And overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Acts 2:41-47, for Sunday, June 16, 2024, with the title, “United.” A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO:  We have some good cooks in our SS class! So I plan to ask them Sunday:  

??? What are some of the ingredients that you feel like contribute to a good recipe???

(One of them to me is BUTTER! I love butter. If the recipe has butter in it, there is a good chance I am going to like it!)

You/your group can talk about that, then transition and ask:

??? What are some ingredients of what you would call a “successful church”???

You/your group can share your answers to that. 

Then say something like: this morning we are going to see some of the characteristics of the first church at Jerusalem, that made them the great church they were. We can pray for, and seek to imitate, these qualities in our church, and in our personal obedience to the Lord, today.

CONTEXT

We are continuing our new study in the Book of Acts. 

We saw in Chapter 1 how Jesus appeared to His disciples after His resurrection, and told them to WAIT — which was a bit counterintuitive; He didn’t tell them to “just get out there and start sharing,” but rather to wait on the Holy Spirit — a good word for us today too!

Then in Chapter 2, after they had all prayed and waited together, the Spirit came upon the group during Pentecost (the Feast of Weeks, 50 days after the Passover) so that they spoke in languages which Jews who had gathered from all over the Eastern part of the Roman Empire for the feast, could understand. After they were initially accused of being drunk, Peter refuted the accusation, and then preached the gospel — and we saw some of the “gospel basics” in his sermon that we should still share when we witness today. Many hearts of listeners were touched, and Peter told them to repent and be baptized in Jesus’ name.

This bring us to today’s focus passage: Acts 2:41-47. This passage describes the activities of the first few days of the early church, and it is in many ways a model for us today of the ideal church — worthy of our consideration and imitation.

(I’m going to be honest with you, there is a LOT here. I MAY take a couple of weeks to go through this passage with my group; you do as the Lord leads you.)

OUTLINE

I. The INITIATION into the church (baptism)

II. The APPETITE of the church: (the word)

III. The LOVE of the church

IV. MORE Marks of the Early Church

TEXT

ONE way to approach this text would be to read (or have someone read) this text, :41-47, and then ask your group to call out all the “ingredients” that made up the success of the early church.

However you choose to address these verses, I’d spend some time on each of them. There is SO much here; this passage is very rich!

I. The INITIATION into the church (baptism)

:41 “So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about 3000 souls.”

This is an important verse: Peter had just preached this gospel message, telling them they needed to repent and put their faith in Jesus. How do we know who really responded to the message?

The text says, “Those who had received his word, were baptized.” 

Salvation is something that happens on the inside. It is a matter of the heart. But we can see the outward sign of it, and the Bible says that outward sign is BAPTISM.  “Those who had received his word, were baptized.”

Baptism is a very important element of the Biblical Christian life.

NOT because it saves us (as we saw in I Peter 3:21 “Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you — NOT the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” In other words, it is not the physical act of the baptism/the water that saves us, but what happens in the heart: “appealing to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus” — it’s trusting what Jesus did that saves us, not the act of baptism.)

But baptism IS important, because it is a symbol of what has happened in our hearts. 

You could use the example of the WEDDING RING here:

Does wearing a wedding ring make you married?

(No. 

Do people sometimes wear wedding rings when they aren’t married? Yes — to keep people from pestering them, etc.

Can you be married without a wedding ring? 

YES. Sometimes they may not be able to afford a wedding ring, or they are allergic to a wedding ring — or like me, I was 135 pounds when I was married, so I can only wear it on my pinky now!

So wearing a wedding ring, or NOT wearing a wedding ring, doesn’t make you married or not married. 

But it IS an important symbol. At best, it is an OUTWARD SYMBOL OF AN INWARD COMMITMENT. 

And this is what baptism is: it is AN OUTWARD SYMBOL OF AN INWARD COMMITMENT that you have made in your heart to Jesus as your Lord & Savior. 

And just like a person starts wearing a wedding ring when they are initially brought into marriage, so a person’s baptism is “initiation” in a sense into the eternal church of God. It is a person’s first step of obedience, and it shows the world our commitment to Him. 

NOTICE ALSO: just WHO this text says were the people who were baptized:  “Those who had received his word were baptized.”

So according to Acts, who is qualified to be baptized?

