Sermon Tone Analysis

God is a wonderful artist.

He has created all things and even people in God’s grand design He created male and female but with in the different genders there are many differences.

Some of the differences can be attributed to sin but it is very clear there was always to be diversity within in mankind.

One of the problems that arises because of sin is the class systems that have arisen with different people groups.

Social and economic class systems have caused attitudes of preferential treatment.

People treat others based on their standing in society or even how much money they make or don’t make.

Nowadays with this new age of entitlement people of any class believes they are better then everyone else and everyone else deserves to treat them well.

There has been a bit of a shift because of the way the government works.

Those who are on the low rung of society and economic states are being taught they deserve to be treated better because they are on the low rung and the rich should be treated poorly because they are cut throat and don’t deserve to be rich they should give their hard earned money to the poor.

So social class and economic classes still exist and they are extremely dangerous.

The social and economic classes are not just in the secular world.

They have seeped in to the church and it isn’t new it has been in the church since the first century.

The thing is they shouldn’t exist in the church.

The very first church as we will see this morning didn’t have this problem.

The church, or should I say a healthy church should not have these kinds of barriers.

We will take a look this morning at how the first church responded to God’s Salvific message as we continue to look at what a healthy church looks like.

Let’s turn to Acts 2:43-47

Now as we turn to this passage I want to remind you that these people are still in Jerusalem.

They are in the holy city where the temple of God is located.

This is the center of the Israelite religion.

On the day of Pentecost we found that the Holy Spirit had come down and indwelt the 120 disciples of Jesus Christ who were waiting on the coming of the Holy Spirit and the coming of the Holy Spirit has prompted many who are in the holy city to come and see what is going on.

There are people from all over the known world there.

People from Asia Minor, Rome, Egypt, Persia, Greece.

They are all Israelites who have lived in this other regions who have come back for the purpose of celebrating the feast of Pentecost and even some or many to just live in the city of Jerusalem.

Peter was prompted by the Holy Spirit to preach a message to this curious lot which told of God’s predetermined plan for the world that involved putting Jesus on the cross and Peter made sure these people knew they were guilty of placing Jesus on the cross.

From this sermon 3000 more people were added to the church that very day and as we saw last week in verse 42 the church was “continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

These are four essentials to a healthy church and we will see this morning the outworking of this time together was God breaking down social and economic barriers.

The first thing I want us to understand here is this is a response to God.

This is an appropriate response to God.

A Response to God’s Work

Look with me at verse 43, Luke writes here “Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.”

There was an impact on the community at large.

This was God at work in and through the apostles.

The wonders and signs that are mentioned here are the attesting miracles or the miracles that point to God.

These were not normal natural events but they were things no normal human being has the power to do.

They were the power of the Holy Spirit at work in and through the apostles.

Everyone had a sense of awe at what God was doing.

This everyone was not just those 3000 who were added to the church this ‘everyone’ here means believer and unbeliever alike.

As the apostles were going through the city and healing people and casting out demons it was obvious they were working in the power of the Holy Spirit and whether or not people trusted in Jesus as Savior didn’t matter those who witnessed it recognized God’s power and they feared God.

This was a reverential fear, it was not just shear terror but it was a response to God because they saw that God was doing something amazing here.

If there is terror it is simply because they recognize God’s power and work in and through these men and now they are in terror of not so much what God is doing but what God can do to them.

This is a healthy response to God’s power and appropriate response to God’s power.

Here it is everyone.

These are all those in Jerusalem who saw what God was doing in and through the apostles.

This is also a summery that will point to Acts 3:1-10 which we will look at closer next week.

Here is what was going on.

Just as when Jesus walked the earth Jesus performed miracles, He healed people and drove out demons.

They were obvious and as you can see here they didn’t leave room for speculation.

People could disprove what Jesus had done and people could disproof what the apostles were doing but what they tried to do was discredit the works and silence the works.

It was obvious these people were not false prophets but that God was doing something unique and powerful in and through them.

Jesus said His apostles would be able to do these things.

These works the apostles are doing are not for personal gain and notoriety they are simply for God’s purpose of bringing people to Himself and those who saw the works that were done were in awe.

Everyone saw what God was doing and the response to the God’s work was awe now we get to the select few who believed in God and Jesus and we see in verses 44 and 45 God breaks down barriers.

The first barrier God breaks down is the economic barriers.

Verse 44 and 45 read, “And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common;” We looked at this last week they were having fellowship with one another, genuine fellowship which meant they were together continually.

I want you to notice something though.

In verse 43 we have everyone had a feeling of awe but now in verse 44 there is a shift it is no longer everyone but now Luke is more specific it was the believers who were together and having everything in common.

There common bond is their faith in Jesus Christ, who He is and what He has done for them.

So Jesus’ past work is drawing them together.

Not only is His past work drawing them together but they are all joined together because the hope they have in His return.

For the first time since God has called the nation of Israel as His covenant people they realized what it meant to live for God and how to function in society and how to use what they had for the purposes of helping one another.

They were bound together, what God had planned all along for them is now being fulfilled and they are realizing this for the first time.

There is no division between them.

This is a picture of what the church should be like.

There shouldn’t be barriers within the church.

There shouldn’t be economic barriers and even social barriers because we are all bound together by the blood of Christ and we are all working to fulfill God’s will in the world which is to bring all to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Look at what the first church did as we look at God breaking down the economic barriers.

Breaking Down Economic Barriers

In verse 45 we read, “and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.”

Here is what the church did, they took of their own.

Now I am not saying lets all sell everything we own and lets all move into a commune.

That is not what is going on here at all.

What is going on here is this.

These people moved by the Holy Spirit had their eyes opened to the realty that the one who dies with the most toys still dies and everything you own isn’t your to begin with.

Everything belongs to God.

All of our possessions are gifts from God.

The roof over our heads, the clothes on our backs, the vehicles we drive, the toys we have.

It is all a gift from God.

He has provided all these wonderful things to us so we can use them for Him.

There many people in ancient Israel who made a lot of money and had a lot of possessions.

Now keep in mind the mindset of the Israelites was the more righteous you are the more you will be blessed by God.

They always equated wealthy with righteousness.

For the first time in their lives their eyes were opened to what it really means to be rich.

What it really means to be wealthy and what it means to be rich isn’t your material possessions.

True wealth doesn’t come from material possessions but from knowing God, through His Son Jesus Christ.

The church in its inception was fulfilling God’s call for the nation before the nation even went in to take the land of Israel.

In Deuteronomy God provides the nation with the command.

God wanted His people to take care of one another, God had to provide this command because people are sinful and people are proud and people are selfish.

They love to lookout for number one.

In a culture where people believed the more righteous you are the more wealthy you will be this command need to be at the front of the minds.

The problem is money as useful as it is, is extremely destructive.

People buy into success is based on how much you have and own and how large your bank account is.

People and even people in the church don’t realize how destructive money and possessions can be.

I am not saying and this passage isn’t stating for us to not have any money it has everything to do with your attitude about money and possession.

These people in the first century church were selling there property to help those who were in need.

There were those who were rich and owned a lot of animals and probably many different fields.

Keep in mind it was a different time and a different country.

We today are so accustomed to thinking about owning property in the sense of having a house or two and have a car for each driver in the family.

The people in our text didn’t own rental property they owned land for their animals to graze and to farm their food.

Big difference.