'A church that is the church'
“They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.” (Acts 2:42-43)
Pastor Rick Warren (Saddleback Church) said: ‘The most important issue of the 21st century church is not church growth, but church health. The problem is not whether the number of the church membership is large or small, but its health.’ And he proposed five ways to measure church growth: The church needs … (1) To grow warmer through fellowship, ( 2) To deepen through discipleship, (3) To become stronger through worship, (4) To be widen through ministry, and (5) To grow bigger through evangelism. He said that rather than the number of church members, the percentage of church members who are mobilized for ministry and mission is a more accurate measure of the health of the church.
When I think about this, I wondered if our church is a healthy church. However, I personally prefer to use the word ‘A church that is the church’ rather than “a healthy church”, so I wondered if our church is a church that is the church. Before that, I first thought about what kind of church is ‘A church that is the church.’ Here, when I say "A church like the church" I mean the church that the Bible says. I would like to think about what kind of church is the church that is mentioned in the Bible centered on Acts 2:42-43. I would like to think of four things. I hope and pray that we will learn from the Bible what the church is and will be used by the Lord in building His church.
Look at Acts 2:42 – “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” After hearing the words of Apostle Peter, 3,000 people repented of their sins and were baptized and became the disciples of Jesus Christ. Then those 3,000 disciples continually devoted on four things. We too must continually devote ourselves on these four things in order for our church to be ‘A church that is the church’:
First, ‘A church that is the church’ continually devotes to the Word of God.
Look at today's Acts 2:42 – “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching ….” The 3,000 people who received Jesus through Apostle Peter's preaching were new believers who had just believed in Jesus. So they had no choice but to be taught by the apostles to promote their faith to grow. Luke, the author of the book of Acts, depicts the ideal relationship between Jesus and his disciples in the Book of Luke as the true disciples listening to the word of the Lord at His feet (Lk. 2:46; 8:35; 10:39) (Yoo Sang-sup). In pursuing our ideal relationship with Jesus, we must faithfully listen and learn the Word of God. This is a test question from a professor at the Chongshin Seminary: 'What do the church saints need the most?' The answer was ‘The Word of God.’ Each of the church saints may have different views of what they need the most. But from the spiritual point of view, what we need the most is the Word of God. Therefore, the members of “A church that is the church’ should continually devote all their efforts in learning the Word of God. We must continually devote ourselves in learning God's Word diligently.
Second, ‘A church that is the church’ continually devotes to fellowship.
Look at Acts 2:42 – “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship ….” Here, the Greek word for “fellowship” is “koinonia” (κοινωνία). And the word “koinonia” has two meanings: (1) It means sharing together and (2) It means to give what you have to someone else.
The Christian term "fellowship", which is often used by us, the Christians, these days, is questionable whether it is what the Bible says. Is Christian fellowship having an interesting conversation that the people in this world enjoy? Is it just having a social activity together? The fellowship we are talking about is not just about having the interesting conversation with people and having fun time. It doesn't just mean playing a game in a Christian setting, or just talking about what happened last week. That's what we did even before we were born again. There is some new sharing in the fellowship spoken of in the Bible. It is ‘to have time of sharing what we have learned in the Word of God and of praying together,’ ‘to have intercession and pray for fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who are in difficulties,’ ‘to share what we have with each other’ (Internet).
What is the fellowship mentioned in Acts 2:42? In Greek, there is a definite article that is "the fellowship." Here “the fellowship” refers to ‘the spiritual fellowship.’ On the day of Pentecost, it was the Holy Spirit who dwelled in them about 3,000 new believers and it was the Holy Spirit whom they shared together. Therefore, we can see that the early Jerusalem church was dedicated to the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. The fellowship of the Holy Spirit within the community of the Holy Spirit is natural. Therefore, the early Jerusalem church was not just a humanistic community where people united in unity and union, but was the communion body of the Holy Spirit, with the Holy Spirit as the center and core (Yoo).
Third, ‘A church that is the church’ continually devotes to the communion.
Look at Acts 2:42 – “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread ….” Here, “the breaking of bread” refers to the communion (the Lord’s Supper). In other words, the early church saints devoted themselves to the communion.
We too should devote ourselves continually to the communion. Through the Lord’s Supper, we must humbly receive the bread and wine that symbolize Jesus' flesh and blood and enjoy the grace of the Lord.
Fourth and last, ‘A church that is the church’ continually devotes to prayer.
Look at Acts 2:42 – “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Here, the word “prayer” is plural. In other words, the early church in Jerusalem was totally dedicated to various kind of prayers. Another fact is that there is definite article before the word "prayer." So it means “the prayer.” In other words, the prayer of the early church in Jerusalem shows that its members imitated the prayers of about 120 persons who continually devoted themselves to prayer with one mind (1:14-15). This fact that continued as it was when the church expanded to about 3,000 new believers really challenges us. For the church in Jerusalem, the numerical growth of the members meant that the number of people who devoted to prayer increased. This confirms to the church in Jerusalem that prayer is not just a means for church growth, but an essential aspect of the church's existence (Yoo).
What was the result of wholehearted devotion of the early church saints to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer? Look at Acts 2:43 – “Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.” What does this mean? In short, when they wholeheartedly devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer, the result was that the church had spiritual authority in the society of unbelievers (Park). But now the spiritual authority of the church fell too far in our society of unbelievers. How many churches are not devoted wholeheartedly to the things we suppose to, but devoted to other things, so that we fight, quarrel, and there are conflicts and division in the church thus lose spiritual authority among unbelievers? Now even the unbelievers have no fear and awe for the church. Rather, the church is now ridiculed and ignored by them. What is the cause? This is because we Christians are not devoted to the things we suppose to. We should devote ourselves to the Word of God, true fellowship, communion, and prayer. As a result, the church should be established in spiritual authority even before unbelievers, and becomes ‘A church that is the church’ that is praised not only by God but also by the people of this world. I hope and pray that the Lord will build our church as ‘A church that is the church.’