The formation and early life of the Church of God began on the day of Pentecost, marking a new dispensation following Christ's finished work on the cross. Peter's sermon, delivered to the Jewish people, powerfully convicted them of their role in crucifying the Messiah, leading to their repentance and baptism. The sermon emphasizes that salvation comes through believing in Jesus Christ, with baptism as a subsequent step. The early believers continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers, establishing a pattern for the church throughout the ages. This communal life, characterized by sharing possessions and daily devotion, demonstrated God's plan for believers until Christ's return.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.60 → restored 4.40
Now I would like to open our Bibles once more to the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. The last, I think, two times that I've been speaking here on a Sunday morning, we've been speaking from Acts chapter two. And before that we spoke twice on Acts chapter one. So we're slowly going through the Acts of the Apostles here. Acts chapter two and verse Thirty-seven, just ten verses at the end of the chapter. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter, And to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, And to your children, and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
And fear came upon every soul, 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, as every man had need. 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. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we thank you for this wonderful occasion about which we have been reading, the day of Pentecost, the first sermon in the history of the church.
And oh, what a wonderful sermon, as the Apostle Peter got up. and spoke to these Israelites and accused them with the death, the murder of thy beloved Son. We thank you for the way the Holy Spirit worked on that first day when the Holy Spirit was given so that three thousand souls accepted Christ. What a wonderful occasion. Help us, Lord, as we look into these details now. We pray that the Holy Spirit of God might take these things and apply them to our hearts in simplicity. Just the simple word of God that we might be able to live thereby and we might conduct our affairs and our lives just as thou hast set the pattern here in the Acts of the Apostles.
We seek thy blessing then in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now I told you we've spoken four times on the Acts of the Apostles and we have been trying to see here in this Acts of the Apostles, a pattern, a plan for God's church for all ages. We were reading, our brother was reading this morning in the first meeting from the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. And I noticed, as he was reading, that the date at the top there was just about two thousand years before Christ.
just about two thousand years before. Now, these dates, they're pretty accurate, I believe, but still, man have put them in there, they're not inspired, but I think they're pretty accurate. But two thousand years before Christ, before we were reading in Genesis twenty-two about Abraham and Isaac going up Mount Moriah, and Abraham offering his son to God there on the top of the mountain. And I was thinking, that looked forward two thousand years. But we look back two thousand years to the place called Calvary.
As we've often said from this platform, the center of two eternities is Calvary. The cross of Christ is the center of everything. And we look back to it nearly two thousand years. So the events we've been reading of this morning took place at the very, very beginning of the church. This was the first day of the church's history. The church did not start with Abraham. I don't believe that. I believe the church started on the day of Pentecost. But there are some people that think that the church started with Abraham. It didn't. That's where Israel started. The church started on the day of Pentecost. It was an entirely new thing, as we've been pointing out.
The old dispensation had faded out. The Lord Jesus died upon the cross, and he said it is finished. And that was the end of that dispensation, the dispensation of law. And a new dispensation, a new era in the church's history, came in on the day of Pentecost. And on that day, the church was formed. And on that day, men who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, They became Christians. In fact, the first time you get the word church in the New Testament is in that last verse. It says, the Lord added to the church daily, such as were being saved, such as should be saved.
The church. And as I have often said from this platform, there are three classes of people in the world today. The Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God. And each one of us here this morning were born either as a Jew or as a Gentile. She said, oh, but I was born a Christian. You were not born a Christian. You couldn't have been born a Christian. Of course, the thing is, the thing is very confused out there in the Middle East where the Christians are fighting the Muslims. Well, that word Christian is just like we're saying just now about the name church. It's been all confused. The church is not a building. The church is the people that go in the building.
But a Christian has to be born again. A Christian is not a national name. The Christians are fighting the Muslims. But I suppose you could hardly, in modern parlance, put it any other way, and that's how it's used. But in the world today, there are three classes of people, when God looks down, the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God. And we were either born as Jews or Gentiles. But when we were born again, that wonderful moment when we accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, God took us out of this camp, whether it was the Jewish camp or out of this camp, the Gentile camp, and He put us in an entirely new thing, the Church of God.
And that moment when we accepted the Lord Jesus and we believed in Him, then the Holy Spirit joined us to the Church. I'll read the verse to you. It says, verse thirteen of chapter twelve of first Corinthians, for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit, for the body is not one member but many. And we are now in the church, this new body, this new thing. And that's what came into being on the day of Pentecost.
Now since then there have been, I suppose, millions of sermons preached. Great orators, great preachers, simple preachers, and they've all preached about the Lord Jesus Christ down through these two thousand years of church history. But this sermon that we've read, part of which we were reading in our last study, this sermon of Peter was the first sermon in the history of the church. And oh, what power God gave to Peter, the man that denied the Lord, the man that you'd wonder where he, a poor fisherman, would get the wisdom to preach like this, but he got the wisdom.
When the Holy Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost, he was filled with the Holy Spirit and he preached. And he preached to Israel. It's very, I think, very important in studying these verses that I have been reading this morning. that we should realize that his address was to Israel. The Gentiles hadn't come into the picture yet. They're referred to here, but they hadn't yet come into the picture. If you look at verse fourteen, he says, this is where he starts to speak, Peter standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judea, who were they? They were Jews.
Ye men of Judea. Look at verse twenty-two. ye men of Israel who were they what it says they were men of Israel not Gentiles look at verse twenty nine men and brethren let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David when Peter a Jew was speaking and he says men and brethren to whom was he speaking he was speaking to his own people the Jewish people so his sermon was directed to the Jewish people and he says In verse twenty-two, ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know.
Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, you Jews, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Personally, I think he means by wicked hands, he means by Gentile hands. They took him, they arrested him, they accused him, but they wouldn't follow their hands, their religious hands, so they got the Gentiles to do it. They delivered him to Pilate, and Pilate and his soldiers put Christ to death, whom ye have taken them by wicked hands of crucified and slain, whom God raised up. Then as we go down, verse thirty-two, this Jesus has God raised up, whereof we all our witnesses.
We, he means, these hundred and twenty people that were gathered there I imagine a hundred and twenty I can't say except in the first chapter it says the number of them was about a hundred and twenty and they were all together on the day of Pentecost when this took place but there are many others that came from all over the known world as you read in the first chapter various second chapter various people from various places different countries and climbs and places have come up to the priest at Jerusalem. He says, This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all our witnesses, therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this which he now see and hear.
For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he says himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Therefore, Now this is the accusation. Listen. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. And these Jewish people who had been looking for their Messiah, who knew the Old Testament scriptures that Messiah must come, thought he was coming to reign as a king and set up his kingdom and so on, which he will do one day.
But they missed the whole point that first he had to come and suffer. They missed the meaning of Isaiah fifty-three and Psalm twenty-two and Psalm sixty-nine and all these Psalms that tell of the sufferings of Christ. They missed all that. They thought he must reign and they took him and they crucified their own Messiah. Now when the Holy Ghost was given, And the Holy Ghost convicted them because the Lord Jesus said that when the Holy Ghost would come, he said three things he's going to do when he comes. He says he's going to reprove the world of sin, of righteousness and judgment, of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness because I go to the Father, of judgment because the prince of this world is judged.
And one of the works of the Holy Spirit is to reprove the world of sin, to convict men of their sin. And when Peter preached his sermon and said, Ye have taken and crucified, and God hath raised him up, and he is the Son of God, the Holy One of God, and he's now ascended up in the heavens, waiting till his enemies be made his footstool. What could they do? The Holy Spirit convicted them. And when they heard this, verse thirty-seven, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
They suddenly realized that the Messiah they had been looking for all these ages had come, and instead of accepting him, they had actually crucified him and put him to death. And when the Holy Spirit convicted them, they could only say one thing, what shall we do? What shall we do? Now that's the work of the Holy Spirit, to convict and convince men of sin. Every one of us that came to the Lord Jesus, somewhere along the line, God convinced us of our sin. That's one of our problems today.
