Filled With Awe (Here's Your Sign) Series

CHURCH SERIES #5:

FILLED WITH AWE (HERE’S YOUR SIGN)

BIBLE VERSE: ACTS 2:42-47

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

TRANSITION: The book of Acts lays out the foundation of the early church, and quite honestly, the modern church as well. Specifically, these 5 verses here explain perfectly the role of the church and what the church is supposed to be and do. So this next series, which continues our Acts 2 series, will be a look at the specific role of the church breaking down part by part week by week.

THE OUTLINE:

A. Devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.

B. Devoted themselves to fellowship.

C. Devoted themselves to the breaking of bread.

D. Devoted themselves to prayer.

E. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs.

F. All believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.

G. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.

H. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.

I. They praised God.

J. They enjoyed the favor of all people.

K. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

POINT OF EMPHASIS: Now, we are going to do some combining, we are going to break this 11 part series down into fewer weeks. But we are going to look at what the apostles did and what we should be doing.

INTRO: The key verse here is focused on signs and wonders done throughout the early church, so this lesson is once again broken into separate parts with different questions for each.

1. What was the first church like?

Well, there are a lot of things the church is NOT. You know, Christ died for a lot of things, but he didn’t die for the future church descriptions that I am about to describe.

A. Old Folk’s Home Church: This church for the most part is a bunch of older people singing older music which is absolutely fine, in fact, that aspect of the church is great. But in addition, because things never change and the leaders will never change them, most new things that are tried are met with fierce opposition, as the church stays old.

B. The Ideas Church: This church worships the Lord with great music, but has beliefs all over the page. There are people who love the Lord, that is no question, but there is no agreement over scriptures. One Bible study class will be teaching “once saved, always saved,” and the class next door will teach “people can lose their salvation.” This is not ONE ACCORD. The most ungodly ideas are allowed to go on because everything is fair game, as long as “we love Jesus.”

C. The Private Club: This church actually functions pretty decent. They have quality worship, quality teaching, quality sermons, in fact the entire interior design of the church is high quality. But…and this is a big but, no one outside of the core group is allowed in. People can visit, people can learn, but breaking in to the “in group” requires commitment, and maybe even the right look.

D. The Political Action Committee. This church fiercely defends each other, as youth would say…they got you’re back. But rather than spending their focus on reaching the lost for Christ, instead, they spend their time protesting issues or promoting social causes. And some of the protests aren’t even nice. I just read yesterday some church is protesting McDonald’s, now I’m not saying it’s the best food (in fact its terrible), but to spend church time protesting?

E. The Mighty Fortress. Do you remember the dark ages? It’s when the world closed their borders and hid in castles away from bandits. What was the church doing? Hiding away from the world in monasteries, copying scriptures and praying…but not talking to anyone. There are churches like that today. The world is all evil (though it is, they got that part right), so lock yourselves up in an Ark and wait for the rapture. Oh, by the way…our father is a king…we were not designed to live like scared rabbits running from one hole to the next.