If the church were forced to focus on the bare minimum- what
would we do?
If the church stripped away everything and just do the essentials,
what would we do?
If the church had to make a choice between the good and the biblical, what would we keep on doing?
Our text in Acts
2:42-47 gives us an indication of what are essential and vital marks of a
living church, loved by God, redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ, indwelt by the
Spirit of God.
Following Pentecost and the outpouring of the Spirit, the Christian church comes into being. We immediately get an impression of the essential activities and responses which make a biblical church unique. As many were converted and baptised, these were added to the church (2:41), the immediate result was that the church began to organise itself in terms of a commitment (i.e. they devoted themselves) to gather under the apostolic Word, a commitment to fellowship, a commitment to remember the Lord’s death in the Lord’s supper, and a commitment to prayer. Here then we see the essentials marks of a living church.
(i) Regular apostolic teaching: The very first evidence of the Spirit’s presence in the church is that they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus. He is the ultimate Communicator of the Word about Jesus. And the early apostles, chosen by Jesus were the foundation of the church (Eph. 2:20). Thus, by the Spirit and under the supervision of the early apostles, the teachings of Jesus were accurately recorded and passed on. And so we find that this is still so today. The primary activity of the church remains the proclamation of the Word of God – both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. At the heart of the church’s establishment is the Word of God! And so they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching.
(ii) Regular fellowship: “They devoted themselves… to the fellowship” (Koinonia – ‘communion’, ‘sharing in common’). Our fellowship is expressed in two ways:
a. It expresses what we share in: We share in common God the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit. 1 John 1:1-4 says that our fellowship
(koinonia) is with the Father and with
His Son, Jesus Christ. The heart of what we share together is
defined by the Bible. We have fellowship in the Father and in the Son and in
the Holy Spirit. Our fellowship – our common experience is defined by the fact
that we share Him! That is the key to genuine fellowship.
b. It expresses what we share out together: The church is deeply involved in each other’s lives. One of the key expressions of this is that they would help those who were disadvantaged in their midst. There was great compassion! This follows the O.T. pattern where Israel was taught to have a strong level of concern of care for the poor (e.g. Micah 6:8). Christian fellowship is Christian caring, and Christian caring is Christian sharing. We must not try to evade the challenge of these verses.
(iii) Regular participation in the Lord’s supper: “They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread and the prayers …”. They organised themselves to come together for the regular remembrance of the Lord’s death. The cross is where the church meets. The cross of Christ is our common experience - sinners saved by the grace of God. The cross of Jesus is our common ground. The cross is that which brought us peace, with God and with one another. Therefore the cross, the remembrance of the shed blood of Jesus is the symbol of our unity, and so every time we celebrate Communion, we are acknowledging our unity in Christ. We are one.
(iv) Regular participation in the prayers. The church had meetings for prayer all the time. We see this pattern in the book of Acts[1]. Illustratively then we read in Acts 12:5-7: “So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church...and behold , an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the and woke him, saying’ Get up quickly’. And the chains fell off his hands.” The Puritan preacher, Thomas Watson, commented here astutely: The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer fetched the angel. By prayer the church reminds herself continually that her strength and help is from God. Prayer fetches God. Prayer says, “Look here Lord… help!” … and we need so much help, don’t we, in these challenging days?
(i)
“awe
came upon every soul” (2:43a)
(ii)
“signs and wonders were being done
through the apostles” (2:43b)
(iii)
there was a culture of sharing (2:44,45)
(iv)
there was a culture of worship and
joy (2:46)
lit. exultation and sincerity of
heart.” It is right in public worship to be dignified; it is unforgivable
to be dull! Our joy must be tempered by
awe! When God was in their midst they knew it! And they bowed before Him in
humility and wonder. The combination of joy and awe provides healthy balance in
worship. Also note that the church met both formally and informally for fellowship and teaching i.e. in the
temple and in each other’s homes (2:46), which is an
interesting combination, and I think that we need both today!
(v)
there were regular conversions, and
there was constant church growth (2:47)
a.
The Lord Himself did it: “the
LORD added…. “ Yes, He did it through the preaching of the apostles, the
witness of church members, through the witness of their common life and common love for one another, but it
is still by His power through them which He did it. “Salvation belongs to our God alone , This is such a much needed
emphasis in a day when people speak of the work of salvation as if it were all dependent upon human
effort.
b. The Lord added to their number!
The Lord saved them and then he added them to the church! Here is a
solemn thought. God does not save us, without also placing us into a body.
Salvation and church membership belong together. I would issue a simple
challenge to you who say that you are Christians, but who have not committed
themselves to the discipline of church membership.
c. The Lord added daily!
The early church’s evangelism was not a sporadic or an occasional
activity. They did not organise occasional evangelistic campaigns, and
occasional mission trips! No! The life of the early church was evangelism and
missions. Just as their worship was daily, so was their witness, and as their
outreach was continuous, and so converts
were being added continuously.
d.
The Lord added those who were being
saved! The present participle emphasises that
salvation is a progressive experience: we were saved … we are being saved … we shall be saved!
We note that this was winsome and contagious Christianity. “They were having favour with all the people”, notwithstanding the fact that very soon the enemy of the church would
launch an all-out attack on them and scatter
them.
On this day we are experiencing much of what we read of here.
We are gathering around the Word and in prayer in the spirit
of worship; we are gathering around the communion table; we are
enjoying fellowship; we are seeing
people converted and baptised and received into the church; we are witnessing
the sending out of our
missionaries. And we are
joyful!
Thank God for Sundays and high days in which we have a
taste of what it was like for the early church!
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