Post by Cindy on Jul 16, 2016 10:01:05 GMT -5
What is God's idea about our fellowship with each other? What is His idea of what the Church is supposed to be like? God tells us in Acts right after the first converts were saved. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.” (Acts 2:42–43) These people immersed themselves in God's Word and listened to the Apostles explaining it to them. They were not just converts, they were disciples. They loved God and each other and spent every moment they could together. Remember that the NT had not yet been written. That's why we're told that they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. We devote ourselves to that by studying the Word, including the OT, as that is what the apostles would explain to them. they prayed constantly for each other, for the unsaved they knew, for their enemies and everyone they saw or heard about. They ate together and remembered our Lord through sharing the what we call the Lord's Supper with one another. These people were filled with awe at what the Lord Jesus had done for them, not just because of the miracles. The miracles flowed out of their love and obedience and devotion to the apostles teaching. In other words, they didn't just come to some head knowledge about the Lord, they certainly got that too, but then they applied it to their lives and lived it.
Next we're told: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” (Acts 2:44–45) We're told more about this in Acts 11:27–30. This was not mandatory for anyone to do. The people saw their brothers and sisters in need and they did all they could to meet that need. They really did love each other, it wasn't just words to them. While God is not in any way suggesting the church turn into a commune, what He does want is for us to truly love one another the way that these early Christians did. For example, when someone in the local church is having trouble meeting their bills due to pay cuts, the loss of a job or illness, or some other valid reason, the other members, should all be more then willing to immediately help them get their bills paid and keep them paid until the person is able to do it on their own. No one should ever suggest that they pay back what they've been given, and no one should question how long it takes them to get on their feet. There is no reason for anyone in the church to go hungry, or to be unable to see a doctor due to lack of money, or for anyone to be homeless. Remember that these are all believers and they knew each other intimately as they spent all their time together. They knew each others sins and helped each other overcome them. No one wanted to sin, there were no excuses about sin in the early church. So when someone needed help of any kind, it was given the same way God helps us: freely and with great joy. And please realize that these people really did get great joy from helping each other. The only reason believers have needs that aren't met today is because of sin in the church.
“Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:46–47) As I've already said, these people did not just meet together on Sunday, or even Sunday's and Wednesdays. They met together every single day! They not only met together at the temple, where they would listen to the apostles and each other and learn about God and what His Word said, and worship Him together there, they would also go to each others homes and eat together afterward. The members of the early church were quite literally family and each others best friends. They truly loved each other and didn't want to be separate from each other. Their faith was a day to day reality that they lived, and not a once a week routine. Because they lived for Jesus, they loved like Jesus loved, and God's power - that same power that resurrected Jesus from the dead, worked through them every day through the Holy Spirit that dwelled within them. “and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,” (Ephesians 1:19–20) That same power is available to every single one of us. There is no reason, other than sin, that the church today cannot be just like the early church was.
Having read what God tells us here in Acts, we have a choice. We can either wish we lived back then, knowing that the church has fallen a long way from what she is supposed to be, or we can start doing what the members of the early church did ourselves. True, that won't force anyone else in our local churches to do the same thing, but at least we will be doing what we know the Lord wants us to do. Not only that, but I'd be willing to bet that there are at least a few others in our churches who will see what we do, and eventually join us and begin loving the other members the same way we are. The bottom line is that we are only responsible for how we obey the Lord and His Word. It's not our job to make others obey Him. If we do our part, the Holy Spirit will convict others and they too will change. We have to live in the time the Lord has put us in and we know that these are the last days. One of the signs that tells us this is the sad shape that the church is in. But that doesn't give us the right to sit back and lament it's sad shape and not live the way God wants the church to live ourselves. Instead we need to live the way God intends for us to live, in love and in the power of His strength, even if no one else ever joins us in living and loving that way. Why? Because that's what the Lord tells us to do and He says that He will judge each of us according to what we have done. Do we want to be judged with the rest of the church for not living the way He tells us to? ““Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.” (Revelation 22:12) ““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:21–23)
“Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” (1 Peter 1:17–23)
Next we're told: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” (Acts 2:44–45) We're told more about this in Acts 11:27–30. This was not mandatory for anyone to do. The people saw their brothers and sisters in need and they did all they could to meet that need. They really did love each other, it wasn't just words to them. While God is not in any way suggesting the church turn into a commune, what He does want is for us to truly love one another the way that these early Christians did. For example, when someone in the local church is having trouble meeting their bills due to pay cuts, the loss of a job or illness, or some other valid reason, the other members, should all be more then willing to immediately help them get their bills paid and keep them paid until the person is able to do it on their own. No one should ever suggest that they pay back what they've been given, and no one should question how long it takes them to get on their feet. There is no reason for anyone in the church to go hungry, or to be unable to see a doctor due to lack of money, or for anyone to be homeless. Remember that these are all believers and they knew each other intimately as they spent all their time together. They knew each others sins and helped each other overcome them. No one wanted to sin, there were no excuses about sin in the early church. So when someone needed help of any kind, it was given the same way God helps us: freely and with great joy. And please realize that these people really did get great joy from helping each other. The only reason believers have needs that aren't met today is because of sin in the church.
“Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:46–47) As I've already said, these people did not just meet together on Sunday, or even Sunday's and Wednesdays. They met together every single day! They not only met together at the temple, where they would listen to the apostles and each other and learn about God and what His Word said, and worship Him together there, they would also go to each others homes and eat together afterward. The members of the early church were quite literally family and each others best friends. They truly loved each other and didn't want to be separate from each other. Their faith was a day to day reality that they lived, and not a once a week routine. Because they lived for Jesus, they loved like Jesus loved, and God's power - that same power that resurrected Jesus from the dead, worked through them every day through the Holy Spirit that dwelled within them. “and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,” (Ephesians 1:19–20) That same power is available to every single one of us. There is no reason, other than sin, that the church today cannot be just like the early church was.
Having read what God tells us here in Acts, we have a choice. We can either wish we lived back then, knowing that the church has fallen a long way from what she is supposed to be, or we can start doing what the members of the early church did ourselves. True, that won't force anyone else in our local churches to do the same thing, but at least we will be doing what we know the Lord wants us to do. Not only that, but I'd be willing to bet that there are at least a few others in our churches who will see what we do, and eventually join us and begin loving the other members the same way we are. The bottom line is that we are only responsible for how we obey the Lord and His Word. It's not our job to make others obey Him. If we do our part, the Holy Spirit will convict others and they too will change. We have to live in the time the Lord has put us in and we know that these are the last days. One of the signs that tells us this is the sad shape that the church is in. But that doesn't give us the right to sit back and lament it's sad shape and not live the way God wants the church to live ourselves. Instead we need to live the way God intends for us to live, in love and in the power of His strength, even if no one else ever joins us in living and loving that way. Why? Because that's what the Lord tells us to do and He says that He will judge each of us according to what we have done. Do we want to be judged with the rest of the church for not living the way He tells us to? ““Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.” (Revelation 22:12) ““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:21–23)
“Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” (1 Peter 1:17–23)
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