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It is with great joy that I invite you once again to turn to the book of Acts. This morning, the Spirit of God has led us to this text in Acts chapter two, and in a few minutes, we will look at verses 42 through 47. But before we go there, may I grab your attention a bit with a few thoughts that I believe will help us understand the importance of the text that we have before us.

As we observe the United States of America and Great Britain, we discover an ever-growing divide between religion of all kinds and what many people call spirituality. In fact, in a Gallup poll that I read recently, they said that 78 percent of the people polled see themselves as spiritual, yet 56 percent admitted that they rely upon themselves, not an outside power like God, to solve life's problems. When asked, "Do you think of spirituality more in a personal and individual sense, or more in terms of organized religion and doctrine?" 72% opted for the quote "personal and individual," leaving only 21% preferring what was institutionalized. With such a widespread dissatisfaction, I might even add disdain for organized religion, it is now popular in our culture, in the Western culture, to customize, or you might say personalize, your own religion, your own spirituality. After all, people would say spirituality is something very personal, something very private, and there is a vast smorgasbord of spiritual, "beliefs and philosophies" available to hungry, disillusioned, frustrated souls. Many people go to that smorgasbord, and they fill up their spiritual plate with a little Mormonism, maybe a little Scientology, certainly a little Hinduism, a little New Age is nice, a little Confucianism, perhaps even a little Islam. How about adding a little acupuncture to that? Certainly, the horoscope needs to be thrown in there. Maybe even a little voodoo. Certainly, some psychotherapy, and for some maybe a little wicca, witchcraft. Even for many people, they will choose some things out of Roman Catholicism, some things out of Christianity, some things out of Judaism. They stir it all in a big pot, and they call it spirituality.

In her book Beyond 2000: A Self-Made Deity an author by the name of Hannah Rosen describes one such couple who had utterly abandoned their Roman Catholic roots, saying, and I quote, "There isn't a church in all of America we want to go to." So the author goes on to say, "These folks said they began to build their own church, salvaging bits of their old religion they liked and chucking the rest. The first to go were an angry, vengeful God and hell. That's just something they say to scare you," the husband said. They kept Jesus, quote "because Jesus is big on love." She went on to write, "From the local bookstore in a bulging section called 'Private Spirituality,' they found wisdom in places that they had never before searched or even heard of in Zen masters, in New Age chestnuts such as 'A Course in Miracles.' And in their latest find 'Conversations with God,' now they commune with a new God, a gentle twin of the one they grew up with. He is a wise but soft-spoken God, who cheers them up when they're sad, laughs at their quirks, he is most essentially validating, like the greatest of friends, and best of all, he had been there all along." The wife said, and I quote: "We discovered the God within. That's why we need God because we are God. God gives me the ability to create my own godliness." And such, dear friends, are the musings of a fool.

But this false dichotomy between religion and spirituality, combined with a penchant to create your own spirituality, can also be seen in the mindset of the seeker-sensitive movement that we find in neo-evangelicalism today, and even certainly in the new emergent church movement. And of course, in these movements, you can create your own church; create a church that will embrace the culture, not only embrace the culture but exalt the culture. In this type of a movement, you jettison Bible doctrine because certainly that's too divisive. It's offensive to many people, and after all, nobody really knows what's true anyway. So let's don't be too dogmatic.

And so we also need to reinvent a new, more inclusive gospel-one that'll make sure everyone gets to go to heaven, regardless of what they believe. We need to also abandon archaic and offensive biblical concepts like sin and repentance and hell and the sovereignty of God and all of those types of things; discard anything that smacks of tradition or historical Christianity, historical orthodoxy of the faith, and perhaps most importantly, reject the biblical principles that define the marks of a church, because after all, this is the 21st century, and people don't like that old stuff anyway. And in order to justify that, you can say, "Well, we're just trying to be more spiritual, or, as many will say, we're trying to reach the unchurched. Whenever I hear that, I say, "With what?" Because what you're presenting to them certainly is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, sadly, I can appreciate their frustration, even though I don't agree with their solution. I have experienced firsthand, and maybe you have too, churches that are doctrinally sound on paper but spiritually dead in reality. I've been to those kind of churches. Many evangelical churches are nothing more than religious social clubs, utterly bereft of spiritual life and power. There, as you might say, all sizzle and no steak. Many are filled with hypocrites who have deceived themselves into believing that they know Christ when they don't. These are the type of people that the Spirit of God describes in Revelation three as "lukewarm," meaning people who profess to know Christ, but they don't know Him. They are the type of people that God says he will spew out of his mouth. Meaning, they are the type of people that makes God vomit.

