The Apostles’ Teachings

What's the best way to assess a church's effectiveness? Today on Truth for Life Weekend, we'll hear the answers as we begin a series called Seven Marks of an Effective Church. Alistair Begg is exploring the Apostles' teaching to determine what makes their instruction so powerful and compelling. How can I invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the Acts of the Apostles and to chapter 2, where I'd like to read the closing verses of the chapter.

They're familiar words, reading from verse 42 through to verse 47. They devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the Apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.

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, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Amen. This morning, as we concluded our introductory study in 1 Timothy, we did so noticing the emphasis which Paul laid upon the importance of sound doctrine. And indeed, he was concerned to refute everything which stood in opposition to the sound doctrine which he understood to be so vital for the building up of God's people.

And we said this morning that we would return to this emphasis this evening. And what I want to do is to take this little section here in Acts chapter 2 and look at these marks of the burgeoning and growing early church, taking each of them in turn, and taking this matter of the Apostles' teaching, or, if you like, the Apostles' doctrine, for doctrine is just another word for teaching. One of the books that has become a very important book to us as a church family, and not least of all amongst our church leadership, is a book that has been written by a Scotsman, as it turns out, Dr. Bruce Milne, and the book is entitled Know the Truth. You will perhaps recall that his introduction is quite striking, because he opens up all that follows in the book by asking the question, why is the study of Christian doctrine so vital? Why would anybody take all this time to write a book entitled Know the Truth that was full of Christian doctrine, the teaching of the Bible? And he answers that with four simple answers which he doesn't expound in any way.

And they're these, for those of you who haven't read the book. He said the reason that it is so vital is, first of all, because every Christian is a theologian. Secondly, he says, it is vital because getting doctrine right is the key to getting everything else right. Thirdly, he says, a study of Christian doctrine is an expression of loving God with our minds.

Remember, Jesus says in response to the Pharisee's question, what is the greatest commandment? He says, you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. What does it mean to love God with all your mind?

How can a person love God with all their mind? The answer is, in getting serious about the Bible, in getting serious about God's truth, in getting serious about a knowledge of God. And fourthly, he says, doctrine is vital because it is impossible, finally, to separate Christ from the truths which Scripture reveals concerning him. Now, it's hardly surprising, then, that when we find Luke recording for us this little cameo description of the early church, right at the head of the list of that to which these new believers committed themselves was this aspect of apostolic teaching, or the doctrine. And what you have in these opening couple of chapters in the Acts of the Apostles is, first of all, a description of Pentecost. You remember, these tongues as a fire lighted upon them, and they all heard each other speaking in their own languages, and as a result of that, people began to say all kinds of things. They experienced the event which Luke describes, and then they were at odds with one another, trying to explain what it was about. And so God has his servant stand up in the midst of it all, and he says, Now, I want you to know that these people aren't drunk, as some of you are suggesting.

It's far too early in the day for that. Let me tell you what has been happening here. So the description of Pentecost is then clarified by the explanation which comes in Peter's sermon, and as a result of Peter's sermon, we have the expansion of the people of God, so that by the time we reach the end of chapter 2, Luke is thinking in terms of some three thousand people. Now, when they were filled with the Holy Spirit in this way, what we're noticing, and what I want to emphasize for us, is that the first evidence of the Spirit's presence is a devotion to the apostles' teaching. So we find the church becomes a Bible school—three thousand pupils in the Bible school, and the teachers are none other than the apostles themselves.

And they set about understanding what God is saying and has said in the Old Testament to his people. Now, in noticing this, it is important to notice also that these individuals did not make their experience of the Holy Spirit the issue. They didn't make experience the touchstone of what was going on. You meet people all the time, and they want to talk always about experiences.

I don't want to talk about doctrine. I want to talk about experience. Have you had the same experience as I've had? And then, as long as you've had the same experience, we may get to Christian doctrine later, but it doesn't really matter.

Have you met people like that? They'll say, Well, I don't believe in this, or I don't really believe in that, or I don't hold to this, or I don't really pay much attention to this particular area, but after all, what does it matter? Because we have all had the same experience. Now, if that was ever going to happen, you would have anticipated it happening when there was such an effulgence of the Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost.

But what do you find? You find that those who've been filled with the Spirit of God are immediately concerned to understand the Word of God. And that is always the case. Read your Bibles, and you will find that what I'm telling you is accurate. They did not despise their minds. They did not disdain Christian doctrine. And I meet people all the time who tell me, Oh, Alistair, I wish you would cut down on your emphasis on Christian doctrine. Don't you understand it is doctrine that divides. As soon as we introduce doctrine, we have division. Therefore, we must away with this doctrine, and we must talk about experience.

