This morning I want to talk a little bit about how to identify the church of Christ. Most of us have had occasion to be out travelling, perhaps on vacation, on a business trip, something of that nature, and we have had to seek out the Lord’s church—the Lord’s body—a place to meet. That can be difficult sometimes.
A number of years ago, a man told me what, I think, is a very good formula to follow in identifying the true body of believers, and I’d like to share that with you. First of all, one must look for a meeting place that has the right sign out in front. It ought to say, “The church of Christ”. If it says something else—“God’s House of Love, Incorporated”, or something like that—why, you know that’s probably not the right place.
After we’ve identified the sign, we ought to go inside, and somewhere in the foyer of that building, there should be a tract rack with tracts in there. Then after we’ve identified that, it’s a good idea to crack the door of the auditorium and take a peek inside, and look and see if we can find a musical instrument —or instruments; and if we identify some instruments in there, why chances are we’re not in the right place.
But even after we’ve done these things, we still cannot be assured that we have identified the body of Christ. So, we need to take a step inside the auditorium and check the back of the pew and see what kind of a song book is in there. It ought to be songs of the church, sacred selections; and if it’s not one of those, then at least identify and see if it has shaped notes.
But even after doing all of those kinds of things, we still can’t be sure that we’re in the true church. One final test, this fellow told me, is to take a few steps down the aisle, turn around and look above the doors. And if there’s a clock on the wall, you’re in the church of Christ! [All of the above was said teasingly, and the congregation laughed.]
Well, that doesn’t work here [because we were meeting in a hotel convention room at the time and there was no clock over the door], but you’d be surprised. I’ve told that story in a number of places, and I guarantee you, without fail, there’s always a clock on the wall above the doors in the back of the auditorium.
Speaking of keeping track of the time, last week Tobey Pierce had to borrow Carol’s watch to keep up with the time while he was speaking. [Carol is Tobey’s wife.] I have a special time-keeping apparatus that I use. It was given to me a number of years ago. Let’s see, we’re in the month of March, aren’t we? [And John begins thumbing through a calendar, implying that you didn’t know how long his sermons would be—and the congregation laughed.] Seriously, I was given a calendar as a going-away gift when we were leaving a congregation where I did a fair share of the preaching. I thought that was cruel and unkind and a little bit mean spirited. I think the message, perhaps, there was that maybe I was a bit long-winded—maybe I talked too long. And somebody thought it was a rather clever idea to give me a calendar to keep track of my time because, they said, that was probably how I did keep track of my time.
But I’m here to tell you that I don’t necessarily like to be constrained limited to a 30-minute period of speaking. And maybe that’s where my reputation comes from. I’d rather take my inspiration from the apostle Paul, who, we know when he was at Troas, spoke until midnight! [Acts 20:6-7] What time do we have to be out of here?!? Of course, that worked for me for a long time until my son, when he was, oh I don’t know, maybe junior high or early high school years, pointed out to me one time, “Dad, Paul didn’t start preaching until 11:30 P.M.” So…that may or may not have been the case.
Seriously, I do want to talk about identifying the church—identifying characteristics of the Lord’s church. As we begin this new work together, I believe that we must do everything that we can do to be careful that this congregation of the Lord’s people will be now, and forever more, identified as the Lord’s body. And this is more than just having the proper sign in front of the building. It’s more than just conforming to some traditional values and practices. It’s more than just properly observing five items of worship. It’s more than how the church is organized and governed. Yes, it’s even more than baptism by immersion for the remission of sins.
These things are certainly important, even vital to the true body of Christ, but there’s more to be considered. Our goal, desire and objective needs to be that we pattern, or mirror, as closely as we possibly can, the teachings and practices of the church and those first century Christians as is recorded on the pages of the New Testament—God’s divinely inspired revealed Word to man.
Tobey Pierce read to us from Acts, the second chapter. All of us recognized that particular passage as being part of Peter’s first Gospel sermon. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter and the other apostles stood up in the midst of the multitude that was there and preached to them. And in his concluding remarks we see that the people who were there, many of them were convicted of their sins, asked what they needed to do to be saved, and there were about 3,000 souls who responded at that time—were baptized, were converted to Christ. That was the beginning of the church of Christ. That was the day that the church was founded, and it began.
