The Function of the Church (Gospel on the Move #4)

A year and a half ago we did a series called Defining Church, and in it I told a story about my daughters. At the time they were somewhere around five and two, maybe six and three.

We were driving home in the minivan. It was evening, right around dusk. The streetlights were just flickering on and the roads were mostly empty. And out of nowhere my older daughter says out loud, “Hey, look at those hot guys.”

A few of your eyes just got really big. That was my reaction too.

I look over at my wife and she has the exact same expression — and then the three-year-old chimes in: “Yeah! Hot guys.”

What is happening? I had no idea my daughters were playing hot-or-not. I’m scanning for billboards. Is there a male model up there somewhere? I don’t see anybody out running. What is going on?

So my wife turns around and asks, “What did you say?”

“I saw some hot guys.”

“What guys did you see?”

And right at that moment a car passes us, and she points and says, “Look — right there. That hot guy.”

She was saying one word. We were hearing something entirely different.

One Word, Very Different Pictures

I used that illustration a year and a half ago because the same thing happens when people say the word church.

Depending on where you are, that one word conjures wildly different images. Say “church” and someone pictures a big cathedral — stained glass, a priest in a robe, ancient liturgy and hymns. Someone else pictures a church plant meeting in a school with stage lights, loud music, and a pastor giving a spiritual TED talk.

If you lived in North Korea, you’d think of your secret underground house church. In rural Kenya, you might picture a gathering you walk miles to reach, followed by a three- or four-hour worship service. In an inner city, you might think of a group of Christians serving a meal to people who are homeless. And for some people, the word conjures a political action group — strongly opinionated and heavily involved in politics.

You can say the word “church” and get an enormous range of thoughts and ideas.

What we tried to do in that Defining Church series was help people see that the church is not defined by its building. It’s not defined by its worship style. And it shouldn’t be defined by whatever labels get slapped onto it.

Instead, here’s the definition we hold to at Riverwood: the church is the redeemed people of God, living on mission together, under the headship of Jesus, to live out the implications of the gospel.

Today I want you to see where we get that definition from.

As we jump into Acts, we’re going to see how the church functioned in its earliest days. And I don’t believe that was meant only for that season. I believe it’s what God desires the church to be doing across all of time.

So I hope you’ll learn how they lived and functioned as a church — and I hope that as we walk through Riverwood’s discipleship pathway, you’ll see how we become that kind of church. Because becoming that kind of church requires you to walk that pathway and become the person God is calling you to be.

Open your Bible to Acts 2. We’re doing verses 42–47.

We already read this passage earlier in the gathering, but because I really want it to sink in, we’re going to read it again — this time with your Bible open in front of you. At Riverwood we open the Scriptures every single week, and we’re going to talk today about why that matters. So please have something in your hands. The screen works, but it’s better if you’re holding it.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42–47)

This Passage Isn’t Just for Pastors

Pastors like me love Acts 2:42–47. I’ve heard it taught countless times by other pastors. I’ve read it in books written by pastors. I even use it in our membership class, Riverwood 101, when people are becoming partners here.

But I don’t think pastors should be the only ones who love this passage. Anyone who follows Jesus should.

Because Scripture makes it clear that when you put your faith in Jesus, you become a member of the church. Maybe not of every local expression, but certainly of the global church. Passages like 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 talk about members of the body. You are part of the body of Christ — which means you’re connected to God, and you’re also connected to one another.

And since we’re all connected, I’d hope every one of us would want to know: so what should this look like? How should the church function? How are we called to live?

So my hope is that when we finish today, you don’t just have a better understanding of how the early church lived. I hope you have more of a passion for how we should live.

If you’re part of Riverwood, this is what we’re called to. If you’re not part of Riverwood but you’re looking for a church, this will help you understand who Riverwood wants to be. And if you’re just visiting from out of town and you’re part of a church back home, maybe this helps you help them become the church God is calling them to be.

To structure our time, we’re going to walk through Riverwood’s discipleship pathway: gather, grow, give, go. And I want to pull each of those directly out of this passage.

Gather

The first thing we see is that they gathered.

