Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Guest (Male): Hey everybody, welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Today Rick's going to take us back to the very beginning of the church. In this message titled "Real Christianity: The Model of the First Church," Rick is going to guide us through what authentic faith really looks like as we explore how the first believers lived, worshipped, and supported one another and how their example still shapes our lives today. So let's get started with today's message.

Pastor Rick Warren: In 33 AD, when Jesus died on the cross, rose again, and then went back to heaven, there were only a handful of disciples, a handful of believers. There were about 120 believers when Jesus went back to heaven. But within 300 years, those 120 believers had dominated the Roman Empire. Even Caesar became a Christian. It became the official religion of the entire known world.

How did that happen? How did the church grow from just a few people to the dominant faith in the Roman Empire and now 2.3 billion people? One out of every three people around the world is a follower of Jesus Christ. Why did the church grow so fast? That's fascinated me.

Now, one of the interesting things is in that first 300 years, it was illegal to be a Christian. They were under intense persecution. In fact, being a Christian was not a way to get ahead; it was a way to lose your head. More often than not, if you were discovered to be a Christian, you were going to be fed to the lions in the Coliseum. You were going to be tarred and feathered and burned on the crosses, as Nero did for literally hundreds of thousands of people.

They were persecuted ruthlessly for 300 years. It was not a socially acceptable thing to become a Christian, and yet within 300 years, they dominated the world. Now, the Book of Acts in the Bible is the story of the first church. It started on the Day of Pentecost. That's in Acts chapter 2. Today is the day of Pentecost. This is the birthday of the church 2,000 or so years ago.

As you look through the Book of Acts, you discover eight characteristics of real Christianity. There are a lot of people today who are claiming to be Christians. There are a lot of things done in the name of Jesus Christ that God would say, "What? You've got to be kidding. I have nothing to do with that." In fact, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount that in the last day, at the judgment, there will be people who come to Him and say, "Hey Lord, didn't we do many miracles in your name?" and He's going to say, "I didn't even know you. Who are you talking about? You're not part of my family."

There are a lot of things done in the name of Christianity in the church that Jesus Christ would disavow. There's fake Christianity. There's phony Christianity. There's pseudo Christianity. What I want us to do this weekend is look at the real deal. What does it mean to really be a follower of Jesus Christ? When you were born, you had all the DNA you were ever going to get. In fact, the moment that egg was fertilized in your mother, you had all the DNA. You don't have any more today than you did the moment you were conceived.

When the birth of the church happened on Pentecost a couple thousand years ago, all of the DNA in the body of Christ was already there. As I've studied it, I've discovered how different we are as Christians in the 21st century from Christians in the first century. I want us to go back and look at what it really means to be a real believer, real Christianity. Here are the eight things. You might write these down. They're all out of the Book of Acts chapter 2.

Number one: Real Christianity has supernatural power. They don't just talk about God; they experience God. This is what makes the church different from every organization. We have the Holy Spirit. Microsoft does not have the Holy Spirit. The United States government does not have the Holy Spirit. The Red Cross does not have the Holy Spirit. No other organization has the power of God in it. God has not promised His Spirit to help anybody or anything else except His church.

The background of the birth of the church is in Acts chapter 1, and here on the screen, it says this: "For 40 days after his crucifixion, Jesus met with his followers many times." In other words, after He rose from the dead, He hung around for another 40 days. He proved in many ways that He was truly alive. One time He met with 500 people. He talked to them about the Kingdom of God.

One time, while eating a meal with them, Jesus told them, "Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the Spirit he's promised." He said, "I've got some stuff for you to do and I'm going back to heaven, but don't dare try to do it until you've got the power and it's going to come in my Spirit." He said, "I'm with you now, but I'm going to go back to heaven and I'm going to come back in a spirit form and I'm going to be in you, not just with you."

Now, down in verse 8 of the same chapter, it says this: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And then you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." We've talked about this before. Jerusalem was the city they were in, so He said to start in your own city. Then He said you go to Judea. That's like Orange County.

Then He said go to Samaria. That's like LA County, the county next door with all kinds of different people. Then He said go to the whole world. He said you expand in increasing circles. He said the Holy Spirit's going to give you the power that you need to do what I want you to do. For the next 10 days, after Jesus went back to heaven, all the people did was wait. They met and they waited and they prayed for God's Spirit to give them the power they needed for the life that He wanted them to live.

There is a direct connection in your life between power and prayer. The amount of spiritual power you have in your life is in direct proportion to the amount of time you spend in prayer. Much prayer, much power. Little prayer, little power. No prayer, no power. If you don't ever pray, I guarantee you, you're not seeing any miracles in your life. You're not seeing any supernatural power in your life. You don't have the energy to get everything done God wants you to get done.

