When Christ poured out his Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, he ushered his “kingdom community” into the age to come. Pentecost is sometimes described as the birthday of the church, but that is not quite accurate. Far earlier in the Bible the Greek term ekklesia, which our English versions render “church,” had been applied to the “day of the assembly” (1) when Israel gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai as Moses received the Lord’s covenant on the mountaintop (Deut. 9:10). From that point forward the term appears regularly in the Old Testament to designate the congregation of Israel assembled to worship in God’s presence (for example, 1 Kings 8:14, 22, 55, 65; 1 Chron. 13:2-4; 29:20; 2 Chron. 29:31-32; Ps. 22:35; 35:18). (2) When Simon Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus himself promised to build his ekklesia, his assembly, his church (Matt. 16:18). Not surprisingly, therefore, in the interim between Jesus’ ascension to heaven and his bestowal of the Spirit from his throne at God’s right hand (Acts 2:33), we are shown a community of believers “with one accord…devoting themselves to prayer,” awaiting the empowering Spirit of God, whom their Lord would soon send (1:4-5, 8, 14). The Spirit of God applies Christ’s redemptive achievement personally to individuals (in the mysterious rebirth that draws us to faith), yet his agenda is not primarily individualistic but rather communal. The Father’s call and the Spirit’s power rescue rebels from wrath for the purpose of incorporating the redeemed into the assembly of the Lord.
The churchly communal focus of the kingdom is evident both in the immediate response to Peter’s sermon on Pentecost (Acts 2:37-41) and in the aftermath of that event (2:42-47). As the Word of God “cut to the heart” thousands of Peter’s listeners and they asked how they should respond, he answered, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God will call to himself” (2:38-39). Their change of heart (repentance) must be attested publicly by submission to baptism in Jesus’ name. And thus it was: “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls” (2:41). From the core of one hundred twenty who had awaited the Spirit’s descent (1:15), the church swelled as thousands took a public stand, confessing allegiance to Jesus the Messiah, whose name laid claim to them in baptism. As in Abraham’s day, God spoke his promise not only to repenting and believing adults, but also to their children (see Gen. 17:5-11). Moreover, as God had promised to bless all nations through Abraham (12:3), now this blessing would reach pagan Gentiles “far off,” whom God would call through the gospel (see Isa. 57:19; Eph. 2:11-18). Individuals’ transition from death to life, originating in the Spirit’s hidden touch (John 3:8), became visible as they joined the community that confessed Jesus as Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36).
Acts 2:42-47 is the first of several transitional summaries in which Luke offers portraits of the life of the church in the aftermath of the Spirit’s arrival. (3) This transition opens with the four activities that characterized the church’s life together and fostered its members’ growth: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (2:42). Luke elaborates on these four components in his later transitions (4:32-35; 5:12-16; 6:7; 12:24; 13:49; 19:20; see also 9:31; 16:5), showing that they are the means by which disciples who entered the church through baptism were taught “to observe all that I have commanded you,” as Jesus had instructed (Matt. 28:20).
The Apostles’ Teaching
Extensive space is devoted in Acts to the content of sermons in which the apostles and others proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom. With one notable exception (of the major speeches in Acts, only Paul’s farewell message to the elders of the church at Ephesus is spoken specifically to Christian listeners [Acts 20:18-35]), the venues of these sermons were not Christian worship services, and the audiences were those outside the community of the kingdom. They were gatherings of Jews and Gentile proselytes in the temple or in synagogues, or they were Gentile pagans in city squares. Do these samples of the apostles’ evangelistic preaching to uncommitted (or even hostile) audiences tell us anything about their teaching to the baptized?
Some scholars have drawn a sharp differentiation between the content of the apostles’ kerygma (gospel proclamation) to unbelievers and their didache (teaching) to Christian congregations. (4) To be sure, various audiences’ diverse spiritual needs influenced the apostles’ apologetic arguments and applications of God’s truth. Therefore, the sermons of Acts focus on demonstrating to the unconvinced that Jesus is the promised Messiah, both Savior and Judge, and on summoning them to a radical shift of trust and allegiance. Within the congregation of those already committed to Christ, however, the focus would be on deepening faith and showing the implications of grace for relationships and conduct in the king’s community.
