Last week, I wrote a little article explaining why we’re bringing back Sunday Night Fellowship and began considering what we hope to accomplish during these evenings together. And, as I mentioned last week, one goal is the fostering of gospel community.
But there’s so much more going on in the church in Jerusalem during their early days together as we see in Acts 2:42-47. These recent converts were committed to several things together. One of those is prayer (Acts 2:42).
However, there’s something curious about the way Acts 2:42 is written; the ESV has picked up on it. Each of the nouns (teaching, fellowship, prayers, etc.) has its own definite article.
Maybe I find language more interesting than some, but humor me for a minute. The way grammar works, I can use one “the” in a sentence and let it serve for more than one noun – I went to the zoo and saw the lions, bears, and monkeys. One definite article (the) and three nouns, but the article applies to each. I don’t have to say, “the lions and the bears and the monkeys.” In fact, it’s a little cumbersome.
But in Acts 2:42, in English because it’s written this way in Greek, we have “the teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.” Have you ever wondered why that is? Well, it seems that the article suggests that there were stated times for prayer, for fellowship, etc., and the saints made a habit, a commitment, to be at all of them.
Well, it’s our hope that SNF becomes one of those times at which we can have fellowship and prayer together. Not only will we eat together, but we will gather and pray for one another, for our church, for our community, for the gospel to grow, and much more.
This is a great opportunity to grow in gospel community both through fellowship and prayer with and for each other. Meanwhile, it’s an opportunity for us to boldly enter the throne room of heaven together, as a church fellowship, bearing one another’s burdens, pointing each other to a loving and faithful Father, sharing in each other’s joys and sorrows.
We hope you’ll commit to the fellowship and the prayers of GCPC.