Confused Because They Understood
First B Jackson
2024-11-10

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Alright. Good morning, everybody. How are doing? Good

to see you. Very good to see you. Would you stand with me? I'd love to join in song together by singing the Lord's prayer. Father, let your kingdom come.

Let your will be done on earth as in heaven right here in our hearts. Let's make it our prayer, our song. Let's sing.

Amen.

Announcements. And I think the first one is gonna be Awana. We might we might be having a little technical difficulty here. Awana is happening whether we have technical difficulty or not. So tomorrow night, tell us about it, Carl.

Our local food base. Long long line night during off season. That's interesting. That's good. We also have lots of other stuff going on.

Will you all just stand up and let's sing some more? I don't know what the announcements are, really. Will you all just stand up and we'll sing? Oh, there they are. Operation Christmas Child's happening.

There's that. November 17 November 17 is the deadline if I remember correctly. Bring those boxes in. We'll send them all over the world. Discovery class happens on the third Sunday in my office between services whether I'm in there or not.

I usually don't lead that. I'll lead one anytime you wanna have one, but the third Sunday of the month in my office in between services is the time that it normally happens. That's to know more about the church discovery class. Now the clicker's not clicking. So whatever's next is next.

So would you all stand up and we'll sing some more? Let's do that, really. Holy forever. Thank God. We have a God who is holy forever.

Jesus, your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above the law. And all thrones and dominions, all powers and positions your name stands above the mull and the angels cry. Holy forever.

If you've been forgiven, if you've been redeemed, sing a song forever to the land. If you want freedom, if you bear his name, sing song forever to them. We shall sing song forever and amen. And the angels cry. Jesus, your name is the highest, and your name is the greatest, and your name stands above them all.

And all fronts and dominions of ours and positions your name stands above forever.

And, God, we come to you. I I feel small as we sing that song, and I think, really, God, that is the idea here, that you are so holy other, so magnificent. Lord, I don't even have the words to describe how great and awesome you truly are and holy. But God, we do our best, and we sing sincerely of your holiness. In Jesus' name, amen.

The days all that high. Surprise by mercy that's new every morning. Breath overtaken by wonder. One step at a time when I'm over. Strength for the day and ride hope for tomorrow.

Awaken my souls sing. So I will trust. I will trust you. Morning by morning. Morning by morning.

And, Lord, as we sing that song, think walking in the dark isn't so fun and not knowing the next step isn't always doesn't always feel so so great. But, God, we know that you are faithful, and we know that you are steering us in the right direction no matter where we're at, God, that we would trust, follow your follow your lead, and wait on you. And Lord, would you give us the patience, the endurance, the strength to do so. Thank you, Lord. We pray this collectively.

Christ's name. Amen.

My knees again. God, I'm begging, please, again, I need you. Oh, I need you. Walking down these man walking I don't want to abuse your grace. God, I need it every day.

It's the only thing that ever really makes me want you. I don't want to abuse your grace.

And you can have a seat. Isn't that song fun? But also true. I mean, God's forgiveness, his grace extended to us, and we don't wanna abuse it. We know that we do at times, but God forgive us when we do.

And thank you, Lord, for your Holy Spirit. We're gonna sing speak, oh, Lord, and the ushers are coming forward. I'm gonna stop talking and start singing. It's let the message about Christ and all its richness fill your lives. And Ray, may I ask you to pray?

Sure. God, thank you for this for this place to gather this morning, for this beautiful morning, for this people who are called out from among every people, Lord. I pray that we'd be a part of continuing that call, continuing that proclamation. Would you use us, Lord, to proclaim the gospel, to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God, to this world. In Jesus name, Lord, we ask that we'd be a part of doing your will in your way.

Would you direct us, show us by your spirit. You you say you will. You say you will, lord. Plan A with no plan B. Would you show us what you'd have us to do individually and collectively for your glory and for our good.

In Jesus name, amen. We ask you blessing.

