Lesson from ACTS 4: 31-37
I came across this and I feel it best sums up what the lesson's focus was.
From: This is Discipleship - Acts 4:31-37 .... www.truekingdon.org
- Conservatively speaking, the Church was now about 20,000 strong, and Luke says they were of "One heart and soul"this is unity!
- 20,000 believers from various backgrounds and social status, and they are all of one heart and soul. How?
- Jesus prayed that His followers would be one: "....that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. 22 And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one;" (John 17:21-22 NASB)
- Christian unity is not organizational, it is spiritual. The words "as" and "just as" speak of the nature of our unity. It is to be like that of Jesus Christ and the Father's common life; a unity of will, purpose, and goal. It's not people being united because they are in the same container organizationally. It's people who are attracted to each other because they are pulled by the same power.
- If you take a bunch of ball bearings and put them in a box, they have a unity caused by the container: an organizational unity. If the box breaks, they all go everywhere. Our unity is to be like that caused by an electro-magnet that holds all the ball bearings together because they are all pulled by the same external force which is spiritual. We are pulled together by the power of Christ.
SOMETHIN' EXTRA
Contagious Christianity
Dr. Jay Wolf - FBC Montgomery
Dr. Jay Wolf - FBC Montgomery
I heard some disturbing news recently about Kermit the Frog. Evidently, Kermit the Frog has acquired swine flu. And apparently, he got it from Miss Piggy!
Well, that's a humorous way to take you to an important topic and that is the issue of being contagious. We all know that physical disease is transferred from one person to another person. I've discovered that there is a type of Christianity that is transferable or contagious. For instance, in Acts 4, Peter and John appeared before their adversaries in the Sanhedrin. The disciples of the Risen Christ were in trouble for healing a crippled beggar and proclaiming that there is salvation in Jesus Christ alone. The Bible tells us when the Jewish leaders saw the courage of Peter and John, they realized that they were "unschooled and ordinary men who had been with Jesus." Peter and John's close contact with Jesus produced a raging case of the Christian faith and made those disciples extremely contagious! Peter and John passed on their contagious Christianity to everyone they encountered. Consequently, in the first century the Christian faith spread like a positive and liberating epidemic throughout the world. Your job is exactly the same - develop a full-blown case of authentic, contagious faith in Christ which comes as a result of intimate contact with Jesus and then pass it on!
Well, that's a humorous way to take you to an important topic and that is the issue of being contagious. We all know that physical disease is transferred from one person to another person. I've discovered that there is a type of Christianity that is transferable or contagious. For instance, in Acts 4, Peter and John appeared before their adversaries in the Sanhedrin. The disciples of the Risen Christ were in trouble for healing a crippled beggar and proclaiming that there is salvation in Jesus Christ alone. The Bible tells us when the Jewish leaders saw the courage of Peter and John, they realized that they were "unschooled and ordinary men who had been with Jesus." Peter and John's close contact with Jesus produced a raging case of the Christian faith and made those disciples extremely contagious! Peter and John passed on their contagious Christianity to everyone they encountered. Consequently, in the first century the Christian faith spread like a positive and liberating epidemic throughout the world. Your job is exactly the same - develop a full-blown case of authentic, contagious faith in Christ which comes as a result of intimate contact with Jesus and then pass it on!
No comments:
Post a Comment