The Means of Grace and Spiritual Growth

Sermon transcript

Amen. Please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. The sermon text today, this morning, is Acts 2, verses 36 through 42. Acts 2, verses 36 through 42. I’m gonna read through verse 47 to fill out the context a bit. Remember, this is Peter’s Pentecost sermon. And Peter ends his sermon with these words in verse 36. Hear the word of God. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. 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 promises 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 3000 souls and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for God’s blessing upon the proclamation of His Word. Heavenly Father, we pray that by Your Spirit You would feed our souls, illuminate us, strengthen us, encourage us, bless us, and ground us and more and more securely in Christ, our Lord and Savior. Be with us now and grant me, your unworthy servant, the grace to declare your word with clarity and power this day. In Jesus’ name we pray and all of God’s people said, amen. You may be seated. As you can see in your bulletin, the title of my sermon today is The Means of Grace and Spiritual Growth. And children, there’s four key words to listen for today. One of those key words is the word key. Another word is growth, word, and prayer.

Well, dear ones, there is a saying out there that goes something like this. The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know. Those of us who are getting along in our years come to realize that. The older you get, the more you realize, wow, there’s just so much I don’t know. The truth is that life is a nonstop education. And even if you were able to read all of the books in all of the world, you would only begin to scratch the surface in terms of all that there is to know about this immense universe in which we live. Now God’s word, the Bible, tells us that we are creatures and that God is our creator. As creatures, we are finite, limited, but God is infinite. One of the implications of this truth is the fact that God’s knowledge is infinite and unlimited and inexhaustible, whereas our knowledge is finite and limited.

And while the Bible teaches that we can learn all that we need to know about God and about God’s truth by the study of his all-sufficient word, the Bible, since we are creatures, we can never gain a totally exhaustive knowledge of God, our creator. For example, consider what God says through the prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 55, verses eight and nine, if you’d like to turn there very briefly, Isaiah 55, verses eight and nine. The Lord through Isaiah says these words. He says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Now, of course, God spoke this through Isaiah in the context of calling the unfaithful Israelites to repentance and by promising to abundantly pardon those who return to the Lord.

But the general idea expressed in those verses can be applied beyond the issues of repentance and of God’s forgiving mercy. They can be applied to God in general, that his ways are not our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts. His thoughts and ways are transcendent. Now, because God is infinite and because there is so much to learn about him, we should all seek to grow spiritually in the knowledge and in the love of God, no matter what our age may be. See, learning and education isn’t just for children in school. You’re a listener no matter what your age may be, and no matter how many years you may have been a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. The truth is that none of us have arrived yet at a perfect knowledge of God or a perfect love for God.

And therefore, we all have the responsibility to grow spiritually. In my sermon for this morning, I want to have us explore a passage of God’s Word that sets before us some of the important keys to genuine spiritual growth, some of these keys which we like to call the means of grace. Now as the scriptural basis for my message today, I read to you from that account of what happened to the early Christians on the day of Pentecost, that momentous event of redemptive history when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church. There was the sound as of a mighty rushing wind and the Holy Spirit filled the disciples who had been gathered together in Jerusalem. The noise of this miraculous event drew a crowd of people who were wondering what on earth was going on.

Then the apostle Peter addressed the crowd and explained to them that this mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit was in fact a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. And Peter proclaimed to them the gospel message about Jesus, whom he proclaimed to be the Messiah or Christ, God’s chosen and anointed one, the one who died on the cross, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and who poured out the Holy Spirit upon his church from heaven. Verse 36 is the climax of Peter’s Pentecost sermon as he proclaims, let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now how does the crowd react? when Peter, under the work of the Holy Spirit, under the anointing and inspiration of the Spirit, confronts them with their sin in rejecting and crucifying the Lord Jesus.

Well, when the crowd heard this, many in the crowd felt convicted for their sins, and they wanted to know what they should do. For some of them, it finally dawned on them that we’ve murdered the Messiah. What are we to do? Look at verse 37. It says, 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? The implication seems to be, what hope is there for us? We’ve rejected and crucified the Messiah. But then Peter gives them marvelous good news. Peter tells them that there is hope. He tells them they need to repent and be baptized. Look at verses 38 and 39. 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.

The same Holy Spirit that has been poured out upon the apostles would be poured out upon you as well. And then he goes on to say in verse 39, 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. The response to Peter’s sermon was the envy of all preachers. It was overwhelming. And that day, about 3,000 converts were added to the church through repentance and baptism. I’d love to have a preacher sermon like that. Look at verse 40, it says, about 3,000 souls. And by the way, as an aside, I believe this is what Jesus was referring to when he said to Peter, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church. Jesus built his church on Peter’s proclamation and confession of the Lord Jesus Christ and the beginning of that foundation That church and its new covenant expression happens here on the day of Pentecost.

