“UNITED WE STAND.” ACTS 2:42-47; 4:23-24, 29-35
ACTS 2:42, 43-47; Acts 4:23-24, 29-31, 32-35.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO ACTS 2.
Why are there so many different churches? This is a question I have heard frequently over the years, especially from children and teens. It’s not always an easy question to answer. Certainly not every church that calls itself a church is even Christian. And within the evangelical community there are churches that differ in their approach to missions or church polity. Even within the Southern Baptist convention, there are churches that differ in worship style, mission emphases, or approach to church leadership.
So which church is correct among all these differences? The danger is when we compare our church with another church and not what we are taught in Scripture. The best approach is to compare our church to what we discover in the Book of Acts. During the month of July, we want to see how the early church worked, and seek to make our church like what we discover in the pages of Scripture.
Our study will begin on July 1 with look at the early church’s unity and the ways the believers supported each other.
This five lesson series in the month of July will lead us to discover the need for knowing what the fundamentals of the faith are and where we can differ in unity and love.
Churches tend to take on the character of their members. Strong churches are made up of members who have a good relationship with the Lord and with one another.
There are some central qualities that each church should have. One of these is strong, healthy relationship with one another. The church has a diversity of gifts and ministries, but these must be carried out in support with what the church is doing, not in isolation from them.
The church is strengthened and God is glorified as individual believers carry out their respective tasks and ministries in complete unity with other believers.
The early church showed its unity in many ways. Immediately after the explosive growth of the church at Pentecost, the believers were united in teaching and learning, sharing in fellowship, breaking bread together, and praying. They continued their unity through prayer.
After Peter and John were released from meeting with religious leaders, they reported to other believers what had happened. The church then prayed, praised God, and asked for boldness as they continued to tell others of Jesus. The church at Jerusalem also showed its unity in sharing their possessions to meet human needs.
PLEASE READ ACTS 2: 42.
In this verse we have a kind of lightning summary of the Christians of the early church. Vs. 42 tells how the church practiced their faith. Four things are mentioned as things in which they continued steadfastly. (1) It was a growing church. Imagine how this handful (some 120 disciples) responded to so many converts on the day of Pentecost! (3,000) at one time. A few days later another 2,000 were added to the church.
It was a learning church. The word doctrine in vs. 42 is not passive; it is active. The phrase means that they persisted in listening to the apostles as they taught. One of the great perils of the church is a static religion that looks back instead of forward.
Just because the riches of Christ are inexhaustible we should ever be going forward. The Christians should join the local church, where they may listen to the teaching of the apostles.
The word doctrine in vs. 42 is not passive; it is active. The phrase means that they persisted in listening to the apostles, as they taught. Those in the Jerusalem church could learn the apostles’ teachings firsthand from the apostles. How do we get the apostles teaching today? Since the teaching of the apostles has come down to us in its definitive form in the New Testament, contemporary devoting to the apostles’ teaching will mean submission to the authority of the New Testament.
A spirit filled church is a New Testament church, in the sense that it studies and submits itself to New Testament instruction. The Spirit of God leads the people of God to submit to the Word of God. Study and teaching the Bible is one essential in the church.
We should count it a wasted day when we do not learn something new and when we have not penetrated more deeply into the wisdom and the grace of God.
Koinonia is a key word about the church and church members. As noted in the “word study it means “fellowship”, but it means more than we usually mean by fellowship. It is the shared life with God and with others who know Him. In many ways fellowship may be an umbrella term for all aspects of church life.
I was in a group trying to reach a consensus on the basics of what a church does. Some argued that fellowship is what a church is, not one of the things is does. Actually it is some of both. It would be like asking what a family is and what it does. A family is a family, but it has several tasks to perform. A church is a fellowship, but this fellowship is expressed in many ways.
The church in Jerusalem was a church of fellowship. It had what someone has called the great quality of togetherness. The church is only a real church when it is a band of brothers. Tolstoy said, “You cannot have a brotherhood without brothers.
Breaking Bread has a twofold meaning. The expression referred to eating a meal together, but because the Lord’s Supper was instituted as part of a meal, the words probably refer to both. First Corinthians 11: 20-34 shows an example of this. These common meals were called love feasts in Jude 12. The Jerusalem church ate together and took the Lord’s Supper together. Both are marks of a church’s unity.
