An Idealized Christian Community - Reflections on Acts 2:42-27, Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year A

by John C. Holbert on Tuesday, March 10, 2026

         The powerful Pentecost sermon of Peter now has its practical impact on the emerging Christian community. The 3000 persons who had “accepted the message” that day (Acts 2:41) join in an assembly whose activities are described in summary in vs.42: “They devoted themselves (NRSV—or perhaps “persevered in”) to the teaching of the apostles, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.” This brief statement of the operations of the earliest community could well be a summary of what Christian assemblies have in fact done over the centuries, a kind of syllabus for church life and practice. The succeeding verses fill in something of what this summary implies.

         Luke first wishes us to know that the assembled converts were “constant in their attention,” that is “devoted themselves to” the following actions. These common activities comprised the central demands of the new community in Christ. “Teaching of the apostles” was primary. Luke is especially concerned that the teaching ministry of Jesus be continued in the new communities. Note how his entire book begins: “Theophilus, the first book I wrote was about everything Jesus began to do and to teach” (Acts 1:1). The Gospel of Luke presents as a major feature of Jesus’s life and ministry the work of teaching. No church can long survive in our time without a serious focus on the teaching of the Bible and the history of the church.

         Next, Luke says that “fellowship” is a crucial element for the community. By fellowship, I assume he means both spiritual communion (koinonia—as in numerous Pauline instances: 1 Cor.1:9; Gal.2:9; Phil 1:5, among many others), as well as fellowship as a sharing of material possessions, as evidenced by vss.44-45 and by the extended stories of Acts 4:32-37 and 5:1-11. 

         Then follows the “breaking of the bread,” here meant more than common meals, but a reference to the presence of Jesus in that act of bread breaking as witnessed by the two disciples on their way to Emmaus at the end of Luke’s gospel (Luke 24:41-42). Luke goes out of his way to connect closely the ritual breaking of the bread, what we now call the eucharist or communion, with the living presence of the resurrected Jesus (see also Acts 1:4; 10:41). 

         Each of these actions is sealed with the “prayers,” a constant feature of any Christian gathering. Thus, constant devotion to teaching, fellowship, the breaking of the bread, and the prayers are marks of the newly constituted Christian assembly. Once these actions are enumerated, Luke continues his description of the community by affirming the prophetic spirit that worked in Jesus (Acts 2:22) is also working among the apostles, the community leaders, who were performing “wonders and signs,” at which the larger group stood in “awe,” Luke employing that familiar Greek phobos (fear) to delineate the religious impact of the energized assembly.

         The very practical result of this strict devotion to the practices of the new community are now spelled out. If one takes with the greatest seriousness attention to teaching, fellowship, eucharist, and prayers, then one will certainly expect to “hold all things in common” (panta koina). The necessity of this state of all possessions as common is made plain by the later tale of Ananias and Sapphira, whose refusal to share proceeds of a land sale with the community resulted in their deaths (Acts 5:1-11)! Of course, there have been through the ages any number of Christian communities that attempted this action of holding and sharing common possessions, though few of them have lasted very long. I think of the 20th century Sojourner community in Washington DC, led by Jim Wallis, whose experimental attempt to perform this act of common possessions lasted some years, but finally disintegrated. In an individualistic, capitalist society, common possession is a difficult endeavor.

         Nevertheless, in Peter’s new community, “They were selling their property and possessions, and were distributing them to everyone according to each one’s need” (Acts 2:45). If this has the ring of the famous Marxian maxim (“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need”), it is not inconceivable that Marx himself derived the basis of his economic theory from this text in Acts. Before his professed atheism, Marx was surely introduced to Christianity. The early Christians, we might say, were professed communists, according to Luke, in the sense that no one held back anything from anyone who had needs. It is a glorious idea indeed, however difficult it is actually to practice it.

         “They praised God and found favor among all the people. Every day the Lord was adding those who were being saved to the community” (Acts 2:47). This fabulous community, devoted to teaching, fellowship, eucharist, and prayer, was soon known far and wide by those outside the assembly due to their lack of selfish hoarding of material goods, and their radical sharing with anyone among them who demonstrated needs. Little wonder that new members joined every day; who would not want to be a part of such a group?

         The fact that Luke tells that extended tale of Ananias’ and Sapphira’s selfishness in the face of the community’s demands for sharing, suggests strongly that the portrait Luke paints of the first Christian community is an idealized one. We cannot know if they actually acted as Luke says, but we can certainly know that Luke hoped mightily that Jesus’s earthly community would indeed act just like that. I cannot speak for you, but I have never experienced any church that fulfills such a picture. Still, many of them have tried to live by this model, this high bar, of Christian community, and it is no bad thing to strive for excellence in spite of not quite achieving it. Like a shining city on a hill, Luke’s Petrine assembly stands as a goad for us to work harder to live out the work and ministry of the Christ in our world.