Nonetheless, the sermons of Acts reflect the content that the apostles taught believers, as well as the message they proclaimed to those outside. Paul’s Epistles, which are addressed to Christian congregations, reflect in writing what he taught to churches in person. These Epistles reinforce the centrality of the gospel truths that first drew us to faith (Gal. 3:1-5; 1 Cor. 15:1-4), and they show that the redemption wrought by Jesus sets the agenda and provides the power for our life as his disciples (Col. 2:6-7; Rom. 6:1-14). Moreover, the prologue to Luke’s Gospel (Luke 1:1-4) shows that the evangelistic sermons in Acts express truths that would strengthen the certainty of those, such as Theophilus, who had been catechized in the Christian faith. (5) Of course, Luke’s two volumes encompass more than the gospel truths of the incarnation, sacrifice, and resurrection/exaltation of the Son of God. But “all that Jesus began to do and teach,” recorded in the third Gospel (Acts 1:1), focused on his suffering and entrance into glory (Luke 24:25-27); and all that he continued to do and teach as the risen Lord, building and growing his church (as narrated in Acts), flowed from those events.
Later passages in Acts highlight the prominence of the apostles’ teaching in the life and witness of the church. Luke reports that “with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33). The apostles’ “testimony” was addressed to those outside the church, but it also bore fruit among believers, who responded to God’s grace in generosity toward others (4:32, 34-35). The truths about Jesus to which the apostles testified drove the growth of the church, both in numerical expansion and in depth of spiritual maturity. Therefore Luke’s later transitions simply equate church growth with “word growth”: “And the word of God continued to increase” (6) (6:7); “But the word of God increased and multiplied” (12:24); “So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily” (19:20).
The Fellowship
This second component of the church’s life poses challenges both to our understanding and to our practice in twenty-first-century America. If “fellowship” brings to our mind’s eye images of light conversation over hot coffee in a “fellowship hall” during a “fellowship hour,” we will misunderstand what Luke and the Holy Spirit mean by “fellowship.” The Greek term, which found its way into English usage in some Christian circles several decades ago, is koinönia. Its focus is on a shared life and commitment to one another, a “partnership” that often includes giving to others and receiving from others (Phil. 1:5; 4:15). In the context of Acts 2:42, Luke immediately identifies the practice that koinönia expresses, reporting that “all who believed were together and had all things in common [koinos, the adjective cognate of koinönia]” (2:44). The Reformer Martin Bucer rightly recognized that the “fellowship” mentioned in Acts 2:42 was the church’s “alms,” the openhearted liberality by which affluent Christians contributed financial resources to relieve the poor. (7) This readiness to share material things with needy brothers and sisters not only characterized the earliest church in Jerusalem (4:32-35), but also found expression later in believers’ generosity toward each other even across vast geographical and ethnic distances (Acts 11:27-30; 2 Cor. 8-9; Rom. 15:25-27).
Here is where the early church’s costly compassion challenges our practices and our hearts’ priorities. Despite’or because of’the affluence that Western Christians enjoy even in times of recession (in comparison with most of the world), we are too often captive to our private property. Our possessions own us more than we own them. Generosity that impinges on our lifestyle or jeopardizes our financial security (as we imagine it) is all too rare among us. By contrast, although Joseph Barnabas stood out in the apostles’ estimation for his character and faith (Acts 11:24), in one sense he was just one typical example of how many cheerfully forewent comforts or security to relieve others’ needs (4:36-37). (8)
The Breaking of the Bread
Although English versions often omit it, the Greek original contains a definite article that is significant: “The breaking of the bread.” Luke will go on to report that believers gathered regularly to break bread (no article) and to eat meals together (Acts 2:46). However, references to breaking “the bread” elsewhere in Luke and Acts direct our attention to that evening when Jesus, on his way to the cross, constituted the Lord’s Supper by breaking the bread and offering the cup as signs and seals of his impending sacrifice to inaugurate the new covenant (Luke 22:19-20). After his death, his disciples recognized their risen Lord when he took “the bread,” blessed, broke it, and gave it to them (24:30-31). Later, the church at Troas gathered on the first day of the week “to break bread,” and in the wee hours of the morning, after a lengthy sermon, Paul finally broke “the bread” and ate with them (Acts 20:7, 11).
