Bible Study: May 19, 2021

We got through, last week, most of chapter 2, and then some of chapter 2 we covered, Last Sabbath and Pentecost. So we'll go through that just to cover it, but I won't spend a lot of time on it. But, you know, as you go through Acts 1 and 2, there's an awfully loud of instruction in there.

If I can call it the story line, now it's not a story in the way the world was talking about stories, it's actually what happened. But the story line is quite interesting to see how God worked with the apostles, you know, the disciples after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and then after He ascended into heaven. We learn a lot in chapter 1 and chapter 2, both are just full of instruction for the New Testament Church.

I think, as I mentioned last week and this past weekend as well, one of the things that we learn in chapter 1 is God just wants us to wait, wait for Him.

And sometimes that can be a difficult thing for us to do. As humans, we want to take matters into our own hands. We want to get everything done the way we want done in the time that we think it should be. But we learn to just wait on God and know that He is in control. He will do what He says He's going to do, and our job is to follow Him and to learn to put into practice His way of life and be led by His Holy Spirit. When we get into chapter 2, we've already learned a lot. We see that the apostles were there in one accord in one place. One of my favorite four-word phrases in, well, I guess that's five, in one accord, six words, in one accord in one place. That's become one of my favorite things. It's what God wants us to do. Even as we go through later on in the chapter, we're going to see one accord again because that's what God wants of His people.

They were where He wanted them to be at the time He wanted them to be there, and they had the Holy Spirit poured out on them at that time. As we go through chapter 2, we see God giving the Spirit. The people went out and gave it in dramatic fashion, but then they went out and everyone was able to hear in their own language. God can work miracles. He can make anything happen that He wants us to do. If He says, go out and preach the gospel to the whole world, He will give us the ability to do that. Certainly, for all the nations that we talked about that were assembled in Jerusalem on that penny cost, they were all amazed as they heard the disciples or the apostles talking to them, and they could hear in their own language. Nothing short of a miracle. It couldn't happen any other way. Even in today's modern age of multiple translations, you wouldn't be able to duplicate what God had done there. We can see the power of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus Christ says, with men, things are impossible, but nothing is impossible with God, we see that lesson early on in chapter 2. As Paul goes out and preaches boldly to the masses that are there in Jerusalem that week, we see the power of God's Holy Spirit. Peter, who was kind of, well, afraid of the Jews when he denied Christ three times, he receives the Holy Spirit, and then he goes out and he speaks boldly. And he proves to the people, once and for all, that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. And he uses Scripture to do it, the same way that we preach today. When we preach the truth, we use Scripture to teach the truth and to teach the Word of God. Peter did that. He did it very well. The people listened to him. They were attentive. Not all of them we learned wanted to hear his message, just as God said, only those who he calls can receive. So we learned that in Acts 2 as well, because a few thousand are baptized that day. But the rest of the people, some were mocking, some had their own ideas on what to do. It's like people who hear the Word of God today. Some will readily hear it and accept it. When God has opened their minds, others can hear the very same message and mock and or hear it and just go off and do the things that they want to do.

In chapter 2, as we covered last week, Peter even discusses the idea of what happens after death. As he is talking about David, who was dead and buried, and he's drawing the comparison that Jesus Christ is the first resurrected among all human beings. That when we die, we are in the grave until Jesus Christ, until God resurrects us. Jesus Christ, as he says in John 5.29, says, come forth. So we see this instruction in chapter 2, as well as it being a very inspiring sermon.

And we know that these aren't the only words that Peter talked that day. I mean, who knows how many hours he spoke. But as he spoke, we know that God gave him the words. Peter, as I mentioned, he didn't come prepared for the sermon that day. He didn't spend the month prior saying, here's my Holy Day sermon for Pentecost. This is what I'm going to talk about. He had no idea that that day he was going to be out and speaking to the masses. What we learned is God gave him every single word that he wanted him to say. And Peter allowed the Holy Spirit to flow through him to say exactly what God gave him to do. You know, we can remember that Jesus Christ tells us, you know, when we are called between kings and magistrates, don't worry about the things you're going to say. In that very hour, I believe he says that in Luke 21, in that very hour you'll be given the words that you will speak. And you know, we see that as we look at Peter and as God is instructing, you know, these people who are listening, who he's calling and opening their their minds to it. As we go on in chapter 2, you know, in fact, well, you know, if we go on in chapter 2, as we will, we're going to see that God shows the way to salvation. You know, he talks in verses 38-39 there that if you believe, you must repent, you must be baptized, and then you must receive the Holy Spirit. So he gives the process in this sermon as well. And then as we get toward the end of the chapter, he's going to give us the elements of what makes up a congregation that's led by God and led by Jesus Christ in his spirit. So there is an awfully lot packed into chapter 2, and that it is an inspirational sermon, but there's an awfully lot of instruction in chapter 2 that God begins his New Testament church and leads them in how he would have them do things. So it's very instructive to us in these things as well, and so we can pretty much, with anyone, go almost to chapter 2 of Acts and have a whole conversation with someone who's beginning to understand the truth, because God varies so much in this chapter of the truth that he wants us to know and the very important questions of life and how we worship him. So are there any comments or questions or anything we talked about last week or anything from Pentecost that you might want to talk about before we get back into the chapter here? Mr. Shavey. Yes. So the phrase that you were talking about, we're all with one accord in one place. What's also interesting is that it could be possible that in the end time, God may expect at least part of his church to be also in one accord in one place. So it's something that may repeat itself, you know, depending on... I find myself wondering same thing. God knows what he wants, but it seems to be he was very pleased with the fact that the disciples were there in one accord in one place on that day of Pentecost.

Okay, I think let me see. My notes change that we left off on verse 29 last week of Acts 2.

So we will move through, you know, the next several verses pretty quickly, because actually, verses 30, 31, 32 are almost a recap of what we discussed last week about life after death and how Peter says David didn't ascend into heaven. And we know that Jesus Christ and John 3.13 said he's the only one who has ever ascended into heaven of human beings. But let's go through it just so that we can see the the verbiage that's used here and draw some conclusions from it, because the whole sermon fits beautifully together. And is, you know, the symmetry of the Bible is beautiful and be able to see that is always inspiring. So verse 30. Therefore, he says, being a prophet and knowing, and he's talking of David here, therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, that's David, we know that Jesus Christ came from his body, that the fruit of that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne. So that had to be quite a quite a revelation to David to realize that the Messiah was going to come from his fleshly line. We know that he knew that because last week we went through verses 25 to 28 above, which is one of David's Psalms, and he could see he could he could see that Jesus Christ was the Lord. He says the YHWH would always be with him, talks about him being in his right hand. So God did give David a very good vision and a very good view of what his plan was. David, when you read through the Psalms, you see that God opened his mind to much of what was going on the same way he will do to us. When we seek God, when we seek God, he will reveal his plan to us more and more and more. David did that, and God, God, God, as you read through the Psalms, really did open David's minds that he, mind that he could see all the way to the return of Jesus Christ. So he knew that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, was going to come from his line, that he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne. He, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. Well, that references back to verse 27 above, where he's quoting from, I believe it's Psalm 15, Psalm 16, where it says, David saying about himself, you will not leave my soul in the grave, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption. So Jesus Christ's body didn't decay. As we know, he was there in the tomb just for three days and three nights, not enough time for his body to decay. And God even showed David that detail, that the Messiah's body wouldn't be corrupted, like every other man, woman, and child who's ever died, that their bodies have gone back to the dust as it was before. And so Peter draws our attention to that again, that David even could foresee the resurrection of Christ, and that he wouldn't be left in Hades. He knew that the hope of mankind was a resurrection and that Jesus Christ would be resurrected from the dead after being dead and laying in a tomb for just a few days and nights. That's how close David was to God, that God allowed him to see that vision of the kingdom. In verse 32, it says, this Jesus, God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. So again, here's verses that the Jews of that day would have read in Psalm 16, probably memorized it, probably knew exactly what those words were. But here's Peter showing in the aftermath after Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, here's what these words mean.

