FIRST CENTURY TRANSFORMERS
(6-minute read)
The Book of Acts recorded the first generation of Christians after Jesus was crucified by men and resurrected by God. They did not immediately get busy developing Bible-study or discipleship programmes, nor plan for church expansion. Yet, their numbers swelled from day to day, from twelve apostles to five thousand followers in a very short span of time (Acts 2:47, Acts 4:4). The first believers were filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke in tongues and spent an extraordinary amount of time together (Acts 2:4, Acts 2:42). As a community, they were as diverse as they came. While they did not have any identity branding or religious dress code that set them apart from other groups, they were unified by their common faith and shared identity as followers of Jesus Christ. As a result, the community and its life grew.
Within the early church, there was no ranking in terms of spiritual authority or importance. Each disciple had their own talent, calling and contribution. Although Peter was the most prolific among them and often addressed crowds in the power, anointing and authority of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were a team. There seems to be an absence of hierarchy among them.
Indeed, the community of the first century church demonstrated four distinctive qualities as a people:
THE DEVOTION OF THE PEOPLE
God is dead serious about our devotion to Him. “You will seek Me and find Me if you seek Me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:12). The One who promised to never leave nor forsake us wants our devotion, whether we are down in the doldrums or enjoying the wind in our sails. In fact, the first believers lived in tumultuous times and faced open hostility from those in power. As a result, Jesus’ disciples were often thrown into jail just for speaking and drawing crowds not because public gathering was illegal but because the Pharisees and teachers of the Law were opposed to the Gospel.
In spite of the opposition, the early believers devoted themselves to the disciples’ teachings and to prayer. To be devoted is to be passionate about and committed to something. What the disciples taught was neither profound nor intellectual. People did not fall in love with their new ideas or philosophies, but were drawn to the love of God through their teachings. Soon, their devotion spread like wildfire, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.
Indeed, the early church was made up of people who were ’cut to the heart’ after they heard Peter’s message and subsequently followed his call to repent and be baptized (Acts 2:37-38). We are all sinners saved by the grace of God, and to confess that we are Christians is a tacit admission of our need for God’s forgiveness. In fact, devotion to God involves practical steps to remove competing rivals in our hearts that lead us to sin.
As with any disease that we hide from those who can help, sin that is not addressed will continue to hurt us in different ways. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any sin in your heart that needs to be addressed, so that your devotion to God will not be compromised.
HOLY FEAR OF THE PEOPLE
It really does not take a prayer meeting or big rally to get people excited about what God is doing in each other’s lives. There is nothing like picking up the phone, or meeting up with someone to share a piece of good news. In contrast, when the extraordinary moves of God are typed as a text message onto our devices, there is a sense of it being devalued. Shared tears of joy turn invisible. The human touch is replaced by emojis. Moments together is now an exchange of text messages. Even the awe of God becomes digitized on devices.
When was the last time you told someone about what God is doing in your life and it uplifted both your faith? When was the last time you heard an unscripted and spontaneous account of someone’s encounter with God or with His Word that left you reeling in holy awe because of what God is doing?
If your response is none - or none recently - maybe it’s time to be more proactive in initiating conversations with others about what God is doing in your lives.
GENEROSITY OF THE PEOPLE
Our generosity does not begin and end with financial giving. As we allow God’s compassion for humanity to expand in our hearts, we will find little resistance to give our attention, time and resources to help uplift others who are in need. In truth, many relationships today suffer from attention deficit and an absence of emotional intimacy as the demands of modern life, technology, and other distractions hinder genuine connections. While it is wise to carefully guard our personal resources, we can also end up limiting our emotional accessibility to anyone in the process.
The early Christian community did not possess wealth and assets the way many modern churches do. They did not even have safety as a community! We see from 2 Corinthians 8:2 that ‘In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.’ Imagine, they had ‘overflowing joy’ and ‘rich generosity’ while experiencing abject poverty! Clearly, the early church had two things - joy and generosity - that affluence does not even guarantee us today.
So what did their generosity look like? “And all the believers were together and had all things in common; and they would sell their property and possessions and share them with all, to the extent that anyone had need.” (Acts 2:44-45). What a remarkable commitment to advance human welfare!
May we, too, grow in generosity towards each other.
AUTHENTIC RELATIONSHIP OF THE PEOPLE
This was how relationships looked like for the first century church: “Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:46-47).
They were always together yet not bound to any address or programme. Unplanned prayers, impromptu worship, and spontaneous testimonies contributed to their collective spiritual journeys. These are largely lost in today’s over-regimented programmes that started with good intentions but marred by poor execution and the constraints of time.
Authentic relationships are not bound by duty (like duty to our families) but by a desire to demonstrate God’s love in our relationship with each other. It takes greater ingenuity, intentionality and involvement to build authentic relationships but it is often seen as unnecessary in the greater scheme of things.
If our idea of a vibrant BeInReach community involves honesty, unity, strong communal life, gratefulness and being on fire for God, we need to free ourselves of being stuck in the rabbit hole of constant distractions and conflicting commitments.
The question today is this: what evidence do we have of our time together every week in the BeInreach community? Are we merely a group of people signing in and out of Zoom every Saturday, or do we imitate the model set by the first century transformers, bringing ‘many wonders and signs’ wherever we live and work to different places and different people.
This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR Session held on 13 January 2024.
