Unity in the Spirit

As I reflect on the birth of Jesus’ Church in Acts 2, I am amazed at the unity that God forged: the “singleness” that the Holy Spirit has produced through the message of the cross.  Let me share what I mean. Those arriving in Jerusalem “spoke the same language” and shared an understanding in many ways. They were Jews with many shared customs, beliefs and traditions, and had all traveled for the great Jewish celebration of first fruits of the wheat harvest.  Although this unifying purpose brought them all to Jerusalem, actual language and regional customs would have limited their fellowship and celebration to small gatherings of people they knew or were related to, and could easily understand, then return home after the festival.

A few years ago, I did a study for a lesson on Genesis 11 about the Tower of Babel.  This was such a “formative” time in Jewish history, as God disciplined his people for their pride and independence by causing them to begin to speak in a multitude of languages.  Scholars would say 70 specific languages arose which would be the genesis of the Table of Nations.  So, what does this have to do with anything in Acts 2?  Check out verses 5-11 – the Jews that were gathered in Jerusalem literally represented all the nations and languages that were created at the plain in Shinar in Genesis 11.  The Holy Spirit of God was undoing this discipline from over a thousand years ago at this special time when the message of the Messiah was plainly revealed, and all the Jews heard it in their own language! This blows my mind!  The language barriers were demolished by the Holy Spirit when the disciples received the gift of speaking the same language as any of the visitors in Jerusalem.

The next part of this that is so amazing is the singleness of the message.  Just like there were so many Jews from different places converging here in Jerusalem, consider all the prophecies that converged here at this moment in history, in Jerusalem.  Joel 2, Psalm 16, Psalm 110 – all in a single, unifying way point the audience to this special moment in history.  For those in earshot of Peter’s message, and for us when all the dots finally connected, we understood that Jesus is our Lord and Messiah – we were cut to the heart (v36-37) and willing to do anything to grasp the salvation of our souls!  We too, were drawn to the singleness of this message.

What was produced from this singleness of message is amazing.  In verse 44, it simply says that all the believers were together.  What an understatement!  Remember back to verses 9-11 – Jews from nations all over the known world.  This is a complete reversal of Babel in that instead of building a monument to themselves, the Holy Spirit has worked within them to build the body of believers whose very gathering was producing praise to our God.  This single language, this single message, this single response, this single Savior, these thousands of converts did not need instructions or direction on how to be family.  They simply shared what they had and reveled in what God had done. 

As I reflect on my own “journey to Jerusalem”, I am reminded of what impacted me.  When I first saw God’s Kingdom in the form of a bible talk I attended, the personal bible studies, and the worship services of the Toronto Church of Christ, I was astounded by the “singleness” of focus that I witnessed.  I saw people speaking the same “language” of the message of Jesus: living a life of love for one another, the lost, and for God’s word.

This last year has made it harder for all of us to stay connected to this same singleness we read about here.  Politics, health, and racial tension have tempted me to speak languages that are not consistent with the singleness of Jesus and his love.  These external influences accentuate the differences among us and make it very difficult to seek that singularity of focus.  I hope that we can be inspired by this incredible corporate work of the Holy Spirit of God that undid the discipline from thousands of years ago at Babel.  Individually, I hope that we can all reflect on our own Acts 2 moment, when we said in our hearts, “brothers, what shall we do” and were extremely grateful for being added into the true fellowship of verse 44.  Let’s reclaim that resulting joy and awe of what God has done in our lives, and remember that our community here can be transformed from speaking so many other “languages,” to a singular one of Jesus is Lord, and I am his.