Acts 2: The Church, Sign and Expression of God's Kingdom

Introduction

"You may be thinking that Christians don't have a monopoly on community." This is how Dave Mitchell, senior leader of Woodlands Church in Bristol, begins the final message of a short series on the foundations of church life. After the Bible, prayer and generosity, the theme of the evening is community.

Human beings are social animals: they join clubs, go to parties, spend time together. So what is special about the Church? For Dave Mitchell, the answer does not begin in Acts 2. It begins in God himself, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Drawing on Acts 2:42-47 and the new commandment of John 13:34, he shows that the Church is not only here to announce the Kingdom of God. It is called to be its visible expression.

Outline of the Message

1. The Desire for Community and Its Fragility

• We are made for community. Everyone knows the joy of being known, loved, of belonging to something and of having an identity that is not limited to "you all alone."
• Everyone also knows how fragile it is. The student who arrives in housing where they know no one wonders whether they will dare to open their bedroom door: "Will I have a place here?"
• There is the person starting a new job or who has just moved to a new city, the person who has lost friends or is going through grief, the child who is not one of the "cool kids" at school.
• The Christian life speaks to this pain as well as to this desire, because it reveals a reality at the heart of the universe: community is God's plan for everyone.

2. Invited into the Community of God Himself

• God is love (1 John 4:8), and love and community go together.
• When you become a disciple of Jesus, you are invited into the community of God himself: the God who is love exists as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• It is a mystery that goes beyond our reason, but it makes complete sense in experience: we know the Father through Jesus, through the Spirit who comes into our hearts and stands by our side. We know one God, and yet we know him as a community of perfect love.
• So you already belong to a community that existed before time. And you are invited into the family of God, which is the Church.
• "Being a Christian is not so much an individual belief system or an ideology. It is a relationship with God and a relationship within a family." A community that completes us and makes us what we were truly called to be.

3. The Twelve, a New Israel Open to the Whole World

• At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus calls twelve disciples. They represent an entirely new community, like a new Israel, which had begun with twelve tribes.
• But this is no longer a narrow national body: it is a community to which everyone, all over the earth, can belong. Before returning to the Father, Jesus sends his disciples to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19).
• From the very first day, the Church calls people "not only to believe, but to belong."
• At Pentecost, Peter speaks about the crucified Jesus. Some of the listeners may have shouted "Crucify him." They are cut to the heart and ask: "What shall we do?" Peter answers: "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you [...] and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:37-38). That day, about three thousand people were added.
• The Greek word for Church, ekklesia, means "gathering." The first Christians met in large numbers in the temple and in homes: community became a reality of every moment.

4. The Church, Sign and Expression of the Kingdom

• Acts 2:42-47 describes this community: the apostles' teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, the prayers, possessions held in common, meals eaten "with gladness and simplicity of heart." And "the Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved."
• "We often talk about Pentecost. But the consequence of the movement of the Spirit was community." People who live and love together, who care for the poor, grow in faith, welcome others, practice hospitality and do life together.
• Community is for our good: a place where we are loved, formed as disciples, equipped, supported in good times and bad. But it is also for those who are not yet part of it.
• "The Church is called to be not only a signpost pointing to the Kingdom, but an expression of that Kingdom." It is not only a messenger announcing good news: by its very existence, it is part of the message. "When you look at these people, you should see God."
• That is why Jesus, before the cross, gives a new commandment: "Love one another; just as I have loved you" (John 13:34). Besides himself, Jesus' gift to the world is a community that reproduces his love and his welcome.
• "It is a very high bar for the Church." Over the centuries and in every local church, we have missed it from time to time, and people have been hurt by the very Church that was supposed to carry this message. Yet Jesus loves the Church: he calls her his bride and is committed to making her beautiful (Ephesians 5:25-27).

5. Two Acts You Never Do Alone: Baptism and Communion

• As a sign that the Christian life is not individualistic, Jesus entrusted two very communal things to the Church.
• Baptism first: "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19-20). It is a very concrete act of obedience, and a spiritual sign: God cleanses us, fills us with a new life, that of the Holy Spirit, and brings us to birth into his people.
• "It is a step of initiation. It is a step of belonging." The baptized person joins a worldwide family that has existed since the first century, a cloud of witnesses who have gone before us (Hebrews 12:1). There is something of the covenant in it: "we belong to one another."
• Communion next. It looks back to the cross: "This is my body which is given for you [...] This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (Luke 22:19-20). This personal remembrance gives rise to gratitude and to the desire to offer ourselves in return to God, as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). "That is worship."
• But communion does not only remember the body of Christ broken on the cross. It recognizes that we are the body of Christ. A member cannot say to another that it has no need of it, nor can the eye say so to the hand (1 Corinthians 12:21), and Paul asks us to discern the body before eating and drinking (1 Corinthians 11:29).
• It is a holy place to "recalibrate" what it means to follow Jesus and to be one with our brothers and sisters. A place of forgiveness: not only "Jesus, forgive me," but also "I want to forgive that really annoying person two rows in front of me," so that the grace of the Kingdom may flow.

