BE DEVOTED TO ONE ANOTHER

1. BE DEVOTED TO ONE ANOTHER ACTS 2: 42 - 47

2. ACTS 2: 42 - 47 • 42 All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper*), and to prayer. • 43 A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. 44 And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had.

3. ACTS 2: 42 - 47 • 45 They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. 46 They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity*—47 all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

4. Structure of the Passage: • The disciples devoted themselves to four things • The consequence of this devotion is seen in the rest of the verses: • Deep awe, • Signs and wonders in evidence, • Generous sharing of money & possessions, • Great joy, and an enjoying the good will of the people. • Salvations daily!!!

5. Apostles Teaching • “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction”. 2 Tim 4: 2.

6. Fellowship (Koinonia) • What is fellowship? • It means to be a sharer, a companion, one who is a partaker, a participant in communion. • We can still experience; signs and wonders and awe inspiring things in our church today, if we devote ourselves to true fellowship.

7. Fellowship (Koinonia) • We have true fellowship when we demonstrate genuine caring for each other and meet each others needs. Caring is just an emotion that says, “I care for you.” Fellowship means we must take action.

8. Fellowship (Koinonia) • Being of one mind means that we maintain a singular focus to serve God and serve each other. In reality that means that we have no other motive to be here or be with each other than to please God.

9. Sharing Meals • Fellowship is what goes on while we’re eating together. • There’s something about humans that makes us bond together better when we share meals • We sit around together and share about our lives; our joys and our pains, our struggles and our triumphs. We can begin to bear one another’s burdens; celebrate with each other and cry with each other.

10. Sharing Meals • I believe the New Testament affirms over and over again that the effective Christian life is not meant to be lived alone. A Christian who lives a life away from other Christians will never mature and not persevere in the faith without fellowship.

11. Prayer • Praying together is an intimate thing. • The best prayer comes out of a place of really knowing one another, and being really concerned one for another. • In short, the best prayer comes out of a place of love & devotion.

12. The fruit of this life. • Firstly there was a sense of reverent awe, which paved the way for the apostles to perform many miraculous signs. • Then there was this generous sharing of money and possessions. • But what was the trade off? GREAT JOY, they enjoyed the GOOD WILL of all people, and, PEOPLE WERE ADDED TO THEIR NUMBER DAILY.

13. APPLICATION • What are we to make of this in the church today? • How are we to take the lessons of the early church on board? • Simple: • Costly: • High bar:

14. CONCLUSION • Will we? • I encourage you to be devoted to one another in brotherly love? • I urge you to press in deeper in your fellowship? • Throw your caution to the wind • Be generous – really generous, • PEOPLE SAVED DAILY! YES………PLEASE