A few years ago, some wag told his friends he wasn’t going to any more ball games. Why? Well he said…
Whenever I go to a game, they ask for money.
The other fans don't care about me.
The seats are too hard.
Coach never visits me.
The referee makes calls I don't agree with.
Some of the games go into overtime and make me late for dinner.
The band plays songs I don't know.
I have other things to do at game time.
My parents took me to too many games when I was growing up.
I know more than the coaches do anyway.
I can be just as good a fan at the lake.
I won't take my kids to a game either. They must choose for themselves which teams to follow. (Mike and Amy Nappa, A Heart Like His, Barbour, 1999, pp.182-183; www.PreachingToday.com)
It’s silly, isn’t it? But no more silly than the excuses I’ve heard from people for not participating the in the services of the church. So why do people use them? Is it because we have different expectations for church than we do for ball games? Sure we do, but are they the right expectations?
People want soft seats, a visit from the “coach” every once in a while, and familiar music, but is that really what church is all about fundamentally? When we cut through all the extraneous stuff, what should be our fundamental commitments as a church? What should be our principle priorities? To what should we devote ourselves primarily if we want to be all that God has called us to be?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Acts 2, Acts 2, where we see the first church’s fundamental commitments, by which they turned their world upside down.
Acts 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (ESV)
There you have it, in a nutshell – How the early church came to be all that God called it to be. They devoted themselves to three (3) things – the little word, “and,” being the dividing point. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching AND to the fellowship, which included the breaking of bread, AND to prayer.
That’s what we need to do, if we’re going to be all that God has called us to be. First, we need to devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching, which is our New Testament. In other words, we need to…
DEVOTE OURSELVES TO GOD’S WORD.
We must dedicate ourselves to learning and applying the principles found in the Bible. We must commit ourselves to living in obedience to God’s Word. That’s what the first church did.
Acts 2:43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. (ESV)
The apostles taught and performed miracles to back up their teaching. That was the reason for the “signs and wonders.” In 2 Corinthians 12:12, the apostle Paul writes to a group of people who doubt the authority of his message, and he says to them, “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.” Hebrews 2:3-4 says, “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to by us (i.e., by the apostles) by those who heard, while God bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles…”
God confirmed the apostle’s teaching with signs and wonders. The miracles proved that their message came from God, and “awe came upon every soul,” verse 43 says. Literally, they were filled with fear, with respect for God’s Word.
Now, I’m not going to perform miracles for you today, but even so, we need no less a respect for God’s Word than what they had in the first church. They DEVOTED themselves to the “apostles teaching,” and that’s what we must do if we’re going to accomplish the mission before us.
When Beth Moore and her husband, Keith, spent time in war-torn Angola, she said, “I learned something in one of the rural villages that will mark my teaching and response to the Word of God.” They were trying to absorb the sights and smells of living death, when their new friend, Isak Pretorius, told them, ‘One of the most frustrating things is that in villages where they received seed, they often eat the seed rather than planting it and bringing forth the harvest.’
Beth Moore says, “I couldn't get the statement out of my mind and suddenly had an answer to the question I most often ask God: Why do some people see the results of the Word and others don't?” For example, she says, “Why have many of us read books on forgiving people, known the teachings were true and right, cried over them, marked them up with highlighters, yet remain in our bitterness? Because we ate the seed instead of sowing it.” (Beth Moore, Stepping Up: A Journey Through the Psalms of Ascent, LifeWay Press, 2007; www.PreachingToday.com)
How true that is. We hear the Word of God. We read it, and some of us even study it sometimes, but it has so little effect because we don’t apply it to our lives. If we want to reap a harvest of our full potential in Christ, then we must ask the Holy Spirit to make God’s Word work in our every day circumstances. It’s not enough just to hear the Word, We must do it too! We must, with God’s help, put it into practice. We must obey Him. Or as it says of these early believers in Acts 2, we must, with reverence and awe, “devote ourselves to the apostle’s teaching.” Then second, we must…
DEVOTE OURSELVES TO FELLOWSHIP.
We must dedicate ourselves to loving one another no matter what. We must commit ourselves to sharing our lives together. The word for “fellowship” literally means “to share things in common.” And that’s literally what we must do. We must share things in common.
I.e., we must share common material goods. We must share our stuff. That’s what the first church did.
