April 28, 2025 • 31 mins
Join Pastor Joe Liles as he starts a new Series called, "Church Shopping." This series is..
“An honest look at how church has changed—and why what we’re really searching for is something only God can give.”
Pastor Joe will explore the origins of the Christian church in this message about faith, community, and the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. Discover how the early Christians gathered, worshipped, and spread the Gospel despite persecution, and learn what it truly means to be the church beyond Sunday morning.
In this message, you'll:
- Understand the roots of Christian worship
- Explore the challenges faced by early believers
- Learn about the church as a community of faith
- Be inspired to live out your faith beyond church walls
This message is for anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of Christian history and community. Whether you're a long-time believer or just curious about faith, this sermon offers insights that will challenge and encourage you.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Pastor Joe Liles (00:00):
So we're going to be starting a new series
(00:04):
today as we look forward intothe month of May, coming after
Easter. And we thought thisseries would be great because as
table was sharing right the dayof Pentecost is coming. That's
on June 8, it's actually goingto be a day where we do baptisms
in the church. And so we'regoing to go out to the river, we
go out to McKissick Creek and wedo baptisms. And so that day is
(00:24):
meant as a day where really theHoly Spirit came upon all those
who were gathered. That's whyit's called Pentecost. And it
truly is the beginning of whatwe would call the church. But I
get a question a lot as apastor, right? And I love this,
because Easter just happened.
And so we have people that onlyattend church on Easter. It's
amazing. And I actually lovethat many people are like, they
(00:46):
should come all the time. Like,I love it if you make it to
church on Easter,congratulations. Like, that's
amazing. You've been able toexperience the heart of God in a
worship that is vibrant, right?
And life feeling and you come,and we hope that is a first step
in a journey towards becomingdeeper in your relationship with
God. And so I love people thatcome on Christmas. We have
people that only attend onChristmas and only attend on
(01:08):
Easter, right? Do you know whatthe third biggest day in the
church calendar year is? Doesanyone know what that is the
third biggest day in the churchcalendar year, Mother's Day,
right? And guess what? It'sright after Easter. So it's
great. So we have that comingup, which can be really
incredible on May 11. So it'sgonna be absolutely wonderful
coming up here. And, yeah, wehave the photo booths and
everything else, because peoplelove to attenders. Father's Day
(01:30):
is the fourth, no, it's not, butwe're gonna change that. It's
gonna be a moment, right? We'regonna do like a camping outside
or something. I'm gonna get allthe dads here on Saturday night
so they can't leave on Sundaymorning. It's going to be a
great but I wanted to talk toyou about the start of church,
and I wanted to to begin byputting your heart into your
(01:51):
church experience and the churchexperiences you've had growing
up, maybe, and what those churchexperiences were, and just take
back so I really want you tokind of go through a process. I
want you to think about, howmany of you grew up in church,
right? Like, grew up going tochurch every single Sunday.
Raise your hand if you grew upgoing to church. Wow. Okay,
that's a lot of you. That'sgreat. Okay? Every single
(02:12):
Sunday, how many of that waslike, what you would call a
contemporary worship back in theday? That means, did they have a
guitar? If they had a guitar,then that's a moment, right?
Okay, so one of you, how many ofus traditional worship?
Tradition? Oh, wow. Okay, that'sgreat. We have coming up on May
18, traditional Sunday, which issacred Sunday. Give it up for
traditional Sunday, which isgonna be wonderful. We're gonna
(02:34):
have everyone here doingacolytes. We're gonna robe,
we're gonna vest, we're gonnahave hymnals in all the chairs.
We're gonna come forward. I'mtrying to get kneelers right for
communion. Like we're gonna dotraditional Sunday. We're gonna
walk through a whole traditionalworship. And we're going back to
like, 1990s traditional worship,just so you know, because I
haven't led the new traditionalworship, so I know the old
(02:56):
traditional worship, so I'mgoing to what I know and what I
grew up and because I also grewup in traditional church. So I
want to put your heart therefirst. I want you to start with
this identity of the start ofwhen you grew up in church, and
those memories, right? And whatthose memories were, how many of
you growing up in church? That'sa good memory, right? It's a
(03:17):
good memory, a foundationalmemory of growing up in church.
Okay? Wonderful. So we have thatright, and then I want you to
fast forward a little bit,right? So when you had a little
bit of independence in yourlife, right? Let's look forward
to maybe high school, maybecollege, right? How many of you
attended church while you're incollege? Right? Okay, I'm seeing
about 75% we're going down alittle bit right there. How many
(03:38):
of you attended church everysingle Sunday while you were in
college. Okay, now we're at 25%okay, that's good. Wow. You kept
your hands raised, like youattended every Sunday. You lied.
That's not true. But I want to,I want to take that moment so we
have, hey, I was brought tochurch. I was raised in church.
Right? Not everyone was right.
Some people are discoveringthat. So we come with the
(03:58):
perspective of church shopping,knowing what our church
experience is like now we go andstart to discover a church
experience, because we're nolonger brought by someone right.
We're now having to make thechoice to go to church. And that
changes a little bit, because itbecomes a priority issue. It
becomes a balance of life issue.
(04:18):
And you start weighing Sundaymorning Sleeping in with Sunday
morning church. And you lovechurch, but you also love
sleeping in. And you lovesleeping in because you love
what you did on Saturday night,which ended up taking Sunday
morning from you, right? And soall of a sudden the priorities
start shifting a little bit,right? And then how many of you
(04:40):
at one point left the churchlike did not attend church for a
season. Okay, a good so I'msaying about 25% still. So we're
at 25% who don't attend churchreligiously after they did, and
we're at 25% who left the churchalso. And then here's my
question to you, what ended upbringing you back in? To the
church. And I just want you tothink about that. Why did you
(05:03):
come back in? See the church isa cycle. The church is a season,
right? The church is moving andebbing and flowing with your
life. And we know this is achurch. We know that when you go
through life seasons how you'regoing to come in and out of the
church. We've seen it here asthe neighborhood for 15 years,
(05:25):
but it is across the big Cchurch everywhere, about how we
go into the life of the churchright when you are independent
and you're trying to structureyour life and you're trying to
start a career and you're tryingto start a family and you're
trying to get married, those arepriorities, and it's really hard
to then take that as a singleperson going into church. When
you were raised in a familyenvironment, going to church,
then you were raised in maybeindependence going to church,
(05:45):
but had all like mindedindividuals. And now that you're
just in community, it getsreally tough. But then maybe
there's kids involved, or haveyou gotten settled down, and now
you understand that you need toalso now have a foundation in
your faith. And you remember, Ihad a foundation when I was
raised in the church. So thenyou start to come back into the
church, and we see people startto come back into the church as
young adults, right? And youngadults start to come back into
(06:07):
the church, and it's wonderful,and they kind of grow through
the church. And then when youget to a transition phase of
like a high school graduate,maybe an empty nester, maybe a
college graduate, all of asudden you have parents
rediscovering their relationshipafter 18 years, going, oh my
gosh, we don't have kids toconcentrate on. Who are we
together? Anyone going throughthat? Okay? No, don't want to
raise your hand. Okay, that'sgreat. So that happens when
(06:31):
you're out there, going, who arewe now? And you rediscover your
faith again. And then when youretire, you rediscover your
faith again, right? And whatthat means, do you see all these
major life transitions thathappen, and that's not even
saying about moving, about newjobs, anything else like that.
