- I love that intro video, it's like when you're at a game in the stadium, and the team's about ready to run out into the field and all of a sudden, they hype the crowd up and it's like, "Yeah!" I feel like we should play it and like run out of church. Right? Because we're not spectators. We're we're players on the field. We're in the game. And we're going to talk more about that here this morning. Well, like I said earlier, my name is Seth Fagerland, one of the pastors here at Rockpoint. Thank you for joining us. If you're new to Rockpoint, welcome, welcome online. Those joining us online, down in the warehouse, in the lower level. So glad that you are here joining us. We want to know who you are, so chat with us in the comment section, otherwise in the gathering area, in between services, there's next moves is there, we want to connect with you, as we seek to multiply disciples in a healthy church. Well, a quick church family announcement, we're excited at the many families that are coming here at Rockpoint, but we seem to be coming a lot during here during the second hour, as kids ministry is busting at the seams, which is a great problem to have, right? But just we want to again, let our church body know that two service are identical at 9:15, 10:45. Programming is available for both those times. If your kid needs may be a calmer learning environment, that could be a good option for them as well. The adult classes have ramped up, so there are options for you as well. And in addition to, there's a young family life group that now meets during the third hour. So you can come and worship as a family together during second hour down in the warehouse, and then there's programming available for your kids, and you can be a part of a life group, even on a Sunday morning. So something to consider as we, it's a great problem to have as we continue to grow together. But as we get ready to go into Acts chapter two, in this moment let's pray together, okay? Lord Jesus, thank you for this morning. Thank you for the freedom we have to gather here in this place. And God you are here, not because of a building, but you declare that you inhabit, you dwell in the praises of your people. So when your people gathered together for the purpose of knowing you and praising you, you said that you were there in a very real way. So now may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, oh Lord, our rock and our redeemer. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen, we will be in Acts chapter two. You can start turning there in your Bibles, if you brought one with you, if you need a Bible in front of you, it's on page 910, I believe. Fact check me on that one, but you can start turning there. We will be walking through the rest of Acts chapter two in an amazing moment of Peter's first sermon. But before we even get there, I just need to comment. I have never introduced a sermon like this before in my life. And this says, Peter, normally when you introduce, you want to share something real to life. You want to share an illustration that people can connect to, and be like, Hey, I want to listen to that. I want to engage, I want to pay attention to what's going on. And then in our passage in Acts chapter two, starting in verse 14, the apostle Peter, who again, let's pause, and remember who apostle Peter is, right? He wasn't this motivational speaker. He wasn't this smooth polished order who could captivate thousands with the gift of his speeches. He was a fishermen, all right? This guy was as blue collar as you could get from the hill country of Galilee, he was not an impressive dude. Okay? He probably stuttered, he probably said the wrong words at the wrong times, he probably got nervous getting in front of crowds of people. Right? And so you can imagine this moment where he gets up, okay, and there at the temple mount, thousands of people around the commotion, the hubbub, all sorts of things are happening. And he gets up to a place to, he gets people's attention somehow, says, Hey, Hey, over here. Yeah. This guy. Yeah, listen up. And then here's how we introduced his message. He goes, these people aren't drunk. It's only nine o'clock in the morning. That was his introduction to his sermon. To everybody's like, Hey, listen to me, these people aren't drunk. And you're like, Seth, what are you talking about? Right? Why does he have to introduce that to who is Jesus? Well, if you miss last week, we saw the major moment where The Holy Spirit came, the promised Holy Spirit that God said that he would send, that Jesus that he would send, especially after you send it on high, and it got, it was intense, it was a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it looked like tongues of fire. And I feel bad for Luke. Okay. Luke, who's writing the book of Acts, right? He didn't have words to say. He's interviewing everybody, the eye witnesses that were there, he's like, tell me what it was like. And they're like, ah, "it was like," and they couldn't even put it into words. And so he's desperately trying to describe what that moment was like to those who were there. And The Holy Spirit, remember what happened, gave those people the ability to speak in other languages that represented people from this map. Remember Roizman sharing this map. Because the book of Acts, to us to understand that God is a missionary God, when he says you will be my witnesses starting in Jerusalem, Judea, Sumeria, to the ends of the earth. Well, the Jews from all over this map gathered again in Jerusalem for Pentecost, but they were from all these different places, and they spoke all these different dialects. And when The Holy Spirit