I think in years to come, if the Lord tarries, we will look back upon the spring of 1988 as one of those significant times in the history of our church. We're in the midst of a campaign that promises to lay a foundation for future ministry that is far beyond any of us could have imagined seven years ago. And a God-ordained part of this time was the Spring Conference, which is now history, of course. That has been a mountaintop experience for many in our congregation.
It was a time of intense examination of our lives and a renewing of commitments to the Lord. We learned from our guests regarding the price that we must pay for continuous revival, price primarily of time and prayer, surrender to the Lord. We talked about the principle of obedience, doing exactly what God says immediately and with the right heart attitude.
Then we learned about the principle of forgiveness and had the opportunity to put that into practice and concluded Wednesday evening with the priority that we must have as a church in getting out the good news of Jesus Christ and telling others of Him. It was a mountaintop experience and as I think about that, I find some interesting parallels between our situation today and that which was faced by the apostles in Acts chapter 1, our text for today where I invite you to turn.
The Lord Jesus Christ had laid down His life that had been followed by His resurrection from the dead just as He had predicted. For 40 days then, He met with His disciples on several occasions during that period. He taught them, instructed them, and prepared them for the apostleship which was theirs. And then at the end of the period, He gathered them on the Mount of Olives. They heard from Him again the promise of the Holy Spirit coming.
He gave to them rather the commission to be witnesses of His throughout the whole world beginning right there in that city and to the uttermost parts of the earth. After He had spoken those things, He began to be lifted up from them. And the scriptures tell us that He ascended into heaven and clouds took Him out of their sight. And angels then standing beside them promised that this same Jesus that they had seen go away would come again. Now imagine that kind of a 40-day mountaintop experience.
If our four-day conference was a spiritual high for us, can you imagine what that 40-day period was to those apostles? But then dramatically and rather suddenly, Jesus was gone. It might be that they asked themselves, where do we go from here? What should our next step be? I think by tracing the actions of those early believers and how they answered that question, you and I can get some important insight as to where we go from here too after such an effective meeting as we've had.
These actions that we will see from Acts chapter 1 and chapter 2 made that post-resurrection mountaintop experience, that 40-day spring conference with Jesus, if you please, these actions made that experience the door to historic ministry and not simply a dead-end spiritual high. We begin in verse 12 where it says, then, that is after what had happened, they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away, about a half a mile.
What did they do first? They went back to the familiar. Not only did they go to Jerusalem, but it says in verse 13 that when they had entered, they went up to the upper room where they were staying. So what did they do? Where did they go from the end of that 40-day conference? The first thing they did was to go back to that which was familiar to them. And that's exactly what you and I have experienced over the last three or four days. Mountaintops do not last. They're not intended to.
Life is mostly made up of routine, of ordinary. The heights of the peaks soon give way to the level of the plateau. It is there in the level plane that we are called upon to daily learn and practice the discipline of our walk with God. Those early apostles went back to the familiar, and that's where you are today. It doesn't mean that it's a rut, but it does mean that it's the familiar, what we're used to.
The challenge that we face is this, to bring back to the familiar the routine of life, those lessons which God taught us in the special season of blessing. The application of those lessons to daily life, to daily experience, is the evidence that we have genuinely grown and matured. It's important for you not to be surprised if, in fact, the conference was indeed a high point for you.
It's important that you not be surprised if, in fact, you've already experienced a period of depression, for that is normal. It may be that you have also experienced a time of intense trial in your life. It is perfectly normal for that to come after a concentrated period of spiritual renewal.
God's plan is that we come down from the mountaintop back to the routine and the familiar of life, and there learn to put into daily practice through hard discipline those special lessons that God wrote upon our hearts on the mountaintop. Moses did not always stay in Mount Sinai. He met there with God and received from God what was needed, but then he went back down to the camp of the people of Israel, and there sought to lead them.
He went back to the familiar, and that's what we are to do as well. They went back to the familiar, and then I notice in verse 14 that they also devoted themselves to prayer. It says, these all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. So they were gathered together in prayer frequently. They devoted themselves to that. Why? Why did they do this?
Well, it seems to me it was the most natural thing for them to do for at least three reasons. In the first place, it was their way of continuing fellowship with their beloved Christ. They knew that he was hearing them as they prayed, and so they devoted themselves to prayer knowing that in praying they would continue fellowship with the one that they had seen go back into heaven.