Family changes. Family shifts,right? Breaks up relationships,
all of those differentcategories impact your life in
(06:53):
the church. And I have peoplecome to me saying, We're church
shopping. Has anyone ever saidthat before? We're church
shopping? What do you think myresponse is? Right? Give me some
responses of how you think Iwould respond to someone that
walks in on a Sunday morning andsays, I'm church shopping. What
do you think I say to them?
That's a good one. What kind ofchurch you looking for? Glad
you're here. Okay, that's great.
(07:15):
I hope we make it. No, I'm like,I hope we make the top three.
You know, like, come on here.
No. What are some othersresponses? I'm church shopping.
What would a pastor say inresponse to that? What kind of
church did you grow up in?
What's your church experience?
Why are you church shopping?
Right? That's good. Any othersout there, we have a great sale
going on. It's salvation, right?
It's free. 99 you can get it anySunday you come to the
(07:38):
neighborhood church. It's foryou, right? We give grace, yeah.
What about I pray that God leadsyou to the church that he wants
you to be in, right? That Godwants you to be in. That's
wonderful. So do you guys wantto hear what I share with them?
Okay, so here's what I sharewith them. When someone comes in
and says, I'm church shopping ona Sunday, I say, That's amazing,
(07:59):
because I too would have been achurch shopper had it not been a
pastor, and I would have gone tomany different churches, and I
would have discovered my faithover and over again in a really
incredible way. And I said, butmore than that, I'm glad that
you're here, because I know alot of the churches in the area,
and if the neighborhood isn'twhat you're feeling, I'd be
happy to sit with you and guideyou to the church where you're
(08:19):
going to feel most connected toGod and deepen your relationship
with God, right? And I tellthem, and I say, so, let me know
what you think. After thisSunday, we'd love to hear about
your church experience, when whyyou came here, and then let's
see if we can guide you eitherdeeper here in the community or
to a church that's really goingto help you, right? And that is
what I share every single time.
I believe that we should be achurch when we are church
(08:39):
shopping for the local church,not the neighborhood church.
Believe me, there's enoughpeople. Like it's okay, like,
I'm not worried that everyperson has to fall in love with
the neighborhood church. I amworried that every person has to
fall in love with Jesus Christ,and I'm worried that every
person has to fall in love anddeepen themselves and find a
heart and connection that'sgoing to carry them beyond these
walls and be on a Sundaymorning. I know that, and it's
(09:02):
part of the reason that westarted the church. So when we
came here, we went to all thedifferent churches before we
planted the neighborhood, to getan identity of what the church
was. And I had come from abackground of church. I grew up
in traditional Lutheran Church.
Hymnals, Albs, stoles. I wasacolyte so many times, 1000s of
times, 1000 times. And everytime I got to the bottom, and we
called to the bottom, every timeI got to the bottom of the
(09:24):
aisle, because it was, like, ona slant, then it was a super
long aisle. Would have thiswick, and the wick was out, and
they'd light you in the back, soyou could light the candles. And
all you do the whole time waslike, Please don't go out.
Please don't go out. Pleasedon't go out. And you're just
walking slow so and then youwould hit where, like, one of
the vents from the airconditioning was, like, right at
the front. And thengo, I and the pastor would look
at you, which was my dad, andhe'd be like, Ah, right? Because
(09:46):
then you have to turn around andyou have to go back and get re
lit and try again. It was likethis holy test of fire, right in
church. And I was like, so muchpain, so much pain from that.
How? Many times did it go out,right? I did become really good
at at the end, and then I fellinto the Christmas tree once
with a lip candle, and that wasa bad deal. So, man. But I grew
up going to traditional church,and grew up in this way, right?
(10:11):
It was wonderful. And then Iwent to college, and I didn't go
to church. I wanted to, I wantedthat to be my heart, but I had
different priorities, right? Iwas it. Was doing school, I was
doing football. Had a girlfriendat the time, and she didn't want
to go to church on Sundaymorning. So I was like, I don't
need to go to church on Sundaymorning. I love church. Love
church. But my prioritiesshifted. I didn't even realize
(10:33):
it, and I got caught by it, andso I didn't go to church. And
then my junior year, I realizedthat I just was not deepening my
faith, and I was not committed,so I went back to church, and I
attended a traditional LutheranChurch in the town of Salem,
Oregon. Salem, Oregon,traditional Lutheran Church
didn't make it long there, likeI was discovering something
different. I was trying to getinvolved, and I was in the
(10:54):
choir. It just wasn't there. Andthen I attended a Salem Alliance
Church because they had acollege ministry that fed you
one night a week. And I waslike, I can get free food at
ministry. And I was like, I amin. I don't need denominational
ties. I'm just going for thefood. Like, let's go. So I
attended an Alliance Church. Iattended a Four Square Church
while I was there, and then Icame back after college, and I
(11:15):
was in Phoenix. Phoenix is whereI grew up in traditional church,
so on Sunday morning in Phoenix,is what ultimately led me to
seminary. I attended the churchI grew up in and sang in their
praise band, right? And it waswonderful. We had a choir loft,
right? And we had all musicstands and everything else like
that. Oh, alright, it was thisgood. It's just great choir
(11:36):
singing, that's all. It was,right, wonderful. And then I
went to the church my dad wasleading, which was like a large
mega church style thing. And Iwent to that church and I just
sat and was present in support,right in support of the family,
and just attended. And then Iwent to a third church on
Sundays, which is a super largenon denominational church. And I
went to a large nondenominational church, and this
church is like, put Corvettes onthe stage. And they'd be like,
(11:57):
don't put sand in the gas tankof your faith. And I'm like,
This is awesome. I was like, Ididn't know. So I had all these
experiences of church, and Irealized that every single night
I was trying to fill it withministry. Every single Sunday, I
was traveling for four to fivehours across the Phoenix Valley
to go to these churches. And Irealized that every part of my
life was trying to fill with acraving for faith and a
deepening of the heart of God,and I just desired that I would
(12:21):
find faith in community. And I'mgoing to tell you something that
I believe about the churchtoday. The church today is one
of the last few places thatintentionally creates community.
It invites you into anintentional community, not on
the surface level, but itinvites you into a community
(12:42):
that says, Hey, we are going toget to know you. We want to dig
deep with you. We want to findout where we're broken and we're
hurting, and where we canprovide hope and peace and then
even fill that with joy and apromise. And we want to walk
that life with you. And we'llwalk it with you on the good
days, and we love that, butwe're going to walk it with you
on the bad days, and we're gonnatell you that we know that that
bad day in our community is notgonna be the last one that you
(13:04):
have, and because you came intothe church, we're also not gonna
promise you that you get peaceall the time. We're gonna seek
that, but it's not somethingthat's always present. But we're
gonna walk with you the churchwhen you're church shopping
should be a place that you lookfor community. And we're going
to talk about that, because alot of places that people go
looking for a church home,they're looking to consume, not
(13:26):
for community, they're lookingto take in. And what can I get
out of worship? That's not theidentity of what church was
intended to be ever and yet thechurch has done that also. So I
give that up for the church.
