Fellowship of the Believers

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.  And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.  And all who believed were together and had all things in common.  And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.  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 and having favor with all the people.  And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” – Acts 2:42-47 (ESV).

In these verses is Luke’s first extensive summary of what occurred immediately following Pentecost.  We cannot tell how long the span of time these verses cover but this marvelous fellowship of believers occurred before persecution began against the Christians in Jerusalem.  Notice the significant activities of the Christian group: 

(1) Teaching from the apostles covered what they had learned from Jesus in His three years with them and in the 40 days between His resurrection and ascension.

(2) Fellowship, Greek word koinonia, meant a close and harmonious relationship, a sharing, a common purpose and devotion that binds persons together.

(3) Breaking of bread likely included both eating regular meals together and having the solemn, memorial Lord’s Supper that Jesus had instituted, saying, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

(4)  They prayed together.  Their prayers were no doubt in the temple and wherever they gathered in house meetings or in smaller groups.

(5) They experienced awe (reverent fear) because of the signs and wonders the apostles were performing through the power of the Holy Spirit.

(6) They had all things in common; they gave of their means.  This was accomplished as they sold their possessions and brought the money voluntarily and without coercion to help with the needs.  Scholars would have us note that they still had their own homes and that the giving up private property is not mentioned in this summary account.  Later, when Ananias and Sapphira came to claim they had sold their property and were bringing all the money to offer in the Lord’s work, their lives were required of them because they told a lie; they pretended to bring all when they withheld part for themselves (see Acts 5:1-11).  (7)  Praising and worshiping God was a daily part of the believers’ activities. Luke does not elaborate here, but they probably included the Old Testament Scriptures, especially readings from the Psalms, Prophets and Wisdom Literature. 

(8)  Conversions occurred.  “The Lord added…day by day those who were being saved.”  Because the believers’  hearts were right and their spiritual tasks done with zeal and focus, God gave the increase in souls.

Scholars believe (and there is both written and archaeological evidence for this) that the “breaking of bread” mentioned in verse 46 is what was called the agape feast, or love feast.  It was a banquet meal, usually in the evening, where the more financially able furnished the food for the poor and they ate together, saying prayers over each dish or course of the meal.  The agape feast was followed by the Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion. However, later, because of excesses, greed and discrimination against those partaking of the meal, the agape feast was gradually separated from the observance of the Lord’s Supper.  By the time of church historian Justin Martyr (150 A. D.), no mention is made of observance then of the agape meal.  A good exercise is for us to examine the points of the Disciples’/Apostles’ (Early Church’s) fellowship of believers.  Are our fellowships in keeping with this early pattern?  Do we need to make adjustments?  Let us pray that our Christian fellowship will be God-pleasing instead of just people-pleasing.  When we please God, we will be blessed as well.  

A Look at Peter’s Sermon and Its Results on the Day of Pentecost

“’Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.’ Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself. Save yourselves from this crooked generation.’ So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”-Acts 2:36-41 (ESV. Read Acts 2:14-41).

The air was electric with anticipation as Peter stood to preach on the day of Pentecost. His sermon was addressed to “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem.” His targeted audience were those of his own nationality, the Jews. There is logical order in Peter’s sermon. In his introduction, he explained that the Holy Spirit had come and that the disciples were not filled with wine as they had been accused but rather were filled with the power of the Spirit. To show how this spiritual phenomenon was a fulfillment of prophecy, Peter quoted from Joel 2:28-32. Although Joel’s prophecy deals also with the end times, Peter saw it as representative of “the day of the Lord” when the gathered believers had been imbued with the power of Almighty God. Peter’s next point was that Jesus Who was crucified was alive. He presented Jesus as a real person, one who had performed miracles and signs, met an untimely death and was raised up in glory and power. To substantiate this, Peter quoted from the writings of King David (which we note from Psalm 16:8-11 and Psalm 110:1). No doubt, Peter wanted to allay the rumors that were circulating that the disciples had stolen the body of Jesus from the grave to make people believe He had risen from the dead. He says (and I can imagine with great power, conviction and emphasis): “Tjos Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing” (Acts 2:32-33). The believers were a living witness to the resurrection. The Holy Spirit poured out on them was living proof that Jesus was alive, because the Spirit could not come upon them until the Lord had returned to the Father in heaven (as promised in John 16:7). The message Peter proclaimed fell with convicting power on the gathered crowd. They were under great angst, and their cry was “Brothers, what shall we do?” They were in a position to rid themselves of the guilt they must have felt when Peter so pointedly reviewed from their own Holy Writ and from an interpretation of events of the immediate past weeks why Jesus had come and what His purpose was.

