The early church, as exemplified in Acts 2:41, was characterized by a joyful and steadfast commitment to apostolic doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer. This foundational period highlights the importance of conviction of sin, conversion of life, and confession of faith, leading to baptism and a new life empowered by the Holy Spirit. The believers demonstrated unity, generosity, and purity of heart, selling possessions to meet the needs of others and continuing in their faith with gladness. This initial flourishing of the church, marked by wonders and signs, serves as a model for contemporary Christian communities, emphasizing consistent adherence to biblical teachings and active participation in communal worship and service.
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 2.16 → restored 4.73
Acts chapter two and we'll begin our reading at verse forty-one. Acts two and verse forty-one. We know the setting of this story that is recorded here. Apostle Peter had just concluded his message on the day of Pentecost and then we read in verse forty-one. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day they 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 believe were together and had all things common and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men 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. It's interesting, I think, in the Word of God to observe the importance to things in their beginning, the beginning of things.
For instance, our Bible begins with that statement, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. You can't get behind God. And you can't get beyond God. The Lord Jesus said, I am the first and the last. In the beginning, God. And I think it is accurate to state that if you believe Genesis one and verse one, there is nothing else in the Bible that is difficult to believe. If you believe that simple bare statement of the Word of God that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and everything else is simple.
Because the one who could bring this vast universe into being, as the scripture declares he did, by the word of his power, everything else is simple. What's so difficult about the resurrection? Why should it be thought of thing incredible that God should raise the dead? If God could bring his old world into being, just by the word of his power, as it says in Hebrews, that... Through faith we understand that the world we're praying by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things that do appear. And it went on to say that he that comeeth to God must, that's the starting point, believe that he is, that he is, in the beginning God.
That he is and that he is the reward of them that diligently seek him. That's the first principle. So the scripture points us right back to the beginning. And in Scripture we observe this. It's very interesting to notice the first occurrence of things in the Bible because the first mention of things generally give you a pretty good inkling as to the teaching concerning them throughout the Word of God. When the Lord Jesus was speaking, for instance, on connection with the subject of marriage and divorce, and the disciples said, you know, that Moses, he commanded The children of Israel that they were to be divorced in certain instances.
And the Lord Jesus said, no. He permitted it. He suffered. And because of the hardness of your hearts. But then he said, in the beginning, it was not so. So the Lord Jesus pointed out that the principle on which God laid down marriage at the beginning, that's the thing that's to govern our lives today. In the beginning. And I thought it would be very interesting to notice the beginning of the church here on earth. Now we know that the Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter sixteen, and he said as a future event in his confession, and we looked at that, Upon this rock I will build my church, so that the church did not exist in the Old Testament days.
And Paul You remember a speech of the mystery which had been hid from ages and from generations, but now it's made manifest. And that's the message that he declared, the beginning of the church. That church which the Lord Jesus Christ purchased with his own blood, and that came into being as a result of the Lord Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, and his ascension to God's right hand, And the church could not exist until the Spirit of God came down, as it says in First Corinthians twelve and verse thirteen, by one spirit, and we all been baptized into one body. And so if you're a Christian, you're a member of the body of Christ, which is referred to as the church, his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.
Now, I don't want to speak tonight about the universal church, that is believers scattered throughout the world in many places. such gatherings as the one like we're here tonight and believers in each of these groups and forming local churches. I want to speak particularly about the local church and want to focus our attention on some of the things which were characteristic of this local church, the church of Jerusalem. At this point in history there was no other church so it was both the universal church you might say and it was the local church as well right here at its beginning you know the Apostle Paul in his epistles addressed those letters to various local churches for instance the churches of Galatia and the church at Corinth the church at Rome and the churches of the Thessalonians and so forth and of course that's the in a very large way the only church that we know in fact it's possible it may not be your experience but it's possible for you to live in a community And the only church that you ever know, if you never move out of the community, is that local group of believers where you meet.
At any rate, we can only be in one place at a time, and we're in a local church somewhere. Maybe we're here for a while. Maybe we're in the Des Moines for a while. But wherever we are, we're in a local church if we're Christians, or we should be meeting in a local capacity. And it's a good thing to meet as Christians. I don't think it's a very good idea for Christians to be what I call butterfly Christians. You know, they're flitting from this church to that church to the other church and they never seem to settle anywhere. It's a good thing to be in a place and fill a place. Sometimes I think of that verse in the Old Testament where Jonathan said in another connection, but he said it to David, thou shalt be missed because thy seat will be empty.
