In the sermon titled 'The Church That Turned the World Upside Down,' Scott Brown reflects on the transformative power of the early church as depicted in the Book of Acts. Covering the first 30 years after Jesus' ascension, the sermon highlights how 120 devoted followers of Christ, despite being a small group, profoundly impacted the world through their steadfast commitment to the gospel. The early church was marked by 13 key characteristics: it was transforming, worshiping, praying, persecuted, relational, enthusiastic, missionary, bold, gospel-preaching, vigorously taught, elder-led, home-centered, and Spirit-filled. These marks led to significant societal changes, including economic shifts in cities like Ephesus and spiritual awakenings in places like Thessalonica. The sermon emphasizes the vital role of the Holy Spirit in guiding and empowering the church and underscores the church's reliance on worship, prayer, and communal living. Brown challenges modern believers to emulate the fervor and dedication of the early Christians, stressing the need for genuine transformation and a clear, uncompromising gospel message.

If you have an outline in front of you, it's titled, The Church that Turned the World Upside Down. And of course, we've been trying to think of how to summarize the Book of Acts because it's so vast. It covers so many areas of the Christian life and Christian theology. But the book of Acts covers the first 30 years of the history of the church. And during those 30 years, The world was absolutely turned upside down by what God was doing through his people.

And the book of Acts, as you know, begins with the recounting of what happened in those 40 days that Jesus was revealing himself to the world just before his ascension after his resurrection. And his last words to his disciples there foretell what is about to happen for the next thirty years and beyond. To happen for the next 30 years and beyond. Luke records in chapter 24 verse 46 these words that thus it was written that it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things." And that's exactly what happened.

Jesus' final words to his disciples contained a command not to depart from Jerusalem, but to go and to wait there for something specific to happen and that the Holy Spirit of promise would come. And so in Luke chapter 24 verse 53 we read, And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with joy and they were continually in the temple praising God and blessing God. So that's where we find the disciples right after the ascension. And where do we find them? We find them in a home.

120 people of them. Honestly, it probably looked a lot like this. Probably a room maybe this size, maybe not, maybe half this size. But still 120 of them in a room, in a home, very much like we are here today. And this testimony of the book of Acts is so exciting for us for so many reasons, but here's one reason.

It shows us what can happen with a group of people in 30 years who have devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and the fellowship and the breaking of bread and the prayer and the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. What can happen, you know, in 30 years? What can happen in the next 30 years? Oh in 30 years? Tyler will be 39 years old these new babies will just be breaking 30.

Oh, yes indeed You you might think of how you older you're old you are right now, and how old you'll be in 30 years I will be 83 years old creaky as can be maybe I don't know my grandfather wasn't creaky at 80 he wasn't creaky at 90 and he died at 101 You never know how long you're going to live. But what can 30 years bring about when a church, first of all, devotes herself to the gospel of Jesus Christ? And I'd like to talk about that today. What can happen with 120 people, what can happen in a church in which the people say, yes Lord, I will be your witnesses yes Lord not my words but yours yes Lord not my spirit but yours yes Lord not my possessions but yours yes Lord not my not my reputation but yours and I would like to give you 13 marks of the church that turned the world upside down. If you have an outline, you can track along with me on it.

You know, I don't claim that this is some kind of a summary of the Book of Acts. It's just too wonderful, as I've looked at it, to get my arms around. So I'm going to give you what I can here. The first mark of this church, and I trust that this would be the mark of our own fellowship here, it was a transforming church. One window into this principle is that when the gospel came to Thessalonica, great multitudes came to the Lord, both of the Jews and of the devout Greeks, and the city went into a great uproar, and a mob gathered.

So they dragged Jason out of his house into the city crying out, these men who have turned the world upside down have come here too. And there was transformation in that city as a result of this. What we see all through the book of Acts are surprisingly whole cities are affected by the preaching of the gospel. There were enough believers in Rome 30 years after the ascension of Jesus Christ that Nero had to take dramatic measures to deal with these believers in that city. And we see massive riots rising up in cities like Ephesus where everyone fills the the theater screaming and yelling Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.

