the need of another might be met. That's the church. It's characterized by generous love. Church life should be characterized by reverence. It should be characterized by generous love. Next, we see that church life should be characterized by unity. Unity. Back to our text. They were together.

They had all things in common. They were selling their property in possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. Verse 46, "And day by day they were continuing with one mind." Continuing with one mind. Church unity and dwelling together with one mind, dwelling together in peace, is a vital aspect of local church life. The unity of a church and its ability to dwell in peace with one another has the ability to either commend the gospel that you are preaching to a world that is filled with broken people and broken relationships and hostility toward one another.

On the other hand, if you are not dwelling in peace and you are not dwelling in unity and you are not efforting to live peaceably with one another, the outside world looks in and says, "They look like us." Jesus must not have done much for them. If they fuss and fight as much as we do, then why would we want to go there? God's word is filled with teaching that demonstrates the importance of unity in the local church. Let me just read a handful. We'll just hit these rapid fire.

Matthew 5, 9, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." First Corinthians 12, 12 through 13, shows the unity of the church here when it says, "As the body is one, and yet as many members and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jew or Greek, whether slave or free, we were all made to drink from one spirit." No matter where you came from, no matter what your background is, if you've been born again through the gospel, you have been made one with your brothers and sisters here at Grace Life Church of Brookhaven.

You may be really different from each other. Look, Grace Life Church of the Shoals, we've got a whole lot of people and they're all really different. I tell my family all the time, we're all a little weird. Everybody's a little strange, but the gospel unifies us around the Lord Jesus Christ. First Corinthians 12, 25, "That there may be no division in the body, but the members may have the same care for one another." Galatians 3, 26, 28, "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ, and there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Romans 12, 18, "I wish I had a dollar for every time I have counseled someone to heed this verse, if possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men." Romans 14, 19, "So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another." That's not all of them, but that's a whole lot of scripture on living peaceably, on living unified as a church family with one another. It's important.

We have been brought together and unified through the blood of Jesus Christ, people from different backgrounds, schools, education levels, ethnicities, socioeconomic levels, whatever you want to fill in the blank there, we are unified around the gospel of Jesus Christ. The church, the local church, is a wonderful mosaic work of God in which He has brought all types and sorts of people together to form His family of unified brothers and sisters in Christ. This is why in many ways, and maybe even for some of you, why in many ways the family of God, the local church, is more dear to us at times than our own blood relatives.

We have many people at Grace Life Church of the Shoals, and maybe some of you are like that this year in Brookhaven. We have many people at Grace Life Church of the Shoals, and they love their blood relatives, but their blood relatives are not born again. They're not Christians, and they have been saved now by the blood of Jesus Christ. They've been brought to Grace Life Church of the Shoals, and they would tell you, "Look, this is our family. This is our family." God has done that sort of work in their lives.

However, since we still live in a fallen world, unity and peace among ourselves in the church is often a slippery virtue that we have trouble holding onto in our relationships. Philippians 4, 2 through 3, we mentioned these ladies, I think maybe in one of our other times, but to show you how slippery it is, the church at Philippi was a wonderful church. They were commended in many ways, and yet at the end of Paul's letter to them, he says this, "I urge Eudia and I urge Syntheke to live in harmony in the Lord." Why is he urging them to do that? Because they weren't living in harmony.

We don't know what these two ladies were fussing and fighting about, but they were at odds with one another. Paul saw it as a matter that needed to be addressed. He says, "Help them to live in unity." You ever heard of Paul? Barnabas? I mean, heroes of the faith. And yet in Acts 15, 39 and 40, it says, "There occurred such a sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas that they separated from one another. Barnabas took Mark with him and so the way to Cyprus, Paul, to Osiris and left, being commended by the brethren to the grace of the Lord." It's tough. Unity's hard.

I mean, those were the brothers set aside in Acts 13 to be the first missionaries out of the church. And two chapters later, they have such a sharp disagreement. We're not told exactly what it's about, but such a sharp disagreement that they say, "We can't work together anymore." We'll go our separate ways. John MacArthur says, "Few things demoralize, discourage and weaken a church as much as bickering, backstabbing and fighting among its members. And few things," he says, "so effectively undermine its testimony before the world.

Fractured fellowship robs Christians of joy and effectiveness robs God of glory and robs the world of the true testimony of the gospel." Just quickly give you some practical principles for maintaining unity in the local church. Just going to mention them. I'll give you a verse, but we won't even read it. Matthew 7, 1 through 5, "Practice humility in your judgment of others." You know what the Matthew 7 text is? It's the one people like to quote, "Judge not lest you be judged." That's the scripture reference they gave you. You know what? It's these scriptures are often taken out of balance.

