- Well, thanks for being here today. I wanna welcome all of you in this room, those that are worshiping our Lord at gathering area, and those online. You know, our study is about a church, a church made up of people like you, and like me joining in God's bigger story of what He's doing around the globe. And as we unpack this book, we are beginning to discover the church that is growing, the church that is facing opposition and persecution at times, and it's a wonderful epic story that helps us understand how we can live out and be a witness for Jesus Christ as they were enjoying Him in His bigger story. You know, if you've been a part of the church at all, regardless of the denomination or where you've been, you've probably had some good memories and some bad memories. Am I right? Okay, some of us have had some really good times and some of us can have some things that we just, boy, we wish we could kinda forget, and if you've been around the church at all, those are there. Now this morning, I'm not going to throw stones in any of those situations, but it does remind us of the story in the Book of Acts. Acts is this epic story of how God worked in and through people like you and like me. And the reason why you have had a good experience in a church, or a bad experience in a church is because the church is made up of people like you and me, people that are not perfect, people that have messed up lives, people that struggle with stuff. And Acts is this wonderful epic story of how God used ordinary people like you and like me to do extra ordinary things, not because they were so gifted, but because they received the power of the Holy Spirit who enabled them to be a witness, who enabled them to do something that they could not humanly do themselves. And they had messed up lives like you and like me, they struggled with issues, they debated significant stuff. As a matter of fact, we'll read about an argument that took place by two officials in the church, and they had to part ways because they disagreed with how to proceed. And next week we'll uncover a couple of hypocrites as Pastor Seth unpacks that passage for us. Acts has grown to over 13,000 people. It started with 120 people in Acts 1, and just a few days later, they're over 13,000. Can you imagine your experience, you've had good, you've had bad, compare that with a church of over 13,000 people, with over 13,000 problems that the apostles had to deal with, and yet God worked. God did an amazing thing, and He works through people like you and me to be His witness around the world. And He did it to display His grace. Now, grace is an interesting word because grace means, yes, that you received something you didn't deserve. Grace means you received forgiveness because of the perfect work of Jesus Christ, you can't earn that. Grace means that you've been given power to live out this new Christian life by way of the Holy Spirit. But grace also means God's favor. And what we're gonna uncover today is that God's favor was resting on this church because He gave them His grace, and it is both of those parts of the definition of the word grace that is brought together in this passage today. So please take your Bibles out, I want you to open up to Acts 4, and locate verse 32. Acts 4, locate verse 32, as we take a look at a church that was full of God's grace. It was not a perfect church, but it was a church that displayed God's grace. Now, if you have your phone, or your iPad, or you brought a Bible in the room with you, if you didn't, we've provided one for you, please open up God's Word because we are continuing in this epic story, and then we're gonna refer to another passage later on in the New Testament as we work our way through this time. Now in Acts 1:8, Jesus gave the key verse, and He said to them, go to Jerusalem and wait, and you will receive the Holy Spirit, who will what? Some of you know as you've been with us, He will give you power, and He will come upon you with power so that you will be my witnesses Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. Now it was an impossible task, and yet with the Holy Spirit they would carry it out. Luke, who's the author of this book often times in the midst of this epic story, he gives us a chance to take a breath of air, okay? Because as you work through this narrative, it's one action packed moment after another, things just keep rolling, and it's like, wow, this is happening, this is happening. Well, Luke pauses periodically in the storyline and he says, hey, hit the pause button just for a minute, and let's dive into what's going on in the church. And he does so, so that we would understand what is taking place right here in the church right now in Jerusalem. So as we take a look at that, we ask this question, you know, what was going on in the church and why did God bless this church in such a dramatic way? I mean, just in a matter of days there are over 13,000 people, and it says it in Acts 2, where Luke gives one of these summary statements, as they were doing certain things that God just kept adding to their number daily, it says, people were just coming to Christ. I mean, it's just a phenomenal storyline and you have to say, well, why was this happening? Well, let's take a look and see 'cause Luke shows us. He says in verse 32, "Now the full number of those," Over 13,000, "who believed were of one heart and soul, "and no one said that any of the things "that belonged to him was his own, "but they had everything in common. "And with great power the apostles were giving "their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, "and great, Here it is. "Grace was upon them all. "There