Now we see exactly what God was talking about. We see exactly what he inspired David to write. It's undeniable. So as the people would hear these things, it was just a proof of the Bible that had to excite them. And they knew, just as you and I do when we read the Bible, that it's not of men, it's not any author's clever way of putting words together or putting stories together. It can only be from God. And they knew that too, at least the people that God you know was opening their minds to that day. Verse 33, therefore, being exalted, Jesus Christ being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, remember Jesus Christ in John 14, he told the disciples that were gathered there before his arrest that it was good. It was actually an advantage for him to go away because they would receive the promise of the Father. God would send a comforter. In Acts 1, you know, he told them, you, Terry, in Jerusalem, you just wait here until the promise of the Father arrives. So here he is speaking of that. Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, so we know that is God the Father who gives the Holy Spirit, received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you now see and hear. So he says the things that you're seeing today, the words that you're understanding today, the fact that you're hearing in your own language, even though you've come from all these nations and all these territories that don't speak the same language, this is all of God. This is all as a result of his Holy Spirit. So Peter is letting him know that. And as there, and again, you know, later on it says, you know, verse 40, with many words, with many words he testified in the Jordan of them saying, we're just seeing the rough outline of what he said. It was Peter spent much, much, much time explaining these things to the people, and they were well aware, as they had all the proof of the Bible laid out for them, they knew this is of God. This is clearly of God. There is no way you can deny that this is God and what's happening here today is of God the Father. So he says that in verse 33, and he brings that and says, you know, here it's the Holy Spirit. That's what you're seeing today. You're seeing the work of God here in your very eyes with what you're hearing, what you're seeing, what you're understanding from the Bible. It's of God for David. In the accentuates again, David didn't ascend into the heavens. He's still laying in the ground. He's not up in heaven. He's just sleeping waiting for the return of Jesus Christ when he too will be called forth from the grave. David didn't ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, the Lord, God said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Be up in heaven, and then when God determines Jesus Christ will be sent down to earth, and the nations, the kingdoms of this world will become his.

Verse 36, therefore. It's always interesting when you see therefore. It means, you know, we had a very therefore in verse 30 that we started with today. But here's another therefore. As Peter is talking, he's going to make a point. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified. Remember he earlier in the chapter, he went through and he told them you were the one. Your lawless, your lawlessness is what led to his death. You crucified him. You conscious Pilate didn't want to crucify, and Pontius Pilate knew that the law, there was nothing, no law that had been broken. But because of your, because of the Jews who in their mob and their just continual chanting, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him, he had no choice. Well, he always had a choice, but he chose to just satisfy the mob rather than upholding the law of the Romans of that day, and he said, fine, if that's what you want, go ahead and kill him. And again, as we see that happened in the Roman society, we can look down the road, you know, in the society that we're living in and begin to see the rudiments of that type of lawlessness in this society, that it won't be laws that protect us, it'll just be God who protects us because there will be people who don't want to hear the word of God, who don't want people around that obey God or rely on God, but we might find ourselves part of a mob that just says, whatever it is, get rid of them, do this, do that, or whatever, no matter what the law of the land says, you know, they'll do what they want to do as it happened to Jesus Christ here.

So he says, you're the one who crucified Jesus Christ. You're the one who put him to death. You can imagine the crowd as they're here, and they're hearing all of these things. They know who Jesus Christ, earlier, you know, verse 22, Peter recounted for them, all the miracles that Jesus Christ had done, all the healings he had done, everywhere he went, he was all about serving people. He healed everyone that was brought to him. He cast out demons.

He was a friend to everyone. He had no partiality. He would talk to tax collectors, Samaritans, whoever wanted to talk to him, and he didn't say no. And they knew that the man was kind, gentle, loving, and that he had powers that God had given him that were accompanying him as he went through his work. And so as they thought about all these things and heard what Peter said, you can imagine they would be cut to the heart. As, again, as God opened their minds, and they realized, we put the Savior to death. I mean, you and I can't even really imagine what that would feel like to know we put the Savior, we put God's Son to death. And so when they come to verse 37, and they realized, we did it! God sent the Savior, and we put him to death. When they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? You know, key words there, cut to the heart. It wasn't just a momentary remorse that they had. It was something, the realization of which changed them forever, changed their entire outlook on life, made them see who they were. It's the same type of remorse that we have. When God calls us, and we look at our lives, and we look at the things that we did, and even if we think we were really good people, and didn't do this, and didn't do that, we see that we transgressed God's law. We haven't been at all living our lives the way God wants, and that we have, you know, we've rejected him in so many parts of our lives. And when we recognize what God has given us, which is literally everything, we, when we come to repentance, are cut to the heart as well. When we believe, when we understand, and when God opens our minds to see that, it makes all the difference in the world. It isn't just a little emotion, oh, I'm sorry that I lived that way. It is something that that rocks us to the core, cuts us to the heart, as it says here in verse 37. And that's what the people who are assembled there together, who are later baptized, feel.

We can never be the same again. We don't want to be the same again. We're sinners. What we've done is, is, you know, nothing is unforgivable to God except the unpardonable sin, but you think, wow, God, thank you for opening my mind. Thank you for being patient. Thank you for being merciful. Thank you that Jesus Christ died, and you can forgive my sins because I don't deserve to live anymore. And that's how they felt. And so they asked Peter, well, what do we do? I mean, we've done this. We didn't even realize what we were doing. And now we get it. And God gives Peter the answer. This is what you do when you come to that repentance, when you understand who Jesus Christ is, when you believe in Him, when you believe in God, when you see the words of the Bible, and they pop out at you, and this is the way God wants us to live. And we desire to live that way. He gives us the keys. He gives us the steps to salvation. Repent. As I often say, not the little prayer that they say on Sunday morning TV. Just tell God, I pray this little prayer of repentance. I'm really sorry for what I did. And no, it's a deep, heartfelt repentance that doesn't come in just one night. Well, the feeling might come, but it's something that we do over a period of time as we begin to realize and deeply realize, you know, the effect that it's had on us. And as we begin to even work the fruits of repentance, we want to do more of what God's will is. We recognize our sin, but we also want to be closer. You know, I think probably all of us, as God was calling us, whether we grew up in the church or whether you're the first generation that you called, all of a sudden you wanted to read the Bible more. You might have wanted to read the booklets more. You wanted to drink in of what is the truth that I want to know what God says, what He means. I want to know what this is. I want to know what that is. And we find ourselves drawn to God in a way we had never been drawn before. And so when that happens, that's part of repentance. It's the deep sorrow and the remorse, life-changing remorse that we will don't ever want to go back to the way we were before, but also this desire to drink in and to be part of what God wants and to know, know what He has to say. So Peter says, repent. Repent first and let every one of you be baptized.

Baptized, I mentioned this, you know, last Sabbath is immersion, immersion in water. We washed away our sins. That's our outward statement to God that we put to death our old selves.

