They Devoted Themselves
Acts 2:42-47
Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo
July 9, 2006

Every so often there are Scripture passages that, frankly, we would like to ignore. To be totally honest, most of us would prefer that they not be in the Bible; and even if they are, we pretty much ignore them.

There are some universal passages.

In Luke 18 a rich young man asks Jesus the question as to what he must do to receive eternal life. Jesus speaks of the commandments and the young man assures Jesus that he had kept those commandments. Actually, the young guy is a pretty impressive guy.

Then Jesus says, “Well, there is one more thing. Take everything you have, sell it, give the money away to the poor, and come follow me.”

The young man doesn’t and walks away, and there is a short discussion on salvation with Jesus assuring the apostles that ‘nothing is impossible with God,’ and life goes on. But, these words, “ Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me,” sort of hang out there.
Now, people have spun those words over the years. I’ve heard a lot of preachers say that Jesus didn’t mean them like they sound.

The problem is, when a person who owns nothing in the world except the clothing on his back tells you that the proper way to live life is to own nothing how can you not take that seriously.

Here’s what I know. If I told you that after Worship this morning, there were people lined up in the fellowship hall to enable you to sell all you owned to give the money away to the poor, my guess is that there would be a mighty poor turn out.

Another passage is this:
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.” Matthew 5:27-30


If I told you that we have surgeons from Kleinert Kutz and Associates waiting you in the fellowship hall after Worship this morning, I wonder how many people would go.

By the way, we don’t. I’m not making a suggestion we follow this literally, just making a point, leading up to today.

Listen, again, to the words of Scripture today:

Acts 2:42-47
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
43Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.


We can live with devoting ourselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, we do try to live that out.

We do the breaking of the bread with Holy Communion and we pray.

But here’s the rub. They sold all their possessions and goods, distributed it as they had need. In short, they lived communally. They totally pooled all their resources, lived together, and did everything together.

So, this would seem to indicate that we have a method in our fellowship hall today of inviting everyone here to sell everything they own, pool their resources to the church, and we will purchase one building where we will all live happily ever after.

Sound good?

I suspect not. This one of those passages that we have to see a little beyond some of the words to find out what works for us.

Reality was, the early Christian church did try this, they did attempt to live communally, and for a variety of reasons, it didn’t work. Frankly, politically when people have tried this communal living, communist living, actually, it hasn’t worked out well.

But, there is a point. A huge point to be made from this passage.

If you look at what Luke is saying here, and get beyond the communal living part, Luke is reminding us that the early Christians relished the fact that there was a community of Christians, that Christianity was, essentially, a team endeavor. Being a Christian is not about being lone rangers, but being a part of a larger community of believers.

In recent years more and more I’ve heard people refer to the Christian faith using the word ‘personal.’

Jesus is our ‘personal’ savior.

Christianity is about having a ‘personal’ relationship with Jesus.

And while we do grapple with many issues personally, and while salvation is about individuals making choices and commitments, the word ‘personal’ as, in my mind, something I hadn’t heard before in terms of Christianity.

I began to wonder if this was Biblical. Does the Bible speak about Jesus being our personal savior? I had never read that. Does the Bible speak about having a personal relationship with Jesus? I had never read that either.

So, I decided to look up the word ‘personal’ in the Bible. The word ‘personal’ is used once in the entire Bible, the NRSV which we use the most. And here it is:

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing personal opinion. -
Proverbs 18:2

I checked out the New International Version of the Bible and they had the word ‘personal’ seven times. But they were all innocuous references, nothing about God.

So then I checked out the old King James Version of the Bible and the word ‘personal’ isn’t in there.

Which brings us back to this passage.

The people in the early church lived as a commune, something we really don’t need to do.

But there was more to it than that. They did things together and in doing so they created an incredible lesson of stewardship, fellowship, and Worship.

Stewardship is many things. It is giving back unto God. It is being grateful to God for all the blessings God has given us. It is showing our gratitude to God in the support of the church.

It is the pooling of resources so that God’s church may grow and prosper. While, we, in the modern church don’t expect everything like the apostolic church did, and while we in the modern church aren’t going to financially support everyone who walks in the building like the early church did, we have an obligation to God and each other when we pool our resources. We share so that God’s Word and Will may be spread through the land and there is an obligation and challenge. When we fail to share with each other we let each other down. When we fail to share with the community around us, we let them down. When we fail to share with the world we live in, we let them down. And when we fail to share, we let God down.

The people in the early church chose radical sharing to remind themselves, and eventually us, the importance of this kind of sharing.

Secondly, this is a lesson of fellowship.

In the church we do things together. We pray together, we work together, we study together, and we play together.

People often choose to do some things, not other things. Sometimes we forget to pray, to work, to study, and sometimes we even forget to play together.

And that’s not a good thing. Praying, working, studying, and playing together are all a part of being the church. If we can’t play and laugh and study together, and we don’t make those things a priority, we miss so much of what it means to be part of God’s church.

The last thing which is not the last thing is Worshiping together.

The word Worship means ‘to offer worth.’ The structure of Worship, something we call Liturgy, literally means, ‘the work of the people.’

It is important to pray alone and it’s crucial to pray together. There is a power in praying together than praying alone doesn’t have. Jesus said, “When two or three are gathered in my name,” his point was that there is greater power when we Worship together than when we pray alone. God’s people, together, have a greater impact than any of God’s people individually.

In many ways, this is a reminder to us about the church and whose church it really is.

Often when we look around, most especially in our tradition which is so congregational, we view the church as ‘our’ church.

It’s not.

It is, as it has always been, God’s church. We are stewards, caretakers, of God’s church.

It is us, collectively, and God. It is God’s church and we, collectively, care for it.

The early church devoted themselves. They devoted themselves to lives of radical fellowship, of pooling what they had, and worshiping God. And their example serves as an example and a challenge to each of us.