‘And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers. And fear came on every soul. And many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common, and they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, according as any man had need.'
The infant church now met regularly together and we here learn of their activities in summarised form. It is quite probable that they formed the equivalent of a synagogue or even synagogues (which merely required the coming together of ten adult males) which they would see as a natural form of organisation. There were large numbers of differing synagogues in Jerusalem. They also met within the confines of the Temple (Acts 2:46) where they would meet to read the word of God, to pray and to hear the word expounded as the Apostles, in a similar way to the Rabbis (Luke 2:46), sat and taught. Being Jews the giving of alms would also be a recognised responsibility and the picture given below is of overflowing generosity. As they learned what Jesus had taught, so they began to put it into practise.
· They continued steadfastly in the Apostles' teaching. Having responded to Christ they were eager to learn about Him from the Apostles, and to learn more about the significance of His death and resurrection. This would also include learning of His ethical teaching which the Apostles, who would have memorised it, would be able to pass on them word for word. Their sole desire now was that their lives might become pleasing to God, and that they might please their risen Lord. Additionally they would seek to gain an understanding of the Christian application of the Old Testament, for that was their ‘Bible'. By this continual process of teaching the words of Jesus, later called ‘the Testimony of Jesus' (Revelation 1:2; Revelation 1:9; Revelation 12:17; Revelation 19:10), would become fixed in form while it was still fresh in the memories of the Apostles.
· They continued steadfastly in fellowship. Fellowship means ‘sharing in common', the maintenance of unity and harmony. There was on openness between them as they met together for worship and all barriers were broken down between them. They walked ‘in the light' together, sharing each other's lives (1 John 1:7), and each others problems. They were ‘brothers and sisters' together.
· They continued steadfastly in the breaking of bread. The fellowship meal was a regular means of worship in many religions, and here the new Christians are now portrayed as setting up their own fellowship meals, eaten in the presence of God in their houses. They invited one another to each others houses and shared their food together (see Acts 2:46). This would eventually develop into the Christian love feast (the Agape) which would be a cause of much joy to all but which would eventually cause such trouble in Corinth (1 Corinthians 11:18-34). (All good things can be misused by sinful man). It was a fulfilment of Isaiah 25:6.
We do not know whether at this stage they regularly celebrated ‘the Lord's Supper' with the bread and the wine. It would depend on whether Jesus' words ‘whenever you drink it' were interpreted as meaning each Passover or whenever they drank wine. But we may see it as more certain that Luke wanted us to see in the phrase a recognition that they met together in the name of the crucified One, the One represented by broken bread (compare Luke 22:19), and if it was not already celebrated wanted us to see in it a link with the future ‘breaking of bread' in its fullest sense (Acts 20:7). In Luke 24:35 it was by ‘the breaking of bread' that the presence of Jesus as risen was made known to two of His disciples.
· They continued steadfastly in prayers. As Jews they were familiar with daily prayers and would continue to use them, gradually giving them a more Christian slant. In all that they did they remembered God and were faithful in praying, and giving thanks, and rejoicing (compare e.g. Acts 4:24; Acts 6:4; Acts 12:5; Acts 13:3; Acts 20:36). Since the coming of the Spirit prayer would have attained a new dimension and a new urgency. The coming together in Jerusalem to worship was to be a sign of the new age (Isaiah 66:23).
· They were filled with reverential fear. As the wonder and signs continued, and people continued to respond, they did not forget the awe that was due to God in the face of the wonderful privileges that they had been given and the new revelations from His word that they were receiving. They had waited long for the new age and now it had suddenly dawned. What they were experiencing was awe-inspiring, and would not soon be forgotten (compare Acts 5:11). Alternately this may mean that fear came on observers who were not yet responsive to Christ.
· The Apostles performed many ‘wonders and signs'. The ministry of the Apostles went on and they performed many wonders and signs among the people, as Joel had declared (Acts 2:19), and as Isaiah had promised (Isaiah 35:5-6; Isaiah 61:1-2). There was a flourishing ministry, and the work begun by Christ went on.
· Those who believed had all things in common, and sold of their possessions and goods, and divided up the proceeds according to the needs of each. They were open-hearted and generous towards each other. This would be the natural result of the situation combined with their learning about what Jesus had taught. There would be many who were poor in Jerusalem, and such who joined the ranks of the Christians would soon be welcomed and provided for, including the widows and orphans. There were seemingly so many of them that the better off Christians began to sell off their possessions so as to be able to supply the needs of the whole. And the more ‘the church' (the new congregation of the new Israel) grew the more would be needed. This would in fact cause a problem of fair distribution (Acts 6:1). The Apostles wwould find themselves in a position with which they were not familiar. They had for years lived from hand to mouth (God's hand to their mouth), and now they were being called on to act as overall distributors of wealth and provisions.
But the point behind these descriptions is in order to represent the new church as growing and becoming established in the faith, and as showing the love for one another that Jesus had taught them. Their conversions had been genuine and it was revealing itself in their lives, and in their fulfilling the teaching of Jesus. And it was fulfilling all that the prophets had promised.
This sharing in common is often spoken of by commentators as a failed experiment, but it was in fact the natural result of their new faith and the needs around them. Luke certainly did not see it as a failure, and the new Christians could hardly, if their hearts were right, ignore the poor around them. There were many poor in Jerusalem. It should be noted that there was no requirement that everyone sell everything that they had (Acts 5:4). Nor is there any suggestion that they sold their houses or businesses. What they sold they sold because their hearts had been moved by the needs of their brothers and sisters.
Luke will seemingly repeat what is said here in Acts 4:32-35, aalthough there there is deliberate advancement. Here they ‘sold their possessions and goods', in Acts 4:32-35 they sell their houses and lands. There is in Acts 4:32-35 even greater generosity of spirit, and an indication of wider need because of increasing numbers. It stresses how much the church was being multiplied.