The House Church Myth
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I want to bounce off of some of my sermon from a couple of weeks ago.
Today I want to talk about the “house church” myth.
Since the very beginning God has been using large groups and small groups.
He has used public spaces and private spaces
He has used temples and marketplaces
My frustration is this idea that the church today is in someway -less than- what it should be because it’s been corrupted and institutionalized.
Some would say that the fact there is organization, or denominations, or frankly, even just leaders — that is man’s way of taking control and manipulating church and using it for their own purposes
The book of Acts, the church was pure because it was only in people’s homes.
We will see today that is not the case.
God has used small groups — and God has used NATIONS.
We see in Gen 1 that God brings order to chaos. God creates order out of disorder.
The Church is not meant to be a messy free-for-all that everyone can interpret on their own.
No, God has called HIS CHURCH to be His hands and feet in the earth - and we have to learn to come together and to create fellowship with those that God has called us to
Even at the day of Pentecost, there was not a small crowd gathered.
15 In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said,
120 is larger than the average church size in America
Acts 2
The church is born and 3,000 people came to Christ
46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
So we see from the very beginning, the church is not running away from temples and trying to do their own thing. They still attended the temple together AND built relationship
1 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.
And then Peter preaches at Solomons porch, which was a part of the temple
Now we also see them praying outside of the temple
31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico.
An angel tells them to continue preaching in the temple
17 But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy 18 they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, 20 “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.” 21 And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.
Now when the high priest came, and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the senate of the people of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.
42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.
Its clear they are teaching and preaching wherever! BUT the point I am making is they are not emphasizing small, house churches, over corporate gatherings.
In one meeting 120 are praying
3000 get saved
Then 5000 are saved
This is no small group. This is a massive collection of people.
And they are meeting collectively in the temple AND in homes.
7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
Church is growing and even the priests are being saved
Then Acts 7 there is a shift — Stephen is murdered for preaching
And the book of Acts is about to take a shift from focusing on Peter to know focus on Paul
20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”
19 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.
Persecution has increased. Church is still thriving
1 About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. 2 He killed James the brother of John with the sword, 3 and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. 4 And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. 5 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.
12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.
However, they still spoke and preached in the temples.
There place of worship was not only limited to their homes — even in spite of persecution
5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them.
42 As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. 43 And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.
44 The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.
The church is growing in the synagogue
1 Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed.
1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
This is Paul’s habit. This is his custom. On the Sabbath, he goes to the temple.
4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.
19 And they came to Ephesus, and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
Paul is consistently preaching to the Jews, on the Sabbath, at the temple
This is not church like we have church today. But it is clear that Paul, and his fellow Christians, did not neglect gathering corporately and understand the Spiritual authority of the Pastors and Apostles in their lives
8 And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.
20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house,
We see the same thing we saw in chapter 2 — there is preaching happening publicly and privately in homes.
They met together in the temple — some of that slowed down because of persecution, but even in spite of that, many still preached publicly — but with persecution, there is clearly house to house preaching as well.
So is the true church just supposed to be a house church with no leadership or accountability?
No - it seems that even from the beginning the church was meeting corporately and publicly and because of persecution some of that was limited.
Even still, we see Paul never neglecting to go to the temple on the Sabbath
A lot of how our church services are laid out: a platform, having service on Sundays instead of Saturdays, etc.
That comes from Constantine in the mid-300’s
But the main point I want to make today is that the church is supposed to come together corporately and there is a spiritual hierarchy that God has instituted for His church to be led.
So when people make claims that we need to get back to the book of Acts and make church simple again == I COULDN’T AGREE MORE!!
We should come together weekly
under our leadership
as the priesthood of God
to offer right sacrifices at the altar
We are going to minister to God
Then to each other
And then after service we are going to continue and minster to others
WORSHIP _ EQUIP _ REACH