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Lessons From The First Church (Acts 2:42-47)
Introduction
Our text for tonight's message is taken from Acts 2:42-47. After the Lord Jesus died and rose again from the dead, he appeared to the disciples and gave them the Great Commission. Subsequently, he ascended onto heaven. You can imagine the situation. The disciples had just lost someone they love dearly. The 12 disciples, minus Judas Iscariot, who was replaced by Matthias, and the other believers—altogether 120 believers—were gathered together in the upper room. At that point in time the church had not yet been established. They were commanded to preach the gospel beginning at Jerusalem, where Judaism was most powerful and influential, and onto Judea and Samaria, and onto the uttermost parts of the world. But how could they do that?
Well, in Acts 1:14, they came together with one accord, which means with one heart. And they came together with one heart to pray. In other words, before the churches were established at Jerusalem and the surrounding region, and the gospel expanded throughout the Roman world, and later on the Apostle Paul received the Macedonian call and for the first time the gospel entered into the continent of Europe—there was first the prayer meeting. Before all these things could happen, it all began with the prayer meeting. Charles Spurgeon once preached a sermon titled “Only a Prayer Meeting.” People always do not think much of the prayer meeting. But do you realise that before the church can start any gospel work, whether it is the local ministry or foreign ministry, it always begins with the prayer meeting.
How did we start the mission work in Myanmar? How did our mission pastors start First BP Church, followed by Ngalti BP Church, and then Truth Theological College? Was it not from a humble prayer meeting? Take a moment and consider the lives of the apostles, including the 120 believers, at the tail end of their lives when they all looked back and saw how the Holy Scriptures were written. The churches were established and every church had her own pastor, elders, and deacons. The members were taught the word of God. They were encouraged. Some were called by God to go out as missionaries. And many more churches were established. How did all that happen? As they traced the roots, it would lead them to that eventful day where they all were gathered together in a prayer meeting. Isn't it amazing?
And this is not only applicable to the church, but to our individual lives as well. Our marriages, our families, our children, the decisions we make pertaining to our education, our careers, should all be traced to the prayer meeting. One day we may say to our sons and daughters, ‘Do not be proud. Do not forget God. Do you know what has brought you here today? Only a prayer meeting.’ When we come to Acts chapter 2, we were told that Peter preached the first message in the New Testament, and there was an overwhelming response. About 3,000 souls were saved and were baptised, and they became members of the first church in the entire New Testament.
So the first church was established with about 3,000 over members. What kind of a church was it? This is what we want to learn for today’s message. The title is “Lessons From The First Church”. There is no perfect church on this earth, but if there is any church that is the purest and the most devoted to Jesus Christ and closest to the perfect church, it would be this first church in Acts chapter 2. And everything recorded for us in the Bible about their church activities, practices, and what they did as a church, today we are following.
Where do you think we get the idea of giving of our tithes and offerings on the Lord’s day, or having pastors and elders as leaders of the church, and preaching the word of God, or deacons serving tables, or Christian fellowship, holy communion, prayer meetings and so forth? From this first church in the book of Acts. God has given to us the first Christian church as the basis and pattern for us to follow.
If one day your child has to go overseas to study or work, or you have to leave this church for whatever reasons and you need to find a church, what kind of a church should you find? You take this first church as the basis. What kind of a church do we want Bethel to be? Again, we take this first church as the basis. There are many valuable lessons we can learn about this first church. But we will only consider Acts 2:42–47.
I. A Devoted Church (Acts 2:42a)
Let us begin with verse 42. “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” The first thing we can learn is that it is a devoted church. “And they continued steadfastly”. What does it mean to continue steadfastly? It means they were consistently devoted to the things of God. They were persevering. They were not sometimes hot and sometimes cold, but they were consistently devoted to the church and all the spiritual activities that we are going to learn.
Dear friend, in our Christian walk, sometimes we see people come and go, right? Let’s say you see someone serving God together with you, and along the way the person gives up and walks away from the ministry. Are you not discouraged and disappointed? Most certainly. But let’s say the person is an unbeliever, just a professing believer. Obviously, we do not know for sure who are the true believers. But let’s assume we do know and he or she is actually an unbeliever, then it all makes sense, right? For the unbeliever to give up and walk away. It is natural. It is a spontaneous thing to do. Why? Because who are the people who will continue steadfastly to the very end? The believers.
