WWUTT 2558 They Had All Things In Common (Acts 2:40-47)

In Acts 2 .44, we read of the first church, that they had all things in common.

They sold their property and possessions and divided these things up with all. We should see that kind of generosity even today when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study in the word of Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Acts, we're finishing up chapter two today with this description of that first church in Jerusalem having all things in common.

Let me read once again from verses 37 to 47. Hear the word of the Lord. Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men, brothers, what shall we do?

And Peter said to them, repent, and each of you be baptized 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 your children and for all who are far off, as many as the

Lord our God will call to himself. And with many other words, he solemnly bore witness and kept on exhorting them saying, be saved from this crooked generation.

So then those who had received his word were baptized, and that day there were added about 3 ,000 souls.

And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.

And fear came upon every soul and many signs and wonders were taking place through the apostles.

And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common.

And they began selling their property and possessions and were dividing them up with all as anyone might have need.

And daily devoting themselves with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising

God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number daily those who were being saved.

Now, you might be aware that this particular section of Acts chapter two is sometimes ripped out of context and twisted.

We've looked at a few ways some of these scriptures are misinterpreted already, but I'm thinking specifically about this section where we're reading about them having all things in common and selling what they had and distributing to those who had need.

Some will take this passage and say, well, see, this is communism. This is socialism, or they might use socialism because communism is a lot harder form of socialism.

So not to be too radical, they'll say, see the early church, they were all socialists.

Is that how we're supposed to understand this? Of course, you know, the answer is no. We'll get to that in a moment, but let's come back up to verse 40.

This is where we're picking up from where we left off. With many other words, Peter solemnly bore witness and kept on exhorting them saying, be saved from this crooked generation.

So after the sermon that we read that went from verses 14 to 36, it wasn't just that that Peter preached.

There was more to it than that. And verse 40 says so, with many other words, he solemnly bore witness.

So even after preaching this sermon and the people were cut to the heart and he says to them, repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, it didn't just suddenly go to baptism.

Okay, well, let's do it. And then they all run down to the Jordan River and they're all getting baptized. There are many other things

Peter continued to preach to convince them that Jesus is the Christ and that their response to this needed to be to repent and believe in Jesus and so be baptized.

Those explanations come about in the continued teaching that Peter gave.

It was just last week, I think it was, a well -known Lutheran minister on social media was making fun of the fact that Baptists will talk with people first, like sit down and have conversations before they go get baptized.

I really did not understand why this mockery. I think he was coming at it from the pedobaptist perspective, of course.

No, you just baptize your infants. There's no need to sit down and have a conversation. That was probably his angle, but it was just strange that he was making fun of Baptists for sitting down and wanting to have a conversation and helping a person understand what baptism is or even hearing from them a confession of faith before they go and get baptized.

Why would you not explain to somebody what baptism is or even hear from them that they understand what baptism is?

Everything that we are given here in Acts 2 is not just preaching and boom, let's go get baptized.

There was more to it than this. So after Peter preaches this sermon and the people are cut to the heart, explain to us what we do next.

And he continues to exhort them. He continues to preach in such a way that demands a response.

That's what an exhortation is. So there's an imperative there. There's application. Now, in light of what you've heard, what shall you do?

And him saying, be saved from this crooked generation. Now, don't take that statement in isolation and rip it out of context either.

This is not Peter preaching that you save yourself. You don't have the ability to save yourself.

Surely you know this. It is Christ who saves. But you believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, turning from your sin to Christ, you're saving yourself from this crooked generation that is coming to destruction.

And the connection that I made with this yesterday, going back to Luke 23, Jesus talking about the judgment that would soon come upon Jerusalem within this generation.

So within 40 years from these events that we're reading about right here, the Romans are gonna march against Jerusalem.

The temple will be destroyed. Many, many will die. And even the birth records would be destroyed.

And so all of those genealogical records, a lot of the laws that were kept by the

Pharisees, the Sanhedrin itself would be completely torn apart after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.

The Sadducees would not exist anymore. The Sadducees, that portion of the

Sanhedrin, you know, you have the two, what would you call it? Branches, branches of the Sanhedrin. So you have the

Pharisees and the Sadducees. Well, after the destruction of the temple, there were no more Sadducees. That was the end of them.

So this judgment that would soon come upon Jerusalem, this is the generation, this is the judgment that will come upon this generation.

To be saved from it, you turn to Jesus Christ. But it's not just for this generation, Peter says, it's also for your children and those who are far off, even people in the

Roman Empire who probably wouldn't be all, would not be affected all that much by the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.

But even for them, the belief in the gospel is their saving grace.

So be saved from this crooked generation. Turn to Jesus Christ and live.

And that same exhortation would be given to us today as well. So we go on in verse 41.

So then those who had received his word were baptized. And that day there were added about 3 ,000 souls.

