Breaking Bread from House to House
[This message was transcribed and edited from a conference
given by Chuck Debelak in Detroit, Michigan, in October 2000. Mr. Debelak has
not reviewed this document in its edited form.]
Continued from "Introduction: God manifested in Human Virtues"
I. The New Testament indicates that God used the household as a base for the Church Life
The family is a crucial unit of God's salvation. Often the Bible links salvation of an individual with the household (Acts 16:5, 31; 18:8; 14:4) and also uses the base of a household to illustrate God's salvation and care for mankind (Matt. 10:25; 24:45; Luke 16:13; 1 Corinthians 1:11, 16; 16:15; Gal. 6:10; Eph. 2;19; Phil. 2:19; cf. Romans 16:10, 11; 1 Tim. 5:4, 8). Practically speaking, where does salvation begin? With the husband, the wife and the children as a household. As the family is being saved, that is, the father is being saved, or the husband is being saved, or the wife is being saved … do you know what is in that family? God's living presence is in that family. You may not see Bibles laying all over nor commentaries laying all over, but there is an invisible aroma which is the presence of God all around. It is very real.
It is not easy to measure the Lord's salvation practically especially when you associate His salvation with His presence in the household. We often try to measure this according to greatness or mighty accomplishments in the Lord. For instance, a young brother once brought his parents to a dinner at an elder's house (a leader in the church). Both of his parents were highly educated and quite sophisticated. So what better place to bring them than to a leader's home? The interesting part was that this particular elder and his wife argue a lot. They are a lovely couple, but they argue, even at the dinner table with the guests there. As usual, the husband (elder) and wife began exchanging words with one another while their guests were present. The young man was aghast at the impression his parents must be conceiving in their minds due to this situation. About midway through the argument, the husband realized what was happening and apologized to his wife. The young brother later said, "My parents were so touched by the atmosphere in that home."
Concerning that situation, we might think, "Man. They were fighting. How terrible!" Yet, can we see that in the midst of such a situation God intervened and led one of them to apologize!? The guests were more touched by the apology than the proper order and obedience between the hosts. Like the son, we might think that the home of an elder or leader in the church is the perfect place to bring our guests. But we should realize, no, God does not need our so-called perfect home, which is in so-called perfect order. God does not need our kind of perfection and order. What God does need is God manifested in the flesh, that is, God manifested in human virtue! God was present at that home and that was what attracted the guests. To apologize and to forgive is human virtue; this is God lived out of a man.
Another common scenario in our "meetings" is to have children "barge in" or interrupt the meeting. We quickly shoo them away and regain our composure in the meeting. The Lord may have sent that child in to purposely interrupt the so-called order for an insertion of love and grace between parent and child, yet we may not even consider the Lord leading us in such a way. It may be different in a large congregation, but surely in our home our children are part of the atmosphere. Oh, that all of our households would pursue such a Christ-seeking atmosphere in our homes among our spouses and children. Then, our home will be filled with God. God does not require so-called perfect people, but He desires His presence in the home which is expressed when virtues are lived out of us according to His leading.
A. The early church spontaneously and normally broke bread according to homes - Acts 2:46-47
Acts 2:46 begins, "And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house." First of all, the word translated "from house to house" in Greek is kataoikos, which more accurately is translated "according to a home." At that time, there were homes where the believers met. That is where they broke bread. "They partook of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart" (Acts 2:46). So what? There doesn't seem to be anything spiritual here. "They partook of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart, praising God." What does this imply? Their coming together in the homes to partake of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart shows that they were not "work-oriented," trying to accomplish some purpose at the expense of love, grace, kindness, etc. This may be quite different than the way most of us gather in our homes (if we gather at all in this way). They simply gathered together as believers who had some experience of Christ from their personal life and who shared this experience in a normal way with one another. This produced and sustained the presence of God in their home.
The Lord's Presence
The presence of God is interesting. For example, while this conference was held we felt the Lord was with us. Some of the points were grasped and others were not. But in one way or another, God spoke to those who attended because He was here. It is not a matter of getting the right teaching, but of the Lord's presence. In a sense, even if the speaking was not eloquent or exciting, yet God was present among us, every participant still received some kind of speaking from God. In the early church God instigated a kind of church life with the breaking of bread from house to house. They just came together. What was the content of their gatherings? Partaking of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart!
Why would the Bible point out such a thing? If I were writing the Bible it would say, "They broke bread from house to house, praising God and going out into the community and getting people saved." Yet, these two verses in Acts go against most of what we envision the church life ought to be. "They partook of their food." This gathering of the believers was filled with the presence of God simply by their eating together. They simply exercised some virtues of God toward one another. Therefore, to eat around the table allowed an exchange and a fellowship with one another filled with feelings for one another from God. What issued forth were people listening to one another, people being genuinely interested in one another, people encouraging one another and people bearing one another. What a picture of the Lord's grace in simplicity of heart: we simply eat together! And while you eat, someone might mention one of their children and what is happening with them. Another might speak of their job or some other frustrating circumstance. We don't have answers, we might not know what to say, but in that atmosphere of mutual listening there is refreshment and rejuvenation. The fact that ones can open their heart to others and exhibit the virtue of long-suffering allowed grace to be ministered. "They partook of their food!"
