4 Reasons We GATHER as God’s Church
Becoming + Running
What we do determines who we become.
Some of you know this about me, but I like to run. When we moved to Sugar Land last year one of the things I wanted to figure out was where to go for a run and one day and I found a great park nearby with a crushed gravel trail that was perfect for me.
Fast forward to the weekend before Thanksgiving. I drive over to the park on a Saturday morning to go for a run and I realize something is happening. There’s a lot of people, the parking lot is filling up, I see flags and vendors and then I realize, they’re having a race today!
And sure enough, I find out that they are hosting a Turkey Trot. Well, I’m planning to run this morning I might as well get a t-shirt and a medal for all my efforts.
I sign up, get my race packet, and head over to the starting line. I hadn’t planned to run a 10k today but I’ve been running every week and I think I’m up for the challenge.
The Race
They do the countdown, blow the horn, and the race begins.
If you’ve ever run a race like this you know, at some point you start picking out the people you want to pass. I’m not going to pass the 17 year old guy that looks like he just stepped out of a muscle magazine. And I’m not going to pass the lean lanky guy that’s running a 7 minute mile.
I like to pick people I know or at least I think I can beat. I pass the elderly man who’s nearly 102 years old and I’m feeling good about myself. I pass the dad running with his 12 year old daughter and I’m patting myself on the back.
Then I spot this husband and wife, and it takes me a little while to figure out they’re married, but I’m pretty sure that’s the case. But I think, I can pass them. They’re young married. I’d be really proud of myself if I could pass them.
And then it happens, I pass him first. He’s kinda started lagging behind and the wife has gotten way ahead. And then I pass her. And then she passes me. And then we’re coming up on the final mile.
I can still see her in the distance and there’s a big hill in front of us. I know she’s probably going to slow down going up this hill and if I can turn on the jets, I can probably pass her.
And so i do. But she’s pushing hard, too. She sees me and she sees the finish line. And now it’s on. She doesn’t want to lose. I don’t want to lose. She’s running as fast as she can. I’m running as fast as I can.
We’re nearing the finish line. And at the last second, I pull ahead and beat the lady pushing the double stroller!
Your Habits Make You
What we do determines who we become.
I’ve never thought of myself as a runner but because I get up and run a few times a week, I am a runner. I’ve got a medal to prove it. I’ve got a victory over a mother of two to prove it! 🙂
What we do determines who we become.
And this is precisely why it’s so important that we think about what we do. It’s important for us individually. But it is also of paramount importance for us collectively.
Someone once said, You make your habits and then your habits make you. And I think that’s true. Whatever you do on a regular basis intentionally OR unintentionally will determine WHO you become.
We understand that this principle is true.
The problem many of us are dealing with is that our daily decisions to do OR to not do certain things have led us to an unhealthy place and now we’re not sure what to do.
But what we do determines who we become.
And I just wonder what this principle means for us as a church. What are we doing, or what should we be doing, that will determine who we become?
Becoming the Church
The good news is that at the very beginning of the church, we get a beautiful picture of what the church looked like, what their daily practices were, and how that shaped this early community of Jesus followers.
You see this in a letter written by a man named Luke that we call Acts that details what happened after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and how the church started.
We talked about this last week, but after the Holy Spirit arrived and filled the disciples of Jesus waiting in Jerusalem, they immediately began to preach the gospel and more than 3000 people were baptized that day and the church began!
What happened next? What did they do? What happens when people believe in Jesus?
Luke tells us in Acts 2. In fact, just listen to how Luke describes the early church. He writes…
Acts 2.42-47, NLT
42 All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.
A Gathering
Ok, I want us to unpack what Luke describes but before we do notice this. What did the church do in the very beginning, they GATHERED!
In fact, I don’t know if you know this, but that’s what the word “church” means. In the original language the Greek word for church is ekklesia and it literally means, GATHERING.