Again, that just gives testimony to the fact that it wasn't Peter preaching the sermon and then everybody rushing down to the

Jordan and getting baptized. He exhorts them with more words. And so then the people respond by getting baptized.

Now we understand this all happening in a single day. So we should not be led to believe that Peter continued in his exhortation day after day after day.

He and the apostles do continue preaching, we'll read of that later. But all of these events that we read about right here in Acts 2, all the way up to verse 41, these things all happen on the same day.

So then those who received his word were baptized. How many were baptized? And there were added about 3 ,000 souls.

So you have on this first day that the gospel is preached in Jerusalem. Remember that Jesus told the disciples, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

So here it begins with Jerusalem. On the first preaching of this gospel at Pentecost, the response was 3 ,000 people in one day baptized and joining the church.

Now that's a mega church. That's already a mega church. It wasn't that they started with 3 ,000 though.

Remember there were 120 who were gathered in the upper room. But this is still a massive church growth explosion.

It goes from 120 to 3 ,000 in one day. Have you ever seen that before?

One church becoming 3 ,000 plus people in one day. But that's what happens right here at Pentecost.

3 ,000 souls are baptized. You already have a mega church. And I know that the mega church generally has a negative connotation, right?

There's a really big church in my town, not very solid. Wouldn't send anybody there.

And that's the case with most big churches. They're very pragmatic. They are seeker sensitive usually.

That Rick Warren and Bill Hybel's mindset of we need to create church for the person who is seeking after God, the one who is the unbeliever.

And that's kind of the way that they are shaping church, which church is not supposed to be for unbelievers. It's for Christians to worship

God. Many mega churches are using gimmicks to get people in the door. And they think, hey, we'll get them in and then we'll preach the gospel to them.

But what you win them with is what you win them to. And so once they're in, then the church just continues to do entertaining things to keep the people entertained and therefore in the doors and the money flowing and the bills paid.

If you start preaching hard truths, well, people get offended and they turn away. So you get really squishy teaching in a lot of these mega churches.

They suffer from the same kind of warning that Paul gave to Timothy in 1

Timothy 6. He said, as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.

Previously, Paul said the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. You know that verse, right? 1

Timothy 6 .10, it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

And with mega churches wanting to sustain their mega image, they have that craving for worldly riches.

And so many times are softening the message in order to maintain that cashflow.

But that's not the case with every mega church. You can still have a really large church with thousands of people that is really solid.

You might think of Grace Community Church, the church where John MacArthur preached for more than 50 years.

Or St. Andrew's Chapel in Sanford, Florida, where R .C. Sproul taught and is now being led by Burke Parsons.

That one has over a thousand people in it, also considered a mega church. So there are churches that are very large and can still be sound in their doctrine.

We shouldn't just immediately write off a mega church. There's also the giga church. I don't know though if the giga church is like a really mega church.

Like once you get beyond mega, you get to giga. Or if it is the kind of church that has multiple campuses and so therefore you're probably watching the preacher's face on a screen, like gigabytes.

So that's why it's called giga. I don't know. I'm not sure what the distinction is there. But you have really, really big churches out there, yet you can still have really, really good doctrine even in a large church.

Here we have the first church at Jerusalem is basically a mega church. 3 ,000 souls are added to them that day.

And as we're gonna keep on reading, we'll find it increases to 5 ,000 and even more. More brothers who come to faith in Jesus Christ and join this church.

Where in the world do you put that many people, thousands of people, because they didn't have big church buildings back then.

Well, they were all going to the temple and being taught there. They would be up in Solomon's portico, which is where all those columns were.

You know, the whole layout of the temple was massive. You don't have to go into the actual temple structure itself.

You can be in that outer court area and thousands of people could be there. And so that's where the church would go.

That's where they would gather and the apostles would preach to them. And it probably wouldn't be one person heard by thousands of people, although it could have been.

It could have also been that they would be divided up into different groups and each respective apostle would be teaching their group.

So you had a plurality of elders, even in this first mega church.

So it says in verse 42, they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.

They were committed to one another. It wasn't just a conversion and then that's it. This is the church.

This is the body of Jesus Christ demonstrating that the Holy Spirit has united them as one.

The breaking of bread, a reference to even the Lord's table, not just eating together, but that there would be the breaking of bread that represents

Christ's body and the drinking of the cup that represented his blood. Though it's often just spoken about as breaking bread, as we'll see it when we go throughout

Acts. We'll see this come up a few other times. So then verse 43, and fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.

Remember that the people trembled when they heard the apostles speaking in these multiple languages. That was startling to them.

So seeing these signs and wonders is frightening, but in a reverent way.

So they have this reverent fear of God. They see that God is working and active here. He's not just some distant person.

He's right here with us. And that can really make you straighten up in a hurry.

