I am continuing to read through the book of Acts and asking God to fill me with the Holy Spirit to empower my worship, service and witness as he did for the early church. As God is highlighting things for me I am hoping I can encourage you all as we strive to walk with a collective surrender to the leading of God's Spirit. I want to offer a quick reminder that the ministry of the Spirit is not only or even primarily the sensational things we tend to look for like Ananias dropping dead because he lied or the Philip's disappearing act in Acts 8. We have to invite the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts, convict us of sin and put sin to death in us; remind us of and lead us to believe the gospel, to lead us into an understanding of truth, especially as we study scripture, and deposit in us a deep love for Jesus and his people that would motivate our service and ministry. This is the normative, every day application of "walking by the Spirit" as the Apostle Paul says, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in us as we believe the gospel, trust Jesus and walk humbly with God.

Meditating on Acts chapter 4 has me asking for some additional things to be more normal in my personal experience and in yours as well. In this passage, Peter and John were arrested for preaching Jesus as the Christ and performing miracles in his name. They are taken as prisoners before the "rulers, elders, and teachers of the law." Then Peter, full of the Spirit we are told, makes a bold gospel proclamation to Anna the high priest and his family along with others present. The rulers forbid them from speaking about Jesus anymore, to which Peter and John responded by telling them what God tells them to do is a bit more important. They are still released because all the people were praising God as a result of the signs and wonders being done and so the apostles return to the community of believers to share with them what took place, including the threats against them if they keep faithfully preaching the gospel.

This is how the believers responded:

RECOUNTING THE WORKS OF GOD

First they acknowledged GOd as Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of the universe. I wonder if they did this to remind God of what he had done, since he is prone to forgetfulness, or if they do this to build their own faith in God by remembering his character and mighty works on behalf of his people throughout history. The truth is it is a life giving practice to regularly declare the faithfulness and greatness of God with a thankful and hopeful heart, and to remind one another and ourselves of his perfect track record and the inclination of his heart to to great and mighty deeds for our good and his own glory.

THEY ASKED FOR AND RECEIVED BOLDNESS TO PREACH THE GOSPEL

This may seem small and insignificant, but the believers had a collective desire and request that God's Spirit would give them a boldness that was not innately theirs. They recognized their own propensity to fear, timidity, perhaps nervousness and cowardice even, and the appealed to God for confidence and boldness to proclaim the gospel, to speak of sinfulness of man and his need for salvation which is available by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross and in the resurrection. They were likely ashamed and scared in the natural about making such declarations to people who are lost and with Christ, as many of us tend to be. BUt in humility appealed for God to grant them boldness, courage and strength to speak the truth about Jesus...

And they were "FILLED ITH THE SPIRIT and spoke the word of God boldly."

THEY WERE UNIFIED AND SUPPLIED FOR ONE ANOTHER

When we are truly filled with the Spirit as a community of believers, oneness of heart and mind is the result. When we are walking by the Spirit we are motivated by the grace and love that God has extended us in Christ. Because the Holy Spirit had so cemented their belief in the grace and love of God revealed in Christ they were infused with boldness to speak about Jesus and compelled to extend his grace and love to each other as his ambassadors. They knew their orthopraxy must match their orthodoxy. Their lives together had to preach the gospel their lips proclaimed. And just as the Spirit's filling believers culminated in Acts 2:42-47 with a new community that was formed around the gospel and reflected the generosity, acceptance, grace, love, and unity of God, so this body of believers being filled with the Spirit in Acts 4 culminates this way:

³² All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. ³³ With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all ³⁴ that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales ³⁵ and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

There are radical implications here friends... but in the account of the spirit filled community in both Acts 2 and 4, the needs of the community are met by the community. This is not limited to but it absolutely includes material need. While this text is descriptive in nature, telling us what happened, and not prescriptive, telling was what must happen, it is clear that when the Spirit fills a community of believers, the Christ of grace who generously gave ALL of himself to us, is mirrored in his bride as we give all of ourselves to each other. How counter cultural this would be in the West where we are consumed by greed, security, stability and safety, all reasonable desires in themselves, but none more important than cause of Christ and the good news about Jesus being both lived out and proclaimed boldly.