Title: The Church’s Life: The Effect of Pentecost

Text: Acts 2:42-47

Having first described in his own narrative what happened on the day of Pentecost, and then supplied an explanation of it
through Peter’s Christ-centered sermon, Luke goes on to show us the effects of Pentecost by giving us a beautiful little
appearance of the Spirit-filled church. Of course the church did not begin that day, and it is incorrect to call the Day of
Pentecost ‘the birthday of the church’. For the church as the people of God goes back at least 4,000 years to Abraham. What
happened at Pentecost was that the remnant of God’s people became the Spirit-filled body of Christ. What evidence did it
give of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit? Luke tells us.
1. It was a learning church
The very first evidence Luke mentions of the Spirit’s presence in the church is that they devoted themselves to the apostles’
teaching. One might perhaps say that the Holy Spirit opened a school in Jerusalem that day; its teachers were the apostles
whom Jesus had appointed; and there were 3,000 pupils in the kindergarten! We note that those new converts were not
enjoying a mystical experience which led them to despise their mind or disdain theology. Anti-intellectualism and the fullness
of the Spirit are mutually incompatible, because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. Nor did those early disciples imagine
that, because they had received the Spirit, he was the only teacher they needed and they could dispense with human
teachers. On the contrary, they sat at the apostles’ feet, hungry to receive instruction, and they persevered in it. Moreover,
the teaching authority of the apostles, to which they submitted, was authenticated by miracles: many wonders and
miraculous signs were done by the apostles (v.43). The two references to the apostles, in verse 42 (their teaching) and in
verse 43 (their miracles), can hardly be an accident. Since the teaching of the apostles has come down to us in its definitive
form in the New Testament, contemporary devotion to the apostles’ teaching will mean submission to the authority of the
New Testament. A Spirit-filled church is a New Testament church, in the sense that it studies and submits to New Testament
instruction. The Spirit of God leads the people of God to submit to the Word of God.
2. It was a loving church
They devoted themselves … to the fellowship (koinōnia). Koinōnia (from koinos, ‘common’) bears witness to the common life
of the church in two sense. First, it expresses what we share in together. This is God himself, for ‘our fellowship is with the
Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ’, and there is ‘the fellowship of the Holy Spirit’. Thus koinōnia is a Trinitarian experience;
it is our common share in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But secondly, koinōnia also expresses what we share out
together, what we give as well as what we receive. Koinōnia is the word Paul used for the collection he was organizing
among the Greek churches, and koinonikos is the Greek word for ‘generous’. It is to this that Luke is particularly referring
here, because he goes on at once to describe the way in which these first Christians shared their possessions with one
another: all the believers were together and had everything in common (koina). Selling their possessions and goods
(probably meaning their real estate and their valuables respectively), they gave to anyone as he had need (vv.44–45).
It is important to note that even in Jerusalem the sharing of property and possessions was voluntary. According to verse 46,
they broke bread in their homes. So evidently many still had homes; not all had sold them. It is also noteworthy that the
tense of both verbs in verse 45 is imperfect, which indicates that the selling and the giving were occasional, in response to
particular needs, not once and for all. Further, the sin of Ananias and Sapphira, to which we shall come in Acts 5, was not
greed or materialism but deceit; it was not that they had retained part of the proceeds of their sale, but that they had done
so while pretending to give it all. Peter made this plain when he said to them: ‘Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And
after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal?’ (5:4). At the same time, although the selling and the sharing were and
are voluntary, and every Christian has to make careful decisions before God in this matter, we are all called to generosity,
especially towards the poor and needy. Already in the Old Testament 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 alien, the fatherless and the widow’. How can Spirit-
filled believers possibly give less? The principle is stated twice in the Acts: they gave to anyone as he had need (45), and
‘there were no needy persons among them … the money … was distributed to anyone as he had need’ (4:34–35). As John
was to write later, if we have material possessions and see a brother or sister in need, but do not share what we have with
him or her, how can we claim that God’s love dwells in us? Livingwater Christian fellowship is Christian caring, and Christian
caring is Christian sharing. Chrysostom gave a beautiful description of it: ‘This was an angelic commonwealth, not to call
anything of theirs their own. Forthwith the root of evils was cut out.… None reproached, none envied, none grudged; no
pride, no contempt was there.… The poor man knew no shame, the rich no haughtiness.’ So we must not avoid the challenge
of these verses. That we have hundreds of thousands of poor brothers and sisters is a standing rebuke to us who are more
wealthy. It is part of the responsibility of Spirit filled believers to lessen need and abolish poverty in the new community of
Jesus.
3. It was a worshipping church
They devoted themselves … to the breaking of bread and to prayer (v.42). That is, their fellowship was expressed not only in
caring for each other, but in corporate worship too. There are two aspects of the early church’s worship which exemplify its