Your word as we come to you to receive the fruit of your

and it's time for children's church downstairs and there they go. If any y'all came for the announcements, I'm sorry. Ask us afterwards. We'll tell you what's going on. Children's church is happening downstairs.

During this service, there's a great gathering down there of all of the kids, even including middle school and high school. And then, if the click clicker is not clicking. It's gonna be a short sermon, people. Here we go. Acts two.

Lord, would you speak? Acts two. So last time that I preached two weeks ago, I... We did all of acts one and today, I plan on doing all of acts two. Thank you, Brad for speaking last week.

I really really appreciate the message. Was driving and listening to the 11:00 service and really appreciated the good work. Acts two is a a big transition. It is the birth of the church. Right?

We have had in the past week here in our fellowship, we've had... In the past week and a half or so, we had a birth of a big baby boy. Drea Largie had a big old bouncing baby boy. And they will they will tell the story of that large child's birth for the rest of his life. I was a big old baby boy and it's legendary lore.

The birth of people that you love is something that you tell and you tell again and the birth of the church is something we should tell and tell again. It has been almost an embarrassment for Baptist for many years because that's not the way we see God moving or working and because of a reaction to a different kind of a branch of Christianity, we overcorrect in a lot of ways. And so I told you a few weeks ago when we start acts, I'm gonna do something. I'm just gonna present it for what it says. If it sounds Calvinist this week, hang on.

It might sound Armenian next week. But we have to take the whole counsel of God's word and I'm gonna try not to hedge it. Okay? And to continually say, oh, that can't be this. I might do it some to keep some rails, keep some guardrails, keep a seat belt on.

I might. But I don't want to. I want for... Speak, Lord. This is your word.

This is holy. This is good. The proclamation of God's word is what does the work if we will let it. So that's my caveat. Here we go.

This is the quote I couldn't find two weeks ago from my professor and I didn't wanna waste it. I did find it for the second service. I want you to be thinking about this because acts, the acts of the apostles or the acts of the Holy Spirit or the acts of the early church is really really important that we get this concept. The fact that the great commission is the last instruction of the risen and now ascended and imminently returning Lord, it gives it great weight. In Luke, he tells it and then in Acts, he retells it and he's not mentioning this as an optional ministry for those of us who are individuals with cross cultural interests that like weird food and churches with extra money, surplus funds.

The church must always be a missionary church. We are plan a for how he gets his message to the world. He's gonna empower by his spirit and that's what we'll see the beginning of. The birth of the church is what we're gonna witness today. The Christian must always be though a world Christian.

That's what it is to be a Christian. Okay? On the day of Pentecost. Pentecost. We know it now because of this event.

And so when we say Pentecost or Pentecostal, we don't take the original meaning of the word. We take it to mean, oh, those are charismatic folks that believe that those gifts are still for today. That's not us in some cases, but that is us. Pentecost actually means, Greek scholars, fiftieth. The fiftieth.

Okay. So on the day of Pentecost. On the fiftieth, well, there are not that many days in a month. What could this possibly mean? Pentecost day is the fiftieth day.

It's fifty days after Passover. And we know it specifically. We know because Luke is a great historian. Right? And he tells us when things happened and after the Passover.

And that was the Passover where Jesus was crucified and it was a resurrection weekend. Right? That was the beginning and then fifty days later, they're all gathered together for Pentecost. It was the... If you look back into the Old Testament to see what they celebrated on what the Greeks call Pentecost, it is the festival of weeks.

The festival of weeks is a festival that celebrates the first fruits, the first harvest that they experienced when they entered into the promised land. Let that sit with you for just a minute. Thinking about what we're about to see the birth of the church, the first fruits. The first fruits of the promised land, you know, Moses take these people go. Joshua and Caleb, you all get to go in.

And then they get there and then it is a land flowing with milk and honey and they're celebrating the first fruits of that. And they continually, each year would celebrate it and this was what they were celebrating on that day. On the day of Pentecost, all the believers were meeting together in one place. That's significant. It's significant because Jesus had told them in acts one and he also had mentioned it before that in Luke.