came, he gave them the ability to proclaim the wonders of God in their language, so that they asked in verse 11, they said, we hear them speaking in our own native languages, the mighty works of God that were accomplished through Jesus. So basically they asked the question, what does this mean? What does all this mean? Who is this Jesus that you are proclaiming that has accomplished this mighty work of God? And yet there was others in the crowd who scoffed at them and said, ah, don't listen to them. That's nonsense, they're just drunk. Now I want us to pause here for a moment. Okay? Because I know our tendencies. Even with great intentions, we want to take notes of what they said, what they did. We wanna get all our facts straight up here, we want to know, right? And I want us to pause in order to catch here the full implications of this moment. Because we can get lost in all the activity. We can get lost in like, oh, that mighty rushing wind. What was that like? Or tongues of fire, what was that like? Or the church was born 3000 people, 2500% growth. I mean, the book of Acts was exciting. But we can miss the razor-sharp clarity of this moment when they asked the question, who is this Jesus? And it's a question that is crucial for us today in 2021. Well as many of you know, I primarily work with high school students. All right? I love it. I love it. I've been going on my 19th year involved in student ministry of some form or fashion. And yes, it's a messy, awkward, whatever kind of life. Moment of life, right? But I love the honesty and I love that they're desperately searching for questions of who am I? What is my identity? Right? Who am I? Right? Where do I belong? Where's where's my community? And what's my purpose? What am I doing here? And for students that are here, You recognize this already of something that we've already introduced this year. We've been going through a series called real Christianity. Okay Real Christianity as we've been going through the major tenants of what is real Christianity all about. Here's why. For so many of you have grown up in the church, and that's great. You've heard the stories. You've heard the sermons. Awesome. Praise God for the foundation that you have. Some of you are here, you're joining us online and you're still searching out this whole church thing. And you got your question, it's like, is this really the real deal? Or is this not what I think it is. Right? And you're asking those questions. And whether you've grown up in the church or whether you're just still checking out, my concern is we now live in a culture now more than ever, that is challenging the real truth of what real Christianity is, so much so that you might have embraced a counterfeit, and that you think is the real thing. You see there's a belief system out there called progressive Christianity. It's not a new thing. It's actually a very old thing with just a new name on it. And basically the premise of it is this, that the church and Christians have gotten it all wrong, and we need to get back to what real Christianity is all about, which conveniently they happen to know. Right? But let me say this very clearly, progressive Christianity is not Christianity, and like with anything that is a counterfeit, at first, it looks like the real deal, but if you dig a little bit, you'll see it as a fake. It is not true. But for the first time in American history, and you maybe have heard me say this before on a Sunday morning, there is now a generation growing up, it's the generation that I work with on the front lines with them, for the first time ever, there's a generation that's growing up that is identified as being post-Christian. What do I mean by that? We are about 10 years behind the cultural landscape of Europe and England. And you're already seeing the reality of it there. But what I mean by post-Christian is not about years or a point on a calendar. It means that there is a generation as growing up that does not have a reference point to God, the Bible or Jesus. And now you may be thinking, Hey Seth, hold on. We're in a Minnesota. We're in America. We're, aren't we the center of Christianity? I would challenge that. I would. Because we are seeing now more and more the reality of post Christianity emerge. And I've had students in this church, in this building come on on a Wednesday night and they come in, they're all kind of bewildered and lost, which is normal for teenagers anyway. Right? But they come in, they're all, and I kind of come up and I want to do my welcome thing and be like, Hey, so glad that you're, is this your first time at Rockpoint? And I've now had on several occasions, a kid say, "this is my first time in a church ever." So yes, it is real. 17 year old kid who has no concept of who Jesus is or whatever notion they do have, it's out there. They don't know who Jesus is. Right? So progressive Christianity says that they reject the Virgin birth of Jesus. They believe that Jesus did sin, he wasn't perfect. That his miracles were misdesigned to elevate his divine status. Jesus was a good guy. He was a good teacher. He's a moral example that we should model our lives after, but we shouldn't worship him. Right? And if that is the case, then Jesus can be true for you and not for me. So the question of who is Jesus is very relevant for us today. So let's go back to Acts chapter two, let's pick it up in verse 16, where Peter begins his message. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel, and in the last days, that shall be that God declares I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams, and even on my male servants and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, fire, vapor, smoke, the sun shall be turned to darkness, the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So Peter quotes their Bible, using the prophecy from Joel describing what God was going to do. And all these signs will ultimately point to the one, again, look at verse 21 where he said that shall come to pass that anyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now underline, circle, or highlight the word Lord in your Bibles. I guess I give you permission to mark up the church Bibles I'll get in trouble later, but that's all right. But in the book of Acts, okay, Luke is writing and what's he writing in? He's writing in Greek. And so he uses the word for Lord, obviously that is capital L lowercase o-r-d, it's what's in your Bibles right? And that is the right translation there. But you'll notice if you look up Joel 2:32, in the Old Testament, in Hebrew, it's all caps, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, why? Well in Hebrew, in the Hebrew language in the Old Testament, all caps Lord was the personal proper name for the one, true God. It was Yehovah. Jehovah, you maybe have heard, Yahweh. And it meant the one, true, self existence, eternal God. Now that was a big deal. God's name, right? So back to Acts two, he goes on in verse 22 and Peter's highlighting the one, true, living God is telling from the beginning of time, the story of how you can be saved. Men of Israel, verse 22, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attest to you by God with mighty works, wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst. As you yourselves know this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. What is Peter saying? He is saying that the only God, the Lord, all caps Lord can break the laws of time and space. Why? Because he's the one who created them. He has the ability to do wonders that proves that he is real, only the one who made everything can break the laws of time and space. And so Peter says, oh by the way, you know what Jesus? Who performed these mighty works and wonders and signs in your midst? Many in that crowd that had gathered for the Pentecost had seen Jesus do some of these wonders. So there could have been some standing there who witnessed Jesus's first public miracle. Remember what that one was? The first one publicly that Jesus revealed his ability to break the laws of time and space. He turned the water into wine, right? The wedding in Canaan Galilee, that was his first time where he basically went public right? And said, Hey, I now have this ability to break the laws of time and space. And there was probably some in that crowd who witnessed Jesus's last miracle. You guys remember what that one was? The healing of Malchus. Remember Malchus? He's the guy that Peter chopped his ear off when they were trying to arrest Jesus. And Jesus came up, whoop, and like brand new ear. Right? So I get a kick out of reading this moment, again, my imagination is not in the Bible, but what if Malchus was in the crowd? Right? And Peter's there, he locks eyes with Malchus like, oh, Malchus, yeah sorry about that, man. My bad. Hey, your ear looks great, by the way. You know like, there's this is moment of like where Malchus is like, I was there. Yeah. It was like, it was me and how many other people, how many were in the crowd that fed the 5,000? Could they have been there? How many were there when Jesus cured an incurable disease of leprosy by just speaking or even physically touching it, you did not touch leprosy and Jesus touched it, and he was fine, and it was healed. Or the kid who was the cripple from the day he was born, actually it wasn't a kid, it was a man who had been crippled his entire life, Jesus declares get up and walk, and he was jumping around like a little kid on the playground. Or who was there when Jesus said, Lazarus come out of the grave. And a dead man came out of the, we sang some of these worship songs this morning. They witnessed Jesus's ability to break the laws of time and space. And he's declared that he is not the Lord of many Lords. He is the Lord of all Lords, and the Lord, the Lord Jesus promised a way to be saved through him. So Peter continues in verse 24, and he now starts quoting king David. The greatest king of the nation of Israel had ever known and through whom God had made a promise, through David, all right? Verse 24, God raised him up, losing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me for he is at my right hand. I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad, my tongue rejoiced, my flesh will also dwell in hope, for you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor will you let your holy one see corruption, you have may known to me the pass of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence. And he goes on in verse 29, brothers I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David, he died and he was buried. And his tomb is with us to this day. From the temple in Jerusalem, Peter could literally point and say, there is David's tomb. I've been there, right? There's a place in Jerusalem where David's tomb it's part of the Jerusalem moment. And Peter, oh, by the way, remember what David said? Oh yeah remember David wasn't talking about himself. David died and he stayed dead and we all can see his grave right over there. But then he continues verse 30, being there for a prophet, knowing that God's swore an oath to him, that he was set up one of his descendants on his throne. And he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. God made a promise through king David that one day a descendant would come. The Christ would come, set