Alright again a good morning to all of you. We have just completed our series on the epistle of James. And this morning I would like to begin a new series, and the name of this series is called: What Every Christian Ought To Know. What every Christian ought to know. There are things that every Christian, I believe must know. I think it is said if we meet Christians that are ignorant of some of the most basic truths of the Bible. And so this morning we are going to begin with the first alright- the first in this series and that is what is a Christian alright- what is a Christian.

Now turn to me in your Bible to the book of Acts. We’re going to consider this subject for this question from the book of Acts in chapter 2. We’re going to look beginning in verse 37- alright beginning in verse 37 through verse 42. So let me just read our text.

So, Acts 2:37. “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 promise is 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 three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers.” Now, let us pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, we thank You again for gathering us this morning not just to meet with one another, for we come together to worship the one and the true God. Help us to realise that it is not merely our duty to come and worship You but it is indeed our delight. Grant to us the joy- the joy of coming before the Triune God, the Creator of all things. And we also pray as we come together this morning, grant to us not only the joy and delight of coming before You but the hunger and the thirst after Your truth. And so, we pray for Tour blessing as we study these passages of Scripture, for we pray and ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Alright as I said our subject this morning is what is a Christian. If you are a Christian, you ought to know the answer alright to that question, now what is a Christian. Now we are sometimes told that the Philippines is a Christian country. And I was just wondering why. Why is the Philippines a Christian country? People might answer and say because the majority of the people who live there are Christians. So, Singapore is not a Christian country. Majority of the people who live there are not. Really? Majority of the people in the Philippines are Christians? How do you know? Why do you say that? How do you know that they are Christians? And that is what we are talking about.

Maybe some of you think this morning that you are a Christian. And I want you to think about this. Why do you consider yourself a Christian? Perhaps I think most of us here consider ourselves a Christian. As I say, we need to think about why. Maybe some of you think oh, I’m a Christian because my name is James. I have the biblical name, and so I’m a Christian. Well, another may say I’m more Christian than you because I’m Jeremy James alright. So, I’m both the Old and the New Testament Christian alright. You see, a lot of misconception about what a Christian is. And so, it is important for us to clarify that.

And so let us now come to look and consider the Bible and see what the Bible says as to what the Christian is. I’m sure when you read your Bible, you should be able to detect that. If not, so consider with me. You see, we are going to look at this passage in Acts and we are going to consider this group of people who became Christians. And we want to ask the question: What marked them out? What distinguished them from other people who are not Christians? Surely there must be a difference alright. Otherwise, why should we consider ourselves Christians if you are not any different from your neighbour or from your colleagues in your office or from your friends in your campuses? If you are not any different, then what is a Christian? Why do you consider yourself a Christian?

So, what mark you out? And that is what we see here. What marked them out as Christians, as a group of people who were different from the other people around them in their time? Alright so we are going to do that. We are going to see what marked them out as Christians. And I submit to you that there are at least three things that ought to be true of every Christian. And we see those marks in these people alright- in these people in this passage. Alright there are at least three things that may be said of every true Christian. And I want you as you listen this morning if you consider yourself a Christian to see if you have these marks. Otherwise, tell me why do you still consider yourself a Christian? Mark number one alright we’re gonna see.

Now the first mark of a true Christian. The first thing that may be said of a true Christian is that a Christian, a biblical Christian, a true, genuine Christian is someone who has a deep conviction. The first thing true of a Christian is conviction. It’s convictions and so we read in verse 37. Acts 2:37, and we are told here: Now when they heard this. When they heard this, they were what? Now you see you read in your Bible alright. It says there when they heard this, they were what? I think in most of your Bible if you’re using the ESV it is written there or translated there that they were “cut to the heart”.

Now that is an important phrase for us to ponder on. What happened to these people when they heard certain things? You see, the people who hears, the people who hear day in, day out. Maybe week in, week out. They come to the church and they hear. They hear the gospel. They hear the preaching of the Word. They hear, but nothing happened. You see, not true of these people. You see, these were the first group of believers, the Christians as it were. They formed the Christian church. They became Christian. Why? What is so unique, so special about this group of people? It is because these people were cut to the heart by what they heard. They were cut to the heart.

The question then is: What does it mean to be cut to the heart? If you’re using the NASB, it is translated as being pierced. It is a strong word. There is something dramatic as it were. There is something powerful that happened to these people. It kind of knocked them off as it were. They were cut to the heart. They were pierced deep within. What does it mean to be pierced in your heart or being cut to the heart? It means that you’re convicted. It means that you see something that strikes you as it were. See something, you hear something that kind of disturbs you.

