Stories, Part 4

The early church was incredibly effective.  From it’s modest beginnings at the beginning of the book of Acts, with only about 120 believers at the time of Jesus’ being taken up to heaven, to having churches filled with believers in every town around the empire by the end of Acts. Why was the early church so effective?

This message based on Acts 2:41-47.  To read this now, click here.

The early church was incredibly effective.  From it’s modest beginnings at the beginning of the book of Acts, with only about 120 believers at the time of Jesus’ being taken up to heaven, to having churches filled with believers in every town around the empire by the end of Acts. 
 
How was the early church so effective?  Why was the early church so effective?  In our reading this morning, we see a glimpse of the earliest church and what practices they carried out.  Today we call them disciplines, efforts designed to place ourselves in a position to better respond to God.  In verse 42, the first verse we read, is where we get this glimpse.  “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  I identified three basic disciplines in this reading, three steps to a closer relationship with God.  And these steps are so simple and so basic to our faith that every Christian should be involved in doing at least these three. 
 
The first of the three steps we see is that the believers of the early church devoted themselves to the apostles teaching.  We don’t have the apostles today, but we do have the next best thing.  We have the New Testament, which is essentially the collection of letters and books that they left behind. Through our New Testament, we have access to the teaching of the apostles. 
 
Just as the early followers devoted themselves daily to listening to the teaching of the apostles, we can too, and we should.  Daily reading and studying the Scriptures will teach us what the apostles taught them.  More than that, as we believe that God inspired the writing of Scripture, through Bible reading, we are being taught directly by God. 
 
I don’t know how many times that I have come across a section of Scripture that for years I interpreted one way, and later a new meaning came to me, I understood it a different way.  It said something different to me.  The reason is that I had changed, I had grown, my circumstances had changed and I needed a different word.  When we read Scriptures with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit, that Spirit helps us to interpret what we read.  That’s why it’s not enough to read it once and that’s it.  Each time through we can come to new understandings.  It’s called the Living Word because our living God continuously gives us new understanding.
 
In Acts 17:11 we read about the Bereans.  “They were more noble in character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”  The Bereans were described as “more noble in character” because they studied the Scriptures every day.  They took in what Paul had said, they took in all that they saw, but they studied Scriptures and believed what they found in the Scriptures. 
 
It might be good at this point to mention that the Bereans didn’t have access to the complete collection of letters that we call the New Testament.  When they studied the Scriptures, it was the essentially the Old Testament that they had.  Don’t be just a New Testament Christian.  Study the Old Testament too.  As Paul wrote to Timothy (2 Tim 3:16), “all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”  We need to study all Scripture so that we will be well equipped for God’s work in us.
 
The second step is fellowship and the breaking of bread.  I’m going to go so far as to say that represents church attendance.  I don’t think that’s going to far, the believers spent time together, they gathered everyday, they celebrated the Lord’s Supper together, all the things that we do when we get together.  But it’s not just getting together for worship – it’s getting together and sharing our stories, to help others, and sharing our struggles, so that others can share their stories of they faced similar struggles.
 
It’s important to get-together with other believers.  Paul speaks of the church body in physical body terms, to Paul being a member of the church was like being a part of vital living organism; you were like a vital organ in the living body of believers. 
 
In the book The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren talks about the importance of church attendance, not just at worship Sunday Morning, but everything the church does. He says that we were called to belong, not just to believe.  We are a part of the body of Christ, and we experience that through being a part of the local church.
 
Rick Warren talks about some of the benefits of being a part of the local church, of church attendance. 

• Being a part of the church family identifies you as a genuine believer.  You can’t claim to be following Christ if you’re not committed to any specific group of disciples.
• A Church family helps you develop your spiritual muscles.  You won’t’ grow just attending Sunday worship service, but participation in the full life of a church will help you grow – and this means sharing your stories with others here.
• The Body of Christ needs you.  God has a unique role for you to play in his family; service to your local church is your ministry.
• You will share in Christ’s mission in the world; as members of Christ’s body, we are his hands and feet, he works through us.
• God has created Church to meet our five deepest needs – 1) a purpose to live, 2) people to live for, 3) principles to live by, 4) a profession to live out, and 5) power to live on.

 
It’s through regular contact with our church family that we receive the encouragement to fight on, the comfort in times of trial, the courage and the promise to continue to live by faith.  I don’t know how people can be Christians and not go to a church.  I’m not sure they can.  Our call to faith is a call to relationship.  A relationship with God, and with our fellow believers.  You can’t be a part of the body of Christ, apart from the body of Christ.
 
The third step is prayer.  The early believers devoted themselves to prayer.  Jesus regularly prayed when he was on earth.  He often went into the hills to be alone and pray.  Sometimes his disciples went with him, sometimes he went alone.  But he found the time to pray.  He was setting the example that every believer needs to follow.  We can’t be in a relationship with someone and not talk to them.  Our relationship with God is no different.  We have to spend time in prayer. 
 
In Matthew 6, Jesus gives us directions on how to pray, and he writes, when you pray, not if you pray, when you pray.  It is assumed that you pray, it is required that you pray.  And so he gives some direction.
 
James 5:16 is one of my favorite passages on the importance of prayer, “confess your sins to each other and pray for each other, so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”  Not only do we need each other, we need to pray for each other.
 
The early church devoted themselves to prayer.  They devoted themselves to all three of these steps, and God did wonderful things through them.  And sharing their stories with people was a key to the growth they experienced.  I’ve invited Leroy to join us this morning to share some of his story…