THE FELLOWSHIP OF BELIEVERS

Acts 2:42-47

Key Verse 2:42

“They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

From last week’s passage, we saw the Holy Spirit who worked powerfully on the day of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit’s powerful working through Peter who was enabled to give the clear Gospel message that cut to the hearts of the people.  Through the message of Peter many repented their sins and the church added three thousand to their number on that single day alone!  But repentance and the anointing of the Holy Spirit was just a beginning for the believers.  It was not the culmination of God’s work.

In today’s passage we see how the Holy Spirit continued to work through the fellowship of believers so that the church continued to grow and prosper.  We are praying to double our ministry by the end of the year.  How is this prayer going to be answered?  Today’s passage gives us a clue.

Part I – They devoted themselves to the Apostle’s teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer (42)

Look at verse 42.  “⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  After three thousand new members joined the fellowship, what did these new and young believers do?  They devoted themselves to four things: the teaching of the Apostles, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.  They did this for their own well being.  The Spirit led them to do this.  In doing so they not only grew in their inner person, developing the fruit of the Spirit, but they also grew outwardly, so that God could add to their number daily.  God could work powerfully through them when they devoted themselves to these four things.

They devoted themselves to the Apostle’s teaching.  The Word of God was the foundation of the fellowship of believers.  It was by the Word of God powerfully spoken through Peter at Pentecost that cut the people to their hearts and drove them to ask, “What should we do?”  They were all born again when they responded to the message of the Apostles and repented.  The Apostles had been handpicked by Jesus and trained for over three years to take up Jesus’ commission to make disciples of all nations.  After being fully certain of Christ’s resurrection and being anointed by the Holy Spirit, the Apostles were finally ready to preach the Gospel and be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

They taught the growing disciples that Christ died, was buried and rose again from the dead, just as the Scriptures foretold.  They taught that all men are sinners and need the forgiveness of their sins.  Most importantly they called people to repentance.  It was through repentance that the people could first enter into a new relationship with God and into the fellowship of believers.  They taught the growing disciples to obey everything Jesus had commanded; they taught that Jesus is both Lord and Christ.   Jesus was not only their Savior, who gave His life for them, but He is their Lord, whom they should obey; they taught the new believers to love one another, just as Jesus loved them.  

First and foremost the growing disciples devoted themselves to the Apostle’s teaching.  It is what brought them life and into the fellowship and it was the first and most important thing they devoted themselves to.

They devoted themselves to the fellowship.  This fellowship among the believers was different from human fellowship.  Human fellowship lacks true joy.  But the fellowship among believers is anointed by joy and peace and righteousness.  It was the tangible expression of God’s Kingdom in the hearts and very lives of those who repented and were baptized.  This was the fellowship of God’s people in this fallen world.  II Cor. 6:14 clearly reveals what this fellowship was about, it reads, “¹⁴Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.  For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?  Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”  When God’s people repented and were baptized, they became new people; a new creation.  They were no longer citizens of satan’s kingdom, they were citizens of God’s Kingdom; they were God’s chosen people.

They devoted themselves to the fellowship of believers, because they could have no true fellowship with anyone else.  The fellowship among one another was so sweet.  It was so different from fellowship in this world.  They devoted themselves to the fellowship because Jesus commanded them to love one another.

In this world, people do not love one another; they crush one another down and rise up themselves at the expense of others.  When people gather together they only do so because they see personal gain and benefit in it.  In a hostile world of darkness, the only safe place for the believers was among one another.  But the fellowship was not just a refuge from the enemy; it was actually the bridgehead by which God was forcefully advancing His Kingdom to a lost world.

It is important to note that this fellowship of the believers was only possible when they had proper fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.  I Jn. 1:3 reads, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”  Their fellowship was the concrete reality of Immanuel, ‘God with us.’  Without true fellowship with the Father and Christ, they could not have had this fellowship with one another.  The vertical relationship with the Father and Jesus held up the horizontal relationship with one another.  If their vertical relationship with the Father and Christ had been removed, their horizontal relationship with one another could not stand and would have collapsed.  So the new disciples devoted themselves to the fellowship with God and Christ and one another.

They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread.  Jesus told His disciples to eat the Passover meal in remembrance of Him.  When they ate this bread they were proclaiming the Lord’s death until He came back.  By breaking and eating the bread they were participating in Christ’s body; a mysterious union between Christ and the believers took place when they ate the Passover meal.  They no longer lived, but Christ lived in them.  This fellowship of believers was like Jesus was still among them.

When they devoted themselves to the breaking of bread they were celebrating and remembering Christ freeing them from the power of sin by offering up His own sinless life for them.  They were remembering Jesus’ grace on their lives.

But the breaking of bread was also a taste for the believers of the sweet fellowship they were going to have with Jesus in the Kingdom of God.  It was a preview of the wedding and wedding supper between our Groom, Jesus and the Bride, us, in the Kingdom of God.

They devoted themselves to prayer.  Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Your Kingdom come” and the disciples were expressing their desire to God that they wanted this as well.  They prayed that the Gospel might spread.   II Thes. 3:1 reads, “¹Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you.”  Through prayer they were uniting themselves to God and God’s desire to be witnesses to the ends of the earth.  Through prayer they were uniting themselves together for this single purpose.

