Acts 2:37

Now, when they had heard this, they were cut to the heart. They said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Then Peter said unto them, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord God shall call."

Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would direct our time this morning as we study Your Word and sit at Your feet, Lord. Paul said that we are to study to show ourselves approved, workmen and workwomen rightly dividing the word of truth, not ashamed. So, Lord, we do that here this morning, asking that You would continue to transform us. We ask that You would direct our steps by Your Word, which is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, especially as we step into a new year.

Lord, we thank You for the blessing that it is to be called Your children. Behold what manner of love You have given to us that we, this morning, should be called Your children. We thank You, Father. We praise You in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated.

We did look through, rather speedily, chapter 2 of Acts last week, and we started our study through the book of Acts a few weeks ago. We've been going through the New Testament over the last several years, having gone through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Now we're here in the book of Acts, and it's probably going to take us a while to go through it. Perhaps the Lord will come while we're still in this book.

I think that where we are as a church, as we step into a new year, the book of Acts is a very important book for us to study because God is doing some neat things in our church. The book of Acts shows us the beginning of the church, and I think it's important as we step into a new year to consider the things that go on here, not just in this passage that we're looking at, but in this book as a whole. This passage gives us insight into the beginning of the church.

The beginning of the church is an important topic for us to consider. First, we should reflect on how the church got started, and second, we need to examine what the church did when it was young. What characterized the early church?

There is sometimes a misconception within the church that the early church was perfect and that it had everything figured out. Many believe that if we could just return to the early church model, everything in the church would be okay. This is false. As we read through the Book of Acts, we see that the early church faced problems just as the church today does.

Very early on, there was an issue in the early church where people were not being ministered to. There are always individuals within the body of Christ who feel neglected, saying, "Hey, nobody's ministering to me." For example, we don't have a Christian paintballers association. Where is the ministry for the Christian paintballers? There is always a group that feels the need for someone to minister to them, and the early church experienced that same problem.

Additionally, there was the problem of greed in the early church, exemplified by the story of Ananias and Sapphira. Not only did they exhibit greed, but they also lied to the Holy Spirit. We will study this further when we reach Acts chapter 5 in several weeks. Persecution was also present in the early church, and there were individuals who departed from the faith.

Thus, many issues in the early church mirror those we see in the church today. People often look back with rose-colored glasses, romanticizing the early church, thinking of Peter and James and the signs and wonders. However, the reality is that the heart and flesh of man were still present.

The Holy Spirit was doing a great work during the early church, and He continues to do so today. As we have discussed over the last several weeks, although this book is called the Acts of the Apostles, it would be more accurately titled the Acts of the Holy Spirit, as it highlights the work that the Holy Spirit is doing. We see this clearly in chapter 2, which marks the start of the church.

So, how did the church get started? First and foremost, it is important to recognize that man did not start the church. It was not an institution or creation of man. In Matthew chapter 16, we find Jesus with His disciples in Caesarea Philippi, where they encounter a pagan worship center. Jesus asks that profound question, "Who do men say that I am?" Some say He is Elijah, others say He is this or that. Then He turns to them and asks, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter, stirred by the Spirit of God and God the Father, responds.

Jesus asked, "Who do you say that I am?" Simon replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus responded, "Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Then, in verse 18, He said, "And I say unto you, you are Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my church."

The word "Peter" in the original language, Petros, means "little pebble," but the word for "rock" that Jesus uses here is different from Petros. The rock that He is referring to is not Peter. Although the Roman Catholic Church believes that Peter is the rock upon which they will build the church—evidenced by St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, which they believe is built right on top of Peter's tomb—this is not the meaning of Jesus' statement. The true meaning of "on this rock I will build my church" is the declaration that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Notice what Jesus said: "I will build my church." It is God's work, God's building, and God's creation. He is the one who started it. When we think about the early church and how it began, we must recognize that Jesus is the one who built the church and should continue to build it. It is the Spirit of God working in and through the lives of men and women that builds this church, and it can only be sustained by the Spirit of God.

This is why the church has been able to stand for the last 2,000 years, enduring persecution and the efforts of those who have tried to eliminate it or the Word of God. The church has stood because it is not a work of men; it is a work of God. This is exactly what Gamaliel will say when we get into Acts chapters 4 and 5 in a couple of weeks. We will see that when the early church first started, the Jews were trying to eliminate it. Gamaliel said, "If this is a work of man, it will fall apart, but if it is the work of God, then you will be fighting against God."