Sin is not called sin. And men are not convicted of sin today. Oh, that we had some more of the old fiery preachers that preached against sin. That men and women would realize that we're living in a terribly wicked, sinful age. That the Holy Spirit might convict and convince men and women of sin. Now, I don't know who's here this morning. What I do, I think I know everybody here this morning. And I believe we're all saved. But I don't know your heart. It's an easy thing to say I'm saved. It's an easy thing to say I believe. But the Lord knows your heart.
It's an easy thing to deceive people and make people think you're a Christian when you're not. I have known cases. I have known cases of people actually sit at the Lord's table for years. And one day God convicted them. They said, I've never been saved. And I've been sitting here all these years. And so the Holy Spirit convinces men and women of sin. And when they realized what they had done, they said, What shall we do? And Peter gave them three things to do. Repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Ghost.
Repent, he says... Peter said, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost. I say again, he was speaking to Jews and he was speaking to the very men and women who had murdered the Lord Jesus Christ. Now if you turn over to Acts sixteen, you get a similar question. The Philippine jailer had cruelly scourged and beaten Paul and Silas and put their feet in stocks, put them in prison, and there they were in prison at midnight. Remember, an earthquake took place.
And verse thirty-one it says, Acts sixteen. Verse thirty, there was an earthquake, you know. And the jailer came out at midnight. the keeper of the prisoner, waking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors, first twenty-seven prison doors open, he drew out his sword, would have killed himself, supposing the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, Do thyself no harm. Then he called for light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Now these men on the day of Pentecost said to Peter, What shall we do? The Philippian jailer said, What shall I do? Now the answer was different. On the day of Pentecost, Peter's answer was, Repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit. But when the Philippian jailer said to Paul and Silas, Sirs, what shall I do to be saved, he said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. He didn't say, believe and be baptized and thou shalt be saved.
He said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Now personally, I think I was saved six years before I was baptized. And let me tell you something very interesting. Our brother Paul DeLon, DeLon in the wheelchair here, you know, he's been saved some time. Do you know what they did with him last Sunday down at Fort Pierce? They baptized him. I brought three or four of them together, got him into the water and baptized him. Thank God for that. But we're saved by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we're baptized. Peter said to these now, to these Jews, you repent and be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit.
There are some Christians say that you're not saved if you're not baptized. I don't think that's right. It's so clear in Acts XVI and elsewhere. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and then you should be baptized. We'll see that again in a moment. He said, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. And although there were three thousand people there are that did repent and were baptized that day, three thousand, He made it very individual. He said, every one of you, and you can't get to heaven in twos and threes, every one of us that was ever saved were saved alone, as if we were the only one.
I remember the night I was saved. There were a number of people sitting in that meeting that night, but nobody but I knew that I was saved. The preacher didn't know, but as he quoted John, he said, God saved me. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Every one of you, we have to come individually to God and accept his salvation and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now know what he says about this promise. Verse thirty-nine, the promise is unto you, those that were there that day, these Jewish people.
And to your children, and to all that are afar off. Do you think that takes in the Gentiles? I'd rather think it does. All that are afar off. Of course, there are many Jews that are far off. The dispersion. They were scattered all over the place. It may have referred to them, but I'd like to think that I'd like to link it up with Ephesians chapter two, where Paul is writing to those Ephesians who were Gentiles and were saved. He says, Remember, verse twenty-one of Ephesians two, that ye being in time fast, Gentiles in the flesh, were called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, ye who sometimes were far off, you Gentiles, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Was he referring to Gentiles? Well, later Paul says the Gentiles were far off, and he says, it's to you, to your children, and to all that are of far off. And there's many are far off today. In the different countries of the world, as many are far off in this great United States of America. Many people in this country have never heard the gospel, despite the fact that it's booming through the air every day, beaming through the air on the broadcast and the radio, but they just turn it off.
They don't want to hear it. But it's to as many as the Lord our God shall call. And then it says, With many other words did he testify and exhort. It seems to me that Peter's sermon didn't actually stop there at that thirty-sixth verse. That's where the Holy Ghost convicted him. There was a moment in the sermon when the Holy Ghost convicted him. And that's what happened. You watch the Watch Billy Graham preaching on those telecasts and you'll see there comes a moment. He seems to know the very moment when God is going to move and the Holy Spirit moves on them and people get up and come forward.