It's our confession, too, thatwe've made it a place where you
can consume, take in, and thenjust walk out and not be
(13:48):
changed. This is a place ofcommunity. This is a place of
change, and we hope you get thatthrough this series. So I want
to open up a scripture and talkabout this early church. So
here's what we're going to do inthis series. In this series,
we're actually going to breakdown, and we are going to walk
with the Church throughout theyears of the church. It's going
to be really incredible. Sowe're going to go through the
(14:09):
church in 100 right? So, AD, 100right after Jesus's death. And
we're really talking about like33 through hundreds of good
estimation, but the early churchreally goes all the way up to
like 325, is how you classifythe early church, and I'll talk
about that a little bit. Butwe're really going to stay in
like these years of like 33through 70 and 100 and talk
(14:30):
about what this church wasaround Pentecost, and where the
believers were, and what washappening in that time. And then
next week, we're going to go tothe Reformation. This was when
the apostolic Catholic Church,right? So the apostolic
succession, right from all theapostles, that is the Catholic
Church, right? And in the 1500swe had the Reformation, which
split off into Protestant, whichis not Catholic. So then all of
(14:51):
a sudden you had the split, andLutherans were the first split
from Catholic into theProtestant denominations. In
front of that, you get Methodistand Episcopal and all these
other denominations. That areout there too. And then you get
down into other main line, whichis like Baptist and different
things that happen further ondown the line. And so you get
the split of the church in the1500s so we're going to talk
about that. You're the church.
And then the next week afterthat, on Mother's Day, we're
going to do 1990s Church, whichI love. It's like the mega
(15:13):
church, the multi site Church,the media church, like this
whole advent of things changingwith like the.com boom. And
what's happening with that? Sowe're going to go back into 90s
worship, and then we're going tohave sacred Sunday on the 18th,
and then graduation Sunday, thefuture Church, the future
generations on the 25th so thisis going to be an incredible
series. I'm really lookingforward to it, but we're going
to open up and talk about theearly church today. So I want
(15:34):
you to open up to the book ofActs. So Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John are the Gospels, they tellthe story in the New Testament.
So the New Testament is reallythe story of Jesus Christ. It's
the story of the apostles afterJesus Christ, starting the early
church on throughout thedifferent letters to different
churches and communities offaith. And then you get into
kind of an apocalypticliterature, Revelation, end
(15:54):
times, at the end of the NewTestament. But if you're finding
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John inScripture, keep on turning. You
get to Acts in Romans, right?
And so you can kind of see that.
And we're going to be in Actschapter two, and this is right
after Pentecost. So I want youto imagine that Jesus rose from
the dead. Jesus stayed on earthfor 40 days, if you didn't know,
(16:16):
before He ascended into heaven,right? And so we have Jesus
staying on Earth and talkingwith the disciples and still
doing ministry and kind ofshowing people that the kingdom
is real, that that it is truth,that he was raised from the
dead. And then you have thismoment where the apostles go on
after the starting the earlychurch, which was not really a
church, and we're going to talkabout that in a second, they're
really more started communitiesof faith. And so they're
(16:36):
starting these communities, andthey're gathering. And then you
have this Pentecost moment wherethe Spirit alights upon them,
which we're going to hear aboutin June 8, the spirit alights
upon them, and they receive theHoly Spirit. They now have the
commissioning of the Holy Spiritto go out into the world, right,
and continue this ministry thatJesus Christ started. And they
start to become the church, andstart to become Christians,
right? And so with that, we'regoing to get in Acts two,
(16:59):
Chapter 40. Chapter two, verses42 through 47 and this is really
going to talk through the firstconverts of the church, and then
also the life among thebelievers. And we're asking the
question, if we gather on aSunday today for one hour, have
you ever wondered how we got tothat, like, how church on Sunday
became to be why do we makeSunday sacred? Why were
(17:22):
Wednesday nights used to besacred, but are really hard now,
right? We're losing time andlosing those places and culture
where we had it locked down, butSunday is still one of those
moments. We're asking thatquestion throughout the series.
How do we get to Sunday morning?
So here's what it says in thefirst converts. And this is
verse 42 through 47 it saysthis, they devoted themselves to
(17:46):
the apostles teaching, and thisis the first converts. They
devoted themselves to theapostles teaching and to
fellowship, to the breaking ofbread and the prayers. If you're
looking for what the start ofthe early church was, we're
going to go back into that,because that just named it,
right. We're going to get tothat in a second. But here's
what it says in verse 43 this islife among the believers. Awe,
(18:07):
amazement, wonder came uponeveryone because many wonders
and signs were being done by theapostles, because they had the
Holy Spirit. All who believedwere together and had all things
in common. They would sell theirpossessions and goods and
distribute the proceeds to allas any had need. Day by day,
they day by day, as they spentmuch time together in the
(18:30):
temple, they broke bread at homeand ate their food with glad and
generous hearts, Praising Godand having the good will of all
people. And day by day, the Lordadded to their number those who
are being saved. So why do youthink people come to church? I
(18:53):
pulled up a study from 2001 ofwhy people come to church and
and I was thinking about thisfrom like the time when I was
trying to discover a church andwhat that means, and trying to
see if it's still true, 25 yearslater, 25 years later, from 2000
Why do you think people come tochurch? What do you think is the
number one reason people come tochurch? Say it out loud, need a
savior. Okay, we got need asavior. What's some other
(19:14):
reasons that people come tochurch? They're supposed to so I
call that obligation, right? Ihave to attend church, right?
Say one more over here to hearthe Word of God, right? They
come for the word, maybe musicout there. What's some other
reasons people come to church?
Beliefs? Right, to understand,oh, loneliness. Okay, that's
great. Beliefs and loneliness,that was, yeah, that was moan. I
(19:37):
totally hear beliefs that'sgreat, but loneliness right to
find community, right to findthat moment. Yeah, one more
made of forgiveness. Right?
Salvation made a mess of theirlife. Here are the five reasons,
according to this study, whypeople came to church right.
Number one was this, 94% of thepeople said they come because
it's important to worship You.
(20:00):
The word and music. Theyliterally were finding a space
where they could live out theirfaith, and they decided that was
church, right, where we're goingto live out our faith. Sunday
morning, one hour counts as ourfaith. I think we still do that,
right? That that's a momentwhere we say, hey, we lived out
our faith. We went to churchthis week. I feel like I checked
the box in my faith. Here's thesecond reason, 63% to learn
(20:20):
about their faith, right? Theyactually want to learn why
they're in deepening theirfaith. They want to go through a
Bible study. They want to learnthat. Here's the third reason.
This was 59% of people saidchristian ethics and values. I
want to be a good person. I wantto come learn what it means to
be a good person. I feel if I'mwith like minded good people,
then that's great. We all knowthat we come here, not as
(20:42):
perfect people, though. So whatare we truly looking for in
church? Right? Gotta ask thosequestions. Here's number, 54%
said we want to serve ourneighbors in need, serve our
neighbors in need. So we haveall these different realities of
things that are happening. Thelast one was this. It comes in,
it says 44% of people wanted toshare their faith and share a
test. Share a testimony, andhave that be a reality of what
(21:06):
they're looking for in thechurch. And I still think some
of these are true in our life offaith, and some of these are
here, but in the Scripture, ittells us how the early church
gathered, and we have to see ifthat's what we still do today.