In fact, when the Bible was translated into English by William Tyndale, he translated the word ekkelsia as congregation in an effort to stay as close as he knew how to the meaning of the word.
Our English word church that appears in almost all of our Bible translations today comes from the German word kirche which is a translation of the Latin word basilica both of which refer to buildings or locations of meetings.
Most of our Bible translations do a wonderful job of trying to communicate as accurately as possible the original meaning of the text, but the tragedy of translating ekklesia as church and not congregation or gathering is that the church stopped being a MOVEMENT and became a LOCATION. It stopped being about the PEOPLE and became more about the PLACE. You can lock the doors to the church but you cannot lock the doors to the ekklesia of Jesus!
But notice what happens when the ekklesia/GATHERING of Jesus begins…
42 All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.
THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE WHEN THE CHURCH GATHERS.
4 Reasons We GATHER as God’s Church
When we gather we:
1. Devote ourselves to apostolic teaching.
What is apostolic teaching? For these early Christians, they were being taught by those who had been with Jesus for the past 3 years. And now they are rethinking everything they saw, heard, and experienced with Jesus from Jesus in light of His resurrection and ascension. And they are teaching others what Jesus taught them.
These first believers in Jesus devoted themselves every day to the teachings of Jesus’ apostles. And the good news for us is that our New Testament is filled with, in fact it is entirely made up of, apostolic teaching.
When we GATHER this is why we open the scriptures. To devote ourselves to the same apostolic teaching about Jesus that came from Jesus.
2. Devote ourselves to fellowship.
In the original language this is the Greek word koinonia! It’s this idea of sharing life with one another. Not just the things we have, but ourselves, with each other.
If you’re a part of a family you have built in koinonia. You know what it’s like to see each other first thing in the morning before you brush your teeth and fix your hair. You know what it’s like to see each other at your best and your worst. And you know what it’s like to love each other through thick and thin, through the ups and downs. You know what its like to forgive. To celebrate the highs and cry together when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death. You know koinonia.
This is what it means to be a part of the family of God.
3. Devote ourselves to the Breaking of Bread.
I love that the NLT adds in parenthesis the words, “the Lord’s Supper.” Scholars agree that this is almost certainly what Luke had in mind when he coined the phrase breaking bread together, or sharing meals together. This almost certainly meant Communion.
This happened daily in the life of the early church. Whenever they GATHERED at the TABLE to share a meal they remembered Jesus.
I’ll admit, I never really understood this until I traveled to Israel in 2018. When Alisha and I went to Israel I understood this in a whole new way because at every meal, at every table there was bread and there was wine! At every meal there was Jesus! The body and the blood of Christ.
This is common practice and common at the table with every meal. I can only imagine what this experience would have been like for the early church. Jesus took what was ORDINARY, what was already present at every table, and made it EXTRAORDINARY, giving it new meaning and new significance. They couldn’t eat bread or drink wine and NOT think of Jesus. Every table became a communion table!
4. Devote ourselves to prayer.
What do believers in Jesus GATHER to do? We gather to PRAY. Why? Because believers in Jesus TRUST in Jesus, want to be transformed by Jesus into the image of Jesus.
Sometimes we pray to change the mind of God.
Every time when we pray God changes us!
And as you read through the pages of the New Testament, you see how these early believers prayed and what they prayed for. Yes, they prayed for the sick, for the imprisoned, for those who were in need.
But when they prayed they also retold the gospel story and worshiped Jesus in adoration and praise. They were a people devoted to prayer.
They talked to God. Put their trust in Him. And then waited for God to work. And they believed God could and God would work all things together for their good and for His ultimate glory!
What Happened Because They Gathered?
As they devoted themselves to these things, Luke tells us what happened…
43 A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. 44 And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. 45 They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. 46 They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity— 47 all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people.
This is what the church did. They GATHERED. And together they changed the world forever!
How?