Don't leave Jerusalem until the father sends you the gift he promised. John baptized with water. In a few days, you're gonna be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Don't leave Jerusalem until the father sends you the gift he promised as I told you before. Now, they would have been there for Passover, and they would come back for Pentecost, but usually people go home in between.

It's fifty days apart. But he's saying, no. Y'all hang out. Figure it out. Be together.

Last week, two weeks ago. He said, if we're preparing for any great move of the spirit, then it's a time to obey and they did that. They stayed together. He told them to and they did. It's time to be together, a time to pray, a time to study the God's word and to proclaim it.

And Peter did that. Peter's gonna do it again today. He is one of the leaders that they recognized and appointed. Jesus recognized and appointed. And then when they replaced Matthias, I've added that that it's a time for that.

If you're preparing for a great move of the spirit, these are things you need to be working on. And they were doing all of those things and then suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm. It says from heaven, it was supernatural. It's not just a windstorm, it's supernatural. There's a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm and it filled the house where they were sitting.

And if you think back to Exodus and Sinai, this has echoes of all of that. There was a violent rushing wind and thunder and lightning and that's the kind of imagery that we're getting from Luke and Acts. Suddenly, was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty wind and it filled the house, filled the house. So the accompanying spirit of God when they consecrated a new temple would happen with a mighty wind, thunder, lightning. And then Isaiah mentions, and I was in the temple and the whole place was filled.

It's the same imagery. It's stirring up a lot of that kind of old testament imagery of theophany, the presence of Almighty God. So violent, mighty windstorm and filled the house where they were sitting and then what looked like flames or tongues of fire. We say that we say that flames lick. Do you know have you ever...

You know we say flames are licking at or whatever. It's because they do look sort of like tongues. What looked like flames or tongues of fire in the first chapter for Theophilus, Luke says, I'm gonna tell you everything. I've interviewed the witnesses that were there. He lists the people who were there in the first chapter.

He says they're all together again and then he's talked to all these people. He's hung out with these people. He's traveled and done ministry with these people. Then what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them and everyone present. Who is everyone present?

All the believers, they were meeting so they were already believers in Jesus. They're meeting together in one place. Everyone's present was filled with the Holy Spirit and that's unusual. Okay? In this time.

That's unusual. It used to be in the Old Testament that God's spirit would accompany kings and prophets and David was both king and prophet. Right? God's spirit rested on people and when David sinned, it's still possible to sin when you have the Holy Spirit abiding within you, it's still possible. When David sinned, his prayer of repentance and forgiveness was Lord, don't take your Holy Spirit from me.

That would be the worst fate ever. I I I love knowing who you are. And it was weird because not everybody did, not every believer did. And the believers, everyone present was then at the same time filled with the Holy Spirit and they began speaking in other languages. No doubt about whether it was other languages or not, the context goes on from here to explain.

They began speaking in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. Okay? Everybody's still okay? You still with me? At this time, there were devout Jews from every nation.

First for the Jews, then for the Greeks. We hear all these echoes of everything we've ever studied. The Jews should know. They should have known all about Messiah. They should have been able to recognize.

These folks were devout Jews from every nation. And they were living or residing or hanging out in Jerusalem. At that time, there were devout Jews from every nation. Now, these are not believers in Jesus. These are devout Jews.

They do know the way of God and they have presumably studied it. They're living in Jerusalem, the holiest of cities in Judaism. And when they, those devout Jews, heard that loud noise that came from heaven supernatural, everyone came running and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. The majority of these believers were Galileans. Galileans, I know that when I start speaking and you all hear the accent, going, where is he from?

And some of you all say, his IQ just went down 15 points. Right? It's even worse for Galileans. Galileans were backwater fishermen, couldn't know anything, not educated, big dummies. And to hear them speaking in their own languages, and there were a bunch of them, that's amazing.

It's supernatural. They were confused because they understood. This is my favorite. They were confused because they understood. Have you ever been wandering around in a foreign country and you're just like, I cannot get this.

I don't understand what's going on. And then something clicks and you do get it. Oh, they were confused because they understood. That's beautiful. That's the that's the second chapter of Acts right there.

