There is a question I am sometimes asked. “Can I be a Christian without belonging to a church?” Somebody once said. “Trying to live the Christian life without belonging to a church is just as possible and just as sensible as being:
Anybody who chooses to live completely alone on a desert island.
A student who refuses to go to lectures or seminars or tutorials.
A soldier who will not join an army.
An explorer with no base camp.
A seaman trying to sail a huge ship with no other crew.
An author without readers.
A tuba player without an orchestra.
A football player without a team.

We have been thinking about the church. We read last week about the birth of the church on the Day of Pentecost from Acts 2.
38 Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptised, 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. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.’

It was the Holy Spirit, the mighty rushing wind, the breath of God which brought the resurrection life of Jesus to those disciples. Each one who repented of their sins and put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ was born again and received God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, God Himself living in them. And we read this.

41 Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Everyone who believed the gospel and was baptised was added to the number of the disciples. They became part of the church. And we read in previous weeks about the life those early Christians shared together.
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ Teaching. Because followers of Jesus are called disciples and the word disciple means a learner. Learning about Jesus. Learning how to follow Jesus. Learning to become like Jesus. We thought about what it could mean to be devoted to the Apostle’s teaching and devoted to learning about Jesus. Through Evening Services. By Reading the Bible every day. By Learning Bible Verses from our little leaflet “Words of Eternal Life”. Learning through Bible Study meetings. By Reading Christian books. By Christian Events such as “Celebrate Jesus”. Learning by Reading old sermons from our blog and from other websites, Christian Radio and TV.

They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ Teaching and to the Fellowship. To sharing a common life together.
43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.

“They were like family to each other.” (Acts 2:42 Contemporary English Version.)

We thought last month about what this common life meant, in terms of offering hospitality to one another. “Consider yourself at home. Consider yourself one of the family. Whatever we’ve got, we share.” We thought about Loving each other. Living in peace and harmony with one another, bearing with one another, submitting to one another and Forgiving one another. We talked about Learning from each other and Encouraging each other. Devoting ourselves to the Fellowship.

Then the first Christians devoted themselves to the Breaking of Bread. Sharing Communion Together.
They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people.
Remembering Jesus. Looking back at His death on the cross paying the penalty for our sin. Rejoicing in the presence of the Risen Jesus Christ as we gather around the Lord’s Table. And eagerly looking forward to the day when we will eat and drink together in at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. “God and man at Table are sat down.”
They devoted themselves to Breaking of Bread and to prayers. I have preached many many times on prayer, because prayer is at the heart of our relationship with God and the heart of our Christian lives and at the heart of the life of the church. Teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayers.
And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

The Lord added to their number. Because all the wonderful blessings of God’s free gift of forgiveness and eternal life and salvation do not just come to us as individuals. Although God loves YOU and ME he also loves US. Salvation is not just something individual and personal. Salvation is much bigger than that. Salvation is shared and corporate. We are saved together. Saved to be part of the church!

Ephesians 5:25 Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Yes Christ loved you and me, but even more than that Christ loved the church – all of us together. And if we just think about ourselves as individuals we can miss out on so many of the blessings of salvation, because those blessings are given to us to share together – through the church! God’s greatest gift to us is a relationship with Himself through Christ’s death and resurrection and the Holy Spirit living inside us. But the next greatest gift God gives us is each other in the church, in the body of Christ. Church isn’t some burden God puts upon us as Christians. Church is God’s way of blessing us and bringing us his salvation!

Christians can sometimes be so individualistic. “It’s my faith and my life, and I can live it as I want to.” That is NOT true. That is the attitude of the footballer who hogs the ball instead of passing it around the team. In the Bible salvation is very different. We are saved into the Body of Christ of which each of us is only one single part. We are part of the family of God, being built into the Temple of the Holy Spirit. We are saved together and being disciples is something we are supposed to do together. It has been that way ever since the birth of the church which we read about in Acts 2:41
Those who accepted (Peter’s) message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
Becoming a Christian, being baptised, led on automatically to being “added to the number of believers”, added to the company of believers – the church. Then from Acts 2:42 we read We need the church – and the church needs us. Every Christian is part of the church, the body of Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.

Every Christian is part of the church, the Body of Christ. God does not intend us to be “solitary” Christians. In the comedy series the Addams Family there is a character called simply “Hand” because it is a disembodied hand which gropes its way around the house, answering the telephone and opening the door. But there is no such thing as a disembodied hand in the Body of Christ – every part is attached to every other part. There is no such thing as an independent ear or a freelance nose in the Body of Christ. Our discipleship is not just a private and personal thing. Our Christian lives should not normally be lived out in isolation but in the fellowship of the church. The church is the community of disciples and if we want to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ we will express our discipleship by belonging to His church.

