If someone spent time with your family (either now) or when you were growing up, what do you think they would say? What words do you think they would use to describe you? What would they notice about the things you did and the way you were with each other? Now for some of you that might be a painful memory, not everyone comes from a family that is happy or healthy and perhaps you remember thinking about someone else’s family, ‘I wish my family was like that’. Or perhaps we could think of it from a slightly different angle – what are the things your family did well? What were the rituals and rhythms that were good? Your family might have been a bit average in the weekday but maybe no family went on holiday like your family or celebrated birthdays the way your family did.

That’s what we have here in this short passage from Acts. It is a description of the first church family and the things they did well.  Ajith Fernando, from Sri Lanka in his commentary on Acts writes,

The first thing we see is the completeness of their community life. There was care for new believers (v.42), the various elements of worship (v.42,47), evangelist outreach (v.43,47), caring for the material needs of each other (v.45), oneness in spirit (v.44), and joyful informal fellowship in homes (v.46). Would that we too might have such comprehensiveness in our community life!

Acts NIVAC, p.124

And there were four things that stood out that the author wanted to make sure that other churches took note and followed their example. Those four things were their devotion to the apostles teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and to prayer. In other words this was a pattern not just for the church in Jerusalem in the first century but for a church in Stockholm in the 21st century.

Now let’s define our terms a little. Firstly, what do they mean by devoted?  Richard Longenecker says it is, “a steadfast & single-minded fidelity to a certain course of action.” (p.756, EBC – Luke-Acts). So the image, is of a couple, maybe a bit like my grandparents who were married for more than 60 years or my parents who have been married for over 50 years now. They were devoted to each other. They didn’t give up on each other. They were always around the other. Steadfast and faithful were good words to describe them. Sprinkled with a generous amount of love and care. So in this sense, this describes a church community that is always around these four things. Never giving up on them. Always wanting to be near to them. Committed to these things sprinkled with a generous amount of love and care. It’s a good picture.

On an individual level this looks like, ‘loving God and loving people’ and on a community level it means to a large extent working out these four things – being devoted to the apostles teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and to prayer. It means figuring out how we do in our city and time what they did in theirs.

What was the apostles’ teaching?

After all they didn’t have the New Testament, they hadn’t written it yet! And it’s the apostle’s teaching, not simply the Old Testament – which would have been called the Law & the Prophets. Do you remember what Jesus said as part of the Great Commission at the end of the Gospel of Matthew about what to do after you have baptised people? He said ‘teach them to obey everything I have commanded you.’ So that’s what they did. They would have told people about Jesus. What he did. What he said. What he meant. Why he said it.

And this would have been reflected in the other three things – they began to include Jesus in their prayers – alongside God; they broke bread in remembrance of Jesus, they told other people about Jesus and their fellowship with each other led to them taking on his title – Christ. Christians. They were followers of His way. They lived with Jesus (through the Holy Spirit), they sought to become like Jesus and do what Jesus did. They were a Jesus-centred community.

You’ll see in the Gospels from time to time things that only really clicked for them much later, ‘Oh that’s why he said it’ and so on. So their teaching was Jesus-centred, Jesus-focused, and their preaching was about Jesus. Who He was, what His mission was, and what that means for those who follow Him. As CK Barrett says, “The steady persistence in the apostles’ teaching means (a) that the Christians listened to the apostles whenever they taught and (b) that they assiduously practised what they heard.” (A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, T&T Clark, 2004 p.163).

And all of that, eventually found its way, in one way or another into written form and that’s more or less what we have in our New Testament. Reflections, insights, teachings on what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Which is why, as Derek Thomas says, “For us, since apostolic teaching and authority has now been incorporated into the canon of the New Testament, being dedicated to the “apostles’ teaching” means adherence to the authority of the Bible of the Old and New Testaments. The church is a fellowship where the Bible is loved, read, studied, and obeyed.” (Acts, Reformed Expository Commentary, P&R Publishing, 2011 p.58).

Now simply having a sermon is not necessarily evidence that we are a church that is devoted to the apostle’s teaching but it might be a part of the answer. We want the Bible to be a part of our small groups, we want to read Scriptures, debate them, ask questions of them and let them ask questions of us. We want the way we go about things to have good roots into the Biblical witness – which is why we need elders & deacons, to help us stay true to this course. But most of all, most of all, we want to be transformed by the Spirit of Jesus and that happens through the hearing and applying of His Word. It is in putting his teachings into action that we begin to change into his likeness.

“The Spirit of God leads the people of God to submit to the Word of God.”

– John Stott – Acts p.82

But it helps to want the Word, be hungry for the Word “Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation, if you have tasted that the Lord is good.” – 1 Peter 2:2–3 and along with William Barclay say, “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.”