Thank you, Bridget and Katie. Good morning, everyone. Really good to have you with us,
whether you're here in the church or on YouTube. I know we have a few visitors in the church this
morning. You are particularly welcome as we now come to consider God's word.
The year is 1830. The city is Dublin. And in a small hall on the south side of the city,
a group of Christians are meeting together for the first time. They previously met in homes
and they're now meeting in a hall. Among them, there is one young man who has been refused
communion at churches around the city because he wouldn't join their membership role.
There are others who are concerned about the established church and the dominance of the
clergy, and in particular, that many churches will only allow communion if there are clergy,
ordained clergy there to lead it. Others are looking for simplicity in their worship,
to get back to how it was at the beginning in the New Testament. And so they meet and very simply,
they pray together, they read from the Bible, and they take bread and wine to remember the Lord Jesus.
Now some of you will recognize that this is a description of one of the early groups of what
later became known as the Brethren movement. There were others in Plymouth and Bristol and elsewhere.
My purpose is not to promote Brethren ideals, although I would happily do that, but rather choose as an
example, and there are many, of a circumstance where there were people who felt there is a need to get
back to the New Testament church and the way it did things. Traditions have grown up, and we want to
strip these away and simply be obedient to what the Bible says. I could equally have used as my example
the Reformation, or one or two of the splits after that, the formation of the Methodist Church,
or the free churches in Scotland, or indeed some of the churches around our city that have sprang up
in recent years. There has been many times a desire to get back to worshipping as the New Testament
church did. And churches inevitably as they grow and as they become more organized, there is more
tradition built up, and perhaps, perhaps we get away sometimes from the basic teaching of Scripture.
Now, why is that that that happens? Well, I think it's quite simple. The New Testament doesn't set out to be
a handbook on how we should do church in detail. We were looking recently at the book of Leviticus,
and in Leviticus you get great detail about the sacrifices and offerings and the priests and the
other things which were part of the Jewish faith. And they were prescribed, they were laid down in
writing, this is how you will do it. There's very little of that in the New Testament about the church.
We get some teaching, usually when something's gone wrong, and Paul or someone else is trying to correct it.
We get snippets here and there which give us an insight into church life, particularly in the book of Acts,
and how the early Christians did things. But there are not generally prescriptive details of this is how you must
do things as a church. And because of that, I would be hesitant to criticize others who do it differently
from ourselves. If they are Bible-believing Christians seeking to follow the Lord Jesus and to be obedient to
his word, the fact that they see things in terms of church and organization a little bit different from me
doesn't necessarily mean that I'm right and they're wrong. On the other hand, we do need to use the New
Testament as the basis for everything we do. This is the word of God that has been handed down to us.
And so it is good to look at what the New Testament says about church and to think, how does that apply
to us today? Some things we can take directly and we can say we should do it the way the New Testament
church did. Other things we might say, well, that is largely cultural or circumstances now are different.
And so we will do things a little bit differently. That is largely why differences spring up between churches.
But if we're thinking about how we should be and what we should do as a church, our starting point,
I think, should be these verses that we've read in Acts chapter 2. This is what I've called church in the
raw. It is the very beginnings of the Christians meeting together and sharing a common life together
and seeking to worship and to glorify God. And it gives us lots of principles, I think, we can follow
as we seek to obey the Lord and to live as his church in our time. So we're going to go through
these verses and think about what they are to teach us about the church and the key things about it.
But before we do that, let's just take a second to orientate ourselves and remind ourselves where we
are in the book of Acts. So over the last three weeks, we've looked at the ascension of the Lord Jesus,
the choosing of an additional apostle, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost,
and Peter's great sermon on the day of Pentecost. And then at the end of that, the Bible records
that about 3,000 were added to the 120 existing Christians. So there was a great revival in Jerusalem
on the day of Pentecost. And the question then is, well, what happens next? You've got all these new
Christians. How do you organize yourselves? How do you help them to grow in their faith and in their
knowledge of the Lord Jesus? And what happened next is what will occupy Luke from the end of chapter 2
through to the early verses of chapter 6. In the verses we're looking at today, we have, if you like,
the basics of what the church did. And then in the remaining chapters, we have how it worked out
in practice. Sometimes it worked well and the Holy Spirit really worked among them. Sometimes there
were problems and the church had to deal with them and to make sure that it remained obedient to the
Lord and to his word. But the verses we have today are very much the foundation for what will follow
in the next few chapters. This is how the early church met together and what they did. And then we
get a few examples of how things worked out in the following chapters. Now our passage today divides
very easily into two sections. The first section is a single verse. It's verse 42. They devoted
themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. And I've called
these the priorities of the church. These were the things which were fundamental that they were eager
to follow. The word that's used in verse 42, they devoted themselves, is the same word that's used back
in chapter 1, where it says that Christians were constantly in prayer to God. It was the thing they
did. It was the things that they focused on. So we're going to look at these priorities. And then from
verse 43 down to verse 47, we have their practices. So how did the priorities work out in their everyday life
as a church? What did they actually do? So we'll take these two sections and let's start out with the
priorities. Now as we do that, I want to give you a question to think about. If you were setting the
priorities for church life today, is there anything that you would add that is missing from verse 42?
