Now, when they heard this, they were pierced
to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of
the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? And
Peter said to them, Repent and let each of you
be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness of your sins. and you shall
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the
promise is for you and your children and for
all who are far off, as many as the Lord our
God shall call to himself. And with many other
words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting
them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation.
So then those who had received his word were
baptized, And there were added that day about
3 ,000 souls. They were continually devoting
themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and to prayer. And everyone
kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders
and signs were taking place through the apostles.
And all those who had believed were together
and had all things in common. And they began
selling their property and possessions and were
sharing them with all as anyone might have need.
And 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, praising God and having
favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding
to their number day by day those who were being
saved. The most potent threat to the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ in his church, the most
potent threat in the world to the church, is
not the ACLU. It is not the National Organization
of Women. It is not the Clinton administration.
The most dangerous threat to the Church of the
Lord Jesus Christ is the attitude found in too
many pews. An attitude of consumerism and autonomy.
Somehow the world around us has generated among
some of God's people an attitude that the Church
is here to meet my needs, which is consumerism.
And particularly in our culture, in the United
States, there is a spirit that says, no one is
going to tell me what to do. Some Christians
more closely reflect the declaration of independence
than they do the New Testament. The believer
is born into a family, God's eternal family.
As a family of God, we are a community of regenerated
people, a society of saints. This morning as
we think about the SOS for today, the Society
of Saints, I believe that this message is urgent
because of what I've just described as a danger
to the Church of Christ and the attitudes among
some Christians. And when we talk about a society
of saints, we need perhaps to define the word
society because that has different ramifications
to us. A society, very simply, is those living
together as a community. A society is people
collectively coming together, constituting a
community of related and interdependent persons.
Now there are two key words in that last sentence
that I need to point out. The community of related
and interdependent persons. Now if I may just
illustrate from our secular society for a moment,
in our culture, that's why our nation is coming
apart at the seams. We no longer have anything
that relates us as a people. We are celebrating
our diversity to the exclusion of those things
that unite us. The result is that we don't perceive
ourselves as a nation any longer as related,
nor are we interdependent. Everybody has their
own agenda for their group. be it a racial group,
an economic group, a cultural group, a social
group. Everybody has their own agenda so there's
not this sense of interdependence anymore. The
result is that our society in the United States
is coming apart at the seams and as a democracy
will not long be able to exist. unless something
changes dramatically in the next few years, well
before our lifetime ends. Now that same spirit
is creeping into the church. In one sense we
might say it's almost inevitable because we live
in this culture, we are soaked in this culture,
and it's very difficult not to partake of its
attitudes. But because we have adopted so many
attitudes of the world, including some of those
I've already mentioned, the Church of Jesus Christ
is in great peril in the United States. The fact
is that we are related, but we've forgotten that.
We have all been born into the family of God
by the same Holy Spirit. And the fact is that
we are interdependent, although we've forgotten
that so often also. And we see ourselves as autonomous
Christians who can fellowship sometimes and be
alone sometimes. It doesn't really make any difference.
And that's not true. God's new community, this
Society of the Saints, was born in Acts chapter
2 on the day of Pentecost. We do not expect in
the text that we've read to see the church fully
developed. It's just a baby that's been born.
It's simple in its design here. Nonetheless,
we ought to see something of the essence of what
a church is all about. Of what the society of
saints should entail. even here in Acts chapter
2. Just as when you look at a baby you don't
see a mature adult, but you do see something
of the essence of a person there that's going
to grow. So as we come to Acts chapter 2, we
see the baby church. And we can find here in
this text certain features. that were present
on this first day of the church that ought to
be now fully developed in the Society of the
Saints, this new community of God that we call
the church. Let's take a look at these features
as they're laid out for us here because these
are what makes the church unique. The features
we're going to talk about cause the church to
be unlike any other human institution. Among
all the various societies of the world, the communities,
the collections of people, things we're going
to talk about from Acts chapter 2 are those features
that make the Society of the Saints, the Society
of the Saints, okay? Feature number one, this
new society is based on the crucified, resurrected
Jesus as both Lord and Christ. Verse 37 begins
by saying, now when they had heard this, what
had they heard? Well, back up a verse. The conclusion
of the sermon that Peter gives on the temple
steps, let all the house of Israel know for certain
that God has made him both Lord and Christ this
Jesus whom you crucified. That's what they heard.
