Fellowship of Believers

An excerpt from Charles Wagner's fourth book, Take Every Passage to Prayer, Volume 3 - Acts Through Revelation

Acts 2:42-47

Father, lead me to be faithful and devoted to my brothers and sisters in Christ in a vibrant church community that I belong to and serve with joy. Make me the ideal brother in Christ for those who worship together with me. Use the resources You have given me, as well as my talents and skills, to strengthen and support my local church. Father, if there is no vibrant church in my community like this church in Jerusalem, use me to build one. Help me to be faithful to the teachings of the pastor whom You inspire. Help me to worship You with joy and enthusiasm. Help me to celebrate communion with my brothers and sisters in Christ. Help me to be united with them in issues of doctrine. Father, make me more selfless so that I give freely to Your people in need. Amen.

Father, in the previous passage, we learned that 3,000 people came to faith in Jesus Christ. It was their response to Peter’s sermon as he stood outside the home where the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and gave them the gift to speak in languages from around the world.

We learn in this passage that these same 3,000 people effectively became a church. They also became the benchmark, throughout the last 2,000 years, of what a church should aspire to be like:

1. They were devoted to the apostle’s teaching. They desired to learn more about Your Word and to apply it to their daily lives. Their heart’s desire was to obey Your Word, Father.
    
2. They worshipped and fellowshipped together. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They praised You for Your awesome wonders and signs performed by the Holy Spirit through the apostles.[1] They enjoyed spending time with one another, encouraging each other in their walk with Jesus Christ, and sharing testimonies of what Jesus had done for them.
    
3. They celebrated communion together. They broke bread together in their homes and ate with glad and sincere hearts, continuously reminding themselves of Jesus’ incredible act of love, which was the reason why they were together. 
    
4. They prayed together. They became a community fully dependent upon You, asking You for guidance, provision, and help in all things. 
    
5. They were united spiritually and doctrinally. They had everything[2] in common. In other words, there were no divisions or factions in the church. There were no disputes about doctrine. There was no male nor female nor rich nor poor. Each person, regardless of the circumstances of his or her life, was considered valued and equally welcomed in the church. 
    
6. They became selfless. They no longer considered money as their god. They now understood that their time and their money were resources they could dedicate to the building of Your church. If their brother or sister in Christ was in need, they didn’t hesitate to help them financially or by giving the gift of their time. If they had property or possessions they really didn’t need, they would sell it to generate funds to give to those in need.[3] As a result, there was nobody in the church who was battling a crisis in their life on their own without the support of brothers or sisters in Christ.

This church had a powerful testimony in Jerusalem. Word quickly spread about the benefits of becoming a follower of Jesus Christ. If You embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ, You too could belong to a loving community that took care of one another. As a result, many citizens of Jerusalem accepted Jesus Christ as their savior each day and joined the Jerusalem church that was experiencing explosive growth.[4]

Father, many people read this passage and interpret it as a Biblical mandate for socialism. I believe that is a completely false interpretation of this passage.

1. The Kingdom of God is not of this world.[5] Jesus made it clear that there is no divine agenda to construct an ideal government on earth led by humans. The perfect eternal theocracy we all long for, with Jesus Christ as King, rules today in the spiritual world. One day, after the Second Coming of Christ, the Kingdom of God will manifest itself in the physical world as well. In the meantime, believers in this world are commissioned by You, Father, not to build the ideal human government, but to lead as many people as possible into citizenship in the eternal Kingdom of God.[6] Luke has not shared with us in the book of Acts any evidence that the early church attempted to construct an alternative form of government. Socialism is not called for in this passage because the Kingdom of God is superior to all forms of human government.
   
    
2. The Kingdom of God is not achieved via political process. It is a spiritual process. We cannot love our neighbors more because of a bumper sticker or because a politician or celebrity tells us to do so. We will not love our neighbors more because of confiscatory tax policies that redistribute money. People in the Jerusalem church willingly gave to one another not because the government told them to do so but because the Holy Spirit led them to do so. Without the fruits of the Holy Spirit[7] working in the lives of its citizens, governments are powerless to transform the hearts of the people to love their neighbors. The ideal society cannot be achieved by any human government disconnected from the Holy Spirit. Socialism is not called for in this passage because socialism cannot bring about the transformation of people’s hearts.
   
    
3. The ideal human government is an idol and an enemy of God. Imagine if the human race could construct the ideal human government.[8] Whom would we worship? God or the government? Why would we need the living God if government met all of our needs? It is foolish to presume the perfect government would lead people to worship You, Father. The exact opposite would take place. Churches would wither and die because the population would no longer see the need for faith in the divine. Socialism is not called for in this passage because socialism is itself an idol.
   
    
4. The Holy Spirit alone receives the glory for the beauty of the early Jerusalem church. The people in this church were so loving and generous to one another because of the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. We can be certain, Father, that You never intended the reader of Acts 2 to glorify a political system at the expense of the glory of the Holy Spirit. Socialism is not called for in this passage because the Holy Spirit alone is responsible for building the ideal society by transforming the hearts of entire populations.
   
    
5. The individual is accountable to You, Father. Father, every individual will stand alone before You one day, giving an account for their life. You will not permit a person to blame their families, their neighbors, their church, the organizations they belonged to, their employers, or even their governments for their behavior. Genesis 1 through Revelation 22 is a message to each individual to confess, repent, and surrender their life to You because our eternal destiny is a purely private and personal matter between You and the individual. Socialism is not called for in this passage because socialism cannot save the individual from Your wrath on Judgement Day.

Amen.