Five years ago, my wife, our kids and I spent the summer praying through a decision to answer the call to plant a church here in Hastings, NE. And then in August of 2012 we gathered with four other adults and 3 other kids to begin studying the Scriptures, sharing life with one another and praying for one another on a weekly basis.
By God’s grace, those early meetings in our living room became the launching point for the church we now lead and shepherd. Our mission and vision for planting The Well grew out of those early meetings over the next few years. And today we are planting a church in Hastings, Nebraska that seeks to be a gospel centered church family of gospel communities that grow missionally engaged disciples who glorify God.
Gospel… Family… Mission. Those three words are the summary of our mission statement here as we plant The Well. And that mission and vision is rooted and inspired by what we see God doing in and through the life, the death and the resurrection of Jesus in the gospels and then throughout the book of Acts. So our plan is to devote six weeks of preaching through our mission and vision statement while anchoring ourselves to two specific texts that have heavily influenced the ethos of who we are. The first three weeks will be spent in Acts 2:42 – 47 as we examine the work of God in and through the early church with the final three weeks focusing on Jesus’ interaction with the woman at the well in John 4:5 – 42.
So this week we are going to study Acts 2:42 – 47 (focusing on verses 42-45) and we are going to ask what it looks to be a gospel centered church family.
Take a look at Acts 2:42 – 47…
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
What’s happening in this passage?
Luke, the author of the book of Acts, records this passage of Scripture and what he writes directly follows the day of Pentecost where the Holy Spirit was poured out upon roughly 120 believers which then prompted a public sermon and a call to repentance by Peter which resulted in 3,000 souls trusting Christ and joining the early church.
It is this massive group of believers that Luke writes about in our text. And what he describes here is arguably the most well worn passage in all of Scripture that is used to paint the picture of what the church should be and should do. In this passage of Scripture, Luke describes the people of the early church and he describes them as being devoted, awestruck, unified and generous.
#1. The People Of The Early Church Were Devoted… (42)
These early believers weren’t nominal Christians who showed up in church gatherings every other couple of weeks. They weren’t spectators in an audience. And though they had been victimized and abused and marginalized in many different ways, they refused to become passive victims. Instead, these early believers were devoted, committed and engaged participants in the work of the gospel. They were devoted to the apostles teaching, to fellowship, to breaking bread and to prayer. Think with me about these four categories of devotion.
a. The people of the early church were devoted to the apostles teaching…
Derek Thomas in his commentary on this portion of Scripture says that for us to be devoted to the teaching of the apostles, we must adhere or stick to or glue ourselves “to the authority of the Bible of the Old and New Testaments. The church is a fellowship where the Bible is loved, read, studied and obeyed. Like the Bereans, we are to search the Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11). This is why the church should emphasize Bible study and biblical preaching.” So for us to be a gospel centered church family, the people of The Well must be a people who are devoted to the Word of God.
b. The people of the early church were devoted to fellowship…
Derek Thomas comments again, saying, “Few Bible words have suffered more distortion than the word ‘fellowship’. We commonly reduce it to chatter and cookies in the church hall – thinking that this is what the New Testament had in mind. Then again, the detractors from doctrine will sometimes chime in unison, ‘It is not doctrine that we need but fellowship,’ as though being a Christian were about holding hands and humming in the key of B flat. Nor did he have in mind a campfire, s’mores, and a rendition or two (or ten) of the latest equivalent of ‘Kumbaya’!”
Thomas continues, “In New Testament times, the word fellowship meant to ‘share in common with,’ and it is employed in a number of contexts that will help us get a better understanding of what is implied. Believers are ‘called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord’ (1 Cor. 1:9), which means that we share together in a common identity and relationship with Jesus Christ. Similarly, the apostolic benediction highlights ‘the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). And Paul (speaks) of a ‘fellowship’ between himself and the Philippians in the (work of the) gospel (Phil. 1:5). (The word) ‘Fellowship’ (is a signal to) our common participation in Christ and the sense of unity this entails.” So for us to be a gospel centered church family, the people of The Well must be a people who are devoted to gospel-centered fellowship.