It was a praying church. Prayers were prominent in the life of Jesus. Prayer with one accord preceded the coming of the Sprit on Pentecost. Prayer is the life and breath of each believer and of the church.
These early Christians knew that they could not meet life in their own strength and that they did not need to do so. They could meet the problems of life because they had first met God.
PLEASE READ ACTS 2: 43-47.
Jesus had promised in John 14:12 that His followers would do greater works than He.
Vs. 43 continues the summary of life in the early church. The many wonders and signs caused awe among those who observed them. Miraculous events were often described by this combination of wonders and signs.
The apostles did many wonders and signs. Three periods of Bible history had most of the Bible miracles. Each was a time critical for the cause of God and His people. The exodus from Egypt, the Baal crisis in the time of Elijah and Elisha, and the time of Jesus and the apostles. The miracles testified to the power of God, which was greater than false gods.
Peter had used the phrase earlier in Acts 2: 22 to refer to the work of Jesus, and Luke applied the same working of miracles to the apostles in Acts 4:30 and 5: 12. Stephen 6: 8, Moses 7:36, Philip in 8:13 and Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14: 3 and 15:12.
Throughout Scripture, the appearance of signs and wonders indicated a new era of God’s work. Consider the signs and wonders that were performed through Moses, a time when God was entering into a covenant relationship with the whole nation of Israel
There were also signs and wonders performed through Elijah, at a time when the prophets began preaching a new message of judgment and repentance. The time of Jesus ministry was certainly a new phase of God’s work, and Jesus in Mark 16: 17 promised that His disciples would also perform miraculous signs
The signs and wonders gave credibility to the message of the church as evidenced by the fear expressed by other people.
Vs. 44 shows the spirit of unity in the church. It is seen in the following words: all that believed…together…all things common. Vs. 46 adds the words with one accord.
The word translated with one accord is commonly used in Acts to express unity of purpose and particularly applies to the ‘one heart and mind’ of the Christian fellowship.
Single-mindedness is not always a good thing. The same word is used of the angry mobs that rushed upon Stephen in Acts 7:57 and Paul in Acts 19:29.
For the Christian community, fellowship and unity of purpose are salutary only when rooted in fellowship with Christ and in the unity of His Spirit. Common translates koinos, from which comes koinonia. At this point in the life of the Jerusalem church, the church was united. Later some dissension develop in Acts 6 :1-7, but their basic oneness enabled them to overcome this challenge.
One of the fruits of this unity was that other people came to know Christ. John Scott noted three things about the evangelism in vs. 47: “First, the Lord Himself (that is, Jesus) did it: the Lord added to their number. Doubtless He did it through the preaching of the apostles, the witness of church members, the impressive love of their common life, and their example as they were praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people….Secondly, what Jesus did was two thing together: He added to their number…those who were being saved…He did not add them to the church without saving them (no nominal Christianity at the beginning), nor did he save them without adding them to the church (no solitary Christianity either. Salvation and church membership belonged together: they still do.
Thirdly, the Lord added daily. The verb is an imperfect (‘kept adding’) and the adverb (‘daily) puts the matter beyond question. The early church’s evangelism was not an occasional or sporadic activity.
The unity and devotion of these early Christians were carried out in two principal locations. First, they met together in the temple complex. At this stage in the life of the church, none of the believers viewed Christianity as something separate from Judaism, so they naturally practiced their faith and witness of Christ within their Jewish heritage practices. The customary times for prayer at the temple were 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Because so many other Jews would also be at the temple for their times of prayer, it was an opportune time for the Christians to bear witness to Christ. In other passages, Luke makes us aware that this was their practice.
Not only was there a witness through their presence at the temple, the Christians gave witness through the hospitality they showed in the other locations where they commonly met in private homes.
Considering the large number of believers that now comprised the church---no home could accommodate all of them, but they met as was convenient in many homes. Homes offered a more intimate setting, a place where they could break bread and share a greater sense of fellowship.
These early believers were worshiping daily in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house. Some Gentile Christians are surprised that the believers continued to worship in the temple. Don’t forget that the early believers were Jews who had worshiped God in the temple all their lives. Jesus had taught that the temple would perish and that He had come to fulfill the temple sacrifices, yet the early believers continued to go to the temple until its destruction in A.D. 70.
