Purpose of church 4 - Fellowship part 2

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. -Acts 2:42

This verse offers a glimpse of what that first generation church was like. Four simple things the first believers devoted themselves to. What I want to draw your attention to first is the third thing mentioned, the breaking of bread. You may think that this is a communion reference, but that is not strictly true. Granted it ties into the last supper as the communion does, but what you may not realize is that such practices did not begin with Jesus. This was a common practice that the Hebrews of the time routinely practiced at fellowship meals. Jesus just ensured that the practice was carried on by the church. So as you can see, the practice of the day was inherently tied to the second thing mentioned in the verse. So half of what the that first generation church was dedicated to was fellowship. The very thing many in the current church want to deem irrelevant. One of the ways we have done this is by ritualization of communion to the point that there is no fellowship in it at all. Yet, we wonder why the church can’t seem to get along with itself. If we can’t work together than we can’t commit to the ultimate mission of God’s kingdom. So how by any stretch of the imagination can we call fellowship irrelevant?

Let us break bread together