Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: The church went from about 120 people to 3,000 people in one day. What made the people come by the thousands to get baptized? Was it that Peter marketed the church, or was it Peter doing really fancy things? No. Peter preached the Word. Did you see what our verse said? Verse 41: "They that gladly received his word"—that's Peter's sermon—"they were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls."

Guest (Male): We learn from Acts chapter 2 that there were four vital elements that formed the foundation of the early church's spiritual growth, unity, and collective worship. Pastor Brett Meador continues in today's word, our look into the Book of Acts, highlighting the practice of these four essential pillars that provide an enduring model for the gathering of believers still today.

Brett Meador: We're entering into Acts chapter 2, and it's an important text in the sense that some would say the trigger that really kicked off the New Testament church, the Christian church. Before this, it was not the church age; it was the Old Testament period of the prophets and the law. But when Jesus died, rose from the grave, ascended into heaven, that kicked off an age where the Holy Spirit came upon His church.

The question then becomes: What should be the emphasis in any given church? What would they say is the most important part of church behavior and church liturgy, even? The Bible gives us all kinds of detail about what the church should look like. At Athey Creek, our goal has always been to say: How much like that early church can we be? But I think maybe one of the most clear sections of scripture about what the church was all about in the early church is right here in our story of Acts.

Let's take a look at Acts chapter 2 because I think what we have here is such a beautiful definition of this, and we're going to start in verse 41. It says, "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls." Oh, wow. We've got a problem here. We've got a mega-church.

But what made the people come by the thousands to get baptized? Was it that Peter marketed the church, or was it Peter doing really fancy things? No, Peter preached the word. Verse 41 says, "they that gladly received his word"—that's Peter's sermon—"they were baptized, and the same day were added about 3,000 souls." So, suddenly we have a mega-church.

Now, I get it. Some of you are saying that's not what a mega-church is. Well, the church went from about 120 people to 3,000 people in one day. Have you ever wondered—this is stuff I think about—how did they logistically baptize 3,000 people in one day? Well, the Bible critics used to say, "Yeah, how did they do that? The Jordan River wasn't even near the city of Jerusalem." Well, the answer is kind of interesting.

The sermon that Peter preached, most scholars believe he preached on the southern steps of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Peter preached this sermon of Acts chapter 2, and then all the people were baptized, 3,000 people. At the base of these steps that would lead up to the Temple Mount, they archaeologically dug up hundreds of mikvah baths. When the Jews would come to Passover, they would go down to the southern steps and they would ceremonially cleanse themselves before they would go up to worship God on the Temple Mount.

So they had hundreds of these mikvah baths, as they would call them. The first step or two, you'd be in a little pool, and you would dip yourself in the cleansing ritual. Then, after being washed, you could go up and worship God up on the Temple Mount. Hundreds of these. So it's really believed Peter preached, and then they all went and got baptized. There were plenty of resources of water available on the Temple Mount—pools and reservoirs that were for that very purpose.

So this is what's happened: mega-church in one day. 3,000 people saved, baptized, ready to roll. So what did they do? This is where we pick it up in verse 42. "And they continued steadfastly in..." fundraising? Oh, no, it doesn't say that. "They continued steadfastly in having a worship session with songs and music and bands from all over the world?" Nope. What was it that they continued steadfastly in? "The apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers."

And what happened? Verse 43 says, "And fear came upon every soul." Not like afraid fear, but like reverence fear. People were blown away at what God was doing, and there was a holy reverence to what was happening. "And many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need."

Then, in verse 46, it goes on. It says, "And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved."

What a glorious depiction of the early church. 3,000 souls saved. What do you do now? Well, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, the fellowship, and the breaking of bread and prayers. And then there was a reverence, and there were miracles happening, and the people were loving one another and being hospitable to one another. What a glorious thing.

To me, one of the most key passages on what churches should do is Acts 2:42. This little verse 42 gives you four things that they continued steadfastly in. And the first one is they continued steadfastly in, number one, the apostles' doctrine. And what in the world is that? The apostles are the disciples of Jesus, minus Judas. They were teaching. The word "doctrine" means "teaching."