up an eternal kingdom and he would prove it by his resurrection from the grave. That the grave did not have power over him anymore. Okay? Remember, Christ is a title. It is a position. It is not Jesus's last name. Okay? We grew up so often, Jesus has a name tag, Jesus Christ, Jesus first name, Christ last name. No. Christ was not his last name. Christ was a title, it was a position. He was the Messiah. Verse 32, this Jesus God raised up and of that we are witnesses. Now notice he says, we. Again, who's in the crowd? It's not just Peter getting up on a stage, convincing people to listen to some crazy fishermen from the north. James and John were there. They weren't impressive either. The 12, maybe. Later on in Acts, you see that they start to get some credibility. Who else, who else is there? The 120, upon which the book of Acts begins. First Corinthians says as many as 500, 500. Easily right now, this room of witnesses who saw Jesus appear, proving he was alive. But then what else does first Corinthians say? Over the span of 40 days. It wasn't just a one-time moment. Again and again and again and again and again, Jesus said, I'm real. I'm alive. I'm real. I'm alive. I'm real. I'm alive. Literally days before Peter gives this message. Jesus proved his resurrected self. Verse 33 being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, having received from the father, the promise of The Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are now seeing and hearing. Peter again, said they are not drunk, but they are declaring the greatest story ever told. That the one true God has been telling from the beginning of time of the promised Christ Messiah that would come and he's here. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies under your footstool. And now Peter's main point, okay? Peter's very first public sermon, public message. Little rocky on the introduction, here's his main point, the drum roll, the crescendo, the exclamation point, verse 36. He says this, now, let all the house of Israel know for certain, God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Underline, highlight, circle verse 36. Jesus is the Lord, all caps Lord, the one true living God through whom we must be saved. Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah, the sent one who would fulfill God's promise and usher in God's kingdom. So Peter declared, who is this Jesus? He is Lord and Christ. By the way, he is exactly who he said he was. He was exactly who he claimed to be. So we cannot miss the razor-sharp clarity of this moment. That crowds says, what does this mean? Who is this Jesus? He is the Lord and he is the Christ. And in a moment, you'll see that many believed. And yet, even those who witnessed the wonders that Jesus did, breaking the laws of time and space, even those who witnessed his resurrection, even yet some of them scoffed and said, ah, it's nonsense. It doesn't matter. It's not really real. And this is so crucial, verse 36 is the absolute main point of this whole passage. And which led me to, I want to share something with you. Okay? It's a resource that we actually have up on our website because we want to find stuff that is going to be helpful to the God's people here at Rockpoint and stuff that you can use, stuff that you can share with other people. But it also gives you reasons of why you can believe that this is real and true. And I'll show you where this video can be found after I show it to you. But here's why I want to share it with you. One, for you to ponder for yourself and internalize. Yeah, this is razor-sharp clarity. This is what it is. Or you may be searching or wondering or question or doubting. Listen, doubt is not the enemy of faith, unprocessed doubt is. So for you to truly wrestle, like did Jesus really claim to be that? Is the Bible really trustworthy? Is Jesus the only way? That is the journey of faith that we must go on, right? So there is some length of this video, but it is so good. It is so good. And it fits Peter's point so well, I had to share it with you, lean in, check this out.

- [Narrator] How would you feel if someone said, "hello I am God." Throughout history, lots of people have claimed to be a God, but they lived in cultures that believed in lots of gods. And although these gods were more powerful than humans, they had limits. So for example, when the Roman emperor claimed to be a god, it was not a big deal. But when Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be God, things were quite different, because Jesus didn't say he was just one of many gods. His claim was much, much bigger than that. He had the audacity to identify himself as the one, true God of the universe. You see Jesus was a Jew, and the Jewish conception of God was absolutely unique. Unlike that of any other culture. Jews firmly believed there is only one God. And he alone is the perfect, all powerful, all knowing, uncreated, ruler of all things. He is without beginning or end, and he alone created and sustains the entire universe. He is without limits and he has no competition. So when Jesus claimed all of this for himself, it's no surprise that he ignited a firestorm of opposition. No one had ever done this before. In fact, for the Jews, the very idea of God taking the form of a man simply did not exist. This concept is found nowhere in all of ancient Jewish literature. By claiming to be the God of the universe, Jesus created an identity crisis. Each of us must decide for ourselves who was Jesus? Because if he's not God, how can we possibly explain his unprecedented claim? He certainly wasn't crazy or joking or lying. Let's consider five other explanations. First, maybe