Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Every time another person believes the gospel of Jesus Christ, it's miraculous. Every time somebody, instead of being separated from God, not just now but for all eternity, has the guarantee of Heaven, eternal life with God, the forgiveness of their sins, all because of the grace of God, it's miraculous. You and I should be in awe of that.
Like, wow. I mean, if I'm looking through, He saved all of us, and not because of any of us, just because of His love and grace, He saved us. It's an amazing thing we should be in awe of that, always. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. The world we live in right now is, it's hard to find churches that teach the Word of God.
I mean, that doesn't even make sense. That's the one vital thing every church should be doing. And yet there are people, and maybe you're some of them, you spent years or decades in a church and you were never taught the Word of God.
It didn't even matter what the Word of God was. But here they're devoted to the teaching of the Word of God, the vital learning experience from God. Paul wrote to Timothy and Titus, two young pastors. He said to them, you need to teach sound doctrine. You need to teach the Word. You need to preach the Word.
Whatever you do, don't get sidetracked. You need to preach the Word of God. But is that happening?
And has that happened throughout the history of the church? Look, I don't have very many prayer requests for the future for the church or myself, but let me put it this way. This may shock some of you, but I'm not going to be here forever. My time to go home will come. And when it does, I beg you, don't let somebody stand up here who doesn't preach the Word of God. Just don't do that. And if somebody stands up here who doesn't preach the Word of God, leave. Go find where someone preaches the Word of God. You see, don't do that. Don't be part of that. Don't be involved with all of that human ingenuity.
You see, another thing about this early church that I find so fascinating is they were totally dependent on God. They didn't have any technique. When you read this section, there's no techniques. There's no neat things to do. There's no coffee house in the lobby. There isn't.
There isn't any of that. How could they do church? That's what church is.
That's sad. That's just the ingenuity of man. That's all that that's become, man figuring out ways.
And we get stuff all the time, and I can read stuff online all the time, of all of these techniques that if I would just do the techniques, you're going to attract more people. It's a sad thing. I mean, up until a few years ago, I used to get it all the time and read that the most important thing to really grow your church is money. You need money. Money. Really? That's important?
Yeah. And these different groups would say, and we know how to raise it. We're professionals at raising money. We'll come down to your church. You give us some time in the service. We'll visit people in their homes, and we guarantee we'll extract a certain amount of money from them. How revolting is that?
How disgusting is that? But that's what you need. I mean, if we're going to have a restaurant in the lobby, we need money, don't we? I mean, isn't that what we need? We need money. That's just the ingenuity of man. That's just man trying everywhere he can. When you see this, it's running rampant in America now.
They have everything you can possibly imagine. We're building $100 million facilities, and the amount of evangelical believers in the country is in steep decline every year. We're not winning the loss.
It's not happening at all. A lot of people think that's what doing church is. That's not what God says at all. Jesus says, look, that's man trying to build his church. I will build the church. The first thing that they have to have is the vital learning experience. He said that's absolutely important. They have to be saved, a redeemed community.
They have to rely never on human effort. They have to be a teaching church. And then he says the next thing, end of fellowship. Now, that's our name, right? Fellowship.
Yeah, but it's not what you think. For so many of us, what is fellowship? Regrettably, by the way, we always say there's a fellowship room at the end of the hall.
I don't like that very much. I don't know if there's any fellowship going on in there at all. See, we think fellowship is like coffee and donuts.
You just sit there and sip a little and eat when you're having fellowship. Koinonia doesn't mean that at all. Koinonia is a deep, abiding partnership of people.
It's a unity about it. Hold your place there and go with me to John 13. John chapter 13, verse 34. John 13, 34. If you want to know what the heart of fellowship is, this is it. John 13, 34. Jesus, the night before he's crucified, says this to his disciples. He said, a new commandment I give you.
This is new. I'm going to command it. I'm going to give it to you and to us. He said that you love one another. I command you, you have to love one another.
Agape. Notice the condition of the love. Even as I have loved you, you also love one another. How does Jesus love us? Sacrificially, right?
He said, I command you to love one another that way. Now, be honest about this. Is that how you feel? Is that really how you feel? You come to church, you say, I love these people. I really love them. I'll sacrifice for them. Is that how you feel?
Or is it likely sort of like this? Why? I love a few of them that love me. I love people that love me. I like people who like me. I tolerate people who tolerate me. And I dislike the people who dislike me. That's not of the Lord.
That's of you. We're to love one another. We're to love one another, sacrificially. And you're going to see just how far this goes in the context of this church. So let's go back to the book of Acts. If you think that they had fellowship, I think there's around 39 different one anothers in the New Testament. Love one another, forgive one another, exhort one another, admonish one another, confess your sins to one another, serve one another.
It just goes on and on and on. One another. It's all about one another.
