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Well, thank you Paul and musicians for leading us so beautifully this morning in worship.

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Rick mentioned the ministry fair tent outside, and I also want to encourage you after the

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service to eventually find your way through that tent.

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There are many tables in there with lots of information, there are people around to answer

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questions.

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You'll be able to find out just about anything you want to know about ministries here at

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Grace Church.

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And it's not only there for information, it's there so that you can get what you need so

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that you can decide how God wants you to become involved in ministry.

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And if you're ready to sign up today, there are folks out there ready to help you to know

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where to sign on the dotted line, so to speak.

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This is a great day for us, it's not only a day of celebration, it's a day of commitment

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to ministry.

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Commitment to this new year of ministry that God has graciously given to us in His providence.

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And so find your way there and be a part of the fair today, as well as the other great

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activities outside.

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Now would you open your Bibles with me please to the book of Acts in the New Testament.

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The book of Acts.

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I am not going to be long this morning in preaching, no applause please.

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It is a full morning of celebration and last week we had a number of people respond for

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baptism and I have devoted some of my preaching time today to their baptism, which will occur

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at the end of this service.

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And I rejoice in their decisions and what they are doing is actually a sermon in itself

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to all of us regarding discipleship and obedience to Jesus Christ.

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But what I do have to talk to you about this morning is a very important subject.

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We are again today going to examine the heart of the new community of God.

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To understand what made this early church so dynamic and so effective in its generation.

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We have looked at its beginning, the fact that the new community was bought by Christ's

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death based on His ascension, born in His promise, and built on His Gospel.

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The new community has given to each of us who has been born from above a heavenly status

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and a personal relationship with God.

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Therefore this new community that God has established deserves and demands our loyalty.

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The relationship that we have been given answers four questions that arise out of the collapse

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of our culture.

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We talked about these at length a couple of weeks ago.

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Those questions are, do I have significance?

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How will I survive in a world like this?

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Who am I and how do I fit into the world?

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And what is truth?

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Four crucial questions that arise because of the collapse of the culture around us.

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And in the new community of God every one of those questions is answered in a most positive

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and beneficial way.

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We've also been challenged by the fact that the new community of God is characterized

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by obeying.

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It is an obeying community.

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And obedience begins.

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It doesn't end, but it begins with baptism.

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Jesus gave us two commands that are to be a part of the new community in every culture,

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on every continent, in every part of this age.

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And those commands are to be baptized and to remember Him in the Lord's Supper.

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Now there are lots of other commands of the New Testament.

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But those two commands stand out above all of them and we call them the ordinances of

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the church.

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Obedience begins there.

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Now looking further into the text this morning, we cannot but be impressed with the sense

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of belonging that there was in this new community.

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There was a togetherness in this community.

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Verse 41, So then those who had received His word were baptized.

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And there were added that day about three thousand souls and they were continually devoting

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themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to

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prayer.

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And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through

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the apostles.

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And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common.

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And they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all,

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as anyone might have need.

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And day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to

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house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising

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God and having favor with all the people.

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And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

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Notice twice here that word together in the text.

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And then the Lord was adding to their number.

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Notice the sense of belonging that was a part of the heart of this new community.

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The new community of God was characterized by an excitement for gathering together.

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The fire of Pentecost had created a burning within them to be with other believers.

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To be a member of God's community means earnestly desiring to be together with others for teaching

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and worship and fellowship.

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And it is the Spirit of God Himself who draws us to this.

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And so this morning I want you to realize how vital being at the gathering is for you,

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for your family.

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And I hope that you will go away from here as you begin a fall of your life and a fall

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of ministry as a part of Grace Church with a refreshed commitment to being present when

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the body gathers.

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Because that's what it means to be a part of God's community.

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Now there are three perspectives to this that I want us to look at ever so briefly.

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The first is an historical perspective.

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Because the idea of gathering as God's people did not begin on Pentecost.

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It has Old Testament roots.

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God provided for it and ordered gatherings in Israel.

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There were national observances or heaths which were established to remind the people

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of their spiritual roots and to bind them together several times a year as a distinct

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group in the midst of a world of paganism.

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They were monotheists who worshiped the God Yahweh, the true God, the Creator God.

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And these feasts were there to remind them time after time as they gathered about who

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they were and their uniqueness in the world.

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Later the national worship of Israel was centered in Jerusalem and it focused on the temple

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that Solomon constructed there.

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When the city and the temple were destroyed by Babylon, there was a new gathering for

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God's people that apparently developed which were called eventually synagogues.

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The word synagogue comes from a Greek origin and it means to bring together.

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You can understand the dilemma that the Jewish people were in.

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Until 586 their minds were focused on Jerusalem and the temple and from that year on they

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had no Jerusalem or temple for decades.

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Many of them had been carried away exile into Babylon.

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And so during this exile what were they to do?

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They began to gather together in groups that were called eventually synagogues.

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These groups may have, the groups to the synagogue may have its origin in the elders of Israel

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who came to the prophet Ezekiel for his teaching during the early part of the Babylonian captivity.

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But it is evident by the time of Ezra when he returned to Jerusalem in the middle of

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the fourth century that synagogues were present among the people.

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And even in Jesus' day, although Herod the Great had rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem

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in that day, and sacrifices were again offered in Jerusalem, even so there were synagogues

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throughout Israel and Jesus taught in many of them.

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The gathering of the church from Pentecost and Esther seems to have arisen out of this

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historical pattern among the Jews, together together wherever they were.

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At first the new community of God gathered in the temple area because that's where the

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Holy Spirit came and that's what we see in the early part of Acts in chapter 3.

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But they also were meeting from house to house from the earliest times.

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A new paradigm was developing at this point.

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It was not long before the Jewishness of the church began diminishing as Gentiles were

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saved and added to it.

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Within a few decades after Acts chapter 2, the temple was again destroyed, this time

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by Rome.

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Jerusalem was burned by the armies of Rome.

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The material temple was replaced in this new paradigm by a revelation from God that had

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come in the meantime from Pentecost until when that occurred.

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That revelation came primarily through Paul.

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That is that there is no longer a physical temple where God is worshiped.

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There is a spiritual temple where God is to be worshiped.

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He says that we are the stones that make up that temple, that spiritual temple.

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The earthly Jerusalem, which had early on been the thinking of people, the focus of

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people, was replaced by another concept, the heavenly Jerusalem.

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The writer of Hebrews picks up this theme strongly when he says we have not come to

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physical Mount Sinai representing the law.

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But he says we have come rather to another mountain that he calls Mount Zion.

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Now he's not talking there about Mount Zion that part of Jerusalem.

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He's talking about Mount Zion in the spiritual sense.

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And he goes on to say to the heavenly Jerusalem.

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So you see in this age there is a new paradigm.

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We're not focused upon a city in Israel.

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We're not looking toward a temple in Jerusalem.

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But God has created a new gathering for us, born out of historical roots that began in

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the Babylonian captivity of the Jews.

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But it is a gathering together of the spiritual temple of God wherever the people are located

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around the world.

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The community began to understand itself as an assembly of temporary sojourners in this

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world.

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That's what we are.

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That's how we need to see ourselves.

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That we are a temporary assembly in this world that we're looking for the heavenly city and

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home whose builder and maker is God.

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The early church like we today met together in clusters wherever the citizens of God's

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community were located.

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And as they met together they organized themselves in certain ways with elders and deacons so

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that they became functioning churches, functioning gatherings of God's people.

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That's the historical perspective, the biblical perspective.

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Let's think about that.

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The Apostle Paul typically, whenever he went in his missionary journey through the Roman

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Empire, the Apostle Paul typically sought out synagogues of the Jews where he began

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preaching the Gospel.

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There was a natural connection for him.

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He himself was a Jew of course, had been a Pharisee of the Jews.

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He knew the Old Testament backwards and forwards and so whenever he went to a new city he would

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find a gathering of the Jews in a synagogue and there he would begin to preach Christ

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to them.

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We see this for example in the book of Acts.

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Turn with me to Acts chapter 19.

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This is actually the third missionary journey of Paul but it lays it out very clearly for

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us.

