A Tour Through Acts ~ part 6
A United Church
Acts 2:44
All the believers were together and had everything in common. (Acts 2:44)
I was walking across a bride one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. I immediately ran over and said, "Stop! Don’t do it!"
"Why shouldn’t I?" he said.
I said, "Well, there’s so much to live for!"
"Like what?"
"Well, are you religious or atheist?"
"Religious."
"Me too! Are you Christian or Jewish?"
"Christian."
"Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?"
"Protestant."
"Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?"
"Baptist."
"Wow! Me too! Are you Original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?"
"Reformed Baptist Church of God."
"Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?"
"Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!"
To which I said, "Die, heretic scum!" and pushed him off.
When it comes to unity, there is a lot of intolerance in even the church today. It seems that some people want others to agree on everything, and when others do not think like they do, they withdraw their fellowship and friendship.
I once heard the president of a college say that a certain denomination was the most united denomination he had ever seen. He said that in this denomination there was a small group united over here, and another small group united over there, and another small group united somewhere else. Of course, what he was talking about was the division, not the unity in this denomination. So many times churches split because of a lack of unity. I remember one such church split where one group broke away from a church and adopted the church name "Unity", of all things. But we do not need to call ourselves "Unity"; we need to exhibit unity in the body of Christ.
It has always been fascinating to me why the many cults and other misguided fringe groups have so much success. Some of these groups proclaim a message which is much harder to believe than biblical Christianity. If one has to take a leap of faith to believe Christianity then one needs a launching pad and a booster rocket to believe many of these messages. Yet they are growing and finding considerable success. I wonder why that is?
Well, certainly one factor is that they believe in hard work. Evangelism is not optional with them. They understand the saying that goes, “If it is to be, it is up to me.” It is central to their purpose for existing. While the same should be true for us, many Christians simply do not take personal evangelism seriously.
Another reason, however, and I believe the main reason why these cults are so successful, is that they are uncompromisingly united. They have a shared vision, a common goal, a singular purpose. And they go after their goal with unadulterated zeal. I believe that this is why they are so successful. This kind of unity is very attractive to many people — people who are tired of the religious confusion and uncertainty they have experienced in many main-line churches. Unity is so very important.
The early church was a united church. They would exhibit a level of unity and oneness that will forever be an example and challenge to churches everywhere.
Togetherness
All the believers were together… (v. 44a)
Notice that it says that the believers were together. In Acts 2 there is a lot said about being together. At the very beginning of the chapter we read, "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place." And in verse 46 we read, "Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts."
There is something about togetherness that is foundational for unity. Coming together is the first step toward unity. It is so important that the very phrase "come together" has become a synonym for unity.
When God saves people, He puts them into a community called the local church. This simply means that He puts us together physically. He wants us to learn to love one another. He wants us to find a way to pull together in the same direction. This is what He did with those early disciples in the upper room. The 120 who were waiting for the power of the Holy Spirit to fall were together day and night in the upper room. What do you think they were doing all that time? Well, they were certainly praying some of the time. But they were also talking, sharing their fears, their hopes and their hesitations, they were sharing their lives. They were taking the time to develop relationships and to become one. They were becoming a team, a community.
This only happens when we take the time to be together as a church. It only happens when we choose to be more than an occasional participant in the life of the church.
This is a real problem for the church in today’s society. Our culture is decidedly slanted against Christianity. When most of us were kids, the culture not only accommodated but also supported Christianity. Sundays were considered a day set-aside for worship. There were laws in many places that closed on Sundays. In some places, even the public schools gave no homework on Wednesdays because they knew churches had Wednesday evening services. You did not have little league or soccer games on Sunday mornings or at other times that pulled people out of church. The Christians would not stand for it. Now the situation has changed, some of us work Wednesday nights and Sundays, and so the current trend is to ignore people’s dedication to the Lord on those days.
The result is that the level of involvement by Christians in the life of so many churches is definitely sporadic. I have even joked that you have to give an announcement three weeks in a row for everyone to hear it, because about a third are here one week, a third the next, and a third the next. And we wonder why we have a hard time getting any momentum going.
