Welcome to the Family of God - the Visible Church
The Blessings of an "Extended Family" Congregation
The Lord’s Church
Four Expository Sermons on Acts 2:36-47
With Particular Applications for Smaller Congregations
SERMON THREE: The Visible Church as the House and Family of God
Introduction: Remembering the context
In these messages on the Lord’s church, I am making the case that the church as an institution is something more than just the voluntary plan of human beings. What theologians call the visible church (by which we mean the baptized church) is to be the Spirit-empowered kingdom of God. It has a history and a destiny. We are looking together at a very important account of its early New Testament history, and trying to understand the place of that history in our lives as Christians today.
Commentators from another generation have looked at this passage, along with many other biblical texts and have concluded that being a Christian is about more than your personal relationship with Jesus as one of His beloved chosen disciples. It is about more than the fact that you believe that you personally have the sure promise of eternal life in heaven through the work of Christ on your behalf. Of course these are absolutely crucial truths at the very center of the faith, but we are to know these truths as we are a vital and active part of the baptized church, and not merely as isolated individuals.
We have seen that the 3000 or so who received Peter’s preaching at Pentecost responded to that message by being baptized and then by devoting themselves to the exercises of gathered worship. Is that kind of corporate life an essential part of the Christian life? Was the 17th century Westminster Assembly right when they said that the visible church was the house and family of God? How is a true Christian life to be lived, according to the evidence of the Bible? I think that we will see from today’s text that the Christian life that the earliest New Testament church lived was a common life, a daily life, and a public life – three things that are no small challenge to the Christianity that we are accustomed to living and observing today.
TODAY’S PASSAGE
44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people….
A Common Life
When I have taught on this passage in the past, by far the great majority of questions and concerns that people express on this text center around the first two verses. Is this some sort of communism? People still have the right to private property, don’t they? Is this just some special thing for that day, or are we really being told to sell everything we have? Is this text demanding that everyone live the same way economically? In short, these verses don’t mean what I think they mean, do they?
There can be little doubt that this first group of churches in Jerusalem lived a deeply common life that is not the customary experience of Christians today. Many seek some measure of anonymity in the midst of a Sunday morning congregation, while pastors are routinely urging them that they need something more.
I listened to some sermons on the Internet the other day. It was quite an experience. I was all alone in my office. Moment by moment I had to decide whether or not this was the point when I should click on the “X” in the upper right hand corner of my monitor. I went through a couple of X-clicking experiences when I came upon a sermon based on this text preached by Matt Chandler, a young pastor I had never heard of before. Judging from the echo I heard and from the way he spoke to his audience, Matt preaches to a very large congregation, and he seems to have a sense of the limitations that can come with that.
In the beginning of the message he quoted approvingly these words of John Calvin: “To have God as your father, you need to have the church as your mother.” That got my attention, so I did not click the X just yet.
He went on to say something that I have heard other pastors of very large churches say, almost as a motto. “If you are not in a small group, then you are not in this church.” His point was that that there are some very significant and even essential things that you need as a Christian that are really impossible to get within a large anonymous assembly. They boiled down to these two categories that I think are related. 1. You can’t grow as well as a Spirit-empowered God-experiencing Christian if you are not in a small group. 2. You can’t as readily perform the biblical duties of mutual care for your brothers and sisters in Christ if you are not in a small group. Some things just cannot easily take place very easily in a group several thousand people
There were certainly large group meetings that were taking place in the Acts 2 church, but these verses show that a common life also included a smaller group Christian life that was important. Don’t miss the fact that the “homes” in the Jerusalem Church were individual extended family sized churches, much like the size of most American churches today. Acts 2 is the story of many churches that met in homes and had a connection with one another particularly through the apostolic ministry. This was a regional church comprised of smaller worshipping bodies.
There are several reasons why I am persuaded that the “homes” mentioned here and in so many places in the New Testament were used as worship locations.
1. The pattern urged by Jesus: I find it interesting to consider the situation of “the 72” that Jesus sent forth to preach and to heal in Luke 10. While this evidence does not conclude the matter, I find it easier to imagine these houses as temporary centers of kingdom ministry, rather than safe homes to come back to after a busy day of outside preaching and ministry.
Luke 10:5-7 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace be to this house!' 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. 7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house.
2. Clear New Testament House Churches: There are other passages in the post-Pentecost life of the church where a house as a local stable worship place is undeniable. At the end of Romans, Paul says this in his greetings for specific people that He knows in the Roman Presbytery.
Romans 16:3-5 3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. 5 Greet also the church in their house.
Paul also writes a letter to Philemon, who apparently has a large place where a church regularly meets for worship.
Philemon 1:1-2 Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved fellow worker 2 and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:
3. Common Sense: Given the dramatic spread of the early church in urban and rural settings, it seems only natural that houses were regularly used as worship gathering points out of necessity. It would be many, many years before large Christian churches would be built. The apostles certainly used public spaces for large group apostolic instruction when these were available (the temple in Jerusalem, synagogues until they were thrown out, and the Hall of Tyrannus in Ephesus). But converts who had large homes and open hearts would have normally provided the only possible indoor settings for church meetings.
