Engaging Scripture

Was the early church communist or socialist? – Acts 5-6:7, Part 1

I typed “crisis in the church” in Google’s image search, and what do you think most of the images depicted?

The sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. It’s an absolute mess. I live in the Harrisburg (PA) Diocese, and it made national news recently when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Before we Protestants get condescending about this, as if church crisis is just a Catholic thing, when we take a hard look at the Protestant and Evangelical church, we’ll find we have our fair share of serious issues too. Narcissistic leaders, especially in recent megachurches, sex scandals, declining memberships, rampant racism and more.

We’ve been studying the early church in the book of Acts, and so far they have been perfect. No crisis whatsoever. As we’ll see this week, that perfect record grinds to a halt.

While we’re going to be studying Acts 5 through Acts 6:1-7 this, we’re not going to read it just yet because it is important that we take some time to see how what we’re about to read in Acts 5:1-11 is connected to what we learned from two other passages that we already studied in previous weeks.

First, look back at Acts 2:42-47, which is the earliest description of how the church organized itself. Jesus had ascended to his father in heaven, and his remaining 120 followers waited in Jerusalem, praying constantly, for the Spirit to arrive, as Jesus promised. 10 days later, the Spirit arrived, filled them, and Peter preached the first ever sermon of the church, and we read that 3000 people joined them to become followers of Jesus. What did they do next? In this passage we read that they were devoted to a number of practices. But I want us to look specifically at verses 44-45, which relate to fellowship and generosity.

Here’s what we read there: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.”

There are two important phrases here:

They had everything in common.
They sold their possessions and goods, giving to anyone as they had need.

The question that sometimes comes up when contemporary Americans read this passage is this: were the first Christians socialists or communists? What the early church was doing sure sounds like socialism or communism, doesn’t it? But what exactly do these terms mean? They’re similar, but have some important differences, as you can see on the picture below.

Communism is more extreme. Socialism is somewhere between capitalism and communism. In both of them, you might be working hard to benefit other people, rather than getting all the fruit of your labors. And other people will be deciding how all or some of the wealth you generate is spent.

So is the early church socialist or communist? No. Neither one. Far from it. Why not? First of all, the early church is not implementing a political theory, and they are not advocating that the government should own everything. Second, even together as a church they did not agree that the church family would own or regulate all property.

Instead we read that everyone in the church had everything in common, and they were willing to sell property to help those in need.

What does that mean? How is that different from communism or socialism? It is very different because they viewed Jesus as the owner of all they had. They loved Jesus, and they were following his teaching to love one another. So when needed they placed their possessions at God’s disposal to benefit the community, because God was the owner anyway. This is a stewardship view of wealth and possessions, and it is very different from socialism. We are stewards of God’s property and money, and we use it wisely for the mission of his Kingdom.

But I do have a question that I wish I could sit down and ask of those early Christians. How did this actually work? Here in Acts 2:44-45 it sounds like it is the most natural thing in the world. But I wondered, did any of the Christians struggle with this? The text doesn’t say. Doesn’t it seem like there would have been at least some of them who think, “Whew…I don’t know about this. I like my vacation house by the Mediterranean Sea. I don’t want to sell it. I want to keep enjoying it.” Or “I like my new cloak. It looks great. I want to be able to wear it. I worked hard for it. Yeah, I know that Silas’ cloak is falling apart, and he doesn’t have the money to buy another one, but do I have to be the one to help him? What about all these other people who are now part of the church? There’s plenty other people that can help too. Simon over there has three coats. He’s really the one who could be helping.” You’d think there would some of that, right? But in Acts 2:42-47, we hear none of that. It doesn’t mean some people weren’t grumbling inwardly, it’s just that the writer doesn’t mention it.

We, too, can follow the early church’s loving actions to care for those in need. If a person has an extra home or car or clothing, they could give it to a family that needs one. If their extra home is far away, they could sell it and use the proceeds to help those in need. The same would go for any extras in our lives that we really don’t need such as hobbies, extras, collections. Those things add flavor to our lives and are not wrong, but we should hold them very loosely. We should remember that the stuff of excess is normal in American life, but very abnormal for many other places around the world. Think about the resources that could be freed up if we sold our excess and made it available to the Kingdom of God?

Some might respond, “But what about wise investing? Wouldn’t it be better to start a church endowment fund in order to earn more money to be more generous the long run?” That’s a wonderful idea. Start one up at your church. My church should start one too.