With the powerful sermon delivered, and the question asked by the hearers, Peter was ready to press the invitation: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (v38). Much scholarly debate has been issued over Peter’s words “repent and be baptized,” with the argument “is baptism necessary to salvation?” A slight inflection of meaning for the Greek word eis translated “for” can also mean “on account of” and implies that repentance, belief and faith precede baptism—that baptism is the rite that shows a follower has already repented and believed. For example, look at the roll call of the faithful as given in Hebrews 11. Not any of these had been baptized. Their faith was the basis of their salvation. The results of the Holy Spirit’s work on the day of Pentecost was phenomenal. Three thousand people repented and believed. “Were added” means to the initial 120 believers, bringing the number to 3,120 believers! Peter stood in the gap and spoke convincingly, God’s instrument for opening the understanding of the people. Peter preached: “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21). The Holy Spirit permeated the sharing of His Word and results came! The “everyone who calls” still holds true! Let us pray for power as at Pentecost!

Language Is No Barrier to the Gospel Message

“…’we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.’ And all were amazed and perplexed, saying one to another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others, mocking said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’” – Acts 2:11b-13 (ESV. Read Acts 2:5-13).

An amazing happening on the day of Pentecost followed the descent of the Holy Spirit on the gathered followers of Jesus. It was their ability to speak in the languages of all the people in Jerusalem who had come to take part in the celebration of Pentecost, one of the three festivals at which every Israelite was expected to appear before the Lord in Jerusalem, the sacred city. In fact, the crowd was so cosmopolitan that Luke listed the places they were from to indicate the many languages and dialects the people would have spoken (see the list in verses 9-11a). This list includes people from most of the first-century Roman world. Jews had been dispersed to the regions named and had settlements there. Luke’s list in Acts 2 gives a comprehensive list of the Jewish Diaspora (Jews who had residence outside Palestine). Luke’s list is authenticated also by secular historians (Philo, for one, in his “Embassy to Gaius” and by archaeological and literary accounts). One might argue that since they were witnessing mainly to displaced Jews—except for the “proselytes” to Judaism mentioned in verse 11—that the listeners could have heard and understood if the apostles had witnessed in the Jewish language. However, the listeners could have been several generations removed from the Diaspora, which took place over several centuries. It is difficult to date its exact beginning, but dates back at least to 722 B. C. when the Assyrians captured the Northern Kingdom of Israel and took many captive, and the Babylonians captured the Southern Kingdom of Judah in 586 B. C., likewise taking many away from the land of Palestine. By New Testament times, as many Jews lived outside Palestine (in the countries Luke mentions in his listing) as lived in the Holy Land. The more recent exodus occurred when the Greeks and then the Romans conquered Palestine, even more of the Jews living there then were dispersed to other countries. The fact was that, even if they knew “classical” Hebrew, and could worship in the Temple with that ancient language intoned in the services, they still spoke more fluently in the language of the places they lived. They would have had to know the language of those places to work and dwell in those lands. So there, on that amazing day of Pentecost, as the followers of Jesus shared enthusiastically the good news of the Savior, they were able to communicate in the languages best understood by those to whom they spoke. By the power of the Holy Spirit, and without formally having studied the foreign languages, they spoke and the people understood. As Jesus had said when He was ready to ascend: “Ye sahll be witnesses unto Me...beginning in Jerusalem.” This was coming true, and language was not a barrier to the spread of the gospel right there in the hub city! The faithful spoke; the eager heard and responded, all by the Spirit’s leading.

