The First Gospel Community | Acts 2:41-47
Introduction
For those of you who know me well, you know that I am a long-suffering Tottenham Hotspur supporter. For those who don’t know, Tottenham (the Spurs), is the Minnesota Vikings of English premier league football (soccer). Always ok, always expected to do well, always under performing.
A few years back, back when we were in South Carolina, Tottenham was in the Champions League final. For those who don’t know, that is like the Super Bowl for club football—except 3-4x bigger. This was a massive deal. And trust me, I’m used to being a supporter in isolation—my wife doesn’t like watching it with me, my friends have other sports and teams they support—so I was ready to watch this historic moment alone in my living room.
But then through some Facebook ad, I saw that the South Carolina Spurs—the official supporters club in our area—were hosting a viewing party of the match at a local “british” pub. And, because of the historic nature of this match, I decided to go. So I show up, feeling like Scotty Smalls walking up to the sandlot for the first time, feeling out of place with nobody to talk to…
But when I walked in, the place was slammed packed with Spurs fans, singing and clapping and chanting, and the chairman of the fan club sees me walk in, welcomes me, grabs me a polo and a t-shirt, and I’m in. 3 other guys come over, ask me about my life, what I do for work, about my family—and we watch the match together, yell at the refs together, weep because we lost together. It was incredible, and way better than watching it alone in my living room.
Now I’m sure the majority of you would have been weirded out if you would have come with me to the South Carolina Spurs viewing party. But that is what makes various communities so distinct—they are by nature odd to those not in it.
Ian Duguid, in his excellent book on the opening chapters of Acts entitled Turning the World Upside Down, says this…
“There’s something decidedly odd about Christians. At least there ought to be. When Jesus Christ takes hold of you, there should be a change in your lifestyle that is so dramatic that people cannot explain you except by the fact that you are a Christian. When people look at the church, they should be puzzled. Outwardly, church people may seem like normal , ordinary, everyday folk. But when you look at what they do and how they live—well, you have to wonder! They are not like other people. In fact, they are distinctly odd!”
—Iain Duguid
And isn’t that so true? Christians are by nature odd. What would compel you and me to wake up our families on the weekend, get them all dressed up, bring them to a MS gym to sing, and sit and listen to somebody talk for forever, and then spend time with those people after church, during the week, and throughout all of our lives? That’s weird.
It’s weird that you would give up your Wednesday nights to gather with other believers in each others’ homes, to eat together, pray together, sing together, and just do life together. It’s weird that you would take another block of your week to gather in discipleship huddles, to meet at Bagel Boy in the early morning hours in order to confront yourself and others with the gospel, to repent and turn in faith to the promises of Christ, and to call each other to put away all that is earthly in you and to grow in grace and faith and discipleship. If you explained that to a non-believer, they would think a lot of things, but one of them would likely be…weird.
But I think one of the things Luke intends to communicate throughout his orderly account of the early church is, like ancient Israel in the OT before, the covenant people of God are called to be different, to be set apart, to be odd. And because of the gospel preached and the animating work of the Holy Spirit, Christians can’t help but be different. When the root of the tree is changed, it can’t help but produce new fruit.
For those of us who grew up in the church, this might be hard to understand. We don’t really know any better. And praise God for that! But I believe our text this morning is to rattle us a bit and to show us just what it looks like to be a part of the church, to be a part of gospel community, and to motivate you to love it, and to seek it as the right fruit of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 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. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
—Acts 2:41-47
Acts chapter 2, in its entirety, is a remarkable chapter in the Bible. In this one chapter we have the promised coming of the Holy Spirit, the subsequent spirit-inspired sermon of Peter, and now we see the response. The question that this text answers is, “What is the right response of the word preached by the power of the Spirit?” Recall the promise of Acts 1:8…
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
—Acts 1:8
So here we are. The Spirit has come upon them, and they have received the power from on high, and Peter in his sermon has witnessed to the thousands of Jews who are still gathered in Jerusalem about the Jesus they killed, and that he is the one who the prophets foretold, and in him they can be saved from their wicked and twisted generation. So, what comes next? What is the effect of the preaching of the gospel? What does that power of Spirit-inspired speech actually produce? And the answer we are given is this—gospel community.
That is what this text is about. When the Lord sovereignly works in time and space, effectually calling his elect to himself through the gospel proclamation, and when sinners repent and believe by the power of the Holy Spirit, the result is not to live a life of isolation, but one of community. And that community that is formed is called a gospel community because the thing that gathers them together is not just a shared interest or hobby, but the person and work of Jesus, planned before all time by the Father, and applied to you and me by his Holy Spirit.
And that is what we see in Acts 2:41–47. You could summarize what we read in this passage simply as…
The gospel produces devoted Christian community.