Let me just digress for a moment here and say that we understand both from what we read in the Scriptures, as well as from church history, that that first congregation, and other congregations that we read about in Acts, were made up of primarily what we might call “house churches.” There was not a large building in the city of Jerusalem where these 3,000 gathered to worship. They met in homes. Sometimes they met in public places, but for the most part there were no buildings to accommodate hold such a large group of people.
We have had some experiences (when I say “we”, I’m talking about Betsy and I) [Betsy is the wife of John Phillis] that have helped us, I think, to have a perception about what the church is, and I’d like to share just a couple of anecdotes with you in that regard.
Many of you know we were here in Albuquerque back in the early ‘70’s. We were members at Montgomery Boulevard church of Christ, and we certainly enjoyed being a part of that fellowship. We enjoyed the padded pews. We enjoyed the classes. We enjoyed all of the things about that fellowship. But in December of 1975, we were reassigned…(I was, of course, in the military)…we were reassigned to Germany. And we left here in December of 1975.
I went over to Germany in January of 1976 and began to experience what was kind of a different arrangement in terms of how the church met. We were near Frankfurt…about 35 or 40 miles south of Frankfurt, Germany. There was a congregation of English-speaking people, primarily American military people, that met in the Frankfurt area. But people came from outlying areas to come into Frankfurt, and we would go in on Sunday morning and meet together, and there were about 120 or so that would meet together in a building that was there.
But then, Sunday evening and midweek [Wednesday evening], we would meet separately. The little community where we lived was called Darmstadt, and we had a couple of families, and we had a couple of single people—one was a GI [the original meaning of GI is “Government Issue”, but later “GI” came to be used as a name, or term, for a person in the military], and the other was an employee for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service. In fact her parents…some of you may know her parents. They live in Santa Fe [New Mexico] and worship at Montgomery [Boulevard church of Christ] from time to time [when they visit the city of Albuquerque]…the Calvins.
Anyway, we would meet in the chapel on the military facility there on Sunday evenings and Wednesday evenings. I never will forget…Betsy and the kids came over from the United States, I guess, about 6 weeks or so after I’d been there for a while. They arrived in Frankfurt, at the airport there, on a Sunday morning, and I’d gone up to pick them up—meet them there. And so we hadn’t had a chance to worship, and so that Sunday evening, we were supposed to meet in the chapel. And, remember now, I’d experienced some of this already, and so I was a little bit used to it. But this was Betsy and the kids’ first opportunity to meet there. We went to the chapel. It was a cold, rainy February evening. Nobody could get the key to get in. So we ended up meeting at somebody’s house, a third-floor walk-up, you know, military quarters. Here we were, no more that 10 of us, and that was Betsy and our older two children’s introduction to the church there in Germany.
But you know what? We had a nice devotional service, we sang some songs, we shared the Word together, we had a communion service because we hadn’t had the opportunity to be together with them that morning. And so it was, and so it continued for us. We had many, many strange experiences, probably, by how we would look at things today.
I can remember, out of necessity, we had to meet in a Catholic church building because that was the only facility that we could find that would accommodate us. It was a cold granite building—hard, hard seats, terrible acoustics! I’m sure it was great for the big pipe organ in the back, but for a cappella [without instrumental music—a voices only] singing, the acoustics were terrible! There was a pulpit that stood up about 10 feet above the crowd, a cross—a large wooden, carved crucifix—that hung on the wall. There were holiday periods of time when they would decorate the building, you know. But we were able to worship acceptably in that environment.
We didn’t always have classes for kids. And when we did, sometimes those classes were like, you know, ages kindergarten through grade 6, and 7th grade through 12th. You know, our kids, for most of the time they were growing up, never had a youth group. But nonetheless, we worshipped, we studied, we grew.
I can remember a time when we, in order to have a place to sit when we got to worship after we drove about 40 miles to get there, we took folding chairs. Anyway, why am I telling you this? Not because you’ll think something special of us, but simply to say that as we look around here this morning, some of us might say, “Well, what are we doing here? What’s going on here?” Can we do the things that we’ve become accustomed to and that we’ve been comfortable in? And my answer to you is, “Yes, we can.” We can worship acceptably in this environment. [We were meeting in hotel convention rooms at the time of this sermon.]
