Acts 2:42-47 is a portrait of the first church. In this sermon we will look at the two heart qualities and one over-arching activity portrayed in verses 46-47a.
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…
The Church is Joyful
The word translated ‘glad’ in verse 46 carries more intensity than you might first think. We use the word ‘glad’ to describe how we fill when we see traffic backed up on the opposite side of the highway. “I’m glad I’m not going that way!”
The word here connotes wild joy, ecstatic delight, exultation and exhilaration. It’s the same word used in Luke 1:14 of the joy Zechariah and Elizabeth felt when they found out that God was going to give them a child after decades of barrenness.
You might be thinking, “I’m part of the church, and I don’t feel any joy, much less wild joy.” I am not saying that all Christians will feel joyful all of the time. I am saying that normally Christians will grow in joy over time (Galatians 5:22). In your walk with Christ there will be seasons of darkness. You’ll sin and experience the consequences. You’ll encounter spiritual battles and crushing circumstances. But over time, the jagged trajectory of the Christian life is toward joy.
I’m also not saying that as a Christian you should devote yourself to feeling joyful. The first church devoted themselves to the teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers. They sought the kingdom, and joy was added to them.
The Church is Simple
The word translated ‘generous’ in verse 46 is a tough one. This is the only place in the Bible it is used. It has been translated ‘generous,’ ‘humble,’ ‘sincere,’ and ‘simple.’ Literally it means ‘not stony ground,’ a figure of speech the original audience must have understood.
It seems to me that ‘not stony ground’ is useful ground, either in the sense that you can travel it or you can cultivate it. Taking this as the meaning, the fact that the first church was “not stony-grounded of heart” means they could use their hearts.
This might mean they were sincere-hearted, free from pretense and deceit, living from genuine feelings. Or it might mean they were simple-hearted, at ease, undistracted and calm.
Jesus has this effect on his followers. Some are stony-hearted in that they’re crushed by heavy burdens. To them Jesus says,
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
Some are stony-hearted in that they’re distracted with busyness. This was Martha’s case in Luke 10:38-42:
Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
Some are stony-hearted in that they’re worried about finances and the future. To them Jesus says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6).
The current trend toward minimalism in all things from decorating to scheduling is an expression of our innate desire for Jesus Christ. He is “the ultimate minimalizer.” He exchanges our heavy burdens for easy ones. He clears our busy schedules with “the one necessary thing.” He points us toward the kingdom, and promises to add everything else to us along the way.
The Church Praises God
Praising God is presented in this passage as an over-arching activity that infiltrates everything they do. Some churches have a praise team. This passage indicates that the church is the praise team. Every church member is a member of the praise team because being the church is praising God and praising God is being the church.
Praise means “laudatory discourse.” In layman’s terms, it is enjoying and communicating God’s goodness.
This is no foreign activity. We do it all the time. I looked on Facebook for examples and didn’t even have to scroll down to find three. One person says, “I am soooo thankful that today is Friday and OMG tomorrow is Saturday!!!” Another says of the Apple Store, “Craig’s favorite place!!!!!!” Yet another posts a picture of her daughter in her Halloween costume, “Baker Byrum!” We naturally enjoy and communicate the goodness of the weekend, our favorite stores and our children.
Why do we not just enjoy these things? Why must we also communicate their goodness? Because this is what we’re designed to do. We are praise machines.
C.S. Lewis explains it well:
I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with. . . The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.
The gladness we feel when enjoying and communicating the goodness of the weekend is a teaser of the wild joy we feel as we grow in our enjoyment and communication of God.
The bottom line: The church is joyful and simple. The church praises God.
Discussion Starters
- Open your Bibles and share all the different translations of verses 46-47.
- On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 meaning miserable and 10 meaning wildly joyful, how would you rate your joy over the last week? How would you rate the state of joy in general among Dulin’s Grove? Why did you rate yourself and our church the way you did?
- Have you seen an overall increase in joy over the course of your Christian walk? Why or why not?
- What are some reasons a Christian who trusts Jesus and is walking with him might not feel joy, even for a long stretch of time?
- How can we cultivate joy? (Think about how the first church came to be joyful.)
- Read Ephesians 1:3-10 together, and pull out all the reasons a Christian has to be glad.
- What do you think “not stony ground” means in verse 46 (probably translated generous, humble, simple or sincere in your Bible)?
- What are some ways we praise people or things every day without thinking about it? (For example, the Facebook statuses Matt shared in the sermon.)
- Brainstorm practical ways we can grow in praise as individuals and as a church.
(Picture credit: William Hartz)