As Christians in a counter-Christian culture, we are going to have to make some real choices concerning what we stand for and what we are committed to. We need to do it and the world needs to see us do it. We have to make time to be together.
Commonality
All the believers were together and had everything in common. (Acts 2:44)
These early believers were so united that it says that they had everything in common. They saw themselves as one body of believers in Christ. It was not every man for himself, but rather, one for all and all for one. They had not joined an organization, they were joined together in an organism, a living, multi-membered body, of which Jesus is the head. They had genuine unity.
I believe unity is a conscious choice, made by Christians, which they will pull together, despite their differences. I’m sure that people in the early church had differences of opinions. After all, you must remember that these were Jews who came to know Jesus Christ. I had a Jewish friend who said that you could get two Jews together and have an argument, and with three Jews you could have a war. So how was it that this early church was so united? Well, I believe the answer lies in the fact that they knew that the church was not theirs, rather it was God’s. He was and is the head of the Church. It is His will which is supreme. It is His will to which we defer. If we will experience unity, it must be around the will of God. It cannot be dependent upon our opinions. But, a great church is a united church.
Disunity can kill a church. In 1 Corinthians Paul puts forward a powerful plea for unity in the local church. He finds it necessary to exhort the church in Corinth to be united. This was because they had lost their unity.
Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree, and there be no divisions among you, but you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, "I am of Paul," and "I of Apollos," and "I of Cephas," and "I of Christ." (1 Corinthians 1:10-12 NASB)
This plea for unity is predicated on the fact of growing dissention in the church. We read of the quarrels which had emerged because the people were dividing into factions. People were aligning themselves with various personalities. Four camps were emerging. There was the camp of Paul, the camp of Apollos, the camp of Cephas, and the camp of Christ.
Both Paul and then Apollos had ministered in Corinth. Undoubtedly a group of Jews in the church had been saved under Peter. Apollos was a particularly attractive gifted preacher. Apparently people were attached to these gifted leaders and had a strong loyalty to them. Perhaps it was the content of their teaching or their style of ministry, but in any case these three groups identified themselves by their teacher. A fourth group had also arisen which seemed to think that they had a special claim on Christ. Perhaps they did not think they needed any human teacher. Even though they used the name of Christ, they were nonetheless just as guilty of a party spirit as the other groups. This was the problem at Corinth.
The source of their problem then is the source of most church conflict today. It is really a problem of self-centeredness. It was a problem of "what I like," and of this is "my opinion." Listen to what it says in James 4:1: "What is the source of quarrels and conflict among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?" James identifies our own sinful selfish desires as the source of quarrels and conflicts. And when you think of it, selfishness is really at the root of every sin. Selfishness never brings people together; it only drives them apart.
But Christ’s desire for us is that we become one. John 17:21 records these words of Jesus in His high priestly prayer: " …that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
In light of the desire of Jesus, Paul issues this plea for unity. Paul pleads with them in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that they come together and agree. He asks them to eliminate divisions, and to be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. This is a very powerful plea indeed.
The phrase from the Greek, "that you all agree" translated literally is, "that you all speak the same thing." This is quite an amazing statement! Is it really possible for us to all speak the same thing?
It becomes even more of a challenging command when we read it from the Amplified Bible which makes an attempt to give us the sense of the original language. "But I urge and entreat you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in perfect harmony, and full agreement in what you say, and that there be no dissensions or factions or divisions among you; but that you be perfectly united in your common understanding and in your opinions and judgments."
Is it possible that we "all speak the same thing," and that we can be "perfectly united" in our "opinions" and "judgments?" Surely it would be un-American for us all to have the same opinions. But this is precisely what Paul is pleading for.
He calls for no divisions. The Greek word for divisions is schismata, from which we get schism. The figurative meaning is "to tear or rip." As it would be applied in this passage, it means to have a difference of opinion, or a division of judgment. This was the kind of thing that Paul was arguing against. As Christians, our opinions ought to be subservient to Christ’s opinion, and so we ought to be seeking to find out what is God’s opinion and conform our opinions to His.
