A House Divided

They assembled themselves together for the first time as a collective body in an upstairs room in Jerusalem. They were there at the command of their leader who had given them specific instructions to watch and wait until they be endured with power from on high. They watched and waited in unison some 10 days in one place and in one accord until suddenly as Luke would report they began to hear a sound from heaves like as a rushing mighty wind that began to fill the room where they were setting.

Luke continues to paint the picture of what happened on that day as he tells us that there also appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them, Then something miraculous happened as some 120 men and women began to speak in tongues and glorify God in languages that they had never spoken before, as the spirit gave them the utterance. And the Church was born.

The book of Acts serves as our guideline and blueprint to how the very first church came to be and how it operated.

In Acts you can read of the bold preaching of men like Peter and Steven, you can read of the adventure like mission trips of the Apostle Paul, and you will find the stories of men like Ananias who we have an account of them only reaching one soul, but that one became the Apostle we call Paul!

Amidst the stories of revival and miracles that make up a large volume of Acts are two short obscure verse that serves as the foundation of what these men and women accomplished.

Acts 2:46-47 (KJV) 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,

47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

At the very core of who the Apostles where they were first friends. The undergirding and the foundation of all that was accomplished by the Apostles was the fact that they loved one another. In fact Jesus himself told them that the very thing that would distinguish them as being his disciples was that they would have love one for another.

He didn’t tell them that they would be known as his because of the songs they sing or the clothes that they would wear. He didn’t even tell them that they would be marked as his disciples by the way they would preach, but he said the world will know you are mine because of the way you love each other!

Jesus knew that the unity and bond of the church would be so important to the church that he was about to build that he spent a great portion of his time as he traveled and ministered teaching them that they should bear one another’s burdens.

He taught them that being part of the church means that we don't watch one another go through pain alone, but that we come alongside our brothers and sisters that have a heavy burden and put our shoulder to the load and add our strength to their struggle.

He told his disciples that they must forgive one another. He told them that forgiveness was such a great part of the church that he tied there very salvation to it.

Mark 11:25-26 (KJV) 25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

There’s a lot of talk in churches today about what is a Heaven or Hell issue, there are many who want pare down their salvation to the absolute bare minimum that they must do to be saved but forget that grudge and that bitter attitude that they've been holding against their brother or sister in the Lord is in fact a Heaven or Hell issue.

In fact Jesus told his disciples if they stand at the altar ready to sacrifice but have a problem in their heart with their brother that they must lay the sacrifice down go to their brother right the wrong forgive then and then return to their sacrifice.

I wonder how powerful next Sunday would be if before we ever stepped foot on the pulpit to minister in any way we would pick up the phone and make it right with our brother. What if before we ever buried another precious soul in the name of Jesus we called that person across town and buried the hatchet.

When asked his opinion why some countries experience massive moves of the Spirit and revivals that would sweep a nation, the great missionary Billy Cole answered, "the greatest revivals on earth are happening in countries that have the greatest respect one for another between the minister and between the saints."

He said that the main driver of revival in places like Ethiopia where at the time he was having crusades that would see 100,000 or more people receive the gift of the Holy Ghost is that, the people had respect one for another, that they treated each other with a remarkable kind of dignity that was due when dealing with a child of God.

They succeeded because there were no A-list or B-list preachers there’s was only men and women of God who loved one another.

The local church can never be stronger than the relationships of the people who set in its pews. This is why satan works so hard at bringing division into the house of God. The old adage "divide and conquer" is attributed to Julius Caesar but I would argue its has a much more sinister origin- the deepest darkest pits of hell. It has been satan's number one scheme since the days when he was Lucifer the archAngel.

Jesus said of his fall that he beheld Satan fall like lightning from heaven. However satan didn't fall alone Rev. 12:4 tells us that when he fell that great dragon drew a third part of the stars from heaven with him. Satan's original script reads division. he divided Heaven then in the opening chapters of the Bible we find that old serpent the devil whispering into the ear of Eve surely you will not die, but God knows the day you eat of the fruit you will become as he is. Satan's first move in the garden was to separate Eve from God by getting her to question God's motives and doubt that he was acting in her best interest. Read the story of Judas' betrayal of Jesus and you will see that it was when he separated himself from Jesus and the other disciples that Satan entered into him.

Divide and conquer is what happens when you realize your most effective weapon against your enemy and let the people who should be allies fight it out among themselves. These things should not be so among the people of God.

Abraham Lincoln said of the United States during the Civil War that America will never be defeated from the outside. If America will be defeated it will come from within. Jesus said it best in Mark 3:24-25 If a kingdom or a house be divided it cannot stand

In closing I will leave you with the prayer that Jesus prayed while in the garden of Gethsemane as he was about to be lead to the cross.

John 17: 6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. 7 Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. 8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received [them], and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.