And God deals with men for years and years sometimes, but there comes a moment when they're convicted. And there was a moment in this sermon when they were convicted. Then he went on talking. with many other words. Did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. This untoward generation. A generation that was going away from God, not toward God. Untoward. Save yourself from it. And we're living in an age where this word untoward would just about describe the world all around us today, untoward.
They are going from God, not toward God. And he says, save yourself from this untoward generation. Now, I can't save myself. We know that. By grace, he saves through faith, and that's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. We cannot save ourselves. But by accepting the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we save ourselves from this generation. out of this generation that's going so far from God, this untoward generation. Now here's the wonderful verse twenty-one. They that gladly received His word. And if you look at the same verse it says, it was about three thousand souls.
What a wonderful effect. Our subject this morning I called the results of Peter's sermon, the results of Peter's sermon. Three thousand souls received his word. What a wonderful triumph. What a start for the Gospel age. What an addition to the hundred and twenty that were gathered in that room that morning, that house. I don't know where they gathered, something that was in the temple, but it says it was in a house. The house was shaken. That might have been the house of God, I don't know, but the house was shaken. And I don't know where they put three thousand people in a house. So it might have been in the temple courtyard. I don't know. But the whole place was shaken anyhow. And three thousand souls accepted Christ.
The Holy Spirit convinced and convicted three thousand people that they were the murderers of the Son of God. Now we can blame the Jews as much as we like for murdering the Son of God. But I might tell you, you and I were there. We were represented at the cross. We were those who said, I'll not have this man to reign over us. We'll not have this man to reign over us. The human heart says that. The human heart does not want to be subject to the will of God. The human heart says, I want to do my thing and not God's thing. But these people were convicted and convinced by the Holy Ghost and they received, they gladly received his word.
And here I think it goes very much with Acts sixteen. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. They gladly received his word and then they were baptized. So it fits together. They gladly received his word and they were baptized. Now here's the problem. Where could they baptize? Three thousand people. Some of you here this morning have been to Jerusalem. I've been there, I've been to the pool of Siloam and I've been to the pool of Bethesda, what's left of it, not much water there today, and various places. I don't know where they baptize us.
I think the nearest place would be the pool of Siloam. I don't think they all went down to Jordan to get baptized, but they were baptized. Three thousand souls. And they were added to the church. Now let me ask you a question. We often ask the question as we're preaching here this morning, are you saved? Are you really born again? Are you really a Christian? Let me ask you another question. Have you been baptized? Since you were saved, have you been baptized? Have you passed through the waters of baptism? Our brother was immersed in the water. They took him out of his chair and three or four of them and put him in the water last Sunday and baptized him.
How wonderful. Now I wonder if everybody here has been baptized. I think that that is part, that is the next step. After conversion, as far as I can see, baptism. That Philippine jailer, he got a light and he went in and he took them out and he washed their wounds and he was baptized the same hour of the night. I don't think we've got to put a long time between conversion and baptism. I've heard brethren say, well now let's see if they are saved for Let him sit back there and watch and see, and then we'll see if we're going to baptize him. It doesn't say that in the New Testament. He said, they gladly received this. William were baptized.
And we'll be very happy here if there's some not yet baptized. We'll be very happy to arrange another baptism. We've had one or two very, very happy events here. I remember when we first used to go to the Believers Bible Conference at Lake Louise, and every time... On the last Sunday of the conference, we used to have a baptism. I think I baptized fifteen at a time up there. And often when I go, when I was up the conference, this week, this year, somebody said to me, you baptize me. At Lake Louise in the lake there. We used to have a wonderful time, the last Sunday of the conference, and have a baptism. And we have a lovely lake here. And we all, when we have a baptism, we always have a nice baptism here.
And we enjoy it. They that gladly received His word were baptized, and the same day they were added unto them about three thousand souls. But that's only the beginning of things. It's a wonderful thing, if you do it that way, to walk down the aisle and get saved at the front. I've heard my father tell the story how he went to this church and that church and the other church everywhere to try and find how to get saved. That's over in England, way back in the year, eighteen eighty-one. He went everywhere to see where he could get saved. And one Sunday night, one Saturday night, he'd been to all the churches.
