Are you also hungry for God's work in THIS moment?

"God has raised this Jesus; we are all witnesses of this. Therefore, since he has been exalted to the right hand of God and has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, he has poured out what you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into the heavens, but he himself says: The Lord declared to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand "until I make your enemies your footstool.' Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah." When they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles: "Brothers, what should we do?" Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call." With many other words he testified and strongly urged them, saying, "Be saved from this corrupt generation! " So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved." [Act 2:32-47 CSB]

Observations:
Was there anything important before this that would help us understand this text better?

• Peter has been in the middle of a sermon where he has been preaching the gospel and comparing Jesus to King David-the Jews most beloved king, the one through whom God promised to send the Jewish Messiah. 
• Peter has been quoting a lot of scripture, specifically Psalms, in this sermon.
• Peter declared that Jesus of Nazareth was a man attested to by God with miracles, wonders, and signs. 

Who does what?

•  Peter finishes his sermon! 
• The Jews dialogue with Peter after his sermon. Their hearts are pierced and they want to know what to DO next. 
• Peter directs the Jews to repent and be baptized, and then continues to preach "with many other words." These are college level summaries here, people ;)
• Three thousand people took Peter at his word, repented, and devoted themselves to the apostle's teachings, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and PRAYER. This sounds a lot like Bible College: listen to a lot of pastors, hang out with a bunch of believers, eat bread, and pray A LOT! Probably the most important thing on that list is the breaking/eating of bread. Probably. Seriously, there is no better way to build a family out of a bunch of complete strangers than to have a bunch of people eat together (especially if they are eating bread). 
  

• Everyone was filled with awe.
• More college level summaries: LOTS of signs and wonders were performed by the apostles. Honestly, Luke, I WANT MORE DETAILS! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE THE AUTHOR THAT GAVE US ALL THE JUICY DETAILS!!! #SMH
• The believers were all together and they held all things in common. 
• They sold all that they had and distributed their proceeds to all as anyone had need.
• Every day they devoted themselves to meeting in the temple and broke bread together. 
• They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all people.
• The Lord added to their number every day people who were being saved. 

What choices were made? 

• God chose to raise Jesus from the dead! Yay! 
• Jesus chose to pour out the Holy Spirit on the disciples. 
• The Jews chose to listen to the piercing of their hearts. 
• Luke chose not to record all of Peter's words. (One could possibly argue the Holy Spirit made this choice, but it's a choice I don't like, so I'm blaming Luke). 
• Those who accepted the message chose to be baptized. 
• They chose to devote themselves to the apostle's teachings, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and prayer. 
• They chose to hold all things in common. 
• They chose to sell all that they owned and re-distribute it. 
• They chose to meet together in the temple daily and to break bread together from house to house.
• They chose to enjoy their food and to praise God and enjoy the favor of all people. 
• God chose to add to their numbers. 

What choices could have been made? 

• The Jews could have chosen not to listen to the piercing of their hearts. They could have chosen to resort to excuses, logical explanations, etc. 
• They could have chosen to meet somewhere other than the temple. The temple was the traditional place of the Jewish sacrifices. If they didn't see themselves as the continuation of the Jewish practice/belief, it would have made more sense to get as far away from the temple as possible (after all, the temple leaders were responsible for killing Jesus?). But they did see themselves as Jews still. I wonder if even traditional Jews met in the temple daily. Who was opening the temple up? There must have been traditional Jewish leaders involved in this. OOOH. This takes my brain down a totally new road... because the temple was thought to be corrupted because of the Greek infiltration of the temple. So, the believers were meeting in the corrupted temple. But they were also meeting in each other's houses breaking bread. This is interesting because the Pharisees were the group that tried to make every home a temple. This is why they were SOO legalistic. They applied the laws from Leviticus that were only supposed to apply to priests to EVERYONE. They did this because they felt that the Greeks had corrupted the temple, and they wanted to keep Greek influence out of Judaism. So, as the early believers meet daily, both in the temples and the homes, it is almost like there is a hidden message, that this new movement is purifying, redeeming, and combining traditional, temple Judaism and EVEN the purest roots of Pharisaical Judaism (based on Exodus 19:5-6 "Now if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my own possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine, and you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation.' These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites." )

Applications: 

• Today, do we devote ourselves to the teaching of the apostles, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer? Not always. In fact, I don't think so. But it seems that whenever there is a a great move of the Holy Spirit, most (if not all) of these ingredients are there in abundance. It's almost like the recipe for revival. I think this is why spiritual retreats are so powerful. It's a time that is set aside for teachings from great servants of God, fellowship with other believers, eating together, and prayer. But, those also almost feel like our boxed out time for spiritual things. I don't think that means spiritual retreats are bad; they definitely serve a good purpose in the Kingdom of God. I just think that when the the things that happen at our spiritual retreats happen to the extent that they transform our daily lives and our daily schedules, the power increases. With that, however, I think there also comes a very specific fear, the fear of radicalism. When our schedules are in order and balanced, and we have powerful spiritual retreats sporadically throughout the year, God feels a lot safer. When spiritual activities start to alter our schedule and spill over into other areas of our life, there is always a cost, and with that cost, comes judgement and accusations, such as "this is being done out of a sense of spiritual pride," or "neglecting ones responsibilities." And here's the problem: sometimes those are legitimate accusations. Sometimes, hyper-spiritualism is an excuse to build up someone's ego or public persona and hide from the real work of intimate love and service. But, I think there are also moments in time when authentic, spiritual devotion grows and deepens and widens and overflows into life-- transforming every part of it. And I think humanity hungers for those moments. I am hungry for that moment. I am looking for that moment, that movement in 2018. 

If you read this whole rambling, I pray that God may bless your 2018 with an increased, authentic, spiritual devotion that grows and deepens and widens and overflows into your ordinary, every day life-- transforming every part of it! 

Peace, love, and Veggies ;)

-Jordan