Breaking Bread and Building Bonds: Experiencing Biblical Community
Acts 2:1-4, 42-47 September 14, 2003
Intro:
We want to spend a little more time around the communion table this morning than normal, partly because it feels like the right thing to do early in the fall as the rhythm of our lives change, but also because communion has a way of bringing us back to what is most important in our lives and in our life as community.
As we do, I’d like us to look at Acts 2. You might be familiar with that passage of Scripture; we talked about it together several months ago on Pentecost Sunday. The first four verses describe the incredible fulfillment of Jesus’ promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit, and rather than attempt to describe it or interpret it, I’d rather just read it to you: (read Acts 2:1-4).
“Church” all begins with the Spirit
Up until this moment, the followers of Jesus were merely men and women. Men and women who had been witnesses of incredible things – men and women who had known Jesus and loved Him and watching Him die and then rise again to new life – but still men and women. With the coming of the Holy Spirit they became something more, something new. They became new creatures, they experienced that transformation of the core of who they were which Paul later describes in terms of the “old person” dying and the “new person” being born. That is a big part of what this communion table is about – recognizing that in the death of Jesus our “old person” can die, and in the resurrection of Jesus we can experience new life.
Jesus’ followers did – they received that which Jesus had promised in His parting words: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses…” (Acts 1:9). And they did receive, and they were witnesses! Acts 2:1-4 describe that power, and the impact it had on the people – which Luke describes in verses 5-41. The disciples leave the upper room, spill out into the street speaking in tongues and attracting attention, they gather a crowd and Peter preaches to them, and the power of God flows through them and convicts of sin, and 3000 people repent of their sins, choose to obey Jesus as Lord, are likewise filled with the Spirit and respond publicly by being baptized.
And what happens immediately after that is the formation of community, which we read about in verses 42-47. But just before we do…
Did this ever happen alone?
Reading that passage this week, a question jumped into my head: did the Holy Spirit ever come upon someone while they were alone, in private? I did a quick glance through the rest of Acts, looking for places where the record shows the coming of the Holy Spirit, and I couldn’t find any. Now I’m open to being corrected, but all the occurrences I found involved a group of people. Even if I’m wrong about the “all”, I know I am right in saying that the normal way the Holy Spirit came upon people was when they were together – when they were in some sort of community.
We see that first in the 120 disciples of Jesus gathered in the upper room in Acts 2:1-4.
We see that in the response of the 3000.
In Acts 3, Peter AND John heal the cripple in front of a crowd.
Later, Stephen is seized, dragged in front of the Sanhedrin where he is filled with the Spirit and eventually stoned.
Philip ministers to crowds in Samaria. Then an Ethiopian traveling with servants.
Even Saul, on the Damascus road, hears the voice of Jesus along with the men traveling with him (even though those men couldn’t see the light from heaven which blinded Saul.)
Peter goes to Cornelius, and meets “a large gathering of people” (Acts 10:27).
My point: the normal way for the Spirit of God to come is in community. When people are together, seeking God, and sharing an experience. It is something that normally happens when we are together. The point is not that we do not have a personal experience of Jesus – you know I believe we each must and we each can – but that the normative way for that to happen is in a group of people. Why? I think it is so that all those around can witness/see testimony/wake up and ask why they aren’t also experiencing God/be encouraged as they see God working maybe even through their gifts. God comes in community.
That is why it is so important for us to meet together to seek God. Yes, we can and should seek Him in personal times of devotion and prayer – but we should expect that most often we will know and hear God speak and work when we are together. That is a little opposite modern western Christianity, I think – which is mostly about having a personal experience of Jesus. Biblical Christianity is about having a corporate experience of Jesus, or at least having a personal experience which is shared corporately.
So let’s read about the community that formed after people met the Spirit: Acts 2:42-47:
An “Acts 2” Church:
This is a very matter-of-fact paragraph, don’t you think? A list of very short sentences, simply stating what this early church was like. Let’s break it down:
Breaking it Down:
The first descriptor is the word, devoted: I looked up the meaning of the Greek word; it said “to continue to do something with intense effort.” That describes the heart of the people, they “devoted themselves.” To what? Four things:
o Apostles’ teaching: fairly obvious, I understand the idea of devotion to teaching.
o Fellowship: less obvious. This one I looked up to discover this definition: “an association involving close mutual relations and involvement.” In other words, they devoted themselves to one another, to the building of close, mutual relationships and involvement with one another. They put “intense effort” into building relationships.
o The breaking of bread: this means the celebration of communion, though as we’ll see in a moment they also ate together regularly
o Prayer: again, fairly obvious.