I could name an awful dozen he named to me where he'd been. He didn't find it. And one Saturday night he heard the Salvation Army preaching on the street corner. And they said, Now follow us down. The band struck up and they marched down to the Salvation Army Citadel. And that Saturday night he went forward to the penitent form and accepted the Lord Jesus as his Saviour. I thank God for that because I was his son and it was the meeting he took me, the meeting that he took me to was there where I was saved. Thank God for that. Never mind how you come as long as you come. Billy Graham says, come to the front. There's something in coming to the front. You made a decision. You made a movement. I think there's something in that.
But I wasn't saved that way. I was sitting down in the seat, and nobody in the whole meeting, not the preacher, knew that I was saved. But when he quoted John three sixteen, God saved me. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. You can be saved here this morning, right where you see. But what I'm trying to say is this. That isn't it. That isn't the end of it. That's wonderful to get saved. But that's only the beginning. We had wonderful news this week. When I was home in England, I think about nine years ago, I had the joy and pleasure of marrying a niece of ours, Vera's sister's daughter, David Pavey's sister, by the way, David Pavey, who's in France.
And I had the joy of marrying them. And now, after all nine years, we have the letter today, this week to say they've just had their first baby born, the first baby born. But I tell you what, that was a big trouble. It's quite a problem. But the baby's born. It's a good, and I understand everything is going well now. But that's where the problem starts. They've got to nurse the baby. They've got to feed the baby. They've got to close the baby. They've got to educate the baby. The baby's got to grow up. And what a big problem. You that are parents here this morning know what a big problem it is. They that glad to receive His word were baptized, but that's only the beginning.
And God gives us four stages now, four things, the way we should go on. Let's look at them. It says in verse forty-two, and they, that's these three thousand that accepted Christ and were baptized. That's the first thing they were baptized. Now what's the next step? They continued steadfastly. Oh, how important this is. how many they are. They come to the front, they accept Christ, they say they do, but you never see them again. Are they saved? I'll tell you, by when we meet in heaven, I don't know. All I can say is this. By their fruit, surely know them.
If there's no fruit, you've got a right to say, well, there's no root. As I said, it's easy to say, I believe. But unless there's something in my life that proves that I'm a Christian and I'm following Christ, We've got a great, we've got reason to doubt whether he really saved or no. They, they gladly received his word, were baptized, and they continued steadfastly. They continued steadfastly. Every day we should grow more and more in Christ. Peter says, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that he may grow, that he may grow thereby. Grow and grow and grow in Christ.
They continued steadfastly. They weren't here today and gone tomorrow, but they continued steadfastly. Now see what they continued in. They continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine. Now to understand these words, you've got to understand that there was no New Testament in those days. It wasn't written. It hadn't been written yet, shall I say. The Gospels had not yet been written. This was just after the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. Fifty days after the resurrection was the day of Pentecost. There was no New Testament. So they couldn't go and get their New Testament and find from the, what a privileged people we are.
We can get this wonderful New Testament and read all the epistles and know what to do and how to conduct our lives. They couldn't. But they continued in the Apostle's doctrine. They got to the meetings wherever they were, and they listened to the preaching and the doctrines of the apostles, and that's how they grew. They grew through the apostles' doctrines. And if you and I are going to grow, I don't care whether we only just saved last week or whether we've been saved fifty or sixty years, the only way we can continue and go on growing is in the apostles' doctrines. And the Apostles' doctrines for us are all written down in the epistles. We've got them to read day by day.
They continued in the Apostles' doctrines and in fellowship. And in fellowship. You can't go on in the things of Christ if you don't have fellowship with the people of God. He says, save yourself from this untoward generation. So we Christians don't want to be dabbling in the things of this world. That's the underworld generation. We save ourselves, come out of it. And we find our joy with God's people. That's one of the great things about Parker the Palm, the Christian fellowship we enjoy here. It isn't just on Sunday, but it's all day, every day. Right through the whole week, we can have fellowship together.
