With glad and generous hearts

Acts 2:43-47

43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

These verses from Acts 2 describe a dynamic church life.

Vs. 43 says that signs and wonders – miracles – were happening in the church. But none of those miracles are described – instead we move immediately to talk about the sharing of resources – food, material goods, money. This then is a sign, a wonder, a miracle, the sharing of financial resources with those who were in need. The people of the church generously helping each other. They pooled their resources to help the needy.

They were together as a community on prayer and worship, and they had meals together. Sharing food – with glad and generous hearts – those who ate in another person’s home were glad for the hospitality offered to them and those who showed hospitality rejoiced in the opportunity to be generous to others. For there is a graciousness required of guest, just as there is a graciousness required hosts. For the early Christians that graciousness as either guest or host rested in the truth that they were people who had come to believe (vs. 44) in Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord. That truth brought them together in a unity of a shared loyalty.

That loyalty in and to Jesus was greater than their loyalty to any other reality in their lives. That shared commitment made them one and caused them to see that the gracious generosity they experienced in Jesus Christ was to also be a marker of their life together.   

This dynamic community life was obvious to all who saw them in the temple and in the various homes where they met, the generosity was so attractive that others were drawn to it. But notice who gets the credit for the growth – “the Lord” – not the church leaders, not the people of the church – the Lord God is the one who causes the growth of the church.

PRAYER:

O Lord, shape us into people who gather with glad and generous hearts – in our worship, in our fellowship, in our listening for your word, in our prayers. Teach us the joy of sharing with those who are in need, that together we might be the body of the church of your Son, Jesus Christ in hose name we pray. Amen.