To become a believer automatically means to be added to the number of believers – the church. `The church’ is not a building. The church is not an organisation. The church is a group of people, “The Body of Christ”, made up of all Christians in every age. Even if they never meet up with any other Christians, anybody who has eternal life IS a member of this invisible universal church. The church God’s “Forever Family” made up of everybody who has a personal relationship with God as their Father.

But the Bible also uses the word “church” to refer to a local group of Christians meeting in a particular place, a local congregation. All true Christians will want to show they belong to the universal church by playing their part in a local church. Being a Christian but not belonging to any local church really would be like trying to be a football player without being part of a team!

We can easily misunderstand the ideas of “belonging to a church” or “church membership” if we think of it in the weak remote sense of membership you find used in some secular organisations and clubs. Some people treat being a member of a church just like being a member of the RAC or the AA – pay your subscriptions once a year and you can call the church out to help as often as you like. But belonging to a church is much more like being a member of a family or a member of an orchestra or a member of a football team. Belonging to a church is not a matter of privileges but of participation. It’s not about what we can receive but what we can give and what we can accomplish together.

We are all different in the time and energy we are able to devote to church life. But every Christian who is taking an active part as far as they are able in the worship and fellowship and witness of North Springfield Baptist Church belongs to this church and is a valuable part of the church. Even if your name is not yet on the Membership List, even if you are not formally a member of that human legal organisation called North Springfield Baptist Church, we hope you feel at home here. If you are playing your part in the life of the church then you belong to the church. In Bible terms all Christians are members of that part of Christ’s body which meets here, all are valued members of the church. That’s the way it should be in God’s perfect plan. That’s the way it needs to be!

Billy Graham said, “Christians are like coals in a fire. When they cling together, they keep the flame burning brightly; when they separate, they die out.” We need each other as Christians – we need the church! Belonging to the church brings us so many blessings. The blessings of teaching, and of fellowship, and of Communion, and of prayer.

There are all the blessings of CARING FOR EACH OTHER

1 Corinthians 12:25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.

It is one of the blessings of salvation to be part of a church which cares for us when we are in need. When we are sick, or grieving, or anxious, or sad, or struggling with life. But it is just as much a blessing of salvation that each one of us has the privilege and the duty of caring for others when THEY are in need. When THEY are sick, or grieving, or anxious, or sad, or struggling with life. Fellowship and brotherly love are TWO WAY things. Jesus himself said “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” So when we think about the blessings we can receive as other people in the church love us with God’s kind of love, make sure also to think about the blessings you can GIVE by loving others. To rephrase a famous saying. “Think not of what your church can do for you – but of what you can do for your church.”

For too many Christians their understanding of salvation has become entirely individual. They only care about their personal relationship with God. They are missing out on so much. We are part of the family of God, being built into the Temple of the Holy Spirit. We are saved together and being disciples is something we are supposed to do together. God wants to give us so many blessings THROUGH EACH OTHER and through our life in the church.

So if you want to find out more about what it means to belong to the church and what it would mean to join the membership of North Springfield Baptist Church I have a little booklet for you. Please take one today.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) once said,

“The New Testament does not envisage solitary religion; some kind of regular assembly for worship and instruction is everywhere taken for granted. So we must be regular practicing members of the church. Of course we differ in temperament. Some (like you—and me) find it more natural to approach God in solitude; but we must go to church as well. For the church is not a human society of people united by their natural affinities, but the body of Christ, in which all members, however different (and he rejoices in their differences and by no means wishes to iron them out) must share the common life, complementing and helping one another precisely by their differences.”

Being a Christian is like being a singer in a choir. God does not want us to be soloists. He wants us to sing our part, while others sing their parts! That way we can join with the choirs of angels and the music really is heavenly!

Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer
And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42)
During his lifetime Jesus did not instruct His disciples with all kinds of complicated rituals like those you can find in other religions, even in Judaism. He just broke bread and gave it to them saying, “Do this to remember me.” And He gave them a cup to drink saying, “Do this to remember me.” So ever since Christians obeyed that command and broke bread and shared the cup to remember Jesus.
Acts 2 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common…. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts
When we think of “communion” or “the Lord’s Supper” we usually imagine a church service with hymns and prayers and a sermon. But for the first Christians, breaking of bread was rather different. It would usually be part of a meal together. As they ate together there would be teaching and discussion and prayer and even worship. And as a natural part of that those meals they would stop and use bread and wine to remember Jesus.
And eating together was a much more important thing than it is for us today. In the time of Jesus, as it is still in the middle east today, eating together meant much more than it does to us. In our busy West eating has been hijacked. Either it is about fast food, just trying to take more than enough calories to survive. Or else it is about fine dining, where all the attention is on the flavours and the textures and most people couldn’t care less who they are sitting next to.
In first century Palestine people ate together for much more important reasons than that. You wouldn’t eat with strangers – they might break all kinds of dietary laws and that would render a religious Jew ritually unclean. Sharing food was a sign of friendship and fellowship and closeness and unity, even of reconciliation and forgiveness. On the other hand, refusing to share what was called “table fellowship” with another person marked them out as somebody you considered to be an outsider.
In that setting, eating a meal together with your “clan” established the boundaries of who was “in” and who was “out.” The seating arrangements of who sat where reinforced status and hierarchy in the household. Religious meals passed on the faith of the family, especially for Jews and their weekly fellowship meal. Eating together and who you shared table fellowship with was very important in building community. There are no less than 19 references to eating together just in Luke’s Gospel and in Acts. And it is highly significant that in the Gospels we find Jesus time and again breaking with Jewish conventions and sharing table fellowship with tax collectors and prostitutes. Even eating at the homes of Matthew and Zacchaeus who were both despised tax collectors. As Jesus ate and drank with the poorest and the lowest of society, that revealed who His true family are. And Communion has that same significance for Christians today! We are sharing Table Fellowship with each other, and with Jesus Himself!
Communion and believers’ baptism are the only two “ordinances”, the only acts of worship which Jesus has commanded from his followers. Because they followed the patterns of worship in Jewish synagogues, the first Christians would also have sung hymns, read from the Scriptures, and included teaching and prayers in their gatherings together. But the most important part of worship in the Early Church was this “breaking of bread.” Gathering together frequently for worship and communion was a central element of living the Christian life for those first believers. And gathering together for worship has rightly been at the heart of church life for Christians in every age in every place since. Every month we share bread and cup to remember Jesus. But what does sharing Communion together actually remind us about?
Welcome to the Lord’s Table, the Lord’s Supper. Jesus Christ Himself invites his disciples here to meet with Him and eat with Him and with each other. And here the past, the present and the future all coincide.

Thanksgiving for Gods acts of salvation in the PAST
This is my body given for you
Isaiah 53 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
At the Last Supper, Jesus said
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood poured out for you”
Isaiah 5310Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Here at the Lord’s Table we remember all that Christ has accomplished for us on the cross. Dying in our place and taking the punishment for our sin.

Celebration of presence of Christ in the PRESENT
Jesus did not say, “this is last Passover I will eat”. He was looking forward to eating with his disciples again. Jesus KNEW he was going to suffer and he gave us this reminder of what He was about to go through

LUKE 22 14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”
In the death and resurrection of Christ all the Old Testament promises of the Jewish Passover are fulfilled.
17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
But the bread and the cup look BEYOND that suffering – beyond the cross to the resurrection. Remember those disciples who met with the Risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus on the first Easter day.
Luke 24:30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognised him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognised by them when he broke the bread.
So the bread and wine have new significance. It is the Lord’s table! Here WE meet with the Risen Christ Himself.
Matthew 18 19 “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”
So communion celebrates our wonderful salvation already accomplished for us in the past by Jesus but it also recognises the presence of the Living Risen Jesus Christ with us, here today. Jesus is with us by the Holy Spirit, living in every Christian. And so we meet with Jesus IN EACH OTHER as we meet with each other.
1 Corinthians 10 16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
We give thanks for Christ’s redeeming death and we celebrate His glorious resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ, Risen from the dead, is indeed already Messiah and Lord of all! As we take communion we meet with Jesus by faith even now, we truly commune with Him. But the best is yet to come! Because Communion also celebrates our amazing hope for the future!
Communion looks forward to the Return of Christ
1 Cor 11:26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Communion looks forward to the heavenly banquet, the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.
Revelation 19:6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
“Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. 8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) 9 Then the angel said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”
When WE face suffering, discouragement, opposition, rejection, even death, communion gives us HOPE! We look forward to sharing the bread and the cup with the saints in glory!
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42)
Acts 2 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common…. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts
Those first Christians broke bread together every day. This is the way Jesus has given his church to remember Him, to focus on his death and resurrection and the meaning of these events for our lives today. Communion is “a means of grace.” It is God’s way of blessing believers as we are seek to follow Him. Roman Catholics and Anglicans celebrate communion EVERY DAY All Christians should expect to take communion regularly. All Christians should give communion services a special priority because at the Lord’s Table we meet with our Lord in a very special way!
There is an ancient way which some Jews bring their Passover meal to a climax. It is the hope of every devout Jew to celebrate the Passover at least once in David’s city. So there is a Jewish custom of ending the Passover meal with a toast. Passover participants raise the cup and say, “Next year, in Jerusalem!”
The Lord’s Supper reminds us of the past – of all Christ has accomplished for us by his sacrificial death, his blood poured out for us. It also reminds us of the present and the presence of the living Christ among us as we meet in His name. But communion also points us forward to our Lord’s glorious second coming. For every Christian there will be one final sharing of the bread and the cup on this side of eternity. After that, when we meet once again, we will be in Christ’s presence in glory. So when we raise our cups we can hope and pray in anticipation, “Next time, with Christ in heaven!”