By their love. By the fruit of the Spirit of love being cultivated in them because of the spiritual practices they devoted themselves to when they gathered.
In January we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He once wrote these words about the power of the love of Christ in us.
“The greatest of all virtues is love. Here we find the true meaning of the Christian faith and of the cross. Calvary is a telescope through which we look into the long vista of eternity and see the love of God breaking into time. Out of the hugeness of his generosity God allowed his only-begotten Son to die that we may live. By uniting yourselves with Christ and your brothers through love you will be able to matriculate in the university of eternal life. In a world depending on force, coercive tyranny, and bloody violence, you are challenged to follow the way of love. You will then discover that unarmed love is the most powerful force in all the world.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. from Strength to Love
Who Are You Becoming?
Some people in the world today say they believe in God but they don’t need the church.
Yet gathering with God’s church is exactly what people who believe in God do. We GATHER.
This is what we do. And then Luke adds what God does.
And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.
What we do determines who we become.
Just like…
What you do determines who you become.
So, if you’ll allow me to humbly ask the question… Who are you becoming?
Are you becoming who you want to become?
The Church Scattered
After the church started in Jerusalem, persecution quickly followed. The first persecution the early church faced was from the Jewish leaders in the city. They did everything within their power to put an end to those who claimed that Jesus was Messiah.
After stoning a man named Stephen to death who was a leader in the early church the followers of Jesus scattered from Jerusalem. But they carried the gospel, the good news about Jesus, with them everywhere they went.
Before long there were new gatherings of Jesus followers popping up in Judea, then Samaria, then in Ethiopia, then in Greece, then in Turkey, and before you knew it these GATHERINGS of Christians who were devoting themselves to apostolic teaching, fellowship, communion, prayer, and sharing everything they had were happening in different places all over the planet.
Church wasn’t a building you came to or a service you attended, it was a movement made up of people who were becoming more and more like Jesus.
And everywhere the good news of Jesus spread people who believed in Jesus started to GATHER.
What you do determines who you become.
And when we gather we become the church.
Becoming + Gathering
If you want to be a runner you have to run.
If you want to be a part of God’s church you have to GATHER.
Gathering with the people of God makes us the people of God.
We say that unapologetically because we don’t want to settle for being a church, we want to be God’s ekklesia. God’s GATHERING. We want to be a part of the movement of God, the mission of God, devoted to the teachings of Jesus, doing life together in true koinonia fellowship, sharing in Communion every chance we get, devoted to prayer and sharing everything we have with those in need.
What we do determines who we become. AND…
When we gather with believers in Jesus we become more and more like Jesus.
Today, maybe just ask yourself, are you a part of a church service OR are you a part of a church movement committed to bringing the Good News of the great love of God revealed in Jesus to the world around us?
It’s my prayer that like that first church, we would be devoted to the right things and that as we are, that God would add to our number daily those who are being saved.
Give Thanks
At the end of every race I’ve ever run, whether it’s been a 5k, a 10k, or a half marathon, I’ve always gotten a medal. They give everyone a medal… not just me! And on almost every medal they put this word: FINISHER. You get a medal because you finished the race.
But on this last 10k I ran, the one where I used my athletic prowess to beat the mom pushing the double stroller, the medal didn’t say FINISHER. It said, GIVE THANKS.
And today, that’s what I want to do. I want to give thanks for you. For all of you who are a part of God’s church. Because we are not a building. We are not a location. We are not where we meet.
Wherever we GATHER, we are God’s church.
And yes, we gather in specific places and spaces every week, but we’re also gathering in homes across the city, in restaurants and coffee shops and every where in between. We’re gathering in remote places around the world.
We’re gathering to learn and grow, we’re gathering to fellowship and practice loving one another, we’re gathering to celebrate Communion, we’re gathering to pray, we’re gathering to give. And whenever we gather, wherever we gather, we are God’s church.
And for that, I give thanks. And I pray that God would gather us to be with Him as He is with us.
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