Acts 5:17-42

Carl Belcher comments on the power of community

Carl Belcher

Have you ever done one of those personality tests where you are asked a series of questions and then it churns out your personality type? (I don't mean the irritating sort of ones which appear on my Facebook feed everyday such as "If you were an EastEnders character, which character would you be?"!!)

My wife loves being able to guess (quite accurately much to my annoyance) the personality type of just about everyone she meets. "If that person did the Myers Briggs test, I bet she would be a...(insert sequence of letters that I don't understand the significance of here) type person" she would say.

One of the big surprises to me when I finally caved in and did the test was that in one area of my personality I came out as an introvert. This surprised me as I always thought I was pretty outgoing and good at engaging with people. But I soon discovered that being an introvert doesn't mean someone who is shy or reserved, but rather someone who needs space alone now and again to recharge their emotional batteries rather than extroverts who have their batteries charged by being around lots of people.

The thing I've come to discover and appreciate more and more recently however, is that whether you are an introvert, an extrovert, or somewhere in-between, God's plan is and has always been for us to experience and appreciate meaningful relationships through community. Without other people we will even find it difficult to experience the fullness of God in our lives.

I discovered a great example of this recently whilst reading Acts 5:17-42. In a nutshell, the Sadducees (the local religious leaders) were jealous of the apostles who were seeing loads of people getting healed and choosing to accept Jesus as their Lord. So they threw the apostles into prison, but during the night an angel busted them out of prison and told them to keep telling people about Jesus in the public temple courts. The apostles obeyed and when the Sadducees found out about this they dragged the apostles before them again and told them not to teach about Jesus anymore. But the apostles said that they would rather obey God and do what He commanded rather than the Sadducees. Predictably the Sadducees didn't like this one bit and they had the apostles whipped and ordered them again not to speak in the name of Jesus. Guess what? Yup, the apostles still chose to do what God had commanded through the angel and, "Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah." (Acts 5:42)

"So what's the big deal?" you may be thinking. Let me tell you, the big deal is that this account isn't really about a miraculous prison break courtesy of one of God's angels, but rather the obedience that ALL the apostles showed together throughout the whole episode. It got me thinking, "I wonder what would have happened if rather than all sticking together and doing what God asked, instead one by one they pealed off?"

How would this passage have read if after the 12 had been imprisoned then busted out by an angel, some (say three) decided to stay in the prison for fear of being arrested and receiving an even worse punishment? Or what if just a few of the (now remaining nine) disciples had chosen not to obey and instead of going back and teaching in the temple courts, they went home and laid low; so now there's six?

And what if when re-arrested rather than stand up with the other apostles saying, "We must obey God not man" a few of them said nothing for fear of getting a kicking; so now there's just three?

And what if after their ticking off and whipping, two of the now remaining three decided not to go into the temple courts and from house to house day after day teaching and proclaiming the good news about Jesus? Would the church have continued to grow? Would the awe about what God had just done been so real if it all hinged on one exceptional, mighty person rather than 12 ordinary geezers?

The real miracle isn't the angelic prison escape, but the fact that God had so dramatically changed the hearts of these ordinary young guys that they would go to the ends of the earth, even their death, for God and their fellow believers. Now that is power!

Personally, I can honestly say that whenever I've committed to be a part of a community of believers that choose to love one another, seek God with all their hearts and obey Him with all their strength, I've experienced more love, more of Him and more of His power at work in my wider community than I ever could 'doing it alone'.

So, make the choice today to stop being an island and start being a part of a dynamic community of other ordinary people, obeying an extraordinary Saviour.

Or, in the words of Margaret Mead, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has".