Why Does Following Jesus Have to Change My Life? | Acts 2:37-47 | Kevin Queen

God, I have so much to be grateful for. Everything is not perfect, but God is good. Can you turn to someone and say, God is good? Oh, that feels right. That feels right to say. Can you turn to someone else and say, God is good? That's why we're praising him today. We're giving him glory for all that he's done and is doing and is going to do. Let's praise him, church. Hey! ♪ There was no way until you made one ♪ ♪ Grace upon grace, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Even though I don't deserve it, you did it ♪ ♪ Even though I couldn't earn it, you give it ♪ ♪ And who am I that you keep me on your mind, God? ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you, God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ And all my life you've been right here by my side, God ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you, God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, there's only one ♪ ♪ I give you glory for all that you've done ♪ ♪ Even though I don't deserve it, you did it ♪ ♪ Even though I couldn't earn it, you give it ♪ ♪ And who am I that you keep me on your mind, God? ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you, God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ And all my life you've been right here by my side, God ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you, God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ Who am I that you keep me on your mind, God? ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you, God, I'm just grateful for you ♪

♪ All my life you've been right here by my side, God ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you, God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ If you're grateful, can you lift both of your hands up real high? Come on, church, it's time to praise the one who woke us up this morning. Come on, let's lift them up, lift them up! ♪ And I, I'm lifting both of my hands ♪ ♪ Because you gave me chance after chance after chance ♪ ♪ And I, I'm giving all that I am ♪ ♪ Because you gave me chance after chance after chance ♪ ♪ And I, I'm lifting both of my hands ♪ ♪ Because you gave me chance after chance after chance ♪ ♪ And I, I'm giving all that I am ♪ ♪ Because you gave me chance after chance after chance ♪ ♪ And who am I that you keep me on your mind, God? ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ All my life, you've been right here by my side, God ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ And who am I that you keep me on your mind, God? ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ All my life you've been right here by my side, God ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you, hallelujah ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you, hallelujah ♪ ♪ I survived and I'm really grateful for you, God ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you, I really am grateful ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you, I really am grateful ♪ ♪ And I'm all right if they say I'm out of my mind, God ♪ ♪ I'm just grateful for you, God I'm just grateful for you ♪ Someone say praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

Hallelujah. That's right, we are grateful for Jesus. Lord, we thank you for who you are. We place you at the forefront of all of our minds right now. Jesus, your name above all else. We speak your name over every circumstance. Your name is higher. Your ways are better, Lord. We praise you, we honor you. And I just wanna speak the name of Jesus over every heart and every mind. I know there is peace within your presence. I speak Jesus. And I just wanna speak the name of Jesus till every dark addiction starts to break. Till every heart and every mind starts to break. Declaring there is hope and there is freedom, amen. Oh, I speak Jesus. Your name is power. Your name is healing. Your name is love. Your name is strength, oh, shine through the shadows. Burn like a fire. And I just wanna speak the name of Jesus over fear and all anxiety. Oh, every soul held captive by depression, oh, I speak Jesus. Cause your name is power, and your name is healing. Your name is life. So break every stronghold and shine through the shadows. Burn like a fire.

Your name is power, and your name is healing. Your name is life. So break every stronghold, shine through the shadows, and burn like a fire. Shout Jesus from the mountains, and Jesus in the streets. Shout Jesus in the darkness over every enemy. Let's sing now, come on. Sing Jesus for my family, declare it. Oh, I speak the holy name, Jesus. Shout Jesus from the mountains, and Jesus in the streets. And Jesus in the darkness over every enemy. And Jesus for my family, oh, I speak the holy name, Jesus. Cause your name is power, and your name is healing. Your name is life. So break every stronghold, shine through the shadows, and burn like a fire. Always shine. ♪ Oh Jesus, and we shout Jesus from the mountains ♪ ♪ And Jesus in the street, oh Jesus in the darkness ♪ ♪ Oh glory ever be, and Jesus for my family ♪ ♪ For I speak your holy name, Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh Jesus, Jesus, oh Jesus, oh Jesus, oh Jesus, oh Jesus ♪ Churches, if there's ever a place in a time that we should not be ashamed to shout Jesus' name, it's on a Sunday morning in the house of God. So if you can, at the top of your lungs, can you shout the name of Jesus on the count of three? Try it. One, two, three. Jesus!