c. The people of the early church were devoted to breaking bread…
Many scholars take the phrases “the breaking of bread” (42) and “breaking bread” (46) to mean that the early believers were devoted to practicing both the Lord’s Supper and community meals together. The big idea here is that the early church was devoted to breaking bread for the purpose of celebrating the Lord’s Supper and for the purpose of sharing life together over the dinner table. Some people argue that the Lord’s Supper shouldn’t be celebrated weekly while other people argue that we need more potlucks and church BBQs. But the truth of what these early believers practiced describes a wholehearted devotion and a consistent commitment to both the Lord’s Supper and community meals. So for us to be a gospel centered church family, the people of The Well must be a people who are devoted to breaking bread together at the communion table and around the dinner table as we share life together in the gospel on a regular basis.
d. The people of the early church were devoted to prayer…
Again, one scholar says, that the early believers “were not content merely to talk to each other; they also talked with Jesus Christ. What can account for the remarkable success of the early church? Prayer! There is a great deal of it in Acts. Luke himself came from a church that spent time in prayer, sending out missionaries in fulfillment of the Great Commission. No doubt he learned from them the priorities he should assign to the story of the church. When Luke records the story of Jesus in his gospel, it is Jesus’ prayers that he draws attention to – at the start of Jesus’ ministry (Lk. 3:21), before his healings (Lk. 5:16), before choosing the twelve (Lk. 6:12), before the transfiguration (Lk. 9:28) and (according to Luke) Jesus dies with a prayer on his lips (Lk. 23:46). For Luke, prayer becomes the mark of a true disciple. Hardly anything is more important as a sign of the church’s vitality than it’s commitment to prayer.” So for us to be a gospel centered church family, the people of The Well must be a people who are devoted to the regular practice of praying together.
Let’s summarize point one regarding devotion…
The early believers weren’t nominal Christians who showed up in church gatherings every other couple of weeks. They weren’t spectators in an audience. And though they had been victimized and abused and marginalized in many different ways, they refused to become passive victims. Instead, these early believers were devoted, committed and engaged participants in the work of the gospel. They were devoted to the apostles teaching, to fellowship, to breaking bread and to prayer. So for us to be a gospel centered church family, the people of The Well must be a people who are devoted to the Word of God, devoted to gospel-centered fellowship, devoted to breaking bread together at the communion table and at the dinner table and we must also be devoted to the regular practice of praying together.
#2. The People Of The Early Church Were Awestruck… (43)
What causes enemies of Christ to become followers of Christ? What causes cowardly men like Peter to turn from denying Christ on the day of the crucifixion to proclaiming Christ on the day of Pentecost fifty days later where three thousand souls were added to the church?
According to one scholar, “The key is found in verse 43 in the phrase “fear (or awe) came upon every soul” – a joyful, trembling sense of awe. That is not our experience. Today, for most people, including most professing Christians, God is an idea to talk about, or an inference from an argument, or a family tradition to be preserved. Yet, for a very few, God is a stark, fearsome, stunning, awesome, and shocking present reality. Where are the churches of whom Luke could say today, ‘Fear – awe, trembling – is upon every soul’? The absence (or the presence) of this fear (or awe) has a direct effect on the way we accumulate possessions for ourselves (or share our possessions with others), the way we ignore the needy (or serve them), the way we trivialize fellowship (or participate in it) and the way we play more than we pray.” Can it be said of you, that your soul trembles in awestruck fixation upon the Lord? For us to be a gospel centered church family, the people of The Well must be a people who are fixated on the awesomeness of God and his work in and through the family of the church.
#3. The People Of The Early Church Were Unified And Generous… (44-45)
Luke tells us that, “all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.” One scholar says that, “the word ‘common’ comes from the same word group as ‘fellowship’. What the first Christians shared together by faith in Jesus Christ (forgiveness of sins [2:38]) led them to share with each other their material possessions, something that would emerge again in Luke’s portrait of the early church (Acts 4:32) where he says, ‘Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common’. And again (Acts 2:46) They were united, ‘of one mind’, as they met each day in the temple courts and gathered together to eat in each other homes.”
