No Place Like It!

“When [the disciples] had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

“Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.” [1]

I once read of a country store situated beside an old dirt road that had a sign hanging on the front porch that read:

THERE IS NO PLACE ANYWHERE NEAR THIS PLACE LIKE THIS PLACE

SO THIS MUST BE THE PLACE.

This church ought to have a sign like that hanging over the pulpit for everyone to read.

For many of us the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence. Many times we are too close to our own place to appreciate what we have. If we would stop to think, we probably would not trade places with anyone else.

I recall reading of a man who became so disgruntled and dissatisfied with his house that he decided to sell it. He called a realtor and had the house listed. The man then began to look through the realtor ads to find a house he could buy.

Some days later he happened on an ad that described in every detail the house he was looking for. He called the realtor and was astonished to find that the description was that of his very own house! He had what he wanted all the time and just hadn’t realised it. This is probably the case with many of God’s people.

We want a perfect church—one that allows us to be comfortable, not demanding much of us while fulfilling every wish. We want a pastor who speaks for fifteen minutes, delivering a message filled with reams of wisdom that astonishes us and fills our minds with volumes of information that will equip us to live lives that will cause the Lord to smile on us. We want a powerful church with people dedicated to prayer, yet without disturbing our daily routine by expecting us to take time from our day to spend time in the presence of God. We want a church that sees marvellous answers to great prayers week-after-week. We want our church to entertain our children, making them eager to be in the Sunday School. We want the music program to be vibrant and energetic with a great band and a lively worship team singing the latest lively choruses. Ideally, our church will have great acoustics that draw us into a sensual environment that makes it easy for us to “worship.” We want all this, without any demands for commitment on our part. We still need our “me” time, and Sunday is the one day we can have “me” time.

Perhaps we have ignored, or possibly we never recognised, the model that God provided for the assemblies of the righteous has been revealed in the life of the first assembly. To enable us to understand what that church was like, and so that we can model our own congregation after that first congregation, let’s take a closer look at the New Beginnings Baptist Church of Jerusalem.

A PLACE OF PURPOSE — Earlier in this account of conditions in the life of the early church, we are informed, “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place” [ACTS 2:1]. These first disciples were not in the upper room by accident; they were there on purpose. The Risen Lord had instructed them to wait there until they were baptised with the Holy Spirit. The promise of the Father would shortly come; His power would soon fall on them. Henceforth, their preaching would surely bring impressive results. When God’s children do God’s work in God’s way there will always be remarkable results. And what was witnessed on this Pentecost serves to encourage the people of God since that day.

The main purpose for praying and waiting on the Lord is to glorify the Lord through promoting worship and winning souls—and the church of the Living God must be a place of purpose. Everything we do, both as individuals and as a congregation, ought to have as the primary motive this one great purpose of uniting us as the holy body of Christ. Both individually and corporately we who gather as the congregation of the righteous are responsible to plan to worship and we ought to plan to win souls. And if we do not so plan we must be prepared to explain to God why this is not important. Souls were so precious to our Saviour that He gave His own sinless life as a ransom for the lost. And worship marked every step of Jesus’ life during the days of His flesh.