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Benefits of a small group
Posted by Derrick
on
21:15
If the Gospel was to be made into a film by a Hollywood producer Acts 2:47 would be a fine place to stop it. The story is of course in Three Acts. Jesus is born and grows up in the prologue. In Act 1 he starts his ministry and teaching. In Act 2 he gets into a lot of trouble and is put on trial. In Act 3 the hero dies only to be brought back to life and leave his followers in one happy large group, ready to face the world filled with the love that Jesus left. That’s where we are in Acts 2:47 but its not quite that simple.
Luke doesn’t use this part as the end of his story, in fact it is much more like the beginning. In this passage we see what it is that would transform the church from a tiny number of believers into the biggest and most wonderful movement in history.
Luke starts this passage with a description of what the young church was doing. It shows us what is often known as the four pillars of the church. The four things upon which successful churches and discipleship groups should use. They are Teaching, fellowship, breaking bread together and prayer.
I am of course bound to say this but teaching is really important. It is one of the most important of the four pillars. Without this teaching of the apostles it would have been easy for the believers to slip back into the culture they had ‘been rescued’ from. This would be the same for us. Without good teaching and regular teaching then we can easily fall into the prevailing culture of our world.
Likewise we need fellowship. This isn’t something that can be just ignored. Without good fellowship we cannot really hope to have a living and vibrant faith. We learn from the Bible but we learn from our friends as well.
The disciples were continuing to break bread together as well. This was not simply taking communion for communion’s sake it was much more about remembering the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is something that we need to do as well.
Prayer is a powerful part of any successful church. There are many famous quotes about prayer such as this one from John Wesley I have so much to do that I spend several hours in prayer before I am able to do it.
Now I would like you to imagine a world without these things. No teaching about Jesus, none of his teaching. No fellowship of believers breaking bread together. No prayer. The world without these things would be immeasurably worse off. No moral code for us. No Mother Teresa or John Paul II. No Christian charity and no hope.
Wonderfully this didn’t happen. Instead Jesus did live and die and then come back to life. His followers did use these four pillars to base their community upon and what a community they built.
The early believers we have read about didn’t even have a name. They were variously called ‘the people who had been with Jesus’, ‘The witnesses to the resurrection’, people who were filled with the Holy Spirit’ and those who were being ‘rescued’. They might not have had a name for themselves but we have a perfect word for them in modern English. They were a family. In a family nobody thinks this is mine and that is yours. They share everything. In First Century Palestine it wasn’t unusual to have several generations and branches of a family in the same trade and business. This close nit community was what the disciples helped to create. The early Christians shared everything. They had a common purse, they sold their excess property and they put everything into the communal pot. They even called each other brothers and sisters (Paul uses the term brothers 99 times in his letters alone). They even managed to do this after Pentecost when 3,000 people were added to their numbers. More and more people became believers every day and they were all part of this family straight away.
What then is the challenge for our church today? Its simply to be a church more like this early church. Through church history there have been many examples of groups and denominations who wanted the same and some have said its impossible to do this but I think that it depends on what aspects of this very early church we want to get back to .
Obviously we can’t live in each others houses (well not all of us can). We cannot share our money or anywhere near as much as the early church but there is still lots we can aspire to.
We can meet together. We can meet together for teaching and Bible study but it shouldn’t stop there. We can meet together just for coffee too. We can meet together just to be together.
We can look after each other, This is something that many people in society seem to have forgotten. We have heard recent stories about people who have frozen in their houses and have been left undiscovered for days. It wouldn’t have happened in the early church. Who isn’t here today? Are they ill? How can we find out? Looking after each other doesn’t mean nursing and popping over with some extra food. It means knowing what other people need and helping to meet those needs. That’s one of the great things about small groups. We can get to know things about our friends and loved ones. We know when they’re not well or not happy or in need.
The early church was welcoming and we need to be as well. Its hard to walk through that door at the back. Can you remember what it was like the first time you came in? I can. It was very welcoming and friendly. We need to be welcoming. Not everyone knows where to sit in church. Someone who comes in to the church should be made to feel welcome and not like an outsider. Perhaps they don’t know what to do, or where to sit. Maybe they don’t know when to stand up or even if the coffee at the end of church is for everyone. If we are going to be like the early church and make people feel welcome we have to make them feel welcome.