That's the message. This new society of the saints
is based upon the crucified, resurrected Jesus
as Lord and Christ. Now this has some significant
ramifications. Every society has its founder,
its leader. The founder and the leader of the
society of the saints is none other than the
Lord, Jesus Christ. crucified and risen from
the dead. This community is unique, however,
in the sense that the founder and leader of this
society still lives. We speak of George Washington
as being the father of the United States. Long
dead. You can go back to other societies and
civilizations and talk about their founders long
dead. But when we think about the Society of
the Saints, we have to keep in mind this unique
aspect. That its founder and its leader is still
alive in heaven. The Society of the Saints is
based on the crucified, resurrected Jesus as
both Lord and Christ. His death His life, his
death, his resurrection establishes this society's
beliefs and its value system. What we believe
is true and the values that that produces in
our lives in this society of the saints come
from Jesus Christ. His life, his example, his
death, his resurrection, his teachings. We are
based upon Him and everything in our society
must be measured by Him. Whatever does not adhere
to His life and to His truth must be rejected
as not being a part of our society. So the first
feature that we see beginning on day one of the
Society of the Saints is its uniqueness in its
founder. It's based upon the crucified, resurrected
Jesus as being Lord and Christ. That leads us
to a second feature found in verses 38 and 39.
This new society is entered by repentance and
faith. In most societies, you enter by some ritual
or rite that brings you into it. If you belong
to a club, for example, or you are born into
it, as most of us were born into this society
of the United States, or you might immigrate
and be a part of it that way. In the case of
the Society of the Saints, the only way to enter
it is through repentance and faith. Now those
two words are used interchangeably in the New
Testament. You don't have one without the other,
ever. Genuine repentance leads one to faith.
And when one repents, it's because he believes.
So the two work together, you see. Repentance
is a change of mind and heart. It says that what
I believed before, how I acted before, I now
reject. And I turn from that and I now believe
another thing. My life is moving a different
direction. Faith means that we rely upon, we
depend upon something. And what is it? It is
Jesus Christ. We repent of who we were before,
we come to Him, we believe on Him alone as our
Lord and Savior. That gives us entrance into
the Society of Saints. This society of saints
is traveling together. It's along a narrow road.
We're kind of scrunched together. But it was
a narrow gate that we entered and it's a narrow
road that is leading us on to our eternal destiny.
Who is it that's going to repent and believe?
It is those that God calls. As it says in verse
39, the promise is for you, your children, and
all who are far off. specifically talking here
about people like you and me, Gentiles, as many
as the Lord our God shall call to himself. So
this society of the saints is entered through
repentance and faith. There's a third feature.
This new society is symbolized by water baptism.
Verse 41. So then those who had received his
word were baptized. What was the word? Verse
38, repent and let each one of you be baptized
in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness
of sins. This is one of the more debated verses
in the New Testament regarding the relationship
of faith and baptism. And it's worth at least
one message on its own. We don't have time to
do that this morning. The whole key here however
lies in that preposition in my NAV for the forgiveness
of sins. It is a Greek preposition that can be
taken a dozen different ways, hence the debate
over it. If anyone is confused about whether
baptism is necessary for salvation, let him go
to other clear statements in the New Testament
where there's not any debatable prepositions.
where it's very clear that baptism is not a part
of the saving process. Salvation is by faith
alone, but that salvation leads to baptism, inevitably
in the New Testament. The two are not separated.
Why is that? Because this new society that one
enters through faith and repentance is symbolized
in baptism. Baptism being immersion. It's the
meaning of the term. It's what it was practiced
as in the New Testament. For the first 200 years
of the Society of the Saints, there was no sprinkling
or pouring. It was all by immersion. Now, immersion
was not uncommon to the people of that day. In
fact, some people think that Jesus created immersion.
He did not. He did not start immersion. John
the Baptist, Jesus' forerunner, practiced immersion
out in the wilderness. And Jews who were repenting
of their sins and preparing their hearts for
the coming of Messiah went through that baptism.
They later went through another baptism when
they became followers of Jesus. The first baptism
had its purpose, but then they became followers
of Jesus and were baptized again because it had
a different meaning the second time. But not
only so, the Jews who did not convert also practiced
the immersion of converts. It was their way of
ritually introducing someone into the Jewish
religion. And beyond that, the pagans practiced
immersion. When people became a part of some
of the pagan religions of that day, they also
were immersed. So you understand Jesus didn't
start baptism. He took something that was familiar
in the culture of that day and he sanctified
it. He washed it off. He gave it a new definition.
And he said, now this baptism pictures your entrance
into my society, into my faith. And so the Society
of the Saints is symbolized by water baptism.
It was sanctified by Jesus' command. He said
that we're to go into all the world to preach
the gospel, baptizing those who believe. It was
sanctified by Jesus' command. powerfully established
in the early church as a ceremony of entrance
into the community of the saints. Baptism needs
to be practiced today. It's not an optional thing.
