Moving Ahead with One Purpose

“And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favor with all the people.  And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”  Acts 2:46-47

Even as the self-righteous religious leaders made many efforts to snuff out this new movement of Jesus followers, people were still coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and spreading the gospel.  The apostles, disciples, and the new converts had formed a community of believers one might refer to as “an itinerant band of Spirit-filled, born again witnesses to the power of the resurrected Christ”.  They continued to worship in the temple, probably in one of the outer courtyards or porches, at the customary times of worship, 9 a.m., 12 p.m., and 3 p.m.  It would be interesting to know how they worshiped.  I would guess that their worship would have had some of the same patterns of customary Jewish worship which, of course, would have included prayers and readings from the Old Testament writings of Moses and the prophets.  During Jesus’ ministry on earth, it was His custom to attend worship on the sabbath.  He even stood and read from the book of Isaiah (Luke 4:16-21).  Perhaps the apostles or some of the new converts spoke of how Jesus had fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies of God’s Messiah as part of their worship.  I can’t imagine them focusing on anything other than the Son of God as the risen Lord and Savior.

The apostles, disciples, and the new converts continued to celebrate Christ as they traveled from house to house sharing their meals and remembering Christ as they broke bread in gratitude and praise.  How joyful they were to know that their sins were forgiven, and that they were made righteous by the blood of Christ before the holy One of Israel.  They had all found a new purpose in life, that of sharing the good news of Christ.  I am afraid that we 21st century Christians have lost some of the zeal that the early believers had after they became Christians.  It is true that we have get-togethers in our homes with fellow believers, and we always are certain to ask God to bless our food before we partake of our meals, but that’s about all that is mentioned about Jesus.  There may be some discussion about activities going on in the church, but no real focus on Christ and/or scripture.  There is plenty of talk about sports, trips, and other events going on in our lives.  At least, that has been my experience over the years.  Of course, we assume that is what our worship services are for, and that is true, but outside the church, the world cannot tell much difference in us and everyone else.  If we decided to stand on the street corner and talk about our Savior, in this day and age, we might get arrested.  What we need to do is to find a good balance between serving Jesus and giving time to our fellow human beings.  No one ever claimed that being a sold-out-for-Jesus Christian was easy.

From all that we have learned from the four gospels concerning the treatment that Jesus and His disciples received from the religious leaders and many of the residents throughout the areas of Jerusalem, Samaria, and Galilee, we would assume that the believers would have run into one roadblock after another of rejection and persecution, but that was not the case at all, at least not from the regular folks.  As this overall group of 3,120 believers moved around the city, perhaps in small groups, praising God and witnessing to His resurrection power, scripture tells us that they found favor with all the people.  Those of the believers who were residents of the city would have been known by some of the families in and around Jerusalem, and, therefore, the change that Christ had brought into the lives of the new converts would have been noticed by their relatives, friends, and associates.  Perhaps some of the Jews who had embraced Christ on the day of Pentecost had heretofore been miserly, arrogant, and/or unfriendly, but now were displaying such a change of heart, becoming sweet, loving, and joyful, because this is how Christ operates.

The greatest evidence of the new birth is a changed heart.  The believers were making not just an impression, but an impact on all with whom they came in contact.  The evidence of their influence was the fact that others were coming to faith in Christ as He called them by His grace and joining them in praising and witnessing of the power of Christ in salvation and redemption.  Sins were being cleansed and lives were being changed.  The church was growing.  We wonder how the religious leaders were viewing this extraordinary turn of events.  It was certainly on their radar, and they were determined to extinguish what they considered blasphemy.  However, the believers did not concern themselves about what the persecutors of Christ thought.  They wanted to be about the Father’s business, sharing the good news and caring for each other.

If believers today are ever going to make a real difference for Christ, we must be like those 1st century believers who would not let anything or anyone deter them from spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The religion that is permeating our society, called “wokeism”, Satan’s “gospel”, must be met with the truth of the real gospel because that is the only remedy that will bring a cure for the epidemic of sin and ungodliness in our nation.  As believers, we must move ahead with that purpose in mind, not giving up or shutting up, but boldly proclaiming the name of Christ.