Others might also say, “Is it wrong to have vacations, hobbies, vacation homes, collections, etc.” No, those things aren’t wrong, as long as we have the same attitude of the early church, seeing everything not as ours to use for our enjoyment, but as God’s to use for his Kingdom.

What churches need to be devoted to (and a building is not one of them) – Acts 2, Part 5

What would your church do if God brought revival to your church and in a relatively short time period thousands of new people started coming to your church? What we have seen in the first church was that 3000 people were added to their number that day in Acts 2. If that happened to us, we couldn’t fit all the people in our church sanctuary. Packed to the gills, we would still need to and have worship services every day of the week and probably some days have two. And that is just worship services. How would all those people get to know one another, grow in Christ, serve, and become part of the church family? It would be a wild ride.

And then I thought, “Wait a minute. That actually did happen to the early church. What did they do to incorporate all those people?” Remember back in chapter 1 verse 15 where we learn that there were 120 of them at the beginning? After Peter’s sermon, how did those 120 people bring 3000 more into their church family? Because some of them were from other countries, only in town for Pentecost, it is reasonable to think that they would have returned to their home countries. But there were still many that lived in Jerusalem or nearby, as we will see, and they had to be incorporated into the church family. This gets back to question I asked at the beginning of the sermon. How did they start the church? Did they form a building committee and start a capital campaign, thinking they better build a building to fit all those people? Nope.

They moved from revival to discipleship.

What we read next is not revival but discipleship, the formation of a church family into a group that lives out the way of Jesus in their world. Read Acts 2:42-47 to see what I mean.

This is the earliest description of how the first church family organized itself after the Spirit arrived. What did they do? It says they were devoted to a few specific practices. Devoted means that they applied intense effort to things. It is a passionate commitment. As you read the practices they were devoted, consider how these relate to your church. Is your church devoted to them as well?

First, they were devoted to the apostles teaching. These were the people who spent three years walking with Jesus, the people who Jesus invested deeply in. By the Spirit, they communicated the teaching of Jesus to the people.

Second, fellowship. This is word that refers to the people relating to one another, caring for a loving one another. The next few habits will show how they practiced fellowship in their community.

Third, breaking of bread, probably referring to meals together that included communion, is also fellowship, but probably worship too. The earliest Christians met in the temple, likely for large groups, but as we will see, not for long. Their worship gatherings took place in homes, and thus were comprised of smaller groups. They would sit around tables for dinner, and that would include a meal, discussion about the apostles’ teaching, singing, praying, and communion. The passage also says that their gatherings were daily.

Fourth, prayer. We’ve seen this a lot already from this group of early Christians. They were a bunch committed to prayer. They didn’t just pray as they waited for the Spirit to empower them, they kept praying, they made it a regular practice of their gatherings. Prayer is vital.

Fifth, they treated their possessions as not their own, but were willing to sell possession to help those in need. Their amazing generosity was precisely what Jesus taught them.

Through this community of worship, fellowship and discipleship, the Spirit of God was still at work for outreach. The chapter concludes saying that they enjoyed favor and God added to the number daily those who were being saved.

At the beginning of this week’s series on Acts 2, I asked what you would do if you were given the task of starting a church. Through studying Acts 2, we’ve learned how the first Christians started their church. No building needed. No programs. Just a Holy Spirit-filled group of people who are devoted to God, to one another, and to the mission of his Kingdom. Yes, it involves devotion to God’s Word, which for them was the Apostle’s teaching. Yes, it involves gathering together regularly, to support and encourage one another and discuss how to live out that teaching. And this is most easily done around tables where there is good food. Yes it involves prayer together. And yes generosity. Notice how sacrificial was their generosity.

As I said, above, no building needed. There is nothing wrong with having a church property and building, as long as we keep the building in proper perspective. The church is the people, not the building. The building is a tool. If disaster happened, like a fire, and your building was out of commission, your church family would still be the church. Some might ask, “Then why do we put all this money and energy into the building? Is it wrong to have one?” No, as long as you use the building as a tool for the Kingdom. Use it as a gathering place for your community, as a place that can serve the mission of God, to make disciples. Keep your rental fees very reasonable, and be willing to offer the use of your building at no cost.

Those first Christians give us an incredible picture of how to be the church. Their situation is not the same as ours, so it is expected that our expression of church will likely look different than theirs. But we can still learn from them. We can still be devoted to what they were devoted to. As with any church, yours is likely not perfect. We can and should have the posture of learning, changing, pursuing becoming the church that God wants us to be. A devoted church.

