Community

June 13, 2012

Acts 2: 42-47 (New Living Translation)

In my Bible, there are titles.  By that, I mean each section, a certain number of verses, is prefaced by a title, which is to describe what the set of verses is all about.  This passage in Acts is titled "The Believers Form a Community".  I read this, and I thought to myself, "Duh, isn't this what the believers are anyhow?", and then I remembered that this was at the very beginning of the early Church.  Those who gathered on the Day of Pentecost experienced the Holy Spirit of God poured out on them.  Those who gathered there listened to the sermon that Peter preached to them.  Those who gathered there were, as the preceding chapter states, "were baptized, and added to the church that day – about 3000 in all".  Quite the community...

When we hear the word 'community', what do we envision?  A group of people who live among one another, sharing their lives with one another, and doing things together.  These new believers in the early Church lived in unity, were taught by the apostles, and shared in meetings and fellowship with one another.  Basically, they lived their lives out with one another, together.

"All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord's Supper), and to prayer...  And all the believers met together in one place and sharing everything they had...  They worshipped together....each day, met in homes...and shared their meals with great joy and generosity"

They enjoyed each other's company; they shared what each one had; they prayed together; they worshipped together; and they did all this with 'great joy'.  This, my friends, is Church – not a bunch of people meeting in a building, not the building itself, but the people, the believers – the Church!  Going to church on Sunday is a good thing, but being the Church and doing the work of the Church every day is what the Church is all about!  Believers are to help one another in whatever way they are able to...

So after reading these verses, ask yourself these things:

·       Is my church this kind of place?

·       If not, then what might I do to make it this kind of place?

God, I thank you for my fellow believers, and for what they bring into my life.  Let me be – let my church be – the kind of place that the early Church was: a comm-UNITY.  Amen.