That's good. I'm gonna say it again. If there's ever a place that you should not be ashamed to shout his name, it should be on a Sunday morning in the house of God. Come on, one, two, three. Jesus! There's power in the name of. Jesus! There's salvation in the name of. Jesus! There's deliverance in the name of. Jesus! Come on, say it one more time with all you have. One, two, three. Jesus! Doesn't it feel right to shout his name? There's no other name under heaven and earth that we can't be saved by. When we shout his name, demons tremble. And we don't shout his name because he's hard of hearing. We shout his name because we need to hear it. We need to remind ourselves that he is the name above every name. He's the only one that deserves all our attention, all our praise, all our worship, all of our adoration, all glory, honor, dominion, and power. We gotta say it one more time. One, two, three. Jesus!

Yeah, we're here to praise that name. I wanna invite you to keep singing, church. He's worthy of every song. He's worthy of every praise we can give. Let's do it together. Your name is the highest. Your name, come on, is the greatest. Your name stands. That's right, let's go. Above all thrones. Positions, your name. Positions, your name. It's true, it's true, come on. Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above all. Above all thrones. Above all thrones. And the king of all powers. And positions, your name. It stands above them all. And the angels cry. Come on. Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy forever. Yeah, come on. And if you've been forgiven. And if you've been redeemed.

You can sing this song forever. Thank you for salvation, Jesus. And if you walk in freedom. And if you bear his name. You can sing this song forever to the land. Come on, we sing today. Sing this song forever and ever. And the angels cry. Come on church. Holy. All creation cry. Holy. You are lifted high. You are holy. Holy forever. Holy forever. Hear your people say. Holy, holy. Holy. To the king of kings. You are holy. You will always be. Holy. Holy forever. Let's sing your name is the highest. Your name is the highest. New York. Can you lift your hands as you sing? Come on, lift your hands. Come on.

Your name is the highest. It's the greatest. Your name. That's why we praise you. That's why we praise you. You stand above all thrones, dominions, powers, positions. Your name. Your name. And the angels cry, holy. Our creation. Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy. Holy forever. Your people. And your people say, holy. Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy. Holy. You are holy. Holy forever. You will always be holy. Holy forever. You will always be holy. Holy forever. Holy forever. I want to ask you to raise your hand one more time. Raise both hands high. Let's acknowledge with our bodies that there is one God.

The only one worthy of praise. The only one that's holy. And as many times as you can in the next 15 seconds just say holy. Say what your heart says. Holy. Come on holy. Little louder, holy. Holy is the Lord. Come on holy. He's holy. He's holy. He's holy. He's holy. He's holy. Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy. It means there's nobody like him. No one else is faithful. No one else is good. No one else is true. He's holy. And the angels cry. Come on church. Come on church. He's holy. He's holy. He's holy. He's holy.

Holy, holy, holy. It means there's nobody like him. No one else is faithful. Holy, holy. Oh, we praise you Jesus. You are holy. Holy forever. You will always be holy. Holy forever. Today we are continuing through the book of Acts together. A week by week, verse by verse, study through the book of Acts. And I've been thinking about it as we've been reading and going through. I've been thinking about this podcast that I like to listen to from time to time called, I built this and the host guy, Ross, he interviews some great business leaders and founders of companies. And he asked them questions about how they got started. Folks like Sarah Blakely of Spanx and Howard Schultz of Starbucks and Phil Knight of Nike. And he asked them how they got started, where they got the idea, how they took the leap and about challenges and some breakthroughs that they experienced along the way. And he finishes every episode with a question. He asked them something like this. How much of your success do you attribute to hard work, to talent or to intellect? And how much was luck? Fascinating question. And so as I've been thinking about that,

I've been thinking about the founder of the greatest movement that the world has ever known, Jesus. When he takes his disciples to Caesarea Philippi in Matthew chapter 16, he takes them to Caesarea Philippi, which literally means Caesar's town. And he casts vision for them of what's to come. He says to them, he said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it. Now that word church, the Greek word is ecclesia. It's a concept that the Romans borrowed from the Greeks. It was the way that they advanced the Roman empire throughout the known world that as they entered into a new territory, they would use the ecclesia. The ecclesia, that word means the gathering. It means the assembly, the called out ones. And so they would call in a new city, they would call the people together as citizens of Rome, as a part of the empire and for the people to get the vision and values of Rome. To bring the vision and values of Rome to the people, they would hear a message from the scroll, a message from Caesar, from the emperor. They would cast incense and declare Caesar as Lord. It was how they experienced what Rome is like far away from Rome. They advanced the kingdom, the edges of the empire

