Day by Day
Download MP3Well, good morning. Good morning. Lovely to see you all.
Jeffrey Heine:We're gonna be continuing our study in the book of acts. So if you will turn with me to Acts chapter 2. It's also in your worship guide. Acts chapter 2, we will be in verses 42 through 47. 42 through 47.
Jeffrey Heine:We're gonna be closing out 2nd chapter of acts. Acts chapter 2, beginning with verse, 42 here, if you would listen carefully for this is God's word. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship and to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And all 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.
Jeffrey Heine:And they were selling their possessions and belongings, and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day, those who are being saved. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray.
Jeffrey Heine:Almighty God, whether we know it or not, each and every one of us here, we are desperate for you, and we're desperate to hear from you. And so, lord, as we just opened your word and and read it, we we ask that you would speak to the very depths of our hearts and souls and minds. Spirit that you would stir in us a fresh and exciting vigor to declare the gospel of Jesus and to live it out day by day together. So speak, Lord. Your servants are listening.
Jeffrey Heine:We pray these things in the name of the father, and the son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. When my best friend, Adam, childhood friend, college roommate, coworker at the video store tanning salon, when he, when he found out that I wanted to go seminary, he wanted to help me build up my theological library. And he did that by purchasing both the Old Testament and New Testament CliffsNotes. And they were a joke until they became very helpful.
Jeffrey Heine:But when we read the Bible, especially the gospels and acts, we see that it's already kind of in a CliffsNotes format. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are all giving us an abridged version really of the life of Jesus and these acts of the apostles. John says it very plainly at the close of his gospel when he says, now there are also many other things that Jesus did. And were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. At the close of chapter 2 here, verses 42 through 47, these 6 verses make up the first kind of the cliff's notes statement.
Jeffrey Heine:The first summary statement in the book of acts. There will be 3 other summary statements like this ahead. And the summary statements in these 6 verses mark the close of the introductory statements, these introductory scenes and everything else in the rest of the book of acts. It's going to flow out of these things that have just happened. So what's happened?
Jeffrey Heine:Really, we can zero in on 3 major events that have happened. First, the resurrected Jesus has ascended. He has gone to sit at the right hand of the father. 2nd, the spirit has descended. The spirit has come down from the father and the son.
Jeffrey Heine:And then 3rd, just like Jesus said, the apostles and the other disciples have been filled with power from the spirit, and they have become his witnesses. But witnessing to the masses is not their entire mission. Declaring the gospel isn't the whole of the mission. Even making converts and baptizing them isn't the whole mission. Witnessing is part of it, but not all.
Jeffrey Heine:We usually, we usually call it the Great Commission. It's what Jesus said to his first followers and for all future followers and giving all Christians mission. It's the command to go and make disciples of every nation. And this going and making of disciples begins with the declaration of the good news. The news that in Christ, God is reconciling the world back to himself.
Jeffrey Heine:That what sin has broken and the curse that has come, Jesus in his own body becomes the curse for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. That is the good news that that they are spreading out, that this Jesus who died for them is also alive and he is coming back. It begins with declaring the good news, and then that leads to repentance. The person turning from sin and trusting in Christ, That repentance leads to their baptism, and that is conversion. And, there's more.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus says that part of making disciples of all the nations includes teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded. And then he strengthens the disciples saying, behold, I am with you always, even until the end of the age. The mission that Jesus gave every Christian, those who first heard his voice and and every Christian to follow is to be his witness, to call people to repentance, and to call them to lifelong obedience. Repentance and obedience are to be ongoing lifelong reality for every Christian. This being in Christ, through the dynamic work of the spirit who joins us to him, being a part of the body, the church, This being in Christ means a new life.
Jeffrey Heine:And life, believe it or not, is to be lived. You can write that down. I'll pause. You can put it on Instagram with a little font later. It'll be great.
Jeffrey Heine:Life is to be lived. It's day by day working, eating, making, breaking, fixing, communicating, feeling, listening, learning, hurting, longing, needing, giving, receiving. Life is to be lived. And your new life in Christ is not just to be believed, it's to be lived. The great commission is what every believer is commanded by Jesus to carry out.