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts… (Acts 2:46)

I’ve been in full-time ministry for almost thirty years. Holy cow, I’m old.

In those thirty years, I have heard all sorts of things said about churches — their styles, and especially their size.

I’ve heard megachurch pastors speak ill of small churches and of the house church movement. They’ll say small churches aren’t as effective at evangelism, that they’re more prone to heresy, more likely to drift into a cult. The implication being that the large-group megachurch gathering is the best thing going.

At the same time, I’ve heard small church pastors and house church folks speak ill of megachurches — that they aren’t as effective at making disciples, that they waste resources and money, that they’re too often centered around their pastor instead of around Jesus.

Just yesterday on Twitter I saw a pastor weighing in on this. There’s an annoying meme going around right now — it’s that image from Tangled where the character is in the bar and all the knives are pointed at his throat. The whole trend is, “What’s your theological position that would put you in this spot, with everyone’s knives out?” And one guy answered that the megachurch shouldn’t exist.

So there it is, on both sides.

And what do we actually see in Acts 2:46? We see them gathering in both large groups and small groups.

Large Group

First, the large gatherings. “Day by day, attending the temple together.”

You have to realize this is a group of Jews who grew up going to the temple every Sabbath, and they’re likely continuing that. But because they now believe the Messiah has come, died on a cross, and risen from the dead, they have something worth celebrating. Tradition holds that they slowly began shifting from the Sabbath to a Sunday large-group gathering.

And remember, last week we saw three thousand people added to the church. We’re talking about a megachurch here.

The apostles would get up. Peter or one of the others would say, “Jesus taught us this,” or “Here’s how this Old Testament passage points to Jesus. Here’s how this was the plan all along.”

It doesn’t say it in this passage, but we know from elsewhere in Scripture that singing was part of the Jewish faith. So there were probably songs. Maybe they had songwriters beginning to write new ones — like the original song some of our own people have written for us — so they could sing and declare the gospel together.

That large-group worship gathering can be beautiful. God can move powerfully in it.

Small Group

But that’s not the only place God works. That’s not the only environment where His Spirit is effective. Because we also see them gathering in small groups.

Right after telling us they gathered in the temple, the text says they were “breaking bread in their homes.”

That breaking of bread isn’t only, “Hey, we’re sharing a meal.” That’s part of it, but it could also include communion — breaking that bread together, sharing it, declaring the gospel to each other, helping one another understand these things.

For some of them it was probably evangelism. Come over for dinner. Let me tell you about my faith in Jesus. For others it was encouragement. I’ve been following Jesus a week longer than you. Let me help you see what I’ve learned.

Both settings can be used by God. Both can be beautiful. Let’s not make the mistake of speaking ill of a large group gathering, or speaking ill of the small group where it’s three or four or five families around a table.

So here’s my encouragement: consistently be in both.

Get into the large gathering. You won’t know everyone there, but something powerful happens when you sing together, pray together, and learn together. God uses that.

And get into small groups, because your relationships will go deeper and your learning will go deeper. You’re praying directly for one another. There are real personal relationships. People are praying for you.

I realize sometimes you can’t get into both. If you lived in North Korea, you wouldn’t have the option of a large gathering — try to pull off something like this and we’d all be arrested. You’d only have the small group. And sometimes life is such that you work out of town and you’re only home on weekends, so you can’t connect into a small group of believers. We have Zoom and other tools that make some of that more possible now. But even if all you can manage is Sunday, take advantage of it.

The main thing is to put yourself into the gathering — large group and small group — as consistently as you can, because God uses both to accomplish something great in you.

Grow

After gathering, we see them growing.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching… (Acts 2:42)

We don’t have the privilege of Peter or the other apostles standing up here to teach us directly what Jesus taught them. But we do have their writings.

One of the criteria for a book being received into the New Testament canon was that it had to be written either by one of the twelve apostles or by one of their direct protégés — someone they were mentoring and spending time with. The book of Mark, which we studied a while back, is understood to have come largely from Peter. In a sense it’s Peter’s gospel to us; God simply used Mark to write it down.

So study the apostles’ teaching. Get into the Scriptures.