Why? Because the economy was being impacted by the gospel the silversmiths, the God builders were being hampered, their businesses being messed up because wherever the Gospel goes, it affects the pocketbook. Nobody receives the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ without having it affect that precious pocketbook and that was what was happening in Ephesus. So there's this transformation that's going on. And then you also see these beautiful pictures of transformation of the personalities in the book of Acts.

Think of Simon Peter. We see him in the Gospels. He's denying the Lord before the cock crows. And then we see him rising to the occasion and preaching and being a blessed brother there in the Jerusalem church. Then we see Saul of Tarsus.

He's breathing threats against the church. He's not seeking the Lord. He's not listening to anybody. Nobody's message can penetrate him, but the Spirit of God can penetrate him. And he turns from dragging men and women out of their houses and throwing them into the prison and having them killed into the apostle of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he is just transformed before our eyes. We see Barnabas, who is called Joseph in the early chapters of Acts. He's a Levite, he's a landowner, he's an aristocrat, and then we find him selling his possessions. He sells a piece of property and gives it to the church because of the needs that were arising in the Jerusalem church. We see Philip.

We start out with Philip as a deacon and then he becomes an evangelist and he leads the Ethiopian eunuch to the Lord Jesus Christ on the road back to Ethiopia and then he's transported to Azotus. And then he moves his family to Caesarea and he stays in Caesarea for 20 years and the Apostle Paul bumps into him 20 years later and there he has this blessed home with these four beautiful daughters who are prophetesses. He has a godly home. He is still called Philip the Evangelist. He's lived faithfully year after year during this period serving the Lord Jesus Christ.

We see these wonderful transformations. Think of Cornelius, think of Stephen and James and Apollos, Priscilla and Aquila, the Philippian jailer. All of these proceed in faith. Their lives are sweetened and beautified by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what happens when you move to Caesarea for 20 years with your family and fill it with the Word of God and play your role as an evangelist or whatever God has called you to do.

Wonderful things happen. This is the legacy that God will give every family in this room today under the blessed care of Jesus Christ, filling the atmosphere of the home with the words of God, with the love of Christ, with the patience of Job, with every good thing from the kingdom of God. This is what happens in a real church. It's a transforming church. People don't stay the same.

Hopefully you won't think the same or act the same in five or ten years than you do now. One of the problems in the church today is that there are people that come into the church and they never change. They never renounce their idols, they never repent of their sins, they never change their thinking about anything. They remain worldlings all their life long and they're not transformed. But the book of Acts presents to us a transforming church where people actually make progress in their sanctification.

It was also a worshipping church, that's the second mark of this church that turned the world upside down. It was a worshipping church. We have been memorizing that beautiful section of scripture that I hope will never leave us. I know it will never forsake us. But now when they had heard this, they were pierced to the heart.

And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. For this promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off." And then it says that those who had received His word were baptized and that day there were added about three thousand souls and what did they do? They worshiped and they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer. And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.

And they began selling their property and possessions and sharing them with all as anyone might have need. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. This was a group of people who were continually bent toward worship. From house to house, in the public square, wherever they might be, they were continually devoting themselves. This wasn't a Sunday Christianity.

This wasn't a marginalized, every once in a while type of engagement. They were continually devoting themselves to worship. And this is what a church is like that would transform the world. You might just think about that. Think about your own lifestyle now.

Is it continually devoted to the Apostles' teaching? Are you continually breaking bread from house to house? Are you rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ worshipping on the street, in the synagogue, whatever that might be for you, or wherever you might walk? Is it a life of worship toward God? When a person walks into the store and is worshiping God, you never know what might happen.

A person who walks into his place of business and is actually worshiping God, you never know what might happen. God is looking for worshippers who would worship Him in spirit and truth, in the shop, in the home, or wherever they might go. And it was a worshiping church that turned the world upside down. And This is the kind of vision that every church should fulfill. And the third mark of this church that turned the world upside down was this.

They were a praying church. They were a praying church. When these people pray, prison doors open, chains fall off, lame men are healed. It was a praying church. In Acts chapter 1 it said, these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and the mother of Jesus with his brothers.

