Buy-in Ignites Action | Acts 2:41-3:26
This message was preached at Sherwood Community Friends Church on Sunday, June 4, 2023. You can watch the video in full by clicking below.
Take out your Bibles and turn to Acts 2. Acts is located right after the Gospels, the biographies of Jesus, as the 5th book of the New Testament. This is where we’ve been for the for the last few weeks and where we will be for the next several months. So I recommend getting really comfortable with the book of Acts.
Community Buy-in
Our text today jumps us right into the middle of a story. Bob shared about this story in Acts 2 last week, but here’s a summary. The disciples were gathered together and unsure of what to do next with Jesus’s recent ascension to heaven. Then the Holy Spirit flooded that place in an event we know now as Pentecost. Really the birth of the church. And the result of this massive outpouring of the Advocate on the loyal followers of Jesus was a multiplication of disciples by the thousands. This is where we are now at Acts 2:42.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. (CSB)
Pause here for a moment. Depending on your translation, this verse is either the end of the previous section or the beginning of the next. Let’s read verses 41 and 42 so we have a better flow and context of this transition.
So those who accepted his message that is, the explanation of the Holy Spirit’s outpouring, the declaration of the Old Testament scriptures coming to fruition in their presence, and the call of repentance for the salvation the observers cried out for - So those who accepted his message were baptized yes, this was likely legitimate water baptism. There’s no other word utilized in the Greek New Testament scriptures that would indicate this means anything different. In fact, water baptism was practiced as an unofficial Jewish practice about a century before the infamous John the Baptist. But, it’s not so much about the symbolic dunking in water. This was more than that. This was a symbol of a life change, a repentance of self-living and a surrendering of oneself to the Way of Jesus. A ritualistic cleansing. This cultural marker gave them the opportunity for public declaration that they are no longer living for their gain, but for the gain of Jesus.
My mom, who’s here with us today in person, loved to take photos all throughout when I was growing up. Not only did she take these photos, but she was amazing at cataloging these memories in photo albums, which I would frequently thumb through. When I was about 8 years old, I made the decision for myself to follow Jesus and to be water baptized. Here are two pictures of that day. The first is when my dad and I were just getting out of the baptismal after I had declared my faith and been baptized. But the second is equally important in my life.
Since I was baptized right around Valentine’s Day, my mom found this cake with cherries in the shape of a heart. And she told me it was because that day, my heart was different because of my decision. Of course my mom knew me well enough to know that I would remember food.
But let me tell you, every time I thumbed through those photo albums and came across this photo, I remembered what she told me. It was a marker for me, and I remembered this decision because I had access to these reminders. When times became difficult, when I didn’t act very Christian, when I battled depression, when I didn’t think I was good enough, there was one thing I knew for certain - I belonged to Jesus because I remembered this picture and what it represented.
These new believers, these Israelites that had observed what had happened, they chose an act that would symbolize their cleansing by Jesus and their new way of life. And they didn’t do this on their own! Let’s keep reading.
So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. (Acts 2:41–42, CSB)
These thousands of new believers put themselves under the teaching and community of the apostles. They literally immersed themselves in this new way of life and thinking. Now, if you’ve been a Christian for a long time, you might think That’s great! When someone is a new believer, that’s when they should be learning all they can about how to live and act and follow Jesus.
I’ve been a Christian a long time. About 33 years. And I would say I’ve been a fully surrendered follower of Jesus for 11 years. I wouldn’t classify myself as a new believer. BUT there is so much about the Scriptures - Old and New Testaments - that I’m still searching through and seeking to understand! There are mysteries that I don’t quite grasp yet, and I am still a work in progress.
Like Paul said in Philippians 1:6 says, “I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (CSB)
News flash - it’s not the day of Christ Jesus yet. We are still a work in progress. When I made the decision to fully surrender my life to Jesus, I had to replace the old information, patterns, and behaviors that I was living in with new information, patterns, and behaviors.
This is Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. (CSB)
I sought out new ways of thinking because I was hungry to understand God’s word for myself. I wanted to experience the joy that others around me seemed to have. Like the observers on the day of Pentecost, I saw others around me lit up with the Holy Spirit, walking in truth and confidence and authority, and I asked “What must I do to have this too?!”
I wanted to stop believing the lies of the enemy that told me I wasn’t good enough, that God would never use me, that my past was unredeemable.