John Scott cautioned, “I do not believe they still participated in the sacrifices of the temple, for already they had begun to grasp that these had been fulfilled in the sacrifice of Christ. Acts 3: 1 says that no less than Peter and John went into the temple to pray. As late as Acts 21:26 Paul went to the temple.
The believers’ distinctive Christian worship, fellowship, and teaching were done from house to house. As far as we know, the church at Jerusalem and other first-century churches did not have church buildings. According to Rom. 16:3-5 Aquila and Priscilla had churches in several cities meet in their house. Philemon in Philemon 2 had a house church. In some lands today, especially where Christians live under suspicion, as in China, the churches use house churches.
The characteristics of the Jerusalem church provide a list of lasting truths from Acts 2:42-47.
Church embers are committed to Jesus Christ.
The church teaches the Word of God.
The church is one in spirit.
The church is a worshiping community.
Lost people are saved when a church preaches about Jesus.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO ACTS 4: 23-24.
PLEASE READ ACTS 4: 23-24.
The relatively peaceful times the early church was experiencing would not continue. Even as the general populace looked favorably on the believers, the Sanhedrin grew increasingly disturbed because the Christians continued to proclaim the truth about Jesus.
Peter and John healed a crippled man at one of the gates of the temple. The healed man’s joyful actions drew a crowd. Peter preached to the crowd and many believed. News of this reached the high priest and his family, and they called in Peter and John. The men were jailed over night and appeared the next day before the Jewish leaders. Peter and John spoke in their own defense, and all the leaders could do to them at this point was to forbid them to talk about Jesus. It was only a verbal threat, but it did lead to subsequent arrests and greater persecutions.
The priests asked the two apostles in Acts 4: 7, “By what power, or by what name, have ye done this? Peter boldly spoke to them in Jesus’ name. This put them in a quandary because the apostles had popular support and because the healed man was there. He was living proof of a miracle.
So the religious leaders threatened the two apostles and ordered them not to preach anymore in Jesus’ name. Peter replied: “Whether it is right in the sight of
God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” The leaders let the apostles go for the time being.” Peter and John returned to the believers and reported what the authorities had told them, and reported what to them was a victory.
Please read Acts 4: 29-31.
The believers knew they would have further trouble with the religious leaders. So they lifted up their voice to God with one accord. Jesus promised in Matt 18-19 that when even two or three of His followers agreed about their prayer request, God would answer their prayer.
The believers claimed His promise. They began their prayer by addressing God as Creator. He is “the One who made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and everything in them.”
They used Psalm 2 as part of their prayer. This psalm predicted the futile but furious opposition of the world’s leaders to God and to the Messiah. Pontius Pilate joined the Jewish leaders to try and silence Jesus. Vs. 29-30 record the church’ request of God. We might have expected them to pray for deliverance from their enemies. But in a manner like that of Jesus, they asked for courage to be faithful witnesses for Christ. They asked that with all boldness they might speak God’s word. They also asked that the Lord continue to validate the gospel message by miracles of healing. They asked that signs and wonders might be done by the name of God’s holy child Jesus.
As they prayed, they addressed God as Master. Instead of using the more common word from which we get “Lord,” they used the word that is literally translated “despot” (that is a ruler with absolute power.)
Master refers to one who rules over others, and it is the strongest word for denoting absolute rule. As the One with absolute rule and authority, God is the One who made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and everything in them.
Creation certainly demonstrates the sovereignty of God, which is the focus of the entire prayer. Even with the opening bout of persecution, the church acknowledged that God is in charge. They were willing to trust His leadership in the midst of what they were facing or were going to face.
The typical human response would be to ask for difficulties to cease. Instead, the believers asked God to grant that Your slaves may speak Your message with complete boldness. They were united in their resolve to persevere and their prayer expressed a desire for the protection of God as they continued to proclaim God’s truth. The verb tense of grant expressed an urgency in their request: do it now.
Their prayer also asked God to continue to stretch out Your hand for healing, signs, and wonders to be performed through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.
Signs and wonders always point beyond themselves to the message of Jesus Christ and give evidence of the truth being proclaimed.
The believers trusted God to continue performing these miracles so they may continue to speak His message. There was boldness even in this request, for the healing of the lame man in Acts 3 was what led to the persecution Peter and John faced. But the church also knew that such miracles got the attention of the crowd to hear the message of Christ.
God immediately responded to their prayer with a physical manifestation: the place where they were assembled was shaken.