Secondly, it was the way in which they would praise God for what had taken place, for the great miracles that they had seen culminating with the resurrection of Jesus. And so as they devoted themselves to prayer, it was in worship of God who had fulfilled his great promises of redemption through the death and resurrection of his Son. And finally, they devoted themselves to prayer in expectation of the promise of the Father which Jesus had given to them.
That promise being, according to verse four, or verse five rather, the baptism with the Holy Spirit. That is the coming of the Spirit of God upon them. The initiation of something brand new which they did not realize or understand at this point, but it was the whole unique body of the church of Christ being called out in this age. And so they devoted themselves to prayer in expectation of what God was going to do.
This attitude of worship and spirit of dependence and faith was vital and real to them. It expressed their continuing dependence upon their Lord. And it was something that they continued to do. You can read about it in chapter two, you can read about it in chapter six, you can read about it in chapter 13. Prayer was a natural part, a vital part if you please, of the experience of the early church. And may I say to you today that that is something that must be true of our church as well.
We must become more than we have ever been before, perhaps more than any individual of us has experienced before, a people of prayer. Not prayer as a ritual or as a show. Not prayer as a gimmick or an empty form, but as the very heart, the very heart of an ongoing ministry. It is essential that we become a church of prayer. And we will be a praying church to the extent that we are praying individuals, won't we?
There have been a number of requests that we continue the morning prayer meetings, Monday through Saturday, and that is something that we are planning to do. In fact, you will see an announcement about that in the newsletter. Just as before, 6.30 Monday through Friday, room seven will be open for prayer. There will be someone here to pray with you. Come for two minutes or an hour, whichever you can, or however long you can, come and pray. But that's not the only thing.
We need to be praying throughout the day. I want to exhort you to seek to add to your life the discipline of praying morning, noon, and night, three times a day. Most of us commonly have a time when we turn to the Lord in prayer, whether it be in the morning as we get up or in the evening before we go to bed, or some other time in the day, that we set aside, hopefully, for devotions, or whatever you call that in your life.
But I would like for us as a people to set as a goal before us to learn to pray morning, noon, and night, three times a day. Perhaps we'll want to talk to God about three different things on those three different occasions, divide our prayer life into three parts. You do it however you want to, but seek to become more than ever before in your life a praying person. Where do we go from here? The answer is we must go to the place of prayer.
We must devote ourselves to prayer, as did the early church. After that, I noticed that they reconstituted the 12. This is the third action they took. Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren, and he said, as it records in verse 16, Brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was counted among us and received his portion in this ministry.
Verse 20, it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his homestead be desolate, and let no man dwell in it, and his office let another man take. It is therefore necessary that one of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning with the baptism of John until the day that he was taken up from us, one of these should become a witness with us of his resurrection. And so it says that there were two names that were proposed.
One was Joseph, who also went by Barcibus or Justus, and then there was Mathias. And it says they prayed and said, Thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show which one of these two thou hast chosen to occupy the ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned his side to go to his own place. And they drew lots for them, and the lot fell to Mathias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. So the third action they took was actually a getting together of their act, so to speak.
They reconstituted themselves as the twelve apostles, believing that that was exactly what God wanted them to do and basing that upon the verses of Scripture that Peter quoted. It is interesting that at the same time, Peter simply rose to the occasion of leadership and accepted the position as spokesman for the apostles, which he becomes now in the early chapters of the book of Acts.
What I'm saying is that the apostles took the necessary steps to get organized and positioned for the blessing of God which they were expecting, for they were in prayer expecting that the promise would come from the Father which Jesus had talked about. In the meantime, they got themselves organized. They got positioned so that they would be ready to move when that blessing came. It seems to me that there is a parallel to where we are today as a church.
We are involved, as we have said in this campaign entitled Sharing the Vision, which is for us today a means of getting our act together as a church, getting ourselves positioned as a congregation so that as God blesses, we will be ready to move forward. He has already enabled us through the worksheets that many of you filled out to get a better grasp of the vision of ministry which we have within our congregation.
Combining what was done in February and early March with what was done in March of last year, putting those two together, we have a, I think, a legitimate and firm hand on what the vision of our church corporately is, the things we ought to be doing to minister to the needs of people. God has helped us to do that. Now He has brought to us some very fine people to help us in Nehemiah Ministries. They have worked closely with us.
They have spent hours and hours with our leadership, sometimes as individuals, sometimes as larger groups of even 50, 60, and 70 people, putting together ideas, fine-tuning, honing the vision, putting together the challenge materials as they are right now. One day very soon, you and I are going to be faced with the opportunity to commit ourselves afresh to our common vision. We will have the opportunity to commit ourselves in three important areas. Number one, prayer.
