We open our Bibles together to the New Testament book of Acts, and the second chapter, where
again today we will be examining this paragraph that talks to us about the heart of God's
new community.
It begins in verse 41 of Acts chapter 2.
To look at this paragraph is to study the essence of what the Newborn Church was becoming.
It is to get a glimpse of the heart of this new community of God, which made it so uncommon
and so vibrant and so impressive.
People present on that day, you see, changed the world in their generation.
The church at the end of this age desperately needs to recapture the vitality and the intensity
of the new community at its beginning.
An examination of Scripture informs us that a dispensational change had just occurred
as the Spirit was poured out on Pentecost Sunday.
Now you notice the word that I used there, a dispensational change.
In other words, there was a change of ages or eras.
There had been a band of believers, of course, up to this point, and at the time that the
Spirit was poured out, they little realized the change that had taken place in that moment.
But when the Spirit came on Pentecost Sunday, the old covenant had been replaced by the
new covenant.
The law had been superseded by grace, and Israel, as God's community, had been displaced
by the new community, the church.
It might be good just to talk about the word dispensation for a second, and to define that
word, I take this definition from the Schofield Study Bible, which says, a dispensation is
a period of time during which man is tested in respect to his obedience to some specific
revelation of the will of God.
And so a dispensation is a period of time in which man is tested with respect to his
obedience to some specific revelation that God has given us regarding his will.
It goes on to say the dispensations are a progressive and connected revelation of God's
dealings with man, given sometimes to the whole race, and at other times to particular
people, Israel namely.
And so if you understand that on the day of Pentecost, when these events took place, there
was a change of dispensation that will help you.
It will help you understand what takes place.
Now there's a debate that is taking place in our day regarding dispensations, and how
many of them there have been in history, and how distinctly they can be defined, etc.,
etc.
But whichever side of these debates you come down on, there is one thing that seems to
me to be very clear, and that is if one takes the Bible literally, that is if one is concerned
about the historical and literary context of the Bible, he will see in his study that
God relates to man in different ways in the progress of time.
I can illustrate that very simply.
Why is it that we do not have sacrifices in our church this morning?
Or call this a temple?
It's because that belonged to the old way in which God was related to man, in the law.
We're related to God in a different way.
Now in every age, salvation is by grace, through faith, in the promises of God.
And salvation is based upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In every age, that is true.
But in the progress of these ages, or these dispensations, God has related to man differently.
I think we should be very excited about studying Acts chapter 2, because it records for us
the beginning of this current era, in which God is calling out a people for his name among
all the nations of the world.
Depending on this day that we read about, God creates a new community.
And in verses 41 to 47 of Acts 2, we have the essence of that new community.
We have its heart.
Even though it's not fully developed, the heart of it is there.
So then when those who had received his word were baptized, and there were added that day
about 3,000 souls, and they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching
and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the 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.
Now as we look at this heart, as we look at the essence of what the new community was
about, the first thing that leaps out to me from the text is that the new community has
a heart for obeying.
A heart for obeying.
What was the problem with the old community?
You remember our studies in the summer in Jeremiah chapter 32?
The problem that Israel faced with that covenant was its heart.
It needed a new heart.
And God said, one day I am going to establish a new covenant with you, and I will give you
a heart that will obey.
Well that new covenant is based upon the work of Jesus Christ.
Israel rejected Jesus Christ.
God began a new community called the church.
And in this community, God has given us the changed heart that can obey God.
The new community at its heart is a community of obedience, implicit in being a member of
the community is this changed heart.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old things have passed away and all things have become new.
There is a new nature, a new heart.
And so one who is a member of this new community has the capacity and the bent to obey.
I want us to think about this aspect of the heart of the new community, this aspect of
obeying.
And to do that I want to break it down into three questions that I want to pose this morning.
The first question is, what is obeying?
What does that mean?
What is obedience?
One definition of obedience is this, doing exactly what I'm told when and how I'm told
to do it.
You're hurrying around trying to get your house ready for the cell meeting that night.
And there are some things that are on the floor in the family room where the cell group's
going to meet.
And there's some garbage that needs to be taken out.
And you've got to go to the store.
And so you say to the kids, hey kids, clean up this room and take the garbage out.
Okay, mom, we'll do that.
And so you go out to the store to get whatever you wanted to get for refreshments.