Sometimes many of us have never missed because our seat is seldom filled. But it's a good thing to be missed. That it's the ordinary course of your life that you're filling a place, not only a seat, but filling a place among the people of God. Now, I want you to think, first of all, of some of the requirements in this local church for membership in this local church. First of all, there had to be, as is evident here, there was, in this instance, a conviction of sin. No one ever becomes a member of a local church until, first of all, there is a conviction of sin.
Now, the Apostle Paul, as he was preaching here on the day of Pentecost, he called to the attention of these Jewish individuals who heard him on the day of Pentecost their great sin in the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as he preached, and by the Spirit of God, proved to them and witnessed to them that this one was none other than God manifest in flesh. He was their Messiah sent by God to save them. It says as he preached, they realized their guilt in the rejection of Christ, and it says they were pricked to the heart. They were pricked to the heart. And that's the work of the Spirit of God to bring conviction of sin.
No one ever gets saved until there's, first of all, a conviction of sin. The Lord Jesus said, I came not to call the righteous, Not that there are any righteous, because the Scripture says, There is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that seeketh after God. They all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. But the Lord Jesus said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. On another occasion, He said, They that are well need not a physician, but they that are sick. It's the man who is sick that goes to the doctor. There has to be, first of all, a felt need before anyone goes to the doctor. And so the Lord Jesus, or rather the Apostle Peter here, presses upon us the fact there must first of all be a conviction of sin.
You see this evidence in the sixteenth of Acts, for example, in other instances in Scripture. But here was this man, this Philippian jail, this one who had just laid these many stripes in the back of Paul in silence. And then this tremendous earthquake came. And convicted by that earthquake, no doubt, he... He comes in trying to ask, well, first he was going to take his life. And then he hears a voice out of the darkness. And his voice tells him not to take his life. And then you remember the Philippian jailer came in in fear and trembling, bringing a light.
He says, sir, what must I do to be saved? There must, first of all, be conviction of sin. And the Bible tells us in John sixteen that the Spirit of God is in this world and he was working through the ministry here of Peter to convict men of sin, said our Savior, because they believe not on me, of righteousness because I go to my fault, and of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. The crowning sin and that which the Spirit of God convicts men of sin, is not so much the wrongdoing which we ordinarily associate with sin, but he convicts of sin because of the rejection of Christ. God is no longer concerned with the sin question as such.
He's concerned with the Son question. And the Bible says, He that believes in the Son hath everlasting life. He that believes not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abided on him. I remember hearing a story years ago about Mordecai Ham. He was the preacher who toured the South many years ago. He may have come out this far. I don't know, but he had these tent campaigns in various cities. And he was a great evangelist in that part of the country. It was through his ministry that Billy Graham came to know Christ many years ago in North Carolina. But Mordecai Ham was preaching in Augusta, Georgia on this particular occasion. He'd been preaching about two or three weeks.
And a brother that I know that's in the assembly there came up to him. There was no assembly at that time there, but he came up to him and he said, Brother Ham, he says, you've been preaching here for about three weeks, and he says, I haven't heard you give an invitation yet. And Mr. Ham says, I've got to get them lost first. And that's a good thing. Now, a person, first of all, has to see their need. You know, in the first chapter of Mark's Gospel, we read concerning the Lord Jesus. The message that he preached was this. Repent and believe the gospel. And we read in Mark chapter six that when he sent out his two disciples in Paris to preach, it says they went out and you know what they preached?
They preached that men were to repent. To repent. John the Baptist was the forerunner of our Lord Jesus Christ. His message was repentance because it must first of all be repentance in order before there can be salvation. The Apostle Paul said, did you remember in Acts chapter twenty, when he was addressing the Ephesian elders, that the message that he preached was repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And that word repentance is a word, the Greek word, simply means to change your mind. It's something like we used to say when we were in the service, when they gave us a command, we were marching, it's about faith. About faith. You're going in the wrong direction, turn around.