This was a continual lifestyle of prayer together. In Jack's chapter 3 we see this wonderful story. Peter and John went up to pray. They met a lame man on the way. He asked for alms and he got the only thing that they had.

And they said, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. That happened on the way to prayer. So it's not such a bad thing to be on the way to prayer because you never know what might happen when you're on the way as well. It was a church of prayer.

In Acts chapter 10 when Cornelius was converted, the first Gentile, it was said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard. And to me That's just ringing in our ears as the people of God. Church, your prayer has been heard. Church, pray. You know, James, that great leader in the church in Jerusalem said, you have not because you ask not.

In other words, you have not because prayer has gone dormant. Has prayer gone dormant in any of us? If not, let's stir it up. He says you have not because you ask not and then he then he gives the other reason that prayers aren't answered He says you ask and you do not receive because you ask a miss that you may spend it on your pleasures And that's the other reason prayers are not heard or prayers are not answered is because they are just for silly things. They are just for silly, worldly things.

And those are the two reasons we have problems with prayer. We don't pray for one, and then when we pray, we pray like materialists. We pray like this world is our home. We pray for silly things that pass away instead of things that are of eternal significance. They were on the Sabbath day where the people went out to the riverside to pray and there was a woman there called Lydia and she was converted that day.

A number of very interesting things happened when they were on the way to pray. They run into a slave girl when they're on their way to pray. The slave girl was bringing profit to her owners through her fortune telling. On the way to prayer this happens. Three times our brothers in the book of Acts are on the way to prayer and something happens and their prayers are actually interrupted and slowed down and they minister to the people who are there.

So this church that turned the world upside down was a praying church. And then fourthly, this church was a persecuted church. You should always be aware of a church that is not being persecuted. Dennis Rainey one time said to me, he said, the problem with the church today is that nobody wants to kill us anymore. This church was met with rejection.

When the Lord Jesus said, you shall be my witnesses. That meant something. If you are a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ, it means that everything that you witness runs contrary to the thinking and the lifestyle and the philosophy of the world. It runs contrary to the secular worldly worldviews that we've all grown up in, and it runs contrary to everything raised up against Christ. This word witness, you shall be my witnesses, occurs 18 times in this text of the book of Acts.

And it appears normally alongside of a couple of other words, k'eruso to preach and also uangelion to evangelize, the words for telling the gospel. It's the gospel witness preached that causes persecution. And that's the point that we're making here. Bearing witness to Christ as the resurrection is an offense to the world. It's a supernatural thing that happened That's why Thomas Jefferson took all the offensive things Relating to miracles and tore them out of his Bible and you can buy a Jefferson Bible I have one in my library that is about one third of the New Testament because he pulled out the parts about the resurrection, the parts about healing and different things like that.

But the Gospel has an impact because it challenges and belittles the philosophies of the day. It has an impact on the economy as it had in Ephesus. It has an impact on philosophy as it did in Athens, and it had an impact on worship and religion as it did in Lystra. In Lystra, they stoned Paul and left him for dead as a result of it. It was a persecuted church.

If the church is not persecuted, it's not preaching the gospel. We just need to understand that. And the persecutions began right at the beginning. They came in different forms. I just mentioned one extreme form, stoning of the Apostle Paul and others, and Stephen.

But it began with, these men are drunk, these men are drunk with wine. It went on through the voice of Festus who said in a loud voice, he couldn't take it any longer, he said, Paul, you are beside yourself. Your learning has driven you mad. And Paul said, I am speaking words of reason and of truth. But the world will always think that the believers have gone mad, that they've lost their minds, that they're crazy.

If you have people who, because of the gospel, think that you've lost your mind, praise God, because that's exactly what had happened in the early church. We have such a thin-skinned Christian populace today that they're afraid of the slightest word of rebuke or dishonor from the world. And we shouldn't be. We are an immature church who are so worried about someone who says some nasty thing about us, think about the persecutions of the true church. We're worried about being shunned at the water cooler or not being invited to a party.

What has gotten into us? We have lost our minds regarding the penetrating power of the gospel and how hated it is in the world. But we either believe the gospel or we do not. We see the crowds minds being poisoned against the brethren. We see tribulations that are required to enter the kingdom of heaven.

