The Church (Page 2)
We took a break from John’s Gospel and began to look at the Church in the book of Acts. We wanted to find out what the early Church was like, and how we can grow and conform into what Jesus has established His Church to be. Our prayer throughout this series was that Antioch would reflect God’s design for His Church.
Foundation 3: Gospel of Grace (Romans 4:4-5)
As condemned sinners we are unable to do anything to escape the wrath of God. How then can we be saved? What is the Gospel? The Gospel simply means good news. It is not good works, good deed, good morals, or good ethics. The basis of Christianity is good news. It is not something we must do, instead it is something that has already been done. It is not something we do it is something we believe has already been…
Foundation 2: Sin is Unbelief (Romans 8:6-8)
We have seen in Scripture that the first foundation of our faith is that there is One God Who is to be loved, feared, and obeyed. Where does the Bible lead us next? We have not loved, feared, and obeyed God The vast majority of the Bible deals with how we have not loved God or obeyed Him. This is sin. We have rejected God, and we do not seek Him. Because of this we are justly deserving of His…
Foundation 1: Fear God (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
There is one God The foundation of our faith is that there is only one God, the God of Scripture. There are many “gods,” but they are simply the inventions of man blinded by the deception of the devil. There is only one God, the Yahweh of Scripture. He is to be loved and obeyed The whole of our faith is that the God of Scripture is to be loved and obeyed. Love and obedience go hand in hand. You…
Foundations of Our Faith (Psalm 11:3)
The foundation of our faith is under constant assault. If the foundations crumble, our faith will fall. We must strengthen and pass on the foundations If our faith is going to stand, we must strengthen the foundations. We must constantly be reminded of and refresh our minds to the great foundational truths of Christianity. In addition to this we must pass on these truths to our children and others who are new in the faith. Jesus is our foundation Christianity…
Decision Making in the Church
Most churches make decisions through Robert’s Rules of Order and Business Meetings. However, neither of these things are found in the Word of God. So how should a church make decisions according to God’s Word? Jesus is the Head of the Church The church belongs to Jesus and no one else. There is no flow-chart of authority or ruling majority in the church. It is Jesus’ way or you cease to be a church. This is not your church, your…
The End Result: Evangelism
It is interesting to note that Jesus’ commands for evangelism and missions come at the end of His ministry. Also of note is that the end result of the church’s continuance in doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer, hospitality, sharing possessions, praise of God, unity, etc. was that people were saved on a daily basis. Added to this is the fact that commands to evangelize are very scarce in the New Testament. What are we to make of this? The…
The Reality of Prayer
The early church continued steadfastly in prayer. Prayer was such a vital part of the church that the apostles appointed deacons to care for the widows so that they might give themselves to prayer. Why was prayer such a huge part of the early church? The answer is throughout all of Jesus’ teachings, but we will focus on John 15. All life and power belongs to Jesus We are the branches, Jesus is the vine. Separated from Jesus we are…
Making Disciples Who Make Disciples
Jesus commanded His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations and teach them to observe everything that He had commanded. The command is to make disciples We live in a day where we judge the success of churches by baptisms, buildings, bodies, and bucks. Unfortunately this means that Jesus’ command is neglected. Jesus wanted the disciples to be disciple makers. He desired for each believer to mature in their faith until they could make disciples of others. This…
The Lord’s Supper
After doctrine and fellowship the early church was marked by “breaking of bread” (observing the Lord’s Supper.) This seems odd to us, but if you study Acts 2 and 1 Corinthians 11 you will find that the early church held a far different view of the Lord’s Supper than we do today. The Lord’s Supper was prominent When describing the church the third thing mentioned is the Lord’s Supper. If you were to describe a church today how far down…
The Church is a Family
As we look at the Church in Acts 2 and following, we see a very tight-knit community. They are marked by: Constant fellowship The Church was constantly together. They were daily in each other’s homes. They were constantly gathering for worship and fellowship. They were a distinct community. Sharing of possessions The Christians freely shared their possessions. This was done without any compulsion. It is clear from Acts 5:4 that this sharing of needs was completely voluntary. They gave to…
Every Believer is to be a Theologian
In Acts 2 we read that there was a dramatic change that took place in each believer. Remember that these were all Jews who knew the Old Testament Law very well. Upon being converted to Christianity they came to realize that they had missed the whole point of the Law, Jesus Christ. This resulted in a continued hunger for the Word of God among the believers. They continued in the Apostle’s doctrine. From this we learn that: Every believer is…
The Lord’s Day Gathering
Paul addresses many problems with the Corinthian church throughout 1 Corinthians. In chapter 14 he addresses their aberration from what was normative in New Testament churches particularly in the area of tongues. Although this passage mainly deals with speaking in tongues, we can find the normative pattern of worship that the early church observed during their Lord’s Day gatherings. The gathering was primarily of believers Paul clearly expected the gathering to be primarily of believers. He did acknowledge that there…