This is why we open the Bible every single week in our gatherings. It’s why you have to put up with me almost every Sunday saying, “If you don’t own a Bible, stop by our resource table and pick one up. If you have a phone, download one.” Some of you could recite that back to me at this point.

But it matters, because we don’t only want you studying it here together — we want you to be able to take it and study it elsewhere.

That’s why we encourage you into a growth group. Our growth groups aren’t just sitting around asking about the weather or last week’s news. You’re going to open the Scriptures together and study, so you go deeper and you grow.

And your greatest growth will happen when you take this down to a personal level. We genuinely want to see you develop personal spiritual disciplines, and the first tool is the Bible.

That’s why we have Bibles out there — not so you can bring one and use it on Sunday, but so you can take it home, set it on the nightstand, and read it before bed or first thing in the morning. Put it somewhere prominent so you’ll actually pull it out. It’s why we post Bible reading plans on our website. It’s why, if you’re downloading a Bible app, we suggest one with reading plans built in. It’s why we provide free access to a library of video Bible studies — and you don’t have to be part of Riverwood to get that access.

The main thing is that you get into the Scriptures, because God uses them. Second Timothy 3:16–17 tells us the Bible is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training. God wants to do great things in you, and part of what He uses is His Word.

Breathe In, Breathe Out

But Bible knowledge alone just fills the head. And God isn’t only trying to make us smarter. He’s making us more like Jesus — to live like Jesus and love like Jesus. What develops the heart is prayer.

Think of it this way: Bible reading is breathing in. Prayer is breathing out.

And that’s exactly the next thing in the verse. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.

This was a praying people. They had just had God the Son living in the flesh among them. They had a relationship. So they talked to Him.

I know a number of people who say, “I’m just not good at prayer.” If you can put together sentences, you can pray. God is not impressed by the poetry of your tongue. He wants the humility of your heart.

You don’t have to pray in King James. You can pray in ordinary, everyday language. It can be raw. It can be unscripted. You can fumble. God doesn’t mind. He loves you. He wants you.

Hebrews 4:16 tells us we can approach the throne of grace with confidence — not because of anything we’ve done, but because of what Christ has done. You are invited in.

Picture your favorite musician, or actor, or athlete. Someone genuinely well-known, someone you admire. Now imagine that person contacts you directly and says, “I’m going to be in Waverly, Iowa” — yeah, right — “and I’d like to take you to dinner. I hear you’re one of my biggest fans.”

You would rearrange your entire schedule. You would be there.

The God of the universe has opened the door for you to come into His presence and approach His throne of grace with confidence. So why wouldn’t we want to come and talk with Him? He wants us there.

If You Still Feel Stuck

Some of you are thinking, you’re a professional Christian, it’s easy for you to say. Fair. So let me give you some practical help.

If you’re in a growth group, ask your group to do a study on prayer — and while you do it, take turns praying out loud. I know, you’d rather not. But the more comfortable you get praying out loud, the more likely you are to pray in private.

Pull up a study on prayer and start praying as you learn. Get a book on prayer that inspires you. There are even books of guided prayers — go get The Valley of Vision, which is nothing but a collection of Puritan prayers. Some are a little too raw, some a little too poetic, but they’ll give you a starting place.

Or just let Scripture guide your praying. Let me show you with the verse we’re already looking at:

God, help me devote myself to the apostles’ teaching. Help me be devoted to the Scriptures. I get so lazy sometimes — help me be devoted to learning from You. God, help me be devoted to the fellowship. Would You connect me with other believers who will help me in my faith, and help me be that kind of person for them? Would You help me be committed to the breaking of bread and to the prayers? God, I don’t feel like I’m good at prayer. I don’t know what to say. Would You grow this in me, because I believe Your heart is for me?

The Scripture is right there telling you what God wants for you. Let it guide your words, and ask Him for those things directly.

So develop the personal disciplines of Scripture and prayer, and let God use them to grow you.

Give

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. (Acts 2:45)

When we think of giving, we usually think financially. And we do see that here. They’re saying, “I’ve got land I’m not using. Why let it sit there? I’m not even farming it. Let’s sell it, because this person needs land to farm, and this person is lacking that, and someone over here needs care.” They did what they could to take care of one another.

