Sorting Out the Basics

Acts 1: 12-24             Revelation 21: 1-14

To know Jesus Christ Himself is foundational to knowing who we are as a church and as individual members of the church.

In Ephesians 2: 19-22 we are called joint citizens of a common community and members of His household. This is because we are "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ Himself as the chief cornerstone". Thus, collectively, we are a complete building or temple of God, built by His Spirit.

Organically, we are connected together as members of Christ's Body, with Christ as Head (Ephesians 1: 22,23)

Building a solid community of God then, as seen in the early church, involves building on Christ Himself, by adhering to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer (Acts 2:42).

It is in prayer and Bible searching that we discover God's wonderful plans for the future. This they learned in the upper room (Acts 1:13)

They had time and space to focus on the essentials in preparation for the Spirit's work among them.

We see the apostles laying foundations as they await the arrival of the Holy Spirit. While the Holy Sprit gives the power, the apostles' teaching of the Gospel will provide the essential substance of the new church now that Jesus had departed.

Thus they are concerned to ensure the integrity of of the apostolic church. Recently, one of the 12, Judas Iscariot, had defected by betraying Jesus. The other 11 were concerned to ensure that the authentic number of apostles was recovered. To do this they resorted to prayer and to seek out injunction from the Holy Scripture. In this way they added a twelfth apostle and prepared the foundations for the new testament church.