That's what we have to do before we get saved. We have to realize that we're going in the wrong direction. And that's what the prophet Isaiah says. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him turn around and let him return unto the Lord for he may have mercy and he may part. Did you ever read that? No, it doesn't say that. It says he will have mercy and he will abundantly part. No one will ever be lost because they need to be because God has provided salvation for all who asked him for it. He says, Ask and he shall receive. And if you're not saved, you've never asked him. He says, Ask and he shall receive.
The Lord Jesus said to that woman in John chapter four, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me the drink, thou wouldest have asked, and he may, perhaps, in the sweet by and by, have given. He didn't say anything of the kind. He said, Thou wouldest have asked, and he would have given. There's no ifs, ands about it. And if you're not saved, it's because you've never repented of your sin and simply asked it. The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon received. How wonderful a Savior we have. Thousands have pledged to his fear-fiercest side. Welcome they all have been. None are denied. Weary and laden they all have been blessed.
Joyfully now in the Savior they rest. Him that cometh to me, he says, I will in no wise cast out. So first of all, there must be conviction of sin and then there is conversion of life, returning to the Lord in repentant faith and finding salvation in him, of whom the Scriptures says through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin. Acts, verse thirteen, thirty eight, and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. There is repentance, there is forgiveness of sins, that deals with the past. puts away all your sins, but then you get a new life.
It says, here it says, And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. God, the Holy Spirit, comes to indwell your life. You have new life. Many men have not the Spirit of Christ. He is none of his. To as many as receive him. To these he gives. The gift of life, which were born out of blood, but of the Spirit. The Spirit of God makes this a reality in your life. The moment by faith you turn to the Lord Jesus. And then another thing was not simply the conviction of sin, but there is confession of faith. Conviction of sin, conversion of life, and then thirdly, confession of faith. It says, and be baptized.
Be baptized. You know, when the Lord Jesus sent his disciples forth to preach the gospel, he said in Matthew chapter twenty-eight, Go ye, into all the world and make disciples of all nations baptizing them. It didn't say baptizing some of them. It says baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. And you can look in vain in the New Testament scriptures to find any instance of unbaptized believers. Without exception, in the Acts of the Apostles, upon confession of faith, they were baptized. And they were baptized humanly speaking, when they didn't have the slightest idea in their minds of how they would turn out.
How did Peter know when they baptized these three thousand souls on the day of Pentecost how they would turn out? No possible way they could know. It says here, they that gladly received his word were baptized. They were all baptized, every one of them. Not two thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine, but three thousand were baptized on the day of Pentecost. You know, it's a wonderful thing. not only to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, but to confess our faith in Him. It says in Romans chapter thirteen and verse fourteen, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's one thing to receive Him. You know, that's an inward thing. And the other thing is to put Him on where everybody knows.
Have a wonderful illustration of that in the fifth chapter of Mark's Gospel. Here is the woman. She said that when she heard that the Lord Jesus was coming, it says she came behind. and she touched the heaven of his garment and she said that if I only can touch the heaven of his garment I shall be well and the minute she touched him it says she felt in her body that she was healed of that flame that moment that she was healed but nobody knew it except one the Lord knew it and you know when you come into living touch with Christ there are two people that know it immediately you know it and he knows it those are really the only two that have to know And if it weren't recorded in the Word of God with that dying thief said on the cross, everybody would have been certain that he went to hell.
But it was recorded in the Word of God for our benefit. But God's purpose is not only that we should profess our faith in Christ, but that it should be an evident thing that we should confess it. And the Lord Jesus turned around in the press and he said, Who touched my clothes? Why, the disciples said, Why, Lord, Lord, the whole multitude is strong indeed. and thou sayest who touched me but you know there's a lot of difference a world of difference between the touch of a thronger and the touch of a toucher you ever been in a crowd of people you know people are jostling you all the time they bump against you when you're going shopping and you don't even notice it but let somebody touch you and you're immediately aware there's a difference between a touch and there are millions of people that profess to know the name of Christ that claim his name but they never come into living touch with him but the slightest feeblest touch of faith he knows it Who touched my clothes?
