We've been talking about the early church in the book of Acts and gleaning lessons from them about how our Christian fellowships should look and act. We've been learning about God's mathematics: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. In those early days, after Christ was resurrected and after the Holy Spirit had arrived at Pentecost we see many people being added to the church as their faith is activated. As they bonded in love they willingly subtracted or sold assets to raise cash to help others in their midst who had needs. As days passed and the power of God showed in miracles the church multiplied as folks who had come to faith shared that reality with others. And the church learned that there were times when they had to divide from authority figures and social forces that were unhealthy and opposed to the spread of the Gospel.
Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division and they all equal One. Oneness in the Lord is the primary quality of that early church. It was as if they had taken on one identity...they so identified with Jesus that He had become the One within them that galvanized them into action, united them in purpose and caused them to see each other as members of the same body. The reality of God had caused them to see a greater reality than themselves.
Addition: Acts 5:14
Subtraction: Acts 4:34
Multiplication: Acts 6:1
Division: Acts 5:29
Equals One: Acts 4:32
No comments:
Post a Comment