They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Acts 2:42 NIV
I love this insight into the life of the earliest church. And I believe it has a lot to teach us about being the church. Obviously, the circumstances are different between this early church in Jerusalem and the one you are a part of. Not many churches go from 120 members to over 3000 in a single day. And no other church has had as many members who had physically followed Jesus, absorbing all he had to say and do, for up to 3 years. But what this verse records them as doing is something that I believe all churches could benefit from.
Devoted to . . .
They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to prayer. For us today, the apostles’ teaching is found in the New Testament. There is no substitute for spending time together in Bible study and in prayer. We should be taking every opportunity to gather together to hear what God has to say in his word and to commune with him in prayer. We should be excited about the opportunity to meet with God.
The other thing they did was spend time together, fellowshipping and eating together. They met together in large groups in the temple courts and in small groups in homes. And they spent time together. They were living the two greatest commandments, loving God and loving others.
While you can identify many other things that a church should be doing, I am not sure how effective they will be without these four. That may look different from church to church. But when God’s people love spending time with him and with each other, good things are bound to happen.
“And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
Acts 2:47 NIV
