The church added by the Lord
“All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 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 2:44-47)
The church should be an objection of praise rather than an objection of criticism to the world. And the church is not the place where we, Christians, use artificially all the worldly ways and bring people into the church to fill the empty chairs. Rather, the church adds people by the Lord. In other words, the Lord adds those who are being saved to the church (Acts 2:47). What kind of church will the Lord add?
First, the church that the Lord adds devotes to four things.
The four things are: (1) devotion to the teaching of the Word of God, (2) devotion to the fellowship, (3) devotion to the communion, and (4) devotion to prayer (v. 42).
Second, the church that the Lord adds has fellowship of the saints.
The Apostles‘ Creed that we Christians confess in worship say: “… I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, ….” Here, what does the phrase “the communion of saints” mean? We can think of two ways:
(1) The church where there is “the communion of saints” is the church where all the believers are together and have everything in common.
Look at Acts 2:44-45: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” The Jerusalem Church lived a life of sharing their possessions and goods. This doesn’t mean that every member of the congregation sold their entire property and dedicated it to the church, then shared it with everyone. This doesn’t mean that the saints’ sharing of the property is the abandonment of their private property. It means that when there were saints who couldn’t afford themselves on and off in the church, those saints who had property such as real estate sold it and solved their problem by providing their financial needs (Yoo). Not everyone in the Jerusalem church was able to do so or afford to do so, or not all of the saints who had property did so. Just portion of the saints did so. Therefore, other saints took care of the problem of poverty in the church.
(2) The church where there is “the communion of saints” is the church where all the believer continue to meet together with one mind.
Look at Acts 2:46 – “Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.” This means that the church, where the saints are having true communion with one another, make every effort to meet together with one mind whether at church or at home. Then what did the Early Church saints do when they gathered in the temple or at home with one mind?
(a) They gathered from house to house and had table fellowship with gladness and sincerity of heart.
Look at Acts 2:46: “…. and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together
with gladness and sincerity of heart.” The Jerusalem church saints went from house to house and had communion and a table fellowship with the members by sharing food (Yoo). And they did this table fellowship with gladness and sincerity of heart. That's why churches do things like cell meetings. It is to realize that we are one family in the Lord by practicing and experiencing the love of Christ from each other by sharing God-centered table fellowship while striving to meet together. Therefore, we must recognize that we are one community in the Lord.
(b) They praised God.
Look at Acts 2:47 – “praising God ….” It means that the Early Church saints gathered together to share the God-centered table fellowship and then praised God. We must glorify God by praising God whenever we gather together in the Lord.
Listening to the evangelistic preaching of Apostle Peter, the 3,000 people, who were pierced to the heart, repented and were baptized, continually devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. As a result, they had favor with all the people. The whole house of Israel who crucified Jesus now praised those 3,000 disciples as they had a favorable impression on the community of believers of Jesus. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved to the Early Church. Like the Early Church of Jerusalem, I hope and pray that the Lord adds to our church number day by day those who are being saved as we continue to devote ourselves to the teaching of the Word of God, to the fellowship, to the communion and to prayer.