So going back into the verseshere, I want you to hear it one
more time. This was verse 42 inchapter two, they devoted
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themselves to the apostles,teaching the Word and the music.
They devoted themselves tofellowship, gathering with
community. They devotethemselves to the breaking of
bread, the sacraments andprayers, and then they gathered
all their possessions, sold alltheir goods, and served their
(21:50):
neighbors in need, as any hadneed, the parts of worship That
was the early church. But itwasn't easy. See, we live a
sheltered church life here inNorthwest Arkansas, here in
America, we live a shelteredchurch life. The early church
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was not this way because theyhad two different realities that
were fighting against them. One,the early church had Jewish
Christians. These were thePharisees and the religious
leaders of the day and theconverts to Christianity weren't
Jewish Christians. The convertsto Christianity were Gentile
Christians, non JewishChristians, and they were coming
in but they weren't reallyallowed in the temple. They
weren't allowed in the synagoguebecause they weren't Jewish
(22:33):
Christians. They weren't theIsraelites. They weren't the
people of God. They hadn't comefrom these 10 Commandments and
this understanding of religiousand growing up, and they were
new, so they were not allowed.
So these early Christians werelike, I want to go to church.
And they said, You can't comeinto the church. You don't know
what the church is about. Youdon't know who we are, and even
more importantly, we don't knowwho we are with you in our
church, so you can't be here.
(22:58):
And I think that is a heart ofsometimes what we do in the
church, I don't know who we willbecome if you become a part of
us. So it's better if I justkeep comfortable and know who we
are. But then you had Rome, whowas there, who had pagan gods
and not Christianity as itsprimary religion. And so they
saw these things that arehappening and began to persecute
(23:20):
the Christians. So when theytried to gather in the temple,
as they began to be persecuted,they were get pushed out of the
temple. And these, theseChristian temple goers, right,
that were really Jewish only,and the Gentiles trying to get
in, all of a sudden didn't havea place that they could worship
in and call home. And so theystarted to have to gather in
places where they had to devotethemselves to the teaching and
to the prayer and the servingneighbors without a temple,
(23:43):
without an altar, without achurch. And did you hear
anywhere in here that there wasa building attached to those
first converts and that firstworship? They were devoted to
teaching, to prayers, to thesacraments, to neighbors in
need. They were devoted tocommunity. That's how the church
(24:06):
began. And then when they werepersecuted, they had to go
underground. They went into thecatacombs. They went into places
where they wouldn't be seen, sothat they could worship
together. They were in Upperrooms, behind locked doors. They
they had this moment ofChristianity where they had to
fight for their Christianity.
They had to fight to become acommunity of faith. It wasn't
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something that was easy, thatwas public, it was private. It
was something that not even Godintended about the church. But
they had to begin in a way wheredaily their number grew and they
found out how to reach people inthese communities. And yet what
we've done over the years iswe've stripped away this moment
of uncomfortable faith, and wehave made it as comfortable as
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possible for you to consumechurch and consume this identity
of church, and make sure it'ssomething that you feel
connected to God with, andthat's okay, but it's not how it
begin in the early church.
Church, the early church foughtfor their faith. They had to
live it out, and it wasn't easy,and when they spoke about it,
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they had to be convicted,because they were held
accountable to their faith. Andif they were held accountable to
their faith, the Romangovernment said you can't be
here with your faith, so theyhad to find these pockets of
community, and that's where Istarted to understand that we
need to look at the church alittle bit differently. We need
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to look at the church about howwe gather a little bit
differently, how we think aboutchurch a little bit differently.
Because I realized that really,the structure of our worship is
no different than the early daysof the church. When I came up
through seminary, I was taughtthe four parts of our worship.
When we lead any single Sunday,it's gather word meal and
sending. That is the breakdownof a liturgical worship in its
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simplest form. If I go back intowhat the early church did, it's
gather word meal and sending.
It's that same reality. And sowe're not much different, but we
treat our faith differently. Itwasn't fresh like Jesus had just
rose from the dead. We'rewalking with a different
identity. So I started to thinkabout what is the church really
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in all the seasons of thechurch? Because you have to
imagine, at this time, they'rewriting the Gospels like those
are being written in like 70through 90, the early church,
after Paul had passed, rightthis conversion story of Saul to
Paul, Paul goes around in hismissionary journeys and starts
all these communities of faithin the Roman provinces around.
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And then from that they get thestories of Jesus Christ, and
those stories are compiled inthe four different gospels in
the next 20 years. So you havethis moment of communities of
faith, stories of the Gospelsbeing written, being shared with
churches, and more communitiesforming, and baptisms happening,
and these communities gathering,and all of a sudden you have
this, this bubbling of thechurch that begins. And I
started thinking like, what?
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What is this like? And then Ireally realized that the church
is truly at its most faithfulmoments, the breath of God. The
church is the breath of God inyour life. And here's what that
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means. This is after Pentecost,when they received the Holy
Spirit. And I want you toimagine that when you take in
that deep breath in your life,and it fills you that that's
what Pentecost was, they getfilled. But you can't keep that
breath in, like you have tobreathe that back out. You have
to go back out into thecommunity. See, I believe that
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the church is the breath of God,where you breathe in this Holy
Spirit, and you receive the HolySpirit, and then you are asked,
and you are called to go outsideof these walls and breathe that
back out into the world, thismoment of spirit. And when
things get tough, that breathgets a little bit harder,
doesn't it? If you imagine whenyou're working out and you're
trying to get air into yourbody, when when your body's
running a little bit harder,you're kind of, you're you're
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gasping for breath. You'retaking in that breath. The same
is true with the church. When weget into trouble in our life,
where do we go? We go to take infrom the church. We go to pull
from that community and breathethat in, because we need that
breath of life. We need to takeit and then when we get done
with that heart season, what dowe do? We let out a deep sigh of
relief and go, Oh man, and webreathe that back out. I really
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believe that the start of thechurch was the breath of life
from God. It was this momentwhere we walked with Jesus, and
then we took that story of Jesusand continued it. But it's a
story of life. It's a story ofresurrection from death. This is
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the early church, and I think asa church, if we get back to the
simplest form of our worship,gather word, meal and sending,
we will begin to take in thatbreath again and discover again
where God is calling us outsidethese walls, because this
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testimony in the early churchcould not be contained. They had
to plant more communities,because everyone was sharing
their faith. That is how thechurch began to form, and that's
what leads us for the next 1000years in the church, all the way
to the Reformation. So here's myquestion for you, how are you
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sharing your testimony? If itdoesn't go beyond Sunday, then
we might not be the church thatwe think we are a neighborhood.
Your testimony needs to moveforward in life. That's the
beginning of the church, And allGod's people said, Amen, let us
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pray heavenly and graciousFather, we come before you today
knowing that we are called to bethe church. The church is not a
building. It is not a place. TheChurch is the Body of Christ. It
is the people within it. It isthe gathering and the fellowship
and the prayers. It is the wordis the music and the praise, and
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it is our neighbors in need. Itis the sacraments, the body and
the blood and baptism, Lord.
These are the things that westill do as a church today.
