The Fellowship of the Believers – Acts 2:42-47

The Fellowship of the Believers – Acts 2:42-47

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 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 2:42-47 ESV)

So for our first community group of the summer we looked at this passage. Here are the 4 discussion questions we used to talk more about the passage:

  1. What stuck out to you in this passage?
  2. What is God trying to tell us here?
  3. What do you think were some challenges for the early church to be this type of community?
  4. Give an example where God worked in a way only He could.

And we also had a question that we discussed in smaller groups of 3-4, that we prayed about along with our own personal prayer requests, which was:

  1. How can we work to apply this to our own lives, schools, churches, clubs, family, and to this community group?

Here are some of my notes. The first sentence is truly a breakdown of what we’re trying to model in our community groups, which was amazing to see a verse of the bible to support it.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. – Acts 2:42

So we see here that they devoted themselves to 4 things, which are:

  • The apostle’s teaching = scripture = bible study
  • fellowship = enjoying each other’s presence
  • breaking of bread = food or communion
  • prayers = praying for one another

It’s basically the model we use for our community groups. First we have a time of fellowship for about 20 minutes, then we have a bible study for about 30-40 min, then we split into smaller groups for about 20 minutes to pray, and finally we go get dinner together. BAM! Right on the money with the Bible! It doesn’t get better than that.

But other than that, we can see several observations from the passage.

First, there are two subjects in this passage, the “they” and the apostles.

The “they” that is talked about in the passage is the church, the body of Christ in that city. There are several adjectives that are used to describe them:

  • they were together
  • had all things in common
  • had glad and generous hearts
  • had favor with all the people

They also did lots of things. There are many verbs that were used in this passage to tell about what they did.

  • devoted themselves to 1) the apostle’s teaching 2) fellowship 3) breaking of bread 4) prayers
  • selling (present tense! not a one time thing!) their possessions and belongings
  • distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need
  • attending temple together
  • breaking bread in their homes
  • received food (could be to literally get food from people or to eat food)
  • Praising God

The apostles are the other subjects in this passage and we can see that they do several things as well:

  • Teaching
  • Performed wonders
  • performed signs

What came as a result of the Apostles’ many wonders and signs was “awe” or “fear.” The people would see and experience these wonders and signs and would know without a shadow of doubt that there was a god out there. Not only that, but this God was a personal God who worked through the people who worshiped Him. 

The ultimate result that came out of both what the Apostles and the church did was continued faithfulness in preparing themselves for the work of God. It was not because of their work that the church grew. They were only the ones who planted and watered, but it was God who is sovereign and supplied the growth.

And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. – Acts 2:47

We must always remember that salvation is never the result of what we do but always and only the result of the Lord’s work of the Holy Spirit in the people’s hearts. We are called to be good and faithful servants, to tend to our posts and to do as we are told. God will take care of the rest. Rest your heart in that fact and knowledge. Let it become your REALITY.

2 Responses

  1. iris says:

    once again – it’s shows on my googlereader!(:

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