Words from a Branch

  And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Acts 2:42 ESV             The earliest Church was quite simple by our standards. They offered preaching/teaching, fellowship, and prayer. These three pillars were sufficient. Ah, but that was a simpler time, they did not know what we know now… No, it seems they knew a good deal more. Our continued insistence that technological advances, or modern versions of ancient heresies, or any such thing has necessitated some new approach is a diversion and an excuse. Sin is still the issue, and Christ is still the only solution. Notice that all that the Church was doing made Christ visibly central. So much that we are encouraged to do today ends up making Christ less visibly peripheral.             We ought to be weary of any time the Church is told it must do t...

  Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”   And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.   For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”   So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. Acts 2:37-41 ESV             The alter call, or time of invitation, or time of response is a fairly new concept in the Church. This concept has come to shape sermons towards compelling closures. It is a vanity of vanities which exhaust both p...

  And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”   But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” Acts 2:12-13 ESV             The power of God the Holy Spirit has been the sufficient provision of the Church in all of its works, and the One behind all its victories even from the day of Pentecost. And from that very day there have been mixed reaction to each outpouring of the Spirit. In the centuries following Pentecost even the Church has been divided in its response to what we might call revivals.             As we see in Acts 2 the masses must take note. Do not overlook this point, for what we find in it is a wonder which the world cannot reproduce or easily explain. You see something beyond this world has broken into the midst of the world in a spectacular way. God has manifested Himself amongst His people powerful...