Experience - Day 27

32 All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. 33 The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. 34 There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them 35 and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need.
 
36 For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”). He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the island of Cyprus. 37 He sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles.
Here again I am taken aback by the result of being “filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 4: 31 from yesterday’s reflection) Yes, they preached the word of God with boldness, but similarly to what happens in Acts 2 and the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit is poured out, a deep sense of community and connection is fostered (Acts 2: 42-47 and in Acts 4: 31-35).

There are all sorts of things we could focus on in this passage, about how the meeting place shook, or how the believers shared what they had to make sure that everyone among them was taken care of, all of which are great and beautiful attitudes to strive for, but I want to focus our reflection today on two aspects of this passage.

First, “the believers were united in heart and mind.” (Acts 4:32). Think about all of your different church experiences in your lifetime.  How many times could you have said this about those communities?  I hope you have some, but if your journey was anything like mine, there was always something that the “church folk” were fighting over.  Whether it was the color of the carpet, or whether coffee could be served in the lobby, or whether certain types of people were truly welcomed in the church or not, there are all sorts of things that tend to divide us.

So how was this early movement able to be “united in heart and mind.” I’d like to suggest that in addition to surrendering to the Holy Spirit, that it was their proximity to Jesus.  Yes, many of them had seen Jesus, witnessed His power, maybe even experienced the resurrection, but not all of them had.  What made the difference is that everyone was talking about Jesus.  Jesus the Messiah.  Jesus who was crucified and raised from the dead.  Jesus, the one and only true King of all people.  They couldn’t stop talking about Jesus, and therefore, they stay very close to Him in heart and mind.

We may not be close in proximity to the events that took place 2,000 years ago, but we can be just as close to Jesus.  We can talk of Him often, turn our attention to Him throughout the day, imagine walking with Him in all His journeys, as He walks with us in all of ours.  We too can live in close proximity to Jesus and my guess is, when we do that, we can as a community be more united in heart and mind.  It doesn’t mean we agree on everything, but if we can agree on putting Jesus first, last, and all throughout our lives, then maybe we can better recognize which things matter and which things don’t.

Second, “the apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all.” (Acts 4: 33)

We talked about this before, about how the apostles couldn’t keep quiet about Jesus even if they wanted to, but they weren’t just having these conversations when they were out preaching, or on Sabbath, or in the temple.  They were talking about Jesus everywhere, with everyone.  And what’s fascinating is that though this came with opposition, though their circumstances weren’t comfortable, they continued to focus on God’s great blessings.  I think that kind of focus is the secret to the continued growth of the fruit of the Spirit even when times are tough.  We must keep talking about Jesus and we must always take time to be grateful for all that He’s done for us.

JOURNAL

1. When you think of the most important things for us to be united over, what are those things?
2. How can we avoid getting distracted by disagreements over things that don’t matter?
3. What blessings can you be grateful for from God today, or this week?
4. Is there a practice you can put into your spiritual rhythm that can help you think of Jesus more often, and, share your gratitude with God daily?