And they continued in the Apostles' doctrine and in fellowship. Fellowship. Having things in common in the Lord Jesus Christ. They continued in the Apostle's doctrine, fellowship. The next step, the breaking of bread. In the breaking of bread. Now, I don't know anywhere in the New Testament where it says that we have to break bread on the first day of the week. You show me a scripture that says a commandment to break bread on the first day of the week. I don't know of it. But I told you the first time I spoke on the Acts of the Apostles, that this is God's plan. Just as he took Moses up onto the mountain, showed him a pattern of the tabernacle, show he's giving us a pattern of the Church in the Acts of the Apostles.
We don't get doctrine in the Acts very much, but we do get a pattern and a plan. And if you follow what they did, and this is how God led them, then that is God's plan for this present age. And if you read in the twentieth chapter, it says, They came together on the first day of the week to break bread. There's the plan. That's not a commandment, but that's what they did. That's how the Holy Spirit led them. In the early days of the church's history, the Holy Spirit led them to come together on the first day of the week to break bread. I thank God that He revealed that to me many, many years ago when I was a boy. And all my life, that has been my custom.
I don't care where I am. Sunday I get on the first day of the week to break bread. I never travel on the Sunday if it will keep me from the break in the bread, except in the dire circumstances. I don't think anything but lying in bed in a hospital will keep me from the Lord's Supper. You'd have to bring me on a stretcher. but I'd be at the Lord's Supper. Because that's what I think the Christians should do. They come together on the first day of the week to break bread. And they continued in the Apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. Now, I'm proud of one thing at Park at the Palm, that we come to the prayer meeting.
I usually say to people, they say, how many at the meeting this morning at the breaking of bread? Well, I'll tell you, there were seventy-one people that broke bread here this morning. But I'll tell you what, there'd just be about seventy-one here on Thursday night at the prayer meeting. That's how it should be. The breaking of bread and prayers. If you go to the Lord's Supper, then be at the prayer meeting on Thursday night. That's how we should be, or Wednesday night whenever it is. They continued. Not this week and next week and then forget it, but they went on and on. and the breaking of bread and in prayers and studying the Apostles' doctrine all the way through. This is the pattern, as I said, this is God's plan for the next two thousand years after the day of Pentecost, for his church.
And thank God he's taught us these things, and here we are at Park and the Palms, two thousand years, nearly two thousand years later, practicing this and doing this. Thank God for it. I rejoice in this, that we're back And we're seeking to do what they did in the first century, because that was God's plan. The Acts of the Apostles was God's plan for this age. Now, I see our time is just about up. The next few verses gives us an idea of how they lived. They had all things common. They got together as much as they caved.
They were together. All that believed were together. And they had all things common. They sold their possessions and goods and part of them to all men, to every man who had needs. And they continued daily with one accord in the temple, 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 such as should be saved. That was the communal pattern and the way they lived in those difficult days before the fall of Jerusalem. I don't think it applies just like that today. The principles I've spoken on, they do apply for that communal living, seem to suit that age at that time.
But the fall of Jerusalem broke the whole thing up in AD. Now let's examine our hearts as we close the meeting. Time is up. Do I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Have I been born again? Am I saved? Have I been baptized? Am I convicted that this, the Apostle's doctrine, is here in the New Testament? And am I continuing in that? Am I enjoying the fellowship of God's people? Am I breaking bread and remembering the Lord Jesus Christ? Do I get to the prayer meeting? This is communal things they were doing.
It's good to pray all on your own, of course, as our brother McNeil has been telling us here in the last week of conference, but this is the church that was doing this. They were at the prayer meeting, and God blessed them. And I'm sure God is going to bless us as a community, as a church, as an assembly here, if we practice what the New Testament teaches. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we bow before thee now. And thank thee for these principles laid down, the plan laid down, the pattern given to us in these early days to show us how we born again believers in the Lord Jesus should conduct our lives during these two thousand years until the Lord Jesus Christ comes back.
We thank thee the years have run their course and we thank thee that we are privileged in these last days of the church's history. We are privileged. to put these things into practice and seek to do it until the Lord Jesus comes back. We seek thy parting blessing now in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.