Spiritual Character (Acts 2:43-47)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/16/2017 9:27 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Spiritual Character

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 2:43-47a

            Message of the verses:  “43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. 46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47  praising God.”

            The title “Spiritual Character” is the next main title in the chapter we are following from John MacArthur’s commentary, and under this main title are two sub-titles and we will look at the first one this morning.  He writes the following under this main point of “Spiritual Character.”  “A church that fulfills the spiritual duties will find that those duties produce spiritual character.  Four aspects of the first fellowship’s character may be discerned in this passage.”

“IT WAS AN AWE-INSPIRITRING CHURCH:”  “And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe (Acts 2:43a).”

            I think that the first thing we need to do is look up the word that is translated “awe” as I am not sure how many times that word is used in the Bible.  “1) fear, dread, terror,  1a) that which strikes terror, 2) reverence for one’s husband,” this word is translated as “fear” 41 times in the KJV.  John MacArthur says that it “refers to fear or holy terror related to the sense of divine presence, to the attitude of reverence.  It describes the feeling produced when one realizes God is at hand.  It is used in Acts 5:5 and 11 to describe the reaction of the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira.  In Acts 19:17 it depicts the reaction of the citizens of Ephesus to the attack on some Jewish exorcists by a demon-possessed man.  Luke 7:16 uses it to portray the reaction to our Lord’s raising of the widow’s son.  The life of this first fellowship was so genuine and spiritually powerful that ‘everyone,’ whether inside or outside the church, ‘kept feeling a sense of awe.’”

            What people were in awe of was not the buildings, the programs or anything that reflects human ability, no it was by the supernatural character of the life of the people in the church.  This is the kind of thing that happens when the people in the church are using their spiritual gifts in a proper way.

            I remember a time close to fourteen years ago when the Lord was using me in a very special way to tell our neighbors about the end times that is described in the Word of God.  Many of them were getting saved and it was a week before Thanksgiving fourteen years ago that the Lord awoke me around 4:30 in the morning and began to work on my heart.  I sensed that what He was saying in my heart was that I was not responsible for the salvation of those that were being saved, but He was.  The Lord certainly had a hold of my heart and had my attention and perhaps the word “awe” would be a good word to describe what was going on at that time, for indeed the Lord was working in a very special way during that time fourteen years ago as many were saved, all to His glory.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I love when the Lord uses me to tell someone about Christ, and then they receive the gift of salvation.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To trust the Lord to use me to tell others about Jesus Christ and His salvation.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Elisabeth” (Luke 1:43).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where had Festus asked Paul to go when Paul appealed to Caesar?”

Answer in our next SD.

8/16/2017 10:05 AM

IT was a Praying Church (Acts 2:42e)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/15/2017 7:17 AM

My Worship Time                                                                         Focus:  It Was a Praying Church

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 2:42e

            Message of the verse:  “to prayer.”

            This is the last SD on this important 42^nd verse in Acts chapter two, and I believe that this is the most Spiritual Diaries that I have even done for one verse.  By doing it this way it has given me more time to work on other things that I need to be working on especially working on preparation for my Sunday school class.

            Prayer is one of the most important things that a believer can do in both private devotions and also in the church.  I have spent the last six plus months studying the 17^th chapter of the gospel of John something we looked at from my Spiritual Diaries back beginning in February and then in April beginning with our Sunday School class.  It is probably the most important prayer found in the entire Bible seeing who the One was doing the praying.  This Sunday the subject for our Sunday School class comes from the first eight verses in the gospel of Luke, and the subject once again is prayer.  God desires us to communicate with Him through prayer and that should also be our desire too.

            John MacArthur writes that “Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscles of omnipotence.  Understanding the sense of loss His disciples were feeling as they anticipated His leaving, the Lord Jesus Christ had promised in John 14:13-14 that ‘whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.’  The early church took that promise as the source of God’s provision for all their needs, and they relentlessly pursued divine help.  The ‘prayer’ in view here is not only that of individual believers but of the church corporately (cf. 1:14, 24; 4:24-31).”

            I have heard it stated that the invisible church meets on Wednesday evening for prayer and as we look around our country many Bible believing churches have omitted the Wednesday even prayer meetings.  One of the reasons that I left the church that I attended for 32 years was that they almost stopped the Wednesday evening prayer meeting.  The Pastor stopped leading that important ministry and left it to one of the deacons.  The church I now attend has the Wednesday evening prayer meeting beginning with a devotion from our Pastor and that breaking up into groups to pray for things that are important to our church family among other things. I have heard the statement that seven days without prayer makes one weak!  Sadly that is the condition of the church in our country.