balance. First, it was both formal and informal, for it took place both in the temple courts and in their homes (46), which is an
interesting combination. It is perhaps surprising that they continued for a while in the temple, but they did.
The second example of the balance of the early church’s worship is that it was both joyful and reverent. There can be no
doubt of their joy, for they are described as having glad and sincere hearts (46), which literally means ‘in exultation
[agalliasis] and sincerity of heart’
Since God had sent his son into the world, and had now sent them his Spirit, they had plenty of reason to be joyful. Besides,
‘the fruit of the Spirit is … joy’, and sometimes a more uninhibited joy than is customary (or even acceptable) within the staid
traditions of the historic churches. Yet every worship service should be a joyful celebration of the mighty acts of God through
Jesus Christ. It is right in public worship to be distinguished; it is unforgivable to be dull. At the same time, their joy was never
irreverent. If joy in God is an authentic work of the Spirit, so is the fear of God. Everyone was filled with awe (v43), which
seems to include the Christians as well as the non-Christians. God had visited their city. He was in their midst, and they knew
it. They bowed down before him in humility and wonder. It is a mistake, therefore, to imagine that in public worship
reverence and rejoicing are mutually exclusive. The combination of joy and awe, as of formality and informality, is a healthy
balance in worship.
4. It was an evangelistic church
So far we have considered the study, the fellowship and the worship of the Jerusalem church, for it is to these three things
that Luke says the first believers devoted themselves. Yet these are aspects of the interior life of the church; they tell us
nothing about its compassionate outreach to the world. Tens of thousands of sermons have been preached on Acts 2:42,
which well illustrates the danger of isolating a text from its context. On its own, verse 42 presents a very lopsided picture of
the church’s life. Verse 47b needs to be added: And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Those first Jerusalem Christians were not so preoccupied with learning, sharing and worshipping, that they forgot about
witnessing. For the Holy Spirit is a missionary Spirit who created a missionary church. As Harry Boer expressed it in his
challenging book Pentecost and Missions, the Acts ‘is governed by one dominant, overriding and all-controlling motif. This
motif is the expansion of the faith through missionary witness in the power of the Spirit.… Restlessly the Spirit drives the
church to witness, and continually churches rise out of the witness. The church is a missionary church’. From these earliest
believers in Jerusalem, we can learn three vital lessons about local church evangelism. First, the Lord himself (that is, Jesus)
did it: the Lord added to their number. Doubtless he did it through the preaching of the apostles, the witness of church
members, the impressive love of their common life, and their example as they were praising God and enjoying the favour of
all the people (47a). Yet he did it. For he is the head of the church. He alone has the prerogative to admit people into its
membership and to bestow salvation from his throne. Secondly, what Jesus did was two things together: he added to their
number … those who were being saved (the present participle sōzomenous either being timeless or emphasizing that
salvation is a progressive experience culminating in final glorification). He did not add them to the church without saving
them (no nominal Christianity at the beginning), nor did he save them without adding them to the church (no solitary
Christianity either). Salvation and church membership belonged together; they still do. Thirdly, the Lord added people daily.
The verb is an imperfect (‘kept adding’), and the adverb (‘daily’) puts the matter beyond question. The early church’s
evangelism was not an occasional or sporadic activity. They did not organize quinquennial or decennial missions (missions
are fine so long as they are only episodes in an ongoing programme). No, just as their worship was daily (46a), so was their
witness. Praise and proclamation were both the natural overflow of hearts full of the Holy spirit. And as their outreach was
continuous, so continuously converts were being added. We need to recover this expectation of steady and uninterrupted
church growth. Looking back over these marks of the first Spirit-filled community, it is evident that they all concerned the
church’s relationships. First, they were related to the apostles (in submission). They were eager to receive the apostles’
instruction. A Spirit-filled church is an apostolic church, a New Testament church, anxious to believe and obey what Jesus and
his apostles taught. Secondly, they were related to each other (in love). They persevered in the fellowship, supporting each
other and relieving the needs of the poor. A Spirit filled church is a loving, caring, sharing church. Thirdly, they were related
to God (in worship). They worshipped him 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. Fourthly, they were related to the world (in outreach).
They were engaged in continuous evangelism. No self-centered, self-contained church (absorbed in its own parochial affairs)
can claim to be filled with the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a missionary Spirit. So a Spirit-filled church is a missionary church.

Conclusion:
There is no need for us to wait, as the hundred and twenty had to wait, for the Spirit to come. For the Holy Spirit did
come on the Day of Pentecost, and has never left his church. Our responsibility is to humble ourselves before his sovereign
authority, to determined not to quench him, but to allow him his freedom. For then our churches will again manifest those
marks of the Spirit’s presence, which many of us are specially looking for, namely biblical teaching, loving fellowship, living
worship, and an ongoing, outgoing evangelism.