To start this series we looked at signs of spiritual health from Acts 2:42, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
This week we focus in on the importance of devoting ourselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the Word of God. We will look at how the early church was transformed by the Word of God, and then look very practically at how we can be transformed by it too.
Next Steps
aA few weeks ago we looked at signs of spiritual health from a verse in Acts 2, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” The bible exists so that you can be spiritually transformed.
Today I want to talk about the importance of devoting ourselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the Word of God.
There are thirty-nine million books in the Library of Congress alone. We have a lot of books in this world. What would you choose?
This was his response: “A Thomas guide to Practical Ship Building.”
You don’t want a self-help book that could improve your emotional health. You want a book that will show you how to be saved.
And here’s the truth about you and me: we were trapped on an island of sin and death. And God’s word, the Bible, tells us how to get home.
Acts 2:16
At this point in acts, Pentecost has occurred. The Holy Spirit has descended on the disciples and Peter is now explaining what has happened to those who were gathered.
And because some of the people think these men who are speaking in different languages are drunk, Peter says to them:
No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
Acts 2:16-18
Peter says, “No, these men are not drunk. This is what was spoken about through the prophet Joel.” And then Peter recites a passage of scripture that he had memorized.
He didn’t know when Pentecost was going to happen. It was a surprise to him, so he wasn’t able to spend a lot of time studying to prepare what to say.
All he had in that moment was his understanding of Scripture. And that’s what shaped his understanding of this event.
He didn’t allow people to convince him that what he was witnessing was something other than the work of God.
The Acts 2 church were people of commitment. They had bound themselves to God’s Word.
This is very different in our society.
In our society people have a very low commitment level. If it meets my needs, then I’ll continue. If it doesn’t meet my needs, then I move on.
This word devotion, at the core of it’s meaning, has to do with enduring, or sticking to something – even when it would be easier not to.
That’s the way devotion works. And it’s a very powerful force. It’s very powerful.
And it’s necessary if you want to be spiritually transformed.
Let me explain why.
I’ll put it in the form of a question.
Have you ever felt tired or busy and didn’t feel like attending a church service, but you did anyway and had an experience where you were listening to a sermon and sensed that God was speaking directly to you from his word?
My guess is there is not a person listening who hasn’t at one time or another had that experience when the Bible was opened and all of a sudden it was God speaking.
And it’s such a mystery. I don’t know why it happens or how it happens. But it happens. And it has happened for a lot of centuries.
And if I didn’t happen, I probably wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today.
Spiritual growth will always require effort
That’s just part of the spiritual life.
There will always be times in life when being devoted to the word of God will be more difficult than NOT being devoted to the word of God – when it would be easier for us NOT to be devoted.
Being devoted to the Word of God is not easy, but it’s good. It’s meaningful. And its God’s will for you and me.
God moves in mysterious ways when his word is being taught.
In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
[Alright, so there is some conflict over how to care for everyone in the community. Some needs are being overlooked. And it’s very important to figure this out. Verse 2:]
So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.
Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”
So we see here how very important the ministry of the word is.
Now, providing care for the needy was absolutely essential. This passage doesn’t minimize that at all.
And yet the disciples recognized that their calling and their gifting revolved around the teaching of the Word and that was so important that even caring for the poor – which was a ministry after God’s own heart – could not be allowed to detract them from the ministry of the Word.
They recognized that the other ministries of the church would just collapse if people were not being formed and fed from the Word of God.
So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet.
The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet.
“Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”
The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?”
Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
This man meets God in the Scriptures. Scripture is not just a place where we read about God. Scripture is a place where we encounter the living God.
She was successful in business so money wasn’t an issue for her. She had a stable family and friends who loved her. But she still had a longing for something more in life.
A friend of hers told her she should read the bible.
She had never read the bible before. So that night, she couldn’t sleep, and at midnight she got up and went downstairs to read the Bible.
She saw that it was divided up into two parts, an old part and a new part. She had no idea what that meant, but she figured the new part was probably better because the old part might be outdated or something.
So she started with Matthew at midnight. She read straight through, and at three o’clock in the morning she got to the middle of the Gospel of John and she fell in love with Jesus.
She had no one else there with her. No one was talking her into anything.
At three o’clock in the morning, her only background having been reading about Jesus in Matthew and Mark and Luke and John, she talked to God for the first time in her life and she said, “I don’t know what I’m doing, but I know You are what I want.” And she met Jesus.
God is, of course, active everywhere at all times and in all places, but He is present in a special and unique way in the Scriptures.
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Now, what I want to do in the rest of our time together is walk through how we can use the Bible to be transformed – how we can begin reading the Bible not just for our information, but for our transformation.
The first thing that must be done if we are to be transformed is:
We must place ourselves under the authority of the Bible
Or we give authority to therapists or the media or corporate success stories or political parties or even religious leaders, but it’s not to be that way in the church.
In the church, the Bible is to be our authority for faith and life. We are to live under the authority of the Word of God.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 says:
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
[Paul says, “All Scripture is” – and he uses the word “God-breathed”. All Scripture comes from God. All Scripture is inspired by God. The scriptures receive life from God, they come alive because of God.]