Remember, in that church of Laodicea, that is so descriptive of much of what's going on today. Those people were indifferent to truth; they were utterly apostate. In fact, they would say, "I am rich and I have become wealthy and have need of nothing. And God says, "And you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. And then God goes on to call them to repent in verse 19 of Revelation 3. And then He says in verse 20, "'Behold, I stand at the door and knock.'" I mean, imagine this: the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of the church, is on the outside knocking, trying to get in. "'Behold, I stand at at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and will dine...'" literally fellowship, "'...with him, and he with Me.'"

Well, friends, it doesn't have to be this way. You see, God has not left us without instruction with respect to the church, nor has he left us without power. Yes, those things within institutionalized religion that violate his methods and his message should be jettisoned. I would agree with that. But rather than creating your own personalized spirituality, rather than reinventing some new kinder and gentler type of God, reinventing a new gospel, reinventing a new church, what we need to do is go back and rediscover the essentials of a true church, and emulate that in every way. And that is the title of my discourse to you this morning: "The Essentials of a True Church." And here in Acts, we see the church of Jesus Christ in all of its purity, in all of its devotion, like a newborn babe, it is without blemish. It has just been birthed now. It is healthy. It is vibrant. It is exciting. It is full of life and beauty; utterly dependent and singularly devoted to the one who birthed. As yet, it is untainted by the deceptions of the evil one and by the wickedness of man. Though all of that would certainly be short-lived. So I invite you this morning to come with me. We're going to press our noses against the glass of that church. We're going to eavesdrop in on their conversations, listen to their songs. We're going to observe their priorities and marvel at their joy. We're going to be astounded at their spiritual power and the fruit that they produce. And hopefully, as we do all of this, we will say to ourselves, "My, that's the type of people. That's the type of church we want to be.

So follow along as I read in Acts chapter two, beginning in verse 42,

"They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

"Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.

"And all those who had believed were together, and had all things in common;

"and they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.

"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. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved."

I would invite you to join me today and look at two categories that mark the essentials of a true church. We're going to see number one: their commitment to well-defined spiritual priorities, and then we're going to see their manifestation of measurable spiritual fruit. And lest I be deceitful to you, we're only going to be able to look at the first part here. We're going to look at their commitment to well-defined spiritual priorities. There was just no way that I could cover this appropriately in just one Sunday. So next week we will look at their manifestation of measurable spiritual fruit; two categories that mark a mature Christ-honoring church-a model that we would all do well to emulate.

First of all, as we look at their commitment to well-defined spiritual priorities, we will see really six priorities - six well-defined spiritual priorities. Let me give them to you, and then I'll elaborate on them. We're going to see a devotion to six things: to doctrine, fellowship, Christ, purity, unity, and prayer.  I want you to notice, first of all, in verse 42, it says, "They..."  let's pause there for just a moment. This is referring to those true believers, those who had just come to Christ recently. You will recall last week we talked about these twice-born saints. They were the ones who truly repented of their sins, who felt the pain of repentance, who paid the price of repentance, who experienced the promise of repentance and exhibited the products of repentance. And I might add, dear friends, that all through the New Testament you will find that the message of the church - the message and the methods of the church - center around believers; not non-believers, but around believers. That's a paradigm that has been turned absolutely upside down these days, from music to ministry. It was all about exalting the Lord Jesus Christ and equipping the saints, that would ultimately lead to evangelism that took place primarily outside of the church.

