An X-ray of the first Christians - 4 elements of the effective Church

I want to invite you to go to the Book of Acts in chapter 2, verse 41 to 47. Here we have an X-ray of the first Christians at the very beginning of the Church after Pentecost and after the first great evangelistic sermon of the apostle Peter, and We know that there was a great harvest of souls in that first sermon that God, inspiring the apostle Peter, gave him.

In verse 41 he says that: "As a result of that evangelistic sermon those who received his Word were baptized and about three thousand people were added that day, wow what a great impact, 3,000 people as a result of a single public sermon that was given there in the street practically, there were tongues, baptism of the Holy Spirit, noises, people gathered from everywhere.

I always say that the greatest evangelistic weapon is the move of the Holy Spirit, when a Church is filled with the Holy Spirit, when the gifts of God are in manifestation, evangelism occurs almost without effort, and these people gathered, the Apostle Peter preached a powerful sermon and about 3000 people believed the Lord and were baptized that same day; wow, how was that first baptism, wow, incredible.

And here is the heart of what I want to share with you, here it is in verse 42, it says: “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in fellowship one with another, in breaking of bread and in prayers. ”, I see here four characteristics of a powerful Church, of a Church that is effective in Evangelism.

In these weeks we have been talking about how to be effective in Evangelism and we have been looking at everything that has to do with Evangelism from different biblical aspects, what is the attitude of an evangelistic Church, its practices, what are the biblical elements that underpin the to do and evangelistic work, and here I want you to see what is the appearance and what is the internal constitution of a Church that God uses for Evangelism.

And then the verses that follow, 43 to 47 we see a little more of what that life of the first believers was like, there is no Church that exemplifies more what the Church of Jesus Christ should be than that Church of the first century. We always go to the Book of Acts to see why God was moving there in a very pure, very powerful way, these people had been there with Christ, the apostles, the first disciples were penetrated by the movement of the Holy Spirit, the gifts they were in manifestation, God was starting and pushing His Church forward and therefore, that Book of Acts is written so that we can see what the move of God was like in that virgin Church, in that Church that was being started.

He says that as a consequence of what was happening there in Jerusalem "fear came upon everyone" verse 43, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles, there were healings, liberation, manifestations of the Power of God, "and all those who had believed they were together, and had all things in common" and that has been said in verse 42 in a summarized way, "so much so that they sold their properties and goods, and distributed them to all according to the need of each one, persevering with one accord every day in the temple, and breaking bread in the houses they ate together with joy and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people" and here is the interesting thing, it says that: "and the Lord added every day to the Church those who were to be saved."

Do you see here the evangelistic effectiveness of this type of Church? As a consequence of everything that was happening within them and with them, the Lord added each day to those who were to be saved. Here we are not told so much that they were sending out pamphlets and carrying out well-organized evangelistic campaigns and that they had, no, the Church was a virgin, it did not even have the structure to do these things, but as a consequence of their internal life and of being flowing according to the principles of the Holy Spirit spontaneously brought people and people were converted when they observed the lives of these believers.

I have always believed that the greatest evangelistic instrument is not the evangelists, the campaigns, it is not the technological resources that we adopt, although all these things are very good, but what attracts people the most is the life of the children of God amen? the brothers who invite others, the quality of life that people find when they come to the House of God, when they observe how they love one another, when they observe the integrity of the children of God, when they see that here in the Church the things are conducted in a different way from how they are conducted in the world.

One of the things that I like the most about our Congregation is that great diversity that we have as a Church: we have Central Americans of different nationalities, we have Central Americans, we have Caribbeans, we have South Americans, we have a ministry in English that is currently having its meeting in the other building, we have young people, adults and the elderly, we have people who come from different denominational backgrounds inclusive; We have people who come from very conservative Pentecostal backgrounds, and we have evangelicals who are quieter, more formal, and glory to God here we all make a stew of different foodstuffs and enjoy each other.

And when people come and see that diversity that there is in us and that we love each other, they say: wow God has to be here because out there there is no such thing, out there what there is is division, each group meets with its group and they You forgot, I see Milton and his wife here too, the Brazilians are also here with us glory to God, that doesn't happen in the world. When people see that love that we have for each other, they say: wow, I really want to belong to this community.