It is closely tied to faith. And inevitably,
the biblical order is faith, then immersion.
Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, then being
baptized. indicating that one has entered into
the society of the saints. There's a fourth feature
that we see in this embryonic church. That is,
the new society is marked by certain core essentials.
Verse 42 neatly lines them up for us. They were
continually devoting themselves to, number one,
the Apostle's teaching. One of the core values
of the Society of the Saints is the importance
of the teaching of God's Word. Now then, of course,
it was the apostles who were there personally
delivering their teaching. The apostles have
long been dead, but we have a written record
of what they taught in the Bible, in the New
Testament. And so today, when we think about
the church and its core values, we're talking
about the teaching of the Word of God. A church
cannot be a church apart from this core value
of teaching what the Bible has to say. The Bible
is the permanent record of God's revelation to
the apostles. Doctrine is not subject to change.
in the culture. It is not subject to popular
vote of those who are in the Society of the Saints.
Doctrine is revealed by God and we're to accept
it, period. In a bit of a different context,
I think you'll understand I'm simply trying to
illustrate what we're facing today. We see Pope
John Paul struggling with the Catholic Church,
especially in the United States, where our culture
has, I don't know which word to use, evolved,
evolved into ideas that are contrary to the teachings
of the Church, which in some cases coincide with
the teachings of the Bible, by the way. And the
Catholics in the United States are just agitating
for a change in the church's teachings on certain
things. Whether he's on target or off target
doctrinally, at least he has the idea, that is,
the pope does, that doctrine doesn't change just
because people's attitudes change. Doctrine is
not established by democratic vote. Doctrine
is revealed to us by the Word of God and one
of the core values of the true Church of Jesus
Christ of the Society of the Saints has to be
the teaching of the Bible and adherence to what
it says. Secondly, we notice the core value of
fellowship. The Society of the Saints meets to
share together is what the word means. There
was a sense of belonging and the sense of being
responsible. for one another. That's what fellowship
means. It's not cake and coffee after church.
Fellowship is a sense of belonging to each other
and responsibility for each other. That's a core
value in the church. A church can't be a church
without that core value. And then it speaks about
the breaking of bread, which in the context here
of Luke's writing, refers to the Lord's Supper.
Now it may be that they incorporated a meal,
a full meal around that, but the heart of it
was their time of fellowship when they remembered
the Lord's sacrifice in communion. broadening
that idea to say that a core value of the church
is that of worship, of recognizing the presence
of the Lord Jesus in its midst and focusing on
Him so that we're not coming to have our needs
met. We're coming to worship Jesus. We're coming
to remember Him and His sacrifice. The fourth
The core value of the church is that of prayer.
Here is the expression of the community to its
founder. Adoring Him, confessing sins, giving
thanks, offering petitions. Broad concept, of
course, in prayer. A church is not a church if
it's not a praying church. A church can get together
and have a good time. It can accomplish a lot
of things in its own efforts. But it's not really
the Society of the Saints unless there's a place
for prayer, corporate prayer, the congregation
praying together. That's one thing we're trying
to capture in these circles of intercession.
It's not just that we have individuals who come
to a service with pressing needs on their own
hearts. It's the fact that all of us need to
be caught up with them in the spirit of prayer.
And so the new society is marked by certain core
values and I want to tell you it doesn't make
any difference if this church is in the other
side of the world in a tribal situation or if
it's in the middle of an inner city or suburban
setting. It doesn't make any difference if it's
in the 1800s or the 1900s or the 2400s. A church,
a society of the saints will always have these
core values. Always. There are features of it.
There's a fifth feature of the Society of the
Saints that we see in Acts 2, and that is that
the new society is characterized by the active
power of God. Verse 43 tells us that everyone
kept feeling a sense of awe. Our God is an awesome
God. That word awesome means that He evokes from
our hearts a sense of wonder and mystery and
admiration at such a God. In that early church,
there was this sense that God was there with
them. And there was this response in their hearts
that has said, God is here. And it says that
many wonders and signs were taking place through
the apostles. God's power was revealed through
the apostles in specific ways, in signs, wonders,
and miracles. And according to the New Testament,
even as the apostles left the scene, their work
being finished, so the signs, wonders, and miracles
ceased. as such. But I want to say something
to you. That doesn't mean that God's power left
the church. It only means that the signs, wonders,
and miracles as done by the apostles were gone
in the first century. I believe that we should
expect that in the society of the saints there
will be the supernatural workings of God. The
most important one being salvation. That is supernatural,
my friend. That any human heart would turn to
God requires supernatural intervention. Because
we are depraved, degenerated people. And anytime
a heart turns in faith to Jesus Christ, God is
intervened. It is God who works in you, both
the willing and the doing of His good pleasure,
says the apostle. But I'm also talking about
answers to prayer. We ought to expect that in
the society of the saints, there are answers
to petitions that we offer to God. God intervening.