As we look to the future… You know, Dennis Setliff announced that we’ll be meeting here next week. The week after, we don’t know where we will be meeting. What will it be? Will it be a storefront? Will it be some other kind of a building? Well, we don’t know, but that’s okay. We can still worship, we can still grow and develop as individuals and as a congregation of God’s people even in this kind of environment and with this uncertainty and apprehension.
And I’m here to tell you that for us for me and my family, the periods in our life that we experienced the most positive spiritual growth, where we did more work for the Lord, were during those periods of time when we had those difficult circumstances—where things weren’t convenient for us to get to worship, or we didn’t have the kind of facilities, perhaps, that we might like. But for us, those were, in our life, the periods of greatest spiritual growth. And I trust that maybe we’ll experience that again, speaking for myself and my family.
Keep in mind, again, that this first congregation of the church of Christ, which began on the Day of Pentecost in the city of Jerusalem, perhaps met in circumstances and conditions which were not dissimilar to the way we are now. For Sunday evening and Wednesday night, we will be meeting in homes. Well, again, as I said earlier, they the first churches in Jerusalem were primarily home churches…house churches. And so I think we can take comfort and encouragement from that particular fact.
Let’s look at the verses that follow verse 41 in the establishing of the church. I’d like to read for us Acts 2, verses 42 through 47: “They devoted…” now, the “they” there, of course, refers back up to the 3,000 plus who were baptized on the Day of Pentecost—those who constituted the first church of Christ, if you will. Acts 2:42-47: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
These people, this first congregation of the Lord’s church, were led and organized by the inspired apostles. And what we have just read there gives us an account of the activities of this first Christian community. Simply stated, they gathered daily in various homes to break bread (that is, to eat a meal). They met publicly in the temple precincts. And in a couple of other places in Acts—Acts 3 and Acts 5—it indicates that one of the places where they met was Solomon’s Colonnade. All the while, they were adhering to the apostolic teaching, and to fellowship and increasing in numbers day by day, praising God and enjoying the favor of all men.
May I suggest that what is said of the first congregation of the Lord’s church is a proper goal and design for this Christian community to pursue today. And this is what we want to examine more closely now.
First of all, let’s notice that this description of what the church did is prefaced by how they did it. Verse 42 says, “They devoted themselves…” The King James Version translates that, “They continued steadfastly…” This thought comes from a single Greek word which means “to adhere to, to persist in, to be devoted to, to spend much time in.” We’re familiar with and understand this kind of terminology as they apply to us, perhaps in a secular way. We know that we must adhere to the laws of the land and to certain rules in our society. We’re all persisting, or have persisted, in some effort—some task—which has been before us. And we understand what devotion is—devotion to family, devotion to the home, devotion to our country. Luke tells us here in the book of Acts that this is the way the first church of Christ was concerning their Christian community. They were persistent. They were devoted. They adhered to. They spent much time in… But what were they doing? What were they devoted to? What were they persistent in? What did they spend much time in?
And in that text, we see primarily three things: Corporate learning and teaching, corporate sharing, and corporate worship and prayer. [Corporate means that all of these things they were doing were being done together, in fellowship.] The idea of fellowship that’s contained in verse 42 emphasizes the “corporateness,” or the group relationship, of the church and calls attention to the sense of belonging and participation.
First, let’s consider corporate learning and teaching. The apostles’ doctrine was that instruction given by the apostles to the church. Earlier, in Acts, chapter 2, about verse 4, we see that the apostles were visited upon by the Holy Spirit. They were inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guided their thoughts. Therefore, “apostles’ doctrine” really has reference to the teaching of the Lord, together with the proclamation of the life, the death and the resurrection of Jesus, and its meaning for man’s salvation. This teaching became an authoritative tradition in the early church, and later found its embodiment [its actual physical appearance as a book that could be touched, opened and read] in our own New Testament.
