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Introduction
Have you ever wondered why Christians go to church? Have you ever wondered why Christians – all over the world -- gather together in public buildings and in private homes on a regular basis? Have you ever wondered why with all the changes in the world these things have not changed? I have. And I think that Acts 2 can help us to answer these questions. In our study of Acts 2 we have already seen Jesus pour out his Holy Spirit upon his people. We have already seen that the Holy Spirit has come for one primary purpose: to testify of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. He does this, as we have seen, by empowering cowards to publicly proclaim the message of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done and by empowering the faithless to put their trust in this very message. And we’ll see today that the Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus in still another way. He testifies about Jesus by creating local church communities that are united in their common devotion and in the common fruit this devotion produces. Let’s turn to Acts 2 and read about this together, beginning in verse 42.

Common Devotion
The first thing we see here is that the Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus by uniting his people together in common devotion. As these people responded to the gospel we are told that they then devoted themselves to the Apostle’s teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. This new community was united in their devotion to the Apostle’s teaching. They listened to it, they reflected on it, they talked about it. And what was the Apostle’s teaching? Well, we know from the book of Acts and from the rest of the New Testament, that all of their teaching really boiled down to two things: the gospel of Jesus Christ and how to live in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So as the Holy Spirit empowered people to place their faith in Jesus Christ he also gathered them into a community of people who together shared a common devotion to the teaching of the gospel and to the teaching of how to live in light of that gospel. They were also united in their devotion to what Luke calls, “the breaking of bread.” This phrase includes two activities that actually took place simultaneously. They broke bread in the sense that they shared meals together. They relaxed, they reclined, they enjoyed good conversation and good Popeye’s chicken together. They also broke bread in the sense that they shared communion, the Lord’s Supper, together. As they ate their meals together they took the time to celebrate their unity and the source of their unity in Jesus Christ. They took the one loaf that symbolized Jesus’ one body, of which they all were a part, and they broke it and shared it to remind each other that it was Jesus’ broken body and Jesus’ shed blood that united each of them with God and with each other. They shared meals together and they shared the meal together. The Holy Spirit also united them in their common devotion to prayer. They prayed formal prayers, they prayed informal prayers, they prayed with each other, they prayed for each other. We see here in Acts 2 that the Holy Spirit has come. He has united the Church together. And this unity is seen in their common devotion to gospel teaching, to eating and taking communion together, and to prayer.

Now notice what you do not see here. It does not say that after the Holy Spirit came the people were united in their common devotion to a certain style of music. It does not say that after the Holy Spirit came the people were united in their common devotion to a certain style of preaching. It doesn’t say anything about being united because of a common race, or a common ethnicity, or a common culture, or a common age, or a common style of dress. No! It says that these people were united in their common devotion to the gospel, in their common devotion to prayer, and in their common devotion to Jesus and to each other. If the Holy Spirit only unites black people with black people, young people with young people, and rock fans with rock fans then the Holy Spirit really didn’t need to come. I mean that’s just what happens naturally isn’t it? But that’s not what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit unites people who would never otherwise be united. The Holy Spirit unites people who may otherwise be at odds with each other. The Holy Spirit unites people who may have nothing in common – other than Jesus. This is what we see the Holy Spirit doing in Acts chapter 2 and this is just what the rest of the Scriptures say he will do, also. In 2Corinthians 13:14 Paul writes, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” In Ephesians 4:3 he says, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit and everything has changed. The Holy Spirit has empowered the weak to boldly proclaim the message of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. He has empowered the faithless to put their trust in who Jesus is and what he has done. And he has united the uniteable into one people who are commonly devoted both to Jesus and each other.

Common Fruit
Clearly, only the Holy Spirit can create a community like the one we read about in Acts 2. You can have the best event planners in the world, you can create the most exciting environment imaginable, you can flood everybody’s mailbox with flyers, you can send out e-vites to every email address you can get your hands on – but no matter what you do you cannot manufacture this type of community. You cannot make people who previously had no desire to be around each other suddenly choose to spend much of their time together. You cannot make people who previously had nothing in common suddenly share all of this in common. And because this type of community cannot be manufactured – because it so uncommon – people respond to it. And that’s what we see in the following verses. We see that the Holy Spirit has given Jesus’ people a common devotion and this devotion produces common fruit. We’ll look at four aspects of this fruit tonight.

