What should a church look like?

Acts 2:42-47

Acts 2:42–47 ESV

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

What should a church look like?  Churches come in all shapes and sizes, don’t they?  But what should a church look like?  I don’t know what your experience of other churches is, but I think we can agree that there can be quite a range of differences – all the way from things that are not all that important (like what kind of music is played) right through to things that are really important (like what is taught and believed and practiced).  

So how do we know if we’ve got it right?  What is a church supposed to look like?  What are it’s defining characteristics?  Well in our passage this morning we get a little snapshot of what the first church looked like, and what we should be like too.

The last time David was preaching, he’s was speaking about the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, that we read about in Acts 2.  Jesus had returned to heaven, but he had told his disciples to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit that the Father would send to them.  

Now the coming of the Holy Spirit wasn’t just a promise Jesus made, it had been promised many years before by God speaking through the prophet Joel, that there would come a day that he would pour out his Spirit on all his people – regardless of nationality – his Spirit would be poured out on all his people.  And Jesus was telling his disciples, that after he returned to heaven that day would come.

Now the Bible teaches us that there is one God but that he exists as three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – each of them equally God.  The Spirit is as much God as the Son, the Son is as much God as the Father.   3 persons, each equally God.  

They are 3 distinct persons – The Spirit is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, the Father is not the Spirit.  They are 3 persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  But they are so united in thought, in character, in person, in nature – that together they are one.  We have one God, in 3 persons.  Now that is mind-blowing, and it’s almost impossible for our finite minds to get our heads around that, but that is just how God is.

And these 3 persons of God – Father, Son, and Spirit – have different roles.  And when Jesus returns to heaven, and the Holy Spirit is poured out, the Spirit fills the believers, he dwells within them, and fills them with power and boldness to preach the gospel.  

Now there were some pretty dramatic signs that occurred, but this isn’t necessarily the normal effect the Spirit of God has in our lives.  This was special, because this was the start – the first time the Spirit was poured out on all believers, the start of a new age, the promised Spirt of God had come.  And so there were some miraculous signs that accompanied the event.

But the main role that the Holy Spirit has in our lives as believers is to change us and make us more like Jesus, to fill us with a love for God and a love for others, to enable us to obey God in everything including sharing the gospel with those we come into contact with.

And so after these dramatic events of Acts 2 – with the Holy Spirit coming in such an remarkable way – the question we have is this.  After the big event, what effect will the coming of the Holy Spirit have?  What does a person look like when they’re filled with the Holy Spirit?  

What does it look like when you have a people filled with the Holy Spirit of God?  Well you get a church that looks like the one we’ve just read about at the end of Acts 2.  So let’s take a look at it.  These are the effects of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

What they devoted themselves to

V42 tells us that that this church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  Here we have in a nutshell what characterises this church.  It is a church which is committed to, which is devoted to, 4 things:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching

They devoted themselves to the fellowship

They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread

They devoted themselves to prayer

I want to put it to you that we should be devoted to these things too, so we’re going to have a think about what that would look like.  And I want us to think about that word ‘devotion’ – they were devoted to these things – they didn’t just pay lip service to them, tip their hat to them, go through the motions of them – NO!  They were devoted!

To be devoted to something means that you give your everything to it – no holding back, no second-best effort.  It means to completely give yourself over to something – all your energy and effort is poured into it.  And they were devoted to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

They didn’t just happen to be devoted to it – they devoted themselves.  It was specific.  It was Intentional. They didn’t fall into it, or happen to do it, they intentionally devoted themselves to it.  To the things that would build them up in their faith.  And so should we.

There were plenty of other things that they could have spent their time doing. But because they have left their old way of life behind them and are now following Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, they are devoted to the things that will build them up in their faith and bring glory to God: the apostle’s teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer.

So Firstly:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching

Acts 2:42 ESV

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching …

And I take that to mean that not only did they listen to the apostles, and not only did they think through what the apostles’ said, but they put it into practice. They didn’t lie in bed on Sunday morning and miss the sermon – no, they made sure they were there to hear the apostles’ teaching. 

And when they were there, they weren’t playing with their phones, or having a chat with their friends, or thinking that Peter’s clothes looked a bit scruffy, or daydreaming about something else – no, they were listening intently, carefully, taking it all on board so they could understand it and live it.

And when they walked out the door, they didn’t complain about the apostles’ going on too long, or forget about it and focus on other things – no, they put the teaching into practice.  They sought to obey it.

