BETTER TOGETHER
DURING THE month of Februar y, Bob Marley ’s One Love echoes across the world in celebration of love and unity. A close examination of the lyrics of the song also reveals a charge to t he Church to remember its purpose:
“Have pity on those whose chances grow thinner There is no hiding place from the Father of Creation” Last week, we saw how this purpose unified the early church. In Acts, we saw that they were unified in their activities, in their love, and in their purpose with Christ. Their laser-like focus on freeing people from the trap of Satan and bringing them into the freedom of Jesus Christ resulted in much power. The power of unity was evidenced by:
GROWTH OF THE CHURCH
In a matter of weeks, the Church went from the Upper Room to every living room in Jerusalem. I t is estimated by scholars that during the first 70 years of the Jerusalem church, it grew from 120 people to over 1,000,000 people. That is power manifested!
SIGNS AND WONDERS
People were being miraculously healed from their illnesses (Acts 5:15-16). Simple men and women were praising God in foreign languages (Acts 2:1-11). Believers’ jail cells were opened by angels with instructions that they should continue “to tell the people the full message of this new life”. (Acts 5:17-20)
RESISTANCE TO SATANIC ASSAULT
As soon as the Spirit came upon the Church, Satan launched a ferocious counterattack. Church leaders were thrown into prison, but there was also the subtle ploy to distract the apostles from their priority of prayer and preaching by preoccupying them with administrative matters. In Acts 6, the Apostles directed the Church to get more people involved so that the gospel of Jesus Christ could effectively continue to spread.
The enemy still uses that tactic today – in many churches 20 per cent of the people do 80 per cent of the work. Unity requires that each person gets involved in the purpose of the Church by contributing in the ways that they can.
We see the Apostle Paul encouraging first-century Christians to use their diversity to build unity. In Romans 12:4-5 (NIV), he says: “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” As each one did their part, the whole church benefitted; the power of God was released, and the power of the devil was unable to dominate.
Because the early disciples were unified in purpose and because they were committed to the task of reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, God smiled down on them with favour.
“... and great grace was on all of them” Acts 4:33 (NIV). Grace means unmerited love or favour. Because they held in high esteem the purpose of Jesus, God held them in high esteem. There seems to be a direct correlation between our faithfulness to God’s plan and God’s favour in our lives.
On the last night of His life, Jesus prayed: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you ... ” John 17:20-21 (NIV).
Jesus prayed for his disciples and for all those who would come to faith in Him, meaning you and me. Jesus prayed not for our success, safety, or happiness. He prayed for our unity. If unity is the key to fulfilling the Godordained purpose of spreading the message of Jesus Christ, shouldn’t it have precedence in our prayers and in our actions?
How do we do that? Unity begins in examining ourselves; in admitting that we aren’t perfect. Unity then grows as we learn to accept others’ differences and to forgive when wronged. Unity continues as we humbly serve those who are different.
Our purpose i s to take the message of Jesus Christ to a divided world. Let’s be unified in it.
One love!