Creating
and integrating new church programs, bringing new people into the church simply
as a means to grow in number and membership, increasing a church’s presence
within a community, creating and implementing mission/vision statements, and
church revitalization plans; these are just a few of the hot topics in the
modern American church today. These are
just a few of the sort of administrative matters that numerous church
conferences are aimed at. Not all, but
some. If you want to sell a lot of
books, write something about one of these topics. There are services and organizations devoted
solely to helping churches in these areas.
Some good, some not so good. The
amount of mail and emails that I get for these types of services makes up
probably 80% of the communication traffic that I see per week up here. However, these are not new areas of emphasis
for churches. These are things that have
been something that churches have focused on for quite some time. Sure, the substance has changed, but the
principles behind it have been in place for hundreds of years. We often get caught up in trying to have the
most appealing and attractive (and therefore most perfect) church. However, I’ve come to regularly asked myself
if much of the efforts of churches are devoted to a bigger kingdom, or simply
to a bigger specific congregation. Do we
want to see transformational growth within God’s kingdom, or do we want to see
transfer growth to help our own individual churches?
Last
Sunday we looked at the greatest sermon ever preached (aside from Jesus’ Sermon
on the Mount). When we were looking at
Peter’s sermon, I said that it was a model sermon for how we are to present
God’s Word to His people. The principles
for delivering God’s Word effectively were right there in Peter’s sermon, and
every effort should be made to model such principles in our handling of the
gospel. Well, today, we are presented
with another model, a model church. The
first Christian church there in Jerusalem was a model of what a church is supposed
to look like and how they are to operate.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that new programs, mission
statements, or any of the other items I listed a moment ago are worthless. In fact, I find great value in a church
deciding a direction for her ministry and committing full force to it. I’m not saying that conferences are a bad
idea. Many times these conferences are
helpful, especially when they help to spur church leaders to thinking more
gospel-centric and less congregation-centric.
However, when we ask ourselves as a church body what we are to do, I
think that the church here in Jerusalem gives us a pretty clear image as to how
we are to conduct ourselves. I think
that we can gain a pretty clear image of at least the basic principles for how
a church is to operate by looking at what the early Christian church did here
in Jerusalem. It’s pretty simple really; they studied, fellowshipped, worshipped,
and witnessed.
Our
text for today opens with Luke recording, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’
teaching.” In other words, the
text begins with theses 3000 new converts (plus the 120 church members from
chapter 1) learning from the apostles. You
see, this wasn’t just a small group of people.
This was a mega-church of some 3,120 people. The question inevitably arises as to what
they were teaching. Were they teaching
about their own thoughts or something else?
Well, the answer is that they were teaching from the only source of
authority they had…Scripture. It would
have been quite easy, and possibly even expected, for the people of this church
to sit around and just wait for something miraculous to happen. After all, they were only a few months
removed from Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. However, they were not content to just sit
around and wait for something to happen, they were active in their faith. They were hungry in their appetite for the
things of God. They weren’t content in
just becoming a follower of Christ, they wanted to know all that there was to
know. They couldn’t get enough of God’s
word.
James Boice
emphasizes the importance of studying Scripture in his commentary on this text,
not just of the early church, but of us as well. He basically says that if we are a Christian,
if we are someone who claims ourselves to be born again through the body and
blood of Jesus Christ, then our studying (or at least our want to) ought to be
something that flows naturally from us.
He says that if you are a proclaimed Christian, yet you do not hunger
for God’s Word, then you ought to take a good look at how genuine your
conversion is. You know, the sad part of
it is that that statement probably would send shockwaves through many American
Christians today if we actually paid attention to it. However, I think he’s right. Think about how many folks you know, maybe
even you yourself, who you would consider to be a good honest Christian
person. If they can confine their faith
to a few hours a week when they’re in town, does that really resemble the faith
of a person who has found out the lifesaving good news of the gospel of Jesus
Christ? No, I think that when our
conversions are genuine, there is a hunger for God that is instilled within us
that can only be satisfied by spending time with Him, in His Word. So that’s the first thing that we see, they
were a church that was learning and studying.
The
second thing that we see the church here doing is that they are enjoying
fellowship. Now, some comments need to
be made here about fellowship because it is often misunderstood in today’s
world. We tend to think that any time we
gather together with another person(s) that that is fellowship. Well, it is, but it’s not the full extent of
it. The Greek word for fellowship is koinonia, which has to do with having
something in common. It’s the same word
that is us later on in verses 44-46, “And all who believed were together and had
all things in common. And they were
selling their possessions and belongs and distributing the proceeds to all, as
any had need.” Notice the use of
the word all here. This wasn’t a
fellowship that existed just amongst a few.
