Acts 2:42-47
Those who had been baptized devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
This is a snapshot of the beginning of the church. This is what the church looked like in the early days. Not knowing how to do church, this is what came naturally to them. Since the apostles had just spent everyday, over the last three years with Jesus, I think they were expecting Him to come back any day. And I think they were emitting if not communicating that directly, in all that they taught. So if you are expecting Jesus to come back any day, and you really believe His teachings, then selling your possessions and giving the money to those who have needs makes perfect sense. Everyone sharing what they had to meet the needs of other believers seems like the only sane thing to do. Why would you hold on to “stuff” when others have needs?
I don’t think that you would dare be a part of this group unless you really were convinced that what they taught was right. There was a sense of wholeheartedness and collective consciousness that would weed out any imposters. I’ve been to concerts where the hardcore fans were singing every word and they even sang words that weren’t in the song originally and they moved and sang with one voice and I realized that I am only here because I thought they were a cool band, but these people are true fans, I felt like just a poser. In the same way, I don’t think you could be a part of this group for very long if you weren’t truly converted.
This is not what church looks like today. And granted, earlier in the same chapter(v. 39) Peter is urging everyone to repent and be saved and they will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. He also proclaims that this promise is for “you and your children, all who are far off( or far away) — all whom the Lord our God will call.” So maybe here is the idea that Jesus is not coming back in their generation, i.e, “you and your children and all who are far away..” If continuing on the same context of generations of people, the “far off” might be assumed to mean — generations from now. It could also mean those living far away or far off, and if that’s the context then it makes sense that the believers changed the way they lived so dramatically.
If we did church today, the way the first century Christians did church, meeting together everyday and selling our possessions and giving the money to the church, we would definitely be seen as a cult. I know this because I was part of a church/religious cult that used this passage as part of their doctrine to support their practice of pressuring members into selling their possessions and giving the money to the church. This snapshot of the early church is what came about naturally from the believers who were under the assumption that Jesus was coming back any day now. It is the believers who created this culture, not the leaders. With religious cults, it is always “a leader or the leader” who finds scriptures to support their own self-serving ideas as the basis that for a very narrow view of how Christ’s church should look. So by attempting to recreate this, is impossible without recreating the circumstances under which this aberration of Jewish worship arose.
Nuclear Family vs. Extended Family
One of the ways that we are thrown off when we read scripture is because we assume that the people we are reading about are experiencing life in the same culture that we are experiencing life.
This church model, as beautiful as it is, is not sustainable if Jesus is not coming back within a few months! If everyone quits their jobs, sells their stuff and just meets together to pray and eat, that money is going to run out. Peter wasn’t telling them to do that, as good hearted as it was, it was perhaps mis-guided behavior. Jesus didn’t really leave instructions on how His church should look. This is purely conjecture but I don’t believe that this was ever meant to be a church model. When we read about a miracle, whether it is the blind receiving sight or demons being cast out of someone, those are not there to teach us what we should be doing as christians. They are there to teach us that God has the power to do what is beyond our control. Expect the unexpected. They teach us to recognize what God does, and only God can do, among us. We observe from passages that preserve the miraculous deeds God did that we cannot do what only God can do. This snapshot of the early days of the church is a miracle of God. People from all nations being of one heart and being moved to sell their possessions to give to those who have needs. This is perhaps a glimpse of the life to come. This is life as God intended before sin entered the world through Adam. That people were so moved upon hearing that they crucified Jesus and were open to receive Peter’s further instruction on what they should do( v. 37) is a miracle of God!
Our response today to our sin and how it relates to the cross of Christ should always be: that we should be cut to the heart and desire to do something about it. When anyone, today — yesterday — or tomorrow, hears the message of the cross and is cut to the heart and responds with, “what can I do?” that is and always will be a miracle of God.
There are many ways that church can look. But at the center of it must be the cross. The message of the cross; God loves us despite our love for darkness (John 3:19) and rather than wiping us all out like he did in the days of Noah he instead expresses His love for us by allowing us to crucify Him, that we might see our own evil hearts. And rather than condemn us, the cross offers a way for our hearts to change. To love God because He first loved us (1John 4:19) That has to be the center. It has to be the center of my life. It has to be the center of the church. It has to be the center of every believer’s life. If it is, then and only then can I love my neighbor as God loves me. Then and only then can I love God with all my heart, mind, soul and strength.
What was happening in the first century church, can still be happening in churches today. We can still be cut to the heart over our sin. We can still be devoted to the apostles teachings. We can still be devoted to prayer. We can still be generous with our possessions. We can still live with the expectation of Christ’s return. If that is happening because church leaders are imposing that upon us, then it is from man. If that is happening because we as believers are moved by the cross, then it is the miraculous hand of God moving among us.