What will I do as a child of God and as a part of this body of believers in prayer? More than I am doing now, how will I increase my commitment there? We will talk about giving. As a child of God, as a member of this body of believers, what does God want me to do in my giving, to be a part of getting our act together as a church? We are going to talk about serving.
As a child of God, as a member of this local body, as a gifted servant of the Lord, what need I to be doing more than I am now to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and get our church positioned and ready for the blessing that God is going to bring upon us? Just as those early apostles, after that mountaintop experience, got their act together, positioned themselves for the blessing. So that is exactly where we are today as a church too.
As we enter into these next weeks and we have the opportunity, as all of us will personally, to respond and interact with these commitments, I am excited to think what God may well do. As all of us together see the vision and commit ourselves to it in these vital areas that I have suggested. Getting our act together is more crucial now than it has ever been before. We are on the right track. I am convinced of that.
Then notice fourthly that in response to the great mountaintop experience which they had, they went on to proclaim the message of Jesus in the setting of ministry that God had given to them. We see this in chapter 2, for they were gathered together, the Spirit of God came upon them and they began to speak in the tongues of many nations. The nations mentioned there in verses 8, 9, 10, and 11. Through a miracle of God on the day of Pentecost, their ministry was multinational.
They were proclaiming the word of God and people were hearing in languages of their own nations, their own ethnic background. And then Peter stood up with the other 11 apostles, again as the spokesman, and he began to preach to them. He says, men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. Proclaiming at that point, he preaches to them Jesus Christ. In verse 22, Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God.
In other words, he says, I am proclaiming to you Jesus of Nazareth, a man that was attested by God to be whom he claimed to be by the miracles, signs, and wonders which were performed in your midst. Then in verse 23, he says, this man was delivered up. How? By the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. In other words, it was God who delivered him up. But nonetheless, he says, you nailed him to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death.
And so he gives the human responsibility aspect. And then he says in verse 24, God raised him up. And he goes on to preach at length about the resurrection. In verse 33, then mentioning Christ's exaltation to the right hand of God. And then he says in verse 38, repent and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So what are they doing here?
Well, the apostles went to the temple and to the Jews and then ultimately beyond the Jews to the Samaritans and then to the Gentiles. They proclaim the message of Jesus. What do we do? Where do we go from here after a conference like we've had when so many of us have experienced a deep working of God in our midst? Where do we go? The answer is that we go to that place where God has called us to minister. And there we proclaim Jesus Christ.
It was no accident that Mr. Brewer concluded the meeting this week with the emphasis on Wednesday night of evangelism. Inner renewal must turn outward to the needs of the world around us or it will become lost in a maze of introspection that leads nowhere. It is important that we begin looking in, that there be that time of renewal, but we must turn that outward then to be concerned about those who need our Christ.
There were many of us, several hundred of us Wednesday, who made out lists of people for whom we will be praying. We will be seeking strategies to win them to Christ over the coming months, praying that at least one person on that list would come to Christ in the next year. There are others of you that were not there on Wednesday night, and I would invite you to join us in that respect, to think through your associates, your neighbors, your friends.
Who are those that need Christ that you are particularly burdened for? Would you begin praying for them? Would you write down their names in the back of your Bible or someplace where you will often see that list? And begin praying regularly that God would move in the hearts of Joe and Susie and Mary and Jim? Then would you ask God to give you a strategy, to give you a door, an opening, a bridge into the lives of those people? Where do we go from here?
The answer is we go out to a world that needs the message God has given us, or we cannot be content simply to sit on the mountaintop with Jesus. We have to come off the mountain, get out into the world where He's called us to carry out the commission, to be His witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth. Then again in chapter 2 of the book of Acts, I notice that they devoted themselves to meaningful fellowship.
We see this in verse 41 where it says, So then those who had received His word were baptized and there were added that day about 3,000 souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread into prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. All those who had believed were together and had all things in common.
They began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. And day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. Here you see dynamic fellowship in that early church. A number of things incorporated here. First of all, they gathered for instruction.
They devoted themselves, it says, to the apostles' teaching. Of course that was necessary for these were the men who were trained. They in turn had to train others who would then train others and then train others. But here we're in the very early stages, of course, of the church and the apostles are the ones who had the message. And so these thousands of people who had believed would gather together for instruction. That's a vital part of fellowship.
