Blessed to Be a Blessing

 These were special days.  In the weeks following Jesus' return to heaven and the Spirit's arrival in the church, God was up to His jaw dropping best.  

These first Christ followers had simple priorities, Jesus first priorities.  Devotion to four basic activities (v42).  

The teaching of the apostles.  Spending every available moment together.  Sharing meals including the celebration of the Lord's Supper.  Praying together.  

There was an emphasis on community.  Notice that there's really nothing done in verse 42 that was done alone.  

While we can certainly read, study and meditate on Scripture ("the apostles' teaching") and pray by ourselves, Luke emphasizes that the infant church did everything together.

Each of us needs to ask, "Am I in community with God's people?  Am I devoted and committed to what God is doing in and through my church?"  

It's been said many times that there are no Lone Ranger Christians.  As a matter of fact, our enemy loves to get us alone.  A wolf who finds a sheep away from the flock is easy pickin's.

Their devotion and commitment to these four activities result in what we read in verses 43-47.  When you hear God's truth together, hang out together, eat together and pray together, an amazing thing happens.  

The Holy Spirit gets a hold of your heart and turns things upside down.  You go from a "me first" to a "me third" attitude.  God occupies the pole position that is rightfully His.  

And like Jesus, you begin to see others and their needs as much more important than your own (Phil 2:1-11).  You don't ignore your needs, they are simply no longer your highest priority.  We see this practically lived out in v43-47.

Luke tells us that one of the first things that happened to those 3,120 members of the early church was that "awe came upon every soul" (v43).  

The Greek word here is fobos, which means everything from fear and terror to reverence, respect and awe.  We derive our word phobia from it.  

These four activities open our eyes to what God is doing right in front of us.  When we look for Him, we see Him.  And when we see God for who He truly is, we respond in worship.  We are in awe.

"Many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles."  These miraculous marvels were God's way of confirming His choice of these men as His apostles and representatives.  

They were His divine ID.  Don't miss the fact of who was REALLY performing these miracles.  God was doing all of them THROUGH the apostles.  

Each of us is to simply make ourselves available to be used by Him.  It's not about ability, but availability.  The only way I can accomplish anything is to allow Jesus to work through me (Jn 15:5).

Just in case we may have missed it, Dr. Luke confirms what he had already told us.  These early believers spent every available moment together (v44).  "And all who believed were together and had all things in common."  

Don't miss that little three-letter word "all."  Every Christian on the planet was together.  This would be the last time until Jesus comes back that this would happen.  But they clearly met in as a group at times.  

And all believers shared all things.  Again, this is the result of a "me third" attitude.  What we have belongs to God.  Does anyone else need it?  We need to remember that we have been blessed to be a blessing. 

The good doctor goes on to write, "And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need" (v45).  

So were these early believers actually living in some sort of first century Jesus loving commune? Many understand this to be the case.  

And others hold these verses to be prescriptive rather than descriptive.  In other words, this is God's commanded design for life in the Body of Christ.

A couple of thoughts.  The key phrase in verse 45 is probably "as any had need."  When someone had a need, these believers used their resources to meet it.  

They did whatever they needed to do.  They gave.  They sold.  They took care of needs, not wants.  Needs.  It seems to be on a case by case basis.

Some NT scholars believe this was a special situation for a special time.  These early followers of Jesus expected Him to return at any time.  

Because of that, they saw now reason to be too attached to earthly possessions.  There is certainly validity to this view.

So what do we do with these verses?  First, we should make those four activities in verse 42 a priority.  Study God's Word TOGETHER.  Hang out TOGETHER.  Eat TOGETHER.  Pray TOGETHER.  

Second, we should open our eyes to what God is doing all around us.  

Third, we should understand that the Lord has blessed each of us so that we can be a blessing to others.  If we read these verses and see their charity as simply describing a unique time, we need to take a long look in the mirror of God's Word.  

Let's be clear about one thing.  This is NOT a call to live the Poverty Gospel.  But it should convict us.  

It certainly convicts me.

©2011

Jay Jennings

You Can't Get Greedy with Grace

The stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you (Eph 3:2).

