The Book of Acts introduces us to the inception of the first church and its organization. On the strength of unified expectation and prayers, the promised Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost. After Apostle Peter's inaugural sermon, three thousand people were added to the church, and at another gathering, four thousand more joined. Amidst the vivid depiction of the church's growth, one of the portraits of the early church is the power of community.
The bible, in First John, highlights that the assembly of believers shouldn’t be merely viewed as a gathering of people; a social meeting, all fun and vibes (my emphasis), but Apostle John clearly articulated the deeper purpose of such fellowship with him as a fellowship with God and with His Christ.
..What we have seen and heard we also proclaim to you, so that you too may have fellowship [as partners] with us. And indeed our fellowship [which is a distinguishing mark of born-again believers] is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3 AMP
Said in another way, it's a collective meeting and a communal encounter with the Lord, the dividends of such meeting being change and transformation, spiritual growth and increasing strength.
We see littered through the Epistles, the Apostles’ repeated emphasis on the necessity of the church to transcend the mere ordinariness of gathering to genuine fellowship. There's a difference and that difference is in the concept of discerning the body.
Discerning the body doesn't only happen when we gather around the table of communion, it also happens in the act of Christian fellowship. Communion is fellowship as they both draw from the original word koinonia which is fellowship. Christ is present at communion because He is present when believers gather. To discern the body is to keep in view the sacredness of Jesus's presence among the saints and in the saints when we gather. The remembrance of Christ should be central to every Christian gathering.
One can say, “Well, why are you talking to me about it? Isn't that the pulpit’s responsibility?” Well, not at all. It's a shared responsibility of the pews and the pulpit.
If we cut back to Acts 2, we see that it is to the extent that everyone in the upper room was plugged into a unified frequency in expectation that there was a collective experience of visitation. It's not just about what you take away, it's the quality of what you bring with you. In fact, the quality of what you bring with you determines what you take away. I am not speaking about your makeup bag, spare change to buy snacks after service, your spare pair of slippers so you can come down from your high heels, excitement to continue your gist with your church buddy from where you left off last week, or new wares that you are eager to sell to your faithful church customers. Beyond that, what you must bring is an expectation, a psalm, a spiritual song, a question. While those things can be prosecuted in a community of believers, don't be satisfied with going home having made a few thousands of naira but instead that there was also a weakness that was exchanged for strength and there was a new level of growth and strength that you have permanently and intentionally stepped into.
The book of Acts and Corinthians provide two vivid examples of this principle in action, we see two live examples of how this played out.
The first is the story of Ananias and Sapphira, who misinterpreted the act of giving as a competitive platform for self-glorification. They thought they were deceiving a man. They dropped the funds at Peter's feet but Peter told them they had lied to the Holy Ghost. Their failure to discern the body led to their demise, serving as a stark warning to a community that was beginning to lose its sacred perspective. Following that incident, the Bible records a renewed and heightened reverence for the body of Christ with signs and wonders following.

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