D. Scott Meadows

An Exposition of Acts 2.42

We do well to ask ourselves from time to time, “What is a particular church of Jesus Christ supposed to be doing?” By “supposed to be doing,” I do not mean according to expectations imposed upon it by a poll of its members, or by a comparison with other churches we might admire, much less by polling unbelievers outside the church. Our great and controlling concern should rather be, “What is God’s will for a church’s ministry, for any and every church, large or small, from the beginning of church history and throughout the world? What are the divinely-ordained functions of a church, without which it should be seen as lacking, and with which it should be highly esteemed as a church which is faithful in its ministry?”

I suspect this basic issue I have raised about our source of direction explains why there is so much confusion about the question. It sure seems that precious few Christians actually look to God alone for learning what a church is supposed to be doing! If we don’t agree on that basic premise, then we will never agree on the truth about this matter. I would be so encouraged by a brother or sister who would discuss it without even mentioning what other churches do, or what they wish we would do, since these factors, as interesting as they might be, are really quite irrelevant to knowing God’s will about what the church should be doing.

Where do we find God’s will for the church plainly revealed to us? Where else but in the Bible! “The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.” In the Bible, God “declares His will unto His church, . . . which makes the Holy Scriptures to be most necessary” for us to know God in a saving way and to know His will for us, not only as individuals, but also as a church (quotes from 2LCF 1.1).

What if there were a local church in Scripture raised up by God Himself, overseen by the very apostles of Jesus Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, and with evidence that it had the Lord’s abundant blessing on its ministries? What if there were a model church that was given by God from that time forward to serve as an example of one that was complete and faithful in its ministries? Wouldn’t that be helpful to us as a benchmark for comparison? What if the approach to ministry exemplified in that one particular church was also seen in the many other churches of the first-century also overseen by the apostles and their closest associates? What if, despite cultural and ethnic and language diversity, and even the presence of many serious problems, sins, and even some false doctrines that had infiltrated the early churches, the ministry functions of these first-century churches remained common among them all, so that they were obviously following the pattern of the model church I have envisioned already? Then it would be crystal clear, wouldn’t it, what all Christ’s churches in all times and in all places were supposed to be doing!

This would also expose the error of widespread criticism that comes upon faithful churches today, even sometimes from within, for not doing ten thousand things that people want them to be doing, things which we never read that the first-century churches were doing. For who are we to find fault with what God approves in His Word?

Of course there was such a church, a model church, in church history, as I have described, and it was the first church at Jerusalem described in the book of Acts chapter two and following. It grew rapidly from 120 to thousands of members. There were other churches like this one which may have been much smaller, but they were doing essentially the same things, for the decades afterward. The character and functions of these churches are also described in Acts and in the New Testament epistles. There were things they all did in common, as well-ordered churches of Christ, and as a matter of faith and obedience to God’s revealed will. Anyone who reads the New Testament for himself or herself can readily see what those things were.

Another thing we should remember is our biblical commitment to what has been called “the regulative principle of worship,” or, “the regulative principle of the church.” This is very relevant to the issue of “what the church is supposed to be doing,” for the church’s actions are, in their very nature, worship, and God declares His will in Scripture concerning what they are to be doing. When we adopted the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith almost 20 years ago, we agreed unanimously on this statement in the confession:

The acceptable way of worshipping the true God, is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshipped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures (2LCF 22.1).

This chapter in the confession enumerates the scriptural, legitimate way of worshipping God to consist of

prayer, . . . the reading of the Scriptures, preaching, and hearing the Word of God, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord; as also the administration of baptism, and the Lord’s supper, are all parts of religious worship of God, . . . moreover, solemn humiliation, with fastings, and thanksgivings, upon special occasions, ought to be used in an holy and religious manner (2LCF 22.3–5).

Now while this extra-biblical confession of faith is fallible, it is wonderful to know that these declarations you have just heard are true. They accurately represent what Scripture teaches concerning the will of our Lord Jesus Christ for His churches!