Why we need the Holy Spirit to help us speak in tongues – Acts 2, Part 4

The purpose of the filling of the Holy Spirit is to motivate you for mission. This is why Christians would do well to gather, to cry out for the Spirit to fill us, to motivate us to mission, to outreach, to boldly preach the Good News, to fill us with a method of communicating the language of the people around us so we can tell them the story of Jesus. That’s right, we need to Spirit to help us speak in tongues!

But maybe you’re thinking, “Joel, everyone in America does or should speak English.” Or “The people in my community pretty much all speak English.” In other words, why would we need the Spirit to fill us and help us speak other languages? Here’s why:

First of all, our culture is becoming less and less Christian, meaning that there is a growing number of people that don’t know our Christian kind of talk, they don’t know the biblical stories, and it seems like we and they are talking different languages. So we have to learn to talk in a way that communicates the story of Jesus in terms they understand. Frankly, that will likely mean we spend most of our time listening and asking questions so we can learn where they are coming from. It will be like learning to speak in a different language. We can and should pray for the Spirit to help us.

Second, they might speak an actual different language. Our culture is so different than it was even 20 years ago. Where I live, the most recent stats from the school district newsletter say that our once nearly 100% white school district is now only 60% white, and 40 % persons of color! I asked the principal of the local elementary school, Smoketown, if she could tell me how many languages are spoken by the students and families there.

First of all, in Smoketown she said there are at least 20 languages represented, with a few that are different dialects. But second, she said that there are over 40 languages represented across the district.

Do you think English as a Second Language classes might be helpful? Faith Church is starting ESL classes in April! And could the people from Faith Church who lead ESL classes benefit from the empowerment of the Spirit to communicate? Yes!

As we continue looking at the revival in Acts 2, what happened next is amazing. Check back in tomorrow to see!

The first revival (and could revival happen again?) – Acts 2, Part 3

Revival. What is it? We sometimes talk about a revival of an old musical production. Or when a person stops breathing, they can be revived through CPR. Revival is the breathing of new life into something that is dead or dying. While there is physical revival, as we continue studying Acts 2, we’ve come to a story of spiritual revival. After being filled with the Holy Spirit, one of Jesus’ disciples, Peter, stands up with the rest of the disciples around him, and he raises his voice and begins to preach to the crowds in the city of Jerusalem. You can read his sermon in Acts 2:14-36.

Do you see what Peter is doing in his sermon? He is sharing the good news that Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophets, that though he died, he was resurrected. Peter is taking on the role of a witness, sharing testimony of what he saw with his own eyes. (Read more about what it means to be a witness for Jesus here.) Peter’s witnessing led people to receive this good news with gladness. In verse 37 we read that the people were cut/pierced to the heart. People asked, “What shall we do?”

Peter’s response? “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus.” Repent is an inward and outward turning away from self-focused lives toward a God-focused life. Repentance of head, heart and hands. This is the same message that John the Baptist and Jesus preached. To repent is to turn away from a life that does not honor God, and turn toward the God-honoring life is essential for a person to be a follower of Jesus. And that day, 3000 repented and were baptized and joined the church. It was a revival!

Let’s take a few minutes and talk about revival. Peter preached a revival message!

Revival on this scale does not occur again in the Bible, which covers roughly the next 60-70 years. That’s not to say that in that time period revival like that didn’t happen again. The writers of the New Testament just don’t record anything like it. As we think about the church throughout the centuries, this kind of revival does occur again, many times. Often revival is preceded by prayer, just as the Acts 2 revival was preceded by prayer in Acts 1. The same thing has happened many times in history, including here in the United States, especially through the Great Awakening in the 1700s and the Second Great Awakening that went into the 1800s.

In 1805-6, revival broke out here in central Pennsylvania through the ministry of Jacob Albright and George Miller, two Evangelical pastors. Albright started the Evangelical Association that is the predecessor denomination to my own denomination, the Evangelical Congregational Church.

George Miller wrote this about Albright, when Albright was preaching in a meeting that took place in a home: “Indeed even his bearing, countenance and movements often betrayed the presence of God’s Spirit in his chest, so that the hearers were deeply moved without his saying many words. And there were times in which he so entirely forgot his humanness and even himself—when such a high rapture worked on and in him—that he was driven from his position as far as halfway through the house in which he spoke without he himself even being aware of it. And after such a shaking of his spirit, one then saw on his face a special joy and the praise of God poured from his lips, and one saw him so moved that all his limbs were in motion.”