I say that the greatest apologetic of all is the life of the Church and I see four characteristics of that Church that was so effective in adding to the Church every day those who were to be saved along with the moving of the Holy Spirit, and the verse 42, that is why I say it is a portrait, it says that they: "persevered the doctrine" underline doctrine here, number two: "in communion with one another" underline communion, "in the breaking of bread" underline the breaking of bread, and fourthly "prayers" let me dismount very quickly because I have miles to go.

Number one they persevered in the doctrine of the Apostles, an effective Church in Evangelism has to be a biblical Church, amen? it has to be a Church that perseveres in the teachings of the Word of God. If a Church has false doctrine, convenient doctrine that has been adjusted to please the people, that Church will not have evangelistic effectiveness.

Today in the United States there are many evangelical churches that are called main light churches that have changed the doctrine in many different ways: celebrating homosexuality, putting social justice in front of a solid, biblical, healthy spirituality, many different aspects have changed. of biblical teaching in other areas, moral and sexual liberalism, things like that, and those churches instead of attracting people, which is what is supposed to happen when doctrine is lowered, they are dying, quite the opposite, a behind the other, are the churches that are stopping growing while the biblical churches that insist more on the Word of God and remain in the doctrine are the churches that prosper here and in any part of the world.

Wherever you see evangelistic growth at this time, be it in Africa, be it in Asia, be it in Latin America or even in the United States or in Europe, you will find churches that are insisting on sticking to the Word of the Lord.

"They persevered in doctrine" glory to God and that is why I emphasize so much the importance of our Church adhering to the Word of the Lord, that is why we emphasize discipleship, this week we recorded about 180 people of different levels of discipleship, the Wednesday there are 200 or so people taking different classes that we provide for biblical instruction, our children are also being educated and we emphasize the importance of the Word of God because we know that there is the foundation.

I love when our children, for example in I Wanna, memorize verses from the Word of the Lord because that is there, it is engraved in their hearts, they grow and their neurological system is formed in the Word of the Lord.

When I was a child I attended Sunday school and I think that was where my spiritual sensitivity was recorded. I still remember Miss Cora, a Canadian missionary, at that time there weren't any of these technological aids yet, she used those and that's where I'm getting my age, she used those nuggets that are put on the blackboards, the Daniel figurines Of David killing the giant, those things were engraved in my heart and the love for the Word of God was engraved, so I encourage you to be people of the Word.

I love those people who come walking down the street with their 5-pound Bible tucked under their arms and say: I'm an evangelical, so what, don't you like it? This bible is almost falling apart but I love it because it says here: Pentecostal study bible and I believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, I believe that bibles should be big, heavy and ugly to be truly anointed, underlined , that's me. I know that today young people use ipads and iphones, I use them too but there is nothing like a good worn-out Bible to remind you that God's Word is important.

These people persevered, I like the use of the verb to persevere, it is a substantial verb. I looked it up in the dictionary and it means to stick to, it denotes passion, insistence, persistence, intensity, do you know why, brother? because staying in the doctrine costs, you will have a thousand temptations to get out of the doctrine, in your life the hormones will push you to get out of the doctrine, your temperament will push you to get out of the sound doctrine, the difficulties of marriage will push him to get out of the sound doctrine, the temptation between the brothers also; We Pastors are tempted to stray from sound doctrine wanting to attract people to be saved and I am going to change this, I am not going to say this, I am going to say that.

You have to persevere, in other words you have to say: I am going to tie myself to the doctrine and from there I am not going to leave no matter what I want to get out of it, you have to remain firm and if you honor the doctrine of God God it will honor you too. A Church that honors sound doctrine is a Church that will prosper and be blessed.

I was thinking about what Paul said to Timothy in Timothy I think it's chapter 3 quickly, Second Timothy 3 verse 14 Paul tells Timothy: "But persist" there is persevere, you see that where this call to doctrine is persevere, stay, not get away from it because the temptation will be to get away from it.

By the way, I'm getting stuck here, it's that the Word of the Lord is so rich, so good that one wants to get out of it but can't, there are many seminaries today that get out of sound doctrine. Our daughter Sonia just graduated from Yale management school and when I was there waiting for graduation and all that I remembered: Yale one of the greatest universities in the world was founded in the 18th century as a result of Harvard which had been founded to be a seminary for the preparation of men for the ministry had become too liberal and had abandoned doctrine, so the early Puritans and Christians here in America founded Yale as a substitute and alternative to Harvard, which was more doctrinally solid because the Word of the Lord was still taught a lot in the universities, they founded Yale, with time Yale also liberalized and then they founded Princeton so that it would also be a place where biblical and spiritual intellectual and spiritual teaching was preached and taught. Princeton also eventually came out of sound doctrine.