            John MacArthur concludes:  “The first fellowship knew the critical importance of pursuing spiritual duties.  They knew the church must be made up of saved individuals, devoted to studying the Word, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer.  Those elements are the unique expression of the life of the church.  They are the means of grace by which the church becomes what God wants it to be.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have to say that prayer is very hard work, but the benefits of prayer are out of this world.  My prayer life has been changing a bit as I have different things to pray about on different days of the week, but I believe that the Lord is leading me in this direction.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To keep a good season of prayer each day.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Isaiah” (Luke 4:17).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said, ‘"And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me?’”

Answer in our next SD.

8/15/2017 7:43 AM

IT was a Christ-centered Church (Acts 2:42d)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/14/2017 9:40 AM

My Worship Time                                                            Focus:  It was a Christ-Centered Church

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 2:42d

            Message of the verse:  “to the breaking of bread.”

            In our last SD we looked at fellowship and it was because their fellowship was symbolized by obedience to the breaking of bread, which is a reference to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, or as it is sometimes called Communion.  Different churches have the Lord’s Supper at different times, some do it once a week, and some do it once a month.  The two churches that I have been members of do it once a month, sometimes in the morning service and some times in the evening service.  Once in a while in our church we do a full communion service in the morning where the entire service is focused around the Lord’s Supper with the music and also the preaching of the Word dedicated to the remembrance of what Christ has done for us on the cross.  These are moving services to be sure.

            Participating in the Lord’s Supper is not optional for true believers in Jesus Christ as Paul speaks of In 1 Corinthians 11:24-29 “23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. 27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.”  This section of Scripture is the one that is most read before a Communion service and we see in it the requirements of partaking in it.  One must be a believer who is walking with the Lord, who does not continue to commit a sin that they are unwilling to confess before the Lord.  Everyone sins, but John tells us when we sin we are to confess it to the Lord and He will forgive us.  This is not the issue, but if a person is enjoying a particular sin and refuses to confess it to the Lord then they should not partake of the Lord’s Supper.

            John MacArthur writes “In Communion, all believers meet on common ground at the foot of the cross (Eph. 2:16; Col. 1:20), since all are sinners saved by the grace of God in Christ.  Communion acknowledges the wondrous work of the Lord Jesus on the cross.  Communion further exemplifies the unity of believes, since in it all partake together symbolically of the same Lord (Eph. 4:5).  Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, ‘16 Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.’

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful to the Lord that He has allowed me to remember what He has done for me on the cross, and my prayer is that I will never take this lightly when having the opportunity to partake of the Lord’s Supper.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust that the Lord desires for me to continue teaching Sunday school for the next year or so, teaching through the book of Revelation.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table” (Luke 16:20-21).

Today’s Bible question:  “From which book of the prophets did Jesus read at the synagogue?”

Answer in our next SD.

8/14/2017 10:10 AM

  

It was a Fellowship Church (Acts 2:42c)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/13/2017 6:46 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  It was a Fellowship Church

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Acts 2:42c

            Message of the verses:  “and to fellowship”

            John MacArthur writes:  “Fellowship is the spiritual duty of believers to stimulate each other to holiness and faithfulness.  It is most specifically expressed through the ‘one another’s’ of the New Testament (cf. Rom. 12:10; 16; 13:8; 14:19; 15:5, 7, 14; 16:16; Gal. 5:13; Eph. 4:2, 25, 32; 5:21; Phil. 2:3; Col. 3:9, 13, 16; 1 Thess. 4:9, 18, 5:11, 13; Heb. 3:13; 1 Peter 1:22; 4:9, 10; 5:5, etc.)  The basis meaning of koinonia (‘fellowship’) is ‘partnership,’ or ‘sharing.’  Those who receive Jesus Christ become partners with Him and with all other believers (1 John 1:3).  That fellowship is permanent, because our shared eternal life is forever.  The joy associated with it, however, may be lost through sinful neglect of its duties.

            “For a Christian to fail to participate in the life of a local church is inexcusable.  In fact, those who choose to isolate themselves are disobedient to the direct command of Scripture.  Hebrews 10:24-25 charges believers to ‘consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, and not forsaking our own assembling together, as it is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.’  The Bible does not envision the Christian life as on lived apart from other believers.  All members of the universal church, the body of Christ, are to be actively and intimately involved in local assemblies.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “God gave water from a rock” (Exodus 17:1-6).

Today’s Bible question:  “What did the beggar who lay at the rich man’s gate want to eat?