But what happens next? After these folks are brought to repentance and faith in Christ and are baptized, receive the sign and seal of baptism, what happens next? Did they just say to themselves, well, that was a wonderful experience, but now I gotta get back to my usual routine. I’m glad that’s over with, glad I got that taken care of. Now that I’ve believed the gospel and become a Christian, I’ve arrived, so I can just go back to living my own life as I please. Is that what they do? No, notice what verse 42 tells us about these new converts. It says, and they devoted themselves, to what? To four things. They have devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. They devoted themselves. In other words, they realized that they were just novices in the Christian faith. and that they had a lot of growing and learning to do spiritually.

And therefore they devoted themselves to doing those things that would help them to grow spiritually. We would say in our theological understanding, our reformed theological understanding, that they devoted themselves to diligently using the God-ordained means of grace. And what were those means of grace? Well, they devoted themselves, we are told, to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers. These are the four keys to spiritual growth that I want to have us focus on in this sermon. as I will seek to explain briefly what these four keys to Christian growth are and how they apply to us today. And if you’re following along in your sermon outline, this is the first point, and we’ll spend the rest of our time here in verse 42. Notice that the first and most important key to spiritual growth as a follower of Christ is the apostles’ teaching.

The first and most important key to spiritual growth as a follower of Jesus Christ is the apostles’ teaching. Now, you might respond by saying, well, Pastor, it was easy for them to devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching. After all, the apostles were still alive back then. What was an apostle? An apostle was one, at least in the technical sense of that term, the word apostle can be used sometimes in a more general sense to mean a messenger, but in its specific sense as it’s being used here, the apostles were those whom Christ had appointed to be witnesses of his resurrection. and whom Christ had given authority, divine authority, to speak the gospel and to perform miracles in his name and by his power. Now, do we have apostles around today like that? Of course not.

The apostles all died in the first century. So how can we today devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching? Well, where is the Apostle’s teaching found today, brothers and sisters? Today, the Apostle’s teaching is given to us in this book. It is given to us in completed written form in the New Testament canonical scriptures. And I would also say in the Old Testament scriptures as well, viewed from a new covenant perspective, the perspective of their fulfillment in Christ and the new covenant. So how do we devote ourselves to the Apostle’s teaching today? How do you do that today? Well, you must seek to get to know your Bible. The Bible is not just a lucky charm. It’s not a book that you are meant to keep on your shelf collecting dust that makes you look good, or a book that you carry around a church but never crack open.

Get to know your Bible. Read your Bible, or if you prefer, have it read to you. on a regular basis. Remember as we’re told in Romans chapter 10, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. If we want to grow spiritually in the knowledge and love of Jesus, then we must devote ourselves to reading and studying and meditating upon God’s word, and we must sit under the faithful preaching and teaching of God’s word. For it is in the scriptures that we find the fullness of the apostolic teaching. So we don’t need the apostles to be alive today in order to devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching. Instead, all we need to do is devote ourselves to this book, to reading and studying it, and seeking to believe it, embrace it, and live out its implications in our lives.

And so they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, but what next did they devote themselves to? It goes on to say, they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship. Another important key to Christian growth is the Christian fellowship of Christ’s church. This is the second point on your outline. Another important key, rather, to Christian growth is the Christian fellowship of Christ’s church. If we are Christians, those who know and trust and confess the Lord Jesus Christ as our very own Lord and Savior, then we should desire to be around other Christians who share a like precious faith with us. After all, our fellow believers are our spiritual brothers and sisters. We, in the body of Christ, we are the forever family of God. We are brothers and sisters in the family of God.

And if we want to bear the family resemblance, we would do well to spend time with the members of God’s family, the church. Now, what does that term fellowship here indicate? Well, in this particular verse, the term fellowship may be referring especially to the kind of Christian fellowship that is expressed and manifested when believers gather together in church to worship the Lord together. And so in that sense, being here today is devoting ourselves to the Christian fellowship. And you know, of course there are more informal senses that we enjoy fellowship with one another. We have our fellowship meal once a month on the first Lord’s Day of every month and that’s a wonderful time of fellowship and reconnecting and building community with one another. But again, the point here is that God never intended his children to be isolated from one another.

He never intended his children to be Lone Ranger Christians. Christians need, not just, it’s not optional. We Christians need the fellowship of other Christians. So let us try to find Christian fellowship wherever possible, and let us not absent ourselves from the worship assemblies and the fellowship of the church. I’m reminded of what the author of Hebrews, that epistle of warning, says in Hebrews chapter 10, verses 24 and 25, where we read these words. And let us, notice the emphasis on us, not you, let us do what? Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day, meaning the judgment day, drawing near. So they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, to the fellowship.

What is the next thing that’s mentioned? Well the third important key to spiritual growth in Christ is the breaking of bread. The third important key to spiritual growth is the breaking of bread. Now some folks, some commentators believe that this means sharing meals together with other believers, common meals. Sharing meals again with fellow Christians can certainly be an encouraging and edifying thing and I would encourage such practice of hospitality. But friends, I tend to agree with those commentators and scholars who view the terminology of breaking of bread as referring to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. It’s very important, my friends, that we Christians receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper on a regular basis, especially since our Lord Jesus intended that sacrament to be an encouragement to the faith of his people. As we scour the pages of the New Testament, we see that celebrating communion or the Lord’s Supper together was a high priority in the life of the early apostolic church.