With that in mind, many passages in the New Testament that use home and family language now make sense, since the normal location for a first century particular church was a larger home that could welcome an extended family. Listen to these words from 2 John, easily misinterpreted as John’s instruction to an individual woman who has a sister that John knows, where that woman should be careful who she entertains in her home, etc… Isn’t it now obvious that John is writing to a church, sending greetings from the members of a sister church, and warning about those who would come as false teachers and be dangerous to the spiritual health of a local congregation?
2 John 1:1-13 ESV The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, 2 because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever: 3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love. 4 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. 5 And now I ask you, dear lady- not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning- that we love one another. 6 And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. 7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. 9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, 11 for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. 12 Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, so that our joy may be complete. 13 The children of your elect sister greet you.
We can now return to today’s text and observe this important principle. Christianity in the baptized church is more than a media event, it is a way of life – a common life lived among those who come to know one another and to share with one another in ways that are always counter-cultural to the larger world around them.
How is it that these early Christians would have been so free with their possessions? First, they knew God as the Owner of everything that we have and everything that we are. When we give, we give what belongs to Him.
Psalm 50:10-12 10 For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.11 I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. 12 "If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.
But secondly, man has been chosen by God to have an important role in the stewardship of His possessions. He has given us dominion over everything in creation, and we must answer to Him for the way that we use what He owns.
Psalm 8:3-9 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Finally, the needs of the poor within the body of Christ must be addressed. The people in the Jerusalem churches expressed God’s ownership and their stewardship by selling and providing for the needs that existed in these extended families. This was not mandated. It was not a part of the civil government backed up by the power of the sword. This is clear from the later case of Ananias and Sapphira recorded in Acts 5. Listen to what Peter says to this couple who sold their house, gave a portion to the church, but then told everyone that they gave the full amount to the church: Acts 5:4 “While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?” Do you see the point? The gifts that we give are not mandated upon pain of some sanction if we don’t give enough.
Yet people gave with extraordinary generosity. Why? They knew the gift of the One who was perfectly exalted eternally, and yet came close enough to touch us and know us by name. The God of all creation knows the number of hairs on your head. He sent His Son to be born of a woman and to die the death that we deserved. He has saved His people from their sins through His own precious blood. This kind of generosity simply must not be ignored. God is with us. If we know the cost of our redemption, then we can not tolerate it when people within the church have no food or clothing.
There were two things about Jesus that drove the religious observers crazy. One was that he had a way of stopping everything in order to celebrate with one of His friends. This offended many people. But there was another thing that He did that was infuriating to some. When one of His loved ones was hurting He stopped everything in order to help. Luke 13 tells the story of a woman that everyone else would have ignored. Luke tells us that she “had a disabling spirit for eighteen years” and she could not stand up straight. It was as if Jesus said, “Stop everything. One of my friends is hurting.” Here’s how Luke puts it: Luke 13:12 “When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, ‘Woman, you are freed from your disability.’” Maybe that’s why you are here today. The Lord knows your need, and He has brought you into a place where you can experience something of the common life that is a part of being connected to a Savior who gave himself for the lost.
A Daily Life
There is sense in which I am surprised that people are so troubled in our day about the common life aspect of this passage that we read of in verses 44 and 45. I say that, because it would almost suggest that they think that there is no real difficulty with the remaining verses of this text. After all, with the increased role of government in our day in providing programs for the poor, it is more inconvenient than expensive for us to care for the poor members in a congregation like this. Normally we do not have to sell our homes to do that, although we would receive the grace to do so if that ever became necessary.
But do we really think that we live the kind of daily life that is described in this passage? Listen to verse 46 again. “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….” Is the essence of this verse truly expressed in your daily life?
What seems to be going on here? There was some corporate instruction by the apostles in what would be large group classes. But there were also many smaller gatherings of worship in homes. Some parts of worship that could not really be done in the temple, especially the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. A strong case can be made that this was happening in the particular churches that met in homes. After all, earlier in verse 42 we heard that “the breaking of bread” was one of the things that they devoted themselves to. Remember that we concluded that it would be more than a little strange if God’s point was to tell us that the early church was really passionate about eating. Yes they ate together, but they also celebrated the Lord’s Supper, and that’s the part that they were devoted to. I Corinthians 11 helps us to put all that in perspective. It is the celebration of the Lord’s death whereby we proclaim our faith and enjoy our communion in the “body” and “blood” of the Lord.
This is the way Matthew Henry understands verse 46. He is quite sure that the “breaking bread in their homes” was the celebration of communion in daily worship services in what he calls house “chapels.”
“They broke bread from house to house; kat oikon—house by house; they did not think fit to celebrate the eucharist in the temple, for that was peculiar to the Christian institutes, and therefore they administered that ordinance in private houses, choosing such houses of the converted Christians as were convenient, to which the neighbours resorted; and they went from one to another of these little synagogues or domestic chapels, houses that had churches in them, and there celebrated the eucharist with those that usually met there to worship God.”