Throughout the ages, every person who has sought to destroy the church has ultimately been destroyed because they were fighting against God. It is a losing battle to fight against God. How many of you have lost? If you want to read more about losing in a battle with God, go and read Genesis chapter 32, where Jacob wrestled with God. Some people say, "Well, Jacob prevailed." No, he limped for the rest of his life, and God changed his name. This means that God conquered Jacob.

And so God is going to conquer each and every one of us. We can fight against that, but we are told that at the end, every knee will bow. It is much better to bow now than to bow later. Those who fight against the church will find themselves fighting against God because God is the one who planted, started, and sustains the church.

Throughout every time and age, when man steps in and tries to build and sustain the church, it causes the church to look more like man than like God, and that becomes a problem. Paul asked a very interesting question to the Galatians in Galatians chapter 3. He said, "Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?" The church was a work that had begun in the Spirit, started by the Spirit of God. However, when men get involved and try to tweak it, change it, and make it more appealing, it becomes a work of the flesh and begins to take on the characteristics of men. It looks like the world when man tries to interfere.

There is really no way to improve upon what God did. Amen? Look at the creation of the world. He spoke the creation into existence, and every time man tries to go in and make it better, he tends to ruin it. I read an article several weeks ago that was quite disheartening; it stated that human evolution has halted. This is the best we are going to get. We have attained all that we are ever going to achieve. This is it, folks. We are not going to evolve any further, and it is a very sad day for scientists. This is because we meddled with it and messed it up.

Now, at this point, you might say, "Sure, the church of God is God's building. He is the one that made it." But what exactly is the church? Is it this building that we gather together in, located at 1675 Seven Oaks Road? Some of you call this your church, but is this the church? No. The word "church" in the original Greek is "ekklesia," which means the gathering. It refers to the gathering together of like-minded people with a common purpose, goal, and vision. They come together essentially to be encouraged, equipped, and to worship the God who created them.

This thing called the church is significant because we are the body of Christ. We are the gathering of God. When you refer to a church, in the Greek, an ekklesia was any group that gathered together publicly. Jesus said, "This is my church. I will build my gathering on the statement, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'" This gathering of people has one thing in common: they have Jesus as their God. If you gather together as a body and worship Jesus as God, then you are a part of the church.

Now, there are many different churches, and we recognize that. The church has been split into different denominations, sects, and groups, some of which have different doctrines. However, if we can agree upon the statement, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," that is essential. There are other groups that call themselves Christians, such as the Church of Christ and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but they do not believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. They may claim to believe that when they come to your door and want to give you something called the Book of Mormon, but as you dig a little deeper, you will find they do not believe it as the Bible declares. This is also true for Jehovah's Witnesses and many other cults that exist. This belief is essential.

If we can agree on this, then we can have some form of koinonia and fellowship. Koinonia is the Greek word for fellowship, and it was one of the things that bound the early church together. There are people I fellowship with who attend a Lutheran church or an Episcopal church. They may have different ideas and views on how worship is conducted or different understandings of eschatology, but those things are non-essential. In essentials, we want unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in all things, charity. If we can agree that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that He is the only one who atones for our sins, then we can have fellowship and be part of the body of Christ gathering together.

Notice how the Holy Spirit brought men and women into this gathering. How did He start this whole thing? It began as the Holy Spirit stirred Peter to stand and speak. He began to preach, delivering a message that we briefly looked at last week through the first 36 verses of chapter 2 of Acts. The Holy Spirit had filled Peter and the other 120 disciples gathered in the upper room, and they were speaking with other tongues. People heard this commotion, this rushing mighty wind.

They gathered together and heard the wonderful works of God in their own language. The apostles and the disciples were speaking to the people about God's wonderful works in a language they could understand. As they declared this, the people thought, "This is strange; we've never seen anything like this." Some people were amazed, while others felt that these individuals were drunk with new wine.

Peter stood up and said, "We're not drunk as you suppose." He began to preach to them using a passage from the Old Testament, specifically Joel chapter 2. He declared to them exactly what they were seeing, but then he immediately turned it and directed it at them personally. It wasn't just some generic reference to the Old Testament. He spoke of Jesus, saying that He was approved of God by miracles, signs, and wonders, as stated in verse 22, which God did by Him in the midst of them all, as they all knew. He continued, "Him, being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by wicked hands and crucified Him."

