The Word This Week
Acts 4:32…
In that day to profess Jesus as your Savior and Lord was serious business. It cost you everything.
It bears a much more serious connotation than it does in our day.
To be converted to Christ may cost us some family upset, and perhaps even some mocking about your new-found faith by your friends who cannot fathom what has happened to you. We may find ourselves searching for a Bible-teaching church rather than the dead denominational environment we used to attend.
We may be considered, “no fun anymore.”
But that’s about the extent of it for most of us. (Unless perhaps we’re converted out of the Muslim faith. Then we may face some of the consequences they faced in the first days’ Church…
…When professing Jesus IS The Christ would cost you everything.
You could not do that and remain in any way, shape, or form a member of polite society.
You would be excommunicated from Judaism, shunned by your family, no longer able to work, and no longer able to buy and sell.
In not many days, the people at Jerusalem would be hunted down, imprisoned and even killed for their faith in Jesus Christ being resurrected from the dead.
In the meantime - before THAT degree of persecution began - they all had to live with a very severe degree of ostracization from all the rights and privileges of Judaism.
For those new to the faith, who lived in poverty – as many of the followers of Jesus did – this was a huge problem for their lives. Led by the Holy Spirit, out of concern for those who had been likewise saved by Jesus but could no longer provide for themselves – those fellow believers of means in their midst began to provide for those who could not provide for themselves by selling off their lands, or by directly providing for the poor from their savings. The funds were given to the leadership of the newfound Church and distributed to those who had need.
This was not ‘communism’ as some try to say – but ‘commonism.’ Communism says: “What’s yours is mine.” Commonism says: “What’s mine is yours.” (And even this means of extreme generosity only lasted until the money ran out.)
Pastor Bill
In that day to profess Jesus as your Savior and Lord was serious business. It cost you everything.
It bears a much more serious connotation than it does in our day.
To be converted to Christ may cost us some family upset, and perhaps even some mocking about your new-found faith by your friends who cannot fathom what has happened to you. We may find ourselves searching for a Bible-teaching church rather than the dead denominational environment we used to attend.
We may be considered, “no fun anymore.”
But that’s about the extent of it for most of us. (Unless perhaps we’re converted out of the Muslim faith. Then we may face some of the consequences they faced in the first days’ Church…
…When professing Jesus IS The Christ would cost you everything.
You could not do that and remain in any way, shape, or form a member of polite society.
You would be excommunicated from Judaism, shunned by your family, no longer able to work, and no longer able to buy and sell.
In not many days, the people at Jerusalem would be hunted down, imprisoned and even killed for their faith in Jesus Christ being resurrected from the dead.
In the meantime - before THAT degree of persecution began - they all had to live with a very severe degree of ostracization from all the rights and privileges of Judaism.
For those new to the faith, who lived in poverty – as many of the followers of Jesus did – this was a huge problem for their lives. Led by the Holy Spirit, out of concern for those who had been likewise saved by Jesus but could no longer provide for themselves – those fellow believers of means in their midst began to provide for those who could not provide for themselves by selling off their lands, or by directly providing for the poor from their savings. The funds were given to the leadership of the newfound Church and distributed to those who had need.
This was not ‘communism’ as some try to say – but ‘commonism.’ Communism says: “What’s yours is mine.” Commonism says: “What’s mine is yours.” (And even this means of extreme generosity only lasted until the money ran out.)
Pastor Bill