Note that I am not separating teaching and fellowship here. Hearing the Gospel of Christ happened within the context of fellowship with other believers and the Apostles. If any of the 3,000 were interested in growing it meant community, it meant time with other disciples and time under the Apostles.
And there was a strong desire for and a commitment to this teaching. Have you ever made a vow? I did on my wedding day...I vowed once not to eat green olives, otherwise I don't recall specifically vowing to do or pursue anything in particular. It's not our language. Yet this is the language in the text. These early believers vowed to pursue the doctrine of the Apostles - the Gospel, the Truth of Christ, the Reality of the Creator of the Universe!
A hunger and a joy, an honor and a healthy terror, a newness of life in such incredibly new fellowship that I imagine a unified devotion being the only possible response in this season of the ecclesia, the budding communities of believers.
Foundational to both the devotion and the fellowship is the teaching. What were they teaching? The Gospel. This new Message regarding the life of the Messiah and how this alters their paradigm of life in God.
How did they teach it? Their immediate response was to gather together as many believers as possible and...well...talk about Jesus while living about Jesus. Talk about the OT with new light shed on the grand Story, a story they were all a part of.
Guys, if we're going to be a part of Kingdom growth in coming generations we must move beyond our Western view of partitioned community (family/friends/church members/neighbors/coworkers). Who we 'click' with doesn't ultimately matter. This lone-wolfism-amidst-the-crowd-culture is killing the mission of the Church (Matthew 28:19-20) and it's killing our built-in reputation (John 13:35). Put bluntly, we must wholly reengage in exegeting our communities, our culture, the next generation and so rebuild the bridge to Luke's Gospel movement in this Acts 2 devotion to the Word in growing fellowship.
- Is your home church devoted to Scripture in fellowship? Let's stop thinking of genuine friendship as optional when we gather.
- Are you leading out of a devotion to Christ both in fostering the Word and fostering genuine community?
- Is your small group devoted? To one another, to the Word, to healthy community, suffering together, to enjoying life together, to sharing in this devotion with more and more people..