And in this passage, Luke is describing the very first true gospel community beyond Jesus’ disciples and earliest followers, which was only 120 in total. Acts 2 begins with the Spirit’s effect on those 120 (represented in Peter’s bold sermon), and now we get a picture of the broad scale response. What we see here is not yet the formal and organized church—Luke won’t use that distinction until Acts 5:11. But what is the church but organized gospel community? Act 2:41–47 is the proto-church, the church just in its earliest infancy, the church just born.
And the picture Luke paints here is an idyllic one. It’s a picture of what the church and gospel community can be—it’s almost eschatological right from the beginning. This is not necessarily a blueprint for the church of all time, as we’ll see in the coming chapters that it doesn’t stay this way.
And that checks out. If you’ve been a Christian for any amount of time, then I assume you have been in some kind of community—a church, a small group setting, etc. And it is likely that your experience with the church and gospel community has not always looked like the picture Luke describes here. This is because we still operate in a world where sin and error are rampant, and yes, even in the church there is hypocrisy and deception.
So it could be possible, and likely probable, to observe the picture Luke paints with a dose of skepticism. “Man, that would be nice, but that’s not been my experience with the church or small groups at all.” And that’s fair. But it is an idealized picture, and we can learn a lot from this picture as we seek to translate it into our specific context.
So what can we learn from this passage? I believe there are 7 different aspects to this description, 7 different descriptions of that first gospel community that, when empowered by the Holy Spirit and governed by God’s Word, can also be true of us.
A Distinct Community
Look again at Acts 2:41…
“So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”
—Acts 2:41
Although the formal polity of the church had not yet been spelled out, the people who belonged in this community were distinct and knowable. Out of this massive crowd, somebody actually did the administrative work to count all those who were added to their number—and 3,000 in one day is pretty remarkable.
And notice who it is that made up the community—or, to say it another way, what were the requirements to join this community? There were only 2—those who received the word and those who were baptized. That’s it. Word and deed. Hearing and obeying. And it is that baptism that is objective, formal, and knowable.
In our day and age in the church, we can have such a repulsion to anything formal or concrete. Often the charge of legalism is hurled—are you telling me I have to do something in order to belong to the church? Well…yes! Look again at the verses just before our text this morning starting in v. 37…
“Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ…”
—Acts 2:37–38
Peter’s response to their question was not, “You don’t have to do anything!” No, he understood that in order for the people of God to know who they were, and for them to distinguish themselves from all the other peoples, there was something needed to formalize and seal the inward reality of their conversion and to symbolize their commitment to all those in the community.
John Stott says this on this passage…
“[Jesus] did not add them to the church without saving them (no nominal Christianity), nor did he save them without adding them to the church (no solitary Christianity either). Salvation and church membership belong together. They still do.”
—John Stott
So one of the first things we learn from this community is that they were committed to one another in a formal, objective, and physical sense. They were not afraid to be numbered among each other, and not afraid for the world to see that they were united in gospel community.
At Emmaus Road Church, we value this understanding, and that’s why we practice regenerate church membership. To be a member of our church requires the same that was required for the first gospel community—that you have received and responded to the gospel of Jesus, and that you have been baptized. So if you have been around us for some time, and you feel like you have found a home here with us, I would encourage you to reach out to one of us pastors and we would love to talk with you about church membership.
A Learning Community
So after they have been made alive by the Spirit, and after they had been formally and objectively united to the visible gospel community, what came next? We see in verse 42 that they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.
The teaching that Luke has in mind here is not just the gospel story—that Christ lived, died, and was raised for their sins—but was all the teaching and doctrine downstream of that great reality. It was instruction for daily life, the gospel of Jesus actually applied and functioning in every day life.
And notice the verb—devoted. They didn’t just sit through it because that’s what they were supposed to do. There was a leaning in, eagerness to hear the word explained to them and applied to their lives. And that word, devoted, can also be translated to hold fast. Literally, they clung to the apostles’ teaching like their lives depended on it. Like the disciples before them, they had nowhere else to turn, for these were the words of eternal life.
And importantly, there was no gap or vacuum between the teaching of Christ and the teaching of the apostles, into which some weird doctrine or heresy was filled. No, the teaching of the apostles is empowered by the very Spirit of Christ! They have received power from on high, and they are not making it up as they go—they are witnesses! And so are we.
Discipleship and holiness are not only doctrine and head-knowledge, but it does start there. In order to act rightly, we must be motivated rightly. And in order to be motivated rightly, we must think rightly.
Notice again how they responded after the gospel was preached—they asked, “What shall we do?” They needed instruction to inform their actions. They needed teaching! They needed the objective truth of God to be explained and applied to their lives and govern their affections and their actions.
That’s what Jesus did to the sad disciples on the road to Emmaus. He opened the Scriptures to them and explained to them how all of the OT was about him and his death and resurrection, and it was that instruction that caused their hearts to burn within them.
