G09. Functions of the Church
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G09. Functions of the Church
This entire section about the church I make for practitioners who win unbelieving people for the Lord and are looking for the further ways for them. Please come with me in the New Testament to observe what the first church did. For a good grasp of those principles, it is very important that you carefully read Acts 2:36-47 until the end of the chapter. Preferably at least twice. Stop this video for a quiet reading. Take a paper and pencil and write down directly from the text what they did as a church. Stop this video and see you soon… 🙂
Individual activities or functions of the church we illustrate with simple symbols for better remembering. The Church begins with people being „struck in their hearts“ by the words about resurrected Jesus!
- Peter says: „Repent„. This „change of mind“ is the gateway to a personal relationship with Jesus and at the same time to the spiritual entity of Jesus‘ Church.
- Those who accepted Peter’s word were baptized by the disciples on the same day. And the following are other activities that the early church did.
- They remained in prayer. With the up and down arrows we say that we perceive prayer as a dialogue. And the cloud represents the Holy Spirit.
- In this passage we observe the apostle Peter addressing people who had not yet believed in Jesus as their Savior, but these crowds at Pentecost were made up of Jews from various nations who then had returned to their distant homes after the holidays, and had much to offer to their families and loved ones! (Acts 2:5-12) In other passages of the book of Acts, we observe the sharing of Jesus and making disciples at ordinary believers who flee to a wide area due to persecution. (Acts 8,1-4)
- All these believers are together a lot, have „fellowship“, eat together, share their lives and show care and love to each other.
- They praised God.
- They commemorated Jesus‘ sacrifice and resurrection by „breaking bread“ from house to house.
- There was very generous giving – the sharing of material goods or money.
- We hear the „teaching of the apostles“ in which they remained. In the projection for us, it is the dominance of the Word of God – the Bible.
- Caring leaders operate here! At first the apostles, soon after that other servants („deacons“ in Greek) and then the so-called „elders“, (which does not necessarily mean exceptional age at all)!
- And then there is a remarkable term that 3,000 people „joined“ them that day. These individuals not only privately believed in the Lord Jesus in their hearts, but „joined“ the group- they showed that they wanted to be part of this new family of God.
This is a brief and perhaps illustrative overview of the basic functions as practiced together by the church in Jerusalem. In the letters of the apostles these functions are elaborated in greater depth…
Will you try to repeat them with me?
- People who did not yet know Jesus changed their thinking (that is „repentance“ in Christianeese) and thus became part of the spiritual entity called the church.
- They baptized those who accepted the Good News.
- They talked with the heavenly Father and with the living Jesus.
- They shared the Good News with others.
- They were together, they ate together, they served each other.
- They praised God.
- They broke bread, in the sense of commemorating Jesus‘ sacrifice.
- They were generous.
- The God’s word was the foundation for them.
- Godly leaders grew up among them and served.
- And the last one there was that they „joined“ the fellowship.
In addition to accepting a personal identity in Christ, they also accepted the common IDENTITY of the CHURCH. We represent the awareness of the identity of the church with a solid line around the circle. When it is just a group that does these activities without accepting the identity of church, we use a dotted line.
You can download this picture HERE. It would be ideal if you drew the whole thing for yourself a few more times. We will need this „circle of church“ very practically in the following lessons.
Thank You, Lord Jesus, for the wonderful simplicity of Your concept of the church, as described in the written Word of God. Please show us how to apply it practically in our time.