And it's kind of a public statement. We've been baptized. We put together ourselves. And then when we come up out of the waters of baptism, we're a new creation, and ask God to write His laws and principles in our minds. Repent. Let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And then last Sabbath, we talked about Acts 19 and Acts 8 as well, where it's the laying on of hands. So He gives us the process. When you believe, when you when you know, when your mind is open, here's what you need to do. And these are the steps that are required for salvation. These are the steps required for eternal life. Repent. Be baptized, receive the Holy Spirit. And then He says, verse 39, referencing back to this promise that Jesus Christ told him, wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father, the promise, the receipt of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter will come to you, for the promise is to you and to your children.

You know, God is all about family. He's not going to call parents and think, oh, I'm not going to have the children called either. Our children understand, you know, as I mentioned, they have to make a choice just like you and I do. And Ezekiel 14 is quite telling in that regard when it says, I think it's around verse 20 in Ezekiel 14, where it says, even if Noah, Daniel, and there's one other in that whole Noah, Daniel, and whether even if they couldn't save their children, they could only save themselves. You know what? Let's go back and look at that. I hate when I try to quote something and I don't remember the exact words. Ezekiel 14.

14, 14. 14, 14.

Oh yeah, actually, verse 20 is where he mentions it two or three times. But verse 20 is Noah, Daniel, and Job. Okay. Ezekiel 14, verse 20. Even though, well, we'll pick it up with the beginning of the sentence in verse 19. Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my fury on it in blood and cut off from it man and beast, even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver only themselves by their righteousness. Now, God opens the mind to our children. They understand what's going on, but they too have to make that commitment to God. They too have to feel and go through that process of repentance and baptism. And as they grow older, you know, we know several of them are, you know, fall to the allure of the world. We can just pray that, you know, they remember what's going on, and in time they will return to what God had called them to. But, you know, God opens the minds of our children as well. Here he says it, the promises to you and to your children.

Remember, I'm back in Acts 2 in verse 39. And to all who are afar off, you know, he's letting them there. There's going to be more people than just Jews that are going to be called. To all those who are afar off—and remember Peter is talking to people from all over the known world at that time. You look at the number of nations and ethnicities that were there and gathered in Jerusalem. You look back in verses 9, 10, and 11 and there. The promises to you and to your children, and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord, our God will call. So again, he's not calling everyone. It's whoever God calls that they will be able to receive the Holy Spirit at this time, be the first fruits, as we talked about on Pentecost. So, you know, there's a lot already that he said in verse chapter 2, and there's a huge one. Here's the process. And verse 40 says, with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation. Later he would say, Come out of this world. And God would say, Come out of this world. Be saved from this perverse generation. Live your life the way God wants it lived and not according to the ways of the world. Okay, 41. Now the rest of this chapter, you can see these...

Well, verse 41, 3,000 were baptized. Then those who gladly, gladly received his word were baptized. You know, they weren't coerced into it. No one was threatening them and telling them that they didn't work baptized that day, they were gonna, you know, die, suffer, be tormented, you know, modern day churches might say, you'll go to hell, right? But that wasn't what they did. Those who weren't gladly, those than those who gladly received his word, they were excited about hearing it. They were excited about what was going on. They weren't, they weren't cajoled. They were, they came and they wanted to be, they wanted to be this way. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. And that day about 3,000 souls were added to them. It's, you know, a magnificent thing that happened that day that 3,000 people were added. And then later we see 5,000 more as the word of God, you know, went forth. And as this early New Testament church began to even show fruits of God's Spirit very early on. Now, you know, if we look at verse 41, we see that here's Peter giving, giving a sermon that day. And that day people are convicted. That day people repent. That day they're cut to the heart. And 3,000 people are added to the church that day. And they were, they were baptized. Now that's different than the way we do things today. Today, you know, if someone comes to church for the first time, they hear a sermon. At the end of the sermon, they say, I want to be baptized. It wouldn't be, they wouldn't, they wouldn't be said, oh yeah, let's go find the baptismal and baptize you. We would do, we would do counseling today. And we would work with the person following the principle that Christ gave in Luke 14 about count the cost. Before, you know, know what you're getting into. Understand the way of God. Understand what you will be giving up. Understand what your life needs to be. And understand that you need to make some commitments in your mind that no matter what happens, you will follow God. You will not, you know, you won't let fear stand between you and God. You won't let family stand between you and God. And all the things that we need to work toward that God becomes first in our lives, and we would follow Him wherever we do. So it's different today than it was that day.

So what, any thoughts on that? Why, why that day people would be, they would just baptize 3,000 of them? And we see other examples in Acts as well that way.

Well, I don't know if I had the answer to that necessarily, but you know, as God was there with them, and that cut to the heart, and Peter there, you know, Peter there with them, he can see the difference in their demeanor. He can see what is going on, and God led him to add to the church that day. And, and they, you know, the danger today would be that if we baptize someone without them counting to cost counseling and understanding where they are, they would, they could drift away, right? Once baptized, the thing out in the world is, you know, once baptized or once, you know, once you're baptized, you're saved. And no matter what you do, you're eternally, you know, you have eternal life as a result of the baptism. And we, you know, so there's that, that, that we have to work through, that people understand what we do. The other thing that's out there is you just, you know, what repentance is. What is real repentance, right? I mean, oh, Sherri, did you have a comment? You asked why the difference between then and now. Those people that were there were all there, either Jew or what, what do you call, proselyte? They all followed God's laws and they were there keeping the Holy Days, so they already knew the basic doctrines. That's good. All they had to do was accept Christ and understand because they had already committed themselves to God's law, otherwise they wouldn't have been there. Okay, good point, good point. They end out, and they had been convicted in heart that Jesus Christ is the Savior, and so they, they understood that.

And they, they may have understood what repentance was as well. You know, today we have, we have out in the world, as I mentioned, these short little prayers. If you say this short little prayer, you've repented, God's forgiven your sins, and there's, there's these things that are in Christianity that just aren't true from the biblical standpoint. So we do work with people. I know when I counsel, I, we go through repentance and what the biblical repentance is. We go what the importance of baptism is. We go from the fact that this is the beginning, the beginning of the rest of your life, not the end. You know, so many people, when they're baptized in the world, think, well, I've got it. I have eternal life. I've committed to God the rest of my life. I can basically do whatever I want, even if they think they need to be good people. But that isn't the case. This is the beginning of life and the beginning of a process that takes us to perfection through the rest of our lives, so that we work toward. That isn't what the world's using this. So we have these things we have to work in today, because in Christianity, there's so many things that are so different than what the Bible teaches about some of the basic principles of following God.

Because we want people to enter in and know what they're doing, just as Christ said. He's the one who said, you know, count the cost. So we make sure we want people to count the cost and go through that process. But in verse 42, we find that we see that these people did exactly what we hope everyone who God calls and who comes to the church and who progresses and repents and is baptized do. Verse 42, we find that they were committed, that they did continue on. In verse 42, it says, they continued steadfastly, you know, not just playing at it, but they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Now that's a very important verse. And in that verse, God tells us a lot about His church and what His desire for it is. There's four elements in that verse that are very, very important. You know, they continued steadfastly. They continued. That's an important thing. They didn't come. It wasn't, there wasn't this emotional revival type thing that Peter did that day. And oh, there's a rush to the altar. All, let's all get baptized, and boom, boom, boom. And then the emotion fades, and you know, they all go back to their own lives, go back home and forget everything, you know, that they had done. They continued steadfastly.

