Power in the Pulpit | Acts 2:41–47

Intro: It is hard to believe we are at our last night. We have looked this week at disconnecting from ourselves and the world. We heard through Katherine’s story last night about connecting with Christ. And tonight we are looking at connecting to Christ. Have you ever heard people say that they believe in Jesus or that they are a Christian, but they don’t believe in the institutional church. There’s one big problem with what they are saying. Jesus himself spoke of the Church as an organized institution and gave procedures for church discipline. That couldn’t happen without an organized body. Paul wrote all of his letters but four to churches, not individuals. In fact, the book of Acts where we will be looking tonight, speaks about the formation and growth of God’s Church. Howard Marshall, the author of one of the commentaries I used when studying for this passage wrote that, “ a key point in Acts is that it shows how the gospel was meant for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews. Part of the demonstration lies in Luke’s claim that what took place in the early church was in accordance with prophecy. Luke’s purpose was to show not only that the coming of Jesus fulfilled prophecy, but also that the rise of the church and the spread of salvation to the Gentiles fulfilled the prophecies in the Old Testament and the promises of Jesus.” So to not believe in the church is to believe something contrary to what the Bible teaches. That’s a dangerous place to be. In fact if we are going to truly do what we talked about in each of the first three nights, we have to connect to the church. This does not mean just be connected to your youth groups because you are going to age out of those. But to be connected to your church body as a whole. In tonight’s passage we are going to look at how to do that. We will look tonight and see that The Early Church gave us a model for how to function in today’s World. We see this first in its formation, we see it in its commitment to God, its commitment to one another, and in its everyday conduct. If you would, would you please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.

Acts 2:41.

Exposition: So, to understand this passage, we have to understand a little bit about what came before it. The book of Acts begins with Jesus telling his disciples he’s not yet going to restore the Kindgom to Isreael but that they would be his witnesses to the entire world and the ascends to heaven. The disciples pick somebody to replace Judas, and then during the feast of Pentecost, they are praying together and they receive the Holy Spirit and start speaking about God and people who are gathered from all over can understand them in their own language. Peter then preaches this incredible sermon explaining how Jesus was the Jewish messiah that the Jewish people had killed, but if they believed in Him, they can be saved. And then we pick up with verse 41. It says, Acts 2:41 “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” What a response right, 3,000 people are saved. Not bad result at all. But look at what the people did. The first thing the author says the people did was be Baptized. They didn’t prolong Baptism. They didn’t make excuses not to be Baptized. They were baptized. In fact, archaeological evidence shows that they were probably baptized in the baptismal pools at the temple mount. This was a very public thing.

Application: Baptism does not save us. It does not determine if God has changed our hearts. But it is a sign of what God has done in us. It is a public proclamation that our old self has been buried with Christ in his tomb and the new self has been raised to walk with him in newness of life. It is publicly saying that we are going to follow him. Too many people give their lives to Christ and then are not baptized. Since it is not salvific, they do not follow through. But why? You see it comes down to commitment. But if we have truly been changed by God, if we have truly surrendered to him, we shouldn’t delay this. In fact, one cannot be a covenantal member of a church without baptism. Jesus Christ commanded those that are saved to be Baptized. This public step is the first step in living a publicly changed and committed life. There is no obedient reason for us to stall being baptized. It is a sign of our commitment to God’s Church.

Exposition: Going on to verse 42 we begin to see the things that were regularly parts of this new body called The Church. We read in verse 42 Acts 2:42 “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” It says first that they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching.

Explanation: Apostle could be one of those terms you hear a lot without being completely sure of what it means. The apostles were those that had seen the risen Christ and been sent out with the mandate to go and take the message. Apostles were a very specific people and we do not have apostles today. In this time period there was no new testament. The record of what Jesus had done and taught came from the teachings of the apostles. So when they were devoting themselves to the teachings of the apostles. The equivalent today would be our Bible. Of all the New Testament books, only three were not written by apostles. One, the gospel of Mark, was written by Mark and church tradition tells us that it was written from notes Mark took of Peter teaching people in Rome about Jesus. Luke and Acts were written by Luke who did interviews of people who knew Jesus when writing his gospel. The books in our Bible our God’s inspired words.

