Reading: Acts 3-4, Psalm 120

At the beginning of the book of Acts, there were a couple hundred followers of Jesus. By the end of chapter two there are well over three thousand. By the end of chapter four there are over five thousand. The new people are growing. But there is more to be said about what kind of people they are, and what kind of world they are living in. Remember that Luke told us Peter’s first sermon and his long quote from the book of Joel- the Spirit is poured out on all flesh. Any and everyone can be part of this new people. They are bound to come into conflict with a world that defines itself by social strata. And that is just what happens.

Peter and John are in the temple, as the people of God were gathering there each day. They come across a beggar who cannot walk. Hardly an exceptional sight in those days. They stop to speak to him and he looks at them expectantly. Then Peter delivers one of the most memorable lines in the New Testament. Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk! And he does, running about and shouting for joy. Before we move on to the hot water this gets them in, lets look at what Peter said they did have to give this beggar. Not money, but a name. They offer this beggar the name Jesus Christ of Nazareth. The get up and walk part is the result of the name, not the gift itself. Missing this little distinction, I am convinced, has led to all kinds of problems for Christians who don’t see miraculous healing such as happened here. They offered the name of Jesus, and by it this man walked. They did not offer walking, and by it this man believed in the name of Jesus.

Anyway, this and their following comments get Peter and John in trouble with the authorities of the time, because they are doing two things. First, they are creating a stir among the people by breaking down barriers. The high priestly family and their cohort were the top rung of society. This new teaching would dethrone them. Second, Peter and John are running around accusing them of killing the Messiah! If Jesus was alive and was the Messiah, the high priests would have to eat some serious crow. They would need to repent and be baptized into the name of Jesus. That was not something they were willing to do. They did not recognize that they were not righteous. So, they tell Peter and John to shut up about it. This gives Peter another opportunity to deliver a memorable line. Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. Pretty sure this is heavily sarcastic. Peter is leaving it in the judgment of the council whether they are a higher authority than God himself. These guys weren’t dumb, and I’m quite certain they knew when they were being insulted. Even so, they let them go, because what else could they do? They were enormously popular and had just performed a miracle.

This leads us into another description of the life of the new people of God in Jerusalem. They held all things in common, sold what they had as needs arose. This has been used at various times in the history of the Christianity to argue for some kind of utopian church commune. For the argument against this one need only keep reading into the first couple of paragraphs of the next chapter, but those who wish to make such arguments never seem to want to face up to the fact that it wasn’t actually all that utopian. Anyway, I don’t think this is intended to be a meticulous model for how the people of God are to act in all times and places. It is supposed to be a general model. Generosity. Abundance. Facing life together. Trusting one another. Trusting God. Preaching the good news that Jesus is the Messiah and the only name by which humans can be saved. Offering the name of Jesus as the only thing we have to the wounded and broken of the world.

Luke is taking us on a journey into the new world that the new people are inhabiting. It is tempting to read it as a near perfect world. One that, that if we could just get back to it, would solve all our problems. Unfortunately, the rest of the New Testament is largely letters written to resolve issues in this new world. It was not perfect then, just as it is not perfect now. The new people that Jesus called were not supposed to be perfect, they were supposed to be obedient to their King. The new world is not complete, it is an interruption of the old one. It is a colony. An outpost. A little example of what things could be like. We still have those today. When the church is at its best, it is the greatest force for good in the history of the human race. When it isn’t, well, it behaves like pretty much all other human institutions.