Why would we do that? Because we love one another. And notice when Jesus spoke in John 13, you know what he said after he said what I just read? By this, all men will know you're my disciples. If you love one another the way I loved you, everybody out there will say, I've never met a group of people like that. Now, they may not believe the gospel, but I bet you one thing they will say, those people love each other. Now let me ask you, do you think that's what people out there think about us? Or any church?
Oh, they love each other. I don't know about you, or maybe I'm just naive, but I've never heard anyone tell me that was an unbeliever. I've never heard anyone say to me, you know, one thing about it I'll say, I've never seen a group of people love each other like the people in the church do. Because we don't. That's why.
Because we don't. He says that in that case all men will know. Now, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship. He said, and the breaking of bread and to prayer. And the breaking of bread is interesting in that context because it's more likely what they, there is probably the Lord's table.
In a moment, it'll be the idea of taking meals together. And then he says this, and everyone kept feeling a sense of awe. Now, in this case, you and I would too, it's pretty easy because it says, and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. The apostles had enormous sign gifts. They did all kinds of things, the gift of healing, each of Peter and Paul had each raised the dead. They had done some amazing things.
But really, if you think about it, here's all that happened there. God was at work. And so the people were in awe.
They were in awe. God's at work. You and I should be in awe because God's still at work. God still does it. Every time one of us, every time another person believes the gospel of Jesus Christ, it's miraculous.
Every time somebody, instead of being separated from God, not just now, but for all eternity, has the guarantee of heaven, eternal life with God, the forgiveness of their sins, and because of the grace of God, it's miraculous. You and I should be in awe of that. We should be in awe.
Like, wow. I mean, if I'm looking at the room, He saved all of us. And not because of any of us. Just because of His love and grace, He saved us. It's an amazing thing. We should be in awe of that.
Always. We were singing not long ago, how great is our God, right? I sure hope when you were singing it, you believed it and weren't just mouthing the words. How great is our God? Think of what He's done. We should be in awe of this inside these walls. He then says, And those who had believed were together, and they had all things in common, and they began selling their property and possessions and were shearing them withal, as anyone might have need. Wow. That's where their fellowship shows.
Now, I will say this. The situation there is different than the situation now. You notice this happened at Pentecost, which is right after Passover. There were Jews from all over the world in Israel or in Judah for the Passover.
Many of them got saved. Many of the 3,000 are people from all over that part of the world. They're from Alexandria in Egypt. They're from Antioch. They're from Turkey.
They're from a variety of places. And so once they got saved, they got really excited, which everyone does. And then they knew something. They knew in their mind that Jesus had ascended in Acts 1, and He's coming back. And their view, just like ours, He's coming back soon. So why would I want to go back to Alexandria, Egypt, if Jesus is coming back? Because He's coming back right here.
And He's coming back right here. I want to be here. So I'm going to stay here. The only problem is now we're all staying here. Now where are we going to live? Who's going to feed us? How's this going to work? And that was the great problem that they had.
And when those questions were asked, you know what the rest of the body of Christ said? We'll do it. We'll do it. We have partnership with these people. We love these people.
You see, I'll sell my stuff and give it to them. We'll help people. We'll go out of our way to serve one another. We'd be glad to do that.
It'd make us happy to do that. You see, our situation's a little bit different, but our attitude shouldn't be any different at all, not in any sense of the word. So it's God's design for us to live in fellowship with one another. And they began selling, and that's an imperfect tense in the Greek.
It means they just kept on selling stuff, whatever they needed, whatever somebody else needs. And why not? I mean, think of the group of people in the room right now. We all have the same eternal life. We have the same Spirit of God. We have the same power running through us. We have the same eternity to look forward to. We believe in the same Christ. We worship the same God. We're in the same church.
We're all of the same family. We have to have fellowship. Now, if you come here, and many do, if you come here with this idea that, no, that's not the way I see it. I just want to be an isolated Christian.
I just want to come, get fed a little bit, not say anything to anybody unless they make me, and then get on my way and go on with my life. That's not of the Lord. That's of your flesh. That's not of the Lord. That's not how God builds a church.
He builds a church in a very different way than that. Then it goes on and says this, day by day continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals with gladness and sincerity of heart. This is such an important part. They had a vital learning experience, a vital relational experience. They have this fellowship and love for one another, and everything they're doing is with gladness.
It's a great word. They're happy, and they're joyful. One thing that should mark the church, for anyone who's not part of the church, is just how joyful and happy we are. Does that mark us? I hope so. I pray so.
But that's what people should notice. Wow, this isn't like a Kiwanis meeting. These people are happy. These people are joyful.
Why wouldn't we be? You're a child of God. You're a recipient of grace.
You have eternal life. Why wouldn't you be happy? We should be happier of all people.
I read the end of the book. We win. The worst thing that could happen to you can't happen to you. I mean, just think of how many people out there are terrified of death, terrified of it. But we shouldn't be. I'm absent from the body.