You are never disturbed by anything you have heard from the Scripture? Never disturbed at all? Then why do you consider yourself a Christian? Then you are not a Christian like the Christians in the Bible because you were never disturbed by what you hear. You have been coming to this church maybe for some time already. Some of you for many years. Any point. Any point on any Sunday when you hear the Word of God that you will cut to the heart, that something pierced deep inside. Some things disturb you as it were. You’re shaken. You’re shaken.

You see, if you are shaken, if you are being pierced to the heart or cut to the heart, you see you will have no rest. Have no peace because you will be thinking about that something. It’s a terrible thing that there are so many people, they come to the church, and they hear the preaching of the Word of God and they go out of this building and they don’t ponder about what they hear because it means nothing much to them. You see, what you heard don’t mean a lot to you because it didn’t strike. It didn’t strike. It didn’t cut deep into your heart. You see, that is the meaning here in verse 37.

That is what Luke is trying to tell us about the first Christians. They were Christians because they were disturbed by what they heard. And so, to be a Christian, this is the point that there must be this deep conviction about something that you have heard. It cannot be hearing from this ear and the other ear go out. You’re not a Christian. You may hear a hundred times. You may hear the preaching of the Word of God a thousand times or a million times. If it never hurts you, if it never said anything to you, if it never disturbs you, you are not yet a Christian in the biblical sense.

You may be considered a Christian by your friends. You may be considered a Christian by your neighbours because they pass by your house, they see a cross on the gate. Oh, that’s a Christian home. Really? That is how you tell whether a person is a Christian or not or whether that household whether it is a Christian or not? You see, we have a very superficial way of identifying a Christian. If today in our midst now we have some ang mo lang alright, some white man from UK or from US, immediately we think that they must be a Christian. Why is he a Christian? He’s a white man.

You see, how superficial, how wrong we are, how defective in our thinking about what is a Christian. If you are a Christian, you ought to know alright- you ought to know about what really is a Christian, not all the things that we’ve heard about, not the way other people identify a Christian. We must identify a Christian the biblical way. He must have conviction. Now he must have conviction. And so conviction, the first thing. Then you might ask alright: He is disturbed by what? He’s now you know, there’s this conviction in him. He’s convinced. He’s persuaded, but persuaded about what?

Have you ever asked yourself if you have been disturbed by the hearing of Scripture, what is it about the preaching of this Scripture disturbs you? Why are you being persuaded? Just consider these people. We will ask. You say we know; we are told in verse 37 that they were disturbed. They were pierced. They were cut to the heart. And then we want to know. We want Luke to tell us. They were persuaded by what? What is it that disturbed them? I believe that there are at least three things we can see in Luke’s record about these people. Three things that disturbed them or three things that they’re being persuaded about by what they have heard. By what they have heard.

Number one. In fact, I want to ask you if you call yourself a Christian, I want to say if there was something that you were persuaded about that made you a Christian. I’m sure along the way when you became a Christian, so called you decided to become a Christian, along the way there must be something that you heard that you were persuaded about that make you want to be a Christian. Have you ever asked yourself what were those things? You see, for many people, this is what they were persuaded about. They heard that if you become a Christian you’ll be wealthy. Oh, I’m persuaded.

If you are truly persuaded alright, you’ll be healthy, you’ll be successful, you’ll score straight As in your exam, you’re fully persuaded by that. Sure, I want to become a Christian because surely, I want to be wealthy and surely, I want to be healthy and surely, I want to be successful. If I’m being persuaded by becoming a Christian I can be those things, then I will be a Christian. Is that why you become a Christian? Why did these people become Christians? number one.

You see, they were convinced of the truth about Jesus Christ. That’s the first thing. They were persuaded by what they heard about Jesus Christ. You see, Peter was preaching to this group of people in this chapter in Acts 2. And Peter was preaching to them about a man that they heard so much about. These are a group of people who are not ignorant of this man, Jesus, whom Peter was preaching about. You see, a lot of you have heard Jesus before. You have heard the name.

