Week 1-Introduction
Membership Means
Introduction
For daily devotionals on "Membership Means Introduction"
click on the titles at the bottom of the page:
Central Bible Truth
God calls us to
receive Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord. As a result, we are introduced to
His universal and local body of believers known as the church.
Focal Passage:
Acts
2:39-47
Lesson Aim for Week 1: (Informational, How Come?)
Week 1, 3, and 5 are to be informational, or “how come”.
Weeks 2, 4, and 6 are to be instructional, or “how to”.
Weeks 2, 4, and 6 are to be instructional, or “how to”.
To show the meaning
of being a Christian as symbolized in our two ordinances of Baptism and Lord’s
Supper.
The Bible in Context
Christians are called to belong to as an active part of a local
body of believers. It is as old as Christianity itself. In Acts 2 through 4, we
see new believers were converted to Christianity and “added to the church”.
Two out of the three times that Jesus mentioned the word “church”,
He talked about the local congregation of believers (see Matthew 16:18 and Matthew
18:17). As we begin this study on being members of the body of Christ, we will look
at the church through the lenses of our two most sacred traditions in the
church: Baptism and Communion, and how they represent Salvation and Lordship of
Christ.
When the Day of Pentecost came in Acts 2, there also came a new
relationship between God and man. The rushing mighty wind and tongues of fire
created a reasonable question: “What does this mean?” (Acts 2:12) Peter’s
sermon was in response to that question, showing that the church was a
prophetic fulfillment to the Old Testament prophet Joel. (Compare Acts 2:14-36
with Joel 2:28-32)
After his sermon, the people asked a second question: “What
shall we do?” (2:37). “With many other words,” Peter encouraged the people to “be
saved from this perverse generation!” (2:38-40). Three thousand people received
salvation, were baptized, and entered into a relationship with the local body
of believers as members of the early church (2:41-47).
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