Acts 2:44-47 Bible Teaching

Welcome
Let’s pray
PRAYER

So let me briefly introduce the passages we will sing then we’ll sing them sit in silence for a few minutes to reflect on our relationship with God and when we come back I actually think we might finish Acts chapter 2! Woop!

Our first number today is

“I am not ashamed”

Taken from Romans 1:16
“ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

Our second number is

“Dead to sin Alive to Christ”

Taken from Romans 6:11
“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Acts 2.end
November 1st 2015

Alright folks, last week we covered the first line of verse 44 where Luke describes the condition, the heart, and some of the activities of the first church formed in Jerusalem and consisting entirely of converted Jews.

And he says

44 And all that believed were together, (a line we covered last week) “and had all things common;
45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
47 Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

Alright back to verse 44.

And all that believed were together . . . and had all things common;

Danny pointed out last week that when it says that “all that believed were together.”

When we consider that they were all in Jerusalem for the Day of Pentecost celebration and that they had come from all over the place, we really can’t say how LONG they were “all together” (meaning we don’t know if some left the area soon after to return home or what) nor can we fully understand the next line:

“And had all things common.”

There are a couple of ways to interpret these words. First, we could suppose, at an extreme, that once these three thousand souls joined the ranks of the 120 that they remained in the area for good, and having nothing, survived off the generosity of the believers who lived in the area who apparently sold all of their belongings and lived communally.

I doubt this very much. Not really reasonable. Not likely. I personally believe that most of those gathered in Jerusalem who converted ultimately went back to where they came from and took the Good News with them.

Nevertheless we do have to deal with these passages (and others) that speak to this practice of selling off goods and the sharing of things in common.

Now, we do have to note that Luke writes that they had “ALL things in common.” This was not just a manner of speaking. It literally seems to be the case as the Greek supports the translation as does all the other fourteen translations I consulted.

It seems that, whether personal possessions were liquidated or not, whatever personal property was formerly owned was seen as communal property in the cause of all believers.

I am pretty certain that the Apostles got this idea from having left their homes to walk with Jesus and for having had a common “bag” through which they paid for their daily needs during that time.

So possibly since the Lord and original twelve (which had now grown to 3120 people) were “one family” the Apostles continued this mindset with members of the early church.

Additionally, we might wonder (just wondering) if more of the first converts were made up of the poorer Jews who had less to lose in accepting Jesus than the rich.

If this was the case there could have been an immediate need for material help.

I say this because this “sharing of all things” is never done in the areas where Paul travels but was only done here in the earliest gatherings of the church at Jerusalem.

We also know that Paul later actually held a collection but it was “for the poor in Jerusalem” – so it could be that one of the blights of being a Christian from Jerusalem was poverty.

In any case, there was a need here in Jerusalem among those believers and some measures were taken to help.

Another less extreme view would be that maybe some who converted decided to remain in the City instead of returning home and for them, having joined an absolutely new sect that would have not been welcome in the established synagogue there would have been no means of supporting themselves – and so this is the reason Luke tells us that had “all things common.”

Hand in hand with this take on the subject, just because it says they had all things common does not mean that everything was sold and put into a common bag (like Jesus and the Apostles had).

We will read later that these same believers “broke bread from house to house,” suggesting that some of them retained their homes – so it does not appear to have been total communism – unless those houses that they went around to were held in common by all who believed.

Another angle could be that while these new converts (remember there was three thousand of them – that’s a LOT of people) certainly did not plan on joining a new sect when they left their homes to attend this demanded celebration and so maybe provisions were short – especially if they remained longer that they anticipated at the start – you know to learn from the apostles about the Lord – and so the communal approach was stop-gap measure to help tide people over until they were ready to depart.

There’s nothing like being part of a ground breaking group of something momentus – and with this being the most legitimate movement to ever get legs it is quite likely that this last perspective holds the most water.

HOWEVER, let’s read verses 44 and 45 together:

44 And all that believed were together, (a line we covered last week) “and had all things common;
45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.