Since the day of Pentecost, the gospel has gone out to many people of many languages. At first, in Jerusalem, but then the believers and apostles were dispersed, and as they went, they told the Good News of the Savior and a new way of restoration of fellowship with God, “by grace through faith.” It was a new day for the good news! Through the centuries since about 33 AD, the gospel has found a way to break through the language barrier. Nowadays, our missionaries who go to foreign lands—or even places in America with languages not English—spend time learning the language with which they can communicate to the people. Sometimes the studies are hard, time-consuming and seemingly a delay to what they have been called to do. But it is time well-spent, for being able to communicate is necessary to the work of an evangelist, a witness, a teacher of the Word. Why could they not instantaneously know the language, like those on the day of Pentecost? Is it because they are not as close to the Lord or that the Holy Spirit is not as much in control as He was on that day? I think it is not for us to judge, but to follow and to do what is necessary to prepare for the work to which God has called. Today, some missionary friends of mine are in a specialized language study, a newer and more facile method than that previously required of missionaries. “Why did we not have this method 20 years ago when we were first in language school?” my friends wonder. There was an immediacy needed on the day of Pentecost to reach the people and that need was supplied in a magnificent way through the power of the Holy Spirit. This account stands in stark contrast to the confusion of tongues at the attempted building of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11). The motivation of the disciples was holy and right and the results were spiritual and life-changing. Dedicated workers have similar motivation and goals today in reaching the people in their native language. The story is told of St. Vincent Ferrer who was preaching in Spanish but was understood by those who spoke English, Flemish, French and Italian. At Pentecost, the unbelieving Jews, the authorities, quaffed and said, “They are filled with new wine!” What they could not believe is that the spokesmen on that auspicious day were filled with the wine of the Spirit, and what a difference that made! Paul wrote in I Corinthians 12:7: “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” And when language is no barrier to the spread of the gospel, this gift was and is present and active. Praise be to God!

The Holy Spirit Comes

“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” –Acts 2:1-4 (ESV).

The prophecy in Joel 2:28 came to pass on the day of Pentecost: “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions (ESV). John the Baptist also told of the coming of the Spirit: “I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11, ESV). Jesus promised the Spirit when He was still among the disciples, teaching them: “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17, ESV). As He was ascending into Heaven, Jesus again told His disciples: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon youk, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8, ESV).

And now that day had arrived! The day of Pentecost was the fiftieth day after Passover, counting from the second day of the feast (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of the NT, 1996, p. 465). The coming of the Holy Spirit was audible, visible, and powerful. The Spirit was audible in the sound of a mighty rushing wind; visible as divided tongues of fire; and powerful in that He filled each one of those who had been waiting and praying. They began to do amazing things, one of which was to speak in and understand languages not native to them and which they had not studied. The speaking at the time of the coming of the Spirit may also have been in ecstatic spiritual utterances as well. They had been waiting for and praying for the Holy Spirit. They didn’t have to wonder, when He came; He demonstrated His presence. The mighty wind showed the power and energy of the Spirit. Fire in the Old Testament indicated the presence of God; the disciples would have known this and the Spirit was demonstrating it. The fire represented God’s holiness and the burning away of impurities. Dr. Vance Havner, commenting on the coming of the Holy Spirit, wrote: “We are not going to move this world by criticism of it nor conformity to it, but by the combustion within it of lives ignited by the Spirit of God.” (Quoted in The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, NT, 2007, p. 325). The Spirit had “combusted” the hearts of the followers on the day of Pentecost. This was the baptism by or the coming of the Holy Spirit to them as promised. Christ had pledged to the disciples that when the Spirit came upon them they would be able to accomplish great deeds. Indeed, that promise was fulfilled. Now the third person of the Trinity lived and moved among believers.

Daniel Iverson (1890-1977) penned the words of the chorus: “Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me; Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me.” My husband and I spent a month in the Holy Land in 1978. While there, we visited the upper room believed to be where the Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples. I was amazed when I had our pictures developed and two of those I took in that room had a reflection of light that looked like tongues of fire. It was sobering and humbling to have stood in the reputed place where the Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost. As each individual is willing, the Spirit enters and fills the waiting heart. May our prayer be: “Breathe on me breath of God, Till I am wholly Thine, Till all this earthly part of me Glows with Thy fire divine.” (Edwin Hatch (1835-1889).