Prayer is the connection point. It is the point where you get the power. Yesterday morning, I went down to the kitchen to make a protein shake and we got a brand new blender. It had like 30 buttons on it. I'm pushing these buttons and trying, and I just can't get the thing to go. I'm thinking, "All I need is a blender that has an off and on switch. I don't need 32 buttons on a blender. Just give me off and on." I'm pushing all these buttons and no matter what it was, this thing does not work. Then I realized it wasn't plugged in. That is an analogy of life.

You may be a Christian. You may be on your way to heaven. You may be pushing all kinds of buttons. But if you're not plugged into Holy Spirit power, you don't have any energy. No matter how many Bible studies you go to, how many churches you attend, how many small groups you're a part of, and how much you're involved in ministry, if you're not plugged in, you don't have any power in your life.

Jesus said to wait for supernatural, spiritual power. Where does it come from? It comes by praying. They prayed for 10 days. What do you pray about? You can pray about anything. In fact, here's the alternative: you can worry or you can pray. If you prayed as much as you worry, you'd have a lot less to worry about. Don't worry; worship. Don't panic about that job; pray. Don't tremble; trust. Pray more, worry less. You can pray about anything.

Do you think you can pray for God to give you a parking spot? Yes. The answer is absolutely yes. I was late coming to the first service this morning. I said, "Lord, I need a green light everywhere." I actually got a green light everywhere. I think God just said, "Well, you're going to be preaching on it. I might as well give you a good illustration." It doesn't happen all the time. But I'm saying you can pray about any little detail of your life. If it's worth worrying about, it's worth praying about.

I was actually reading a book on prayer this week where a theologian says if you hear a fire truck coming down the road and you pray, "Oh Lord, please don't let it be my house on fire," that's a self-centered prayer because you're actually praying it will be somebody else's house that burns down. He said what you should pray instead is, "Lord, let it be my house, but nobody get hurt."

Friends, there's a word for that kind of theology. It's when you cross a crocodile and an abalone; it's a crock-a-baloney. That is not what God says. The Bible says we're to come to God as little children. Little children aren't diplomatic. They just say, "I want this." They're just very bold. "I want this, Daddy. I want it, Daddy. I need it." They're not embarrassed by their request. They just blurt out whatever is on their heart.

When my kids were little, they thought I knew everything, could do everything, and could afford everything. When they grew up, they realized none of those were true. But your Heavenly Father can do everything, does know everything, and can afford everything, and you can talk to Him about anything. The more you pray in your life, the more spiritual power you're going to have. You've got to have the blender plugged in. You've got to have the Holy Spirit living through you.

The arrival of God's Spirit, when Jesus went back to heaven and said, "I'm coming back as the Holy Spirit to live inside you," was accompanied by three miraculous signs. Verse 1 of Acts chapter 2: "When the Day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place." This is the 120 people. "Suddenly a noise like a strong blowing wind—doesn't say it was a strong blowing wind, says it was a noise that sounded like a hurricane—came from heaven and filled the whole house." There's this big noise going on in their house and nobody knows where it's coming from.

Then, number two: "They saw something like flames of fire." It doesn't say it was fire. It says they saw something like flames of fire that were separated and stood over each person. There were 120 people in the room, so that means there were 120 of these little flame-like things hanging over each individual head. That's got to be weird. It says, number three: "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak with different languages by the power that the Holy Spirit was giving them."

Notice the three signs on the first day of the church: noise that sounds like a hurricane inside the building, a bright flame that looks like fire over each individual person, and everybody speaks in a foreign language like German or French or whatever. What is happening here? Jesus is saying, "My church that I'm starting today, I will build my church. My church will be powerful, radical, and multicultural."

Powerful: you hear this enormous sound. Radical: like little flames over each head. He's saying, "I'm going to set you guys on fire. You are going to be on fire for me. It's going to be radical." Then everybody's going to speak in a different language; it's going to be multicultural. The church is like no other organization on earth and nothing you've ever seen before.

The Bible says in Acts 2:43, "everyone was filled with awe." And many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. The problem today is that power is missing in most churches. A lot of churches talk about God but don't ever see any lives changed, don't see any miracles—financial miracles, health miracles, physical miracles, emotional miracles, relationships brought back together, people reconciling. They have talk, but they don't have power.

That's why the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 4:20, "the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power." It is something that changes you. It gives you the power to be the person you want to be. It is the empowered life. We're going to spend more emphasis on prayer because I want to see more power in you over your habits, your hurts, and your hang-ups. Power to let go of the past, power to move into the future, power to see changes in your relationships and in your dreams.