We can see that while it does say “they had all things common” it also says “and sold their possessions and goods” NOT that they sold “all their possessions and goods.”

Presumably they sold as much as was necessary to help those in need but viewed all they had as the groups.

One of the interesting things is the word for “possessions,” (KTEMA) here in the Greek refers to property especially “real estate” like fixed assets like lands, houses, vineyards, etc. The word rendered “goods,” (HOOPARXIS) refers to personal or movable property like animals, clothes, carts etc.

Apparently they sold both.

And then we see that they distributed them to supply the wants of their poorer brethren, “according to their needs.”

Because Luke adds “As every man had need,” we have the parameters of the actions set forth.

The passage does not mean that they sold “all their possessions or that they relinquished their title to all their property” but it appears some of those who were lead offered up some of their properties and some of their possessions as the proceeds were needed to help meet the needs of others.

Now, by jumping ahead to chapter four where another mass conversion takes place – five thousand this time – we again read the following:

Acts 4:32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
34 Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,
35 And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.
36 And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,
37 Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

So by combining chapter two’s narrative with chapter four’s we have evident in the earliest of the churches “mass conversions” a communal response to the material needs of those in the multitude who lacked.

As we said this could have been to address their immediate and/or even their long term needs.

We can see here in chapter four that the “prices paid” for the things sold were then “laid at the apostles feet,” a Hebraism that means, the proceeds were given to the care of the apostles who were entrusted with their use, and that “distribution was made to every man according to his need.”

Just to round out the setting, we also know from chapter five that this communal approach to selling of property was NOT mandatory or placed upon people with property as a demand.

We will read that when a person owned a property or a possession it was theirs to do what they wanted to do with it. This is clear from the events in chapter five.

Nevetheless, this was a practice that went on in the early church, with limitations associated with it being:

It never happened outside of Jerusalem (that we know of).

It was not mandatory.

It was not ubiquitously applied (not all property or land was sold) except in the Acts chapter four case it does say that,

“for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,”

This SEEMS to imply that whoever owned property sold them. Also it seems to have been a very circumstantial expression.

Finally, we might even suggest that so overpowering was the Act’s II experience that this was potentially a knee jerk response in the early believers to “just give their all” to God or possibly there was such an obvious need that the Holy Spirit moved these people to participate I this somewhat communal approach to living.

Because of all of these contextual factors I think we can clearly and reasonably see that even though there are two places were the practice of selling off goods to assist those in need it was NOT a standard New Testament practice – and that it appears that this practice disappeared – probably in short order.

I do think that these incidents in the early propagation of the church are significant but I do think they express the conditions of the Christian heart more than they present a standard by which we must operate.

The love of property is one of the strongest affections we possess as human beings but the love of God (and then others) can cause people who, when confronted with the needs of others, sell what they have and assist them in their survival.

Admittedly, I like the concept – though I don’t think I have ever really allowed it a place in my heart.

Compared to the rest of the world our family is swimming in acquired items that we never need or use.

Typically when someone needs help I look at the cash on hand to see whether I can assist them or not – but the approach we read here and in Acts 4 is admittedly (shall we say) “intriguing.”

So intriguing that all kinds of religious and communalistic groups have attempte it over the centuries – often from these very passages.

But it also can lead to some very real problems – as we will see in Chapter 5.

So in summary, I think we can see that what we are witnessing here was

1st, an extraordinary case. (and exceptions never make a good rule)

2nd. It does not seem to have been commanded by the Apostles (but we do have to wonder if they suggested it since that is how they lived in ministry with Jesus)

3rd. we don’t see it practiced anywhere else in the New Testament, and finally.

While it sounds really good on paper very few (if any) communities have been able to keep such a practice alive, prosperous, and peaceful. It takes a collective of some very selfless people to maintain it and only the presence of one wheeler dealer and all hell breaks loose as the practice forever has to battle anarchy,
Opportunists, licentiousness, idleness, entitlements, in-fighting, jealousy, finger-pointing and endless accounting as a means to even try to make things fair.

