After Easter: How to Live as Resurrection People Every Day预览

Can I confess something? I have a complicated history with Acts 2:42-47. For years, I did my best to avoid preaching it. The passage felt like a perfect, unrealistic, and fictional experience. I heard people and pastors say, "If only we could just be like the Church in Acts 2."

However, as I was preparing to preach this passage several years ago, I noticed something that helped me deal with my issues with this text.

For these early followers of Jesus, community was not the goal - it was the outcome. These ordinary people lived as witnesses and expected God to move through them. All of a sudden, they looked around, and boom! They had a lot of company in those pursuits.

However, if they had made the kind of community Acts 2 describes as their goal, they would have been disappointed. They would've missed out on the power of the resurrection.

The kind of community we long for is the outcome of a process where we witness the resurrection of Jesus. We experience the same power which raised Christ Jesus from the dead. According to the Apostle Paul in Romans 8, that resurrection power is alive within us. When we experience that power and discover other people doing the same thing, God creates a united community. My friend Hank used to tell me that cause creates community.

The early disciples believed that this same power that raised Jesus from the dead was alive in them. They witnessed the resurrection. They watched Jesus ascend to heaven. They received the Holy Spirit. Resurrection power inhabited them. They experienced the miraculous work of that Spirit around them each day. People responded by trusting in Jesus and thousands were baptized. They began figuring out what it meant to live in light of the resurrection every day.

From this process, a tight-knit, unified, together community emerges. Before we wrap up today's devotion, can I push you a little bit?

A lot of times, I think we want the outcome without the process. We read Acts 2:42-47. It seems like a much better community than we found in Church or on social media. Some of us get bitter or disappointed when we compare our experience to this. Some of us even make the Acts 2 Church into an idol.

When we make an outcome an idol, we scorn the process. When we worship a community, we scorn the process required to build one. We forget we only get a resurrection community when we live as resurrection people together.

Remember, the early disciples weren’t sitting at the tomb, expecting the resurrection of Jesus. They were grieving their crucified and dead teacher. God raised Jesus from the dead when they were hopeless. If they can be surprised by hope there, I wonder what God can do in your heart.

If reading this stirs something inside of you and you want Easter to be bigger than one Sunday each year, I would encourage you to begin asking a simple question. What does resurrection mean in ______________? (the place where you are struggling; whether it be your family, job, or something else).

Perhaps you need to encourage a family member or best friend to start reading this devotional with you. You might even need to share it with your small group or some people in your Church. Jesus never intended you to follow Him - He wants to bring resurrection power through all of His children.

Tomorrow, this plan concludes with an important reminder about authenticity in the lives of resurrection people. This passage is the scariest section of the book of Acts!