Peter began to speak to these people who crucified the Lord in a very offensive way, one that was not politically correct. If you want to win friends and influence people, this isn't the way to talk, unless you are directed by the Holy Spirit. This is a work of the Holy Spirit of God; it is not a work of man. If man were to script this, he would not have said these things. He might have said, "Oh, I know you guys are probably having a really bad day and a tough time, and things are difficult here in Jerusalem, as they still are 2,000 years later. But you know what? I know somebody who can make your life better." If scripted by man, that's what Acts chapter 2 would have looked like.

However, when directed by the Holy Spirit of God, God does not work that way. God, speaking through a man, speaks directly to the hearts of men, saying, "You are wicked." What? Yes, that's what it says. "You have by wicked hands taken Him and crucified Him." If you want to win a popularity contest, don't talk like that. But if you want to build God's church, that's how the Holy Spirit works, and that's how He talks. God uses His word through the mouth of a man directed by the Holy Spirit to the heart of a man that has been readied by the Holy Spirit.

He convicts that person of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Here, God is speaking through the Apostle Peter to the people gathered there. Many had just heard the wonderful works of God in a language they could understand, but now they were hearing a message directed by the Spirit of God right at their hearts. They cried out, "What shall we do?" The Holy Spirit is always bringing people to a place of decision.

We see this in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the book of Deuteronomy, as Moses stood and proclaimed the law of God to the people, he shared the blessings of obedience and the curses for those who rebel against the law. He said to them, "I have set before you this day life and death, blessing and cursing; choose life." The Holy Spirit directed Moses to speak a message using the law of God to bring people to a place of decision. He presented them with a choice: they could choose to follow God and serve Him, which would lead to life and blessings, or they could choose to rebel against Him, which would result in death and curses. The decision was in their hands; it was up to them.

Peter set before them a similar choice. He said, "You crucified Him, and you're in trouble. You killed the Lord of glory, and He has a Father who is not very happy. What are you going to do about that?" They were cut to the heart. This cannot be done by man. Even though I might be able to speak well, I cannot cut you to the heart. I might engage your thinking or challenge your beliefs, but only the Holy Spirit of God can truly cut to the heart.

God has given us a great tool to be a part of this process: the Word of God. The Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, and it cuts deep into the heart. It divides asunder between joint and marrow and discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. As we speak forth the Word of God, He uses it to cut people to the heart.

In this gathering of people, they were cut to the heart and asked, "What are we supposed to do?" Peter responded.

What? Repent. Okay, back up. There's another thing that man would never put into the script: repent. Oh gosh, that's just a tough word, isn't it? I don't know about that one. Let's just take that out of the script because that's going to offend people.

Why? Well, repent means to change one's thinking. It essentially is a course correction. It's a change of mind that changes one's direction as well. But see, for someone to repent, that means that they're going the wrong way.

Now, I won't ask the ladies, but guys, have you ever been lost before? You've never been lost before? No, guys don't get lost. We go on adventures; we don't get lost. Did anybody get a GPS for Christmas? Somebody? We don't get lost. Notice no guys raised their hands. We don't need a GPS. We always know where we're at. Always. That's self.

But see, to repent means you've recognized you're going the wrong direction. When you realize you're going the wrong direction, now you need to change your mind and say, "I've got to go the other direction." That, in turn, means you've got to change direction. So, repentance is a course correction.

The word in Greek is "metaneo." It means a change of mind, which in turn moves to a change of direction. Now, when the translators took "metaneo," the Greek, and translated it into "repentance" in English, it was not the best translation because repentance in English involves penance. A word that, if you were a part of a Catholic church or a more traditional church, you understand completely.

That now I need to do something; you know, I've got to maybe injure myself or make myself feel really bad or cry or do something like that, and then everything's going to be okay. Now, that's not what it talks about. It's not just tears coming down because there was a guy in the Old Testament who did something pretty bad and he cried a whole bunch, but he found no place for repentance. His name was Esau. You can read about him in Hebrews chapter 12. He's a wicked and profane man, but he never turned. He cried a lot, but he never turned. He never repented.

So, repentance is this course correction.

