Teaching and prayer are likely more obvious as Christian activities, but many congregations will nonetheless be helped by a reminder of their centrality. The middle two of these may be especially significant - fellowship (the Greek word is the well-known koinonia) and eating together, mundane as they seem, are not activities we just happen to do but are essential acts of Christian life. Teaching, fellowship, eating together, and prayer have been common Christian practices for ages. This is especially so with the opening description of verse 42. Most of the activities described as characterizing the community’s life are uncontroversial and have often characterized Christian congregational life throughout history. This week’s passage describes what the life of the resulting community looked like. The response to the sermon was tremendous: Three thousand people repented, were baptized, and joined the Jerusalem Christian community (2:37-41). Peter had given the first Christian evangelistic sermon, explaining that what the people were experiencing was the end-times gift of God’s Spirit promised by the prophet Joel, now poured out on them by the risen and exalted Christ (2:14-36). The account follows directly on the story of Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit had been experienced powerfully not only by the gathered remaining followers of Jesus, but also by many others in Jerusalem in the neighborhood of their gathering (2:1-13). If it is not to be so taken, then what shall we do with the passage? Is the life of this community to be taken as a model for Christian life today? If so, it would be hard to deny that most Christians are missing the mark on some key points. Its challenge comes in discerning how to apply it. The passage is fairly easy to understand in terms of the picture it describes. For we are the children of saints, and we must not be joined together like heathens that know not God.ĥ So they both arose, and prayed earnestly both together that health might be given them, And Tobias said: Lord God of our father, may the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and the fountains, and the rivers, and all thy creatures that are in them, bless thee.Ħ Thou madest Adam of the slime of the earth, and gavest him Eve for a helper.ħ And now, Lord, thou knowest, that not for fleshly lust do I take my sister to wife, but only for the love of posterity, in which thy name may be blessed for ever and ever.Ĩ Sara also said: Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, and let us grow old both together in health.Acts 2:42-47 summarizes the daily life of the earliest Christian community in Jerusalem. And when he desired them to sit down to dinner, Tobias said: I will not eat nor drink here this day, unless thou first grant me my petition, and promise to give me Sara thy daughter.ġ0 Now when Raguel heard this he was afraid, knowing what had happened to those seven husbands, that went in unto her: and he began to fear lest it might happen to him also in like manner: and as he was in suspense, and gave no answer to his petition, The angel said to him: Be not afraid to give her to this man, for to him who feareth God is thy daughter due to be his wife: therefore another could not have her.ġ1 Then Raguel said: I doubt not but God hath regarded my prayers and tears in his sight.And I believe he hath therefore made you come to me, that this maid might be married to one of her own kindred, according to the law of Moses: and now doubt not but I will give her to thee.ġ2 And taking the right hand of his daughter, he gave it into the right hand of Tobias, saying: The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob be with you, and may he join you together, and fulfill his blessing in you.ġ3 And taking paper they made a writing of the marriage.ġ4 And afterwards they made merry, blessing God.ġ5 And Raguel called to him Anna his wife, and bade her prepare another chamber.ġ6 And she brought Sara her daughter in thither, and she wept.ġ7 And she said to her: Be of good cheer, my daughter: the Lord of heaven give thee joy for the trouble thou hast undergone.Ĩ:4 Then Tobias exhorted the virgin, and said to her: Sara, arise, and let us pray to God today, and tomorrow, and the next day: because for these three nights we are joined to God: and when the third night is over, we will be in our own wedlock. 9 And after they had spoken, Raguel commanded a sheep to be killed, and a feast to be prepared.
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