They became part of the body that day, and they were committed to the body that day. They continued steadfastly in what? In the Apostle's doctrine. You know, of course, the Apostles were teaching truth. They were teaching from the Bible. We've seen that, you know, in Peter's sermon, using the Bible and the Old Testament and the prophecies to prove, you know, who Jesus Christ was, to prove what happens after life and death, to prove that this is what they're seeing and what they're hearing is of God and the Holy Spirit and these prophecies that come about. Doctrine there, when you look at the Greek word doctrine, would be, could be better translated, maybe, teaching, because it's, and they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' teaching. They continued to come and listen, you know, to the Apostles who were teaching from the Bible, who used the Bible as the basis for their sermons and their teaching. And it's the same thing that God expects us today. When we, you know, when we come, that we would continue in the teaching of the Bible, assembling ourselves together just as they did because they didn't have Zoom and they didn't have internet and they didn't have DVDs and CDs to listen to at home in those days, if they were going to hear the Apostles' teaching, they needed to be where the Apostles were. They continued in that way, and God commends them for that. Steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine, and their doctrine or their teaching was based in the Bible. The next word we see there is fellowship. They continued steadfastly in the Apostles' teaching, which was of Christ, and in fellowship. Now, I think probably everyone knows what the Greek word for fellowship is. It's koinonia. Sometimes when we think of fellowship, and we use the word fellowship in English, we use it as a verb. We're going to stay after services a little longer today. We want to fellowship with the brethren. So we use it as an action word. We want to stay and talk for a while and whatever. But when the Bible uses koinonia, it's not used as an action word. Koinonia in the Greek is a noun. They continued steadfastly in the Apostles' teaching and fellowship. So it's a noun that he's saying there. They continued. Okay, there's this pride. Stay with the Apostles' teaching and stay in the fellowship. Now, the fellowship could be translated community, as it says. It could be translated partnership or in partnership, but it's something that they became part of. You know, in the medical field, they will have fellowships, you know, of surgeons and doctors. And you become part of that group when you have a fellowship and you enter into it. And when you enter into the Church of God, when you're baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, you become part of the fellowship, the noun. It's you become part of the body that's there. Okay, fellowshiping, talking with people, communicating with people, all that is part of it. God intends that we know each other and bond together. We'll see that in the next thing here. But let's go back, you know, with that noun in mind. And let's just use the word community, because what we see here in Acts 2 is that the Holy Spirit and God led these people to become a community. They didn't want to go back home, wherever home was, whether it was Parthia or wherever God called these people from. They wanted to stay part of the community. They wanted to be part. They wanted to be with people of the same beliefs that they had. Let's go back to or forward to 1 John 3. And the Apostle John uses, I'm sorry, 1 John 1 and verse 3. He uses the same noun, Koinonia, in verses 3 and then down in verse 7 as well.

He says in verse 3, 1 John 1, that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. Now, that may sound like a verb, but it's the same noun when you look at the Greek word. That is, that you may be in the same community, you may be in the same family, you may be part of the same group that we're in, that you are now part of us, and you have and you're part of this fellowship, that you may have fellowship with us, John says, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. They're the principal parts of this community, they're the leaders of this community, that's why we're all here, is them who have called us into the fellowship, it's them who have called us into this body, it's them who have given us the Holy Spirit, who has given us the Holy Spirit, who makes us part of this body, that our fellowship is with us, with each other, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. If we go down to verse 6, it says, if we say that we have fellowship with him, that we're in his, that we're in fellowship, in partnership with him, that we're part of God's community, the people that he's working with, his children, his family, if you will, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and they'll practice the truth. If you're going to be part of a fellowship, you abide by the rules, you abide by the standards that are there, and if you're not abiding by the standards, then you're really not part of that community. There's a responsibility we have to God, there's a responsibility we have to each other, there's a responsibility in being part of the family, in continuing in the teachings of God, in continuing to walk in the same way, and overcoming self, the world, all of the things about us that need to be overcome, and Satan with the power of Holy Spirit to become who he wants us to become. Verse 7, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. So Paul here draws that same thing using the noun of fellowship to be in fellowship, in fellowship with God.

Let's look at 1 Corinthians 10 as well. We read 1 Corinthians 10, verse 16, every Passover.

And the same word, koinonia, we may unwittingly not know, or we may not know that we're reading that same koinonia, the same fellowship, the same community that God has put us in. And on Passover, of course, it's the members of the church who are there together who are baptized, who have received his Holy Spirit, and who are part of that fellowship that God has put us in.

1 Corinthians 10, verse 16 says, the cup of blessing, which we bless. Is it not the communion?

And that's the word, koinonia. The noun, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?

Isn't that what brings us together into fellowship? Isn't that what brings us together into partnership? Doesn't that make us one with one another? The bread, which we break. Is it not the communion? There's the word, koinonia. Noun. Is it not the communion or the community or the partnership with Jesus Christ that he has called us into with him and with each other? We're all part of this fellowship that we belong to. We are part of God's family, fellowship, community, whatever you want to call it. The body of God. You know, Colossians talks about the body of Christ is the church. You know, part of this church. There's, he binds us together, you know, as part of his church in that fellowship. We look just a couple more places because I think this is an important part of our calling, is to be part of that fellowship and to bond with one another. Again, how many times does Christ say, my will is that you are one with one another, one with God the Father and me, as God the Father and I are one. I want you to be one. We are one community. We are one fellowship. We are one body. We are one church. We're all in this together. God is working with us, and that's what he's looking for us to become, is one. Ephesians 4. And verse 4. There is one body. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. When we repent and baptized, God puts his spirit in us, one, one body. A couple chapters back in chapter 2.

Chapter 2 and verse 19. Let's begin in verse 17. Verse 17. Ephesians 2.17. And he, Christ, came and preached peace to you who were far off, not just the Jews in Jerusalem. He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to these who were near.

For through him we both have access by one spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, the teaching, you're to continue in that teaching based on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, we say the whole community, everyone that God is working with, the whole building being fitted, notice the word together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

So, when we read and ask about the New Testament church and how it began with 3,000 people who continued steadfastly in the teaching of the apostles, which is directly from God's word, not their own ideas, not just their stories, just not their opinions, but tied directly to the word of God and the things they say proven from the word of God, you see that's one part of it.

And we see this fellowship that God has put us in, that he's made us part of his body, not just a group that may say hi to each other on a Sabbath and maybe barely know someone on the other side of the room, but God expects us to be bonding together because his Holy Spirit is a unifying agent, if you will. Jesus Christ and God the Father are one, and that's the same thing he wants with us. Now, we see that in these new converts that are there. When they're baptized, we'll see here in the next few verses, they didn't want to run home. No one told them that you just stay in Jerusalem and become one group, one community. The Holy Spirit led them to that.