Miller remembered when he first came under the conviction of the Spirit while hearing Albright preach: “I was touched in such a manner by his powerful sermon, that if I had not taken hold of a table, I should have sunk to the floor.” Only a few years later, after Miller had become a preacher himself, this powerful experience would continue through his ministry as well. In 1805 while preaching right here in Lancaster County in a home, Miller notes that, “The Lord gave me grace to preach his word with feeling and power so that nearly all were melted.” On October 25, 1806, a revival broke out in Union County. George Miller delivered the opening sermon at a “Big Meeting” and “the power of the Lord came upon the congregation with such force that many fell on their knees, and with tears in their eyes, besought the Lord to save them.” In the ensuing months, as the revival progressed, the Holy Spirit continued to be poured out, this time under Albright’s preaching so that “a great commotion resulted with many falling on their knees and crying aloud for mercy.”

My question to you is this, could this happen again? YES! And I believe we are right to pray for it. Often in my church’s Wednesday evening prayer meeting, we pray for revival. Let’s keep praying for the Spirit to work!

The moment that changed everything (also the Spirit as wind, fire…and speaking in tongues)- Acts 2, Part 2

This is the moment everything changed. Have you experienced one of those in your life? A 9/11 moment where you say, “Before that day life was one way, and now after that day, everything seems different.” It could be a job loss, a death of a loved one, a serious illness, or very positive events, like marriage, the birth of a child, or the beginning of a new career. In our ongoing series through Acts, the disciples and followers of Jesus have just watched him ascend to heaven, and now they have been waiting together in prayer…for ten days! He told them to wait in Jerusalem because he was sending the Spirit to them.

And then it happens. Look at the description of verse 2. Imagine what you would have seen, heard and felt if you had been there?

Verse two says there was a “sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house.” Is this what the disciples expected would happen when Jesus said the Spirit would come? Would you have expected a violent wind from heaven to fill the house?

My house is situated with farmer’s fields to our east and west, so most days a breeze is blowing, and sometimes it is gale force wind. A few weeks ago in the middle of the night, the winds were particularly strong, lifting our glass-top picnic table off our deck, sending it sailing down the deck steps and crashing into the yard where the glass splintered into thousands of pieces. I literally had to vacuum the grass. Who knows what my neighbors were thinking if they were watching me. Weeks later I’m still finding glass, and probably will be for years. Laying in bed that night, the sound of that wind woke us, like a freight train going by. Maybe that was what the disciples heard.

In both the Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek, the word for Spirit means “wind” or “breath.” I love the Keith Green song, “Rushing Wind” which talks about how the Holy Spirit can enliven and revive us. In that day, the first indwelling of the Spirit, this was all new.

And then there is another surprise in verses 3. Tongues of fire? What is going on with that?

There are many times in the Bible when flames or fire is a symbol of the divine presence, like the burning bush Moses saw in Exodus 3:2. Or when God led the nation of Israel in the pillar of fire during the Exodus. Now the Holy Spirit shows up in what the writer tells us seemed to be tongues of fire.

The description of the flame as a tongue is both real and symbolic. It is real because flames do look like tongues flashing up, but it was also symbolic because of what would happen next. In verse four we read: “All were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in other tongues.”

The implication of the passage is that the Spirit filled them all through what appeared to be flaming tongues, and thus enabled them to speak real languages that they didn’t previously know. Read verses 5-13 to see what happened when they spoke in other tongues.

What is going on with this speaking in tongues? When we think of speaking in tongues in our day, we think of ecstatic speech. But notice that the people heard the preaching about Jesus in words from their real languages that they could understand. Some scholars wonder if that is actually the miracle here, that the people could understand what the disciples were saying.

They prayed, were filled, and it led to mission. We read that a crowd forms because they were hearing the followers of Jesus talking in their own languages, and this amazed the crowd because these disciples from the area in northern Israel called Galilee should not have known all those foreign languages. Verses 9-11 list all kinds of places in the known world that people in the crowd were from. They were in Jerusalem for the Pentecost celebration, and now they are hearing the story of Jesus in their home languages. Some in the crowd were so confounded, they said, “These guys are just drunk.” It must have been quite a scene!

The important point is not what it sounded like. The important point is that when the Spirit came, he empowered the disciples for outreach! For mission!