These are the things that welive into today. And Lord, as I
think through what you'recalling us to, I know that it's
to come back to you in a spacewhere we see that every moment
our life is meant to be inshared community of faith. So
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here's my prayer for ourcommunity. Lord is that we would
find the spaces where we cantruly deepen our community,
where we can have those aroundus who walk with us through all
different different lifeseasons, and that we can take
that community beyond thesewalls and share the testimony of
how God is interacting in ourlife, Lord, we confess that at
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times we keep this testimony toourselves. We confess that at
times we keep this this faiththat we have attached to a
Sunday morning only. And so werelease that now, Lord, we
release it to you, knowing thatwhat comes next is the identity
of having faith that grows intoa community, that grows into a
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calling, Lord, it is in thesethings that we pray in Your holy
and precious name, And all God'speople said, Amen. You guys,
enjoy the start of our series,start of the early church. You.
So we're going to be starting a new series
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today as we look forward intothe month of May, coming after
Easter. And we thought thisseries would be great because as
table was sharing right the dayof Pentecost is coming. That's
on June 8, it's actually goingto be a day where we do baptisms
in the church. And so we'regoing to go out to the river, we
go out to McKissick Creek and wedo baptisms. And so that day is
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meant as a day where really theHoly Spirit came upon all those
who were gathered. That's whyit's called Pentecost. And it
truly is the beginning of whatwe would call the church. But I
get a question a lot as apastor, right? And I love this,
because Easter just happened.
And so we have people that onlyattend church on Easter. It's
amazing. And I actually lovethat many people are like, they
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should come all the time. Like,I love it if you make it to
church on Easter,congratulations. Like, that's
amazing. You've been able toexperience the heart of God in a
worship that is vibrant, right?
And life feeling and you come,and we hope that is a first step
in a journey towards becomingdeeper in your relationship with
God. And so I love people thatcome on Christmas. We have
people that only attend onChristmas and only attend on
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Easter, right? Do you know whatthe third biggest day in the
church calendar year is? Doesanyone know what that is the
third biggest day in the churchcalendar year, Mother's Day,
right? And guess what? It'sright after Easter. So it's
great. So we have that comingup, which can be really
incredible on May 11. So it'sgonna be absolutely wonderful
coming up here. And, yeah, wehave the photo booths and
everything else, because peoplelove to attenders. Father's Day
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is the fourth, no, it's not, butwe're gonna change that. It's
gonna be a moment, right? We'regonna do like a camping outside
or something. I'm gonna get allthe dads here on Saturday night
so they can't leave on Sundaymorning. It's going to be a
great but I wanted to talk toyou about the start of church,
and I wanted to to begin byputting your heart into your
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church experience and the churchexperiences you've had growing
up, maybe, and what those churchexperiences were, and just take
back so I really want you tokind of go through a process. I
want you to think about, howmany of you grew up in church,
right? Like, grew up going tochurch every single Sunday.
Raise your hand if you grew upgoing to church. Wow. Okay,
that's a lot of you. That'sgreat. Okay? Every single
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Sunday, how many of that waslike, what you would call a
contemporary worship back in theday? That means, did they have a
guitar? If they had a guitar,then that's a moment, right?
Okay, so one of you, how many ofus traditional worship?
Tradition? Oh, wow. Okay, that'sgreat. We have coming up on May
18, traditional Sunday, which issacred Sunday. Give it up for
traditional Sunday, which isgonna be wonderful. We're gonna
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have everyone here doingacolytes. We're gonna robe,
we're gonna vest, we're gonnahave hymnals in all the chairs.
We're gonna come forward. I'mtrying to get kneelers right for
communion. Like we're gonna dotraditional Sunday. We're gonna
walk through a whole traditionalworship. And we're going back to
like, 1990s traditional worship,just so you know, because I
haven't led the new traditionalworship, so I know the old
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traditional worship, so I'mgoing to what I know and what I
grew up and because I also grewup in traditional church. So I
want to put your heart therefirst. I want you to start with
this identity of the start ofwhen you grew up in church, and
those memories, right? And whatthose memories were, how many of
you growing up in church? That'sa good memory, right? It's a
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good memory, a foundationalmemory of growing up in church.
Okay? Wonderful. So we have thatright, and then I want you to
fast forward a little bit,right? So when you had a little
bit of independence in yourlife, right? Let's look forward
to maybe high school, maybecollege, right? How many of you
attended church while you're incollege? Right? Okay, I'm seeing
about 75% we're going down alittle bit right there. How many
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of you attended church everysingle Sunday while you were in
college. Okay, now we're at 25%okay, that's good. Wow. You kept
your hands raised, like youattended every Sunday. You lied.
That's not true. But I want to,I want to take that moment so we
have, hey, I was brought tochurch. I was raised in church.
Right? Not everyone was right.
Some people are discoveringthat. So we come with the
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perspective of church shopping,knowing what our church
experience is like now we go andstart to discover a church
experience, because we're nolonger brought by someone right.
We're now having to make thechoice to go to church. And that
changes a little bit, because itbecomes a priority issue. It
becomes a balance of life issue.
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And you start weighing Sundaymorning Sleeping in with Sunday
morning church. And you lovechurch, but you also love
sleeping in. And you lovesleeping in because you love
what you did on Saturday night,which ended up taking Sunday
morning from you, right? And soall of a sudden the priorities
start shifting a little bit,right? And then how many of you
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at one point left the churchlike did not attend church for a
season. Okay, a good so I'msaying about 25% still. So we're
at 25% who don't attend churchreligiously after they did, and
we're at 25% who left the churchalso. And then here's my
question to you, what ended upbringing you back in? To the
church. And I just want you tothink about that. Why did you
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come back in? See the church isa cycle. The church is a season,
right? The church is moving andebbing and flowing with your
life. And we know this is achurch. We know that when you go
through life seasons how you'regoing to come in and out of the
church. We've seen it here asthe neighborhood for 15 years,
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but it is across the big Cchurch everywhere, about how we
go into the life of the churchright when you are independent
and you're trying to structureyour life and you're trying to
start a career and you're tryingto start a family and you're
trying to get married, those arepriorities, and it's really hard
to then take that as a singleperson going into church. When
you were raised in a familyenvironment, going to church,
then you were raised in maybeindependence going to church,
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but had all like mindedindividuals. And now that you're
just in community, it getsreally tough. But then maybe
there's kids involved, or haveyou gotten settled down, and now
you understand that you need toalso now have a foundation in
your faith. And you remember, Ihad a foundation when I was
raised in the church. So thenyou start to come back into the
church, and we see people startto come back into the church as
young adults, right? And youngadults start to come back into
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the church, and it's wonderful,and they kind of grow through
the church. And then when youget to a transition phase of
like a high school graduate,maybe an empty nester, maybe a
college graduate, all of asudden you have parents
rediscovering their relationshipafter 18 years, going, oh my
gosh, we don't have kids toconcentrate on. Who are we
together? Anyone going throughthat? Okay? No, don't want to
raise your hand. Okay, that'sgreat. So that happens when
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you're out there, going, who arewe now? And you rediscover your
faith again. And then when youretire, you rediscover your
faith again, right? And whatthat means, do you see all these
major life transitions thathappen, and that's not even
saying about moving, about newjobs, anything else like that.
Family changes. Family shifts,right? Breaks up relationships,
all of those differentcategories impact your life in
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the church. And I have peoplecome to me saying, We're church
shopping. Has anyone ever saidthat before? We're church
shopping? What do you think myresponse is? Right? Give me some
responses of how you think Iwould respond to someone that
walks in on a Sunday morning andsays, I'm church shopping. What
do you think I say to them?