So these are the six well-defined spiritual priorities. Let's look at them individually. First of all, notice their devotion to doctrine, verse 42, and "They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching." What is that apostles' teaching? Well, that would be the inspired truth of God that was revealed to the apostles. And then, through the inspiration of the Spirit of God, was disseminated to the body of Christ through the New Testament. In other words, basically, what they're describing here is the teachings of the New Testament. Now, this is first on the list because, dear friends, it is so foundational. Show me a church that is not continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, in other words, to Bible doctrine, and I will show you a church that is either dying or it is spiritually dead. Likewise, it is true for individuals. If you're not devoted to knowing the precise truths of the Word of God, you are either dying or spiritually dead. Now, many churches will have 1000s of people and great programs going on, but if this is not there, they will be as shallow as water on a plate, utterly bereft of power. Yes, but doctrine divides. People will lament. Well, of course it does. That's what it's supposed to do. It's supposed to divide between truth and error. It is supposed to separate the wheat from the tares. Bible doctrine discriminates between the damning lies that condemn men's souls to hell versus the truth that can save them.

My friends, knowing and obeying the precision of Bible doctrine is our source of salvation as well as biblical blessing. This is how we grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ. In fact, Peter reminds us in First Peter two that we are to be like "newborn babes, longing for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation." You will recall Paul's exhortation to Timothy and to all pastors, he tells us real simply, "I want you to preach the word. I want you to preach the word. I don't want book reports. I don't want jokes, stand-up comedy. I don't want little anecdotes all over the place. I want you to preach the word, in season and out of season, when it's popular, when it's not. Preach the word, and as we do so, we expose heresies and false teachers." And later on, in that same chapter, in verse six, he says, "In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following." And in First Timothy four and verse 13, pastors are exhorted to give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. By the way, public reading of Scripture is literally the reading as well as the exposition of Scripture. What we have done and what I am doing now. So he says, give attention to that as well as "to exhortation," which is application, as well as "teaching." That's the systematic teaching of Bible doctrine. In fact, every sermon is to include those components. Every sermon should include the reading of Scripture, the exposition of Scripture, the application of Scripture, and a thorough understanding of the doctrine involved in that text. And when you hear a sermon that is missing in any of those, you're hearing a sermon that is not consistent with what God would have us preach.

And He goes on to say, "Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you." You will also remember the qualifications of an elder in Titus 1:9. He is to "hold fast the faithful word, which is in accordance with the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict." I spend probably 10 hours a week doing exactly that, and I know my colleagues do as well, constantly exhorting in sound doctrine and refuting those who contradict. I think the email is both a blessing as well as a curse. This is so important that Paul went on to say in First Timothy six, beginning in verse three, "If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing." In fact, in Titus 3:10 he says, I want you to "reject a factious man," a “hereticos,” a heretic, a  divisive self-willed, unsubmissive heretic that divides. I want you to reject that man. He says "after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned."

So they were devoted continually, the text says, to Bible doctrine, to the apostles' teaching. Boy, I would have loved to have seen that, wouldn't you? To see 3000 plus converts continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching? Now, think about this for a second. Think how repulsive it would have been to them if somebody would have come up to them and said, "You know, hey, hang on here a second. You know, a lot of non-Christian, a lot of these other Jews, and certainly these Romans, these other Gentiles, a lot of them are well, they're pretty offended with what you guys are talking about. You need to tone this whole thing down here. A lot of these teachings are very, very offensive." Can you imagine what they would have said? In so many words, they would have said, "Wait a second. This isn't about non-believers here. This is about the Church of Jesus Christ. This is about repenters. This is about fellowship with those who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Of course, truth will be unpopular to sinners. They're spiritual cadavers. They're spiritually dead. The Church of Jesus Christ is made up of genuine believers who long to grow in Christ. We are slaves of our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. This isn't about them. This is about those who have an insatiable appetite for the Word of God, a longing to hear the Lord's voice. This is about those who want to grow in his grace and his knowledge, and we know that the more we gave at Scripture, the more we will become conformed to the image of Christ. This is about those who want, by the renewing of their mind, to be transformed. This isn't about non-believers.