was not a needy person among them, "for as many as were owners of lands "or houses sold them "and brought the proceeds of what was sold, "and laid it at the apostles' feet, "and it was distributed to each as any had need. "Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas, "which means son of encouragement, "a Levite, a native of Cyprus, "sold a field that belonged to him "and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet." Luke introduces us to a couple of key concepts of what was going on in the life of the church. He introduces us to a man by the name of Barnabas. He does this often, he'll kinda give you a name and then he brings him up later on and expands the story in what he's saying, and you'll see that as well. But this is a church now full of believers, they are growing rapidly and it says, here's the key phrase I want you to zero in on, it's in verse 32, even though there are 13,000 plus made up of messed up people just like you and just like me, this is not a book about super Christians is a book about people that quite frankly didn't even have the rest of the New Testament that we do. So they were really coming out of life and lifestyles, and we'll see this when we get into the Greco-Roman world, I mean, it was nuts, the baggage they brought into the church, and yet they were of, it says here, in Jerusalem they were of one heart and soul. They were united around the Lord and united around one another because they had a shared confession, they confessed Christ as Savior and Lord. Verse 33 tells us that, the apostles with great power, it says, were giving their testimony to what? The resurrection, the life of Jesus, the crucifixion of Jesus, the death of Jesus, and the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. He's Lord, He Savior. In chapter two again, when Luke gives this summary statement about what was going on in the life of the church, says, "All who believed together." Now about 20 years after Christ arose around 53, 54 AD, Paul, the Apostle Paul, will read about him in just a few chapters, he started writing the rest of the New Testament almost all of it that we have. I mean, there's a couple other authors, but he wrote the bulk of it. And 1 Corinthians was written about 20 years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now we can remember 20 years ago, 9/11, we just did. For those of you that are alive, you remember those specific events. Well, if you were alive back then, you would have remembered the momentous events of the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul brings that up in 1 Corinthians 15. He actually named some of the people who were eyewitness accounts then, and he says that Jesus appeared to over 500 people at one time. So if you don't believe Paul's testimony, go find one of them and they will tell you, we were there, we saw them, Jesus Christ is Lord, He is alive. Now in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, where he's talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, he writes down these words. scholars tell us that these words that Paul was writing down, now keep in mind the book was only written 20 years after the resurrection of Jesus, and these words they tell us actually were part of an ancient church confession that was formed in the earliest days of the church. So perhaps even at this time that Luke is describing for us this church in Acts 4, these words are coming together so that when the believers gathered, here's what they confessed, "That Christ died for our sins "in accordance with the Scriptures, "that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day "in accordance with the Scriptures." They united around the Lord Jesus. They united around the gospel, the good news. And I believe that this church was healthy, that God blessed them with His grace and favor because they embraced the gracious gift of Jesus Christ. I'm so glad I'm part of a church Rockpoint that embraces this message at our core. I'm so grateful that I'm part of a denomination for those of you that aren't familiar, Rockpoint is a part of the Evangelical Free Church of America, and that we embrace the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is at the core of everything we do. We embrace the inerrancy of the word of God, it's without error down to the very letter and then the message about the cross and the resurrection of Jesus inviting people to enter into that relationship with us. So what does that look like for today? Well, if you embrace the message, for those of you that are here in this room, downstairs, watching online, maybe there's gonna be somebody watching Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, whatever that might be, have you entered into that relationship? It happens the moment you finally allow the message of Jesus to grip your heart so that you will finally confess that you're lost without Him, that you're separated from God because of your own sin, and that you will repent and turn to Jesus as Lord and Savior. You begin to follow Him. And I invite you to make that choice. I invite you to join the rest of us on this incredible adventure of walking with Jesus Christ crucified and arose. And it happens when you turn and you commit your life to Him. Second, how often do you remember these words? You gather here with us, some of your are worshiping online, I invite you to come if you're local, be here with us, here in this room, downstairs together with other believers singing about the cross and resurrection, focusing on the Lord Jesus Christ, joining together as we talk about this, knowing that we believe in Him. Do you do it in your small group? It