A Study of Acts: The New Church Blossoms
Acts 2:43-47; Mark 10:17-22 - Awe and fear of God leads to fellowship, hope and generosity.
“Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
Acts 2:43-47 NASB1995
The second chapter of Acts ends with a hopeful picture of the early church. Everyone felt a sense of awe and many signs and wonders were taking place through the apostles. The NASB95 uses the word awe, but other translations use fear. This is the healthy reverence that believers should have when seeing the supernatural power of God or even thinking about God. The apostles are able to perform signs and wonders through the Holy Spirit.
The believers were united together and had all things in common. The next part of this passage has been inappropriately used as a justification for socialism or communism because the early believers sold property and possessions and were sharing them (the proceeds) with those who had need. Think about it: There were 3,000+ new believers in the city, many who were there as pilgrims. They are excited about being part of this new church but many of them lacked resources to continue staying there and not return to their homes (yet), so what would be the appropriate response be from the nascent early church group? They would encourage one another to voluntarily find resources through the sale of property and possessions to create a common fund. Enduring Word has good commentary about this practice:
Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common: With the influx of more that 3,000 believers, most of whom stayed in Jerusalem and didn’t have jobs, the family of Christians had to share if they were to survive.
We shouldn’t regard this as an early experiment in communism because it was voluntary, temporary, and flawed to the extent that the church in Jerusalem was in continual need of financial support from other churches. Also, we don’t have any evidence this continued very long.
All who believed were together: The Jews had a tremendous custom of hospitality during any major feast like Pentecost. Visitors were received into private homes, and no one could charge for giving a bed or a room to a visitor or for supplying their basic needs. The Christians took this tremendous feast-time hospitality and made it an everyday thing.
Sold their possessions and their goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need: The power of God is evident here because Jesus became much more important to them than their possessions.
Communism is an involuntary, atheistic state-run totalitarianism that forcibly takes something from one individual for the supposed benefits of another individual. It is steeped in class warfare and resentment. These early believers were full of the Holy Spirit and voluntarily shared what they had and were in fellowship with other believers. No Romans came into the picture to seize possessions and property. God was generous to them, so they reciprocated with great generosity towards others.
A certain famous and high-level politician in this country once justified huge federal government handout programs by saying “Am I not my brother’s keeper?”. He clearly didn’t understand the origins of that statement in the Bible or the Christian ethic, substituting voluntary fellowship and financial support for the members of the body of Christ and others with needs with indifferent bureaucratic programs funded by taxpayers that had no choice in the matter. For more on this subject, this Article is a good rebuttal to the “Christian is communist” argument. Interestingly, I also saw this Article on social media before this devotional was published and after it was written. God points at things that are important!
In fact, Christian belief is entirely voluntary. God does not want robots. I think of this passage from Mark 10:
“As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” And he said to Him, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.” Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.”
Mark 10:17-22 NASB1995
Did Jesus run after this man and try to coerce him? Of course not! He loved him, but let him make his own decision. The man’s property, at that moment, was very important to him, more important than following Jesus. But we don’t know what happened later to this man - he might very well be one of the followers who is part of the crowd on Pentecost and the days after. Or he may have spent his days until death counting his possessions and money. My hope is that his encounter with Jesus was enough to change his thinking about temporary materialism; he was already thinking about eternal life when he approached the Lord.
The new believers were of one mind in the temple and they were breaking bread and taking meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. They were praising God and finding favor with all the people (this is short-lived as we will find out soon in Acts). God added to their numbers every day. I found a great sermon by John Piper on this passage in Acts. He summarizes the early church life and discovers the key to these things in these excerpts from the sermon:
So let's sum up some the elements of this early church life.
They focused a lot on the teaching of the apostles (which we have in the New Testament).
They experienced wonders and signs (which are still valid for the church today, I argued last spring, especially through the means of spiritual gifts).
They lived in a state of wonder and awe as they saw day in and day out the stark reality of God in healings and deliverances and changed lives of people being added to the church.
They shared their possessions as freely with the needy as though they didn't even own them.
They spent time in big groups in the temple.
They ate together in their homes almost every day.
And when they met each other, they met God. They prayed and they praised.
What Makes All This Hang Together?
In closing let me ask, what makes all this hang together? What's the driving force that made those believers free from their possessions, and eager to meet needs, and full of gladness and generosity and praise and prayer when they ate together day after day?
I think the key is found in verse 43 in the phrase, "fear came upon every soul"—a joyful, trembling sense of awe that you don't trifle with the God of the apostles. That is not our experience. Today for most people, including most professing Christians, God is an idea to talk about, or an inference from an argument, or a family tradition to be preserved. But for very few people is God a stark, fearsome, stunning, awesome, shocking present REALITY. He is tame. He is distant. He is silent. Where are the churches of whom Luke could say today, "Fear—awe, wonder, trembling—is upon every soul"?
The absence of this fear has a direct effect on the way we accumulate possessions for ourselves, the way we ignore the needy, the way we trivialize fellowship, and the way we play more than we pray.
This is another reason why my heart longs for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in an extraordinary way. If the awesome teaching of the apostles would stand forth the way it did in Peter's preaching on Pentecost, and if the Lord confirmed his truth with wonders and signs, this holy, happy fear would come upon the church, and material possessions would become as nothing, except to serve others; people, not things, would become precious beyond words; and when we met each other, we would meet God. And prayer would be everywhere.
Sobering words indeed! As Steve and I get nearer to the end of our lives, we are taking inventory of those things that we did that substituted for true awe and fear of God. I came up with this list:
We listened to the enemy and moved away from belief and fellowship with others to serve our own personal, career and other selfish needs. We came back!
We found an idol in “doing things”, substituting temporary experiences for service to God. We are grateful for what we have experienced, but also grieve for what we didn’t experience.
We accumulated a lot of useless “stuff” and are now in a big purge mode. We are giving away many possessions now and have plans for our property that benefits other believers.
There’s nothing wrong with possessions, money, experiences or property. God does give us good gifts. We can’t coerce or shame others to give up what they have. But we can do something ourselves that changes our individual paradigm from taking to giving. You have a chance to accept the free gifts of forgiveness, grace and eternal life through Jesus; accepting those gifts changes you!
My next devotional examines Acts 3:1-6 - Peter and the Paralytic at the Temple Gate
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - I am in awe of Your love, power and might to change hearts and create believers who serve You and other believers eagerly and generously. Please create a generous and giving heart in me and lead me to great fellowship in the remaining time (through Your Grace) here on Earth. Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.
John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For more than thirty years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis. He is author of more than fifty books, and his sermons, articles, books, and more are available free of charge at desiringGod.org.
In all cases of republishing, the following attribution must be included:
By John Piper. © Desiring God Foundation. Source: desiringGod.org