People often when you go to them and try to help them, reprove them, they're like, "Well, you judge not lest you be judged." A lot of times people use it as an excuse to sin. But you know what? Those verses do mean that we should be careful about judging others. We should be charitable, gracious to practice humility in your judgment of others. Number 2, Proverbs 26, 20, "Refuse to gossip." Number 3, James 4, 11, "Refuse to slander." You know, gossip is when you're saying things that you don't know whether they're true or not. Slander is when you're saying something that's probably true, but you have no business telling someone else about it.

Just because it's true doesn't mean you need to be telling other folks what's going on. Number 4, Proverbs 19, 11, "Learn to overlook an offense." Brothers and sisters, do we not live in a world that gets offended over every tiny thing? Don't be that way as a Christian. Be hard to offend. Learn to overlook an offense. Every offense doesn't have to be World War III. Sometimes you just say, "You know what? God's been gracious to me.

I can be gracious to that brother or sister and just go on loving Jesus and loving them." Number 5, Matthew 18, 15 through 17, there may be times where something does need to be dealt with, and when that time comes, decide to deal with that conflict biblically. God's given us a process for it. Number 6, Matthew 5, 23 and 24, "Practice repentance and reconciliation." Practice repentance and reconciliation. Church life should be characterized by reverence, should be characterized by a generous love. Church life should be characterized by unity. Next church life should be characterized by joyous fellowship.

By the way, Grace Liefel, Brookhaven, I just want to encourage you. I've seen this a lot just in the time I've been here with you. Joyous fellowship. Again, there in verse 46, "They were continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart." With gladness and sincerity of heart. It would only make sense that a church family that was demonstrating a generous love toward one another and dwelling together in unity was also a church that was experiencing joyous fellowship with one another.

Brothers and sisters, the church is the place where the world should look in and see the most joyous fellowship taking place among its members. Now again, I'm not referring to superficial happiness or merely being bound together by our hobbies or our similar interests. I'm referring to a joyous fellowship that can only occur among those who have genuinely been born again through the grace of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. A few things here about the fellowship of the early church. Number one, notice they were taking their meals together. To share a meal together in ancient times was a sign of intimacy.

To refuse to eat with someone in the ancient world was a sign of hostility. So the fact that we see the Christians here taking their meals together was a sign of their intimacy with one another. Again, brothers and sisters, remember the context of where we are in Acts 2. Many of these folks as they were being saved were once those who were saying to crucify Jesus. And by the way, they're still right in the middle of the rest of the crowd that was very hostile to Jesus. And so all they had was one another. There was hostility all around them. And so their joyous fellowship came from knowing you have been saved by the gospel too.

Christ has saved me also. Let's enjoy a meal together and celebrate His goodness toward us. You know, we might be trending even in our culture towards there being more hostility towards believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. It may get at some point over the next 20, 30, 40 years where we have hostility all around us and then we will really know what it means to be like the early church and say, "Well, we've got a joyous fellowship because we know all of us have been born again. We've got each other. That's all we've got." So they were taking their meals together, but they weren't just taking their meals together.

They were taking their meals together with gladness. It was not a burdensome activity for them to enjoy fellowship together, but they were taking these meals together with gladness. How could they not fellowship with joy and gladness? They had been saved from this perverse generation from their sins and from the wrath of God. They had been born again and they had been made new creatures and they shared the joy of the Holy Spirit at work in each of them. You know, brothers and sisters, sometimes we can just take our church family for granted. Can we not? I can do that. I hope this isn't too transparent.

Look, there are some times where it's a Wednesday night and we're having a meal or something about grace life and I think, "Man, I got another Wednesday night meal." I may think that because I have to organize some of them. I don't know, but I can take that for granted. Don't do that. Do it with gladness. The word for gladness, scholars tell us, literally means exaltation or extreme joy. It's a privilege to get to be with our brothers and sisters in Christ. It's not a burden. They were taking their meals together. They were doing it with gladness and they were also doing it, it says, with sincerity of hearts.

Again, scholars tell us this is a word that literally meant free from rocks or smooth. It points to the truth that here in this joyous fellowship, there were no hidden motives, no hidden agendas in their fellowship. They were not competing with one another or comparing themselves with one another or jockeying for a position of prominence among one another. They were sincere and genuine in their love for one another. They were practicing Christian fellowship. Martin Lloyd-Jones said this about fellowship, "It means a deep association, a true communion, a close relationship.