I'm talking about healings. Not in the sense
that anybody has the gift of healings as was
common in the New Testament time, but we ought
to see people healed. We can come to God and
pray. Because of the world view that we inherit
in our educational system that God is up there
somewhere and we're down here and what's up there
isn't real and what's real is all you can see.
When we're sick, the first thing we do is go
to the doctor. The first thing we ought to do
is pray. The first thing we ought to do is pray.
Doesn't mean then you don't go to the doctor.
God has a place for doctors, but the first place
is to prayer in our sickness. Read James chapter
5 and other texts in the New Testament dealing
with this issue. We ought to see deliverances
from demons. Again, our whole world view causes
us to ignore this vast area of spiritual warfare.
But we ought to see the supernatural power of
God liberating people from Satan's bondage. That's
not just New Testament days. That's not just
the first part of the church's existence. That's
for the whole age. We ought to see awakenings.
We ought to see revivals. The supernatural working
of God, the society of the saints is characterized
by the active power of God. Not just the benign
belief that God can do anything. That's nothing.
We ought to see the active power of God. I have
to tell you that I've seen more of this in the
last year at Grace Church Roosevelt than I've
seen in any ministry I've been in. We've seen
people healed in the last year. God hasn't always
healed according to the prayer of the elders,
but He has healed. We've seen people delivered
from demons. and the bondage that they bring
to the lives of people. People that sold themselves
to that kind of control of the enemy. God's active
power has been displayed and I tell you it's
done something to this pastor. It's done something
to my faith in the last year. It's done something
to my conviction. is I've seen God working in
ways that I've never seen before. I'm tempted
to be anecdotal and I don't think I will tell
you any stories at this point, but you will want
to hear the testimony on GraceFest Sunday morning.
It's a very special testimony and one that is
going to tell you something about the active
power of God in the midst of this congregation.
Through some of you and you didn't even know
it. A society of the saints in whatever age will
have the feature of the active power of God at
work in its midst. Number six, the new society
is demonstrative in its relationships. You notice
what it says here in verse 44. Those who had
believed were together and had all things in
common and they began selling their property
and possessions and sharing with all as anyone
might have need. Now some people have incorrectly
labeled this as Christian Communism. God help
us. This is not Christian Communism. Communism
says what's yours is mine. What we have here
is what's mine is yours. It's just the opposite
of communism. It's people out of the love of
Christ demonstrating their compassion and concern
for others. The new society is demonstrative
in its relationships. It's not satisfied just
to say, well, we're the people of God. It demonstrates
that within the fellowship and to the world.
Some people say, should we not practice what
it says here and live communally? Well, there
are some people who choose to do that. I don't
understand this to be a form that is normative
for this age. That is, a form of acting out our
love that is intended to be practiced in all
times. It's one expression of it, and it was
fitting at this particular time, but it's not
always fitting in every situation. However, the
Society of the Saints will always demonstrate
in some manner, in its relationships, that God
is at work in its midst, that it's real, that
it's different. The final feature that I want
to point out in our text regarding the Society
of the Saints is that this new society is observed
as both dynamic and magnetic. Verses 46 and 47.
Day by day, continually, continuing in one mind,
in the temple, breaking bread from house to house,
they were taking their meals together with gladness
and sincerity of heart, praising God and having
favor with all the people. See the dynamic that
is there? Openly, the power of God is at work.
It's not static. It's not lifeless. There's evidence
of life. and vitality in this church. This church
is not a closed system or community. It's open.
It's embracing others. It's dynamic in its constancy.
Day by day. It wasn't just a Sunday, first day
of the week kind of operation. But every day,
constantly, there was dynamic in this church.
It's dynamic in its unity. With oneness of mind
they were coming to the temple dynamic in its
methodology both in the temple in these large
public arenas and From house to house and in
private situations This church was was moving
ahead. It was dynamic dynamic in its methods
dynamic as testimony They were praising God and
having favor with all the people, referring to
the people who were not Christians. Now this
changed as there began to be more confrontation
and more hostility developed between the message
of Christ and the message of the Jewish religion.
There was hostility that developed. But you notice
the dynamic in the testimony here at least. that
they were having favor with the people. God was
at work. And the result of all this was magnetism.
