Hindsight

Devotion to Jesus Christ was the topic at church Sunday (Acts 2:42.)  I want to highlight two ideas that I really didn’t have enough time to fully develop.  The first idea is the meaning of the word devotion itself.  The early Church devoted itself to 4 goals:

            #1.  Devotion to learning the teaching of Jesus through the Apostles.  All the theology that the early church wrote down for us so we could understand the full impact of who Jesus is.  The fact that He is a part of the Trinity.  That there is a Father, Son and Holy Spirit united in love and mission to reclaim their creation.  That each has specific responsibilities within that relationship.

            #2.  Devotion to the fellowship of all those who claim Christ as their Savior and join together as a family.  The early church had a fellowship that went beyond just gathering on Sunday mornings.  They ate meals together in homes to build relationship.  They gathered sometimes daily to hear scripture read and taught on because they had no Bibles of their own.

            #3.  Devotion to Communion.  The crucifixion of Jesus was so fresh in the minds of new believers because it was just a few weeks previous to their faith.  They could picture in their minds crucifixion because they had personally witnessed, maybe not Jesus crucifixion, but some crucifixion.  You couldn’t live anywhere in the Roman Empire and not have seen at least one crucifixion.

            #4.  Devotion to prayer.  There’s no greater challenge for us fast paced Western Christians than the spiritual discipline of prayer.  Practicing the presence of God so that they prayed without ceasing was the way the early church coped with the stress of living out their faith.  A few years later Paul would write New Testament books where he had to encourage people to pray because the persecution of the Romans drove the church underground.

The second idea I want to discuss is the outworking of the word devotion through the Church of Jesus Christ.  This word devotion is the strongest word for communication in the book of Acts.  It communicates that the early church took responsibility for communicating to their culture the truth and value of Jesus Christ but also His grace and love.  They took time to connect with people.  They took time to include others. 

The number one way people became Christians was through the experience of a worship service where Jesus was made the center of worship and a sermon was given to explain how to connect to people.

It’s always important for everyone to know how to share the gospel.  Every person in church should be able to ask, “If a friend were to ask you how to get to heaven what would you say?” and then tell them how to get to heaven.  

But the early church invited people into churches to experience worship and hear the Apostles teaching.  We can do the same thing today!  Invite people to church, especially those who’ve never been to an energetic, alive church!  Let them experience what it means to see other normal people worship God and interact with the Word of God through sermons. 

What does taking notes during a sermon say to new people?  “Wow, these people take this Bible thing seriously!”

What does engaged singing say to new people?  "Wow, these people take this worship thing seriously!"

This week think about the elements of devotion and practice the presence of God both outside during the week and then inside when we gather in the name of Jesus.