2.1 Key themes⤒🔗

• Jesus Christ is the One who makes his church healthy and strong.
• A healthy church has:
  - A healthy diet: the Word of God.
  - Healthy exercise: fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer.
  - A healthy lifestyle: love for each other and praise to God.
• Through this healthy diet, exercise, and lifestyle, Jesus Christ makes his church grow.

2.2 Acts 2:41–47 ←⤒🔗

^2:41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added.

^2:42 They were devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

^2:43 Reverential awe came over everyone, and many wonders and miraculous signs came about by the apostles.

^2:44 All who believed were together and held everything in common,

^2:45 and they began selling their property and possessions and distributing the proceeds to everyone, as anyone had need.

^2:46 Every day they continued to gather together by common consent in the temple courts, breaking bread from house to house, sharing their food with glad and humble hearts,

^2:47 praising God and having the good will of all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number every day those who were being saved.

© NET Bible

2.3 Spiritual health←⤒🔗

The book of Acts was written by Luke. Luke was a medical doctor. He was used to treating diseases and helping people to stay healthy. Then God called Luke to become a pastor and evangelist. In that way, Luke became a “spiritual doctor.” Now it was his job to teach people how to be spiritually healthy.

In Acts 2, Luke gives us an example of a church that was spiritually healthy. It was the church in Jerusalem – the first church of the New Testament. What made this church healthy? Let us look at the facts that Luke gives to us. You will see that in many ways, spiritual health works the same as bodily health.

You will see that a church is healthy when it has:

• A healthy diet (food)
• Healthy exercise
• A healthy lifestyle

Jesus Christ is the One who gives his church a healthy diet, healthy exercise, and a healthy lifestyle. He is the One who builds his church (Lesson 1). He is also the One who makes his church healthy and strong.

2.4 A healthy diet and exercise←⤒🔗

Any doctor will tell you that good food and exercise are the most important things that you need to be healthy. In Acts 2, Luke describes the diet and exercise of the church in Jerusalem.

What was the church’s spiritual food? In verse 42 we see that they “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.” The apostles’ teaching is the teaching that Jesus gave to the apostles. It is the good news of Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save sinners. Today we have the whole Bible: the Old and New Testament. If we want to know the apostles’ teaching, we should read the Bible.

This teaching was like food for the church in Jerusalem. They devoted themselves to it. To devote yourself to something means to make it the most important thing in your life. For the church in Jerusalem, God’s Word was the most important thing in their life. God’s Word made them grow strong and healthy.

But the church also “exercised.” In the rest of verse 42, we see that that they also devoted themselves “to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

Fellowship is the close relationships between believers. These believers loved each other and spent time together. The breaking of bread is the Lord’s Supper, which Jesus gave to his people to celebrate. The church also prayed – in other words, they met together to worship God. Through their meetings and their love for each other, their faith was being exercised.

What diet and exercise do our churches have today? Think about your own church. When your pastor preaches, does he preach from the Bible? Does he always tell the good news of Jesus Christ, who died for the forgiveness of our sins? And is fellowship, the Lord’s Supper, and prayer also important to everyone in your church?

Some people think that miracles and healings are the most important things in a church. But that is not what Acts 2 teaches us. Only the apostles did miracles (verse 43). The rest of the church devoted themselves to the teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer. These are the things that make a church strong.

2.5 A healthy lifestyle←⤒🔗

The whole lifestyle of the first believers (see verses 44–47) showed that they were spiritually healthy. They were not “sick” with greed and selfishness. They loved each other so much that they shared everything they had. They opened their homes and ate together with glad hearts. Their lifestyle was one of praise to God.

Imagine if every person in your church gave his (or her) whole life to God and to the other church members. Imagine if each of us said to God and to each other, “All that I have and all that I am is yours!”

Because of this lifestyle, the church enjoyed “the favour of all the people” (verse 47). Luke wrote the same thing about Jesus. When Jesus was a child, he grew “in favour with God and men” (Luke 2:52).

To have the favour of all the people did not mean that all the people loved the church. But it was clear to everyone that the church lived what they preached. Because of this, people respected them.

2.6 Growth←⤒🔗

If a child has a healthy diet, exercise, and lifestyle, then he will grow. Luke says the same about the first church. The church did not make itself grow. It was Jesus Christ, who worked through his Holy Spirit. Verse 47 tells us, “The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

As churches today, we do not have to find new ways to grow. We do not need to make clever plans to get more people into our church. All we have to do is to be the church: the called-out ones of God.

God gives us in his Word all the “food” we need to become strong. Through his Holy Spirit, he helps us to exercise our faith and to follow a healthy lifestyle. Let us again become devoted to his Word, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. These are the things which Jesus Christ uses, to make his church grow.