Revival from Within

ACTS 2:42-47, ESV - 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Hi I’m Skyler!

I am one of the pastors at the church.

Nolan and I go back to high school. Actually, he is one of the people who led me to Christ and we both felt a call into ministry together. It was actually in the basement of his house where it both dawned on us that God was calling us into ministry.

We both have kept in touch and have served in a variety of roles in the church and its awesome that the Lord has opened a door for us to join the staff here and serve you as a pastor. So, cool!

There is more to our story than that. We recorded a podcast on the Skeptic & Saints Podcast if you want to hear more about who I am and how the Lord drew us here. 

Today we are continuing our sermon series in the book of Acts. Today, we are looking at what might be one of the most significant pictures of how the early church lived. 

I believe that if you took what we see practiced today, It would change our lives. how we parent, how we treat our spouses, how we treat our employees and bosses, fellow students. 

Honestly, I think what the passage today shows us has the potential to spill over into our society and completely transform it. 

So, here is where we’re going today.

We are going to be in Acts 2:42-47, we are looking at the unique revival in the early church and what God did inside of the church. 

When we talk about a revival what I mean is a massive amount in a short time period where people become Christians and their radically changed. And the only reasonable explanation is that it was a move of God.

Whenever people talk about revival, we always talk about what God did in the lives of people far from God, but we don’t often talk about what God also does inside the people in a church. 

That’s today's sermon. We are looking at what it looks like when God moves is on the move within his people. What habits and practices do we see God drives people toward.

THE PROBLEM OF LONELINESS

But there is a glaring problem that stands in our way.

What’s the problem?

It’s a nagging sense of loneliness that is rampant in our society.

A nagging feeling that you do not have any really friends that know you or you know them, and as a result you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders. 

One of the reasons loneliness is so bad is not simply because internally that we don’t like the feelings of being alone, but it is actually physiological damaging to our bodies. The sciences show that a prolonged state of loneliness is as damaging to your body as smoke 15 cigarets a day. 

But what is even worse is that 

Loneliness has the power to bind you and blind you from experiencing God. 

How many of you are my Marvel fanatics? 

Loneliness is like the Spinoff series called WandaVision. A superpowerful person who created an alternate universe that kept her stuck and blinded her from experiencing the real world.

Loneliness makes us feel trapped in our heads, and skews everything in such a negative way that it blinds us from seeing anything good, even if it was God moving in your life.

So, whether you are here and you feel alone or you personally see how it is binding and blinding the ones you love, my hunch is that you want to see a better world for our society than ones where people would rather die than be alone. 

The problem is all methods and approaches used in our world to address this issue are broken and ineffective. 

But can I tell you what’s not? What actually works and what we actually need?

It’s a move of God. What we need today is for God to trun the tide and move among his people. And that is just what our passage today shows us. 

And if you’re taking notes here is the key idea you cannot miss:

Key Idea: God Moves through People moved by God.

At every turn in the book of Acts, we see God working through people who have first been moved by God. 

Before God will do something in our world, he must first work in people's hearts. 

And when he does we see God move people toward 4 things. So, here is what God moves people toward. 

We are Moved By God to:

01: Surrender to the Word 

02: Contagious Worship

03: Generous Care

04: Compelling Witness

If you have your bible, look with me at Acts 2 starting in verse 42. 

EXPLOSIVE GROWTH

As you turn over there let me catch you up on what happened. 

Right before this passage we see two powerful things take place. God showed up and sent his Spirit on the original apostles and it was such a scene that thousand of people came to the house they were at.

And then a guy named Peter stood up and  preached a punchy and powerful sermon about Jesus which resulted in 3,000 people being convicted and converted to Jesus. 

This was sudden move of God that resulted in mass of people experiencing radical life transformation. But the revival continued as God moved within the church, the people of God. 

And if you have your bible look with me at what happened,

I. DEVOTION (προσκαρτερέω)

Acts 2:42-47, ESV - 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 

Verse 42 is where we are going to camp out today. It is the summary verse to this entire section. The other verses are describing these practices here. 