through the ecclesia. And it's in Caesar's town, Caesarea Philippi, where Jesus brings these disciples, these 12 disciples, and he tells them, I will build my church, my ecclesia, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. So Jesus tells, and if you think about gates, gates are not an offensive measure, they're a defensive measure. Jesus is saying, we are storming the gates of hell and hell will not win. We are gonna plunder the enemy's camp, rescue people from darkness, bring people into light, bring people into life. We are bringing life to the gates of hell. He said, and hell will not overcome it. So Jesus casts his vision of what he's going to build, his ecclesia, his assembly, his gathering, that the church that Jesus is building is not a building, it's a people. And he uses people like us. This is what Jesus was telling these disciples. And when you read through the book of Acts, it's like a long form podcast where Jesus is telling the answer to the question, let me tell you how I built this. It covers the first three decades from 33 to 65, the first three decades of how Jesus began building his church. And we see the origin, the beginning in Acts chapter two, man, the disciples, the apostles, they're together,

120 in the upper room. Jesus said, go to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit. So they're praying and they're waiting. And after 10 days, the Holy Spirit shows up, they receive the Spirit of God. And they know that the Spirit has arrived because they hear a sound like a rushing wind. They see what appears to be vision of tongues of fire over everybody's head, meaning everybody gets in on this. And then it was also the languages that they spoke. They spoke languages they didn't know before and languages that all of the foreigners that had come for Shavuot, the Hebrew festival, the harvest festival had come into town. And so people are hearing the message of God in their own language. And so it's at this moment that Peter, then the party moves from the upper room. They move to the temple steps. It goes to the temple steps. Let me show you a picture of the Southern stairs, the Southern stairs at the temple. And it would have been these stairs, these stairs that Peter and the other 11 apostles, that they walked up these stairs. And at these stairs, Peter began to preach. He began to proclaim the gospel. Now people, thousands and thousands of people had gathered there at nine o'clock because nine o'clock was when the,

it was when the prayer started. It was when the sacrifices started with Shavuot. So everybody's converged there. And Peter now emboldened by the spirit of God. I mean, remember he denied Jesus three times, just weeks before this. And here he is filled with the spirit of God. He has encountered the resurrected Christ for 40 days. He has all this boldness, all this courage. He gets up and he proclaims this gospel message to the same people that killed Jesus. He proclaims the message to them. Message we talked about last week, that Jesus lived and Jesus died and Jesus rose and Jesus reigns and Jesus saves. He proclaims this message and he says to them. It just gets really bold. And he says, God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah, and all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now, Peter has no idea how they're gonna respond. I mean, because they have more, Rome has more crosses. So he has no idea what they're gonna do next. Imagine how surprised he is in verse 37, when it says, when the people heard this, when they heard the gospel, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what shall we do? Man, this is what the spirit of God does. The spirit of God brings conviction to our hearts.

The spirit of God convicts us of our need for the gospel. Jesus told them this is what would happen. In the upper room, he's having conversations with the disciples and he's telling them of what's to come, talking about the Holy Spirit. And here's what he said. He said, when the spirit comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment. Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit comes, one of the things the Holy Spirit's gonna do is bring conviction to our hearts about our need for the gospel, our need for Christ. The Holy Spirit reveals us of our need, that's conviction. That the power in Peter's message was not eloquence. It was not masterful delivery. It was not the way he phrased things. The power of the message, the power of the gospel was the work of the spirit to bring conviction to their hearts. The gospel is bad news before it's good news. The gospel is bad news before it's good news. Here's what I mean. I first have to come face to face with my sin. I have to come face to face. There has to be an awareness of my brokenness, of my selfishness, of my complete inability to fix my life on my own. This is not a self-help message,

because self can't help self, because who's got you into the mess to begin with? So self's the one that caused the problem. So self can't get myself out of this pit. Self can't rescue me from a life that is curved inward, from a life that is focused on self. I need a help outside of self, and that is the gospel. But when I have revelation of man, I am broken, and I get vision of what my sin has cost me and what my sin has cost Christ and what my sin has cost others. It reveals in me, there's a revelation of my need for God. And in that moment, I realized, I don't need more information, I need transformation. I need a new heart. I need a new life. I need a rescue. I hope you've had a moment like that. And if you haven't had a moment like that, then ask for it. And if you have had a moment like that, don't resist. Don't fight it. Don't hit snooze, don't delay. You know why? Because if you delay, and if you continually grieve and resist the Holy Spirit, one day God might give you what you want. He said, leave me alone, God, leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alone. One day God might answer that prayer, and He might just leave you alone.

