I was thinking about Acts 2:42-47 again this morning. And I decided to share a couple of additional thoughts on the passage…
The first one comes from Katie Adams. She shared it with me right after the message Sunday and I want to pass it on to ya’ll.
As she was listening to how the Holy Spirit came on the believers and then they came together in an incredibly intimate, “new” kind of community and life, she was reminded of a similar occurrence earlier in the Bible.
Remember the Christmas story? An angel tells Mary that she will have a baby– and Mary questions it. Here’s a part of the exchange from Luke 1:34-35:
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
[35] The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
The Holy Spirit conceives the baby inside of Mary. The Spirit is involved in the birth of Jesus. Jesus then begins his ministry, teaches about the Father and the Kingdom of God, goes to the cross and rises from the dead. Through his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus provides a way for us to have an incredibly intimate, “new” kind of community and life with God.
See the connection? The Holy Spirit is involved in another birth in Acts 2—the birth of the church. The church is a means to bring life to the world by living and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We’ll talk more about this in the weeks to come (because as I’m writing this, I just got a great idea for another message!).
The second thing I thought about is from Acts 2:46-47…
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, [47] praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
You see I highlighted “praising God”. I think I sometimes forget that the church is all about praising God. I know I’ve forgotten that in the past. Sometimes I would make it “praising my wonderful insight” or “praising this 3 step process to self improvement” or even “praising the programs of the church”. These things may have value, but they can never replace praising God.
You ever notice that sometimes we Christians can focus more on what is wrong in the world than what is right with God. I so often can point to what I or others are failing at and miss what God is doing. When I do that, my eyes are focused on us rather than on God—I’m looking down not up.
I just reread what I wrote (because I am not sure that I am writing clearly) and realized that I haven’t been specific enough. We don’t focus on and praise Jesus Christ. He is our rock, our hope, our strength, our life.
The cornerstone of the early church in Acts 2 is Jesus. That’s our cornerstone too. Whether we know it or not… whether we acknowledge it or not… whether we believe it or not.
My prayer is that we will always be a church that is about “praising God”. It won’t get old; it won’t get boring. Instead, it will continue to bring a new, fresh, invigorating life to all of us—and it will draw others to the party!
If you have any thoughts about last week’s message—or anything to share—go ahead! That what a blog is all about (that’s why there is a “comments” opportunity at the end.
