Acts 2:42-47 (NIV) 42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Today’s text has been the foundation for countless sermons, lessons, and exposés. I count myself as among the least qualified to ever critique any church, but yet sometimes I cannot help but take a sneak peek at how well we are doing.
The early church was a church of fellowship. What I find interesting is that this is not the first quality mention, yet is the first quality present in most churches today. We have the “fellowship thing” down to a science as they say. Most churches have no lack of fellowship groups and opportunities. Hear me well, this is a great quality for any church of Christian believers! However, fellowship is not the primary function of a church.
Notice some of the other qualities and characteristics: the early church was a learning church; a praying church; a reverent church; and a worshiping church. I have heard is said that a wasted day is a day when we fail to learn something new or fail to delve deeper into something we thought we knew. Christian churches often do well today with the presentation of sermons, messages, and opportunities to learn; yet for Christians today with access to their own Bibles we might add the responsibility of personal study and growth. The early church was devoted to prayer. Just like those early Christians, we too, realize that we cannot meet life circumstances in our own strength and that we do not need to. We can meet life’s challenges with more courage, when we meet with our Heavenly Father first in prayer. When we consider reverence as fear built upon a deep sense of awe, we live in reverence to God because we know the whole earth (not just the church building) is the temple of the living God. Everywhere we go and everything we do should reflect our reverence for our Heavenly Father.
When I stop to think about our churches today in respect to being a place of worship; I pause. There are some churches today that give the sense of attending a rock band concert—everything is for show and entertainment—lights, camera, action! There are some churches today that give the sense of ritualistic roboticism—we follow the script, the same script, and nothing but the script. Somehow I wonder if either of those extremes can truly qualify as worship. Worship is not about us or our needs; it is about giving our Heavenly Father all the glory, honor, and praise due to Him alone.
The early church was a caring church; a sharing church; and a happy church. As a body of believers, we can do everything “right;” we can fellowship, we can learn, we can pray, we can be reverent, and we can worship. All of this will only meet our own needs, and means little if we fail to reach out to others and bring them in. A church that cares for others and shares with those in need; a church that participates in ministries of various kinds, is a church on the right tract of reflecting the love of God to a world in desperate need of love. This leads to being a happy church. The thought comes to my mind that a gloomy Christian is an oxymoron—a contradiction in terms.
Dear Readers, I have no idea what your church affiliation might be, but I would leave you with this question; If you sense your church is not on the right track in some way, if you feel there is room for improvement in some area, what are YOU doing to make a difference?
Gracious Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the example of the early Christian church. Our world is so different now, but we realize these foundational truths remain the same; we are to be loving, caring, sharing, learning, praying, worshiping, in total reverence to You. Show us the areas in our own church that are not on track, and give us motivation to improve. May everything we think, say, and do be to Your honor and glory.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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Email: Dotty Willmon, writefrommyheartblog@gmail.com
Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