Application: There is a push in a lot of denominations to water down what scripture says. But when we do that it is no longer God’s Word, but our own. We have to be devoted to God’s Word. This means as a corporate body. It means that when we gather we are hear from God’s Word. It means we pledge together to stay committed to God’s Word. But it also means as individuals. A church is not a building. There were no church buildings in the book of Acts. But there were people who made up God’s Church. We cannot be a people of God if we are not a people of His word. If we are going to have churches that are committed to God’s Word, then we must have church members that are committed to God’s Word. This week you have had scheduled time in God’s Word. That was not a mistake we made. It was to help you learn to have that time daily in God’s Word. The health of our churches depends on it.

Exposition: It says they devoted themselves to the fellowship. When we think fellowship we can probably start tasting fried chicken and banana pudding. You probably start thinking how the older ladies in the church can make foods you don’t even like taste so good. But fellowship goes beyond what we do in the fellowship halls of our church. The Greek word used carries with it the sense of sharing in the activities of an intimately associated relationship or group. When Luke says that the early church devoted themselves to fellowship, he means that they had a bond that was strong. He means that their relationship was deep because of their commitment to Christ and to one another. They were family now and that brought with it a special relationship. It didn’t mean that the youth were close and the senior adults were close. It meant that the older generation had a bond with the younger generation. They were all united by what Christ had done in their lives. They understood that part of their purpose at church was to help serve and strengthen the faith of one another.

Application: This bond cannot exist if we are just casually involved in the church. If we just show up on Wednesday nights and hang out with youth or if when we do show up to church we only hang out with the youth. As a believer in Jesus Christ you are not just involved in youth, but in your church. I encourage you, find places in your church to serve. Work in the sound booth, be a greeter or join the hospitality team. Maybe find older members and ask if you can go to lunch with them or come cut their grass. But God has not just called you to be a youth. He has called you to be a part of his Church.

Exposition: Luke then says that they were committed to the breaking of bread. What he seems to be referring to here is The Lord’s Supper. In the early church, when The Lord’s Supper was taken, it was taken as part of a full meal and one loaf was broken. This was to demonstrate one how Christ’s body was broke, but also how we were all one because his body was broken. It also kept Christ at the center of their gatherings. They never gathered without acknowledging what Christ did for them on the cross.

Application: I think very often the times we get the most burned out on or tired of church is when we forget what Christ did for us on the cross. What is your attitude when you take the Lord’s Supper? When you take the bread do you think about how Christ’s body was broken for us? When you take the juice, do you think about how his blood was poured out to make a new covenant? Or do you just eat some wafers and drink some juice because that’s what you do in church?

Illustration: When I was living in Athens I worked at Lifeway Christian store. We had a lady call and ask if we sold communion bread and we said we did. She came in and bought some. She said that her daughter’s friend loved the taste of it so they were getting it for her birthday. Now, we are not catholic, we do not believe that it is the actual body of Christ. But how often when we take communion are only focusing on the taste of the bread and not the cost of what we are celebrating. If we are going to be connected to the church, we must be mindful of the crucifixion and keep it center.

Exposition: Lastly in verse 42, they were committed to prayers. We see in the book of Acts time and time again that the believers regularly prayed together. Let me ask you something, when was the last time that you prayed with somebody at your church? I don’t mean prayed in a worship service. I mean when is the last you got together with somebody in your group and just prayed with them. When was the last time you asked somebody in your youth group how you could pray for them? So often we wonder why our churches are not growing. So often we wonder why we are not seeing God move. But so often we are not praying. But remember, God’s church does not just consist of those in the local church. It also consists of believers all over the World. We should be praying for our persecuted brothers and sisters who live in peril because they believe in the same God we believe in. We must not allow ourselves to be disconnected from those who do not have the same freedoms we have.

Application: Brothers and sisters, we cannot expect God to move if we are not humbling ourselves to ask him to. To be committed to God’s Church is to be committed to prayer for and with one another.

Exposition: Verse 43 is where things get a little controversial. Verse 43 reads Acts 2:43 “And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.” I want to actually address this verse backwards. I want to address the last part first. Often times we wonder why we don’t seem able to just say to somebody that is paralyzed to stand up and walk and they be able to walk. Well, when we look at the book of Acts, it doesn’t seem that most people were able to do that. Verse 43 says that the signs and wonders were done through the apostles. I am of the belief that the ability to do such miracles went away when the last apostle died. There are some that would disagree with me on that, but I believe that’s what scripture says. But it doesn’t matter, because even if today’s Christians can’t perform signs and wonders, God is still in the miracle business. We have seen God answer our prayers and work situations out in ways that we didn’t think possible. We see people going from death to life and having their lives changed by the gospel. We have no reason not to be in awe of our God today.