Grace is a crazy thing.  I certainly don't deserve it.  I certainly didn't earn it.  But our God has placed me under the waterfall of His amazing generosity.  Here's where it gets crazy.  While His goodness is His gift to me, I'm not supposed to keep it.  Paul understands that perfectly.  He reminds his friends in Ephesus that "the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you" (v2).

God's grace is kinda like manna.  You remember manna.  That funky bread that Yahweh dropped from heaven to His chosen people after sprung them out of slavery in Egypt (Ex 16:4).  This heavenly bread was like a nourishing Krispy Kreme doughnut when fresh.  But when folks try to save it, things got ugly.  The next morning it stank with maggots.  Sounds tasty, doesn't it?  Well, grace is kinda like manna.  If you try to hang on to it, it spoils.  It's no longer grace.  Grace is only grace when you give it away.  You can't get greedy with grace.  When God's goodness really gets ahold of you, you can't keep it to yourself.  You have to give it away.  Grace.  You can't stop it.  You can't hope to contain it.

You can't get greedy with grace.

As Paul writes to the Ephesian church from his cell in Rome, he's pretty sure that everyone there is familiar with his story.  He's "assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you" (v2).  The man from Tarsus can't separate the Gospel from the miracle Jesus has performed in his life.  Everyone in Ephesus knew about it.  And why wouldn't they?  Paul hit town during his second world tour.  Dr. Luke gives us a great play-by-play Jesus used His apostle to turn the big port city upside down (Acts 19).  After getting the stiff arm from local Jewish leaders at the synagogue, he took his teaching down the road to Tyrannus Hall.  In many ways, that's the Ephesian game changer.  That's when non-Jews began hearing about the grace of Jesus toward them.  Paul extended his engagement in the city to three years.  He made sure that everyone knew how Christ did to him what He was doing to the city.

The apostle reminds us that he's on divine assignment.  Jesus has him on mission.  He calls it a "stewardship" (v2).  This is the Greek word oikonomia.  It's where we get our term economy.  It means an administration of other's property, the management of a household, a responsibility, a task, an assignment or a job.  Paul never claimed to be the boss.  He's simply on assignment.  He told the folks down the road in Colossae the same thing.  He "became a minister according to the stewardship (Gr. oikonomia) from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known" (Col 1:25).  Paul was accountable to Jesus for how he handled this divine assignment.  Do you realize that we're accountable to Jesus for how we handle what He's given you?  As Mike Lee says, "Jesus is our direct report."  He's your boss.  He's going to ask each one of us what we've done with our stewardship.

So what exactly is Paul's responsible to pass along?  "God's grace" (v2).  God's overwhelming and overflowing goodness.  Grace (Gr. charis) is an undeserved benefit, unmerited favor, merciful kindness or unexpected goodness instead of punishment.  The apostle wants us to realize that our salvation is God's generous gift.  Grace is a HUGE mega-theme in this little letter.  The apostle uses this term specifically 12 times in Ephesians.

God showered Paul with His amazing grace so he could pass it along.  It was "given to me for you" (v2).  Jesus specifically handpicked Saul of Tarsus, the superstar Pharisee, to be in charge of telling non-Jews everywhere that they are invited to the party.  Christ gave him that assignment one day outside the city of Damascus.  Saul and his black ops team were headed into the city to take out a cell of Jesus' followers.  But before they could pull off their raid, the resurrected Jesus ambushed their team leader and knocked him off his horse (Acts 9:1-5).  Let's just say it was a unexpected change of assignment.  Christ transforms Saul the spiritual terrorist into Paul gracious evangelist.  Jesus says, "He is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel" (Acts 9:15).  Instead of hunting down and killing Jews who followed Jesus, Paul becomes God's number one spokesman to Gentiles around the world.

You can't be greedy with the grace of God.  If so, then His grace really hasn't gotten ahold of you.  Grace is meant to passed along.  Pay it forward.  Don't let it go stale.  Don't let it rot.  Pass it along.  Keep it moving.  When God's goodness really gets ahold of you, you can't keep it to yourself.  You have to give it away.  Grace.  You can't stop it.  You can't hope to contain it.

You can't get greedy with grace.