Week 10 at Church by the Bay
12 Nov 2011
We are on week 10 at Church by the Bay. A good chance to remind ourselves of what a church should be doing...
In Acts chapter 2, Peter, one of Jesus' best friends, preaches the first Christian sermon. He has explained that Jesus is the Lord and the Christ, and that he died to bring forgiveness of sins, and that people need to repent – turn back to God. And 3000 people did just that. And this is what they did...
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts chapter 2 verse 42)
They devote themselves to four things:
1. First they devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching. That’s the teaching that the apostles - Jesus' friends - got from Jesus. And it included the Old Testament which Jesus showed them was all about him!
And so at Church by the Bay we devote ourselves to the Bible – where we have the Old Testament which is about Jesus and the New Testament which is the apostles’ teaching from Jesus. So we have lots of Bible when we meet. Bible readings and a Bible talk and songs that are grounded in the Bible’s teaching.
2. Second, they devote themselves to the fellowship - to each other. They love each other and they share their resources of time and money with each other.
And we aim to have a real community feel, as Jesus’ people, we try and love each other, and not just on Sunday mornings but during the week too. We are a family, and so we try and live like a loving famliy!
3. Third they devote themselves to the breaking of bread.
Probably this is sharing meals, rather than the Lord’s Supper in particular – although of course the Lord’s Supper of bread and wine would originally have formed part of a meal.
We share refreshments before and after our main meeting on Sunday , and in our homes during the week amongst the church. Next week we’re going to have a church family lunch straight after church. Do please join us. There's no need to bring anything. But please see Hannah if you would like to bring something. We also regularly share the Lord's Supper on a Sunday morning.
4. Fourthly, they devote themselves to prayer.
They were so thankful to God for sending Jesus for them, and they realized they were wholly dependent on Him for everything, that praying was really important.
And so prayer is a big part of our meetings on Sundays and also when we meet during the week, and when we catch up for coffee informally. Our next prayer meeting is Monday 21st November at 7 am.
We aim at Church by the Bay to devote ourselves to the Word of God, each other, eating together and praying...and we pray that we will carry on devoting ourselves to these things.