But if I wanted to turn down the volume on the lies of the enemy I had to intentionally turn up the volume of the one who could redeem my lostness. This meant being in church every Sunday, with my Bible and pen in hand. It meant joining a small group, similar to our Friends Groups. I would listen to sermons and worship music throughout the week. I would read faith-forming books. Through constant immersion, I learned to discern the next right step that God was leading me to.
But it couldn’t be just me pursuing in the dark. Grappling my way along Scripture without any sense if I was going the wrong direction would keep me just as lost as I was before. Someone, rather a few people, had to take me under their wing to teach me. These saints, matured in the faith, although not without their flaws, needed to take some time to nurture me, grow me, teach me, and show me new life habits.
The same was true for the early church. Luke describes here a willingness by the apostles to lead the new believers. They could have had a high and mighty attitude. Afterall, they had just studied under the greatest Teacher of all time. But they didn’t do that. They put themselves in a position to pour into those who were new.
Jesus modeled this when he was raising up the apostles in the Way. He slept next to them. He ate with them. He prayed with them. Three years of this immersion led the apostles to be equipped to now teach others how to do this too.
The apostles led by living with the believers as Jesus had demonstrated throughout their time in ministry together.
These believers had buy-in because of what they witnessed and the choice they made to repent and follow Jesus. And these were not people unfamiliar with the existing Scriptures! These were fellow Israelites, but they knew something in their life didn’t line up with what the apostles had.
There was weight here because what they experienced was personal. They were deeply convinced that this - whatever it was that Peter and the other apostles had - this was the Way to salvation. This was the Way to God. They were hungry for this. They had buy-in. They didn’t just show up to an occasional scripture class or even just see them when it was time to worship, but they did life with the apostles and each other as much as they could. They worshiped with them and ate with them. They did everything with them.
Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. (Acts 2:43–47, CSB)
What we see here are the community actions that poured out of their community buy-in.
Does this mean we all need to give away our possessions? Maybe. But that’s not what I gather here. This demonstrates the impact of sharing property and resources. It was a demonstration that they knew they were not operating alone. They were one body.
Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different ministries, but the same Lord. And there are different activities, but the same God works all of them in each person. For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other. So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. (1 Corinthians 12:4-6, 12, 24-26, CSB)
Just as Paul reminds the church in Corinth, this baby church in Acts acted out of their buy-in of the Gospel.
Day by day. This was a daily interaction. This was in and out, doing life together. This day in, day out living together was demonstrated not only in worship. It was in times of eating, times of being together in town. Literally doing life with each other. This is why Bob and I value sharing a meal with people so much! There is a different kind of relationship that comes into play when we break bread together.
I’ve seen this “doing life together” play out in our women’s group. Someone needs a ride, and someone else chimes in. Someone is having a hard day lets us know that and we are all there to pray and support as we can on our group thread. Someone needs to get out of the house and another is right there to spend some time with them. I have gleaned so much life wisdom and insight from the women in our group over the last two years. This time and people investment has made me a better follower of Jesus, and I hope they would say the same about my presence in the group too.
“Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17, CSB)
How are we, the church, doing life with each other? How are we, the church, encouraging each other? How are we mentoring each other? How are we sharpening and being sharpened?
Something to think about.
Personal Buy-in
We’ve spent some time talking about community buy-in, about how the beliefs of a group are the determining factor of what that group does.
But what about personal buy-in? What about when you have experienced let down, disappointment, tragedy, oppression, hardship, trauma, sickness, and so on? It’s near impossible to be all in when you’ve been so protective of your heart for so long.
Now Peter and John were going up to the temple for the time of prayer at three in the afternoon. A man who was lame from birth was being carried there. He was placed each day at the temple gate called Beautiful, so that he could beg from those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter the temple, he asked for money. Peter, along with John, looked straight at him and said, “Look at us.” So he turned to them, expecting to get something from them. (Acts 3:1-5, CSB)
The man was expectant. He asked for what he thought he needed - money. And He was ready to receive from them. But do you think this man could have expected healing? What was his highest hope? Money? Food? Clothing? Something temporal no doubt. His mind couldn’t grasp a miracle of healing so he didn’t ask big. Was that held against him? Was Peter and John like Bruh sorry, you asked for the wrong thing. Sorry, I haven’t got any money bruh. But keep asking for other things that you want and we’ll see what we can do.