Answer in our next SD.

8/13/2017 6:59 AM

It Was A Spiritual Church (Acts 2:42b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/12/2017 9:02 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus: It Was A Spiritual Church

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Acts 2:42b

            Message of the verse:  “to the apostles’ teaching”

            God has designed the church to be a place where the Word is proclaimed and where it is to be explained.  In 2 Timothy 2:2 Paul wrote “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”  Now 2 Timothy was the last letter of Paul’s in the Word of God and Paul desired for Timothy to tell others the truth that he had taught him to other faithful men, then those men would pass that truth on to other faithful men and continue doing this so that it would never be lost.

            No in my Sunday school class we have been going over the prayer that the Lord Jesus Christ prayed from John chapter 17 and one of the things He prays for is that the apostles would pass on the truth of the gospel “20 "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21  that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22  "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23  I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”  Now the highlighted part of verse 20 actually speaks of what Peter was doing along with the other apostles when we read our verse for today:  “to the apostles’ teaching.”  Verses 21-23 shows us what the apostles would be teaching, and that is that Jesus Christ came from God, that God sent Jesus Christ to pay for their sins so that they could have life, that they would have perfect unity with the triune God. 

            John MacArthur writes “A believer should count it a wasted day when he does not learn something new from, or is not more deeply enriched, by the truth of God’s Word.  The early church sat under the teaching ministry of the apostles, whose ‘teaching,’ now written on the pages of the New Testament Scriptures, is to be taught by all pastors.”

            Just as our bodies need food to keep it going each day, so our spirits need to be feed from the Word of God each and every day. When I was a rather young believer I struggled greatly about reading the Word of God each day, along with studying it every day.  I went to a conference in October of 1980 which was around six years after receiving Christ as my Savior and was asked by the one running the conference (as he asked all who were there) do you have trouble reading the Word each day.  He said make a vow to the Lord that you will read the Bible five minutes each day.  I did that and God has reminded me of this vow every day, especially when it is getting late and I have not read from His Word, so that I can do it.  I remember one night while driving in a car that the Lord reminded me that I had not read from His Word and so with family in the car with me I pulled over to the side of the road, took out my Bible I had in the car and read five minutes from His Word.  It was 11:55 PM when I began to read.  I have missed six or seven times reading His Word since October of 1980. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  This comes from what I have chosen to entitle my blogs “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV).”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  2 Timothy 2:15.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “By giving the covenant and the royal descent of our Lord.”

Today’s Bible question:  “What miracle did God perform for Moses at Rephidim?”

Answer in our next SD.

8/12/2017 9:33 AM

PT-2 "It Was A Saved Church" (Acts 2:42)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/11/2017 9:36 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus: PT-2 It was a Saved Church

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 2:42a

            Message of the verse:  “they were continually devoting themselves”

            In our last SD I promised that I would give a quote from the letter of 1 Thessalonians on the importance of belonging to a saved church.  John MacArthur writes “Paul commended the Thessalonians in terms that leave no doubt that they were saved:

‘1 Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.  2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; 3 constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, 4  knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you; 5 for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.  6 You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8  For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. 9  For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.’

“In that passage, Paul described the people in the Thessalonian church as in the Father, Christ (v. 1), and the Holy Spirit (v. 5).  He noted that they possessed the great trial of Christian virtues, faith, hope, and love (v. 3).  He was confident of God’s choice of them for salvation (v. 4).  They were imitators of Paul and Christ (v. 6), so much so that they were an example to the other believers in their region (vv. 7-9).  Clearly it was a congregation of saved people.”

            Now as we look at Revelation 2:14-16 we see a rebuke from our Lord to the church a Pergamum as they allowed itself to be infiltrated by unbelievers:

“14  ’But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. 15 ’So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 ’Therefore repent; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.”

            The story of Balaam and Balak is found in the OT book of Numbers as Balak wanted to pay Balaam to curse Israel, but God would not allow it and so Balaam taught Balak to infiltrate the children of Israel by having him give the wives of his people to Israel and it worked.  This kind of thing can happen in churches today if the leaders are not careful.

            When I was studying the OT book of Exodus and read about all the troubles that Israel was having with obeying God as they were complaining to God about not having water and many other things.  Dr. Warren Wiersbe pointed out that the ones who were starting these quarrels with God were not true children of Israel.  These kind of things can happen in churches today who do not try to make sure that those who are coming into the church as members are not saved. 

            John MacArthur concludes by writing “The first fellowship passed the initial test of spiritual duty; it encompassed only those who knew and loved Jesus Christ.  Luke later points out that while many were drawn by the Lord to salvation, unbelievers were actually afraid to go near the church in Jerusalem because sin was being dealt with so severely (Acts 5:13-14).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  To pray that the church I attend has great leadership so that they will not allow those who are unsaved into our flock.

 My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to give me wisdom as I continually prepare for my Sunday school lesson.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Mary Magdalene” (Luke 8:2).

Today’s Bible question:  “How do the opening verses of Matthew’s gospel relate back to the Old Testament?”

Answer in our next SD.

8/11/2017 10:00 AM

 

 

Spiritual Duties (Acts 2:42)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/10/2017 8:25 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                       Focus:  Spiritual Duties

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                             Reference:  Acts 2:42

            Message of the verse:  “42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

            In our last SD we quoted the last paragraph from the commentary of John MacArthur which told us what we would be looking at in this last section of the 2^nd chapter of Acts, and the first thing we were to look at was “Spiritual Duties” as this is the first main point.  In his commentary he has several sub-points under this first main point.  Actually there are five sub-points and they all come from this 42^nd verse of the second chapter of the book of Acts.  This is a very long chapter in MacArthur’s commentary and it will take us more than a week to get through it.  In today’s SD I want to give the introduction to this verse and then begin to look at the first sub-point, “It Was a Saved Church” which comes from the first section of verse 42.

            Now what we are looking at is the fact that this was really a church, nothing more and nothing less.  The life of this church was completely defined by the devotion of those spiritual duties which make up the unique identity of what a church is.  When one looks at a real Bible believing church there is nothing outside the living Lord, the Spirit, and the Word that defines life in the true church.  MacArthur concludes “This church, though not having any cultural elements of success, no worldly strategies, was still endowed with every necessary component for accomplishing the purposes of its Lord.  The church will still be effective in bringing sinners to Christ when it manifests the same key elements of spiritual duty that marked this first fellowship.”  As mentioned above we will be looking at five key elements from this 42^nd verse of the second chapter of Acts.

            The first key element of this church is seen in verse 42a “they were continually devoting themselves” and this element is entitled “IT WAS A SAVED CHURCH.”

            As we looked at the end of the sermon that Peter gave in this chapter it concluded with questions from those in the crowd that he was preaching to and that question was what shall we do.  Peter had spoken to them about their role in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit was convicting them of their sinfulness in this act.  Peter told them they needed to confess their sin and be saved and so 3000 came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord that day and they were all baptized as we looked at in previous SD’s.  All of these people showed the genuineness of their faith as they continued devoting themselves.  This was a 180 degree change for these people as it is for all who come to Christ, but in this instance these people were going against Judaism and would be venerable to those who were not believers and those who agreed with putting Christ to death.  We will see that these first believers were hated, persecuted, and ridiculed for their faith but they did not waver in their faith which shows that they truly were believers.  Persecution has a way of showing whether or not you are a true believer as those who are not do not want to lose their life for something they truly do not believe in.  Jesus stated in John 8:31b “"If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.”  John writes of those who were not truly believers who maybe thought they were believers “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us (1 John 2:19).”

            A true Bible believing church is only to be made up of true believers, but that is not the case in many churches today as many churches may not have even one believer in them.  Other churches today who have believers in them try and make unbelievers comfortable in their midst.  I have written in earlier SD’s about what is called “Seeker churches” and I had to leave a church that I had gone to for 32 years because the pastor was trying to turn that church into a seeker church.  As you look at the sermon that Peter preached that we just went over none of the people who came to know Christ were comfortable, instead they were convicted, convicted of their sin, which caused them to repent of their sins and come to Christ.  A person who comes to church is probably not looking for the church to be the same as the world, but different.  A seeker church tries to imitate the world, and that is wrong.

            Now I am in no means trying to say that unbelievers are to be unwelcomed in coming to a true Bible believing church that is not the case at all.  When an unbeliever comes to a true Bible believing church they are to see people who want to tell them the truth, tell them the truth in love, and not make them feel like the church is just like the world, but different in that the truth is preached in love so that the Spirit will convict them of their sinfulness so they can repent and be saved.

            As we begin our next SD on this first key element of spiritual duty we will look at a quote from 1 Thessalonians and then try to expound on it.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful to the Lord who has led my family to a wonderful Bible believing church where the Bible is preached and people are coming to know the truth of the gospel message.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to help me get my Sunday school lesson in order.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Jerusalem” (Luke 21:20).

Today’s Bible question:  “Name a woman out of whom Jesus cast seven demons?”

Answer in our next SD.