It wasn’t viewed as an optional tack-on at the end of the service. It was viewed as something that was essential to the life of the church. receiving the encouragement and the blessing that comes from partaking of the Lord’s Supper together is very important, vitally important to our spiritual growth in the knowledge and love of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact that Jesus instituted this holy sacrament on the very night in which he was betrayed underscores the importance of the Lord’s Supper to our spiritual growth and well-being. So let us not despise or neglect the Holy Supper. Let us not regard the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper as optional. It’s not. It’s vitally important to our discipleship. So they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread. What’s the final vital key to spiritual growth that is mentioned?

Well, another vital key to spiritual growth is prayer. What is prayer? Children, what is prayer? Prayer is simply, at heart, talking to God. I like how our Shorter Catechism describes prayer. If you wanna turn the back of your psalter hymnal to Shorter Catechism question and answer 98. Question and answer number 98. So on page 975 in the back of your psalter hymnal. The question is, what is prayer? The Bible-based answer to that question is this, and you’re welcome to recite along if you wish. Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to His will in the name of Christ with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies. That is a whole sermon or couple sermons in that answer. There’s so much packed in there. Prayer is precious.

Christian prayer is talking to God. And the biblical pattern of prayer, as I think I pointed out on the last Lord’s Day, the typical biblical pattern of prayer is that we pray to the Father through the mediation of the Son and with the aid and help of the Holy Spirit. But it, of course, is appropriate and certainly legitimate to pray to any and all three persons of the Holy Trinity, since all three persons are fully 100% God. But Christian prayer, in its specific pattern in the New Testament, is talking to God through the mediation of His divine Son, Jesus Christ. Believer, if you want to grow spiritually, then you must keep the lines of communication open between yourself and your Heavenly Father. He wants you to talk to Him. And you might say, well, I’m not very sophisticated.

I don’t know what to say. God’s not interested in fancy speech. He’s interested in your heart. So talk to him the way that you would talk to anyone. But of course, he’s God. He’s not a creature. So talk to him reverently. But talk to him confidently. Praise Him for who He is. Thank Him for His blessings. Confess your sins to Him. And by faith in Christ, receive His gift of forgiveness, for His mercies are new every morning. And not only does He forgive our sins once, He continues to grant us His fatherly forgiveness each and every day. Tell Him your troubles. Cast your cares upon Him. Share with Him your deepest hopes, your deepest desires, your deepest pains, your deepest joys. Don’t just talk to him in your formal ritual prayers. Though there’s nothing wrong with written prayers, for example, the Bible’s full of them.

You ever read the book of Psalms? The Bible’s full of written prayers. Nothing wrong with using a formal prayer as long as it’s biblically based and as long as you pray it from the heart, but don’t just use formal prayers. Talk to him throughout the day in your own words. Yes, talk to him reverently, realizing that he is your creator. He is your Father in heaven, but also talk to Him confidently, realizing that He is a personal God who cares deeply for the needs of His believing children. He is your Father in heaven, but He is your Father in heaven. And if you know Christ as your Lord and Savior, as we discussed in our morning instruction class this morning, the adult instruction class, we are His beloved children. Now I want you to notice that in this passage it says they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.

There’s a definite article there probably indicating the well-known prayers. This indicates praying together. There’s a corporate focus, a corporate context to this statement. So while certainly private prayer and prayer in the context of families is important, so especially is prayer together with your brothers and sisters in Christ. In conclusion, my friends, there are four things that we should do if we want to grow spiritually. Number one, read and study God’s word and sit under the faithful preaching and teaching of that word. Number two, be actively involved in the Christian fellowship of Christ’s church. Number three, when possible, receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper with a heart of faith and repentance. Make that a priority to be present whenever the Lord’s Supper is administered in the church. And finally, pray throughout the day, both privately in the context of your family and with your brothers and sisters in church.

However, let me close by reminding us that these spiritual disciplines will only truly benefit us if we have a personal saving relationship with Jesus Christ as our very own Lord and Savior. Dear friends, Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin. He rose from the dead, and He calls all people everywhere to repent. And through the gospel, He commands you and me to repent of sin and to trust in Him for our salvation. Have you come to Christ? Is He your Lord and Savior? God, by His word, calls you to come to Jesus today. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Reject Him, though, and you will abide under the wrath of God. Let that not happen. By the grace of God, may you turn to Christ in true faith and repentance.

Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, sovereign and eternal God, we thank you and praise you that you not only give us new life in Christ, but you give us these means of grace by which we can grow. in the knowledge and love of the Lord Jesus. We pray that you would grant us, each and every one of us, a desire to use these spiritual keys to spiritual growth in our lives. And we pray that you would make us diligent in them and help us to grow in grace. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. We close our worship service today by rising and singing together, my faith has found a resting place. Is Jesus your resting place? May your faith be in Him. Let’s rise and sing 436, my faith has found a resting place.

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