E6 Adding to the Church
Acts 2:41-47
Act 2:41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
As we noted previously, this group is made up of people from out of town and from local bystanders. That is, from devout (faithful Jewish believers) who had come from all over the known world to celebrate Pentecost. I suppose that many of them had been there a while, having actually come for Passover and then stayed over until Pentecost. And the group was also made up of a number of the local Jews who had been opposed to Jesus until they heard Peter’s message. They put their faith in Jesus that day. 3000 baptisms took place. Apparently there were numerous pools at different parts of the city, but it is impossible for us to know exactly how these baptisms were administered.
Notice that all of the baptism candidates were adults. That is, at least adult enough to have ‘gladly received his word’. There were no infant baptisms. And then there is the logistics of the procedure to take note of. Baptism was only performed by a complete immersion in those days. And that is known because the word baptism, being a Greek word, only translates as immerse. So, literally speaking, Jesus had said, Go into all the world and make disciples of all the nations, immersing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ….
‘Water’ baptism is symbolic. Another way to say that, Water baptism does not literally do anything to or for a person. Yet one more way of saying the same thing, water baptism does not produce salvation, does not actually wash away sin, does not change a person’s destiny from hell to heaven. That is why we say that baptism is symbolic.
Allow me to illustrate the difference between symbolic and real. Many of you carry a driver’s licence. You use it for a driving permit and you use it for your personal identification. If your little child or grandchild were to look at it for the first time, they might exclaim, “That is you on there!” You would be actually wrong to say, “That’s right. That is me.” The correct answer …”That is not me. That is a piece of plastic. This is only a picture of me.”
Water baptism is a picture. It pictures salvation. It pictures death, burial and resurrection. When a person is baptized he or she is showing that they believe Jesus died, was buried, and rose from the dead. And because it was you or it was I who was being baptised, we show that we are right with Him. We too have died to sin. We buried it. And we are alive in Him.
Baptism is a beautiful picture and testimony of what we believe in our heart. It is a testimony that does not depend on descriptive words and expressions. It says it all. Any believer can make the identical testimony, regardless of their I.Q. or their ability to use words.
On this particular day, the first Christian Pentecost, three thousand people, by their action of coming forward for baptism, were saying, I believe! Jesus died for me. He is risen. He is my living Saviour!
But there were real, actual, baptisms that took place that day. But these baptisms were invisible. Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthian church, For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free — and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 1Co 12:13
The ‘Body of Christ’ is made up of all genuine born again believers. We also refer to it as ‘family’, … the family of God. We become part of the family of God when we confess our sin and believe that Jesus died for us. We became part of the family of God as the invisible Spirit of God gave eternal life to your invisible spirit and included you as part of the family, part of the body. That is the real and actual baptism. That is what we picture when we undergo the symbolic immersion in water.
And for the record, there is only one kind of baptism that is for believers today. Some bible teachers have gone to great lengths to say that there are several kinds of baptisms that we experience in this age. The bible says that there is only one baptism.
Eph 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
Jesus talked about a baptism that meant dying as a martyr. Mt 20:22 But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.”
And history shows us that, indeed, they were baptized in a martyr's death. This is a baptism that some of us might also experience in the days or months to come. But as far as the ‘one baptism’ statement goes, this is a work of the Holy Spirit and it happened at the moment of your salvation. You did not have to do anything but come to Jesus. He did the rest. Are you and I baptized by the Holy Spirit? Do we have ‘Spirit Baptism’? Yes, if indeed we have trusted Christ as our Saviour.
We have been baptized into the body, into Christ. Can we ever ‘fall out of’ Christ? Here is what apostle Paul said,
Col 3:3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
How safe is that? In Christ, in God! John 10:28 “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
John 10:29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.
Baptized into Christ. What a wonderful place to be! And how wonderfully secure! No one can remove you from being ‘in Christ’. And even after death we read that the dead ‘in christ’ will rise first. So in life or in death, we are in Christ.
Next we are told that these newly added persons, 42 ... continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
It is encouraging to read a statement like this. This is what every church leader or pastor envisions for their church.
I love that word, Steadfastly. These people were being taught and the people were taking it all in. They enjoyed fellowship with each other. Fellowship is very encouraging.
So good and constant teaching, fellowship with one another is building them up spiritually.