But generosity isn’t only a financial thing. It’s a heart thing.

Look at the end of verse 46 again: “they received their food with glad and generous hearts.”

This went well beyond writing a check. This was people giving everything.

At Riverwood we talk about giving our FIST: our Finances, our Influence, our Skills, and our Time.

Sometimes you’re in a season where you’re genuinely strapped financially. I don’t think that means you give nothing at all — you can still give financially. But you also need to recognize there’s more than money. You can give your time. You can give a skill. You can give your influence.

I think Riverwood is a great place for you to give. If you’re growing here, this ought to be a place you’re giving your finances, your time, and your skills. Some of you could serve by ushering, greeting, helping in the café, or helping with kids. Some of you have skills that would make a real difference in specific areas. And some of you could offer influence — get back there with the kids, or sign up as a mentor and spend thirty minutes a week with a kid in our schools. You will make a world of difference just by pouring a little influence into them.

Why Generosity Matters

God wants you living with a generous heart, because generosity affects the people around you.

It’s not an accident that immediately after Luke tells us in verse 46 these people had generous hearts, verse 47 tells us they had favor with all the people. That’s not just favor among themselves — though they had that too. That’s favor with the outside community.

People are drawn to generosity. When you live with that kind of heart, people are drawn to you. If we as a church live with that kind of generosity, people will be drawn to this church.

So I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the church was seeing God add to their number daily. They lived with such generosity that it affected everyone around them.

But generosity doesn’t only affect others. It also affects you.

The things of this world can become weights on your soul — burdens you have to carry. Often they’re things God gave you to steward. But sometimes they weigh us down so heavily that when we finally give, when we cast some of it off, we find a little more lightness. A little more freedom. A little more joy.

The generosity of the early church wasn’t only impacting those around them. It was impacting them. And I think that’s part of why they were filled with awe, why there was so much joy, why there was such excitement in that early church.

So if you want to grow spiritually — yes, gather with other believers, and yes, build the personal disciplines. But also develop this giving attitude. Let generosity flow through your finances, your influence, your skills, and your time.

Go

In week one of this series we saw the mandate Jesus gave the disciples: they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, and also in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Which meant they were going to have to go.

Last week, with the coming of the Holy Spirit, we saw the Spirit enable believers to speak in all sorts of languages. Some of the people in Jerusalem were there for the feast of Pentecost. But others had moved to Jerusalem — Jews who didn’t want to live scattered among the nations and wanted to live among their own people. The Hebrew or Koine Greek being spoken around them wasn’t their heart language. They spoke something else back home. And hearing the gospel in their own language drew them in.

So we already saw the mandate beginning, as people in Jerusalem who were from the ends of the earth started being reached.

But even though three thousand people put their faith in Jesus last week, God wasn’t finished. Verse 47: God was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Now, God could reach into anyone’s life and open their eyes on His own. But usually, what God does to bring someone to that point is use ordinary people. People like you.

These early Christians had witnessed the resurrection of Jesus, and it floored them. It overwhelmed them. They couldn’t help but gather in the temple to worship, gather in homes, give, and help one another. It was spilling out of them, and they couldn’t stop talking about it.

Yes, I Mean Evangelism

Oh no. You’re saying evangelism? You expect me to do evangelism?

Yes.

But I don’t have a seminary degree. I’m new to my faith. I didn’t grow up somewhere that taught me how to do this. I don’t have the spiritual gift of evangelism, so I assume I get an out.

No.

If you can talk about last night’s basketball game, you can do evangelism. If you can talk about your vacation last summer, you can do evangelism. If you can talk about the funny thing your kid did yesterday, you can do evangelism.

You can do this. It’s simply being a witness.

If you follow Jesus, then at some point in your life you realized this seemingly crazy story was actually true — that there is a triune God in heaven who sent His Son to earth, who lived the only sinless life ever lived, and who died in the sinner’s place. And to demonstrate the kind of power He has, He raised Himself from the dead.