That's why we say today is a day of salvation, because none of us are promised tomorrow. And if God is working in our hearts, if the Spirit brings conviction to our hearts, the response is, God, what do I do? This is what they ask. They ask the question, they're like, what do we do? Now look at Peter's response, verse 38. Then Peter replied, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the promises for you too, and your children, and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call, with many other words He warned them and pleaded with them, save yourselves from this corrupt generation. Now, what do we do? This is a question that they ask, what do you want us to do? And I want you to see, Peter gave them an answer. He said, repent and be baptized. There are times of outpouring when the Spirit of God moves. I mean, I believe many times the evangelist seeks the person who's in need, the sinner. The evangelist seeks the lost, but then there are times of an outpouring of the Spirit where the lost seek the evangelist, where the people who are in great need of God, where they say, what do we do?

So this is a preacher's dream. This is a proclaimer's dream. This is an apostle's dream. So when they're asking the question, what do we do? He says, repent and be baptized. He doesn't say, nah, you're good. He doesn't say, don't do anything. Don't worry about it. He doesn't say, fix yourself. He doesn't say, do better. He gives him something to do. He says, repent and be baptized. Now, what does it mean to repent? It does not mean to feel sorry. It does not mean to feel bad. Now, oftentimes in repentance, when we repent, we feel sorry, we feel remorse, we feel bad for what we've done. But repentance is more than a feeling. To repent literally means to turn around. It means to be heading one direction and to do a 180 and go in the other direction. It means to turn around, it means a change of thought, to change the way we're thinking. Like, man, one day I believed and I thought that Jesus was a good teacher, but then I changed the way I'm thinking. Now he is the Messiah, he is Savior. I thought that Jesus was just a good example or a spiritual leader, but now I see he is Savior,

he is Lord. I was going one direction, I was living for myself, but now I'm living for God, I'm turning toward God. It's a change of thought, it's a change of direction. It's to move in the other direction. Like, if you were in Columbia, Tennessee, in south of town, and I said, come to Nashville, in order to come to Nashville, you would have to leave Columbia. You can't come to Nashville and stay in Columbia at the same time. Just like if you're pursuing God, there are going to have to be things that you leave behind. And somewhere we've created this idea that you can be a Christian and not be a follower of Jesus. That's nowhere in this book. That it is more than a mental ascent to a theological truth, that it is a devotion of a life to say, I will follow you, Jesus. I'm gonna turn and follow. Now, I'm not talking about perfection. I'm not talking about where you get all your stuff worked out and then come to God. I'm talking about you come to Jesus and he changes your life. But it begins with repentance. I'm not talking about self-improvement. This is not a self-help message. This is surrender and say, Jesus, I bring my life to you. This is what Peter calls me to.

He calls me to repentance. And, you know, this is, I was thinking about, we're never more, you're never more than a prayer away from repentance. Like you repent today. You return today. And for those of us that are in Christ, it's a repentance every day. It's a return back, but there's a beginning moment where we say, I'm leaving my old life and I'm following you, Jesus. Have you had a moment like that? And if you haven't, then today, May 31st, that's today's date, right? That today, May 31st, can be the date on the calendar where you're like, that's the day. You know, oftentimes you talk to people and they know significant dates. You talk to somebody who's on a sobriety journey, you're like, when did you begin your journey? And they'll give you a date. You talk to somebody who moved to Nashville and you can ask them a question like, when did you move to Nashville? And they'll give you a date. Ask guys, when were you married? They'll look at their wife and then they'll get a date. I mean, oftentimes we can look at these significant turning points in our lives, these significant moments in our lives

and we can give a date. But I'll tell you as a pastor, I ask the question oftentimes, tell me about your relationship. When did you begin a relationship with Jesus? And a lot of times people can't give a date because it was more of a process. It was more of a process. And, but sometimes people will be able to give a date, but oftentimes it's hard to come up with a specific date. And can I tell you, that's the reason that God has given us baptism. That's the reason, one of the reasons that God has given us baptism, because it's a demarcation. It's a line in the sand. It's a moment where we can look back and say, that's the moment where I went public with my faith. That's what's happening here. He says, repent and be baptized. Peter says, repent and be baptized, every one of you. So in other words, baptism is for all of us. It's for everyone who is a follower of Jesus. It's a tangible expression of the new life in Christ. As a wedding band is an expression, it's a physical expression, demonstrative expression, continual expression. I might forget my anniversary day, but the ring is a reminder that I have pledged and I have made a vow.