Fellowship that is not based upon the instruction of God's Word will soon go astray. It will not accomplish much of eternal benefit. It must be devoted to the Word of God, to the instruction that's found in these pages. And then I noticed it also involved gathering for fellowship, which was breaking of bread and prayer. That's what he means here by fellowship. It involved breaking of bread and prayer. The breaking of bread may have been a meal together, could have been the Lord's Supper.
Probably it was a combination of both. They would gather together to eat, but also as a part of that then to observe the Lord's Supper. And then they would pray together. That was a dynamic part of the body life of that early church and it ought to be, must be, has to be a vital part of a church today that's going to do something for God. There has to be the coming together to break bread and to share together one's heart needs and requests and prayer.
Then there was thirdly a concern for the needy among them. There were those who had particular needs, others who had the ability to sell lands or properties would dispose of them and then bring that money voluntarily so that it might be distributed to those who had needs. So they cared for one another. They were concerned for the needy. You then notice that that fellowship involved a oneness of mind. It says that they were with one mind in the temple. Their hearts beat together.
They were all moving in the same direction. They had the common vision of what God wanted them to do and be. That's vital in a church, isn't it? We're seeking to bring our vision more together than it's been in the past. We've had good vision, but the vision has at times been a little diffused. We want to bring that together more commonly so that all of us understand clearly the direction we're heading. We're in the midst of doing that. It's exciting to see it come together. Oneness of mind.
And you notice they spent time with one another, breaking bread from house to house. They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. They looked for opportunities to be together. They were hospitable. They opened their homes. There was a warmth of fellowship. They enjoyed spending time together. Folks you can't have fellowship unless you spend time with others. The degree to which I experience fellowship will be the degree to which I am able to be with other people.
If I am a loner and I sit back by myself and complain I have no fellowship, I have but one to blame and that's me. Fellowship demands that I be with others. Here it talks about meal time. It talks about breaking bread from house to house. It talks about in the temple. So when there was a gathering, large like in the temple or small like in a house, they were meeting together. Then notice that they did this with gladness, sincerity of heart.
Joy and sincerity characterizes a church that has dynamic body life. It involved worship of God. They were praising God it says. And the result was they had favor with all the people, that is the common people, not the leaders of the religious community at least, but with the common populace they had favor who wouldn't want to be a part of, who wouldn't approve at least this kind of love and care and joy for one another. Developing and maintaining this quality of fellowship is demanding.
It is demanding of everyone who wants to be a part of it. It demands time. It demands energy. It demands effort. But the result or the fruit of it is the sweetest thing this side of heaven itself. My prayer is that we as a church may devote ourselves to meaningful fellowship. Not just getting together to get together, but getting together to share our lives with each other. Then I notice number six, that they reached more people as the Lord added to their number.
Where did they go from the top of Mount Olivet? They went out to proclaim Christ and they had meaningful fellowship as people then were added to the body, they grew. They reached more and more people, it says in verse 47, and the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. So the Lord was increasing the church. Why? Because it was a healthy church. A healthy church will grow. Not always at a rapid pace, but it will grow certainly. It must grow. It's an organism.
The kind of growth that is mentioned here is real growth, not transfer growth. There wasn't another church to transfer from in Jerusalem. These were people added to the fellowship who were coming to Christ and that is the kind of growth that real church growth is. It's people being saved. It's interesting to ponder how they were able to keep up with the growth with as many converts as they had in those early weeks of the church. There were thousands even the first day.
And then every day beyond that for weeks there were hundreds and thousands more coming to faith in Christ. How were they able to keep up with that? How were they able to incorporate these people? I think that they did basically what we've tried to do here and that is that they met in larger groups in the temple, that was the natural place for them to meet. They were Jewish background entirely at this point. It was a large gathering place.
At least had the permission of the religious leaders, though they may have regretted it a bit later on in particular. They gathered in larger groups of thousands there in the temple compound. But then it's clear that also from house to house they met. And so they had the large group, they had the small group. Someone said in my presence recently that he believes that a church has a maximum point of growth where it can be effective. And he felt it was somewhere around 900,000. What did he mean?
Well, he was by exaggeration saying this. There is no such thing as this is as large as a church should be. A church can grow to any size provided that it does exactly what they did in Acts chapter 2, provided it breaks down into small groups where people identify, where people are associated together in caring groups, where they know each other, where they can look after each other, discipline each other if necessary.
The early church grew to a church of multiplied thousands within days of Pentecost. And yet it seems that they were able to handle that because they kept breaking into smaller groups all the time. And that is the challenge that we face here. We want to reach more people for the Lord as a church. To do that, to continue to grow, we have to keep breaking down into small groups, small churches, flocks, care groups, so that people feel a part of it. So that when they're gone, they're missed.
