The Flavor of the Early Church

Hi Church Family,

There is an ice cream parlor named “Baskin-Robbins.” It is famous for offering 31 flavors of ice cream all the time. It is a bit overwhelming the first couple of times you enter the store. They offer the classics such as Vanilla, Chocolate, Chocolate Chip, and Mint Chocolate Chip. They give other choices such as Pralines and Cream, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, and Cookies and Cream. They have varieties of Sherbets too. Then comes the exotic stuff… Love Potion # 31, Booberry Banana Pineapple or The Kitchen Sink. It has everything!

You line up at the counter, tell the server what you want, get your whatever, and off you go. For many, they see church like a Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream Parlor. They want their flavor while being indifferent if anyone else gets theirs. They are consumers, not helpers and givers. What Jesus had in mind for His body, the church, is radically different from this approach. The early church had a distinct flavor when it was birthed.
 What did the first century church look like and how did it function. They had some distinctives that brought them into unity and set them apart from other religions. Let’s explore a few of these in this article.

1. They made their primary focus knowing and following Jesus. This came through His apostles and those who followed Him while He was here on earth. They made it to the Upper Room and received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They wanted many others to know Him too!

2. Those in the early church knew Jesus as Lord and Savior, received the Holy Spirit, and were baptized in water. They were all made to drink of one Spirit. See I Corinthians 12:13

3. Acts 2:42 states the structure of the early church. It was simple and profound. “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, to breaking of bread and prayer.”
  a. Daily, they were in the word and the word was being built into them.
  b. They fellowshipped with each other and did not give up on the struggling. They worked at relationships and tried to avoid     division.
  c. They ate together and took communion together regularly. This kept them close to the gospel.
  d. They understood the purpose of prayer and why it was necessary.

4. They were bold and unashamed of the gospel. They were willing to suffer for Jesus and keep going. We see a poignant example of this in Acts 4:29-31.

5. They embraced the command of shared assignment and dominion to fulfill the great commission.

 For a church family to grow together and stay strong, we must walk in love and truth. If only truth is your test of fellowship, you will become argumentative and judgmental. If only love is your standard of fellowship, you will receive anything without question and the body will be led astray. We are to speak the truth in love, grow up into the head Jesus Christ, and learn how to work through our questions and differences in peace. Seeing a church family mature in love and truth is much like a marriage. You must build it on the foundation of truth with a commitment to love and work it through. Take the divorce word and walk away principle out of your thinking. I am aware that occasionally a marriage and a church can get so into brokenness and error that an end is necessary. Both happen too quickly and too much in our present culture. One of my daughters is 40 years old. She made an applicable observation I want to share as I end my article. She was talking about her culture and what they do when they have something that experiences difficulty. A slight repair and it works great again but, it is easier for them to throw whatever away and just get a new one. Throw away a marriage, throw away a long-term friendship, throw away a good job, a quality vacuum that can be easily fixed, a church that no longer meets every need without my participation, etc.
May we value what is truly valuable and work to keep it in good repair. Most things have much quality life left in them! We are to work at the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Pastor Tony