They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the LORD added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:42, 46-47 The more I study the Bible the more aware I am becoming of its insistence upon the essential things. As Luke describes the birth of the Christian Church on the day of Pentecost he points us to those crucial features of a Christ Centred Church. In Acts 2:42 Luke tells us that the whole Church continued steadfastly in four crucial things. 1) 2) 3) 4) The continued steadfastly in the Apostles Teaching. They were devoted to the fellowship. They were absolutely committed to the breaking of bread. They were constantly in prayer with one another.

Each of these four points is something which Luke tells us the New Testament Church was devoted to. This is crucial because it points out to us that to be a Christian means to have a complete transformation of the fundamental orientation of our lives. The Christian is a Gospel Centred person. Nothing to the true Christian is more vital than growth in the knowledge of the LORD Jesus Christ. Today I want to focus upon just one of these four points as a means of examining ourselves to see whether we are in fact Christians. Mark Dever and Paul Alexander write the following in their book The Deliberate Church. There is creating, conforming, life giving power in Gods Word! The Gospel is Gods way of giving life to dead sinners and to dead churches (Ezekiel 37:1-14). He doesnt have another way. If we want to work for renewed life and health and holiness in our churches, then we must work for it according to Gods revealed mode of operation. Otherwise we risk running in vain. Gods Word is His supernatural power for accomplishing His supernatural work. That is why our eloquence, innovations, and programs are so much less important than we think; that is why we as pastors must give ourselves to preaching, not programs; and that is why we need to be teaching our congregations to value Gods Word over programs. Preaching the content and intent of Gods Word is what unleashes the power of God on the people of God, because Gods power for building His people is in His Word, particularly as we find it in the Gospel (Romans 1:16). Gods Word builds His Church. So preaching the Gospel is primary. (Mark Dever and Paul Alexander, The Deliberate Church, Crossway Books, Wheaton, Illinois, 2005, p. 35) The question that this raises for me is one which requires deep and careful thinking. Do I believe that the Gospel of the LORD Jesus Christ as it is found in the Scriptures has the power to redeem

anyone who will believe it? If I believe this then I must be constantly preaching it. In fact I must be organizing my life so that this one central calling is shining through my life and ministry.