RE-LA-TION-SHIP

Relationship. I have written so many times about how important this word is. Not just that it's important to me, but how important it is to our spiritual health. I know some of you are sitting there thinking "oh yeah, spiritual health, right... I went to church Sunday, I'm healthy". I would tell you, you are wrong (and not just because I'm always right... kidding). Seriously though, I would almost argue... and this may cause an upheaval of "constructive criticism"... that those that are relational with Christians throughout the week, in the evenings, on Facebook/Twitter/Email/Text, and on the weekends at a football game/restaurant/or dare I say it a bar, but aren't always in church on Sunday morning, may very well be healthier than you. And me. Now, I'm not saying that church isn't important, because it is... and I value my church family. There are immense opportunities to be relational at church, however... if that's the only way you are connecting with God and others throughout your week... you probably aren't as healthy as you think you are...

Let's take a look at the book of Acts. Chapter 2, verses 42-47 just to begin with. Now, as a back story... what it says in this passage follows a gathering during Pentecost when the disciples are filled by the Holy Spirit and begin to speak in tongues. Droves of people come to witness what's happening, and most of them were confused and doubtful. Peter stands up to this crowd and basically calls them out on their doubts. He tells them that God has made the one that they crucified to be Lord and Messiah. It convicted these people, it broke them and they asked what they should do. He told them to repent and to give their lives to Jesus, and in verse 41 it says "Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day." Now, before I get to my main point... let's go ahead and realize what's happening here. First off, this happens during a gathering at Pentecost, which, at the time, was a feast to celebrate the giving of the Law of Sinai. The disciples were gathered together, being relational when this all went down. Secondly, Peter could have easily walked away from the crowd and just kept going... but he didn't. He stuck around, and stood up to explain. Why? Because he wanted to not only be intentional in making sure these people he cared for, that he didn't know mind you, got the opportunity to realize what was going on so they could form their own relationship with Christ. Secondly, because of Peter's desire (or God's call on Peter) to be relational and see others become relational.. 3,000 lives were changed that very day. That. Is. Huge.

Now, Acts 2:42-27 says this about the 3000 people that were baptized following Peter's message, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They Sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

It would be wrong for me to not give credit where credit is due... some of the following points, come from the sermon notes from the message this past Sunday at Community Church of Columbus. In fact, the majority of this post was actually inspired by Pastor Chuck's message. I'm just expanding on how it impacts the idea of relationship. These are what my sermon notes look like (see below)

For the most part the above is legible, so I want to touch on a few things... First off, it says Jesus' followers made a commitment. Relationship and commitment go hand-in-hand. I'm not necessarily talking about a romantic relationship, I'm talking about the connection between friends, family, us and God, God and us, etc. In order to maintain a good relationship, there has to be some level of commitment. Whether that means you are committed to seeing each other once a year, once a month, to calling each other once a week, or to spending quality time with Christ each day... there has to be some commitment. God already made a commitment to be there for us when He sent Christ to die on the Cross. We need to hold up our end of the relationship. Line 1B. says... imagine that... RELATIONSHIP. Now we see why this got my mind racing. There are a couple of footnotes that may be harder to read, the first is there at the bottom of the page and it says this "Being intentional about being relational is key to the Church". Which is what I'm driving at here, and by Church I don't mean CCC. I mean the UC (Universal Church). If we, as the body of Christ, are not intentional about being relational with others, and with Christ... just like Peter was... then there is no way we can multiply Jesus' followers (Point number 3.). We can't spread the Kingdom, if we don't have the kind of relationship that allows us to know why the Kingdom is worth it. Acts 20:7-12 tells the story about a man named Eutychus who falls out of a window and dies. Now, he fell out of the window while Paul was talking because Paul was trying to talk to these people as much as he could before he had to leave the next time, it was near midnight when Eutychus fell. Paul goes down to Eutychus, throws himself on the man and says "He's Alive!"... then it says they go back upstairs again, broke bread and ate. Talking until daylight. Some of you might be wondering why Pastor Chuck, and now myself, are including this passage. I think it's a perfect example of relationship. Paul knew he was leaving in the morning, but instead of "getting a good night's rest", he decided to spend literally every moment possible with these people. Then, when Eutychus falls out the window, Paul could have said "Well guess that's my cue to leave, this party is dead..." (that Pun was for you Chuck). Instead he went down, brought Eutychus back to life, and then went back upstairs to spend more time with people. He didn't allow this tragic and then miraculous occurrence to divert his intentions. He didn't heal Eutychus and then go on his way, leaving the people in awe. He went upstairs and spent the rest of the night in community with these people.

Which brings me to my next (overall) point from the sermon notes... "Jesus' followers experienced real  community". In verses 43-46 it emphasizes the community that believers were experiencing. They "were together and had everything in common" (44), sold what they had to give to those in need (45) and "Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts"(46). It doesn't say they ate with those that were just like them, or just their families... they ate together. All of them. They gathered as a community and spent time with each other, just enjoying each person's presence. THIS is what community, relationship, and the Universal Church should look like. These believers, because of their faith and trust in God, realized that in order to continue to learn, pray, and strive to be more like Christ they had to focus on relationship. Not only were the gathering together and experiencing community, they were doing it with "glad and sincere hearts". There wasn't any grumbling, or discontent among them at this time. Just joy and sincerity in their desires to be with one another.

The last verse in the passage goes on to say this "praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Because of the believers' intentions to be a community and to be relational with one another and with God, others were joining them. The Kingdom was growing, simply based on their ability to gather together for one thing... relationship.  Look at all the ways we are connected to other people today. We constantly have the ability to reach out to others at our fingertips. The advances in technology that have improved our ability to be relational should be HUGELY impacting the growth of the Kingdom. There is no reason that these 12 disciples were able to, in one moment, baptize 3,000 people... and yet we aren't reaching people in such big ways. Some of us have almost 3,000 facebook friends (I don't personally). Now, I also understand that the disciples were gifted differently, and they had timing on their side. They literally walked with Jesus, ate with Jesus, and communed with Jesus. However, that's no excuse for us to not be answering the call in Matthew 28:19 "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." As a community, we not only outnumber those 3012 people (including the disciples there) but we, individually, also have immensely more opportunities to reach others.


Let's start being relational with each other. With other people. With Christ. Let's start to commune together, eat together with glad and sincere hearts, and praise God together, not just in a church building, but in our homes, at our offices, and anywhere we are. That's become spiritually healthy, and start reaching others. Let's be like Paul and run down and save someone from death, the death of their soul, and then spending time with them to help nurture their growth and our own. Let's be intentional.

"Busyness may feed your ego, but it will starve the people around you"- Pete Wilson

Grace and Peace