And they were completely amazed. How can this be? They exclaimed. All of these folks are from Galilee and yet we heard them speaking. We hear them speaking in our own native languages.

There's nothing like communicating with someone in their mother tongue. We had a couple of folks stopped by this week. They just stopped in and said, we wanna know more about the church, but they said it in Spanish. And Nick said, Ray, can you come talk to these folks? And it was awesome.

We had a great time praising God together. They might be here honestly. But we had a great time together because somebody spoke their mother tongue. I can't... I couldn't have done it if it was Portuguese.

I couldn't have done it in Romania or anything else. But it was like, oh, deep breath, sigh of relief. Yeah. We can do that. These people are all from Galilee and yet, we hear them speaking in our own native languages and here we all are.

I love that Luke enumerates this. Parthians, Medes, Elamites were people from Mesopotamia and Judea and Cappadocia and Pontus, the province of Asia, Phrygian, Pamphylia in Egypt and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from even Rome. Rome, far flung from Jerusalem, head of the empire that is oppressing them. These are devout Jews that are saying this. Even Rome, the worst place in the world.

Both Jews and converts to Judaism. So this is not ethnically bound anymore. It's not just those of the line of Abraham. It is beyond. It's converts to Judaism, God fearers, Cretans, and Arabs.

That's the map right there. So these folks were far far flung, east and west, north and south, all over the place. It's an interesting thing if you if you actually are a map person, if you follow them in order, it's kind of the way that the gospel moves. It's pretty neat. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages.

This is baffling about the wonderful things God has done. What were they saying? They were telling the mighty works of God. They were proclaiming. Kerygma is the proclamation of.

They were proclaiming the mighty works of God and they stood there amazed and perplexed. What can this mean? They asked each other. They were confused because they understood. But they still didn't know exactly what it meant and so others in the crowd started ridiculing them.

Now if they heard the noise and there are devout Jews that came and the other noises there, it says there were others that came into the crowd. Now, maybe the guys came down from the upper room into the street, maybe they all crowded the upper room, I don't know. But there were others in the crowd who ridiculed them saying, they're just drunk. That's all. Naysayers exist at all times.

Right? But Peter stepped forward. Praise God. With the other 11 apostles, the ones that were sent out by Jesus, and he shouted to the crowd, listen carefully all of y'all. Fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem, I know that some of you are really devout people and there are others of you who are just here to see the spectacle.

Make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk as some of you all are assuming. I get that. But it's 09:00 in the morning, much too early for that. No.

What you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel. He knew his Bible. He had been studying it. He had it in his back pocket and when the Holy Spirit inspired, he stood up and said, in the last days, the latter times, God says, I'm gonna pour out my spirit upon all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, men and women alike.

Your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams. And for any of those devout Jews, they would remember Joel, this is it. Then after doing all those things, I will pour out my spirit upon all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams.

Your young men will see visions. So that's Joel two twenty eight. And he goes on. In Joel, it's 29 through 32 in Acts. He stops before he ends which is interesting.

He doesn't read the whole thing the way that we have it. The numbers are not inspired, know. In those days, I will pour out my spirit even on my servants, on men and women alike and they will prophesy. They will proclaim the mighty works of God. And I will cause wonders in the heavens which they just saw, above and signs on the earth below, they just heard, everybody speaking in their own mother tongue.

Blood and fire and clouds of smoke, the sun will become dark, the moon will turn blood red before the great and glorious day of the Lord arrives. Now that might still be future. This can be a split range prophecy and I think that that's a reasonable understanding of it. They had fifty days ago just witnessed the sky go dark though, right, at the crucifixion. They had just experienced an earthquake fifty days ago.

But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That's his point. That he stops when he gets to his point. Much like Jesus in the beginning of Luke in Luke four, I think it is when he is preaching in Nazareth and he says, it's... He's opening up the acceptable time of God, but he stops the sermon before it got to the day of vengeance of God.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. I'm not primarily an evangelist. I'm more of a pastor teacher type, think, peacemaker maybe. But I had a guy who accept Christ this week, and it did so because he called on the name of the Lord.