But he also writes this:
“They were very cheerful, and very generous in the use of what they had. Besides the religion that was in their sacred feasts (their breaking bread from house to house) a great deal of it appeared in their common meals; they did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. They brought the comforts of God's table along with them to their own,…. [My emphasis]
While John Calvin acknowledges that many see the Lord’s Supper here, he does not. I tend to agree more with Matthew Henry on this point for two reasons. 1. It seems to me that they could not have celebrated the Lord’s Supper in the temple, and yet we know that they devoted themselves to this (Acts 2:42). 2. Why do we need to view this as an either/or question? Could it not be that they celebrated the Lord Supper and they also had enough food for people to eat and be satisfied?
The point for us right now is this: This was something they did daily.
One might reasonably object that this could not have possibly happened in an orderly way. My guess is that the apostles were busy going house to house at these smaller worship gatherings. These were events of the highest priority to them. Later in Acts 6 they insist that others be chosen to handle an issue of caring for the poor. They were busy with public prayer and the ministry of the word. Acts 6:2-4 “And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, ‘It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.’”
A second objection might be that this was just something for the early church in Jerusalem under the powerful move of the Holy Spirit. The contention would be that over the history of the church such daily devotion would be very unusual. The evidence from church history actually shows a different picture. We, with our Sunday morning only corporate devotion, seem to be the unusual ones. This is well documented in an excellent volume by Dr. Hughes Oliphant Old, entitled Worship. Dr Old looks at the Old Testament pattern of daily worship. He goes on to say this, “By New Testament times the Jews had well established customs for daily worship.” The evidence from early church history is also very strong. As the years moved forward, unfortunately there was an elaborate development of a complicated and even more frequent system of devotion, that Dr. Old calls “almost a monastic prerogative.”
It became one of the wonderful developments of the Reformation that the service of daily worship was again simplified and returned to the whole church. In later years the church moved in the direction of individual and family devotions. As wonderful and necessary as these are, they become a substitute for the frequent gathering of the church for the worship of God. Add industrialization, advances in transportation, and the further privatization of religious faith, and we end up with the unusual pattern that we have today of Sunday morning only church services. We are so used to this that we can barely imagine how anything other than that is even possible.
Listen to Dr. Old’s description of the daily service of the reformed church in Strasbourg in the 17th century, which was held at morning and evening. “Each service began with the singing of one or more psalms…. The daily prayer services in Strasbourg included a program of daily preaching. There were two main prayers. At the beginning of the service was a prayer of confession and supplication. After the sermon was a comprehensive prayer of intercession for the needs of the church…. The service was concluded with another psalm and the giving of a benediction by the minister.” Impossible? I don’t know why? Yet to busy moderns and post-moderns where everything else is a necessity and the life of worshipping God is a question of one thing to balance among many, it seems like it can’t be done. Or perhaps it just seems extreme. In that way it is like verses 44 and 45. To sell your possessions to care for the poor among you and for the support of the ministry seems very extreme. How we thank God for the willingness of Christ to give His all for us and for our salvation!
Though the church historical evidence is interesting, we do not need to derive our authority for this daily use of the means of grace from church history. Listen to these three passages and consider that the Lord knows our weakness and appointed a daily practice of worship, instruction, and service for His people. Or are we so strong in the Christian church today that we can afford to ignore this pattern?
Proverbs 8:32-36 32 "And now, O sons, listen to me: blessed are those who keep my ways. 33 Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. 34 Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. 35 For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, 36 but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death."
Exodus 29:38-39 38 "Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two lambs a year old day by day regularly. 39 One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight."
2 Corinthians 4:13-18 13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, "I believed, and so I spoke," we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
And of course, Acts 2 that we are looking at now:
Acts 2:46-47 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God….
In any case this daily enjoyment of God and His people in Christian worship was perhaps one of the reasons why this Jerusalem Presbytery was so obviously praising God and blessing His church with such glad and generous hearts. It is a little hard to sort out the chicken from the egg here. When you enjoy God, you want to be with Him and His people every day. But also, if you see it as normal to live the common life and the daily life in the church, it is not surprising if all that attention to the means of grace is actually used by God in a good way in the lives of His people. The result is a great system of positive growth in the hands of the Lord, so that the church continued to grow even more in their enjoyment and service of the Lord and His people.
A Public Life
There is a final part of the passage that we have not yet addressed. Luke tells us that they were “having favor with all the people.” Who exactly are “all the people?” Most see here a reference to the larger watching world in Jerusalem, although not meaning each and every individual person. We know that there were those who hated them and we can read about what they did in the chapters that follow this account. The other alternative is to consider this “all the people” to be a reference to the church rather than to the neighbors around them. This is not likely since it would leave us with a statement of how they had favor with themselves – a strange point to make. It is far more likely that the reference is to those beyond the church who had not yet been baptized. By the beginning of Acts 4 the number of men in the church had gone from 3000 to 5000. People were being added daily. It must be that there were many, many people who saw something in this group that they had to admire.
Before you can have favor with those around you, you need to be known by those around you. Despite the fact that a significant part of church life was happening in private homes, and despite the fact that the King of the church had just weeks before this been put to death on a Roman cross, the church was no secret society. There were marvelous signs and wonders being performed. The word of grace was being boldly proclaimed. The centrality of Christ and the cross could be known by the frequent celebration of the communion meal. Many were hearing and believing. People were giving all that they had to this new life. The prayers of the people were heard coming from private homes throughout the city on a daily basis.