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It says in verse 8, and he, Paul, entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly

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for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.

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But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the way before the multitude,

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he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, those who had believed, reasoning daily in

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the school of Tyrena.

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That was a facility that he rented where the believers began to meet.

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And this one on it says, for the face of a couple of years.

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And it goes on to say that there in the city of Ephesus they began to meet on the first

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day of the week.

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That began to be their new pattern, not meeting on the Sabbath, but rather meeting on the

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first day of the week as an assembly of a new community that was being called out from

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that city.

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In Acts chapter 20, in verse 6 it says, and we failed from Philippi after the days of

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unleavened bread, and says came to them at Troas within five days and there we stayed

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seven days.

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Notice the we here by the way.

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Luke, who's writing this epistle, is with Paul at this point.

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And he says, on the first day of the week when we were gathered together to break bread,

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Paul began talking to them.

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And so a little more time has passed.

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You can see this pattern developing that as the believers began to meet, they changed

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their day of meeting to the first day of the week.

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This is one of the most significant cultural changes that take place in this whole age.

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As a brand new day of worship was born for the church.

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And it symbolizes the resurrection of course, because Jesus was raised on the first day

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of the week.

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This change of worship signifies the change from the law to grace, from the Sabbath to

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the first day of the week.

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And so now as we many centuries later gather on the first day of the week, our gathering

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biblically foreshadows the final gathering that is to come in glory.

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We heard this morning the stirring words of the midnight cry.

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Jesus said, watch, be on the alert, for you do not know the day when your Lord will come.

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Apostle Paul reminds us in Thessalonians that the Lord will come with the shout of an archangel,

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the trumpet sound of God.

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And he says the dead in Christ will be raised.

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All of those who died in this whole age since the new community began will be raised.

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The dead will be raised.

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And we who are alive in that generation will be changed, he says, will not die.

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Our bodies will be instantly changed to be like his body of glory.

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And then it says that we will be called up together to meet the Lord in the air.

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There is the final gathering.

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When the church of this age will be called up and together, we will see Jesus face to

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face.

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And then with him we'll journey through that heavenly city that he is preparing for us,

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even now.

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And that's why I say our gathering now is but a temporary gathering.

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In far-flung places of the earth, but one day there is a final glorious gathering of

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God's people.

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Oh, what a day that will be when we see Jesus face to face.

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And with the face of this age, we are glorified with him and in his presence forever.

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The biblical perspective.

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But finally, think with me about a cultural perspective.

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We talk about worshiping on the first day of the week.

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And that is the norm for this age.

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But as we think about a cultural perspective of this, we need to realize that while the

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first day of the week is the norm, it doesn't invalidate the possibility of worshiping on

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other days either.

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You see, worshiping on Sunday is not a law.

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It is an appropriate custom.

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It has deep roots in the New Testament, has theological significance.

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But there is not a law that I'm aware of about Sunday as there was in the Old Testament Mosaic

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law regarding the Sabbath.

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And so there are churches which choose to meet, for example, for a Saturday night service

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as well as a Sunday service.

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And there are those who use Sunday as a means of outreach.

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But their worship, the gathering of the body for believers, is on a Wednesday night or

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a Thursday night.

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So that's unusual.

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But let's not condemn them as though they were breaking some commandment of the New

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Testament.

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The norm is to worship on Sunday.

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But there are those who, for legitimate reasons, have chosen to do otherwise.

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And I think of those churches that gather in secret in Muslim countries.

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Muslims worship on Friday.

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They work on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

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So when is the church together?

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Well many of them choose together on that day that they also have off from work on Friday

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because that's the culture in which they find themselves.

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But there's another cultural perspective I want to bring to this.

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And it really goes back into the New Testament, the gathering of the community, which began

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as a universal practice that no one would miss.

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Within a few years became dispensable and irrelevant and extraneous to some.

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How do you know that?

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Because in Hebrew it says, let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good

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deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as the habit of some is.

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You understand what I'm saying?

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I'm saying that within 40 years of when the believers could not wait to get together,

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there was another pattern that began to erode the first.

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And that was to take the gathering rather casually and to forsake it.

