The Body of Christ

Today on Renewing Your Mind… I'd like to begin by asking you a question. A simple question, and it concerns your church. How do you describe your church? Do you talk first and foremost about the programs at your church?

You talk about the kids' activities or the fun programs for kids or for youth? Do you talk about the charisma of your pastor? You talk about what a great communicator he is? Do you talk about what a great building or property you have or that you've just come through a building project or you've just paid off debt? What do you say about your church? One of the things that I've always hoped that people would say about our church when describing our church is that it is a very ordinary church.

Don't misunderstand me. I don't mean boring, but ordinary. The language of ordinary comes to us from the Westminster Standards and the Westminster Shorter Catechism in question and answer 88, where the Westminster theologians speak of the outward and ordinary means of grace. Now, they go on to explain that the outward and ordinary means of grace are the Word, prayer, and sacraments. Now, some throughout the ages have added to that list the whole concept of fellowship and the importance of the fellowship of believers. But strictly speaking, the ordinary means of grace are simply that, the Word, prayer, and the two sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. And fundamentally, as we all know, I trust, that's what we as the church are to be about.

We are to be committed to those things. And my hope is when people talk about our church, they'll say, well, you know, it's a pretty ordinary church. You come, you worship God, we sit under the ministry of the Word of God, we partake of the sacraments, and we pray.

There's something awfully freeing about that, isn't there? Too often we pastors are the worst culprits at sort of putting people on these guilt trips of making them feel like they need to be at everything that happens at the church every time the doors are open. We have an opportunity, we produce something, we have a ministry event, and we make people feel guilty for not being there when God has not commanded them to be there. God commands us to be together with His people on the Lord's day to worship Him. And when we come to worship Him, we are to set our eyes and to fix our agenda not on all the busyness that can happen in a church, good things, ministry opportunities, wonderful times to get together with God's people, but fundamentally we are called to be a people that gather and focus our attention on these ordinary means of God's grace. Now here in Acts chapter 2, and we're just going to look at a portion of this in verses 42 and following, we see how many of them were baptized and added to the number of the church, and then we pick up in verse 42 reading, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Notice that first word that we read there in verse 42, they devoted themselves. Education has really fallen on hard times in our day. People are no longer devoted as they ought to be to the right things.

We're devoted to about everything else in the world except what we really ought to be devoted to. The word there that Luke uses is a word that essentially means continuing steadfastly. They continued steadfastly. They gave themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship. They didn't just visit them, they didn't just play at them, they didn't just attend to these things from time to time.

They weren't just auditors, nor were they just attenders, they were participants. They devoted themselves to these things. Their lives revolved around the worship of God, the ministry of God's Word, being together as God's people, eating together and fellowshipping together, and prayer. What we see Luke doing here, giving us this picture of the first century church is a beautiful simple, and ordinary picture of what the church did as they came together.

Not just once a week, but as we read on later throughout the week. Each and every day some of them would gather together in the temple at the time of prayer. And so what we see here is them giving themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship. Likely Luke was describing there really everything that the apostles taught. Not only everything the apostles taught, but everything the apostles observed, everything the apostles did. It's similar to what Jesus said in the Great Commission. Notice that Jesus didn't say, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them all that I've commanded.

What did Jesus say? Teaching them to observe all that I've commanded. Teaching them to keep, teaching them to guard all that I've commanded. And so the early church here in the first century was participating in all the things that Christ commanded, guarding them, observing them, and of course practicing what the apostles themselves did as well. And they were committed to these things, to the teaching and to the fellowship. Now people in many churches today are not committed to the teaching.

They're committed to so many other things. They might be committed to their churches. They might be committed to their style of worship. They might even be committed to the style of their pastor. They might be truly more committed to their pastor's way, their pastor's charisma, their pastor's look, their pastor's communication style than they are truly committed to the Word of God. And what we as pastors have to do constantly is remind people that it's not about us, that it's about God and His Word, that we will go away, we will disappear, we will fade away, but God's Word stands forever. That's why we as pastors are constantly not pointing to ourselves but pointing to Jesus Christ. We are a people who are committed to the things of God, to the things that God has ordained. Now we believe in the sovereignty of God, don't we? If we believe in the sovereignty of God, that means that we also ought to believe in the means that God has established because we understand in believing in the sovereignty of God that God has not only ordained the ends of all things, but that He's also ordained the means to all those ends. And this is one of the reasons I think we sort of love this picture of the early church. We know it was a mess and that there were problems, that there was sectarianism and division, but what we see in the early church is this beautiful, simple ordinariness of the people of God coming together, hearing the Word of God, growing as disciples, fellowshipping together, breaking bread together, and praying.

Let's not make any mistake about it. Ultimately, we know that the power is not in these things themselves. The power is not in prayer. We don't believe in the power of prayer. We believe in the power of God.

That's why we pray. It is God by His Holy Spirit who takes the Word, who takes prayers, who takes our evangelism, who takes all of our conversations about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and uses them by His grace for His sovereign ends, just as He did in your life and mine. And as Luke goes on, he explains how awe, fear, came upon every soul. People of God came to truly in a new way fear the Lord and fear what it was to know Him and to serve Him and to worship Him, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, and all who believed were together and had all things in common. They were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.

