When We Come Back: Part 2 Acts 2:42-47

When We Come Back: Part 2

Acts 2:42-47 – May 3, 2020

            This time next week we plan to resume normal worship. Well, as normal as possible that is. Yes, we’ll still have some restrictions. Yes, there will still be some who aren’t ready to end self-isolation. But we’re going to come back together.

            “What will that look like?” you say. Sure, it will be modified. But it will look much like what we do every Sunday. In fact, it will look much like what we saw the Christians in Acts doing last Sunday and will continue to look at this Sunday. We will devote ourselves to “the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

I. We’ll break bread together.

            The first Christians devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. Luke tells us they came together every day in the temple courts. They wanted to hear more about Jesus and what he’d done for them.

            But you’ll notice they don’t just come together to sit at the apostles’ feet and listen to their teaching. They eat together, too. Luke tells us, “They devoted themselves … to the breaking of bread. … They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” And maybe if the English is a little unclear, the original language can give us some insight. It says, “They broke bread from house to house.” One night you’re at my house. The next I’m at yours. We’ll set up a rotation.

            For these Christians, it wasn’t a one hour on Sunday, wave-as-you-walk-out deal. It’s not like it is for us either. Some of you tried to recreate the Easter breakfast this year. I’m guessing it wasn’t the same, mostly for the fact that it was a lot like all the other breakfasts you eat during the year. Sure, the food was better than the usual Toaster Strudel. But you didn’t get to sit and eat with everyone from church like you do every year. You didn’t get to see those people you might only see once a year since you go to first service and they go to second service.

            But what is it about being part of a church that gets you to eat with people who before you might not have given a second glance to? And not just eat, but to open up your home.

            Think about the Christians gathering in Acts. They came from Parthia, Media, and Elam; from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia; from Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and Libya; from Rome, from Crete, from Arabia, from all different parts of the world. Most likely complete strangers to each other. And yet, shortly after Pentecost, they’re going to the temple together and breaking bread in each other’s homes.

            It’s God the Holy Spirit who brought them together. He’s the one who brought 3,000 to faith on Pentecost. He’s the one who kept on adding to their number daily. He brought people from north, south, east and west to that church in Jerusalem. He bound them together in the same faith. They may not have had much in common, but they did have one thing. They all believed in Jesus as their Savior. That’s how Paul could say years later, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

            Even though we all share the same humanity, it’s human nature to divide humanity. People divide humanity into neighborhoods. They divide humanity by home state, although Texans would never do that. They divide it by culture or by race. They divide it by salary or mortgage payment. They divide it by similar likes and even by similar dislikes. Sometimes all this dividing is harmless—like at the Cowboys-Packers watch party last year when fans of one team watched in one room and fans of the other watched in another room. But often this dividing is not so harmless. Like when we naturally feel like helping one group over another. Or when we see the groups we’re not a part of as an enemy. Or if we prefer to share the gospel of Jesus with one section of humanity but not another.

            So what is it, then, that can bring a group of people like us together? People from different parts of the country or even the world. Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials, Zoomers. People with different childhood experiences, life experiences. With different opinions and ideas. In a time when the world seems more divided than ever, what brings us together?

            Yes, it’s our tendency to divide ourselves. To seek out people like us. To set up one group as better than another. But the Holy Spirit doesn’t work like that. Through his Word, he reveals to us that as much as there is to divide us, there is one thing that unites us. It’s our need for a Savior from sin. It’s our faith in that Savior Jesus. Everything that could divide us melts away when we are shown that my sister in Christ on the other side of the sanctuary is here because she needs Jesus just as much as I do. The sins that would keep us apart are forgiven in his name. Our various identities—“I’m a Texan.” “I’m a millennial.” Whatever.—these identities are put to the side in our new identity—“I’m a child of God.”