There was an attraction to this fellowship. The
Lord was adding to their number day by day those
who were being saved. There was increase in the
church. There was growth in the church. And they
weren't transferring from up in Samaria, from
across town at the other church. There was only
one. Here we see genuine growth as people were
converted. That leads me to say that in the Society
of the Saints, there needs to be growth through
new conversions. There's a whole lot of church
transplanting going on in our culture. There
are some churches that are written up as being
super churches. They've grown to be multiple
thousands of people, and people applaud and say,
isn't that wonderful? But if you look behind
the scenes, you find out that most of those people
are not new converts, but they have sucked up
lots of people from other churches around them
because of whatever. That isn't church growth.
That's an anomaly. I'm not even sure it's healthy.
In fact, I'm pretty sure in some cases it's not
healthy. But in a church that's a real society
of the saints, there's going to be growth. Now
here it was very rapid growth. There were 3 ,000,
my goodness, the first day. And then every day
after that, the Lord kept adding people to their
number, those being saved. That just tells me,
though, that if it is a healthy church, it's
going to grow. And if anybody has the mindset
that a church ought to just stay we for no more,
then that's not godly, that's not spiritual,
it's not biblical, it's devilish, it's worldly.
God intends for the church to grow and to multiply
and to increase in new conversions as the Lord
adds those being saved. What I've tried to do
in looking through this paragraph briefly this
morning is simply to point out for us the features
of the society of the saints. Now this society
of the saints is under attack in our culture
unlike it has been in our culture previously.
And not just by outside forces, as I've tried
to say, but by attitudes internally. The church
is to be in the world, but when the world gets
in the church, we've got big problems. And broadly
speaking, in America today, that's where we are.
Lots of worldly attitudes in the church. Some
of them so cleverly cloaked and disguised as
being spiritual. That's what makes some of them
so hard to expose. As we come here, we see the
church in its infancy and its simplicity. And
just laid out for us in a very wonderful fashion
are seven of the features of what the Society
of the Saints ought to be all about. Now, some
of you are visiting here today from other churches.
Many of you are part of Grace Church, Roseville.
But wherever you may be from, if you are a saint,
if you are one who has been called by God to
belong to Jesus Christ, then your commitment
to the Society of the Saints is not only vital
to your earthly experience, it's really a measurement
of your walk with God. We have the idea that
somehow we can be wonderful Christians and be
detached from the church. But if we see our participation
in the church, the Society of the Saints, as
being fringe and not focused, then somehow we've
lost it. The world's gotten in us. If we see
the church as a place for our convenience and
not a place that we're committed to out of conviction,
then somehow the world has gotten into our hearts.
You cannot think of a church apart from its people
any more than you can think of an ocean. without
thinking of its water. Or think of a fire without
considering its flame. Or a harvest without thinking
of its grain. Or God without acknowledging the
Trinity. You see, a church is not a thing out
here somewhere that I plug into when I want to
and I detach when it asks too much. A church
is who I am. A church is what I've been born
into. A church is a new society that I've become
a citizen of by the grace of God. And I want
my life and I want my church to have the features
of what God wants His new community to look like.
I believe that most of you feel the same way.
We want our lives to correspond with this book.
I'm going to spend several weeks this fall talking
more about this subject, but it's such an urgent
message in the Church of Jesus Christ today that
I felt that needed to be an SOS to our hearts
today. Let's bow together. Truly the commitment
that we have to the Society of the Saints is
the commitment we have to Jesus Christ. You can't
separate the two. The devotion, the loyalty that
I have to Christ is exactly proportionate to
the devotion and the loyalty that I have to His
church, to His new society. That's the measurement.
And today there's cause for repentance, there's
cause for renewal of commitment. in the hearts
of many of God's people. I'd like you to sing
this chorus with me if it reflects the spirit
of your heart. Lord, be glorified today. And
with that we have to also sing. In your church,
Lord, be glorified. Be glorified. In your church,
Lord. My friend, if you're not a child of God,
if you've not trusted this Savior that we've
talked about this morning, He was crucified and
risen from the dead for you. Will you today trust
Him and become a part of His society and the
world? I hope you will. Let's all stand together.
If we can help you in that decision to trust
the Savior, will you please call us at the church
office this week or stop by here at the door
where I'll be shaking hands in the front afterward?
I'd be glad to talk with you personally about
that. And Father, I pray that all of us who are
part of the Society of the Saints will understand
its features and will measure ourselves and our
church by what the Word says. And I pray that
you will give us grace not to keep doing things
the way we always have, or to be content with
the attitudes that lie upon our hearts today.
May we check those attitudes by the Word and
bring into conformity anything that is lacking.
Truly, Jesus, be glorified in the Society of
the Saints, your body, your new community. We
pray this for your sake as well as ours and in
your name Amen