I was not present when that happened. I did say I would baptize him. It's awesome. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. It takes humility to call out.

Joel, in those days, I'll pour out my spirit. Even on servants, men and women alike, I will cause wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun will become dark, moon will be blood red before the great and terrible day of the Lord arrives. But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved and that is true and you could take it to the bank. People of Israel.

Now, he started off and he said, fellow Jews and residents, that's one thing. The next time he calls out, he says, people of Israel, that's not just fellow Jews residents. It's people of Israel, people who are living here, Listen. Pay attention to this. God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and the signs through him as you all well know.

Now for us, I'm thinking we just think of these crowds as like crowds. For Peter, he was probably looking in the eyes of some of the folks who were standing in the courtyard yelling, crucify him. But God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed with the help of lawless Gentiles, y'all. It's plural. It's individual too.

Right? Plural is just made up of a bunch of individuals. You all nailed him to a cross and and killed him. That's a bold move. You all are the ones that killed him.

And you know what? I can stand here right now whether I was sitting out there standing up here, I can say, y'all are the ones. I'm the one that killed him. God knew this would happen. His prearranged plan for how we would be reconciled is that Jesus was betrayed and with the help of lawless Gentiles, us among them, you nailed him to the cross and you killed him, but God but God released him from the horrors of death and he raised him back to life for death could not keep him in its grip.

This is Peter. Do you remember the story of Peter's restoration on the beach where he denied Jesus? There's the crucifixion and then after the resurrection, Jesus restores Peter. The great catch of fish, all the different echoes are are here. And Peter, who at one time recognized Jesus' holiness and said, go far from me.

I'm a sinful man. Left out of a boat in his jacket, took off towards him, had breakfast with him on the beach, got his charge, and he is following out and being obedient to his charge right here. God released him from the horrors of death, raised him back to life for death couldn't keep him in his grip. King David said this about him. He's got another one.

I see that the Lord is always with me and I will not be shaken for he's right beside me. No wonder my heart is glad and my tongue shouts God's praises. My body rests in hope for you will not leave my soul among the dead. You will not allow your holy one to rot in the grave. You have shown me the way of life and you will fill me with the joy of your presence.

It's Psalm sixteen eight through 11. I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken for he's right beside me. No wonder my heart is glad. I rejoice.

My body rests in safety. For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave. You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever. Now, brothers, Peter says, think about this. We all know the song.

We've all heard it all our lives. It's a song. We've all sung it all our lives. We know how this song goes. You can be sure though that patriarch David wasn't referring to himself because he died and he was buried.

His tomb's still here among us. It was extant. At that time, you could go to David's tomb but but he was a prophet. We all agree about that. He was a prophet and he knew that God had promised with an oath that one of David's own descendants would sit on that throne forever.

David prophesied this and I don't know if he knew what he was saying exactly when he said it or not, but he did write this song. David was looking into the future and he was speaking of the Messiah's resurrection. He was saying that God would not leave him among the dead or allow his body to rot in the grave. Now, God raised Jesus from the dead and we all are witnesses of this. At the time, we know 500 people had seen him.

A lot of those people were present right then. All of us are witnesses of this. You don't have to just trust me. You can trust these other folks around me. Now he has exalted the place of highest honor in heaven at God's right hand and the father as he had promised.

He gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out on us and just as you see and hear it happening right here. I love Peter's today right there. In Luke, the word today comes up four times and really it's almost programmatic the way that it does. Today is born for you, a savior who is Christ our Lord. Jesus given his first sermon at Nazareth says, today, you have seen this scripture fulfilled in your hearing.

Today, you will be with me in paradise to the thief on the cross. You're seeing the birth of the church right now, people. You're seeing it today. For David himself never ascended into heaven. Yet he said, the Lord said to my Lord, sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies making them a footstool under your feet.