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The word means to leave it in a lurch.

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It's to turn your back on it.

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And the writer of Hebrew says don't do that.

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And why does he say that?

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He says encourage one another in what?

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In being together.

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And all the more as you see the day approaching, what is that day?

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The day of our Lord's return.

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As we see that day approaching, all the more we ought to be encouraging one another.

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Be at the gathering.

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Don't miss coming together to worship with God's people.

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I'll see you when we gather.

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You see the pattern of the new community is gathering.

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And that gathering doesn't come out of a sense of legalism, thou shall keep the Sabbath.

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That gathering comes out of a sense of obedience and a new heart that is filled with the Holy

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Spirit.

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We don't look at Sunday attendance in a legalistic way.

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Jesus said even when the Sabbath was commanded that if your ox is in the dip on the Sabbath,

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you better do what?

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You better get your ox out of the dip.

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Bill Graham has an interesting statement about that.

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He says Jesus spoke about the ox in the dip on the Sabbath, but if your ox gets in the

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dip every Sabbath, you should either get a new ox or fill up the dip.

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Amen.

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And yet we have, don't we, such a casual, nonchalant, noncommittal attitude about the

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gathering of God's people.

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The writer of Hebrews says Christ shall appear a second time for salvation to those who eagerly

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await for him.

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And when we eagerly wait for him, it will do nothing more than drive us to be together

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as the people of God.

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And so I call upon you as part of God's new community not to fall into the sinful and

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cultural practice of neglecting the gathering, but determine that weekly gathering with the

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new community will be your priority, the priority of your family, the priority in your schedule,

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and make it the Lord's Day by giving him first place.

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Someone has said our great-grandfathers called it Holy Sabbath.

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Our grandfathers called it Sabbath.

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Our fathers called it Sunday, and we call it the weekend.

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But the first day of the week, biblically speaking, is the Lord's Day, and it's an

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important day.

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William Gladstone, the British statesman who was a member of Parliament, if you can believe

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this, for more than 60 years, was also a devoted follower of Jesus Christ.

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He died 98 years ago.

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And listen to what he said.

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Tell me what the young men of England, he said, are doing on Sunday, and I will tell

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you about the future of England.

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That is insightful, isn't it?

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Tell me what the young men of England are doing on Sunday, and I will tell you about

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the future of England.

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We parents need to set an example in this.

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It was a practice of Thomas Edison to work on Sunday because of his invention, and many

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of them required immediate attention.

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But he suspended that practice from the motive that it wouldn't do him any credit as a father

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not to go to church.

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It is said that an interesting conversation took place in his laboratory one Sunday morning.

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And by the way, to my knowledge, Edison was not a Christian in the sense of our use of

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that term.

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But his habit was to go to church eventually in life.

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He and Mrs. Edison and little Theodore were on their way to the Baptist church in New

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Orleans, New Jersey.

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And Theodore turned aside and went into the building where they did their experiment.

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And Thomas Edison said, you mustn't work on Sunday, Teddy.

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But you work on Sunday, was the boy's response.

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And it was that that caused him to get into the regular habit of setting an example for

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his family of being in church on Sunday.

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Moms and dads, I call upon you to set an example that will show your children the priority

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of the Lord's day and not to allow other things to get in the way of the gathering as the

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habit of some admittedly is, but tell your children and tell the Lord that his day has

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priority in your life.

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And I tell you if you will do that, the blessing of God will be upon you and your family.

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It will make a difference in your life.

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It will make a difference in your personal Christian growth.

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It will make a difference in the way your family is raised and how obedient they become

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and how respectful they are of Christ in the church.

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It will make a difference.

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And so I call upon all of us on this day of grace fest as we celebrate the grace of God

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to give ourselves a fresh to the gathering.

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For the heart of the new community, the gathering together, let's pray.

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Father write this upon our hearts, I pray.

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Write it upon our hearts and may we see it not as some legalistic thing that we must

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do in order to perform.

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May we see it as a wonderful opportunity that you've given us together in anticipation

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of that great day and the final gathering.

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In Jesus' name, Amen.

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I'd like for us to stand right now and to sing.