Acts 2:44-45 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. (ESV)
This is not communism – the forced sharing of everything I own with the state. No. This is caring koinonia – the voluntary sharing of what God has given me with those who need it, even if I have to go without. This is seeing a need within the Body of Christ and doing whatever I can to meet that need, even to the point of self-sacrifice. That’s how the first church operated, and that’s what we must do if we’re going to be all that God has called us to be.
More than that, we must share a common mind. We must share the same commitment to a single purpose. That’s what the first church did.
Acts 2:46a And day by day, attending the temple together… (ESV)
Lit., “they attended constantly with one mind in the temple.” There was union – they got together, yes! But more than that, there was unity – they had one mind. It’s possible to have union without unity – just tie two cats together by the tail & that’s what you’ve got. We can all be together in the same place, but underneath the surface, there can be some scratching and clawing going on.
That’s NOT what we see here in the first church. There was union AND unity. That’s not to say there was never any conflict. There certainly was, as is evident later on in the book of Acts, but they worked their conflicts out. They didn’t just leave like so many people do today.
They stayed, worked out their differences, and remained committed to each other, and that’s what we must do if we’re going to be all that God wants us to be. We must be committed to working out our differences. We must be committed to a unity of purpose. We must be committed to one another, no matter what. We must share common materials. We must share a common mind.
And we must share a common meal. Simply put, we must eat together, and eat together often. That’s what the first church did.
Acts 2:46b And breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts… (ESV)
Not only did they meet as one big group in the Temple courts, in smaller groups, they ate together in each other’s homes. And that’s where they also celebrated the Lord’s Supper – in their homes. When it says, “They broke bread” (vs.46), that’s exactly what it means. “Breaking Bread” is a technical phrase in the New Testament for Communion (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 10:16; 11:23-24).
But back then it was not an elaborate ritual, administered only by professional clergy in ornate settings. No! It was a part of their everyday meals. When a small group of believers got together to eat, they remembered the Lord’s death when they broke the bread and drank the wine.
As they shared a meal, they shared their love for the Lord, and that’s what we must do, if we’re going to be the community of believers God has called us to be. Let’s not focus on the elaborate rituals. Let’s just share our love for the Lord as we share meals together in our homes or wherever!
A preacher was asked to teach a seminary class about Communion, but he wasn’t sure quite what to do, so he went to an older colleague and asked him, “How shall I begin? What should I do?”
The older colleague said, “The first thing you must do is go to a kitchen and learn how to cook.”
The preacher said, “Why should I learn how to cook if all I want to do is to teach the meaning of Communion?”
“Ah,” said his older colleague, “you must know this. You will never be able to understand the meaning of Communion until you know the love of cooking and the joy of those who are satisfied.” (Wayne Brouwer, “No Ordinary People,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 127; www.PreachingToday.com)
Communion is sharing a meal together, enjoying the food and one another’s company with the Lord right at the center of that meal.
It’s amazing what happens when God’s people eat together. It is a holy thing that brings them together in other ways as well. When we share a common meal, it’s easier to share a common mind and common materials as well. What we’re talking about is sharing our lives together in genuine, honest relationships without masks.
Chuck Swindoll, in his book, Dropping Your Guard, talks about the Europeans who came to settle North America and found it vast and unexplored. “Self-reliant” was the watchword, and the scout, the mountain man or pioneer, with his axe and rifle over his shoulder, became the national hero.
In the early days, the government gave away quarter sections of land to anyone who would homestead, in order to encourage settlement. People flocked west from crowded cities and villages to have their own land at last. Before they could farm the land they had chosen, their first job was to build a sod hut to live in, and most families built them right smack-dab in the middle of their quarter section. The reason was obvious. People who had never owned land before had a new sense of pride and ownership. They wanted to feel that everything they saw belonged to them.
But that custom changed quickly. This chosen isolation did strange things to people. Occasionally, photographers went out to record life on the frontier and returned with photographs of weird men, wild-eyed women, and haunted-looking children. Before long, most of these families learned to move their houses to one corner of their property to live in proximity with three other families who also lived on the corners of their property. Four families living together, sharing life and death, joy and sorrow, abundance and want, had a good chance of making it. (Chuck Swindoll, Dropping Your Guard, Word Books, 1983, p. 23; quoting Bruce Larson, There's a Lot More to Health Than Not Being Sick; www.PreachingToday.com)
For me, that’s the picture of a healthy, thriving church. It is not self-reliant superstars staking a claim for Christ and His Kingdom. No! It is God’s ordinary people, sharing life and death, joy and sorrow, abundance and want, as they share their lives together. That way, they not only survive; they thrive even in hostile situations. Let’s start by sharing a meal together, lots of meals, and see where it takes us.