Jesus was misunderstood. Perhaps he never really claimed to be God. But the historical evidence says otherwise. Centuries before Jesus, God revealed himself to Abraham as the great I Am. So when Jesus said before Abraham was I am, his Jewish audience knew full well that he was claiming to be equal to God. That's why they picked up stones to kill him. And when Jesus identified himself as the son of man, mentioned in Daniel's prophecy, the Jewish high court was well aware that he was claiming to be the preexistent ruler, and judge of the universe. As a result, they unanimously condemned him to death. No, Jesus wasn't misunderstood. To the Jews, his claim to be God was unmistakable. But what about this? Maybe Jesus was a legend. In the first few centuries after the real Jesus lived, his followers invented the idea that Jesus was God. Is this valid? Was belief in the deity of Jesus added centuries later? Or did the very first Christians believe that Jesus was God? Again, the historical evidence speaks loud and clear. The earliest Christian writers made clear reference to Jesus who is our God, Jesus, who is both God and man, Jesus, who is not a mere man, but was God. So the idea that Jesus of Nazareth is God was not invented after the Christian movement began. Not at all. Christians always believed it from the very start. So this explanation fails. But another way to try to make sense of Jesus's claim to be God is he was a clever political strategist. He falsely claimed to be God in the hope of focusing Jewish resistance against their Roman oppressors. However, in Jewish culture, claiming equality with God was not a good idea. In fact, it was a crime punishable by death. Jesus made it clear that he was not a political revolutionary, and the Roman government itself officially declared Jesus, not guilty of inciting rebellion. So this explanation doesn't work either. But is it plausible that the historical Jesus never even existed? No. In addition to the eyewitness testimony of the four earliest biographers, multiple Greek, Roman and Jewish historians document the existence of Jesus who is called Christ. In fact, there's as much documentary evidence for the existence of Jesus as there is for Julius Caesar. That's why the vast majority of New Testament scholars affirm that Jesus was an actual living, breathing historical figure. For those who examined the evidence objectively, all of these explanations fall short. But for the open-minded, there's at least one other option to consider, perhaps Jesus was who he claimed to be. Unlike the other options, this explanation fits perfectly with the historical data. But it does have one major problem. It's not safe. Because if Jesus actually is God in human flesh, then ultimately your life is not your own, and true life can only be found in Him.

- You can find that video like I said, on our, this is a screenshot of our Rockpoint website. If you go, you can go there, click on the I'm new tab, or I want to know God, you'll get there. Otherwise it's RockPoint.church/know-God, you'll find it easily. You can play these again and share these with others as well. But let's let's recap again. Okay? Again, this was from Sean McDowell Impact 360 Institute, his dad, Josh McDowell originally wrote the book called "More Than a Carpenter," some of you have read that, it's a really skinny little book, right? Taking the premise of CS Lewis that said, okay, Jesus made an absolute claim of who he was. So either the "More Than a Carpenter" book said, well, either he was a liar, he knew he wasn't God, and yet he convinced everybody was, he was a lunatic, like he thought he was God, but he clearly wasn't, or he was Lord. And then this takes it even further. Even like the conversation that I believe our culture is asking, well, maybe he was just misunderstood? Maybe that's not what he actually claimed. Maybe you just want it to be a good moral teacher, and people took them out of context, or maybe he was a legend that they made up later to kind of boost their own following or something. Maybe he just wanted to be trending on social media and wanting to following of people and be a political strategist, right? Or maybe he was just, didn't even exist. And all those you see objectively didn't line up, which leaves us with one option left. He was who he claimed to be. Absolutely. He says, I am the only way, I am the only truth, I am the only life. And like it says, that leaves us in a place that is pretty challenging. That your life and my life is not our own, and that true life is found only in him. And that was Peter's point in Acts chapter two. So what happened after Peter gave his message? Verse 37, now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and they said, what should we do? What can we do? We had no idea. What can we do? See when you truly encounter the truth that Jesus is who he claimed to be, that is the only question we can ask. What must I do now? What now? What now? Now like everything in life just became crystal clear on this one point. Everything hinges on the reality of this truth. You can't ignore it. You can't just say, oh, that's interesting. You can't say, oh, he was just a good guy. You can't say, oh, that's true for you. You have two choices. Believe and trust that Jesus is who he claimed to be, or your other choice is not indifference. That is not available to you. Your other choice is you have to reject it. You have to say, no, I do not believe Jesus was who he claimed to be. I had a teacher. It'd be crazy if they're watching right now. I went to a public university, I won't name where's that I won't get anyone. And I took a New Testament class or