Illustration: When I first graduated college I went to New York City where I served for a little over a year and had previously spent a two months as a summer missionary. One of my favorite subway lines to ride was the yellow line because when it went between Manhattan and Brooklyn it went above the water instead of below. When you came out of the tunnel you can see the Manhattan skyline. You can see Empire State building, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and the new World Trade Center. But you could always tell who was from New York and who was a tourist. Tourists immediately ran to the windows and started snapping pictures. But New Yorkers just sat there. A lot of them would get their phones out and try to fire off a text or call before going underground and losing cell phone service again. They had grown so use to it, they had lost their awe of what an incredible sight it is. Too often I fear that we get so use to hearing about what Christ has done for us, that we stop being in awe of it. We are so use to hearing of God’s wonders that we stop being in awe of them. We must never stop being in awe of what God has done.

Acts 2:42-43.

Apostles teaching.

What were apostles

Scripture

We must be devoted to God’s Word

Fellowship

Meaning of Word

Members cared for one another and each contributed to Church

Breaking of Bread

Communion.

Full meal, center of gathering and recognizing of What Christ did.

Prayer

Awe

Signs and Wonders

Done by the apostles

Transition: So we see interactions that were related to things we already see on church in Sundays. But when we read the passage further, we see that the way the church operated went further than that.

Exposition: We read in verses 44 and verses 45 Acts 2:44-45 “And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.” There have been some that make the claim that these verses support the government redistribution we see in communism. They say that this backs the idea that the government or some entity should be able to take money and possessions and redistribute them to those in need. But that’s just not what was happening here. The Roman government was not taking money and giving it back out. There was nobody coercing the people to do this. This is a point that is well documented in the early chapters of Acts. Also, we know that the people still had private houses because that’s where the early church was meeting. So what did Luke mean when he wrote this? He means that within the family of believers, all who were in need were taken care of. The believers did not hold on to what they didn’t need. They sold it and gave to take care of those in need. And they did this out of their love for the other believers.

Application: To be connected to God’s Church is to be willing to give freely to those within the Church who are in need. Our love for our brothers and sisters must reach the point that we meet the needs we see of those around us. Not because there is some force compelling us to do that, but because we see a need we can help meet and are able to meet it. We do this knowing that we will probably have a need one day that needs to be met as well.

Acts 2:44-45.

Transition: We have looked at the conduct that we are use to but may take for granted. We have looked at the generosity the Church had. But it went beyond even that. Being a part of God’s Church impacted their daily lives.

Exposition: Verse 46 says Acts 2:46 “And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,” Remember, the early Christians were Jewish people who knew that Jesus was the Jewish messiah. They still practiced their Jewish customs at this point. But they did so believing that God had fulfilled his promise of sending their savior. But their lifestyles were changed. Their worship was not just something they showed up at the temple and did once a week. They also gathered together in each other’s homes. Once again, they took the Lord’s Supper. But it wasn’t just empty actions. It was with attitudes that reflected who Jesus was. It says they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God. It didn’t take much to see that the people of God knew they had a hope within them. They lived with thankfulness towards God for what he did.

Application: What about us? Does your attitude reflect what God has done? When we gather with other believers, do we sound like we are glad and generous and praising God. Or do we often sound whiny or like we like to complain. Do we sound clickish and mean. Brothers and sisters, God has done too much for us to live that way. But once again, if we lose our awe for God and our prayerful attitudes, this is where we will end up. It will also mean that the last characteristic we see for the early church will not be there for us.

Exposition: Luke concludes the section by writing Acts 2:47 “praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” The early church wasn’t a country club where everyone on the inside liked each other and they weren’t too concerned with what people outside thought of them. No, they were well thought of by those outside the church too. This was probably tied directly to what Luke said about them immediately before them. The way they carried themselves had a lot with them having good favor.

