“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” - Acts 2:42
When you’re in the midst of a large project, every now and then you stand back and take a breath and look around. Sometimes in awe. If you missed the last few days at our building site you missed some awe. The foundation of Crane Chapel’s new church building is now standing - quickly erected over a period of just days! Milestones like this are good landing-places for us to consider again the mission of God’s Church.
In the Book of Acts, there are a number of such landing-places where Luke suspends the course of his narrative, in order to give us a general idea of the condition of the Church at the moment. Acts 2:42 is such a resting-place.
We’ve already seen how the early Church got its start with an encounter with the living God on the day of Pentecost. Luke records that thousands were brought to faith in Christ that day and were added to the Church. But their faith not only changed their destiny. It changed the way they lived!
What you believe affects what you do. This was certainly true of the first Christians. The text says that they devoted themselves. They devoted themselves first to the apostles’ teaching. In other words, they gave a high priority to understanding the Truth. Now that they had come to know Jesus, they wanted to know more about Him. They wanted to understand how to apply this teaching to their lives. Are you devoted to teaching?
The second thing they devoted themselves to was the fellowship. It is interesting how many people think that they really don’t need the fellowship of other believers. Not so for the early Church. They saw the need to continually devote themselves to a shared life with other believers. You can only experience true fellowship by giving diligent attention to meeting together with other believers. Are you devoted to fellowship?
Thirdly, they devoted themselves to the breaking of bread. Now this could mean one of two things – but probably both. It could mean that they shared their meals together. But it most likely meant that they devoted themselves to the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. We observe this today.
In the Book of Acts, there are a number of such landing-places where Luke suspends the course of his narrative, in order to give us a general idea of the condition of the Church at the moment. Acts 2:42 is such a resting-place.
We’ve already seen how the early Church got its start with an encounter with the living God on the day of Pentecost. Luke records that thousands were brought to faith in Christ that day and were added to the Church. But their faith not only changed their destiny. It changed the way they lived!
What you believe affects what you do. This was certainly true of the first Christians. The text says that they devoted themselves. They devoted themselves first to the apostles’ teaching. In other words, they gave a high priority to understanding the Truth. Now that they had come to know Jesus, they wanted to know more about Him. They wanted to understand how to apply this teaching to their lives. Are you devoted to teaching?
The second thing they devoted themselves to was the fellowship. It is interesting how many people think that they really don’t need the fellowship of other believers. Not so for the early Church. They saw the need to continually devote themselves to a shared life with other believers. You can only experience true fellowship by giving diligent attention to meeting together with other believers. Are you devoted to fellowship?
Thirdly, they devoted themselves to the breaking of bread. Now this could mean one of two things – but probably both. It could mean that they shared their meals together. But it most likely meant that they devoted themselves to the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. We observe this today.
Finally, Luke tells us that they devoted themselves to prayer. Their focus was heavenward, toward God Himself. They gave themselves to a life of prayer. … And so we see that God’s Church is a church in which people exhibit a deep level of commitment – a devotion to the disciplines of teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer. Let’s remember that. Our new building is only a physical structure – a place where we meet to express, share, and affirm our commitment to Christ.
– Pastor Mark
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