Week 1-Introduction


Membership Means
Introduction
For daily devotionals on "Membership Means Introduction"
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Acts 2:39-47

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”.

     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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