Acts 2:40-43
Save Yourselves from Deceptive Religion
As you know there was a great outpouring of God's Holy Spirit. To be more specific, it was the first outpouring, found in Acts chapter 2. The word of the Apostles was received gladly and about 3,000 souls were brought into the kingdom of God.
When I took a second look, it dawned on me that they were new converts, new babies in the Lord. Newborns cannot survive on their own, they have to have spiritual fathers with them on a consistent basis. Always being there for them in the first few months of the spiritual birth. On a similar basis, when one or two babies born in the natural you've got to feed them, clothe them, teach them right from wrong. No doubt the first few years there is a lot of care being given to them.
When you take 3,000 and divide that into 12 apostles it equals 250 people! That s a lot of care for 1 apostle. Not only do we see newborns being born again, but we also notice they were being taught the apostle doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking of bread and prayers. Feeding on the Word of God is very important to the new birth.
So the fellowship they were talking about was fellowship in the Gospel. That is how we get into a relationship with God. The Gospel is the Good News. I Corinthians 15 More over brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel.
Do all religions believe in the same Gospel? No, but all religions believe a gospel. Paul went on to say that the death , burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is what saves us.
Notice also that the bread breaking was very important. Our extended fellowship hall is not just to look at, it is to be used very often, so we can get to know our brothers and sisters in the Lord.
By the time we get to the 6th chapter of Acts there were more disciples in the church - this was very much needed because there was a lot of murmuring going on between the Grecian and the Hebrew converts. New babies can fuss a lot.
This is our greatest hour, let’s not miss it. Understand please there are other religions out there that are kind spirited and they love God, they offer outreach programs to get youth and kids involved, but they don't follow Apostles Doctrine. They don't baptize with water or spirit according to Acts 2.
We need to reach as many as we can before a deceptive religion comes along and swallows them up.