September 5, 2025: Church Life

“They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all the believers were together and had all things in common; and they would sell their property and possessions and share them with all, to the extent that anyone had need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:42–47, NASB 2020)

Beginning on the day of Pentecost, the Church attended to a life devoted to the Lord and to one another. We read in verse 42: “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” They devoted themselves to a way of living that emphasized their love for God and for one another. These are means of grace. This verse outlines a way of being the Church that draws us into that community of love—a way of living that draws us closer even as the world would pull us in a myriad of other directions. A people serving one another, meeting each other’s needs, and a life where our faith is never just a personal but always communal as well.

The Church is built on the faith once received. Handed down to the apostles by our Lord, continued throughout time by the Church. We must devote ourselves to His Holy Scriptures, because we find life there—a life built on the rock rather than the shifting sands of our culture and our particular place in time.

The Church devotes herself to the sacraments. Through waters of baptism, we are brought as new creations into the Church. Through the Eucharist, we are nourished as we confess our failures, receive absolution, and are restored. 

The Church centers herself in prayer. As we pray, we Praise, Repent, Ask, and Yield. We seek not our will but that His will be done. Our Lord speaks to our hearts as we pray and grants those things that are for our good.

The Church also is devoted to the fellowship. For it is with our local congregation that we worship. It is primarily with the local congregation that we join in prayer, with whom we eat in one another’s homes, and share one another’s deepest needs and burdens. We are centrally to study Holy Scripture with those in our local congregation, to find times and places to intentionally pray together. We may take part with other Christians in such things but never in place of our congregation. For we never “abandon… our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another …” (Hebrews 10:25, NASB 2020)

This passage defines a healthy congregation. We are to share one another’s’ lives as the Lord’s holy family and not merely acquaintances seeing one another one day a week. The closer Acts 2:42 describes us, the healthier and productive we will be at Saint Timothy’s.