That's Psalm one ten one, the exact quote. So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified again. Does that get you all a little bit? It's like, that's the one. There are lots of people named Jesus at the time, like Mexico.

Sorry. Let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified to be both Lord and Messiah. And it says, Peter's words pierced their hearts, it cut their hearts. And they said to him and to the other apostles, brothers. Isn't it funny?

It's fellow Jews, people of Israel, brothers. What do we do? What should we do? What should we do about this? Now Peter's already said what they should do in the lesson.

Everyone who calls on the name of Lord will be saved. Peter said, each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And then, you too will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And this promises not just to you, but to your children and to those who are far away. Jesus had told them that they were gonna be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts.

We've seen that there were people from all of those parts that he mentioned already there. This promises to you and to your children those far away, all who've been called by the Lord our God. And then Peter continued preaching for a long time. I like that. Not that I like to preach for a long time, I just like that that was included.

Luke is like, what? Everybody seemed to agree on this. I don't know how long he went, but it was a long time. He continued preaching for a long time. It's funny because he says that later about Paul, that Paul continued to preach for a long time.

He's got plenty to proclaim though. He has three years of first hand experience and now he's being filled with the Holy Spirit and it's freeing up everything that he's learned and it's connecting the dots for him and for them. He was strongly urging all of his listeners, save yourselves from this crooked generation. Jesus is the way. And those who believed what Peter said were baptized and they were added to the church that day.

There were about 3,000 in all. That's pretty good. That's a pretty good day. All believers and that includes those 3,000. So it's all the 11 and Peter 12 and then there are about a 120 present.

He told us that already. And then the people came rushing in and then 3,000 of them are now believers. And all the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. They listened to the proclamation. Now, in the intervening days between the resurrection and the ascension, it says Jesus would show up and he would tell them things.

It says that he... In the upper room discourse before the crucifixion, it said he told them a lot of things. At the disciples house in Emmaus, it said that he told them all of the things of the old testament that were concerning him. So they had plenty to proclaim. And some of it was new information to them just in the past couple of months, most all of it.

But they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. If Jesus is building his church and he's using these guys, I wanna know that what I know is based on what he said and what they said. And the fellowship, being together and taking care of one another, to sharing in meals including the Lord's Supper, and to prayer. So this looks a lot like what you're supposed to do in any great move of the spirit is anticipated. This is what you need to do is devote yourself to the apostles teaching.

We do need to be studying the Bible together. We do need to be together. We're not islands. We're not rocks. We need each other.

Sharing in meals. Table fellowship is absolutely huge in the New Testament. To share a table with someone, to share a meal with someone is a beautiful thing. I like that still. I think that when you're open to meeting with someone over a meal, it says, we're together.

We're we're good. It's it's I'm laying down all arms. We're together communing. And the prayer. Now, what should we devote...

Be devoting ourselves to? Well, the apostles teaching. That's... I believe that the Bible does speak, oh Lord, you know, your holy word that we'd receive it. The apostles teaching, unvarnished and not slanted, just straight up.

Fellowship, being together, small groups. I cannot speak enough about how good it is for small groups. The ones who try it, trust that that's true. Although, sometimes it's difficult. Keep on working through the difficulty.

Sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper, which we're about to do right now, and prayer. That's what they were devoting themselves to in acts two forty two. 43 says this, and a deep sense of awe came over them all. And the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. That's almost like an...

It's it's almost like, oh yeah, that happened too. I'm sure there were some folks on the fence that I've been believing this for so long. I I was I was thinking that that guy was a nut all along. I was thinking that. And then it's kinda hard to deny what's happening right here right now.

And then these guys are also performing signs and wonders. It's it's an authentication of the message. But it does it does seem to be downplayed right there. And all the believers met together in one place, and they shared everything they had. Oh, how are we doing about that church?

Y'all are actually doing pretty well. We are doing pretty well on that. When I mentioned the benevolence fund, a lot of us often think that's just for people who wander by for poor folks that got to town and didn't get the job they thought they had and we can get them a hotel room or a bus ticket where they can get out of here. It's not just for that. We are holding that in common for people who are struggling among us.