Let’s break this down word by word.

The first word Luke uses here is “devotion.” The idea is someone who occupies themselves with careful focus and diligence. 

Before I got into ministry, I was pursing a degree in Graphic Design. And when I would do graphic design I felt like I would enter into a wormhole where time evaporated. I could get locked into fixing one line and not even realize that hours had past.

That careful attention to the details that nothing would get in my way, is the kind of word that Luke uses here. 

But the emphasis in Acts is not a short-term focus, but an ongoing one. 

And the first thing we see is that they devoted themselves to the Apostles' Teaching. What is that?

II. WORD (ἀπόστολος διδαχή)

The apostles were the original students of Jesus who watched, received, and taught the very words of Jesus that we find contained in the New Testament. This is the Word of God.

So, when Luke tells us that they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching what he mean is this:

God Moved them toward:

01: Surrender to the Word 

The New Testament is God’s Word. And when it say that they devoted themselves to God’s Word what is in mind is not a passive listening, but an active obeying it.

They didn’t show up to church, listen to a sermon, give a heart amen, and go ‘gosh, what’s for lunch? I hope I can beat traffic before kickoff!”

The idea is that the people came to Scripture with a humble posture that said, “Whatever God’s Word says I believe and I will do.” 

It was a posture of surrender. 

Devotion to God’s Word is not about how much Bible you know, but how much Bible you live. 

You can know when God is moving in your life when you feel convicted by what the Bible says and how it challenges how we live and values we hold. That conviction is God grabbing your attention to point you toward truth. 

When you resist the word, you are resiting God working in your life. KID ILLUSTRATION

And when you respond by in surrender to God’s Word you will find in place of confusion, truth; in place of worry, peace. And joy in place of guilt. This is a sign of God working in your life. 

The second thing you see when God moves people toward is …

WORSHIP

02: Unquenchable Worship

There is nothing that is going to phase these Christians from a deep joy and satisfaction they are praying, singing, and bragging on God. Look at verse 42.

Acts 2:42-43, ESV - 42 And they devoted themselves to … the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul

Acts 2:46-47, ESV – 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and … 47 praising God and having favor with all the people.

The Christians are so overwhelmed with joy and gratitude that it is seeping through everyone and in everything they’re doing. It was like a fire spreading rapidly through the land.

WAY (κοινωνία)

03: Generous Care

We see this in a word that is notorious misunderstood. It is the word “fellowship.”

Acts 2:42-47, ESV - 42 And they devoted themselves … the fellowship, to the breaking of bread 

The word fellowship is the greek word κοινωνία, which means “fellowship, partnership, and common sharing.” 

If you have been around church for any length of time you probably translate this in your mind as “church potluck.”

The idea is that the church shares a common purpose and life together. This shows up in two key ways. One is that believers are constantly getting together with other believers for meals and worshiping together. 

The other key way this word koinonia shows up is in these Christians showing a generous care for others. 

How do we know that? Because Luke describes what koinonia looks like. 

Acts 2:43, ESV - 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.  

Listen, when God shows up in peoples lives he moves people toward each other. But not just toward each other, but to show up in peoples lives when it matters the most and have a genuine love that results in caring for people. 

These early Christians were willingly selling their property to feed hungry families, they were showing up to the hospital when one was sick, they were comforting the grieving when someone died or left, they were organizing the meal trains. You get the picture. 

SIDE NOTE: this is why Small Groups are so critical to our church. The early church was able to care effectively for its people because it practically gathered in small gatherings. 

It is virtually impossible to know and be known in a church apart from being plugged into a small group of some kind.

If you are not in a small group of some kind my encouragement is to get plugged in. In January we are going to be launching new groups and I couldn’t stress this enough. These are groups where this generous care becomes a reality. 

Let me close with the last way we see God moving people toward. God moves us toward having a

WITNESS

04: Compelling Witness

Look at verse 47. 

