The Apostle's Doctrine

Over the years, at the Church I attend. we have handed out Turkeys to everyone we could find in or around our community.

We have given away Bibles, Jesus videos, fresh fruit, all with a desire to reach our community for the Lord.

Several years ago there was a book called evangelism explosion. I don't know how many people got saved, but they certainly sold a lot of books.

They even had classes you could sign up for all across America. All you had to do was pay the price, of the class, invest a few hours of your time, ... over several weeks, ... and then ... you were short on funds and behind in your schedule, ...
But full of book knowledge. God willing you may even have got your nerve up and told someone about the Lord.

There are lots of classes, studies, tracts, and clever things to say. But if we really want to reach our loved ones and our communities,

If we really want to reach a lost and dying world for Christ, perhaps we should look at how They did it during the first century.

There is a verse in bible ... Did you know that?

This one was written concerning Peters speech on the Day of Pentecost.

"Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers."

Another version reads ...
"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."

These were the key activities of the first Christians
~The ones that changed the world.~

Before Turkeys or tracts. Before, tradition, programs, seminaries, bible tracts or even bibles. Cool huh?

When I first starting reading the bible I thought that Apostles Doctrine meant bible teaching and preaching. Then I realized that they had no bibles and the apostles were not all preachers.

So I decided that the apostles’' doctrine must be Jesus Christ, crucified for our sins, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and coming back. Because that is what I was taught.

Then I realized that it does no good to tell someone that Jesus is the messiah if they are not Jewish.

See ...
Born of a virgin, died for our sins and rose from the dead, is pure foolish to any one who is not already Christian. Shed blood for our sins, doesn't mean anything if they don't understand they are guilty.

So what was the Apostles doctrine? Remember that it was spread throughout the known world, not just by the apostles but by every Christian, in every town, in every conversation for at least several hundred years.

Obviously it took no special anointing, No special preaching, and no bible study. Isn't that Cool?

Since I believe we want to do what ever the Apostles were doing, let's think about what they really did.

Note that whatever this 'doctrine' is, it is attributed to the Apostles. Not to God, nor to Jesus, nor to the writers of the Old Testament nor to Rabbis of the time.

This was something that was unique to the Apostles.
What did the Apostles have that the others' didn't?

I know what they didn't have ...
They did not have seminary degrees or great religious training. Paul did have some of the best training available. But he hadn't signed up yet.

They didn't even have direct access to the hand-written scriptures available in their day! Only Rabbi's and the Scribes had that access, and to our knowledge none of the Apostles were Rabbis or even Scholars of any kind.

They didn't spend 3 years with Jesus studying scripture and theology as their main activity. So you couldn't say they were 'informally educated' they were not even 'self-taught'.

Thank God, that sounds like some of us.

So what did they have? What was the 'Apostle's Doctrine'?

They had a 3 year personal relationship with Jesus,
daily watching Him live His life and watching Him heal the sick and the crippled, raise the dead, cast out demons, and hearing Him answer all the challenges.

They had watched Him be personally involved in people's lives, day after day after day for about 3 years.

They watched how he would call people to repentance without condeming them. Like the women caught in adultery.

See in 21st century paraphrase He would say something like,

Listen, I'm not condemning you, But you got to stop that lifestyle, it's destroying your life and the lives of those you are involved with.

They also sat and listened as He taught,... and yet the recorded teachings often explained what had either already happened or was about to happen. Not heavy theological stuff.

They truly had an intimate relationship with Jesus.

They knew His likes and dislikes.

They had walked with Jesus, They had heard Him. They knew His voice.

They knew His passions, They knew His priorities, His Heart.

They had seen Him angry,... seen Him in tears,... interacting with people who loved Him and praised Him,... and interacting with those who hated Him.

They knew His nature, as no group in history had ever known God before.

They not only heard his voice, and recognized it, they understood it and they responded!

In short, they had watched Jesus do one thing: Glorify God's name.

You know what they did?
They talked about ... this Jesus ... whom they knew. Like He was a personal friend.

They talked about how He put His arms around lepers, befriended prostitutes, tax collectors, and zealots. Took time for children, had compassion, and hurt for the hurting.

As they "witnessed" about what they saw and knew, it became known as 'the Apostle's Doctrine.

It was not some "head-knowledge" of God. as some kind of a historical figure.

It was not preaching scripture at people. It was not condemning people to hell-fire and damnation.

It was not talking about Jesus without having experienced Him ... personally.

Just as the man from Gadarene, who had all the demons came at Jesus just full of hell.

Jesus did not judge this man. Didn't blow him off or push him away.

Jesus stopped and spoke with him. Had compassion for him and got involved with his problem. Helped him deal with his trouble, cleared the Demons out.

Never did talk about why the Demons were there or who let them in. That didn't seem important at this time.

He healed this man, emotionally and mentally. The man didn't need a formal education to tell others what God had done, neither did the apostles.

What the man did need was more encouragement from Jesus and He needed to respond in the proper way, out of love and admiration, you gotta know someone and love them to do that.

So, what do you know about Jesus out of your relationship with Him?

What have you witnessed that you can now tell others?

See ...
That He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

That He is in fact very God. That He gave His life for our sins,
that He is our redeemer, savior, and is our Lord. Comes after a time as people get to know Him.

There is a saying ...
They don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care.

That is what they need to know about Jesus.

How He cares about every aspect of their world. He cares how we interact with people. Especially our families. How we honor our marriages, and each other in General.

How He cares that we pay attention to, and follow with a desire to obey his commands for the right reasons. How we do or don't condemn each other in love. I mean real unconditional love. Not that silly I'm gonna tell you this in love stuff.

That He hurts when we hurt, even if we brought it on ourselves.

There is a lot about Jesus, that they need to know. Perhaps a lot that we need to know.

Luke called it the Apostle's doctrine. Many can quote the Apostles creed. or scripture all day long. That is good. Personally I encourage that. So does Jesus.

But the lost, the struggling, the hurting, and the back slidden, need to hear the Apostles Doctrine.

It changed the world back then, it will today, may even change yours.