Back to Where We Started
A Sermon by Dr. Neil Chadwick
Whenever a group of people work together toward a common goal, they ultimately discover that there seem to be both hills and valleys along the road to success. Take for example a sports team. Yes, good teams win games, they also lose some, but the overall picture is one of winning, setting new records. Then there's what seems to be a sudden change of direction. One game is lost, then another. Morale starts to sag, team work begins to be replaced with blaming and faultfinding. Or perhaps it may be a business enterprise. Everything goes well for the first several years - increased sales and profits, and before you know it, the company is going public and trading stock on the Dow Jones. Then, with apparently little notice, the course suddenly changes. Perhaps one of the founding partners retires, or there's a change in the market. Sales begin to drop, morale droops, and fears that the company might go under begin to be whispered by even the most loyal employees. No one can understand what's happened, everything was going so well, no one can figure out what the problem is. At such times, for the team on the field or the team at work, members try to make some sense out of what is taking place. Not finding easy answers, someone suggests that there needs to be a fresh look at the fundamentals, or the basics of that endeavor. If it's a sport, there might be drills in dribbling, simple lay-ups or foul shooting; more time spent memorizing plays and practicing blocking and a revival of conditioning. Runners run more, jumpers jump more, and throwers keep at it a little longer than before. Slowly the tide begins to turn, the team begins to win again. If it's a business, managers remind each other what it is that the company really does well, and concentrates on that work. Sales people receive fresh training, customer service people are given a little more attention, managers work harder at giving words of encouragement to good workers. The ship that was thought to be heading for the rocks, is now being turned around, optimism returns. This same principle applies to the church. When groups of people called church members get discouraged, and feel that the glory days of the church are gone forever, they too lose morale, give in to more pessimistic thoughts - some give up and wander off looking for a better day in a better place. But what is needed is the same as elsewhere, a concentrated revived interest in the basics. But what are they? Ball players seem to know what the basics are. Business people seem to understand what must take place to get back on track. Where do church members, Christians, go to get this understanding? If you ask a dozen people what's most important for the church, you may get a baker's dozen answers. However, we do have a place to go to in order to get some answers. It's called "The Bible". The Bible has been provided for our instruction, not only for our own personal daily living, but also for the life of the Church. And there is an historical record here which shows us the way - a way led by the Holy Spirit which the Early Church followed, and which we will always ignore to our own demise. The fact of the matter is this - we can never do it any better than it was done then. The First Church is the "prototype", a pattern, a paradigm for us to follow. The mood of the day is, "we want something new", as though "new" is always superior. Actually, it is better to go with the "tried and true". The Bible tells what that is. Perhaps the most significant statement about the formation of the Church is found in Acts 2. While we as Pentecostals often get stuck in the first four verses of the chapter, it would be well for us to get to the six verses at the end of the chapter, for there is the pattern we seek, and must re-establish for today's church. While three main ingredients for the church are noted in verse 42, I want to emphasize one of them, noted in the phrase "breaking of bread and prayer". Perhaps it goes without saying, that worship is a central pillar for anything that goes by the name "church". If we ever come to the place where we have little resources to do anything else, this must not be abandoned. But we are given more here than just an exhortation to worship, we are encouraged by noting that our church was founded on it, and we must be reminded that it will not thrive without it. Note with me a few simple comments about how the Early Church worshipped, and let them be for us a call to this basic, central part of our own experience. The "breaking of bread" may simply mean that they met together over meals, but more likely, it refers to the already established pattern set forth by our Lord for the members of the church to remember the death of Christ by means of what we call "Communion". That is to say, that worship of a Christian sort must always be around the cross, the death and resurrection of Jesus our Savior. Know too that the church began in a prayer meeting. What did they do when they obeyed the Lord's command to return and "tarry" in Jerusalem? According to Acts 1:14, they were "constantly in prayer". Did Jesus explicitly instruct them to pray? He said, "wait," but obviously they knew what this meant, it meant to wait in prayer. A little later we learn that after the Pentecostal outpouring, they continued meeting for prayer "in their homes and in the temple courts". In passing, just notice that there were two primary places where the First Christians gathered to worship - in their homes and at the