What we have seen in the United States through the centuries is that many of these universities, Dartmouth, Boston University, were founded by Christians who were solid in their faith, but over time they slipped away and abandoned sound doctrine, and we lost these great resources for the God's Kingdom. We built them and the pagans took them and took possession of them because we were not vigilant, we did not persevere, one has to persevere against all odds in sound doctrine.

And that is why Paul says to Timothy: “But you persist in what you have learned and persuaded yourself, knowing from whom you have learned, and that from childhood you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith that it is in Christ Jesus.” I could do a sermon just from that Bible passage that's there but I'm not going to and thank God, but at some point I'll get back to that.

But these Christians persevered, they remained, they screwed themselves to sound doctrine and for that God blessed them. Secondly, it says that they were also in communion with each other, communion with each other, that is, there was koinonia, the word in Greek is koinonia, compenetration, koinonia is a very deep word, it is intimacy, it is fellowship, it is sharing, is understanding one another, there was intimate fellowship with one another, unanimity, they met for joint activities for the Kingdom, there was love among believers.

Do you know that God sends the blessing where there is communion of Christians, where there is harmony? What does Psalm 133 say? “See how good and how delicious it is for brothers to dwell together in harmony, and at the end it says: “Because there the Lord sends blessing and eternal life.” No one wants to come to a Church where there is gossip, where there is division, where there is criticism, where there are little groups each sitting on their own, where there are fights and where there is simply a lack of fellowship, people want fellowship, the street is cold and a Church where there are people who love each other, that's why I tell you brothers: love one another.

Invite the person who is most distant from your own ethnicity and your own customs because it is very nice if the Dominican invites the Dominican to eat a sancocho because everyone likes a sancocho, but Dominican: go to the house of a Salvadoran brother and eat some pupusas that are so delicious, if someone wants to invite me a pupusa with pleasure, let me know, learn to eat the refried beans that Mexicans or Guatemalans make, so delicious that they are, a Honduran with his cream cheese sauce above some mature ones, so good that they make them, learn to eat other people's food, invite each other and enjoy, and learn to eat something different from yours, not everything is rice with beans and meat brother, there is so much good food in the world, enjoy, invite each other, appreciate each other because as the Lord Jesus Christ says, what is the use of one so-called being only with people who are equal to one, what merit is there in that? look for someone different from you and make harmony, and have fellowship with them and the Lord will be glorified, and then that becomes a spiritual act, a declaration of the unity of the people of God.

I adore diversity, I love trying different foods and seasonings. How many here use cumin in cooking or these other flavors from India and Africa? Learn to cook not everything is garlic and onion and tomato sauce (laughs), get out of the ordinary, go to an African store and buy yourself some kind of rare flavor there, ginger, cinnamon for cooking, yes not only for the desserts, it's hard but learn.

That communion that exists between brothers is so beautiful. Philippians 2:3 and 4, Philippians 2 the Apostle Paul, one of the passages that I like the most, says the Apostle Paul: "Complete my joy feeling the same, having the same love, unanimous, feeling the same thing" that It is what God wants from His people, and we have to cultivate that, that is not given by inertia, it is given by intention.

"Do nothing out of contention or vainglory, rather with humility, esteeming each one of the others as superior to himself, not looking each one for his own but each one also for that of the others" there you have the recipe for a Church in communion with one another and that Church then is a very powerful Church. Do you know what the greatest apologetics is? Apologetics means the greatest argument in favor of the Christian faith and the deity of Jesus Christ is the fellowship Christians have with one another.

One of the moving moments in the Ministry of Jesus Christ is found in John chapter 16 when Jesus, about to be crucified, prays for His disciples, and Christ says to His Father in that famous priestly prayer: "But I do not pray only for these" John 17:20 "But I do not pray for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word" those who are to come after them, "that they may all be one as You O Father in me and I in You, that they also be one in us” for what? “so that the world may believe that you sent me.”