If we’re going to be all that God wants us to be, then we must devote ourselves to God’s Word, we must devote ourselves to fellowship, and #3, we must…
DEVOTE OURSELVES TO WORSHIP.
We must dedicate ourselves to prayer and praise. We must be committed to coming together in joyful celebration before our lord. That’s what the first church did.
Verse 42 says, “They devoted themselves…to the prayers.” The question is: What kind of prayers? What was the focus of their prayers? Well, verse 47 tells us, They were “praising God.” Literally they were shouting for joy! Their prayer meetings were not dull and boring. They were joyful celebrations of the living Lord, Jesus Christ.
They devoted themselves to a joyful, celebrative worship, and that’s what we must do if we’re going to be all that God wants us to be. We must devote ourselves, as a church, to fun, joyful celebrations when we come together to worship the Lord.
Six-year-old Angie and her four-year-old brother Joel were sitting together in church. Joel giggled, sang, and talked out loud.
Finally, his big sister had had enough. “You're not supposed to talk out loud in church.”
“Why? Who's going to stop me?” Joel asked.
Angie pointed to the back of the church and said, “See those two men standing by the door? They're hushers.” (Gusty Chartrand, “Kids of the Kingdom,” Christian Reader, www. PreachingToday.com)
Is that what worship is all about – being still and quiet for an hour? That was not the case in the New Testament. Now certainly, there is a place for silence and reflection in our worship. And certainly, there must be some order, but never to the point where we become as quiet as a tomb. True worship is noisy at times with shouts of joy as we celebrate what God has done for us.
Nisswa, Minnesota, is a town known for its ever popular Nisswa Turtle Races. Every Wednesday evening in the summer months, the people of Nisswa and the surrounding communities gather at a designated parking lot for the weekly races.
It's big excitement and big business. Vendors rent turtles; others sell “turtle products.” And the fans gather early, placing their chairs and blankets in the best viewing sites. In one recent contest, 435 turtles raced in heats of fifteen over a six-foot-long course.
Bif, the announcer, calls the turtles to their mark, gives them the “Go!” . . . and the crowd goes wild. People stand, jump, and wave their hands in the air, imploring their turtles to be unturtle-like. The excitement grows and finally reaches a boiling point as the preliminary winners all gather for the championship race.
Amid unrestrained shouts and cheers, the first turtle crosses the finish line, and the winning “trainer” receives five dollars – along with a turtle necklace. (Per Nilsen, Burnsville, Minnesota; www.PreachingToday.com)
Now, if those normally quiet, reserved folks of Northern Minnesota can get excited about turtles and a $5 prize, then certainly, we can get excited about the Lord. Let me tell you, if we could capture that kind of excitement in the church, then we wouldn’t be able to keep people away.
Look at what happened to that first church
Acts 2:47 And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
In his book, Acts 29, Dr. Terry Teykl tells the story of a small town where two city workers were doing something rather strange. Along one side of Main Street, one worker was digging a hole in the ground and the other was filling it up.
The mayor drove by, and after watching them dig and fill several holes, stopped and confronted the men, demanding an explanation.
“Well, sir,” said the first man, “we work for the city planting trees, and usually there are three of us – one to dig the hole, one to plant the tree, and one to cover it up. The guy who plants the tree called in sick today, but,” he proudly announced, “we’re here and we’re doing our jobs anyway.”
They had lost sight of the objective and were just going through the motions. Sometimes, I think that happens to church members, even pastors. It’s easy to fall into the habit of going to a worship service, putting a little money in the offering, and maybe attending a Bible Study or two during the week.
We can go through the motions of “church” all the while losing sight of the objective, the reason why God planted His church in the first place, and it’s not for our own comfort and benefit. No! God planted the church so He could “add to their number day by day those who are being saved”. God put us here to rescue a lost and dying world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So let’s stop going through the motions and devote ourselves to the mission He has given us. Let’s devote ourselves to living out the truth of God’s Word, to sharing our lives together in genuine fellowship, and to joyful worship, all for the ultimate purpose of saving people from their sins and adding new followers of Christ to the church.
Don’t be content just to be here Sunday after Sunday. Instead, let God use you to make a real difference in a dying world.