Let me say that again, the Holy Spirit empowers the church for mission. Filled with the Spirit, the disciples were engaging in mission by witnessing. A witness is one who tells what they see. What had the disciples seen? They had seen Jesus, the Messiah, who lived, died and rose again. Thus they told the story of Jesus. Jesus said in Acts 1:8 that the disciples would be his witnesses. Now the Spirit empowers them, and they start witnessing, telling the story of Jesus. How are you telling the story of Jesus in your community?

How would you start a church? – Acts 2, Part 1

What would you do if you were starting a church from scratch? Would you dream up a creative architectural design for a building that would draw attention from the community? Would you focus on the gathering for worship and put together a certain kind of musical or artistic program? Would it be multi-cultural? What doctrines would the church hold to? The possibilities are endless, especially when you consider all the expressions of church out there.

When it comes to starting a church, the reality, though, is that we don’t start from scratch. Instead we believe God, through his Word, has given us some guidelines for what a church should be. In Acts 2, which we’re studying in this week’s series of posts, we get to observe the beginning of the first church. How did the disciples and other followers of Jesus, the ones who walked with him for three years, start the church? Most importantly, can we learn from them how to be the church? I think we can.

Last week I started a new blog series about how to live as Christians in the world, and we are studying the book of Acts to learn how the first Christians lived out their faith. I think it will be very obvious how this passage of Scripture can relate not only to each one of us individually, but also to our identity as Christians who are part of a church family.

If you want, you can follow along by opening a Bible to Acts 2:1-4.

Verse 1 starts by mentioning Pentecost. This was a Jewish holiday that took place 50 days after the Sabbath of Passover. It was an ancient feast the God asked the people of Israel to observe to celebrate harvest. Because Jews were spread out around the known world in the First Century, thousands of them would travel to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast.

On that day, we read that the 120 remaining followers of Jesus “were all together in one place”

Remember what we read last week in Acts 1? Look at chapter 1, verse 4. In some of his final instructions to them, Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem for a few days when they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Soon after that he ascended back to his father in heaven, and what did they do?

Now look at chapter 1, verse 14. They waited by “joining together constantly in prayer.” That short phrase is amazing. First I want to point out that they were all together. This was a group effort. Next they joined, they were like-minded. There was unity. Finally, they gave themselves to constant prayer. That’s quite a prayer meeting, right? And it reminds us of the importance of church families gathering together for prayer.

But I have to ask, how long were they doing this? Jesus had said they would have to wait, “a few days,” until the Spirit would arrive. As chapter 1 ends, they’ve been praying and waiting. We don’t know how much time passes between the end of chapter 1 and the Day of Pentecost which we read about in chapter 2 verse 1. Some scholars believe they might have waited together in prayer as many as 10 days. But on day 10 right in the middle of their gathering, everything changes.

There were many times when Jesus told the disciples the Spirit was coming. When the Spirit came he wanted them to be ready!

What would they have been expecting? They knew from their nation’s history that the Holy Spirit sometimes filled and empowered leaders, and those stories would have been all they had to try to understand what Jesus might have meant. When the Holy Spirit filled people in the Hebrew Bible, things got a little crazy. There was wild, ecstatic prophesying, as they called it. Or there was Samson killing thousands of Philistines. Or there was David dancing with all his might as the Ark of God came into Jerusalem. But as we saw in the story of Samson, that filling of the Spirit was temporary. Who knows what the disciples were thinking was going to happen! And then it happens.

Check back in to the next post as we’ll learn what happens!

Two vital things churches need to do (Are you doing them?) – Acts 1, Part 5

If you had to narrow it down to only two things, what would they be? I’m asking in regard to the title of this post: two vital things the church needs to do. What do you think? Before you read on to my suggested answer, take a minute and consider how you might answer.

I’d like to suggest that the two vital things are included in Jesus’ last words to his disciples. We’ve been studying Acts 1 this week, and there Jesus last words are: Wait and Witness. From this we have learned in Acts 1 that we can and should wait for the Spirit’s empowerment, and especially do so by a commitment to prayer. Next we witness, which is telling others the story of God’s work in our lives.

So how do we live out our identity in the world? The first Christians show us that we are to be a people of prayer, waiting for the empowerment of the Spirit. As we learned in the Identity sermon on the Spirit (first of five posts starting here) a few weeks ago, we are indwelled with the Spirit when we give our lives to Jesus, but that indwelling is different from filling. This is why prayer is vital. Prayer is one of the primary ways that we abide in the Spirit, showing him that we are depending on him.

If you think about it, prayer is strange if you are looking at it from a nonspiritual point of view. You are talking to thin air. You are listening for God to speak. You have a relationship with an invisible spirit, and you are talking with that spirit? Really?