And she came. And she fell down before him. And before them all. She told him. That's the way the scripture is. It doesn't say she told them, but she told him. And that's what you're doing in baptism. You're telling the Lord Jesus. That you appreciate what he did for you. And this. You reckon that his death is your death. And that says he does unto sin. You too. are taking your place with him and you're to reckon yourselves as it says in Romans six dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ my father trusted Christ as his Savior when he was almost twenty years of age on the first of May and he was baptized on the eighth of May the next Sunday and he came into assembly fellowship on the fifteenth of May which happened to be his birthday And I think that's a good way.
I don't see any point in the light of God's word for delay, although there was delay in my own case. You know, when you turn to the Word of God, I don't see any merit anywhere in the Word of God suggested for partial obedience, for delay in obedience. The Lord's purpose is that the believer should be baptized. The scriptural order is this. It's found in Acts, verse eight. They hearing, it's better said of the Corinthians, they hearing, believed, and were baptized. Hearing, believed, baptism. That's the order. You hear the gospel. You believe it. And you're baptized. In Acts chapter eight, here is Philip the Evangelist.
And he baptized this fellow, this magician, Simon Magus. You remember? And he didn't turn out too well. You know, he wanted to buy the gift of the Holy Ghost from Philip. And people were wondering, well, well, is it this fellow real or not real? And you might have thought, well, in the conclusion of Acts chapter eight, when he's walking, he's riding in that chariot with that Ethiopian eunuch, and the Ethiopian eunuch says, here is water. What does hinder me to be baptized? He said, now wait just a minute. You know, I didn't have too good luck with that fellow Simon Magus, and we better wait a while and see how this is going to turn out, brother, before we do any of this baptizing. He didn't do any such thing. So they stopped the chariot? And they went down, both of them into the water.
Baptism by immersion, that's the scriptural order. That's what it means, to dip. And he baptized. Acts chapter nine, Saul of Tarsus, baptized. You know when Ananias appears on the scene? He baptized him. Why, he said, well, Lord, this fellow, he's been a real rascal, you know, and he's been a real enemy of the people. The Lord says, go thy way. He's a chosen vessel of the mean. I'll get busy and put him under the water. Baptize him. In Acts chapter ten, here's Cornelius. And Peter was a little suspicious after all. This fellow's not a Gentile. Baptize, they heard the word, they believed the word.
And he baptized him in his whole household. Acts chapter sixteen, that Philippian jailer. That one who just got busy and he was laying the stripes and fallen silent back. They said, boy, these fellas, I don't know. Well, I should baptize them same night, baptize them the same night. And when we look in the Acts of the Apostles, that's the order everywhere. And it's a good thing to go back to the beginning and to see how they did it back then. Because I believe this indicates to us that what they preached, they practiced. On profession of faith, they baptized them. Now there are three possibilities that could be true of a Christian.
or it's going to be true of an individual I should say it's possible for a person well let me illustrate it this way when I was in the service back in nineteen forty two to forty five during that time there were a lot of fellows I said a lot but there were some fellows that for instance they would put on a majors uniform and they would go around And they would pretend like they were in the army or navy or whatever. They were imposter. Now, they had the uniform on. They looked like the real McCoy. They looked like they were in the army or navy or whatever.
But they weren't. And, you know, there are many people that have put on the uniform. They have been baptized. But they have never come to that time in their life when by an active faith they have personally trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. And so they're not in the army. They're not in the Lord's army anyway. But they can pretend to be. You can have the uniform on, you can be baptized and have never exercised faith. But I remember what happened when I went to service. I went up in northern Florida, Camp Blanding. And when we got there, they had about forty or fifty of us fellows there and they lined us up. And we stood more or less, you know, in formation, but we didn't know anything about it then. We hadn't marched at the day in our life.
And they said, hold up your right hand. We held up our right hand. And they said, I don't know what was the equivalent. It wasn't exactly I pledged allegiance to the flag, but it was that you promised, you know, to obey the laws of the United States, you know, and et cetera, et cetera. And you swore with your right hand up that you were going to do that. Now, the minute I did that, I was in the army. I didn't look like a soldier. I didn't feel like a soldier. I didn't act like a soldier. But I was in. One moment I was a civilian and the next moment I was a soldier. And all was dependent upon my saying, as it were, to the army, I will. And when there was a moment in my life when I said to the Lord Jesus in response to His word, will you trust me as your own personal Savior?