Of course, they didn't have the ties that we had today, and they couldn't bond together by phone and internet and emails and all cars and everything. They wanted to stay together. Peter didn't say, you've got to sell your house, you've got to sell all your belongings, come here, you've got to move here, or whatever. They wanted to do it because they felt that draw of the Holy Spirit, and God led them to that. So, verse 42 of Acts 2 back there again. We have the four things. Continuing steadfastly in the teaching of God's Word, fellowship, and recognizing the body we've been part of. That means with that being placed in that body and saying we want to be part of it, there's a responsibility to God and each other in that. Continuing the Apostles' Doctrine and Fellowship in the breaking of bread. Now, you can read in the commentaries, and some of the commentaries say, oh, what they're talking about is the Lord's Supper. They're taking the unleavened bread, the pictures. No, that isn't what it's talking about at all. This is a common in the breaking of bread. They were eating meals together. They were conversing with one another. They were doing the things that they would do back then to kind of get to know each other. Oftentimes, even today, it's over a meal. It's over some snacks. It's apart from Sabbath services that we get to know each other when we spend time with each other in a more relaxed setting. In Europe today, still, those of you who go under the feast, you notice a difference between Europe and how they deal with their meals and the way we do here. They spend hours. They spend hours talking with one another. It's just one of those areas that you get to know each other over dinner, you converse, and whatever. That's the way it was there. They were spending some time with one another. They weren't just there for an hour and a half, 90 minutes of Sabbath services, and running out the door to do what it was. They were talking to people during the week. They were getting to know each other, and they wanted to know each other. These are members of their community, these people who have like mind. These are people who are there that God put us in this body as blessings for us, because we should edify each other. We might see something with one another. If we all have the goal of being in the kingdom, do you know you're doing that? We might even have an opportunity or responsibility to say, you know, I don't know if that's the right way to be looking at that, but no one should be offended by that, because we're looking at each other and helping each other into the kingdom and to do things God's way. So this breaking of bread is important, too.

You know, today we try to do that in our churches with potlucks, you know, and understanding the society we live in. So at least there's an opportunity once in a while. We've gotten quite a bit away from that with this whole COVID stuff over the last year, but the opportunity, you know, for us to at least, you know, be together in more of a time where we can talk with one another, get to know with one another in a more, I guess, relaxed setting, if you will. And we shouldn't forsake those times that we can assemble together. You know, the author of Hebrews, as you know, God is the author of all the Bible, really, but the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 10, 24, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. He doesn't mean just out of services.

We have to spend some time with one another to become the community that God wants us to become.

Doesn't happen, you know, just because we have to spend some time at it. And that's what these people who were baptized that day did. They continued in hearing the teaching of God.

They understood and they were in a community, the breaking of bread, and in prayers. I mean, they prayed together, too. You know, God the Father is the reason for us all being together. He is always a part of everything we do. And like every Sabbath service, every Bible study, always we include God because He's the reason. He's the reason we're here, and He's the most important part of our fellowship. And so they continued in prayers as well, praying for each other, praying to God, thanking God for what He had done, thanking God for His calling, asking Him to lead them in the way that He would want them to be.

We do that individually in our lives. We can pray for our church that God will, you know, can, that He will lead us to understand the things that He wants us to know and the things that we learn from being part of the body. Because there are things that we only learn by being part of a body that we could never learn and grow in if we were just on our own.

So there's those four elements here that this early New Testament church displayed so well, and God specifically points it out here. So here they are, you know, and I'm going to skip verse 43 for a second, just go down to verse 44. It says, Now all who believed were together. There's that word together again. They were all together and had things in common, and they sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need.

Now, I don't believe that, you know, and I may be wrong, and I can be corrected, and God will correct, you know, if it's this, I don't believe that Peter said, you all need to stay here, you all need to sell your homes, you need to, we need to pool all the money, and God certainly doesn't ask us to do that today. He tells, you know, we don't have to do that. I don't think they had to deal with them, but we have to remember the environment they lived in. Here they are. They've been cut to the heart.

They've now, they understand who they are. They understand God. They've had this calling. They want to be where the people of like mind are. Some of them would have had the traveled days to get to Jerusalem. They couldn't go home and come back and be with a group of people, but they wanted, and some from, you know, all these places that were there, they wanted to be together. So they voluntarily did that as the Spirit led them to do that. They became a community, and so they, you know, they did that. Today we do the same things, you know.

It says in 1 John, I believe it's in chapter two, it might be chapter one, where, you know, God tells us, have a gape, have a love for one another. If you see your brother in need and you have the means to help him or get something for him, do it.

Do it. Don't wait for someone else to do it. Share what you have. Doesn't mean we sell our homes and sell our cars and pool all our money together and everything like that. We can do those things individually as we see that. That's the love of God that's in us that helps us be aware of what the needs of other people are, and just do it. Just do it. It's the same concept that God wants of us today. We still are part of a fellowship, and as we know each other and as we get to know each other, we can see needs.

God will open our minds to see needs too, because he wants us to develop that that ability or that gift, I guess, or that trait of the agape love of doing things for other people. That's what they were doing here. They were all together in this one place in verse 44 and 45.

That was there because they were committed to being part of that noun fellowship, that community. They wanted to be with the people of like mind.

Okay, now, if there's any questions, comments, observations, any thoughts you want to add? Remember, you can just you can chime in at any time. Otherwise, I will just keep going, so it's okay to interrupt me. Verse 43, let's go back to that. Then, I mean, here they are. Here's the new fellowship, the new body, the new community, right, of Christians, and they're all living together, and it says, and then they're doing all these things, these four things, and fear came upon every soul.

What fear came upon them? Were they afraid of the Romans? No. Are they afraid of the Jews? No. It's the right type of fear that came upon them, the right fear of God that came upon them as they grew and as they received the Holy Spirit. You know, when we have the Holy Spirit, the correct fear, reverence, and awe, and love of God, that fear of God that it talks about, you know, back in the Proverbs, came upon them.

That right fear that it tells us in Isaiah 11 verses 1 to 3 there, when it's talking about the fear that came on Jesus Christ, or the Spirit that was in Jesus Christ, that one of the last things it mentions as the Spirit, it was the fear of God. When we have the Holy Spirit, we have the fear of God, and we learn in the Old Testament, as well as the New and through Proverbs, that when we have the fear of God, you know, we respect and we do the things that He wants to do.

We understand what He's called us to. We understand His power. We understand that we are absolutely, He is the only, everything we have and ever will have comes from Him, and that without Him, and if we disappoint Him, disobey Him, all these things that we can do and show Him that we really aren't that fearful of Him, because we take liberties with ourselves and give ourselves permission to do things that you can't justify through the Bible, then we don't really fear Him and understand that He is life, and He is death, too.

He is one to be feared in the right sense of the word. So fear came on every soul, and look at everything they're doing, and look like God blessed. They're continuing steadfastly in the teaching of the Bible. They're there in a community, and they're committed to one another. They're getting to know each other. They're becoming one, and they're praying to God.

They have Him involved in the front and center of everything they do. Fear came upon them, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. When they were living their lives the way that God wants, look what He added to them.

Then the wonders and the signs were done through the apostles. They were pleasing God. They were doing things the way that He wants, and then He gave the apostles the power that they need. Here was a community that God said I would be comfortable in adding new people to this community because they're doing things right. If they come here and see the example of these people, they too will become disciples in the way that I want them to be.

This is a very sound community that's being built upon my principles and being bound together in the way that I want. When that happened, God began to do the signs and wonders. We're going to see one of those in chapter three here. After all this, as He says this, Peter and John are going to go in and they're going to heal someone who was lame from birth that could only be explained by God.

Okay, where are we here? Okay, let's we did 44 and 45, 46. Here's the word continuing. They didn't come for a little while and then stop. They were they were they continued steadfast. They were constant in what they were doing. They didn't make excuses for themselves. So continuing daily, continuing daily.

Remember that that's how they were living. They were living in a community right there. So continuing daily with one accord. One accord. There we go. They all believe the same thing. They were bound together. One Spirit, one Lord, one baptism, one Word of God. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. They didn't forsake getting to know each other and and having the opportunity to bond together and get to know each other.