I would suggest that the ONLY place this approach to existence will ever work is in heaven when flesh is gone and the Spirit reigns.

Having said all of this, my question, for biblical literalists, who say every word must be applied that is in the Bible, is how can they dismiss these scenarios in Acts 2 and 4 from being practiced in their lives?

I think we have just covered enough reasons why they should be dismissed from our lives but to a biblical literalist the claim is, “If it was done in the Bible it should be done today?”

If this is so why not the practice of communal living? And if they excuse communal living from the mix where do they get the right?

They can argue the points I just presented to you but this is an aside – the practice was done in the early church and if we are going to do ALL that is in the Bible I would think this approach to living ought to be included.

Something for the biblical literalists to think about.

Alright, verse 46

46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,

Continuing daily with one accord in the temple!? I thought they were Christians not Jews! Why would they continue in the temple?

For thousand plus years the temple was THE public place of worship and I don’t think for these devout Jews they knew of any other place on earth to worship God.

Again, this does not mean that they were in the temple ALL DAY EVERY DAY but the temple had customary hours of prayer – nine o’clock in the morning and then again at three in the afternoon.

So they continued with this tradition. Remember, the entire New Testament, but ESPECIALLY the Book of Acts, tells us the story of the ebb of the Old Covenant (the fading of all things old) and the flow (the growing in prominence) things of the Spirit.

Old Testament = laws in stone, buildings made with hands, proper clothing, proper foods, proper days of the week, a literal priesthood . . .

New Testament = laws written on hearts and minds, the Spirit, a temple made of believers, every day a day of rest, a priesthood of believers, all things lawful . . .

But the transition was going to take time. So much time that even after the Holy Spirit fell and moved into people, they still, with one accord, went to the temple during worship hours to pray.

I want to point something out that is pictured here that is very important in relation to our Christian walk today.

Here, at the greatest outpouring of God upon a people which resulted in mass confessions and three thousand baptisms one of the immediate physical results was . . .

They returned to the place of their physical heritage to worship God.

We will continue to see that among these new believers a desire to continue to cling and even impose the former things of their religious traditions on others.

There will be debates – heated debates – over what believers can eat, debates on circumcision, and practices that were very much tied to tradition, culture, and the former ways.

Remember, the former ways were almost part of their DNA and letting them go – letting anything people once loved and clung to is a process.

The amazing thing is God Himself has moved into these believers and it just goes to show how difficult, stubborn, willful our flesh can be against the things of the Spirit.

Many of us have experienced the same trials when trying to leave certain things we loved about LDS teachings and practices and all of us have experienced (and continue to experience) this difficulty as we learn by the Spirit to abandon other things (sin, habits, attitudes, world views) that are ensconced in our flesh since we were young.

Notice something beautiful here.

God was going to destroy this very temple within 40 years of these first Christians going to worship there.

He knew it was meaningless and had lost all of its purpose especially in light of the fact that His Son and Holy Spirit were now redeeming people to Himself.

But He didn’t freak out when they immediately appealed to that place to worship Him, did He.

He patiently and lovingly accepted their prayers from that building, knowing that in time, His presence in them would help them know that they could worship Him anywhere in the world – and it was acceptable.

But first things first, right.

So they continued in the apostles words, and they fellowshipped together, and they prayed and they allowed Him to work in and through them.

Why?

Get this – they had been saved – redeemed by the shed blood of Jesus to life eternal and if they were allowed to tarry, they would be saved from the coming destruction.

So have your arguments over what to eat and what to do with the end of the penis and who to fellowship with and go ahead and think you have to go to that building made by a wicked man to worship me – I have saved you, and in time, you will grow in the Spirit, and you will see clearly, and you will increasingly be free from EVERYTHING that holds you and your flesh and your minds bound.

(beat)

And so it is with all of us. The call was to us when we had yet to believe or receive – just as it was to these devout Jewish men.

