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Good Monday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
I have two questions to begin our week:
* Did your weekend include a significant worship experience?
* How will your weekend experience serve as a catalyst for how you live your life this week no matter where you are in the world?
Please don’t rush past those two questions. Why? Because if your weekend did NOT include a significant, spiritual worship experience, why not? And if the worship experience you had this weekend will NOT serve as a spiritual catalyst for your week, what was its value?
Join me again back in Jerusalem about 2000 years ago on the “Shavuot” (Pentecost) weekend when the Holy Spirit first came and powerfully impacted that city. For the past few days, we’ve been looking at that event, recorded for us in Acts 2. Today let’s look at how that dramatic spiritual experience served as a catalyst for a spiritual movement in Jerusalem in the days immediately following.
Acts 2:42 gives us this report about those whose lives were being shaken up and changed by this Holy Spirit arrival: “They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer...” Do you see the words “devoted themselves“? That’s the evidence of a powerful spiritual catalyst moving these people to take action in response to their spiritual experience! I wonder what you have devoted yourself to.
Now, let’s look closely to see what these Jews in Jerusalem devoted themselves to and why?
In this short sentence I see four powerful things which these people prioritized in their lifestyles after encountering the Holy Spirit. Do you see them and are they a priority for you and me?
First please note that the disciples who had been with Jesus became known as ‘apostles’ after Jesus returned to heaven and they took seriously the mission of teaching what they had learned from Jesus, as Jesus had commissioned them. (Matt. 28:18,19) “Apostles” were men personally chosen by Jesus Himself, taught by Jesus and sent out by Jesus to share what He had taught them.
* Here in Jerusalem the Holy Spirit stirred a spiritual hunger and these people who had experienced the Acts 2 miraculous arrival of the Holy Spirit were driven with a passion to learn all they could about Jesus and His truth, FROM these men who had been with Jesus. So, did this past weekend give you a passionate hunger to learn all you can about Jesus?
* These people also devoted themselves to being together and sharing with each other what they were learning and how their lives were being changed by the Holy Spirit of God. That’s what is meant by “Fellowship”. Is this type of ‘fellowship’ a priority for you and me, my friend?
* These people enjoyed sharing meals together and especially celebrating what we call “The Lord’s Supper”, as Jesus had shared it with His disciples at that Passover meal. (Luke 22:19)
* These people found a new joy in praying together, with and for each other! With the veil torn in the Temple, they cherished their newfound privilege to go directly to God in prayer without any human mediator!! (Heb. 10:19-23)
The record continues: “Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.” (Acts 2:43) While the arrival of the Holy Spirit was cataclysmic and miraculous, God evidently continued to do amazing things among these people which could only be attributed to the power of God. So, I must ask. Are you in awe by what you see God doing in your life or the lives of your Christian friends? Or honestly now, has the brand of Christianity you know actually become quite boring and uneventful? If the very same Holy Spirit is alive and active in you and your Christian friends, it should be a dynamic, awe inspiring life, do you agree?
The record continues: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.” (Acts 2:44,45) Now that’s simply outrageous generosity, would you agree? So, what’s the most remarkable, generous thing a person has ever done for you? Was it Holy Spirit motivated? What was happening here in Jerusalem, as described in Acts 2:44,45, was way outside the normal generosity seen among Jews during Passover and Shavuot, when thousands of pilgrims came for the festival needing housing and food!
People were actually selling their belongings to generate the cash needed to provide for the needs of others! How would you describe the generosity among people that you see in your social group or your church?
Finally, the record says: “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, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.” (Acts 2:46,47) These people simply loved being together. They loved sharing the exciting stories of what God was doing in their lives and their city. Their hearts were overflowing with joy and that joy was powerfully impacting Jerusalem! So, let’s you and me look around the cities where we live, the social groups we spend time with, the churches we are part of. How does all this compare to what you and I are experiencing these days? Do you see why I asked my two opening questions and why I used the word CATALYST?
This remarkable report of this an almost indescribable spiritual movement in Jerusalem concludes with this summary statement: “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47b) Wow! Jesus Christ, Resurrected and Ascended back to heaven, was doing what He promised.
He had said “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail.” (Matt. 16:18) In Jerusalem the heaviness of religious legalism, traditions, restrictions, formality and the pressure of expectations had simply squeezed the joy, the freshness, the vitality out of the religion they faithfully practiced. But this new spiritual movement was so exciting it became contagious with more and more Jews, EVERDAY, being drawn to the catalytic, dynamic, move of Jesus in the lives of everyday people ready to genuinely live in a relationship with Jesus.
We need to pause, and I urge you to spend some time reflecting on your church and your personal spiritual life as compared to Acts 2:42-47. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see what HE would like to do in your life, your church, your city that would become a catalyst for the rest of your life and maybe help you live a contagious Christianity!!
I wonder if a song like this was being sung all over Jerusalem in those days. Is it your song too? I love the dynamic of this song:
Today’s Scripture: Acts 2:42-47.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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