You come back to the house, the cell group's to be there in 15 minutes.
And guess what?
Nothing's happened yet.
And you walk in and you see the garbage still sitting there.
You see the floor still cluttered with things.
And you say, kids, I told you to take this stuff out.
And so they jump up from watching television or whatever they're doing, probably their
homework more likely, right?
And they grab the stuff off before they take the garbage out.
Is that obedience?
Well, it's accommodation.
It's delayed obedience.
But it's not the kind of obedience we're talking about here.
Sin resistance is doing exactly what I'm told when and how I'm told to do it.
Sin resists being told what to do.
Have you ever noticed that?
Within our changed nature, sin still operates.
It operates within our bodies.
But when we are told to do something, that sin tends to resist it and say, no, I don't
want to do that.
I don't want to do it now.
I don't want to do it that way.
But that righteous new nature is there to say, who is telling me to do this?
Is this person an authority?
Then I will do it.
And I will do it now.
And I will do it as I was told to do it.
Obedience is sometimes viewed negatively.
Some say, well, it's legalistic to have to obey.
If I have to do it, that just grates against me.
Yes, it grates against part of all of us when we're told to do something.
A part of us that is still sin.
Someone else says, well, it's confining.
It's restricting to have to obey someone.
Yes, it is that.
But let me ask you, would you feel that way if you were told to help yourself to a gourmet
meal?
I mean, would you have a problem obeying then?
You walk into this lavish banquet.
The food is on the table.
And someone says, I order you right now to sit down and eat.
You say, boy, you're not going to tell me what to do.
You think you'd respond that way?
Or let's suppose someone brought you into an office.
And in this office, there was a desk.
And on that desk is stacked, I mean, stacked deep, $100 bills.
And this friend of yours said, look, I order you to go over there and stuff as many of
those dollar bills in your pocket right now as you possibly can get in there.
You think you would say, oh, really, I don't want to do that.
My pockets, really, I've got a lot of my pockets right now.
Anyway, I don't need that stuff in there.
Is that what you'd do?
Of course not.
You see, we don't look upon obedience negatively when it's perceived as bringing benefit to
us or pleasure to us.
That obedience is fine.
And that's the kind of obedience that I'm talking about in the New Community.
I'm talking about obedience that brings good to you.
Not harsh, restrictive obedience.
But obedience that at its very root is intended for your good and for mine.
Everything that Jesus Christ would command us to do has to be for our good.
He does have a yoke, and he does have a burden.
But he says, my yoke is what?
Easy.
And my burden is what?
It's light.
Because the things that he commands us to do are things that are for our own good.
But that brings a second question to mind, and that is, why is Christ to be obeyed?
And of course the answer we would all give is, because he is Lord.
And that's correct.
You see, his kingdom is not a democracy.
We don't get a vote in his kingdom.
A kingdom has a king.
And Jesus Christ is sovereign in his kingdom.
He is the absolute ruler.
Now we can praise God and thank him that Jesus Christ is wise in his ruling.
And he is benevolent, and he is good, and he is loving.
But he has no equal in the community who can overrule him.
Authority is his by right of ownership.
As we said last week, he has purchased this new community with his own blood.
And so he owns the community.
It belongs to him.
And he has the right to do whatever he wants to do in this community.
And whatever he wants to do is always for our good.
Can someone be a part of this new community without accepting this idea of lordship?
The answer to that is no.
One cannot receive Jesus Christ as Savior and reject him as Lord.
One cannot accept Jesus Christ as Savior and at the same time reject him as Lord.
Now that raises the issue that is often debated in our day about lordship salvation.
And in some circles this debate becomes even bitter.
There are those who say, well if you talk about Christ lordship in connection with salvation,
then you are introducing works.
And it's no longer by faith alone, but you have to work in making Christ Lord.
Someone else says, but how can anyone make Christ the Lord of his whole life at the very
beginning?
Here's my response to that.
To receive Jesus Christ as Lord is not a matter of works.
It is a response to grace.
God calling us to recognize who he is and to surrender to his lordship.
There's nothing of works in that.
It is only a response, an obedient response on my part, to God's summons.
In convicting the sinner of his sin, the Holy Spirit always exposes some matter of the heart,
of behavior, of attitude that is wrong, always.
That's what conviction of sin is about.
It may be covetousness.
It may be unfaithfulness.