So what were the disciples teaching? They were teaching from the Old Testament, but maybe more importantly, they were teaching also what Jesus had taught them. Jesus taught them what they were supposed to know, and even after He rose from the grave, He taught them. So Jesus taught them the important things. Now, what's interesting is then the apostles' doctrine, they put it on paper and wrote it down, which eventually became the Epistles.

The Epistles are the writings and the teachings, the doctrines of the apostles. We do the same thing. We continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. The same thing the apostles taught, which was the Old Testament and the teachings of Christ, which became the Epistles—the letters of Paul and Peter and James and John. They all became part of the doctrine that completes the teachings of the Christian faith. This is really important: they continued steadfastly in that, the teaching of scripture.

That's why we put such an emphasis. The number one thing on their list was teaching the scriptures. When you do that, there's a real reward: we're getting the whole Word of God. The problem is there's a lot of sermonettes out there, little miniature sermons, but I believe sermonettes create "Christianettes." Do you want to be a Christianette? Just a little Christian that knows a few scriptures. Or do you want to be somebody who's actually done some hard work in the scripture? That's why we do this. It's not because I like to hear myself talk; it's quite the opposite.

For example, when Paul talks to the Ephesus elders, he says, "For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." I love the way the ESV puts it because it's like what's happening: "For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel." There are some people that shrink away or shrink back saying, "I'm not going to teach the whole Bible."

Why do they do that? It's because of a lot of different reasons. One, there's an intimidation. Others say, "I'm not going to teach the whole Bible because there are things I don't like in it." So I'm going to teach all my favorite topics, but I'm definitely not going to touch certain things. If you're an LGBTQ church, you're not going to see them seriously studying the Word. I'll tell you why: because there are six times in your through-the-Bible study where you'll realize that homosexuality is deemed an abomination before God. That's why they won't teach through the Bible.

They don't want verses like that, or about the unborn child, or about the nation Israel. Like some of the most controversial things that people say, "That's political, you can't talk like that." No, it's biblical, and they've politicized it. But a true Bible-teaching church, you're going to hit the easy stuff, but you're also going to hit the hard stuff.

I love that. It's something we get to do: go through the whole Bible. It's funny how churches will skip some of the best stuff too. There are churches that won't touch the Book of Revelation. "Oh, it's too confusing. It's too mysterious. It's too hard to understand. It's too controversial." They have different eschatological views, so they just not going to touch that.

But you know what's so sad about that? It's the one book of the Bible that has a promise in chapter 1 that the church that reads and hears the Book of Revelation, they will be particularly blessed. It's the only book of the Bible that says that, that you'll be particularly blessed if you go through the Book of Revelation. And by the way, every time we've gone through the Book of Revelation, we've been particularly blessed. It's an amazing thing that we get to do.

Sadly, it's not just Christians that are becoming biblically illiterate. Sadly, the Bible's being left out of church behavior. They're more into bark dusting the elementary schools or serving nice things, all about community or all about this or that. They were about the apostles' doctrine; that's at the top of their list. Watch out for that.

Even Time Magazine—I remember this article came out quite a few years ago, but I saved it because it's amazing. Here's the secular magazine Time Magazine. The main article was "The Case for Teaching the Bible." And I remember reading how they talked about how we've become a nation of biblical illiterates. Half of adults can only name one of the Gospels. Most can't even name the first book of the Bible. Even within the church, 44 percent of evangelical teenagers could identify a particular quote as coming from the Sermon on the Mount.

Why has the church, particularly in America, but really around the world, become so biblically illiterate? It's because the church focuses on other things other than the Bible. They focus on worship, or the church is busy about being all about community, or being all about fundraising or projects or events. But the apostles' doctrine is one of the last things they're thinking about, even though it's the first thing on the list in the Bible.

If the devil can't make you sin, he'll make you busy. And I think that's what's happened to the church. The church has gotten busy with all kinds of other things. Amos the prophet said it this way in Amos 8:11: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. And they shall wander from sea to shining sea. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east."

Who says that, "from north to east"? You always say from the north to the south. The reason why is that's an idiom of the Jews to say from north to east means you're wandering aimlessly. So from sea to sea, from north to east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

Question: Are we there? Largely in America, I think we're there. There's a famine of hearing the word. We like to hear TED talks in churches today. We like to hear people's opinions and scripture that's twisted to sound sensational. But is there a famine today? I believe we have to be really careful with this one.

Thankfully, God gives you and me the apostles' doctrine to sit under. We don't have our own doctrine, but the apostles' doctrine. That's what we have to stand on. Do you remember what Paul says to Timothy? He says, "Timothy, the things you've heard me teach, that's what I want you to teach, and entrust that to other faithful men." We're passing on the apostles' doctrine. If I put enough of Brett in it and put my twist on it, it's no longer the apostles' doctrine; it becomes sort of my own. That's why I would say every pastor should seek to be unoriginal but stick to the script, which is the Word of God.

So they continued steadfastly: number one, apostles' doctrine. Number two on the list: they continued steadfastly in fellowship. The word "fellowship," in fact, I bet many of you know the Greek word that's in this place because it's kind of an interesting word. It is *koinonia*. The Greek word for "fellowship" is *koinonia*. The reason I bring that up is because there's no English word that really satisfactorily defines the Greek word. "Fellowship" is a nice attempt.

But what does the word *koinonia* mean? When you do a Greek study, I broke out my favorite three in my library at home. For example, the Dictionary of Biblical Languages puts the word *koinonia* as "close, mutual association." The Greek-English Lexicon puts it "willing contribution." Those things don't even seem to be the same at all. Then, if you go to Strong's New Dictionary of Greek, it's "partnership and participation."

If you put this all together, now we're starting to get to the idea of what *koinonia* was: close, mutual association but willing to contribute. They were contributing, participating, partnering together as Christians. But they had a mutual association, and their association was all around Jesus. That's what *koinonia* is. It's a mutual association around Jesus Christ where we are partners and contributing and participating in fellowship. That's what they continued steadfastly in as an early church.

If there's a big concern of Old Pastor Brett, this is one that I worry about because we are a large church. Some of you can come into this building and you can hide away. You can sit down and listen and be a part, then you can hide out. You can sneak in and out of here without anybody talking to you. Some of you love that. By the way, I have to confess that'd be one of my weaknesses too. It's not natural for me just to have that *koinonia* or that kind of fellowship. But that's what we're called to do. That's one of the downsides of a large church. It's easy to be a face in the crowd, and some people like that.

I love what these people do: a lot of their *koinonia* seems to be centered around meals. Wouldn't it be great? I'm going to make Sunday we're going to go to brunch, and we're going to invite whoever sits next to us this Sunday. We're just going to say, "Hey, you guys want? Lunch is on us." And you go get that exquisite lunch at Taco Bell together after the service. Wouldn't that be great? You eat and get to know each other and pray for each other.

What you might find is some good friendship and *koinonia* around Jesus. There's a passage of scripture I think that helps define the word *koinonia*. I call it the "scripture salad." Now, normally I'm not into salads, but this is a salad I like. It's Hebrews, on this idea of fellowship or *koinonia*. It's best demonstrated in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 22.

Here's the salad part: "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching."

This is what *koinonia* looks like: people not forsaking assembling together, but not just ignoring each other, but considering each other, thinking about each other, and provoking them. That's not a bad word; it's not being irritating, but encouraging people to be loving and doing good works. That's what this fellowship circles around. So the three "let us" statements there are a good reminder of what *koinonia* is supposed to look like.

This idea of *koinonia* or fellowship is something that we've got to work extra hard on. So you've got apostles' doctrine, number one. Number two: fellowship, *koinonia*. Number three: they continued steadfastly in the breaking of bread. Now, there's debate: What does this mean? Is it eating meals together or is it the Lord's Supper and communion? I think it's both. And I think there's evidence of that.

We see in verse 46 that they did eat their meat with gladness from house to house, breaking bread. Verse 46 is definitely talking about having meals together. But in verse 42 when it says they continued steadfastly in the breaking of bread, that's an idiom that they used, that also meant communion, the Lord's Supper, and remembering Jesus. Even as Jesus instructed the church, do this often in remembrance of me.

So, good on these apostles: they're doing what Jesus told them to do. This is one of the ordinances of Jesus. In the early church, you're supposed to make sure that breaking bread is part of the deal. I believe there are two main ordinances of the Christian church: baptism, which we saw in verse 41, and the breaking of bread as communion, that's here in verse 42. Churches should definitely do those things: communion and baptism.