But there was more going on. The ‘breaking of bread’ could possibly be referring to eating meals together. We know that they were doing that, as we will shortly see. But I believe the breaking of bread is actually talking about communion. There is something about communion that creates a soul-adjustment for us. The apostle Paul had to accept a physical ‘thorn in the flesh’, God said, to keep him humble. And humility is a very good thing in God’s sight. It is very humbling for us to realize that our sin caused Jesus’ death. We remember that at each communion that we take part in. We need to humbly remember that we were ugly sinners, unbelieving, unrepentant at one time. And because of that Jesus died. If we have a tendency to get proud of ourselves, come back to a communion and remember why Jesus died.
And finally, these people continued steadfastly praying with the apostles. We cannot leave this out of our menu for spiritual growth. But far too often prayer is the most neglected part of our lives. Prayer meetings are rarely attended by more than 4 or 5 people. Prayer in our own ‘prayer closets’ does not happen like it should. The result of neglecting this menu of growth requirements is that we do not see what the following verse describes.
43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
Do we lack ‘power’ as a church? This early church did not. Great signs and wonders were done through the apostles.
From the day of Pentecost and onward, church seems to be an every day thing. Thousands of new additions to the group. Where were they all staying? Many had come from afar for the day of Pentecost. Perhaps some of them returned home. If they did, they would not have a complete gospel message to share with their neighbors. I think most of the newly baptized people stayed right there in Jerusalem. I really don’t know how they all found accommodation. Even the original 120 were from towns about two days' walk to the north. Somehow they managed it.
The ‘signs and wonders’ and the steadfastly committed followers of Jesus resulted in ‘great fear’ or awe by those in the community. It seems too cheap to say, “It was a ‘happening’ place”. It was a powerful place. Remember Jesus had promised, “You will receive power, after the Holy Spirit comes upon you …”. The Holy Spirit is upon us as well.. The power can also be upon us. How? We must remain in the solid teaching of the word. Remain steadfastly in the fellowship of the body. Be faithful in the Communion remembrance and in praying together. The rest will be totally up to God.
We complete this chapter of Acts with Luke painting us a word picture of the daily activities of this young church.
44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common,
45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
I may be repeating myself here, but I want to remind ourselves that the book of Acts faithfully gives us a history of the early church. Not everything that the early church did is an example of a command for us to do today.
An example is the practice that this church had of staying together continuously and having all things in common. In the province of Alberta, a growing group of people called Hutterites practice a communal style of living. Jacob Hutter was the Anabaptist church leader who, about 400 years ago, formed a branch off of the original Anabaptist movement. Based on these verses in Acts he set up a church experience of everyone having all things in common.
How well does it work? Is it the biblical thing to do? Well, the bible does not tell us NOT to do it. Nor does it tell us TO do it. All we have in Acts is an example of what the church did at that time.
But if we look specifically in the narrative of the book of Acts to see whether the Christians continued to do that in other cities, we will not find that they did. There will be more evidence that they did not. But, be that as it may, this is what Jacob Hutter felt compelled to do.
We will not take the time to show that they were not the only ones to take an example of what the early church did and try to duplicate it for our time.
But let’s try to imagine for a moment the impact that these early believers had on one another. Most of us can remember the warm feelings we had when we met someone with whom we shared important things in common. These believers are sharing EVERYTHING in common.
Their lives are simple, uncomplicated and filled with gladness. They would be the talk of the town. They were seen in the temple area daily. This would be for the purpose of connecting with other Jews and trying to introduce them to Jesus as the crucified but risen Messiah and Savior. This would also be a heartwarming place to be coming for prayer. For the most part coming to Jerusalem and to the Temple would certainly not have been an everyday thing. But now it is.
As we live out our Christian lives as followers of Jesus, we can also be a people that are ‘noticed’ by outsiders. The wonderful result of their day to day lives was that outsiders were coming to faith. We read And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
What can we expect to see as we Christians draw closer to the Word of God, Closer to one another, Closer to communion with Jesus, Closer to God in prayer?
Will it be like it was in the days of Noah … with no one listening to us or responding to our invitation to Christ? Will there be some who are willing to make the commitment?
We are living in difficult days that likely will get worse before they get any better. But so were the Christians of the book of Acts. Peter gives us some very good advice.