Vows are separate than rings. You make a vow, you make a commitment, and then the ring is the symbol that you carry. Baptism is the symbol of the vow, the allegiance, the decision to follow Christ. Speaking of my wedding band, on Monday, I was working out on Memorial Day. I did Murph, and Murph is a CrossFit workout in honor of Lieutenant Colonel Michael Murphy. It's a workout, it was his favorite workout. And you do, you run a mile, you do 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 air squats, and you run another mile. And I did that. Some of you, some of you are, don't clap, don't clap. Okay, you can go now. I mean, so do you know how to tell if your pastor does CrossFit? Don't worry about it, he'll tell you. So there is a, but after I did, I realized I took off my ring because my finger was swollen. Actually, everything was swollen, but back. Include my ego, right? But yeah, I took off my ring and then I had a moment where I looked down and I was like, I don't have my ring on. And it was this, I was completely unsettled because it was not where it was supposed to be. And so I went and I was like, I gotta get my ring on. And when we haven't yet followed Christ in that way of baptism, there's this unsettledness

because it's the first thing. Why don't you see, for these early believers, it was the first thing that they did. This expression immediately, these early Christians externalized their faith. Now, some will take this verse and take the position and say, well, in order to be a Christian, you have to be baptized. Now, I don't believe that that's what this teaches because Peter says, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God is raising from the dead, you will be saved. We are not saved by works, we are saved by grace through faith, amen? And so that is, so it's not required, I don't believe that baptism is required for salvation, but I believe according to the New Testament that it's expected, that if you're a genuine follower of Jesus, that it would be a next step in obedience to Christ. And so as we were preparing, as we were reading through the text with the team, it was like, you know what, we need to be ready for baptism today because even as we talk about this, there may be some of you are cut to the heart, you realize I need to be baptized or maybe you've gotten things out of order

and you haven't yet been baptized as a follower of Jesus. And so at all of our campuses, the tubs are filled up and we've got towels and we've got a change of clothes, we've got everything you need. We've got like hair stuff, we've got Axe body spray, whatever you need. We just, we don't want any barrier to get in the way of your obedience to Christ today. And I just want to say, there may be some who you know that's for you and actually you can actually leave even right now at any point during the service, you can just go out in the lobby, there's a baptismal tub and the team will get ready for you and then after service, we'll celebrate your baptism. Now, I realize I just made it complicated for somebody who might just want to go to the restroom, but our assumption is if you need to be baptized today, the invitation would be, and I don't want you to feel the press of man, but I don't want to relieve you from the press of God. If God has cut you to the heart and you're like, that's what I need to do today, then settle the obedience with him and take the next step that he calls you to take. That's what they did. Look at their response. Verse 41, it says, those who accepted his message were baptized and about 3,000 were added to their number that day.

3,000 were baptized at one day. Now, we had 20 baptized at the end of last service. That's awesome. That's incredible. Can we just praise God for that? So many who were not planning on it, but just say, yes, I want to be obedient to Christ in that way. 3,000. We went back and we started looking through the data to see how long has it taken us. We went back into 2019. 2019, since then, we've baptized 3,000 people as a church and we celebrate that. In fact, we've got an image that just kind of speaks to this different names. And you just think about the different names, different faces, different people who were baptized. Some of you, your picture might be up on the screen. Some of you family members, friends who over the last, over the last six years have demonstrated faith in Christ through baptism. Man, we celebrate what God has done. Then when we see a number like that, 3,000, that it's 3,000 people, 3,000, some are moms, some are dads, sons and daughters and children. And just a picture of what God did. That's what I want you to see is there was this forceful move of the spirit, like this tsunami of grace, this move of God as all these people were baptized.

And this is like, this is what happened at Pentecost. And this is a picture of revival. Listen, let me give you a definition of revival. Revival is when normal gospel ministry moves forward with extraordinary power. Revival is when normal gospel ministry moves forward with extraordinary power and it can happen in a church and it can happen in a city and it can happen in a region, this extraordinary power of God's grace where God does more in one day than would normally take years. Now skeptics have read this verse and they've read this passage and they've thought, well, okay, like really, how did they baptize 3,000 people in one day? How do you baptize 3,000 people in one day? And for years, people were skeptical about this. But then 50 years ago, archeologists were excavating at the base of the Southern stairs. Let me show you what they found. They found 48 mikvahs. Mikvahs were Jewish ritual cleansing baths. So there at the base of the temple were 48 of these baptismal tufts. So God had already, He had already orchestrated infrastructure for Shavuot, for harvest festival, for harvest day that God had already built in what they needed for them to baptize the 3000 people there on that day. That's day one of the church, that's a good first day.

