Devoted … apostles’ teaching (Acts 2:42)

Captain Siva was a young man working as a pitot for Malaysian Airlines.  He was from a Hindu background.  While in a hotel in east Malaysia he had an urge to read the Gideon Bible in his room.  He began at Genesis and encountered a God who is our creator and who is personal.  He had never thought of God in personal terms before.

Over the next months he came across other Bibles and kept reading.  One text that stood out to him was when God says in Isaiah that it is abomination to worship idols.  As a Hindu he had worshipped many idols.

Then in the early hours of August 17^th 1980, as his wife was giving birth to their daughter Rachel, he prayed.  ‘Here I am in the middle of the night reading your word.  Are you speaking to me?’  He heard no voice but, in his heart, he knew God was saying to him, ‘I am your Father.’

As his daughter came into the world Siva declared, ‘as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.’  He has been living for God ever since.

When we read the book of Acts we see that the word of God has a power all of its own.  ‘So, the word of God spread’ (Acts 6:7).  ‘The Word continued to spread and flourish’ (Acts 12:24).  ‘The word spread through the whole region’ (Acts 13:49).  ‘In this way the Word of God spread widely and grew in power’ (Acts 19:20).  One of the key themes of this book is that the word of God spreads with an unstoppable force.

In the sixteenth-century Martin Luther rediscovered the simple gospel of grace as he turned back to the word of God.  That discovery changed the face of Europe.   His sidekick was called Philip Melanchthon.  When Luther was asked how they made such an impact, he replied, ‘myself and Philip drank our beer, the word did the rest.’ 

The word is the foundation of the church

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.

We can see an example of the apostles’ teaching earlier in this chapter.  Peter got up and explained to a Jewish crowd that the scriptures pointed to Jesus.  He centred his words on the cross and the resurrection.  Then there was a response.

Paul would later be added to that unique group of first-century apostles.  He would sum up all that he taught by declaring, ‘we preach Christ crucified’ (1 Cor. 1:23).

Remember that this is Luke’s second book.  In his first, the gospel of Luke, the risen Jesus opens His followers’ eyes to see that all of the Bible points to Him, and in particular to the fact that He would die and rise from the dead (Luke 24:27 and 47).

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he declares that the church is God’s household built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ himself as the chief cornerstone (Eph. 2:20).  Take away Christ crucified and you are undermining the very foundation of the church.  Everything is likely to collapse!

I remember reading about the Methodist church in Cuba.  While the Methodist church in north America and Great Britain are rapidly contracting, it is flourishing.  Reading that article, I concluded that churches which are truly healthy are those with a genuine openness to the person and work of the Holy Spirit and a glad dependence on the Word that He inspired.

The word is the food that sustains us 

Speaking to the elders at Ephesus the apostle Paul committed them ‘to the word of grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among the sanctified’ (Acts 20:32).  As we saturate ourselves in the word we will change and our fellowship will change.

I love what Paul said to the church at Thessalonica.  He spoke of the word which is at work in those who believe (1 Thess. 2:13).  The apostle Peter also spoke about the health that comes through God’s word.  ‘Like new born babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you might grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good’ (1 Peter 2:2-3).  The writer to the Hebrews wrote that ‘the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart’ (Heb. 4:12).  It has often been said, ‘don’t just read the word, let the word read you.’  We mature in Christ as the Bible takes more of a hold on our minds.

The word is the focus of our mission

While it was the apostles who were uniquely given the message of Jesus that we record in our New Testament, it was not only the apostles who used in spreading the word.  That is a task for all of us.

In Acts 8, after Stephen has been martyred, all but the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.  What did these ordinary Christians do?  ‘Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went’ (Acts 8:8).  Our job is to preach the word in our homes, our workplaces, our neighbourhoods and even on our holidays.  We all feel intimidated about that task, but remember what the Christians did when they were told that they might be persecuted if they spoke about Jesus.  They prayed, then they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with courage (Acts 4:31).

5 Challenges

1.       Sit under the word.  Martin Luther wrote to one of his opponents saying, ‘the difference between you and me is that you stand above God’s word and judge it, whereas I sit underneath God’s word and let it judge me.

We are far more shaped by our culture than we realise.  Indeed, our culture’s opinions change all the time.  There are things that our culture takes as normal that fifty years ago would never have been accepted.  There are things that our culture will believe in fifty years that would seem strange in our day.  God’s word is a standard that is eternal and unchanging.

Don’t be surprised when the Bible differs with what we would like to believe.  Don’t be ashamed to hold to truths that are unpopular.  Ask God to help us see things the way He sees them.

    Don’t just be sound and loveless.  When Paul wrote to the church at Corinth he addressed the issue of eating meat sacrificed to idols.  There was a right and wrong in this issue.  Yet those who were right were looking down on those who were wrong.  Those who knew they had the freedom to eat such meet were judging those whose consciences were too sensitive.  So, he said that while knowledge puffs up love builds up (1 Cor. 8:1).  It is possible to have better theology than someone, but be walking further than God from them.  It can be easy to fall into the trap of wanting to argue about every secondary issue in the Bible while not addressing great failings in your relationships. 

3.       Get a balanced diet.  I am going to suggest that when preachers are sharing their text with the person organising the service they chose both an Old Testament and a New Testament reading.  When you read the Bible be confident to simply read the text as it is—it is clear enough to read without devotional aids.  However, at times, dig deeper.  Get a good commentary and see what can be learned by experts who know the original languages and who have a greater understanding of how the text fits into the Bible’s big picture.  Read on your own and read with other people—I love to hear of people reading books together, add into that time to read some of the bible together too.

4.       Read dependently.  One of the things that gives us assurance that we really are Christians is that we see Jesus in the Bible and we are willing to let the Bible leads us.  The truth is spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14).  You can not its facts without the Holy Spirit (James 2:19), but it is only the Holy Spirit who makes us live this way.  Pray before you read the Bible that your eyes and ears will be open.  Be open to the fact that the Holy Spirit will often underline verses to you and bring back biblical ideas to you mind (John 14:26).  

5.       Learn a gospel definition and pray for the opportunity to share it.  The whole of the apostles’ teaching can be summarised with, ‘I preach Christ crucified’.  How would you explain what Christ-crucified means in five sentences?  Figure that out and then pray that you will get opportunities to tell people what you believe.  

‘These are the ones I look on with favour; those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word’ (Is. 66:2).

 ‘The calling of Limerick Baptist Church is to display the beauty of Jesus as a diverse people love each other well in Christ, seek to become a house of prayer for the nations, building upon the foundations of God’s word as they constantly recall the death and resurrection of Christ.’