We see multitudes rising up. We see at one point the slander against the Apostle Paul was so great that there were many people believe that Paul was a leader of 40, 000 Egyptians assassins. So there's all this slander, there's all this mocking going on against the church. You know, if you've been slandered or mocked or misrepresented, well this is what they did with the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, rejoice for your reward in heaven is great.

If they slander you, rejoice. Don't be sad about it. This is the way of the kingdom of God. Of course, this is why the Lord came to Paul and he said, Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent. He says, For I have many people in this city.

Now, one of the things that I think that we've learned from this book, We've spoken in a number of times among our conversations about the book. But even when the train seems to be off the tracks in the book of Acts, even when there's slander and misrepresentation, stoning, your statements, you've lost your mind, these people are drunk, even though it seems like things are not going well at all, you can see the fingerprints of God in all of it. God uses all the trials and tribulations for His greater glory. That the persecution, even though it's driven by these things, it ends up being a force for the progress of the gospel. People's lives are being saved.

They're being rescued from their idols and from their terrible sins that have beset them and poisoned them, and they've been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, then they could not have ever cleansed themselves of, had it not been for a vanquishing Savior who wipes away all of your sins, who takes your sins and puts them as far as the east is from the west. We see God accomplishing that in all the cities through the persecutions. So the persecutions aren't such a bad thing, actually. The train looks like it's off the tracks, but it's not off the tracks at all, because God is working. So it was a persecuted church.

I pray that God would help us to be strong enough to be persecuted properly, and in the way that God would have us be persecuted, that we would respond in the ways that we've seen our brothers here in the book of Acts respond. Here's the fifth mark of this church that turned the world upside down. It was a relational church. It was a fellow shipping church. There was cohesion.

There was relationship. You know, they cared for one another. One would sell property and give it because of the needs of other people in the church. They didn't regard them the things that they had that were their own. That doesn't mean they were communists.

They owned the property. It wasn't being confiscated from them. They were giving it. This wasn't communism. This was love.

That's what it was, just freely given. And the church was walking in the fear of the Lord. The comfort of the Holy Spirit and the disciples were filled with joy together in the regular meetings of the church. And you see these wonderful stories of these meetings of the church. There are many of them.

You see this story of Rhoda there in the upper room after Peter had been released from prison. And you see the dynamics of the early church life there. You see the disciples being strengthened together, and it is a relational church where people know one another and they care for one another. Then it was an enthusiastic church as well. Point number six.

You see tremendous enthusiasm. Here are some of the things that you see that indicate enthusiasm. Well, for one thing, we've already talked about that they continually devoting themselves to the Apostles' teaching. There is just this lifestyle of shared life among the people of God. But you remember the Apostle Paul goes to Troas, you remember what happened in Troas?

Paul was preaching up to midnight and there was a nine, seven or nine year old boy, Eutychus, who was right there in the meeting of the church, sitting on the windowsill and he fell asleep and he fell out of the windowsill on the ground and died and was raised from the dead. But Paul was preaching up until midnight. It was an enthusiastic church. It was so enthusiastic that after Eutychus was back to life they kept on preaching until daybreak again. It was an enthusiastic church.

They loved the Word of God. They desired it. We see, you know, We see all day long in Rome, Barnabas and Saul and John Mark head out for uncharted territory. I'm going to attribute that to the enthusiasm that the Spirit of God gives. You see Paul being left for dead outside of Derbe and Lystra, and then he goes right back into the city and speaks to those same people.

It's absolutely amazing. I think that would be conservatively called enthusiasm. And you see these things going on. You see at the end of the book of Acts in chapter 28, you see Paul is in Rome, and he begins in the morning speaking of the kingdom of God and the Lord Jesus Christ all day long in his rented quarters as a prisoner. He spoke all day long.

I don't know if you've ever done that before. You need enthusiasm for that, okay? And he had it, and they all did. So it was an enthusiastic church who was, they were ready to serve, they were ready to pour it out, late into the night, they were not afraid of tiredness. I fear for a church that's afraid of labor and tiredness.