It's a great first day. Jesus said that he is the Lord of the harvest. And this is the harvest, harvest festival. I mean, you just see the way God lined it up. The spirit is poured out in 3000. Come to faith, it's the day when God changed his address. He went from the temple to the people. The presence went from the temple to the people to dwell in the heart. It's the day when the Ekklesia, his gathering, his sent ones, his assembly was formed. I can just imagine Jesus on how I built this, Guy Raz asking questions. So tell me this, you went from 120 to 3000 on the first day? Yeah. That's 25 times gross. That's 25 X gross. Like how, and he asked a question. How much of your success do you attribute to hard work, talent and intelligence? And how much was luck? And Jesus said, no luck, it was all the spirit. It was all the spirit. The spirit was poured out and 3000 came to faith. 3000 were baptized on one day. And I don't know that the miracle is so much that 3000 responded. I think the miracle is that 3000 stayed. That 3000 stayed.

That it wasn't just a conversion, but that 3000 stayed and grew. That there were 3000 people who came to faith and who professed their faith and who walked with Jesus. But the 3000 stayed in the journey. And then they disciple because Jesus didn't say, go into all the world and make converts. He said, make disciples. Make disciples of all nations. And so how did they disciple 3000 people? I'll show you what they did. Verse 42, here's how they built the church. Because 3000 weren't saved. In day two of the church, God didn't bring in another 3000. See, the harvest was in, next year's harvest was in the fruit. So they discipled the fruit of that harvest. And look at what happens. This is how Jesus builds his church. Verse 42, it says, and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and a fellowship and the breaking of bread and a prayer. And everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. And all the believers were together and had everything in common. And they sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. And every day they continue to meet together

in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. So on day two, when they woke up, I want you to see there are these rhythms and there are these habits of the new community that God has formed. That he is woven into our DNA. And if you're taking notes, you can write them down. That we would be a gathered people, a growing people, a giving people and a going people. Gather, grow, give, go. First is the church is a gathered people. Look at verse 46. It's what we do. It says, every day they continue to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. They gather together. There's this rhythm of gathering that they gather together at the temple courts because that was the only place big enough to get thousands of people together. And then they would go and they would meet in their homes. They would meet in their homes. Imagine with me that Tuesday following Pentecost

that you've got gathered up in a home. You've got a wife of a Roman soldier and you have a Galilean fisherman. And then you've got this Pharisee. And three weeks before that, they didn't even know each other, but now they're sharing a meal together. They're breaking bread. They're going to the cup together. That they're spending that time around the table in fellowship. This is the mark of who we are as a people that we gather in large groups and that we gather in small groups. And Jesus told them this. He says, something will happen when you gather. Jesus said, when two or three gather in my name, there I am with them. So God is omnipresent. Here's what that means. God is everywhere. You can't escape the presence of God. And the presence of God dwells in the life of the believer. But there is a manifest presence of God that we experience when we gather together as a church, that we gather as his people. He says, I will inhabit the praises of my people. Paul says in such a way that when we gather and then we worship, that an outsider would come in and say,

surely God is among you to experience the presence of God. And Jesus tells us as we gather, he is with us because he knows he's incentivizing us because he knows we need his presence and he knows that we need one another. I don't know if you saw it, but back in 2023, this US Surgeon General said this, compared chronic loneliness to the health impact of smoking 15 cigarettes a day. It's associated with increased risk of depression, anxiety, heart disease, dementia, and premature death. Listen, we are living in the age of a loneliness epidemic. And Jesus has hardwired, He has hardwired the cure into the new community that He has formed called the church. He has created and formed what we need in the gathering, that we need His presence and we need one another. The church is God's answer to a lonely, divided world. Second, the church is a growing people. It's a growing people. Look at Acts 2.42. It says, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, the fellowship of the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Now, here's a simple truth. What you devote yourself to grows. What you devote yourself to grows in life. Nobody ever wakes up and goes, man, I could bench press 300 pounds. Nobody just wakes up, wakes up one day and goes, man, I have an incredible marriage. Nobody just wakes up and says, you know what?

