Acts 2:37-47

To show that because of the benefits gained, every believer should be a part of fellowship with other Christians.

I believe in the communion of the saints.

Hospitality

A seminary student drove thirty miles to church on Sunday mornings and he would frequently pick up hitchhikers. One day he picked up a young man who noticed he was wearing a suit and asked if he could go to church with him. The student said, “Of course you can.”

The stranger came to church and afterward was invited over to one of the members’  homes for lunch and fellowship. While there, he received a hot bath, some clean clothes, and a hot meal. In conversation with the youth, his hosts found out he was a Christian, but had been out of fellowship with the Lord. His home was in another state and he was just passing through on his way back. Later in the evening, they bought him a bus ticket and sent him on his way.

A week later, the seminary student received a letter from the hitchhiker. Enclosed with the letter was a newspaper clipping with a headline reading, “Man Turns Himself in for Murder”. This young man had killed a teenage boy in an attempted robbery and had been running away from the law for some time. But the kindness and hospitality of Christians had convicted him. He wanted to be in fellowship with God, and he knew he needed to do the right thing about his crime.

Little did those Christians know that by their faithfulness to show hospitality they had influenced a man to do what was right in God’s eyes and thereby helped restore him to fellowship with his Lord.

Because of the benefits afforded, every believer can and should be a part of the fellowship of believers.

• We have the benefit of learning (Acts 2:42)
  • About God
    • His nature
    • His works
  • About our responsibilities
    • Follow
    • Grow
    • Share
• We have the benefit of leaning (Acts 2:44)
  • For emotional support
    • Encouragement
  • For material support

Lesson from the bees – source unknown

One bee always seems ready to feed another bee, sometimes even one of a different colony. Mutual feeding among bees, who are social insects, is the order of their existence. The workers feed the helpless queen bee who cannot feed herself. They feed the drones during their period of usefulness in the hive. Of course, they feed the young. They seem to enjoy the social act.

Bees cluster together for warmth in cold weather and fan their wings to cool the hive in hot weather, thus working for one another’s comfort.

When swarming time comes, bee scouts take out to find suitable quarters where the new colony can establish itself. These scouts report back to the group, executing a dance (as they also do to report honey) by which they convey the location of the prospective home to the colony. As more than one scout goes prospecting and reports back, the bees appear to entertain the findings of all scouts and at last the entire assembly seems to reach a common conclusion on a choice. Thereupon they all take wing in what is called a swarm.

• We have the benefit of loving (Acts 2:46-47)
  • They cared about each other (Acts 2:46)
    • In the temple
    • At homes
  • They shared a positive witness (Acts 2:47)

Therefore, I believe in the communion/fellowship of the saints. Because of that, we need to take heed of Hebrews 10:25, “not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”