It may be lying.
So my point is that when the Holy Spirit convicts the sinner of his sin to show him his need
for Christ, he always exposes some specific area of the life.
The sinner must, in order to be saved, repent of that sin and surrender that area of his
life to the lordship of Jesus Christ.
If he rejects the lordship of Jesus Christ in that area, he cannot make a legitimate
decision to trust Christ.
It's a false faith.
Now there may be 50 other areas where the Spirit has not exposed sin yet in his life.
There may be 50 other areas that are as bad or worse than the area that has been exposed.
That sinner cannot know to present all of those areas to Christ.
He's not even convicted about them yet.
He may not even know they're wrong yet.
He's not responsible for submitting those areas to Christ's lordship.
But in that area where the Spirit has shined the spotlight and shown the sin, there must
be surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ.
That's why the new community is characterized by obeying.
Because when one comes into that community by faith in Jesus Christ, there is implicit
in that faith obedience and surrender to the lordship of Christ.
Why is Jesus Christ to be obeyed?
Because he has a claim on the life.
Because he owns the right to the life of everyone he's redeemed.
Because he is worthy of being obeyed.
And in obeying, what we're really doing is following his example of obeying the Father
in all things.
That brings me to a third question, that is what does obedience look like in this age?
What does obedience look like?
We've already talked about the fact that obedience means repentance.
At the point when we are convicted of our sin by the Holy Spirit, we must change our
mind about that sin and turn from it, repent of it.
So that's part of what obedience looks like, but is there more?
Well the answer is both simple and difficult to give.
It is difficult because I can't necessarily tell you what Christ's lordship will look
like in your life in every respect.
And in fact, Christ's lordship in this person's life may look somewhat different than Christ's
lordship in this person's life.
There are some things where believers have different convictions and Christ is Lord in
both lives.
1 Corinthians 8, Romans chapter 14, speak to those kinds of issues.
So I cannot tell you exactly what obedience will look like in every life.
That allows for some diversity there.
But there are two commands, two commands that Jesus has given the new community that are
directly related to salvation and which are visible expressions for this age that one
is an obedient member of the new community.
Two commands.
One command is to be immersed, to be baptized.
And the other is to observe the Lord's Supper and communion.
Those are two commands that are universal.
I can tell you in those respects what obedience looks like.
It must look like.
The believer must be immersed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit.
And he must observe the Lord's Supper.
It doesn't make any difference what culture one is in, what language he speaks, what race
he is, whether he lived in the first century or the 21st century of this age.
One who is an obedient member of the new community is one who has been baptized and who obeys
the Lord's Supper, who follows it and observes it.
Now I would compare these commands to circumcision in ancient Israel.
Or for that matter, bringing sacrifices to the temple.
Neither circumcision nor the bringing of sacrifices saved anybody anytime.
That was the false teaching of the Pharisees.
That doing those things saved.
And they do not.
However, to be a member of the old community, an obeying member of that community, the males
had to be circumcised.
And they had to bring sacrifices to the temple.
Period.
That's the way it was.
So are baptism and the Lord's Supper.
They do not save, but they give expression that one's faith is genuine.
And when one rejects them, one has to examine the faith of that individual to say, is it
true?
Is it genuine?
Is it real?
Because one who is a member of the new community has a heart to obey Christ's Lordship and
Christ clearly, clearly commanded baptism and the Lord's Supper of all of us, without
exception.
And so even here in the new community you notice that when they had received His Word,
they were baptized.
Just that simple.
And you see this pattern through Acts, all the way through it.
People who were genuinely saved were immediately baptized.
And it also says that they broke bread from house to house, which suggests communion.
Baptism followed receiving the Word.
It witnessed to everyone else in the whole city, the whole region, who observed it, that
that person was entering a new community.
It was sort of the welcoming ritual into the new community.
It was the signifying act, the inauguration of one officially into the fellowship of the
new community.
And so the first step of obeying in the new community is baptism as a new believer in
Jesus Christ.
And so as we look at the new community and we talk about the fact that we need to have
a revitalization of the community of God in this age, this end of the age.
That we need to return to some of the principles, some of the ideas, and the heart of the new
community when it was born.
I want to begin here with obeying.
The heart of the new community is obedience.
And obedience means, number one, being baptized.
And then observing the Lord's Supper.