It is an important element of Old Testament and New Testament preaching. In fact, you cannot read the Old Testament prophets and not find repentance. You may not find the exact word "repentance," but you always find the teaching there of God calling His people to turn. It was the first word used by John the Baptist when he began to preach. In Matthew chapter 3, verse 2, he said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Remember, John the Baptist came not to baptize people; he came as a messenger, as John chapter 1 tells us. He was a messenger proclaiming the light. Baptism was one of the things that he did, but I believe that you can prove from the Gospel of John that baptism was the thing that God told him to do to identify the Messiah. God had told him, "Upon the one that you see the Holy Spirit descend and abide upon, that's the Messiah." So, you've got to baptize until you see. I think that John the Baptist would baptize people, and they'd come up, and he'd go, "Nope, you're not the one. Next." But he was a messenger, and the message was, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Not only was it the first word of John the Baptist, but in Matthew chapter 4, verse 17, it was the first word of Jesus when He began to preach. Matthew 4, verse 17 states, "From that time Jesus began to preach, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'" When Jesus ascended into heaven, we saw a few weeks ago in Luke chapter 24 that He told His disciples that repentance should be preached among all peoples.

So, John the Baptist preached repentance, Jesus preached repentance, and Jesus told His disciples that they should preach repentance. Here in Acts chapter 2, in the very first message ever preached by Peter, what does he say when the people ask, "What must we do?" He replies, "Repent." We will see it again in Acts chapter 3 as Peter preaches another message. The people ask, "What ought we to do?" and in verse 19, he says, "Repent."

We see that after Peter was called by God to go and preach to the Gentiles, the church rejoiced. Remember, Peter in Acts chapter 10 goes to the house of Cornelius, and when he comes back to Jerusalem and shares with the rest of the church what had happened there at Cornelius' house, notice what the church said in Acts chapter 11, verse 18, when they heard...

These things, they held their peace and glorified God, saying, "God also has granted unto the Gentiles repentance unto life." It was the first word of John the Baptist, the first word of Jesus, and the first word of Peter when he preached to the Jews. It was also the first word of Peter when he preached to the Gentiles.

When Paul is declaring his ministry while on trial in Acts chapter 26, notice what he says in verse 20. In Acts 26:19, he is speaking to King Agrippa and says, "Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but showed first unto those that were at Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God."

What was the revelation that Paul the Apostle was given by God to preach? Repentance. The Holy Spirit built the church; He is the one who started the church, and He did so with the preaching of repentance. It is the first word of the gospel and was the prime message of every evangelist for about the last 7,500 years.

However, in the last 75 to 100 years, the church, especially here in America, has determined that the word "repent" does not win friends and influence people. It doesn't make people feel good; it's very offensive. If you tell people to repent, you are basically telling them that they are wicked and sinners, and people don't like that.

As a result, the church has decided that we shouldn't use the word "repent." In a desire to be pleasing and palatable, many in the church have determined that we just don't use that word anymore—the "R" word. It's a bad word; don't use it.

The interesting thing is that ever since then, the church has drifted. After the church turned completely away from the use of the word repentance and the preaching of repentance, they figured that now it was up to man to build the church. But see, God builds His church.

Through the preaching of repentance, when you deny that and say, "No, we're not going to use that word anymore," it is left up to man to build the church. There are a lot of conferences, books, CDs, DVDs, and all kinds of correspondence courses on church growth—how to make your church bigger. This is a relatively new phenomenon; within the last fifty years, there have been these big church growth seminars. Why? Because the church stopped growing when it ceased to preach the message that God had given them to preach.

Man had to figure out what to do, thinking, "Oh, we have to do something interesting." Barna research tells us that, on average, over the last eight years, about 3,000 churches close their doors each year in America. Yet, we continue to have more church growth seminars. What becomes the pinnacle of success in a society where man has to build the church? Now, the church is gauged by how big it is. You are considered a successful pastor if you have one thousand, two thousand, ten thousand, or even seventeen thousand members. If you are like Joel Osteen and have twenty-nine thousand, meeting in a stadium, you have reached the pinnacle of success. According to man, a good church is a big church, and thus, he who has the biggest church wins. He who dies with the most people wins.

Notice something else here in Acts chapter two, verse forty, which is completely against the church growth books, DVDs, seminars, and so forth. The verse states, "And with many other words he did testify and exhort." This means that Peter's message was very long. The church growth seminarians will tell us that we need to keep the message down to about twenty to thirty minutes because modern man has a very short attention span due to television and all the different media around us. They suggest making sure the message is only about twenty minutes and that there are no more than three points, as that wouldn't be good.

