The Early Church
Acts 2:37-47
Jeff Hughes – February 16, 2003
Calvary Chapel Aggieland
I. Introduction
a. Remember what it was like to be a new Christian? Remember how excited and joyful you were? If you were like me, you wanted to read your Bible all the time, pray, go to church all you could, and spend time around other believers. Why do we do that? Well, it’s because we’re in love. We’re in love with Jesus, and just so happy at the work He’s done in our life. We are at a stage in our life where we want to learn and know more about Jesus, so we can be more like Him, as He has called us to do.
b. The group of people we are going to look at today are in the same situation. They have just heard the gospel for the first time. Today, we get the privilege to look at their reaction to the gospel, and how the love of Jesus was manifest in their lives. I pray that by the end of this study, God will move our hearts to a deeper love and devotion to Him.
c. Today’s study is out of Acts chapter 2, verses 37 through 47. A total of eleven verses. These verses will give us a good look at the early church in Jerusalem, and what their day-to-day life was like.
d. But first, let’s bow our hearts for a moment of prayer, and let’s ask the Lord to come and bless our study in His Word today.
II. PRAYER
III. Illustration
a. Not too many years ago newspapers carried the story of Al Johnson, a Kansas man who came to faith in Jesus Christ. What made his story remarkable was not his conversion, but the fact that as a result of his newfound faith in Christ, he confessed to a bank robbery he had participated in when he was nineteen years old. Because the statute of limitations on the case had run out, Johnson could not be prosecuted for the offense. Still, he believed his relationship with Christ demanded a confession. And he even voluntarily repaid his share of the stolen money!
b. Along those same lines, two men opened a butcher shop and business was booming. Then an evangelist came to town, and one of the butchers was saved. He tried to persuade his partner to accept salvation also, but to no avail. “Why won’t you, Charlie?” asked the born-again fellow. “Listen, Lester,” the other butcher said. “If I get religion, too, who’s going to weigh the meat?”
c. The awesome power of God is unleashed in people’s lives when they accept Christ into their hearts. God wants that for each one of us as well, we are going to look at this in our study today.
d. As I said earlier, our study today comes out of Acts chapter 2, starting in verse 37, we are going to finish up the chapter today, continuing on to verse 47. Acts is just past John in the New Testament and before Romans. Follow along with me starting at verse 37.
IV. Study
a. Intro
i. 37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" 38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." 40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation." 41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. 46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
ii. What we are seeing in these verses is the birth and growth of believers – followers of Christ. We see them repenting of their sins and giving their hearts and lives to Jesus wholeheartedly. In many of our churches today, they would have stopped right there. Much more emphasis is put on evangelism then discipleship these days for the most part. Then they wonder why we have so many Christians living sinful defeated lives. The answer is simple for the most part – they don’t know any better. Every Sunday they get a message to draw sinners to Christ, but nothing of substance to help them grow in their walk. Generally, the task of bringing people to salvation is left to quote-unquote “professional Christians”. This is wrong. This is something that is terribly wrong with many of our churches today.
iii. This wasn’t the case in the early church. The apostles didn’t lead the people to Christ and then let them fend for themselves. No, they spent time with them and taught them. They fellowshipped and ate with them – they shared their lives together. Everything that we will see that these verses describe how we are to mature in our faith, and we will look at what mature believers then go on to be like. This is an exciting passage of scripture that is vitally important to our personal walks with the Lord.
iv. So, let’s dive in and take a look! When I was putting this study together, I found five points to guide us through this passage. You can take notes on the sheet in the middle of your bulletin, and I encourage you to as we look at The Reaction, The Repentance, The Reinforcement, The Reverence, finally The Relationship.
v. Last week, we looked at Peter’s message to the crowd gathered outside the house at Pentecost. Along with the miracles the crowd experienced that day, they heard some pretty harsh words from Peter. After explaining to them what had just happened – the coming of the Holy Spirit, Peter tells them that Jesus is their Messiah or Savior. He then holds them accountable for having a hand in Jesus’ death. So today, let’s start off by looking at what their reaction to this was in verse 37.
b. Reaction (Acts 2:37)
i. 37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"
ii. Now, the people listening to Peter’s message were unbelievers. They had not walked with Jesus. They were not His followers. Just weeks before, many in this crowd had called for the crucifixion of Jesus. Some probably mocked while Jesus carried His cross, and watched as He was crucified.
