Did you ever wonder what a true, “Christian” church
should be like? We seem to have lots of different ideas today on “how to do
church.” (By the way, I really hate that phrase but it seems to be used a lot.)
As usual, I don’t want to seek out the opinions of man, but would rather look
to the Bible for my answer to this particular question. There are many passages
in various books of the New Testament that teach us about how the church should
operate and I don’t think most of it was cultural or only for a certain time
period. I think that they were given for all of the body of Christ, for the
entire church age, to help keep us on track. If you look ahead, to the book of
Revelation, you will see what seven local churches got commended for and what
they were rebuked for. I truly believe, that following the examples and
instruction given to us in God’s Word, will bring the commendation of the Lord,
but straying from that will bring His rebuke. So let’s look at our earliest
example of “the church” of Jesus Christ.
At the end of chapter 2 (starting in verse 42) in the
book of Acts, we get a good look at this first body of believers. Remember,
this was immediately after a huge harvest of souls. Three thousand believers
were added to this church in Jerusalem after Peter preached the gospel,
accompanied by signs and wonders. The author of the book, Dr Luke, then goes on
to tell us what these believers did.
In verse 42 we are told that they devoted themselves to
four things; the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer.
The words “devoted themselves” (NIV, ESV), are translated “continued
steadfastly” in the KJV and NKJV Let’s take these one at a time.
1. The apostles’ teaching: A
good question then, is what did they teach? Well, each in their own way, inspired
by the Holy Spirit, taught the gospel (good news) of salvation by grace,
through faith, by the completed work and shed blood of Jesus Christ on the
cross. They could do this because they were handpicked by Jesus for this
calling. By inspiration of the Spirit,
they were able to show how the Old Testament scriptures foretold the coming of
Messiah and pointed solely to Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of those
prophecies. We find this as we read the rest of the book of Acts. This, along
with the letters directed to the churches, became the New Testament Scriptures.
2.
Fellowship:
The
Greek word for fellowship is koinonia.
The construction literally is translated “fellow participant.” These believers were participating with each other in their Christian lives. That
demonstrates to us that Christianity is not a solitary experience but must be shared with others. The next
two points, I believe, give us some of the ways they experienced that
fellowship
3.
Breaking
of Bread: This was an expression of eating together, but it may
also have meant sharing of communion, which Jesus had instituted on His last
night with the disciples. The act of eating together in this culture was huge.
It represented a close bond with the person or persons you shared that meal
with. That is why the Pharisees were so upset at Jesus, who would eat meals
with anyone, including “tax collectors and sinners.” To them, it meant that he
was one of them (Mt 9:10-13), which was abhorrent to a devout Jew. This shows
how important the sharing of meals was in this culture.
4.
Prayer:
Now
prayer would not be a new thing for these early Jewish believers. In following
the law, they would most likely pray often. How they prayed though, surely
changed. Jesus had given the disciples a model for prayer so that they would
not speak out the vain repetitions that they were used to (See Mt 6:5-13), but
in a meaningful, relational way with their Heavenly Father. In the rest of the
New Testament, we can see how the apostles had constant and intimate prayer
lives.
It is interesting that one more thing is mentioned about
what these early believers did. Look at verses 44 and 45. It says that the
believers were together and had everything in common, even to the point that
they would sell their possessions and goods, giving to those who had need.
Now this practice, I believe, has been misinterpreted and
led to some people believing that Christians should sell all their worldly
possessions and live in communes. In fact during the Jesus People movement of
the 1960’s and 70’s, many young Christians did just that. Though well
intentioned, most of these turned out to be, well, let’s be generous and say,
problematic.
If you look closely at what the early believers really
did, it was quite different. First of all, they did not all live together.
Verse 46 shows us that they were together in the temple courts. It then
says that they broke bread together in their homes. When it talks about
selling their goods, it was voluntary and the money was not distributed evenly
to everyone, it was given to those who had need. It certainly does show a
willingness to give sacrificially to the needy among the believers; however, we
do not see this practice continued for a long period of time, like we do the
other four practices. It may be that the first believers were anticipating the
soon return of Jesus and so were not very materially oriented.
Either way, we can see what the early church thought was
important and it gives us a wonderful picture of what should be important in
the “Body of Christ” today. I don’t think that it is an accident that the first
practice mentioned is the study of the Word of God. If we do not have one single basis for doctrine, we will
certainly go astray. We see that clearly by what is happening in many so
called evangelical churches today. If the Bible does not contain infallible,
absolute truth, what should we base our beliefs in? We can make up any type of religion we want
and call it Christianity. No, we need to follow the lead of the early church
and continue steadfastly in the study of God’s Word.
It is also essential for us as Christians, to maintain
the practices of fellowship. Breaking bread together has such an impact on our
relationships. It is hard to not get along with folks that you share meals
with. Remember that Jesus said that they (the world), would know that we are His disciples by our love one for
another. (Jn 13:34) I believe that this also included communion. The Lord’s
Supper brings us together to remember the sacrifice the Lord made for each one
of us and together we proclaim His
death until He comes. (1Co 11:2)
Now, whether or not Luke was speaking of individual
prayer or corporate prayer, we need to be involved with both. Praying together
will help bring us together, because we put aside our own will and seek the
Lord’s will in prayer. That is why Jesus, in teaching the disciples how to
pray, included, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” The chief objective of
prayer is get our will aligned with His will, not the other way around.
Notice also in verses 46 and 47, that they were glad, had
sincere hearts, and praised God. The result was that the Lord added daily to
their number. You see, the Body of Christ, when following this pattern will
result in fruits of evangelism. People are naturally attracted to others who
have joy and sincerity in their lives.
We seem to want to
make this idea of what “church” should be very complicated. I would very humbly
like to suggest that it is not. We have a beautiful model of the effective
church. I say, “Let’s follow that.”
Game
plan: Read the scripture references listed above. Ask the Lord
to reveal to you where you fit into this picture and if you are not currently
in fellowship with other Bible believing Christians, seek one out immediately
and get involved.
May God bless you as you continue to grow in the grace
and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ
Coach