I have a strong relationship with my kids. Nobody wakes up and goes, you know what? I just bought some new golf clubs. I'm an amazing golfer. Because what you're devoted to grows. If you show me your life, I'll show you what you're devoted to. Show me your life. Your life bears witness of what you're devoted to. I mean, nothing that we really want grows on accident. The only thing that grows on accident is my waistline and my hairline. Those are the only two things that just grow. Everything else is a choice. And what does it say? It said they made the choice to be devoted to the apostles' teaching, that's the word, and to prayer. What were the apostles teaching? Well, the apostles were teaching who Jesus is and what Jesus taught and how Jesus lived, his death, his resurrection, what it means to follow him, how all of Scripture points to him. See, Pentecost created converts. Disciples were formed through a devotion to the word and to prayer. And if you devote yourself to the right things, the right things will grow. Here's what it said, if you want to learn how to pray, spend time around people who know how to pray. If you wanna learn a language,

spend time around people who know that language. If you wanna learn how to pray, God teaches how to pray in praying with people who know how to pray. Disciples came to Jesus and said, teach us how to pray. That's the one prayer I can promise you God wants to answer in your life, is if you'll just ask, and it's really the beginning. We start out and we say, God, teach me how to pray. Well, the disciples, they were learning to pray. The early church, they were praying people. And when we say, can I just say this? Yeah, okay, because I got a microphone. When we sing songs, you know that's what we're doing. Songs are prayers put to melody. And I was talking with a worship, a songwriter one time, and he said, what I do when I write worship songs is I'm writing prayers that people don't know that they need to pray. So when we sing out loud, we're praying together. It's the word and it's prayer. We devote ourselves to. Third, the church is a giving people. What do you think about this with me? It's Shabbat. So people have gathered thousands and thousands and thousands of people. Foreigners have converged on Jerusalem and it places packed and they've experienced a move of God. So nobody wants to leave.

Nobody wants to go home. It's like summer camp for adults. Like nobody wants to go back to where they're from. They wanna stay there. So here's what was, it was radical what was happening. People were opening up their lives. They're opening up their homes. They're opening up their dinner tables. They're opening up their guest rooms. They're opening up for these foreigners to come and to experience. So there's this hospitality, this sacred hospitality that the church from the very beginning that we would be a giving people, they're sharing their resources. Verse 44 says, all the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. This is not socialism and it's not capitalism. It's generosity, stewardship. Luke does not say nobody owned anything. He does not say that the apostles required everyone to sell everything. It's just the opposite. People were led by the spirit of God. People were just led by the spirit of God to get on Facebook marketplace and to share what they, to sell things and to share with one another.

It's not that they stopped owning possessions is that their possessions stopped owning them. And this is a mark of the move of the spirit of God. People were living generously and it wasn't just their possessions. Well, it was their time, it was their talent and it was their treasures. It was their time and it was what they had on. There was their calendar. They reorganized things with their calendar. It was their talent. It was their gifts, their spiritual gifts, their natural gifts, what you're good at. And it was their treasures. It was the money. It was what they had. Let me ask you a question. Where is it the hardest for you to be generous? Is it harder with your time, with your talent? or with your treasure. And when God moves, when the Spirit of God moves, when revival breaks out, it will always cost us something. It will always cost us something. To facilitate a move of God, to sustain a move of God, somebody has to sacrifice. And Jesus already gave the greatest sacrifice, and our response and sacrifice in giving is to sustain, let me ask you this question. If 3,000 people came to Christ today, 3,000 people were converted,

are we willing to make the sacrifices to disciple them? Are we willing to open up our homes? Are we willing to open up our Bibles? We are willing to open up our lives to facilitate this move, because when God moves, it presses against our comfort, our convenience, our preferences, our traditions. It's uncomfortable, but to sustain a move of God, it always costs something, but I promise you, if you went back and you asked these people who were there, you're like, man, tell me about it, they'd be like, those were the good days. I'd give anything to be back in those days. So it begins with saying, God, I will give as you lead, and then the Spirit of God creates a going people, a going people, the church is a going people. It says, they were praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people, and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. And the church lived on mission from day one. They were like, who's not? Do you realize the church is the first, it's the first gathering, it's the first group, it's the first organized group of people that existed for people who weren't there. There had never been a community like this. All the communities before this were all tribal, focused on the inside. We as a church, we're the first ones who were focused on who's only outside, who's not there,