It appears that in those early years this sacramental participation in the bread and the cup (1 Cor. 10:16-17), in which believers “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (11:26), may have been integrated with the meals that believers regularly shared together (Acts 2:46; see 6:1-7). Paul rebuked the Corinthians’ drunkenness, selfishness, and contempt for the poor in the common meals, because these abuses had so poisoned the atmosphere by the time they received the elements that signified Christ’s death that the sacramental portion of the meal could hardly be called “the Lord’s Supper” (1 Cor. 11:17-22). Better to satisfy your appetites at home than to split the church by conspicuous consumption! But the schismatic suppers at Corinth were a far cry from the oneness of heart and soul that we see in the portraits of the church’s life together in the early chapters of Acts. When Christians recognize, as those early believers in Jerusalem did, the priceless sacrifice of Christ that is proclaimed in the bread and the cup whenever we gather at the Lord’s Table, the Savior’s love, sealed to our hearts by faith, will move us to gratitude for his grace and to love for one another.
The Prayers
The kingdom community that listens to God (through the apostles’ teaching and through the bread, the visible Word of the Lord’s Supper) replies to God in prayer. Even before Pentecost, believers were devoting themselves to prayer, claiming Jesus’ promise that he would soon send the Spirit (Acts 1:14). They asked their risen Lord, who chose his apostles (1:2) and who sees human hearts (see Mark 2:8), to designate a replacement for Judas the traitor (Acts 1:24-25). Then, when the Spirit arrived, his presence in their midst evoked continuous devotion to “the prayers.” Not only did they participate in Israel’s prayers at the temple (Acts 3:1), but also their own gatherings in homes became houses of prayer in which they offered thanksgiving and petition in Jesus’ name.
The presence of Christ in the midst of his assembly mobilized their prayer when threats and persecution could have jeopardized their joy. Rather than retreating or lamenting, believers “lifted their voices together to God,” repeating back to God words that he himself had spoken ages earlier (Acts 4:24-31). Alluding to Psalm 146:6 and quoting Psalm 2:1-2, they affirmed that the conspirators who assaulted Jesus had simply fulfilled God’s Word and accomplished God’s purpose. Through the apostles’ teaching they were learning to read their Bibles, so the Lord’s Word molded their words and the Lord’s glory captured their hearts. Instead of begging to be shielded from suffering, they asked “to speak your word with all boldness,” so that the power of Jesus’ name might be shown.
Luke’s transitional summaries repeatedly show how the church grows, both in breadth and in depth. As the message of Jesus the Christ is proclaimed, the Spirit pierces hearts, producing repentance and faith. Believers and their families are embraced into the King’s community through baptism in his name, nurtured by his Word and “the bread” (and wine) of the Supper, moved to express their unity in costly and tangible compassion, and drawn together in prayer before God’s throne of grace to “find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).
1 [ Back ] The Greek Septuagint (LXX) characteristically conveyed the sense of the Hebrew qahal ("assembly") with the Greek noun ekklesia. See Acts 7:38, where Stephen refers to the covenant-making at Sinai. (Here the ESV renders ekklesia as "congregation.")
2 [ Back ] In the LXX, the psalm references are 21:26; 34:18.
3 [ Back ] Technically, the first such transition is Acts 1:14, the bridge between the account of Jesus' ascension (1:4-13) and the appointment of an apostolic successor for Judas (1:15-26). Luke sets off these transitional summaries from the events surrounding them by changing the tense of Greek verbs from aorist (simple or unmarked past) in narrating events to imperfect (continuous or repeated past actions) in portraying the pattern of behavior over extended periods.
4 [ Back ] See C. H. Dodd, History and the Gospel (New York: Scribner's Sons, 1938).
5 [ Back ] The Greek term rendered "you have been taught" in Luke 1:4 is katecheo, from which we get "catechize" and "catechism." Here and in Galatians 6:6 this verb seems to have the sense that we associate with these terms'that is, systematic instruction in the fundamental truths of the Christian faith.
6 [ Back ] In all these passages the Greek word translated "increase" (ESV) is auxano, an agricultural metaphor related to the growth of crops and other plants. See Jesus' parable of the sower (Mark 4:8) and Paul's use of this imagery in Col. 1:6, 10.
7 [ Back ] Bucer's interpretation is summarized in Hughes Oliphant Old, Worship: Reformed According to Scripture, rev. and expanded ed. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002), 153.
8 [ Back ] Donation for the poor in the apostolic church was voluntary, not mandatory (Acts 5:4). The sin of Ananias and Sapphira, which precipitated their deaths at the hand of God, was not a refusal to contribute all that they had (or even the whole proceeds from their recent sale of land), but rather their contempt for the Holy Spirit's omniscience and purity, shown in the audacity of their daring to "lie to the Holy Spirit...to God" (5:3-4).
