If someone asked you – tell me about the church? I wonder what we would say…
The veteran rock-star Mick Jagger said : Jesus Christ was fantastic, but I do not like the church. The church does more harm than good.’
Luke at the end of Acts 2, gives us a very different image of the church. He tells us, shows us, the effects of Pentecost. He shares with us the evidence of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit among these first Christians. He shows us marks of a Spirit filled church.
A Spirit filled and shaped church is a learning community, a loving community, a worshipping community and an evangelising community.
It was a learning church. So our first evidence mentioned in Acts 2, of the Spirit’s presence in the church, is that they ‘’devoted themselves to the apostles teaching.’’
You could say, on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit opened a school in Jerusalem that day; its teachers were the apostles whom Jesus had appointed; and there were 3000 pupils in the kindergarden!
These words show these new converts, despite their dramatic and powerful conversions – they had been ‘’cut to the heart’’ – they did not reject using their minds, and they did not think their conversion was all they needed.
The fullness of the Spirit and seeking only to have Christian experiences, is incompatible. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth.
Jesus said: ‘’the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, ’’ (John 14:26). And in another place: ‘’I will ask the Father, and he will give your another Counsellor to be with you for ever – the Spirit of truth.’’ (John 14:16-17).
Nor did these 3000 early disciples, think that, as they had received the Spirit themselves, that the Holy Spirit was the only teacher they needed.
No, they sat at the apostles feet. They were hungry to receive instruction. And they persevered in that learning.
To use the language of PtW. They wanted to learn about what it meant to be with Jesus, to become like Jesus and to do what Jesus would do, in their daily lives.
Applications. The teaching of the apostles has come down to use in the form of the NT.
So first, devotion to the apostles teaching, will mean submission to the authority of the NT.
And second it means, setting aside time with that word, the Bible. You know how long it would take you to read the bible through in one year – just fifteen minutes a day.
A Spirit filled church is a New Testament Church, in the sense that is studies and submits to the New Testament instruction.
The Spirit of God leads the people of God to submit to the Word of God.
It was a loving church.They devoted themselves to the fellowship. The word for fellowship is Koinonia. The word means common.
They were devoted to the community. And that devotion expressed itself in love for one another. As Jesus had said – love one another as I have loved you.
A second use of the word points to one way of love. Koinonia is the word Paul used for the money collection he was organising among the Greek churches and koinonikos is the Greek word for generous.
It is this idea – generous – that Luke is particularly sharing with us. He goes on to describe the way, these Christians shared their possessions with one another. ‘’all the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need.’’
The Greek word used for sold and gave – is in the imperfect tense. Which indicates that the selling and giving were occasional, it was in response to particular needs. People still had property – it says that they ‘’broke bread in their homes’’ and in Paul’s later taught, in 2 Corinthians, ‘’each person should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.’’ 2 Cor 9:7.
We see this choice repeated in Acts 5 with Ananias and Sapphira. Peter said to them: 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? Acts 5:4. So, the selling and the sharing was voluntary and is voluntary, and every Christian has to make prayerful deliberate decision before God in this matter. We are all called to generosity and especially towards the poor and needy. In the OT there was a strong tradition of care for the poor and the Israelites were to give a tenth of their produce to the ‘’levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.’’ How could Spirit filled believers give less?
As the apostle John wrote later - 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth 1 John 3:17-18
Christian fellowship is Christian caring and Christian caring includes Christian sharing.
These verses give us a challenge.
Giving is a choice and giving can be sacrificial and therefore costly.
I am thankful for all the giving towards this church community. I think it is helpful to share a few thoughts on this.
All Saints is an Anglican Church. However, unlike in mainland England, there is no outside support coming into All Saints, there is no other fund or money coming from London. So we are truly self sustaining. So your giving covers everything – from practical costs, work on this building, Hanna CE work, my own stipend etc. In Acts 2, the believers provided the resources for ministry in that new church community. Thank you for your giving.
Second, in Acts the believers who gave were only days / weeks / months old. So we cannot say that Christian giving is only done by the mature believer. Giving was part of the life of that community, right from the start. So giving, is not something we wait for until we have a job, it is something we can begin when we are at college, university, or in high school.
A third challenge. In our world, we have hundreds and thousands of destitute Christian brothers and sisters. And yet, in comparison, we are wealthy. Acts 2 challenges us that part of the responsibility of Spirit filled believers is to alleviate need, and to abolish destitution in the new community of Jesus. And finally. As Jesus reminded us, Love for Neighbour, in the parable of the Good Samaritan, love is shown in action, and that includes giving – the Samaritan gave time, energy, but also resources to help someone in need – and so we prayerfully consider, how we show love to our neighbours - local or global - through our giving.
It was a worshipping church. They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread and to prayer. v42.
Their fellowship as a Christian community was expressed not only in caring for each other, but in corporate worship too. In the original language, the definite article is used in both expressions. So you would literally translate it ‘’the breaking of bread’ and ‘’the prayers.’’
The breaking of bread – suggests, probably, the Lord’s Supper – Holy Communion. Though in those early years, most likely part of a larger meal as it was part of the Passover meal when Jesus introduced Holy Communion.
The prayers – again the prayers – suggests prayer services or prayer meetings, than private prayer like a quiet time.
There are two aspects to the early church’s worship that shows its balance.