Well, if they were supposed to have meals together, how's that look? We used to do church barbecues all the time when we were small at Athey Creek. It was so fun. I remember after services, "Okay, you go to Safeway, okay, you go get the..." and we'd bring the grill and we'd go have barbecues every Sunday. But then we got bigger, so we had to go like once a month. Then we got bigger, and we went once a year. It's quite an ordeal to do a barbecue.

It's fun, and we'll still do those, maybe once a year. But I hope that you guys are looking for ways to have people over to your house to be hospitable. Hospitality is part of the early church, having meals with other Christians, breaking bread, but also that is the communion table with Jesus, participating in communion to do it often.

Well, fourth on the list and finally: the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and then finally prayer. It says here "prayers." But what's interesting is, if you look at the original language, it says "the prayers." Which is kind of interesting. It said they continued steadfastly in apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and the prayers. That article makes you realize they're speaking of specific prayers.

What prayers? Did you know the early church had times of prayer? It was set aside for more of the vertical, less of the horizontal. A sermon and teaching, like Peter did in Acts chapter 1, that's preaching to the congregation. But prayer is when you're speaking to God and worshipping God in that way. And that's something we need to do. So "the prayers."

Do you remember Peter and John in Acts chapter 3? It says, "Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour." So they had an hour of prayer. Prayer is such an essential part of the church, but not just for the leadership. I'd love to see more groups of people getting together just to pray. How we need that.

There was a pastor that I love to read because he was known as the prayerful pastor. His name was E.M. Bounds. He wasn't impressive as a speaker or for his oratory skills, but when he got to the pulpit, he spoke with such authority, and you could tell he'd spent time on his knees. He was hearing from the Lord in prayer; there was a weightiness to this guy.

In one of his writings, he said, "What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men—men of prayer." I think he's right about that.

A lot of churches spend a lot of time on the machinery and the methods, but I think we're poorer because we aren't on our knees before God in prayer. For example, we need to be praying for this nation. I believe we should be praying. I also think we should vote. I think it's irresponsible for a Christian not to use the gift that we have to try to push a nation in the right direction. That's a huge mistake to not do that.

But I'm also going to spend a lot more time thinking about and doing the act of prayer for this country. Praying that the Lord's will be accomplished because I think that's where the real power is. Our vote has a certain power, but prayer has even more power. So there it is, the four "continued steadfastly" things of the early church. They didn't waver on this: they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador reflecting on the concise blueprint for the early church of four vital spiritual disciplines that have given the foundational model for the church today. And I hope you'll stick around as Pastor Brett will be back to talk a little bit about his own church and a question that some people have been wondering.

But first, Today's Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church, just south of Portland, Oregon, where Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor. Our vision on Today's Word is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus through careful study of the Bible. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. If you've missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com.

Well, Pastor Brett has joined me now. Brett, as we've been hearing about the church today and the model from Acts chapter 2, I've been asked about the name of your church, Athey Creek. How exactly did you get that name?

Brett Meador: People say, "How do you pronounce that? Athey or..." and I say, "Well, it sounds like atheist, but we are not atheists." That's right. But it's Athey. No, the way we got that name was we started with a different name 30 years ago, and as it turned out, somebody about 100 miles from here had the same name that we chose. So we quickly had to change.

Our first church meetings were in a middle school, and that school was called Athey Creek Middle School. It was because there's a little creek right next to the school called Athey Creek. So we thought nobody will name their church Athey Creek. So we took that name. You know what's kind of funny about that? We moved from that school about a mile away and built our church building, and right next to our building is a road called Athey Road. So the Lord kind of worked it all out. It's a unique name but, you know, it's funny how a name that's strange becomes very familial and happy. We just think it's just kind of a nice name for our church. Athey Creek Church is where we landed.

Guest (Male): Absolutely. That's a great story. Thanks for sharing that, Pastor Brett. And if you'd like more information about Athey Creek Church, Pastor Brett Meador, or Today's Word, you can visit our website at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com.

Well, that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett Meador will continue another verse-by-verse study in the Book of Acts. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.