Acts 2:42 is famously taken as the keystone for the “pattern of the church” in the local context. I’ve heard a lot of ministry on this, with lessons, eg, from the Tabernacle, Ezra and Nehemiah, all made to bear on “the pattern” and support it.

Hamilton Smith (1862-1943) wrote a piece, “The Pattern of the House,” which gives seven facts suggesting the pattern. He includes the four of Acts 2:42 and three others. I see Dr Martin in his “The Pattern Assembly” also has seven features of the pattern. H. Smith’s cousin, F.B. Hole, mentions “pattern” a lot in his “Assembly Principles” (1920).

I’m not sure if others, earlier, saw the same “pattern church” in Acts 2 and the church at Jerusalem. Other thoughts on what shows a pattern when it comes to the assembly, eg, are from J.T. Mawson (1871-1943) in his, “An Assembly of God.” He writes, “The Lord in the midst of His disciples on the resurrection day was a pattern of the Assembly.” Is this simply not just a blessed divine truth!

W. Kelly says that, “The Lord Jesus is the true pattern of the "union" of man with God, God and man in one person.” He explains that, “The pattern of oneness or its proper scriptural model is found under that of the head and the body which is the more admirably expressive as the head clearly is, and of right directs all the movements, of the body.” These are NT truths and not tabernacle typology, although God dwelling with man is in the tabernacle.

If I may just remark on Dr Martin’s treatise, and thereby, the insistence by some on Acts 2 and the pattern there. Dr Martin insists that the church at Jerusalem, “is the God given model for every Church that gathers unto the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;” and, “The Assembly at Jerusalem not only began right, it also continued steadfastly in the right. In this it is the model Church for the dispensation....Their steadfastness was ‘in the apostles doctrine;’ that is, they obeyed the Word of God.”

God used the apostles mightily in Jerusalem, but essentially they remained there and didn’t take the gospel out, apart from Peter. It was in Jerusalem that dissension arose, and later apostles like Peter and Barnabas, with other Hebrew Christians in Jerusalem, dissembled from the Gentiles. How different from Antioch! If a model church (a “pattern”) is to be found, would Antioch not be a better study? This is not the place to explore it.