And you can honestly say, “I realize it sounds crazy. But I know it’s true. I believe it.”

Your role is not to twist arms. You don’t need a sales gimmick. You just share. You witness to what God has done in you and for you. And if God opens their eyes — wonderful.

So as you go to work, to school, to sports, to play, wherever you’re going — go representing Christ. And if God provides the opportunity, simply share what you know. That’s it. Nothing fancy. Just talk.

But I still don’t feel adequate.

Then here’s what you do. Study the Scriptures, because the more familiar you become with them, the easier it gets to talk about them. Get into a growth group, because the more you’re around people discussing and praying these things, the more naturally you’ll share them with others. And keep coming on Sundays, because we’re going to talk about this every single week. We don’t only mention the resurrection at Easter. We celebrate the gospel every week. The more you hear it, the more you’ll treasure it — and the easier it becomes to share it.

Because I’ll tell you this: if you ever have the joy of watching someone put their faith in Jesus, it will be one of the greatest experiences of your life.

Some of you are married, and your wedding day was one of the highlights of your life. Some of you are parents, and having a kid was one of the coolest things that ever happened to you. Some of you have achieved great things, won awards, been recognized.

As great as all of that is, it pales next to seeing someone’s eternity flipped. I’ve experienced all of those things. They were great and beautiful. And none of them compare to watching someone put their faith in Jesus.

I want you to have that joy.

And I think the way to it is exactly this: gather with other believers, grow spiritually through Scripture and prayer, give of your FIST, and go — saying, “God, I’ll go wherever You send me. To work, to school, to my neighbor, to the ends of the earth. Wherever You want me, I’ll go.”

As you walk that pathway, you’ll be living out the function of the church, letting God do in you what He wants — for His glory and your joy.

A Prayer

Heavenly Father, help these things sink into our minds and hearts. Let this not be about what I’ve tried to say, or about me convincing anyone. Let it be us becoming convinced that this is what You have for us.

God, I believe You’ve sent Your Holy Spirit, that He resides in every one of Your believers, and that He gives the power to do these things. We have a world all around us trying to distract us. We have an old sin nature that still wants to give in to selfishness. But I believe You are powerful enough to work through all of it.

So give us the desire to gather with believers. Help us not to attend church or join a growth group only when we feel like it, but because we know You have something better for us than what we want in the moment.

Help us commit to personal spiritual disciplines — not lazy, not shoved to the side, but letting Your Scriptures be a central part of our lives, whether reading or listening as we drive. Use these things to mold us and shape us into the image of Jesus.

Make us a praying people. Grow in us a desire to approach Your throne of grace with confidence, to joyfully kneel before that throne in worship and full trust, knowing that as we cast our prayers on You, You will handle them perfectly, with perfect timing and a perfect answer.

God, make us generous. Because of what You’ve generously given us through Christ, let us generously give to those around us — so that generosity is visible in our faces, our smiles, our actions, our words. Let everything about us be about giving and blessing others because of what You’ve done for us.

And help us go. Make us people who don’t merely move through the routine of a day, but who go knowing we’ve been sent by You, as Your ambassadors, representing You in our actions and our words.

For those of us who’ve been lazy, help us see that You forgive us. For those of us wrestling with doubt, let us bring those doubts to You and let You answer them. For those of us whose lives have gotten far too full, help us shed some things so that we have You — so that You are our foundation and our treasure.

And Lord, if there’s anything I said today that wasn’t from You, would You graciously let us forget it? If there’s something I failed to say that needed saying, would You bring it to our attention some other way — in a growth group, in a podcast, in a song, or through Your Word? But the things You really wanted us to hear today, help us hold onto them. Let them be like handles on a suitcase, so we can carry them with us and be made more like Jesus — loving like Him and living like Him.

God, I believe You want to accomplish something great through us. But to do that, You usually want to do something first in us. So help us commit ourselves to You, humble ourselves before You, confess our sin, and let You do whatever You need to do in us so we can become the people You call us to be. Because as each of us becomes that person, we become the church You call us to be — a church truly taking Your gospel into our Jerusalem, our Judea, our Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.

In the name of Jesus, amen.