Luke is going to describe in Acts 8, one of the first deacons, Philip, being led by the Spirit to an Ethiopian eunuch who is reading the scroll of Isaiah, but he needs help. He is like a sheep without a shepherd. He’s reading Isaiah 52–53, which depicts the Servant of the Lord being crushed for our sins and that by his wounds we are healed. And he asks Philip…
“About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.”
—Acts 8:34–35
He needed to be taught! And by God’s grace, he calls, prepares, and equips pastors and commissions us to preach and to teach God’s word. We are a people of the Word. This book is our final and supreme authority, and the faithfulness and effectiveness of a pastor will be measured by how he opens and explains this word. And it is through the teaching of this word that the Holy Spirit works and changes and illuminates and awakens sinners to turn to him and be formed more and more into the image of Christ.
We want to be a learning community. We want to let this word to get work done in our hearts and souls, and in order to do that, we must be devoted to the teaching.
A Worshipping Community
Of the various things Luke explains that they were devoted to in v. 42, two of them are to the breaking of bread and the prayers. These are likely referring to the normal eating of food together and the spiritual discipline of personal prayer, as well as the Lord’s Supper and liturgical and corporate prayer. In short, they were committed to worshiping as both the gathered and scattered church.
Luke mentions this in v. 46 as well…
“And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts…”
—Acts 2:46
There is an “all of life” aspect to their worship. They gathered together formally in the temple—highlighting that this is still a very jewish movement and likely where they gathered to hear the apostles preach—but they also gathered in each others’ homes to eat and fellowship with one another, experiencing the joy of worshipping the Lord with one another.
And all of this was to highlight that worship is wonderful alone, but maximized in community. Recall what David says in Psalm 34…
“Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!”
—Psalm 34:3
He calls us to worship in community! And that is exactly what the early church did. And that is what we do every Lord’s Day—we worship and magnify and exalt the name of the Risen Jesus together. And this worship is not a spectating event, nor a meeting that’s on the calendar that we attend and check that box, but it is the people of God engaged with and participating in the Triune God who saved us.
It’s interesting that we see this playing out in the earliest days of the church, but we know that prioritizing the corporate worship of God on the Lord’s Day is not always prioritized as it is here in Acts 2. The author of Hebrews gives us a strict warning…
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope (that’s the apostles’ teaching) without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
—Hebrews 10:23–25
Already between Pentecost and the writing of Hebrews 10, there was already the temptation to neglect to meet together. And the author says, “Don't rob yourself of the tremendous grace of worship togethering!” May that be so of Emmaus Road Church. May we be a people committed to the regular and corporate worship of the Lord God—both here in our Sunday gathering as well as in our gospel communities and discipleship huddles.
A Unified Community
The gospel community we behold here in Acts 2 is described in v. 44…
“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.”
—Acts 2:44–45
This really is remarkable. You put any number of people in the same room, and there is bound to be many serious differences—something Ryan and I have been walking through in our most recent podcast series, check it out. But here we see over 3,000 people made up this community, and yet there was a tremendous unity shared among them—so much that they had all things in common. Is that possible for us today?
Critically, this unity was not held together by just vibes and good times. If that were the case, that unity would not last very long. You get people in the room, even if they’re Christians, eventually someone sins against someone else, and that unity is threatened. But their unity was not superficial, based on if they liked each other or not. Rather, their unity was based fully in the person and work of Jesus, and empowered by the tremendous power of the Holy Spirit. Even in this idyllic picture, we can safely assume that there was sin still happening. So how did they maintain unity? They dealt with sin the way God would have them—by being direct with one another, speaking truth in love, and through repentance, forgiveness, and faith.
And the result of this unity is alarming. They were so together, that if someone had need, they acted quickly and dramatically. Even to the point of selling their possessions and belongings, sacrificing their wealth in order to bless and provide for those who needed it.
Now, this passage has been used by some to ask, “Is the natural result of Christianity some form of communism or socialism? Should we all sell everything we have, give it to the church, and then have all that money redistributed accordingly?” And the emphatic answer to that is no.
Personal and private property clearly still existed—they met in the personal homes of the saints. And it’s clear that these extreme measures were done voluntarily and not under compulsion. But the picture given here should arrest us. How in tune with the needs of the people I do life with am I? Or am I so worried about myself and my needs that I am completely oblivious to those struggling around me? And what abundance has the Lord given me, what resources (finances, skillset, time, etc) do I enjoy that I can use to meet needs around me? That begins by looking outward to those in your community, and then acting by faith.
Ultimately, what we see here is people who began to see others not as comrades or fellow travelers, but as family. If my parents had a need, what would I do to help? If my siblings had a need, what would I do to help? If my children had a need, what would I do to help?
