Our plan over the summer is to devote six weeks of preaching through a sermon series called The People of The Well. What we want to do is anchor ourselves to two texts that have heavily influenced the ethos of who we are. So we’ll spend the first three weeks in Acts 2:42 – 47 as we examine the work of God in and through the early church. And then we’ll take a break over the month of July for some guest preachers. And then we’ll resume our series in August with the final 3 weeks focusing on Jesus’ interaction with the woman at the well in John 4:5 – 42.
We began planting The Well in August of 2012 and during that time, my wife, our children and I began gathering on a weekly basis in our home with four other adults and 3 other kids to study the Scriptures together, share life with one another and spend time in prayer. By God’s grace, those early meetings in our living room became the launching point for this church and our mission and our vision for planting The Well grew out of those early meetings over the next few years.
And today we are planting a church that seeks to be a gospel centered church family of gospel communities that grow missionally engaged disciples who glorify God. Three words. 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 early church in the book of Acts. So this week we are going to study Acts 2:42 – 47 (focusing on verses 46 – 47) and we are going to ask what it looks like to be a family of gospel communities…
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?
Last week we learned that the people of the early church, by God’s grace and through the power of the Holy Spirit, were devoted to the Word of God, devoted to fellowship, devoted to meals together and they were devoted to prayer. Their hearts and minds were fixated on the awesomeness of God, and they fought for unity and practiced being generous. They were devoted, awestruck, united and generous people. This is the kind of people the Holy Spirit develops within the family of the church.
This passage is part of Luke’s second book called Acts and all throughout the book of Acts Luke describes the acts of the Holy Spirit through the apostle and the early church. In this passage, Luke specifically describes the activity of the early church immediately following the day of Pentecost where Peter preached his first sermon and 3,000 new believers were added to the church. Can you imagine what that must have been like?
Can you imagine what it would have been like to experience a church of 120 people with 12 leaders multiplying after one sermon into 3,000 brand new baby believers? How would you baptize these new believers? How would you disciple them? How would you provide leadership for them? How would you teach and train and equip and empower and discipline them? How would you organize this family of new believers so that they could continue to grow into mature disciples of Jesus Christ?
The simple answer that floats up out of the overall theme of the book of Acts is that you and I would do this in the power of the Holy Spirit. But what does that look like? What does it look like to be a spirit empowered church family? Look again at verses 46 – 47. Luke says that 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. The early church was a group of people who were a Spirit empowered family of gospel communities who gathered consistently, in large groups and small groups while praising God gladly and generously. Let’s break this down a little…
#1. The people of the early church gathered consistently…
Luke tells us that these early believers gathered day by day. They gathered consistently. For these early believers, the opportunity to gather together wasn’t just another thing on their list of things to do that barely got their attention. This opportunity to gather together was something they took seriously and engaged consistently, day by day.
This is why we believe that the people of The Well will become a family of gospel communities as we gather consistently.
#2. The people of the early church gathered in large group gatherings…
Luke tells us that these early believers gathered in the temple together, day by day. These large group gatherings weren’t just an option for the early believers. These large group gatherings were part of their day-by-day lives. This was part of their consistent, day-by-day, weekly routine. I think these early believers were consistently committed to large corporate gatherings in the temple because that this commitment was vitally important for their growth as disciples and for their witness to the city of Jerusalem.
This is why we believe that the people of The Well will become a family of gospel communities as we gather consistently in large group gatherings.
#3. The people of the early church gathered in small group gatherings…
Luke tells us that these early believers gathered in their homes together. Large group gatherings weren’t enough for the people of God in the early church family. Being a church family wasn’t relegated down to formal corporate gatherings on the Sabbath. These early believers shared life together, they discovered what God was speaking to them through the teaching of God’s Word, they prayed for each other’s needs and for the needs of the community, they participated in receiving the Lord’s Supper together and they ate meals together in small relational gatherings in their homes.
This is why we believe that the people of The Well will become a family of gospel communities as we gather consistently in small group gatherings.
#4. The people of the early church gathered gladly and generously…
Luke tells us that when these early believers gathered, their hearts were full of gladness and generosity. These early church communities didn’t gather out of guilt or shame, as though gathering with the family of God was just something they had to do. These early believers were full of gladness as they gathered in the temple to worship God and as they gathered in their homes to break bread and share life together.
And they weren’t just glad because they got to hang out with their friends they were generous. The gladness that seeped out of their hearts was proven by their generosity towards one another. They were happy to give themselves away and to give their belongings away for the cause of the gospel.
This is why we believe that the people of The Well will become a family of gospel communities as we gather gladly and generously to give ourselves away to one another for the cause of Christ.
#5. The people of the early church gathered to praise God…
Luke tells us that these early believers weren’t gathering for entertainment like consumers looking for the next experience to devour but instead they gathered for the purpose of praising God. If you were walking down the street where some of these early gospel communities were gathered you would unmistakably hear them teaching the Word of God. You would hear them sharing stories of God’s work among them. You would hear them praying for each other and praying for the community. And you would hear them praising God gladly and joyfully as they gave themselves generously to God and to each other.
This is why we believe that the people of The Well will become a family of gospel communities as we gather for the purpose of praising God.
How does this passage help us?