This presents a real problem because my messages typically have forty-five to fifty points, and you're all completely lost. There is a new point every minute.

I heard somebody years ago, this old Puritan preacher. He got up to teach his Sunday night message and said, "Since my morning message had thirty-three points, tonight's message will be completely pointless."

But verse forty here tells us that with many other words, Peter preached the word, testifying and exhorting. These terms are both associated with preaching. In fact, the word "exhort" actually means to preach. With many other words, he testified and exhorted, saying, "Save yourselves from this untoward generation, from this wicked generation. Save yourselves; how? Repent!"

Now notice this: verse forty-one states that they gladly received his word. Oh, wait a minute! They gladly received his word? That doesn't seem to fit with all the models and all those that the church growth people are saying, along with all the different books and seminars. It doesn't seem to make sense. He said, "Repent." He spent longer than thirty minutes; he kept going, preaching and testifying, and they gladly received his word.

How could they gladly receive his word? But they were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. That's an increase! In one day, about three thousand people were added to the church. Man, if you had that percentage of an increase today, you would be successful in the eyes of these worldly church growth people. They are all striving to achieve that; they are all trying to win people and get them into the church by all kinds of magnificent things, super great PowerPoints, media, bands, and all kinds of crazy things.

So we see here how the church got its start. But what did the early church do? Because, of course, once you win people and bring them in, how do you maintain that? How do you keep that? You know what the church growth people say? They have a lot of ideas. "In a single week, you gotta do something."

Well, what did the early church do? Look at verse forty-two. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and in prayers.

Church growth books, seminars, and conferences often emphasize that if you want to have a big church and retain your members, you need to offer exciting programs. The idea is to make your church a one-stop shop. In America today, some churches have bookstores and coffee shops, but others have taken it a step further. I read about a church that has a fitness gym and even a credit union.

Let me share this with you. I came across a newspaper article from years ago that highlighted a church as the first in the nation to have a McDonald's hamburger franchise on its grounds. This franchise is located in the church's new seven-million-dollar learning center, which was named after Brentwood's senior pastor. The 75,000-square-foot building houses a basketball court, an aerobics studio, a computer center, an arcade, a banquet hall, and 60 classrooms, along with the McDonald's that has become a hit with the 10,000-member church.

It's a one-stop shop. They ensure that everything is available so people will come and stay. With a Starbucks and a McDonald's on the premises, members don’t even need to go to a bank; they can have a credit union account right there. As members of the church, they can have their tithes drafted directly from their accounts. It seems like everyone wins. Since they have a McDonald's, they also offer a fitness gym and aerobics classes. After all, the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, so why not enjoy a Big Mac and then head to an aerobics class?

What did the early church do? Right from the very beginning, they built themselves a Greek gymnasium. They even had bingo night. However, the church was continuously and steadfastly devoted to the study, preaching, and teaching of God's Word.

But today, many argue against giving people doctrine. They claim that people don’t want doctrine because we are living in a postmodern world. Don’t you realize we are postmodernists? We don’t study doctrine; those are presuppositional truths. Propositional theology is not what we do anymore. They suggest staying away from that kind of stuff, as it will only make your church small.

Doctrine doesn't let anybody know anything about the Bible. Other churches speak this, but it's true. The truth is that the early church was devoted to the study, preaching, and teaching of God's Word. Why? Because they recognized that it was God's Word that transformed people. Jesus prayed in John 17, "Sanctify them by Your truth; Your Word is truth." They knew from the Old Testament that God has exalted His Word above His name. They recognized that Jesus was the one who would do what Jesus did, so they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine.

Not only in doctrine, but in fellowship. The Greek word "koinonia" means they were one; they were united together as one. There were certain things that they did, as we will see in the remaining verses, that showed they were a part of one another. When one suffered, they all suffered. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayer.

The breaking of bread refers to the partaking of communion. Why? Because Jesus told them to. "As often as you do this, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." He said, "This is something you should do." Why? So you remember. You remember what rock you are built on, what foundation you actually have. The foundation is Christ; He is the Christ, the Son.

Not only that, they continued in prayer. What is prayer? It is merely talking to God. He speaks to us primarily through His Word, and we speak to Him through prayer. Now, if you share that the next time you are called for jury duty, they won't select you. Just tell them, "I talk to God; He talks to me." The defense excuses juror number eight. Thank you, have a great day. They never choose me; I don't know why I feel so left out.

