Acts 2:42-47
And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 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 and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. This week, we're doing something a little different. We're continuing our sermon series on raising children in the faith. So I've chosen a different reading for the Epistle reading for October 8. It comes from Acts chapter two, verses 42 through 47. And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers, and all came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, and all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. 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, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day, those who are being saved. He rents the reading. This is an interesting passage that I think most people misunderstand. When you look at this passage, and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. What we often see are disjointed pieces, like they devoted themselves to the teaching. And later on to getting together and hanging out. Some of them would have dinner, and then others would pray. And there are all sorts of different things. Luke has this interesting theme that he runs through the Gospel of Luke as well as into the book of Acts. That is this idea of table fellowship. And the Gospel of Luke table fellowship is something that happens with Jesus, there's Jesus comes to be with them. He teaches the people they eat, and they're in His presence. And it continues building and building all the way through the book of Luke until you get to the very end, when Jesus appears to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. And so Jesus appears to these disciples, it's after he has died and risen from the dead. And they don't know what's him. So he teaches them how the old the whole Old Testament focuses on him and leads to his death and resurrection, to save the world. They don't recognize him. And so they go on and on until they get to the end. They Jesus pretends that he wants to go on and they invite Him in. And it isn't until they he blesses the bread and breaks it that they finally realize who he is, and then he vanishes. And they say that they recognized him in the breaking of bread. What this means is that this prayer for this fellowship, of the breaking of the bread, this table fellowship, is actually part of the pattern of worship that the church began with. And that's what Acts 242 is all about devoting themselves to what you would do in the divine service. It's the apostles teaching, which is what we do in the beginning, the fellowship, communion, the congregation, breaking up bread, and the prayers. Now many translations don't call it the prayers they say and to prayer. The difference there is that it's talking about something, a communal prayer, rather than individual prayer. Luke is describing worship. They devoted themselves to hearing God's word to teaching about Jesus fellowshipping together, receiving Holy Communion and praying together in God's name. And this gathering of believers, all of the believers, top to bottom, oldest to youngest leads to all the wonders and signs and amazing things. And they continue to do this as part of the regular habit of the church. And that is what's going on in Acts 242. Luke is setting up the pattern of worship that the apostle set down of all of God's people gathering together to receive this great gift. That's it for our reading today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai