36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe 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.

###

This is part four in a five-part series on the Four Fields. This is the discipleship prototype demonstrated in the Bible.

You can see on the screen, the fields are: Go, Gospel, Grow, Gather, and Guide. 

The text we just read from Acts implicitly or explicitly summarizes the four fields. The Apostles go’ed, Gospel-ed, Grow-ed, and now began to gather. 

Their going explicitly began in Acts 1:8, just before Christ’s ascension. He said,

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in all Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

This is when Jesus sent them.

This is when the Apostles go.

They weren’t exactly sure what to do next, so they devoted themselves to prayer. “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and His brothers” (Acts 1:14).

That’s field one.

Acts 2:1says, “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.”

This is when the Helper arrives. Big things happen when believers are together.

The Holy Spirit comes down, just like Jesus promised He would, and Peter begins to preach the Gospel.

He said “Y’all listen up! Jesus…” (Acts 2:14, 22; paraphrased)

Seriously. That’s pretty much what he said. Then he proceeded to lay out the Gospel: the historical Christ and the work He has done, including His life, ministry (2:22), death (2:23), resurrection (2:24-32), and His reign (2:33-36).

“Men…hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan of and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

“God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it…Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing…

“Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36).

“Everyone who calls upon the Name of the Lord (Jesus) shall be saved” (Acts 2:21).

That’s field two—the Gospel—and it brings us to this morning’s text.

“Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ 

This is the conviction of the Holy Spirit. This is the performative power of God’s spoken word, where you participate in creating life out of nothing. Their hearts have been made alive and suddenly aware of their sinful death-state. They were begging Peter for the answer. That’s what a crisis moment looks like.

“And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord God calls to Himself.” (Acts 2:38).

That’s what this is all about! The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.

This is “Generational Stories.” Telling stories of transformed lives for generations to come. Building a city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. It’s the promise of and for and to us and our children. It’s the promise of the Holy Spirit. 

And after you receive the promise, trust the promise, understand the implications of the promise, breathe your first breath as a new creation in Christ—that gasp of realization that you are in need of a Savior—what must you do?

Not “must,” but rather: what will you do?

Because when you’ve been struck with the conviction these people experienced when the performative word of God is preached—when the crisis is reached, and the Answer is presented—there is no other option. 

You will become a disciple. 

That’s field three.

And what does growth in discipleship look like? You learn and obey what Jesus taught.

“Repent and be baptized…in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 2:38). 

And to do this—to submit to this teaching and commit to this discipleship—demonstrates the level of conviction a crisis moment involves.

Repentance literally means changing one’s mind. Metanoia. It is a profound and fundamental transformation of one’s mindset, worldview, and way of life. You are fundamentally a different person.

Baptism in Christ’s Name necessarily means being immersed in and by His authority, acknowledging His claims, subscribing to His doctrines, engaging in His service, and relying on His merits. This necessarily means some level of discipleship; otherwise they would not know any of the things to which they are aligning themselves in baptism.

Consider the implications of baptism for a first-century Jewish person—those to whom Peter was addressing. Baptism was humiliation to them. The Jews thought that baptism was only necessary for Gentile converts.

Traditionally, ritual immersion [מִקְוֶה (mikveh)] was used by Jews for routine ritual purity [טָמֵא (tamay)], while a special form of baptism was exclusively required for non-Jewish converts or proselytes entering Judaism. 

By demanding that ethnic Jews undergo baptism for repentance, Peter effectively suggested that those to whom he spoke were pagan outsiders who needed to convert from scratch.

And he was right.

And more than that, they are not being baptized into a new group of believers—into a new group of proselytes; they, like every believer, are being baptized into a Person—Jesus—and that Person is the same Person they had previously rejected and crucified. This Person is the one to whom they are now submitting in baptism. 

But it doesn’t matter, because their hearts have been cut to the quick. They have been convicted, and they are desperate for salvation. So it appears some level of discipleship has already taken place or will need to take place before they take the plunge. They would have to know the commands of Christ in order to obey them.

That’s not so different from the way things are now, though, are they, especially “for all [those] who are far off.” 

I recently came across a baptism questionnaire from a church in South Asia. Consider how you would answer.

• Are you willing to leave home and lose the blessing of your father?
• Are you willing to lose your job?
• Are you willing to go to the village and those who persecute you, forgive them, and share the love of Christ with them?
• Are you willing to give an offering to the Lord?
• Are you willing to be beaten rather than deny your faith?
• Are you willing to go to prison?
• Are you willing to die for Jesus?

Would you be able to answer yes to all of these questions without first being strengthened by discipleship? Would you be able to answer yes to all of these questions without the support and encouragement of your new family in Christ?

Peter was discipling, and they were being discipled. And Peter continued to disciple them: “And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort [or encourage and persuade] them, saying ‘Save yourself from this crooked generation.” That’s discipleship.

Peter is taking them out of the bad generation and giving them good DNA to replicate through discipleship. This is genealogical sanctification. This is the germination of the church. The Church is beginning to sprout.

A new family is taking shape. This new family can encourage, strengthen, and grow one another while it is surrounded by corruption.

We don’t have to wonder what that looks like. 

We don’t have to wonder what that looked like, because Luke recorded it for us. 

Acts 2:42-47 

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe 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.

That’s field four.

This brief description of the early church shows four characteristics of the Christian family gathered and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:42-47 tells us that the body of Christ is:

• A learning church
• A loving church
• A worshiping church
• An evangelistic church

A Learning Church

Acts 2:42 says the church, “devoted themselves to the apostles’  teaching…”

John Stott points out in his commentary on Acts, 

“We note that those new converts were not enjoying a mystical experience which led them to despise their mind or disdain theology. Anti-intellectualism and the fullness of the Spirit are mutually incompatible, because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. Nor did those early disciples imagine that, because they had received the Spirit, He was the only teacher they needed and they could dispense with human teachers.”

I don’t know why there is such a pervasive notion that when one becomes a Christian they reject intellectual pursuits. I’ve met more than a few fundamentalists who say all you need is the Holy Spirit and the Bible. It’s almost like there’s this idea that extra-Biblical scholarship diminishes the work of the Spirit—like it demonstrates some sort of faith deficit. 

It’s almost Pharisaical and borderline gnostic. And I can kind of appreciate where they’re coming from, but maybe if they read more books, they wouldn’t be so wrong.

Jesus didn’t say, “Sit and understand.” Jesus said, “Come and see.”

The pursuit of knowledge through learning and experience is foundational and fundamental to a stronger faith in Christ. Christianity is an experiential faith.

Mark Noll said in his book Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind,

“Christian scholars who take to heart Chalcedonian doctrine about the divine and the human present in one integrated Person [the incarnation of Jesus] should be predisposed to seek knowledge about particular matters from more than one angle.”

What this means is, the doubleness of Jesus—His divinity and His humanity—gives us an example of how we can see the really real truth in the world. Christ’s incarnation gives us a model for learning and understanding our spheres of existence. 

There are not two separate realties—the secular and the sacred—but one Truth, one reality. And when you become a disciple, you begin to see the world for what it really is. But it takes devotion to learning to understand this new perception of reality. 

Peter gave one example of this in his gospel presentation. Acts 2:23 said, “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”

Here we have the divine purpose of God intersecting with the actions of regular human activity. It is by devoting ourselves to the teaching of and fellowship with others in the pursuit of knowledge that we begin to see more clearly God working in everything—everyday life. 

I think of the conversations we have during my T-Group check-ins, where someone will tell us about something that happened to them over the past week—good or bad—and then someone else will point out how they see God working in that situation. 

And the first person gains a more God-oriented perspective, and God is glorified. This wouldn’t have happened in isolation—it requires the church gathered, dedicated to learning from one another.

Christianity is an experiential faith, and it is best experienced in fellowship. Come and see.

What this means is, as we grow and learn in Christ, we can begin to see the really real in the world around us. This is more than metanoia—changing your mind—but even reforming your mind; as Romans 12:2 says, “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” What is the really real.

This requires learning, which requires teachers, which requires submission to teaching. This requires the church.

Last week I said that discipleship—devotion to the apostles’ teaching— is like a garden stake. Discipleship helps young plants grow up straight, withstand storms, and bear the burden of their fruit.

In Matthew 13, Jesus said the Kingdom of God is like a field of wheat. Now that’s a sermon in and of itself, but the point I want to make is this: wheat does not require a garden stake because individual stalks rely on dense planting for mutual structural stability.

Mutual structural stability refers to how individual wheat plants interact within a high-density population to collectively resist lodging, which is the permanent bending or breaking of stems caused by wind and rain. 

While a solitary wheat plant relies entirely on its own stem stiffness, a wheat field operates as a dense canopy where the other stalks physically shield, buffer, and support one another up to a critical threshold.

Individuals need discipleship to become strong. Those are the “vines.” Individuals need congregation to support one another in the church. That’s the “wheat.” That’s individuals gathered in church.

We need that fellowship to grow up straight and aligned.

A Loving Church

Acts 2:42 says, “They devoted themselves to…fellowship.”

In Acts two, this fellowship bears witness to the fellowship of the church in two regards. 

First John 1:1-3 says,

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life [that which was experienced]— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us [teaching]— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

Second Corinthians 13:14 adds,

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

So we see that first, fellowship in the church is a Trinitarian experience. We have fellowship with the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

But, of course, we have fellowship with one another in the church, learning from one another’s experiences as we share with one another.

You may be familiar with the word κοινωνίᾳ. It’s the Greek word for fellowship. It comes from the word κοινός, which means “common” or “shared by all.” The word κοινωνικός means “generous” or “willing to share.” 

We see this generosity of spirit in Acts 2:44-45,

“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.”

A couple of things…

First, this is not a passage about church giving. I’m not pitching that you need to tithe more or anything like that, although that is certainly Biblical, but that’s not what this verse is about.

Second, this is not advocating some sort of socialist agenda or mentality. A lot of progressive theologians and pastors use this verse to suggest Jesus wants us to champion a communist utopia. That’s probably because they didn’t read enough books or devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching.

This is not about giving more to the church or divesting personal ownership. This goes back to what I talked about a few weeks ago in Hebrews 13—showing Kingdom hospitality. It’s that family tradition that doesn’t make sense to the rest of the world—and if the world tries to imitate it without fellowship in the Body of Christ—indwelled by the Holy Spirit—it becomes North Korea, Venezuela, and the USSR.

The church as the body of Christ looks out for one another. We help each other “as any has need.” This does not mean we don’t extend hospitality to others outside of the church—we certainly do!—but we have a special kind of open fellowship with other believers in the church.

And in our fellowship, we worship together.

A worshiping church

Acts 2:24 says, “They devoted themselves to…the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

Do you notice that weird definite article in front of “prayers”? 

“The prayers.” 

It’s also in front of “bread,” but it probably doesn’t show up in your Bibles.

Here we’re not merely talking about sharing an ordinary meal in fellowship or having your daily quiet time in prayer. Luke is referring to the Lord’s Supper—Communion—and corporate prayer. This is the worship of the early church.

I said this last week: We can’t do this alone.

The promise of fellowship with God—the gift of the Holy Spirit—is for “everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself” (Acts 2:39). And He calls us together as the body of Christ to worship Him.

Nature is not your church! I see that bumper sticker way too much up here. 

Yes, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night pours out knowledge” (Psalm 19:1-2). 

Yes, “For [God’s] invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So that [you] are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

But that only attests to God’s power, essence, and creativity. It does not tell you who He is. You can experience God and still have no idea who He is. You can know God and still not be known by God.

That is why we devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 

Sitting at home watching the sermon every week in isolation is not your church! 

Every once in a while it’s ok. Sometimes things come up—you go on vacation or your work schedule shifts unexpectedly, or you’re sick. I get it. I’ve done it. Thank God that we have technology that can bring us together even when we’re far off. But that should never be the norm. 

And if you are incapable of coming to church, then we need to bring the church to you. That’s what fellowship—Kingdom hospitality—is all about. 

We need to break the Bread and pray the prayers together. If that’s the case, let me know, and I will do my best to bring church to you. We will pray and do Communion together.

We can’t do this by ourselves.

But that doesn’t mean your home can be any less the church. Because church can certainly be held in the home. We see that in the early church as well. Acts 2:46-47 says,

“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.”

The church is perpetual—it’s day by day. And a healthy mix of both formal and informal fellowship is the model set forth by the early church in Acts. 

There is formal church like this today, and informal church, when we get together spontaneously, praising God and being out in the community. 

We have to get out there. We have to go.

An evangelistic church.

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and the prayers…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, 46-47).

The church was coming together and going out. The church was clearly evangelizing.

Verse 42 shows those in the body of Christ should not be isolated, and verse 47 shows that the body of Christ should not isolate itself. 

We should not get so preoccupied with learning, loving, and worshiping that we forget to go out. We need to be creating more learners, lovers, and worshipers. 

John Piper famously said, “Missions exists because worship does not.” But I say that the church exists in part because Missions does not.

How will God be worshipped if the church does not go out and participate in the performative word of God by creating more worshipers?

Harry Boer in his book Pentecost and Missions, said, 

“[The book of Acts] is governed by one dominant, overriding and all-controlling motif. This motif is the expansion of the faith through missionary witness in the power of the Spirit…

“Restlessly, the Spirit drives the church to witness, and continually churches rise out of the witness. The church is a missionary church.” 

The church rarely saves anyone on Sunday morning. Sinners and tax-collectors don’t walk into church off the street looking for salvation. They don’t even know they need it. The church has to go out and find them, as Jesus did.

One of my all-time favorite quotes regarding the church is attributed to Søren Kierkegaard: 

“People have an idea that the preacher is an actor on a stage and they are the critics, blaming or praising him. What they don’t know is that they are the actors on the stage; he (the preacher) is merely the prompter standing in the wings, reminding them of their lost lines.”

When I’m up here, it’s not my job to save anyone, though the Holy Spirit certainly uses Sunday morning preaching to save some, and I pray every time I get up here that He does. 

But my job, and Paul’s job, and the Brad’s job, and Don’s job, and whoever else takes the pulpit on Sunday morning—our job, when we’re up here, is to remind you of your job. 

You are the actors. The world is the stage. God is the audience. And we’re telling you what He wants to see. 

That is the fourth field. It’s the fourth act in a five-part play. It’s the falling action before the resolution—the replication. Then we tear down the set and do it again. But I’ll save that for next week.

For now, it’s time for the gathered to go.