We are dealing this morning with a subject which is, in some respects, controversial, and our venerable confession reminds us that “in all controversies of religion, the church is finally to appeal to” the Scriptures (2LCF 1.8). So let me direct your attention now to the main text for this sermon, Acts 2.42, which reads,

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

From this straightforward passage I intend, without any difficulty at all, to show that

The model church continues steadfastly in a fourfold ministry of the apostles’ doctrine, the fellowship, the ordinances, and the prayers.

Following that, I would give a clear directive, a faithful reproof, and a powerful encouragement which both follow from these things. May the Lord help us to understand His Word and to apply it to ourselves as individuals and as a church.

Its Fourfold Ministry

The list of four things is one of the most obvious features of this verse. Those four things are the apostles’ doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. Let us think about what each one means.

“The apostles’ doctrine” could also be accurately translated “the teaching of the apostles,” where teaching is a noun, not a verb. It refers, if we might be very precise, not to the activity of the the apostles per se, which was teaching, but to the substance of their teaching, that is, “the teaching,” an idiom for the substance of the teaching, the truths taught. With all divine authority, the apostles of Jesus Christ were fulfilling the Great Commission in this. Jesus had charged His church to be “teaching them [baptized disciples] to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matt 28.20). One could argue that teaching is the church’s main task. It is the school of Christ. As our Lord revered the Hebrew Scriptures and constantly appealed to it, the apostles followed His example and were teaching the content, meaning, and application of what we know as the Old Testament. They did the same with the message they had received from Jesus Christ, which has come to be known as the New Testament. The Baptist Catechism says, “The Holy Scriptures chiefly contain what man ought to believe concerning God, and what God requires of man” (#6). In other words, the apostles were imparting a knowledge of the content and implications of the Bible for our thinking and living, which is to say, Christian theology. Theology has been well-described concisely as “the doctrine or teaching of living unto God” (Puritan William Ames). If that is what theology is, then we all desperately need it, and it is the church’s supreme ministry to teach and preach it. Of course, the gospel of free grace in Jesus Christ is central to this ministry. Paul later summarizes his doctrinal ministry as preaching Christ crucified (1 Cor 1.23; cf. 2.2).

The second thing on the list is “fellowship,” or more precisely, “the fellowship,” as the article is present in the Greek text. The main word is the well-known koinonia. It has the basic sense of “the act of sharing in the activities or privileges of an intimate association or group” (LBSL). It obviously refers to these baptized disciples associating closely together as a religious community, engaging in mutual ministry which is peculiarly appropriate for Christians in their special relationship with Christ and one another. The New Testament elaborates much on what this is, but it includes gatherings for public worship with all that it entails, along with various one-another ministries like prayer, counsel, reproof, encouragement, and when anyone among us is truly impoverished, financial giving to help meet their pressing and legitimate needs.

The third in this list of four church ministries is “breaking of bread,” or “the breaking of bread.” The specific wording and the context strongly imply that this was more than eating common meals together. The early Christians did that, but the phrase here includes religious eating together, namely, the holy ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. Neither the teaching nor the fellowship nor the Lord’s Supper were inventions of the apostles, but traditions they received from Jesus Himself to be handed down faithfully by them to others. Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper on the night He was betrayed to be observed frequently in our church gatherings until He comes again for us. This mention of the Lord’s Supper may also be considered to include the other holy ordinance of baptism, if we understand it as one part of something representing the whole. Here, the mention of one church ordinance, the Lord’s Supper, implies the other of baptism. We read in subsequent chapters that New Testament churches, starting with the Jerusalem church, perpetuated both ordinances.