doesn't have to be anything formal. It could be statements like, man, without the Lord I don't know how people live. I'm so grateful for the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you grateful for the Lord Jesus? See, it can happen just like that. What does that say? That says, we unite around this confession. Now here's what we're gonna do right now, we're gonna say what the Early Church did 'cause we're part of a bigger story gang, we're joining with them, and we're gonna all gonna say, this we believe together, and then we're gonna read this, okay? We're gonna fill this place with God's word. So are you ready? Okay. This we believe that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. Now, they united around this message, a shared confession, but they also had a shared call because they knew that this message was not just for them. They united around the mission that Jesus gave and He gave it to them up in Galilee. He said, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, "baptizing them in the name of the Father "and the Son and the Holy Spirit, "teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. "And behold, I'm with you always, to the end of the age." They were given this commission to go, they knew the message was for them and for others, it was good news. Now, if you have good news, do you wanna keep that to yourself? I mean, be honest with me, how many of you wanna keep good news to yourself? And nobody does, okay? I love good news, and some of you like Christmas because you're not just receiving, you're able to give a gift to someone. And how many of you get excited about giving a gift to somebody, especially if they really want it, you know it, you've planned it out, you've orchestrated it, you've designed it. Now for some of you, you can't keep secrets. Can you? I'm there, okay? My kids know, don't tell dad, you know, because I'll just, it'll come out somehow some way. We love good news, we wanna talk about it. When was the last time you just stopped and you thought about, meditated upon the good news of what Jesus Christ has done for you. Do you get the idea that you are just as messed up as everybody else? It doesn't matter the level of sin you've committed, we are all there, the ground is level at the foot of the cross. We don't deserve a relationship with God, and we stop and we pause and we think about what God has done for us. And I believe that forms this desire in us to begin to tell others. Now the apostles did, and it wasn't just the apostles, I believe that applies to everybody. Everybody was sharing this good news, we're all witnesses, and the good news was they wanted to tell others about Jesus Christ. Now, the way we do this here at Rockpoint Church is we unite around our mission statement. Now you'll notice something here, this mission statement is not something that I've creatively put together or somebody else creatively put together, quite frankly, we plagiarized this from one person and that's Jesus Christ. How's that? This totally aligns with the Great Commission. And we did that intentionally, we wanna be a church the way it was meant to be, a healthy church, but we unite around this, multiplying disciples in a healthy church. Everything flows out of this. We review this all the time. This is so important. As a matter of fact, it's so important, I want us to say this together. Are you ready? Here we go. Multiplying disciples in a healthy church. And it's a process that continues because Acts continues, there's no closure on this story. We're gonna continue to grow and build disciples and invite people to engage in this relationship. Now the question comes up, well, how do we do that? Well, it's three simple words, first know, and that's trusting Jesus because of His grace. We invite you to join us in this dynamic relationship of following Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We want you to grow in this relationship and it's growing in Jesus' word and His truth, and that's why we teach the Bible here, and we teach it on Sunday morning and we go through books like Acts because we want you to grow in your faith, and then it's going, it's helping others do the same. That's really living out this mission and growing. And so the question that comes up here is, how are you participating in this process? It's why we have three environments for adults for instance, we want you to come here on Sunday and grow absolutely, but we want you to go to a class that we offer so you can continue to grow and get some real good stuff that'll help you live out your faith, and then join a small group so you've got community within this new life together. And then if you would like to participate in our one-on-one discipleship, we would love to engage with you and help you begin to understand what it means to grow in a relationship with Jesus and then help others to do the same. And that's why it's multiplying disciples in a healthy church. Now, I believe that this church was on fire because of these healthy elements. You only need a few things to keep a fire going, right? You need oxygen, you needs some kind of a spark to ignite ignite the fire, we used to use a diesel rag on the farm, thats just a great propellant, and a whole lot of fun. And you need wood, you gotta have some fuel source. Well, the fuel source here is that they united around a shared confession, Jesus Christ, and then they united around this mission together. And God poured forth His blessing on them because it was actually His grace that was working in and through them, and so that as they had the confession, and as they went on mission and the call, He united them together in a shared community. Why? So that His blessing would be on them, and it is by His grace that would flow through them as they were witnesses for Jesus Christ so that the world will know that something's different that is happening in that church. They're different than the rest of us. Now, where did they get that idea? Well, they got it from Jesus. He says in John 13:34-35, "A new commandment I give you, "that you love one another, just as I loved you." You also are to love one another, and notice this, by this, What's the this? By our love for one another, shared confession, shared call, shared community, all people regardless of their sin, regardless of their messed up life. Why is that the case? 