Being in a small group is wonderful. We have some excellent teaching and spend a great deal of time in prayer and fellowship. I cant
Luke doesn’t use this part as the end of his story, in fact it is much more like the beginning. In this passage we see what it is that would transform the church from a tiny number of believers into the biggest and most wonderful movement in history.
Luke starts this passage with a description of what the young church was doing. It shows us what is often known as the four pillars of the church. The four things upon which successful churches and discipleship groups should use. They are Teaching, fellowship, breaking bread together and prayer.
I am of course bound to say this but teaching is really important. It is one of the most important of the four pillars. Without this teaching of the apostles it would have been easy for the believers to slip back into the culture they had ‘been rescued’ from. This would be the same for us. Without good teaching and regular teaching then we can easily fall into the prevailing culture of our world.
Likewise we need fellowship. This isn’t something that can be just ignored. Without good fellowship we cannot really hope to have a living and vibrant faith. We learn from the Bible but we learn from our friends as well.
The disciples were continuing to break bread together as well. This was not simply taking communion for communion’s sake it was much more about remembering the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is something that we need to do as well.
Prayer is a powerful part of any successful church. There are many famous quotes about prayer such as this one from John Wesley I have so much to do that I spend several hours in prayer before I am able to do it.
Now I would like you to imagine a world without these things. No teaching about Jesus, none of his teaching. No fellowship of believers breaking bread together. No prayer. The world without these things would be immeasurably worse off. No moral code for us. No Mother Teresa or John Paul II. No Christian charity and no hope.
Wonderfully this didn’t happen. Instead Jesus did live and die and then come back to life. His followers did use these four pillars to base their community upon and what a community they built.
The early believers we have read about didn’t even have a name. They were variously called ‘the people who had been with Jesus’, ‘The witnesses to the resurrection’, people who were filled with the Holy Spirit’ and those who were being ‘rescued’. They might not have had a name for themselves but we have a perfect word for them in modern English. They were a family. In a family nobody thinks this is mine and that is yours. They share everything. In First Century Palestine it wasn’t unusual to have several generations and branches of a family in the same trade and business. This close nit community was what the disciples helped to create. The early Christians shared everything. They had a common purse, they sold their excess property and they put everything into the communal pot. They even called each other brothers and sisters (Paul uses the term brothers 99 times in his letters alone). They even managed to do this after Pentecost when 3,000 people were added to their numbers. More and more people became believers every day and they were all part of this family straight away.
What then is the challenge for our church today? Its simply to be a church more like this early church. Through church history there have been many examples of groups and denominations who wanted the same and some have said its impossible to do this but I think that it depends on what aspects of this very early church we want to get back to .
Obviously we can’t live in each others houses (well not all of us can). We cannot share our money or anywhere near as much as the early church but there is still lots we can aspire to.
We can meet together. We can meet together for teaching and Bible study but it shouldn’t stop there. We can meet together just for coffee too. We can meet together just to be together.
We can look after each other, This is something that many people in society seem to have forgotten. We have heard recent stories about people who have frozen in their houses and have been left undiscovered for days. It wouldn’t have happened in the early church. Who isn’t here today? Are they ill? How can we find out? Looking after each other doesn’t mean nursing and popping over with some extra food. It means knowing what other people need and helping to meet those needs. That’s one of the great things about small groups. We can get to know things about our friends and loved ones. We know when they’re not well or not happy or in need.
The early church was welcoming and we need to be as well. Its hard to walk through that door at the back. Can you remember what it was like the first time you came in? I can. It was very welcoming and friendly. We need to be welcoming. Not everyone knows where to sit in church. Someone who comes in to the church should be made to feel welcome and not like an outsider. Perhaps they don’t know what to do, or where to sit. Maybe they don’t know when to stand up or even if the coffee at the end of church is for everyone. If we are going to be like the early church and make people feel welcome we have to make them feel welcome.
Being in a small group is wonderful. We have some excellent teaching and spend a great deal of time in prayer and fellowship. I cant
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