Word of Salvation – Vol.38 No.01 – January 1993
The Church: Then And Now
Sermon by Rev. John Haverland on Acts 2:42-47
Reading: Psalm 84
Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,
In the past few decades there has been a lot written about the church. Most Christian bookshops will stock quite a selection of titles on what the church is or ought to be.
A lot of this has been written as a response to the great changes that have taken place in society. These changes have affected the church, not always for the better. Instead of the church shaping society, often society has shaped the church.
This was pointed out in a speech Dr. Richard Halverson, the chaplain to the US Senate, gave to the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church.
He said: ‘In the beginning the church was a fellowship of men and women centring on the living Christ. Then the church moved to Greece, where it became a philosophy. Then it moved to Rome, where it became an institution. Next it moved to Europe where it became a culture, and finally it moved to America where it became an enterprise.’
Today too many are wondering about the place of the church in our society. In the face of this confusion we need to be clear on what the church is, what should she be busy with, what should she be focusing on. One of the best places to turn for a study on the church is the book Acts. Here we get a picture of the life and character of the NT church.
In his commentary on Acts John Stott looks at these verses under four headings. Today we want to look at the church then and now as:
1. A Learning Church
2. A Loving Church
3. A Worshipping Church
4. A Witnessing Church
- A Learning Church
When Jesus told his followers to go out into the world and make disciples of all nations He not only commanded them to baptise but also to teach everything He had commanded them.
On that Pentecost day 3000 were converted and baptised. But now these new converts had to be taught; they needed instruction. We are told that “They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching.”
The apostles’ teaching centred on the truth about Jesus. Peter had proclaimed that truth on the day of Pentecost as he preached about Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and exaltation; the basics of the gospel. This apostolic truth is recorded in the Bible and the church was built on this teaching.
But those early disciples didn’t just learn the basics; they stretched their minds and memories to plumb the depths of what they could know about God in Christ.
This devotion to the apostles’ doctrine is lacking in many churches and in many Christians today. This has a number of causes.
a) Sometimes the cause lies with the man in the pulpit. Many Christians go to church hungry for the Word of God, wanting to grow, eager to learn, but their pastor feeds them milk and not meat, and so they go away disappointed and just as hungry.
Or there is the case of a liberal pastor who has lost confidence in the authority of the Bible and so has no message to give.
b) Sometimes this lack of learning is caused by an anti-intellectual attitude. Some churches make ignorance a mark of spirituality. They want ‘no books but the Bible’. They despise reading and study because they think God will reveal his truth directly to them through his Spirit.
A minister was preaching to his congregation one day and in the course of his sermon he made the point that you didn’t need to go to a theological college to be a good minister. Now there is some truth in that. Just going to a Bible college or a seminary won’t make a good preacher. But he went on and on about this and was clearly promoting an anti- intellectual attitude in the congregation.
It is this sort of attitude that leads to sermonettes rather than sermons. Solid teaching in the worship service gives place to films and drama and dance.
Os Guinness, a clear Christian thinker, is very scathing about this lack of theological depth in many Christians:
‘American evangelicalism’, he says, ‘is awash in a sloppy, sentimental theology that wouldn’t empower a clockwork mouse, let alone a disciple of Christ in a tough, modern world.’
This is sadly true of the situation in Australia and New Zealand today as well.
c) A third reason for the lack of learning in the church is a lack of zeal on the part of the members.
That could not have been said of the NT church. They ‘devoted themselves’ to the apostles’ teaching.
The word means to constantly attend to, to be intently engaged in, to continue in.
I wonder if that is true of you: Are you keen to hear the preaching of God’s Word?
Are you diligent in a personal reading and study of the Bible? Are you a regular attender of a Bible study group, or a fellowship meeting? Do you apply yourself to reading Christian books? Do you make use of seminars that are run in the church or Bible courses that are available?
