In this passage of Scripture, Luke gives us a glimpse into the life of the infant church – and what a glimpse it is! It makes us long to see those days again!
Teaching Notes:
The Dynamic Life of the Early Church
Acts 2:41-47
Intro:
Acts 2:41 says, “So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.” The Day of Pentecost must have been a day that none present would ever forget! Can you imagine it? The apostles had no idea when they woke up that morning what tremendous events would transpire! Everything that day took place spontaneously by the power of the Spirit. When the Spirit fell, and the sound of the violent wind came, and the tongues of fire appeared, and all began to speak in other tongues, the surrounding crowd were astonished and began asking, “What do these things mean?” Peter began to speak, not in order to preach a sermon, but to answer their question. But as he spoke, the Spirit filled him and he couldn’t help but preach about Christ. Of course Peter could not have anticipated that many would cry out, interrupting him, “What shall we do?” When Peter said, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”, he could not have anticipated that 3,000 Jews would repent, believe, and be baptized. Now none of this was scripted. There had been no pre-arranged plan. All of a sudden, these apostles needed to figure out how to baptize 3,000 people immediately. When the repenters started pouring in, the apostles must have consulted together, “Where should we go? Where can we baptize so many?” The consulted together quickly, and either directed the multitude down to the brook Kidron or the many pools around the temple, and spent the remainder of the day baptizing and exhorting these new believers. At the end of the day, the weary apostles dropped into bed exhausted. But on Monday morning they must have thought, “What’s going to happen now? How in the world are we going to be able to organize all these new believers? How can we care for them and shepherd them?” They have no phones, e-mail, TVs, computers or cars. They must have wondered if yesterday’s converts were going to “stick.”
Acts 2:42-47 give us the answer. This brief account gives us a glimpse into the life of this infant church in Jerusalem for its first several months.
Before we look closely at this text, we need to see how Luke lays it out. Notice the word “added” in both vs.41 and vs.47. Luke seems to use this word “added” twice as sort of bookends for this passage. In vs. 41 it is “were added” which shows us that the verb is passive. They weren’t adding themselves, but being added by Someone else. Vs.47 says the Lord was adding. So, Luke is careful to tell us that Jesus Himself was doing the adding. Jesus said in Mt.16 :18 “I will build My church.” In Acts 2:39 Peter talked of the Lord calling people to Himself. Well, that’s what is happening here! The Lord must do the saving, but how was a person actually “added” to the church? Vs. 41 says it was through baptism. Here is the order: a sinner hears the Word, he repents, he believes, and then he is added to the church through baptism. We must never devalue baptism. It is the God ordained rite by which a sinner declares his allegiance to Jesus Christ and his breaking with his old life.
Well, once these believers were added, how did they live? Luke gives us a summary statement in vs.42, and then goes on to unpack that statement in vs.43-47. Luke shows us the 4 priorities of the early church. Notice “continually devoting” in vs.42. It means “to continue to do something with intense effort.” There were certain things that were extremely important to these early Christians. You might think of them under the terms Down, Up, In, and Out.
1. Down – Teaching: this is our relationship to the Truth
What were the apostles teaching? Not the NT, because it wasn’t written yet. They taught about Jesus! They retold His teachings, His parables, His miracles, His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension. And, they taught how Jesus fulfilled the OT.
Where? 5:42. In the temple and homes. The temple would be much better for teaching the Word, because more believers could be instructed in that way. There were 12 apostles, and there were 3,120 believers to teach. It was impossible for those 12 apostles to try to teach all those believers in homes. I believe they primarily taught at the temple, at the Portico of Solomon (3:11; 5:12). This was a large, outdoor, covered porch which would protect the people from rain and snow.
Notice Luke mentions this first: good solid Bible teaching will be the backbone of any healthy church. We could say that the Holy Spirit opened a school in Jerusalem, the apostles were the teachers, and they had 3,000 Kindergarteners for students. Notice that these believers did not reason that since they had received the Holy Spirit, they didn’t need human teachers, and thus would just spend time alone and let God teach them Himself.
The apostles’ teaching was authenticated by signs and wonders: vs.43. Mk.16:20 What will it look like for us today to be devoted to the apostles’ teaching? Well, their teaching has written down in the NT, so it would mean that we are continually devoted to understanding and obeying the NT.
Application for Stone Bridge: we do this at Stone Bridge in many ways. On Sunday mornings we teach through the Scriptures, verse-by-verse. On Wednesday nights we tell the Story of God. Further, every one of us should be committed to reading, studying, meditating and memorizing Scripture on our own in order to daily feed our own souls.
