“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42)
Once the New Testament church had been launched, what did they do with themselves? That’s the question we’ll spend the rest of the week and weekend answering from the end of Acts 2.
The first thing they did is the one thing Christian churches still focus on most clearly: They tuned into the apostles’ teaching. The apostles were those guys who had been trained by Jesus and specifically chosen to teach the church how to walk after him. A couple of millennia later, we’re still devoting ourselves to their teaching in the pages of the New Testament.
The church then, like yours today hopefully, was all about spending time together, as in “all for one and one for all.” That meant eating and praying together became the norm for this growing family of brothers and sisters in Christ.
Membership in the church was never meant to be an online-only kind of thing that you went off an did by yourself. God intended us to be a family, learning about Christ and following after him together, asking him for help because it’s hard to follow him, and “breaking bread” together (for Communion or “the Lord’s Supper”) to remember what he did and what he will do.
Think: How does your church do in these areas? How do you do at participating in each of these things with the people in your church? Do you think you place enough value on participating in church life?
Pray: Ask God to help you to devote yourself, along with other Christians, to studying God’s Word and to the fellowship of believers by breaking bread and praying together.
Do: Write down a number from 1 to 10 (with 10 being high), rating your opinion of how your church does at each of these areas: being devoted to the Bible’s teaching, eating and/or sharing Communion together, and praying together. Then write down a number rating how you do at contributing to these areas in your church.