Now, certainly, unbelievers are welcome to come. They're welcome to observe our worship. They're well welcome to hear our songs of redemption. They're welcome to see our priorities. They're more than welcome to hear the word of God preached in all of its purity and behold the transforming power of the gospel, but my goodness, to suggest for one second that we should jettison these sacred priorities, that we should come along and substitute them with the methods and the messages that would be appealing to those who are spiritually dead, for us to give up those things that are the wellspring of our salvation and the blessing of our life....that's inconceivable. To somehow make our church become something that is appealing to those who are in the bondage of their lusts, appealing to those who consider the things of God foolishness, who have no capacity to discern truth from error. Dear friends, such a proposition to those people, and I hope to you as it is to me, would be as blasphemous as it would be preposterous. Beloved, think of it this way: if you have no doctrine, you will have no discernment, and if you have no discernment, you will have no spiritual growth. And where there is no growth, there is no life, and where there is no life, there is death. And for the Christian, it would be the forfeiture of divine blessing and eternal loss of eternal reward. So naturally, they were devoted to doctrine.

Secondly, they had a devotion to fellowship. Notice in verse 42, and they "were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship." "Koinōnia" - you've heard the Greek word before; it means a partnership. I like to define it this way: a mutual sharing of life and ministry, a mutual sharing of purpose in terms of all that God has laid out for us in his Word. Now you see, friends, this will be the inevitable result of those who are continually devoting themselves to Bible doctrine, okay, this is going to be the outgrowth of that. There will be a partnering with other believers. You're not going to have to force them to do this. It's going to automatically happen. There will be a passionate desire to share in each other's life and ministry. And I ask you, does this describe you? You show me a lone ranger Christian who lives in isolation, who just kind of shows up to church every now and then, who's really not a part of the body, and I'll show you a man who is either ignorant and/or indifferent to apostolic teaching and is forfeiting blessings in his life, it's as simple as that.

In Hebrews three verse 13, we are warned to, "encourage one another day after day as long as it is still called 'Today,' so that none of you will be hardened in the deceitfulness of your sin." You see, these early Christians understood this. There was enormous pressure on those early saints to abandon their faith. Remember, many of them have now lost their families, their jobs. It was a time of desperation for many people. And folks, we all need one another to come along and to encourage. I need you. You need me. In Hebrews 10, verse 24, we are told, "Consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near." Now, when I see somebody again who is a lone ranger Christian, I can tell you very quickly that that person does not have a passion for Bible doctrine. Beloved, the church is the body of Christ. It is a living spiritual organism, where all of the parts of the body must work in synergy together, translated into a myriad of individuals who have been born again that work together in this glorious organism. This is summarized in our church mission statement. It's on our website but let me read it to you. "In unity, affirming the absolute authority and sufficiency of Scripture, we exist to equip the saints through expository preaching, teaching, and biblical discipleship, resulting in progressive sanctification, the exercise of spiritual gifts in Christian service, genuine worship, and the evangelization of the lost. All of which exalt the Lord Jesus Christ in His mystical body, the Church, bringing eternal glory to God and undeserved blessing to His elect." And there we go on to define some of the terms but let me just define that portion of what is written there, that is germane to this issue of being devoted to fellowship.

We begin by saying "in unity." In other words, there's a partnership here. There's a sharing, a family. This is a body, and there we have a definition that goes on to describe what we're saying with respect to the phrase "in unity." And here it is: "As Christians, we will inevitably differ on preferences and non-essentials of the faith, matters upon which the Bible is silent. Therefore, we are commanded to make every effort to be humble, gentle, patient, and forbearing with those with whom we differ, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of grace and the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3). However, we are exhorted to be of the same mind and in the same judgment, (First Corinthians 1:10) with respect to Bible doctrine. True Christian unity and effective service cannot be attained apart from doctrinal unanimity. This is so important that God has specifically gifted and called into service pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13).