Like families do and breaking bread from house to house. They ate their food with gladness.

They were happy. They were happy. And the old King James says it better and singleness of heart. New King James says simplicity of heart. It really should be singleness of heart.

You know, we've talked about having a singleness of mind. You know, when we were going through the book of James, we talked about how God does not like double-minded people. People who do say one thing but do another. Do's need to do and say things in one environment, but then when they're in a different environment, they do something different. Singleness of heart. That means completely committed to God. Doing things 24 hours a day, seven days away, God's way. And not just at Sabbath services, not just on the Sabbath, not just when they're with their own family members or with members of the church, but all the time. And that, you know, that's what he wants us to do. Put him first in everything and always, always follow him. Let me give you a couple of verses here.

Let me give you James 1.5. Where are we in time? James 1.5-8.

Matthew 6.22. Maybe we'll turn Matthew 6.22.

Now let's turn to Matthew 6.22. We should at least look at a couple of corresponding verses here, where Christ, you know, validates what is here in Acts 2. James 1.5-8. It's 1. Matthew 6.22. This is in the Sermon on the Mount.

This is a good verse that defines singleness apart, right? The lamp of the body is the eye.

If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. If you have singleness of purpose, what you see, what you do, and if your eyes are looking straightforward to God, your body will be full of light. But if your eyes isn't that way, you know, if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? You know, God wants us to always have him foremost in our minds. Do our jobs well, go to school well, be friendly with people, follow the laws of the land as long as they don't contradict God's laws. Follow, you know, follow well. Do all those things. Have God first and always do what he wants first. When it comes to a choice between what we want or what's convenient for us and what God commands, we do what God commands. That's singleness of heart and having that with us all the time. I also have written down here Ezekiel 11 and verses 18 to 21. We're not going to get as far today as I thought we were, but okay. Let's go back to Acts 2. But I hope this is helpful in understanding what, you know, what God is looking for from you and me and looking to us to build into our our church lives as well. So here we have the people continuing daily. In the last verse of chapter 2, verse 47, what were they doing? They were praising God. They always knew it was God who was providing everything for them. They praised God and they had favor with all the people. Now, you know, we can stop there as well. I mean, and look at this having favor with all the people, you know, and I read that it reminds me of Galatians 2 or I'm sorry, Galatians 5. And when it talks about the fruits of the Spirit, talks about love, joy, peace, etc. Remember the last verse right after his name's self-control? It says, against such there is no law. People like people who display the fruits of God's Spirit. They may not know why, but they like people that are that practice agape love. They like people who are honest and sincere. They like people who are patient. They like people who are following God's law. They're the they're your best neighbors, your best co-workers, your best um best students, you know, best teachers. That's what it should be. They are a light to the world. People like that. They may not understand, and sometimes they come and say, well why is it? Why is it that you're this way? So Peter is talking about our first Peter 3 15. Well, I obey God. I follow the principles of the Bible, you know. When they ask a reason for the hope that's in you, we give it. But here it is. They had favor with all the people. As the Jews looked around and watched this community that was developing, they weren't, you know, they weren't there saying, get rid of them, bring the army in, get the Romans in here, and disband this group of people.

They were, now it was God who, God who was giving them that favor. But there's a principle in that, and how can we have favor? So let's just look at a few verses in that on on on favor.

Let's look at Proverbs 3. Proverbs 3, remember as as as we turn to Proverbs 3 and verse 3, that this church, this body is doing things the way God says. He is laid out, He is laid out for us, that they're good. And He says specifically that they had favor. They're praising God, they had favor with all the people. Proverbs 3 verse 3 says, let not mercy, let not mercy and truth forsake you. Find them around your neck. This, of course, you know, Solomon also always, you know, wear this. Wear the principles of God. Wear mercy, wear truth, wear wisdom. Make it part of your life. Make it define you. Find them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. And so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man. So we want to, you know, God, I know that we've all had occasions in our life where we've noticed that God has given us favor with someone and we wonder why. Well, we live God's way of life. Well, we are and he sees our heart is in it and we are growing in that way. We're doing the things that he wants. He will give us favor. He will give us favor. He did that here with the group that was the community that was forming there in the New Testament times. He allowed them to be there in peace so that they had the time to grow and become who we wanted them to become. I'll give you a few examples. If you write down, if you're taking notes, Genesis 39 where it talks about Joseph and when he sold into Egypt. Here's Joseph who, you know, is a young man sold into slavery, if you will, but God gave him favor in the sight of Potiphar. But what was Joseph's legacy?

When he was in that environment, he did everything. He did everything the way God said. I mean, he wasn't perfect, but he lived God's way of life. He turned to God explicitly and specifically during that time. When he did, God gave him favor. He also gave him favor in the sight of Beryl and the others. You know, we can look at... you can mark down 1 Samuel 2 verse 26. The little ad, Samuel, who is there with Eli, and Samuel had the right heart. And it says, God gave Samuel favor in the sight of Eli.

Well, we are living God's way of life. He will shield, he will protect, he can give us favor, and there will be some times that we won't have favor. One is when, you know, during times of tribulation and pestilence, but we know whatever happens in our lives is because of God. And our mission and our singleness here is to have our mind focused on God living his way of life, always. And so that's what this church was doing, this fellowship, this community. They were praising God, and they had favor with all the people. Well, God gave them that favor, but they were living God's way of life. They were doing things that would be just like Jesus Christ did. That's why his death was so ridiculous, if I can use that word. He was kind, and he did everything for those people, and then they turned on him and crucified him. Well, that was God's will, and that is part, you know, part of the calling. Praising God and having them back in Acts 2, 47. Praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

In that environment, he kept adding to the church. It was a good environment for new converts, if you will, to come in, new people that he was calling, because he doesn't want anyone to perish, and the responsibility of that church, just like the responsibility of you and me, under God's leadership with his Holy Spirit, is to create an environment that anyone knew that God calls and comes in the church. They are nurtured in that environment, and we all have a part in that.

To grow the family the way that God adds to it. Okay, well, I think we can get, you know, I don't have to add a lot here in chapter 3, at least the first several verses here. I think we read this last week, or the week before anyway, when we're talking about the amazing, the amazement that comes with people.

So chapter 3, verse 1, Peter and John, you know, there is a concept I want to talk about too. Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, then I thought. So here we have three o'clock in the afternoon, Peter and John are going to the temple to pray. So, you know, if we, there's other places in Acts that it talks about other times of prayer, and people approaching the temple, you know, one of them is, you know, if we look at Acts 2, it tells us about the third hour of the day when the apostles were, or the disciples were gathered together for the day of Pentecost.

In Acts 10, Acts 10, by my notes here, Acts 10, verse 9, says, you know, the next day as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray about the sixth hour. So, you know, we can look at some of the times that are in the Bible, and some people will say, oh, that means we should be praying at nine o'clock in the morning, we should be stopping and praying at noon, we should be stopping and praying at three o'clock.

The Muslims do some of this, right? I mean, we know that one of their hours of prayer that they stop is three o'clock. Years ago, we had someone come to church, and he left the church, he got involved with, oh, some other things and whatever, and I talked to him a few months after he left, and he was telling me how he lost his job, because every single day he has to go home and pray at three o'clock.

And so the boss finally got done with us and said no, and it explained to him, and he said no, and so he got fired, and I was like, you don't have to pray at three o'clock, you can pray any time during the day, right? But some people will look at these things, and, you know, there is, you know, in the Bible we read about Daniel praying three times a day.