Notice that this activity of learning and teaching was commanded by Jesus Himself. In what we commonly refer to as “The Great Commission,” recorded in Matthew, the 28th chapter, and also in Mark, the 16th chapter, Jesus says, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in [or “into”; see Acts 8:16, Acts 19:5, Romans 6:3, 1 Corinthians 1:13, 1 Corinthians 10:2 and Galatians 3:27] the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe [obey] all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”
Notice also that the ministry of the Word has with it a specific injunction—a command, order or admonition—for teaching, as we read in Acts 6 and verse 4. This is, of course, the occasion when the first deacons were appointed, and their functions allowed more freedom for the apostles to be ministering—to be teaching and preaching. Also there were other groups of saints in Acts which were given the exhortation and instruction to teach, to preach—Acts 11:23, Acts 13:43, Acts 14:22 and Acts 15:32.
So we see, then, that the early church was devoted to, and persistent in, learning for themselves, and then teaching others what they had learned. In verse 47 of our text, it says, “The Lord added daily those being saved,”—this happened as a direct result of what they were doing—that is, teaching and preaching to others.
Brethren, as the early church was characterized in this way, so should we be today. We need to make it our priority to learn and to teach. And in a word, that’s evangelism. Preaching and teaching the Gospel to a lost and dying world is what they did, and it is what we should be doing, too.
Secondly, that first church of Christ was persistent in, and devoted to, corporate sharing or fellowship. The word “fellowship”, in its Greek root meaning, means “taking part in something with someone.” That Greek word for “fellowship” is koinonia, which means “joint participation, having in common, communion and sharing mutually [or sharing in common].”
The Scriptures speak often of koinonia in numerous blessings and activities. In 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 9, Paul says, “God, Who has called you into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ, is faithful.” The word translated there as “fellowship” is our word koinonia. Again, Paul, in Philippians the first chapter, says that “we have fellowship with the Holy Spirit.” In 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 16, in referring to the Lord’s Supper, Paul says that it is a participation in the body and the blood of our Savior. Again, the word “participation” there is translated from the word koinonia. In Philippians 1, verse 5, Paul says that we have a partnership—koinonia—in preaching the Gospel. In both Romans 15 and 2 Corinthians 8, there is discussed there the idea of sharing our mutual blessings—material blessings. And again, the word “sharing” that’s translated there comes from this word koinonia.
The concept of “fellowship” also carries with it the idea of spending time together. We see this in verses 44 and 46 of our text. The first church of Christ there in Jerusalem was a family. They were unified. They developed a close association with one another. We should be a family also.
Peter, in 1 Peter, the second chapter, verse 17, refers to the church—refers to those of us of like precious faith—in a community sense when he refers to us as a brotherhood. And if we are a brotherhood, that indicates that we are a family. And if, as a group, we’re a brotherhood, then individually we are brothers and sisters.
I don’t believe that it’s a coincidence that the Holy Spirit used this kind of terminology. The closest-knit group on earth is the family—blood relatives, so to speak. We have the common phrase, “blood is thicker than water.” The Lord says, “This is the way I want my followers to be,” that is, a spiritual family, AND as followers, as obedient believers, as members of the church, we in fact are a brotherhood—we are brothers and sisters—AND we are related by blood. We are not related by our own blood, but by the blood of Jesus.
“Family” means being together, sharing with each other, really knowing one another. Let’s look around here this morning. Look at the person to your right, to your left, across the aisle, whatever. How do you feel about that person? What do you know about that person? How much time have you spent together with that person?
Well, all of us would have different answers to those questions. But I’m afraid all too often we have become sort of complacent in our fellowship, and as someone termed it, “we practice ‘restaurant fellowship.’” What I understand that to mean is that we get into the habit of coming to service, we acknowledge one another—nod to each other, maybe shake hands, sit down somewhere in the vicinity of each other—and then we get up and go home. That’s much like we do in a restaurant. We walk in and acknowledge people at the tables—maybe we see someone we know and we wave, shake hands—then we have our meal, get up and go home.
True fellowship, a true family spirit is vital to our identity as the body of Christ. And it’s vital for our growth and development as a congregation, both because of the fact (as we’ve already discussed) of the special relationship which exists as a family, but also that that relationship will help us to be unified AND it will be an assistant for discipline, if that is necessary. I suggest to you this morning that this kind of fellowship was good enough for the first congregation of the church, and it should be good enough for ours.