6. Big Church for Inspiration, Small Church for Participation

• The Sunday gathering resembles the Church that met in the temple. But in order to love one another, to know one another and to be formed as disciples, we need small groups: "communities within communities."
• Young adults, students, high schoolers, home groups, other places of worship of the Church: without these circles where we are known and loved, there is no pastoral care, no discipleship, no networks of friendship that truly welcome.
• "Big Church is for inspiration. Small Church is for participation": sharing, doing things together, learning and growing.
• Communities are not perfect, and finding your place in them is not always easy. Sometimes, he admits, the invitation emails even end up in spam. But the Church is so attached to this "vehicle of the Kingdom" that she does not want to give it up.
• People experience community in all kinds of contexts. Christians experience it gathered around Jesus, with the help of the Holy Spirit, who binds hearts together in joys as well as in dark places and disappointments.

7. Come in Person, and Take the First Step

• Dave Mitchell speaks frankly: if you follow Jesus without being part of a church, "honestly, you need it." Online church has its place if you cannot leave your home or if you live in a country where Christians are persecuted. Otherwise, "you need to come in person."
• To the one who is not a Christian but who has been touched, he speaks of shame, failure, sin that "misses the mark" and brokenness. The good news is that you can leave your shame at the cross and be welcomed, whatever you have done.
• Great journeys often begin with simple words. A love story that ends in marriage may have begun with: "Can I take you out one evening?"
• The Christian life begins in the same way, with a few words said aloud or in the heart to this invisible and yet real God: "I want to know you. I need your mercy. Jesus, you died for me. I give myself to you."
• He invites those who prayed to say so to the prayer team, to pick up a first-steps booklet, to take an Alpha course and to find out about baptism.

Key Takeaways

• Community is not a human invention: it comes from God, who is love and who exists as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• Jesus called the Twelve as a new Israel, open to all nations. The Church invites people to believe, but also to belong.
• The Church is not only a signpost or a messenger of the Kingdom: through her love, she is part of the message.
• Baptism and communion are never lived alone: one brings us into the people of God, the other reaffirms our place in the body of Christ.
• The large gathering inspires, the small groups bring participation. We need both, and the Holy Spirit to make it work.

Personal Application

• Where do you feel today the desire to belong, or on the contrary the fragility and loneliness Dave Mitchell speaks about?
• Does your faith look more like a personal belief system or like a relationship lived within a family?
• If someone looked at your Christian community this week, what would they see of the love of Jesus?
• Is there someone, perhaps "two rows in front of you," whom you need to forgive before taking communion?
• Are you part of a small group where you are known and loved? If not, what first step could you take to join one?

Verses Cited

• Acts 2:42-47
• John 13:34
• 1 John 4:8
• Acts 2:37-41
• Matthew 28:19-20
• Ephesians 5:25-27
• Hebrews 12:1
• Luke 22:19-20
• Romans 12:1
• 1 Corinthians 11:29
• 1 Corinthians 12:21

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is community at the heart of the Christian faith?

For Dave Mitchell, community is at the heart of the universe because God is love and exists as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Becoming a Christian means being invited into this community of God himself, and then into his family, the Church. Being a Christian is therefore not first an individual belief system, but a relationship.

What does it mean that the Church is an expression of the Kingdom of God?

The Church is not only a signpost pointing to the Kingdom, nor only a messenger announcing the good news. By its very existence, it is part of the message: when we look at the people of God, we should see God. This is the meaning of Jesus' commandment in John 13:34: love one another as I have loved you.

Why are baptism and communion communal acts?

Jesus entrusted two things to his Church, and neither is lived alone. Baptism is a step of obedience and initiation that brings us into the people of God. Communion recalls what Jesus did on the cross, and it also invites us to discern the body of Christ that the Church is: it is a place of forgiveness where we reaffirm our place among our brothers and sisters.