to help them find the hope of Christ, and they lived in a way that was attractional, that drew other people in, where people were like, man, I gotta be a part of that. And they lived a show-and-tell lifestyle, where they showed the love of God with the way they served and the way they loved. And they told people about the hope that only Jesus brings. Hey, have you ever been at a restaurant and looked at another table, and they were having more fun than you were? I mean, you look at the other table, man, they are laughing, and they're telling stories, and nobody has their phone out, and everybody's engaged, and you just see, man, there's so much fun, so much joy happening at that table that you're trying to figure out, how do I get to that table? You're trying to figure out, how do I get from the table I'm at over to that table? I want you to know, this is what was happening at this time. It says they had the favor of all the people. It says, Eugene Peterson, in the message, he talks about how people looked at it, and listen to what he says. He says, people in general liked what they saw. People were trying to figure out, how do I get to that table? And Jesus said, I will build my ecclesia, my gathering, my people,

and that there would be joy that others would wanna receive, and that there would be love like they never seen, and there would be grace that would be poured out, because when you go to Rome, what the Romans were doing is they had an ecclesia. They said, hey, if you wanna know what Rome is like, get around those people. Jesus said, I will build my church, and you wanna know what heaven's like? Get around my people, that we would live according to the culture of heaven, that we wouldn't live like the world, but we would live according to the culture of heaven, and we bring the joy of heaven, the peace of heaven, the vision and values of heaven, we would bring to earth, and that his kingdom would advance through this tiny outpost of his kingdom. He said, I'm gonna build my ecclesia, and you know how I'm gonna do it? I'm gonna do it with you, and that you've been given this grand invitation from God to be a part of his church, and that we would be a gathered people, that we wouldn't forsake the gathering of believers, that we'd be a growing people, that we would grow spiritually because of our devotion to Christ, and we're devoted to him because he's devoted to us. And we'd be a giving people

because everything that we have is from God, and how do I store my resources, my time, talent, and treasure in a way that honors him and advances his kingdom? And we'd be a going people, that we would exist for those who are not yet in Christ, and to help us remember when we gather, because when the ecclesi of Rome would gather, they'd say Caesar is Lord, they'd cast incense, they'd worship Caesar, we worship a king that is above every other king, because empires come and go, the kingdom of God is forever, and Jesus is the king that's above every other king, and you've been invited to be a part of his ecclesia, so I'm gonna invite you to get the elements in your hands for communion, because Jesus is at the head of the table, and he's invited us to the table, to receive his grace, to receive his mercy, to receive his love, I'm gonna invite you to just go ahead and open up. And this is for those of us who are followers of Jesus. If you're not yet a follower of Jesus, today can be the day where you begin to follow Him. Where you repent, where you return to Him. A day of your baptism, maybe He's calling you to be baptized, but a day to receive. Would you get the bread in your hands? On the night before He went to the cross, Jesus gathered the disciples together in an

upper room. He took the bread, gave thanks for it, He broke it, and they received. Can I just tell you, just before you receive, I want you to, I want you to just thank Him. Just take a moment and just thank Him for His body laid down, and He was stretched out on a cross that He gave Himself for you. And He said, do this in remembrance of Me, so we receive. He took the cup, and He said, this is the cup of My new covenant, as you open it up. I won't partake of this again until we're together. So we look back, and we see the forgiveness applied, and the grace applied to our sin. We look forward to the one day we will be with Him, and so we remember Him. Thank You for Your blood that was poured out for us to do this in remembrance of Me. And after they received, they sang together, so we'll finish with a song, but I want to pray with you before we do that. Father, we thank You. We thank You for loving us. Thank You for the gathering. Thank You, Jesus, that You are here with us through Your Spirit. Thank You how You grow us in Christlikeness. What happens when Your Word and Spirit come together? We thank You that we give, because You gave everything for us. And God, would You give us the grace and the courage to go and to do exactly what You call us to do? Even now, would we pour out all our devotion on You, as You have demonstrated Your devotion toward us on the cross? Let's stand and let's sing together. Our affection, our devotion, poured out on the feet of Jesus. Our affection, our devotion, poured out on the feet of Jesus. Our affection, our devotion, poured out on the feet of Jesus. Our affection, our devotion, poured out on the feet of Jesus. Our affection, our devotion, poured out on the feet of Jesus.

Our affection, our devotion, poured out on the feet of Jesus. We love You, oh how we love You. You are the one our hearts adore. Jesus, we love You, oh how we love You. You are the one our hearts adore. Our hearts adore. Jesus, we love You, oh how we love You. You are the one our hearts adore. Jesus, we love You, oh how we love You. Like Share Subscribe