We read in Psalm 55 verse 17, David talks about praying three times a day, and so, you know, they, what that shows us is that God was part of their lives every single day. I mean, they were always aware that they wanted to be in contact with God. It wasn't just pray in the morning, forget about God until the next morning when I pray again, or I'll pray at night and forget about Him until the next night when I pray.

They were constantly in contact with God and had built that into their lives to be in contact with God during that time. In the New Testament, you know, Paul has a very interesting comment here in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 17, and he says three words, right? Pray without ceasing. Pray without ceasing.

And so, I don't, you know, we learn what that means. We learn that we have God built into our lives all the time, that when we, you know, when we, we don't, we just don't forget about Him for the entire day, but we pause at times during the day to either just thank God, ask Him for His help, ask Him to be with us as we're about to do something, when we confront something, we might ask Him for His guidance on how to deal with this, but we make God part of our lives and not just, not just for a set time of day.

The Jews were very good about traditions and you had to do things and exactly this time as they tried to define the concept of being in contact with God throughout the day, it's like, well, let's just establish times. You know, maybe it was every night, nine o'clock in the morning, you should be here praying. You should show up at noon and you should stop what you're doing. You should stop at three.

You know, if you want to do that, if I want to do that, that's fine. You know, that's fine.

But what the Bible is teaching us is be in contact with God. Don't make Him just a one-half hour or one hour a day, God, and the rest of the day you've got to go on your own and rely on your own devices. Make Him part. When we ask God and His Holy Spirit, God through His Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us, there will be times throughout the day that we just ask Him. Ask Him about this, or thank Him for this, or just because He's in our mind all the time. So I want to bring that up because sometimes people will look at that and say, oh, see, we should be stopping at three o'clock in the afternoon and praying. Well, if you want to and you've got the time to do it, but God isn't going to look and say, if you don't lose your job and go home and pray at three o'clock, then you're not serving my will. That's not at all what the Bible is saying here. It is telling us and teaching us constant contact with God, constant contact with Him. Make Him part of every part of your life. Okay, let's read through some verses. I'm not going to add a lot here, but just since we do go through verses, let's look at the miracle. Let's look at the miracle that, you know, God worked through Peter and John here. It says, as this church is growing and as the church is living the way of God, then all of a sudden, God adds wonders and signs that were done through the apostles.

Acts 3-2, a certain man laying from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms from those who enter the temple. So he was a beggar. He came there, you know, he came there to be able to have people donate donate to him, who when he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for something for alms. And fixing his eyes on him, you can imagine, here's God leading this, because God's got a purpose in mind here, and fixing his eyes on him with John, Peter said, look at us, look at us. So the blind or the lame man gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. And Peter said, silver and gold, I do not have, but what I do have, I give you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Nazareth, rise up and walk. This man had never walked.

From the time that he was in the womb, he was he was lame. And Peter took him by the right hand and lifted him up. And immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. Immediately, again, see what the power of God is. He can do anything immediately when it's his will. It's also mixed with faith. Doesn't do it all the time that way. But here he is, he's working this miracle through the apostles with, you know, at this time. So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking, leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. And they knew it was he who sat begging all of the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

When God is at work, there's wonder, there's amazement. No, as a lame man who was healed, held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch, which is called Solomon's, greatly amazed. So you can imagine the scene there, there was a, the same thing if we, if something like that happened today and God decided he was going to draw attention to his truth through a miracle, people would gather around and what happened. And so Peter used the occasion, not to draw attention to himself, he used the occasion exactly the way it is to draw attention to God. So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people, men of Israel, why do you marvel at this?

Why do you look so intently at us as though by our own power or godliness we made this man walk?

He's going to remind them again of what they did to Jesus Christ, that he was there, he healed, it's the power of God had nothing to do with them except their faith in God. Verse 13, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers glorified his servant Jesus. And he reminds them, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, Jesus Christ did the same thing. You saw him heal everyone who was brought to him, you saw him cast out demons, you saw him heal the blind, the deaf, the lame, but you delivered him up to Pontius Pilate. And he says, reminds them, Pilate was determined to let him go, but he caved, he caved to your demands to kill him.

This is the same God that's working with us today, the same God that sent Jesus Christ is what you're seeing here today. He's still here with you, he sent his son, you killed him. Verse 14, you denied the Holy One and the just, and you asked for a murderer or a ravish to be granted to you, and you killed the Prince of Life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.

Quite a testimony. And as people sat there and heard that message from Peter, which God inspired, it was God who led the entire thing to draw witness to who Jesus Christ was and to who he was. Quite a dramatic and quite a, this would be another one of those cut to the heart moments when you realized what you had done and what you had been part of in putting Christ to death.

Verse 16, and his name, through faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know.

Yes, the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. You know, three times in the Bible, Jesus Christ, when he healed, someone told them, your faith has made you well. Your faith has made you well. And so, you know, Peter says the same thing here and there, and we'll stop there with verse 16 and we'll pick it up. We'll pick it up there and progress through, you know, some very meaningful verses here as we get into 18 through the rest of the chapter as well. We'll do that next week. But as I pause here, if there's any questions, observations, comments of any kind. Mr. Shady. Yes, yes, ma'am. I was talking with a friend of mine, Sabbath afternoon. She keeps this Sabbath as well. We're not muted. She goes to...

Can anybody hear me? Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Okay. She goes to another church, but she does keep the Sabbath. And we were talking about the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

I always thought that the Holy Spirit that was sent to us by Jesus as a helper was an it.

She says, it's a he. Can you clarify that, please? It is an it, right? It is the essence of God. Yes. She's looking, you know, again, in foreign languages, you've taken them, they will tell you that there's a gender of every noun, right? And so the gender in Greek of the Holy Spirit happens to be masculine. And so the translators use he instead of it. And that also plays into the fact that they think the Holy Spirit is a person. But no, the Holy Spirit is an it. It's the essence of God, it's the power of God, it is not a person, it is not a he. Okay, thanks. Mr. Shabby? Yes. Hey, Gloria.

Hey, I remember years ago when I was first coming into the church, the prayer thing came up, you know, the time you pray, the time you spend, and I knew that the students at college had their prayer clauses. And Loma Armstrong, one time made a statement, and Mr. Armstrong, of course, published it in a letter or something. But someone approached her and they said, we don't see you going to your upper closet during the day. And he said, we see you all day long and you never disappear. Anyway, she said, you know, I am always in touch with God.

And to me, that meant so much because anytime, you know, something happens in my life, or you're saved from an accident, or any crazy thing, you know, you always say, thank you God. Like, you're close enough to realize that he is in charge and he is taking care of you, and he's with you, and you're with him. That really has meant a lot to me over the years. So, always remember back to her example. That's exactly right. We all, when we work during the day, we can't just disappear, right? Our bosses wouldn't say, just disappear in that closet for a while. So, no, you're right. It's constant contact with God and being like it. That's a very good, very good point. Yes. Formal prayer is also important, but being in a state of prayer throughout the day is equally as important. Yep. Some prayers are long, right? I mean, our lengthy others are just one sentence, but we're mindful of God and thank him, ask him for guidance, whatever it is. Yeah. Mr. Chavi? Yes, sir. So, going back to the point about the Holy Spirit being an it, it is the same case in Spanish, actually, where things are assigned gender in the sense that, for example, a table in Spanish, the word is la mesa, and that's feminine, but it's really, it's not a she, it's an it. So, we understand that because it happens the same way in Spanish. But they use kind of like the pen and an article when they talk about it, a table, right? Yeah, that's, I took German high school, and it was always interesting to have to learn the gender of the noun. They didn't always seem to mesh with what you thought of in life, so. Okay, the last part of Acts. I'm sorry, what? Mr. Chavi, the last part of Acts, coming into the church right at the turn of the 60s into the 70s, we had a lot, the same feeling and demeanor that is stated in Acts 42. We were meeting, and we were getting together a lot more often, and doing things together because 1975 wasn't that far away, and we were expecting Christ to return. So, we were fellowshiping with one another more often, having meals with one another, and that verse, those verses remind me of when we came into the church. And that's, it seems to be an excitement. That may be happening again with what we're looking at happening in Israel. We might think, oh, we don't have much longer. Yeah, I think we need to take note of the times we live in, and I do think that God is going to bind us together closer as the time goes on. I think that's one of the things He has yet to work with us and help us to do or lead us to be doing.

