Week 44 Acts 2
What was the church like in the book of Acts? That was my main question. The answer started with a five-verse summary in chapter two:
• people educated themselves about the apostles’ message
• believers fellowshipped (a not-so-common word. More-than friendship. More-like comradeship. Companionship. It’s like the church is an alliance of like-minded people who aren’t all best-friends but are on the same page & pilgriming along in the same direction)
• They broke bread together (another not-so-common expression that might mean a) having a meal together or b) celebrating the communion sacrament)
• They prayed together.
Luke adds a couple of other details like getting together publicly (at the Temple) and in small-groups (in people’s homes). There’s also some serious share-and-share-alike features – people selling personal possessions to help people in need.
The big idea I get from Luke’s introduction is Togetherness. Even though he mentions a couple of personal things – the believers had glad & sincere hearts and they praised the Lord – Luke’s focus is on Togetherness practices.
I noticed a couple of differences between the church-then and the church-now.
A) people met in the temple (a practice that got permanently ditched)
B) there were lots of spectacular miracles (the high-volume & high-quality of miracles tailed-off)
C) the church held things in common (I get the impression that community-minded concerns were a higher-priority then )
D) the church had good public approval ratings (which didn’t last long).
So Acts 2 was a nice starting point.
Note: quite a bit of paraphrasing from Acts 2:42-47