Anyone who has been through a season of joy and plenty understands the joy that it is to share that with others and have others to join in—like watching the Champions League final alone or with hundreds of fellow friends. And for anyone who has walked through a season of hardship, of loss, of tragedy, they can attest to the invaluable feeling of not being alone. We are called to do this life together, to be united together, and it is such a comfort to know that we do not walk through this world alone, but experience the comfort of the Lord through his people laughing, crying, and walking through life with us.
That is the value of a unified community.
A Powerful Community
Only the power of the promised Spirit could awaken 3000 souls in a day. And Luke describes in v. 43…
“And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.”
—Acts 2:43
That awe that came upon them is a reverent fear, a holy wonder at the miraculous signs and wonders being done in their presence. The phrase “signs and wonders” is likely a reference to Moses and the 10 plagues, and the wonders that God displayed in order to highlight his power and authority over all creation, including the most powerful nation in the world, Egypt. But it was also meant to elicit a response from the Israelites. And the appropriate response to those wonders is awe and fear!
But what was true of Moses is also true of the apostles. Notice, Luke doesn’t attribute the source of the signs and wonders in the apostles. They are not magicians and sorcerers. The signs and wonders were not done BY the apostles but THROUGH the apostles, showing again that the risen Christ is working in the world in his Spirit through broken vessels.
It is power from on high that is manifesting itself in the community. Now a question might be asked, “should we expect similar signs and wonders in our midst?” And one theological perspective would interpret what is being described here in Acts 2 as purely contextual, only true of the Apostles for that specific moment in redemptive history, but not true of you and me.
But I’m not convinced. The power manifesting is not constitutional to the apostles—they are merely the ones that the Lord uses to work through. And the purpose of the signs and wonders is not to produce some weird fascination with tongues and miracles, but to produce awe and reverent fear of the God who acts in our midst. And when he does, the result is souls are encouraged and faith is strengthened.
There is no evidence that the power that was available to the early church has ceased and is no longer available to you and me. In fact, the apostle Paul spends a number of chapters in 1 Corinthians, not telling the church that the gifts of the Spirit had ceased, but rather how they are to use them in an orderly manner and for the purpose of encouraging and edifying believers.
Paul commands this in 1 Corinthians 14:1…
“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.”
—1 Corinthians 14:1
This is why we make a priority of the last Sunday of the month to make our prayer team available. We believe that God still works powerfully in our midst, and that these works are for our good and for his glory.
A Joyful Community
One would think that all this time together, all this life-on-life community would be draining, exhausting, limited—their calendars must’ve been slammed! But look again at v. 46…
“And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.”
—Acts 2:46
The effect of gathering with the people of God, to eat together and sing together, produced in them a joy and gladness that was insatiable. This joy was not just because everything was going perfectly, but rather a joy that was produced by the Spirit. Without the Spirit, we can not experience true joy—only fleeting, circumstantial happiness. But with the Spirit, we can have true and lasting joy, no matter the circumstance.
And that joy, as we said before, is maximized in community. There really is nothing better than shared joy. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem noticed this in Acts 2, so much so that the early church had “favor with all the people”. That’s tremendous! But that is the work of the Holy Spirit. And it is that same favor that made the way for their witness to go forth to the watching city and world.
An Evangelistic Community
Luke ends this montage with these words…
“And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
—Acts 2:47
Notice, the apostles were not the ones adding to their community nor were they saving anyone. But the Lord Jesus is still the one saving souls, but he is doing it through the manifest witness of the early church.
Remember that Jesus said they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem. And just their being in community was a witness itself. Every day, people were witnessing this community, and every day, people were being saved. But we are called to not just be passively witnessing to the gospel, but also to be faced outwards. To look at those around us and invite them, call them to join this community.
The community of God has always been one of expansion. God called Adam and Eve to fill the whole earth with image-bearers, God told Abraham that he would be the father of many nations when he didn’t even have one child and was well beyond his years, and Jesus had commanded his disciples to make disciples of all the nations, and to witness in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the very ends of the earth.
And here we are in Sioux Falls, SD. The Lord has been faithful to his promises and is still working in the world now, adding more and more to this number of those who are saved.
How were you called to him? How can you call others to him? It begins by giving yourself to gospel community, and then looking outward. Who else do you know that needs to hear the good news of the gospel, that they too can be saved from the coming judgement? Invite them to your home to break bread. Invite them to your GC to see what these weird people do every Wednesday night, and why there are so many cars parked out on the street. Invite them to the Bridge Course (talk to Jordan Strand!)
You might be asking, how is this community even possible? Given your experience is community, this seems impossible. But take heart! The same Spirit that dwelt in the early church described in Acts 2 is among us this morning. The same word that taught them is the same one we have this morning. And the same Christ who died for them, securing their souls, and reconciling them to the Father is the same Christ we love and trust and glorify today.