iii. No doubt that these were some hardened folks. They had been under the iron rule of the Roman Empire for some years now. But, they were God’s chosen people, they had been delivered before by God, and that’s what they expected again. They also saw the hypocrisy and politics of the Jewish religious system of the day, but what else could they do? In my mind, I see many of these people being far from God, and having no hope – nothing to believe in. What caused the change?
iv. We have a clue here in verse 37. Notice it tells us here that they heard Peter’s message and they were cut to the heart. It was God’s Word that convicted them of their sins, and they were cut to the heart. Hebrews chapter 4, verses 12 and 13 tells us this –
v. 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
vi. They felt God’s finger uncovering the sin in their lives. They realized the wretchedness of their sin and the futility of their lives up to that point.
vii. They asked the Apostles – “What shall we do?” This is the question most everyone asks when presented with the gospel for the first time. The facts of what God expects us to do and what Jesus has done are laid out for us. The question is – what will you do with that information?
viii. There are only three answers to that question. The first is what God wants for us. He wants us to decide that what we are hearing is faithful and true, and that we are going to make the decision in our life to follow Jesus. The second is wait. You answer skeptically, “well, maybe what you are saying is true... I’ll wait to make my final decision.” The problem with this answer is that many people procrastinate about this decision and wind spending eternity in Hell, because they couldn’t or wouldn’t make a decision. The longer you wait, that harder it is. As you ignore the Spirit’s call, your heart becomes harder and harder, which may lead you to the third answer.
ix. The third answer is no. I don’t believe it. Maybe it seems to narrow, or too hard, or the Christian life too demanding. Maybe you’re afraid of what you’re friends will think. This is a sad point to be at.
x. Scripture tells us that Jesus came to give us life, and life more abundant. True life is found in Jesus Christ. Like I said earlier, this is the most important decision we will ever make. Eternal life and eternal death hang in the balance.
xi. So, what was the apostle’s answer to their question? We find the answer in verses 38 through 40.
c. Repentance (Acts 2:38-40)
i. 38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." 40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation."
ii. The very first thing Peter tells them to do is repent. Now, repentance and faith go hand in hand. John Calvin said that repentance is a product of faith. Faith and repentance are like two sides of the same coin. Their faith was evidenced by the crowd asking the question, “What shall we do?” They had believed what the apostles told them, and they wanted to do something about it, to show their faith the Jesus was the Messiah.
iii. Now, before we get too far off this, to repent means to do a 180 degree turn away from something. To be pent on something means to be going in a direction toward it. So, to repent means to turn around the other way. Repentance is the first step to salvation. Without repentance, we cannot be saved. There has to be some realization that how we have been living our lives is wrong. You have to want to walk away from your life of sin. Jesus gives us the power to walk away from sin, when we realize just how lost we really are, and our need for a Savior. We have to die to our old life and our sinful ways. That is what repentance is about.
iv. Baptism is a symbol in our lives as believers. What baptism symbolizes is the inward change that has taken place in our lives as we repent of our sins, ask Jesus to come into our lives, and make the conscious decision to follow him. Baptism is something that we are to do out of obedience to the Lord publicly, to let others know about our decision, and simply that. Something to do out of obedience. Baptism is not necessary for salvation. It is not required for us to be saved, as some will claim, and try to use this verse, because they see the “for the remission of your sins” part.
v. However, if you look at the verse in context, I believe what Peter is trying to do is that he wants them to make a public decision for Christ, to prove the genuineness of their decision, just like we do today.
vi. What is more important here is the decision that these people made that day. They had heard the gospel message, and they were responding. Peter instructs them to repent of their sins, and to be baptized out of obedience, and he continues by telling them that they would receive the Holy Spirit, just like they had just done.
vii. We see here in verse 39 that the promise of salvation and the Holy Spirit were not only good for those present, but also for their children, and all who are far off. He goes on to say that it is available for as many as the Lord may call.
viii. As many as the Lord may call… So, how many of us are called? Some churches believe that some of us are not called, and that God made a certain amount of people for the sole purpose of suffering through eternity separated from Him, they call it limited atonement. That doesn’t make any sense to me. The whole purpose God made us was for fellowship with Him.
ix. I don’t buy it, and here’s one reason why. Paul writes in 1st Timothy chapter 2 that God wants everyone to be saved and come to a saving knowledge of Him. Clearly, everyone is called. It is up to us to respond to that call.
