43 And awe[ d ] came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 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 2:43-47 (ESV) 中文

Early church kickoff

Peter’s preaching about who Christ is using OT prophecies along with personal testimony by the apostles of the resurrection of Jesus is complete. He has reminded them, “You crucified Him!” The crowd responds to the Spirit’s conviction, repents, believes and are baptized. 3,000 of them! Then they basically go to church every day, for most of the day it seems. In their “church”, they ate together and prayed together. Today’s passage continues the description of the early church. 

Miracles resume

Of all the things Jesus is known for, doing miracles is often at the top of the list. After His resurrection there were a few miracles recorded (like dead rising and talking – Matt. 27:52–53, and Jesus appearing in His new body). And they weren’t the miracles of healing and casting out of demons Jesus had done.

But the Holy Spirit has come in power. The speaking in other language miracle has occurred. So now the miracles resume with the apostles. We’ll see some of them in the next passage. Please note: the miracles were done through the apostles (NASB, ESV, AMP), not by the apostles (as NLT has it). This is a case where we need to stick with the more literal, accurate, translations.

First communism?

When most westerners think of communism we consider it evil or bad. Well, what we see displayed in the world this and last century is clearly not the same. In fact, it was very different. “There is a difference between communism in theory and communism in practice, and the Bible verses that seem to comply with communist ideals are in fact contradicted by the practices of a communist government.” (gotquestions.org)

Here, the group was relatively small (3,00+) but, more importantly, the Holy Spirit was working dramatically and changing people’s hearts. The old was gone and all was becoming new (2 Corinthians 5:17). They were all born again (John 3:3-15). This gave them a genuine willingness to share, not a government-imposed re-allocation of wealth.

Who’s doing the work?

In the RЯeflection of the last post, we asked, “Who did the work?” Today’s passage makes it clear: “the Lord added to their number”. It wasn’t the eloquent preaching of Peter, their prayers, or even the sharing of all possessions in common. 

The Spirit was also graciously giving them a time of favor with all the people. This was to draw even more into the Kingdom (v47). We’ll see even more after the miracle of the next passage.

RЯeflection

• To what do you attribute your success, your fruit, in ministry? [If you can’t see any, you’ve got a different issue to address.] Let’s not get puffed up about how great or capable we are. Resist the temptation (speaking to myself) to think our wonderful prayers are so powerful that God has to listen to them.