a religion class. So this guy for an entire year taught the New Testament, but he did not believe Jesus was God. And I would stay late every day. And I would talk to him and I would talk to him and I would talk to him, on the very last day of class, I pushed him into a corner. I said, do you believe Jesus claimed who he was? And this teacher had to say, "no, I do not." Because that is the only choice we have to believe it is true or to reject it. Peter and his apostles, and when they asked them, what should we do? He continues in verse 38, and Peter said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you'll receive the gift of The Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and for your children and for who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself, and with many other words, he bore witness and continue to exhort them saying, save yourselves from this crooked generation. So those who received his word were baptized and they were added that day, about 3000 souls. The word repent is an act of surrender. It is a 180 turn about face. It is placing your trust in Jesus as your Lord and savior, it is acknowledging that true life is found only in him. And now you do have your ultimate identity as a child of God. You now do have your ultimate belonging as part of the church, the family of God. And you now have your ultimate purpose as a witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And let me just share something real quick that was encouraging to me, verse 39, for the promises for you, for your children, and for those who are far off, to all the Lord will call to himself. Remember what he said? You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Sumeria to the ends of the earth? The ends of the earth for those first apostles was like Spain and India, right? That's all they knew of the world. They had no, they probably didn't even know of my ancestors way to the north of barbarian, pagan, Vikings of Scandinavia. And yet those first followers, overwhelmed at God's love, and the promise that salvation is found only in Jesus Christ went as witnesses to my ancestors, and told them about the love of Jesus, probably at great cost to their lives. Someday in heaven, we will meet those who gave their lives as witnesses, because they were convinced that those people needed Jesus, just like they did. And somehow my ancestors, my great, great grandfather, Eric Fagerland came over on a ship, ended up in the homestead of what later became South Dakota. And he started a church. And his son, my great-grandfather, started the church I grew up in. You can trace your faith all the way back to this moment, where they had to believe is Jesus who he claimed to be, or is he not? And that changes everything. So what did they do in Acts two in response to Peter's message? What happens to our lives when we embrace him as Lord and Christ? Mark these up in your Bibles, verse 42, and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, they dove into God's word. Like what else has God? What is God promising? What is the story? Who is God and who are we? They devoted themselves to the fellowship, that it is important to gather, to be in community, to be known, to be loved as brothers and sisters in Christ, to the breaking of bread, which is communion, which we're going to get to in just a second, and to prayers, verse 43, and awe, which is fear and reverence 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, belongings, distributed the proceeds to all to any who had need, and day by day, attending the temple together, breaking bread in their homes, they received their food at glad and generous hearts, praising God, having favor with all people and the Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved. I love this. It is the first Sunday of the month, so we get to join in and take communion together. And it is so fitting. It is so fitting. We get to join in what they did 2000 years ago to the breaking of bread in communion with one another. See communion is an ordinance that the Lord Jesus Christ gave his people so that they could remember his complete work done on the cross, and his victorious resurrection from the grave. We declare our faith to the present. So today, October 3rd, you and me, we declare our faith today, that who Jesus is and what we believe is real. And we walk humbly with him in obedience. And we also renew our living hope, we sang that song earlier, in the future where Jesus says, one day he will not drink of this cup again until he is with us in glory. So anyone who has placed their trust in Jesus Christ as savior and Lord is welcome to join in communion today. And if you're here today and you're not sure where you're at, it's okay. We encourage you to talk with someone today, but feel free to let this time pass and you just dwell on it and internalize what it is. You should've picked up communion elements on the way in at the doors, ushers should have handed those to you, so you should have a, it's a gluten-free wafer and the juice cup, we'll get to those in just a second. If you did not get one, just raise your hand, the usher team is here. They'll bring them down to you. So if you don't have one and you want to partake, raise your hand and do that, but let's pray as we prepare to sing the truth again of only Christ through us. And let's pray. Jesus much like what you declared, let all of Israel know, let the entire world know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ. This Jesus who was crucified, who was resurrected from the grave, defeating both sin and death. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to us by which we must be saved.