And so, Peter was talking about this man they heard so much about. They have heard his teaching, these Jewish people. They have heard the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many of them saw Jesus on earth. They have seen His miracles, and then they witnessed His amazing death and then the news of His resurrection. They heard all these things, the person and the life of Jesus Christ, His death on the cross, and His resurrection. Maybe most people that you know of or at least many of them have heard the same thing. They have heard perhaps even the testimony of many people who witnessed the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

When Jesus rose again maybe many of them didn’t see Him, but there are so many hundreds of people who have seen the risen Christ and maybe they have spoken to these people. But they never believed in this man. They never believed in this man. Now Peter tells them. He said this man alright- this man in verse 22: “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know”.

You have witnessed. You have heard. You have seen this person, and God has attested. God has shown to you and proven to you that this is indeed the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. This is someone whom you should bow to, someone you should follow, not someone you should reject. But Peter is speaking to these people. This man you are heard, you have seen, you have witnessed, but you reject Him. You reject Him in your life and you crucified Him.

Verse 23: “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. ” you see, I’m not sure whether at any point in your life that you have been convicted of this truth about you that all through your life from the day you were born, you have been rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, oh no I believe in Him. You really? What is believe? What does it mean to be a Christian? It is to follow Him. It is to do what He tells you to do. In fact, Luke records in his gospel in Luke 6:46 the words of Jesus to the disciples, and this is what Jesus said to them: “And why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I say?”

Why? You are not a true disciple. You don’t really believe. There are many people who calls Jesus Lord. They call themselves Christian, but they do not do what Jesus says. You say where did Jesus said? Here. It’s in the Bible in your hands. You don’t care to know, and you don’t care to obey. Therefore you don’t care to do what Jesus tells you to do. You don’t care to do what Jesus tells you about how you should live your life. You don’t care about the priorities that Jesus is teaching you. Do you know what priorities you should have in your life? What did Jesus say in the Bible? Do not lay up treasures on earth but lay up treasures in heaven. That is priority.

When Jesus commanded Mary and told Martha: “Martha, Martha, you are too busy and distracted by the business of this life, but Mary has chosen the good part. ” That is priority. That is to know what is important. The good part that Mary has chosen is to be with Jesus, is to hear His Word, not like Martha. Now that is what it means to follow Jesus Christ, not to live life your way, not to pursue your own priorities or to think what is important according to the ways of the world, to invite worldly values. Set your minds on things above and not on things on the earth. How many times the Bible have been stressing that? How many times? Just read your Bible.

You see this coming across again and again because the Bible is concerned about how we live our life. But you’re not. You don’t care. You live as you like. You have your own priorities that is not in accord with the teaching of the Bible. Then you are not a follower of Jesus Christ. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, but do not do what I say? These people. These people that Peter was preaching to, they were like this until this point when they heard this. When they heard as Peter tells them. This man, whom God has attested, you crucify. You reject. You don’t follow. You don’t care. You live your life your way. they were hearing. They were hearing and listening to the apostle Peter preaching. And then something happened. Something struck. Something cuts through.

You see, there are many hearts that are so hard, it doesn’t cut through. You can hear day in day out, week in week out, but it just doesn’t cut through. It cannot get you. You cannot understand. You’re so dull. But then come a point. But then come a point with these people it cuts through and then they came to the realisation that all these while yes, we are the unbelievers. Yes, we may be the Jewish people called the people of God. We may be people who come from Christian homes. We grow up in the church. We have Christian names. We might even be baptised.

But then I come to this realisation. But despite of all those externalities, those outward expressions of my professions, but deep inside I am still not a Christian because I’ve never been persuaded. This truth has never cut through to my heart and make me disturbed. And now you see, they are disturbed. They realise that they have been mocking Christ at Calvary. They had been laughing at Him. They have been ridiculing Him. They have rejected Him. They crucified Him. But now they’re convinced. They were cut to the heart and they had this realisation, yes.

Yes. All these years I’ve been living such a life. I’ve been ignoring God. I’ve been rejecting Christ. I don’t care about His Word. I don’t care about following Jesus Christ. All these years I’m a rebel. I lived a life as a rebel. And now I come to see. Now I come to see. What have you come to see? What have they come to see? Verse 36, where Peter says: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made (Jesus) him both Lord and Christ (that is Messiah), this Jesus whom you crucified.” This Jesus whom you have been rejecting all your lives, this Jesus is indeed God Himself. He is the Saviour. He is the promised Messiah.

