AFTER THE PENTECOST, WHAT NEXT? (3)

“⁴³Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. ⁴⁴Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, ⁴⁵and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.”(Acts 2:43-45 NKJV).

The impact of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the Spirit-filled believers soon after the Pentecost began to reflect in the larger society. The people became awe-stricken as the disciples moved in great power to witness the resurrection of Christ – Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.  Our Lord had promised the apostles that they would become endued with power from on high when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. Such power would enable them bear witness to the truth that Jesus is God. They deployed the power of the Holy Spirit to perform signs that compelled people to wonder about who Christ is. The essence of miracles is to make people reconsider their positions about the reality and power of God.  When a minister of God begins to soak up the glory associated with the sign and wonder God has accomplished through him, it is indicative that he is not of God.  The signs are meant to bear witness not of the minister but of Jesus. The Apostle Peter demonstrated the mind of God on this when he saw the attention on him and John after the healing of the crippled at the temple gate. “So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?” (Acts 3:12 NKJV).  It was not about Peter or John, it was all about Jesus.

The early disciples influenced their community in a most powerful way principally because they overcame the negative effect of individualism and learned to act in concert – “Now all who believed were together.”  You will hardly see Peter acting alone. He is always with John or someone else. In that way they were able to cultivate the power of community in their work of witnessing.  The power of God is always present wherever and whenever believers stand and act in one accord. The power of the Holy Spirit is most eloquently manifest when two or three agree together. It is a corporate anointing! It makes the disciples winsome as the Holy Spirit shines in us and through us the glory of God according to the prayer of our Lord Jesus –“And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one” (John 17:22). Unity in the church of Christ is a function of the members’ experience of this glory our Lord has gratuitously bestowed on us. The more of the glory we experience, the more united we shall be in the spirit and the more the power of God will be made manifest in our midst.

Christian fellowship implies community life.  One of the notable effects of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the early believers is that He inspired them to live in a community of love –“Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.” They lived in harmony with one another. It was not likely that the more than three thousand believers rented one big house and lived together. They lived in their individual houses like we do today but were knit together in heart and mind as one community under Christ. They gave their lives and possessions to Christ, thus it was easy for them to meet the needs of all. Nobody held tight to whatever was his or hers but held all things in trust for Christ and His body. They saw the needs of individuals as the needs of Jesus; therefore in meeting the needs of Christ, they invariably met the needs of all. What a beautiful way to live the Christian life!  The words of Jesus now takes a whole new meaning when He said, “I tell you the truth, anything you did for even the least of my people here, you also did for me” (Matthew 25:40 NCV). 

We need to live for one another by caring for one another and intentionally becoming our brothers’ keepers. Let us pray not to miss showing kindness to Jesus by refusing for whatever reason to show kindness to one another. Let us deliberately live and act in such a way as to provoke one another to love and never to wrath in Jesus name.