God is calling us to plant a gospel centered church family of gospel communities that grow missionally engaged disciples who glorify God. This is a massive undertaking. We need mature leaders who are growing in their faith. We need sustainable income to fund the cost of ministry. We want to see disciples making disciples together.
The only way all of this will happen is through the Spirit of the living God empowering us to be the people of God. So how can we position ourselves in a way that invites and allows the Holy Spirit to do his thing in and through us as the people of The Well? What barriers do we need to break through as we grow? Here are a couple of things that I think would be helpful to us…
#1. Gather consistently in large & small group gatherings…
Consistency in a consumer culture is a big hurdle to leap over. As consumers, we are so enamored with shiny things and attractive things and new things. And when something loses its luster we easily become bored and begin looking for other things to attract our attention and thereby we become inconsistent in doing the simple things like gathering consistently in large and small group gatherings.
Consistency is also hard in a consumer culture because our consumer culture shapes us to only prioritize things that make us feel good. And let’s face it… gathering consistently in large and small group gatherings, while having many great benefits that we can consume, can also be draining and difficult because it requires us to become contributors. Becoming a contributor when we’ve been conditioned daily to be consumers is a major barrier.
Think about it this way. A consumer’s busy schedule is designed to serve him. A contributor’s busy schedule is designed to serve something or someone greater than himself. So it could be said that a consumer’s schedule breeds selfishness inside of the consumer and the contributor’s schedule breeds generosity inside the contributor.
Let’s try one more example. A consumer relates to his friends based upon what they do for him or gives to him or makes him feel like. A contributor relates to his friends based upon what he can do for them or give to them or make them feel like. So it could be said that a consumer relates to others based upon selfishness or levels of comfort and is in control of what others know about him but a contributor relates to others based upon an unselfish desire to give themselves away for the good of others and though being known by others is hard this person is willing to be known by others for the sake of the kingdom of God.
So if we struggle with selfishness, fear of being known or fear of being uncomfortable then what’s the pill we need to take to get healthier? I think the answer is Hebrews 10:23 – 25 which says “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
In other words… the best pill we can take to heal us from our selfishness, our fear and comfort based idols is to repent of our individualism and our isolationism which is the byproduct of consumerism by getting ourselves into consistent large and small group gatherings.
This is why we believe that the people of The Well will become a gospel centered church family of gospel communities that grow missionally engaged disciples who glorify God by… gathering consistently in large and small group gatherings.
#2. Gather gladly and generously…
We don’t hear anything in the Scriptures about people gathering consistently in large group or small group gatherings because they felt like it was just their responsibility to do it. They didn’t gather because they felt guilt tripped into gathering. They gathered with glad hearts that were willing to give themselves away for the cause of Christ.
They were glad because they had experienced the love and mercy and grace of the gospel of the cross of Christ and so they were motivated by this gladness to give themselves away as an investment into the family of God. The apostle Paul says as much in Colossians 3:16 where he says “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
And also in 1 Corinthians 14:26 where Paul says, “When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation.” In other words… when we gather we gather because each of us has a gift to give away to others. God has called us to contribute ourselves as gifts to other people and to the kingdom of the gospel. We don’t give ourselves away in consistent community because we feel guilty. We give ourselves away because we feel glad and we feel glad because we experience the generous gift of the love of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore we want to give ourselves to one another with glad and generous hearts towards God.
This is why we believe that the people of The Well will become a gospel centered church family of gospel communities that grow missionally engaged disciples who glorify God by… gathering gladly and generously.
#3. Gather to praise God together…
There can be many great reasons to gather together. Husker football, going to see a movie, sharing a meal, sharing a drink or doing some work are all great reasons to gather. And in many ways we could argue that these things can be an act of worship to the Lord. But as I examine the Scriptures, I see groups of people who gather together for the purpose of praising God in all that they think, say and do.
The apostle Paul in Colossians 3:17 says “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” In other words… when we meet together in large or small groups the purpose of our gathering is to praise the Lord for who he is and what he’s done in us.
This is why we believe that the people of The Well will become a gospel centered church family of gospel communities that grow missionally engaged disciples who glorify God by… gathering to praise God together.
Conclusion…
So, how will we organize our church family so that we can continue to grow mature disciples of Jesus Christ? The simple answer that floats up out of the overall theme of the book of Acts is that you and I can only do this in the power of the Holy Spirit. But what does that look like? What does it look like to be a spirit empowered church family of gospel communities?
We believe that the people of The Well will become a Spirit empowered family of gospel communities by gathering consistently in large groups and small groups while praising God gladly and generously.
And that’s my prayer for the people of The Well. My prayer is that we would become a gospel centered church family of gospel communities that grow missionally engaged disciples who glorify God. And I pray that we would catch this vision of what it looks to lean into this mission and vision by committing to consistently gathering together in large and small group gatherings with glad and generous hearts and that we would give ourselves away wholeheartedly to the praise of Jesus Christ.
What steps do you need to take to become part of this mission and vision? Is it an issue of consistency for you? Is it an issue of being a glad and generous contributor for you? Or is it an issue of living a life that is centered on praising God for you? Whatever that issue is, I pray that the Lord moves on your heart and that the Spirit of the living God transforms you and invites you into this mission and vision of becoming the people of The Well.