1:36, 37 when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said, "brothers what shall we do?"

Have you been cut to the heart by the statement: "God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord, and Christ!"?

What is the appropriate response?

Repent and be baptized–Will you accept this message?

Only then you can experience what the believers experienced.

What are the four things in verse 42 that the early church members did? Acts 2:42

42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

What does devoting themselves mean? What did it look like in the next four verses? (How are these four enlarged in vv. 43-47)

43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.

44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common;

45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.

46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,

47 praising God and having favor with all the people.

What was the Lord doing all this time?

And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

what is significant about these four activities. Why these four? What sense can you make of them? How would you organize them? How do they relate to each other? Into what different areas to they fit?

M, S, Ph, Sp

Understanding the four, how important is it to have all four? Why? Balance, health in the body of Christ. (How God has created us)

What would happen if the church got out of balance in any one area?

–read first few verses in chapter 6.

Take modern day examples.

social church

physical church–feed the hungry, but not spiritually–not connected socially, no trust

spiritual church–no impact on the practical

mental church–all head and no heart

What is the significance of the order in which these activities are listed? For instance, what happened in the previous verses when people heard the apostles' teaching? They were able to accept it and were" added to their number." Who's number–what does that mean? The became church members/believers–so how does that explain the significance of the apostles' teaching being listed first? To which of these other elements did the apostles' teaching lead?

There is a priority to hearing the word of God–that is what cut them to the heart in the first place and next to fellowship, why? The social tie was what undergirded their physical ministry to each other. And it was this experience of having a common Savior and trusting each other and sharing everything with each other that left them with no option but to be doing what? Praising God! Why don't we have more praise in our churches? One reason is we don't have this kind of practical support–we don't share everything in common. Why don't we share everything in common today? We don't trust each other, we're not in fellowship. Why don't we trust each other or have fellowship? We aren't sure if the other person is accepting the apostles' teaching and letting Jesus be their Lord and Christ, to say nothing of ourselves.

We've written out some goals–how well do they match these four? Is there anything missing or any way we're out of balance?

Jill proposed acronym and I wrote up some details–would you like to adopt this or something like it for our name? Can we use it to make sure we stay in balance?