Jeffrey Heine:We must remember this, every one of us. No one tests out of this. And you don't get to balance other good works and say, well, I kind of, I'm doing good things over here. I don't have to witness. That's for other people.
Jeffrey Heine:No. This is, this is every one of us. And obviously, there are some that are exceptionally gifted in this, that the, that the Lord has given us special anointing, a special gifting to do that. But but we're all called to witness, to tell the good news, and to make disciples. The Great Commission is what every believer is commanded by Jesus to carry out.
Jeffrey Heine:But do not forget that the great commission is still being carried out in you. You're still being taught to obey everything Jesus commanded. The great commission is still being carried out in you by all the other disciples, the brothers and sisters in Christ who are in your life by the power and presence of the spirit. We don't simply witness for conversion. We witness for life, reconciled, renewed, redeemed life in Christ, life filled with the spirit and life lived out in the community of the saints.
Jeffrey Heine:That's the story that Luke is recounting here. And it's a better story. Our witness is a better witness when it's about more, more than just religious adherence, more than just a doctrine to affirm, more than just a 3 part conversion prayer. It's about life, reconciled life with God, and with one another as the body of Christ, living day by day as the children of God, now and forever. And he closes out, Luke does, this introductory scene here by describing what the witnessing of the disciples and the work of the Spirit resulted in, a new community.
Jeffrey Heine:And he summarizes living the reconciled life within this new community. And he begins by outlining what the disciples were devoted to in their day to day life. In our culture, most of the time, the word devotion often is used to describe an affection that results in a commitment. But in the New Testament, it's a little different. It's, it's an affection that, yes, it has commitment, but it really results in an action, dedicated, disciplined action.
Jeffrey Heine:And remember, Jesus, Jesus taught that you can't be devoted to 2 masters. You're going to be devoted to 1 and end up hating the other. And that's what's being talked about here, that you would be set on one thing. It's a steadfast, exclusive commitment in action, love in action. And Luke describes this steadfast action in verse 42.
Jeffrey Heine:Look with me. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and the fellowship, and to the breaking of bread, and the prayers. The word, apostle is a distinct title. And I know that there are some denominations today who still call people, modern people, apostles. But the formal definition of apostle is a person who saw, physically saw the resurrected Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:And they were commissioned by him and empowered by Jesus to proclaim his gospel message. Most of the time when we see the word in Acts, it's talking about the 12, the 12 disciples who first saw, and they were apostles. It's Matthias who replaced Judas Iscariot. And when Matthias was chosen to replace Judas, there were a 120 disciples all gathered together. And those 120 would have been other disciples who saw firsthand.
Jeffrey Heine:There were many disciples who saw Jesus during this time and receive that commissioning. The apostle's teaching that these early Christians had dedicated themselves to, it included the public reading of the scriptures and explaining what they meant in light of Jesus. As you might recall, Jesus opens their eyes and explains to them and connects all these things from the old testament into who he is and the Messiah that Jesus is as he comes to ransom and redeem. They dedicate themselves to the public reading of scripture, to the exhortation and doctrine and teaching, really, everything that Jesus commanded. It's living out of that great commission.
Jeffrey Heine:Next, Luke says that the new Christians were devoted to the fellowship. The fellowship was the unified reconciled relationships within the believing community. It bears with it this understanding of commonality and sharing. Everyone was submitted to and surrendered to the same Jesus, filled with the same spirit, and God unified them. And he did so with himself.
Jeffrey Heine:The fellowship with God that was established in the reconciling death and resurrection of Jesus brought reconciliation and fellowship to the church. And this new community was diverse ethnically, economically, and more. And in a wildness beyond recognition, there were new believers who were selling their possessions so they could bring aid to these new brothers and sisters. And some of those new brothers and sisters were selling their possessions to help people that they had taken advantage of just days before, days before their conversion, people that they had cheated and stolen from, and now they're selling their possessions to help them. And there were new Christians who had been unjustly treated and their former oppressors who have come to repentance and come to turn to Christ, they now called brother and sister.
Jeffrey Heine:A fellowship is not merely to be believed. It wasn't a fellowship to be believed, it was a fellowship to be lived day by day together. And this new community, it should not be viewed as a happy add on to these new Christians' lives. The church was not merely a context and a place for them to grow individually as disciples. It was about living life together as the body of Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:Theologian J. I. Packer said, quote, We should not think of our fellowship with other Christians as a spiritual luxury, an optional addition to the exercises of private devotion. Fellowship is one of the great words of the new testament. It denotes something that is vital to Christian spiritual health and central to the church's true life.
Jeffrey Heine:The church will flourish, and Christians will be strong only when there is fellowship. We should recognize, rather, that such fellowship is a spiritual necessity. For God has made us in such a way that our fellowship with himself is fed by our fellowship with other Christians and requires to be so fed constantly for its own deepening and enrichment. End quote. I know he said a lot of things there.
Jeffrey Heine:But did you catch that he said that fellowship is a necessity? Later in the life of the church, the author of Hebrews will, he will refer and emphasize this necessity of fellowship saying, Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. We cannot neglect the fellowship. It is a necessity. But we do not live in a culture that really prioritizes devotion to the fellowship.
Jeffrey Heine:You see, we we live in an increasingly isolated world. In a recent study on loneliness in America, 2 in 5 respondents responded that they lack companionship, that their relationships are not meaningful, and that they are isolated from others. And remarkably, the younger the respondent was, the more lonely they reported. In fact, those 72 and above reported to be less lonely than those that were younger. In his book, Lost Connection, which I would, recommend as an intriguing read on culture and mental health, although I can't sign off on every page, but outside of the Bible, there are no books that I can do that.
Jeffrey Heine:So, kind of a moot point there. But Johann Hari, he argues that the increase of loneliness in America really began after World War 2, and it rapidly accelerated in the 19 eighties. And Hari says that while we often blame technology for the increase of loneliness, he believes that the rise of social media and technology is not the cause of our loneliness, but an attempt to treat our loneliness. It's kind of like, that quote from Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, where the lead character says, do I listen to pop music because I'm lonely, or am I lonely because I listen to pop music? Right?
Jeffrey Heine:But are we going to the technology because we're lonely and so isolated, and it's this grasping attempt, this failing attempt to feel less disconnected and lonely, an emptiness that's already present. To paraphrase the comedian, Marc Maron, he says, Every social media post is just a different version of saying, someone please acknowledge me. He's a comedian, but that's not very funny. But it's true. Right?
Jeffrey Heine:It's remarkable, then, to think, to think about what God has done in Christ in establishing a new community, one dependent upon confession of sin and the necessity of a rhythm of giving and receiving grace. It's dependent upon welcoming the outsider, the unknown, and the unloved. It's dependent upon meeting together regularly for fellowship. It's not based upon any commonality other than Jesus himself. Fellowship is a necessity, and it's for far more than just Sundays.
Jeffrey Heine:Luke goes on to describe that. After devotion to the teaching and the fellowship, Luke, Luke cites that the disciples were devoted to the breaking of bread, time of table fellowship that was deliberate, deliberate time together, sharing meals, welcoming men and women, Many of whom had lost their friends, had lost family members because they have followed Jesus. People who were isolated from their previous community, outcasts, because they are following this rabbi named Jesus. And those people were welcomed into homes. The breaking of bread that's being described here, it it included just regular meals, And it included the communion meal, what the church would call the Lord's supper or the Eucharist.
Jeffrey Heine:The breaking of bread, both in common daily meals and in commanded communion meals and in special agape meals when the church would come together. These were regular aspects of life, and it fostered real relationships and real friendships. It was a new family living like a real family. And finally, Luke records that these new Christians devoted themselves, gave themselves in steadfast action to the prayers. The prayers.