And I said, I will. I was there. I was there at that moment. Now, I didn't look like a soldier. I didn't feel like a soldier. I didn't act like a soldier. I was there. Well, a short time afterwards, up at Camp Landing, They sent a bunch of us fellows through this line, the quartermasters, and they said, what size shirt do you wear? And out came two or three, and they said, threw you out some underwear, and they threw you out shoes, you know, get size nine. Sometimes they didn't fit what they gave you. And then I put some of this stuff on. And then I wasn't only in the army. I looked like a little soldier. Now, baptism is like putting the uniform on. Now, I was a soldier before I put the uniform on.
I was just as certain of heaven as though I was already there when I trusted Christ as my Savior if I had never been baptized. The dying thief made it without being baptized. Just on his profession of faith in Christ. But in the ordinary course of events, God wants us to put the uniform on. Confession of faith. And it's a wonderful time when you... Meet together with God's people, those of like precious faith, and go down to the waters of baptism, and you say as it were, well, goodbye to old Van Rine, and hello to new Van Rine. I don't want to see that fellow popping up anymore. Now, he's going to pop up.
The Bible doesn't say he's dead, but it says, I'm to reckon myself dead indeed unto him. My dad tells the story of an old Dutch preacher was baptizing some young girl years ago. And when she came up out of the water, he said, she said to a preacher, says, Will I ever sin again? Oh, he said, You wanted it where you would never sin again. He says, I should have held you under five minutes longer. That's the only way it'll get the job fully done. But it says we're to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin. Not that sin is dead, but we're to reckon ourselves dead to it, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Now, I want to consider not only the marks of the local church and its requirements, but think about the operation of the local church and its functioning. In the Old Testament, you remember there, we were told that there were, in the tabernacle, in the structure of the tabernacle, they had four visible shafts and one invisible shaft, one that couldn't be seen that went right through the middle of those boards. They were wide boards. About twenty-seven inches wide. They were about a cubic and a half wide, pretty wide board. And they had, they were thick, you know, like logs more. And they had a shaft running through the middle of them, holding them together.
And that invisible shaft is like the Spirit of God. He binds us all together. We're bound up in one bundle of life. It says, we are being built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. That's an invisible bond that holds us together. We're one in Christ. But then there are four visible bars that were seen in the tabernacle. And I liken them to what we have here in our verse forty-six. No, not verse forty-six. Verse forty-two. Four things. It says they, that is those who were baptized, continued steadfastly. They didn't just start. It's a good thing to continue.
It says they continued steadfastly. In the Apostle's doctrine, fellowship, breaking your bread, and in prayers. What makes this interesting is this, that in the Greek language, there is no such thing as an indefinite article, like A and An. You know, like when we write something, we say A apple or An apple, we would say, or A peach, you know, whatever. But in the Greek language, there is no such thing as an indefinite article. It's more or less supplied by the context. But there is a definite article like, the truth, the dog, the boy. And in each of these instances here, the definite article proceeds.
In other words, it's that they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers. And so I think what it's thinking of here in relation to these things is is what was true of the believers collectively. That is in the local church. It's not thinking of, for instance, private prayers. They continued in those two, no doubt. But it's thinking more of the public prayers. It's thinking of the public fellowship. And they continued in the Apostles' doctrine. The breaking of bread. That was not what they were eating their meal at home. It was when they came collectively together to remember the Lord Jesus Christ in his death. Four things. Well, are we continuing in these today?
What is the Apostle's doctrine? Well, whenever you read any of the Apostle Paul's epistles, that's the Apostle Paul's doctrine. And when you read one, two, and three, John, that's the Apostle John's doctrine. Or the Book of Revelation, that's more of the Apostle John's doctrine. And you read first and second Peter, that's the Apostle Peter's doctrine. In other words, today we would say we continue in the Word of God. We have a complete revelation that God has given us, sufficient to guide us, and we don't need to make up human tradition, which the Lord Jesus said in Mark's Gospel. He says, by your tradition, you've set aside the Word of God.
They added what men taught, men's doctrine. We don't need that. We have in the Word of God all that we need to guide us. Isn't that what Paul told Timothy? From a child thou is known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. All Scriptures God breathed. And it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect. Truly furnished unto all good works. Everything that we need is in the Word of God. And so our business as Christians is to search the Scriptures. Search the scriptures.