I really do. But this church we see an encouraging role model to help us in our labors to keep them up. And then it was a missionary church. It was a church in which people were sent out to go do works, to encourage the other churches and to do evangelism. In chapters 1 through 7, we see this outreach in Jerusalem in chapter 8 through 11, through Judea and Samaria, and then from 12 to the end to the ends of the earth.

That's really a great outline for the book of Acts. Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the remotest parts of the earth. Well that's what we see. We see the Holy Spirit setting aside Saul and Barnabas to go do this work. We see the Apostle Paul going from city to city.

And other brothers and sisters from other cities and churches are coming and joining and they're going and co-laboring together. It was a missionary church. They weren't just keeping everything to themselves. They were taking their people and their resources, two of their most precious things, and sending them out. That's what they did.

It's so much nicer just to keep together, isn't it? Isn't it nicer just to keep your own people and your own money together and let it grow altogether? Well, no, it's not nice at all. That is not nice. That is totally contrary to everything we see in scripture.

It was a bold church. That's the next mark. The eighth mark of this church that overturned the world was it was a bold church. You know in chapter 13 there's a wonderful statement, honestly it cracks me up, Because if you think of Paul and Bartabas, I mean one of the things you think of is that they are bold. But in 1346 it says that Paul and Bartabas grew bold.

Now I think that's called hyper-boldness. Their boldness was being increased. It was jacking up, ratcheting up more and more as the confidence from the Lord was given to them. But in chapter 4 we see when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they observed that they were uneducated and untrained, but they'd been with Jesus. And it was their boldness that tripped everybody off that they'd been with Jesus.

And They were being belittled for their lack of education, but not for the power of their message, because they were bold. They pray in Acts chapter 4, Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to your servants that with all boldness we may speak your word." And then two verses later it reports, and when they had prayed the place where they were assembled together was shaken and all were filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the Word of God with boldness. Two things, the Word of God with boldness. If you're going to speak boldly about something, let it be the Word of God. You know How often we speak boldly of foolish things and how we speak meekly about powerful, wonderful things.

Well, that's not right. We should speak boldly of the Word of God and much more dispassionately for the things that are of less importance. But if we would be bold, let us be bold about this, that God Almighty has spoken in words and He's given them to us And we should repeat them with boldness and confidence, knowing that his word will never pass away. Not one jot or tittle will pass away. And that this word is reliable for whatever situation it meets.

The word of God will never return void. You might not have great arguments, but if you read Holy Scripture or quote it, it will not return void. And so it's just so critical that we see ourselves moving in this direction as a bold church. Would to God that our study in Acts would have taken us another level in boldness toward the right things. You know, I've heard people speak boldly about this movie that they saw and then they speak dispassionately about what they should be bold about the Word of God Okay, and that we would be bold about what is appropriate to be bold about and that is Holy Scripture So then number nine the ninth mark of this church that turned the world upside down is that it was a gospel preaching church.

The church was clear about its message. It was the gospel. It wasn't their own message. It wasn't some ministry niche that they were trying to raise up. It was the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Interestingly enough, 20% of the text of the book of Acts are sermons that explain the gospel. A lot is dedicated to the preaching of the gospel. In 1908 we find them reasoning and persuading concerning the kingdom of God. We find the gospel coming into Ephesus and fear grips the hearts of the people there and they begin confessing their sins and they bring their magic books and they burn them. It was the gospel that did that, that Jesus Christ is Lord and that the idols need to be removed.

Many people were turned because the apostles were saying, those gods that you've been worshiping are not gods at all. They're just made with hands. They're nothing. They turned to God at the preaching of the gospel. In chapter 26 verse 17 we see this very clearly.

I will deliver you from the Jewish people as well as from the Gentiles to whom I will now send you. This is what he is to do. This is about the gospel. To open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me, preaching peace through Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all." Now that is a good summary of the gospel because it includes everything.

It includes everything from belief to repentance. And it's important that we understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here's my belief. In today's church, we're in a situation where for some number of years, maybe 20 or 30 years, The gospel message has been changed and watered down many times in the great evangelistic crusades that have been going on. Even some of those that we revere the most have been preaching a gospel that only goes part way.