Jeffrey Heine:This would include scripted prayers, prayers like praying through the Psalms, new hymns that were being written about Christ. They would be passing along the prayer that Jesus taught the disciples to pray, the Lord's prayer. And it also would have been unscripted prayers, prayers of the believers, spending time together with God, sharing their hearts with God and one another as the church. All 4 of these disciplines, the apostle's teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers, all 4 are steadfast actions that every disciple devoted themselves to living out together. They gave themselves to these regular disciplines.
Jeffrey Heine:Notice that Luke doesn't go into some lengthy clarification or defense of these disciplines and how they're not legalistic. Right? He doesn't get bashful about describing disciplined spiritual practices. Luke knew that these steadfast practices were the reasonable expression of affection to God, not an attempt to earn affection from God. They were living that affection out.
Jeffrey Heine:And sometimes we get so afraid of legalism that we neglect discipline. But if we're honest with ourselves, and with one another, for most of us, legalism is not our most nearby present danger. The danger for most of us, if you're like me, it's negligence of discipline. It's neglecting holy living. And if the word discipline bothers you, and I get it if it does, let me say just a few things.
Jeffrey Heine:We need to know that discipline is not punishment. Those are not synonyms. They don't mean the same thing. Discipline is living on purpose. Discipline is about living deliberately.
Jeffrey Heine:That might even call to mind for some of you English majors, when Thoreau went into the woods near Walden Pond to live deliberately. When he says, I went to the woods because I wish to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and to see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when it came to die, discover I had not lived. Discipline is about living deliberately on purpose, not punishment. All your and all my due punishment went on Christ on the cross, and he has given you life. And that life is to be lived on purpose, lived in discipline, because discipline is not punishment.
Jeffrey Heine:Discipline is about being directed, being taught to obey Jesus, everything that he has commanded. So if the word discipline bothers you, I encourage you to ask the question, why? Because if you are like me, your problem with the word might be so you can have an excuse for neglecting holiness. I've been trying to speak more directly lately. The the first time I ever flew in a plane, it was this little puddle jumper.
Jeffrey Heine:And it came in to land on this little strip. And as we were making our way down, we immediately flew straight back up. I did not appreciate it. And, and I said, what just happened? And, the pilot, my Sunday school teacher, said, it didn't feel right.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm going back around. And then we landed. So let me speak directly one more time. Stop pretending that you are righteously avoiding legalism, when all you're doing is avoiding righteousness. I think I stuck it.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright. For the disciples in Acts, worshipfully and lovingly living into these actions was the way that they knew to honor Jesus, who had brought all of these things into their life, and they devoted themselves to it. Living in this was all part of that great commission unfolding around them. And when these actions were wisely practiced, they fostered more and more affection for God, and more and more affectionate obedience to Jesus. After Luke summarized these devotions of the disciples, he goes on to describe their new way of living, this powerful transformation inside and outside of the church.
Jeffrey Heine:Look with me, verse 43. And all came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. There are 2 marks that Luke underscores as marks of the new community. First, the fellowship is marked by awe. And this is quite phenomenal.
Jeffrey Heine:Awe came upon every soul. Luke means that every person within the community and outside of the community were overwhelmed with awe. They didn't conjure up the awe. They didn't whip themselves up into some kind of a frenzy. They didn't fake it until they made it.
Jeffrey Heine:No amount of pulling up from their bootstraps would make this all happen. All had to come to them, and all has to come to us. And through the apostles in the community and around the community, the spirit was using signs and wonders to bring this all about. Fear came to every soul. And the response of both believers and non believers was fearful awe.
Jeffrey Heine:And these signs and wonders had a singular objective, fear of God. You see, the objective wasn't merely physical wellness. Now, how do we know that? Because the sick would get sick again. The blind eyes that were healed would one day go dark again.
Jeffrey Heine:The formerly lame would be laid down again. And those brought back from the dead would die again. The goal of these signs and wonders wasn't temporary pain relief, it was to bring to bear awe of God, and the objective of this awe was worship, surrender, fear of the God who will one day eternally heal, eternally raise life from the grave, eternally cast out sin and all sickness and death. Every miracle was then and is now, but a pinprick of light breaking through a glimpse of the kingdom of God coming to earth. It's the resounding echo of heaven coming down now.