I'll leave you to think about that and we'll come back to it later. Is there any priority for church
today that you don't find in verse 42 here? Well, let's look first at what we do find. And the first
priority was the apostles' doctrine or the apostles' teaching. So you have new Christians. New Christians,
probably all if not, or certainly most of them, who would have grown up in the Jewish faith.
So they had the Old Testament background they would understand and would know, but they knew very
little, most of them, about the Lord Jesus and what it really meant, this new faith that they had in him.
So a key priority for the apostles as they looked at this wonderful group of new Christianers, so excited
by those who had come to trust the Lord Jesus, a key priority was to make sure that they were taught
well. And who better to teach them than the men who had been with Jesus for the three years of his
ministry. Remember when they were choosing a new apostle, that was the key thing they required.
It needed to be someone who had been with Jesus. And as these apostles set about leading this new church,
then they had this reserve of all the experiences that they had walking alongside Jesus, all they had heard
from him. They had brought to their recollection by the Holy Spirit, the things that they had heard and seen.
And the things that the Spirit passed on to them were what had been passed to the Spirit by the Lord Jesus.
That's what the Lord Jesus says in John chapter 16.
So this Spirit-filled, Spirit-controlled group of men were able to teach those who were new in the faith
and with authority, with the authority of the Lord Jesus, to help them to understand the truth.
And the Christians were eager to hear it. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching.
Now, we don't have the apostles in that sense today. We can't go to Philip and say,
well, what did Jesus teach about this? We can't go to Matthew and say, well, what do you think Jesus
would have done in this situation? But we do have our Bible. And our Bible, our New Testament,
is the written down doctrine that the apostles have passed on to us. The human writers of the New
Testament were apostles, or those who were writing with apostolic authority, often with assistance
from the apostles themselves. And of course, all of them were writing down as the Spirit led them
and gave them the words. So when we think about the apostles' doctrine today, what we should think
about is our relationship with the Bible. That we should spend our time, that we should devote ourselves
to understanding what it is that the Bible says and teaches us, and being obedient to it.
That is fundamental to living as a Christian. It is fundamental to living as the church of the Lord Jesus,
the apostles' doctrine.
The second thing that Luke tells us is that they devoted themselves to fellowship, or actually he says,
the fellowship. One translation I quite like was the New English Bible, which talked about the common life.
And I think that gets across the meaning of the word that's used here.
This was a group of people who did things together and who supported and encouraged one another.
There was a love for the Lord Jesus first, but that was reflected too in a love for one another.
And they spent time together. And when one was happy, all were happy.
When one was grieving, all would grieve with them.
When one was suffering, all would suffer alongside them.
They had things in common. They supported one another.
We'll come in a minute to the material side of things, which is covered later in the passage.
But this was a group of people who were really committed to one another.
They devoted themselves to the fellowship, to living together for the Lord Jesus.
How important that is today as well.
It's been a lot more difficult in some ways over the last year,
when for long periods we haven't been able to meet together.
And some people still don't feel able to come and meet at the church.
And yet there have been lots of phone calls and lots of expressions of interest among church members,
lots of support being given.
And that's absolutely right.
We should at all times have the interests of our Christian brothers and sisters at heart
and seek to support and build them up in their faith.
We should devote ourselves to the fellowship.
Then the third thing that Luke lists is the breaking of bread against the breaking of the bread.
It is the term that is used.
Now there's some debate about what the breaking of bread might mean.
The term is used in two senses in the New Testament.
One is what we might call communion or the Lord's Supper.
Meeting together to break bread.
And the service that we'll be starting next Sunday morning,
we tend to call the breaking of bread service because that is what we do.
We meet to remember the Lord Jesus, to break bread and to drink the cup together.