That's a good one. What kind ofchurch you looking for? Glad
you're here. Okay, that's great.
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I hope we make it. No, I'm like,I hope we make the top three.
You know, like, come on here.
No. What are some othersresponses? I'm church shopping.
What would a pastor say inresponse to that? What kind of
church did you grow up in?
What's your church experience?
Why are you church shopping?
Right? That's good. Any othersout there, we have a great sale
going on. It's salvation, right?
It's free. 99 you can get it anySunday you come to the
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neighborhood church. It's foryou, right? We give grace, yeah.
What about I pray that God leadsyou to the church that he wants
you to be in, right? That Godwants you to be in. That's
wonderful. So do you guys wantto hear what I share with them?
Okay, so here's what I sharewith them. When someone comes in
and says, I'm church shopping ona Sunday, I say, That's amazing,
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because I too would have been achurch shopper had it not been a
pastor, and I would have gone tomany different churches, and I
would have discovered my faithover and over again in a really
incredible way. And I said, butmore than that, I'm glad that
you're here, because I know alot of the churches in the area,
and if the neighborhood isn'twhat you're feeling, I'd be
happy to sit with you and guideyou to the church where you're
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going to feel most connected toGod and deepen your relationship
with God, right? And I tellthem, and I say, so, let me know
what you think. After thisSunday, we'd love to hear about
your church experience, when whyyou came here, and then let's
see if we can guide you eitherdeeper here in the community or
to a church that's really goingto help you, right? And that is
what I share every single time.
I believe that we should be achurch when we are church
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shopping for the local church,not the neighborhood church.
Believe me, there's enoughpeople. Like it's okay, like,
I'm not worried that everyperson has to fall in love with
the neighborhood church. I amworried that every person has to
fall in love with Jesus Christ,and I'm worried that every
person has to fall in love anddeepen themselves and find a
heart and connection that'sgoing to carry them beyond these
walls and be on a Sundaymorning. I know that, and it's
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part of the reason that westarted the church. So when we
came here, we went to all thedifferent churches before we
planted the neighborhood, to getan identity of what the church
was. And I had come from abackground of church. I grew up
in traditional Lutheran Church.
Hymnals, Albs, stoles. I wasacolyte so many times, 1000s of
times, 1000 times. And everytime I got to the bottom, and we
called to the bottom, every timeI got to the bottom of the
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aisle, because it was, like, ona slant, then it was a super
long aisle. Would have thiswick, and the wick was out, and
they'd light you in the back, soyou could light the candles. And
all you do the whole time waslike, Please don't go out.
Please don't go out. Pleasedon't go out. And you're just
walking slow so and then youwould hit where, like, one of
the vents from the airconditioning was, like, right at
the front. And thengo, I and the pastor would look
at you, which was my dad, andhe'd be like, Ah, right? Because
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then you have to turn around andyou have to go back and get re
lit and try again. It was likethis holy test of fire, right in
church. And I was like, so muchpain, so much pain from that.
How? Many times did it go out,right? I did become really good
at at the end, and then I fellinto the Christmas tree once
with a lip candle, and that wasa bad deal. So, man. But I grew
up going to traditional church,and grew up in this way, right?
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It was wonderful. And then Iwent to college, and I didn't go
to church. I wanted to, I wantedthat to be my heart, but I had
different priorities, right? Iwas it. Was doing school, I was
doing football. Had a girlfriendat the time, and she didn't want
to go to church on Sundaymorning. So I was like, I don't
need to go to church on Sundaymorning. I love church. Love
church. But my prioritiesshifted. I didn't even realize
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it, and I got caught by it, andso I didn't go to church. And
then my junior year, I realizedthat I just was not deepening my
faith, and I was not committed,so I went back to church, and I
attended a traditional LutheranChurch in the town of Salem,
Oregon. Salem, Oregon,traditional Lutheran Church
didn't make it long there, likeI was discovering something
different. I was trying to getinvolved, and I was in the
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choir. It just wasn't there. Andthen I attended a Salem Alliance
Church because they had acollege ministry that fed you
one night a week. And I waslike, I can get free food at
ministry. And I was like, I amin. I don't need denominational
ties. I'm just going for thefood. Like, let's go. So I
attended an Alliance Church. Iattended a Four Square Church
while I was there, and then Icame back after college, and I
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was in Phoenix. Phoenix is whereI grew up in traditional church,
so on Sunday morning in Phoenix,is what ultimately led me to
seminary. I attended the churchI grew up in and sang in their
praise band, right? And it waswonderful. We had a choir loft,
right? And we had all musicstands and everything else like
that. Oh, alright, it was thisgood. It's just great choir
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singing, that's all. It was,right, wonderful. And then I
went to the church my dad wasleading, which was like a large
mega church style thing. And Iwent to that church and I just
sat and was present in support,right in support of the family,
and just attended. And then Iwent to a third church on
Sundays, which is a super largenon denominational church. And I
went to a large nondenominational church, and this
church is like, put Corvettes onthe stage. And they'd be like,
(11:57):
don't put sand in the gas tankof your faith. And I'm like,
This is awesome. I was like, Ididn't know. So I had all these
experiences of church, and Irealized that every single night
I was trying to fill it withministry. Every single Sunday, I
was traveling for four to fivehours across the Phoenix Valley
to go to these churches. And Irealized that every part of my
life was trying to fill with acraving for faith and a
deepening of the heart of God,and I just desired that I would
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find faith in community. And I'mgoing to tell you something that
I believe about the churchtoday. The church today is one
of the last few places thatintentionally creates community.
It invites you into anintentional community, not on
the surface level, but itinvites you into a community
(12:42):
that says, Hey, we are going toget to know you. We want to dig
deep with you. We want to findout where we're broken and we're
hurting, and where we canprovide hope and peace and then
even fill that with joy and apromise. And we want to walk
that life with you. And we'llwalk it with you on the good
days, and we love that, butwe're going to walk it with you
on the bad days, and we're gonnatell you that we know that that
bad day in our community is notgonna be the last one that you
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have, and because you came intothe church, we're also not gonna
promise you that you get peaceall the time. We're gonna seek
that, but it's not somethingthat's always present. But we're
gonna walk with you the churchwhen you're church shopping
should be a place that you lookfor community. And we're going
to talk about that, because alot of places that people go
looking for a church home,they're looking to consume, not
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for community, they're lookingto take in. And what can I get
out of worship? That's not theidentity of what church was
intended to be ever and yet thechurch has done that also. So I
give that up for the church.
