A brief prayer is offered that you can add to your daily prayers. The scripture is from our Sunday Service Bulletin. We are in a series of sermons regarding Christian love and today’s topic is “Fellowship”. We are using the same text as last week.Acts 2:42-47 (English Standard Version)
And 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.
Devotion: “Koinonia”
As we discussed last week, Luke turns from describing a specific sermon by Peter [Acts 2:40 ”…save yourselves from this perverse generation”] to a general statement about how the early Christians worshipped and grew in faith. The transliteration of “fellowship” in Greek is “koinonia” [κοινωνία] and because the article “the” precedes it, “the fellowship” would imply a distinctive kind of fellowship. It refers to a sharing situation with others, not only in material things but in ideas, attitudes, and missions. Two activities describe it: 1- the breaking of bread and 2- the prayers. These two activities demonstrated the early Christians need to learn, to encourage one another, and to praise God and seek guidance. Boy we could sure use some more of that koinonia stuff today couldn’t we? This week, can you keep in mind the words of a song we will sing in today’s service: “They will know we are Christians by our Love”. The Lord may put you in an outreach situation this week, be ready!
Pray: Lord, make me ready to be more like You.
Blessings,
Joe
1. Knowing yourself: Is there a time when “awe came upon your soul”?
2. Scripture: The “breaking of bread” is a term that here probably included the Lord’s Supper as well as eating a meal together (cf. v. 46; 20:7; 1 Cor.10:16; 11:23-25; Jude 12). Elsewhere the phrase describes both an ordinary meal (Luke 24:30, 35; Acts 20:11; 27:35) and the Lord’s Supper (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 10:16; 11:24). Probably these early Christians ate together and as part of the meal, or after it, used their common food, bread and wine, to commemorate Christ’s death—can you comment on these passages?
3. Application: How can we demonstrate in our daily activities “they will know we are Christians by our love”? Will you behave differently if you know a person is unchurched? Why?