I extracted a statement out of the book, The Purpose Driven Life, which purports to explain the gospel. Here's how it reads. Readers are encouraged to pray this prayer right here. And it's supposed to be the gospel, but it's not the gospel at all. Dear God, I want to know your purpose for my life.

I don't want to base the rest of my life on wrong things. I want to take the first step in preparing for eternity and getting to know you. Jesus Christ, I do not understand how, but as much as I know how, I want to open my life to you. Make yourself real to me and use this series in my life to help me know what you made me for." And then he goes on to say, now if you've prayed this prayer for the first time, I want to congratulate you that you've become part of the family of God. Now this is very common.

Now These things prayed for are good things. We should pray prayers like that. Absolutely, we should. But this prayer is not a gospel prayer. There's no repentance in it.

There's nothing of sin. There's nothing of grace. There's nothing of judgment. There's nothing of turning from idols. There is nothing of the kingdom of God, there is nothing of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no blood in it, there is no substitutionary atonement in it, there's hardly any of the gospel, But what's in it are a bunch of nice feelings toward God.

And that's not the gospel at all. We've been preaching a false gospel in our churches for at least three decades. And we have seen evangelistic crusades in which some people are being saved. But even those who say that they are saved, a very, very small percentage, under 1% of the Billy Graham Association says, of those who walked forward were actually saved because they continued in the faith. We have to be so careful that we preach the gospel, the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If there's no repentance in it, if there's no blood in it, if there's no righteousness by faith alone, if there's no turning from idols, if there's no receiving the Lord Jesus Christ, which means He comes in and everything else is renounced, then it's not the true gospel. There's been no gospel salvation. The gospel in Acts though is very clear, and it contains all these elements. It's repentance, it's the resurrection, it's the blood, it's the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Read the book of Acts, and you can pick out the words that explain the gospel and it's it's clear enough Controversy over the gospel began in Jerusalem and it continues on today.

In the Jerusalem Council in Acts chapter 15 there was an uproar about the gospel. There were some who were saying that you had to be circumcised in order to be saved. That you had to keep each point of the law in order to be saved. And that counsel made it very clear that it is only through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that anyone can be saved. No one is ever saved by keeping a point of the law.

It's the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and His shed blood that causes salvation. You know, when someone says to us what the Philippian jailer said, what must I do to be saved? We need to be ready with an understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So it was a church that was preaching the gospel, and let it be so with us as well. Now, here's something that I think might be helpful in all of this.

Often when we're preaching the gospel, engaging with relatives or friends who don't know Christ, we often short circuit the process by just giving them a lot of our thoughts about it rather than just opening scripture and reading big sections of scripture so that their minds begin to understand what's really there. I think often we get in an argument and we stop this conversation instead of taking time just to read scripture. I would just encourage that in us. Okay, number ten, it was a vigorously taught church. We see they were continually devoted to the Apostles doctrine.

We see the method of the Apostle Paul in Ephesus. He says that he taught continuously. He said he did not shrink from declaring anything that was profitable. Teaching you publicly and from house to house. Solomely testifying.

This is a lifestyle of lots of teaching and lots of instruction. The church should be full of instruction and teaching. And it was a church that was vigorously taught. And then 11th, it was an elder-led church. We see elders in the cities and the churches that are there.

What kind of church leadership was this? It was shared leadership. It was never one man leadership. It was diverse leadership in the sense that you had all kinds of different leaders. There were Jews and Greeks.

There were people from all walks of life, from the bottom of society to the top of society. So it was diverse in its nature. And it was also honorable leadership. We see love in the midst of the controversies that are among the brothers. We see this controversy between Barnabas and Paul.

I think that's one of the great examples held up to us in scripture for how godly men disagree. They don't slander one another. They handle their problems even vigorously. But they love one another to the end. That's what they do.

That's what godly men do. And ungodly men don't. It's just that simple. And here we have in the book of Acts many snapshots of how godly men engage in theological disagreements. And we see excellent examples, excellent role models for us.