And that's one meaning in the New Testament.
The other meaning is simply meeting together for a meal.
Because when the Jews would have a meal,
one of the first things they would do is that someone, usually the host,
would give thanks to God for the food
and then would break bread and would pass it around as an expression of friendship and of fellowship.
You may remember in Luke chapter 24,
when the Lord Jesus meets the couple going to Emmaus
and they come to the house and the Lord Jesus,
they invite them in for a meal,
and the Lord Jesus gives thanks and breaks bread.
And that's the point when they recognize him and realize who it is.
Now there's no suggestion there that it's the Lord's Supper that's being celebrated at that point.
It is simply they're having a meal and as part of that, bread is broken.
So what does it mean in this passage?
This expression is used twice in verse 42 and then again in verse 46.
Well, I think the difficulty we have with that and understanding it
is maybe a difficulty the first century Christians wouldn't have had.
Because you met together for a meal and as part of that meal,
you broke bread and you remembered the Lord Jesus.
In the upper room with his disciples, as the Lord Jesus takes bread and breaks it,
he's using something which was part of the Passover that they were celebrating at the time
and he gives it a new spiritual significance.
So as the Christians meet and in their homes, as they break bread,
they say, let's remember the Lord Jesus together in the breaking of the bread
and as we drink from the cup, let's remember him.
So the two things went together.
You had the meal of fellowship and friendship together
and within that meal was perfectly natural and normal
to break bread to remember the Lord Jesus.
And of course, things changed as the church went on.
And there was still a meal in the time of the Corinthians,
but it was very much, I think, by that point that they met
and they had the breaking of bread as a separate thing within the meal.
And of course, the meal gradually dropped off in terms of normal church practice.
But in verse 42, I'm fairly sure that the specific reference from Luke
is to remembering the Lord Jesus in the breaking of bread,
albeit as part of a meal.
And how important it is that we too continue to remember the Lord Jesus.
The normal context now is within a church.
In the book of Acts, there were 3,000 odd Christians.
They couldn't all meet together in one place,
so they broke bread in homes.
The normal context now would be we would come together in church to break bread.
But of course, over the last period, when that's not always been possible,
it's been good that some have been able to join over Zoom,
as we've remembered the Lord and the church, and they have joined with us.
And I think that's perfectly right and perfectly scriptural.
We break bread.
It is one of the priorities of the church.
And those of us who are in the building later on,
we won't break bread because there's no bread to break.
We'll be taking crackers and grape juice,
and the breaking is only symbolic,
but it will remind us of the death of the Lord Jesus
and all that he has done for us.
And then finally, in the priorities of the church,
there is prayer.
Again, the original would say the prayers.
So this isn't talking about the prayer,
the pride time that we have at home.
It's the church meeting together to pray with one another.
Probably from later on in the chapter,
it was often in the temple courts,
a place where Jews would go to pray,
the Christians would go to,
and they would find an area there,
and they would pray together.
But the communal prayer,
the coming together to lay hold on the Lord,
to bring their thanksgiving and their request to him,
that was a core aspect of early church life.
And similarly, it should be today.
Praying together is the powerhouse of the church
and is the way we together can approach God
and be drawn closer to him
and also drawn closer to one another.
I think over the last year or so,
when we've had the Zoom prayer meetings,
many of us have found them really helpful
in just getting together to pray
and a very simple way to bring our requests
to the Lord Jesus.
I would encourage you, if you're able to,
join us on the Monday evenings in May
for our prayer times.
We're not having Thursday ones in May,
just on Monday.
Once a week, let as many of us as possible
get together to pray
and to bring our thanksgiving
and our requests to the Lord.
So four priorities of the church.
The apostles' teaching,
the fellowship,
the breaking of bread,
and prayer.
And these very much should be four priorities
of every church today.
Then what about the practices?
If these are the principles,
how did they work out in practice?
And that's what verses 43 to 47 are all about.
And the first thing we see in verse 43 is power.
God is at work.
And God is very evidently at work.
Everyone was filled with awe, it says,
at the many wonders and signs
performed by the apostles.
Different between wonders and signs,
I think with wonders,
you ask how did that happen?
With signs, you ask,
why did that happen?
Signs are God speaking in a way
that will teach us more about himself.
But one way or another,
the apostles were doing wonderful things.
We see a bit of that in chapter three,
when there's a lame man in the temple
and Peter, through the Spirit,
is able to perform a miracle of healing on him.