Well, that's not what we find here. Nor do we find them imagining that since they had received the Spirit, he was the only teacher that they required. To have done so would have meant rejecting the provision of God which he had made for the people of God in those who are to be the teachers of God's people—the apostles, and in turn the apostles, to those who were under them, and the likes of Timothy to faithful men, and faithful men to others. And the apostolic line of authority is not something which has emerged from Jerusalem, it is not something which has emerged from Rome, it is not something which flows from Constantinople, as was suggested in yesterday's Plain Dealer with the article on the great resurgence of interest in the orthodox Eastern church. And the individual had the gall to say, Well, you see, people are just so excited because they can come here and they can find the apostolic secession untrammeled throughout every generation.

No, they can find a commitment to all this rigmarole that's going on, which has been preserved down through the corridors of time, but the true apostolic succession is from the apostles to the likes of Timothy to faithful men who will teach others also. And to pastors and teachers, as in Ephesians 4, 11, and 12, who are gifts to the church in order that the church might be edified and might understand Christian doctrine. So instead of them being all excited about their experience, running all over the place looking for people who had the same experience, instead of them saying, Well, now the Spirit of God teaches me, therefore I don't need to listen to anybody else—which is again a customary expression of spiritual immaturity and pride—they were all ears.

All ears! They were ready to get their notebooks out and sit at the feet of the apostles. And in that respect, they established the pattern of the church's activity for all time right down to this evening. Because since the teaching of the apostles, to which they devoted themselves here, has come down to us in its definitive form in what? Where do we have the apostles teach it? In our Bibles.

That's exactly right. So then, what is the contemporary expression of this kind of devotion? It is a devotion to our Bibles. It is a devotion to the New Testament truths which were built upon the foundations of the Old Testament doctrine.

And for these apostles, they were constantly having their eyes opened to the wonders of the way in which the Old Testament had dovetailed into all that was now their experience. And therefore, devotion, akin to the devotion here in Acts 2, will be a devotion to the authority of God's Word. And the principle is simply this, that the Spirit of God leads the people of God to submit to the Word of God. The Spirit of God leads the people of God to submit to the Word of God. If you want to know that you're a member of a New Testament church, as it were, one that is following the pattern established by the New Testament, built on the foundation of the Old Testament, then you must ask the question, do we have here individuals who have been cut to the heart, who have asked the question, what should I do, having discovered myself to be sinful, have had the answer provided for them, repent and believe the good news.

Having repented and believed the good news, they have been baptized, and in their baptism have magnified the grace of God who has saved them, and borne testimony to their commitment to the lordship of Jesus Christ, and have identified themselves with the people of God, and in so doing, have developed a hunger for the Word of God, and their daily experience is that the Spirit of God leads the people of God into the truth of the Word of God. And God's supreme instrument for renewing his people after the image of his Son is his Word. And that's why there still exists and always will exist the necessity of authoritative teaching of God's Word by those who are called and equipped to do it. It's been customary down through the years for me to hear people explaining that preaching is in the shadows, we don't believe in it, and I've lived through the sort of music age, and now the video age, and now the cyberspace age, and I've watched and listened to it all.

I'm growing old listening to it. But I've discovered something very interesting, that when the Spirit of God takes up a man of God who is able to open up the Word of God, people will attend with listening ears. And I drive to and fro my business on a daily basis and look at more abundant, defunct churches, establishing what they call contemporary services left, right, and center, as if somehow or another, if you let people wear jeans and bang tambourines and do certain things, that will be enough to stir up the people of God, and all revival will break out.

And at the very same time, there is an absence of a commitment to the hard graft study in the secret place so as to provide the food that is necessary for the folks to gain sustenance so that they might march for another week. It is no small thing to have the responsibility of standing, as it were, regularly, consistently between a holy God and the people of God with the responsibility of declaring Christian doctrine. It's not a light thing. Not a superficial thing.

It's not the kind of thing that people should say to themselves, Oh, I can do that. Eric Alexander, describing an encounter between himself and Martyn Lloyd-Jones, as it turns out, having heard Lloyd-Jones preach, and having been the one, I think, who had been responsible for introducing him, was sitting in the spot to which Lloyd-Jones returned when he had finished preaching. And aware of all that it had taken out of him, Eric Alexander says to the doctor, Are you exhausted? To which he replies, I am relieved.

To which he responds, In what way? And Lloyd-Jones replied, I think this is the closest any man will ever come to the experience of travail and delivery. To carry that burden, and then to give it up. Are there young men here in whose life God is stirring? Do you have aspirations, as it were?

Hopes? Then please, God, they will come to fulfillment. But never, ever think that it is an easy, casual, superficial, transient thing to bear the Word of God to the people of God. Now, the reason I make much of this is because I don't believe it is possible for us, ultimately, to be brought to an understanding of spiritual and Christian doctrine without the faithful and regular expository preaching of the Word of God.