Yes, really! By faith we believe that God is not only real, but desires to be in real relationship with us. And not just as individuals, he also desires to be with us as a group. Jesus once said, “When two or three are gathered, there am I with them.” There is something uniquely important, then, about Christians who gather for prayer, just as the first Christians did, to wait on the Lord.

This is why we have formal church prayer meetings, and it is why Christians gather for prayer in many other places and ways. Let us be a people committed to prayer.

This is also why we commit ourselves to a high percentage of gathering for worship. We need each other.

Finally, let us be a people who tell our story. To whom can you tell the story of how God has been at work in your life? I think it is best to tell the recent stories.

How has God provided for you recently? How has God revealed himself to you lately? What are you learning about God? Who are you telling the story to?

How to wait – Acts 1, Part 4

What are you waiting for? Waiting is hard. Are you waiting well? Or are you waiting poorly? What does waiting well look like? As we continue studying Acts 1, we’ve arrived at verses 12-14, where the disciples are waiting, and they show us how to wait well.

After Jesus left them, we read that they returned to Jerusalem, worshiping God, and that “they all joined together constantly in prayer.” Who is the “they” doing the waiting in this passage? The writer mentions the remaining 11 disciples by name, as well as the women and brothers of Jesus. Verse 15 says that group is about 120 people. That’s all the first church started with. And how did they start? They worshiped (as we read in Luke 24:50), and they prayed as they waited. The witnessing would soon come.

I have so many questions about the waiting. Did they start to doubt? Did they wonder, whatever this baptism of the Spirit was that Jesus told them to wait for, why was it taking so long?

Or were they totally changed by Jesus by this point, through his teaching, his miracles, and especially his resurrection, and ascension, that their faith was strong? Even if they were changed, don’t you think that after day 2 or 3, constantly in prayer, at least some of them would start to wonder how long this should take? Earlier in verse 5 Jesus said it would be “a few days.” Well, what does that mean? 2 days? 5 days? More? Or am I just speaking out my American impatience? Also, think about the logistics and finances as each day passed. Don’t you think there had to be conversations about how they were paying to feed everyone? Were they all paying to stay in rented rooms? Think about all the normal human emotions in the mix! Did they argue with one another about what to do?

And yet it seems that they were changed and trusting in him. Why do I say that?

Because they do what Jesus said in Luke 18. Remember that story? You can read my post about it, but here I’ll summarize it: Jesus tells a parable teaching the disciples to pray and not give up! We Christians should have lives marked by consistent and persistent prayer.

We do read that they did one other thing as they were waiting. There is a leadership vacancy they have to fill. You can read the account in Acts 1:15-26, as Peter stands up and leads the group in a discernment process to fill the open 12th slot, left vacant by Judas, on the team of disciples.

In this story there a few unique elements that are never mentioned again in the New Testament. First, the two candidates to fill the slot: Matthias and Joseph called Justus. Never mentioned again. Second, the final method of selection, which was the casting of lots. Also never mentioned again.

But there are some other aspects of this story that will become very common as we keep studying Acts. First, Peter’s leadership. We’re going to hear a lot more from him. Second, notice that he uses the Old Testament to guide them. They are people of the Bible, which was for them the Hebrew Bible we call the Old Testament. And almost certainly, he wasn’t reading, but quoting from memory, because it was very expensive to own a copy of even one scroll. Third, they used a criteria for who could become leaders. They did not just allow anyone to be a leader. Instead, only people who were with them from the beginning, and had seen Jesus resurrected, could be candidates. In the rest of Acts they won’t use these same two criteria again, but they will have standards for leaders. Finally, they pray, giving the decision over to God. Matthias is selected to be the new 12^th disciple, and Acts 1 ends with a promise yet to be fulfilled. The Spirit has not yet come.

And they are still waiting. But they are praying as they wait. How are you waiting? Even when the waiting seems long, even when God seems distant, will you pray and not give up? Just as the disciples and community of followers of Jesus were together, it is best to surround yourself with a similar community as you wait. It could be your church family, your small group, or loving friends and family. As you wait and pray, do so in community.

The disciples’ strange reaction when Jesus leaves them – Acts 1, Part 3

Have you ever felt like God is distant from you? No where to be found? Jesus’ disciples felt like that one day because he actually left them.

As we continue studying Acts 1, we have arrived at the momentous event described in verses 9-11. I encourage you to open a Bible and read what happens. Maybe you already guessed by looking at the picture above.