temple. We would do well to see to it that prayer is promoted with equal earnestness in both locations. But we don't want to get past the way this subject is introduced. Scripture says they "devoted" themselves to prayer. On the one hand, prayer is something we do because we are called to it. A voice within urges us to pray, and we respond. Or it may be due to a current drastic need that drives us to our knees. On the other hand, there is a part we each must also play. We must be willing to devote ourselves. Time must be scheduled, an effort must be made. It's a decision we make, we make a commitment and keep it, and we do it even if it's not exciting at the moment, or even when we don't see the immediate results we wished for. We've been speaking about "prayer", but we also want to notice the activity of "praise". The word used here (verse 47) refers to a "laudatory discourse". Whether it's to our liking or not, this involves an open declaration. We remember that on that first Day of the Church, the visitors to the City exclaimed, "we hear them declaring the wonders of God" (Acts 2:11). Praising God is something we do "out loud", other people can hear our words of praise to God. Of course there's a place for quiet, reverent, meditation. But that's for listening, and we need to keep that up. But praise is something else. The religious leaders of Jesus' day were upset by the vocal praise given Him by the crowds entering into Jerusalem. How did Jesus respond to that? "If they are silent, the very stones will cry out." Sometimes I think the church makes a big mistake by setting up loudspeakers and turning up the volume. Of course, in larger gatherings of people, we may need the amplification so that everyone can hear the teaching of the Word of God. But sometimes the blaring music coming from the front of the church so dominates the sound waves that the people in the seats never get to be heard. Let me give you one Biblical example where this particular word for "praise" is used - Luke 18:35-43. This is the story of Jesus healing a man who was sitting by the roadside begging at the time Jesus was coming into the city of Jericho. Evidently the man had already heard about Jesus, because when he heard that He was coming, he began to call lout loudly to get His attention, and ask for mercy and healing. The folk around tried to "shush" him up - but the man would not be hushed. But the part I want us to notice is what happened after the healing took place. It says that the man "followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God." (verse 43) If our voices have become silent when it comes to praising God, perhaps it's because we have forgotten that we have been healed of our blindness, or we have become too self-absorbed to notice that someone else has been healed; or worse yet, perhaps we have become much like the religious people of Jesus' day. Going back to our text in Acts 2, I want to point out that the praise of the Early Christians came with two dominant characteristics - they praised God with "glad and sincere hearts". The word for "glad" is a very strong expression. It could well be "extreme joy", or "exultation". It's the same word as found in I Peter 1:8 - you are "filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy." (The King James' Version puts it this way, "ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." The story about the conversion of the Philippian jailer gives us another example of the use of this word (Acts 16:34). The jailer was "filled with joy because he had come to believe in God - he and his whole family." Of course there's a time to weep in the presence of the Lord - tears of repentance are often called for. But once we realize that we have been "saved" from the wrath to come, that we have a hope beyond the grave and the reality of the abiding presence of the Lord in our lives right now - there should be an eruption of joyful praise to the Lord. Besides "joy", the other characteristic mentioned is that of "sincere hearts". There should be no pretense when coming in to the presence of the Lord. Paul calls on us to "lift up holy hands" when we pray. We approach Him humbly, receiving His forgiveness. We all come as sinners. I talked with someone not long ago who no longer attends church because of things going on which he feels are wrong. I didn't say it then, but later I wished I had said, "Please come and join with the rest of us sinners." The word "sincerity" here comes from two words literally meaning, "without rocks". So it means "smooth", or "plain". Now perhaps the "Amish" have taken this too far, and perhaps wearing all black can become a pretense of its own. But the message we need to hear is, keep it "simple". The last word here, a word which applies to the entire passage, is that many people were attracted to the Lord and were added to the church. The word "favor" is our word "grace". It certainly doesn't mean that the Early Christians tried to please everybody and so win their favor by giving them what they want to hear. In fact, this expression could well be referring back to the open praise that was going on; it could well be translated, "giving Him thanks before all the people." However it is rendered, this much is for sure, many people came to the Lord because of their devotion to prayer and praise. Let's see to it that our worship begins to measure up to the pattern set at the very beginning of the Church.  - - Return to Top of this Page  - Email a Link to this Page
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