By Ms. Amber Bothwell

From Cayman Islands Regional Mission Council

Weekly Update

Season of Easter, April 4, 2024

Please read Acts 4:32-35
As we journey with the theme ‘Reignite: Resurrection
Power brings Unity,’ let us reflect on the concept of
fellowship found in Acts 4:32-35. “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. 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
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, and put it at
the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who
had need.”

I will attempt to explore this passage in four ways:
Fellowship as a prompt, a promise, a problem, and a
pattern.

Firstly, this passage prompts us to remember that
God calls us into a loving fellowship with Godself and
with each other. The message of last week’s Easter
celebrations, and indeed the whole story of Christianity,
is that God wants a relationship with us and that we need
a relationship with God. In Genesis, God established a
special relationship with humankind from the
beginning, though our sin means we have struggled to
live in unity with God and each other ever since. Jesus’
death and resurrection reestablished that relationship,
tearing apart the literal and metaphorical veil between
God and humanity (Matthew 27:51). The message of
Grace is that we are saved, not by good deeds or
righteous living, but by a trusting, personal relationship
with God through Jesus Christ.

Indeed, one of our great Sacraments is that which we
call ‘Communion,’ a word which literally means a close
relationship with someone in which feelings and
thoughts are exchanged’ (dictionary.cambridge.org), ‘an act or instance of sharing’ or an ‘intimate fellowship
or rapport’ (merriam-webster.com). Its root is the Latin
‘communis’ meaning ‘common’ or ‘shared by all’. The
origin of the Sacrament was, of course, a very real meal
over which Jesus and His disciples shared their ideas
and feelings the night before His death. It was an
intimate encounter in which they were ‘leaning back
against’ each other (John 13:25), and Judas ‘dipped his
hand into the bowl with’ Jesus (Matthew 26:23). Jesus
was fellowshipping with people whom He knew would
betray Him, disown Him and abandon Him in just a few
hours.

Throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus joining in
Fellowship with all sorts of people, from the wedding at
Cana in John 2 to when He invites His disciples to join
Him for breakfast on the beach after the miraculous
catch of fish in John 21. Jesus spent much of His ministry
eating, drinking, and socializing – so much so, in fact,
that He Himself, according to Matthew 11:19b, reports
that His critics tried to accuse Him of being ‘a glutton
and a drunkard’! Moreover, though He, of course,
taught in the Temple and Synagogue too, so much of
Jesus’ ministry seems to have taken place in people’s
homes, often around a table, and in other equally
intimate settings – say a one-to-one chat with a woman
at a well (John 4). The believers in Acts 4 followed Jesus’
example, recognizing that fellowship is integral to our
lives as Christians.

Secondly, this passage functions as a promise of even
greater fellowship to come. By being ‘of one heart and
one soul’ and having ‘all things common’ (KJV), the early
disciples were embodying the very definition of
communion. Through Jesus, their relationship with God
was restored, and they were thus enabled and
encouraged to live in harmony with each other in a way
that perfectly complemented the words they preached
and helped to draw more people to God. They shared
a common identity in Jesus and valued each other as His
followers.
This perfect example of Christian unity should clearly be
our ultimate standard. ‘How good and pleasant it is
when God’s people live together in unity!’ declares
David in Psalm 133. Indeed, those first believers
presented a united front to a degree that seems almost unreal. Such heights of generosity, evangelistic zeal,
and selflessness are a foretaste of Heaven itself. When
we look around at our own imperfect relationships and
our sometimes-disjointed congregations, we can take
heart that God’s promise is still sure that one day, we will
be restored to perfect unity with God and with our
fellow believers.

Thirdly, and unfortunately, this is also a problem for
us as we cannot escape the conviction that if we call
ourselves Christians, we really ought to be living like this
right now. Yet, let us be honest, fulfilling this mandate of
perfect unity is nigh on impossible.

But we must look at this short passage in context
because, even for the believers in Acts, this moment of
perfect unity was just a moment. The idealistic system of
selling land and sharing the proceeds with each other
was quickly sullied – only three verses later – by Ananias
and Sapphira deciding to keep back some of the profits
from the sale of their land, lying about it and being
struck dead as punishment (Acts 5:1-10). Shortly after,
we find that the system begins to break down on a
broader scale because ‘the Hellenistic Jews among
them complained against the Hebraic Jews because
their widows were being overlooked in the daily
distribution of food’ (Acts 6:1b). How quickly does this
vision of perfect Fellowship descend into ego, racism,
and jealousy! Suddenly, the church of Acts seems a lot
more like our own problematic, imperfect church of
today.

Fourthly, this passage exposes a pattern to the
problem. To begin with, the news of Acts 6:1 is not all
bad, as the disappointing report of bias and infighting
is preceded by the clause ‘in those days when the
number of disciples was increasing.’ The testimony of
the apostles was winning converts! The church was
growing! But with greater numbers, it was harder to
maintain the effortless unity of vision and camaraderie
that marked the initial stages of the church. Their
fellowship at the outset was so pure and passionate in
worship, evangelism, and stewardship that it was in
danger of becoming a victim of its own success.

How often have we seen this pattern in our own
endeavors as a church? Think of the projects or missions
that began with great fervor and passion, all members
of the team ‘one in heart and mind’ and feeling God’s
Spirit powerfully at work. Gradually, however, we lose
our enthusiasm, or divisions arise, or whatever happens
to lessen the impact of our witness. The honeymoon
period is quickly over.

Looking back at our Easter celebrations last weekend,
we are faced with a particularly poignant example of this
challenge. No doubt most of our congregations saw
increased numbers, with those members who turn up
only at Christmas and Easter flooding the pews. The church is still the church, even as it grows and changes,
even when it is imperfect.

The Scripture passage prompts us to seek fellowship
with God and each other. Its impossibly high standards
both remind us of the promise of what can be and
challenge us with the problem of what is. It also provides
us with a pattern we can follow as we seek greater unity
in our mission and witness.

Prayer: Lord, we thank you for the gift of fellowship
and the promise of a relationship with You. Thank you
for the opportunity to join in loving communion with
You and with other believers. Like the Christians of two
thousand years ago, and with Christians today in our
own churches and around the world, we pray that you
will grant us a shared vision, a willingness to support
each other, and the ability to sustain our unity as we
move forward in faith together. In Christ’s Name, Amen