It is not just meeting occasionally in a church building, shaking hands at the end of a service or a meeting and going home. True fellowship is never anything superficial. It is deep. It is vital." He says, "We're all part of one another's lives." So church life should be characterized by this joyous fellowship. Let's do one more. We'll end with this one. Church life should be characterized by an evangelistic witness, an evangelistic witness. Verse 47, "They were praising God," there's another one if you want to write it now. We're not looking at it. God sent her praise.

"They were praising God and having favor with all the people." The Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. We know this was an evangelistic church because we were told that the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. The Lord saves all sinners we have seen this week through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is how the church multiplies. Faith comes by hearing, hearing the word about Christ. This church had been doing that. I believe there are two things to make note of here about the gospel witness of the early church in Jerusalem.

First off we see there from the text that they were having favor with all the people. I believe this points to the fact that their good works were commending the gospel that they preached. Their good works were commending the gospel that they preached. Now let me make clear from the outset that good works done in and around the community do not save anyone. We know that. You know that. I know that. Good works done in and around the community do not save anyone. Now some throughout church history have wrongly claimed that the church's sole responsibility is to just love neighbor through good works. That is a bit unbalanced.

It is not the church's sole responsibility. We have already seen in our meetings this week that that is not even their primary responsibility. The primary responsibility is to give them the gospel. However the good works performed by the church in their community can do much to authenticate and commend the gospel message that we are striving to preach. In short we need to do both. The early church was an example of people who demonstrated the genuineness of their faith through their works. Consider these words from the ancient philosopher Aristides. He wrote these in the first century about the local church.

Now Aristides was not a believer but he is writing about the church and what he saw from the church. He said this concerning the church, "They do not commit adultery or immorality." He said, "Whenever they are judges they judge uprightly." He said, "Those who oppress them they exhort and make them their friends." He said, "Falsehood is not found among them." He said, "When the Christians find a stranger they bring him into their homes and rejoice over him as a true brother." He said, "If they find poverty in their midst and they do not have spare food they fast two or three days in order that the needy might be supplied with the necessities." There is a lost man, a lost philosopher looking in at the local church and saying, "You know what?

I don't believe in Jesus. I'm not one of them but here's what I see them doing." It made a difference. Their good works commended the gospel that they were preaching to the community. All of those things worked to give us favor with people at times and to commend the gospel message we preach as real, genuine, authentic.

James and Fawcett Brown said it this way, "These works commending themselves by their lovely demeanor to the admiration of all who observe them." Look Grace Liefe-Brooke, if you're going to be the church that preaches the gospel, the gospel that offends, if you're going to be the church that does church discipline and stands on the word of the Lord in those times, if you're going to be the church that preaches a reformed doctrine of salvation, you know what? You also need to be the happiest, most joyous, most willing to serve in the community of Brookhaven because then when the enemy tries to come in and say, "Well, you know that church.

They're the church that's a little hard on things." Other people are going to say, "Well, you know what? They were the church that was there serving when nobody else would." They were there church loving when nobody else loved. I know those people down there, they're honest people, they're upright people. They're trying to honor the Lord. They're good for this community. Now again, I know that that doesn't save anyone, but it does show that God's work among you is real. It's genuine. It's not fake.

One said it this way, "So unified, joyful, and spirit filled were they that their very existence." The Church's very existence was a powerful testimony to the truth of the gospel. You know what? It's possible at times that the world hates our gospel, may even look with some hostility on you, but then at the same time may hold you in high esteem because of who you are. That's what we see in the early church. Their good works come into the gospel they preached. Then, of course, secondly, we've been hitting on it already, their gospel was proclaimed boldly. They didn't stop at good works.

They knew they must continue to boldly proclaim the gospel. In fact, the entire book of Acts is evidence of bold evangelistic work by the early church. We've already seen Peter preaching. We see John preach. We see Stephen preach. We see Philip preach. We see Paul. We see Barna Francisco on and on and on and on. We'll end with this, "Effective evangelism was the ultimate impact of the first fellowship of spiritual duties and character." In this right ear, true evangelism flows from the life of a healthy church. True evangelism flows from the life of a healthy church. I believe we squeezed five marks of a healthy church into our time tonight.

Grace off, Brookhaven. Look, I want to encourage you. I see these marks in you, but you're not done. Just like I see these marks at Grace Off Church of the Shoals, but you know what I tell people at Grace Off Church of the Shoals? They're not done. We need to grow. We need to mature. We need to be more intentional. We need to continue to strive after these things for the glory of God and for the good of His church. Let's pray. Father, again, we thank You for Your Word. Thank You for our time in it tonight. I pray that you will be with us.