And that apparently was not a one-off event.
That was something that happened very regularly
in the early church.
We might then ask,
well, is that something that we should be looking for
in our churches today?
And this is where we get into questions
about what is relevant today
and what is different today.
Our God hasn't changed.
Our God is still powerful
and is in control of all things
and can do whatever he chooses to do.
And yet in many of our churches,
in our day,
we don't see miraculous signs
in the sense that Luke is talking about here.
I think as we look through Scripture,
as we look through the Bible,
there were particular periods
when signs and wonders were quite common.
So we look at the time of Moses, for example,
and the Israelites going through the wilderness
and quite a number of miraculous things happening then.
We look at the time of Elijah and Elisha.
And again, in a national crisis,
when the nation of Israel had gone
as low as it possibly could
under Ahab and Jezebel,
God worked in miraculous ways
to demonstrate his power.
And we have it again in the New Testament,
both with the apostles here
and later on with Paul.
And I think,
and I'm not going to say this too firmly,
but I think that it is right to say
that through history,
there have been times
when there have been a great deal of miracles.
God has been working miraculous ways
at key points in human history
and the plan of salvation.
And there have been other times
when miraculous things have been
at least less common.
And perhaps we're in one of these
less common times just now.
But if you want to discuss math with me later,
I'll be very happy to.
But the key thing,
I think the key lesson from it is,
what the apostles were doing
with their wonders and signs
was validating to people
the reality of their message.
They could say,
here is God working with power among us.
This is the evidence
that what we are doing is from God.
Now listen to our message
and change your ways
and come to put your trust
in the Lord Jesus.
And I think that is why
the apostles mentioned in verse 42
in terms of their teaching,
verse 43 in terms of their power,
the one helped to validate the other.
Let's move on though
and talk about what I've called provision.
So verses 44 and 45 say,
all the believers were together
and had everything in common.
They sold property and possessions
to give to anyone who had need.
The believers had everything in common.
Now there's something again
that's different from how we would
see things as a church.
We don't have all things in common.
By and large,
we live our own lives
and we are responsible
for our own finances.
So is that wrong?
Should we be going back
to what the early Christians did?
I don't believe so.
I think this was something
that was specifically relevant
and important
in the very early days of the church.
And we don't see it happening,
I don't think,
as the church progresses.
In Paul's epistles, for instance,
the church would certainly support
one another,
but it wasn't that they had
everything in common.
However,
I think perhaps we have got away
from some of the underlying significance
of these verses.
Because we do tend to treat each other
as being financially independent.
And some of us are well off
in material terms.
Some of us are less so.
And there are many Christians
around the world
who are in real poverty
and who don't know
where their next meal
is coming from.
And perhaps we have
too much of a mindset
that what I have,
what I've earned
through my work or whatever,
that is mine.
I will give some of it
to the Lord's work.
But essentially,
that's my income
and it's mine to do
what I want to with it.
have we lost that sense
of if someone's in need
and I'm able to meet that need,
then my duty before the Lord
is to do it.
If I see someone
who is struggling financially
for reasons that are
beyond their control,
is it not my duty
to help them in any way
that I can?
Perhaps these days
we're too private,
we're too proud
to ask for help.
And maybe many of us
are too greedy
to offer that help
when we should.
So let's take the challenge.
If there are people
we're aware of
who are in physical need,
what can I do,
what can we as a church do
to be able to help them
and to give them
the physical support
that they need.
The believers had
everything in common.
They sold and gave
to anyone
who had need.
We'll come back to that again
in later chapters of Acts.
I won't say any more
just now.
Then the third thing
that they did
I've called participation.
This is verse 46.
Every day they continued
to meet together
in the temple courts.
They broke bread
in their homes
and ate together
with glad
and sincere hearts.
Every day
they continued
to meet together.
We may wonder
why they still went
to the temple
or the temple
was the place
where Jews went
to worship.
And I'm sure
the early Christians
were thinking
well as the Jews see us,
those who are not yet
Christians see us
and we can explain
to them more
about what the Lord
Jesus has done,
perhaps they too
will come to know him.
It was a natural place
to go
but equally there were times
when it was better
to meet in homes,
to share a meal together,
to share the Lord's Supper
and to enjoy fellowship
with one another.
But the point is
they were all participating
in each other's lives.
There were no hangers-on.
There were no people
who said
well I'll come to church
on a Sunday
but that's all
I'm going to do.