And our business as service of God is to do exactly what Paul said to Timothy. Preach the word. Preach the word. The instance in season and out of season. That's what we need to listen to. Not men's opinions. But what does the Lord have to say? And to bow to his authority. They continued, it says, in the Apostles' doctrines. Secondly, in fellowship. The fellowship. You know, the Lord has not only saved us but he's called us into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord and we share this fellowship with all of like precious faith in many ways this fellowship is expressed the word fellowship is translated sometimes by the word communion partaker partner it just simply means to share what you have whatever God has committed to us as individual Christians we are responsible to share with others You know, that's true materially, and we see it here in this connection in this chapter, and it's true spiritually.
It says, As every man has received the gift, even so, let him keep it to himself and not tell anybody about it. That isn't what it says. As every man has received the gift, even so, let him minister the same, one to another, one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. You know, God commits his truth not all to one person, but to the same. But he commits some to you and he commits some to me. And if I don't share what God has committed to me, then I'm cheating you. And if you don't share what God has committed to you with me, then you're cheating me. And that's why Christians meet together in order that they might share the good things of God's word. You meet in a Bible study. And Brother Jones speaks up and he says as they're meeting here in a sort of a conversational Bible study, well, the Lord gave me this this week.
And he tells you about it. And then Brother Smith, he speaks up and he shares. Isn't that way everybody is prophet? But if you keep it to yourself, no one is prophet. So we're responsible to share. And then the breaking of bread. You know, it says every one of these three thousand broke bread. You ever met a Christian that has trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, perhaps never been baptized, or perhaps has been baptized, and yet has never remembered the Lord Jesus Christ in his death. Never even ever begun. You ever met a Christian like that? Now I'm not talking about Christians that maybe are under the discipline of their assembly and rightfully set away from the Lord's table, from fellowship with Christians.
I'm talking about people who have trusted the Lord as their Savior but have never did exactly what the Lord Jesus told them to do, to break ground. Now he did not say this do if you feel like it. Did you ever read that? This do once in a while. He said this did. And the word there means to keep on doing. It's written in the continuous tense, this do and keep on doing. And the scripture tells us how long we're going to do. It says, as often as eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show forth the Lord's death till he comes. And you and I are to be doing that.
Until he comes or until he's pleased to take us home to be with him. That's one thing that we're to observe. And this is one thing that marks them. The breaking of bread. And the importance of the breaking of bread can be gauged by this, that it's the only visible, continuing ordinance that applies to all the church. Baptism is something you do once. The head covering is something that ladies are to do, but it doesn't apply to the men directly. But here is something that applies to men and women, boys and girls, all who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, It's the only visible, continuous thing in Christianity, and that's the importance of it.
You know, in the Old Testament, everything was visible. You know, the garments that they wore, the sacrifices, the physical, visible sacrifices. No longer. In Christianity, everything is spiritual. We're to offer up spiritual sacrifices, as the Scripture says, acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ. You know, it's a wonderful thing. to seek to carry this out. And in doing so, we discover that we preach two great truths. First of all, we preach that we have our confidence, the confidence of our salvation, rest in the Lord Jesus Christ in what he's done. This is my body which is broken for you.
This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you. So we think first of all of his physical body. But we not also think of his physical body, we think every time we meet together and remember the Lord Jesus Christ, we think of his mystical body. We being many are one breath, we're one body. You know, it's a wonderful thing. And I heard a story some years ago about a brother who met a man on the street, a fellow Christian, and he said, I saw you this morning. Oh, he said, you couldn't have seen me. He said, I was seventy-five miles away preaching the word this morning. He said, I saw you. He said, when did you see me?
He said, when we broke the loaf this morning, he said, I saw you. You were there, the whole body. You know, when you look at that loaf, we be made of one bread, one loaf, one body in the Lord. Not only did we see his physical body, that body was given to make our salvation possible, but we see what he has produced. by the giving of his body, his own mystical body. Praise God for each one who is a member of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then they continued in prayers. I think one of the things that I don't know, I wasn't at their prayer meeting, but I hope they weren't as long winded as some of us fellows are at our prayer meetings.