Without this kind of unity, the cause of Christ suffers. Many young Christians have been confused and seriously hindered in their walk with God by supposedly mature believers who are propagating conflicting views about the Gospel, the Bible, or the central truths of the faith. This does not mean that we should uncritically accept one narrow body of doctrine. It does mean, however, that we must give a clear and certain sound when we speak concerning the truth of God. We must, for the sake of the Gospel, seek to speak the same thing. When we are together, we find that we are powerful.
In one of my favorite Peanuts cartoons, Lucy demands that Linus change TV channels and then threatens him with her fist if he doesn’t.
"What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?" asks Linus.
"These five fingers," says Lucy. "Individually they’re nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold."
"Which channel do you want?" asks Linus.
Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, "Why can’t you guys get organized like that?"
The kind of commonality we are talking about only comes as we see the reality of who we are in Christ and in His church. We must see that we are not only one with Christ, we are also one with one another. 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 says, "For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit." In Romans 12:5 we read, "We, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another." The principle for unity in the local church is that we are one with Christ and one with each other. We must really see that truth.
Remember that Jesus said that if we were one the world would believe that the Father sent His Son (John 17:21). Unity among Christians testifies to the world that Jesus came because of the Father’s love for them. Unity is essential in preaching the Gospel. Unity is essential in carrying out this top priority of the church.
And here again we find a reason to come together, a cause to rally behind. When we begin to actively share the love of Jesus by sharing the good news of the Gospel with others, we will find we are more united than ever before. This is our common task. When we give ourselves to it, we will see the hand of God to empower and to unite us.
Acts 4:31-32a reads, "And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak the word of God with boldness. And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul."
I think there are 5 things (among others) that grew the early Church.
1. Selfless Dedication – When researching the behavior of early believers, you will find many instances in which these pioneers of the Gospel behaved in a manner that did not immediately benefit them. “They dedicated themselves to…” was the theme of their life, and they found that serving God meant serving people selflessly. The book of Acts shows us that their work consisted of feeding, healing, assisting, and giving.
2. Unified Mission – When Jesus ascended to Heaven, there was an agonizing period of waiting as the disciples prayed and sought God’s next instruction. Their first mission was prayer and waiting, and when the Holy Spirit invaded their hearts, a compulsion for service, worship, and growth was added to their goals. Sure, they had disagreements among them, but they did not check each other’s political affiliation before going into spiritual battle together.
3. Urgency of the Call – When the Holy Spirit took control of their lives; obedience was not a hobby that they participated in when they had time. All of their time, talents, and treasures were surrendered to God and His purposes. In today’s context, churches attract many people, but often the worship community becomes part of a series of hobbies that people do when there is time in their schedules. What would happen if God asked you to change your schedule for Him instead of finding a place for Him to fit? What if church was not the first thing to go when you felt overloaded?
4. Emphasis on Connection – When this movement was young, people became grafted into a larger family. This family was one that was not based on genetics, but based on common goals, the need for care, and a desire to share love. It was an extended family that shared each other’s belongings, disciplined each other’s children, and tended to each other’s crops. Imagine if we were truly welded together as a family, instead of being associated with a place that “has a great Children’s program”. Connection and care means that programs are added bonuses and not the central means of ministry.
5. Common suffering – These people had to be tightly knit in the context of community because they were all victims (or victors if you think about it) of abuse and systematic punishment. The government that controlled most of the world looked at these early Christians as rebels whose faith threatened the Roman lifestyle. This was certainly not intentional, but for every person that dropped what they were doing to follow Jesus was one more person that did not contribute to the common political machinery that was the Roman Empire. To them, this threatened peace. So, the Roman response included execution, exile, and slavery. Faith, however was too important to abandon.
My prayer is that we will see growth in the church today that mirrors the vibrancy of the early church. Not growth that is exactly the same, because God is making all things new, but one that will wake us up from a sleep that has been going on far too long.
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