So what exactly were the apostle’s teaching? What was their topic? Your best life now?  How to be happy and successful?  How to make as much money as possible with as little work as possible?  No, it was none of that, the apostles’ teaching was centred entirely on Christ. It was Christ-centred teaching. And the message wasn’t merely Jesus was a great moral teacher and we should all be like him. Far from it!

The message was that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the promised King.  He’s the Son of God, he’s been crucified and yet he’s been raised from the dead and after appearing to his followers he ascended into heaven. 

And he’s sent his disciples, his apostles, into all the world to proclaim this message and to offer to everyone and anyone forgiveness of sins through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Their message is simple: It’s Christ and Christ crucified. That’s at the heart of everything.

And their teaching includes how we should live in the light of that, how our lives should look as a result of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  And it also includes how the whole of the Old Testament speaks about Jesus Christ. And such teaching, such preaching, is used by the Holy Spirit to transform lives.

So where can we get such teaching today? The apostles are long gone, but their teaching has not gone with them. The whole of the New Testament is the recording of the apostles’ teaching. And the whole of the Old Testament, understood in the light of Christ, was the foundation for their teaching. And so today we need to be devoted to God’s word, the Bible.

That means first of all that each of us regularly, prayerfully, read the Bible and think it over, asking God to make it clear to us. We need to be devoted to regular time in God’s Word, otherwise it will be pushed aside by the snooze button, the newspaper, the TV, your smart phone, the busyness of everyday life, and anything else we could do that means we’re not reading his word.

And not only that, we need to be devoted to preaching - because when God’s word is faithfully preached, God’s people are built up and God is glorified. We need to be sitting under good preaching, encouraging those who preach to be faithful to the text, to be centred on Jesus, and we need to pray for them.

And we need to be good listeners as well, ready to take it on board, and obey God’s Word, but not without checking that the preacher is actually preaching God’s Word, rather than his own opinion.  Being committed to preaching means being committed to listening well and then to putting it into practice.

So they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching (we ought to devote ourselves to God’s Word – both in private study and in the preached word that we hear on sundays).  And that devotion to the apostle’s teaching, to the Bible, includes not just listening to it but putting it into practice. So they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching, and they also devoted themselves to the fellowship.

They devoted themselves to the fellowship

That is, they devoted themselves to the church, to the fellowship of other believers! They took seriously Jesus’ command to “love one another”  I think one of the most striking things about the early church, was their commitment to one another. 

V44-45 tells “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.”  This is a church where people love each other so much that they had everything in common.  They were like family.  And when there were people there who were in need – they gave up their money, they gave up their possessions, to help them out.

These people really loved each other – you don’t tend to sell your prized CD collection so someone else in the church can have food to eat, if you don’t love them.  There were deep relationships here, that meant they cared deeply for each other.  This wasn’t a church where they were tearing each other down – no, they were helping each other out!

It’s important to point out that relationships in the fellowship doesn’t just happen.  It’s something that takes work, and often a lot of forgiveness and bearing with each other.  But with God’s help, it is possible if we devote ourselves to it. “By this all men will know that you are my disciples” says Jesus, “if you love one another.”

How will people know that you’re really a Christian?  If you love the other people in this church.  “By this all men will know that you are my disciples” says Jesus, “if you love one another.”  If you love one another!  Too many people think that what Jesus says doesn’t apply to them.  That Jesus doesn’t know what who’s in their church.  You need to be committed to the fellowship of God’s people where he has placed you.  You need to be committed to loving the people in this church, even the person you’re thinking about right now  - the person you hope there’s an exception for – there’s not!  You need to love them.

In 1 Corinthians Paul writes to people in a church who had forgotten that.  He writes in 3v3: “You are still wordly. For since there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not worldly?  Are you not acting as mere men?”  As in, unconverted men and women.  People who don’t know Jesus.  Paul says you’re acting as if you’re not a Christian when you quarrel and fight and tear each other down.  You’re still worldly.

Jesus calls us to so much more.  To love one another.  To be devoted to one another, like this church in Acts was.  Because one of the key marks of being filled with the Spirit of God is that you’re devoted to the fellowship, to the church that you’re part of it.  And if you are, people will know that you’re really a Christian.