Well, this was certainly the heart of those early believers, those early saints there in Jerusalem, they had a devotion to doctrine and a devotion to fellowship. Thirdly, they had a devotion to Christ. Notice it says they were continually devoting themselves to the "breaking of bread." Now, this was a reference to the memorial that we just participated in a few minutes ago-the celebration of communion, a time called the Lord's Supper, an observance that the Lord has commanded us to obey. But this was not a duty; this was a desire for any true believer, certainly for those early saints. This is a time where we reflect upon the Savior's death and celebrate our sins forgiven and the glorious promise of eternal life. Where we celebrate the hope that we have in Christ, and as well as the oneness we have in Christ, the unity of the believers. My friends, please hear this. There is no true religion, nor is there any true spirituality that does not orbit around the centrality of the Lord Jesus Christ. If that's not there, if people are not worshiping the Lord of life, if they're not worshiping the Lord of glory, the Lord of the Church, the head of the Church, the Author and the Finisher of our faith, then their worship is in vain. David Wells, in his excellent book "Above All Earthly Powers" writes this, and I quote: "Christ, who is at the center of creation, and who subdues all things, is also at the center of the church, in whom this triumphant reign is already being savingly realized. The pre-existent Christ, in whom all things were created, and who in whom all things hold together, is the very same Christ who is the head of the body, the church (Colossians 1:18 ). The conclusion then is that in everything He might be preeminent (Colossians 1:18)." And finally, He says "He," referring to Christ, "is the church's center, its life, its focus, its glory, and its hope."

You know, it's hard to fathom that there are people in churches today who no longer participate in this sacred ceremony, thinking that somehow, it's obsolete. They've abandoned it completely, and there are others who still do it, but with no understanding of what it really means. They have distorted the gospel of Jesus Christ beyond recognition. They have no desire to submit to the authority of the Lord through the preaching and the teaching and the obedience of his Word, nor do they have any desire to discipline sin. The purity of the Christian life is something that is archaic. But what we see here with the early church is this was not the case, and because they were continually breaking bread together, there is yet another devotion that we see that flows out of this, and that is a devotion to purity, a devotion to purity of life. They had a longing to be separated from the world.

Notice this again, where it says by continually devoting themselves to the "breaking of bread." What they're saying is not only are we a people observing this sacred act of worship, whereby we meditate on the Savior, but also on our sin. You see, as we did this morning, the breaking of the bread is a time for self-examination, for confession, for repentance. It is a time whereby we forsake anything that would dishonor the blood and the body of Christ. It is a time where we look at his incomprehensible sacrifice, and certainly we would do nothing to trivialize that. We are to come to this holy table in the purity of heart, as Paul said in First Corinthians 11, "Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord, but a man must examine himself, and in so doing, he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason, many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep, but if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord, so that we will not be condemned along with the world." You see, friends, in the early church, and certainly in all faithful churches since that day, purity of life is absolutely essential, and we're going to see this later on. In fact, sin in the body was considered to be a personal offense, not only to God, to the Lord Jesus Christ, but also to the whole fellowship.

And I really want to digress just for a second. I want you to understand that your sin is never committed in isolation. It affects everybody. It affects everybody. I think of how many of people, even in this church, who have begun to sin somewhere in the secret recesses of their imagination, before you know it, they begin to live it out. They act upon their sin. Certain things happen, and like a metastasizing cancer, it begins to spread into that family and into the church until it finally affects everybody. That's why it's so important to mortify the flesh, to do everything we can to eradicate sin in the body. If you went to a doctor and he said, "Well, you know what? I got good news and bad news. The bad news is you got cancer. The good news is it's just a little bit. So let's don't worry about it." And so you would say, "Well, good. I'm glad it's just a little bit. You know, I'll check with you later and let's hope it doesn't grow." Well, obviously you wouldn't say that, would you? You would say, "When can we get rid of it?" That's the idea of what goes on in the breaking of bread?

By the way, the sin of hypocrisy and the sin of trying to elevate yourself and receive more spiritual status, I guess you might say, was the reason why God publicly executed Ananias and Sapphira, as we are going to see right here in the early church. But when we have a devotion to the breaking of bread, we are constantly confronted with the seriousness and the consequences of sin, and certainly the grace that saved us.