            And the children of God gather around the Lord’s table. Yes, the early Christians ate together. But it wasn’t only their daily meals they ate. Devoted to the apostles’ teaching, they celebrated the Lord’s Supper together. The apostles passed down what the Lord had given to them, “Take and eat. This is my body. Take and drink this is my blood. Given and poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

            Though we might not eat our daily meals together all that often, we do eat together regularly. As God's family, we regularly come to his table. There, he unites us with himself and with each other, a family eating together the meal where he gives the forgiveness of sins. Where he strengthens our shared faith. Where he deepens the family bond between all of us. As you stand next to your brothers and sisters, you receive that same promise, that same forgiveness, that same hope of eternal life at the family reunion in heaven.

II. We’ll praise God together.

            What blessings we receive when we come together at worship. We hear again from the apostles’ teaching. We share fellowship and food with each other. We receive the forgiveness of sins in his Supper. All these blessings from God stir up in us a great desire to praise him.

            Luke tells us that the first Christians “devoted themselves … to prayer.” They were “praising God.” But praying to God and praising him are things you can do on your own. Why did they need to come together to do that? Why do we come together to do that?

            I suppose you could ask why people do anything together. Why do people throw Superbowl parties? Everyone could easily watch the game alone. Why do people have sewing groups? It’s not like you can’t sew without your friends. Isn’t it a hassle to drag your sewing machine somewhere else? Why do people like to see movies together? You could just wait until it comes out on Netflix and watch at home.

            And yes, some of us are homebodies who more often than not like to stay at home. But there’s almost no one out there who doesn’t want to have friends, to have people to share life with, to do things together. That’s the way God created us. The Bible tells us, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.” It shows these first Christians gathering together regularly. God said at the beginning, “It is not good for the man to be alone,” and so he created a wife for him.

            So, if it’s so easy to get together to do so many other things, why can it be difficult to come together to pray to and praise God? Among Christians who only attend church a few times a year, 44% say “I practice my faith in other ways.”[1] In other words, “I don’t need other Christians to be a Christian.” True enough. You can pray to God by yourself. Even Jesus did. You can praise God by yourself.

            Partially, this comes down to living in a country that trains us to mind our own business, especially when it comes to religion. How I practice my faith might be different from how you practice your faith, and if we are different—if the style of worship you like is different from the style of worship I like; if the way you pray is different from the way I pray; if the kind of music you like to sing is different from the kind of music I like to sing—then there’s really no reason for us to worship together.

            But it can be even more dangerous than that. There can be a tendency for Christians to want to have a strong relationship with God but to be indifferent to other Christians. A tendency to think it’s just God and me on this walk through life. To think of the Church as a collection of individuals, each doing their own thing, rather than as the indivisible body of Christ. A person isn’t just a collection of organs; they’re a person. The body of Christ isn’t just a group of individuals; it’s the body of Christ.

            The problem is the sinful nature doesn’t want to be lost among the many. Part of the reason the Borg in Star Trek are the bad guys is because they want everyone to assimilate. The sinful nature sees becoming part of a larger group as a hindrance to self-expression, the loss of freedom, the disappearance of the individual. The sinful nature you still carry still wants to raise you above everybody else, whether you realize it or not.

            Christ came to get rid of this sinful nature. He is our Good Shepherd. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way.” We’ve wandered away from the flock. We’ve gone our own way. But here’s the key. The Lord has brought us back. He has laid on our Good Shepherd “the iniquity of us all.” “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

            And now, bought by his blood, he brings us together to pray to him and praise him. “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”

            One body. One flock. One Church. Uniting our voices in praise to God. Praying together. Praying for each other. In this Church, the individual doesn’t lose their individuality. But they don’t use their individuality just for themselves. They use the unique gifts God gives them in service to him and to the others who gather with them. And so when we gather together again, we’ll praise God together.

            During this quarantine, I’ve seen posts on Facebook and heard comments that now is the time for us to really be the church. To get out there and let our light shine. Yes! We want to do that. But that’s not all the church does. The church is gathered together by the Good Shepherd. The church is refueled by the apostles’ teaching. The church assembles. After all, that’s what the word “church” means. The church shares fellowship. The church breaks bread together. The church sings God's praise and prays to him. That’s what we plan do again starting next week. And that’s what we’ll do together forever in heaven. Amen.

[1] https://www.pewforum.org/2018/08/01/why-americans-go-to-religious-services/pf-08-01-18_religious-services-00-06/.