THE CHURCH
By Mac – October 2002
Introduction: This is a lesson, not a preaching, on what
THE Church is that we find in the book of Acts. A couple of years ago, Steve Johnson inspired us all by his
recitation of, as he put it, “the greatest sermon ever preached”. He was, of course, referring to Jesus’
sermon on the mount as recorded in Matthew 5, 6 and 7. Tonight, I would like to talk about what I
believe to be the SECOND greatest sermon ever preached—that was when Peter
spoke on the day of Pentecost—the day THE Church really began. His speech to all that had gathered there
started in Acts 2:14, but in order to understand WHY he stood up, I really need
to go back to the beginning of the chapter and tell you what lead up to that
event. Even better than that, lets go
to the beginning of Acts 1 as this also leads up to the start of the Church.
Acts 1 started with the last teachings of Jesus and then his ascension. This is how Luke records those events: (Recite or read Acts 1:1 through 9). The chapter continues as the disciples are
gathered in Jerusalem and Peter tells them they need to appoint someone to take
over for Judas. The chapter ends this
way: (Recite or read verses 23-26). Now, the church is actually started in Acts 2, and it begins this way: (Recite or read
all of Acts 2).
What I want to teach
tonight, is about this church that Jesus just started through Peter. If you look in acts 2:42 through 47, you
will see some characteristics of the early church…things that we should be
doing as well. “They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teachings
and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
Before I start
talking about these four areas, I want to talk about what makes up a
church. As we all know, the word church
was derived from the two Greek words, “Ek”, meaning out of, and “Kaleo”,
meaning ‘to call’. Or to be “called
out”. In other words, an assembly of
people called out for a purpose. This
purpose is what I will talk about using verses 42-47.
So, if a group of
people are ‘called out’ to make up a church, WHAT IS a church?
Turn to Romans 12,
verses 4 and 5: “Just as each of us has
one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same
function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs
to all the others.” You see, people that are in Christ’s
Church, belong to Him, but also belong to each other.
Now turn to Col
1:18. “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the
firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the
supremacy.”
Let’s talk about how
some churches have described this passage in a pictorial sense. Look at the diagram in front of you. They put God at the Head of the Church, add
a ‘layer’ of Clergy (to help us poor ignorant people on the ‘harder’ portions
of the Bible, as well as to ensure THEIR way of thought is the ONLY way of
thought), and then at the FOOT of the body, are the rest of the people,
normally called Laity.
GOD
Clergy
Laity
But if you look at 1st
Corinthians 12:14-27, you will see that EVERY part is “equal” and there should
be no divisions among the parts. But,
each part is different and has different functions based upon the gifts God has
given to each person in the body.
A better
representation of the TRUE Church is like the second diagram I gave you:
Christ
Leaders/elders
Servants (Deacons)
The Rest (Ministers)
Every person in the
Church has a special purpose. I will
not get into the different Spiritual gifts that we collectively have, but I
would like to just list them and put them into three major categories:
Word, Service, and
Prayer. And remember, these are not
restrictive…you can serve in most areas even if we are not gifted in them…..
So here they are:
WORD- Wisdom,
knowledge, Evangelism, prophesy, apostle (sending out or missionary work),
teaching and encouraging.
SERVICE—Administration,
helps, service, giving money, leadership, mercy.
PRAYER
Works of Power,
faith, healings, discerning of spriits, and yes, even though it was only done
in the early church for specific reasons, which most of you know, speaking in,
and interpreting tongues. Now, I am NOT
going to get into that study, but to suffice it to say, I seriously doubt you
will EVER hear anyone TRULY, REALLY, speaking in tongues. Some other day, some other lesson, or some
other teacher, can get into that area.
But for today, I want to not concentrate on what special gifts we may
have received, but more on WHAT THE CHURCH IS, and WHAT WE SHOULD BE DOING IN
THE CHURCH.
I believe that there
are, today, four modern MIS-conceptions of church, analogous to four different
existing organizations.
For example, a lot
of people go to Church as if it was a RESTAURANT. You go into church, see what is on the menu, and only take what
you want. If something doesn’t look
GOOD to you, you don’t buy that. Things
that preachers say to the people may be what people don’t want to hear, so they
don’t buy that. They are only looking
for the ‘good’ things on the menu. A
warm meal to FILL them up once a week. Some people even may go to the restaurant twice a week, because
they feel a hunger on Thursday, and as long as what is being said is tasty to
them, they eat it up. But heaven knows
they don’t go to church for the liver, the broccoli, the radishes. They don’t go for what is GOOD for them,
they go for what TASTES good to them.
Next, a lot of
people treat their church as if it was a COUNTRY CLUB. An elite group separated from the riff-riff
of life. They wear their fine hats and
coats and ties, and drive their fine automobiles and park right out front. These type of people fall into the category
that Jesus talked about in Matthew 6:5 where he says: "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they
love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by
men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.”
The third MIS-conception of Church today is it is a HEALTH CLUB. A place to go once or twice a week to get
‘pumped up’. Or to get in shape, not
physically, but spiritually. The
problem with that is that during the rest of the week, the people are eating
junk food, not exercising. Or in other
words, going back to their sinful ways of life every week. And one of the reasons the people do this,
is that their HEALTH CLUB church does not have people in other people’s
lives. It’s only a club on Sunday or
midweek.
And the last
MIS-conception of churches today, is that church is a place for FAMILY
ENTERTAINMENT. WOW! And it is FREE too. Especially those that do NOT have tithing
members. Throw a 5 dollar bill into the
collection plate as it comes by, and then sit back and enjoy the show! Some churches have full fledged weekly
productions, complete with huge choirs, dancing girls (well, maybe not dancing
girls, but there WILL be dancing in the isles as the ‘Holy Spirit comes down
from Heaven”. And when people stand up
and speak to each other in tongues…..now THAT is entertainment.
