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THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHURCH

Acts 2:42–7

They persevered in listening to the apostles’ teaching, in the fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Awe was in every soul; and many signs and wonders were done by the apostles. All the believers were together, and they were in the habit of selling their goods and possessions and of distributing them among all as each had need. Daily they continued with one accord in the Temple, and breaking bread from house to house they received their food with joy and in sincerity of heart; and they kept praising God and everyone liked them. Daily the Lord added to them those who were being saved.

IN this passage, we have a kind of lightning summary of the characteristics of the early Church.

(1) It was a learning Church; it persisted in listening to the apostles as they taught. One of the great perils of the Church is to look back instead of forward. Because the riches of Christ are inexhaustible, we should always be going forward. We should count it a wasted day when we do not learn something new and when we have not penetrated more deeply into the wisdom and the grace of God.

(2) It was a Church of fellowship; it had what someone has called the great quality of togetherness. Admiral Nelson explained one of his victories by saying: ‘I had the happiness to command a band of brothers.’ The Church is a real Church only when it has that kind of fellowship.

(3) It was a praying Church; these early Christians knew that they could not meet life in their own strength and that they did not need to. They always went in to God before they went out to the world; they were able to meet the problems of life because they had first met him.

(4) It was a reverent Church; in verse 43, the word which the Authorized Version correctly translates as fear has the idea of awe in it. It was said of a great Greek that he moved through this world as if it were a temple. Christians live in reverence because they know that the whole earth is the temple of the living God.

(5) It was a Church where things happened; signs and wonders were there (verse 43). If we expect great things from God and attempt great things for God, things happen. More things would happen if we believed that God and we together could make them happen.

(6) It was a sharing Church (verses 44–5); these early Christians had an intense feeling of responsibility for each other. It was said of William Morris, the nineteenth-century writer and artist, that he never saw a drunk man without having a feeling of personal responsibility for him. Real Christians cannot bear to have too much when others have too little.

(7) It was a worshipping Church (verse 46); they never forgot to visit God’s house. We must remember that ‘God knows nothing of solitary religion.’ Things can happen when we come together. God’s Spirit moves upon his worshipping people.

(8) It was a happy Church (verse 46); gladness was there. A gloomy Christian is a contradiction in terms.

(9) It was a Church whose people others could not help liking. There are two Greek words for good. Agathos simply describes a thing as good. Kalos means that a thing not only is good but also looks good; it has a charm and attractiveness about it. Real Christianity is a lovely thing. There are so many people who are good but who with their goodness possess a streak of unlovely hardness. J. P. Struthers, minister of the Reformed Presbyterian church in Greenock, used to say that it would help the Church more than anything else if Christians would from time to time do a bonnie thing. In the early church, there was a charm about God’s people.