Now I’m certain that in a church of over 3,000 there had to be some
factions. You know that those original
120 had to have some sense of superiority or seniority over the 3,000, or did
they? You see, if these 120 original
members would have not welcomed the new converts as equals (so-to-speak), then
I don’t think that this church would have worked. There wasn’t a sense of earning your stripes
or an unofficial probationary period that we find in most churches today. No, this church sought the inclusion and
acclamation of all believers in the life of the church. When someone professed faith in Christ, they
were accepted into this church family and participated fully in her life. That’s what fellowship means. We have to resist the inclination to have
what could be called a secluded fellowship, a fellowship where we gather
together with a few select people and try and keep everyone else out. We have to question what kind of loving
fellowship it is if it seeks the exclusive of certain folks.
The
third characteristic that we find of this church is that they worshipped. “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.” They gathered daily for a time of
worship. John Calvin, during his time of
reform in Geneva, tried as best he could to emulate this practice. For a time, Calvin found himself preaching
every day of the week, and twice on Sundays.
However, Calvin could not physically keep this pace and had to back off. When defending his attempt at such a torrid
pace of worship, Calvin pointed to the early church in Acts 2 as his
model. Now, I don’t want to go against
Calvin, but I think that there is a little nuance in this text that we must pay
attention to. Yes, we’re told that they
attended temple together, but we are also told that they broke bread (i.e.
communion) in their homes. In other
words, there was worship in their homes just as there was in their temple. As I said earlier, I fear that many churches
today and many Christians in general fall victim to worshipping God only one
day a week. The only worship that is
practiced is that of formal worship on Sundays.
Think about it, if we attend more than one service per week, we feel
like we’ve spent all of our week in worship.
However, if we look at the model of the early church, we find that we
are to either formally or informally worship God daily. Some churches have designed things like vital
groups, small groups, or circles to combat this problem. However, it isn’t solely upon the church to
rectify this error, but it falls on each of us to devote ourselves and our
families to some type of worship of God on a daily basis. It is important for our faiths that we
worship Him daily.
The
final characteristic of this early church is that they witnessed, they were
evangelistic. “And the Lord added to their
number day by day those who were being saved.” How do you think these folks were being
saved? Do you think that they were
hearing about what was going on in this new Christian (although that title
doesn’t come for a few more chapters) mega-church in Jerusalem and they wanted
to see what it was all about? Well, I’m
sure some came to be saved that way.
However, I would imagine that a majority of these folks who were saved
came to know Christ through the outreaching and ministry of the church and her
members. This congregation went out in
search of the lost. They went out
proclaiming God’s Word and inviting those who heard their message to come and
repent of their sins and be saved. Don’t
mistake the language of “And the Lord added…” to mean that
they were not active in their mission.
This language simply shows that Luke (the author of this book) knew full
well that these people who were going out were only instruments that God was
using. But make no mistake about it,
they were still going out. They weren’t
just sitting back and waiting for God to bring these people to them.
We
want to know what a church has to do in order to be successful in this world. That’s been the question for hundreds of
years, and it’s still the question many are asking today. The only things that have changed with
regards to this question are the incorrect answers; the ones that have to do
with programs and marketing campaigns.
Now, there are many new programs and ministries within the church that
are very good and needed, but those are the ones that fall in line with this
church that is modeled here for us in Acts 2. The problem with our thinking is
that we think of success in terms of numbers and numerical growth in
membership. We think too much of the
church as a business. However, I don’t
think that this early church was concerned with their membership numbers as much
as they were the growth of God’s kingdom.
They didn’t want to just have more folks around them, but they wanted to
seek out and save the lost. I often tell
people who want to know about church growth that when a church does all the
things that she’s supposed to do and does them well, then growth takes care of
itself. It’s not a scheme for man to
figure out, but a result of God’s calling people to saving faith through the
lives of professing Christians. I’ll end
today be telling you without hesitation, if you set your mind to modeling the
Acts church and concern yourself with kingdom growth, then you are a successful
church, regardless of what happens in terms of numerical growth. When your foundation as a group of connected
Christians is upon God and studying His Word, fellowshipping in His name,
worshipping Him daily, and witnessing to everyone about Him, then you are
fulfilling God’s call to be the church, to be the bride of Christ. Let’s all commit this day to modeling
ourselves and our lives after these Christians here in Jerusalem. Let’s all commit ourselves to daily study,
fellowship, worship, and witnessing.
Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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