Know what? again, one of the greatest elements of effective Evangelism, of an effective Church is that, the unity of the Church, the love of the brothers for one another, and not love because we are all the same, the same nationality, the same socioeconomic level or the same color, the same customs, no, because in our diversity we learn to love and appreciate one another, and that unity of the Church is tremendously effective, when people see that they say: wow, truly Jesus Christ is who He it says it is, because no one can make it possible for there to be this kind of unity.

We have to cultivate unity, make efforts to love each other, invite each other, forgive each other, protect and maintain the unity of the Church. That is why when I see that there are traces of division in our Congregation or any type of thing, when I see the devil trying to sow seeds within us, my ears and eyes perk up immediately, I have no tolerance because the devil wants always divide the Church and we cannot tolerate that.

When you see something that is the origin and element of division in the Church or flee or confront it in the Name of the Lord with love but do not allow it because the enemy wants to sow tares and divide the people of God, communion is very important to be a Church Effective in Evangelism.

So we have to persevere in doctrine, have fellowship with one another, and there is a third element that is associated because this is a logical progression with fellowship, it says that in the breaking of bread, again 2:42, Apostles' doctrine , communion and in the breaking of bread. What is there of importance, what is there of significance in the breaking of bread?

Remember that this was something symbolic, it wasn't so much the bread or even breaking it, there was much more to it. Remember that Jewish bread was not bread like the one we have sliced so soft that it bends wherever you want, it was a slightly harder bread that they divided and distributed, it was also a sign of camaraderie and friendship, the father of the house broke that whole bread and it had a number of symbolisms, that is why the Lord before being crucified when he gathered for the so-called last supper He took the bread, he says, broke it and gave it to His disciples, and said: Every time that you do this of breaking the bread in that intentional way in which I am doing it, do it in memory of Me, remind Me, that just as this bread is broken My body is also going to be broken on the cross, they are going to penetrate me with a spear, they are going to lash My back and they are going to open My skin, they are going to break Me as I am breaking this bread, and every time you do that act remember Me being broken for the salvation of your sins.

In other words, the breaking of bread for the first Christians was two things: it was social because Christians met in homes to eat together, and that is why I think it is something so beautiful that we invite each other, hospitality is important , that we be generous with each other in food to break bread, Christians met at food in the so-called agape to express love and affection for one another, and the Lord had encouraged, because remember that these first Christians when they separated of the Christian faith and associating with the Messiah Jesus Christ sometimes lost their family relationships, their family like today's Jews, when an orthodox Jew or Jews who take their faith seriously departs from the Judaic faith and converts to Christianity there is Many Jews who are still parents who mourn, remove all reminders of the life of that young person or that person, it is as if they died, they mourn and tear their clothes because that person has already left the family and they completely reject it, and so these new Christians needed fellowship, they needed a family, so they met in homes to worship, they ate together, they had a social life together, but they also remembered the sacrifice of Christ on the cross of Calvary.

But when the Bible says here that they remained in the breaking of bread, there were a series of associations around this act, it was expressing love for one another, having intimacy and communion, but it was also remembering the sacrifice of Christ, remembering the centrality of Jesus , remember the salvific work of the cross and it is something that we also have to do continuously, the centrality of what Christ has done on the cross of Calvary, which is what the Holy Supper represents, His blood shed for us on the cross of Calvary, His body broken for us, that is what gives us entrance to the Kingdom of God.

And I don't have a problem with brothers meeting in their homes in a very deliberate way perhaps and having a meal, and reminiscing, and praying, and saying: you know what, Lord? We dedicate what we are doing to You and we remember the blood, the body of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.

The center of the Christian life is the Grace of God pouring out on us, salvation is not because of anything we can do but because Christ gave himself on the cross of Calvary, for which salvation is free. I hope you are saying amen there even if it is inside, salvation is by grace, it is what Christ did on the cross of Calvary, and these Christians broke bread in obedience to what the Lord had commanded them to do. It is important that the Church have those significant rituals, the sacrament, the adoration, all these things that are important because they hold us together and in that act of coming together to remember the blood of Christ and the sacrifice of Christ on the cross there is a lot of power. there is a lot of meaning.

Finally, these Christians persisted in prayers, the fourth element of the effective Church is prayers. Now, that word prayers is also very significant and in verses 46 and 47 we are given a broader idea of what is given here in very basic terms, it says: "Persevering with one accord daily in the temple, breaking bread" as it says "in the houses, they ate together with joy and simplicity of heart" it says: "praising God and having favor with all the people" that praising God also refers to those prayers because the prayer of these people, they did not meet only to pray but to praise.

When one sees moments there in which these Christians, for example in Acts chapter 13 we see a moment in which the disciples come together, it says to minister to the Lord and there the Holy Spirit spoke and said: "Set apart Paul and Silas for me for the work for the which I have destined for you” and there was a moment of prophecy, of sharing hands and there Paul and Silas went out to preach the Gospel.

The meetings of the first Christians gathered to pray in a place and it says that the place trembled when these Christians prayed and cried out to the Lord. At another time when Peter and John had been imprisoned, the Christians came together to pray for the Lord to free them and get them out of jail, and in fact, in the middle of the meeting, Peter appears there having been released by an angel, the Christians They met for everything, they met and that word "prayers" refers to congregational life, the life of meeting and prayer.

These early Christians had a very basic prayer life, right? They didn't have bibles, they didn't have instruments like the ones we have, they didn't have LED screens, no, they met and all they had was; in fact they didn't even have the New Testament. Moreover, they did not have a scroll with the Word of God, that was something that only the rich had or a priest. Today you buy a Bible for $1.50, that was worth a year's salary, so they simply met to pray, to sing something that some little brother.

I remember those beautiful choirs that the Church sang 50 years ago and what tastier and more anointed choirs, today we have hundreds of choirs and I believe that many of them do not compare with some of those powerful choirs, there is no God as big as You, that chorus that everyone take but leave me that one, they are choirs that had testosterone, they had spiritual protein because they were created by people filled with the Holy Spirit, and these Christians met like this to worship together like that in a very basic way but they prayed, they cried out to the Lord.

This Friday we had a prayer meeting that we have been having these Fridays. Do you know that we leave at 2-odd in the morning? I thought it was about 12, frankly I had not seen my watch but it was 2 in the morning when we left, the Lord manifested himself in that small meeting with so much power that we could almost touch His Presence, when it entered 11:30 a.m. night we were going to leave and that was when the Lord left the best wine for last, I could with my spiritual eyes see the Lord with His dress and with a tight belt, I did not see it visually with my eyes but I saw it with my spirit and I felt His Presence there, and we entered into a time of adoration for about two hours and a bit praising the Lord only because we felt that the Lord was there and had visited us, His Presence was there as if almost corporeal.

And I know that we achieved great things there, we had during that time of prayer a time of spiritual warfare, of proclaiming the Lordship of Christ over the city and over the region, proclaiming the power of the Gospel, overthrowing principalities and powers. I know that even two or three demons cut off their heads there on Friday night, you know?

God moved, when the Church of Christ unites, the Lord says: Where there are two or three in My Name, there I am, hallelujah, and what you bind on earth I will bind in heaven, what you unleash in heaven heaven I will unleash it. If the Church knew the power we have when we get together and say: the session is open, like when a court of justice or a government, the director does so with his hammer, and boom! says: we are in session to deal with the affairs of the Kingdom of God, and when the Church of Christ meets in session to pray, bind, loose, declare, release, declare things in the world of the Spirit God honors from His Throne.

If the Church prayed more, if the Church worshiped more, if we spent more time uniting as God's people, the world would change in an instant, Evangelism would become much easier, God's anointing would run more freely, four simple things but very powerful for a Church that wants to be effective in Evangelism: persevere in doctrine, break bread with one another, have intimate fellowship with one another and lastly pray and adore the Lord in spirit and in truth.

Brother: get that into your heart right now, receive it in Jesus' Name, receive it in Jesus' Name. Doctrine, communion, sharing the bread, the cross of Christ and keeping ourselves in that prayer, in that adoration that is so important. God willing that our Church, when I point out these things, when I preach them I say: Lord, make them part of my life, make them part of my Congregation, that we never leave there, Lord.

Now Father: Your Word enters deep into our hearts, we receive it. By preaching it, Father, I ask you to make it a reality of the Lion of Judah until Christ comes. We want to be an effective Church and we want these qualities to nest and become a structural part of our life as a Congregation, so be it Father, we thank you for what Christ has done on the cross of Calvary, in the Name of Jesus; and we say: amen, I bless you my brothers, the Grace of the Lord be with you this morning.