What Was the First Church Like?

42And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2)

This is the earliest picture we have of the church, so let’s sum up how this passage characterizes it.

They devoted themselves to:

• The apostles’ teaching
• Fellowship with the believers
• Breaking of bread (Communion and also perhaps an additional larger meal)
• We've got a great guest post coming on this topic, but let me stress here that we CANNOT underplay the importance of the Lord's Supper to early Christians.  In fact, one scholar even calls the early church a "eucharistic community"("The Early Christian Community", Zizioulas).
• Prayer

They had all things in common

• This is not “early communism” as some may think, but rather a community of believers sharing things out of love for the collective body (see ESV Study Bible Notes on Acts 2).

They met in their homes (v.46)

• There is also evidence to suggest that they went to the Temple for prayer and perhaps evangelism (as Peter does in Acts 3)

They were characterized by:

• Generous hearts
• Gladness
• Praising God

And they had “favor with all the people”

• This is not to say that we should seek for the approval of others, or even that that’s what’s happening in this passage.  Rather, the people were so Spirit-filled and loving that it was contagious, forcing people to notice their joy and generosity.  It is just like today:  One may dismiss the gospel based on the alleged “irrationality” of it, but none can deny its power, such as when Christians love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them.

From this we get a clear, though brief, image of the Early Church.  It’s an excellent encouragement for us today.  Do we express the kind of joy and generosity that even non-believers find mysteriously powerful? There are many themes within this list that I’d love to explore more fully, but there simply isn’t room in a blog-post to cover it all, and hopefully we will be able to deal with them later.

Soon we will be leaving the familiarity of the Scriptural accounts of the Church and heading into life after the Apostles, into times of persecution, and into furious debates on what Scripture teaches.  I won’t say that any of this is more interesting than Scriptures, but it is probably less familiar and maybe more intriguing in some ways. 

But before that, we must look further at the early gospel proclamations and dissect the message.