They were surely known, just as Jesus had been known. Just as surely the crowds saw at least something that they had to admire. There must have been a moral integrity in the church without the ugliness of hypocrisy and self-righteousness. This was something new – something different from the Pharisees or the Esseenes. There was something here that was so true that it was worth dying for. Again, this was a new thing – very different from the Sadducees or the Herodians who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. This was a new agape life of generous love that provoked admiration. And all of this resurrection life was flowing from the ironic and surprising victory of the cross.
In all of this, these people had the courage to live the life that they lived in a public way. The doors of these homes were open. I saw a picture recently of some government agents standing outside house churches in a foreign land where people face much persecution for living this Acts 2 kind of life today. The agents pose as interested people according to the story I read, and then they find out the leaders of the house churches and add to their files more information that may be useful in the future. How do they know that such a transparent plan will give them fairly easy access to Christian leaders? Even the enemies of the church know that a real Christian church has an open door. Our Father has an open door for us through Christ, that we might be called the children of God, members of His household and a part of His family. For this reason the doors of the house chapels of Acts 2 were opened to new people who would see something they liked and desire to be a part of something that was real.
Through the extended family congregations in the Jerusalem Presbytery and through the public teaching ministry in the temple, the message was communicated that the assembly that preached the mercy of God through Jesus Christ the Messiah was opening the door to anyone who would come in. That door has been open for many centuries. The door is open to you today – whoever you are, whatever you’ve done. You don’t need to stay in the bondage of sin. You can be freed by the power of the Spirit. This is a family gathering, and God the Spirit and the church say, “Come!” Your guilt can be taken away as you surrender to God. You can have a new name, His name, the name of Christian. It is a family name, a household you belong to.
POINT:
The Visible Church is the House and Family of God. This is not merely a courtroom where we hear the words “not guilty,” and then go about our business. This is a growing family where we care for one another and celebrate God together day by day.
APPLICATIONS:
1. To live as a child of God is the privilege and duty of everyone in our Father’s house.
The God who is high and mighty came as close as can be to us and He knows us. His family is not an anonymous enterprise. If you are part of a church that is so large that you can’t really do the things that are described in Acts 2, then you really do need to be a part of a small group. Don’t make it so small that your tempted to just be self-centered. Make sure that it includes people who are as diverse as the people around you here this morning. God wants your extended family church experience to include old people and young people, and all kinds of people that are part of the variety that will populate heaven one day.
If you are a part of a congregation like this, about the size of most churches, then you already have a small group. You are in it now. This church life is a common life. Don’t be satisfied with anything less than that. The pastor I quoted at the beginning of this message said that if you are not in a small group then you are not a part of the church. Why? Because it is in that extended family environment that you will grow in Christ and care for one another. There is one thing that he did not mention. Even if you attend a small group every week, there is no guarantee that you will grow in Christ and open your heart to the service of others. The same thing, of course, can be said about this extended family congregation. You need to open your heart to the work of the Spirit of God in the midst of this group of people to which God has brought you. You need to love God with them, and love one another as the Lord’s household and family.
I visited someone from this church the other day in the hospital. She feels so alone and she is hurting. Sometimes she cannot get out of bed because of her pain, and she can easily feel that there is no one there for her. In the somewhat public setting of her hospital room I went to visit her. I listened to her. I prayed with her. What was I being to her? Was I being her pastor? I guess so, but I honestly think I was just being a Christian. This is a family thing. One of our friends is hurt. Like Jesus, who looked at us in our need and visited us, we stop what we are doing and we go.
2. The daily life of communal Christianity needs to be recaptured in our isolated world.
I hardly know where to begin on this one. Those of you who have been here for some time know that we have been convinced by Dr. Old’s argument that the church ought to offer daily opportunities for worship. Every weekday morning from 7-7:30 or so we do something very much like the Christians did in Strasbourg in the 17th century, and something like people did in Jerusalem in the 1st century. That door to a daily life of worship is open to you.
You may choose to do this in your own homes rather than here. How wonderful! Can you invite someone else to be around your table? Make it family devotions “plus,” where the plus is someone who might be alone if your door was closed. Use your gift of hospitality. Have people over for a meal and spiritual discussion and prayer. Talk to one another on the phone. Check out the pastor’s log every day from the web site to see what thoughts I’m sharing with this family. Find ways of serving one another, and do that service with one another. Enjoy Christ together in everything that you do.
3. Welcome to the Family of God – the Visible Church
Finally, don’t be satisfied with anything less than the true community of salvation that the Lord has written about in this book. This is the household and family of God and the door is open. In Luke 15, the father was waiting on the front porch for his wayward son to return. You know how we know? It says so in the Bible.
Luke 15:20-24 While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 22 But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."
Where do we go from here? Tomorrow we worship God. And then next Sunday morning we look at these final words in our passage: “… And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” May the Lord use this open door for the saving of the lost, to the glory of His holy name. Amen.
