Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
We have all heard the tired joke about what kind of car Jesus drove based on the verse above. There is wisdom in never repeating a joke that is not funny, so, I spare you. What I would like to point out however, is why the above passage is as important as ever to a church which has divided itself up by denominational, racial and economic lines.
Would it surprise you to learn 87% of American churches are completely segregated by race? Denominationalism goes without saying as the Baptists would never deign to worship with the Methodists. Catholics and Protestants still distrust one another over 500 years later. Yes, doctrinal differences come into play, but if we are all reading from the same Bible and are all indwelt by the same Spirit, should we not be able to sit down and come to doctrinal truth. (Oh yeah, I forgot, it's more important for many of us to be right than correct...) And let's not forget the economic divide of the church: wealthy people have their congregations, the poor have theirs and the middle class have theirs.
Every bit of this is condemned by scripture! Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
1Corinthians 3:4-7 For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
Acts 4:32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.
According to scripture we are not to have a distinction based on heritage, we are not to divide up into denominations and we are not to have an imbalance of wealth.
According to scripture, the American church is a fundamental failure. No wonder we lost the culture war! Today's church is far more influenced by the world than any influence the church thinks it may have. The Biblical mandate: "Be ye in the world but not of the world" seems to not apply to the modern church.
What can we do? REPENT REPENT REPENT!! Unless we recognize our sin, unless we get rid of false prophets and ear tickling preachers, unless we expel from leadership all those who are there to benefit themselves, we will never see the church fulfill it's scriptural mandate of being salt and light.
There are some individuals and congregations doing this the right way, unfortunately, these are few and far between. So many congregations have become exclusive clubs concerned with status quo and growth from those leaving other ministries rather than growth through evangelism. If you are part of a congregation, when was the last time an unchurched person was baptized or even welcomed into the fold? When was the last time a new member had never been a member somewhere else?
Ministry has become business and business stinks! Until we are ready to be the church rather than go to church, revival will elude us. Examine your heart and see if you are actively pursuing God's will for your life or are you merely going to church and indulging in the culture with little or no conflict.
Revival begins with individuals who are ready to submit wholly to God and not be dictated to by traditions or culture. The early church was united under the cause of Christ and Him crucified. The early church members saw the Great Commission as a mandate from God and took it seriously. Nothing we have and nothing we indulge is worth someone going to hell. Do not merely go to church, be the church!
Now, go live as Christ.... and give the devil hell!
What does it mean to love God's way? Understanding love is not that difficult... or is it? Children understand love to the degree they respond positively to love and express love to others. If children understand love, how hard could it be, right? Unfortunately, many of us have a warped sense of love. Selfishly, we want, even demand, love be reciprocated. In order to gain love from others, many place themselves in dangerous or degrading situations. Often we love those who give us some value in return.
As God is the author of love, He should be the one to define it. Loving others as God intended requires nothing in return. Loving others as God intended transcends circumstances and reciprocation. Loving others as God intended means imparting value to the object of His love, not expecting some value in return.
It is easy for me to love someone whom I believe adds value to my life. What happens, though, when that value is diminished? What happens when my emotional investment is not returned? What happens when love feels more like work than fun?
Marriages, personal relationships, and ministries collapse because we do not fully understand the true sacrificial nature of love. Remember the Greatest Commandment - love God, love others. There is no addendum added stating: "as long as everything is cool."
The book of 1 John is a crash course true love. It is in 1 John we learn love is way beyond feeling and conditions. True love must be unconditional and selfless. Once we place a condition on love, it becomes self serving and is no longer true love.
Unconditional love is truly liberating as we can begin to love those whom we deem difficult and unlovely. This goes back to the whole loving only those who bring value thing. God loves me yet I bring Him no value. I have nothing to offer, I have nothing God needs, yet His love for me gives me value.
There are so many broken people who lack self value, who have been written off as worthless, yet God loves them and His love brings them value. How will someone know God loves them? When one of His representatives (you and me!) show love.
I can tell you about a beautiful painting all day long, but unless I actually show you the painting, you can not fully grasp the beauty. That is how love works, we cannot merely tell people God loves them, it is imperative we show them.
