The Common Church

Introduction

The Definition of Church

What is the church? What makes a church?

Matt 18 - ‘Where two or more are gathered’? - no

“I want to be like the 1st Century church.”

We can’t because they are so different, but maybe that’s the point.

The question is not, “How do we become a First-Century church but how do we become defined as a church common with what we see in Acts?

Individuals in the church affect the internal community of the church which reaches the external community into the church.

Your relationship to Christ affects the relationships in the church which affects the relationship of the church to the world.

The more you are devoted to Christ, the more the church loves, the more people are saved.

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

As we explore the definition of church as a community, keep in mind that the community is not a thing in itself as much as it is a group of “things” or people - individuals sharing something in common in unity.

To modify the famous quote by JFK, focus less on what the church means for you, and more about what YOU mean for the church.

The church should NOT be defined as a corporation of CEO pastors

The church should be defined as a common group (community) of Spirit-led believers using their gifts on mission.

ILLUST - A wall built on a single brick is unstable, a wall missing bricks, while hole-y, is weak, but a wall with every brick engaged holds firm.

ILLUST - Too many churches today are like Jenga, with ministry leaders just trying to plug holes fast enough to keep the structure from falling.

*Paul - You are the house of God - Jesus as the cornerstone*

One of the actual blocks of our building:

Ephesians 2:19-21

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

The Church is a corporate identity but it is made up of individual responses to Jesus as Lord.

*TEST* - if our ministry team were to disappear tomorrow, would we ‘have church’ on Sunday?

Someone give what you see in the Scripture

Someone share some love

Someone pray

Each had a serious devotion to Christ and the church. (42-43)

“The new converts didn’t merely add Christianity to their already busy lives, but devoted themselves to their Christian experience. V 42 is a compact description of Christian discipleship”

Gempf, Conrad. 1994. “Acts.” In New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition,

Serious devotion to the words of Jesus

devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching

What were the apostles teaching?

wasn’t Romans or anything after Acts.

They taught others about Jesus and their experiences with him.

Probably OT as well since Jesus had shed new light on the OT.

We need to know the Word.

IF you are a Christian (Christ-follower) how will you learn how to follow Christ apart from the Bible?

Only general revelation apart from God’s Word.

The world around says solution to life’s problems is to ‘look within’

gospel says the very problem with your life is that which is within you - your sin nature which has caused you to be separated from God.

the gospel is an external truth we internalize - and we never outgrow our need for it.

When was the last time you memorized a passage?

Serious devotion to the people of Jesus

and the fellowship

devoted themselves to each other.

Fellowship = koinonia

They were made up of of many different types of groups of people from many different places yet they devoted themselves to each other.

GMCE / India / generations

Some say, “I don’t need the church”

by that they mean services, buildings, institution

fully devoted follower of Christ will want to gather with other followers of Christ.

Christians without churches are spiritually homeless.

They shared life together

v46 - day by day

big groups and small groups

Did not gather to consume a common preference.

Called together to share the same devotion.

ILLUST - Consuming church to get recharged

At a Catholic church in Milan, Italy, a young man and woman from South America entered each day for about a month and sat before a statue of the Madonna. The priests assumed they were just like any other devoted Catholics, coming for prayer. Day after day they came, sat for an hour or so, and left. One day the cleaning man noticed an unusual electrical cord leading from the plug used to provide electricity to light up the statue. Upon further examination, it turned out the young couple had been coming to church to charge up their cell phone battery.

Consumption - what did I get from the service today

Devotion - what did I give in my service today

Consumption - meet my expectations or I leave

Devotion - find my participation as I stay

What if we treated marriages the way we churches?

Serious devotion to the worship of Jesus

to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

v42 They were devoted to the breaking of bread

Term was used to note communion

1 Corinthians 10:16

16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

‘participation’ = koinonia

Do your actions on a Sunday morning (way you stand / sit) look more like you are attending the premier of a movie or worshipping in the presence of the Living God?

What are your expectations when you come to church?

You either come for a relational experience with the Living God or you are here out of religious duty. (I’m not that exciting or pleasant to look at!)

Do you come expecting and anticipating the presence of God?

ILLUST - have you ever been a part of a sports game where the crowd was electric as people with the same mission expected something great?