So that when they're hurting, someone knows, can go and pray with them. So that when there's a particular blessing, there are those they can share that with who can enter into the real joy and excitement of it because they know them. I want to encourage you, if you are not involved presently in a smaller group, to get involved quickly. That is vital for your faith. It's not simply an option that you can do if you've got time to do it.
The point I'm making this morning is that it's absolutely mandatory as a church grows larger for each person of the larger body to be plugged into a smaller group somewhere. If you want to know how to do that, you can call the church office and one of our pastors can get back to you with specific information. It seems to me that they also use the daily routine events of life as the opportunity for discipleship. I don't read a lot here about discipleship groups meeting.
Now they may have, but it doesn't really say that here. They simply use those occasions when they were together to lay life upon life, whether it be meals or be there in the temple, whatever the occasion may be, they use those natural routine opportunities of life to disciple, to bring people along. I think that too is part of the secret of how they incorporated their growth.
My question that I've been trying to answer this morning from Acts 1 and 2 is this, where do we go from here after a conference like we've had? The answer to that is that we go in the same direction that the early church did. That we go back to the familiar, to the place of assignment where God has placed us in His will.
We go to devotion to prayer, making that a vital part of our lives, not just for a specific period leading up to a meeting, but now ongoing as a vital part of our everyday walk with God. Where do we go from here? We go to a time of getting our act together, which will culminate in just about a month as we come to the end of the challenge portion of the campaign called Sharing the Vision. Where do we go from here?
To the marketplace or to the temple or to that place where God has put us in His will to proclaim the message of Jesus. Where do we go from here? Hopefully to devote ourselves to more meaningful fellowship than we've had in the past. To identify with small groups, to get together with some other believers and tie our lives together, to bond ourselves together. Where do we go from here? To being a part of an expanded ministry, reaching more people who need to know Christ.
As was pointed out to us a few weeks ago, we're actually losing ground in our community here because when we started seven years ago, something like nine percent of the people in this community, in this area were involved in a Bible teaching church. Today it's about half of that because of the turnover in the community, new families coming in that are not rooted in church in this community. And that could probably be reproduced in the community where you live, where I live.
And so we have a tremendous challenge before us and a great door of opportunity. Let's not miss it. Where do we go from here? To the place of blessing, the place of expecting God to do a miracle in our midst. That's where we go. What does this specifically mean to each of us today? I believe that we need to first of all look back, look back with gratitude to God for what He did in our midst in the spring conference. Now if you weren't a part of that, I'm sorry you missed something very special.
There are some tapes available. You can sort of get a little bit by osmosis that way. But what special days these have been for us. And those of us who have been a part of that can look back with gratitude for what God has done. Then we can look up, look up with commitment to continue an active prayer life. Will you do that? Will you commit yourself to continue an active prayer life? We can look forward.
Look forward to the culmination of this campaign and how God wants me, wants you to respond to the potential commitments. We can look on the harvest field that's all around us with a heart burden for those who are lost. We can look for ways to become vitally a part of the fellowship of this body. And we can look with anticipation to see how God is going to expand our ministry. See how He's going to add to our church those from our own spheres of influence whom He died to save.
Would you bow together in prayer with me? Would you begin by looking back this morning and say, Lord, thank you. Thank you for what you did in my heart, what you've done in our church. Would you look up then, look up to Him with commitment to continue your active prayer life? Or if it's not active, to make it active? Would you look forward with anticipation to the commitments that we've talked about as a part of the Nehemiah campaign?
Will you ask the Lord right now to enable you to respond then according to His will? Will you look on the harvest field where God has placed you and allow Him to burden you for two, three, four, five people, families, and covenant to pray for them? Feel free to write those names down right now even so that you'll remember to pray. Will you look for ways to become a vital part of the fellowship in our church?
Father, I pray that all of us will look with excitement and anticipation to what you're going to do in our midst. May we see the mountaintop that we've been on as a preparation. May it not be for any of us a dead-end spiritual high. Brother may the conference be for us a door that we've now entered so that more than before we're prepared for the blessing you desire to give. Lord lead us on from here, I pray, to greater heights, greater things, whatever that may mean.
We pray that our ministry will be effective, that we will have a brightly burning testimony for the Lord Jesus in our region. To that end, I pray that each of us this morning will commit ourselves in these various ways that we've suggested. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.