The Power and Grace of Unity

In Acts 4:23–37, the early church responds to persecution with united prayer and unwavering faith. Instead of asking God to remove their challenges, they pray for boldness to continue sharing the gospel. God answers by filling them with the Holy Spirit, empowering them to speak His Word with courage. The passage also highlights the believers' unity and generosity as they shared their resources to meet one another’s needs. Through their bold witness, deep fellowship, and sacrificial giving, the early church demonstrates what it means to live as a Spirit-filled community committed to advancing God’s Kingdom.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello everyone, I'm Dr. Steve Holt. I want to welcome you to the Road Church Podcast. Each week we go into God's Word. We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse. And we are here to build the Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world. So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life. Alright, we are looking at the book of Acts, and we're talking about unity today. And in Genesis 1, 1 and 2, we see that the very nature of God is unity. The very nature of God is to take chaos and bring order. In Psalm 19, we read, The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork. The MO of Creator God is to bring order and unity out of chaos. Wherever God is at work among his people, he always brings unity. Even Psalm 133 says that God commands a blessing where there's unity. There's no other place in Scripture that I know of where God commands a blessing for something, but he commands a blessing for unity. All of us are familiar with the stages of cancer in our bodies. Many of you have had cancer or you've had someone who's had cancer that you know. And you know that your body was, was the mitochondria of your cells of your body were meant to be unified. And when you're healthy and vigorous and strong, it's because your body is in unity to itself. But what cancer does is it comes in and you have these rebellious cells that begin to be renegade from the unity of the cell structure that you have. And in so doing, they come in and they rebel, and it'd be fine if they rebelled and they just left. But cancers don't leave your body, they stay there, and then what they do is they congregate. They form a church, they form a congregation in your body, which the medical community calls a tumor. And they all gather together and they form a lump. But with that lump, they don't just stay there, they do another thing called metastat. How do you say it? Mesticize, or whatever it is. I can't say it right. But they multiply themselves out and they start taking over your whole body. And their agenda is death. Their agenda is to kill your body. And so it is with disunity. When the enemy's at work, he comes and he comes in and he comes into unity and then brings disunity into our bodies. But the church is God's body, and God meant his church to be unified. God meant his church to be in cohesion together. And we're going to see that in the book of Acts. I'm reminded of the story. You may have seen the peanuts strip where Linus is watching TV. And he's enjoying, I guess, his TV program. And Lucy comes in and she says, change the channel. And he says, I'm not going to change the channel for you. Who are you? The czar over the TV channels? And she said, change the channels. And then he says, I'm not going to change the channels. And he says, See this hand? This hand has five independent fingers. But when they come together and form a lump together, it becomes a very, very dangerous thing. He changed the channel. And then he looks down at his hand and he goes, What's the matter with you guys? Why can't you get organized like Lucy's hand? So turning your Bibles to Acts chapter 4, and I want to look at a very, very unified church. They're unified in prayer, they're unified in heart. They're unified in soul. It's an amazing, amazing story here of what's happening in the early church. Look at verse 23 of Acts chapter 4. And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders have said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord. So underline one accord with one accord, and said, Lord, you are God who made heaven and earth, and the sea and all that is in them. Who by the mouth of your servant David have said, Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For truly against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together, to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats and grant your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word. And by stretching out your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they spoke the word of God with all boldness. Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart, underlined one heart, and one soul, underlined one soul. Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. They had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Nor was there any one among them who lacked, for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet, and they distributed to each one as any one had need. And Joseph, who was also named Barnabas by the Apostles, which is translated son of encouragement, a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the Apostles' feet. Remarkable, remarkable set of circumstances happening in the early church. Incredible unity. Look back at Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1. And look at verse 14. Acts 1 14, you read, these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication. Then chapter 2, verse 1, when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all in one accord, in one place. And we see this unity of the church being phenomenal. Look at verse 46 in chapter 2. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple. And so we see one accord. So one accord is used ten times in the book of Acts. And it speaks of this unity that they had, this powerful work of spirit. The word for one accord is homothoodon. Homothemodon. Homo means same, together in oneness. Thumodon means passion, vision, focus, meaning oneness of passion, oneness of purpose. It's the idea of running together. It's the idea of running. Actually, here's what it literally means. Homotheumodon has the idea of running and breathing together at the same pace. So it's running with someone or it's running with a group and you're breathing the same way. You're of the same passion, you're of the same breath. Homer, the great Greek writer, said homotheudon means agreement. And in Amos 3.3, he says, can two walk together except they be agreed? So in a Christian context, it's this agreement of passion, this agreement of purpose. And when I think of one breath, I think all filled with the Holy Spirit. So that the Spirit is flowing through us together in the unity of the power of the Spirit. That's the book of Acts. That's the vintage church in the book of Acts. And you say, well, what man, our church isn't that unified sometimes. Our church has all kinds of issues. Well, that's because we're trying and we're attempting and we're growing to be the church that God wants us to be. But that's the standard. And we see that unity characterized their prayer meetings. Unity characterized their outreach. Unity characterized their communion together. One theologian writes, one accord helps us understand the uniqueness of the Christian community. The image is almost musical. A number of notes are sounded which, while different, harmonize in pitch and tone, like the instruments of a great concert under the direction of a concert master. And so we see this unity in prayer. And the thing that's hard for all of us, unity in marriage, unity in our own lives, is that there's always an enemy. There's always an enemy at work. And so I was at a particular store yesterday doing something, no, two days ago doing something at this particular place. I'm not going to give it away, but met this man, and he was serving me in the particular function that I was there for. And I mentioned that I had just talked to a younger man at the store who had a crucifix. He was wearing a crucifix. So I said, Are you Catholic? And he said, No, I'm not. And I said, Well, I wear a crucifix too, and I showed him mine. And I said, Does that cross mean anything to you? He says, Yeah, I'm a confessional believer in Christ. It was really cool. And we had this great conversation. So then I mentioned to the second guy, the one I started with here, talking to him, and I mentioned the cross, and I mentioned the guy's name. And then he said something interesting. He says, Yeah, we're having a really difficult time right now. And I said, Who? What? And he goes, I said, with him? And he says, No, with the man upstairs. And I said, why? And he says, I lost my son to congenital heart disease last year, my only son. So here was a chance to minister to man who is in upheaval, disunified within his spirit. And we had that opportunity for the next few minutes to talk about a personal dynamic, growing relationship with the God, man, who is on that cross and the crucifix. And so we talked about the life, death, and resurrection of Christ together. Unity in our spirits is really, really hard to find sometimes. And disunity is Satan's greatest tool. His greatest tool is to disunify us from within. On every level of life, Satan shows up where there's disunity. And he wants to bring disunity in our hearts. He wants to bring disunity in our marriage and in our relationship. Most people are disunified within themselves. They're battling within themselves, not understanding even who they are. And many of us hate ourselves. How many have woken up with a sense of depression or anxiety in the morning? You know, I did this morning. I woke up this morning anxious about so many things. And I had to just go up to my office and spend time with the Lord. I had to open the word. I had to confess that I felt anxious. I felt disunified in my spirit. Guess what happens when you're disunified in your spirit? You're usually not great with other people because you're not loving yourself as Christ loves you. And so it's hard to love others. And so the enemy comes to bring disunity in your heart and make you anxious and make you depressed and give you all kinds of thoughts about your life that lead you down a route that brings a disunity in your mind and disunity in your spirit. Disunity in your body. That's what cancer is. Cancer is disunity in your body. It's where rebellious cells are coming and attacking the unified, healthy cells. Disunity in marriage. We bow. I know none of you struggle with disunity in your marriage. But uh we we did a seminar at our house with a small group of people yesterday at our home where Lon and Chrissy Hentz taught on unity in marriage and the importance of the power of marriage in our life. And we'll you'll hear more about this as the year goes along. How we're gonna go after marriage is at the road. But 1 Peter 3:7 says, husbands likewise dwell with your wives with understanding, giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered. So sometimes our prayers aren't hindered because we're disunified with our wives. And Liz and I have had a tough year. Liz is here. Liz, bless you. Glad you're here. Liz, it's been coming to 11 o'clock and she came to 9 o'clock this morning. But prayers in our lives are not answered sometimes because we're in disunity with our spouse. And so unity is important. God made us to be unified. And that really, really takes a lot of work. And what's happening in the early church, you guys, is that they they had this unity. And I think it didn't come just from prayer. It didn't just come from the Holy Spirit's power and the filling of the Holy Spirit. I think it really came a lot because they were up against it. They were up against it. The Jewish authorities are coming after them. The Sanhedrin is coming after them. We're gonna see that in the days ahead. We