Jeffrey Heine:So Luke tells us that the fellowship was marked by all. And the second, the second mark of the community, the fellowship is marked by sharing. Look with me, and all who believed were there together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. Sharing might seem like a strange word.
Jeffrey Heine:Perhaps, it brings kind of a childish connotation in your mind. Because usually, the only time that you hear someone being told to share, they are a child. And maybe it's more usually when you hear someone talking about sharing, they're yelling about sharing. It's told repeatedly to kids because we want them to learn how to share. And why do we want them to learn how to share?
Jeffrey Heine:Because we don't want them to grow up to be terrible and sufferable adults. But sharing is it's rarely talked about with adults. In our culture, it's kind of this assumed perk of being an adult is that you don't have to share as much. Many people effectually live like real success is not having to share anything with anyone. And our culturally celebrated individualism, it permits us to go back to being 4 year olds who point to our things and say, mine.
Jeffrey Heine:So why is sharing such a big part of this new community? It's because you will never have genuine fellowship if you don't have sharing. Redemption generated fellowship requires and enables the release of your grip on stuff, so you can stop screaming mine. Through the work of God in your heart, mind, and soul, you begin to see your stuff as just stuff. This new spirit led sharing doesn't mean that you think that your stuff is everyone's stuff.
Jeffrey Heine:No. It means realizing that my stuff is just stuff, and it's ultimately God's stuff. And in the new community, possessions are, to quote Forrest Gump, one less thing to worry about. You don't have to focus on your things and spend your time trying to get more and keep more and secure more and defend more. But rather seeing it all as just stuff and God's stuff gives us the freedom to share.
Jeffrey Heine:Because you will never submit to everyone as unto the Lord when you are consumed with trying to hold on to everything that is yours, whether that's your money, your attention, your possessions, or your time. There is nothing in the realm of relationships that so loudly declares fellowship more than sharing, the giving of self for the good of others. Sharing demonstrates and gives witness to the fact that you care more about the person with whom you are sharing, than you care about the thing being shared. It gives witness that you consider the needs of the other person as more important than your own. And we we know about this transformative inner reality from the apostle's teaching, the apostle Paul, who in his letter to the Philippians, talks about how you can share like this because you have been given the mind of Christ, and you can think in this way, sharing the second hallmark of the Christian fellowship.
Jeffrey Heine:So then the the question to be asked of each of us is, in your life, what are you sharing? Whether it's your money, your attention, your possessions, your time, what are you sharing? What are you holding out for the good of those around you? And this question is not accusatory. Hear that.
Jeffrey Heine:Many of you are sincerely and faithfully sharing, and you aren't slowing down to realize that you are. And you need to recognize that you are doing this because God is at work in transforming you by his spirit. And this sharing has to do with living this life in Christ. We all need to take stock of our sharing and we should celebrate where it's happening and seek it where it's not. See, sharing is the work of the spirit in your life.
Jeffrey Heine:So let's be thankful that God is growing your generosity for his glory, so that we can share deliberately in the name of Christ. All who believed had all things in common and sold possessions to help those in need. All in sharing are these hallmarks of the Christian fellowship. Luke closes this section out with 2 final summary statements about the day by day life in the church. Look with me in verse 46.
Jeffrey Heine:And day by day, attending the temple together, breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all people. And the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who are being saved. Can I see in this little paragraph, a little section here, it begins and ends with this day by day? Day by day with the apostles and the disciples living this new community out day by day, the Lord adding to their number. And really, like the phrasing there for adding to their number kind of bears with it this, cultural understanding of enrollment into a new community.
Jeffrey Heine:It was like every day was move in day, and more and more people were coming into this new community. These new followers of Jesus lived their lives day by day, worshiping together, sharing meals in their homes with glad, happy, generous hearts. And what's remarkable about this verse is how surprisingly normal it is. It is day to day life marked by worship, spending time together. And they praised God, and they had favor, they had grace, both within the community and and outside of the community.
