The Book of Acts introduces us to the inception of the first church and its organization. On the strength of unified expectation and prayers, the promised Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost. After Apostle Peter’s inaugural sermon, three thousand people were added to the church, and at another gathering, four thousand more joined. Amidst the vivid depiction of the church’s growth, one of the portraits of the early church is the power of community.
The bible, in First John, highlights that the assembly of believers shouldn’t be merely viewed as a gathering of people; a social meeting, all fun and vibes (my emphasis), but Apostle John clearly articulated the deeper purpose of such fellowship with him as a fellowship with God and with His Christ.
What we have seen and heard we also proclaim to you, so that you too may have fellowship [as partners] with us. And indeed our fellowship [which is a distinguishing mark of born-again believers] is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. — 1 John 1:3 AMP
Said in another way, it’s a collective meeting and a communal encounter with the Lord, the dividends of such meeting being change and transformation, spiritual growth and increasing strength.
We see littered through the Epistles, the Apostles’ repeated emphasis on the necessity of the church to transcend the mere ordinariness of gathering to genuine fellowship. There’s a difference and that difference is in the concept of discerning the body.
Discerning the body doesn’t only happen when we gather around the table of communion, it also happens in the act of Christian fellowship. Communion is fellowship as they both draw from the original word koinonia which is fellowship. Christ is present at communion because He is present when believers gather. To discern the body is to keep in view the sacredness of Jesus’s presence among the saints and in the saints when we gather. The remembrance of Christ should be central to every Christian gathering.
One can say, “Well, why are you talking to me about it? Isn’t that the pulpit’s responsibility?” Well, not at all. It’s a shared responsibility of the pews and the pulpit.
If we cut back to Acts 2, we see that it is to the extent that everyone in the upper room was plugged into a unified frequency in expectation that there was a collective experience of visitation. It’s not just about what you take away, it’s the quality of what you bring with you. In fact, the quality of what you bring with you determines what you take away. I am not speaking about your makeup bag, spare change to buy snacks after service, your spare pair of slippers so you can come down from your high heels, excitement to continue your gist with your church buddy from where you left off last week, or new wares that you are eager to sell to your faithful church customers. Beyond that, what you must bring is an expectation, a psalm, a spiritual song, a question. While those things can be prosecuted in a community of believers, don’t be satisfied with going home having made a few thousand naira but instead, there was also a weakness that was exchanged for strength and there was a new level of growth and strength that you have permanently and intentionally stepped into.
The book of Acts and Corinthians provides two vivid examples of this principle in action, we see two live examples of how this played out.
The first is the story of Ananias and Sapphira, who misinterpreted the act of giving as a competitive platform for self-glorification. They thought they were deceiving a man. They dropped the funds at Peter’s feet but Peter told them they had lied to the Holy Ghost. Their failure to discern the body led to their demise, serving as a stark warning to a community that was beginning to lose its sacred perspective. Following that incident, the Bible records a renewed and heightened reverence for the body of Christ with signs and wonders following.
The second example involves members of the Corinthian church who introduced social class distinctions into the church and began to distribute communion according to their wealth. Instead of allowing the Word of God and the Holy Spirit to purge them of their gluttonous tendencies, they indulged their gluttony in spiritual matters. The result was that they slept, and that’s the Word of God putting it mildly.
While it’s crucial to have a church community where you belong and feel among, there must be a balance where your belonging is not detrimental to your transformation and where we must continue to uphold the sacred view of the church and what it represents. You must always find communion in your community.
Before we hastily conclude that this conversation of communion is for only themed Christian gatherings, a striking thing we see in Acts 2 was that they maintained one accord in the temple (themed Christian gatherings if you like), but also broke bread in intimate homely conversations. From John, we see that in the breaking of bread, Jesus is revealed. When we break bread, I.e. deconstruct the word into relatable and digestible rations, either through our experiences or through our personal lenses, Jesus is revealed in deeper dimensions. Another picture is how the believers being threatened by the Sanhedrin went back to their believing company, the result was renewed boldness with signs and wonders following because they rightly discerned the body.
If you have somehow transiently sunk into the seduction that Christianity is just a label and church is just a social club, or your believing friends are just ordinary, and that seduction is leading to discouragement or a license for indulgence, then perhaps an encouraging / warning re-introduction is necessary for you: The Church of Christ is the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, and the primary agent of God’s redemptive plan. It was bought with blood to be purified by water and presented to God blameless. It’s the central host of His power, and the pillar and ground of His truth.
Be encouraged and have a blessed week
For His glory and His renown
Olayinka Adebayo
Instagram / X (Twitter): @layinkadebayo