Devoted to the Apostles’ teaching, devoted to the fellowship, and:

They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread

If you were unfamiliar with the Bible reading this, you might think that it simply means eating together, and some people do think that. But if you’ve read Luke recently (which is the prequel to Acts) then you can’t read about believers breaking break without going back in your mind’s eye to that night in the upper room at Passover, with Jesus having a meal with his disciples, and he told them to remember him by breaking bread and drinking the cup. (Luke 22v14-24). So I think this breaking of bread is a reference to precisely that – what we often call communion or The Lord’s Supper.

And whether this part of the main services, or it’s part of a fellowship meal, which it probably was, the important thing is that the church is devoted to remembering Jesus and remembering what Jesus did for them on the cross, and they’re devoted to obeying his command to remember him in this way.

And so no matter how exactly you do communion, or how often you do it, or where you do it, the important thing is that we’re devoted to it, devoted to remembering Jesus and his sacrifice for us, in the visual way that he has ordained. That means we make it an important time, that we don’t rush it, that we don’t neglect it, or let our minds wander during it – but that we take that time to remember what Jesus has done, to thank him for it, to praise him for it.

They devoted themselves to prayer

The Christian is nothing without prayer. If we are prayerless Christians, we will have a prayerless church, and we will simply wither up spiritually. Some people view prayer as a religious exercise that you ‘have to do’ – so Muslims must pray five times a day to please Allah. But Christians pray, not simply because we ought to, but because we need to. Just as we eat and drink regularly because we cannot survive without it, so we pray regularly because we cannot survive without prayer.

Why do we pray?  We pray, because we are people who are powerless in the things that matters most. We are powerless against sin, our forgiveness has to come as a gift, and we cannot even stop sinning without God’s help. We can’t understand God’s word without his help. We can’t grow as Christians without his help. And God has ordered the world in such a way that prayer is the means by which we get that help. We’re not earning God’s help, but we do need to ask for it. No prayer, no power. Because if we’re not praying, we’re not relying on God, rather, we’re relying on ourselves.

This morning we’ve talked about 4 things we need to be devoted to – the apostles teaching (the Bible), to the fellowship, and to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.  How are we going to be able to do those things?  We need God’s help, we need to pray.  

How are we going to love each other when there are people who wind us up and rub us up the wrong way and who, quite frankly, have really hurt us and let us down?  We need God’s help, we need to pray.

We need God’s help to forgive those who have hurt us.  We need God’s help to love those who have hurt us.  We need God’s help to be devoted to this fellowship.  We need God’s help so that everyone will know that we are his disciples because - ? – because we love one another.  We need God’s help, we need to pray.

So let me ask you - how’s your prayer life? Are you spending regular, quality time in prayer with God? If so, great, keep going, and pray even more.  Or perhaps, is prayer something you’ve let slip? And if you’ve let it slip, it’s a sign that you’re relying on yourself rather than God. You won’t get far in the Christian life, relying on yourself and neglecting prayer.  You won’t get very far with devoting yourself to these things the early church was devoted to.  That’s something I’ve asked myself as well, as I’ve prepared for this morning, and been challenged about. 

So let’s take a leaf out of the early church, and devote ourselves to prayer. And make sure that you make specific plans about when you’re going to pray. There’s an old saying that failing to plan is planning to fail. And very often we fail to pray because we don’t plan to pray. 

Let me encourage you to set aside some time daily, and devote yourself to prayer.  And when you pray, why not ask God to help you to be “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

What were the results?

So that’s what this first church did.  These are the effects of being filled with the Spirit.  They devoted themselves to four things:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching

They devoted themselves to the fellowship

They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread

They devoted themselves to prayer

If you want to know what the Spirit-filled people of God look like, then look at this.  It’s not about big signs and wonders, it’s about being transformed in the heart.  Let me tell you, the biggest miracle I’m looking for in myself, in this church, - is God by his Spirit taking a heart that is centred and focused on itself and on its own wants and desires, and redirecting it towards himself, and everything else falls into place.  That’s the miracle I want to see – that’s the main work that the Spirit of God does in people’s hearts. 

He was doing it in the hearts of these early believers, and we’ve seen how that shown through their devotion “to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  But what was the result of that?  What happened?  Three things I want you to see.

They were ‘glad’ – v46

They were glad – they were happy Christians!  Not happy because things were going really great.  Sometimes things went really badly for them and they were still glad!  These guys sang hymns of praise to God in prison cells!    Because their life was turned around!  They didn’t care about their freedom.  They didn’t care about their comfort.  They cared about the fact that they were saved and that other people needed to hear the message too.