You know, I was at a meeting not so long ago and they said, I wonder why these young fellows Don't take part in the prayer. And two of the men who were telling me they both prayed about fifteen minutes each at this particular meeting. They couldn't have got a word in it that they wanted to. Short prayers. I remember years ago, I was in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I was a brother in that meeting. He never prayed less than twenty minutes. In those days we used to get down on our knees. I used to go to sleep lots of time on my knees. Do you ever do that? Nowadays we sit up in the seats, but I used to go to sleep. And he prayed all over the world. Public prayers. It's a wonderful thing to consider others.
Now, I'm not trying to criticize our brethren for this long praying. I mean, I'm not looking at anybody when I say this, but if a shoe fits where you put it on, but I believe that we should be exercised in public and not being too long-winded in our prayers. At home, if you want to pray for thirty minutes, private. You want to get in your room and in your closets? And now as entered into thy closet, shut through thy door, and pray to thy Father with thieves and secret, you can pray for two hours. And I'm sure the Lord is willing to listen. But sometimes it can get boring to some of us folks down here. And we need to consider one another. Prayers. They continued in it. And I would encourage you, young and old alike, to get busy and lay hold of the Lord in prayer.
One of the most encouraging things, I think the older Christians, is to see young men opening up their mouths. in prayer and praise to the Lord. So you young fellows, the exercise about participating in this way. This is what marked them, and it should mark us today. And I want you to notice the fruitfulness of this local church. Wonders were done by the apostles.
The Lord working with them. They went forth in obedience to His word and the Lord worked with them. No doubt many of these were physical miracles. But we can see miracles of grace today. God working in the lives of His own. Now notice there are accord. It says all that believed were together. There was unity in spite of the diversity. You know, they were different. They all had different gifts, but they were working together. Wonderful thing to see the unity of faith. You know, we each needed. I remember hearing T. Ernest Wilson say some years ago, he said, you know, if you're in Central Africa, and he said, and you see a line in the path, and he said, and you've got a gun, and you've got one bullet in the gun, and you pull the trigger, and you miss, he said, at that exact moment, The head will say to the feet, I have need of thee.
You know, every member is needed at some time or another. Now, we may not be the head, we may not be the eye, but every member is meant to function together for the good of every other member. Each of us has its place to fill. You know, that's a marvelous thing that the Apostle Paul, by the way, is the only one that uses the body as a symbol of the church. But what a wonderful illustration that is. all the diverse members of the body, but all working together in subjection to the common head and seeking to do his will. How this should characterize us. Unity, but diversity. And then they were marked by generosity.
It says they had all things common. I think one of the good gauges of a Christian's character is this. What does he do with his money? What does he do with the material things that God has committed to him? A stingy Christian is a contradiction. How can we, who are the recipients of his marvelous grace, be inconsiderate to the needs of others? Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we to his poverty might be made rich. It says here these people sold their goods and parted with them and shared with one another in their needs. It's a wonderful thing to see Christianity marked by generosity.
Somebody has said Christianity can be written in one word. Give. And then I want you to notice it was marked by continuance. They continued. They continued. They didn't only begin. They didn't fall out by the wayside. They kept at it. They continued in searching the scriptures. They continued steadfast in the Apostle's doctrine as it says here. Then I want you to notice another thing that marked is This beginning church here, this first local church, it's joy. It says, they ate their meat with gladness. Are you marked, and am I marked as by thankfulness, by praise? Am I a rejoicing Christian?
Why, always moaning and complaining is the motto of my life, and everything gives thanks. Well, this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Joy, irrepressible joy. Mark these early believers. And it was contagious. It caught on. And then another thing that marked them was their purity. It says, with singleness of heart, the Lord Jesus said, if I be single, my old body shall be full of life. In a way, the Christian life is very simple because we have only one to believe. You ever worked in a place where you had five different bosses, you had so many chiefs but not too many Indians?
You know, every time you turn around somebody was telling you what to do? Very complicated, very difficult to work under those circumstances. I worked for an outfit once. There were only two employees and three chiefs. Father and mother and son, they owned the business and two other of those worked there. And we did the work, believe you me, everybody else was given the orders. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians. You know, it's a wonderful thing to know that we only have one mass. We have only one to plead. One to plead. Because it has walked with you the Lord.