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In Acts 2 believers were filled with the Spirit as they were gathered in the upper room. Scripture says they were in one mind and ONE PLACE. The people of God have always needed a place to gather.
Jesus shows us that He is not looking for a Church building, but for somewhere more intimate to be His place. Do you have a Place for Jesus? Could your place be the place?
Greetings everyone! Hello to everyone in the room. Hello to everyone worshipping with us online. God bless you all.
Welcome back to Redemption Church in Plano TX. My name is Chris Fluitt, and while the band “Three Dog Night” taught us that “one is the loneliest number, the Bible teaches us that One is the most powerful number.
Twenty Twenty One
We are in the 3rd week of our sermon series “twenty twenty-one.” Previous weeks can be found at “www.RedemptionPlano.com.”
Jesus prayed that we would be one. This is a prayer request from Jesus that you play a part in answering.
Today I want you to turn to the chapter where the Church was born again by the power of the Spirit.
Acts 2:1-2 (NIV) When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
Today I want to talk about being together in ONE place.
ONE PLACE
In the second chapter of Acts, 120 believers were together in one place. God does powerful things when believers come together in one place.
What was this one place? Where was this one place? We aren’t completely sure, but we do know that it was in Jerusalem and in an “upper room.”
Acts 1:12-13 (NIV) Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying…
One probable place may be the upper room within the Temple. There was an upper room within the temple that may have been large enough to hold 120 people.
It may have been an upper room that they had previously been with Jesus. This is a possibility and the one I think is more likely, because Acts 1:13 says it was a room they RETURNED TO and WERE STAYING.
This may have been the same “upper room” where the Lord’s “last supper” occurred. (Mark 14:15)
This may have been the room where Jesus washed their feet and offered the bread of his body and the wine of his blood.
It may have been the same one place where Jesus appeared to His disciples after the resurrection. (Mark 16:14)(John 20:19) The same place where Thomas did not believe until Jesus showed up in the place and revealed nail-scarred hands.
I am not sure of the location of this upstairs room, but I am certain that there was a place for the people to meet together.
What I am sure of is that there was a need for such a place.
God doesn’t need a place… He is a Spirit who is omni-present – everywhere at once. …But people need a place to come together.
Last December I was getting an early start on my Bible reading and I ran across something I had never considered.
Matthew 13:1 (NIV) That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake.
Do you see what I see? This verse made me ask… “What house?”
What House?
Jesus went out of the house. What house? Did Jesus own a house? Jesus says something that leads us to believe he was HOME-LESS, without a home of his own.
Matthew 8:19-20 (NIV) Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
Foxes have a den to call their own.
Birds have a nest to call their own.
Yet the son of man does not have a place to call his own.
If this is not Jesus’ house… then whose house is it? Mark chapter 1 tells us where this house is and whose house it is.
Mark 1:21 (NIV) They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.
So Jesus is in a village on the northern edge of the Sea of Galilee. This village is Capernaum. The name Capernaum appears 16 times in the Gospels. A lot of Jesus activity happens in the village of Capernaum.
Mark 1:29 (NIV) As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew.
The home of Simon Peter & Andrew in the village of Capernaum is the house where Jesus stayed. Mark 1 gives me the feeling that they just heard Jesus teach, they met Him this day and without hesitation allowed Him to stay in their house. What a testament of Peter & Andrew.
Imagine what it was like having the Lord in their house… In this house they heard the revelation of mysterious parables. In this house they saw miracle after miracle. In this house they lived with Jesus.
Mark records the happenings of the first day Peter & Andrew had Jesus stay in their house.
Mark 1:30-33 (NIV) Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them. That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door,
What door? The door where Jesus is staying! Amazing things happen when Jesus is in your house.
This house in Capernaum and other houses in Jerusalem became bases from where Jesus operated and ministered.
Matthew 9:9-10 (NIV) As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.
Jesus tells Matthew “Follow me,” and the next thing you know Jesus is in Matthew’s home. Notice how immediately Matthew opened his home to Jesus? Do you see that Matthew immediately introduces all of his friends to the Lord?
Have you invited Jesus to your place?
Has Jesus ever received an invitation to your house? Is He welcome at your table? Does He have a place to stay in your Home?
Have you ever introduced your friends to Jesus? Have you ever allowed your friends to hear the Words of Jesus?
IF NOT… I want to ask you something very to the point. What is the difference between us and Matthew? What is the difference between us and Peter & Andrew? When they met Jesus they were quick to bring Jesus into every part of their life?
House of God
What do you think of when you hear the words “House of God?”
Do you think of a really large building with stained glass windows? Do you think of large statues of Jesus and ornate crosses used for decoration? Do you think of a huge sprawling campus with separate BUILDINGS for the different children’s ministries?
Do you think of a well-trained praise team or a pipe organ & choir leading worship as people sit in seats?
As a Church planter, I can tell you that churches spend a lot of time, energy, and money trying to provide a church building for people to gather. There is a lot of pressure to provide a nice space. I pray that the Lord will one day open a door for us to own a property where we can gather in that place and minister to our community from that place… Nothing wrong with that vision… but much of the New Testament is centered on the idea of finding a house.
Not a church building, but a house…
Jesus taught His disciples to enter a town and look for a home to operate from.
Matthew 10:11 (NIV) Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave.
Throughout Acts & the Epistles we see the Gospel reach new cities and repeatedly find a home in a house.
Acts 2:46 (NIV) 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,
Acts 5:42 (NIV) Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.
The Church met in temple courts and from house to house.
House to House
This week we are starting to gather again in our Connect Groups. We have 3 groups meeting this week.
2 groups are meeting in person within a home. 1 group is meeting online for those who are quarantining, or living too distant to meet in person.
We will gather together in one place, much like that upper room. We will share a meal together and look at the Word of God together… much like how they broke bread together from house to house.
We want you to be a part of our Connect Groups. We will have a sign-up sheet in our lobby for you here today to let us know that you are interested in joining a Connect Group. You online I encourage you to message us and we will do our best to make you a part of one of our online or in person groups.
We want you to be a part… but I also need to tell you something we need. We need more houses. We need more apartments. We need more people to host small group meetings.
I want you to pray about opening up your home to Jesus like never before and hosting a group at your place.
We are about to spend some time in prayer. I invite everyone in the room and everyone online to spend some time talking to the Lord.
Before you come I want to ask you…
Could your house be the house?
Could your house be the House where Jesus dwells?
Could your house be the house where miracles take place?
Could your house be the house where someone far from Jesus draws close and find His salvation?
Could your house be the place where the Holy Spirit falls?
Could you take what God has blessed you with, and open it up for His purpose?
My First car was a lack 1992 Pontiac Grand Am…
Is Jesus invited into your home? Come to this altar today and invite Jesus into your home.
Can we come gather together in ONE PLACE today?