Now, tragically, most evangelicals have little or no understanding of the heinousness of sin, in fact, most bristle at the biblical notion that all that man is and all that man does is fundamentally offensive to God. People don't like to hear that. People, even in the church, and as we have learned before, when you take all of the concepts of sin in the Bible and put them together, you basically see that sin could be defined as the failure to conform to the moral character and desires of God. And of course, we all stand guilty there. You see, friends, when sin is discarded, who needs a Savior? I saw a billboard once that said, "Jesus saves." Somebody had written over on the side, you know, with a paint can. This was a number of years ago. "Jesus saves." And then somebody else with another color had come on underneath it and says, and they put "From what?" - question mark. I thought that really summarizes it well, doesn't it? Most people don't know that they need saving because they don't understand sin. I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, "Born right the first time." And I looked at that. I was sitting at the stop sign right up here in Pleasant View, and I looked at that, and I thought, is that saying what I think it's saying? And I think it is saying what you all think it's saying. I was born right the first time. I don't need to be born again. People have no understanding of sin.

In 2002, the Barna Research Group conducted a national survey that revealed, astonishingly enough, that 74% of those surveyed rejected the idea of original sin. And catch this, 52% of evangelicals concurred. 52% of evangelicals concurred. These were people who agreed with the following statement. Here's what they were asked, "When people are born, they are neither good nor evil. They make a choice between the two as they mature." That was the statement. Do you agree or disagree? When people are born, they are neither good nor evil. They make a choice between the two as they mature, and of course most people agreed with that. Friends, this is Pelagianism, pure and simple, which which is basically an old heresy that says that people are born innocent, they are born free from sin, utterly free from sin, but then they choose to sin later in life, and so on. But friends, that is not what God teaches. That is not what we read in the Word of God. Nor will that ever be the testimony of true believers. Therefore, there will be a desire to come to the Lord's table to be reminded of the heinous problem of sin from which we have been delivered. You see, man does not become a sinner by choosing to sin, but rather the Word of God teaches that man sins because he is a sinner. And because of this, he is totally unable to do anything that pleases God. Nor can he do anything to change his proclivity to sin, his proclivity to worship himself. There's nothing that he can do to somehow change himself so that now he becomes a new creation that loves God and loves his law. But as these early believers committed themselves to these well-defined spiritual priorities-devotion to doctrine, fellowship, Christ, and purity-they understood the depths of their depravity and the heights of God's grace. But yet, there is another crucial reality that flows out of the concept of breaking bread together continually, and here we see it, fifthly, as their devotion to unity.

You see, coming to the Lord's table is a family affair. We have a seat at that table, personally, the Lord has invited us personally. We're all equal when we come there. Doesn't matter what our status is in life, whether it be the way the world defines us in terms of a socio-economic economic status or some type of quote "racial status"; we're all equal in Christ. We enjoy a sample at the table of all of the blessings of divine royalty and a sample of the future inheritance that we're going to enjoy. So there was a devotion to unity with them. You see, they began to understand, as I hope we all understand, that coming to the Lord's table is a foretaste of the great banquet table of our heavenly Father, when the King will welcome us to his table. I mean, this is inconceivable when you think about it. Absolutely inconceivable to think that we have a place reserved at that table with our name on it. Now, guys, I know that most of the time when we get together, we don't have this in our little men's retreats and all. But when the women get together, many times they have names where you have to sit. This is the idea, or when you go to some formal dinner. Oh, here's my name. Here's where I sit. So to think that we have a place reserved at that table, at the great marriage supper of the Lamb, inconceivable! And to think that we are all recipients of divine grace-we are all part of this body. There is a unity there, and in unity we are all undeserved recipients, and we participate in the benefits that are earned by Christ's death.

This amazing unity is summarized in First Corinthians 10, verse 16. Here's what Paul said, "Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ?" Sharing, by the way, there is "koinonia" there it is again, this common participation. "Is not the bread," he goes on to say, "which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread." You see, there is the unity, and those early Christians reveled in that great truth that Paul stated in Galatians 3:28 I love this verse "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all what one in Christ Jesus."