The next verse shows that the people were full of awe – which makes pretty good sense considering all that they were seeing and all that they were experiencing of God as they were together – and that the apostles performed many miracles (one of which is detailed in the next chapter.)
Verses 44 and 45 describe their material relationship, and we read of incredible generosity. I don’t think we are to interpret this as a complete communal system, for a variety of reasons I won’t go into here, but rather what I think we have is a group so in love with God and each other that all the barriers that we normally have towards others – barriers like greed or fear or selfishness – all those came down. Whenever a need arose, the community responded with generosity and the need was met with joy.
Verse 46 describes their worship. They went daily to the temple, and participated in temple worship (the daily sacrifices, etc…), and probably heard the apostles teaching there. And they also worshiped in their homes – “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God…” That worship involved eating together. Really what I think this underlines for us, more than simply sharing a common meal, is that this young church shared one another’s lives. They shared the daily things, eating together being the prime example, and keeping in mind that preparing a meal 2000 years ago was a lot more involved than buying some hamburgers and turning on the bbq…
And finally the result is visible in verse 47. The Kingdom of God grew, and enjoyed a good reputation with all the people.
The Progression:
Now I recognized we raced through that very quickly, and that we could have spent a lot more time diving in and unpacking that description. But rather than talk through it, I’d rather lead us through it in an experiential way. Here’s how:
In Acts 2, we read about the Holy Spirit coming upon Jesus’ disciples, as they prayed together. So we will pray for that, as we already have this morning. A little while later, the larger crowd of people heard Peter’s sermon and repented of their sins, so we will do that together as we always do prior to communion. Then we read about a community of devoted people in deep relationship with one another, characterized by generosity, worshiping in large groups and in small groups, and watching God bring more and more people. Obviously we aren’t going to do all that together this morning, but we can make a start.
Spirit Comes:
So let’s begin with prayer. Steve leads; worship team leads (what?? Perhaps begin with the 2nd chorus of All Who Are Thirsty, or the real oldie “Come Holy Spirit”, or maybe Niels can think of something that might work better invoking the presence of the Holy Spirit.)
God’s People Repent:
The first thing that the hearers did was repent of their sins. And since we are walking through this emphasis on community, Pastor Sue is going to lead us in a corporate prayer of repentance. Prayer of Repentance - Sue
People of Devotion:
The next descriptor is of a people of devotion – to teaching, fellowship, communion, and prayer. That is a little difficult to do here together, but I will put it out for us to consider as both a standard and a challenge. And ask the question: are you a devoted disciple? Are you devoted to learning obedience (that is what the apostles would have been teaching – not factual theology but living in obedience to the Lord). Are you devoted to building deep relationships with others, and to loving them as Jesus loved you? Are you devoted to God’s Kingdom here at Laurier? Are you devoted to prayer?
You see, of all the things we could be devoted to, only one lasts more than our lifetime. And that is our devotion to the Kingdom of God.
Communion:
We read that the early Christians were devoted to this celebration of Jesus’ sacrifice, and so we want to observe it together this morning. It is probably a little different than the early church might have celebrated in some of the cultural aspects, but the meaning and the message is exactly the same today as it was then: Our Lord Jesus gave Himself fully and completely for us, and we remember His sacrifice and pledge anew to devote ourselves to Him and to one another.
Bread
Cup
The Rest:
So what about the rest – about the sharing of meals together, sharing of lives together, caring for one another’s needs (physically, emotionally, spiritually)? That I want to encourage you to do also, as together we seek to experience Biblical community. This fall we are obeying God’s leading us toward Biblical community, through family groups. You’ve heard me talk about that the last couple of weeks. Many of the elements there are modeled after this description in Acts 2, and so I invite you to be a part of one of those. If you aren’t sure how, or if no one has invited you yet, talk with me or Sue and we will be happy to help. I know some of you have not been approached yet – that is maybe because we don’t have a phone number, for a number it is because we are working out some leadership questions, or maybe we made an innocent mistake. If you have not been contacted yet, please let Sue know. She is going to stand at the back door and she really wants to connect with you and make sure you are included.
I’m not going to spend time on the details of these family groups right now – those details are in the little brochure or from Sue or I – but let me cast the vision once again. It is to have community just like this description in Acts 2 – people devoted to one another, and loving one another deeply. We aren’t trying to legislate this, or pressure you, or dump some huge demand on you. We are trying to obey Jesus’ command to love one another as He loved us. We are inviting – that is the really key word – inviting you to get together with others and explore true Biblical community together.
They Worshiped:
And finally, they worshiped together. We generally end our communion service with a prayer of thanks and a song of worship, so let us do that now. Prayer of Thanks