You see, it is a sad reality that the local church is made up of sheep and goats. Sheep is a reference to the believers. Goats refers to the unbelievers (Matthew 25:32-33). Only the believers will continue steadfastly to the very end. The unbelievers will not. That is why as a church we welcome the unbelievers to attend our worship services to hear the gospel message. We want them to hear the truth, believe in the truth, and be saved. But one thing we must never do, and that is to make them members of the church and serve together with God’s people.
Some people think that by getting them to serve, by getting them to be active, by getting them to join us as members, maybe they will believe in God. We must never do that. Remember the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-15) So the first thing we see in the first church is that they were true believers in that they were consistently devoted to the church. They persevered in the things of God.
II. A Bible-Focused Church (Acts 2:42b)
The second thing we can learn is that it is a Bible focused church. “They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine”. The apostles doctrine means the apostles teaching. God used the apostles to write the New Testament and it was to be the foundation of the church. Primarily the apostles doctrine refers to the New Testament. But the New Testament is consistent with the Old Testament. So a better way to describe it would be the Word of God.
Let me ask you a question. How do you continue steadfastly in the word of God? Or when you say a church is continuing steadfastly in the word of God, what do you mean? Firstly, there is the faithful preaching and teaching of God’s word. But what happens when we only preach and teach God’s word, but we do not do? Is that faithful or not?
We preach about love, but we do not love. We preach about godliness, but when the people are living in sin we do not do anything. Is that faithful or not? No. So there must also be a commitment to obey God’s word. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” Notice the apostles doctrine is at the top of the list that the believers continue steadfastly. That is just how important the word of God is.
If the church is not faithful to the word of God, we can forget about all the other activities. They will surely fall, no matter how interesting or exciting those programs may be, because the foundation is weak or there is no foundation at all.
Whenever people look for a church, oftentimes they will first look at the fellowship. Do they have this program or that program? Do they have activities that will cater to my children or the young people’s group? Or how active or inactive are the people? Some will even look for a church based on the location or the size of the church. No, we must first look at the church commitment to the word of God. Is the church faithful or not? That must be at the top of our priorities.
Think about this: If we have a church that is not committed to the word of God, but we have a very active and vibrant Sunday school, what is the difference between the Sunday school and the child care centre? Or the swimming club or the soccer club? They are just as active and vibrant. The difference is in the word of God—that is to be our foundation.
III. A Fellowshipping Church (Acts 2:42c)
Thirdly, it is a fellowshipping church. They continue steadfastly in fellowship. What is fellowship? Sometimes we hear people say the church has no fellowship, or the church has good fellowship. What do they mean? When we come together and talk about the best restaurant to eat, or where is the best place to buy our groceries, or which neighbourhood is best to live in, is that fellowship?
When we talk about fellowship, I would like you to turn with me to 1 John 1:3. Allow me to read for you. 1 John 1:3: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” In other words, every time we fellowship with one another, the reality is that we are actually fellowshipping with God. He is the one who makes us brothers and sisters in Christ. He’s the one who makes our fellowship possible. So fellowship is something that belongs only to the believers. That is why we often attach the word Christian to the word fellowship—Christian fellowship.
The word fellowship, koinonia, can mean partnership, participation, communion. And this word occurs about 19 times in the New Testament. Most of the time it is translated as fellowship; and other times it is translated as distribution, contribution, communion, communication, depending on the context. When the believers distribute the word of God to one another, when they contribute toward other believers needs, when they come together and commune at the Lord's table, or when they communicate their faith by being examples and encouraging others to live godly lives, they are practicing koinonia—fellowship.
So when we fellowship with one another in any one of these spiritual activities, we must understand that we are a covenant family, with God as our heavenly Father and we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. Why must the believers continue steadfastly in fellowship? Because sometimes it is not easy. There may be things we do not agree with. There may be situations and circumstances in life that will hinder our fellowship. But we must persevere.
The church should try her best to establish the different ministries for the people to exercise Christian fellowship, Christian brotherly love. And it is not just about you receiving from the fellowship, but more importantly contributing to the fellowship. You see, when people attend a fellowship meeting, their first thought is always what can I get out of the meeting. When they feel that they cannot get much out of the meeting, they will not attend. They do not understand about Christian fellowship. Everyone must come with this heart to contribute, to communicate, to distribute. That is the idea.
Therefore, our attitude should be how can I give towards the meeting? How can I encourage the people? If I do not attend, how would my absence affect the people in the meeting? That should be our attitude. So when we look at the first church, the believers continued steadfastly in fellowship.