We too need to be devoted to the apostles’ teaching; to be a church that is learning. But that is not enough. We also need to be
- A Loving Church
It isn’t enough to just have sound doctrine – correct teaching must be expressed in a loving community. You can see this in the fellowship of the early church.
‘Fellowship’ refers to a spiritual bond that exists between people who know Christ and are part of the community of his people. It is a closeness that is experienced by people who have a common faith in Jesus.
You can see that closeness in the way the early church shared their possessions with each other. They had ‘everything in common’. ‘Selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need.”
They may have done this because of the pressure that was put on them because of their faith. Some of them lost their jobs; others were forced out of their homes; still others were unable to buy in the markets because they were Christians. So they needed help from the Christian community.
As we read this today it is important to note that what we have here is a description of what happened, not a prescription of what ought to happen. In other words Luke is describing what they did, not what we ought to do. He is not giving this as a command to all believers for all time.
This is an important principle to bear in mind when seeking to interpret the Bible. We need to distinguish between what is described and what is prescribed.
Today we are not commanded to have everything in common, nor are we expected to sell up all we own. Yet what we are called to is fellowship, unity, community. We are called to sharing and caring, to giving and generosity. In a word, we are called to love. To be a loving church.
This means that the church community should be a place of joy, of fun, of laughter. It ought to be a community where people feel they belong. A community in which we open our homes to each other and share our meals together.
This is what the church is all about. It is to be a community where we can learn and laugh together.
The love and fellowship of the church was also seen in their worship.
- It was a Worshipping Church
They not only met in each others’ homes informally, they also met in the temple courts in a more formal and structured setting.
And they met there ‘every day’. Again this is a description of what they were doing. But there is an example in this. They were eager to meet together for worship. They were keen to have that fellowship together. They were so devoted to this that they wanted to meet ‘every day’. How about you? Are you keen to gather for worship; or can you take it or leave it? Are you devoted to the opportunity for teaching and for fellowship and for prayer, or is a Sunday service enough for you?
The early church was devoted to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
The breaking of bread is a reference to the Lord’s Supper, although it seems that this was originally part of a larger meal. The Lord’s Supper reminded the believers of what was central to the Apostles doctrine, which was the person of the Lord Jesus. In this they looked back to his death on the cross, and they looked forward to his coming again.
It was also a sign of their fellowship with the Lord Jesus and with each other.
The prayer referred to here is not personal and private prayer, but the prayer they had together in their meetings, in their worship.
The NT church was a church at prayer. Every major step they undertook was taken with prayer:
The appointment of deacons, the release of Peter, the sending out of missionaries, Paul’s meetings with the elders, all were done in the context of prayer.
This is an example to us too. Are our decisions taken in the context of prayer? Do we always seek the Lord’s guidance on our plans and programmes? Are we devoted to prayer? And prayer not just for ourselves, but for others outside of the church. That too is an important part of the NT church.
- It was a Witnessing Church
If vs 42 describes the internal working of the church, vs 47 reminds us that the church also had an external focus. ‘And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
The early Church wasn’t just about teaching and fellowship and worship, it was also about mission and witness and evangelism. It wasn’t just busy with interior decorating, it was also busy adding on to the exterior of the building. It was a Church looking out; reaching out.
The Church in Acts is a missionary church. In fact the mission of the Church is one of the great themes in Acts: ‘You will be my witnesses,’ said Jesus to his disciples before his ascension.
And that is what they were. Prompted and empowered by the Holy Spirit those first believers carried the gospel into Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the known world.
This work of witnessing wasn’t a sporadic thing. It wasn’t a matter of organising a mission now and then; or an occasional evangelistic thrust into the community. No, this was an ongoing work, a constant activity, and ever present focus. And by God’s grace it produced steady and uninterrupted growth.
In the book of Acts the Holy Spirit gives us important lessons about the church then, that apply to us now.
May God help us to be the Church He has called us to be.
May He, through His Spirit, help us to go on learning about Jesus, to love His people, to worship Him and to be His witnesses until He comes again!
AMEN