(People who have received the word of God into their lives. People who believe the gospel message.  This is what we call the doctrine of “believers’ baptism.” This is a key doctrine, and one which distinguishes Baptists from many other churches and denominations. The Bible clearly teaches that it is those who have personally trusted in Jesus as their Lord & Savior who are to be baptized:

One way to emphasize this to your class Sunday would be to READ SEVERAL PASSAGES. You could read them yourself, or I plan to print these verses and distribute them to class members before class starts — which I believe is a good way to get them involved.)

— Acts 2:41 “So then, those who had received his word were baptized …”

— Acts 8:12 “But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.”

— Acts 8:35 “Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning from this scripture he preached Jesus to him. (:36) As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, ‘Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?’” (:37) And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.’”

— Acts 10:43-47 “Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.’ (:44) While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message … (:48) And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.”

— Acts 16:14-15 “A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. (:15) And when she and her household had been baptized …”

— Acts 16:31-34 “They said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ (:32) And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. (:33) And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.”

— Acts 18:8 “Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized.” 

— Acts 19:4-5 “Paul said, ‘John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.’ (:5) When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Then ask your group, or point out: WHO IS IT, in all of these passages, who gets baptized?

(The answer is, it is ALWAYS someone who has believed!

This is consistent throughout the Book of Acts: the only people you see getting baptized are people who personally understand the word of God, and who respond to it. You never see a child, or someone who does not understand, get baptized.  

NOTE: EVEN when Paul baptizes the Philippian jailer “and all his household,” it was because :34 says “having BELIEVED in God with his whole household.” So the only reason his whole household was baptized, was that they had believed first!

This is a KEY DOCTRINE: THE ONLY BAPTISM IN ACTS IS BELIEVERS’ BAPTISM: the baptism of someone who has knowingly trusted Jesus as their Lord & Savior.

Of course, this has important application to us today, in how we practice baptism. Scriptural baptism is baptism of people who have personally received the word of God: who have heard it, and understand it. According to what we see here, is a baby qualified to receive baptism? 

(NO. They have not received the word. They cannot understand it.)

ILLUSTRATION: A year or so ago I started bird-watching, which, although I don’t have a lot of time to devote to it right now, I really enjoy — it is one way to appreciate God’s glory in His creation. So a few months ago I was reading a book by a woman who was talking about her “life list” (where a birder counts they birds they have seen in their lifetime) and she mentioned how since she had had a baby, she was now taking the baby out and counting HER “life list” of birds she’d seen.  To me this was a bit over the top. It’s great to have your child out with you while you bird watch, but that baby is not “seeing” or counting these birds yet. They don’t understand anything about it! Of course, we could consider what that lady is doing as cute, and it does no real harm to the child.

But on the other hand, baptizing a baby, which has no idea of what is happening to them; who has not truly “received the word” like Acts indicates, CAN indeed be very harmful; especially if they believe that by the administration of this ritual act of “baptism,” their soul is saved — when in fact they have never truly responded to the word of God! There may be countless millions of people in the United States and all over the world today, who have a false hope that they will be in heaven one day, because they were baptized when they were a baby! 

I can say this with no qualms, because this is part of my testimony: when I was a baby, I was “sprinkled” with baptism in the Presbyterian church. I don’t remember a thing about it; it meant nothing to me; I didn’t understand it. I got nothing but wet (and not very wet!) I am not saved today because of my sprinkling baptism as an infant. I am saved today because some years later I put my trust in Jesus as my Lord & Savior — and then I was knowingly baptized, AFTER I believed, just like Acts teaches here.

So we can spend a good bit of time on this, but we should; this no “minor point”! We need to point our people to the clear teaching of the word of God here: that baptism is for those who have personally understood, and responded to the word of God, just like we see here in Acts 2:41.

You may have members in your class this Sunday, who are trusting that because they were baptized as a baby, they are going to heaven. Be sure you share God’s truth with them: each of us must personally, knowingly put our faith in Jesus as Lord & Savior, in order to be saved.  And if we have put our trust in Jesus, then we should indeed be baptized. It should be one’s first step of obedience as a believer. Jesus commanded us in Matthew 28: “make disciples, BAPTIZING them …”. It doesn’t save us, but it should be the first outward sign that we are His disciple.

So our first point is that one of the primary “ingredients” of a Biblical church is that they follow the scriptural initiation into the church, which is baptism. But of course baptism is just the first step of obedience: we see a whole series of things in this text that marked the early church believers:

II. The APPETITE of the church (the word) 

:42 “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.”

“They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching ….”.