Jeffrey Heine:They had this reputation. They had these friendships. They had they had this recognition by the outsiders that something was happening in here, something worthy of their watching, playing, paying close attention to it. And the Lord added to their number, Non believers became full of awe and heard the disciples teaching. And they too were transformed by the spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:They became believers. Day by day, the Lord Lord added more and more. Day by day, these disciples gave testimony of the good news of Jesus. Day by day, they aided the needs around them. Day by day, they worshiped, they sang, they prayed, and they ate.
Jeffrey Heine:They shared shared their lives with one another. And the Lord added more and more and more to their community. Those new believers that were added in were baptized. And after they were baptized, they dedicated themselves to the teaching. And brothers and sisters came around them and taught them how to pray.
Jeffrey Heine:They taught them songs of worship. They taught them how to obey everything that Jesus commanded. They talked about how they too had lost family members, how they too had lost friends, they too had lost employment, their jobs, their livelihood, How the the brothers and the sisters had been aiding them along the way. They talked about what it meant to obey Jesus in whatever circumstance they might be finding themselves in. And then they too dedicated themselves in full obedience to living out this great commission as they began witnessing to the goodness and graciousness of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:This ends Luke's first summary. The ascended Jesus has done exactly what he said he would. He sent the spirit. He closed his disciples with power, and he is with them always. So what does this mean for us?
Jeffrey Heine:What does this mean for you? It means that if you are a believer in Jesus, you are a part of the body of Christ, not as a metaphor, but for real. For real, day by day life. And you are called by God, and made capable by God to be devoted and living in obedience to all that Jesus has commanded, To be his witnesses, to stand in awe of God and his grace and goodness. To share in your resources of time, finances, attention for the good of those around you, and to think deeply about how you can stir up one another for faith and good works.
Jeffrey Heine:What does acts chapter 2 verses 42 through 47 mean for us? It means that the kingdom is not nearly as far away as it sometimes feels. And we can learn to live deliberately, devotedly as citizens of that kingdom today. This first expression of the church recorded in acts 2, gives us a beautiful picture of what that looks like. And if you want to get really practical, I had a there's a group of preachers and pastors, we get together every so often.
Jeffrey Heine:And, one of them was saying that he gets emails like on Monday from people in his church. He's like, but what am I supposed to do today? And I said, believe what we talked about on Sunday, but also know that sometimes we need something held in front of us of, okay, but what do I do? And and so after the first one, believe what we're talking about. Where do we start?
Jeffrey Heine:Start with food. Start with inviting people over for more than just entertainment, but for the kingdom of God. Invite in people from the church, in your home group, somebody new. Today, invite somebody over and share a simple meal, and get to know one another, and witness to one another, stir one another up for love and good works. 2nd option here, start with prayer.
Jeffrey Heine:Set aside time before you're going to be with other Christians. Set aside time, whether that's the workplace, whether that's your home group, whether it's coming in to a Bible study, whatever it might be. Time with your family, your parents or your kids. Set aside time to pray how you could stir them up for love and good works. Spend more time getting ready for that than getting ready in other ways.
Jeffrey Heine:And start with committing yourself to the body of Christ. Commit to the church family for more than just Sundays. And commit not for what you can get out of it, but for what you can share with your new brothers and your new sisters in Christ. This is the life of the disciple of Jesus. This is the life abundant that he has secured for you in your salvation.
Jeffrey Heine:This is the life lived by the spirit, and life is to be lived. Let's pray. God, you know the deepest needs in our hearts. And in Christ, you have met our need for salvation and redemption. By your spirit, you are giving us direction, and confidence, and boldness to witness to our savior.
Jeffrey Heine:And in the church, you're giving us relationships that encourage us along the way, that encourage us with words of kindness and also words of discipline, words of direction. God, you are so good to us. And so often we take it for granted. We just busy ourselves with all of these commitments and distractions and we fail to realize that you have come into the common places to make the common places sacred. And you are in our midst, even in this moment, speaking to our hearts.
Jeffrey Heine:And so, Lord, we ask that you would strengthen us now to believe and to obey. We pray these things in the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.
