“Lord Jesus, please forgive us that we have complicated our lives and that we have lost the joy of our homes being the first place of worship as Your church. In Your name, we pray. Amen.”
Acts 2:46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.
This life of oneness, in the early church, had started even as the Lord had departed from them. Luke 24:52-53 And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, (53) and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen. The baptism of the Holy Spirit enhanced what had already begun in His church.
As they obeyed the Lord to tarry in Jerusalem, they came closer to each other. Acts 1:14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
Then the baptism of the Holy Spirit took place. This increased oneness in the body of Christ was another evidence of the baptism of His Holy Spirit. Acts 2:42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
This meeting together, in oneness, as His church was an ongoing, distinguishing mark, of the early church. Acts 5:42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
We must desire this oneness in the body of Christ. It is not about just physically meeting with one another, which is challenging but to cultivate oneness amongst us in every other way. This is the work of His Holy Spirit in us.
As we look closely, we see that the early church was, essentially, house churches.
Today, though we have different places where we gather to worship. We must keep in mind that the church must and will always be the church that happens at home. This implies that as families, we must see ourselves as worship centres, first. We have family prayers as a good habit to cultivate but we rarely see our homes, primarily as the first place of worship. This must change and we must go back to our homes becoming the first centres of worship, prayer, word, and nurture.
We see this was how it was in the Old Testament. The Lord desired for families to be hubs of worship of God. We are all familiar with this verse. Joshua 24:15b … But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Now, as we come into the New Testament and the growth of the early church, what was familiar to the Jews of worshipping God in their homes, continued. We must sincerely and resolutely pursue making our homes, the first places of worship. Church must begin at every home.
Philemon 1:1-2 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved friend and fellow labourer, (2) to the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house:
Romans 16:5 Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia to Christ.
Colossians 4:15 Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas and the church that is in his house.
Acts 12:12 So, when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying.
Once we make our homes the first place for worship, as His church, we will be surprised as to how all our squabbles and differences, in our homes, will vanish.
The amazing impact of the home churches was that the church grew in numbers. We have mega churches today with huge infrastructure but the format of the home church can never be altered. This is the God-given structure for His church.
The home is a very special place. Even those who are single and have a broken family life can find refuge in homes where we gather for the worship of God. Acts 5:14 And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,
We see that the early church broke bread from house to house. We have already said that the breaking of the bread was a part of the regular meal. This leads us to realise that as the church met and worshipped in homes, mealtime was the time for celebration and worshipping God together.
This was another understanding that came from the way God wanted the Israelites to worship Him. Deuteronomy 12:6-7 There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. (7) And *there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.
It is another sad reality that we have managed to so complicate our lives that we are not able to have our meals together as families. We blame our circumstances for this situation.
We must, in the enablement of His Holy Spirit, take the needed decisions to simplify our lives so that we will have our meals together and there worship together as families. If we do not do so and continue this mad rush, it will be to our own peril.
Let us make our homes the first place for worship as His church.