And so I ask you, are you an obeying Christian?
Are you an obeying member of the new community?
Have you been immersed as a believer in Jesus Christ?
Well, you say no, but I have been sprinkled as a baby.
You have not been baptized.
In the first place, you were not in faith at that point.
After one has believed and received the word, then he is a candidate for being baptized.
As an expression of obedience to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Have you obeyed in this first step?
You say, well, it's just been too long.
I mean, it's been years and years.
And I just feel embarrassed to do it now.
Well, I go back to the illustration I used at the beginning.
The children who didn't pick up the floor, take the garbage out, ultimately did what
they were supposed to do.
It wasn't perfect obedience.
It was delayed obedience, but at least it was obedience.
And it may be decades since you became a Christian.
And you have had one excuse after another for not being baptized.
Or you have thought that you had been, and now you realize you haven't, but you don't
know what to do.
It may be a long time, but there is still time to obey.
There is still time to follow the Lord's command.
Obedience is doing exactly what the Lord says.
When and how, he says, to do it.
This morning I call upon all of us to examine our hearts, if we claim to be members of the
new community, to find out if we are really obeying.
Because to be a part of the new community of God means to have a new heart that desires
to obey God.
And because we still struggle with sin within, it won't be a perfect obedience.
And we confess our sins to the Lord and go on.
But the bent of the heart is obeying.
And the very first step is baptism.
I'm going to have prayer in a moment, and after I pray we're going to sing a verse or
two of a song.
And as we sing, I'm going to ask you to come forward.
If today you want to say to the Lord, and before others in the community, I've not been
walking with the Lord, but today I want to indicate my decision to renew my obedience
to Christ's Lordship.
And for some of you, that's going to mean backing up to the first step and being baptized.
And for those of you in that case, I want to have a special word with you afterward.
This morning I call us to be an obeying people, to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, and to submit
our lives in every respect to doing what he says to do, when and how he says we're to
do it.
Let's bow our heads in prayer.
As I said in a moment, I'm going to ask for your response by the Holy Spirit.
And if the Holy Spirit has convicted you of disobedience, of not doing what Jesus has
said to do, I invite you to come publicly and to stand before others and say, I determine
in my heart to begin walking again in obedience to the Christ who bought me.
And particularly I invite you to come if you've not been baptized as a believer in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
And Jesus, I pray that you will accomplish bringing us further under your Lordship.
Thank you for enlightening us from time to time of new areas, new decisions that we need
to submit to you.
And I especially want to pray that if there would be someone here without you at all,
who's never been saved, who's never genuinely, savingly believed, that even today they would
do that, and they too would come.
Amen.
Would you take a hymnal please and we're going to sing number 349, which links together
two critical words in the New Testament, trust and obey.
You cannot separate those two.
To believe is to obey, and to obey is to believe.
And there's no other way to be happy in Jesus or to be an obedient citizen of his new community,
but to believe, to trust, and obey.
Let's stand together as we sing and I invite you to slip out quickly and join me here in
the front as God has directed your heart.
When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, what a glory he sheds on our way.
While we do his good will, he abides with us still and with all who are.
Hi, Dale.
Hi, Mike.
How are you coming today?
We need to get baptized.
We've had two come for baptism.
Would you join them?
Let's sing the second verse.
Obey, just the chorus, please.
I'm tempted to have all of those who have been immersed as believers to sit down.
I'm not going to do that.
I was tempted.
I'm reluctant because I don't want to embarrass anyone, but my friends, understand what we
preached this morning from God's word.
And if you've not been baptized as a believer, you should be able to explain to Jesus Christ
right now why you have not.
But if you can't, then why aren't you obeying?
Why not?
So we're done singing, and I'm not going to have people who have been baptized sit down.
But I urge you, I urge you to obedience to Christ's Lordship.
For you really cannot be a member of the new community of God unless your heart is one
of obedience.
That's implicit.
It's just part of it.
And obedience means being baptized and obeying the Lord's Son.
Let's pray.
Father, I pray that you will take this very confrontive and challenging message, which
some are resisting, and enforce the Lordship of Jesus in our lives.
Because that Lordship is only for our good.
It's only for our good.
Help us to realize that and to put away the resistance within and to realize where that
comes from and to submit.
And this we pray in the name of the one who gave himself for us and was obedient unto
death.
Amen.
Good night, now.