One God
There is one God, the Eternal Father, the Almighty, the Most High, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The apostles who walked with Jesus, received the Spirit at Pentecost, and built the church did not teach a Trinity of co-equal persons. They named God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ as two throughout their epistles, and the citations below show how consistently that witness runs from Romans through Revelation.
Ephesians 1:3 (NKJV)"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ."
1 Corinthians 8:6 (NKJV)"But to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live."
Romans 1:7, Paul"Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ."
1 Corinthians 1:3, Paul"Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
Galatians 1:3, Paul"Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
Ephesians 1:2, Paul"Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
Philippians 1:2, Paul"Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
2 Thessalonians 1:2, Paul"Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
1 Timothy 1:2, Paul to Timothy"Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord."
Titus 1:4, Paul to Titus"Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour."
Philemon 1:3, Paul"Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
2 Peter 1:2, Peter"Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord."
2 John 1:3, John"Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son."
Revelation 1:1, John"The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place."
Baptism in Jesus Name
Philip met the Ethiopian eunuch on a desert road, the man reading Isaiah and asking what it meant, and at the first pool of water he said, "Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?" Philip baptized him in the name of Jesus Christ, and that is the pattern we follow because Peter commanded it at Pentecost and Paul re-baptised those who had only received John's baptism, with Acts giving witness after witness through Peter, Philip, Paul, and the household of Cornelius, all in the name of Jesus Christ.
Acts 8:36-38, Philip and the Ethiopian"Why shouldn't I be baptized?" As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water." Philip baptized him in the name of Jesus Christ.
Acts 2:38, Peter"Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins."
Acts 10:48, Peter again"So he ordered that they be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ."
Acts 19:5, Paul"On hearing this, they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus."
Acts 8:16, Samaria"Because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus."
Living Church & Worship
Community halls, expensive buildings, theatres, and auditoriums were never at the heart of what God wanted, because people were, and the apostles met in homes, temple courts, riversides, upper rooms, marketplaces, and prisons, where what made it the church was never the address but the people gathered, the Spirit present, and the name of Jesus honoured among them.
True worship begins inside you rather than in expensive instruments, production gear, or a skilled choir performing at the front, because what God asks for is a devoted, broken, poor heart tamed for eternity and not built for performance.
Acts 2:46"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."
Romans 16:5, Paul"Greet also the church that meets at their house."
Colossians 4:15"Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house."
Matthew 18:20"For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."
2 Samuel 24:24, David"I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing."
Matthew 15:8-9"These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain."
2 Timothy 3:5"Having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people."
A Life of Service
We are not called to preach and build platforms but to serve, because God is not at the service of man and man is at the service of God, and we spent years asking God to bless our plans until the stripping taught us to lay those down and go where He sends, which is why greatness in the kingdom is measured by service given rather than position held.
Mark 10:43-45"Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Romans 12:1"Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, this is your true and proper worship."
1 Peter 4:10"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms."
Galatians 5:13"Serve one another humbly in love."
Apostolic Teaching
The apostles are the foundation and Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, so every doctrine later agreed upon by councils, fixed in creeds, and enforced by empires we test against what the apostles actually taught and wrote, and where it does not line up with apostolic Scripture it is not the faith once delivered to the saints but tradition piled on tradition, which is why we hold to the apostles' teaching and let everything else justify itself before that bar.
Ephesians 2:20"Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone."
Acts 2:42"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."
Galatians 1:8"But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God's curse."
Jude 1:3"Contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God's holy people."
Giving from the Heart
The ten percent tithe does not appear in Acts and it is not taught in the epistles, so what we see instead is people giving as need arose, supporting ministry where necessary and relieving the poor among them, with the early church in Jerusalem selling land and possessions and laying the proceeds at the apostles' feet not to fund a building project but to make sure no one among them was in want, which is why we have set aside obligatory giving and returned to what the apostles modelled.
Acts 4:34-35"There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need."
2 Corinthians 9:7"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
1 John 3:17"If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?"
Romans 15:26"For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the Lord's people in Jerusalem."