Can you not see? Then it cuts, and then something going in. And then something makes them realise: Oh, this person which I’ve been ignoring all my life, He is God. He’s the Saviour. He’s the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Jesus. So, they’ve come to see. They become convinced of the truth about who Jesus really is. That is conviction. That is what cut through finally. They come to see Jesus as He truly is- the Son of God and the Saviour. The Saviour has come to save me from my sin. So, first thing about their conviction is that they were convinced or persuaded of the truth about Jesus Christ.

But there’s a second thing we see about their conviction here. Something cuts through, a realisation about who Jesus is. But there is also a realisation, deeply persuaded, convinced of the truth about themselves. The truth about themselves. They looked at Jesus, and then they looked at themselves. What did they see? They saw what Isaiah saw in Isaiah 6 when he saw the throne of God, when he sees God in all His glory. When you see Jesus, when you see who He really is, it is not like what many people think He’s just a good man, He’s just a great prophet, He’s just a man like any other man. He’s just a founder of another religion.

No, He’s more than those things, much, much more. Have you come to that realisation? And then when they see that, they are like the prophet Isaiah and they say whoa, if that is who Jesus is, then I’m undone. Why? Because all these years I have not been living in obedience to this God who created me. How can that be? What kind of person am I? What do I deserve? And so, they saw the truth about themselves that they are living in rebellions against God, that they were the people who put Jesus to death. That’s what we see in verses 23 and 24. Peter says you. Sometimes people ask this question: Who really put Jesus to death?

The answer? What’s the answer to that question: Who really put Jesus to death? The Jewish people? Yes. The Romans? Yes. You, me? Yes, because He was there because of our sin. Because of our sin. That’s why He needed to be there. That’s why God put Him there, finally speaking. It is God who put Him there so, in order to save us. And so, these people saw the truth about themselves. We are cruel people. We are wicked people. We are sinners. We are the reason why Jesus is on the cross. Why He’s there crucified? Why He needed to die the cruel, shameful death? We are the reason. And so, they saw the truth about themselves and they said we are sinners.

And then they saw the third thing that they were persuaded about. Persuaded about the truth of the truth about Jesus and of the truth about themselves as wicked rebels.Third thing, they are also persuaded of the danger they were in. Now we see that they were in fear. That’s why in verse 37 it says when they heard this. When they heard what Peter was preaching. When they heard the gospel, when they heard the Word of God about Jesus Christ, they were cut to the heart. And then what? They cried out. They cried out.

Verse 37: “And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” That is, you see the tone here is a sense of panic. They were being terrified. It’s like the Philippian jailer when he realized the danger he and his families were in, he cried out to Paul and said: What must I do to be saved? What must I do? Now you see, that is what it means to be cut to the heart that there you are terrified. They realise that they are now in danger of the judgement of God that if they do not do anything about their condition now, they are doomed.

You know how many times the Bible warns us of this? And do you not realise that Jesus spoke more about hell than heaven in the Bible? Why? Because He wants us to get this. He wants to impress upon us the great danger. Every one of us- men and women, boys and girls. Every one of us, we are in great danger. Are you not terrified? No? You are not a Christian alright. From the Bible you are not a Christian. You have never been disturbed. You have never had this feeling of being terrified, the need to run somewhere for shelter, the need to cry out.

Have you ever cried out: What must I do? You would not be able to sleep tonight if you have been convicted until you found the answer to that question: What must you do to be saved? You will not. If you can sleep in peace, you’re not a Christian. You’re not disturbed. These people were disturbed, and that is the first thing that marked them out.

When you read this about them, the first Christians, the early Christians, people could see that these people, this group of people, they were different from all the rest- from all the rest. These people in the world, they’re not terrified. They’re not disturbed. They can go on in their life. They can just go on. Life is good for them, and they just go on living their life unaware of the great danger that they are in. But they are different. Are you?

The second thing that marked them out is that. It is conversion. Conversion. Verse 38. Now look at verse 38, it says Peter said to them. And it starts: What shall we do? “Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. ” Repent and be baptised. This is conversion. So, what, the second thing alright, the next thing we see. The next mark. The next thing that marked them out is that of repentance. That’s what conversion is about. That’s what conversion is about. Some of you, maybe you have been converted to Christianity. A lot of people think of conversion as changing religion.

Oh, last time I was a Buddhist. I was a Hindu, but now I’ve decided to become, be a Christian. So, I am now converted to Christianity. Now that is not conversion that the Bible speaks about. That’s not what happened to these people that they were cut to the heart, they decided that oh, now we move from one religion to another. So, what is conversion? What is conversion? conversion is to repent. In other words, what we see here is this. What Luke tells us is this. The second mark of a true Christian, a biblical Christian is that they must be converted.