What is the church? Many people the wrong idea when we talk about the church. When we say church they immediately think of church buildings. But although people call the buildings “churches” the buildings aren’t the church. Or people think of “church services”. But the services aren’t the church. For some people the word “church” actually means a whole denomination, “The Church of England” or “The Roman Catholic Church” or “The Methodist Church.” Or when you say church, many people just think about clergymen and clergywomen, The Archbishop of Canterbury, Father Ted and the Vicar of Dibley. But priests and vicars and ministers are not the church – we just serve the church.
So what is the church? You may have heard the riddle about the man who was out walking one Sunday when he discovered the most marvellous church. The worship was heavenly, the teaching inspiring, the fellowship warm and uplifting (North Springfield Baptist Church, naturally). But when he went back the next day, the church had gone – it had vanished – he couldn’t find that church anywhere! How could this be? Oh, he found the building – but he didn’t find the church. The church wasn’t there because the people weren’t there. The church is the people!
In the New Testament the word for church is ekklesia which means an assembly or gathering of people – specifically people who are followers of Jesus, the people who believe in Jesus.
Sometimes the Bible has in mind the whole church or what we could call the universal church, the collection of everybody everywhere who has ever followed Jesus. At other times the New Testament talks about local churches, specific groups of Christians in a particular place at a particular time. Then the Bible talks about the church as the family of God and the household of faith. The church is God’s forever family which includes everybody who has a personal relationship with God as their Father, and this makes them brothers and sisters in Christ. The Bible also calls the church “the Body of Christ.” And it uses two other pictures. The church is a spiritual building, where God lives, and the church is the Bride of Christ, which speaks to us about God’s amazing love for the church as a husband loves his wife.
The church is the body of people who believe in Jesus and who follow Jesus. Over the next few weeks we are going to think more about what it means to be the church and to follow Jesus together and for that I am going to unpack a few verses which give us a picture of the life of the first Christians right from the birth of the church in Acts chapter 2. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came down on Jesus’s disciples. The apostle Peter preached the gospel, and this is what happened next.
Those who accepted (Peter’s) message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
Becoming a Christian, being baptised, led on automatically to being “added to the number of believers”, added to the company of believers – the church. Then from Acts 2:42 we read
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common…. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts… . And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
To become a believer automatically means to be added to the number of believers – the church, God’s “Forever Family”. As there in Acts 2:42 we have a picture of the things the first Christians did together as the church. Four activities which have been at the heart of what it means to be the church ever since.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Let’s look at the first of those statements today. They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ Teaching. As more and more people put their trust in Jesus, so the apostles taught them about Jesus. Because that is exactly what the Risen Jesus had commanded them to do just a week earlier in what we call the Great Commission. Jesus said this.
Matthew 28 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
So the Apostles were teaching those new Christians about Jesus. The word disciple means “learner” – a person who is taught. And everybody who follows Jesus our Teacher will want to become more like Him and learn from Him and try to obey His teaching.
John 8:31 31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Only Jesus has the words of eternal life. We need to obey His teaching.
John 14 23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.
Jesus’s teaching was at the heart of the life of the Early Churches.
Ephesians 4 21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
You were “taught in Christ,” Paul says. Christ is the school. Christ is the subject. Christ is the teacher. And teaching and learning are not just for new Christians. Every Christian needs to keep on learning from Jesus all our lives. Each of us should be keeping on growing as Christians. Growing towards maturity. Growing in our relationship with God. Growing in knowledge and understanding. Growing in witness and service. Growing in the image of Christ. Growing in love and in holiness. Growing in victory and spirituality. Growing in passion.
