Acts 2:42-47 How It’s Done
Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter two. I’d like to thank Joel for preaching the Word last Sunday. I was very blessed by that word that our best good is the glory of Jesus, what is best for us is what brings Him the most glory.
That really is the continuing theme of our study in the book of Acts, what is best for us is what the Lord has prescribed for us to bring Him glory in this world and in the world to come.
So let’s look at our text for this morning, Acts 2:42-47, page 911 in the pew Bibles. 9-1-1, isn’t that funny. That’s the number you call when you need help. Maybe we need the Lord’s help from what’s on this page today.
Now remember what had just happened. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the church and the disciples declared the mighty works of God, and Peter stood up and preached the gospel and about three thousand people believed and were baptized in Jesus’ Name.
And here is what happened next.
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Let’s pray.
I’d like to remind you once again that the book of Acts is not just a description of the life of the early church, it is not just a collection of stories for us to read and appreciate, the book of Acts is not just a book of history but a book of instruction. The book of Acts is our prescription, instructions on how to live as disciples of Jesus together as a family.
With that thought in mind, I wonder if these few verses from Acts 2 sound at all familiar, not the words maybe, but the concepts. If they do, we are doing something right as a church family. If they don’t, it just shows that there is room for improvement.
As I read this text I see two main points, I’m not going to force a third to make a three point sermon, there’s just two.
What’s important for us to remember is that the activity of this group, their decisions on how best to follow Jesus was unencumbered by thousands of years of church tradition and teaching. There were no thoughts of church politics or cathedrals, no popes, nor priests. What these folks had was simply faith in Jesus, the filling of the Holy Spirit, and the teaching of the Apostles.
I wonder if they would even qualify as a church in today’s definition. Did they even have a website? Did they have pews and pulpits? I bet they still wore neck ties back then.
The truth is that this fledgling church had, and did, all that was necessary to be the church: They had faith in Jesus, they had the Apostles teaching, and they had the fellowship.
Peter had proclaimed back in verse 38 of this chapter when the people responded to his message by asking what they must do, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
This is where the church starts.
There are thousands of groups that will meet all over the world today that calls themselves a church but do not teach this simple truth: that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, that the wages of that sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord, to repent, turn away from your sin to follow Jesus, and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The church is not just an incidental gathering of likeminded individuals trying their best to be good.
The church is a body of repentant believers in Jesus, maturing disciples, devoted to His teaching through His Apostles and to the fellowship with one another.
That first gathered group in Jerusalem turned to Jesus in faith, repented of their sins, received the Holy Spirit, and…
…they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching and the fellowship.
If only the Apostles had written their teaching down so that generations of disciples could read it and devote themselves to learning it and applying it and allowing themselves to be encouraged and changed by it…
Oh wait, they did! We call it the New Testament!
The word, “devoted,” means that they continued with intense effort. The goal was to be firmly established in the truth. Their level of devotion makes ours look a little pale I think. Every one of those Apostles would be martyred, beaten, stoned, stabbed, sawed in half, whipped, beheaded, boiled in oil.
Not just the Twelve, but countless others would follow in their footsteps, killed in an effort to silence them and turn from following Jesus.
We have great advantage here today. There’s more than enough copies of the Apostles teaching here in this building that we freely gather in. Nobody around here is getting set fire for reading it. Maybe that’s why we take it for granted.
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Apostles wrote down their teaching and the teaching of Jesus, and now we have great freedom to have it in our hands and to be devoted to it like the early church was.
Their devotion to the Apostles teaching was proven by the second point, the continued with intense effort in fellowship.
Fellowship is another word that gets cheapened in our modern understanding. Fellowship is not just hanging out. In fact, the rest of the passage for this morning describes what fellowship really means.
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people.
The breaking of bread and the prayers.
There has been much debate over what bread exactly, does this mean the Lord’s Supper or just a regular meal?
Remember what I said about being unencumbered by thousands of years of church tradition?
When Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, He didn’t use a tiny wafer and miniature plastic cup, He used bread from the table, and wine from their cups. There is no reason to make a distinction at all.
This is the reason that we celebrate the Lord’s Supper during a communal meal, because that’s the way they did it, because that is the way that it was intended.
The early church also prayed together, with prayers new and old, prayers from the words of Jesus, from the Old Testament Scriptures, as well as from their own hearts.
And awe came upon every soul, and many signs and wonders were being done through the Apostles. The finger of God was at work among them and they could feel it, they could see it. His power was at work performing signs and wonders through the Apostles and saving people daily.
Another thing that strikes me is the brotherly love and harmony. They were together, they worshipped together, they lived life together.
44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people.
Now, this is not a description of the early church being communist, don’t be confused. They did hold all things in common. Each one regarded his own property, not as intended for personal use but as intended for the use of all the others. This however, was not a law, it was not forced on anyone, it was a choice to help others in need.
Communism is laws based on hatred for the rich not love for the poor. The church says, “What’s mine is yours,” where communism says, “What’s yours is mine.” They are very different attitudes.
Brotherly love, generosity, and care for one another is what motivated their giving to those in need not compulsion, nor guilt, nor rule of law.
46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people.
They continued to go to the Temple as it was never the intention to create a sect, or new division of Judaism, just as the Reformation was never intended to create a new and different division of the church, but rather they both were intended to reform the old into a way that aligned with the Word of God.
They met together in each other’s homes to eat, to pray, to receive instruction. In fact, the house and the Temple, private prayer in the closet, and the public praise of God in the Temple formed into one harmonious and complete whole as was intended from the beginning.
It’s no wonder that the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
The church is no accident, it is not the invention of Man, though we’ve certainly done our part to mess it up over the years.
The church is the plan of God to make and mature disciples of Jesus Christ together as a family and he has given us the Apostle’s teaching along with the rest of the Bible to guide and instruct us on how to do that.
So let’s devote ourselves to those things like they did, to continue with intense effort in the Apostle’s teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers, and maybe, like back then, awe will come upon every soul because the Lord is at work, and He may just add to our number day by day those who are being saved.
Amen.
