A New Life In Christ

Acts 2:42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

A New Life In Christ
Will Be Expressed

A new life in Christ immediately expresses itself. LIFE always expresses itself; it is bound to do so.
Everything that Christians are and do is an expression of this new life that is in them. It does not mean their every single action is a perfect expression, but the main bent and characteristic of their lives communicates life in Christ. Christians can only be explained in terms of the fact that they have new life in them: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10)

A New Life in Christ
Draws Believers Together

Acts 2:42 “They continued steadfastly.” All who believed these things, all who were Christians, were constantly found together.

Do we have a desire to come together with other Christians?

Could this mean if you have no desire to often meet with other Christians, that you might not be one?

We are not talking about traditionalists who regularly attend church, but have no idea why they go to church nor what it means to be a Christian. Church attendance is more than being a good example, or upstanding member of your community. The first indication of new, divine life is a drawing together of people who have this life in common.

Christianity is not just a social formality.

A New Life in Christ
Brings Believers Together Willingly

Acts 2:41 begins the entire explanation of what the early church did. It begins with Joy. They gladly did these things!

The people did not come reluctantly or in a spirit of fear; they did not come merely to perform a weekly
or monthly task or a duty. They desired to meet together, and it does not appear that they wanted
the briefest possible diet of worship.

The early believers met every day, which is quite different from the pattern of believers and church today. Too often, people drag themselves reluctantly to a service on Sunday morning and hope and pray, if they pray at all, that it will “not be too long,” particularly the sermon.

A New Life in Christ
Brings All Types of People Together

Acts 2:9-11 lists many different nationalities of people.

There is a modern idea that church attendance suits a certain religious type, people with a religious complex. On that day gathered in Jerusalem on this great day of Pentecost, were people from all parts of the world.

This is one of the most important proofs of the reality of the new birth, the fact of regeneration. Here were people who by nature were all different from one another, different nationalities, classes
in society; men and women, who differed tremendously in temperament, intelligence, and background—together.

How could this happen? It is simple, we all have the same problem, and believers with a new life in Christ see what that problem is and see there is only one answer. There is only one disease spiritually, and it is sin. It does not matter what a person is, where they came from or what they do.

A New Life In Christ
Brings Family Members Together

Why did these people in Jerusalem come together and continue “steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine
and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers”?

The simple answer is that they had become members of the same family; they had the same life.
They were born of the Spirit, and the life of God had entered into their souls.

There is something about this that is almost mystical. This cuts even into family life. It brings one out
of one family, one out of another, and makes them one, brothers and sisters together. It becomes a new spiritual family. Often the family in Christ is much stronger than a family that is simply blood related.

All they were doing was evidence of this new life that comes into a person’s soul. Christian people are living in the same world as everybody else, but they have a different outlook; they see themselves differently. Now as a believer, you see that Christian people have all had exactly the same fundamental experience. Not in every detail, but the same essential, core experience; they have been awakened to these tremendous truths, sin, God, life on earth, and preparation for eternity.

The divisions have gone, and they are one: one in Christ. One in attributing to Him the glory and the praise, one in saying that it is He alone who saves and has saved and will save. They all look to Him, ready to follow Him, eager to please Him, resting their hope in Him and in Him alone.

Are any of these New Life in Christ Expressions present in our lives? If they are not, can we truly say that we are Christians? Would we like to?