Imagine, if you will, somebody on the job who tried to be an invisible employee. He would never talk to any of the bosses unless he was absolutely forced to. He would ignore all memos and instructions that came to his department, and only read them if he had time. He would only go to work when he felt like it. The smallest inconvenience or sniffle would be enough of an excuse to stay home. Should this employee expect to be promoted, or even paid? A lot of Christians are like that. They never talk to God unless things are so bad that they are forced to. They ignore their scripture reading and study, and only open the Bible if they have time. They only come to church when they feel like it, and the smallest inconvenience or sniffle is enough of an excuse to stay home. Should they expect to receive anything from God? Should they expect to be promoted to heaven?

If we want to live a victorious Christian life, we need to learn how to be faithful. The portion of scripture we are looking at records the beginning of the early church. In these 7 verses are revealed the key elements which helped the first church to grow and to remain centered on God and his word.

Peter had just preached the first sermon of the new church. Three thousand people accepted the message and gave their hearts to the Lord. They were baptized, not because they needed to be baptized to be saved, but to show to everyone their new commitment to Christ. With the exception of the thief on the cross, all the disciples and all of Jesus’ followers were baptized. Jesus was even baptized by John the Baptist. When we give our heart to the Lord, we need to be baptized as a public testimony of our new-found life.

The last part of this verse tells us the 3000 were added to them. To whom? They were added to the 120 who formed the nucleus of the early church. They didn’t just get saved, and then go their own way. They joined themselves to the body of believers. Everyone who commits their life to the Lord must join themselves to a church. You cannot serve God by yourself.

Here’s a list of excuses people give for missing church. Perhaps you can find your favorite one.

The Absentee’s Alphabet

A is for Auntie who will come to tea; B is the Bed that won’t release me. C is the Car — we do need fresh air; D is the Dinner just Mom can prepare. E for Extremes — too high or too low; F for my Feelings — when they’re right, I go. G is the Garden much nearer God’s heart; H is my Husband, who won’t play his part.

I for Intruders who sit in my pew; J is for Jokes which tires me so much; L the old Language, it’s so out of touch; M is for Money, they always more; N for New tunes I’ve not heard before. O is for Overtime, double on Sunday; P the Preparing I must do for Monday, Q the Queer noises that come from the choir; R is the Reverence they never inspire.

S is for Sermons, as dull as can be; T for the Television we really must see. U for Unfriendly, no welcome I find. V for the Voice of that woman behind. W is the Weather, too cold or too hot. X for Excuses, I’ve got such a lot. Y for the Yells from the kids left behind. Z is for Zeal, which is what I can’t find!

The importance of faithfulness cannot be stressed enough. I have been involved in ministering to others for 3 decades now. The one thing I have observed above everything else is the value of faithfulness to a person’s spiritual well-being. If you do not commit to be faithful to church, to prayer, and to reading the Bible as a new believer, you will be struggling throughout your lifetime. I have seen people saved who were in desperate situations with seemingly insurmountable problems, but who were faithful. Somehow they found the Lord’s strength and were able to pull through the most trying of circumstances.

Over the years I have also seen those who drift in and out of church and waver in their commitment to the Lord. They go from one crisis to the next. Their life is filled with difficulties: marital problems, sickness, financial woes, emotional suffering. If we truly want to experience the joy of the Lord, we must learn to be faithful.

The Bible tells us we are to be steadfast in 1 Corinthians 15:58, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."

Galatians 5:1 tells us to stand fast, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage."

And we are instructed to be faithful stewards in 1 Corinthians 4:1-2, "Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful."

This verse starts off with the words, "they continued steadfastly." In other words, they were faithful. Faithfulness is a key to Christian growth. Those who are inconsistent and unstable in their commitment to the things of God will find their Christian walk full of troubles and heartache.

We must be faithful in the word. The first thing we see in this verse is they were steadfast in the apostle’s doctrine. What does this mean? The apostle’s doctrine was the teaching from God’s word. As Paul commends the Bereans in Acts 17:11-12, "These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed...." Here we see the Bereans doing 2 things. First, they listened to the teaching of the apostles, and second, they searched the scriptures to find out if the apostles were teaching the truth.

Just listening to good teaching is not enough. We must be faithful in our study of the scriptures. We must always be judging what pastors and teachers are saying by what the Bible teaches. The only way we can learn God’s word is to be faithful in our reading and study of the Bible.

We must be faithful in prayer. We see the early church steadfast in prayer. Time spent alone with God is essential to our spiritual growth. There is power in prayer. James 5:16 tells us, "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." We need to pray for our own needs, and for the needs of others. By sharing our prayer needs with other believers, we are sending up to heaven a large chorus of prayer.

We must be faithful in fellowship. We see the early church was steadfast in fellowship. By associating with other believers, we receive encouragement from each other. There are times we will need help and strength from others, and there will be times when we can offer comfort and support. We can share our prayer concerns with each other, and we can find help when we are troubled or confused. We can get answers to our questions, and we can use our gifts and talents to help to be a blessing to others. Faithfulness in fellowship is a cornerstone of our growth in the Lord.

The reason why it’s important for new believers to be around other Christians is that Jesus is giving you a new value system. Your old way of doing things no longer applies. There will be many things from your former lifestyle that you will have to struggle with. You need the love and support of those who have learned how to be obedient to God’s word. If you stay with your old circle of friends and their sinful ways of doing things, you will be constantly pulled by the old temptations. By associating with other believers, you will see first-hand how they are overcoming the struggles that you are facing.