The Lord’s Church
Four Expository Sermons on Acts 2:36-47
With Particular Applications for Smaller Congregations
SERMON THREE: The Visible Church as the House and Family of God
Introduction: Remembering the context
In these messages on the Lord’s church, I am making the case that the church as an institution is something more than just the voluntary plan of human beings. What theologians call the visible church (by which we mean the baptized church) is to be the Spirit-empowered kingdom of God. It has a history and a destiny. We are looking together at a very important account of its early New Testament history, and trying to understand the place of that history in our lives as Christians today.
Commentators from another generation have looked at this passage, along with many other biblical texts and have concluded that being a Christian is about more than your personal relationship with Jesus as one of His beloved chosen disciples. It is about more than the fact that you believe that you personally have the sure promise of eternal life in heaven through the work of Christ on your behalf. Of course these are absolutely crucial truths at the very center of the faith, but we are to know these truths as we are a vital and active part of the baptized church, and not merely as isolated individuals.
We have seen that the 3000 or so who received Peter’s preaching at Pentecost responded to that message by being baptized and then by devoting themselves to the exercises of gathered worship. Is that kind of corporate life an essential part of the Christian life? Was the 17th century Westminster Assembly right when they said that the visible church was the house and family of God? How is a true Christian life to be lived, according to the evidence of the Bible? I think that we will see from today’s text that the Christian life that the earliest New Testament church lived was a common life, a daily life, and a public life – three things that are no small challenge to the Christianity that we are accustomed to living and observing today.
TODAY’S PASSAGE
44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people….
A Common Life
When I have taught on this passage in the past, by far the great majority of questions and concerns that people express on this text center around the first two verses. Is this some sort of communism? People still have the right to private property, don’t they? Is this just some special thing for that day, or are we really being told to sell everything we have? Is this text demanding that everyone live the same way economically? In short, these verses don’t mean what I think they mean, do they?
There can be little doubt that this first group of churches in Jerusalem lived a deeply common life that is not the customary experience of Christians today. Many seek some measure of anonymity in the midst of a Sunday morning congregation, while pastors are routinely urging them that they need something more.
I listened to some sermons on the Internet the other day. It was quite an experience. I was all alone in my office. Moment by moment I had to decide whether or not this was the point when I should click on the “X” in the upper right hand corner of my monitor. I went through a couple of X-clicking experiences when I came upon a sermon based on this text preached by Matt Chandler, a young pastor I had never heard of before. Judging from the echo I heard and from the way he spoke to his audience, Matt preaches to a very large congregation, and he seems to have a sense of the limitations that can come with that.
In the beginning of the message he quoted approvingly these words of John Calvin: “To have God as your father, you need to have the church as your mother.” That got my attention, so I did not click the X just yet.
He went on to say something that I have heard other pastors of very large churches say, almost as a motto. “If you are not in a small group, then you are not in this church.” His point was that that there are some very significant and even essential things that you need as a Christian that are really impossible to get within a large anonymous assembly. They boiled down to these two categories that I think are related. 1. You can’t grow as well as a Spirit-empowered God-experiencing Christian if you are not in a small group. 2. You can’t as readily perform the biblical duties of mutual care for your brothers and sisters in Christ if you are not in a small group. Some things just cannot easily take place very easily in a group several thousand people
There were certainly large group meetings that were taking place in the Acts 2 church, but these verses show that a common life also included a smaller group Christian life that was important. Don’t miss the fact that the “homes” in the Jerusalem Church were individual extended family sized churches, much like the size of most American churches today. Acts 2 is the story of many churches that met in homes and had a connection with one another particularly through the apostolic ministry. This was a regional church comprised of smaller worshipping bodies.
There are several reasons why I am persuaded that the “homes” mentioned here and in so many places in the New Testament were used as worship locations.
1. The pattern urged by Jesus: I find it interesting to consider the situation of “the 72” that Jesus sent forth to preach and to heal in Luke 10. While this evidence does not conclude the matter, I find it easier to imagine these houses as temporary centers of kingdom ministry, rather than safe homes to come back to after a busy day of outside preaching and ministry.
Luke 10:5-7 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace be to this house!' 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. 7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house.
2. Clear New Testament House Churches: There are other passages in the post-Pentecost life of the church where a house as a local stable worship place is undeniable. At the end of Romans, Paul says this in his greetings for specific people that He knows in the Roman Presbytery.
Romans 16:3-5 3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. 5 Greet also the church in their house.
Paul also writes a letter to Philemon, who apparently has a large place where a church regularly meets for worship.
Philemon 1:1-2 Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved fellow worker 2 and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:
3. Common Sense: Given the dramatic spread of the early church in urban and rural settings, it seems only natural that houses were regularly used as worship gathering points out of necessity. It would be many, many years before large Christian churches would be built. The apostles certainly used public spaces for large group apostolic instruction when these were available (the temple in Jerusalem, synagogues until they were thrown out, and the Hall of Tyrannus in Ephesus). But converts who had large homes and open hearts would have normally provided the only possible indoor settings for church meetings.
