Christ told the disciples that he was building his church, he didn’t say that he was building individuals. And so, at the beginning of the book of Acts, what we have is the church. And what are the church doing? Well, they’re devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. They are all church-activities. We do not see individual Christians working and living independently of the church.
Paul himself was sent by the church, and that is startling, because this is someone who received the direct commission from the Lord Jesus himself. But even Paul still waited to be sent by the church in Antioch.
All of Paul’s letters are written either directly to churches or are written in the context of church. Paul envisions the Bible not primarily being read by individuals but Christ and his message dwelling among his people richly, and he sees all of his people teaching and admonishing one another with all wisdom from God; because the Bible is a “one another” book, that the psalms and the hymns and the songs from the Spirit that are either contained in the Bible or are inspired by the words of the Bible and are to take place in a church context.