As we stand at the beginning of a new year next week, 2009, what are we as Calvary Chapel going to do? Well, the same thing that the church did 2,000 years ago.

Years ago, we were going to continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in the breaking of bread, fellowship, and prayer. In verse 43, it says, "Fear came upon every soul." The word "fear" there refers to reverence; they revered God. I have read a whole bunch of articles in the last few years about the lack of reverence for God in the church. Why is that? Well, maybe because God has not been given His proper place in the church through the reading, study, and preaching of His Word. Perhaps man hasn't recognized that there is a day of wrath that is going to come, and so man ought to repent. All men ought to repent.

As this preaching was going through the region, fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. There were miracles being performed in the midst of the body, and all that believed were together. There is that fellowship, koinonia, once again. They had all things in common. One of the signs of their fellowship, one of the signs that they were united together as one, was that they shared with one another liberally. They sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need.

What is one of the signs of a person who has become a child of God? They take on the characteristics of God, who, first and foremost, we read in John 3:16, is a giver. These people, as they were united together in Christ, saw the work that the Lord was doing. As they sat under the teaching of God's Word and were in fellowship, breaking bread and praying together, they saw one another's needs and said, "We can take care of that. How can we help you?" They parted their goods among themselves and sold their possessions.

Now, this is a great thing, but it can become a bad thing, as we will see when we get to Acts chapter 5. It can be polluted, as is often the case. They parted to them as every man had need. Look at this: in verse 46, it says, "Continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart." This means they were content with what they had.

What are the things that the modern church in America esteems? It is amazing to me the things that they exalt.

There are many churches that exalt greed. How so? Well, if you give, God is going to give more to you. Is that not the most greedy thing you've ever heard? That's not why these people gave. They were content with what they had. They recognized, "I have everything I need. I am sufficient. I've got everything I need, but that guy over there doesn't. I can take care of that." They didn't give so they could get something. That is not the love of God, where you're giving so you can get something. That is the polluted love that Satan has influenced the church with.

The modern-day church in America, those that are into church growth, are into greed. They teach greed as a good thing. They may not call it greed, but when you tell someone, "If you give ten dollars to our ministry, God will give you a hundred," they are influenced by greed. You're teaching them greed. I might step on some toes here, but they are into gluttony. Gluttony is not just with food; it’s about getting as much as you can, taking it to yourself, and hoarding it. The church in America today pushes that as a good thing. The Bible doesn't.

They are really against smoking and drinking, and anyone who does that sort of stuff is considered bad. But gluttony and greed? That's good. No problem, come on in. That's not what the Bible teaches. These people continued with one accord in the temple; they were united together as a large body. They also met from house to house.

There are some today who say the only way for the church to be really good and right is to be small churches and home fellowships. It’s got to be the home church. One of my favorite writers is very much into this, and I wrote to him a few years ago because I was blessed by one of his books. I told him it’s possible to get back to Jesus because Jesus is only found in the home church. Of course, that's not what the early church did. There are others who completely neglect the gathering of small fellowships in homes, saying, "No, we don't do that anymore because look at these big buildings we have."

The early church gathered together as one in the temple.

The house gathered together, breaking bread with one another. They ate their meals with gladness and were content, with singleness of heart. They praised God and had favor with all people. Notice this: the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. It doesn't say that Peter added to the church daily because of his dynamic preaching, or that James added to the church. God will add to His church when His church is doing what it is intended to do.

God wants to add to that church, but He cannot add to a church that is not fulfilling its purpose. As we move into 2009, my desire is to see more meetings from house to house, more home fellowships. We have about six of them here at Calvary Chapel, and some of you are involved with them. I would love, by the end of 2009, for us to have 20 home fellowships where we meet together as one here on a Sunday morning, the first day of the week. Throughout the week, people can meet from house to house, breaking bread together, enjoying one another's company, and being content with what we have.

I am not looking for us to be a church of 10,000; I don't really care about that. What I am looking for is for us to grow in Christ. The only way we grow in Christ is to do the things that God intended the church to do. Who knows? After this message, we might be a church of 50 people, but the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. God was doing a work in the midst of His church—how? By His Holy Spirit.

You see, it is God who builds His church. It is God who sustains His church. Anytime that man steps away from that and says, "No, we have a different way. We have a better plan. We're going to do this," then man has to build it and sustain it. When man is building and sustaining it, it will not have the power of God, even though it may be very large. I am not saying that large churches don't have the power of God, because that is not the case. I have some very good friends who pastor very large churches.