With that in mind, many passages in the New Testament that use home and family language now make sense, since the normal location for a first century particular church was a larger home that could welcome an extended family. Listen to these words from 2 John, easily misinterpreted as John’s instruction to an individual woman who has a sister that John knows, where that woman should be careful who she entertains in her home, etc… Isn’t it now obvious that John is writing to a church, sending greetings from the members of a sister church, and warning about those who would come as false teachers and be dangerous to the spiritual health of a local congregation?
2 John 1:1-13 ESV The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, 2 because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever: 3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love. 4 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. 5 And now I ask you, dear lady- not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning- that we love one another. 6 And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. 7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. 9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, 11 for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. 12 Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, so that our joy may be complete. 13 The children of your elect sister greet you.
We can now return to today’s text and observe this important principle. Christianity in the baptized church is more than a media event, it is a way of life – a common life lived among those who come to know one another and to share with one another in ways that are always counter-cultural to the larger world around them.
How is it that these early Christians would have been so free with their possessions? First, they knew God as the Owner of everything that we have and everything that we are. When we give, we give what belongs to Him.
Psalm 50:10-12 10 For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.11 I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. 12 "If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.
But secondly, man has been chosen by God to have an important role in the stewardship of His possessions. He has given us dominion over everything in creation, and we must answer to Him for the way that we use what He owns.
Psalm 8:3-9 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Finally, the needs of the poor within the body of Christ must be addressed. The people in the Jerusalem churches expressed God’s ownership and their stewardship by selling and providing for the needs that existed in these extended families. This was not mandated. It was not a part of the civil government backed up by the power of the sword. This is clear from the later case of Ananias and Sapphira recorded in Acts 5. Listen to what Peter says to this couple who sold their house, gave a portion to the church, but then told everyone that they gave the full amount to the church: Acts 5:4 “While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?” Do you see the point? The gifts that we give are not mandated upon pain of some sanction if we don’t give enough.
Yet people gave with extraordinary generosity. Why? They knew the gift of the One who was perfectly exalted eternally, and yet came close enough to touch us and know us by name. The God of all creation knows the number of hairs on your head. He sent His Son to be born of a woman and to die the death that we deserved. He has saved His people from their sins through His own precious blood. This kind of generosity simply must not be ignored. God is with us. If we know the cost of our redemption, then we can not tolerate it when people within the church have no food or clothing.
There were two things about Jesus that drove the religious observers crazy. One was that he had a way of stopping everything in order to celebrate with one of His friends. This offended many people. But there was another thing that He did that was infuriating to some. When one of His loved ones was hurting He stopped everything in order to help. Luke 13 tells the story of a woman that everyone else would have ignored. Luke tells us that she “had a disabling spirit for eighteen years” and she could not stand up straight. It was as if Jesus said, “Stop everything. One of my friends is hurting.” Here’s how Luke puts it: Luke 13:12 “When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, ‘Woman, you are freed from your disability.’” Maybe that’s why you are here today. The Lord knows your need, and He has brought you into a place where you can experience something of the common life that is a part of being connected to a Savior who gave himself for the lost.
A Daily Life
There is sense in which I am surprised that people are so troubled in our day about the common life aspect of this passage that we read of in verses 44 and 45. I say that, because it would almost suggest that they think that there is no real difficulty with the remaining verses of this text. After all, with the increased role of government in our day in providing programs for the poor, it is more inconvenient than expensive for us to care for the poor members in a congregation like this. Normally we do not have to sell our homes to do that, although we would receive the grace to do so if that ever became necessary.
But do we really think that we live the kind of daily life that is described in this passage? Listen to verse 46 again. “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….” Is the essence of this verse truly expressed in your daily life?
What seems to be going on here? There was some corporate instruction by the apostles in what would be large group classes. But there were also many smaller gatherings of worship in homes. Some parts of worship that could not really be done in the temple, especially the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. A strong case can be made that this was happening in the particular churches that met in homes. After all, earlier in verse 42 we heard that “the breaking of bread” was one of the things that they devoted themselves to. Remember that we concluded that it would be more than a little strange if God’s point was to tell us that the early church was really passionate about eating. Yes they ate together, but they also celebrated the Lord’s Supper, and that’s the part that they were devoted to. I Corinthians 11 helps us to put all that in perspective. It is the celebration of the Lord’s death whereby we proclaim our faith and enjoy our communion in the “body” and “blood” of the Lord.
This is the way Matthew Henry understands verse 46. He is quite sure that the “breaking bread in their homes” was the celebration of communion in daily worship services in what he calls house “chapels.”
“They broke bread from house to house; kat oikon—house by house; they did not think fit to celebrate the eucharist in the temple, for that was peculiar to the Christian institutes, and therefore they administered that ordinance in private houses, choosing such houses of the converted Christians as were convenient, to which the neighbours resorted; and they went from one to another of these little synagogues or domestic chapels, houses that had churches in them, and there celebrated the eucharist with those that usually met there to worship God.”
