The fellowship of the believers

[Amanah]

Acts 2:42

The Fellowship of the Believers

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

What does Acts 2:42 mean to you?
How do you fulfill it?

[good samaritan]

Acts 2 is the institution of the New Covenant (repentance, water baptism, spirit baptism). The apostle's doctrine was simply the things the apostles taught, and they received it from Jesus' teaching and progressively by the revelation of the Holy Ghost. The foundational truth was/is concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ, but their doctrine was likely still developing after the period of Acts 2, especially in regard to the requirements of Gentile converts.

1 Corinthians 3:9-13
9......For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
10......According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
11......For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12......Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
13......Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

Ephesians 2:20-22
20......And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
21......In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
22......In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

They were united in doctrine, fellowship with God, and with one another. The unity must have been extraordinary, because many who had houses and lands, sold them to be distributed among the body. Those kinds of sacrifices demonstrated the true faith and unity of the early church. It is sad to see how far from the mark we have gone.

[coksiw]

Originally Posted by Amanah

Acts 2:42

The Fellowship of the Believers

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

What does Acts 2:42 mean to you?
How do you fulfill it?

We have service three times a week. We see brothers and sisters three times a week at least, and during the week we talk. That's more often than many people outside the church see their friends in a week, or even their relative.

At church, we do pray in the alter together, and after church, in several occasion we go out to eat together for lunch or just have some snack in our fellowship hall.

In our current environment, we call apostle's doctrine those doctrines they taught that also we are most concerned about because of the prevalent false doctrines around us.

However, in the Jewish environment back then, the "persevering" part may be referring to the form of doctrine that differentiated the Christians from the non-Christians, which was almost 100% that Jesus was the Son of God, and was Lord and Christ, sealed with the powerful sign of God of his resurrection, and subsequent miracles in Jesus' name.

The apostles also spent a good amount of time retelling the story of Jesus' ministry, including his teachings. The fact that we have four Gospels shows you the high demand for such information.

Regarding the selling all the possession, we have to make the observation that that event was not repeated in the rest of churches in Acts or mentioned in the Epistles. It was not that the unity of the brethren cooled down, as you can see Epistles like Philippians or Ephesians praising the saints love. The selling of possession was likely the result of Jesus' teaching of the imminent destruction of Jerusalem being echoed by the apostles, mixed with the response to the hospitality needs of so many new believers in Jerusalem (probably because of Pentecost or also just coming to hear the apostles, as many traveled to hear Jesus in the past) where the apostles were.

[good samaritan]

Regarding the selling all the possession, we have to make the observation that that event was not repeated in the rest of churches in Acts or mentioned in the Epistles. It was not that the unity of the brethren cooled down, as you can see Epistles like Philippians or Ephesians praising the saints love. The selling of possession was likely the result of Jesus' teaching of the imminent destruction of Jerusalem being echoed by the apostles, mixed with the response to the hospitality needs of so many new believers in Jerusalem (probably because of Pentecost or also just coming to hear the apostles, as many traveled to hear Jesus in the past) where the apostles were.

I have heard this taught before and I have alluded to the possibility of it being the reason as well. I am sure it made fleeing Jerusalem easier as they were no longer landowners in Israel. But, It is only speculation because the text doesn't say what motivated them. It did however say this:

Acts 2:44-46
44......And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
45......And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
46......And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,

I believe the real reason for selling their goods was because they felt led to do so to meet the needs of the other less fortunate Christian brethren. Most of Jesus teaching in the gospels had to do with caring for others, which is no doubt a teaching of the apostles. There is no example of the apostles commanding to sell everything, but it was likely that charity and equal treatment of one another was a major teaching. That in effect could be a strong motivator why.

We have discussed in other posts the abuse of modern tithe teachers. I agree 100% that there has been a lot of abuse. In most churches today the overwhelming majority use the tithes and offerings to support the bldg funds and pastoral salary and do nothing much to help the members of the body to have equality. Matter of fact the poor in many churches are supporting their wealthy pastor. I don't believe this is even close to our biblical model.

[coksiw]

Originally Posted by good samaritan

I have heard this taught before and I have alluded to the possibility of it being the reason as well. I am sure it made fleeing Jerusalem easier as they were no longer landowners in Israel. But, It is only speculation because the text doesn't say what motivated them. It did however say this:

Acts 2:44-46
44......And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
45......And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
46......And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,

I believe the real reason for selling their goods was because they felt led to do so to meet the needs of the other less fortunate Christian brethren. Most of Jesus teaching in the gospels had to do with caring for others, which is no doubt a teaching of the apostles. There is no example of the apostles commanding to sell everything, but it was likely that charity and equal treatment of one another was a major teaching. That in effect could be a strong motivator why.

We have discussed in other posts the abuse of modern tithe teachers. I agree 100% that there has been a lot of abuse. In most churches today the overwhelming majority use the tithes and offerings to support the bldg funds and pastoral salary and do nothing much to help the members of the body to have equality. Matter of fact the poor in many churches are supporting their wealthy pastor. I don't believe this is even close to our biblical model.

That's why I mentioned the "hospitality" reason as well. You can't ignore the observation that such event doesn't happen again outside the Jerusalem church. If you explain the motivation to be entirely and solely on the response to the teaching of the apostles, then you are also saying the apostles failed to get the same response in Samaria, the entirety of Asia Minor, and Rome.

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by coksiw

That's why I mentioned the "hospitality" reason as well. You can't ignore the observation that such event doesn't happen again outside the Jerusalem church. If you explain the motivation to be entirely and solely on the response to the teaching of the apostles, then you are also saying the apostles failed to get the same response in Samaria, the entirety of Asia Minor, and Rome.

The statement about selling houses etc is a generalized statement and not exhaustive and primarily had to do with selling excess property. The case of Ananias and Sapphira proves there was nothing inappropriate about owning property, or selling it and keeping or using the money as the seller saw fit. Their problem was they lied about how much they sold it for in reference to how much they were donating.

The main point Luke was making was that the early church made sure everyone was taken care of and not suffering lack.

[Amanah]

This is a note from my ESV study Bible:

ACTS—NOTE ON 2:42 The early church was devoted to the apostles’ teaching, which would have included Jesus’ earthly teaching plus what he taught the apostles in his 40 days of resurrection appearances. Fellowship (Gk. koinōnia, “participation, sharing”) included the sharing of material goods (v. 44), the breaking of bread (vv. 42, 46), which likely covers both the Lord’s Supper and a larger fellowship meal, and prayers in house meetings and likely also in the temple (vv. 42, 46).

[good samaritan]

I have noticed that a lot of churches are reducing the number of services in their sanctuaries and organizing more weekday small in-home services. Which I think is great for the larger churches to connect saints with other saints. Our church is only about 25 people and my family makes up 7 of that number. Our church is just a small group setting anyways, but I do enjoy feeling like we are all family. I feel that is probably more of the early church attitude.

[Amanah]

It seems their fellowship meetings commonly included teaching doctrine, participation in the Lord's supper and prayer.

[coksiw]

Originally Posted by Amanah

It seems their fellowship meetings commonly included teaching doctrine, participation in the Lord's supper and prayer.

I believe that was true. The historical evidence I've seen is pretty much that. Public Reading of the Scriptures, with some explanation, then some exhortation from the elders, then Lord's supper and prayer.