Now, I don't have to tell you how many over the ages have sought to take this text and contort it and twist it and to try to make of it some sort of first-century socialism. From here in Acts chapter 5 and other passages, they've attempted to weave together passages of Scripture to say, you see there, the early church took care of one another in such a way that they had all things in common. Well, as good Bible students, I trust that you know that the word all doesn't mean all in the way we often think that it does. All in Scripture doesn't mean everything and everyone without exception. It can mean a large number. It can be a great number of things. It can mean several things.

Sometimes it means all things or all people without distinction, but never does it mean everything without exception. They didn't share their children, their wives, they didn't even share their homes often. These were people who had their own possessions. They had their own property. In fact, one of the things we see from Acts chapter 5 is an example of individuals selling their own property to help those who were in need. Now, I'm sure you understand what socialism is.

Plainly put, socialism is an ideology, a mindset that is based on an economic, political, socio-cultural idea of the centralization, the distribution and redistribution of power and wealth to those who are deemed in need. Not to make everyone have equal opportunity, but to give everyone an equal outcome. Now, we believe as Christians an equal opportunity. We believe as Christians that people ought to have equal opportunity, but that doesn't necessitate nor does it mean that everyone will have the same outcome.

What we learn in Scripture and what we learn here from Acts chapter 2 is really very simple. The church of Jesus Christ cared for each other. They loved each other. They took care of those who were in need. That word need means something, doesn't it? It doesn't say they sold their possessions and belongings and distributed the proceeds to all as anyone wanted a handout. It said as anyone had need. The deacons were there just as our deacons exist to help discern and to understand and to set criterion parameters to determine those who are truly in need, not just those who want something, not just those who want to rise in a certain society or a certain place, not simply those who want a handout, but those who are truly in need. And the Bible calls us to care for those in need. You know, and while we're on the subject of this whole matter of socialism and those who are in need, though it's not primary to the text, I think it is important that we talk for just a moment about something that's a little bit related to socialism.

It's not the same, but it's this whole matter of what has been termed social justice. Now throughout Scripture, we know that God commands that we care for those who are in need. He sets laws and parameters for His people so that the poor and those who are underprivileged and those who are passing through are cared for. We know throughout Scripture that God judges and prophesies against and condemns those leaders of Israel that did not properly care for the widow, the destitute, those who are hungry and those who are poor. Throughout Scripture, God condemns any sort of partiality. We read throughout Scripture, throughout the Old and New Testaments that our God is a righteous God, that our God is a just God, that our God is a God of justice, and that our God is a God of impartiality.

You can read in Exodus 23, Leviticus 19, Deuteronomy 1 and 10 how God condemns in any sphere, in any place that His people would show any sort of partiality, whether to the rich and the affluent or to the poor, that we as a people would be impartial, that we as a people would be truly just, that we as a people would judge rightly, righteously, that we as a people in all spheres of life, whether it's societal, cultural, whether it's ecclesial, judicial, that we would be a people that strive to see true righteousness, true justice done. The problem with the social justice movement, it's actually not really a movement, it's in a religion. And this social justice religion is tied to a number of other religions that have kind of merged into one religion.

It's comprised of critical theory, critical race theory, woke-ism and all that is constantly changing with the new demands of that religion, and has sort of presented itself as a new religion altogether that is under various different banners and garbs, but in reality the social justice of the social justice movement and religion, the problem with it is it's actually not justice. The problem is, is that it is not actual impartiality. The problem is, is that it shows partiality. It doesn't judge fairly. It doesn't judge righteously. It doesn't judge justly.

And what it does in the end is do the opposite of what it's striving to do. And as God's people, we are a people who truly believe in justice. We are a people who truly believe in biblical justice that is social, judicial, ecclesial, and in every other realm in our lives. We want to strive for and defend true justice. The problem with this new religion, which is really not new at all, the problem with this new religion is that it doesn't actually believe in true justice for each and every person. It believes in redistributive justice, reparative justice, and even retributive justice.

And dearly beloved, nowhere in Scripture are those definitions and those explanations in any way attributed to true justice. As Christians, we are a people who strive for justice. We are to be the first people that would bemoan and decry any sort of injustice. We as a people ought to be the first people to speak against racism.

We ought to be the first people to condemn any sort of white supremacy, which is just nonsensical. We are to be a people who rise up and fight for the oppressed. We are the ones throughout all of history who have cared for the unborn. We are the ones who fight for those who have been oppressed, who have been hurt, those who have been sinned against, those who have been enslaved. We are a people who fight for what is right because we fight for what is just because our God is just and our God cares. You see, dearly beloved, the reality is, is that saying these things I know to some sounds unloving. Some people in the future might even say that what we're talking about is hate speech, but it's not.