Do you want to be that kind of person?  If you’re a Christian, devote yourself to the same things these guys did – the apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer.  Its through these things we will grow and display these fruits of the Spirit like being glad and joyful.  If you’re not a Christian, don’t start here – start with God, ask him to save you and give you his Holy Spirit – and then devote yourself to these things and live your life for him.

They enjoyed ‘the favour of all the people’ (v47)

People liked them!  They thought well of them!  And if you’re a Christian, people should think well of you and me too!  You might think that’s an odd thing to say – surely we see a lot in the Bible about the enemies of Jesus, the enemies of the people of God, the warning that we as Christians will face opposition, will face persecution for our faith.  

It’s often said that things might get more difficult when you become a Christian.  And yes, that’s all very true.  The book of Acts is filled with stories of the troubles faced by the people of God and the opposition they received from those who hated them.  But there is a part of Christian witness that ought to make people respect you, even if they won’t admit it.   

In 1 Timothy, Paul sets out for Timothy the requirements for church leadership.  One of the requirements for church leadership, is that you must be ‘well thought of by outsiders’, or as the NIV puts it: “He must also have a good reputation with outsiders” (1 Timothy 3v7).  That’s striking isn’t it – if you want to be a leader in the church, people inside of the church need to think well of you, but also people outside of the church need to think well of you.  

People who are outside of here, people who aren’t Christians, ought to think well of you, or can’t be a leader in the church.  And by that I mean any role in the church where you have any responsibility.  You should have a good reputation wherever you, or you’re going to bring God’s church into disgrace – because you represent it, if you’re a Christian.  And if you’re leader, at any level, with any responsibility, you especially represent it.

To be clear, leadership in the church isn’t about popularity contests, but people shouldn’t think you’re a jerk!  And it’s not that everyone must like you – there are people who are always going to hate us because we’re Christians, because being faithful to God is not always popular. 

But by and large, if you’re a Christian, you should have a good reputation.  People should think well of you.  Because if you’re the kind of person Jesus calls you to be, devoting yourself to the Bible and to obeying it’s teaching, living it out, people will like you.  

Sometimes people don’t like you because you’re a Christian.  Sometimes people don’t like you because you’re not a nice person.  And it’s really important to know the difference.  Peter writes in 1 Peter, if you’re insulted because of Jesus then count that a blessing – but, 4v15 “But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief of an evildoer or as a meddler.”  

Peter is saying – don’t confuse suffering for Christ and suffering for being a Jerk.  Don’t confuse suffering for Christ and suffering for being a criminal.  Don’t suffer as an evildoer – don’t suffer as someone who’s not very nice to people.  Don’t suffer as a meddler – someone who can’t keep out of other people’s business, 

If you’re a Christian, you should be living a life that shows the difference Jesus has done in your life.  And if you do that, people will respect you, they’ll like you – even if they won’t admit it.  And God’s name will be glorified through you, not disgraced.

They were glad, they enjoyed the favour of the people, and: 

“The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” – v47

They saw growth.  

If you go onto Amazon and search for books on “Church Growth” you fill find over 12,000 results. You’ll find many different suggestions that seem more like marketing strategies than anything to do with the Bible. The church in Jerusalem was the first Megachurch ever, of 3000 people and rapidly growing. And do you know it’s secret for growth? Good music? Great preaching? Exciting events? Slick advertising?

No, the secret for growth, was the Lord himself. The Lord was the one adding to the number of the church those being saved. We long for people to come to know the Lord, we long for people to be saved and to come into our churches, many of which are much smaller than they used to be. 

And we ought to work hard at proclaiming the gospel in any and every way possible, but we need to remember, it’s God who gives the growth. And as we look to proclaim the gospel, we need to get on our knees, and cry out to God for souls to be saved, because the only way people get truly converted, and added to the church, is by the Lord adding them himself.

But what kind of a church do you think he’ll add them to?  One where it’s members are half-hearted, not committed to the Bible and what it teaches, not devoted to the fellowship but tearing each other down, one where communion is just a ritual, prayer is something for Sundays?  No, I don’t think so.  The kind of church God adds to, is a church which is devoted to “the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  

Conclusion

So as we finish, this was a church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  This was a church which had devoted themselves to four things:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching

They devoted themselves to the fellowship

They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread

They devoted themselves to prayer

And what were the results?

They were ‘glad’ – v46

They enjoyed ‘the favour of all the people’ (v47)

“The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” – v47

Let’s devote ourselves to the same things these guys did, and maybe by God’s grace we will see some of the same results.

Let’s Pray.

Endnotes