The context of this passage, the shaking of the house, implies something like an earthquake. An earthquake was often used in the O.T. to give proof of the presence of God. The prophets used an earthquake to represent God’s presence, as did David in Ps. 68: 8.
Even those who worshiped pagan gods viewed an earthquake as a sign of the presence of deity. We do not know if the earthquake was confined just to house or if it was felt by others in the area, but the Christians surely saw this earthquake as evidence that God was with them and had answered their prayer.
The occurrence of this shaking immediately after they concluded praying pointed to God. A sudden and violent shaking apparently, not caused by anything natural, would point to the hand God, especially if the shaking was confined to the house alone. Such a display of power could only attest to God’s power and the conclusion that God would also empower them and be with them.
The shaking is reminiscent of one of the signs at Pentecost, but nothing is said here about the sound of a mighty wind, tongues of fire on their heads, or speaking in tongues. What is said is that “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak God’s message with boldness.
This connection of being filled with the Holy Ghost and bold witnessing is found repeatedly in the N.T. I believe it is the most significant evidence of being filled with the Spirit. Throughout Acts there are repeated references to bold witnessing as a result of being filled with the Spirit.
And Paul often asked people to pray that he might be bold in proclaiming the good news.
If they were filled at Pentecost, why did they need to be filled again? The Holy Spirit comes into a person’s life when they he or she believes. This is what occurs in regeneration or the new birth. But only in total surrender are we filled with the Spirit; therefore, although knowing the Spirit is a lasting experience, we must renew our full surrender to be filled with the Spirit. This was not a second Pentecost. They had already received the Sprit. The Spirit had helped Peter and John in a mighty way before the Sanhedrin. It was a fresh filling, a renewed awareness of the Spirit’s power and presence in their life and witness.
What changed Peter and John from being deserters to being bold witnesses? The resurrection of Jesus and His appearances were important, but being filled with His Spirit was essential. They risked death by telling; they could have avoided any trouble by remaining silent, but they dared to witness boldly to the leaders who had crucified Jesus. When other believers were filled with the Spirit, they too became bold witnesses.
No one is saved apart from also having the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit is a continuous matter as expressed by Paul when he told the Ephesians, who as Christians already had the Spirit, to “be filled with the Spirit in Ephesians 5: 18.”
Therefore, what happened in vs. 31 was a fresh filling, a renewed stirring of the Sprit in their lives. This was not ecstatic manifestation of the Holy Spirit, but a fresh and renewed empowerment by the Holy Spirit already dwelling in their lives.
God answered their prayer in a mighty way. As His Holy Spirit filled their lives, He physically shook the house as a physical manifestation of what He was also doing in their lives. Their prayer was answered just as they had asked as seen in the result: They began to speak God’s message with boldness.
PLEASE READ ACTS 4: 32-35.
Vs. 32-33 are similar to what we read in Acts 2: 43-44. Both passages give us a brief description of life in the early church. In this passage, Luke identified four characteristics of the church. First, those who believed were of one heart and soul. Is there a greater description of unity? As we studied earlier their unity came from a common ground in Jesus Christ. We will not attempt to make a distinction between heart and soul, but we will let Luke’s phrase speak of the unity in the believers’ thoughts and devotion.
Their unity in heart and soul expressed itself in a second characteristic: they held everything in common. While the Greek literally reads, “everything was in common with them,” we should avoid thinking of this as communal living where everything belonged to the group as a whole and was shared equally. We avoid this conclusion by keeping this phrase within the context of the passage (including Acts 2: 43-44.)
Instead of community ownership, individual sold possessions or property when a need arose. The verb tenses tell us that this was a continual practice, but it was also a voluntary practice.
The sharing of possessions in the early Jerusalem church was briefly introduced in Acts 2:44-45, is elaborated on in 4: 32-35 and is illustrated positively by Barnabas (vv. 36-37) and negatively by Ananias and Sapphira in (5:1-11).
This practice was the ultimate expression of oneness of spirit. Acts 2:44 uses the word together, a Greek word meaning not only “all in one place” but also “in agreement.” Acts 4 :32 says that they were on one heart and of one soul.