The Greek word for “continually devoting themselves” is
“proskartereo,” “pros” = “towards/interacting with”; and “karteros” = “showing strength.” It means to be strongly interacting with, despite obstacles; to persist in; be devoted to.

This should cause us all to ponder our own devotion to the teaching of the Word of God: would our commitment be described as “continually devoted” to the word? What kind of commitment do we have:

— to our own personal study of God’s word?

— to our Bible Study in Sunday School/Life Group?

— to the preaching of the word in worship services?

How would our commitment be described:

— a “casual” commitment?

— a “consistent” commitment?

— a “continually devoted” commitment? 

One of the marks of the early church was their commitment to the teaching of the word of God. Let’s seek to imitate them in that!

And then this phrase “the Apostles’ teaching” is an important one.   The new church did not merely follow the Old Testament Law. Jesus had taught His disciples after His resurrection:

In Luke 24 when Jesus appeared to His disciples, on the road to Emmaus, :27 says: “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the scriptures.”

Later in Luke 24 He told His disciples:  (:44) “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. (:45) Then He opened their minds to understand the scriptures.”

Someone said he would loved to have been there when Jesus was teaching them all about Himself, in those Old Testament scripture. But I thought to myself: we can know just what He taught them, because IT IS FOUND IN THE NEW TESTAMENT APOSTOLIC TEACHING! We can read it every day, in the Gospels and letters of the New Testament! This is where Peter got “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross” — and SO many others verses in the New Testament!

So we today need to devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching.

??? You might ask your group to help you apply this: What can we do today to be “devoted” to the Apostles’ teaching???

(Some answers might include: read it daily for ourselves; be faithful in SS/Bible study; regularly attend worship; other home Bible studies; listen to the word; memorize and review scripture, etc.)

III. The LOVE of the Church

A third “ingredient” that made the Early Church what it was, was the LOVE they had for each other. 

Writing just about 100 years after the time of Christ, Tertullian wrote that the unbelievers looked at these new “Christians” and said, “Behold, how they love one another.”  

Jesus said that our love for each other would be our most powerful witness to the world: “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

Tertullian said this was evidently true in those early days. People looked at them and said, “Behold, how they love one another.”

We see some examples of it here in this passage:

(You could either just teach these points, or ask your group to scan these verses and call out what they see — that’s what I plan to do)

— :42 “they were continually devoting themselves” NOT only to the Apostles’ teaching, but ALSO “to FELLOWSHIP”

The word “fellowship” there is “koinonia,” which means “a sharing together” of something in common. 

We Baptists often think of “fellowship” as the lunch we have after church in the “Fellowship Hall” — and that can be a part of what “fellowship” means — but it is also more than that.

“Fellowship” means “sharing something together in common.”

And this applies to a LOT of things: (You could ASK for some/and/or share:)

— it applies to sharing meals together, yes

— spending time together (:44 = “they were together”) just “being together” is a fellowship, whether or not there is food involved.

— there is a fellowship in serving together in ministry. 

— Philippians 3:10 talks about “the fellowship of His sufferings.” When you suffer together with others, there is a BOND of fellowship that builds between you.

You/others can think of other things. Really, the word means ANY THING that you share “in common” together with others. This is “fellowship;” sharing something together in common with others.

And as we see here in Acts 2, the fellowship the Early Church had with each other was one of the keys to their successful church they were.  

(Other expressions of love in this passage:)

— “the breaking of bread” — this IS eating; sharing meals together.

— As we mentioned earlier, :44 says “And all those who had believed WERE TOGETHER” — they just spent time together. 

They didn’t have to “schedule a fellowship;” they just WERE together; it was one of the things that marked them.

— :44b also says they “had all things in common.” (:45) “and they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.”

??? Can anyone think of someone TODAY who sold something, or gave something to someone, sacrificially, as an act of Christian love???

(I have a minister friend, Jack Tillery, who served with me several years ago when I pastored in Louisiana, who needs a kidney transplant, and they just announced the other day that a young woman from their church had volunteered, and had passed all  the rigorous tests to be able to be a donor: and the surgery is scheduled for Monday, June 24. 

(I’ve attached a picture of them in case you want to use this example; I think it would be hard to come up with a better one!)

Why would this young woman, not related to Jack, be willing to give up one of her kidneys for him? It’s just Christian love! “Behold how they love one another.” This is very much like Acts Chapter 2 Christianity.  We need more examples like this.

(Other expressions of love in the passage include:)

— “Breaking bread from house to house” in :46

— “taking their meals together with gladness” :46 (notice how many times it talks about EATING together?! We tease about Baptists and our eating, but there is evidently something to it!)

All these expressions show us that LOVE is one of THE most important characteristics of the Early Church. You could argue it was THE most important. (If you notice, more time is spent describing this aspect of the church than any of the others!)

I don’t know when we decided in the church that money was more important than love. I don’t know when we decided that keeping our traditions was more important than love. I don’t know when we decided that conformity to secondary doctrinal standards was more important than love. But whenever we decided it, we were wrong.  Jesus said “THIS” is how they would know that we are His disciples. THIS would be the great mark of the church: LOVE for each other. May God help us to understand that — and more importantly, through His Spirit, may we LIVE it out!  The love and fellowship they had for each other was THE great mark of the Early Church  Let us pray that it will become the great mark of OUR church as well. It will touch the world around us if we do!

IV. OTHER MARKS OF THE CHURCH:

There are several other marks of the Early Church in this passage, including:

— Prayer (or “the prayers”) in :42  We talked about this a couple of weeks ago, how Jesus commanded His disciples to wait for Him in prayer. We need to make sure that prayer is a priority in our church.

When my wife Cheryl & I served our first church in seminary, we were having a special emphasis, and we were going to get some people involved in the service in a special way. Cheryl was supposed to read where Jesus said “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.” Cheryl has never relished the “spotlight” and she was very fearful of reading. So I worked with her. I said, “Really emphasize this when you read it; say, “MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER.” So she got up in church that Sunday morning, very nervous, and she really emphasized: “My house shall NOT be called a house of prayer!”

She was so embarrassed then, though we get a kick out of remembering it now.

But sadly, that does describe too many churches: they are “NOT a house of prayer.” They are houses of almost everything BUT prayer. Let’s be sure we make prayer a priority in our church — starting in our own Sunday School class, and in our personal praying for each other.  (You could discuss with your group, ways to get more prayer in your class/church. And if you want a great resource on prayer, Bill Elliff’s book, “Simply Prayer” is THE best I have read on it, both for an individual and for a church.)

Some other marks of the Early Church might include:

— the miracles that took place through the apostles (:43)

— “praising God” (:47) and continuing in the Temple (:46) says something about their habits of worship

— and “continuing with one mind” (:46) is such an important thing. You could include it under the section of love, but UNITY is a vital element in any church.  And it is one of the challenges that many of our churches, and even our Southern Baptist as a whole, faces today. Unity is vital to any cause. 

ILLUSTR: Dan Emmitt was a Secret Service agent who served under several U.S. presidents. He wrote about  “CAT training” (CIA Counter Assault Team): “… Agents sometimes spend up to sixteen hours at a time together, confined in a Suburban, and weeks together on the road. Each student is constantly under observation from the staff, who look for breakdowns in emotional control. If a man is not a true team player and cannot get along with others under these conditions, he will not become a CAT agent. Some of us had to work on this as much as on tactics or shooting skills.” (Within Arm’s Length, p. 97)

It’s interesting that Emmitt said that unity was so important to a Secret Service team. Truly, it is important in ANY kind of team — and especially in a church as well. It is absolutely vital — which is why Satan so often attacks us in this area. If he can divide us, he knows we’ll be weak. I thought what Dan Emmitt wrote was so instructive: “Some of us had WORK ON THIS as much as on tactics or shooting skills.” Unity, getting along with others, is something we can “WORK ON” — and we need to — especially in the church, where it is so vital. (The first part of Philippians 2 gives us some specific instructions on how we can work on unity.)

These are some of the characteristics of the Early Church here in Acts 2. You may list some others, or “divvy them up” a little differently than I did — and/or spend more or less time with some of them than I did — but regardless, looking at these  “ingredients” that made the Early Church what it was should make for a great lesson this week — and also be a great challenge for each of us personally, and for our churches. 

There’s a lot here! Honestly we’ll see how for our class gets with this Sunday; I would not be surprised if we only cover the baptism section Sunday, and maybe do the characteristics of the church the following week. Of course then we’re “behind” and will have to adjust something. God’s word is “an embarrassment of riches” for sure!  I’ll be praying for you as you prepare this week!

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— These weekly lessons are based on content from Explore the Bible Adult Resources. The presentation is my own and has not been reviewed by Lifeway.

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