Communal Living In The Early Church

Communal Living In The Early Church (Acts 2:41-47 , 4:32-37)

With the church now empowered with the holy spirit at Pentecost , the disciples became bold and courageously began to spread the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Peter preached the first sermon immediately after their experience of the holy Spirit, after which about three thousand souls who heard him accepted the gospel and were baptized .Those who became believers lived and related to one another as a community in their vertical relationship with God,they

“1. Devoted themselves to the apostolic teaching of the word of God

2. Devoted themselves to fellowship – which is coming together for cooperate worship

3. Devoted themselves to breaking of bread – which is communion

4. Devoted themselves to prayer .

And in their horizontal relationship with one another;

1. They were United as one

2. They had all things in common

3. They shared their material possessions with the needy among them. Land owners sold their lands and used the money to support the christian community

4. They observed the Lord’s supper from house to house.

SIGNIFICANCE

1. It is not enough to stay at home and read your Bible and pray, but God expects us to attend church servings and weekly programs

Lesson Three: problems of the early Christian community, as it is common in every society the communal life and fellowship among the early christians were destroyed because of the following:

1. Food distribution and other provisions were not getting to everyone in need

2. Tribalism and ethnicism began to play out.

3. Division began to set in , Hellenist men began to murmur against the Hebrews and stand up for their widows who were being neglected.

4. The gospel began to decline because apostles had neglected it to a focus of material things.

Lesson four: solutions to the problem of the early Christian community  (Acts 6:2-6)

The followings;

1. They acknowledged their mistake of neglecting their primary ministry of the word and pray and repented .

2. They acknowledged their failure to delegate responsibility.

3. Seven men were chosen as deacons, men of good repute, full of the spirit and of wisdom to distribute food and other materials.

4. The twelve apostles prayed for the seven after they were chosen.

EVALUATION

1. What social problems brought about the appointment of the deacons in the early church? Mention five social problems facing the church today.(June,1988 SSCE).

2.(a)Trace the events that led to the election of Matthias as one of the twelve . (b) highlight three guidelines that should be borne in mind when conducting election (June 2006 WASSCE)