x. We see in verse 40 that Peter continues to testify about Jesus and exhort them, saying “Be saved from this perverse generation!” Those verbs testify and exhort the tenses here indicate that Peter kept on testifying and kept on exhorting the crowd, so that as many as could be convinced would come to Christ.
xi. That’s how Jesus is with us. His mercy is boundless and His grace extends to us all without limit.
xii. Luke, our writer here obviously gives us a short synopsis of Peter’s message that day. Peter’s sermon lasted much longer than it takes to read it in scripture. Luke gives us the most important points, the ones most relevant to us today.
xiii. We have learned in these verses is that God’s call is for all of us. God extended His invitation to the crowd gathered at Pentecost that day, in our next verse, we will see their reaction; How they will receive the message that God had for them. Verse 41 reads -
d. Reception (Acts 2:41)
i. 41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
ii. The result of Peter’s faithfulness to God in delivering the message was staggering. Three thousand people received the gospel message and were baptized that day. The scripture tells us that these people were added to the apostles. They had entered into the fellowship of faith, into the Body of Christ.
iii. Many have been skeptical about this verse over throughout history, claiming that Peter could not have addressed such a large crowd in the open air as to draw 3,000 out of it. They also argue that Peter would not have been physically able to baptize 3,000 people that day.
iv. First, if we look back one hundred or to hundred years, we see that men of God have been able to address such large crowds, even without a public address system. History tells us that John Wesley and George Whitfield addressed crowds this large, and even larger. Peter, the boisterous fisherman was heard that day.
v. Now, to the question of baptism, remember a few weeks back we talked about the upper room where the apostles and some other believers were gathered to wait for the Holy Spirit and pray. Scripture tells us that there were 120 people in the upper room that day.
vi. I did the math. If Peter had the other 11 apostles only helping him, each would have to baptize 250 people. Now, that’s quite a bit, but not impossible. But, if Peter had the other apostles and the other 118 disciples gathered that day, each would only have to baptize 25. I’ve seen that done. My pastor can get 25 people baptized in about an hour. That’s with each one giving a short testimony before being baptized.
vii. So, if you’ll pardon my pun, we see that these two arguments simply don’t hold water.
viii. Now, before I get off baptism, if you have a relationship with the Lord and you haven’t been water baptized, come talk to me after the service, we can work something out. We don’t do regular baptisms yet due to our size, but we’re praying that will change, and just because we don’t do scheduled baptisms should not be a hindrance to you in obeying the Lord’s command.
ix. Back to our study. We’ve got 3,000 wet believers. What do we do with them? Well, let’s see in verse 42.
e. Reinforcement (Acts 2:42)
i. 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
ii. There are four things I want us to see in this verse. The new church was a scriptural church, they were a fellowshipping church, they were a Christ-centered church and they were a prayerful church.
iii. The first thing we see here is that they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine. They were steady at Bible reading, and listening to messages from the apostles. They were a scriptural church. They wanted to learn more about their faith and they wanted to grow. The first and most important part of growth for a new believer is Bible study. Unless you understand what you believe, how do you really know what you believe?
iv. The Bible is the foundation of our faith. God has given us His Word to help us grow and mature as believers. But, He also gave us His Word so we can use it as a tool to stay away from false doctrines and beliefs that creep into the church from time to time. We see this over and over again in the New Testament. False doctrine will poison a church, and the Bible is our guard against that. The Bible is our rock, bedrock. And just like the parable Jesus told about the two men who built their houses, the storms of life will come into your life and your walk.
v. But if our foundation is the Bible, the rock. We can weather the storm. If your foundation is not on God Word, you will get knocked down, hard. Some people ask why we study the Bible verse by verse, every week. Well, part of it is that God wants us to be a strong church, to reach out to those who are drowning in the storms this life gives, and with good Bible teaching, I hope to give you guys that good foundation.
vi. The second thing we see here is that the new church was a fellowshipping church. Why is this important? Well, because there are no “lone ranger” Christians. We need each other for support, encouragement, accountability, and prayer. God has designed the Christian walk to be one made with others. Hebrews 10 verses 24 and 25 tell us this - 24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
vii. We are commanded by God to assemble together, to help one another along in our walks. That’s what we are doing here this morning, and that what the early church was doing.
viii. The third thing I want us to look at here is that they were a Christ-centered church. The phrase “breaking of bread” in verse 42. This is a reference to the Lord’s Supper or Communion. This is commanded of all believers as well. In Communion, we are all on common ground – sinners, looking to the work of Christ that saved us from our sins. Communion is also a time of reflection, where we confess our sins, and through it, God purifies His church. The purity in their lives was part of their maturing process as Christians.