The fourth ministry listed here is “prayers” or “the prayers.” While baptism and the Lord’s Supper were new practices Jesus introduced for His people, it is not so with prayer. God’s people have been distinguished by their devotion to prayer from earliest human history, in which we read, “then began men to call upon the name of the LORD” (Gen 4.26). However, I should emphasize greatly from this passage that offering up prayers together is one of the great, basic functions and ministries that all churches of all times, places, and sizes are called by God to maintain at all costs. Jesus said, “My house is the house of prayer” (Luke 19.46). This was a stinging rebuke to the prayerless Jerusalem Temple and a distinguishing mark of the true, spiritual Temple, which is Christ’s Church. Show me a church that doesn’t pray and I will show you a counterfeit.

These four things, the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers, summarize and truly encompass everything the Jerusalem church did in the will of God, along with the other churches of the New Testament. Everything else I can recall from the inspired record of their ministries might be considered different aspects of these four things.

Dear friends, what Charles Dickens said at the beginning of his classic novel, A Tale of Two Cities, is observably true in our own day with respect to churches: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.”

The foolishness of many churches appears in their minimizing if not altogether abandoning these biblically-warranted ministries for other things. Their worship services look more like nightclub acts or pop music concerts. They have so-called “youth ministries” that look like Chuck E. Cheese, and not anything we read in Scripture. It is inevitable that these popular approaches to doing church have a tendency to edge out more and more what the church is really supposed to be doing according to Christ the Lord. I have found lists of suggested “church activities” on the Internet with scores of proposals. Let me give you a sampling, and this is no joke: free car washes and oil changes, parents’ nights out, computer training, Super Bowl parties, building a labyrinth, talent shows, blessings of the animals, skate parks, snowman days, kite-flying days, Easter egg hunts, Halloween alternatives, and voter forums. Some of the activities in these lists were perfectly fine, but any church has limited human and financial resources. These “extra” things can become an avalanche of uselessness in the Kingdom of God, burying the things that really matter for eternity.

In far too many churches, anything remotely resembling the apostles’ doctrine is in very short supply. There is a widespread and palpable disdain for biblical, expository preaching with faithful application to life. Some disapprove of churches teaching Christian theology with its wellfounded traditional terms and ideas. Fellowship is also sparse as there is very little true, Christian intimacy and sharing. The Lord’s Supper as well is so infrequent in some churches as to have almost disappeared, and heartfelt prayers for things according to God’s revealed will are way too rare.

On the other hand, many people are becoming disillusioned with these so-called churches that have lost their way and are on the wrong track according to the map of Scripture. God is reforming some churches that were less scriptural. He is raising up others which are deeply committed to these things in the first place. There are also reports of sound churches that are seeing a stream of new converts being baptized and added to their membership. And there are churches like ours which are just holding their own while deeply committed to a biblical ministry. Yet the Lord is with us all in His blessing.

Still, for many people the expectations continue that churches should have so many different types of programs going on all the time, like a circus performer spinning a dozen plates on poles. I seem to recall that at least once I got a phone call from an inquirer who asked, “What programs does your church have?” If I ever get another one, I will be strongly tempted to reply, “All of them.” When they ask in surprise, “What do you mean, all of them,” I would really like to say, “All the ones that God has told us to have in His Word.”

We really should take to heart the hymn that says,

I love thy Kingdom, Lord,
The house of thine abode,
The church our blest Redeemer saved
With his own precious blood.

I love thy church, O God:
Her walls before thee stand,
Dear as the apple of thine eye,
And graven on thy hand.

For her my tears shall fall,
For her my prayers ascend;
To her my cares and toils be giv’n,
Till toils and cares shall end.

Beyond my highest joy
I prize her heav’nly ways,
Her sweet communion, solemn vows,
Her hymns of love and praise.

Jesus, thou Friend Divine,
Our Saviour and our King,
Thy hand from ev’ry snare and foe
Shall great deliv’rance bring.

Sure as thy truth shall last,
To Zion shall be giv’n
The brightest glories earth can yield,
And brighter bliss of heav’n.

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