It can be hard to find a church in today’s Western world where people treat each other like they’re really family. But when we look in Acts at the early church, that’s exactly what we see: a family.

Last week in Episode 3 of the God’s Word, Today’s World Podcast, we looked at the disciples passion for God, and their boldness when following Jesus. I challenged us to look at our lives and see whether we had that same kind of passion, or whether we just try to blend into the world. Are we so passionate about Jesus that we can’t help but talk about the incredible things he’s done for us any chance we get?

Or do we treat our faith as something to keep quiet about?

The world tells us that, “You can believe whatever you want… just don’t go telling people about it.” Which is funny, because the people I’ve heard say things like that are usually the people who are very, very vocal about what they believe… or don’t believe.

But the Bible tells us something different. Jesus commands us to be his witnesses, to share the gospel, the good news of what Jesus has done.

Who are we going to listen to? The God who created us?

Or people?

Today we’re going to look at what it means to be a church, a community of believers. Our passage is Acts 2:42-47 (WEBBE):

They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer. Fear came on every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. All who believed were together, and had all things in common. They sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them to all, according as anyone had need. Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people. The Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved.

When I read this passage, the thing that stands out to me most is this:

The early church looked like a family.

Not only that, they acted like a family. They acted like they actually cared about one another, they knew who was in need amongst them, and they went as far as selling their own possessions so they could take care of those in need.

Their priority was people, not possessions

Some people look at this passage, especially verse 44 which says “All who believed were together, and had all things in common.” and scoff, saying that the early church was a commune, that every single person had to sell everything they had and it was all redistributed equally.

This is not at all what the passage says, nor did Jesus—or the Apostles—teach that.

What we actually see happening in this passage is that those with plenty know they have plenty, and are willingly and joyfully giving up possessions in order to help brothers and sisters in Christ who are in need.

We see a beautiful picture of love and voluntary generosity at work here.

The Apostles didn’t expect anyone to sell their possessions, nor was anyone forced to, because God loves cheerful givers. 2 Corinthians 9:7 (WEBBE):

Let each man give according as he has determined in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Being forced by others to give results in us giving grudgingly, which is not something God desires. It builds resentment between people, not love. In Acts 4 Luke makes it clear that those who sold property did so willingly and with a desire to help others, not from being forced to. And he also makes it clear that not everyone sold property, only some.

Acts 4:33-35 (NIV):

With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

In Acts 5, Peter states clearly that everyone still owns their own property—be it houses, land, or other possessions. When Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of property and kept part of the money for themselves but then lied to the Apostles and told them it was all the money, Peter said this in Acts 5:4 (WEBBE):

“While you kept it, didn’t it remain your own? After it was sold, wasn’t it in your power? How is it that you have conceived this thing in your heart? You haven’t lied to men, but to God.”

The property was theirs, the money they received from selling the property was theirs. They could do with it what they wanted. Not giving all the money wasn’t the sin, lying to God was the sin. They could have sold the property and given one percent of the proceeds to the church and been fine if they’d been giving with a cheerful heart. But they gave out of pride and wanting to be praised for doing more than they actually did. They gave selfishly.

But the point is this: no one forced them to sell the property. The Apostles weren’t teaching that you needed to sell all you had in order to be a real Christian.

No, people were choosing to give up what they owned for the sake of others because they were so overwhelmed with God’s generosity for them that they couldn’t help but be generous to others.

The other major theme I see in this passage is that those members of the early church knew one another!

They knew one another

The early church met in the temple, but they also constantly met in each others homes and shared meals together. They put effort into knowing others in the church. Now, this was a church of thousands by this point, and growing constantly. It wasn’t possible to know everyone in the church, but you can still get to know a lot of people with some effort.

Today, how many people do we really know at the church we attend? Many really only have a small handful of people they’d call friends. And maybe only a couple they’d call good friends.

There are probably only a few who we’d invite around for dinner, or go hang out with after church.

For the most part, we’re happy to just see each other on Sunday, say hi as we get our coffee and wave goodbye as we dash out after church to get back to regular life.

This is the complete opposite to how the early church acted. Acts 2:46-47 (WEBBE):

Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people. The Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved.

Every day they continued to meet together. They shared meals together with glad and sincere hearts. Meaning, they didn’t grudgingly have a meal together, they wanted to share a meal and spend time with each other, and they praised God while they did.

Sharing meals together is so important to the growth of friendship. There is a level of intimacy and friendship that is achieved when we have a meal with others that we can’t get from just chatting to someone at church. I mean, there’s a reason that when you tell someone you’re going on a date, most will assume you’re going out to dinner. It’s the pinnacle of “getting to know someone” activities.

And I believe there are some good reasons for this.

1. It hides awkward silences in conversations. When getting to know someone, especially when you’re introverted, it can be a struggle to think of what to ask. When you’re sharing a meal together, you can take more time to think of what to say, what to ask, without awkward silence because you have an excuse: you don’t want to talk with a mouth full of food.

2. It forces more balanced conversations. Some people in conversations tend to dominate. When sharing a meal, even the most talkative person pauses to take a bite of food—and hopefully doesn’t do too much talking with their mouth full. But this is a perfect opportunity for a more reserved person to jump in and talk for a bit.

Compare that to a Sunday morning.

We’re often distracted. There’s only a few minutes before the service starts to talk, and after church, we’re often busy thinking about what we’re doing for the rest of the day. And awkward silences, they tend to be really obvious and especially awkward at church.

At church is not a good time to build solid, lasting relationships in which we’d be even slightly comfortable talking about how we’re really doing. I mean, how many people at church when they ask how you’re doing do you respond to with anything other than, “Good”?

But when you sit down with others with a goal