That is what God says He wants to do. He wants to work in our life with power. The second mark of real Christianity: it has supernatural power, and number two: it uses everybody's language. We see that in the next verse, Acts 2:4. It says they all began to speak different languages. The Spirit gave each of them the power to express themselves. You need to understand this is not talking about speaking in tongues here.

Speaking in tongues is a spiritual gift talked about in 1 Corinthians 12 to 14. That is a private prayer language that is for your own edification. It's for you to talk to God when you're just thinking, "God, I don't even know what to say. I can't even think of what to say. I'm hurting so much inside." That's a special gift that God gives to some people. That's not what He's talking about here. These are real languages.

People actually heard them speaking in French, Farsi, Swahili, German, and Korean. Notice the next verse. This was not for growth; this was for their mission. Verse 5: "There were religious Jews staying in Jerusalem at this time who had come from every country in the world." God had brought them all back together on the Day of Pentecost on the day He's going to start the church. When they heard this noise, a large crowd gathered and they were all excited because all of them heard the believers talking in their own language.

They said, "Look, I'm from Ethiopia and you're speaking Ethiopian." In amazement and wonder, they exclaimed, "These people who are talking like this are just Galileans." In other words, they're Jews. They only know Hebrew. How in the world do they know Ethiopian? They said, "How is it then that all of us hear them speaking in our own native languages?" Verse 11: "All of us hear them speaking in our own languages about the great things God has done."

This is the miracle of multi-channel and multicultural communication. God is saying on the first day of the church, "I'm going to do a miracle that shows the good news is for everybody." It's not just for Jews. It's for amazing grace for every race. I'm going to give these guys a special gift on the first day of the church and we're going to expand by saying everybody hears the good news in their own language.

What is God doing here? He's doing the exact opposite of what He did in Genesis 11. He reverses Genesis 11. If you go back to the Old Testament thousands of years earlier, there was a time when people said, "We don't want God to be God anymore. We want to be our own God. We're going to run our own lives. We're going to do our own things. We don't need God, so we're going to build a giant tower to ourselves." It was going to go all the way up to the heavens, and they were going to call it the Tower of Babel.

The word babbling comes from this word, like a baby babble. That comes from mixing up the language. The Tower of Babel was built and God said, "As long as they can all speak the same language, that's not a good thing because nothing they do will be impossible for them. So let's just go down and confuse their language." So God changed Babel. We get Babylon from this. He changed the languages and all of a sudden, He confused all the languages.

Some of the people spoke a certain language and they headed off for Europe. Another group couldn't understand each other anymore, and others moved away to Africa. Others moved away to Asia. It all spread out and the languages spread out. What God is doing thousands of years later is the exact opposite when He starts the church. He's saying, "Now instead of confusing languages, I'm going to clarify them because I want everybody to know how much I love them."

We don't need this miracle today because today the church speaks every language. We're in every country. The church is a global organization, a global family. In fact, it's more global than anything else. The church was global 200 years before anybody started thinking about globalization. It's in more nations than the United Nations. It speaks far more languages than the United Nations.

I could take you to 10 million villages where the only thing in it around the world is a church. No school, no business, no government, but they have a church. You take all the Walmarts and all the Starbucks and every other franchise together, they're a pitiful percentage—less than a percent of what the size of the church is. One out of every three people. We already speak every language. Right here at Saddleback Church, we speak 63 languages in this family. We have Pentecost every week.

Guest (Male): Thanks so much for being with us today and listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. I hope that you were just as blessed as I was from today's broadcast. Right now, here's Pastor Rick with a special message.

Pastor Rick Warren: When I started Saddleback Church over 40 years ago with just a handful of people in our living room, I also began writing a simple devotional just for the people in our church to help them start each day with hope, truth, and peace that comes from Jesus Christ. That little devotional grew and grew, and today Daily Hope is one of the largest email devotionals in the whole world.

Each day people all around the globe are reconnecting with God's promises and finding fresh strength in His Word to face whatever comes their way. Here's the best part: it's absolutely free. We don't have any charge for this. Every day you'll get a quick devotional read and a podcast that you can listen to on the go.

In a world that's more distracted and uncertain than ever, I want to help you start your day centered on what never changes. What never changes is God's unconditional love for you and His promises to you. If you'll just spend just a few minutes a day in the morning with the Lord, it can bring so much more clarity, purpose, and peace to everything that happens in your day. Psychologists have said that what you do with the first five minutes of your day pretty much sets the tone. Friend, you were never meant to go through life alone. I want to personally invite you to sign up for the Daily Hope devotional. Do it today. I think it's going to bring fresh encouragement to your walk with God.

Guest (Male): If you'd like to sign up for the daily devotional, it's easy. Just go to PastorRick.com. That's PastorRick.com. Be sure to join us next time as we look into God's word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.