And we're gonna see some other occasions that come up here throughout Acts in which mighty works of God are demonstrated and the people respond with fear and will repent of their sins and will desire to walk in righteousness in light of these many signs and wonders.

Now note that they are taking place through the apostles. So this isn't every Christian now, every person who has received the

Holy Spirit is now performing signs and wonders. The first mega church is not the first charismatic church or Pentecostal church, even though it's in Pentecost, but you know what

I mean. The way that those terms are used and applied today. Not all of the people are demonstrating the presence of the

Holy Spirit through these signs and wonders. It is a sign of apostleship, as said also in Hebrews 2 and in 2

Corinthians 12, 12, where it is said there, the apostle Paul talking to the

Corinthians, the signs of apostleship were clearly demonstrated among you.

So the signs are showing that these men carry the word of God. What they speak has been given to them by Christ.

And what the people hear should be received every bit as authoritative as if it came from Christ himself.

Verse 44, and all those who had believed were together and had all things in common, and they began selling their property and possessions and were dividing them up with all as anyone might have need.

Okay, so right there, right there, those two verses 44 and 45 is where you have the socialists who will take that out of context and say, see, the first church was socialist.

It wasn't people were rich and people were poor. They all shared everything that they had. They would sell their stuff and they would distribute everything evenly among the people just like socialism does.

My friends, this is not socialism. And surely you understand the difference. If you know what socialism is and you're reading this description of the church in Acts 2, why would this not be socialism?

Because no one is forced to give their stuff away to somebody else.

It's not being apprehended. It's not being taken away from them by some other stronger force like the government.

The government coming in, taking your possessions, distributing what you have among other citizens.

That's socialism. This is not stealing. This is generosity.

If the government takes all your stuff, it's still stealing. It doesn't matter if thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people voted for it, and then the government does it, it's still theft.

But here, the people are willingly, lovingly, giving up what they have for the sake of one another.

And I can say, and maybe you've experienced this too, I've been in churches that do this. I've seen this.

I've actually been able to benefit from it myself. Churches that have taken such good care of me and of my family.

And we make sure that everybody's needs within our congregation are met. We focus on the needs of the congregation first, and then if there's an opportunity to help others that are outside the church, we will do that as well.

But we first make sure that the needs of each other are being met. We see this with the first church, and so it should be with every church, not socialistically or legalistically imposing this upon people and requiring them to do it.

For as the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, it should not be under compulsion for the

Lord loves a cheerful giver. This is the body of Christ taking care of the body of Christ.

That's what we see here in verses 44 and 45. And we're gonna expound on this a little bit more too when we get to the account of Ananias and Sapphira.

So we'll talk about this more again, even as we continue. So finishing this up now with these last two verses, verses 46 and 47, and daily devoting themselves with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.

See, they weren't selling their homes, and then no one really had a house anymore, and so we'll just make these homes available to the public.

That wasn't what was going on. But that they had their doors open and welcomed anybody who wanted to come in.

That's something that my family and I, we've tried to do for as long as I've been a pastor. This is my 16th year now coming up here in 2026.

And as long as I've been a pastor, I've tried to exercise hospitality. That's one of the requirements of a pastor, even when you see the qualifications in 1

Timothy 3 or in Titus chapter one. So we want our house to be open. We want people to be able to come in, break bread with them, eat meals together.

And that's what we see happening even within this church at the beginning,

Acts 2 46. And then the final verse here, "'Praising God and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord was adding to their number daily those who were being saved.

As the apostles continued to go out and continued to preach, God continued to add to their number.'"

Now, note something here. I forgot to mention this when we were reading that 3 ,000 souls had been added to them that day.

How many people were in Jerusalem at that time? During the feasts and festivals, it could be a lot.

It could be as many as a million people. So indeed, it's wild to see the first church planted in Jerusalem become 3 ,000 people in a single day.

That's amazing to see, but there were still so many people throughout Jerusalem who did not believe.

And in fact, the Christians that did believe were gonna be heavily persecuted by those who did not.

And that's gonna come up next as we continue to read here about the first church, the planting of the first church by the work of the

Holy Spirit here in Acts 2. That brings us to the conclusion of Acts 2. We pick up our study in Acts on Monday with Acts 3.

I hope you'll come back and join us. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read, and I pray that you continue to lead and teach us in these things as we read them.

Thank you for your love and your kindness, that we may demonstrate that love and kindness with one another.

Teach us to be generous. Teach us to love our neighbor and especially to care for the brotherhood, our brothers and sisters in Christ who are part of this church.

Help us to be generous, knowing that what you have given to us ultimately belongs to you, that we may distribute that which you have blessed us with to others and they would be blessed.

Thank you for loving us and taking good care of us and lead us in righteousness for the glory of your name.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.