God is doing awesome things in those churches, but that's because they've allowed Him to build that church. They didn't try to make it happen on their own or manufacture it. The early church was built by God. The early church did the things that God told them to do. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in the breaking of bread, in fellowship, and in prayers. It's pretty simple.

There are some people, and there have been over the years, who look at Calvary Chapel as a whole. They interviewed a number of different well-known pastors from large churches, many of whom came from seminaries. They said, "Yeah, we just don't understand how Calvary Chapel has grown." Why? Because it doesn't fit the model of church growth methods. They say, "Well, they're not doing anything super exciting and special down there; they just teach the Word." Yes, simply teaching the Word of God.

I believe it was one of the big universities in America back in the late 70s that did a study on Calvary Chapel because they were interested in how it had grown so quickly. One of the key factors they identified was that Calvary Chapel had given the ministry back to the people of the church. For a very long time, ever since about the fourth century, ministry became something that only the schooled, trained, and learned did. It was something that those who went away to school and were trained to do as a profession for life would do. They would retire and have a nice retirement, and ministry was looked at as a very good position and profession to have. It was a good ride if you got into the ministry for a very long time; that's the way the church was run.

One of the things that sets Calvary Chapel apart is that we look at the ministry and say, "We can't do this." I can't do this. In fact, I'm told that I'm to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. This is a church—not the building. You are the church, and we move forward as one, serving and taking care of each other.

Of one another's needs, looking around and seeing the things that need to be done, we are here as the pastors of the church to equip you to do the work. What this university saw was that Calvary Chapel grew so much because they gave the work, the ministry, back to the people. The people responded, saying, "Yeah, I want to do that."

What started to happen was that different people within the fellowship began to stand up and say, "You know what? I really believe the Lord wants me to go plant a church." As a result, Calvary Chapel began to spread very quickly. In 1965, there was one Calvary Chapel with 25 people in Costa Mesa, California. Now, in 2008, there are about 1,600 Calvary Chapels, with 100 of them added last year and 17 added last month. Why? Because God is growing His church as the ministry is given back to unlearned and untrained men.

I never went to seminary; I attended one semester of Bible college and quit. All the time, I have people come up to me and ask, "What school did you go to?" I tell them I went to Orange Glen High School. That's where I went—go Patriots! Unlearned and untrained men, but they had been with Jesus, as we will see when we get to Acts chapter 4. God grew His church, and He wants to grow His church even more. He desires to raise up from within this fellowship men and women who know the Lord, love the Lord, and serve the Lord. He will take you and send you out to do ministry that you never thought you could do.

Why? Because it's not you; it's His Holy Spirit. He builds His church, sustains His church, and desires that His church would grow and be strong. However, God does not gauge the strength of a church by the numbers of that church. Man does. We look around and say it's a successful church if it has reached mega church status, which is officially about 3,000 people. Then you're a mega church, and you have a mega budget, along with mega headaches and stress.

I remember several years ago, Bob Coy—some of you know who he is; he's on the radio and is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, which has about 17,000 members—spoke at a pastor's conference. He said, "You know, every time I come up to these people, they ask me, 'How's your church? How's your church? How's your church?'" They never asked me...

How is my marriage? How is my family? Then he said, "If you really want my church, you can have it, and you can have the $40,000 a month air conditioning bill." I never thought of that. I just thought of the 17,000 people in the seats everywhere. Wow, that would be interesting! Or you can have the 600 people. That kind of changes things, doesn't it? Our perception is so often very skewed; we don't quite understand.

I want you to notice something with me. We're just going to jump into chapter 3 here because it says in chapter 2 that they gave to everybody who had need. There have been some who look at the ministry as an opportunity to make money, but I want you to see something. We're going to dig into chapter 3 next week, but I just want to point out something to you right now.

It's interesting: the ministry wasn't an opportunity for Peter and John to make money. He said, "I don't have anything to give you. Silver and gold have I none, but what I do have, I give unto you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." He took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.

Hey, listen! If the church is a work of man, that doesn't happen. It doesn't. But if the church is God's work, and God is building and working in and through His people, these kinds of things do happen. You say, "Well, we don't see that anymore." Well, we do; you just maybe don't notice it.