By faith they received it readily and began their walk in faith as what?

As individuals saved by the shed blood of Jesus and gifted with the Holy Spirit which made residence in their hearts.

And we like them are then left to learn, like Jesus learned (as Hebrews 5:8 says,
“Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.”

Was Jesus a Son while he was learning obedience through the things He suffered?

He was.

Could He lose His Sonship? Never. He was the Son of God – born of the Holy Spirit – there was no changing that.

Could these men here at Pentecost, who walked by faith and the Spirit lose their becoming sons of God because they returned to the temple to pray?

No way.

Can we lose our direct relationship with God because we continue to obey religious observances of Law, or are tied to a life-long sin in the flesh, or continue to be mean to people after He has saved us?

Never.

We, like they, have BEEN saved.
We, like Jesus, have become God’s Son’s and Daughters by faith!

As babes and toddlers our flesh will we continue to “return to temples of stone” – (to the traditions and ways and sins that abide in our flesh?) Yes, we will.

But He has redeemed and saved and reconciled us to the Father once and for all and so there is nothing we can do – either by weakness, or failure, or tradition or even willful disobedience to change our adoption . . . . (with one exception but that’s not necessary to talk about here).

My point is to show you that God matures us in our walk with Him and mistakes and failures are part of the process, a process that seems to include:

First being reached (with the Word) by the Spirit.
Then our believing by faith.
Then salvation, reconciliation and adoption – unmerited by Man, gifted by God.
Then the life-long process of the saved being sanctificed in their flesh if they are allowed to live – the process of learning by obedience through the things we suffer. (which is a meat topic and has a place but not here).

What we are seeing here is three thousand grown devout men in the Jewish faith, being converted to God by the Spirit, turning into “spiritual babes!” who then in Christian diapers continue to relate to their Old Man flesh, driven by religious tradition, crawl back to the place they considered Holy in order to pray to God.

God must have smiled and found the whole thing endearing and cute.

Because as our Father, “our Abba,” He too looks down on us as His Children once we’ve received Him – at first as newborns, then babes, toddlers, grad-schoolers, pre-teens, teens, young adults, adults, and finally as mature old folks – but always as His children.

It can be remarkably difficult for some to walk through the Christian maturation process. As we do, at differing paces, arriving at different stages at different times, He, by the Spirit, is with us without fail.

We watch our own children mature in flesh, don’t we? It’s a process not unlike the maturation of the Spirit for a believer.

Experience, desires, propensities all play a part in physical and even in spiritual maturation. As does upbringing, instruction, environment, and our natural weaknesses and strengths.

But just as proper nutrition, exercise, stretching, and cardio training is beneficial to the maturation of the physical body there are a couple of parallels to the Spiritual maturation of a soul.

Again, it is NOT so much of what we do, or fail to do, or stumble back into that really matters in the Christian walk toward Spiritual maturation. To be honest, sometimes our failures and sins lead to a maturity in the Spirit that cannot be had in any other way.

But the main factor to spiritual maturation is the training we allow ourselves to undergo in realms of the Spirit – which ultimately will assist us in leaving the traditional temple grounds of our former lives behind.

I know I am preaching to the choir here but I cannot tell you how many people I know who have “been Christian” for decades upon decades but remain babes. At the same time I am also astonished at the level of spiritual maturity present in others who have only walked with Christ for a few years.

I’ve noticed a few differences between the two. Let me associate them with the list I just gave on vital elements to physical health and maturation.

I’m not a big fan of sports analogies to the faith but in this situation the parallels to physical well being and spiritual maturation are too close to ignore.

So we talked about good physical health being tied to
proper nutrition,
exercise,
stretching,
and cardio training.

The parallels to spiritual maturation are pretty obvious but nevertheless on point.

So to proper nutrition we have a steady diet of the Word. Can I harp on this point too much. Never.

Reading and digesting the Word by the Spirit, contextually, ardently, freely and openly does for the soul and spirit of a person what a lifetime of eating well does for the body.

