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DEVOTIONS: Habits of The Redeemed
This sermon series we have been exploring what are to be the habits of God’s redeemed people.
Those things that followers of Christ are to be devoted too.
When you look at the life of one who is devoted to Christ, what should their lives look like?
What sort of habits should they cultivate?
Using Acts 2:42 as a launching pad we have been exploring the scriptures to see what it looks like for a follower of Christ to be holistically devoted to God.
The Apostles Teaching
The word of God is the living word of God
What the Bible says God says
Therefore, the word of God is our highest authority
The Fellowship
Fellowship is not just time with people we like, its not just sharing a meal together, its not just enjoying the same activities...
Fellowship is the union we have with each other as the Body of Christ
Fellowship is the union of the Body which is the church, with the head which is Christ.
And we are to be devoted to this fellowship!
This morning we will be looking at the third devotion
The Breaking of Bread
Now, it makes sense to us that the early Christians, and likewise Christians today, should be devoted to the Apostles Teaching.
Pastors will spends tens of thousands of dollars on a seminary education so they can be well trained and prepared to equip God’s people in the Apostles teaching, the word of God.
We can spend a lot of money and a lot of time reading and studying, and watching and listening to pastors and theologians teach us the word of God.
It makes sense that if we are to be devoted to God, we would be devoted to the apostles teaching.
In the same way, it makes sense to be Devoted to the Fellowship
It is only through the fellowship of Christ and his church that we are able to be spiritually healthy, it is only through Christ and his church that we are able to live as God as called us to live.
We must be devoted to the fellowship.
For we cannot be devoted to Christ if we are not devoted to the fellowship, his body, and his bride.
So its easy to understand that we are to be devoted to the apostles teaching and the fellowship - But what does it mean to be devoted to the Breaking of Bread?
What is Luke talking about when he says in acts 2:42 that they were devoted to he breaking of bread?
Breaking Bread = Eating?
(Don’t read )
Now certainly everyone, whether they are followers of Christ or not, is devoted to breaking bread if the breaking of bread is speaking of nothing more than eating.
If Breaking Bread is referring to eating common meals, than everyone who is alive has proven their devotion.
For if they were not devoted to eating they would not be alive.
There are two major views as to what Luke is talking about when he said they devoted themselves to the breaking of bread.
Eating Common Meals Together
Eucharistic meal, The Lords Supper, Communion.
Eating Common Meals Together
This is a popular view among many who take this phrase to mean that the early Christians devoted themselves to hospitality, and sharing meals with one another.
They they were devoted to table fellowship with one another.
We see this made clear just a couple verses down
This is a perfect example of when breaking bread is speaking of eating a meal together.
However, this idea of eating together is more of category of the Fellowship we are to have with one another.
And this is a very important category,
for us to be devoted to the fellowship requires that we spend time together and we eat together.
However the devotion spoken of in Acts 2 42 is not referring to the disciples eating meals in each other homes, this devotion is referring to the sacramental meal of the Lords Table.
The Breaking of Bread they devoted themselves too was
The meal of all meals
The greatest meal ever to be eaten
It is the meal we were created to eat.
This is the meal Jesus lived and died to serve us.
This is the meal we eat with Christ himself.
The early Christians devoted themselves to the breaking of bread, to the gathering together and partaking in the communion meal together.
The disciples and the early church devoted themselves to the Lords Supper because they knew and believed in the power of the supper.
They knew Jesus’ was present with them in a unique and special way in the supper
They knew knew that it was through the supper that they participate with the blood and body of Christ.
They knew that the communion meal was a gift from God, and contained unique blessing.
Paul talks about this in 1 Cor 10
So the cup and the bread are both participation in Christ.
You know what this word for participation is?
Its the word we looked at last week, κοινωνία, Fellowship.
We have κοινωνία with Christ when we partake in the cup and the bread.
κοινωνία fellowship is not thin, etherial relationship, but rather its a real tangible fellowship, its formative, its powerful.
Its not just thinking thoughts about someone.
Its sticky, its a bonding of two people.
Communion is not a time to be introspective about sin, its not confession, its not about you and your sin, its about you and your Savior,
and not only about you and your savior, but about the whole bride of Christ and her groom.
Communion is when we partake in the bread and the cup and are joined to God in a celebration of who he is and what He has done in Chriast.
When we take communion each and every week we are, in a unique way being joined together, fellowshipping with, and participating in the very life of God.
And this life, this communion, κοινωνία, is what God has created us for!
This is what he created Adam and Eve to enjoy with him in the garden - fellowship, union, worship, and communion.
And this is the picture we see at the end of Revelation with the marriage supper of the lamb.
God’s people in perfect fellowship, union, worship, and communion with God.
And when we look at this covenantal bond we experience at communion, we see that throughout the scripture food is at the center of mans fellowship or participation with God.
as we look at the pages of the bible we will see that food is one of the greatest themes from Genesis to Revelation.
Feasting in the Bible
In Genesis we see that God created man a hungry being
In both Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 the creation of man and women are immediately followed by God inviting them to eat of the food from the garden.
Scripture tells us that there were many trees with food good for Adam and Eve to eat.
At the center of the garden were two sacramental trees, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
It was at the Tree of Life that God and his creation would enjoy κοινωνία.
Adam and Eve would fellowship with God around food.
And likewise, we see that food is involved When the serpent tempted Adam and Eve.
He invited them to eat of the tree God told them not to eat.
And when they took a bite, it says their eyes were open, they saw their nakedness and they hid from God.
The κοινωνία, the fellowship they once had, is gone.
You see, the whole creation narrative is full of food, the story of Adam and Eve and the fall is surrounded with themes of food.
Even the curse speaks of food
So how would would man have fellowship with God now that sin has entered the world?
Well, it wouldn’t be by true κοινωνία (Fellowship) like they had in the garden, but instead their fellowship, their worship, would be through offerings, through bloodshed, through regulations.
And as we continue the story of the bible, through a complex history of how God would fellowship with his people, there is one consent: we see food being present each step of the way.
Though sin restricted the fellowship they had in the garden, God still provided a way for his people to come close and eat together.
Food in the OT
The sacrifices of Abel, Noah, and Abraham were food rituals, sacred barbecues.
Able offered a food offering to God that was acceptable
Noah, when he and his family come off the ark, he sets up an alter to offer a food sacrifice to God, a meal that he would eat with God in the new creation
Abraham went around setting up alters, and these alters were tables where he would cook up a sacrifice and dine with the divine YHWH
An ancient Hebrew worshipper offered an animal, with flour or cakes, on an altar.
These cakes were bread that were spiced and then baked or cooked in a griddle, he then would offer God part of the bread and he would eat part.
In the Hebrew Bible, sacrificial fire “consumes” good on the alter, and the word for consume is (akal, “eat”; Lev.
9:24),
God wanted his people to know that he was eating and enjoying the food prepared for him.
Leviticus calls the offerings of the tabernacle “bread of God” (Lev.
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