Not Having "Meetings" in the Homes
Another positive aspect of the house to house partaking of food is that everyone was able to serve. No one knew who the leader was or who the so-called minister was. They only knew one thing: we come together to partake of food and experience the living God in virtue. And this was with exultation and simplicity of heart. That means that we have leading from the Lord. There is no set pattern or format in the home. We may pray. We may read the Word. We may just talk or encourage a particular person. There are lots of ways the Lord could lead. They gathered together all the time, but not to do "things." They did not come together full of motive, neither to have so-called meetings. Where does the Bible tell us to have meetings? Brothers and sisters, just think about it. Surely they gathered all the time, but they did not have meetings. Meetings imply there is a set purpose, set format and predetermined guidelines and therefore, we come to do something specific. So everyone comes and does the "meeting" thing and when it's over we all say, "How was the meeting?" Then, we evaluate the meeting as to whether it was good or dead. We have a thing called a meeting and we try to "do it." But not so with the early believers; they came together to experience Christ in simplicity of heart.
The Purpose of Gathering in the Homes
Why do we come together? We come together because we have to eat. "Let's all go to Brother James' house." I may go to see James but I notice his high school daughter just wants to get out of the house. So I may have some feeling from the Lord to spend some time with her and ask, "How is school?", exhibiting something very warm and very loving to her. This is simplicity of heart. This was the common means of gathering in the early church life. If we see this view, we will not do some "thing" called the "church life," but we will come together to experience Christ and minister Him to one another through human virtues around our dinner tables!
Our young people in the church life desperately need this kind of gathering. We just invite them to our home and while they are gathering and talking "young people talk," we search our heart before the Lord as to whom we should spend some time with or talk to. It may seem that nothing is spiritual. We sit next to them and ask about school or sports, and hope to warm their heart through kindness and tenderness. Our young people need the real virtues of Christ displayed when they are with us. This kind of gathering will bring forth the ministry of grace in some human virtue. We don't need to preach a verse to them. We don't need to cover every point of doctrine and teaching that "every young person needs to know." There is a time for teaching, for admonishing, for correction and for exhorting, but the predominant theme in any church life should be the coming together in homes to minister grace as virtues to one another. Let's "partake of our food with exultation." Let's love coming together where there is no pressure to function like in a large congregation or speak something by force. Some of us will speak and others will not, but just as the early believers gathered together in homes to exercise the ministry of grace through virtues, so will we by the Lord's leading and grace within us.
Here we see the family in its simple, yet profound operation: the father, the mother, and everyone gathering brings their living relationship with God along with them. They bring their lives with them: what they experienced of God in their marriage life, what they experienced of God in their care for their children, and what they experienced of God in their relationship with people at their job. Then they come together and the church life is filled with the experience of Christ ministered to one another.
The Lord Added to the Church 
"Praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church day by day those who were being saved." (Acts 2:47) Does this verse make sense to us? We would rewrite such a verse to say, "And they were praising God and everyone in the whole neighborhood got a gospel tract. And the tracts were effective, especially with the effective follow up in which the correct verses were ministered at the correct time with the proper authority. And many got saved and were dragged to the meeting." Acts 2:47 stares us in the face: "The Lord added to the church." Imagine if we were God and we had begotten millions of children. Where would we want to bring them? We would want to bring our children to a place that dispenses God, a place where there is exultation and simplicity of heart, a place where there is genuine care for them. This would be like the "Inn" in Luke 10 where the Samaritan pours oil and wine on the wounds of the beaten man and brings him to the Inn and asks the Innkeeper to take care of him. This is bearing fruit to the glory of God the Father (John 15:7-8, 16). Don't think that it is hard to bear fruit. If we follow the pattern that we have laid out in this message, it is easy. The problem is that the Lord can't find any "Inns" where He can bring some for more oil and wine in order to heal, in order to encourage, in order to build up. The Lord says, "Don't teach my children all your right teachings and correct doctrines. Just minister My grace that I have given to you to others, live out the virtues according to My leading until others are healed and made whole again." The Lord is looking for such places, such homes, to bring His children.
In our personal experience, often it seems hard to gain people for Christ. Yet, Acts 2:47 says that the Lord added people to the church daily! Saints, shouldn't we seek God's face for the reason we cannot bear fruit? Surely the Lord longs to talk with us about this matter. He wants us to taste and live the beauty of gathering house to house in simplicity day by day. It is to such a place that God can bring men to Himself. God can work in the hearts of men in His way and in His timing by living out human virtues through us in our homes. How precious and easy this is. The experience we personally have of God in our marriage, the experience that we personally have of God with our children, and the experience that we personally have with God at our job becomes the very grace ministered to other people. We don't minister so-called truth from a pulpit, but we minister grace through human virtues; we gather together to eat and fellowship in the warmth of our home, enjoying God's living presence. There is the exercise of listening to one another, of encouraging one another and, as in Hebrews 10:24, of inciting one another to love and good works. This is the ministry of grace and to such a place the Lord is more than ready to add people in.
Our gatherings should be for eating together and exercising all kinds of human virtue by God's leading to comfort, to encourage, to incite, to inspire, to be tenderhearted and to forgive. This atmosphere brings in and maintains the presence of God. No doubt there will also be teaching and exhortation in these gatherings. But when people walk into this environment they will sense the presence of God.
To gather "house to house" doesn't demand that you be a mighty preacher. God will use that kind of avenue, but the Lord uses the homes in a normal, warm, loving, inviting, uplifting atmosphere. And this kind of setting is ideal for the gospel. Most likely every one of us has had the experience when all of the sudden, in an unsolicited moment, the gospel just came pouring out. Maybe at that time, we didn't even want to say anything, but the floodgates were opened and the gospel just poured out from us. For God it is not hard to preach the gospel this way: in the atmosphere of a home. Imagine the blessing if even the whole church operated from house to house, according to a house, filled with fathers who are not so great but they keep experiencing God; mothers who are not so great but they keep experiencing God; marriages that are not that great but husbands and wives who are struggling together to keep experiencing God. This kind of home has the presence of God.