The Church that the Risen Lord Builds, Part 4 – Acts 2:46-47

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. Acts 2:46-47

Throughout this sermon series on the impacts of Jesus’ resurrection, our focus and goal have remained the same- we seek to understand how the risen Lord has built His church, to ensure that we too, are being built up by the Lord Jesus Christ. The church began with repentance and faith. The early church believers heard Peter’s sermon, and were pierced to the heart for rejecting Jesus. They repented of their sins and turned to Christ in faith for forgiveness. (Acts 2:23-24) Under the lordship of Christ, the church devoted themselves to true doctrine, fellowship, the Lord’s Supper, and prayer. Through these daily practices God grew the church as He converted men and women to Christ by His divine power, working wonders and signs of salvation among them. (Acts 2:42-43) Lives were transformed as they were united as one body, loving another, gathering together daily to worship, break bread, and share meals in joy. (Acts 2:44-46)

In addition to all these, the church under the risen Lord had sincerity of heart, or in other words, they were childlike in nature. Every child of God is childlike at heart- Jesus explicitly described this characteristic as a requirement to enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 18:3)

What does childlikeness look like?

Sincerity. Childlike people are sincere- there is no pretense, deception, or hypocrisy. Adam and Eve were perfectly pure and sincere before the Fall, but after sin, man’s heart became deceitful and desperately sick. (Jer 17:9-10) Only Jesus can make you sincere in heart, because He shows you who you truly are and forgives you of all your sins.

Single-hearted. The fallen heart is always divided- there are many compartments of things to hide and things to seek. Unbelievers live in multiple modes, both private and public, to hide their sins and to please everyone before them. Christians are to be single-hearted in their devotion to the risen Lord. (Matt 6:24)

Humble-hearted. Jesus blessed those who are poor in spirit, referring to those who have absolutely nothing of themselves to depend on, but who are fully dependent on Christ alone. (Matt 5:3) Humble-hearted people have nothing to boast of, but simply receive all that the Lord gives.

Simple-hearted. To be simple is to live uncomplicated lives. Whatever happens, Christians seek the Lord and pray. Complications arise when man tries to go his own way apart from God. To live an uncomplicated and worry-free life is not based on circumstances, but it is to simply obey, have faith, and trust in the risen Lord.

The early church was sincere in heart because they had peace with God. They knew the risen Lord and His salvation- everything else in life became secondary to Christ. (Rom 5:1-5; Matt 4:4) With gladness and sincerity of heart, they continually praised God. Praise is the natural response to being in the presence of God. It is a telling test of one’s salvation- Christians cannot avoid praising God. The early church praised God because they knew the difference between life before and after conversion- they were lost and miserable before Christ, but after their conversion, life was full of joy and freedom. Jesus became their loving Provider, who died for their forgiveness, and was raised for their justification. He made God to be their Father, and sealed them with the Holy Spirit. The believers in Acts knew who God was and what He was doing amongst them, and so they praised. We must likewise be continually thankful to God for converting us to the risen Lord. As we live with sincere hearts in complete dependence on the Christ, we join the echos of the early church’s praise as the unceasing melody of love and worship to our risen Lord.