It is a perfect comparative.

Job said

Job 23:12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

At one point in Jesus ministry the disciples came to Him and said:

John 4:31 “In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.
32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.”

They are living, they wash away the inclinations of the flesh, they renew the human mind – they are life – as they never go away.

Self-help books – cotton candy.
Philosophy – deep fried appetizers.
Literature – like powerful intoxicants

But the Word of the Lord not only endures forever, it does NOT return void. Consuming it guarantees healthy maturation.

It’s not by mistake that Jeremiah said:

Jeremiah 15:16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.

And when we have allowed stone edifices to exist in our spiritual lives remember what Jeremiah also quipped:

(Jeremiah 23:29) Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

Feeling immature in your Christian faith?
Tired of being a toddler?

Sick of being told what to believe instead of knowing by the Spirit what is of God?

Open the freaking word and start eating, breaking, washing, and burning away the juvenile things of your mind.

Then, as a comparison to exercise, we can’t just read the Word, we have to apply it – live it.

That is why we study it for goodness sakes to become stronger in the exercise of what we have ingested and applied.

Mature Christians don’t just read the manual, they attempt to apply the manuals directives to their lives.

They exercise their regenerated Spirit through the Word which increases spiritual strength and stamina.

I think it’s one of the main reasons people avoid the Word – because, like Hebrews says, “it is sharper than any two-edge sword, and it divides or cuts them up.”

This is uncomfortable and painful – so we naturally avoid its contents and ply ourselves with things that make us feel good.

Reading it is uncomfortable enough. Applying it takes us to a whole new level of spiritual health.

But the Word not only condemns, reminds, instructs and strengthens us, it affords us the opportunity to stretch – another healthy element to physical maturation.

To extend beyond where we “are” into different realms and areas through positions and extensions we never thought possible.

Paradoxically, where God has fully accepted us just as we are, actually receiving us “while we were yet sinners,”
He never, ever let’s those who want to grow in their knowledge of Him or in their faith or love for Him or others – to remain static.

He will stretch us as far as we are willing to allow. Again, as far as we are willing to allow.

And when we reach the point we don’t think we can be stretched any further – He places things even further from our reach – to get us to reach, stretch, and become malleable in His hands.

The final parallel to physical health and maturation is cardiovascular with the parallel being the presence and power of His Spirit inflating our lives.

The fruit of the Spirit is love – and so armed with the promises and insights and knowledge of God, spiritual maturation is enabled and enhanced and fortified by His Spirit – without which, we would fail.

This is biblical stuff folks, not some contrived system to embrace –

Read the Word
Apply the Word
Allow God to stretch you, and
Abide in the Spirit which is manifest in radical, agape love.

Okay Luke adds to his description of their activities, “And breaking bread.”

Again, this could be breaking of bread as in eating together or the taking of Communion. It is probably the opposite of the meaning of verse 42 otherwise it would be somewhat of a redundancy.

However, because of the line, “and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat (meals, food) with gladness and singleness of heart,”

I am of the opinion that this verse speaks of eating meals together in different houses, and verse 42 is probably speaking of the Lord’s supper or communion.

This seems to be the most reasonable view. Luke wraps the verse up (which flows into the final verse for the chapter) saying “and breaking bread from house to house” (an implication that they altered locations for the places they met) they did eat their food with “gladness and singleness of heart“ (verse 47)

47 Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

The Greek implies that they were very happy and welcoming and open and had their hearts knit with love for God and each other.

So much so that with these hearts they were “praising God” and Luke adds, “and had favor with all the people.”

It is doubtful that they had favor with ALL the people (those who killed Jesus would certainly not have appreciated them) so we can take this to mean that they were seen favorably by the people who associated with them at the local level OR that they had favor among themselves or with each other.

Final line of chapter two:

“And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

And I think I need more time than we have left to discuss both the principles given here as well as the Greek words for “church,” “daily” and “saved.”

So we’ll wrap up chapter 2 next week and dive into 3.

Questions comments