But he also writes this:
“They were very cheerful, and very generous in the use of what they had. Besides the religion that was in their sacred feasts (their breaking bread from house to house) a great deal of it appeared in their common meals; they did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. They brought the comforts of God's table along with them to their own,…. [My emphasis]
While John Calvin acknowledges that many see the Lord’s Supper here, he does not. I tend to agree more with Matthew Henry on this point for two reasons. 1. It seems to me that they could not have celebrated the Lord’s Supper in the temple, and yet we know that they devoted themselves to this (Acts 2:42). 2. Why do we need to view this as an either/or question? Could it not be that they celebrated the Lord Supper and they also had enough food for people to eat and be satisfied?
The point for us right now is this: This was something they did daily.
One might reasonably object that this could not have possibly happened in an orderly way. My guess is that the apostles were busy going house to house at these smaller worship gatherings. These were events of the highest priority to them. Later in Acts 6 they insist that others be chosen to handle an issue of caring for the poor. They were busy with public prayer and the ministry of the word. Acts 6:2-4 “And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, ‘It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.’”
A second objection might be that this was just something for the early church in Jerusalem under the powerful move of the Holy Spirit. The contention would be that over the history of the church such daily devotion would be very unusual. The evidence from church history actually shows a different picture. We, with our Sunday morning only corporate devotion, seem to be the unusual ones. This is well documented in an excellent volume by Dr. Hughes Oliphant Old, entitled Worship. Dr Old looks at the Old Testament pattern of daily worship. He goes on to say this, “By New Testament times the Jews had well established customs for daily worship.” The evidence from early church history is also very strong. As the years moved forward, unfortunately there was an elaborate development of a complicated and even more frequent system of devotion, that Dr. Old calls “almost a monastic prerogative.”
It became one of the wonderful developments of the Reformation that the service of daily worship was again simplified and returned to the whole church. In later years the church moved in the direction of individual and family devotions. As wonderful and necessary as these are, they become a substitute for the frequent gathering of the church for the worship of God. Add industrialization, advances in transportation, and the further privatization of religious faith, and we end up with the unusual pattern that we have today of Sunday morning only church services. We are so used to this that we can barely imagine how anything other than that is even possible.
Listen to Dr. Old’s description of the daily service of the reformed church in Strasbourg in the 17th century, which was held at morning and evening. “Each service began with the singing of one or more psalms…. The daily prayer services in Strasbourg included a program of daily preaching. There were two main prayers. At the beginning of the service was a prayer of confession and supplication. After the sermon was a comprehensive prayer of intercession for the needs of the church…. The service was concluded with another psalm and the giving of a benediction by the minister.” Impossible? I don’t know why? Yet to busy moderns and post-moderns where everything else is a necessity and the life of worshipping God is a question of one thing to balance among many, it seems like it can’t be done. Or perhaps it just seems extreme. In that way it is like verses 44 and 45. To sell your possessions to care for the poor among you and for the support of the ministry seems very extreme. How we thank God for the willingness of Christ to give His all for us and for our salvation!
Though the church historical evidence is interesting, we do not need to derive our authority for this daily use of the means of grace from church history. Listen to these three passages and consider that the Lord knows our weakness and appointed a daily practice of worship, instruction, and service for His people. Or are we so strong in the Christian church today that we can afford to ignore this pattern?
Proverbs 8:32-36 32 "And now, O sons, listen to me: blessed are those who keep my ways. 33 Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. 34 Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. 35 For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, 36 but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death."
Exodus 29:38-39 38 "Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two lambs a year old day by day regularly. 39 One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight."
2 Corinthians 4:13-18 13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, "I believed, and so I spoke," we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
And of course, Acts 2 that we are looking at now:
Acts 2:46-47 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God….
In any case this daily enjoyment of God and His people in Christian worship was perhaps one of the reasons why this Jerusalem Presbytery was so obviously praising God and blessing His church with such glad and generous hearts. It is a little hard to sort out the chicken from the egg here. When you enjoy God, you want to be with Him and His people every day. But also, if you see it as normal to live the common life and the daily life in the church, it is not surprising if all that attention to the means of grace is actually used by God in a good way in the lives of His people. The result is a great system of positive growth in the hands of the Lord, so that the church continued to grow even more in their enjoyment and service of the Lord and His people.
A Public Life
There is a final part of the passage that we have not yet addressed. Luke tells us that they were “having favor with all the people.” Who exactly are “all the people?” Most see here a reference to the larger watching world in Jerusalem, although not meaning each and every individual person. We know that there were those who hated them and we can read about what they did in the chapters that follow this account. The other alternative is to consider this “all the people” to be a reference to the church rather than to the neighbors around them. This is not likely since it would leave us with a statement of how they had favor with themselves – a strange point to make. It is far more likely that the reference is to those beyond the church who had not yet been baptized. By the beginning of Acts 4 the number of men in the church had gone from 3000 to 5000. People were being added daily. It must be that there were many, many people who saw something in this group that they had to admire.
Before you can have favor with those around you, you need to be known by those around you. Despite the fact that a significant part of church life was happening in private homes, and despite the fact that the King of the church had just weeks before this been put to death on a Roman cross, the church was no secret society. There were marvelous signs and wonders being performed. The word of grace was being boldly proclaimed. The centrality of Christ and the cross could be known by the frequent celebration of the communion meal. Many were hearing and believing. People were giving all that they had to this new life. The prayers of the people were heard coming from private homes throughout the city on a daily basis.