'cause when they look at you and you and you and you and me, they say, I'm like that person. I'm not like that person, but I'm really like that person 'cause my life is really messed up. That's why we need you to be a part of this shared community, so that together we unite around the Lord Jesus. And then He says, all people will know that you're my disciples, you follow me if you have love for one another, 'cause this is something we can't humanly do. He unites us, He guides us, He brings us together, so that together we are beginning to experience the power of new community. And what happen here in this passage, they began to share with those who were needy. Now, this did not describe 1st century socialism, okay? That's not what's going on here. They held onto their possessions until someone had a need, not greed, someone had a legitimate need, and then they went and sold so that that person could have something that was provided for them. We do that here at Rockpoint with a deacon fund, that we'd love to know if you've got a need because we have resources to help you. We wanna display this in the life of Rockpoint Church. And so that's what was happening, and as they allowed God's grace to move in and through them, it really demonstrates their practice of not only the Great Commission to go, but also the great commandment. Jesus said it this way, Matthew 22:37-40, He said, "And He said to them, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart "and with all your soul and with all your mind.'" In other words, with every part of your being. "And this is the great and first commandment. "And a second is like it, "you shall love your neighbor as yourself. "Of these two commandments depend all the Law "and the Prophets." In other words, love God and love one another. And as we are in right relationship with God, it is His grace that flows through us to other people and we find His favor because we have a shared confession and a shared call and a shared community. Now here's where I want you to go right from the Book of Acts, okay? I want you to go to a little book and it is 1 John, it's farther into the New Testament that you have, 1 John, locate chapter three, verse 16. And it's in 1 John, that John who was an apostle of Jesus, so he's one of these guys in the Book of Acts communicating the message of Christ, he sat at the foot of Jesus, he learned from Jesus, and you're gonna be blown away by what he says. If you've not read this before, everything is gonna just start coming together for you. It's like the confluence of rivers, all of a sudden there's all these different pieces of this massive story that God is writing back in the 1st century, and he's writing it in you, and he's writing it in me as a part of this church, millions of believers over history coming together. Notice the words that John says because the parallel is unmatched. 1 John 3:16, "By this we know love that He, Jesus, "laid down His life for us, "and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. "But if anyone has the world's goods "and sees his brother in need, "yet closes his heart against him, "how does God's love abide in him? "Little children, let us not love in word or talk," What is he saying? "But indeed and in truth." Now jump down verse 23. "And this is His commandment, "that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ." It is a command to believe. "And love one another." That's the second. "Just as He commanded us." In other words, to love God and to love one another. And the command is, to love God you have to love Jesus and embrace Him as Savior and Lord. If you don't, you don't love God, that's what he's saying. I mean, there's no other way to say that. And once you do, then we are commanded to love one another. "And whoever keeps His commandments abides in God, "and God in him. "And by this we know that He abides in us, "by the Spirit who indwells us "and empowers us whom He has given us." It convinces us that we're part of it. John is also borrowing from Jesus from John 15, where Jesus says abide with me. And in verse 10, he says, you wanna know what the definition of abide? It means obey my commands. Now put this together, he's saying turn to Jesus as Savior and Lord, follow that command, and when you unite around that shared confession, then it is by His grace that He moves in and through us. Why? Because we now have embraced the example of the sacrifice of Christ. If He was willing to sacrifice His life for me, I should be willing to sacrifice my life for other people. And as I unite around that confession, then I'm also given the command to go and love somebody else. Not because I can physically do it myself, but because of His grace working in and through me, His life loving through me and then loving other people so that I'm loving God and loving one another. And how is that displayed? That is displayed when I meet your need, and your need, there's a shared confession, a