And growing and learning and teaching are intertwined. We grow by learning and to learn we need teaching. The first Christians devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching about Jesus and that teaching now comes to us in the words of the New Testament. So as Christians more than anything else we need to learn from Scripture. We need to learn about God and His love for us and his grace towards us. We need to learn from Jesus the Son of God as He revealed God to us by His words and His actions. We need to learn about the Holy Spirit of God, the Helper, God living inside us. Then the Bible also reveals to us the things that are pleasing to God and the things that make God angry. So we need to learn how to serve God and become more like Him in love and Holiness. There is so much to learn about creation and the fall, about God’s plan of salvation, about heaven and hell and the return of Christ. A lifetime of learning!
Those first Christians devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching. They were “continually devoting” themselves – not a one-off action but a continuous activity. They committed themselves to it – the old King James Version says they “continued steadfastly” in the Apostles’ teaching. The enthusiasm which the Early Church had for Jesus’s teaching is an inspiration for us – and a challenge to us as well. People put huge amounts of effort into learning all kinds of things. How to speak a foreign language. How to play a musical instrument or how to play a game or a sport. Never mind the subjects we learn for academic exams or the things people need to learn to do their jobs. Compare all those with the small amount of time and energy many Christians put into learning about Jesus. Can we really say that we devote ourselves to the Apostles’ teaching?
I am sure we all agree that it is important that Christians keep on learning. So let me be very practical and suggest 8 things any of us could do to devote ourselves to learning about Jesus. You might like to try one or two in the weeks ahead.
Evening Services – We do actually have two services every Sunday. Our evening service is much more informal. You choose the hymns and songs we sing. Sometimes there is a sermon. Sometimes there is a discussion. We often have times of open prayer. We will be talking over the next few weeks about whether 6.30 is the best time for that service or whether it would work better if it was earlier or later.
Reading the Bible every day – If you started reading the Bible every day at the beginning of Lent you may be needing a new set of daily notes this week to help you in your reading. There are a number of free copies on the table.
Learning Bible Verses – We learned some Bible verses 18 months ago as part of our series learning to talk about Jesus “Prepared to Give an Answer.” The little leaflet called “Words of Eternal Life” gives us a Bible verse for every day of May starting tomorrow. Together these 31 verses sum up our Christian faith. Our need of salvation. Who Jesus is. What Jesus has done for us and the salvation He has given us. Prayer and Faith. The Bible and Christian Living. The Holy Spirit and our hope of heaven, You may like to use it as a verse to meditate on each day, or you may decide to make the effort to commit those verses to memory. We are going to reflect together on these verses in our evening services through the month of May.
Bible Study meetings. We have three separate Bible Studies meeting at different times during the week. Ask me for details.
Reading Christian books – I have put on the table at the side a selection of Christian books from my own bookshelves. I have read all of them over the years and I can recommend them all. If you would like me to suggest a book on a particular subject, just ask me over coffee.
Christian Events: Every couple of months on a Wednesday evening Mike Shelbourne organises “Celebrate Jesus” and those are great evenings of lively worship, inspiring teaching and powerful ministry. Then there are the big annual events like Spring Harvest and Soul Survivor, Keswick Convention and New Wine.
Reading old sermons – rereading a sermon you just heard and catching up with ones you missed. My online blog reached a milestone over Easter when I posted the sermon from our Maundy Thursday Communion service. There are now 500 posts on that blog. That’s about 450 separate sermons in around 60 separate sermon series. Especially if you don’t usually come to our evening services think of all the sermons you have missed. Whole series of sermons on Bible books like Galatians and Romans and Hebrews and discussion series like Understanding the Bible and Everyday Christian Living. All there for you to enjoy online on the blog at www.pbthomas.com.
Christian Radio and TV and websites – some are good, some are bad, some are ugly!

So there we go – 8 ways to know Jesus better.
Evening Services. Everybody is invited – every week!
Reading the Bible every day. Free Reading Notes on the table.
Learning Bible Verses. “Words of Eternal Life” – a verse a day for May.
Bible Study meetings. Ask Peter for more details.
Reading Christian books. Borrow one from the table today.
Christian Events e.g “Celebrate Jesus” with Mike Shelbourne.
Reading old sermons. www.pbthomas.com/blog.
Christian Radio and TV and websites. Try a few.

8 Great Ways to know Jesus better. 8 ways to learn from the Bible and to grow in our Christian faith. The first Christians devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching. So should we!