It's our confession, too, thatwe've made it a place where you
can consume, take in, and thenjust walk out and not be
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changed. This is a place ofcommunity. This is a place of
change, and we hope you get thatthrough this series. So I want
to open up a scripture and talkabout this early church. So
here's what we're going to do inthis series. In this series,
we're actually going to breakdown, and we are going to walk
with the Church throughout theyears of the church. It's going
to be really incredible. Sowe're going to go through the
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church in 100 right? So, AD, 100right after Jesus's death. And
we're really talking about like33 through hundreds of good
estimation, but the early churchreally goes all the way up to
like 325, is how you classifythe early church, and I'll talk
about that a little bit. Butwe're really going to stay in
like these years of like 33through 70 and 100 and talk
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about what this church wasaround Pentecost, and where the
believers were, and what washappening in that time. And then
next week, we're going to go tothe Reformation. This was when
the apostolic Catholic Church,right? So the apostolic
succession, right from all theapostles, that is the Catholic
Church, right? And in the 1500swe had the Reformation, which
split off into Protestant, whichis not Catholic. So then all of
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a sudden you had the split, andLutherans were the first split
from Catholic into theProtestant denominations. In
front of that, you get Methodistand Episcopal and all these
other denominations. That areout there too. And then you get
down into other main line, whichis like Baptist and different
things that happen further ondown the line. And so you get
the split of the church in the1500s so we're going to talk
about that. You're the church.
And then the next week afterthat, on Mother's Day, we're
going to do 1990s Church, whichI love. It's like the mega
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church, the multi site Church,the media church, like this
whole advent of things changingwith like the.com boom. And
what's happening with that? Sowe're going to go back into 90s
worship, and then we're going tohave sacred Sunday on the 18th,
and then graduation Sunday, thefuture Church, the future
generations on the 25th so thisis going to be an incredible
series. I'm really lookingforward to it, but we're going
to open up and talk about theearly church today. So I want
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you to open up to the book ofActs. So Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John are the Gospels, they tellthe story in the New Testament.
So the New Testament is reallythe story of Jesus Christ. It's
the story of the apostles afterJesus Christ, starting the early
church on throughout thedifferent letters to different
churches and communities offaith. And then you get into
kind of an apocalypticliterature, Revelation, end
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times, at the end of the NewTestament. But if you're finding
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John inScripture, keep on turning. You
get to Acts in Romans, right?
And so you can kind of see that.
And we're going to be in Actschapter two, and this is right
after Pentecost. So I want youto imagine that Jesus rose from
the dead. Jesus stayed on earthfor 40 days, if you didn't know,
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before He ascended into heaven,right? And so we have Jesus
staying on Earth and talkingwith the disciples and still
doing ministry and kind ofshowing people that the kingdom
is real, that that it is truth,that he was raised from the
dead. And then you have thismoment where the apostles go on
after the starting the earlychurch, which was not really a
church, and we're going to talkabout that in a second, they're
really more started communitiesof faith. And so they're
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starting these communities, andthey're gathering. And then you
have this Pentecost moment wherethe Spirit alights upon them,
which we're going to hear aboutin June 8, the spirit alights
upon them, and they receive theHoly Spirit. They now have the
commissioning of the Holy Spiritto go out into the world, right,
and continue this ministry thatJesus Christ started. And they
start to become the church, andstart to become Christians,
right? And so with that, we'regoing to get in Acts two,
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Chapter 40. Chapter two, verses42 through 47 and this is really
going to talk through the firstconverts of the church, and then
also the life among thebelievers. And we're asking the
question, if we gather on aSunday today for one hour, have
you ever wondered how we got tothat, like, how church on Sunday
became to be why do we makeSunday sacred? Why were
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Wednesday nights used to besacred, but are really hard now,
right? We're losing time andlosing those places and culture
where we had it locked down, butSunday is still one of those
moments. We're asking thatquestion throughout the series.
How do we get to Sunday morning?
So here's what it says in thefirst converts. And this is
verse 42 through 47 it saysthis, they devoted themselves to
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the apostles teaching, and thisis the first converts. They
devoted themselves to theapostles teaching and to
fellowship, to the breaking ofbread and the prayers. If you're
looking for what the start ofthe early church was, we're
going to go back into that,because that just named it,
right. We're going to get tothat in a second. But here's
what it says in verse 43 this islife among the believers. Awe,
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amazement, wonder came uponeveryone because many wonders
and signs were being done by theapostles, because they had the
Holy Spirit. All who believedwere together and had all things
in common. They would sell theirpossessions and goods and
distribute the proceeds to allas any had need. Day by day,
they day by day, as they spentmuch time together in the
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temple, they broke bread at homeand ate their food with glad and
generous hearts, Praising Godand having the good will of all
people. And day by day, the Lordadded to their number those who
are being saved. So why do youthink people come to church? I
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pulled up a study from 2001 ofwhy people come to church and
and I was thinking about thisfrom like the time when I was
trying to discover a church andwhat that means, and trying to
see if it's still true, 25 yearslater, 25 years later, from 2000
Why do you think people come tochurch? What do you think is the
number one reason people come tochurch? Say it out loud, need a
savior. Okay, we got need asavior. What's some other
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reasons that people come tochurch? They're supposed to so I
call that obligation, right? Ihave to attend church, right?
Say one more over here to hearthe Word of God, right? They
come for the word, maybe musicout there. What's some other
reasons people come to church?
Beliefs? Right, to understand,oh, loneliness. Okay, that's
great. Beliefs and loneliness,that was, yeah, that was moan. I
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totally hear beliefs that'sgreat, but loneliness right to
find community, right to findthat moment. Yeah, one more
made of forgiveness. Right?
Salvation made a mess of theirlife. Here are the five reasons,
according to this study, whypeople came to church right.
Number one was this, 94% of thepeople said they come because
it's important to worship You.
(20:00):
The word and music. Theyliterally were finding a space
where they could live out theirfaith, and they decided that was
church, right, where we're goingto live out our faith. Sunday
morning, one hour counts as ourfaith. I think we still do that,
right? That that's a momentwhere we say, hey, we lived out
our faith. We went to churchthis week. I feel like I checked
the box in my faith. Here's thesecond reason, 63% to learn
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about their faith, right? Theyactually want to learn why
they're in deepening theirfaith. They want to go through a
Bible study. They want to learnthat. Here's the third reason.
This was 59% of people saidchristian ethics and values. I
want to be a good person. I wantto come learn what it means to
be a good person. I feel if I'mwith like minded good people,
then that's great. We all knowthat we come here, not as
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perfect people, though. So whatare we truly looking for in
church? Right? Gotta ask thosequestions. Here's number, 54%
said we want to serve ourneighbors in need, serve our
neighbors in need. So we haveall these different realities of
things that are happening. Thelast one was this. It comes in,
it says 44% of people wanted toshare their faith and share a
test. Share a testimony, andhave that be a reality of what
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they're looking for in thechurch. And I still think some
of these are true in our life offaith, and some of these are
here, but in the Scripture, ittells us how the early church
gathered, and we have to see ifthat's what we still do today.
So going back into the verseshere, I want you to hear it one
more time. This was verse 42 inchapter two, they devoted
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themselves to the apostles,teaching the Word and the music.
They devoted themselves tofellowship, gathering with
community. They devotethemselves to the breaking of
bread, the sacraments andprayers, and then they gathered
all their possessions, sold alltheir goods, and served their
(21:50):
neighbors in need, as any hadneed, the parts of worship That
was the early church. But itwasn't easy. See, we live a
sheltered church life here inNorthwest Arkansas, here in
America, we live a shelteredchurch life. The early church
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was not this way because theyhad two different realities that
were fighting against them. One,the early church had Jewish
Christians. These were thePharisees and the religious
leaders of the day and theconverts to Christianity weren't
Jewish Christians. The convertsto Christianity were Gentile
Christians, non JewishChristians, and they were coming
in but they weren't reallyallowed in the temple. They
weren't allowed in the synagoguebecause they weren't Jewish
(22:33):
Christians. They weren't theIsraelites. They weren't the
people of God. They hadn't comefrom these 10 Commandments and
this understanding of religiousand growing up, and they were
new, so they were not allowed.
