4.30.23 Acts 2:42–47 (EHV)
42 They continued to hold firmly to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of the bread, and to the prayers. 43 Awe came over every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They were selling their possessions and property and were distributing the proceeds according to what anyone needed. 46 Day after day, with one mind, they were devoted to meeting in the temple area, as they continued to break bread in their homes. They shared their food with glad and sincere hearts, 47 as they continued praising God and being viewed favorably by all the people. Day after day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Those were the days. You look back at pictures in your photo albums, think about days gone by. We do the same thing in the church. Look at the anniversary services. Remember old pastors and celebrations. Those were the days. Trinity is full of rich history over the past 137 years.
Today the Holy Spirit takes us back and gives us a glimpse of how the early Christian church lived right after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. In these verses Luke paints a beautiful time, very romantic in a sense. There was genuine love and fellowship among the early Christians in Jerusalem. It shows us what life could be like in the fellowship of the church.
What Could the Resurrected Life Look Like?
When we look at this we might tend to be filled with guilt, because we don’t match their standards of joy and fellowship. It seems like pulling teeth when trying to get people together to enjoy some fellowship even for food and games. But as we look at this it could perhaps motivate us to set our goals higher, and realize that if God could do this with them, then He could do it with us as well.
The NFL Draft just happened last weekend. Those who are excited about football talk about who was drafted and when. They either get excited about it or depressed. They think their team will win the Superbowl this year or they think they will be awful. But either way, they UNITE around their excitement for football. The Christians of Luke’s time were excited for a different reason. Awe came over every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. It’s hard for us to imagine the power that emanated through the apostles at this time. Listen to Acts 2:15-16 for instance -
People were even carrying the sick into the streets and laying them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them. 16 Crowds also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and all of them were healed.
What kind of a power trip would that be for people just to want to stand in your shadow?!? And what did the apostles do with that power? They DIDN’T let it go to their heads. They pointed people to Jesus. They said, “Jesus is still alive and ruling in the heavens, performing miracles through us.” It’s important to understand this. These miracles weren’t just being done for entertainment’s sake. The people say “ooh” and “ahh,” eat some popcorn and head back home. There was THEOLOGY behind this. There was a LIVING and TRUE GOD behind this. His name is Jesus. So they SPOKE about Him as they did the miracles. And that’s what we want to be the main focus in our worship services as well. The music and the readings and the liturgy are meant to point you to Jesus. When the church was growing back in apostolic times, they weren’t weren’t just coming for the miracles. They were coming for the God who gave them forgiveness, peace, and hope. They were coming for Jesus.
How do we know this? Luke says so! They continued to hold firmly to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of the bread, and to the prayers. The word for “hold firmly” is p??s?a?te????te?. In the Greek world that also meant to persist in something. If you persist in something and hold firmly in it, there has to be something in there that intrigues you and feeds you, it nourishes you and makes you want MORE of it. Think of Jesus in the temple as a 12 year old boy. Even though He was a part of that history, He wanted to learn more in His humiliation. He couldn’t get enough.
Right now we’ve been going through the book of Luke during the week, very slowly. I’ve been trying to dig into every word and every aspect of every verse, getting as much out of it as possible, and it’s been FUN for me. It tastes like MORE. That’s the way the Bible is supposed to be. Think about it. Here in the Bible we have a book that was given to us from GOD HIMSELF, written through 36 men over 16 centuries, focusing on one God and one Man Jesus Christ. It shows how God Himself comes to us, how He works in this world. It shows us who we are and what we need. It is real with us. It peeks behind the curtain and reveals to us what the future is going to be like and how God is going to end this world, and how we can be ready for that Coming. If you take the time to dig into it and ask questions about it, it can really be fascinating.
The Word of God makes you realize how meaningless this world is and how meaningful it is, all at the same time. It shows you how worthless you are as a sinner. It calls your righteous acts filthy. It says you’re wicked. It calls you damned. Yet it shows Jesus be damned for you on the cross. It tells how baptism bathes you in Jesus' blood. It tells you that through faith in Jesus you are precious. It even calls you a saint. It shows you how doomed this world is and yet still gives you hope in the resurrection from the dead. It takes you through hell and yet gets you to heaven, all through the Good Shepherd Jesus. It doesn’t say, “If you become a Christian then God will make everything in your life great. You’ll never get sick. You’ll be rich. You’ll always be happy.” Oh no, it says you will struggle as a Christian. You’ll know what sin is and what makes God angry. Yet you’ll also know what to do with your sin. I lay my sins on Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God. This Word will give you comfort in times of trial, because God will promise you His mercy and strength and salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus who died for your sins. He’ll promise to send His angels to look over you. He’ll promise to answer your prayers. He’ll promise to work out your life for the salvation of your soul. He won’t be cheap with you. Psalm 23:5–6 paints a very comforting picture -
5 You set a table for me in the presence of my foes. You drench my head with oil. My cup is overflowing. 6 Surely goodness and mercy will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the LORD forever.