Owen Glassburn wrote this poem:

A room of quiet,

a temple of peace;

A home of faith-

where doubtings cease.

A house of comfort,

where hope is given;

A source of strength

to help us to heaven;

A place of worship,

a place to pray-

I found all this

in my Church today.

This verse is perhaps better rendered by The Living Bible, "A deep sense of awe was on them all, and the apostles did many miracles." As a believer, we need to have a deep sense of awe toward God. An awe that reflects our gratitude for his mercy with a good dose of fear toward his judgement. A light attitude on our part toward God or his word will lead us to not take his commandments seriously enough. We need to have a holy reverence toward God.

The apostles did many miracles. Do you think God is still performing miracles? I know he is because he has performed them in my life and in the lives of my family. I think as we reverence God, we gain a sense of his majesty, and we can more easily place our trust in him. If we need a miracle of healing, of deliverance, of comfort, we can have faith that God will meet our need. Jesus promised us in Matthew 7:11, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" The early church was not only faithful, but they were full of faith. We need to be steadfast in believing God’s promises, and then we will see his miracles.

We must be faithful to our local church. The early church was united. This verse says, "all who believed were together." There was a unity in that church as no other. So much so that they had all things in common. Now I don’t think we need to go back to church communes, but it would be good for the modern church to return to that early unity. Today, there is little unity. Few people feel any allegiance to any church body. Some switch churches as often as they change fashions or trade in their cars. Loyalty to one church seems like a thing of the past. The early church was together. They cared for each other and were united in purpose.

But it seems that today, Christians’ only loyalty is to themselves. They will go where they can benefit the most, or receive the most. They will find the church with the best music programs or most dynamic children’s programs or most charismatic pastor. It is all a very self-centered pursuit. If we are to grow as Christians, we need to learn stability. We must become planted in a local church and stay there. Allow our roots to become established, our branches to grow, and our flowers to bloom. We cannot grow hopping from one church to the next. We must stay in one place long enough to be watered and nurtured and flourishing. This all takes time. There is no perfect church. In fact the early church only a short while later had a conflict which is recorded in Acts 6:1-7. We must be faithful to one local church.

We must be faithful in our giving. Our money, our talent, and our time does not belong to us. It is the Lord’s. We must allow him to use it for his glory.

We must be faithful in our church attendance. The early church met daily in the temple. There are many reasons to attend church.

First, we are commanded to do it. Hebrews 10:25 (NIV) tells us, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Jesus emphasized the importance of meeting together in Matthew 18:20 (KJV) when he said, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

Second, we need the pastoral teaching. Although we can learn a lot from God’s word from our personal study at home, it is essential that we gain the benefit of someone else’s experience and spiritual understanding. If our only knowledge of the Bible comes from what we have learned on our own, we will miss some very important teachings.

Third, there is a real blessing from singing, worshipping, and praying with other believers. We may have had a very difficult week, or we may be going through some emotional or spiritual storm. But as we hear others singing and focusing in on God, we feel our own spirit joining with them, and soon our troubles fade into the background as we once again feel the love of God sweeping over us.

Fourth, by attending church we have an opportunity to minister to others: to be a friend to the hopeless, a comfort to the lonely, an encouragement to the troubled, and a blessing to the downcast.

Also, we must be faithful in our Home Group or Mid-Week Study. Notice this verse tells us the early church was in the habit of going house to house. These, no doubt, were the first-ever Home Study Fellowships. We think Cell-Group Ministry is such a modern idea, but here it is mentioned 2000 years ago. Times of weekly Bible study with a group of believers can really aid in our spiritual growth. The advantage of small groups is that you have more time to relate one-on-one with each other. You can spend more time sharing prayer requests and taking each other’s needs before the throne of grace. You can ask questions and exchange insights. As you study together as a group, you learn from each other.

I believe small group study is essential for the new believer and beneficial to all Christians. As people gather together weekly to learn from the Bible, they will see real growth in their lives as well as in the life of the church.

We must be faithful in our worship. It is easy to overlook the importance of worship. In this verse we see that they spent time praising God. Do we? Time spent worshipping together as a church or alone at home with God is time spent feeding our spirit. When we are praising God, we are not thinking of our problems. Our focus is entirely on him, and it will cause peace, joy, and comfort to minister deep in our soul.

We must be faithful in our witnessing. This verse tells us the early believers had favor with the people and the Lord added more to the church daily. I believe this means they were out telling others about God’s goodness and this message was received favorably. If we want others to be saved, we must be telling them about our Lord. We cannot be afraid of how they will take it, but we must be willing to boldly speak in love.

From this study we have seen how the early church was steadfast and immovable in its efforts. We must be the same way. If we are to have a victorious life, we must be faithful — not inconsistent or lazy, but faithful.

We must be faithful in our Bible reading, faithful in our fellowship, faithful in our prayer times. We must be faithful in attending church, faithful in attending Bible studies, and faithful in telling others about God. We must be faithful in our giving, faithful in our worship, and faithful in our quiet time alone with the Lord. A faithful Christian is a growing Christian, but an inconsistent believer is a struggling believer. Learn to be faithful as a new believer because the Lord is faithful to you.

Footnotes:

This study on Acts 2:41-47 © 1997 by David Humpall. All Rights Reserved.

All scriptures unless otherwise noted are from the New King James Version © 1984, Thomas Nelson Publishers

The Absentee’s Alphabet: The Pastor’s Manual quoted in Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations pg. 243

Glassburn: quoted in Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations pg. 242