They were surely known, just as Jesus had been known. Just as surely the crowds saw at least something that they had to admire. There must have been a moral integrity in the church without the ugliness of hypocrisy and self-righteousness. This was something new – something different from the Pharisees or the Esseenes. There was something here that was so true that it was worth dying for. Again, this was a new thing – very different from the Sadducees or the Herodians who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. This was a new agape life of generous love that provoked admiration. And all of this resurrection life was flowing from the ironic and surprising victory of the cross.
In all of this, these people had the courage to live the life that they lived in a public way. The doors of these homes were open. I saw a picture recently of some government agents standing outside house churches in a foreign land where people face much persecution for living this Acts 2 kind of life today. The agents pose as interested people according to the story I read, and then they find out the leaders of the house churches and add to their files more information that may be useful in the future. How do they know that such a transparent plan will give them fairly easy access to Christian leaders? Even the enemies of the church know that a real Christian church has an open door. Our Father has an open door for us through Christ, that we might be called the children of God, members of His household and a part of His family. For this reason the doors of the house chapels of Acts 2 were opened to new people who would see something they liked and desire to be a part of something that was real.
Through the extended family congregations in the Jerusalem Presbytery and through the public teaching ministry in the temple, the message was communicated that the assembly that preached the mercy of God through Jesus Christ the Messiah was opening the door to anyone who would come in. That door has been open for many centuries. The door is open to you today – whoever you are, whatever you’ve done. You don’t need to stay in the bondage of sin. You can be freed by the power of the Spirit. This is a family gathering, and God the Spirit and the church say, “Come!” Your guilt can be taken away as you surrender to God. You can have a new name, His name, the name of Christian. It is a family name, a household you belong to.
POINT:
The Visible Church is the House and Family of God. This is not merely a courtroom where we hear the words “not guilty,” and then go about our business. This is a growing family where we care for one another and celebrate God together day by day.
APPLICATIONS:
1. To live as a child of God is the privilege and duty of everyone in our Father’s house.
The God who is high and mighty came as close as can be to us and He knows us. His family is not an anonymous enterprise. If you are part of a church that is so large that you can’t really do the things that are described in Acts 2, then you really do need to be a part of a small group. Don’t make it so small that your tempted to just be self-centered. Make sure that it includes people who are as diverse as the people around you here this morning. God wants your extended family church experience to include old people and young people, and all kinds of people that are part of the variety that will populate heaven one day.
If you are a part of a congregation like this, about the size of most churches, then you already have a small group. You are in it now. This church life is a common life. Don’t be satisfied with anything less than that. The pastor I quoted at the beginning of this message said that if you are not in a small group then you are not a part of the church. Why? Because it is in that extended family environment that you will grow in Christ and care for one another. There is one thing that he did not mention. Even if you attend a small group every week, there is no guarantee that you will grow in Christ and open your heart to the service of others. The same thing, of course, can be said about this extended family congregation. You need to open your heart to the work of the Spirit of God in the midst of this group of people to which God has brought you. You need to love God with them, and love one another as the Lord’s household and family.
I visited someone from this church the other day in the hospital. She feels so alone and she is hurting. Sometimes she cannot get out of bed because of her pain, and she can easily feel that there is no one there for her. In the somewhat public setting of her hospital room I went to visit her. I listened to her. I prayed with her. What was I being to her? Was I being her pastor? I guess so, but I honestly think I was just being a Christian. This is a family thing. One of our friends is hurt. Like Jesus, who looked at us in our need and visited us, we stop what we are doing and we go.
2. The daily life of communal Christianity needs to be recaptured in our isolated world.
I hardly know where to begin on this one. Those of you who have been here for some time know that we have been convinced by Dr. Old’s argument that the church ought to offer daily opportunities for worship. Every weekday morning from 7-7:30 or so we do something very much like the Christians did in Strasbourg in the 17th century, and something like people did in Jerusalem in the 1st century. That door to a daily life of worship is open to you.
You may choose to do this in your own homes rather than here. How wonderful! Can you invite someone else to be around your table? Make it family devotions “plus,” where the plus is someone who might be alone if your door was closed. Use your gift of hospitality. Have people over for a meal and spiritual discussion and prayer. Talk to one another on the phone. Check out the pastor’s log every day from the web site to see what thoughts I’m sharing with this family. Find ways of serving one another, and do that service with one another. Enjoy Christ together in everything that you do.
3. Welcome to the Family of God – the Visible Church
Finally, don’t be satisfied with anything less than the true community of salvation that the Lord has written about in this book. This is the household and family of God and the door is open. In Luke 15, the father was waiting on the front porch for his wayward son to return. You know how we know? It says so in the Bible.
Luke 15:20-24 While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 22 But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."
Where do we go from here? Tomorrow we worship God. And then next Sunday morning we look at these final words in our passage: “… And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” May the Lord use this open door for the saving of the lost, to the glory of His holy name. Amen.
posted by Pastor Magee at 10:30 AM
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