Acts 2:42-47
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When people talk about ‘the church’ most can’t help but think about the big denominations and organizations that trace their origins back to this community in Acts 2:42-47. Two thousand years later you can’t help but wonder, “What on earth went wrong?” Why is the modern church so different? Honestly, why is it such a disgrace?
Tony Campolo had a stab at an explanation:
“Christianity was born in Palestine, they took it to Greece and turned it into a philosophy, they took it to Rome and turned it into an institution, they took it to the USA and turned it into a business enterprise, and they took it to England and turned it into a tourist attraction”
Some people have wondered whether Jesus meant ‘the church’ to happen at all: yet he once said, “I will build my church and all the powers of Hell will not conquer it”[1] (Matthew 16:18) so he seems to have had the church in mind when he trained his apprentices to pass on his teaching. But when he says ‘church’ what picture comes into your mind? Some cannot help but picture a building, so here is an important key to understanding God’s purpose for us: when Jesus spoke of ‘church’ he was not thinking of buildings, but of communities[2]. You don’t need a building to be an authentic New Testament church.
So how will Jesus build his church? The first churches made a priority of four community-building, apprentice-maturing, life-changing activities.
The apostles teaching
On the day of Pentecost there were twelve apostles, these people had been Jesus’ apprentices and were now his accredited messengers. Their qualifications were not bits of paper from a university, but the power of God working through them (43). Trace the story of the Bible and you see high concentrations of signs and wonders at key moments in the saga (Moses, Elijah, Jesus and his apostles). Each time God was accrediting a special messenger with his power, for a special moment in salvation-history. The apostles power marked them out as Jesus’ messengers.
Are signs and wonders supposed to happen today? I think so, because the same God is a work. But I don’t think that we experience the same frequency these events because none of us is Moses, Elijah or Jesus – they were special. We are not meant to experience the same intensity or frequency of signs and wonders but we are certainly meant to see God work supernaturally through us. This will happen from time to time if we pray for it.
Whatever supernatural events took place, their priorities were not miracles but the words of God. Jesus had trained his team to pass on what he taught them. In Acts chapter 1 they are preaching, soon they would be writing letters to young churches all over the Roman world, and then they began to write down the stories of Jesus himself. Gradually they wrote, or influenced the writings that make up our New Testament today. That is what you are holding in your hand right now – the apostles teaching in black and white.
So here is the challenge: we grow as we learn more about Jesus. Are you committed to learning more about Jesus? What are you doing about this?
Fellowship
‘Fellowship’ is an anemic word in today’s churches, but if you want to see what it really means look at what they did (44-45 & 4:32-37). This was more than ‘A quick salvation sandwich and a cup of sancti-tea’ it was a profound practical commitment to one another.
There is a promise tucked away in the old Testament (Psalm 68:5-6) It says that God sets the lonely in families. This is why we talk of the church as being the family of God
So here is the challenge: we grow as we love our brothers and sisters in the church. Are you committed to loving your Christian family? How will you do this?
The Lord’s supper
Jesus had taken time to explain the meaning of his death the night before it happened. Now these Christians use bread and wine to remember what Jesus taught them. It was a simple act, breaking bread and drinking a cup of wine together, and over the years this has become ritualized into an elaborate palaver. It is all wrong! Significantly, they broke bread not in the temple, or in a cathedral but in the intimacy of someone’s home. It didn’t matter who served the bread and wine, what they wore, or what the wine was served in. What mattered was the death of Christ and its meaning.
So here is the challenge: we grow as we deepen our understanding of the death of Christ. Are you committed to treasuring the meaning and memory of the cross? Will that get you to be more consistent when it comes to being here when we do this?
Prayer
They found prayer to be quite natural and they filled their lives with it – and so should we!
Ever wondered why prayer is so hard? Here are three reasons:
First, because it’s important – the Devil does not want it to happen. “Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees” – so his strategy is to stop us. He is usually successful! Are you going to engage in combat and defeat him on this?
Second, because we make it more difficult than it really is. Centuries of ritual have made ordinary people nervous of prayer; we don’t think that we can say the right words. Prayer meetings are often intimidating because people are listening and some people make wonderful speeches to God...
At the end of this talk I am going to teach you to pray. It will take about 60 seconds!
Third, because you are not getting enough practice! A month ago I ran in a trail race in the Lake District. Five miles in a photographer popped out from behind a wall and took my picture – it was a surprise, I had no opportunity to put on a smiley face. When I found his photograph on a running website I got the shock of my life; I looked like a corpse in running shorts! I had not run for four weeks before and the lack of fitness showed in the desperate expression on my face.
Prayer works the same way, you need to keep in practice. The more you pray the more you are able to pray.
So here is the challenge: you grow as you experience God’s presence in prayer. Are you going to resolve to pray until prayer comes to you as naturally as breathing?.
Challenge
Here’s another observation from Tony Campolo:
“Are our churches merely creating consumers of religious products and programmes? Are we creating a self-isolating, self-serving, self-perpetuating, self-centred subculture instead of a world penetrating, world serving, world transforming and God-centred culture?”
This is a penetrating question. Being a Christian does not work if our personal agenda is at the heart of what we do. That is why so many Christians are rather sad specimens who are always complaining – they are not getting what they want. Shift the balance towards loving others and everything changes: Love the world of God, love the people of God, love those opportunities you get to be closer to Jesus, breaking the bread matters... prayer is as natural as breathing!
If your joy has gone, that’s how you get it back.
Coda
People worry about commitment today. We are worried about what it will do to us. A friend of mine once heard a child walking home from Sunday school singing his version of that mornings song[3], “I will make you vicious old men”! Maybe his misreading of the words was inspired by some of the people he had met in church. Luke tells us something significant at the end of this paragraph (47) and it is a direct paralell with a description of Jesus in his gospel (Luke 2:52). Jeus was attractive and the gospel made these people attractive![4]
A little detail in John’s gospel highlights this, “The word became flesh and lived amongst us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of the only begotten who came from the Father, full of grace and truth”[5]. The impression Jesus left with people was grace.
So let’s learn to pray. Say after me, “Full of grace and truth”. Now we just add a little bit, say this after me, “Lord make me full of grace and truth”. There, you just took the word of God and turned it into a prayer.
Simple!
[1] A better translation of this is, “... the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. We are storming Hell, right!
[2] The word ekklesia – ‘church’ is an assembly of people and never a building.
[3] Which older readers will know goes, “I will make you fishers of men”
[4] Here’s a thought, “... make the teaching about our God and Saviour attractive in every way”, Titus 2:10
[5] John 1:14