He said, "Hey, I don't have anything to give you monetarily, but in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk." He received strength, and he leaping stood up and walked, entering into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God. Oh, that the people of Escondido would see us walking and praising God! They would see us walking in the Lord, walking worthy of the calling wherewith we have been called, and praising the God who called us.

They knew that it was he who sat at the alms of the beautiful gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement. Oh, that the people of this town would be filled with wonder! God is doing something there. I've met a lot of new people over the last several months who have been coming to our church. They heard from a friend, "The Lord's doing something at my church." I can't even tell you how exciting that is for me to hear. People are saying, "God's doing something there." They have seen, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him. May they be filled with wonder and amazement as they see what has happened to you and to me as we come into the knowledge of the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, Jesus the Christ from Nazareth.

As the lame man who was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering. Now, all these people gathered together, and Peter, what does he do? He sees the opportunity by the Spirit of God. When Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, "You men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why do you look so earnestly on us as though by our own power or holiness we made this man walk?" See, there's the important thing. Peter recognized it wasn't anything that he had done. It wasn't something that John did. It wasn't because they had gone up to the temple at the hour of prayer. It wasn't anything of Peter or John; it wasn't by our power or our holiness that made this man to walk.

How is he whole? How is he jumping up and down and praising God? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Son Jesus, whom you delivered up. Oh man, now he's getting all offensive again. You guys delivered Him up; you denied Him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let Him go. You denied the Holy One and the Just, and you desired a murderer to be granted unto you. Remember Barabbas? You killed the Prince of Life.

Abba, don't worry; God has raised Him from the dead, whereof we are all witnesses. His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong. Is that your testimony today? His name, through faith in His name, has made you strong and has made you who you are today. That's all I can say. Like I said, I don't have a clue what I'm talking about. All I know is this: that's about the only thing—His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong.

Okay, there we are, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which is by Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

And now, brethren, I walk that through ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers. You didn't know what you were doing when you delivered up Christ, when you said, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" You had no idea of the ramifications of it. But those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer, He has so fulfilled.

So what ought you to do? Verse 19: Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Repent and be converted, and He will blot out your sins, and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until...

The times of restitution of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began, are significant. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, "A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brothers, like unto me. Him shall you hear in all things whatsoever He shall say unto you" (Deuteronomy 18:15). It shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people.

That's something that you don't want to talk about in a modern-day church. Every soul which will not hear the word of that prophet, who is Jesus, will face destruction. Every person who refuses to listen to the preaching of Jesus, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," will be lost.

All the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. You are the children of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, "In thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed." And unto you first, God, having raised up His Son, sent Him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

This is a powerful message—the message of repentance. It is the message that the Holy Spirit stirred the church to speak. The first word that John the Baptist spoke, the first word that Jesus spoke, and the word that Jesus commanded His disciples to speak in Luke 24:47 is repentance.

The word that Peter spoke on the day of Pentecost, the word that Peter spoke at the ninth hour as he went into the temple, and the word that he spoke at Cornelius' house all called the people to repent. The word that Paul spoke at Thessalonica, at Philippi, at Corinth, at Ephesus, and at Athens was also repentance.

It was the word that Charles Spurgeon used, the word that George Whitefield used, the word that John Wesley used, and the word that D.L. Moody used. It is the word that Billy Graham has used. Yet, the church has said, "No, that's not going to work," and so the church is in the predicament it is in today. However, not every church is lost; there still remains a remnant.

Praise the Lord! The Bible says, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and be converted, and times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord." Have your sins blotted out. How? By the blood of Jesus Christ. Without the shedding of blood, there can be no removal or remission of sins. He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we could be a part of His church, His gathering—the church that He builds by His Spirit and sustains by His Spirit. It is not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord. May we be a part of that church.

Let's stand and pray. Father, I do thank You for this book, the Book of Acts. The New Testament would really make little sense if it weren't for this book. Lord, I ask that You would continue to transform our thinking, transform our minds, and our lives as we study through Your Word. Sanctify us completely and wholly, making us ready to stand before You as a church, as a bride without spot or blemish on that day when You come.

Lord, we look forward to Your coming, but until You come, I pray that You would cause us to be an effective church, moving forward in the power of Your Spirit—not by our might, but by Your power. We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as being of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of You. You are the one who makes us able ministers of the new covenant, not in the letter of the law, because the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Lord, I ask for Your Spirit abundantly today. We pray this mightily in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

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