Mr. Shavey? Yeah, Elaine? Hi. I just wanted to comment about what He just said and what was said about the fellowship. And I was in the church early on, not sixties, of course, but seventies on, and I agree with Him that it was more of a family thing. But I don't see any reason why, and we're trying to get ourselves together over here to implement, that it started having brethren over to our home more. We haven't been doing it for a while, worrying about what our house looks like and this and that. We're just trying to get things to live up. And, you know, just have it decent enough that we can fellowship. Because I remember when I first came in, I came into a crisis, and I could care less what my house looked like. I just wanted brethren to come over, and they'd lift me up, just having them over. And that's what we need again. We need to go back to the beginnings of that, and it'll be very enriching. It was very enriching. That's it.

When our family came into the church, it was like almost every week we were at someone's house, or someone was over at our house. I agree.

We've got a ways to go to get that. We've lost some things along the way, and but God will build them back in us if we let him build those back.

I just have one comment. Yes. Okay, so I am a member of God's church, even though it's a different organization from some of these other churches.

And the reason why I don't go right now is because when I went to church, after certain services, we didn't talk about God. We didn't talk about the sermon. We didn't talk about any spiritual things. I was not getting spiritually fed. We were talking about the gardens and your kids, and you know, and that was just day. I mean, that was every step. So I would drive an hour and 45 minutes, an hour and 15 minutes, to not fellowship. That's why I quit going.

Were you getting spiritually fed during the sermon, though? Pardon me? Were you getting spiritually fed during the sermon? It was the... Oh, yeah. No, I was. But then I can get spiritually fed at home. There are so many ministers in Church of God that know, and I can read my Bible. I can relax. I can just, you know, and then conversations. We do have technology that we can talk on the phone. We can text, you know, hey, what would you say? Permit and so forth. Same. You're not alone. I've heard that comment from other people as well, that they're longing for some conversation that's biblically-based after services, and not just what did I do during the week. I think we have some work to do in that area as well. I'd like to make another comment. Go ahead.

Oh, okay. I just wanted to comment about that. I found that this happened, you know, I came from another area, but it doesn't matter where you go. We're still human. We're still human nature, and sometimes we don't always think to speak. We think about what goes on during the week. If you feel what I did was, if I felt like I needed to talk about something spiritual, I came, we had a sermon on that to prepare different subjects that you can bring up that are on a spiritual level, that you can introduce into the conversation. And that's all it takes sometimes to change that conversation over, you know, let the person finish what they're saying, and then you politely, you know, just introduce in a general way a spiritual subject that we can all discuss. And that works. It's worked for me through the years. I applied it after I heard that, and sometimes I forget, but every time I implement that, then it helps. And as far as getting back together with people, one at a time, maybe you can only do it once a month or whatever, whatever we can do individually helps, and it starts the ball rolling. Exactly. Exactly. Yes, I totally agree, too. I agree with what she's writing, and I've tried to do that, but not to the point that she probably did, so I need to be better. Yeah, it's worth trying. Some people just aren't going to do that, but you just kind of move on. I find someone who will, I tell people, will just keep, you know, just move, you know, excuse yourself politely from one conversation and go to another. You will find someone who will engage in that way, so. Okay, anything else? Sherri? Yeah, on that subject, you know, we've kind of grown far apart. A lot of people have put first all this COVID stuff in place of fellowship and being there, and and, you know, it's made us more distant. And then just in the, on the normal times, when we're so far apart and we're, we don't live close together where we can get together with brethren every day or every week. And so when we do get together, we tend to want to just catch up a little bit with, hey, how you doing? And just normal conversation. But like she said, you know, then you kind of got to bring it back around to the proper conversation and, and, you know, keep that in your mind, in other words. Yeah, I do understand that, you know, we tend to just want to catch up. Yeah, you make a good point, though, too. I mean, yes, yes, we want to have, you know, conversation, spiritual conversations on the Sabbath, but to get to know each other, we need to know something about each other's lives as well. You know, there's that small talk that helps us to know how many kids do you have? What's, you know, what are the things that you do in your daily life, stuff like that, too. So that's important, too. That's part of getting to know each other. That would be part of what I would think they were doing in the breaking of bread. They were getting to know each other in that way. But they were seeing each other every day. And I hear what you're saying, Sherry, sometimes that happens on the Sabbath. It's like, you know, what do you, yeah, I hear what you're saying. But that's an important part. We can't get to know each other without some of that small talk. So yeah, exactly. Kind of focus on being together more often. Yeah.

What I know, I'm at the point where I don't care what my house looks like anymore. You know, I would love to have brethren over, you know, so I think, you know, I hear you say that, and I hear others say it. And I know we've said it. It's like, I, you know, when I go visit someone, I could care less what the house looks like, right? I'm not looking around to see, did you do this? And did you do that? It's just good to be with people. And I think if we all get that, and, you know, Christ gave that example, right, when he told Martha, take care of the important things. Be here with me. Don't worry about all that detail stuff. Don't care if the napkin is folded just right or whatever. So we need to be more that way, too, and take the opportunity and put the first things first and not worry about so much, you know, the others as well. So. Yeah, Bob, I'll get to you.

Okay.

On the Holy Spirit, if they want to prove that the Holy Spirit is not a person, it's always presented as an attribute or a power of God. It's a gift. It can be quenched. It can be poured out. You're baptized with it. It can be stirred up. That's not a person. That's not a person. It's a power. Yeah. Amen. Yeah, why, Noma? That's a good point to give her. So.

Yeah, Brandon? Yes. The other thing I think to remember about, because I totally understand what you were saying, Debbie, in terms of church and fellowship and keeping that conversation more spiritually based, that what Mr. Shabe alluded to and talking about us becoming a community and family. If we communicate with each other throughout the week, so you know, we can, I think when you mentioned using the technology, I think it's better to use that stuff in our weekly communication. So that way we don't really have to catch up on those, you know, what we did this week. If we kind of know what we've been doing throughout the week, or we know those things, then I think our mind will be a lot clearer to set the foundation to speak about spiritual subjects and to keep that conversation more spiritually based. Good point. Good point.

Okay, anything else from anyone? Okay, well, let me think. Sabbath Services. Sabbath Services in Orlando, 230. They'll be zoomed to Orlando, Jacksonville, 1130. We'll have zoomed to Jacksonville members on Sabbath. And let me say, I guess we'll be back for Bible study next Wednesday then.

Okay, anything else then? Okay, well, thank you. Thank you all for being on. It's good to see all of you. We'll look forward to seeing you on Sabbath or next week. Go back on the Bible study.

Take care. Bye-bye, everybody!