Application: It is very easy to get jaded with the direction things are going in our society today. Our society has embraced sin and spit in the face of God’s design. I am not going to say that is not true of many in our society. But siloing ourselves off from the world and having us hate them and them hate us will do nothing to make it better. Being a part of God’s people and knowing Truth does not give us the right to, as I heard a preacher say last year, act like the southside of a north bound mule. Those that believe differently than us should look at us and think, “Those church people, they really are good people.” They shouldn’t look at us and think that we are rude and hate anybody that is not a part of our gathering. They also should see us as authentic.

Application: When I was living in North Carolina going to seminary, I worked off and on at home depot. My main job was as a children and youth director at a little country church. When everything shut down during COVID I started recording children’s messages that we would post on Facebook. One day a lady that worked at Home Depot came up to me and told me she had seen the video and thought it was really cool we were doing that. I have always wondered, what if I had lived two lives. What if when I was at home depot I talked like my coworkers there. The people that worked at home depot pretty much consisted of veterans, former construction workers or students in high school and college. You can imagine that the language used and the things talked about were not always the best. What if I had joined in. Do you think this lady would have seen it and thought well of our church. Or do you think I was just another hypocritical church goer. The way you act to those in your schools, at work or wherever you interact with non-Christians doesn’t just reflect on you. It reflects on God’s Church as well. If you are going to be committed to God’s Church, then you must be committed to helping God’s Church have a good reputation among those outside it. Not just for the sake of our reputation, but for how Luke ends the passage.

Exposition: He ends the passage by saying, “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” The church doesn’t exist because Christians need a social organization to be a part of. It doesn’t exist so that youth groups can go on really cool mission trips. Churches exists because Jesus is the hope for eternal life. This truth isn’t something we should want to keep to ourselves, but we should want to see others come to know Him as well. Because they early Christians lived the way the did, the overflow of this was that Jesus was being made known to those outside the Church. God was using the lives of these normal people to bring people to Him.

Application: Are broken hearted for those that are living without the hope that Jesus gives us. Our goal is not to just enjoy life with those that know Christ. But to see God grow His Church. Not just so we can look at our numbers and brag. But because that means that people are crossing from death to life. This means that we don’t live as Christians teenagers so often do and as I was guilty of at times. We often live as if we have two groups of friends. Our school friends and our church friends. Even if we don’t live sinfully with either set, this isn’t a good thing. If we believe that God is good. If we believe that He loves those that are far from HIm, we should live in a way that brings people to Him. It means we should be willing to lovingly tell people about who Jesus is and invite them to make Him their savior. We should not just want to be connected to God’s Church, we should want to see others come to know Christ and be connected to their church too. This isn’t just people here. It means people all over. Much of the book of Acts is about God using the Church to take the message of the gospel all over the Roman world to people who had never heard. God wants to use His Church to make His name known. If God called you to go, would you be willing? Would you be willing to go so that others could be added to the number?

Conclusion: A survey in 2019 before the pandemic had some truly sad numbers about church involvement amongst young people. 66% young adults aged 18-29 who previously attended church regularly at some point were now out of church. This was pretty consistent with a study done several years earlier. When one stops attending church, how likely are they to be devoted to God’s Word, how likely are they to be devoted to other believers? How likely are they to be celebrating The Lord’s Supper and to be steadfast in prayer? Do you think they are being super generous? Are they gathering with other believers, praising God and leading others to Christ? I think the answer to that is probably not and I think that probably the answer you came up with too. You see, God instituted his church for a purpose. And when we live uncommitted to God’s Church, we fail to live up to that purpose. If God has called us to Himself, which He has, then he has called us to His Church. We cannot walk faithfully with God if we are not committed to His church. Not only that, but when we fail to honor that commitment, we are robbing our brothers and sisters of the blessing we were meant to be for one another. But we will be robbing ourselves as well. All of these things this passage mentions are a positive for your life. They help you experience the fullness of life God has for you. God’s Church is not perfect because we are not perfect. But is a beautiful gift he has given us and that we get to be. The question we must ask ourselves, are going to commit to that blessing, or are we going to live without it? Are you willing tonight to walk in obedience to God by being a part of His Church and the mission He will accomplish through her. I hope you leave her tomorrow not just ready to be people that believe in Jesus, but faithful church members who desire to see others know HIm. I’m going to ask that we take some time with your groups now. I want you to circle up and take this time to pray for one another. Take a step of obedience together tonight. In a minute I’ll pray and we can close with our last song.