So the breaking of bread symbolized their devotion to Christ, their devotion to purity, and their devotion to unity. And we must all understand, dear friends, that when we come to the Lord's table, this is not some perfunctory ritual that you just do whenever you do it. I mean, instead, this symbolizes the very essence of all that we believe, of all that Christ has done. This is our time to reflect upon the glory and the excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ, and any church that eliminates or trivializes that sacred memorial is no church at all and will bring judgment upon itself.

And finally, we see that they were committed to one final priority here in verse 42, and that is a devotion to prayer. It says they were continually devoting themselves "to prayer." You see, this will be the consistent pattern of the church in Acts. We're going to see it all through Acts in all faithful churches. Hence, remember in Acts 4, Peter and John and the other companions rejoiced in God's sovereign control over their lives and ministry, and it says in verse 24 that together, "they lifted their voices to God with one accord." And then later in verse 31 it says, "And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness." And I think, oh my, isn't that great? The power of prayer - that spiritual power - and to know that this is a power whose source and substance only comes through the corporate prayers of passionate saints. These people were devoted, dear friends, to prayer. You show me a prayerless church, and I'll show you a powerless church. You show me a prayerless saint, and I'll show you a powerless saint that is weak and ineffective, boring to be around, a person who is fruitless, who's wasting their life on themselves. But not so that early church. You see, prayer was the very air that they breathed.

We're reminded of it as well in Acts 12. Remember, Peter was locked away in the prison. Verse five it says that "prayers for him were being made fervently by the church to God." See, it's going to be the same group of people. And then we read how that God answered that prayer, and Peter was miraculously freed. In verse 12, it says, "And when he realized this," in other words, that he was free, "he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together..." and were guess what? They were "praying." Wouldn't that be something. Oh, would that that we all, as a people, would come together in fervent prayer to see the Lord of hosts be our defender and our protector in this great battle for the truth.

In Acts 13, we read how the Holy Spirit responded to the fasting and the prayers of the saints of the church of Antioch. Remember, they called for Paul and Barnabas to be set apart for the work to which I have called them. It's really fascinating. There we read that it is through the corporate prayers of the church, through those corporate prayer meetings, that God leads his people in discerning those who should be used in Christian service. See the importance of being devoted to prayer? I mean, you don't pick people to do certain things in Christian service just by whim. It's not a popularity contest. It's something that needs to be bathed in prayer, otherwise our best laid plans and programs are all destined to fail unless they are forged in the fires of fervent prayer.

And you will recall also in Acts 16, Paul first came into Europe, Luke joined him along with Silas and Timothy, and together they joined a small group of women on the outskirts of Philippi. The text tells us that they had a special place on the side of a river where they would come regularly to pray. And there was a woman who came along and listened in to their prayers. And the text says, and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul, a woman by the name of Lydia, isn't that great? Not only does God answer our prayers for sinners to be converted, but he can even use our prayers to draw saints to himself. Oh, child of God, don't miss these great truths this morning. These are the essentials of a true church. These are the marks of a mature Christ-honoring church, and certainly the principles that we strive to use to regulate this church.

Many times, people will ask me, "What do you look for in a church?" Well, there's a number of things, but certainly here is a succinct overview. Look for genuine, twice-born saints who have repented of their sins, who have said, "Yes, I want to be a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is my Master." And make sure that they are absolutely committed to the well-defined spiritual priorities that we've discussed this morning. Look for a group of people that are devoted to doctrine, fellowship, Christ, purity, unity, and prayer. And as a result of that, what you're going to find that we'll look at next week is you will see the manifestation of measurable spiritual fruit. Let me give them to you, and then we will close this morning. They're going to manifest six essential fruits. You're going to see a fear of God, a supernatural power, a sacrificial oneness, a lasting joy, a godly reputation, and a pattern of genuine conversions. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these glorious truths that give us such clear understanding of that which you would have us to do to honor you as a people and as a church, and Lord, I pray that by the power of your Spirit we would be faithful to these ends. I ask this in Jesus' name and for His sake, Amen.