IV. An Obedient Church (Acts 2:42d)
Fourthly, it is an obedient church. Look at the next phrase: and in breaking of bread. Why do we call it an obedient church? When Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, he said, ‘Do this as often as ye can in remembrance of me’ (Luke 22:19). And here we see in the first church the believers continued steadfastly in obeying the Lord's commandment in keeping the Lord's Supper.
Today, with the advancement of technology, many churches have their live streaming worship services. Some people may say, well I do not need to worship God in the church physically. I can worship him anywhere I want, in my own house together with my family. While it is true that we can worship God anywhere, but do you realise that there are certain things only the church can do that you and I cannot do on our own at home? We can listen to recorded sermons on Sundays. We can give of our tithes and offerings nowadays through bank transfers. We can pray. We can even meet other people virtually and fellowship with them through Zoom or other online resources. But we cannot administer the Lord's Supper. And we cannot administer baptism.
These are the two sacraments that God has specially given to the church. It is only in the church that the people can come together and obey the Lord's commandment to do this as often as you can in remembrance of me.
V. A Praying Church (Acts 2:42e)
Fifthly, it is a praying church. Look at the last part of verse 42: and in prayers. If you want to know whether a church is spiritually healthy or not, look at the prayer meeting. Are the church leaders attending the prayer meeting? Are the fathers representing the families attending the prayer meeting? There's a saying: a prayerless church is a powerless church. The opposite is true. A praying church is a powerful church.
Remember a moment ago we talked about how the early church was able to preach the gospel beginning at Jerusalem and then Judea, Samaria and onto the uttermost parts of the world. The gospel spread throughout the Roman world and later on even onto the continent of Europe. But as we trace the roots, it all began with a small group of people gathering in the upper room to pray. It was a prayer meeting.
VI. A Giving Church (Acts 2:44-47)
So it is a devoted church, a Bible focused church, a fellowshipping church, an obedient church, a praying church, and finally it is a giving church. Let us look at verses 44 and 45: “And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.”
It must not be mistaken that the early church supported communism. Communism believes in the common ownership of everything. We must understand the context. In those days, the Christians were being persecuted by the Romans, and they were also being persecuted by the Jews. When they converted to Christianity from Judaism, they were ostracised by the society and even their own families. They lost their jobs, their homes. There are nowhere to turn to, no one to turn to, but only the church.
It was in such times like this that all the believers came together and shared everything they had. Those who had houses sold their houses. Those who had goods sold their goods and shared everything they had with those who had need. That was the context. It was a giving church.
Today we may not be in that kind of situation, by the grace of God, but we must still be faithful in our giving. Our giving may be used to advance the gospel work. We may not be a big church. We are considered a small church. But thank God for the cheerful and sacrificial giving every week that today we are able to support all the local ministries including the mission churches in Myanmar. And God willing, we may even start a children orphanage home in Myanmar next year.
Look at verse 46: “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.” The breaking of bread refers to the Lord's Supper and the meat refers to the meal that accompanied the Lord's Supper, sometimes known as the love feast or agape feast. It was a communal meal.
Later on, it was abused by the people because the rich believers refused to share with the poor believers and there was gluttony, and even false believers crept into the church to join those meals. You can read about the love feast in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and in the book of Jude. Once again, the early believers were consistently devoted, united as one as they met together in the church. They were truly a devoted church, a Bible focused church, a fellowshipping church, an obedient church, a praying church, and a giving church. Always praising God.
Verse 47, notice the phrase, “having favour with all the people,” which means through their lives, those people who were outside the church were attracted to the church. This was in line with what our Lord Jesus taught his disciples in John 13:34: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” And the result was the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
Conclusion
Dear friend, this is the kind of church God is pleased to bless. This is the kind of church we want our families to worship in. And we want battle to pattern herself after this first church to be a devoted church, a Bible focused church, a fellowshipping church, an obedient church, a praying church, and a giving church. All to the glory of God.
Closing Prayer
Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we come before thee and we give thee thanks for how thou has established Bethel BP church that we are what we are today. And as we learned of the first church in the entire New Testament and how thou has enabled the people to establish the church with about 3,000 over members, and we have learned what kind of a church it was. Truly, it was a devoted church, a Bible focused church, a fellowshipping church, an obedient church, a praying church, and a giving church.
And as we have drawn all these spiritual lessons, we want to pattern our church after this first church in the New Testament. This is a spiritual work that none of us can wrought through our own strength and by our own means. It is through the wonderworking of thy Spirit and through thy precious word that thou has given to us that we live out the truth that we have been taught. So help us that we will all be faithful to thee and be the kind of church that thou will be pleased to bless. We give thee thanks and we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.