Acts 2:22-47

Discipleship

American Evangelical Christianity has terms that can be confusing to outsiders. Any culture or sub-culture is likely to find itself in this position; however, this is particularly irksome with AEC because one of our primary goals is to share Christ with those who don’t know Him (outsiders).

Peter’s message was the soul of simplicity. God sent Jesus. We nailed Jesus to the cross. It was impossible for death to hold Jesus. Jesus is now at the right hand of God and has sent us the Holy Spirit. Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and your sins will be forgiven.

Then what?

Well ultimately there is eternity with God but in the meantime there is this thing called discipleship. It is a confusing term to outsiders. Part of the reason is because it is a confusing term to insiders as well. Some think it is part of the requirement for eternity with God. The Bible doesn’t actually say that but some think it anyway. Some think it is kind of a guru thing. You find your mentor and do whatever he/she says. The Bible doesn’t say that either. Some think it has something to do with reading some books and getting together with some other people to talk about them. (The books that is.) Right, the bible doesn’t say that either.

What does the Bible say? Verses 42-47 tell what the first converts did. We don’t necessarily always buy into the holding everything in common part because that seems to have only been the case in the very beginning and in Jerusalem. But this other stuff was the case everywhere throughout the New Testament. So, here goes. This is what they devoted themselves to. This is discipleship.

The apostles teaching. That is God’s Word.
Fellowship. They hung out regularly with believers.
The Table of the Lord. a.k.a Communion or the Eucharist.
Prayer. They talked to God a lot.
They helped each other. Even putting their money where their mouth is.
They met together to praise God a lot.
They opened their homes. They must have been the same there as they were at church.

That’s it. That’s what you do. That is discipleship.