The Fellowship of the Believers
[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.
(Acts 2:42-47 ESV)
I almost brushed past this passage. It's kind of "Oh that's nice, everything's going well. Let's move on to something interesting, something that can teach me how to do ministry."
This passage has a great deal to teach us about ministry, specifically about how to have a church this healthy.
It moves sequentially.
Start with verse 42: They all devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. They didn't just listen to a sermon, enjoy a few donuts, and say a quick prayer. They devoted themselves to these things, like we devote ourselves to video games, or to football, or to shopping, or to gossiping, or to the pursuit of sexual pleasures. They were consumed by the desire to have more teaching, more fellowship, more prayers, more communion.
Then verse 43: Awe and fear came upon every soul. This is key. They didn't just commit to a church gathering; they were consumed by awe and fear of a God who is bigger than themselves. They weren't worshiping themselves in church, serving their own need for spiritual things. They were in awe of a God so great that He is deserving of all worship and praise.
In other words, they weren't selfish. They weren't concerned first and foremost with themselves; they were concerned first and foremost with God. This is absolutely essential to a healthy church, and it's something many churches don't have.
Many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. This undoubtedly increased the awe and fear of God, but notice that the awe and fear did not start here. First, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to communion, to prayers. Then awe and fear came, and it was reinforced through signs and wonders.
Granted, one could say that a sign began it all, with Jesus rising to Heaven and tongues of fire landing on all the apostles. But the point is that the signs were not their substance. Their substance, their day-to-day spiritual subsistance, was teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, prayers. Signs and wonders were the icing on the cake.
Consider it like food. Signs and wonders are like sugar, or energy drinks. They are great ways to begin a meal; they kick your metabolism into over-drive. But if that's the only food you have, you won't be healthy. You may have spurts of energy and passion, but then you'll crash, and have nothing to fall back on. You need a healthy diet full of breads, meats, veggies, fruits, dairy. That food sustains you, so that when these bursts of miracle energy drinks come, you can fully enjoy and appreciate them.
In other words, it's usually not true that if people only saw a miracle, then they'd believe. It certainly works this way with some; they saw Jesus heal, so they believed. But others saw Jesus heal and said He had a demon. Miracles by themselves aren't as important as we make them out to be. It is far more important to be devoted to true teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayers. Only with a solid foundation in these can you properly be in awe and fear of God.
You can be in awe of something you don't know, but after that initial wonder fades, what's left? Usually nothing. We move on, change the channel, or find something else to amaze us. For awe and fear to support a healthy relationship, we have to know the One of whom we are in awe. For awe to truly sustain us, we have to have a relationship to fall back on when the high of wonder fades.
Notice that verse 44 comes after 42 and 43. In other words, you can't strive for unity directly. You can't have sessions to promote unity, to bring people together. It might work for a weekend, but not for a lifetime. To truly achieve this level of unity, Christians must be devoted to teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and to prayers. We must be truly in awe of God, truly fear Him. Only then can we actually be united. Only then can we gladly sell everything we have and give the money away.
Can you imagine a selfish Christian selling everything they have and gleefully giving the money away? By definition, it's impossible. To unlock this kind of generosity and joy, a Christian must be devoted to the things of God and in true awe and fear of Him.
To sum it up, you don't have an amazingly healthy church by focusing on having a healthy church. You get a healthy church as a by-product of being devoted to teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayers, and most importantly, of being in awe and fear of God. Without that, you can never have a healthy church. You might have a healthy social club where people greet each other with smiles, but you won't have a place where people joyfully sell their possessions to take care of all the needs around them. At best, you'll have a gathering of selfish people who enjoy each other because they're already like each other.
Glad and generous hearts do not come about as a result of catering to the whims of congregants, of designing a church specifically to please its members. Glad and generous hearts only come about when the people are so captivated by Jesus that He is more important to them than they themselves are. And I think you should know how to get there, since I've already repeated it about a dozen times.
Look at verse 47. These people were praising God even when they were selling away all of their possessions and giving the proceeds away. When is the last time you saw this happen in an American church? We can praise God; we have amazing worship services. But can we praise God when our lives suddenly are not centered around ourselves?
These Christians had the favor of all the people. It's not hard to see why. Even in American culture, people who sell their riches just to help those in need make the front cover of TIME magazine. It's engrained in our souls; we celebrate sacrifice that helps other people, especially those in dire need.
Contrarily, no one celebrates a social club that is so selfish, it's members rarely give more than 1-2% of their income ot help others. No one celebrates a church that builds a $7 million new sanctuary while people in their city are starving to death. No one celebrates people who gleefully run to the store to buy the latest fashion trends or video games, yet cannot spare a few dollars to buy medicine for children who will die without it.
If a church truly looks like this Acts 2 church, then it should be no wonder that God will add to their number daily those who are being saved. On the other hand, if a church looks like most churches in America, then it's no wonder that God is not adding people to it.
It almost feels like I'm being too harsh, but I think the text warrants this. If people are in church because they love God and want to worship Him in true awe and fear, then that church is usually growing, and it's usually healthy. If people are in church for any other reason, then it usually isn't growing or healthy. These other reasons can be nearly anything: it's what you've always done, it's where you hang out with your friends, you want your kids to be brought up right, you want to take care of your nagging spiritual conscience, you want to be served a good religious experience, you're dragged by a family member or friend, you feel guilty for sin and want to atone for it by doing "good stuff", you really like the music, the pastor is funny, the youth group is entertaining, there's a hot girl there that you want to hit on, etc.
It seems weird to our modern ears, since everything in American culture screams that life is all about us, and we have a right to be selfish and take care of ourselves. Yet that's not the message of this passage. In this passage, the Christians aren't being selfish. They're self-less, giving away everything. And notice that every need is being met, with glad and generous hearts, in true community that sincerely cares for everyone.
And it didn't happen with government initiatives, or food-for-the-hungry programs, or cute commercials on TV. It happened by people drawing near to God, knowing Him, and being in fearful awe of Him.
To make it simple: if your church is primarily about you, then you are what's making your church unhealthy. If your church is primarily about God, then amazing things will happen.
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