Then the Apostle Paul comes back and through the letters to the churches he gives us even more for how we deal with one another with theological disagreement. And we see this honorable leadership in the church. And then number 12, the 12th mark of this church that turned the world upside down. It's hard to say this in a way because it's so different from the modern church and that is it was a home centered church. The book of Acts begins in a home and it ends in a home, Paul's rented quarters in Rome.

They met and took their meals from house to house. They did it with gladness and sincerity of heart. It was a wonderful thing. We see a number of households operating in the book of Acts. We see Jason's house.

We see Philip's house. We see the household of Cornelius. We see prayer taking place in households. We see communion in Acts chapter 2, 46. We see fellowship in 20, verse 7.

We see teaching. At the end we see an all day long evangelistic conference held by the Apostle Paul in Rome in his house and so everything's taking taking place sometimes they're impromptu sometimes they're planned you know homes provide an informal and relaxed atmosphere and makes relationships maybe able to deepen. It hinders putting on airs about things because when you're in a home, you're typically there longer. In the modern church, you go into a service and you're in at 11 and bingo, you're out at 12. And you hit the parking lot.

Well, that's a common pattern. Everybody doesn't do that. But there are a lot of people in the church that do that today, and it's it's it's not reflective of The way that the church ought to be operating It's interesting you know in modern times we have seen the home stripped of everything you see in the Bible. Education used to happen in the home. Education happened in the home throughout Scripture.

The teaching of Scripture The teaching of scripture happened in the home among church leaders. The place was, The home was a place for eating together. In today's world, often people don't hardly ever eat together in their homes. It was the place of the church, the gathering of the church. Today, I mean, this kind of gathering is really very unusual.

But it was quite usual. It was pretty much the only thing going in the early church. There were no church buildings until the third century. Now, I don't believe that the only churches that are legitimate are meeting at homes. Quite to the contrary, I think we could be meeting in a number of different kind of facilities.

It would be just fine. Homes are wonderful. Meeting places are wonderful as well. But let's just realize that the use of the home in modern times is dramatically different. We were talking at our men's Bible study the other day, I think, and one of the men said, the home was even used for the embalming of a family member.

Someone died, the family took care of the body and laid the body in the room. Even my own father can remember that in his own growing up. It wasn't, I mean, we're talking about, you know, 56, or we're talking about 70 years ago, this was the practice. But over the last 70 years, the home has been stripped of education, it's been stripped of the church, it's been stripped of the Word of God, it's been stripped of meals, and everything is outsourced to another place. But that's not what you see in the book of Acts.

Things, wonderful things are happening in homes. Let's make our homes like unto the gates of heaven. Let's make our homes the places of sweet hospitality, the teaching of scripture, bringing teaching into those homes. We have a number of you right here in this room who have said, we think we need some teaching on this area and have invited teachers in to come and teach the household and whoever else would come. That's a very biblical use of a home.

You've been given square footage. Use it for the glory of God. Don't just let it be an ornament of beauty for yourself that no one can touch or experience it at all. Often, our homes have turned into these iconoclastic citadels of beautiful home magazine, but they are not for the glory of God at all. Now, I think homes should be beautiful.

I think they should express the things of God, but they are meant to express the things of God in every way. So it was a home-centered church in many ways. It was a spirit-filled church as well. One thing that you will notice if you read through the book of Acts and look for the word the Holy Spirit, you will notice that you get almost a complete theology of the Holy Spirit out of the book of Acts. And I'm just going to give you a taste of it right now.

When we were reading Acts this week, one of my daughters, my daughter Claudia, was charged to look for the Holy Spirit every time. Oh, there it is again. Boom. What did that mean? But it was a Spirit-filled church, and of course it would be.

It was already prophesied. The Lord Jesus said, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be my witnesses. So the Spirit's work was actually through the Spirit. In Acts chapter 1 verse 2, we see that the commands of Christ came through the Holy Spirit. In 1-5, we see that the Holy Spirit baptizes.

In 1-8, we see that the Holy Spirit baptizes. In 1.8 we see that the Holy Spirit gives power for witness. In 1.16 we see that the Holy Spirit spoke through David. So whenever you read anything by David it was the Holy Spirit that was speaking. In 2.4 we see that it was the Holy Spirit that filled people and they spoke other languages.