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
[Now, why are we to do this? What is the primary purpose of Scripture? Paul writes;]
so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Paul says we are to be thoroughly equipped for every good work. In other words, every moment of your life can be an opportunity to do good.
He’s not saying periodically, three or four times a week you’ll get an opportunity to do a good thing. That’s not what good work means. It means your life will just flow out with goodness.
If the Bible does its job in you, your mind will be so transformed, you will be so filled with thoughts and feelings of truth and love and joy and humility that your life will become one uninterrupted series of acts of grace and moral beauty.
And every moment will be a chance for you to live life in the kingdom of God.
In this passage, Jesus is speaking to people who knew the Scriptures backwards and forwards. They could intimidate anyone in their society with their knowledge of Scripture. Look what He says in
John 5:38-40
You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life.
These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
In other words, you think that knowing a lot about scripture is proof of your spiritual maturity. You think that studying the Scriptures is enough.
Knowledge can sometimes be a dangerous thing.
Did you know someone who was always right or at least thought they were always right? They got a hundred percent on tests all the time, always raised their hand with the answer to every question, always had the best report card. Did you know a person like that?
But, in general, the problem is not that we lack information. And, in fact, if that becomes the focus, people get proud. They end up going the other direction.
Does that mean that they don’t know the Bible, that they lack information?
No, they have lots of information.
When Jesus says that God’s Word does not dwell in you, He’s not saying they lack information about the Bible. He’s saying that their minds and hearts have failed to become transformed so that they think the kinds of thoughts that God thinks.
We must wash our minds with the Word
In Ephesians five, Paul gives a very important picture of the ministry of the Word.
He talks about the need for husbands to love their wives, but notice how he describes this love.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Ephesians 5:25-27
Read with a readiness to obey God
Christ loved the church, that is you and me, and he wants to make us holy, cleansing us and washing us with water through the word.
We are to be washed by the Word.
Real simple question: Why do you wash something? Why do you clean something?
And this is the picture Paul is using that’s worth reflecting on.
So I was walking down the street and I saw a homeless man, he was asking for money. The first thought that went through my mind was, “I don’t want to make eye contact with him.” Because if I do I’ll feel guilty, or I’ll be expected to give him something, and I don’t want to do that either. So I’m just going to look the other way. I’m going to act as if I didn’t see him.
I didn’t ask for those thoughts. They were just the first thoughts that came to me.
Our minds equip us for every bad work.
* Imagine when you see someone, even a difficult someone, that your first thought is to bless them and encourage them.
* Imagine if you find that you’ve got a challenge or a problem, your first thought is to turn to God for guidance and strength.
* Imagine what it would be like to look at any person of a different race, and to see them as a brother or sister.
* If you’e a guy, imagine what it would be like to look at any woman who is not your wife, and to look at her as if she were your sister.
That’s what it would be like to have a mind that has been washed by the Word.
That’s what the Scripture is to do in us and to us. That’s the ministry of the Word of God.
Don’t try to read a lot of scripture in one sitting.
Take one thought, word or phrase and live with it deeply.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Psalm 1:2-3
This Psalm is talking about the practice of meditating on Scripture.
And he says it’s like a tree. You’re the tree. I’m the tree. We’re like the tree that’s planted by streams of water.
And as I live in God’s word, as I meditate, as I wash my mind in the word, what happens?
I bear fruit. I do good works.
I find myself being more loving; and I’m filled with joy; and I speak truth, not because I’m trying harder to do those things, but because I’m planted by streams of water. My mind is getting washed.
Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.
Psalm 119:97
Jeremiah 15:16 says:
When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight.
Now, the people who wrote those words were not these spiritual giants that we could never become like. They just meditated long enough that they realized how good it is to immerse themselves in God’s word.
Applying something is to take one isolated behavior – try to be more patient or try to give more money or something, and that’s okay, but this is allowing the Word of God to dwell in you and it begins to change the way you look at things and how you understand things and what you desire and of course, how you live.
This is a metaphor that’s very important in the Bible but is very often misused in our day.
It is not about a bunch of information. Information is important, but this is not just about knowledge.
Think of food and nutrition and health; and think of America. We are the most fed nation in the world. 68% of the population in America is overweight.
While people in most of the world die from lack of nutrition and starvation, in America we die from overeating. We die from heart disease and strokes and diabetes and things like that.
We don’t need more food. We need to exercise and we need to eat right and we need to be healthy.
And the same is true with the word of God. For some of us, we don’t need to be fed more information – we don’t simply need to consume more knowledge about the Word of God.
The need is that we immerse ourselves in enough of the word that we can actually live with it and be transformed by it.
And we should exercise. The word should nourish us so that we’re able to go out and exercise our faith.
If we just feed and feed and obtain a bunch of knowledge and don’t exercise, we’re going to kill our spiritual lives. We really will.
Blue Oaks Church
Pleasanton, CA