So these early Christians werelike, I want to go to church.
And they said, You can't comeinto the church. You don't know
what the church is about. Youdon't know who we are, and even
more importantly, we don't knowwho we are with you in our
church, so you can't be here.
(22:58):
And I think that is a heart ofsometimes what we do in the
church, I don't know who we willbecome if you become a part of
us. So it's better if I justkeep comfortable and know who we
are. But then you had Rome, whowas there, who had pagan gods
and not Christianity as itsprimary religion. And so they
saw these things that arehappening and began to persecute
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the Christians. So when theytried to gather in the temple,
as they began to be persecuted,they were get pushed out of the
temple. And these, theseChristian temple goers, right,
that were really Jewish only,and the Gentiles trying to get
in, all of a sudden didn't havea place that they could worship
in and call home. And so theystarted to have to gather in
places where they had to devotethemselves to the teaching and
to the prayer and the servingneighbors without a temple,
(23:43):
without an altar, without achurch. And did you hear
anywhere in here that there wasa building attached to those
first converts and that firstworship? They were devoted to
teaching, to prayers, to thesacraments, to neighbors in
need. They were devoted tocommunity. That's how the church
(24:06):
began. And then when they werepersecuted, they had to go
underground. They went into thecatacombs. They went into places
where they wouldn't be seen, sothat they could worship
together. They were in Upperrooms, behind locked doors. They
they had this moment ofChristianity where they had to
fight for their Christianity.
They had to fight to become acommunity of faith. It wasn't
(24:26):
something that was easy, thatwas public, it was private. It
was something that not even Godintended about the church. But
they had to begin in a way wheredaily their number grew and they
found out how to reach people inthese communities. And yet what
we've done over the years iswe've stripped away this moment
of uncomfortable faith, and wehave made it as comfortable as
(24:46):
possible for you to consumechurch and consume this identity
of church, and make sure it'ssomething that you feel
connected to God with, andthat's okay, but it's not how it
begin in the early church.
Church, the early church foughtfor their faith. They had to
live it out, and it wasn't easy,and when they spoke about it,
(25:08):
they had to be convicted,because they were held
accountable to their faith. Andif they were held accountable to
their faith, the Romangovernment said you can't be
here with your faith, so theyhad to find these pockets of
community, and that's where Istarted to understand that we
need to look at the church alittle bit differently. We need
(25:29):
to look at the church about howwe gather a little bit
differently, how we think aboutchurch a little bit differently.
Because I realized that really,the structure of our worship is
no different than the early daysof the church. When I came up
through seminary, I was taughtthe four parts of our worship.
When we lead any single Sunday,it's gather word meal and
sending. That is the breakdownof a liturgical worship in its
(25:50):
simplest form. If I go back intowhat the early church did, it's
gather word meal and sending.
It's that same reality. And sowe're not much different, but we
treat our faith differently. Itwasn't fresh like Jesus had just
rose from the dead. We'rewalking with a different
identity. So I started to thinkabout what is the church really
(26:11):
in all the seasons of thechurch? Because you have to
imagine, at this time, they'rewriting the Gospels like those
are being written in like 70through 90, the early church,
after Paul had passed, rightthis conversion story of Saul to
Paul, Paul goes around in hismissionary journeys and starts
all these communities of faithin the Roman provinces around.
(26:32):
And then from that they get thestories of Jesus Christ, and
those stories are compiled inthe four different gospels in
the next 20 years. So you havethis moment of communities of
faith, stories of the Gospelsbeing written, being shared with
churches, and more communitiesforming, and baptisms happening,
and these communities gathering,and all of a sudden you have
this, this bubbling of thechurch that begins. And I
started thinking like, what?
(26:52):
What is this like? And then Ireally realized that the church
is truly at its most faithfulmoments, the breath of God. The
church is the breath of God inyour life. And here's what that
(27:14):
means. This is after Pentecost,when they received the Holy
Spirit. And I want you toimagine that when you take in
that deep breath in your life,and it fills you that that's
what Pentecost was, they getfilled. But you can't keep that
breath in, like you have tobreathe that back out. You have
to go back out into thecommunity. See, I believe that
(27:35):
the church is the breath of God,where you breathe in this Holy
Spirit, and you receive the HolySpirit, and then you are asked,
and you are called to go outsideof these walls and breathe that
back out into the world, thismoment of spirit. And when
things get tough, that breathgets a little bit harder,
doesn't it? If you imagine whenyou're working out and you're
trying to get air into yourbody, when when your body's
running a little bit harder,you're kind of, you're you're
(27:57):
gasping for breath. You'retaking in that breath. The same
is true with the church. When weget into trouble in our life,
where do we go? We go to take infrom the church. We go to pull
from that community and breathethat in, because we need that
breath of life. We need to takeit and then when we get done
with that heart season, what dowe do? We let out a deep sigh of
relief and go, Oh man, and webreathe that back out. I really
(28:20):
believe that the start of thechurch was the breath of life
from God. It was this momentwhere we walked with Jesus, and
then we took that story of Jesusand continued it. But it's a
story of life. It's a story ofresurrection from death. This is
(28:44):
the early church, and I think asa church, if we get back to the
simplest form of our worship,gather word, meal and sending,
we will begin to take in thatbreath again and discover again
where God is calling us outsidethese walls, because this
(29:07):
testimony in the early churchcould not be contained. They had
to plant more communities,because everyone was sharing
their faith. That is how thechurch began to form, and that's
what leads us for the next 1000years in the church, all the way
to the Reformation. So here's myquestion for you, how are you
(29:30):
sharing your testimony? If itdoesn't go beyond Sunday, then
we might not be the church thatwe think we are a neighborhood.
Your testimony needs to moveforward in life. That's the
beginning of the church, And allGod's people said, Amen, let us
(29:50):
pray heavenly and graciousFather, we come before you today
knowing that we are called to bethe church. The church is not a
building. It is not a place. TheChurch is the Body of Christ. It
is the people within it. It isthe gathering and the fellowship
and the prayers. It is the wordis the music and the praise, and
(30:12):
it is our neighbors in need. Itis the sacraments, the body and
the blood and baptism, Lord.
These are the things that westill do as a church today.
These are the things that welive into today. And Lord, as I
think through what you'recalling us to, I know that it's
to come back to you in a spacewhere we see that every moment
our life is meant to be inshared community of faith. So
(30:33):
here's my prayer for ourcommunity. Lord is that we would
find the spaces where we cantruly deepen our community,
where we can have those aroundus who walk with us through all
different different lifeseasons, and that we can take
that community beyond thesewalls and share the testimony of
how God is interacting in ourlife, Lord, we confess that at
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times we keep this testimony toourselves. We confess that at
times we keep this this faiththat we have attached to a
Sunday morning only. And so werelease that now, Lord, we
release it to you, knowing thatwhat comes next is the identity
of having faith that grows intoa community, that grows into a
(31:18):
calling, Lord, it is in thesethings that we pray in Your holy
and precious name, And all God'speople said, Amen. You guys,
enjoy the start of our series,start of the early church. You.
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