Finally, that first church of Christ was devoted to corporate worship and prayer. There is depicted in the New Testament a pattern of the Christian assembly. There are a number of passages which refer to Christians meeting, or assembling, together.
In Acts 11, verse 26, Paul and Barnabas met with the church at Antioch. In 1 Corinthians 11, verse 7, the church in Corinth met, and in Hebrews, the 10th chapter, verses 24 and 25, we are admonished not to forsake the assembly. I think this last passage in Hebrews 10 is of particular importance because it succinctly states the intended result of our meeting together, and that result is to encourage one another and to spur one another on to love and good works.
Paul was so concerned about this kind of result from the assembly—that is, encouragement, love and good works—that he was concerned that the church in Corinth was having just the opposite effect as they assembled (if you’ll remember in 1 Corinthians, chapter 11). He said, “I’m concerned that your assembly together is doing more harm than good”—sort of the antithesis of what we’re talking about here.
The objective of meeting together was, and remains, mutual improvement and encouragement. Hebrews 10 gives an individual responsibility to think about each other rather than self. “Consider how to stir up,…” or provoke, as one translation puts it, “…one another.” Each one of us has the responsibility to stir up, to spur on, to provoke the other.
Meeting together is the essence of what it is to be a church. The Greek word translated “church”, ekklesia, means “assembly.” And this does not primarily refer to, or intend to mean, the people, but it actually means “the assembly itself.” Let me suggest to you that a church is NOT a church, or ekklesia, if it does not meet! A congregation may survive a poor education program. It may overcome little evangelism, or no benevolence. But a congregation, a church, will not survive if it does NOT meet together, because the church of Christ exemplifies its true nature in assembly. Of course, the purpose for our assembly, as it was the purpose in the early church, is to worship and glorify God.
The first century church loved to assemble together. Our text says that they met daily. As the time passed, however, it grew more and more difficult for Christians to assemble. But you know what? They did it anyway! They went from being “house” churches to being “catacomb” churches in some places, particularly in the city of Jerusalem as they began to be persecuted. They could no longer meet in Solomon’s Colonnade. They could no longer meet in their homes. They met underground—but they still met. And they still grew. As I think back to what I spoke about in terms of my family’s personal experiences, remember that I said that our greatest periods of personal growth and development and work for the Lord were in circumstances which were less than convenient, more difficult, and so on. I suggest that this proves my point, because this is what the first church of Christ did. And they may not have met in the same catacomb every Sunday. They may not have known from one week to the next which catacomb they might be in, or what might happen to them when they were there. But nonetheless, the church continued to assemble.
Our assembly together will probably never be dangerous. I doubt we will see, in our lifetime, a time when we would be threatened and told not to come together as the body of Christ. However, at the present time, and for the foreseeable future, our assembly together will be a little difficult, will be less convenient than we have been accustomed to. Let us just remember that it is not the building that makes the church. Let’s not be discouraged or disheartened, but let us be like the first century church—like that first church of Christ—and be characterized and defined by our frequent and regular assembly together.
My “calendar” says that the time is almost gone. But in conclusion, let me say that the church is depicted as the bride of Christ. Paul says that in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, and verse 2. We have been espoused, or promised, to one husband—that is CHRIST. We must be presented to Him as chaste and pure. This is both an individual responsibility and also a congregational responsibility. In other words, each individual, each congregation is responsible for maintaining its own purity. It is not up to the elders of another congregation, nor is it the responsibility of some headquarters located in some far off place. This entails many things. It implies great responsibility. I suggest to you this morning that the only way to accomplish this task of keeping this congregation chaste and pure is to seek and pattern ourselves as closely as possible to the first century church so that we can be the bride of Christ that we read about on the pages of the New Testament—to pattern ourselves to be like her in our WORSHIP, in our ORGANIZATION, in our DOCTRINAL OBSERVANCES, and in our PRACTICES. To do that, we must be steadfast, devoted to corporate learning and teaching, devoted to corporate sharing, and devoted to corporate worship and prayer. This will be a constant and continual struggle for purity, and this will be a constant and continual struggle to live up to our great heritage as the CHURCH, God’s elect, God’s chosen people.