The first is that they were acutely aware of each other’s needs. Verses 44 and 45 explain, “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.” Because they were devoted to Jesus and each other they were devoted to meeting each other’s needs in the name of Jesus. When one of them needed something – needed anything – the others saw it as their responsibility to meet that need. They didn’t blame the person in need and say, “Well, if you wouldn’t have had that baby out of wedlock then you wouldn’t be in need.” They didn’t pass them off to the government and say, “I’ll drop you off at the welfare office so you can fill out the paperwork and get some government cheese.” They didn’t pass them off to the church leadership and say, “Oh, you should talk to pastor about that, maybe he can help.” No, they saw the need and they joyfully jumped at the opportunity to meet that need themselves. And it wasn’t just small needs, although those were met to. There were some significant needs. So significant that the people in the community willingly sold their own property and their own possessions in order to provide for the others in the community. They weren’t commanded to do this. The Scripture doesn’t demand that we do this. They wanted to do it because through the work of the Holy Spirit they had been united to Jesus and united to each other. They wanted to do it because they shared a common devotion to Jesus and a common devotion to each other. And it made sense to them that just as Jesus gave up his riches for them they should give up their riches for each other. That’s not easy, is it? I don’t know about you but I have trouble sometimes even loaning things to other people. I’m scared it’s going to be like those books and that DVD set that I loaned to Derrick 6 months ago and haven’t seen ever since. I don’t say that to pick on Derrick (well, maybe a little) but I say that to say that giving away even the smallest things we value is not easy. Again, this type of community cannot be manufactured. This community is created by Jesus through the Holy Spirit.

A second consequence of their devotion to Jesus and each other is found in verse 46. It says, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together…” Not only did they share fellowship together. They shared fellowship together everyday. They did this formally (in the temple) and they did this informally (in their own homes). These people who previously had no interest in spending time together were now spending day after day together. These people -- who just like you and me had their own lives, and their own jobs, and their own family -- went out of their way to make time for each other. And again it wasn’t just something they did at church – in the temple. They opened their homes to each other. They shared their meals with each other. If they would have had cars they would have car pooled together. If they would have had the Wii they would play Dance Dance Revolution together. If they would have had TV’s they would have watched “The Wire” together. This wasn’t something they had to be told to do. This is something they chose to do. It was the natural consequence of being mutually devoted to Jesus. They were mutually devoted to each other. This type of community cannot be manufactured. This community is created by Jesus through the Holy Spirit.

And perhaps the most amazing thing of all is this: they were filled with joy. Verses 46 and 47 say this, “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.” As a community of people their hearts were glad, their hearts were sincere, and they praised God in it. Can you imagine that? I mean, honestly, would you be filled with joy if you sold your house and your possessions to pay my bills? Would you be filled with joy if you spent most of your time with me? If I asked you what would fill your heart with gladness those probably aren’t the first things that you would list. But these men and women were glad. And they praised God. Because he had not only united them to Jesus, he had united them with each other.

This community, this fellowship through the Holy Spirit, had a tremendous impact on the believers themselves. They were filled with gladness and they praised God. But it also had a tremendous impact on the non-Christians in their community. Once again, verses 46 and 47 say this, “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.” Do you see that? That’s an incredible statement isn’t it? Could we say that about the people in our culture? Probably not. Our culture doesn’t tend to look at Christians with approval. Our culture generally looks at Christians with disapproval. Why the discrepancy?

I dare say that it is partially because non-Christians today do not see the common unity and devotion that non-Christians saw with the Church community in Acts 2. They don’t see churches where rich and poor, and black and white, and young and old, and conservative and liberal, and rappers and rockers are purposefully spending time together, and sharing themselves and their stuff with each other, and devoting themselves to prayer and the gospel together. What they see is the black church and the white church, the rich church and the poor church, the young church and the old church, the rap church and the rock church separated from those who are unlike them and only coming together, even with their own, just once a week or twice a week to get something for themselves instead of to share themselves with the others. That’s not all that attractive. Non-Christians can get that anywhere. What they cannot get anywhere is a community of people commonly devoted to Jesus and each other every day and at all times in spite of having none of the obvious things in common.

You see that is attractive. People notice that. People listen to that. This is so different from what we tend to think is attractive about any given church. We think people will be attracted to the music. Or people will be attracted to the shouting. Or people will be attracted to the silence. Or people will be attracted to the preaching. Because, unfortunately, this is what we’ve become attracted to. But this is not what attracts non-Christians to Jesus and to his community. What attracts people is the gospel and the fruit of the gospel. When we are glad to spend time together and enjoy giving ourselves and our things to each other we provide a picture of the gospel – a picture of how Jesus has laid down his riches, his glory, and his life for us. When we are united together with people who are unlike us we provide a picture of the gospel – a picture of how Jesus has reconciled us to God and to each other. Jesus himself said in John 17:23 that when the world sees Christians truly united together in community the world will know that Jesus is who he says he is and that he loves us. The Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus by uniting us together in common devotion. Somehow, the gospel becomes more attractive and more believable when the truth of the gospel is not just heard but seen. Verse 47 says, “[they enjoyed the] favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