Jesus ascends to his father, which is what he said he would do. What must that have looked like? It’s mind-blowing. Was he flying? I wonder how the disciples felt about this. Why did Jesus leave?

Jesus had prepared them that this day was coming. In fact he said it was good. In John 16:7, back at the Last Supper, he said, “I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

If I am the disciples, I am not thinking this is good. Jesus gone? No way. I want him to stay. As I mentioned when we studied the Holy Spirit a few weeks ago, I struggle with this still. It seems to me that it would be better to have Jesus still here!

But the disciples, if they were sad or disappointed, and I imagine it would have only been natural to feel those emotions, they were able to make a turn toward accepting Jesus’ intentions for them. How do we know this?

We know this because Luke tells us. Turn to Luke 24:50, which is the conclusion of Luke’s Book 1. There he mentions Jesus’ ascension as well, though briefly. What’s more, Luke includes the reaction of the disciples as they leave the Mount of Olives after Jesus is gone, and the disciples, Luke says, are not showing any signs of sadness. What are they showing?

They worship! In Acts we learn some additional info, that angels were there explaining what was happening, and declaring that one day Jesus would return. I am glad that the Gospel of Luke also mentions that they worshiped. It tells me they are starting to understand who Jesus was and what his Kingdom was all about. Rather than disappointment and despair, they are correct in their response. The Ascension of Jesus is cause for worship. Jesus had completed his part of the mission through his life, death and resurrection. Now he was turning that mission over to his followers, just as God intended all along.

This is helpful for us when we think God seems distant or quiet.

Consider the three words we’ve seen thus far: wait, witness, worship. When God seems far away, wait for his Spirit’s power, witness (tell the story) of his work in your life, and worship him. But the question is how? I think the waiting part is the most confusing. We get the idea of telling the story, the witnessing. And we get the idea of worshiping God. Not that those two are easy or that we do them perfectly, but at least we can understand them conceptually. But waiting? What will we do as we wait? And for how long?

As we’ll see in the next post, the disciples show us how!

Jesus’ surprising instructions: Wait and Witness (what is that???) – Acts 1, Part 2

*Photo by Priscilla du Preez on Unsplash*

Yesterday I started what a series studying the book of Acts, and the central question we’ll be asking each week is this: How did the first Christians live as followers of Jesus, in their world? This week we are working through Acts 1. In the first three verses, we learned that, over the 40 days after his resurrection, Jesus spent time with his followers, proving he was alive and talking with them about the Kingdom of God. Wouldn’t you want to know more about those conversations? The author of Acts, Luke, does give us one brief story, and we read about that next in Acts 1, verses 4-5.

In this brief story, Jesus and his followers are eating together, and he has some specific instructions for them. The disciples are to wait for a few days in Jerusalem for the empowerment of the Spirit. He had talked about this before. This is not new news. In John’s Gospel account, in chapters 13-17, which is a long teaching section that took place at the last supper before he was arrested, Jesus mentioned the coming of the Holy Spirit numerous times. Think about the timing of this. That teaching in John 13-17 was perhaps only 3-5 weeks before this dinner meeting described in Acts 1. Did they remember what he had said at the Last Supper about the Spirit? Did they understand what was about to happen? We don’t know for sure, but as we’ll in the next few verses, it seems like they still didn’t quite get what Jesus was talking about.

I do want to point out that the Holy Spirit is mentioned 3 times in Acts 1 verses 2-8. (Verses 2, 5, and 8.) In fact the Spirit is mentioned more than 50 times in the book of Acts. Though the official title of the book is the Acts of the Apostles, some believe it is better titled the Acts of the Holy Spirit. We’re about to find out why. For now, though, Jesus says wait.

They don’t need to understand what he means about the Spirit empowering them, or this idea of baptism with the Spirit that he talks about in verse 5. All they need to understand is Wait. And that is easy. Or is it? It is easy to understand. But how many of you love waiting? As the saying goes, “Waiting is the hardest part.” How long would they have to wait? He said, “a few days,” but what does that mean? Two or ten or twenty? What would they do as they waited? These kinds of questions are why waiting is difficult. We want answers…now! The disciples will find out that there is an extremely good reason that Jesus wants them to wait.

But for now, they still have Jesus with them. So they are happy, they are elated. All that talk of him leaving them, and then the arrest and beating and crucifixion and horrible pain and emptiness that we reviewed in yesterday’s post? All that is over because he is alive again and he is with them. They don’t need to worry about waiting.