ix. The last thing we find in this verse is that they were a prayerful church. Prayer is communication between God and us. Prayer is essential in our daily walk as we talk to God, and let Him know our concerns, and to confess our sins. Prayer is another ingredient that helped the believers to mature in their walk.
x. These four elements are very important in our walk with the Lord, just as they were important to these believers. If one is neglected, the Body suffers. It is important to maintain a balance of these to reinforce the commitment you made to Christ, and to help you grow as a believer. These believers were healthy and well-balanced. They were part of a church that was healthy and well-balanced. In verse 43, we will look at what how these maturing believers responded to what was happening to and around them -
f. Reverence (Acts 2:43)
i. 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
ii. The word fear there does not mean terror. God doesn’t want us to fear Him, like “run away!!” He does want us to reverence Him though and hold Him in awe, and that is what this word means here. He is an awesome and Holy God.
iii. As the new believers matured, they walked a spirit of reverence towards God, a healthy fear of Him. That’s a good thing. It’s something that we should have today.
iv. Notice here that many signs and wonders we done through the apostles. These same words were used by Luke to describe the miracles and works of Jesus during His ministry on earth.
v. The thing that strikes me here is that these people were in awe and reverence not by programs, or buildings, but by the supernatural work that God was doing among them. That is what church is about. It’s not about a building, or programs, but whether or not God is moving there. That is what is important.
vi. God was moving in these people’s lives. They were in fellowship with one another, and being led by the Holy Spirit. They were part of a body, a fellowship of believers, and they had relationship through that bond. We are going to see this in our last four verses, 44 through 47.
g. Relationship (Acts 2:44-47)
i. 44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. 46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
ii. Here in verse 44 notice that all the believers were together. They were friends; they had a bond, a relationship to each other through their relationship in Christ.
iii. That is a strong bond. To me, the people that I have served with and have fellowship with in Christ are some of the most important relationships that I have had. They are like family to me. These are people that I have laughed with, cried with, prayed with, and sweated with. They call me to ask how I am doing, and I do the same for them. We care about each other’s walks with the Lord. When one is hurting, we cry with them. When one is rejoicing, we rejoice with them.
iv. We haven’t been here that long, but I see these relationships starting to form here, and that makes me glad. I pray that these relationships will continue to grow, so that we as a church can grow closer through fellowship as we grow closer to God, just as these believers did.
v. Now, some people get confused when they see the end of verse 44, and they think the early church lived in some kind of commune or communistic community. That’s reading a bit too much into this scripture. What it simply means is that the shared between each other. If someone had a need, and they had more than enough, they met that person’s need. Not because of some kind of system, but out of love for one another.
vi. They had that relationship that I was talking about earlier. They cared about one another, and you don’t let people you care about go without.
vii. We see this continuing in verse 45; they sold their possessions and goods and divided them up among those who had a need. This was voluntary. We will see that later on in Acts. If you didn’t want to give something up, you didn’t have to. If they felt like God was leading them to give to others in the church, they did.
viii. That’s how giving should always be. God is not poor. I really don’t like it when people make out like He is. You or I can give or not, it is a choice we make that is between us and God.
ix. Pastor Chuck Smith, the founder of Calvary Chapel has a saying – “Where God guides, God provides.” I believe that. That’s why we don’t take up a collection here. We have a box on the back table. I don’t sit up at night worrying about whether people will give or not. We don’t have some elaborate plan to fleece you guys, or make you commit to giving so much money.
x. What you, or I, or anyone else gives is between you and God. I definitely do not want to get involved. I don’t know who gives what, and I don’t want to know. If I knew, I might be tempted to treat people differently, whether they gave or not, and I want to love all you guys. I want to teach all of you guys who will show up, and I want to start building those relationships with you guys.
xi. All I need to know is how much we have in the bank so that we can pay our bills to meet our expenses – rent, insurance, printing, and such as that. God has provided for us wondrously here. Every time we get a need, the money comes in. Now, if He stops that, I will be spending some serious time on my face trying to find out what went wrong. But, I am not going to stand up here and beg you guys for money like these guys on the TV and radio do. “We’re going to have to shut our doors if we don’t get 2 million dollars”, or whatever. You’ve heard these guys.
xii. I would submit to you that maybe God wants to shut down that ministry, and it is presumption on our part to try and save it. Remember – “Where God guides, He provides.” The reverse is true too, where God doesn’t guide, He doesn’t provide.
