They devoted themselves

This week's Bible study is on Acts 2:42-47:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

These verses are often quoted by people talking about revival or the early church. Usually people focus on the last verse "And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." People like that last verse because it fires them up to do evangelism. "Come on, get out there and win souls! We need to fill all of those new chairs we bought so that the pastor can have his boat."

People look at revival as if it is entirely about numbers, but the numbers come last here. And if you look into the verse, you'll see that it isn't the believers themselves who added to their number daily, it was God himself. That's not to say evangelism isn't important. It is. But the evangelism that leads to revival is not always about street performances, gospel tracts, and a coordinated media campaign.

To understand how or why God might add people to a church community, we have to start at the beginning. The early church devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship. Both of these things deserve some of our attention.

The teaching of the apostles was the gospel itself. Remember, none of these people had been to seminary. The apostles learned what they learned by contact with God and in studying the Old Testament. (Does time spent with Jesus in person count as time spent in prayer?) So these first Christians devoted themselves to learning about God, benefiting from those who came before them.

They also devoted themselves to fellowship. Fellowship is when Christians spend time together. Sharing life together isn't just showing up once a week to a well-orchestrated church program It's a commonality of knowing each other, of taking up space in each others' lives, sharing struggles etc. If you don't really know anything about the people you go to church with other than gossip and what shows up on their social media, you probably don't have fellowship, at least not in the sense of something that requires devotion.

So what does devotion look like? If you're devoted to a hobby, for example, how much time and attention do you spend on it? Easter and Christmas? Maybe a quick class once a week? Or do you find yourself squeezing it in wherever you can make time?

One question I would often ask when interviewing people to work for me was whether they played on their own time with the technology I was interviewing them for. If I was trying to hire a Java developer, for instance, I could measure their passion and devotion based on whether they wrote Java programs outside of work. Was programming something they did on their own, or was it strictly a 9-5 or class assignments kind of thing?

If you're devoted to something, you learn it more quickly and you become better at it. Someone who is devoted to basketball is going to become a better player than someone with natural talent who just plays during gym class. Passion and time spent beat undeveloped talent.

In the early church people were devoted to two things: loving God, and loving each other. They prayed, studied, shared meals, and had life in common with one another. It was like a bootcamp for Christlikeness. Is it any wonder God sent more people their way? They cared more about doing it right than about adding to their size.

It says further that people were in awe at the miracles God was doing in their midst. This is another thing people focus on. Everyone wants to be the guy doing miracles. If nothing else about Christianity appeals to a young guy fresh in his faith, it's the idea of having superpowers. Everybody prays for the miracles, but nobody prays for good character or the ability to think of others before themselves.

The miracles are important though. People respect God when they see a miracle. God is glorified when a miracle happens. A lot of people come to faith when they see a miracle. It's their version of the burning bush God showed to Moses. But miracles without love are worthless. To the extent that God is glorified by the miracle, he is slandered by what the people performing it do in his name.

It says that they had everything in common, even selling their own property to take care of each others' needs. Nobody prays for this kind of revival! Generally what people pray for is that other people will give enough money for them to have two houses, not that they should sell the house they have to take care of others' needs or that they should move in together and be roommates with another family to be able to give more.

It also says they ate with glad and sincere hearts, praising God. These are people without complaints. Are we thankful for every meal? Do we praise God freely, or just in church? One of the things that first attracted me to Christianity was the genuine joy of some of the believers. It's not natural to be that happy. It's supernatural!

It says too that the church enjoyed the favor of all of the people. We tend to write off the condemnation of the society around us as persecution but a lot of it is probably justified complaints if we were humble enough to receive it. If the world around them showed favor towards them, then God must really have transformed their character into something special!

Only after all of these other things are mentioned do we find out that God added to their numbers. How many people who pray for revival or church growth pray for the other things the early church enjoyed here? And not just as a lead-in to praying for numbers, but genuinely wanting selflessness, love, and simplicity in their own right?

It's a mistake to pray for these things as a formula to produce revival, as if there was a five part plan laid out that would let the attentive church leader industrialize the process of winning souls. Does living in a commune produce transformation and inspire a thirst for salvation? Do miracles and a good reputation yield the fruit of the Spirit? No! These things are symptoms of a devoted church, which is made up of devoted individual believers.

Genuine revival and church growth is the result of the sovereign grace of God. If that grace for revival is a seed he plants, it is watered by our devotion to him and to each other. Look at the things in this week's verses and ask yourself "What would it take for me to naturally do those things? How much deeper does my faith need to go?" And then pray for that. Regardless of whether we want to see our church grow, we can all benefit from that kind of devotion.