As we have been looking to Acts 2:42-47, we have been talking about how we as Christians are called to live in community with other believers as a community of faith. In doing so, we have recognized key elements which contribute to a local body of believers living together as a community of faith.
First, we said, we are called to learn. We should come together as a community of believers around a common conviction regarding the inspiration and preservation of the Bible and a common commitment to the application of the Bible. As a body of believers, we should encourage one another to hear, read, study, memorize, and mediate on the Scriptures so that we might be able to apply the truth of God’s Word to our daily lives.
Secondly, we said that we need to also understand that we are called to care. If our church is to come together as a community of faith, then each of us must devote ourselves to the fellowship just as did the early believers. This means that we need to devote ourselves to "koinonia," to sharing in and participating in the life of the church. We do this by devoting the time required to truly share our lives with our brothers and sisters in Christ; by devoting our talents to serving along side our fellow believers, and by devoting our treasure to the work of God through our local church family.
Now today, we want to think together about yet another key element associated with our being united as a community of faith. As a community of faith, we are called to worship together.
The early church worshipped together in large gatherings at the temple courts, as well as in smaller gatherings in their homes. We note that three elements associated with their worship together are mentioned in our passage. They praised God together (v. 47), they prayed together (v. 42), and they observed the Lord’s Supper together (v. 42).
Most scholars believe the use of the article, "the" indicates that what is described in verse 42 is the Lord Supper, while the breaking of bread mentioned in verse 46 more likely refers to sharing a meal together. (You always knew these early believers were Baptists, didn’t you?)
All kidding aside, I want us to think of these three things we are told about the worship of the early church to learn what should always be part of our gathering together for worship as a community of believers.
1. We gather together to reflect on the grace of God.
This is the whole purpose of the Lord’s Supper observance. When we partake of the elements of the Lord’s Supper, we are reminded of God’s grace whereby we are saved - God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense!
There are three benefits of grace that are illustrated by our observance of the Lord’s Supper. Indeed, they are three benefits of God’s grace that we will always find ourselves reflecting on anytime we gather to worship with the local family of faith. Whenever we worship together, we are caused to reflect on the fact that . . .
A. By grace, we have experienced God’s forgiveness.
God’s forgiveness is free, but it isn’t cheap. It cost Him the life of His Son, whose body was broken and whose blood was shed so that we might be forgiven!
He who lives came to die, so that we, who were dying might come to live!
B. By grace, we have been received into God’s family.
As we worship together as God’s people, we are caused to think about how, by God’s grace, we are part of the family of God; which is made up of all kinds of people, from all walks of life, with all kinds of histories, and every kind of story imaginable. Yet, we are bound together by this one common experience - we have all been saved by the power of God’s grace by virtue of the sacrifice of the cross!
C. By grace, we will be with God forever.
Jesus emphasized this when He instituted the observance of the Lord’s Supper and said that He would not partake again of the fruit of the vine until that day when He would drink it anew with you and me in His Father’s kingdom (Matthew 26:29).
Whenever we gather together with God’s people for worship, we are reminded of the journey we are on together and the common destination we all have. As the hymn puts it, "’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home."
2. We gather together to respond to the goodness of God.
Another element associated with the worship of the early believers was prayer. When we pray, we acknowledge that our God is one who loves us and cares for us. Part of the purpose of our gathering together is to remind ourselves of this wonderful truth - our God is a good God!
When we come together we do so for the purpose of reminding one another that our God is a God who loves us eternally and ever-lastingly. He is interested in and cares about even the most minute details of our lives. Therefore, we can do as Peter admonishes, "cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you" - 1 Peter 5:7 (NIV).
"We can worry or we can worship. Strangely enough, busy people find it a whole lot easier to worry than to worship." - Jill Briscoe
When we gather together for worship, we are reminded of God’s love for us and concern for us; and are encouraged and enabled to turn our cares, our problems, our challenges, our frustrations, and our very lives over to Him. Therefore, a key element in worship is our responding to God’s goodness with trust and surrender. This aspect of our worship together is captured in the words of the Ray Boltz song, "The Altar:"
"The service is nearing an end The choir is singing "Just as I am" And now as the old song is played People at the altar are kneeling down to pray Some are finding mercy Forgiveness for their sins Some are fighting battles and they’re struggling to win The time is come to give them to the Lord That’s what this altar is for You don’t have to carry those burdens any more There’s a light in the darkness There’s a love that’s true And Jesus is waiting He is waiting here for you Go quickly now before they close the door That’s what this altar is for A father is praying with his son Mother kneels beside them Thanking God they’ve come An old man is standing there in tears Giving up a part of him that he’s held back for years Hearts are being broken Lives are being changed Those who call upon Him they will never be the same The time has come to give into the Lord That’s what this altar is for."
3. We gather together to rejoice in the greatness of God.
Verse 47 tells us that the early church gave themselves to "praising God." They rejoiced in His greatness. Likewise, when we gather together to worship God as a community of faith, we do so to rejoice in God’s greatness.
Conclusion: What is the result of God’s people coming together as a community of faith to worship?
Our passage illustrates what happens in the lives of God’s people when they truly worship God together, reflecting on His grace, responding to His goodness, and rejoicing in His greatness. When we truly worship God together as a community of believers, we surrender ourselves to being used of God to draw others to faith in Him (v. 47).
"Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose - and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin." - William Temple
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship." - Romans 12:1 (NIV)
Our gathering together for worship is not an end, but a means to an end.
"Worship does not satisfy our hunger for God - it whets our appetite. Our need for God is not taken care of by engaging in worship - it deepens. It overflows the hour and permeates the week."
- Eugene Peterson
"So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him." - Romans 12:1 (The Message)
Here’s the bottom line, we gather together to worship as a community of faith on the Lord’s Day, so that we might be surrendered to living a life of worship as an individual believer every other day.
A parable is told of a community of ducks waddling off to duck church one Sunday to hear their duck preacher. After they waddled into the duck sanctuary, the service began and the duck preacher spoke eloquently of how God had given the ducks wings with which to fly.
He pounded the pulpit with his beak and said, "With these wings, there is nowhere we ducks can not go! There is no God-given task we ducks cannot accomplish! With these wings we no longer need walk through life. We can soar high in the sky!"
Shouts of Amen!¨ were quacked throughout the duck congregation.
The duck preacher concluded his message by exclaiming, "With our wings we can fly through life! WE......CAN.....FLY!!!!"
More ducks quacked out loud "AMENS!" in response.
Every duck loved the service.
In fact all the ducks that were present commented on what a wonderfully convicting message they had heard from their duck preacher.…
and then they left the church and waddled all the way home.
APPLICATION
Too often We waddle away from worship the same way we waddled in.…
Unchanged.
If that is our experience, then we are not focusing on what we should when we gather to worship; and we are not truly participating with the community of faith in the activity of worship. God calls us to be a worshipping community so that we might be a transformed community!