xiii. Enough about giving though. That’s just a part of the story here about these maturing believers. We see in verse 47 that the believers were in one accord in the temple, where they were reading and studying the Word. They also were continuing daily in the breaking of bread, or Communion, and that they did it from house to house. I think it is a great thing to practice communion at home. Who says you just have to do it at church? Definitely not this verse in the Word.
xiv. We see also that they ate together with gladness and simplicity of heart. One of the most intimate things you could do with a person in that culture was to share a meal with them. This is because their traditional meal was bread along with some sauces, and the sauces were in common bowls on the table. Double dipping was not a faux pas in this culture, as it is today. Their strong bonds and their relationships made it really easy to eat with one another.
xv. Now, simplicity of heart is an interesting phrase we see here in 46. The word simplicity there derives from a root word in the Greek that means “free of rocks”. What it meant is that they didn’t have many things that stood between them and each other, and they didn’t have many things that stood between them and God. They had a life that was devoted to serving God, which is always freeing to us.
xvi. Let’s spend a few more minutes looking at our last verse here, 47. Three things that I want us to notice here.
xvii. First, they were worshipful. They praised God with their voices and their music. They expressed their love to God in song. That’s why we put such a high priority on worship here at Calvary. God’s enjoys our worship, and we are blessed by it as well. Worship brings us into a mindset where we are able to give our whole attention over to God, so we can be more in tune, so to speak to study His Word.
xviii. The second thing I want to look at is that they had favor with others. Why was that? It is simple. They were plugged in to God; they had a joy and peace about them that other people were envious of. The other people around them wanted to know what happened? What changed? The change was Jesus. Hopefully, we have that same effect on others around us.
xix. The last thing I want to look at in this verse is that the Lord added to their numbers daily. The people that got saved, and put their trust in the Lord joined this community of faith. Some of these people had heard Peter’s message, but had not made a decision for Christ that day. Others were led to the Lord by their friends and acquaintances that had trusted Jesus, and they wanted that same peace in their life. Some may have heard the apostles teaching some other place, like in the temple. But, the important thing to note was that by teaching the Word, praying, fellowshipping, and sharing, people were attracted to the fellowship of believers, and they wanted to get that same kind of relationship, that peace in their lives as well.
xx. Maybe you’re here today and you haven’t made that decision. The question is right in front of you now. Do you want that peace, that relationship with Jesus? In a few minutes, we are going to pray, and we are going to give you a chance to make that decision today. It is the most important decision you’ll ever make. But, as we close, I’d like to share a story. It’s a story about a guy.
V. Conclusion
a. His name is Bill. He has wild hair, wears a T-shirt with holes in it,
jeans, and no shoes. This was literally his wardrobe for his entire
four years of college. He is brilliant, kind of esoteric, and very, very bright. He became a Christian while attending college. Across the street from the campus is a well-dressed, very conservative church.
b. They want to develop a ministry to the students but are not sure how to go about it. One day Bill decides to go there. He walks in with no
shoes, jeans, his T-shirt, and wild hair. The service has already started and so Bill starts down the aisle looking for a seat. The church is completely packed and he can’t find a seat. By now, people are really looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one says anything. Bill gets closer and closer and closer to the pulpit, and when he realizes there are no seats, he just sits down right on the carpet.
c. By now the people are really uptight, and the tension in the air is
thick. About this time, the minister realizes that from way at the back of the church, a deacon is slowly making his way toward Bill. Now the deacon is in his eighties, has silver-gray hair, and a three-piece suit. He is a godly man, very elegant, very dignified, and very courtly. He walks with a cane and, as he starts walking toward this boy, everyone is saying to themselves that you can’t blame him for what he’s going to do. How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some college kid on the floor?
d. It takes a long time for the man to reach the boy. The church is utterly silent except for the clicking of the man’s cane. All eyes are focused on him. You can’t even hear anyone breathing. The minister can’t even preach the sermon until the deacon does what he has to do. And now they see this elderly man drop his cane on the floor. With great difficulty, he lowers himself and sits down next to Bill and worships with him so he won’t be alone.
e. Everyone chokes up with emotion. When the minister gains control, he
says, "What I’m about to preach, you will never remember. What you have just seen, you will never forget.
f. "Be careful how you live. You may be the only Bible some people will
ever read"...
g. Let’s Pray.
VI. Closing Prayer