What essentially was the sharing of goods? Some people have tried to identify it with modern communism, but there are significant differences. Listing these can help clarify the practice of the early believers. For one thing, this was a church practice, not something controlled by the state. Communism is tightly controlled by the state. Second, the Jerusalem project did not eliminate private ownership. If there is no private property, a person has nothing to give. The statement, they had all things common means that some of them had voluntarily given to a fund to help the needy. Third, the church did not force anyone to give. People gave voluntarily. Those who chose to do so sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
Nowhere in the Scripture are we commanded to relinquish all our possessions. John the Apostle retained a home and Peter’s rebuke of Ananias makes it clear that a Christian was free to do what he pleased with his possessions.
What the Christians were doing was more in line with what God intended in the law for community equality. As God blessed the nation of Israel, they were to work and see that there were no needy people among them., The church carried out this ideal in their willingness to share freely, for no one said that any of his possessions were his own. All aspects of this unity-driven willingness to share were completely voluntary.
The motivation was to help needy people. This is seen in 2:45. It also is in 4:35, which says, distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. Was there a common fund or were gifts asked for only as needs appeared? The word distribution implies a fund. Some needs were ongoing, such as the widows in 6:1-7. In either case, the gifts were given to meet needs within the congregation. Acts 4:34 showed their concern to share the gospel with spiritually needy people.
Acts 4:33 tells of the great power with which they made known the resurrection of Jesus. This N.T. church was concerned about spiritual needs and physical needs.
The process was for people to bring their gifts and lay them down at the apostles’ feet. We see this illustrated in the generous offering of Barnabas in (v. 37) and the false offering of Ananias and Sapphira in (5:2).
The Lord blessed the generous gift of Barnabas. Ananias and his wife also sold a field, but they wanted the praise Barnabas received without the sacrifice. They held back part of their profit, but told Peter they had brought it all. Peter’s words show that the choice had been theirs because the field was theirs to sell or to keep. Their sin of fatal consequences was lying about the amount they had received.
The most fascinating feature of this benevolence program is seen in the words “no one said that any of his possessions was his own.” That is a strong statement of a basic principle of Christian stewardship. Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 6: 19-20, “we are not our own…for we are bought with a price.” God owns us, and all we call our own.
The early believers in Jerusalem realized what so many fail to discover. Everything we call our own really belongs to God, and as members of the body of Christ it also belongs to others of that group.
The method of sharing in the early Jerusalem church was distinctive, but it seems this method did not survive at least not in the same way. This does not mean that we cannot learn plans that apply to the churches since then. Some of these lasting truths are (1) The spirit of oneness of life and purpose is a model for all churches in every place and in every age.
2. Christian compassion for needy people should find practical expression in every age.
3. A basic sense of stewardship should permeate every church. We are not our own, and nothing we call our own belongs to us. These things are gifts and trusts from God.
The practice in the early days of the church should not be viewed as a practice required of all churches at all times. The principle of freely sharing and meeting needs should always be carried out, but the way in which the early Jerusalem church met needs was unique to their circumstances.
The feast of Pentecost was the most widely attended of the Jewish festivals, and people from a host of countries had come in Acts 2:8-11. Many of these were among the first converts to Christianity and had stayed in Jerusalem to be a part of the church.
Such an unplanned extended stay meant needs arose. The usual hospitality of the Jews may have even been kept from these particular people because they had embraced the resurrected Jesus.
As the believers gave witness through how they cared and shared with one another, the apostles also gave witness. Specifically, they gave testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The apostles had been eye witnesses to the resurrected Christ and could speak with conviction concerning what they had experienced. Their testimony, however, was not in their own strength. Just as Jesus had promised power through the gift of the Holy Spirit in Acts 1:8, the apostles spoke with great power. God’s grace was not just on the leaders; great grace was on all of them.
It was grace that led the apostles to be empowered to speak. It was grace that led the believers to receive and accept the message of Christ. And it was grace that led them to live in a spirit of unity and generosity toward one another.
Vs. 33 is a side note in the middle of Luke’s discussion of the Church’s unity and generosity. There was a connection between what God was doing through the preaching of the apostles and what He was doing through the generous actions of the believers. How the early church lived gave added credibility to the words of the apostles. As the apostles preached with their words, the believers preached through their actions.
NEXT SUNDAY FROM ACTS 6, 9, AND 11 THE LIFE QUESTION IS “WHAT DOES GOD WANT ME TO DO IN THE CHURCH? “ A. V. DAUGHERTY