2. Up – Worship: this is our relationship to God
Breaking of Bread: this phrase is a shorthand way of referring to the Lord’s Supper. Vs.46 mentions the “breaking of bread” in connection with taking their meals together. So, evidently, the early Christians observed the Lord’s Supper in conjunction with a meal, just as Jesus had modeled it for them at the Last Supper. Notice that they were continually devoted to the Lord’s Supper (42), and “day by day” they were breaking bread (46). This was not something they relegated to once a quarter or once a month. For them, the more frequent, the better. As often as they observed it, they remembered their Lord, and how His sacrificial death had atoned for their sins and reconciled them to God. Notice they were breaking bread from “house to house.” Although public teaching could be done in the temple, breaking bread was a family function best done in the intimate setting of a home. Notice also that they observed the Supper with “gladness” and “sincerity.” These early Christians were not morbid long-faced sourpusses. They were filled with joy. Further, they were sincere and unhypocritical about their love and devotion to Christ.
Prayer: literally, this is “the prayers.” They were devoted to praying as a congregation. Notice that these believers began by being continually devoted to prayer in 1:14. They are simply continuing on as they started! There must have been much to pray about. They needed the Lord’s help to spread His gospel, and make disciples.
Praise: vs.47. This probably included singing to Him when they met together in homes using the Psalms as their songbook.
Application for Stone Bridge: we must be a God-centered, Christ-exalting, Spirit empowered church. We must make much of God. We must adore Him as our King, Lord, Savior and Treasure. In order to do that we must be continually devoted to the Lord’s Supper, Prayer, and Praise. Whenever we gather, whether on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, or whenever, let us be much in prayer and praise to our God!
3. In – Fellowship: this is our relationship to one another.
What is “fellowship”? The root of this word means “sharing” or “having in common.” When we think of fellowship, we might think of visiting over coffee before or after the church service. Admittedly, our understanding of fellowship is pretty tame. Luke unpacks what he means by fellowship in vs.44-45. Notice in vs.44 that Luke speaks of having all things “in common” and in vs.45 of “sharing” their possessions with all. These early believers loved each other so much that if one was in need, they refused to live indulgently, but would sell what they had to meet that need. Now this text threatens us who have money and possessions. We are quick to point out that there is no command in this text, and in fact that this was an experiment in communal living that proved to be a failure since there were so many poor saints in Jerusalem in years to come. But, we need to be very careful that we don’t explain away hard texts because they threaten our lifestyles! When Luke wrote His gospel, he was very careful to include teachings of Jesus that direct us to use our possessions for the needs of others and not just our own comfort. Luke alone tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Rich Fool, the Unjust Steward, and the Rich Man and Lazarus. I think Luke was blown away by the way these early Christians loved each other. And I think he included it in Acts 2, as an example of how we should love each other today.
Application for Stone Bridge: do you and I love one another like this? Are we willing to sacrifice, do without, give up our cherished possessions in order to meet each other’s needs. Do we really see ourselves as Stewards of God’s Possessions, or as owners of our own possessions? I really think we need to stop using the word “my”. It’s not my house, my truck, my food, my money. It is the Lord’s! Before we make a decision to purchase, we need to ask the Lord if this is how He wants His money spent. When we see a need, we need to ask the Lord if He wants us to meet that need, and if so, how.
4. Out – Evangelism: this is our relationship with the lost
How did they reach the lost? We are not told exactly, but vs.47 says that they had favor with all the people. No doubt, many were reached by the preaching of the apostles. We have an example of that in Peter’s Pentecost Sermon, and then his sermon in Acts 3 after the healing of the lame man. No doubt, many others were converted through the witness of believers with their friends, neighbors and co-workers as they interacted day by day.
Application for Stone Bridge: The purpose of this church is to make disciples who make disciples. We are absolutely committed to that. That’s what drives us to hold Pancake Breakfasts, 4th of July Neighborhood Parties, Prayer Walks, attend Movie Nights, etc. That’s why we are going through the Story of God, and inviting the neighborhood to come over. In all our outreach, we need to remember that it is the Lord who adds to the church, it is He who calls to Himself. Our job is to faithfully proclaim His gospel. It is His job to open the heart to receive it. Let’s strive to be faithful missionaries!
Conclusion: there are 2 things that permeated the life of the early church that are vitally important
1) The Fear of God: vs.43. God, to them, was an awesome, stunning present reality! That is one of the main differences between them and us. They were living in a time of Revival. When God visits His people in Revival, the whole community is aware of the living presence of God. God comes down. Why did these early Christians continually devote themselves to being together, learning, selling their possessions, praising, praying, and eating together? Was this raw duty that they were forcing themselves to obey? No! They could not help themselves. God was present, and that made all the difference. We are not living in Revival. Thus, it is easy for us to slip into drudgery and routine. We need to pray for God to come down and manifest His presence, and that we would experience the same awe these believers did! These early Christians were not going through the motion of meeting for services once a week. No, they wanted as much of God as they could have. They wanted to meet day by day, and everything else in their life took a back seat to God and His people. Oh, God come down!
2) The Power of the Spirit: vs.43. The Spirit empowered the apostles to do signs and wonders. It was like Jesus had returned and was healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead, only instead of Jesus in the flesh, Jesus was doing these things through His apostles. But lest you think that those things can never happen again, Luke tells us in ch.6 and 7 that Philip and Stephen, non-apostles did the same kinds of miracles through the power of the Spirit. We need to believe God can do again whatever He did in the past, and make ourselves available to Him to use us!
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