The Power Of The Dinner Table

Acts 2:46 NIV - Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.

Do you want to play a part in changing the world?

Like discipling and transforming cities and nations?

Host a dinner party. This was the brilliant strategy of Jesus and the first century church.

The first century Christ-followers were regular folk. They were a 24/7 people movement powered by Jesus, and they transformed cities and nations everywhere they went.

And they did most of their transforming at the dinner table, where people were already gathering. Jesus hijacked the dinner table.

I love reading about the first century church in the book of Acts.

Jesus referred to His church as His Ekklesia, a governing power. The church was a people, never a building.

One didn’t go to church. You were the church.

They gathered mostly in homes. They broke bread together. Communion was an actual dinner with amazing wine.

There was dialogue between the dinner guests.

They were full of the Holy Spirit. They had power. Dunamis power.

The minute they were born-again, they were baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit.

In the first one-hundred years of Christianity, there was no distinction between clergy and laity. Once you became a Christ-follower you were considered a minister of the Lord. A disciple. The modern role of the pastor, as we know it today, did not exist.

You were either an apostle, a prophet, and evangelist, a pastor or a teacher.

Acts 2:42-47 NIV gives us a glimpse into the early church.

- They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship

- To the breaking of bread and to prayer

- Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles

- All the believers were together and had everything in common

- They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need

- Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts

- They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people

- And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved

You could say the Church of Jerusalem was multi-site. People gathering all over the city.

So let’s fast forward to today.

In Matthew 28:19 Jesus gives His disciples (that’s us) The Great Commission — to make disciples of nations.

How do you do that? The marketplace is the heartbeat of every community, city, state and nation.

All of us are going to spend 100,000 hours of our lives working in the marketplace. In the book of Acts, 39 of the 40 supernatural recorded events occurred in the marketplace, not the temple.

Can you imagine what would happen if Christ-followers everywhere began hosting dinners, gathering and fellowshipping with our fellow man?

What would it take for you to host a weekly or monthly dinner at your home with friends from the marketplace?

Think about it.

-Gerald