Sermon Passage: Acts 4:32
Sermon Commentary Notes
“Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common” (Acts 4:32).
“Now” is a translation of the Greek word “de” and begins the English translation of our verse. It is a particle standing after one or two words in a clause. It is strictly adversative, but more frequently denotes transition or conversion. In other words, it serves to introduce something else, whether opposed to what precedes or simply continuative or explanatory. The preceding passage, which is the healing of the lame beggar, becomes our focus. Due to the healing of the lame beggar, the Sanhedrin launched the beginning of persecution, threatening Peter and John “not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus” (Acts 4:18).
When the early Church heard this threat, they broke into praise and prayer. They focused on the sovereignty of God with no selfishness in their prayer. They were not asking for protection or deliverance. They had only one desire! They wanted the fullness of the Spirit of Jesus to continue, which resulted in the proclamation of His name supported by signs and wonders. Their prayer caused the threat of persecution. God answered their request, “the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).
In a new paragraph, Luke described the condition of the early Church, which was a result of their openness and the filling of the Holy Spirit. Their openness and infilling created unity, conquered materialism, and provided for the needs of every person. “Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common” (Acts 4:32).
The main verb in the opening sentence is a verb of “being” (eimi), an imperfect indicative verb. It describes a state of being that occurred in the past with no assessment of the state being completed. In other words, it continues into the present. It is a state of “one heart and one soul!” This statement is a predicate nominative that renames the subject. Luke described the subject as “the multitude of those who believed.” A group of people who believe is the same as a group of people who have the same heart and soul.
What did this group believe that united them as having one heart and soul? They believed in Jesus. They believed in a sovereign plan contained in the Person of Jesus, demonstrated in His death and resurrection, and expressed through His Spirit filling them. Many of this group, especially the apostles, spent forty days with the resurrected Jesus! They were not quoting a doctrine they learned in school. They were not accepting a message proposed by the latest fad of their culture. The person of Jesus had captured them. Jesus taught them about this new Kingdom during those forty days. They believed Jesus was alive, and God fulfilled His plan in Him. They had nothing else on the agenda but Jesus. They focused on the reality of His person. This is what united them! He was their sole message. Luke said, “And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 4:33).
The early Church continually raised the issue of Jesus! What was this crowd’s relationship with Jesus? Peter called them to repent, and Jesus was the issue of that repentance. They had crucified Him; they must now embrace Him. Jesus was the issue of baptism. Their baptism was a demonstration of how wrong they had been about Jesus (Acts 2:38). They received the gift of the Holy Spirit through their embrace of Jesus. Their belief revolved around Him. What is your relationship with Jesus?
Luke reported what this belief caused in the lives of the early Church. This belief allowed Jesus to shape them into His body. They became the church, a living organism.
Organism
These new Christians became the early Church, a group with one soul and the same heart. They were no longer individuals who believed in various doctrines. The dictionary defines an “organism” as a whole with interdependent parts, likened to a living being. The apostle Paul’s favorite phrase was “the body of Christ.” His epistles to Ephesus and Corinth highlight this picture. “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23). Paul described this in amazing language, “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free – and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many” (1 Corinthians 12:12-14).
Luke describes the birth and growth of the church as Christ’s body. As Luke illustrates this oneness, he uses the word “church” for the first time (Acts 5:11). It is a translation of the Greek word “ekklesia.” Its original meaning was an assembly called together. “Ek” means “from” or “out of.” “Klosis” is rooted in”kaleo.” It means “to call.” During Luke’s time, people used the word for a body of citizens called together to discuss the affairs of a local community or the state. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, “ekklesia” is the word translating the Hebrew word for an assembly of the people of Israel. It is the “called out and called together ones.”
We must always remember that Jesus is the One who calls us. We are to come to Him alone, finding our place in and through Him. A. W. Tozer described this with the illustration of one hundred pianos all tuned to the same tuning fork. Every piano tuned to the same tuning fork would be tuned to each other. All one hundred pianos sounded precisely the same (in one accord with one heart and one soul) not because they were tuned to each other, but because they were tuned to a standard to which each surrendered. The early Church had one heart and one soul not because they attempted to be one with each other, but because they were one with Jesus!
The unity the early Church knew in Jesus is described as “one heart and one soul.” The Greek word “kardia,” translated heart, is never used in the New Testament for the physical organ of the body. It is the seat and the center of human life. All the desires, feelings, affections, passions, and impulses are located in and come from the heart, the “place” a person encounters God in a positive or negative sense. It is here in the heart that the spiritual life has its firm foundation, and a person’s conduct is determined, often focused on intellectual activity. God spoke through Solomon, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).
In Jewish belief, the “soul” is the seat of the will. It is a translation of the Greek word “psyche.” “Psyche” refers to the immaterial part of a person, the actuating cause of life. The linking of the “heart” and the “soul” is the entire being of the person. The members of the early Church thought and wanted the same things. They functioned as if they were one person, a living “organism.”