Acts 2:47, ESV - 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Luke describes these early believers as having favor with all people. There was something in the atmosphere that made the claims of Jesus and the presence of Christians compelling and refreshing to the people in their society.

STORY OF EIGHTSTREET - Back in 2021, we moved back to the Portland Oregon area and we decided to put our kids in a private Christian school.

What you might reasonably expect is that a private Christian school would be filled with a bunch of church kids.

But you would actually be wrong. In fact, the church that Nolan came from in Oregon were the ones who helped get this school going.

And I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I would have conversations with parents during pick up who were not Christian nor did they have any church connections in their life.

And nearly every parent I asked how and why they chose this school, their answer was unanimous. They wanted their kids to have a better moral fabric and foundation then what was being offered to them.

And the only place they knew they could find that is in an overtly Christian environment.

It was interesting, but it is not surprising. Why?

Because when God starts to move he usually starts by exposing the moral bankruptcy of our world and our absolute need for Jesus.

And when you find people who are serious about Jesus, there is something refreshing about them and people who are fed up with the world can come to find true truth, true love, and true morality. 

Now, I want you to pause and imagine what it would look like if you were known as one who

• Not only believed the Bible, but Lived it 

• Whose joy/worship was contagious and unphased by the storms of life. 

• Whose care for others was not superficial but sacrificial.

• And you were unapologetic about telling people about Jesus (without fear)

What would it look like if more and more people witnessed this in your neighborhood, in your school, workplace, in the streets of Phoenix, and behind the politicians desk?

Imagine what it would look like to have people who were actually living out teachings (love your neighbor, care for the poor, asking for forgiveness, do not seek revenge, etc). 

Imagine seeing people who had a joy in God even when their lives were falling apart. 

Imagine what it would be like to have people who are constantly seen serving others and showing up for people the moment hardship hits.

Imagine what it would be like to have media having nothing bad to report about Christians other than how crimes seem to decrease in the places where believers are present? 

You know what I think we would see? I think we would see the epidemic of loneliness get replaced with the epidemic of a move of God.

One more story.

EVAN ROBERTS:

Just over 100 years ago lived a man named Evan Roberts.

Evan during one night was woken up with a dream of seeing 100,000 Welshman being converted.

He couldn’t shake this dream and felt that it was from God. So, he went up to his college president where he shared the dream and asked for them to give an extension to his upcoming break so he could go home and preach to the young people in his church.

That next Sunday he showed up and told his pastor he had a message God gave him to share with the youth in his church.

The pastor, I’m sure was somewhat skeptical, told him to come back tomorrow evening and share his message at the prayer gathering.

The next day his pastor said, “hey guys, Evan has a message he wants to share with you. Stay after if you want to hear it.”

So, after an end to long prayer time Evan stood up and in the most unimpressive way told everyone to confess their sins, stop doubting, obey the holy Spirit, and confess Christ publically.

Nothing impressive or new. But God breathed on it. And it rocked the room.

You may have seen Wreck it Ralph break the internet, but that day Evan broke that room.

16 people started weeping and confessing. It was so powerful that they invited him back the next night, and for every day that week.

By the end of that week there were so many crowding this church that hundreds of people were standing outside of the church.

Within one year they recorded over 100,000 people becoming Christians as a result of this revival.

And this revival went all around the globe spreading through many countries including in the streets of Los Angeles in what was called the Azusa street revival.

My favorite part of this story is the radical change that swept over Wales.

• Police no crime formed choirs

• Bar shut down because people were freed from alcohol addiction

• Mine Mules had to be trained because the workers stopped cursing.

This was move of God, not unlike what we see in Acts, it was a real life story of a group of men, who saw God move through people who were moved by God. 

Are you someone who if God wanted to move again, could move through? Has God gripped your heart to such a degree that you will settle for nothing less than more of God?

I love the quote from Dwight L. Moody who said, “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to him. By God’s help, I aim to be that man.”

While I cannot predict anything, nor can I say follow this formula and it will guarantee God to do this, I can confidently say God is wanting to Move in your life right now.