Simply concentrate on being completely devoted to Christ in your hearts. Be ready at any time to give a quiet and reverent answer to any man who wants a reason for the hope that you have within you. 1Peter 3:15
As we noted previously, this group is made up of people from out of town and from local bystanders. That is, from devout (faithful Jewish believers) who had come from all over the known world to celebrate Pentecost. I suppose that many of them had been there a while, having actually come for Passover and then stayed over until Pentecost. And the group was also made up of a number of the local Jews who had been opposed to Jesus until they heard Peter’s message. They put their faith in Jesus that day. 3000 baptisms took place. Apparently there were numerous pools at different parts of the city, but it is impossible for us to know exactly how these baptisms were administered.
Notice that all of the baptism candidates were adults. That is, at least adult enough to have ‘gladly received his word’. There were no infant baptisms. And then there is the logistics of the procedure to take note of. Baptism was only performed by a complete immersion in those days. And that is known because the word baptism, being a Greek word, only translates as immerse. So, literally speaking, Jesus had said, Go into all the world and make disciples of all the nations, immersing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ….
‘Water’ baptism is symbolic. Another way to say that, Water baptism does not literally do anything to or for a person. Yet one more way of saying the same thing, water baptism does not produce salvation, does not actually wash away sin, does not change a person’s destiny from hell to heaven. That is why we say that baptism is symbolic.
Allow me to illustrate the difference between symbolic and real. Many of you carry a driver’s licence. You use it for a driving permit and you use it for your personal identification. If your little child or grandchild were to look at it for the first time, they might exclaim, “That is you on there!” You would be actually wrong to say, “That’s right. That is me.” The correct answer …”That is not me. That is a piece of plastic. This is only a picture of me.”
Water baptism is a picture. It pictures salvation. It pictures death, burial and resurrection. When a person is baptized he or she is showing that they believe Jesus died, was buried, and rose from the dead. And because it was you or it was I who was being baptised, we show that we are right with Him. We too have died to sin. We buried it. And we are alive in Him.
Baptism is a beautiful picture and testimony of what we believe in our heart. It is a testimony that does not depend on descriptive words and expressions. It says it all. Any believer can make the identical testimony, regardless of their I.Q. or their ability to use words.
On this particular day, the first Christian Pentecost, three thousand people, by their action of coming forward for baptism, were saying, I believe! Jesus died for me. He is risen. He is my living Saviour!
But there were real, actual, baptisms that took place that day. But these baptisms were invisible. Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthian church, For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free — and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 1Co 12:13
The ‘Body of Christ’ is made up of all genuine born again believers. We also refer to it as ‘family’, … the family of God. We become part of the family of God when we confess our sin and believe that Jesus died for us. We became part of the family of God as the invisible Spirit of God gave eternal life to your invisible spirit and included you as part of the family, part of the body. That is the real and actual baptism. That is what we picture when we undergo the symbolic immersion in water.
And for the record, there is only one kind of baptism that is for believers today. Some bible teachers have gone to great lengths to say that there are several kinds of baptisms that we experience in this age. The bible says that there is only one baptism.
Eph 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
Jesus talked about a baptism that meant dying as a martyr. Mt 20:22 But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.”
And history shows us that, indeed, they were baptized in a martyr's death. This is a baptism that some of us might also experience in the days or months to come. But as far as the ‘one baptism’ statement goes, this is a work of the Holy Spirit and it happened at the moment of your salvation. You did not have to do anything but come to Jesus. He did the rest. Are you and I baptized by the Holy Spirit? Do we have ‘Spirit Baptism’? Yes, if indeed we have trusted Christ as our Saviour.
We have been baptized into the body, into Christ. Can we ever ‘fall out of’ Christ? Here is what apostle Paul said,
Col 3:3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
How safe is that? In Christ, in God! John 10:28 “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
John 10:29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.
Baptized into Christ. What a wonderful place to be! And how wonderfully secure! No one can remove you from being ‘in Christ’. And even after death we read that the dead ‘in christ’ will rise first. So in life or in death, we are in Christ.
Next we are told that these newly added persons, 42 ... continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
It is encouraging to read a statement like this. This is what every church leader or pastor envisions for their church.
I love that word, Steadfastly. These people were being taught and the people were taking it all in. They enjoyed fellowship with each other. Fellowship is very encouraging.
So good and constant teaching, fellowship with one another is building them up spiritually.
