Church As Community

Church As Community

By Scott Jewell

Summary: We all have our standards for what should happen as a church. What were the standards of the first church? How did they live them out?

A man once joined a monastery in which he had to take a vow of silence. Each year he was summonsed before the Abbot and allowed to speak two words. After the first year, the man said, “Bed hard.” The second year, he said, “Food bad.” Upon the third year, the man said, “I quit.” The Abbot replied, “I’m not surprised. You’ve done nothing but complain since you got here.”

Every church family has its own set of standards for which new people learn to adjust. Although we do our best to ensure our standards are based on what we find in scripture, there’s always a few extra “rules” to abide by. The fourth row on the left is where the descendants of Joe Smith sit. This person expects a hug while that person prefers a brief handshake. Those things are fun to chuckle about as long as we keep them secondary to the essentials of the gospel. So let’s look at how the first church went about doing church. (Read )

As you can see the church was devoted to four foundational items, listed at the beginning of the passage, then described in more depth through the rest of the paragraph. These items that need to be present in every church today include the Apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer.

I think it’s important that we identify what is an apostle as it seems the word has come to mean a number of different things depending on where you worship. The simplest definition of apostle is simply “one who is sent out.” I maintain that the people we call missionaries today fall into this category of apostle, being sent out from a group of believers to take the gospel message to those who’ve never heard it before. When we look at the context here though, there is a more specific definition in use here- the 12 chosen to follow Jesus (Judas Iscariot was replaced by Matthias through casting lots) and later Paul. Each of these men met the following qualifications that allowed them to hold the office of Apostle.

1. They should have seen the Lord, and been able to testify of him and of his resurrection from personal knowledge.

2. They must have been immediately called to that office by Christ.

3. They were found to be infallibly inspired, and thus secured against all error and mistake in their public teaching, whether by word or by writing.

4. They had the ability to perform miracles, giving authenticity to their words.

So what were the Apostles’ teaching to which the people devoted themselves? As we look at their writings in scripture, we find that their teachings focused on two things: proof that Jesus is the Messiah for whom the Jews were watching and the life lessons that Jesus had passed on to the Apostles during the three years they spent together before Jesus returned to heaven.

The people were also devoted to fellowship. Simply put, they hung out. Notice the variety of places in which they hung out- both the temple courts and each other’s homes. It wasn’t always easy, in fact, the fish symbol we often see on the back of Christians’ cars came out of a time of persecution. The Greek word for fish is icthus, which the Christians used as an acronym to identify Jesus- I=Iesous (Greek for Jesus), CH=Christos (Christ), TH=God, U=Uios (Son), S=Soteria (Savior). If you were a Christian during this period of persecution, you would draw an arc in the sand as you were talking with someone whom you weren’t sure about. If they completed the fish symbol drawing, you would then know they were safe to discuss faith. Another aspect of this fellowship was that they took care of each other. The passage tells us that there were none in need because should a need arise, other Christians made sure to take care of it.

They were also devoted to the breaking of bread. I believe there are two aspects to this. First, I believe this means the people gathered together to share a meal. Yes, friends, carry-in dinners originated in scripture. Everyone contributed according to their ability and everyone ate together as equals. There’s also a deeper meaning to the idea of breaking bread. When Jesus met with the Apostles the night He was arrested, He broke bread and instructed them to do the same as they remember the sacrifice He was about to give. After He resurrected, Jesus walked with a couple disciples along the road to Emmaus, disappearing after He broke bread for them, opening their eyes to the fact they’d been in the presence of their risen Savior. Later in Acts, the church is described as meeting together on Sunday and breaking bread. It makes sense that they would do this, it was the one way that Jesus asked to be remembered.

And the first church also devoted themselves to prayer. They are described as having glad and sincere hearts. This tells me two things about the people in this church. They truly cared for one another, willing to be open and transparent about the things that were happening in their lives and able to encourage each other through good times and bad. It also means that they felt comfortable sharing both good and bad things with which they were dealing. When one of them rejoiced, they all rejoiced. When one of them was in sorrow, they all mourned together. They were able to share the good, the bad, and the ugly because they knew when they did that those who heard the news would pray.

The early believers stuck to the truth, they hung out together, they remembered their Savior, and they prayed. What might these things look like in our church today? How can we live this out even more than we are already doing? I’m going to toss out a few ideas- some of them will be things that already happen here but maybe someone needs to consider becoming a part for the first time. Other ideas will be brand new, things that I’d like us to dream about and consider for our future together as we grow in our faith as a community.

Devoting ourselves to the Apostles’ teaching: I’d like to encourage everyone to consider becoming a part of a Sunday school classes. We have classes for all ages, nursery through adult. We even have a few options from which the adults can choose. This can be an excellent way to deepen your understanding of scripture and spur one another to grow in our faith.

Fellowship: this can happen through small group gatherings. While we currently have a couple groups meeting in various homes, we’re always open to someone volunteering their home or time to lead another group. There is a lot of freedom in topic selection and opportunity for groups to live life together by getting together on a regular basis. Look to join a group or recruit some friends and form a new one.

Breaking bread: our church takes communion every Sunday. I believe this is good and should remain a central part of what we do as we gather together as believers. But what about other times? Jesus didn’t say, “When you gather on Sunday, do this.” He said, “Do this whenever you remember Me.” Sundays are good, but it might also be good to remind ourselves why we come together in our small groups or studies also.

Prayer: this takes place in a number of ways. As a corporate body, we take time in our gatherings to pray for each other. Everyone has the opportunity to share praises and requests so that we all know how to pray for one another. I also want to encourage you to take what is shared home with you and take time to pray daily on an individual basis. Prayer is a time to communicate with God. Sometimes we need to let Him know what’s on our minds, a lot of time I think we need to listen for what’s on His. As a group, I’d like to see us begin prayer walks together- choosing a neighborhood, walking as a group, and praying for the people there- it may be for their wellbeing, it may be an empty house so pray for the family that will move in, it may be a business to pray for good service. As we walk, watch for opportunity to share and draw people in to what we are doing.

Our passage closes by sharing the results of this devotion. First, it says the people respected them. It’s interesting that it doesn’t paint this rose colored picture that everyone who saw them came to Christ. Rather, some only came to respect them because they saw the consistency in what they believed and how they lived. That’s the type of reputation we want to have in our community. That even if a person refuses to believe, they will respect us because they see something genuine.

It also tells us that God added to their number daily. God used their witness to draw people to Himself. More people came to Christ, not only on Sunday, but every day of the week. We don’t have to invite people to church to bring them to Jesus, we can invite them to church because we’ve already introduced them to Jesus. We remain faithful, God will add to our number. It all begins with our relationship with Jesus. That is why we extend an invitation every week- if you need to choose Jesus as your Lord and Savior today, now is your chance.

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