The steadfast fellowship
Intro:
Last week we went into a passage that looked at how God was forming a new people, a new kingdom, and he worked through Pentecost, following the lines of the calling out of Israel from slavery in Egypt, defeating pharaoh and then setting a new call on a motley crew of people, in the same way, freeing a people that we are a part of from slavery, defeating sin and death, and at Pentecost laying his presence on his people.
Acts bigger pictures: But there was so much within that section that I had to skip introducing some major ideas and themes within Acts: Why is this important? We often forget, I think, the bigger story and the context as we work through different parts of the bible, and that context helps put parameters on how we can understand a text, and we get a better idea of what is actually going on (kind of like when the news takes a sound bite out of context from someone speaking, making it sound crazy)
Acts is actually part of a series, Luke-Acts, written (most believe) by a doctor named Luke. He is painting a specific portrait of how things went, so that his readers would be sure to understand the importance of what Jesus had done and what God was continuing to do.
Within Acts, every now and then, Luke puts in a summary statement, as he works through what is going on, bringing it out of the anecdotes and smaller stories to a bigger picture, sort of going up for the aerial view before dropping back into the thick of the action again. As you read through the book of Acts, you should get the feel almost of being on this thing moving forward, kind of like a runaway freight train.
Luke is very keen on showing the development of the church, from the calling of the disciples and the life of Jesus in Acts, and then moving from these first few followers waiting for the promised power of the spirit all the way to a movement that keeps growing and makes it all the way to Rome.
One of the things that we will look at more on another Sunday is a theme that Luke highlights this comparison between an empire built on strength and riches and the community of God built on sacrifice, service and the poor.
One of the other big things that Luke is doing is what many translations use different wording to say “the word of God” or the “word of the lord”, and Luke is very careful in when it is used.
In the gospel of Luke, only Jesus is connected with this “word of god, but in the book of Acts, after Pentecost, Luke opens up the gates for the use of “the word of God”, and after the holy spirit comes down, the followers of Christ are recorded as speaking it, and the church is moving forward in it, and interesting enough, this word of God even is shown to grow, in other texts it multiplies, spreads...this is more than just talking about the Bible. It is associated with conversion but also is shown to be a part of the action with those who have already come to follow Christ growing in the word of God, so the main idea with this usage is a combination of the teaching of the apostles and the work and life of the community of this new kingdom people.
The passage for today, Acts 2:42-43 is a short passage that deals with this very theme, and we are going to look at it today, partly because of the passage itself, but also partly to get into this overarching theme.
Acts 2:42-43
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.
Wouldn’t be nice if the whole book was like this, without the persecution, the martyrdoms, the trials and difficulties...but that isn’t the promise that God gives, and that is not the purpose that we have as a people of God. Instead this is more of just a pause within the total journey. There is, unfortunately, the idea many Christians develop that when you become a Christian life will all be good, that there is nothing major that will stop you, no major hardships should come your way, that as long as you are following God nothing will be a problem...but the truth of the whole picture is important, because getting it wrong can lead to some very dangerous ground that can land you in bitterness and frustration and all sorts of false promises. The promise of the book of Acts is not that there will be no opposition, and not even that we will overcome the opposition, but that the word of God will overcome it and that is a world of difference.
We see a picture painted in this summary passage of a new community. A community that includes the 3000 new converts from the happenings and preaching at Pentecost.
The action of this first community was twofold, they continued steadfastly ---in teaching of the apostles, and secondly to fellowship (that is a group united in purpose and working together) ---in the breaking of bread (both remembrance of the last supper, or communion, as well as the love feast, the breaking of bread together, sharing a meal or a meal in itself was far more than something for a quick grace to be prayed, but instead a chance to be family together, to belong, to celebrate what Christ has done in forming a new people) and in prayer (seeking together to be a group that is in the presence of God, relating to the new temple and shikinah glory).
We are going to break this down a bit.
The church call: to be committed and connected
They continues steadfastly (they devoted themselves)
Committed –it was not just a quick break to look at this teaching once, and then continue with the rest of life...this is a long time commitment to letting the teachings of the word of God to slowly remould their life to be in sync with the word of the Lord. The church is about Devotion, singularly faithful and committed to ...what? God, but also to the community, this speaks against the view that we can float as Christians to whatever gathering we feel like that month, because this is a commitment to uphold and care, which also means that we can’t just stay at the sidelines, we need to dive in. This was a group of people that gathered together and also went out with each other’s support with the understanding that they were one fellowship, one people, and this fellowship is empowered to shake the walls of this world
Disciples teaching –
This teaching would be a number of things, first the Old Testament scriptures, because they were the only ones they had, and then the teachings from the experience of the disciples, their time with Christ both before and after the death and resurrection.
This teaching was about the word of God, which leads me back into this theme, because there is an interesting development. If we look ahead to the latter part of Acts we start seeing this amazing connection between the word of God being shared faithfully and God actually speaking through them
So the power of the word of god is in some way a derivative to the accuracy of the truth. So as they shared the teaching of the disciples, the Christ who is in their midst is actually engaged in some powerful way in the formation of this community
Acts presence that when someone speaks the truth of the gospel, God is speaking through them and the word of god goes forward, and Acts keeps showing that nothing stops the progress of that word (connected to presence of God)
There is a dynamic action of the word of God to this day when someone witnesses or teaches or speaks the word.
Hellenist, not the Aramaic speakers are the ones that do it, God is using the ones that no one figured, God is bringing
Luke acts is about moving outward, bringing in the other, and the shifting to the gentiles
Moving to the point away from the law and the temple, And God is bringing the one thing that the law and the temple could not bring, the shikinah glory (the presence of the spirit of God). The first temple was great not just because it was pretty with lots of Gold, the big thing about the first temple was that the presence of God came to rest on the temple. The second temple, the rebuilt temple never had that. But now God has sent the presence, but it is not to the temple made of stone, it is to the
They did not go out to change the culture, they went out to tell people what it is to be truly human...of course, when people start getting this truly human life, culture does start to change, but that isn’t the mission, that is the result
No stopping the word of God, nothing can Leaders doing other things, rulers trying to stop them, imprisonments, storms, snakes, stoning...nothing can stop this
Fellowship:
There is a fellowship that forms, a commitment to be together the people of God, on a mission and needing each other in a deep and powerful way.
Now to help get an idea of what this is like, we only have to look at pop culture, because there were some movies made a few years ago, a series of three movies based on a series of books written by a Christian in Britain some years ago, the lord of the rings.
In the first book, and the first movie there is a scene, where a group of people with little in common come together because they here a call to something more important, the formation of the fellowship of the ring, where they are trying to get this ring to where they can destroy it and save everyone. And around the one person who stands up and says I will go, but I don’t know the way...you have others coming forward, you have Aragorn who says if by my life or death I can help you, I will, the elf, you have my bow, the dwarf, and my axe! This is what the Acts picture of community looks like, a group that can’t do it alone, has every reason to not be community together, but because of the great calling, we serve each other, each in our giftedness, to do something important, to save people.
Breaking of bread:
This goes back to something we have talked about before, the profound meaning of sharing a meal together at this time. This idea is still a part of some Middle Eastern areas. I worked with a man who had lived and worked most of his life in Iran, Saudi Arabia and other areas, and spoke of how if you were accepted into a house for a meal in many of the roughest parts of those areas, you were safe even if the most militant Al queda forces found that you were there, because to be accepted for the meal, to have been invited means that you were safe the whole way there, the time you were there even over night, and then the way back, because you were, for that time, part of the family, part of that clan, and that family and clan would rather die to protect you in that circumstance than have you hurt, and to attack you under their care was to risk war with the entire tribe, not just the family or the town, but the whole tribe. This was a part of what they could be talking about here, the identification of each other as family, as worth protecting, worth sacrificing for, worth helping even when it wasn’t your job...
And this was a part of what the early church did, with a sharing of life together, and what Paul in talking to the church in Corinth when he writes of “love feasts” a big common meal that might last hours (making our potlucks look quaint and small). Usually this feast would end with a time of remembrance in communion. Celebrating and mourning, and remembering and being united around the table, because around the cross of Jesus the ground is level, no one standing higher than anyone else.
And to Prayer:
Prayer is something that defines the people; a group of people that never stop seeking the lord, both individually and together. This can be a hard part for some people. There are some who find praying in groups or publicly so uncomfortable that they don’t really want to do it; there are also those who pray in such lengthy and flowery words that it certainly doesn’t seem to be God that they want to be the audience.
But as a community, to remove prayer from our midst, from our times of community would be to lose part of the very action that God is calling us to be doing. There is a power to prayer that goes beyond what we realize, and it is a part of how we can make sure that
And it is a community that in the midst of seeing powerful things happening, like 3000 people coming to Christ in a day, does not lose its understanding of where its power is coming from. It is, both privately and publicly reminding the community that it isn’t the power of the apostles that did it, it wasn’t some clever scheme or plan, and it wasn’t even the gifts of the spirit, it was the Holy Spirit himself, it was Christ in the center of the action, it was the father flowing through the people...that is what brought about the action.
Verse 43:
When all this is happening, a group that starts as a motley crew, not knowing even their own story let alone God’s, moves out in surprising ways. It can take the breath away from sceptics, to see the unity and the commitment and the community of the people of God. It can inspire and invite, when they realize God is saying to them, you are invited, you can be a part.
And when they are in the clear understanding of God being the center of this, and his presence being the power, the acts and wonders and miraculous things start to happen, as God brings about more.
