Series: Salt & Light – 7: “The Breaking of Bread and Prayers”

Acts 2:42-47

The breaking of bread and prayer. Read Acts 2:42-47

Dear God, we want to live in a manner that is pleasing to you. We truly want to live like your followers. Right now speak into our lives through your Scriptures. Send your Holy Spirit to illumine us, inspire us, teach us, and convict us. In Jesus’ name, amen.

1. the breaking of bread. My favorite bakery is located 1 block from my favorite bookstore, Powell’s City of Books. The Pearl Bakery opened its doors in 1997 & today is known as one of the finest artisan bakeries in Portland.

2. my favorite is their Pain Au Levain, a sourdough bread made in the traditional French style using Levain – a culture of flour & water in which wild yeast and flavor-producing bacteria naturally occur. The result is bread that has a dense crumb, chewy crust & slightly sour flavor.

3. the breaking of bread.

4. the prayers. The 1st prayer book I bought (I now have 13) cost me $3 in 1982 – The Book of Common Prayer. I was a student at Fuller Seminary. The common part intrigued me, common meaning to be used with others.

5. occasionally I would skip chapel & slip off to All Saints Episcopal Church for their mid-morning prayer service. Normally there was just a hand-full of us, the presiding priest & the prayers from The Book of Common Prayer. These were rich times for me, a chance to turn the theology I was studying into living prayers.

6. the prayers.

Proskartereo
1. a little review from last week. Those who were filled with the Spirit on Pentecost devoted themselves to teaching, community, breaking of bread, prayer. Devoted translates the Greek word proskartereo which means steadfast, carry on, continue in. It’s a word of commitment. It bleeds discipline.

2. I gave 3 examples of proskartereo –
® early morning coffee guys at Thriftway
® early morning coffee guy Paulblo
® Rick the swimmer at the Canby pool

3. we have 2 things coming together in Acts 2 – the Divine & the human. The Divine – all of them were filled with the Spirit (2:4). The human – they devoted themselves. Their devotion, their proskartereo-ing was empowered by the Holy Spirit.

4. we can’t live this life of following Christ without God’s help. And the work of God requires our best effort, best discipline.

5. are you filled with the Holy Spirit? Do you have an discipline in your life when it comes to spiritual practices?

6. last week I covered the apostles’ teaching & fellowship – this week the breaking of bread & prayer.

The breaking of bread
1. the breaking of bread is a reference to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. The 1st Christ-followers met in homes for worship. Church buildings came 300 years later. Worship revolved around a shared meal. The Old Testament Scriptures & the teaching of Christ were shared. Praise was offered up. Prayers were prayed. Dishes & leftovers were moved aside & the wine & bread were brought out to remember the life, death & resurrection of Christ for our salvation.

2. this appears to be a daily practice. Communion not once a month or once a week but once a day. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and at together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God…

7. the breaking of bread means a meal/worship service that exalted Christ.

the prayers
1. Acts 2:42 literally reads the prayers. Most scholars believe that this refers to public, corporate prayer, the prayers of the gathered church.

2. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. NOT for offering sacrifices for Christ himself was their sacrifice for sin. BUT to pray the Jewish prayers that had been prayed for hundreds of years centered upon the Psalms.

3. one day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer – at three in the afternoon (3:1). They were going to pray the afternoon prayers.

4. the Spirit-filled 1st church was devoted to corporate prayer and worship that centered upon the Lord’s Supper. The breaking of bread and prayer.

enlarging the picture
1. a closer reading of this description of the Spirit-filled 1st church reveals the following about their worship: 1st it was formal & informal; 2nd it was reverent & joyful.

1st worship is formal and informal:
2. daily they gathered in the temple courts for worship. The 1st believers did not immediately abandon the temple or institutional worship. They attended the more traditional, structured, formal prayer services of the temple.

3. today we would say the followed the liturgy – they prayed at set hours & prayed set prayers.

4. but they also gathered in one another’s homes. They ate meals together & celebrated the Lord’s Supper as they did so. There was a freedom of structure in this informal setting. This would have been a small group experience.

5. we find in Acts 2 both formal & informal gatherings, large group at the temple & small groups in their homes.

2nd worship is reverent and joyful:
1. everyone was filled with awe. Awe could easily be translated fear. This seems to include both Christ-followers & non-Christ-followers.

2. God had visited their city. He was in their midst. He had poured out his Spirit upon them. Miracles were rolling off the fingers of the apostles.

3. awe & fear settled upon the people. Everyone Luke writes. And they responded to him in humility and wonder.

4. next they broke break in their homes with glad & sincere hearts, praising God.

5. Glad translates a verb that means an exuberant expression of joy! God sent his Son into the word. He has now sent his Spirit into the hearts of his people. They are elated, jubilant, in a state of high excitement.

6. the fear/awe doesn’t cancel out the joy – the gladness doesn’t cancel out the fear. They provide balance.

7. formal & informal worship; reverent & joyful worship when the church came together to break bread & to pray.

Now what?
1. I go back to all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and they devoted themselves to. The intersection of the Divine & the human in our lives. Divine empowerment & human discipline.

2. I have a little prayer I’ve started praying – I can’t unless you do.

3. Luke has painted this picture before us of the breaking of bread & prayer. In its corporate setting. Marked by fear & joy. Expressed formally & informally.

4. it comes by the filling of the Holy Spirit. It comes by discipline, proskartereo.

5. we can’t unless God does. Unless God fills us with his Holy Spirit we will not be disciplined enough to devote ourselves to the breaking of bread & prayer, corporate worship & prayer.

6. how can we prepare ourselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit? At the risk of giving you a formula, here are some steps we can take:
® confess & repent of all known sins
® trust Christ for his forgiveness
® commit & yield every area of our lives to Christ
® ask to be filled with an ever-increasing fullness of the Spirit
® expect that the Spirit is going to empower us & gift us to love follow serve obey worship our Triune God of grace

7. confess + trust + commit + ask + expect. We can’t unless he does. When the Holy Spirit fills us we have what it takes to devote ourselves to the breaking of bread & prayer.

Music i listened to while sermonizing – sting; patty griffin; the decemberists; bruce springsteen; chris tomlin; the american boys choir

Books i read & studied while sermonizing – the intimate merton by thomas merton; joyful exiles by james houston; the great awakening: reviving faith & politics in a post-religious right America by jim wallis; lent and easter: wisdom from thomas merton by jonathan montaldo; the living church by john stott; the Spirit, the church & the world by john stott; acts by ajith fernando; surprised by hope by n.t. wright;