That’s ridiculous! But sometimes that’s how we approach God’s blessing, healing, joy, peace, love, freedom and so on. We try all these things to make sure that we are asking for the right thing and when we don’t get our prayers answered in the way we think they should be answered, we assume that it was because of our incorrect asking or something we aren’t doing right. Or worse yet - we don’t even ask because we are afraid we are going to ask “wrong” - whatever that means.
The man asked for what could be attainable and enough to get him by for that day. I imagine his asking was no different for Peter than it was for every one else that walked by that day.
But Peter said, “I don’t have silver or gold, but what I do have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” Then, taking him by the right hand he raised him up, and at once his feet and ankles became strong. (Acts 3:6-7, CSB)
Peter took the man’s hand and raised him up BEFORE the man felt his feet and ankles were made strong. To take the action, that is to accept Peter’s hand and to attempt to stand, he had some level of buy-in to what Peter declared and asked of him. He had to act before he felt that it was true.
What if Peter would have tried to take his hand but his response was No. I can’t walk. Don’t waste your time with this. You’ll embarrass me.
But the man took action because he was ready to receive. He was expectant. He saw the gift being offered to him and he took action. It doesn’t say that the man actually believed he was going to be healed. But it does say the man went along with it. Are we ready to receive the gifts that God is trying to give us? Freedom? Healing? Joy? Peace?
So he jumped up and started to walk, and he entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized that he was the one who used to sit and beg at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. So they were filled with awe and astonishment at what had happened to him. (Acts 3:8-10, CSB)
Side note: It’s suspected that Jesus likely walked by this same lame beggar several times without healing him. Why didn’t Jesus heal him? I imagine there were many people Jesus didn’t heal while he walked this earth.
Isaiah tells us, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.” This is the LORD’s declaration. “For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)
What if Jesus knew the purpose of this man’s healing was greater than that man’s own healing? What if Jesus knew that this moment was what the man needed to wait for? What if Jesus knew that Peter’s personal healing was tied to this man’s physical healing?
This is only a short time after Peter’s denial. Jesus brought Peter back in close with forgiveness and love, and asking him if he loved him and to feed his sheep, all of which Peter accepted. But there’s something that happens inside of us when we are affirmed through our positive experiences and choices, especially when God’s power works through us.
By God’s healing being extended to this lame man through Peter’s words and actions, Peter could walk in the full forgiveness of himself and walk in confidence as an apostle.
A Plea for Buy-in
Back to our text. Peter sees the opportunity. Everyone is gathering around because the man that they knew to be lame is healed, as is demonstrated by his jumping and leaping and dancing around. Enter Peter’s plea to the crowds for their buy-in to Jesus.
Pick up the text in Acts 3:11
While he was holding on to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astonished, ran toward them in what is called Solomon’s Colonnade.
When Peter saw this, he addressed the people: “Fellow Israelites, why are you amazed at this? Why do you stare at us, as though we had made him walk by our own power or godliness?
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and denied before Pilate, though he had decided to release him. You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer released to you. You killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead; we are witnesses of this.
By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. So the faith that comes through Jesus has given him this perfect health in front of all of you.
And now, brothers and sisters, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your leaders also did. In this way God fulfilled what he had predicted through all the prophets—that his Messiah would suffer.
Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah. Heaven must receive him until the time of the restoration of all things, which God spoke about through his holy prophets from the beginning.
Moses said: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to everything he tells you. And everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be completely cut off from the people.”
In addition, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, have also foretold these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, saying to Abraham, “And all the families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring.” God raised up his servant and sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.” (Acts 3:11-26, CSB)
So, did they buy-in? What happens next?
Well, you could read for yourself in chapter 4. In fact, I encourage you to do so. Then you’ll want to come back next week to hear Bob share about the response of the people.
Open Worship
We covered a lot of ground today. I have a few considerations for our time of open worship and response.
What marker do you hold onto as a symbol of your surrendered life to Jesus?
Who is mentoring you in the faith? Who are you mentoring in the faith?
Are you afraid to ask God for what you need in your life? Or have you been blaming yourself for unanswered prayers?
What has been holding you back from buy-in? What can you do about it?
What does your next step need to be this week?
The altar is always open for you to step forward and meet Jesus at.
