Scripture Reading: Acts 2: 42-47

Transcription

1 Scripture Reading: Acts 2: [The three thousand who received baptism on Pentecost] devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. Sermon Text: Imagine becoming a Christian at a time when there was no clear pattern for what Christians should do. At the end of our reading last week we heard that in response to Peter s Pentecost sermon 3000 people received the gospel and were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus..So now what? I can tell you what happens to the people who come forward as new believers at the end of a Billy Graham crusade they get some onthe-spot counseling from some more mature Christians, and they get plugged into a local church community..but what if there was no local church? This group of 3000, plus the one hundred and twenty who believed before the day of Pentecost, are all the church there is. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, they get to make up the sort of form that church will take. Here in verse 42 is Page 1 of 7

2 the pattern they give us. Verse 42 says: they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Now I don t think that these first Christians sat down and very carefully said, let us think what we must do, so that we set a good pattern for all the generations of church which are to come after us. I think they did these things spontaneously. They needed to hear more of the kind of thing Peter had taught them on the day of Pentecost. They needed to know how to look into their own Scriptures and connect them with what had happened in recent memory to Jesus Christ. So they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. Still living were those who had spent the three and a half years learning from Jesus himself, and while the disciples may have been dull learners in those days, the power of the Holy Spirit has changed them now into eloquent teachers. They see the significance of what Jesus taught them as the Holy Spirit calls his words to mind, and they share these stories and the first-hand accounts of what they have seen and done with this eager audience of new believers. As the words of Jesus himself were attested with signs and wonders, the apostles solidify their authority, their credibility, as men telling the truth, by the works of power that they do. Verse 43 says that awe came up on everyone because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. Fellowship, the second of the four cornerstones of this earliest expression of church, I expect, came about naturally also. The Holy Spirit had given these new believers a common realization that what Peter was saying was true. The Holy Spirit had convinced them that they should be baptized in the one name of the Lord Jesus Christ. These things which they had in common formed a bond among them, stronger than the differences of background or wealth which might have divided them. This is a common theme in Acts: that the things which unite are more important than the things which divide. Page 2 of 7

3 Koinonia, the word translated here as fellowship is a richer word in Greek than it is in English. It can mean sharing or partnership or indeed, communion. Verse 44 spells out one of the very practical implications of fellowship which the early Christian community saw: the sharing of possessions. All who believed were together, it says and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. I think when we speak of fellowship we often mean socializing: getting to know the new-comer and enjoying friends of long-standing, over cheese and crackers and cups of tea. Sometimes in such conversation things are revealed which cause us to extend a sympathizing hand, a promise of prayer, perhaps even an offer of some practical help, and at those times we come closer to the meaning of fellowship in Acts. It is the very deep sharing of our lives with one another, in the bond of the Spirit, who makes us One. The first Christians also devoted themselves to the breaking of bread. Clearly the Lord s Supper was part of the apostles teaching they remembered and observed Jesus words: do this, in memory of me. But I m sure the impulse to break bread together came as much out of the experience of fellowship as out of attention to the apostles teaching. Verse 46 says: day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home. We think of the Lord s Supper as something which we celebrate in the church building, and only in the home or in hospital if one is unable to come to church, but these original 3000 had no church building. After they came to the temple or the synagogue on the Sabbath, heard the teaching, they did what Jews do on a Sabbath afternoon, they went home and shared a meal with as many as could fit round their table. Those who believed the apostles teaching, who had been baptized into Jesus, naturally fellowshipped together, ate this Sabbath meal together, and in that context, remembered how, when Jesus had sat at table with his friends, he had broken the bread and taken the cup and said my body, my blood, given for you. The Jewish Sabbath meal, and Page 3 of 7

4 this early celebration of the Christian sacramental meal achieved a practical purpose as well as a ceremonial one. It was one form of economic redistribution. Those who had plenty could host those who might not see such a good meal from one end of the week to the next. And so the breaking of bread is an extension both of the apostles teaching and of the fellowship. Verse 46 continues that they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. The prayers of which verse 42 speaks that fourth cornerstone of the early church were probably the daily prayers said in the temple, but there were also more spontaneous prayers as we see here in verse 46. These people were happy! Their hearts bubbled up to God with thanksgiving and praise for the life which had begun for them following their baptism. Christian joy gives vent to prayers of blessing, prayers of praise, but these glad hearts are also generous. Christian joy is generous enough to remember the needs of the less fortunate, and so prayers of praise turn to prayers of intercession. Verse 47 says that the first Christians praised God and had the goodwill of all the people, so I suspect that these first Christians were taking the needs of all the people, earnestly in prayer to God, along with their praises and their thanksgivings. They were exercising the priesthood which human beings had been created to exercise bearing one another before the throne of God. As I have said, I doubt that the early Christians sat down and intentionally devised this pattern for church, but what the Holy Spirit inspired them to do spontaneously has formed the template for church life. This is church at its healthiest. How do we know? Because the believers were eager in their devotion and experienced joy in their life together. They formed an attractive community. Verse 47 ends with the words: And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. What happens here in the midst of Christian community is that the life of the triune God is opened up and mere mortals are allowed to share it. The secrets into which angels have longed to Page 4 of 7