shared call, and then a shared community. Look at verse 15 of chapter four, he essentially says the same thing in this chapter about loving one another and meeting needs. And then we get to verse 15, chapter 4, 1 John, he says, "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, "God abides in him and he in God." It's bowing before the Lord Jesus, accepting Him, confessing Him, going on mission together as we love God and then love one another that Jesus says the world will know that we are His because our love for one another is dynamically different than what the world offers. And I have to tell you, this kind of love was not experienced in the 1st century, not at all. This totally set them apart. And I think in our world, there's ways to do this as well. When we consider the topics before us, when we consider the needs before us, when we consider how we respond as Christians, when we embrace a generation that thinks differently than many of us that's coming up, when we begin to share our faith with them, we look for ways to share it and offer an invitation and demonstrate by our life and our words what it means to follow and serve Jesus Christ. And they did, they didn't hang onto their possessions, they didn't let their possessions own them, they knew God owned everything. And it says here in two different occasions, it actually says that they laid their possessions at the apostles feet back in Acts 4. Which simply meant, God, this is yours. This is yours, take this and use it and He did. And then he gives us an incredible example about Barnabas, who is a shining example, a church of messed up people where God is using them to change lives. And then Barnabas who in parentheses don't you love this, the son of encouragement? I just loved that. You know, my picture of Barnabas, I don't know what's gonna happen when I get to heaven I see this guy, but my image is big guy, big arms. Every time you see him, he's gonna give you a big hug. I mean, awesome, to give you a big teddy bear guy. Well, he demonstrates what it means to live this kind of shared confession and call and community. You know, as we take a moment here in our service together today, and we pause and we look at how we are now part of a bigger story that God is doing, how we are joining 1st century church and millions of believers from this point in time with a shared confession and call and community, as we come to a time where we take communion together, I think it causes us to say, how do we have communion with God? We have communion with God because we've embraced Christ as Savior and Lord. That's where it begins, and that's why we come to this table, we come to this table as individuals who have embraced Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. And we do so to remember and once again confess the Christ is Lord and He's our Savior. And if you're here in this room downstairs, online again, once again I invite you from the love of my heart to admit that you are separated from God because of your sin and that you would turn to Jesus Christ and confess that He died for your sin, and He rose from the grave, and you want Him to be your Savior and lead your life. And when you do that, you join with the rest of us in this community. Communion means we have communion with God now because we did what John told us to do, we confessed Christ as Savior, and then we have community together. That's behind communion, we have community together because we have this shared confession of faith and we remember what Christ has done for us. This is the core of our message, it's the core of everything we see in Acts, and it is at the core of what we wanna do right now. So before I pray, and then we'll have the musicians sing with us and then I'll come back up and we'll take communion together, I thought it would be great for us to share an ancient confession of faith together. And the reason why I like this one is 'cause it was written probably about 400 years after the resurrection, but again it was formulated in the Early Church, and it's a way for us to join the ancients and realize we are just continuing the story. Acts didn't end with them, it continued a hundred years later and three and 400 years later, and now it's continuing in our life and we're joining this greater story of what God is doing. Now lemme explain a couple of phrases. First, you're gonna see that it says that Jesus descended into hell. What does that mean? Well, probably one of two things just real quick, it could mean that Jesus after the crucifixion actually declared victory to the spirits that were in bondage in hell. It could also mean that during the time of Moses, it was the Spirit of Christ preaching through Moses, calling people to repentance before the flood happened. The next phrase you're gonna see is this word, the holy Catholic Church. It does not mean the Roman Catholic Church, okay? It wasn't really even around at that point and time. It simply means church universal. In other words, we're joining in a confession of faith that millions of believers have confessed throughout the years because we are saying, this is what we believe. So I'm gonna read this together and then we're gonna pray. Let's go. I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life ever lasting. Amen. Father in heaven we come to you, and in the next few moments as we hold these elements in our hands, knowing that we have confessed Jesus as Savior and Lord, I pray in a fresh and a new way that you would permeate our hearts and our lives with that precious message of what Christ has done for us. It is in the all satisfying and sufficient name of Jesus we pray. Amen.