Common Repentance
This is a wondrous picture of a true community formed by the Holy Spirit, isn’t it? Don’t you find this description attractive? These Christians were united as one. They had a common devotion to hearing and studying and discussing the gospel message. They had a common devotion to celebrating this gospel by sharing the Lord’s Supper together. They had a common devotion to sharing intimacy together by sharing meals together. They had a common devotion to praying with each other and for each other. They responded to their unity by choosing to spend much of their time together throughout the week in formal and informal settings. They responded to their unity by choosing to sacrifice themselves and their possessions for each other. They responded to this unity with glad hearts that sincerely praised God for what his gospel had accomplished. And the outsiders who saw this found this very attractive. So much so that many were added to the Church. This is a picture that should make us weep. We should weep because of its sheer beauty. And we should weep because our community doesn’t always look like this community.

Why? Has the gospel lost its power? Has the Holy Spirit stopped uniting the uniteable into one body and one people? Of course not. In fact, the opposite is true. If we are in Christ we share this very same community together right here and right now – even if we cannot see it. It is a matter of fact that Jesus has already united all of us into one body if our faith is in him. It is a matter of fact that Jesus has already made us into one common people if our faith is in him. It is a matter of fact that Jesus has already given us unity and fellowship through the Holy Spirit if our faith is in him. Jesus has done this by uniting us to God through his perfect life lived in our place, his terrible death died in our place, and his resurrection that achieved victory in our place. He once and for all dealt with the problem of sin which is the very thing that kept us locked out of community with God and community with one another. By taking our sin upon himself and giving his righteousness to us Jesus has united us with God, who exists eternally in perfect community as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. By uniting us with God Jesus has also united us with God’s people. End of story. Whether we know it or not, whether we see it or not, whether we feel like we experience it or not we have been made into one community, one people, through Jesus Christ. So the question is not, “do we have this type of community here”? We do. To say that we don’t is to say that Jesus hasn’t done what he says he has done, it is to say that the Holy Spirit isn’t doing what Jesus sent him to do. The question is not, “do we have this type of community here” the question is “will I live like I know this type of community is here.” Will you live in light of what Jesus has already done? Will you live in light of what the Holy Spirit is already doing? Will you live like the men and women in Acts 2? Will you devote yourself – not only to Jesus – but to the people Jesus has united you to?

I know it sounds difficult -- especially in our individualistic culture, especially when our lives are filled with so much busyness and so much responsibility. But you really can experience this type of community. How? By allowing the gospel to permeate all of your thinking and living. Instead of living for yourself you are now free to live for others because you know every one of your needs has been met in Jesus. Instead of holding on to your money and your possessions you are now free to give them away because you know all of your security is found, not in them, but in Jesus. Instead of hiding the truth about yourself – instead of being afraid of being known – you are free to be known and to tell the truth about who you are because you know that God has approved of you and accepted you as you are because of Jesus. Instead of devoting all your time and energy chasing this or that accomplishment you are free to devote your time and energy to Jesus’ Church because you know that everything has already been accomplished for you by Jesus. Instead of only feeling comfortable around people who think like you think and look like you look and like what you like you are free to experience community with all types of people because you know we share a common mission, a common inheritance, and a common Lord in Jesus Christ. Instead of thinking that you’re too good for this group of people or not good enough for that group of people you are free to relate with all of us as equals because we are all equally sinful apart from Jesus and equally righteous in Jesus. Instead of looking for the church to serve you you are free to serve the church because you have been perfectly served in Jesus.

Do you see what the gospel does? The gospel of Jesus Christ allows us to give ourselves to community in all of these ways. But it doesn’t just allow for these things. It demands these things. No matter how much you say you love Jesus you cannot truly be committed to Jesus if you are not committed to Jesus’ Church. He did not die to just save an individual here and an individual there. He died to create a new people – his own people – for his own glory! When we resist the community that Jesus gave his life to create we deny him some of the glory he has earned and we deny the world a beautiful, powerful, and attractive picture of what Jesus’ life and death and resurrection have accomplished. So if you are resisting this type of Acts 2 community you must repent for denying your Lord the obedience and the glory that he demands and deserves. And then you can rejoice in the fact that Jesus has already given us true community with God and with each other. And that because of him we are free to live in light of this glorious truth.