But there was more going on. The ‘breaking of bread’ could possibly be referring to eating meals together. We know that they were doing that, as we will shortly see. But I believe the breaking of bread is actually talking about communion. There is something about communion that creates a soul-adjustment for us. The apostle Paul had to accept a physical ‘thorn in the flesh’, God said, to keep him humble. And humility is a very good thing in God’s sight. It is very humbling for us to realize that our sin caused Jesus’ death. We remember that at each communion that we take part in. We need to humbly remember that we were ugly sinners, unbelieving, unrepentant at one time. And because of that Jesus died. If we have a tendency to get proud of ourselves, come back to a communion and remember why Jesus died.
And finally, these people continued steadfastly praying with the apostles. We cannot leave this out of our menu for spiritual growth. But far too often prayer is the most neglected part of our lives. Prayer meetings are rarely attended by more than 4 or 5 people. Prayer in our own ‘prayer closets’ does not happen like it should. The result of neglecting this menu of growth requirements is that we do not see what the following verse describes.
43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
Do we lack ‘power’ as a church? This early church did not. Great signs and wonders were done through the apostles.
From the day of Pentecost and onward, church seems to be an every day thing. Thousands of new additions to the group. Where were they all staying? Many had come from afar for the day of Pentecost. Perhaps some of them returned home. If they did, they would not have a complete gospel message to share with their neighbors. I think most of the newly baptized people stayed right there in Jerusalem. I really don’t know how they all found accommodation. Even the original 120 were from towns about two days' walk to the north. Somehow they managed it.
The ‘signs and wonders’ and the steadfastly committed followers of Jesus resulted in ‘great fear’ or awe by those in the community. It seems too cheap to say, “It was a ‘happening’ place”. It was a powerful place. Remember Jesus had promised, “You will receive power, after the Holy Spirit comes upon you …”. The Holy Spirit is upon us as well.. The power can also be upon us. How? We must remain in the solid teaching of the word. Remain steadfastly in the fellowship of the body. Be faithful in the Communion remembrance and in praying together. The rest will be totally up to God.
We complete this chapter of Acts with Luke painting us a word picture of the daily activities of this young church.
44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common,
45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
I may be repeating myself here, but I want to remind ourselves that the book of Acts faithfully gives us a history of the early church. Not everything that the early church did is an example of a command for us to do today.
An example is the practice that this church had of staying together continuously and having all things in common. In the province of Alberta, a growing group of people called Hutterites practice a communal style of living. Jacob Hutter was the Anabaptist church leader who, about 400 years ago, formed a branch off of the original Anabaptist movement. Based on these verses in Acts he set up a church experience of everyone having all things in common.
How well does it work? Is it the biblical thing to do? Well, the bible does not tell us NOT to do it. Nor does it tell us TO do it. All we have in Acts is an example of what the church did at that time.
But if we look specifically in the narrative of the book of Acts to see whether the Christians continued to do that in other cities, we will not find that they did. There will be more evidence that they did not. But, be that as it may, this is what Jacob Hutter felt compelled to do.
We will not take the time to show that they were not the only ones to take an example of what the early church did and try to duplicate it for our time.
But let’s try to imagine for a moment the impact that these early believers had on one another. Most of us can remember the warm feelings we had when we met someone with whom we shared important things in common. These believers are sharing EVERYTHING in common.
Their lives are simple, uncomplicated and filled with gladness. They would be the talk of the town. They were seen in the temple area daily. This would be for the purpose of connecting with other Jews and trying to introduce them to Jesus as the crucified but risen Messiah and Savior. This would also be a heartwarming place to be coming for prayer. For the most part coming to Jerusalem and to the Temple would certainly not have been an everyday thing. But now it is.
As we live out our Christian lives as followers of Jesus, we can also be a people that are ‘noticed’ by outsiders. The wonderful result of their day to day lives was that outsiders were coming to faith. We read And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
What can we expect to see as we Christians draw closer to the Word of God, Closer to one another, Closer to communion with Jesus, Closer to God in prayer?
Will it be like it was in the days of Noah … with no one listening to us or responding to our invitation to Christ? Will there be some who are willing to make the commitment?
We are living in difficult days that likely will get worse before they get any better. But so were the Christians of the book of Acts. Peter gives us some very good advice.
Simply concentrate on being completely devoted to Christ in your hearts. Be ready at any time to give a quiet and reverent answer to any man who wants a reason for the hope that you have within you. 1Peter 3:15