You see, conviction alone will not save you. Some people here maybe they’re moved up to a point, maybe shed a few tears. And after that, a ha ha ha ha, go back to their old life. That is not what Luke is describing here. The thing that Luke is describing here is this that these people repented. These people repented because that’s what Peter told them to do. Repent alright- repent. In other words, what Peter is telling them that if they were truly convicted, if they were already truly disturbed by this thing, then what they needed to do was to change.

You cannot remain the same. You must change. You must change your way because you are a new person. That’s how the Bible describes a Christian that he is a new creature in Christ. The old things have passed away and the new has come. So old life. Your old ways must go, and the new way and the new life must come. Is that that change in your life? Or are you still the same old person? The only thing changed about you is that you change your name or previously you don’t come to church, now you start coming to church. That’s the only thing, the only change that happened in your life? Or those are kind of changes?

See, Peter says that you must never, you’re never the same again. You see, to change, to repent is to change your ways, to change your lifestyle, and to turn from your sin. And then Peter kind of described it alright here further in his preaching. And Peter in a sense was trying to clarify what he meant. You see, when we tell people to repent and to change their ways, now I think it’s important to clarify what that means. And here Peter clarifies. He said repent, be baptised alright, every one of you.

And then he says in verse 39: “For the promise is for you and your children and all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (Verse 40) And with many other words. ” Alright he continued. He continued to preach to them. He continued to explain to them. “With many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” (Or in the other translation be saved from this perverse generation).

Now that is what it means to be a Christian that you are no longer continuing with this perverse generation, this crooked generation. You are no longer like the people of the world. That is what it means to be a Christian. You must turn. That’s what repent means. You must turn away from that. You must not continue to live like this crooked generation, this perverse generation. What does it mean to be perverse? What does it mean to be crooked?

And Paul tells us and let me read a few verses from his letters to the Romans. And he describes here the perversion of humanity, of the perversion, the crookedness of our society in Romans 1:26- “For this reason God gave them up to dishonourable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. “And God called these acts shameless, crooked, perverse. Not gay pride. Not pride.

You see, we live in a perverse generation. Shameless things, we honour them. Wicked things, we promote them. What kind of world are we living in? And Peter is saying to the people before him so you must not be like these people, the people of the world. That is what it means to be a Christian. You are now a new person because you have turned alright- you have turned, turned from sin to God. You no longer are like those in the days of Noah that laughed when the prophet warned them or those in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. They continue to live a godless life.

When Lot warned them of the coming judgement, they couldn’t care less. They were not bothered by those things. Be saved from those things. Or in the words of Paul to the Corinthians in Second Corinthians. He said come up from among them and be separate. That is what it means to be a Christian. In other words, there is no reason to believe you are a Christian unless your life is changed alright- there is no reason to believe that you are a Christian unless your life is changed. Thirdly. There is conviction, and there must be conversion.

And these are so true of this group of people in Acts 2. These marked them out as a group of people that were different. And thirdly, continuation. Continuation. Verse 42: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. ” Now the word ‘devoted’ is in a tense that denote continuation. And so, the other translation says and they continue (in the KJV) and they continued steadfastly.

So, it is in what we call an imperfect tense. Or in the other translation, I think it’s translated as they continually devoted themselves. So, the idea of devoted here is a continual action. They continually devoted themselves, that is the sense. They continually devoted themselves to the apostles’ doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and the prayer. The point to see here is that what marked them out as genuine, biblical Christian is that their Christian life didn’t end with baptism.

See, there are a lot of people who profess to be a Christian, they want to get baptised, and after baptised, no more. That is all to their Christian life. And then everywhere they go, I’m a Christian. Why are you a Christian? Been baptised, got certificate. My name here, Grace Reformed Church. I go to reformed church alright. Or maybe gold paper alright, golden paper, and never continue. That is the end of the story. That is not what a biblical Christian is because we are told that they continually devoted themselves or their continual steadfastness alright, continually devoted themselves.

You see in the book of Acts as we study this book, faith for each believer was the beginning, not an end. Faith for them to become a Christian is a journey. There was a beginning, and then it continued. When Luke tells us they continually devoted, he’s speaking of the mark of these people. You see this group of people? Look at them. You look at their lives. Look at what they are doing now. They were different, and then they continually do something or committed themselves to something. Then we’re going to ask: What was it that they were continually devoted to?