5 gaze, are delivered by Jesus to the apostles, and now by the apostles to the new believers. The communion of perfect love which exists between Father, Son and Holy Spirit is broken open and people are allowed in! Fellowship, real Christian fellowship, is us, living God s life, in communion with God and with one another. The ordinary Sabbath breaking-of-bread becomes a sacrament of heaven. The Holy Spirit through the bread and the wine lifts the believing community into communion with its Lord in heaven. By the Spirit we sit there at the heavenly board being passed things by the Father and the Son. We are included in their welcome banquet. And from this experience there pours out of the believers hearts a flood of sincere and generous thanksgiving, joyous praise, earnest petition. The Holy Spirit prays in us so that our words are exalted above the words of mortals, and are words fit to ring through the chambers of heaven. This little snapshot of the early church, gathered together under the Spirit s wing, borne up upon that wing, into the bosom of the Father, delights us, inspires us, and yet leaves us with the feeling that this is unlike any church we have ever known. When we turn from Acts 2 to our own church life, we cannot but feel like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants. In the early days these Christians were spiritual giants. Today Christians seem far less, far smaller, more pale. The early believers were devoted it says to the apostles teaching. Today s believers often get restless if the sermon runs longer than 15 minutes, and it is difficult to drum up a group of 10 for a Bible study. The early believers were devoted to fellowship in the rich sense of spiritual and practical sharing that I ve talked about. Today s believers are worried about opening up fully to one another, worried about offering one another lifts in their car, worried about leaving their purses unattended in the narthex, and sadly, these worries are not without grounds. What has happened to us? What has happened to us that we do not hunger and thirst for communion more than 6 times a year, or even for the opportunities to break the bread of a common meal with one another in our homes? And what about prayer? Do Page 5 of 7

6 words of praise for God, words of concern for others leap to our lips? Are we eager to share them with one another when we gather, or does hearing our own prayerful voices raised aloud embarrass us? Do we enjoy the goodwill of all the people and is the Lord daily adding to our number those who are being saved? I do not wish to beat up on this church in particular, which I love and which you love, but it seems to me we Christians of today here and in other churches too can t read Acts chapter 2 without a certain wistfulness, without a certain sense that the picture is a little glossier than the reality like the Whopper on the poster board at Burger King. It s always a little bigger, its tomatoes a little plumper, its lettuce a little crisper, than the real thing when we buy it. Does Acts 2 gild the lily just a little? Really, I don t think so. I don t think it is being idealistic to expect and to long for the kind of church we hear described in Acts 2. We are talking about the church of the Living God here, the temple of his Holy Spirit, not merely some human institution. I have known churches real-life churches not unlike the one described in Acts 2. I have never known a church that excelled in everything at once, but I have known a church which is so devoted to the apostles teaching that it leans on the edge of its pew awaiting the word of life. People actually take notes on the sermon in this church. They think they are getting gipped if the preacher goes for less than 45 minutes. People discuss the Scripture lesson after church over coffee. That church, as it happens, has a low view of the sacraments. I dislike taking communion there. So what they are devoted to is the apostles teaching; the breaking of bread not so much. On the other hand, I have known another church where the communion service is the center-piece, where all breaking of bread is almost sacramental. It s an Anglican church, but I think if Presbyterians reached deep into their history and remembered the place that communion once held in their spirituality, they could share a feast on the Lord s Day that would renew many who are weary. In that church devoted to the breaking of bread it s the Page 6 of 7

7 attention to the apostles teaching that suffers. The same thing with fellowship and prayer. I have known churches which have excelled in each one individually, though their attention to some of the other parts of Christian worship is considerably less. Did you know that if you scramble the letters in Presbyterian you can spell out Best in Prayer. I don t know if Prayer is our corner our strong suit, but I do believe that we each individually, and congregations individually, and denominations overall, have a corner. We tend to center our spirituality in one corner of the fourcornered picture of the church given in Acts 2. The marvel is that what it means to be the church has not changed. The ideal is still as much available to us as it was embodied by them. If some of our joy seems to have gone, some of our devotion cooled, our attractiveness diminished, the Holy Spirit gives us the gift we need to rekindle that ardour: the clue is in verse 44: all who believed were together. When the gift of love, the gift of Christian unity is given and the Holy Spirit calls us together, we shall see the church as we have never seen it. What is our gift? And what is the gift we can learn from the person across the aisle? What can we learn from each other so that our church may truly be one in which they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers? Page 7 of 7