Right? It's it's a blessing to be able to say yes to the needs that we have when we know about them. So if if you have something we don't know about them, we need to know about them. In all humility, we try to keep it as quiet as we can. But all believers met together in one place and they they shared what they had.

Amen. They sold their property and their possessions and they shared the money with those in need. They worship together at the temple each day. They met in homes for the Lord's Supper. I like that.

And they shared their meals with great joy and generosity. It's a beautiful picture of the birthday of the church. They worship together at the temple each day and they met in homes for the Lord's Supper and they shared their meals with great joy and generosity and all the while they were praising God and they were enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day, the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. That last line right there, it's the last line in chapter two.

Doesn't it sound like that's what would happen if all of those other things were happening? Right? This is the way it's supposed to be. There's a recognition that, oh my goodness. We're we're experiencing a work of the spirit of God in real time in front of us right now.

This is what Joel was talking about. This is what we're talking about. This is this is happening and each day the Lord added to their fellowship, those who are being saved. Oh, hey, I want us tomorrow night. Hey, got an announcement in there.

Would you all stand? We're gonna pray for a minute and then we've got... I'll invite the ushers to come forward too. I'm gonna invite the band back up. God almighty, we arrive here at the end of this service looking back on on a birthday celebration for the birth of the church and we're overwhelmed that we're still doing this, Lord.

I do believe that your return is imminent. It can be at any time, but Lord God Almighty, while we are here, would you allow us to be doing just what they were doing devoting ourselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread including this and to prayer. Would you, Lord, align our hearts with yours? Would you align our mission with yours? And would you keep us on on on task is one thing, but on...

Would you just keep us in your will, in your way, in your spirit? Would you keep us unified? Would you bring us together? Would you allow us to bring people back from the brink? In Jesus name, I pray that you would do that.

Can I get the ushers to come forward and y'all can have a seat the rest of you? God, you bless as the band sings and the ushers distribute this? I pray that you would do what you do spirit, that you would convict us of our own sins so that we can lay it before you. Would you convince us of your righteousness so that we can move towards our understanding of you? Would you perfect that understanding day by day going forward?

In Jesus name, I pray that you'd bless this little representation of the body of Christ, the remembrance of the fact that he walked out in submission of the spirit, a perfect life, having a perfect record. Amen. Amen. On the same evening that Jesus was betrayed, he was meeting there with with Peter and the disciples and his voice still rings out to us and says, this is my body which is given for you. Take this and eat of it and do it in remembrance of me.

Amen. Lord, as we pass this little representation of the blood of Christ to follow. A little plastic cup of grape juice, representative of the precious innocent blood that was shed on behalf of all of those who would believe. Lord God Almighty, we pray that as we distribute this that each one would recognize our utter dependence upon you. If there's someone here who does not believe and has not believed, Lord, and they must let this little cup pass because they have to this point said no.

Lord, I pray that the life and witness of someone sitting near them would would persuade them to be reconciled to God. In Jesus name, I pray a blessing on this little cup of grape juice. Amen.

In Christ, I hope he's found. He's my not my stray and my son. In Christ Thank you.

In the same manner that he had taken the bread, he also took the cup. It was a common cup at the time, representative of his blood. He took that cup and he said, this is the new covenant in my blood. Take this and drink of it and do it each one of you as often as you will in remembrance of me. Amen.

Would you stand? Paul says that as often as we do that, we proclaim the Lord's death. Salvific, redemptive death until he comes again. Would you all sing with us what it is that we believe? I think we'll sing the whole song, not just chorus.

Right?

Our father everlasting, the old creating one, God almighty, Through your Holy Spirit, conceiving Christ the son, Jesus our savior. Let's sing what we believe. I believe in God our father. I believe in Christ the son. I believe in the Holy Spirit.

Our God is three in one. I believe in the resurrection I believe in the virgin birth. I believe in saints' communion and in your holy church. I believe in the resurrection

And now may the Lord bless and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and may he use you like a mirror to shine his face on others too in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen.