Acts 2 - analysis

As I alluded to here,  I am reading through the Book of Acts looking specifically for 3 things in the Early Church:

1. The working Holy Spirit with the disciples.


2. Decision making and church authority and the conditions which surround them.


3. The community and unity within the Body.

Acts 2 has the most famous expression of the Holy Spirit in all of Scripture. On the day of Pentecost, the tongues of fire rested on the Church and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. The disciples begin speaking in different languages which allowed every Jew in the immediate area to hear the Gospel in his or her dialect. Peter presents the Gospel and gives the first alter call. 3000 persons are saved this day.

Verse 4 has these first Christians "filled with the Holy Spirit". This work fulfills Jesus' promise in Chapter 1 before his Ascension that the power of the Holy Spirit would fall on them in Jerusalem.

As I mentioned, verse 41 famously depicts the 3000 that join the Church that day. Verse 47 speaks of the Lord adding to their number daily. When we get to Chapter 7 and the introduction of the deacons, I want to talk about the size of the First Church. It is truly a megachurch but "staffed" by so few people compared to our modern megachurchs. I find this quite interesting in regards to their size and the staffing they used.

While the action gets going in verse 2, a crucial component that can be overlooked is in verse 1...

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 

I am going to start noting all references in Acts St. Luke makes to the unity of the Church as 1st Unity Reference, 2nd Unity Reference, etc. so we can see just how often this occurs. We had our first declaration in 1:14 so this is 2nd Unity Reference. The outpouring of Heavenly power comes when they are all together. Just as sin separated us from each other as well as God, the work of Christ and the empowering through the Holy Spirit unites us both with God and each other. Authentic community is insepartable from authentic Christianity.

No where is this better seen than in vs. 43-46:

Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart...

First, how great that must have been to be overwhelmed at the wonder of God. I would truly give any earthly treasure I have to be part of a church like that. To be honest, and I certainly may be wrong here, I am not 100% sure we can see something exactly like this again. This may be a unique case of an extraordinary work of the Holy Spirit because of God's ordain purpose for launching His Church.

However, I believe we could still see many wonders and signs and have a sense of awe within a local church in today's world. And these verses show us why this is not a common occurance because this type of community is so rare. Personal possessions are sold and shared without reservation. They are together on a daily basis, both in church (temple) and each other's home having dinner. They have a radiating joy about them. St. Luke points out the 3rd Unity Reference with the statement of "one mind" (46) but the whole passage points to their unity. I am waiting until the I am finished reviewing all the individual chapters before analyzing the book as a whole, but Chapters 1 and 2 already point to a critical lacking in the modern Church of too much individualism. The Gospel is flexible in adjusting to different cultures and different times so we don't need to be exactly like this First Church in all details. But this portrait of the Church looks so different from any Church or local gathering of believers I have seen. And frankly, as much as I would like to be in a church filled with awe and wonder, I would probably mess it up because of some selfishness in me which would grieve the Holy Spirit and the unity He has created. May the Lord work in my life to make me a man who not only longs for awe and wonder but is submissive and humble of heart to be of one mind with other believers so that we can together see the awesome power of God.Â