II Samuel 19:43a And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, and said, “We have ten shares in the king; therefore we also have more right to David than you.
I’ve been thinking about the early church lately as I’m preaching through the Book of
Acts. We often compare the church today with the church at first and we see so much division today. So many denominations. Shouldn’t there be just one church?
David, and Israel, had just come through a civil war. David’s son, Absalom, had led a rebellion against his father. But Absalom had died in the war and David was returning to Jerusalem to his rightful place as king. However, the people weren’t finished with their fussing. A disagreement arose over who had said “David should come back to Jerusalem” first! (Isn’t it easy to see the foolishness of other people’s arguments while holding to the utter reasonableness of our own feelings?)
When I read this passage I was reminded of the Book of Judges; a time when ‘there was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes.’ What’s happened? There is a king now. Why does it still seem that everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes?
Israel needed a king. But not David. As good as David was, he was a pale imitation of the true King that would come. The King that Israel desperately needed was Jesus. He came to rule, not just a little plot of land, but in the very hearts of men and women. But many rejected Him when He came. Many still do. But He has come and He is coming again. Until that day, we see His kingdom in the church. Sadly, we often get caught up in arguing who has the greater share in Jesus. Like the men and women of David’s day, we are all to quick to get into disputes.
The early church? The very first bloom of the followers of the Risen Christ? What made them different than us? The answer is in the Book of Acts. They were in one accord. In other words, they were so desirous to do what Jesus said that anything they might have disagreed about took an immediate back seat to the main thing: the mission. What if we today, were in one accord? The question inspires far too many of us to immediately think of others and how they should adjust their thinking to be more correct (i.e. more in line with ours).
To truly be in one accord means a reprioritizing of our hearts and minds. It means that many of the things we care about must take a backseat to what we know for sure that Jesus cares about. And we don’t have to wonder about that. He told us. “Go into all the world and make disciples.” That wasn’t just their mission. It is the mission of all who call themselves by the name of Christ. We are to be on that mission. We are to be spreading His good news. Not making sure other Christians know that “we have ten shares in the King.”
Blessings,
Pastor Russ