Look at your Christian friends. What are the things that they are now (if they call themselves Christians), what are the things that they are now continually devoted to? I think that is a searching question because the answer for many is that these people who now call themselves Christians, they are continually devoted to what my non-Christian friends are continually devoted to. Can’t tell the difference.

But not so with these people. We are told. Notice the things that now they held dearly to. Notice the thing mentioned by Luke that they were continually devoted to. One, we are told that they continued to be devoted or they steadfastly, they were devoted to the apostles’ teaching or doctrine. Is that true of you if you are a Christian? Are you devoted? Are you committed to the apostles’ teaching as inscripturated in the Bible that you have in your hands? How much is this worth to you? How important is the Bible to you?

I think for many people, the cookbook is more important than the Bible. Recipe book. But that’s what a Christian is. That’s why they are now no longer the same. That is what’s unique, special, different about that group of people. Is that what is unique, special of this group of people, of us here gathered that we are, we can be described as people who steadfastly devote ourselves or continually devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching? Because they now realise that this is the Word of God. This is special. This book is unique.

And because now they love God, now they want to obey Him. The only way you can obey Him is to know the Word of God because if you’re ignorant of the Word, there is no way you can obey God. If you are really interested to follow Jesus Christ, really interested to live a life of obedience, then you will really be interested in people.

And secondly, they were also continually devoted to the fellowship of the saints. You see, now there is this new love for the church, this new love for the brethren. Now they see themselves as brothers and sisters in Christ. We are no longer strangers. They see that relationship. They see that oneness. We are family. And so, there’s this desire to be with them and the desire to edify one another. Why? Because we care. There’s this concern about people who wanders away as James tells us.

If you are not concerned when you see your brother or sister wandering away, then you have no love for these people, no concern. Then you only demonstrate that you have no real relationship with these people. If you have no real concern to build up the faith of one another, to edify, then you have no real concern for these people. Then you don’t have a relationship with these people. But these people were different. They now see that they are all one in Christ.

And so, there is oneness. There’s love for one another, the desire to meet one another because the desire to build one another up in their spiritual life. And then they were also continually devoted to the breaking of bread. Continually devoted to the breaking of bread. That is a demonstration of the commitment to be united with the church. The commitment will be united with the church. All your talk about being a Christian as far as the Bible is concerned is rubbish. You have no desire to be part of His church, then you can live your life outside the circle of the church alright. You stay content. You stay content.

It’s like a child you know, nothing to do with the family. You stay content. What kind of child are you? It’s inconsistency to call yourself a Christian if you’ve got no desire to be part of the church of Jesus Christ. Fourthly, and prayer. And they were continually devoted to prayer. You see, when you read Acts, one thing that cannot escape your attention is their devotion to prayer. It starts even in the very first chapter and verse 14. And it reads: “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the (women) and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”

See, they were devoting themselves to prayer. And we see here they were devoted to prayer in chapter 2. What do you read in chapter 2? Peter and John were going to the house of prayer alright to the temple to pray. What do you read in chapter 4? Well, this is what we read, verse 24: And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. And what were they doing? They were praying. What do you read in chapter 6?

Alright we read in chapter 6 and verse 4: “But we will devote ourselves to prayer.” Devote to prayer. They were devoting themselves to prayer. They were praying. They were praying. Chapter after chapter you see the true people of God, they are people of prayer. How is it that the prayer meeting is the least well-attended meeting in the church? And sometimes just leaders speak with some kind of pride. Oh, they say you know prayer meeting, people don’t like prayer meeting because most churches, less than ten percent attend prayer meeting. That tells you what? That tells you what?

You see the Bible, that tells you a lot about these people. Now that tells you a lot about these people. You are not committed to these things. Teaching of the apostles, the fellowship of the saints, the breaking of bread, then to prayer. So, what is a Christian? What is a Christian? You must have deep conviction about the truth of the Scripture. You must change, not just hearing alone or just being touched alone will not do. You must change and conform your life to the teaching of the Bible. And then you must continue. You must continue in the things of God. Let us pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, we thank You again for Your Word to make things so clear to us. We know that a lot of times we are ignorant due to the fact that we are not people of the Word. We pray as we go through this series that You may clarify this issue and help us to grasp them. And this morning we pray that You’ll help us to realise what a true, genuine, biblical Christian is and that all of us in this hall might indeed be deeply convicted and changed and live a life of continual devotion to You. For these, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.