Loving others God's way imparts value to the object of His love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Jesus said, "By this, they will know you are my disciples, if you love one another." So lets get busy doing what Jesus told us to do.
Now, go live as Christ... and give the devil hell!
The men's Sunday School group I attend has been studying through the Beatitudes, also known as Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew chapters 5-7. We have studied about a third of the way through and have come to the realization: NO ONE COULD ACTUALLY DO ALL THIS! So, why would Jesus tell us all this stuff to do and not to do, when He knew we could never do it?
Actually, Scripture is filled with commands and rules that God gave us knowing we could never obey completely. Now, I know that many are reading this and thinking about some of the Beatitudinal sayings you have memorized and some may actually be thinking: "I do a pretty good job living by the teachings of Jesus." Well before you get too excited, allow me to draw your attention to: Matthew 5:48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Ok, now that we are on the same page, lets see why Jesus would give out a sermon filled with commands that could not be kept?
If you study Matthew, you see 3 major sections:
1. Jesus offers the Kingdom
2. The leaders of Israel reject the Kingdom on behalf of the people
For more on Representative Theocracy CLICK HERE
3. Jesus begins to speak of His death and His other sheep (Gentiles)
I submit to you that Jesus offered the Kingdom in good faith knowing it would be rejected so He could go to the cross, which was always the Plan. I also submit to you that Jesus revealed to us God's impossibly high standards of living in the Kingdom so we would realize our need for His grace.
This give us hope today, when we face difficult or even impossible circumstances. We do not have the resources, the power, or the wisdom required to do all God allows in our lives, He does, however. The Beatitudes then serve as a reminder to us of what Jesus once told His disciples: "What is impossible with man is possible with God."
So, if it is impossible for me to be perfect as God is perfect, I must rely on Jesus' perfection to give me good standing with God. Likewise, when I face other impossible situation, I must rely on Jesus' promises and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit dwelling inside me. This does not mean everything will always go my way because I am still human and my ways are not always God's ways, but it does mean I will always have all the resources I need to get through every situation in a way that will bring Glory to God, so long as I trust Him. My "I Can't" is God's "I will."
Knowing God is able to overcome our impossibles, what can we not face standing with God? In light of this, go in faith, trust God for the impossible, rely on Him for provision and stand firm in His promises.
Now, go live as Christ... and give the devil hell!
What does God owe me? The obvious answer is nothing. I know this, you know this, yet I live as if God somehow owes me a smooth trouble free life! I sometimes pray for things with the expectation that somehow I have merited God's favor and He is now obligated to give me what I ask for. Isn't that silly? I bet you do the same thing, though.
As we study scripture, we see passages that deal with blessing and obedience and then infer God owes us something for behaving. Obedience is the key to blessing, but God's definition of blessing may be quite different than ours. When I think of blessings, I tend to think of material things and life going my way. When life gets tough or I do not get what I want, I wonder what I must have done wrong. God sees blessing as equipping us to serve Him.
One of the most dangerous places for me, spiritually speaking, is when I think I have been doing a pretty good job seeking God. If I have a couple of good days where I am able to see growth or maybe get to serve in some amazing fruit bearing way and suddenly I do not get my requests granted or I get inconvenienced, my first thought is, "what else do you want from me God?" Shame on me!
God is not my personal Geni in a bottle who is beholden to my whims because I have met some arbitrary standard of holiness. God gave me salvation when I deserve hell. God gave me purpose and meaning even though I spent many years pursuing folly.
This places my pursuit of obedience into a whole new light. I, and you, must pursue holiness because we have been blessed, not so we can be blessed. When we pray for things, we must not pray expecting something because we think we have been good but because God is good. God does not bless our goodness, He blesses out of His own goodness. This in itself is a blessing, after all, how good would be good enough to merit God's blessing if we were blessed according to our goodness?
Psalm 25:7 Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!
No, we are not worthy of God's blessing on our own merit. Thankfully we are credited with righteousness due to the merit of Christ and on His merit we are able to receive blessings.
Now take those blessings and go live as Christ... and give the devil hell!