The rest of the week
is mine
and I'm not going
to have any contact
with my Christian brothers
and sisters.
And how important it is
if we are part of a church
that we are active
participants in it.
That we're not just
those who turn up
and go away
and perhaps you almost
wouldn't notice
if we weren't there.
That we're engaged
in the life,
the fellowship,
the service,
the witness
of the church.
And we're engaged
in the lives of others
that we have
opportunities
to meet with them,
to serve,
to support
and to encourage them.
Again,
the last year
has made that
very difficult
in many ways.
And perhaps
there are some
who have almost
dropped off
from church.
You may be watching
this morning
but actually
you've had very little
contact with the church
and very little involvement
over the last year.
Please consider
what your participation
in church
should be.
What you can do
to enjoy fellowship
with others
and to build them up
as you build yourself up
and to serve
the Lord Jesus.
We have scope now
to have more people
at our services.
Great to have some extras
this morning
from what we've had
in the past.
There is still room
for more
if you would like to come.
Please consider
getting more involved
in the church
if you have largely
dropped off
in recent months.
And then the last thing
under practice
is that the church
was praising God.
It was a joyful church.
Now we have two things
to balance things here.
Verse 43
it says
they were filled
with awe.
So on the one hand
there was a great awe.
There wasn't a flippancy
about church.
There was a recognition
of what a great God
we have
and how a great privilege
it is
to be able
to approach Him.
But on the other hand
there were glad
and sincere hearts
and there was
praising God.
Being a Christian
and knowing the Lord Jesus
should be a joyful
experience
for us.
Yes there are bumps
in the road.
Yes there are times
when life is
really difficult.
But we should
if we know
the Lord Jesus
we should be
reflecting on
all the great blessings
that we have
in Him
and the great future
that He has planned
for us.
And we should be
rejoicing in Him.
Praise should be
very much
a feature
of our times
together.
And praise is
partly music.
Music can really help us
in praise.
But it is also
just appreciating
together
all that the Lord
Jesus has done
for us
and all that He
continues
to do
for us.
So we have
power,
provision,
participation,
praise.
Let's come back
to the question
that I asked
you earlier.
Is there
a priority
missing
in verse
42?
We have
for those
who are interested
in becoming
members of the church
here,
we do have membership
though everyone
is welcome
to join the communion
if they love
the Lord Jesus.
But we have
a membership
booklet
and within
that there's
a little bit
about the history
of the church.
I actually wrote
that because
I've been here
forever so I
know what's
been going on.
And within
that I write
something about
the heritage
which is still
important for
us in church
today.
So I say
as part of that
in accordance
with Acts
2.42
we give
priority to
Bible teaching,
fellowship,
the Lord's
Supper,
communion,
and prayer.
They are the
priorities that
are listed here.
I then have
another bullet
that says
we also
give priority
to personal
witness,
corporate
evangelism,
and mission
both local
and worldwide.
And I hope
you would agree
that reaching
out to others
should be
a priority
of the church.
So why then
is it not
listed in Acts
2?
Why doesn't
Luke have a
fifth thing
that says
they sought
to reach
out to
others?
I think
the answer
to that
is probably
that they
didn't need
to be doing
anything special
to reach
out.
It wasn't
something they
said we
really need
to have
an evangelistic
effort.
We need
to have
a gospel
meeting
or an
evangelistic
campaign
or Christianity
Explored
or whatever
so that we
can help
people to
become
Christians.
Now all
these things
are good.
I'm not
knocking them.
They're good
and they're
in many ways
necessary in
our time.
But for
the early
Christians
it was
simply the
case as
they lived
as Christians
people could
see that
their lives
were different
and they
were able
to use
opportunities
to explain
to them
why their
lives
were different.
So we have
again examples
in the following
chapters
particularly as
Peter gets
the opportunity
after the
healing of the
lame man
to talk about
the power
that he
has
through
the Lord
Jesus
and to
present the
gospel
through that.
The early
Christians
it is the
natural thing
to do
was to
talk about
their faith
and to
share it
with others
and to
be very
visible
in the
way that
they
did it.
And it
was effective.
They didn't
need an evangelistic
campaign because
it says in
verse 47
the Lord
added to
their number
daily
those who
were being
saved.
Wouldn't be
wonderful if
we could say
the Lord
is adding
to our
number
daily
even
weekly
those who
are being
saved.
I think that's
a reminder to
all of us
that witness
is something
that should
come naturally
to us.