If I believed anything other, then I would do something other, but I don't. Now, I want to say just one last thing. I want to acknowledge that there is a link here between the apostolic preaching and the apostles' teaching and the miraculous. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and within the context of teaching, people were filled with awe, verse 43, and in that context, many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. Now, there's a pattern here, which you can find elsewhere in your Bible. For example, in Hebrews chapter 2, you find a similar statement to this. This salvation, first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him, and God also testified to it by signs and wonders and various miracles. In 2 Corinthians and in chapter 12, you have the same thing, where the works of the apostles are described in these terms. I think it's above verse 12.

Yes, it is. 2 Corinthians 12.12. The things that mark an apostle—signs, wonders, and miracles—were done among you with great perseverance. With great perseverance.

Now, let me just say a word about this, and I'm through. There is no question, there is a clear implication, that the quality of and the quantity of supernatural events that unfold for us in the acts of the apostles reveal them to have been a special feature of the apostolic age. Now, people can debate about the age of miracles and so on, but we can say this with confidence that the quality and quantity of what was happening supernaturally was a special dimension, an unrepeatable dimension, that was somehow tied to the apostles.

The apostles were supernaturally endowed in a way that contemporary pastors or missionaries are not supernaturally endowed. Now, it's interesting that the emphasis here on the teaching of the Word and the accompanying signs is just that. And in 2 Corinthians 12.12, and with this I want to conclude, Paul is saying, listen, yes, these things happened, but I want you to know that the accompanying signs took place within the context of perseverance. The signs and wonders and miracles were done among you with great perseverance.

That phrase is striking to me. Why do you add with great perseverance? Why don't you just simply say, signs, wonders, and miracles were done among you?

They were done among you with great perseverance. You see, because when Paul was in Corinth, he was by his own testimony scared. He was in danger. He was under immense stress. He was personally frail, but he was coping. And so when those who knew him best observed his ministry, saw his burden, identified the cries of his hearts, they recognized that the signs and wonders which God was prepared to perform through him were not flashy exhibitions of Christian showmanship. The signs and wonders took place were born out of suffering and out of adversity. These signs and wonders took place in the context of a life that was stretched to the limits.

This was not somebody doing a performance for people. So we would not go to him and ask him, how much magic does he have up his sleeve? But we might go to him and ask how it is that he demonstrates such grit. That we would go to him and say, how is it that you ever continue as you do?

I saw you with your shirt off in the shower the other day, or in the equivalent off, and I have never in my life seen a body so battered and scarred. We wouldn't go to him and ask how many healings he's performed, but we might go to him and ask him about the scars that he bears. For interestingly, when he declares who he is at the end of Galatians, and he lays down, as it were, his apostolic authority, he says this—listen, verse 17 of Galatians 6, Let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. You want to know I'm an apostle? I'll show you, he says.

And he takes off his jacket, and then he takes off his shirt. He did not point to dramatic displays of supernatural activity. And Christian television continues to be focused upon, riddled with, preoccupied by, and confused at best on this most essential of issues. And all the time that people are being led up the garden path, what are they not doing? Paying attention to Christian doctrine.

Because if they paid attention to Christian doctrine, they would be able to identify the true from the false. These, you see, loved ones, are the marks of Christian leadership. The way someone copes with adversity, I think, is a better mark of their spirituality than any number of entertaining stories regarding miraculous answers to prayer. I'm not really helped by miraculous answers to prayer. They're kind of over there or up there or beyond there, but I'll tell you, I'm helped when I see somebody go through it and stay the course. When I see somebody lose a loved one, and through their pain, and through their emptiness, and through the sense of abject lostness, are still on the rollercoaster ride when it comes back round to the start.

Man, I'm helped by that. And what is it that enables the believer to stand the test, to face the challenge? Miracles? Signs? Wonders? Dramatic claims?

No. A solid experiential grasp of basic Christian doctrine. You're listening to Truth for Life Weekend. That's Alistair Begg stressing the importance of faithful expository preaching of God's Word. And if you're not currently attending a local church, maybe you've recently moved and you've begun searching for a church, you'll be helped by Alistair's blog on what to look for in a church. You'll find the blog as well as other helpful information on our website at truthforlife.org. One of our primary goals at Truth for Life is to encourage pastors and to help strengthen local churches. That's why Alistair holds a conference each year at Parkside Church specifically for pastors and leaders in ministry. It's called Basics. And if you're a church leader in need of some encouragement or if you're seeking to maximize your church's effectiveness, you can listen to or watch up to 20 years of Basics presentations for free.

Visit basicsconference.org slash archives. While you're on our website, be sure to check out a book we are recommending at the moment. It's a book called Death in the City. This book draws the parallel between the post-Christian world we now live in and the ungodly city where the prophet Jeremiah lived. I think you'll find yourself inspired as you read about how Jeremiah's lament for the perishing motivated him to proclaim God's truth with urgency, even at risk to himself. Find out more about the book Death in the City by going to our website truthforlife.org. I'm Bob Lupien. Thanks for studying the Bible with us today. Is fellowship within the church essential, or is it just a nice way for a diverse group of people to find others with similar interests? Next weekend, we'll hear the answer. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.