That’s the picture of confidence in a generous God. This is the confidence God wants His sheep to have. God is present here. He’s taking care of me. He has me in His hands.
As the early believers listened to the Word and were brought to Jesus, it affected the way they lived. All the believers were together and had everything in common. 46 Day after day, with one mind, they were devoted to meeting in the temple area, as they continued to break bread in their homes. Nobody had to beg them to come to church. They gladly came. They wanted to come.
You could compare it to being a fan of an author who has come out with a new book and is signing copies. People wait in line to get an autograph. They purchase the book to sign. They talk about the other books that were written beforehand. They both enjoy the same thing - so they have that in common, even though they have never met before. They share a natural excitement over the story to come. Some go so far as to dress in character and meet at coffee shops and have discussion clubs. So we meet together around Jesus, whom the Holy Spirit has told us about. We talk about how He created the world and redeemed it. We talk about sin and grace. We look forward to the future we have in heaven.
But the fellowship of the early church went far beyond that. 45 They were selling their possessions and property and were distributing the proceeds according to what anyone needed. They shared their food with glad and sincere hearts, 47 as they continued praising God. They became very GENEROUS with each other. They weren’t commanded to do this. It wasn’t a church tax. They wanted to help one another and they offered to do it. Why was that? They believed that God had placed them there to help and support one another in need. If God came down here to give His LIFE, His entire LIFE, for us, and if He went so far as to give His Holy Spirit, and to protect us with angels, and to promise to give us all we NEED, not what we want, then they decided that they could SHARE with those less privileged in their congregation. An amazing thing happened. Slave and free worshiped under the same roof. There were no classes in the church. And what happened as a result? Day after day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Is that what we are experiencing today in the church? Is that what is happening in your home? Do you have MY money versus your money? Is it my time or your time? Do you regard it as a complete sacrifice to do chores for your parents or to spend some time with your spouse? Is it really that hard to get up and go to worship together? Is it asking too much to come and enjoy some fellowship on a Friday night? If you’ll jump at the chance to go to a concert of an artist, but you drag your heels to church, what does that tell you? If you get excited about going out for a beer with a friend but find excuses as to why you can’t go out with your spouse, what does that say? If your children have to beg you to play catch with them while you’re staring at your phone for minutes and hours, what is happening here? The devil, your sinful nature, they are getting distracted. We could be so much more. Our singing could be so much better, our fellowship so much stronger, if we dedicated our time to listen to the Word and let the Holy Spirit speak to us more often. Imagine if you came here every Sunday, not to just hear your children sing, but to hear Jesus speak. We are a shell of what we could be, of what we should be. And you have to ask yourself, are you partly to blame for that? Are you keeping to yourself? Are you not digging in like you could or you should? There’s always reasons to repent, are there not?
Some of the greatest motivational speeches ever given are not just telling us just what we’re doing wrong, where we need to change, they are also painting a picture of the future - of what could be. Martin Luther King’s speech pointed out the segregation that the blacks were going through at his time. But it also pointed out what could be in the future. It ended with optimism. He said,
Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
In Ronald Reagan’s farewell speech to America, he didn’t close with gloom and doom. He spoke of his dreams for America to be a “city on a hill.” He said
The past few days when I've been at that window upstairs, I've thought a bit of the shining "city upon a hill." The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. . . . he was an early Pilgrim - an early "Freedom Man." He journeyed here on what today we'd call a little wooden boat, and, like the other pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free. I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, . . . in my mind, it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind swept, God blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace - a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors, and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.
He had a vision for America. It was what inspired him to run for president. It was positive and hopeful.
I don’t have much hope for America, because we don’t have a common union. But I do have hope and a dream for the church. I dream that we would repent of our indifference. That parents would get excited about coming to meet with their fellow Christians here and in person, singing songs to Jesus, and growing in faith, and that their children would gladly follow along. Why do I hope this? If the Holy Spirit could unite people back then around the Word and sacrament with a zeal to be together and to share who they are and what they have, then He could do so again. He could do it through you, if you give Him the opportunity to work, if you take the time to LISTEN to Him. If this Word is still powerful and effective, as God says it is, then we have every right to be optimistic and expect God to work through it.
As we glimpse back at the early church, we see how full of life a community of believers could be, full of love and commitment and sharing of time and possessions. It’s easy to look back at that church, or even this church, and be sad and pessimistic over days gone by. It’s easy to think, “Those are days gone by. America is going to hell in a handbasket. Families are falling apart. We will never see those days again.” Don’t lose your hope for the church. Don’t lose this dream. Ask yourself, “How can I spend more time with Jesus, in the Word and sacrament? How can I live this resurrected life in my family, in my congregation, in my community? How can I spend more time and effort looking out for others, giving my life for them?” It may take some repentance. It may take some hard work and dedication. It may take some encouragement. It will take the Word. It will take the power of the Holy Spirit. It will take the resurrected Jesus. Amen.