This same scholar continues to say that, “the early church members felt a sense of responsibility toward one another. Later, this commitment would manifest itself in the sharing of food with those (widows) who were in need, even though this gave rise to some accusations of favoritism (Acts 6:1-2). These practical expressions of care for each other arose out of a common sense of identity – they were ‘brothers’ and members of the same family – and were a powerful witness to the people of Jerusalem of what trusting in Christ meant to the early Christians.” In short, the people of the early church were unified by their belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ and therefore they were unified in their generosity. They had met an infinitely generous God in Christ Jesus so they couldn’t help but be unified in their generosity towards the mission of Jesus Christ to seek and to save the lost. So for us to be a gospel centered church family, the people of The Well must be a people who are unified and generous.
How does this passage help us?
As we’ve examined this passage we’ve learned that the early church was full of believers who were devoted, awestruck, unified and generous people. They were a gospel centered church family. And that’s great to know but it’s even greater to do. In other words, in my paraphrased words of James, “it’s great to hear all about what you know about what it means to be a Christian who has trusted in Christ. But let me prove that I know Christ by putting my faith into action so that you can see it in my lifestyle.” The question we must ask is “How does our understanding (or knowledge) of this text help us to live differently in the city of Hastings? How can we practice being a gospel centered church family?” Let me propose three practical action steps for us.
#1. Be devoted to the Word of God, Fellowship, Meals and Prayer…
For us to be a gospel centered church family, the people of The Well must be a people who are devoted to the Word of God, devoted to gospel-centered fellowship, devoted to breaking bread together at the communion table and at the dinner table and we must also be devoted to the regular practice of praying together. But how do we put this into action?
To be devoted is to be consistently committed to something. So my encouragement for us is to consistently commit ourselves in wholehearted devotion to the Word of God, Fellowship, Meals and Prayer. The best pathway for you to become devoted to these things at The Well is to participate regularly in Sunday gatherings and mid-week gospel community gatherings, complete our church membership courses, enroll in Porterbrook, find a place of ministry to serve in regularly and participate in our outreach events. Consistent commitment to these things will help you devote yourself to the Word of God, Fellowship, Meals and Prayer.
#2. Fixate your heart and mind on the awesomeness of God…
For us to be a gospel centered church family, the people of The Well must be a people who are fixated on the awesomeness of God and his work in and through the family of the church. But how do we put this into action?
To be fixated is to be glued to or stuck to something. It’s helpful for us to think about the things we glue ourselves to that become barriers to being glued or fixated upon the awesomeness of God. Possessions, carriers, relationships, social status, sex, pleasure, hobbies, comfort and a host of other things (that are mostly good things) can become the things we get glued to or fixated upon that become barriers to fixating our hearts and minds upon the awesomeness of God.
It can be helpful to take up a journal where you record the awesome things you see God doing in your life and in the life of the church family around you. Or practice sharing stories with others in gospel community of what the Lord is up to in your life. Our gospel communities are actually designed out of this belief that we need to fixate our hearts and minds on the awesomeness of God through the regular sharing of life, praying for one another and discovering what God says in his Word together. So… fixate or glue or stick your heart and mind on the awesomeness of God by doing these things.
#3. Fight for unity and be generous…
For us to be a gospel centered church family, the people of The Well must be a people who are unified and generous. But how do we put this into action?
To fight for something is to make that something a priority. So make God-honoring relationships a priority. Make it a priority to let the small things slide. Make it a priority to live together in humility. Make it a priority to serve others before serving yourself. Make it a priority to be a contributor rather than a consumer. Make it a priority to increase your financial giving this year. Make it a priority to serve in an area of ministry consistently. Make it a priority to make Jesus the center of your conversations with one another. These are just a few ways that you can fight for unity and be generous.
Conclusion…
In closing I want to remind us that God is calling us to plant a gospel centered church family of gospel communities that grow missionally engaged disciples who glorify God. Gospel… Family… Mission. These three words describe the early church and I pray that these three words begin to describe us in the years to come. This will begin to happen, we will become this kind of people, by God’s grace and through the power of the Holy Spirit as we, the people of The Well, devote ourselves to the Word of God, fellowship, meals together and prayer as we fixate our hearts and our minds on the awesomeness of God, and as we fight for unity and as we practice being generous. This is how the people of The Well will become a gospel centered church family of gospel communities that grow missionally engaged disciples who glorify God.