So one day, as we read in verse 6, they take a hike together. The disciples ask Jesus a very curious question in verse 6: Is he going to restore the Kingdom to Israel? I wonder what was going on in their minds. Restore the Kingdom to Israel? What gave them that idea? Did Jesus ever teach this or talk like this? No. Well, he talked a lot about the Kingdom of God, as we just read in verse 3, but he did not talk about the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel. So why would the disciples ask this?

I think location is key. Where were they in verse 6? Luke tells us in verse 12 that they were on Mt. of Olives. Why does that matter? They had been there with Jesus probably a bunch of times before. But this day was different. Never before had he been crucified and resurrected, and proved to them that he was alive and talked with them about the Kingdom of God.

At that moment, it seems to me that a bunch of ideas were coming together in the minds of the disciples. They were convinced that he was the Messiah, as predicted in the Old Testament. These men were steeped in the Old Testament mindset, with a typical Jewish desire for an earthly kingdom and restoration to the glory days of David and Solomon. That mindset was still inside them. So they remembered a prophecy of the Messiah.

Turn to the Old Testament book of Zechariah, chapter 14. This prophecy in Zechariah predicts a future day when the Messiah comes to the Mount of Olives to restore the Kingdom. Perhaps this prophecy is in the minds of the disciples when they ask in verse 6 if Jesus is going to restore the kingdom. They’re thinking, “This is it! Jesus is about to usher in the salvation and restoration of Israel!” I think they were crackling with excitement. They’re thinking, “Finally, our Roman occupiers are about to get what’s coming to them.” They eagerly ask Jesus,” Are you going to restore the Kingdom to Israel?” In other words, is this the moment we’ve all been waiting for, Jesus? Now does the fighting begin to free Israel, defeat the Romans, and install you as King?

Jesus says, “Nope!” Then he repeats what he basically always taught, “no one knows the day, time or hour.” Instead there is a new mission for the disciples, a greater mission. God didn’t just want to restore the Kingdom to Israel, he wanted to bring restoration to the whole world! And it was starting with them. They would be his witnesses.

Witness? Over the centuries we Christians have loaded up that word with all kinds of meanings. What do you think of when you think of Christian witnessing? What I am referring to is the idea of a Christian sharing a plan of salvation, usually with pamphlets that they hand out. There is nothing wrong with that, if done in the right way with the right heart. But that’s not the witnessing Jesus is talking about here.

What was he talking about? To find out, let’s go back to the meaning of the word, “witness.” A witness is a person who has seen something. In a court of law, a witness is called upon to tell the truth about what they saw or about what they know.

What did the disciples see? Jump ahead to Acts 1 verse 22. There we read that they were witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection. They had a story to tell of this Jesus who was put to death, but is now alive!

Notice what Jesus did not say: “Witness if you feel like it, or if you are good at telling stories, or if you are an extrovert, or if you have a good sense of humor, or if you are the pastor, or a missionary.” No, he simply made a blanket statement as he gave them a new mission. The mission is for all of his followers. Tell your story. Witness. You have a story to tell about how God has worked in your life. It doesn’t have to be a story with high drama or radical life change. You have your story. What have you seen of God? What do you know about God?

In a court of law, this is called providing testimony. That’s why Christians call their story of faith in Jesus their testimony.

It also important to tell your story without words. What I mean is that how we choose to live our lives tells a story too. The choices we make show what we believe and how God has been at work in our lives. When we are being transformed by God’s Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit will flow out of us. That evidence of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, and self-control is a story of God at work.

Jesus, in Acts 1:8, says a bit more about witnessing. He says it is to happen in Jerusalem, Judea/Samaria, and the ends of the earth, which we will see is the outline of the book of Acts.

Acts 1-5 – Jerusalem
Acts 6-9 – Judea & Samaria
Acts 10-28 – The ends of the world

There will be a geographical movement. And what do you notice about this direction of this movement? It’s outward. They are located in Jerusalem, but Jesus doesn’t want their telling of his story to stay there. The good news about Jesus, rather, is to be told beyond the borders of the nation of Israel and quite literally to the whole world. Jesus wants all to know the hope found in him.

Let’s put together what we have read thus far. Jesus tells them to wait for the power of the Spirit, and after that they are to witness, which is to share the story, and it is to have an outward movement. We will see this Spirit-led movement through the entire book. And it remains in effect for us today. But how do we wait and witness? We’ll return to these concepts later this week. So check back in to tomorrow’s post as the disciples will face some shocking news.