In 2.33 we see that the Holy Spirit is a person that is actually poured out. Can you imagine that? The Spirit is a person. The Spirit is not an it. The Spirit is not a force.

He is a person. And this person is poured out. Can you imagine that? The person of the Holy Spirit poured out into the hearts of believers. In 2.38 we learn that the Holy Spirit is a gift.

You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. In 4.8 we read that it makes Peter bold. In 4.31 we see that it makes everyone in the church speak boldly. If you want to speak boldly, then it's the work of the Holy Spirit that makes that happen. In 5.3 we read that the Spirit can be lied to because Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit.

In 5.32 he is a witness of events, even is filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit can be resisted in Acts chapter 7. The Spirit can be received. The Spirit brings comfort in Acts 9, 31. The Spirit anointed Jesus for good works in Acts 10, 38.

The Spirit falls on people who hear the Word in Acts 10, 44. Can you imagine that? The Holy Spirit falls on people. I think that's what happened with Paul on the road to Damascus. Do you have a relative that is so hard, that is so jaded?

Do you have a friend that hates the gospel and just thinks you're a loony toon? You know what? This person has no defense when the Holy Spirit falls upon him. Not your argumentation at all, but the falling of the Holy Spirit on a person. Isn't that encouraging?

It doesn't depend on you, but it depends on the falling of the sovereign Holy Spirit. We see that the Spirit is poured out on the Gentiles. That's how we were saved, by the way. You're sitting in here, you've been saved, the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles. There was a time when you just knew that the Holy Spirit was speaking to you.

The Holy Spirit had fallen on the Gentiles. I don't think we have any Jews here. Maybe we do, I don't know. But there we go, we have one. The Holy Spirit also fell on the Jews.

Is there any hope for the Jews? No, except that the Holy Spirit would fall upon them, just like he did with the Gentiles. The Holy Spirit forbids, remember the Apostle Paul was out in the Phrygian region and the Holy Spirit forbade them to go further. The Holy Spirit causes the speaking of tongues. The Holy Spirit causes prophecy in the books of Acts.

The Holy Spirit warns and testifies of danger. The Holy Spirit makes men overseers. Do you know how people become elders of churches? The Spirit of God makes them elders. That's what Acts 20 says.

We read in Acts that the Holy Spirit spoke through Isaiah. Not only David, but the Holy Spirit also spoke through Isaiah. Anybody wants to talk to you about how Isaiah is not a perfect testimony from God? Well, they're lying. The Bible says here that it was Isaiah that spoke by the Holy Spirit.

That's what the Bible says. Now, next we're going into the book of Romans, right? There's a lot in Romans about the Spirit, too. I could not help myself, so I want to give you a few of the things just in Romans about the Holy Spirit. In Romans chapter 5, it says that the Holy Spirit pours out love in our hearts.

In 9.1, the Holy Spirit bears witness to the conscience. In other words, the Holy Spirit speaks to us to help us figure, to help us make our conscience right. The Holy Spirit brings joy in 14 of Romans. The Holy Spirit causes hope in Romans 5-13. And in Romans 15-16, we learn that the Holy Spirit sanctifies.

So this is the role of the Holy Spirit. So it was a Spirit-filled church, trusting, reliant on the sovereign work of the Spirit of God. So there you have it. Those are 13 marks of this church that turn the world upside down. So what can God do with 120 people for 30 years who care nothing about the gospel, who desire the authority of the Word of God in their lives, and who are submissive to the Spirit of God.

Much, much, much can happen. And so here we are now at the very end of this wonderful book. And I do so pray that God would make us a church that bears resemblance to this glorious church that Jesus Christ inaugurated. That we would be continually devoting ourselves to the Apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and of prayer. And that it would be true of us that everyone would be feeling a sense of awe at the signs and wonders that the Lord Jesus Christ was doing through each member of the church.

And that we would have all things in common and that we would share with anyone who had need and that we would continually with one mind be breaking bread from house to house taking our meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart praising God and having favor with all the people and that the Lord was adding to our number day by day those who are being saved. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we have touched so many wonderful things here. We pray for help to be faithful unto you. In Jesus' name, amen.