The Apostle's Teaching and the Acts 2 Church

A Letter from President Obama:

TO The Ark Church:

It is my pleasure to inform you that your church has come to my attention as being loving and caring to those that God has placed in your path. Your faithfulness to those in your community as well as your heart to do the right thing has brought you to my attention.

I have heard the story of the money you gave to the college student who was able to finish her degree thanks to your kindness. I have heard the story of the grandmother for whom you helped to provide a real Christmas for her and her entire family. I heard of the money you gave to help provide services to the Native Americans on their reservation – knowing that the money you gave was not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it was a good portion of the monies you had, bringing to mind the widow and her two mites.

It is my pleasure to commend you for all the work you are doing, the prayers you are giving and the care you are spreading. Continue the good fight, press on to the end. And with the help of other organizations like yours, we will rebuild America into the nation that it once was.

God bless you and God bless America,

President Barack H. Obama

So how great is that! We’ve been commended by the President of the United States! He somehow knew some of the things we did and took the time to let us know how important those things were to him. Wow.

If only it were true! Unfortunately, I made up that letter. The President has no idea what we do. But see how excited you were? You were excited that the president knew you, knew what you have done and wrote a letter telling you how he felt. But you have something so much greater. You have a letter for God. He knows who you are, what you’ve done and has written a book to tell you how he feels. Why are we so excited about a letter from a sinful man and are so unimpressed by the Word of God!?

Yet the Acts 2 church was extremely impressed with the Apostles teaching. You see, they had the Apostles right there to teach them and tell them about all the things that Jesus did and all the things he taught them. We don’t have that privilege, but we have another, maybe even better one! We don’t have to wait for the apostles to tell us anything, we have the Word of God right here for us to use whenever we want – in the middle of the day or the middle of the night. It’s their writings. It’s the Bible!

The Acts 2 church was continuously devoted to the Apostle’s teaching. If we want to be an Acts 2 church, we need to be continuously in the Bible as well. It isn’t enough to be in the Bible for a couple of hours on Sunday. We need to be in it everyday, like the Acts 2 church was. Maybe we aren’t together when we do this, but we need to have our own personal studies if we are to grow as a church and as individuals and to become closer to Him and know Him more.

So, what does it mean to be continually devoted (steadfastly) to the Apostle’s teaching? It means to study and understand the teachings in the Bible. This is the first and most important aspect of Bible reading. It is because people are lax on this, that there are so many false teachers and bad theology out there. Sure there are some things that we won’t understand until we get to heaven and speak to God face to face. But there are many other things that we can understand easily but studying the Word. We can also get great counsel from the Word. It helps us to know how we are to act in certain situations and how others are to act as well. We can learn a lot about what we are supposed to be doing by reading the Bible. I think that’s one reason why so many people don’t read it – they don’t want to know what they are supposed to be doing so that they can claim ignorance when they meet with God. But God knows your heart and more than that, ignorance is not an excuse. If you’ve ever been to court and told the judge that you did the wrong thing because you didn’t know it was wrong, do you really think a good judge is going to say that it’s OK? Of course not – and neither will God. Another reason for reading the Bible is for Devotional purposes. By reading the Bible in this manner, we aren’t really studying it or looking for any advice, but we are simply being in the Word as a way to keep it fresh in our minds and hearts with the hope and expectation that there is always something new there for us and the knowledge that the God who wrote this for us knows exactly what we need.

So let’s talk about Study first. Why do we need to study the Bible? To help us to know God’s will. This is the single reason for Bible study. If we think it is to help us in our lives, we’ve missed the point. If we think it’s to get us to heaven, get us more rewards, get us rich and healthy, we’ve missed the point. The sole reason God has given us His Word is so that we know His heart, His will and glorify Him.

So when we study, it is best to use a literal translation. The NASB, KJV and NKJV are probably the best. If these are too difficult to understand, you can always use another version as well, but recognize that you really need to go back to one of these to see whether what you think you just learned is correct because you might have gotten an insight that isn’t valid due to a difference in translation or not get the insight because it wasn’t obvious in the translation you used.

• Study – to know God’s will
• Best to use a literal translation
• Keep a notebook, mark the passages, make notes in the bible
• Choose a time, stick with it
• Golden Rule of Bible Reading: when the plain sense of scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths indicate clearly otherwise.
• Choose a Book to study. Read through the entire book.
• Recognize the setting of the Book: who wrote it, who was it written for, when was it written, what was it dealing with
• Context is important – what is the author trying to communicate? Don’t take a verse out of context, otherwise you will miss what it was meant to say. Recognize the cultural, historical, linguistic and theological facts surrounding the passage.
• Don’t try to find what you want to hear – try to find what God is trying to tell you
• If there is a powerful verse, write it down and commit it to memory so you have it for future use
• Compare verses with other books. Use the concordance. Read some commentaries. Follow the footnotes to other scriptures. Bounce around the Bible until you have the proper understanding. Then go back and continue in your study.
• Discuss with other Christians who are well-versed – Philip taught the Ethiopian; Spurgeon says, “ Some, under the pretense of being taught of the Spirit of God refuse to be instructed by books or by living men. This is no honouring of the Spirit of God; it is a disrespect to him”
• Counsel – to share or experience God’s wisdom
• Use a concordance to find where the Bible speaks about your topic
• There are counseling books that point to pertinent scriptures
• Research biblical figures who have experienced the same issues in their lives
• There are positive and negative role models in the Bible that can be useful to us today.
• Devotional – to feel God’s love
• Best to use a Bible that is readable to you
• Keep notes
• Choose a time
• How does the passage relate to me where I am right now? Is this something that I am feeling or going through myself?
• Choose your path. If the passage relates to me, I must decide to follow what the Bible tells me.
• Recognize how God is working in my life
• Meditate on the meaning and its impact on your life

Is this work? Of course it is. Do you need to get a new Bible? Maybe, depending on whether you have a good literal translation, have a good Study Bible, have a concordance or commentaries. You’ve spent so much money in your life on things that you can’t take with you – why wouldn’t you spend a few dollars to gain eternal insight? Go to Tuesday night Bible study. Wake up early. Stay up later. Use your lunch break. Read with your spouse. The list goes on. If you don’t continuously devote yourself to the Bible, it will be hard for you to be part of the Acts 2 church. But be excited. You don’t HAVE to read the Bible – you GET to read the Bible. The privilege of having the knowledge of God within you is a gift that is greater than getting a letter from the President. And by the Power of the Holy Spirit, you will be guided to know all you need to know to do the work of God.

Ephesians 3:4-5
In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
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.

Send mail to david@TheArkNY.org with questions about the church or comments about this site.
Last modified: June 7, 2009