Acts 2:46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart
I have always enjoyed hiking, skiing, and the great outdoors. When I was a young man, I became enamored by a company called The North Face. You have probably heard of it, but when I was a kid most people had not. It was a very niche company, and even the very name, The North Face, is a term known to mountaineers and means nothing to most people. When I was a married man, for Christmas one year I got a mountain light parka from The North Face. I still have it; it is a great jacket. I love that jacket because I love the style and the function. I love taking the mountains that I love into everyday life wherever I might be.
I’m all about The North Face and their great products, but their marketing has changed somewhat. Years after I received that jacket, I was in New York City and saw The North Face all over Manhattan. There are no mountains or skiing going on in Manhattan, but there was a lot of The North Face products.
Later that same year, I was at a small Walmart in Mississippi and I saw a young kid wearing a North Face jacket. My pride thought, “The North Face is not the same as it was a few years ago.” There was a time that if in my hometown I saw someone wearing The North Face, I thought, “Wow, that girl hikes or that guy skis. They are mountain people.” That is not necessarily true anymore because there is a fashion and a function. At this point The North Face makes great products, but people wear them not because they are outdoorsy people who love their function in the mountains, but because they are fashionable.
When you come to the book of Acts, we are oftentimes so enamored by the miracles and methods, neither of which is unimportant, that we miss the mission, what is pushing this narrative forward. We miss the ministry mindset. In Acts 2:46 it says, “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.” In other words, the whole mass of believers was gathered together for one simple, single purpose, the life and resurrection of Jesus and the hope that He brings and gives.
Today, we often live under our own overhead. For instance, in Acts 18 the Bible talks about Aquila and Priscilla. The church met in their house. At the church in their house would they have had a janitor? Would there have been a bus captain or a youth pastor? The answer is no. I think it is important to have a janitor to keep up our buildings, it is wonderful to have a bus outreach, and I love youth pastors. The point is not to say, “They didn’t have youth pastors in the book of Acts so we shouldn’t have them.” The point is that they were narrowly focused on a mission. There was no overhead, just the mission. I’m not against overhead. At the Bill Rice Ranch a lot of my day is spent thinking about people, practices, and finances, but it is so easy to get absorbed into how we are doing things that we forget what we are doing, why we are here in the first place.
When you read Acts, you are reminded that Jesus’ story is our mission. If you belong to Christ, Jesus is our mission. It is not getting bigger, having a nicer building, a bus ministry, or a youth pastor. These things are all good, but the mission is Jesus, getting His message to people.
Peter was like a broken record. Every time he confronted people it would turn to the gospel. In Acts 2 Peter had an opportunity to give the gospel. People heard Peter and others speaking in their own native language. There were a variety of people from a variety of countries and they asked, “What does this mean?” So, Peter stood up and preached Jesus. People were enamored at the miracle of hearing their own language and Peter turned it to the gospel.
Again, in Acts 3:12 the Lord used Peter and John to heal a man who was lame from birth. People rushed in and said, “Wow, look at what these guys are doing.” Peter said, “Why are you marveling at us? We are nothing. It is not our power; it is the power of the risen Christ.” He goes on to preach to them Jesus Christ. They were all focused on the gospel.
Whatever your job today, don’t lose sight of the specific purpose. We can be so caught up in fashion, organization, or overhead that we aren’t getting out the gospel. Whatever methods or miracles you read of in the book of Acts, don’t miss the simple and narrowed mission of getting Jesus’ story to people who need Him and for whom He died.