Holy Week Day by Day-Saturday or the Sabbath-Christ in the Grave

“Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand they laid Jesus there.” –John 19:41-42(ESV). “The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, ‘Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while He was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore, order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples go and steal Him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.’ Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard of soldiers. Go make it as secure as you can.’ So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.” –Matthew 27-62-66 (ESV). “The women who had come with Him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.” –Luke 23-55-56 (ESV).

On Friday a hurried burial occurred, because the Jewish Sabbath was fast approaching. The Day of Preparation, or the sixth day of the Jewish week, was from 6:00 p. m. on what we know as Thursday until 6:00 p. m. on Friday when the Jewish Sabbath officially began. According to the laws given in Exodus, all the necessities for life, as food and drink, had to be prepared in advance of the Sabbath during the Day of Preparation. Jesus’ trials, scourging, and crucifixion occurred on Friday, the Day of Preparation. Scholars have noted that at about the time of the offering of the lamb at the Feast of the Passover, the Lamb of God was being offered up on the cruel cross for the sins of the world. Quickly, before the beginning of the Sabbath at 6:00 p. m. on Friday, they hurried to bury Jesus. It is rather amazing that some of the chief priests and Pharisees would go to Pilate after the Sabbath had begun to plead with him to set a guard at the tomb where Jesus was buried. It was a sinful act to associate with a Gentile on the Sabbath. These who observed the law in all its fine points, broke their law by going, because they had such hatred for Jesus, and remembered that He had said, “After three days I will rise.” They did not anticipate His rising (or did they?). They wanted, instead, to have burly guards keeping vigilance beside His tomb lest the disciples take His body away and claim that He had, indeed, risen from the dead. This plotting and maneuvering of the Jewish leaders to secure Jesus’ tomb, and the Romans to put an official seal on it, joined forces to prove a most important tenet of the Christian faith. The grave and all the human attempts to secure it could not hold the Lord Christ.

But let’s think about Saturday—or the Jewish Sabbath. Jesus is in the grave. We hear no word about the disciples on that day. The gospel writers are silent on what they did from about sundown on Friday until Sunday morning. We have from Luke one single statement that the women who followed Jesus from Galilee used the rest of the Day of Preparation to gather ointments and spices to anoint Him for His burial, a loving act they had not been able to do because of timing. Then, “On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.” This, no doubt, was a general statement for all of the disciples. How much they needed rest! How emotionally and physically draining had been the cruel, crushing, heart-breaking events of the Day of Preparation—which had turned out to be the Day of Crucifixion and burial. Did any of them remember that Jesus had said He would die and then rise again? If any of the disciples or the women remembered on the Sabbath, no gospel writer made mention of such recollections. No doubt they mourned. Later, Peter would write about Christ in his Epistle by the same name: “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water...For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.”(I Peter 3:18-20; 4:6, ESV). This hard-to-understand passage from I Peter is considered by some Bible interpreters as Jesus preaching to those spirits in Hades during the period of time His body lay in the tomb, the spirits in this view being the fallen angels cast into hell to await the final judgment. Other scholars think it refers to Jesus being in sprit with Noah as he tried to get persons to repent and turn to God before the great flood came to destroy all humanity except the eight in Noah’s family. Still another interpretation sees this as offering a second chance of salvation to those in hell, a view which lacks theological credibility. When Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost and 3,000 persons accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, Peter said, among other great statements, “He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption” (Acts 2:31, ESV). [Note that the Hades is the Greek term equivalent to the Hebrew term Sheol, which means “place of the dead,” and also “realm of the unbelieving dead.”]. We may have difficulty understanding the meaning of what Peter wrote and preached about where Christ’s spirit was when He lay in the grave parts of three days. The important truth is that the grave was not the end for Jesus. Thanks be to God! Those closest to the Lord needed a day of rest, a Sabbath, a time to pray, reflect and remember.

“Low in the grave He lay,
Jesus, my Savior;
Waiting the coming day,
Jesus, my Lord.”

(from the hymn, “Low in the Grave He Lay,” words and music by Robert Lowry (1826-1899).

And that ‘coming day’ was near at hand! Let us ready our own hearts for the resurrection and the first day of the week, a new dawning and a new assurance!