The reality of unity only happened as each person merged with Jesus. As Jesus filled each person, he or she experienced the mind of Christ. Jesus filled each with His nature, bringing unity that could not be manufactured by any other means. Although the uniqueness of each person is present and necessary, they function as one! Each one contributes to the same purpose and desire. What a testimony to the world; unity exceeds physical healing! Our focus is not on unity; it is on Jesus. If we concentrate on unity, we will divide on “how” to be unified. Methodology brings division. If we focus on unity, we develop ways of measurement. Some will think we are united, but others disagree, which results in division. Some declare the presence of “a spirit of division,” although others deny such a presence. “One heart and one soul” only exists when each person entirely focuses on Jesus.
The early Church knew this oneness in the context of “the multitude of those who believed.” The Greek word “pisteuo” is translated “who believed,” focused on Jesus. It is His name they are not to speak; the threat of the Sanhedrin concerned Jesus. But the early Church was so convinced of the reality of His presence they could not cease. Jesus captured them! Many of them experienced His resurrection appearances, but all of them knew His resurrection presence. The life of Jesus birthed these believers into the living organism of His body.
Orchestration
Luke gives us abundant evidence of how the life of Jesus demonstrated itself in the physical realm through miracles, signs, and wonders. When the Sanhedrin issued threats on the early Church, this body of believers prayed, “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30). The physical demonstration of miracles, signs, and wonders verified His Word. This demonstration brought the early Church into persecution. Although it was not the primary cause, it set the stage for the proclamation of “in Jesus the resurrection from the dead” (Acts 4:2). The healing of the lame beggar at the Gate Beautiful created a stir within the city of Jerusalem. Everyone heard about Jesus through physical demonstration.
Although these miracles impacted everyone, an equal miracle took place in the body of believers. Oneness in Jesus created a new approach to their materialism. Luke writes, “Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but that they had all things in common” (Acts 4:32). This news should not shock us because Luke already reported this in the second chapter. “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need” (Acts 2:44-45). Miracles, wonders, and signs were a constant theme in the description of the early Church in Jerusalem. The inner sourcing of the Spirit of God demonstrated Himself in the physical realm of the believer’s life.
The astounding aspect of this miracle was not in the physical demonstration of having “all things in common,” but this demonstration was in the believer’s spiritual life. The believers did not view their possessions as their own. The miracle was the shift in how they perceived ownership. No one forced them; there was no obligation; they wanted to do this! Peter made this plain in what he said to Ananias when he referred to the property sold, and the money received. Peter said, “Although it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God” (Acts 5:4).
Allow me to state this fact another way. The physical did not force their expression. The spiritual imposed this generous activity on the materialism of the early Church. There was no physical law written, no oral tradition. The early Church did not establish a standard for one to be a member in good standing. Their generosity was a spontaneous flow of God’s nature and heart. Not everyone sold everything they had. The Lord directed each according to His will for the individual. Each believer would have been on a different level of spiritual maturity. God did not require the same amount or even the same percentage from each believer. They responded to God’s heart in the area of materialism as they did in all other areas. The spiritual realm imposed itself on the materialistic realm of the believers.
We know that the bank account is the last thing we surrender to Jesus. It represents our efforts, earnings, and basis of security. The early Church demonstrated this shift! They moved from the security of this world to the security in the resurrected Lord. They were “of one heart and one soul” in what they believed, in worship and fellowship, but also materialism.
Organic Matter
What could be so dominant in the human life that even our view of materialism is affected? It is an organic matter. There are several definitions of “organic” given in the dictionary. As I travel the country, I regularly see signs advertising organic food. In large grocery stores, there are sections set aside to display and sell organic food, referring to “food produced or farming methods involving the production of food without the use of chemical fertilizer, pesticides, or other artificial agents.” The price of such food is much higher because the cost of producing the product is much more. But it has become a strong desire for those focused on having good health to eliminate artificial elements from their diet.
To live organic in our spiritual lives is even more vital! Jeremiah was a great prophet of the Old Testament. He said the Lord spoke through him to announce the coming of a New Covenant. It would be different from the Old Covenant given when Israel came from the land of slavery. God said, “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:33-34). The written law of God had been like pesticides or chemical fertilizer attempting to create a pure heart in Israel. The New Covenant would be the inner law of God flowing as a natural part of the structure of the New Covenant person! The nature of God would merge with the spirit of man; the motive of man’s heart would flow from the heart of God! God will completely change how the Kingdom person views materialism. It will be organic.
Another definition of “organic” in the dictionary is “denoting a relation between elements of something such that they fit together harmoniously as necessary parts of a whole,” characterized by continuous or natural development, organic growth. This is a description of the merger between the nature of God and the nature of man, where God forms a new creature. The person is not placed on a life support system; instead, God fuses the new life of His Divine nature into his or her being. They come alive from within the core of their system. They are organic in unity with Jesus, a description of the early Church. They experienced unity with God and with each other. We cannot manufacture unity; laws cannot produce it. Religious training cannot cause it. It is organic. God created man to fit together harmoniously with His nature; these are two necessary parts of a whole!
The secret to the early Church is their intimacy with the fullness of the Spirit. The unity they experienced with each other came from the Spirit’s infilling. This intimacy with Jesus produced their courage in the face of persecution. Intimacy with Jesus must be the focus of our lives!