I'm present with the Lord. You see, that should make me happy. We should be joyful. You see, that should mark us. That's how people should see us. What a joyful group of people. And notice, these are happy people who are giving up their own possessions to support other people. And they're happy to do it. It wasn't like, well, OK, if I have to, I will.
That's not the case at all. By the way, even when it comes to raising money, what's Paul right? The Lord loves an hilarious giver. That's why I would never want someone to come and extract money from a congregation. It's heresy to me. It's wrong.
It should be joyful. And when I stand up here, or someone does, and we do this kind of thing all the time, this might get a little too convicting. But I say, hey, we have a need in the body. We have a need.
Some small piece of service within the church. Now, remember, most of the good stuff we do should be out there. But in here, there's certain things we have to do. And I have a need. We need someone to do something.
Nursery, whatever it is, we have a need. Literally, I should be worried that you'd trample me to try to be the first one to get to do it. Is that what happens?
I hope somebody else goes. That's not my thing. What is your thing? I thought your thing is to love Jesus Christ and love his people. Isn't that our thing? Isn't that what it's supposed to be about us?
See, it should mark us that way. That's the way we should be as people, and that's what he says if you look at them. He says they did it with gladness and sincerity of heart. He says they were praising God. They worship. Now, notice, they're praising God. But understand, that wasn't in a worship service. They didn't say, yeah, when you go to a worship service, you praise God.
You should, but that's not it. In fact, where they were assembling early in the morning, they were going to the temple. Now, they get thrown out of the temple eventually. But at this time, they're going to the temple. That's not where the praise is taking place.
It's taking place there and everywhere else. You see, everywhere else, they praise God when they went to work. They praise God when they had a meal. They praise God because they understood what God has done for them. The same as you and I. We should be praising God and having, now watch this, favor with all the people.
Wow. They're having favor with all the people. The people out there.
Vital learning experience, vital relational experience, loving each other unconditionally, demonstrating to each other in the way they love. And the people out there said, wow. What a group of people.
How different they are. Now, what's interesting, when you first read it, it looks odd. It says, and having favor with all the people, and the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. So are you telling me that if we have favor with the people, God miraculously just saves people for us? No.
But it's a very important part of it. Turn back to chapter 1 for a moment of Acts. Acts chapter 1. In verse 7, Jesus is about ready to ascend and the disciples say to him, and who wouldn't, when are you coming back? Come on, just tell us. When are you coming back?
We'd like to know. When are you coming back? When are you coming back?
When are you coming back? Jesus says to him then in verse 7, he says, it's not for you to know that times are epochs which the Father has fixed by his own authority. I'm not going to tell you that. And then he says this, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit, he said, will come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria, even to the remotest part of the world. Jesus said, when the Spirit comes on you, you're going to be my witnesses. So when they had favor with all the people, if you put it together this way, the people out there would say to people like us, why are you so different? Why do you love each other like this?
Why are you like that? Peter said, to give an account for the hope that's in me. And these people gave the gospel with their words to people, and the Lord added to their number day after day. You see, both their works and their words were in balance. That's really what it takes. Both of those are in balance. That's the way it operated in the early church.
So it comes down to this. When Jesus is speaking, he says, look, I'm going to build my church. And the beauty of the first church was we didn't get in the way of it. It was only up to God. And so he wanted to make sure, number one, everybody has a vital learning experience. You're taught the word of God. Because if I'm not taught the word of God, I can't grow spiritually. Peter said I'm to grow in the grace and the knowledge of God.
I need to grow. The scriptures allude to the fact that the word of God's our spiritual food by which we grow as people. It has to be taught the word of God. Because if you're not taught the word of God, you're not growing. Secondly, we need to have a vital relational experience.
Koinonia, partnership. We need to love one another, even sacrificially love one another. Vertically, that's worship to God.
I have a relationship with God and I worship him. And then lastly, we have to have a vital witnessing experience. We have to live our lives in such a way that people will wonder about the hope that's in us and we have to articulate the gospel to them.
And the reason all that's so important is because of this. The most important thing about our church is not what happens in here. The most important thing about our church is what happens outside these walls.
Let's pray. Father, our church is like any church. It's so easy to become myopic, focused on ourselves, thinking about that the church exists for me.
In fact, it's going to be all about my needs being met. But Father, we are a group of believers who are supposed to be deployed into a world that so desperately needs the person of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice of the cross. A world that has a completely different destiny unless they come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
That's what we're supposed to be about. We are to make disciples of people. We are to go where they are. We are to lead them to Jesus Christ and then we are to teach them what Christ has taught us. Father, I pray that we never alter this, that it's important to us, that each and every one of these steps are the steps that are the most basic experiences of our church and that we don't get sidetracked into the ingenuity of man, into various schemes and programs simply for a short-term result rather than a long-term perspective. Father, thank you that Jesus Christ will build His church. Thank you that the gates of Hades will not prevail against Him. We thank you in Christ's name.
Amen. At that website you will find not only today's broadcast but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.
That's fbcnola.org. At our website you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.
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