First it was both formal and informal. It look place in the temple courts and in their homes – v46, which is an interesting combination. They continued awhile in the temple courts. I don’t believe they participated in the sacrifices of the temple, for they already had began to grasp that these sacrifices had been fulfilled in the sacrifice of Christ. But they did go up to the prayer services at the temple – see Acts 3:1.
At the same time, in addition to these formal services at the temple, there were more informal and probably more spontaneous meetings – which included the breaking of bread – in their homes.
We are reminded of the healthy balance between more formal services of the local church, which are complemented with informal and other gatherings.
There is no need to choose sides or to polarize between structured and unstructured, formal, spontaneous. The church needs both.
The second example of the balance of the early church’s worship was that it was both joyful and reverent.
There is no doubt of their joy when we read in v46, how they had ‘’glad and sincere’’ hearts. Again literally it gives us a better idea. It literally means in ‘’exultation and sincerity of heart.’’ One bible translation puts the words together to translate ‘’with unaffected joy!’’.
Since God had sent his Son into the world, and now he had sent them his Holy Spirit, they had plenty of reasons to be joyful! We remember that part of the fruit of the Spirit is ‘’love joy…’’
Bishop Cuthbert Barnsley, a former Bishop of Coventry, said this:
The chief danger in the Anglican Church is not
delirious emotionalism.’
Our danger is that we’re a little bit cold; and that we need
to be consistent.
If we are the kind of person who gets excited—at rugby or
football or relationships—then we ought to be able, feel
free, to express that in our relationship with God.
Every worship service should be a joyful celebration of the mighty acts of God through Jesus Christ.
It is correct to say that public worship is to be reverent; but it is unforgivable for worship to be dull.
At the same time, the joy is not to become irreverent.
If Joy in God is an authentic work of the Spirit, so is the fear of God. v43 Says, ‘’everyone was filled with awe’’.
God had visited their city.
God was in their midst. And they knew it.
They bowed down before him in humility and wonder.
It is a mistake, I suggest, to imagine that in public worship, reverence and rejoicing are mutually exclusive. The combination of joy and awe, as well as formality and
informality, is a healthy balance in worship.
Learning, Loving, Worshipping. Final.
It was an evangelistic church.
Acts 2 has discussed the fellowship, study and worship of the early Jerusalem church.
Yet these are aspects of the interior life of the church.
V47b needs to be added: ‘’And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved’’.
These first Christians were not so preoccupied with learning, sharing and worshipping, that they forgot about witnessing. For the Holy Spirit sent – to them and us – is
a missionary Spirit who created a missionary people.
As Jesus said in John 16 – 26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father —the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about
me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. John 15:26-27.
From these earliest believers we can learn three vital lessons about local church evangelism.
First, the Lord ie Jesus did it.
The Lord added to their number.
He did use the preaching of the apostles, the witness of the church members, the impressive love of their common life together, and their example as they ‘’were praising Go and enjoying the favour of all the people.’’ v47. Yet HE did it.
There are many things we can do, but we do them, in humble dependence upon him as the principle evangelist.
Second. What Jesus did, was two things together. he added to their number, those who were being saved.
He did not add them to the church without saving them.
There was no nominal Christianity at the beginning.
Not did he save them without adding them to the church – there was no solitary Christianity either.
Salvation and church membership belonged together and still do.
Third. The Lord added to their number daily.
The verb an imperfect. It means ‘’kept adding’’ and the adverb ‘’daily’’ makes it clear. The early church’s evangelism was not an occasional or sporadic activity.
They did not organize missions every 5 or 10 years – a big focus is fine but only as one episode in an ongoing programme.
No, just as their worship was daily – v46 – so was their witness.
Praise AND proclamation were both the natural overflow of their hearts full of the Holy Spirit. And their outreach was continuous – so continually converts were being added. We need to hold that expectation of steady, uninterrupted church growth among those who do not believe.
CONCLUSION
These 4 marks of the first Spirit filled community.
First they were eager to receive their instruction. A Spirit filled church is an apostolic church, a New Testament church, desiring to believe and obey what Jesus and his
apostles taught.
Second they loved one another. They persevered in fellowship, they supported each other and relieved the needs of the poor. A Spirit filled church is a loving caring
sharing Church.
Third, they worshipped God in the temple and in the home, in the Lord’s Supper and in the prayers, with joy and with reverence. A Spirit filled church is a worshipping church.
Fourth. They were engaged in continuous evangelism. No self centred, self contained church interested in its own issues can claim to be filled with the Spirit. The Holy Spirit
is a missionary Spirit. So a Spirit filled church is a missionary church.
The gift of the Holy Spirit has come to each of us. He came on the Day of Pentecost and has never left. Our responsibility is to humble ourselves before his sovereign authority, to determine not to quench him or marginalize him, but to allow him his freedom. For as we do so, churches will manifest those marks of the Spirit’s presence – biblical teaching, loving fellowship, living worship and ongoing, outgoing evangelism.
Shall we pray.
To pray.
Lord God, the source of truth and love,
keep us faithful to the apostles’ teaching
and to Christian fellowship,
united in prayer and the breaking of bread,
sharing the good news in word and deed,
and one in joy in worship and simplicity of heart,
may your Spirit not be quenched here
but have the freedom He desires.
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.