These days we are gathering together early in the morning and later in the evening with one heart and one mind to pray for our Spring Bible conference; asking God to bring 50 new people to come and for the messengers to deliver powerful Spirit filled messages, that would cut to the hearts of the listeners, that they may repent and be born again and we are praying to double our ministry by the end of the year.  It is a beautiful and encouraging thing to see so many precious coworkers devote themselves to prayer together.

We are seeing a good example of this devotion in our growing disciples.  These days they are struggling hard to find their repentance topics and Jesus’ direction for their lives through God’s Word through testimony writing.  They are gathering together every Friday to share their testimonies and to pray for one another and for God’s Kingdom to expand.  They even are taking turns preparing meals to eat together and are working together on special projects to share with one another.  Last week they shared what the role of the Holy Spirit is.  They are giving us all a good example to follow.  In their fellowship, it’s as if Jesus Christ is among them.  Everything Jesus taught, our growing disciples are trying to put into practice.  The love and unity among them is exactly as Jesus had prayed for.

Part II – Every day they continued to meet together (43-47)

As the growing disciples began to devote themselves to these four things, what did the fellowship of believers begin to look like?  Look at verse 43.  “⁴³Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.”  Everyone was filled with ‘awe’ because they were experiencing the Kingdom of God in their daily lives.  Never before had they experienced such a powerful work in their lives and those around them.  Miraculous signs and wonders were done by the Apostles and they are the sign of Jesus’ presence with them as He promised “I will be with you to the end of the age.  The signs and wonders confirmed the Word of God, given by the Apostles, that it was God’s Word being spoken and reinforced the new believers to devote themselves to their teaching.  They could see that God was working among them.

Look at verses 44-45.  “⁴⁴All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.”  The new believers did not see their possessions as ‘their’ own.  Whenever someone was in true need others sold their possessions and goods and gave to the person in need.  It is important to note the word ‘need’.  ‘Need’ is different from ‘want’.  I may ‘want’ an Apple Airbook, but do I really ‘need’ one?  The disciples gave to one another as there was need.  They could do so because they had real hope in Jesus’ return and were not living for this world but for Jesus.

Look at verses 45-46a.  “⁴⁶Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.”  The believers continued to meet together every day in the Temple courts.  They were not meeting together in the Temple to play video games.  Surely, they met every day to listen to the Apostle’s teaching and to pray.  Their fellowship together was not just to have party fellowship; they were devoting themselves to the Apostle’s teaching and to praying together for God’s Word to spread quickly and they did this all the time, not just sometimes, not just when they felt like it, they met together continually.

But they did not just meet in the Temple; they also broke bread together in their homes and they ate together.  There was no difference between their public life and their private life.  Our church life is no different than our home, work, school life. Also, we are not just Sunday Christians but everyday Christians. How much fellowship can you get in 2 hours on a Sunday?  They began doing everything together.  They studied the Bible together; they prayed together; they shared their belongings together; and they ate together.  I imagine that the women went shopping together; and the men began working together.  Missionary Isaac is starting a new business.  God gave him vision to use this company so that it could further God’s work.  Actually, missionary Isaac has no interest in becoming a business man.  He is doing it so that several coworkers and lay missionaries in other countries can find work in this challenging economy and work together.  He is also using this company to further God’s work in the final frontier.  (If you want to know more about this, you will have to ask him personally.)

In all these things they were filled with gladness and sincere hearts.  This was not a forced or manufactured feeling coming from the new disciples.  This came out of their hearts naturally, as God worked in and through them.  They were experiencing complete joy.  Those in the world can never experience this; this can only be experienced by those who are part of the fellowship of believers; indeed joy and sincere hearts is the sign of God’s kingdom in their hearts.

The people showed them favor because they could see how the fellowship of believers lived with one another and towards God.  They lived in: 1) Holiness; 2) Unity; and 3) Love (See Jn. 13:35, 15:8, 17:23; Rom. 12:1).   This was the characteristic of the fellowship of believers and the people who were not part of the fellowship showed them great favor because they valued what they were seeing, even though they themselves did not experience such a thing.  They wanted to, but could not.

Finally, look at verse 47b.  “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” What was going on through this fellowship of believers was the work of God through the Holy Spirit.  God used this beautiful fellowship of believers to expand His Kingdom and for the saving of many.  This was God’s work and purpose.  The believers could not ‘design’ or accomplish this work, it was the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives when they devoted themselves to the Apostle’s teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.  People who were not part of this fellowship were in ‘awe’ of what they were witnessing and they wanted to be a part of it.  They could see the difference between themselves and the believers and many wanted to experience it as well.  So every day more were being added to their number.  This was the outward fruit of their fellowship among one another and the Father and Christ.

In today’s passage we see the importance of devoting ourselves to these four things.  When we do, the Holy Spirit begins to produce fruit in our inner person.  We grow inwardly.  But also when we devote ourselves to these things we grow outwardly.  God’s Kingdom expands!  This is how God can help us to double our ministry by the end of this year.

  

May God help us to devote ourselves to the Word of God, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to united prayer.

One Word: They devoted themselves.

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