It's love speech. We say these things and we want to say what the Bible says about the compassion of our God and the care of our God for the fatherless and the widow and the orphan, the oppressed and the hurting because we love. We fight for true justice because we love, and let's make sure that we are very clear on this. We as Christians are to be known as a compassionate people. Yes, we are to be a people that preach the truth, stand boldly in the truth, courageously in the truth, and also when they come and ask us about the hope that is within us, we give them an answer with meekness and gentleness. So we are a people who contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints and we are a people, as Paul tells us in Ephesians 4, who with humility and gentleness and patience are eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. We are a people who are angry and rightly angry, but as God tells us in Psalm 4 in Ephesians 4, we are to be angry, yet not what?

Sin. We are to have anger, and we are to be vexed, and we are to be frustrated, but that should first and foremost get us down on our knees and ask our God to intervene and then rise up to act. But as a people, one of the things that we have always been is a compassionate people because you know what? The world, they don't read the Bible.

They read us. And Jesus said that just as He is the light of the world, and so we who are united to Him reflecting His light are that light of the world. And we are to be a people who do not think that we have to do this whole thing of being mutually exclusive where love is over here and truth is over there. Jesus came full of grace and truth, and we are to be a people who are the most uncompromising people in the world and the most compassionate people in the world. What we see in the early church is a church taking care of one another, loving one another, and those who are truly in need. Those who are truly in need because don't forget that in the early church many of these Christians were losing their jobs. Not only were they getting thrown out of the temple and really disowned from their families, they couldn't find work because they were now Christians.

This was a voluntary giving up, a voluntary buying and selling. It wasn't like the Qumran community of the ascetic Jews that went into that Qumran region of the Essenes and had to, were required by their rule of faith that they had to sell all their worldly possessions and give them to the community. Nowhere in Scripture do we find any such nonsense. In fact, we learn just the opposite in Scripture, about being wise stewards of what God has entrusted to us, about being careful with what we give and how we give it, but also that we would be a people for the sake of the kingdom of God and the glory of God, a generous people. The early church understood this, and this is one of the reasons when we look at passages like this, we see how is it that this small group of men, this small group of early Christians in this small little place, by God's grace, changed the world.

Hey, what about their ordinary lives, living with their families, loving others, and speaking the truth in love? Now, in my father's day, speaking the truth in love, you know what that meant? It meant speaking the truth in love. You know what it means today? Don't speak the truth because it might hurt somebody's feelings. And if you're really loving, you won't say anything that would ever hurt anyone's feelings because that's real love. That's not love.

That's hate. And day by day, they attended their temple together and that meant likely that they were attending together in the Solomon's portico, a vast, vast part of the temple, over 32,000 square feet. The prayers and the gathering together in the afternoon, as they gathered together, they would break bread together in their homes. They received their food with glad and generous hearts.

The language there of generous, maybe not the best translation there, is really sincere hearts. They had been redeemed by the grace of God and all they had was each other. Many of their families had disowned them and all they had was their own community in this fellowship.

You know, for me, maybe it was the case for you. When I first came into the church as a teenager, it was a Southern Baptist church, I was very grateful still to this day for many of the Southern Baptist men and women that taught me and instructed me and mentored me. It was Southern Baptists who brought me to this conference back in 1996. For the Mennonite men, the independent Baptist church men, the Bible Presbyterian church men, for those godly saints that mentored me and shepherded me and pointed the way. When I came into the church, I felt like I was home. It was my family.

It was a dysfunctional family, but it was my family. And that's what we see depicted here in the New Testament, is the early church was a family that loved each other, didn't always get along. There were issues, but through repentance and faith and grace and love covering a multitude of sins, they stuck together. A lot of churches have been through a lot this past year, and I hope that many of you have remained committed to your local churches who have upheld the Word of God and the gospel of God. That's Dr. Burke Parson speaking at this year's Ligonier National Conference. Our theme this year was, Right Now Counts Forever, and his message hit us right where the church is today. Our commitment to fellowship and prayer, to the ordinary means of grace today in the church has an influence, an impact on the world around us right now.

That's why Dr. R.C. Sproul named his monthly column in Table Talk magazine, Right Now Counts Forever. We believe that there is eternal significance in our everyday lives, and he wrote that column each month to encourage us to grow in our understanding of God so that we would know just how gracious and holy our God really is. Table Talk continues to be a monthly source of encouragement and wisdom for thousands of subscribers, and when you contact us today with a donation of any amount, we will provide you with a one-year subscription to Table Talk. We'll also include a copy of this month's edition, every article this month is on the topic, Right Now Counts Forever. My wife and I have been subscribers for more than 30 years, and I can't commend this magazine highly enough. So request your subscription with a gift of any amount when you go to RenewingYourMind.org or when you call us.

Our number is 800-435-4343. Right Now does count forever, and that includes those times when we face difficulties in life. You see, there's a fundamental issue here that the one in charge of this test, and it is a test, is not Satan, but God. It's about the sovereignty of God. It's about the omnipotence of God. It's about the holiness of God. It's about who He is. This book of Job is not really a book about Job. It's a book about God. The title of his message is The Providence of God. Would you make plans to join us tomorrow? It's the Thursday edition of Renewing Your Mind.