But these four
categories are NOT what the 1st Century Church was like. And it shouldn’t be what TODAY’s church is
like either.
Let’s look at
another aspect of Church. What is “A”
church? When Paul was writing to the
church in Colosse, and in Colossians chapter 1, verse 18, he said: “And
he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn
from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”
He was talking about the church of the entire WORLD.
In Acts, chapter 9,
verse 31, Luke is referring to the churches of a REGION (“Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and
Samaria…”). Notice that he does not say the plural
churches, but calls all the gatherings of disciples in those regions as ONE
church.
And lastly, the
Bible talks about a church in a CITY.
In 1st Corinthians 1, verse 2, Paul is writing, quote, “To
the church of God in Corinth”,
unquote. He traveled to many differing
individual churches within different cities.
So, what can really
make up a church? What is the smallest
common denominator? As we can see by these
Scriptures that AREA churches can be part of the UNIVERSAL, world wide church;
and so can churches of individual CITIES.
Can a church be
SMALLER than one in a city? Does
anybody know what it says in Matthew 18, verse 20? It says: “For where two or three come
together in my name, there am I with them."
Now, this 2 or 3
person church may not be an ideal church, but it at least meets the
requirements as established by Jesus. I
would say that a church this small would have to grow rapidly in order to do
all the things God intended a church to do, much the way the 120 person
‘church’ grew on the day of Pentecost.
So, now we know that
a church can be very small; it can be one or more within a city; a group of churches within an area, or the
whole collection of God’s Churches all over the world, WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO
BECOME A MEMBER?
Really, it is pretty
simple and is spelled out in several verses throughout the New Testament: Believe, Repent, and be Baptized. Isn’t that what happened when Peter finished
his speech you heard a few minutes ago?
However, just
becoming a member, does NOT guarantee continued salvation, as we all know. What did the 3000 member of the church do on
the day of Pentecost. In Acts 2:42
through 47, it outlines what they did.
They devoted themselves to four major things: The Apostles Teachings, The Fellowship, The Breaking of Bread,
and to Prayer.
Let’s talk briefly
about each of these areas. First, the
Apostles’ teachings. What were
they? This noun, “teachings”, in verse
42 was translated from the Greek word “DIDAKE”, which can be better translated
as “speaking with the authority of what is taught”, more that just the act of
speaking. The Apostles and early
disciples were teaching powerfully the principles and practices of Jesus Christ
Himself!!! Talk about AUTHORITY!! They memorized Scriptures from the Holy
Writings we now call the Old Testament.
In just the short sermon by Peter he quoted God, Joel, David, Moses and
words from the book of Psalms. Not only
did they teach from the “Old Testament”, but they also taught the things Jesus
taught them personally, or were taught boy those that HAD been taught by
Jesus. In the beginning of Acts chapter
1 alone, the disciples taught specifics that Jesus had taught them: that is, in
verse 2 “Instructions” that had been given through the Holy Spirit
Himself. In verse 3, he taught them
about “the Kingdom of God”, In verse
5, he taught about baptism, and in verse 8, the Holy Spirit. To all of these teachings, the disciples
were devoted.
The second thing to
which the disciples were devoted, was the Fellowship. Now, this word came from the Greek word, KOINONIA, which means
sharing, having in common, or partaking.
It is really also more that just sharing. In Romans 15, verse 26, that word shows up and is talking about
giving monetarily to the poor. Also in
Romans 12:13, the verb form of fellowship appears and also gives reference to
giving to the poor. One reason they
WERE so devoted to this trait of fellowship may have been the teachings by
John, who wrote in 1st John 1 verse 6, “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in
the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.”. And John was right
there with them at the time.
The third area to
which the disciples were devoted, was to the ‘breaking of bread’. If you were not aware, the breaking of bread
was the actual dividing of the bread cakes or loaves, among those eating. It was NOT necessarily a ‘religious’
event. As a matter of a fact, these
following Scriptures all refer to ‘breaking of bread’ as simply joining
together in a COMMON MEAL:
Luke 24:30
Acts 27:35
Mark 6:41
And Acts 2:47.
However, in Matthew
26, verses 17-19, Jesus has now made the act of breaking and sharing bread a
command for all generations to do. This
became known as the Lord’s Supper, and in Luke 22:19, Jesus commanded “"This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." So, when we look at when the disciples were
DEVOTED the breaking of bread, it is more than likely it was more than a common
meal, it was the act of breaking bread in remembrance of the Christ.
And lastly, the
fourth area to which the early disciples were devoted, was to PRAYER. The importance and significance of this
activity can never be understated. Prayer
is ESSENTIAL in the daily life of any disciple, in any church, anywhere in the
world. So, to close out this lesson
about the CHURCH, I want to end with a simple poem about prayer:
I knelt to pray but
not for long,
I had too much to
do.
I had to hurry and
get to work
For bills would soon
be due.
So I knelt and said
a hurried prayer,
And jumped up off my
knees.
My Christian duty
was now done
My soul could rest
at ease.
All day long I had
no time
To spread a word of
cheer.
No time to speak of
Christ to friends,
They'd laugh at me
I'd fear.
No time, no time,
too much to do,
That was my constant
cry,
No time to give to
souls in need
But at last the
time, the time to die.
I went before the
Lord,
I came, I stood with
downcast eyes.
For in his hands God
held a book;
It was the book of
life.
God looked into his
book and said
"Your name I
cannot find.
I once was going to
write it down...
But never found the
time"
TO GOD BE THE
GLORY, AMEN