I say naturally
with some
hesitancy because
many of us
find it very
difficult but
our relationship
with the Lord
Jesus should
be something
that we're
happy to
talk about
and to
share with
others and
to explain
to them
what it
is that
he has
done for
us.
And yes
evangelism is
a priority.
Reaching us
to church is
a priority.
Great we've
got a
Christianity
explored course.
Please do
consider who
you could
invite to
that.
But it's
also the
case that
people should
just be able
to look at
us and
listen to
us in a
natural course
of conversation
and learn
something about
the Lord
Jesus and
faith in
him.
We need
to be
witnesses
to him
alongside
the
priorities
that Luke
lists.
Now I
started by
talking about
a group
that separated
from the
established
church.
I want to
end with
someone who
didn't
separate from
the established
church.
If you
have the
monthly
newsletter or
the paper
copies in
the church
or it's
online,
you'll see
that in
his article
Graham has
reminded us
that it
would have
been John
Stott's
100th birthday
last week.
John
Stott
throughout
his life
was an
Anglican,
an Anglican
bicker,
and came
under pressure
a lot of
times to
move from
the church
and people
saying,
well,
how can
you stay
in the
church of
England?
John
Stott
was very
convinced
that was
what God
had called
him to
do.
One of
his last
books is
called
The Living
Church.
The
subtitle is
Convictions
of a
Lifelong
Pastor.
And then
as you see
John
Stott sharing
something of
what he's
learned over
many years of
Christian ministry
about what it
is to be the
church and
to serve the
Lord Jesus
in it.
If you're
interested,
he also
includes the
reasons why
he has
stayed within
the Church
of England.
But I
want to
just finish
by reading
what he
says in
summary about
these verses
we've been
looking at
from Acts.
So John
Stott
says,
looking back
over the
essential
marks of
a living
church,
it is
apparent that
they all
have to
do with
the
believers'
relationships.
First,
they were
related to
the apostles.
They devoted
themselves to
the apostles'
teaching.
A living
church is
an apostolic
church.
Second,
they were
related to
each other.
They loved
each other.
A living
church is
a caring
and sharing
church.
Thirdly,
they were
related to
God.
They worshipped
God in the
breaking of
bread and
in prayers
with joy
and with
reverence.
A living
church is
a worshipping
church.
Fourthly,
they were
related to
the world
outside.
They reached
out and
witnessed
a living
church is
an evangelizing
church.
John Todd
has followed
the order
of Acts 2.
I might be
tempted to
slightly change
the order as
we think about
our priorities.
Because the
first thing we
need to have
is the
relationship
with God.
If we don't
have that
relationship,
then we're
not part of
the church
at all.
So all of
us need to
have our
trust in
the Lord
Jesus,
the one
who died
for us,
and you
can bring
us forgiveness
for all
the wrong
that we've
done in
our lives.
That is the
starting point,
and then our
lives should
be an
ongoing
building of
that
relationship
with God.
And then
we can
move on.
We have
the relationship
with Scripture
next,
perhaps,
as we seek
to learn
more about
what God
wants to
teach us
and what
it means
to live
as a
disciple
of Jesus.
We have
the relationship
with one
another,
the fellowship
that we enjoy
as we support
each other,
and then
we have
the relationship
with those
who are not
yet Christians
as we would
seek to
witness to
them.
Let's all
challenge ourselves
on these
four relationships
as individuals,
as a church.
Have we got
them all
right?
Our relationship
with God,
our relationship
with Scripture,
our relationship
with one another,
our relationship
with those
outside the
church.
And if we
find we're
lacking in any
of these
priorities,
let's resolve
to put it
right and
through with
God's help
to be more
like the
church that
he intends
us to be.
Let's pray
together.
Our Father,
we thank you
for your
word to us
this morning.
We thank you
for this great
passage that
reminds us
of what the
early church
did, of what
its priorities
were, what
its practices
were.
Help us to
get our
priorities right,
that we may
have a living
relationship with
you, a real
relationship with
your word,
strong relations
with one
another and
a desire to
reach others
for the
Lord Jesus.
And help
each of us
to grow in
our faith and
our knowledge
of the Lord
Jesus and to
support one
another as a
church as we
do that.
We pray you'll
be with us
now as we
move on,
that you'll be
with those who
are leaving us
now, who have
been with us
on YouTube,
that your blessing
will be with them
over the coming
week.
And be with
those of us
in the church
now as we
move on to
remember the
Lord Jesus
together.
We give you
our thanks in
his name.
Amen.