Fear that many of us come to church expecting the church to manufacture the presence of God for others to experience. This turns church into a performance rather than a participation.

They were devoted to the breaking of bread - something they participated in - not just watched.

Do you have any preparation as you come to church? Or do you arrive as you would any other gathering in the community?

For those 10 days they prayed... Then Peter stands up to preach... he preaches for about 10 minutes, and 3000 people were saved. Pray for 10 days; preach for 10 minutes; 3000 people were saved. We pray for 10 minutes, preach for 10 days, and 3 people get saved. Our 0’s are in the wrong place.

— J D Greear

If you want to see God answer prayer you need to ask him for something big enough

Result was they saw:

Serious spiritual reality

Awe came upon EVERY soul

Word is literally, “Fear.”

There was sense of something so big it could only be described as fear

it was affecting so deep it reached the very soul

ILLUST - watching the Blue Angels fly over at GPU

When you come to church are you feel an awe that grips your soul? Why not?

The church isn’t giving it to me or I’m not giving for me

Everyone had a supernatural love for each other. (44-47a)

Supernatural to the world looks uncommon.

To the world, the supernatural looks uncommon.

The reality is, the church should commonly look uncommon.

Unfortunately, it is common for many churches to look common.

Supernatural life together

44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common.

It is uncommon to have all things in common

ILLUST - Francis Chan - Rob - part of a gang - came to Christ - left gang.

“When Rob describes gang life, much of it sounds like what the Church was meant to be. Obviously, there are major differences (drugs, murder — you know, the little details like that), but the idea of “being a family” is central to both gang life and God’s design fo the Church. . . From what you know about gangs, could you ever imagine gang life being reduced to a weekly one-hour gathering?”

— Francis Chan, Letters to the Church

ILLUST - if you are not sure what this looks like - host a young adult ministry in the church - Anthony eating our food, YA sleeping in our house, in tents outside, etc.

Who are the people you ‘do life with?’

45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

Supernatural love in community

This wasn’t communism, it was community.

what would it look like to love each other in such a way that the world took notice?

that we wouldn’t even consider our possessions our own

Chrysostom gave a beautiful description of it: ‘This was an angelic commonwealth, not to call anything of theirs their own. Forthwith the root of evils was cut out.… None reproached, none envied, none grudged; no pride, no contempt was there.… The poor man knew no shame, the rich no haughtiness

Stott, John R. W. 1994. The Message of Acts: The Spirit, the Church & the World. The Bible Speaks Today. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

It is important to note that even in Jerusalem the sharing of property and possessions was voluntary. According to verse 46, they broke bread in their homes. So evidently many still had homes; not all had sold them. It is also noteworthy that the tense of both verbs in verse 45 is imperfect, which indicates that the selling and the giving were occasional, in response to particular needs, not once and for all.

John Stott

The Christians you meet in the Book of Acts were not content to meet once a week for “services as usual.” They met daily (Acts 2:46), cared daily (Acts 6:1), won souls daily (Acts 2:47), searched the Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11), and increased in number daily (Acts 16:5). Their Christian faith was a day-to-day reality, not a once-a-week routine. Why? Because the risen Christ was a living reality to them, and His resurrection power was at work in their lives through the Spirit.

Wiersbe, Warren W. 1996. The Bible Exposition Commentary. Vol. 1. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes,

they received their food with glad and generous hearts,

Supernatural joy and generosity

The natural effects of a fully devoted follower of Christ is joy and generosity.

Interesting that ‘glad’ and ‘generous’ are put together.

These two things shouldn’t go together - few people are happy when they give away their money.

(nobody giggles when paying taxes)

Do you give generously and joyfully?

Only possible to be glad and generous if your joy is not found in your possessions - if you’ve found something worth more than money, stuff.

(Incorporate Faith Community Church explanation into the message of church definition?)

47 praising God and having favor with all the people.

All saw the saving work of God.(47b)

And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

The church witnesses

God saves

Having a common church is up to YOU (and the Spirit), not me.

There is an exponential difference between a church that is pastor-centered and one that is people-sending, between a church that is service-founded and mission-focused.

One sees celebrities, the other sees the lost.

The Sunday service should be both a support and expression of the Spirit’s mission through His church