"And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers."

To what does the phrase "breaking of bread" refer in this verse?

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Chris Poe--Attending Grace Community Baptist Church, Mandeville, LA

"There never was a man in the world without a creed. What is a creed? A creed is what you believe. What is a confession? It is a declaration of what you believe. That declaration may be oral or it may be committed to writing, but the creed is there either expressed or implied."—B.H. Carroll

Acts 2:41-42
[41] Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. [42] And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

It is my belief that together with verse 41, we see in these verses an enumeration of what we commonly think of as "the means of grace." Baptism, the preaching of the word (apostles' doctrine), fellowship, breaking of bread (communion), and prayer.

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Sterling Harmon
Coventry, CT
PCA
Deacon
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"Whatever is laudable in our works proceeds from the grace of God."
-- John Calvin, Institutes III:xv.3.

"Our Lord God must be a good man, to be fond of worthless fellows. I cannot like them, and yet I, myself, am one."
-- Martin Luther, Table Talk

Thank you. Does anyone here think that "breaking of bread" here refers to anything other than the Lord's Supper?

I don't think it is a good and necessary inference to relate it to the Lord's Supper. That doesn't mean that it is not, but it cannot be proven.

See this thread: http://www.puritanboard.com/f19/reas...-supper-30013/

Also this sermon by John Weaver is good: http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninf...ID=51406231526

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Thanks for the links, Ken. Weekly (or daily) observance was not what I had in view with the o.p. I am only about halfway through John Weaver's sermon, but it seems to be largely a response to some legalists who teach that the Lord's Supper must be held every week and that it is a sin to have it on a day other than the Lord's Day.

As we've seen the Standards do not teach obligatory weekly observance, but they use Acts 2:42 as a proof text for the Lord's Supper or the means of grace generally at WCF 21.5, 21.6, 26.2, WLC 63, 108, 154, 174, 175 and WSC 50 and 88.

From my understanding the text references the Lord's Supper. However, it's not an explicit command that the Church partake of the Lord's Supper every time they gather together. Some commentators believe it refers to the communion of saints dining together.

Here are some links:

Calvin

John Gill

Matthew Henry

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John J.
Member Christ Prebyterian Church (OPC)
Salt Lake City, Utah
www.christpres.net

Well this is our classic credo passage...they recieved the word, were baptized and therefore they continued in the Word, the ordinances (sacraments), and fellowshipped in them.

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R. Martin Snyder (Moderator)

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Harmony Baptist Church (Member)
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My apologies. John Weaver's sermon does have something to say about the meaning of 'breaking bread', but you are correct that it is a sort of 'polemic'.

No problem. He also had some things to say about deacons that go against what is commonly believed in many cases.

Seeing how it is your thread, would you mind going off topic and reminding me of those things?

He also disagreed with the idea that only the deacons could distribute the elements (apparently this is a belief among some Baptists, I was not familiar with it prior to listening to the message) and also questioned whether the men appointed to serve tables in Acts 6 were deacons in the way that we think of them today. He also noted that often congregations will vote in a deacon who is 180 degrees opposed to the pastor so as to cause trouble for the pastor.