Here we have case history #1 of how the proclamation of the Word creates faith in the hearers God has chosen to belong to himself. At the end of Peter's sermon, the people whom the Holy Spirit had regenerated asked, "What do we do?" Peter answered, "Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the authority (name) of Jesus Messiah for sin forgiveness, and you will receive the Holy Spirit."
Now this doesn't entirely square with what we learn later in the New Testament from Paul, but the Bible must be read and interpreted in its entirety because it's real history. Things happen in sequence. Peter hasn't studied Christian theology. He's still thinking like a Jew. He's still thinking like John the Baptist. You received the Holy Spirit from water baptism. Those who teach baptismal regeneration today are like Apollos who came to Paul in Acts 18:25 fervent for the Lord but who knew only of the baptism of John. So, we must do as Pricscilla and Aquila did, explain regeneration more correctly in the light of the progressive revelation of God.
Three thousand people responded to Peter's invitation. We're told the first churches met in homes, going from house to house (Acts 2:46). Why did they do this? Most people respond as several did at our gathering -- to avoid persecution. But that doesn't begin until years later. It was perfectly legal to be a Jew in the Roman Empire and Christians were considered Jews. The Jews had not yet begun persecuting the followers of Jesus. So why did they meet in homes?
In homes you can open up to each other. In someone's house, you are drawn into their lives and family. Meeting in houses probably meant everyone had to get involved in the care of the group and hospitality, not just an elected board. If you look at the four things that characterize their fellowship, it's difficult imagining this happening in some formal worship space.
First, they devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching. Where is the apostle's teaching preserved for us? In the Scriptures of the New Testament. Notice that the historical record does not say they devoted themselves to the Scriptures. If it did, that would mean they were studying the Old Testament with an eye toward understanding the New. But that's not how Jesus taught his apostles in the 40 days before his ascension. Jesus started with Himself and re-interpreted the Jewish Scriptures as to how they all testified of Him. This is the principle of interpretation in congregations put together by the Holy Spirit. The New Testament is primary; the Old Testament is a shadow of the progressive revelation of God to its utter completeness in Christ Jesus.
The second thing the Spirit-assembled assembly did and still does is experience the presence of Jesus in the breaking of the bread. These Jews knew they were now living in a different economy than the covenant of works that had preoccupied Judaism. The breaking of the bread was not a sorrowful, somber sacrament, but a joyful, celebration of the presence of Jesus and his ultimate victory over sin and death, and the expectant hope of his coming again. Acts 2:46 describes authentic Christian fellowship as overflowing with gladness and simplicity, not weighed down with complicated language and formality.
The third characteristic of a fellowship created by the Holy Spirit is that they devoted themselves to prayer. Although almost certainly they relied on recited Jewish prayers, they did not rely only on formulaic words. Their way of praying was patterned on the way Jesus taught his disciples. The Lord's Prayer was not designed to be mindlessly repeated by rote. Jesus didn't write out the prayer and had it to his followers and make it part of a litany. It was simple. It was direct. It was specific. Jesus gave them that prayer as a model for spontaneous prayer. This is how the new believers were to learn to pray.
The fourth characteristic of genuine spiritual fellowship is captured in the single Greek word, koinonia. The idea of fellowship in most man-made churches has been watered down to something like socializing with a prayer thrown in. To understand it's original context we look at verse 44: "All the believers had all things in common..." The word for common is the same word from which koinonia is derived. This was not an early form of communism as some liberal scholars contend. Verse 45 describes it clearly: "They would sell their property and possessions and distribute to all who had a need." These believers weren't part of a social club, but a cooperative, a community that was committed to helping each other financially as well as spiritually. In this fellowship you wouldn't be alone. You wouldn't go without. Someone had your back.
What happened to these fellowships? First we're told they experienced awe (Acts 2:43). It was literally awesome to see what God was doing in people lives. Signs and wonders abounded through the ministry of the apostles. In our fellowships today where the apostles speak to us through the New Testament, we need not think merely int terms of miracles (suspension of natural laws), but happenings in every day life that clearly bear the imprint of God.
Second, they continued to worship corporately at the Temple. The house fellowship is not a substitute for the corporate worship of God's people. We are not starting a church. That's what men do. We are starting a fellowship and we continue to worship in various churches in our community. But Acts 2:46 clearly qualifies this experience as believers remaining of one mind. There was going to be a disconnect between what they knew and what many worshipers in the Temple knew. They wouldn't agree with what the Temple authorities did and taught. But they hung in. They weren't shaken if they heard a teaching that contradicted the apostles. They stayed of one mind.
Finally, these fellowships grew. They didn't create focus groups and media campaigns to determine how to make Jesus more palatable. They kept their focus on the four essentials and the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. It's God's responsibility to bring people to faith. It's not people's decisions to shop around for a fellowship like some consumer religion. God saves; God adds. And notice that the additions happen "day by day." Not just on Sunday, not just on Sabbath Saturday, not just when the Bishop came to town. How do people get connected day by day? When believers share the glories of God, the awe of changed lives, the release from guilt and shame and bondage to habits in their daily walk. When the Holy Spirit puts together a fellowship and not man, lives change, people find gladness and simplicity and saving grace to a life worth living together.
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