see it in chapter 4 at the beginning. The Sanhedrin's on the move. The Roman authorities don't know what to do with the church. And you guys, it's exploding. It's exploding. It goes from 3,000 to another 5,000, that leaves 8,000. And some believe that by the fall of Jerusalem, which is in 70 A.D., there were 100,000 believers in Jerusalem alone. So they're taking over. This is a kingdom of God revolutionary movement. We need that in America. In a couple weeks, we're gonna celebrate the 250th anniversary. I'm gonna do a special sermon about what I think unifies America from the founding. But we're a disunified nation. And what makes it hard for us in America is that our constitution was built on a unified country based on a relationship with God. Now it could be all kinds of denominations. That's what makes America great. It wasn't just Catholic, it wasn't just Protestant. It was a constitution that allowed for people to freely worship. But that constitution was built on a godly people. And so when you don't have a godly people, the constitution really, really is hard to deal with. And so that's why we're having a constitutional struggle right now in our country. We're disunified. And that's why we believe, at least at the road, that we want to ask God and believe God and trust God and open God's word every time we come together with the idea that I think is a New Testament idea, that God wants to bring a kingdom of God revolution to America. And may it start here. May it start in your heart. Because it's a kingdom of God revolution that was happening in this early church. And it started with each individual. And God was bringing, I mean, think about the disciples. You had you had uh zealots who wanted to kill people, they were out to take over the government. You had tax collector, Matthew, you had uh laboring blue-collar fishermen, and somehow God came and he united that group in a powerful way. God unites churches under the kingdom of God. And we see a kingdom of God vintage, kingdom of God church. Look at verse 32. That's the operable verse this morning. One heart, one soul. Running together, breathing together. They had this unity that even affected, which is probably the most difficult area to impact, and that's finances. They even began to be so moved by the Spirit that they're generously giving away everything that they have. And this guy, Barnabas, comes along, and I think Barnabas is gonna be key with what we're gonna look at next week with Ananias and Sapphira. Because what's gonna happen in chapter 5 with Ananias and Sapphira, in my opinion, is because they're comparing themselves to what Barnabas does here. So Barnabas brings, he's from Cyprus. So he's selling land. He sold land, he's heard what's going on, he sells his land probably in Cyprus, and then he brings the proceeds of money. He's the generosity that's flowing from the church is amazing. This unity, this powerful unity of the Spirit. So turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4. And Ephesians chapter 4 gives us years later, written by the Apostle Paul, the principle of unity in the church that's being expressed in Acts chapter 4 and throughout the book of Acts with the unity that's happening anecdotally. So turn to Ephesians 4, verse 1. Look at Ephesians 4, verse 1. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. With all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. So, unity of the spirit. So, men and women, unity is actually a spiritual issue. The more mature we are in Christ, the more unified, starting off with our own heart. I mean, I was a disunified emotional, physical, spiritual being as a freshman in college. And then I came to know Christ, and there became this alignment, not overnight by any means, but there was a gradual alignment in my heart, with my spirit, with my soul. I became one of heart and one of soul gradually in my life under the rubric of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And so Paul says we endeavor with love to be a people called to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. And bond here means belt. It's what holds it all together, this belt of peace. And so when we're walking in disunity, we're unhooking the belt. When we're walking in disunity, we're unhooking what holds the fabric of everything together. And so the work of the Spirit is actually a spiritual issue. It's being filled with the Spirit, and first of all, church, being unified in yourself. And it doesn't happen, like I've said, it doesn't happen overnight. But as we gradually surrender to Him, God gives us a heart for unity, and that unity begins in your own heart. So when our heart is unified, under the power of the Holy Spirit and the work of God in our life, that we have something to give away. We have a full heart and something to give away to others that brings unity to them. And so that unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace is that homothemodon. It's that that breath, that one accord in our lives. And unity is not uniformity, it's not everyone looking the same, but everyone on the same agenda. So in 1 Corinthians 1, we read this dysfunction that was happening in the Corinthian church, somewhere for Paul, some were for Apollos, some were for Peter. And he and he he he comes and he exhorts them what is going on with this havoc and disunity in the church. Because it's a symphony, it's like a philharmonic. So a philharmonic orchestra is a Musicians tuned together in this beautiful sound that comes forth. And so they are struggling with that. But in Ephesians, we see this battle going on. Look at verses 4. And he says, this is the rubric by which that unity comes. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in each of you, or in you all. So unity is a oneness of purpose. Unity is not sameness of persons, but oneness of purpose. So all theology, all unity, all oneness within the church is based on the triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Three persons, but one purpose. One God with three coequal persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with one purpose. One in essence. One in essence, but distinct in personhood. The Father's not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father. But all three make up the one Godhead. They're distinct in person, but they're not distinct in purpose. So I look out at each of you. Some of you I know, some of you I don't know so well, but I can guarantee you there's so many differences in this room. And just huge differences in color, in size, in height. Some of you are like me, you're vertically challenged. Some of you are of a different race, a different country. And yet here we are. Under the Word and the Spirit. The most unified movement in the world today is the Christian movement in the spiritual sense. But the most disunified movement in the world today is the Christian church. And yet I believe that in the days ahead, God's gonna bring unity. God's gonna bring churches together in a way, and it'll have to be supernatural. And it will be a supernatural work of the God. I believe that God's gonna do that in the Catholic Church, He's gonna do that in the Protestant church, He's gonna do that in non-denominational churches. But God's gonna move, He's gonna bring, He's bringing the church together. And we see it in other parts of the world, not so much in America yet, because we're so individualistic, but in Africa and in parts of Asia, there's movements happening today that are bringing unity like we've never seen before. I think the word might be synergy. There's a synergy that goes with that. Isn't it interesting that when you look especially at the moral issues of our day, where we were just so much party-driven, Republican and Democrat, there has been much more unity in Christians over moral issues. Like if we just take pro-life, if we just look at the pro-life movement, you have, I'm sure, as many Catholics, if not more Catholics, than you even do in evangelicals. And yet it's brought us together with the view that all life is sacred. Isn't that exciting? So where we thought it was gonna be denominational or we thought it was gonna be theological, it actually became issues of our day that united us. So I don't know what God's gonna do. I don't know how he's gonna do it. But I know in the early church, they're united partially because of the persecution that they're under. So even as persecution might intense in our day, it's gonna unite us in our hearts. So we're gonna go through times in our life where we're under persecution, we're under the frustration of everything that's around us, and that's when we need blood-stained allies. That's when we need blood-stained allies to stand with. And I think that's been the key with Tuesday morning with the men. We come together, 400 of us, sometimes greater than that, but we come together and we're there because I think we as men feel so attacked by culture. And yet to come together with seven or eight guys at a table and be vulnerable about our shame, be vulnerable about what we're going through, unites us. It unites our hearts. So this unity of the Spirit, under one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all. Distinct. What the Father does is different than what the Son does, the Son does, what the Spirit does, distinct in person, but united in purpose. There was once a breach. There was once a breach of that unity. It happened on Good Friday. We teach on it every Good Friday service, where Jesus is on the cross and he feels abandoned by his father because he was. He took on your sin. He took on my sin. And he who had never known sin became a sacrifice for our sin. And community for the one and only time was broken with the Father and the Spirit. He said, Father, Father, why hast thou forsaken me? And I don't understand all the mysteries of that, but something was broken. And for the first time there was a disunity in the triune God. Jesus knew there at Gethsemane before that that this is where he was going to go and this is what he was called to do, and he said yes. And then he said, It is finished. It was completed. The work of redemption was completed. Do you know that relationship? Do you know that relationship? Do you know that Christ, in perfect union with the Father and the Spirit, from the beginning of time, immemorial, right there at the beginning, Genesis 1 of the creation of the earth, and immemorial before that, was disassociated with and broken in his relationship with the Father because he loves you so much. Because he loves his creation so much, he wants you to know him. When he said it was finished, it was finished, it was done for. And he goes down into hell, and he took the keys of sin and death from the devil and the demons in hell, and he said, You no longer have power over my creation. I have redeemed them, they are mine. And unity came back together. And when we come into a relationship with Christ where you may have felt like in your own life, it is finished, it's done, it's over, I'm always going to be depressed, I'm always gonna be addicted, I'm always gonna be broken in my relationships. Christ comes and he says, it's not finished, it's just started. Let me take over. Let me bring the unity of your heart that you've always been longing for. Because there's no other way that lasts but through the unity that comes from the Spirit with the belt of peace, the bond of peace. When God's standards are upheld and God's love is experienced, God shows up in unity. Look at verse 13. Look at verse 13 of Ephesians 4. Till we all come to the unity of the faith. You see, God's bringing a unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. Paul is saying that the unity of the faith is based in our knowledge of God, it's in growing in Him. So unity just doesn't happen because we give our life to Christ. It begins, it starts the journey of the unity of your heart. If you're here today, if you're watching online this morning and you've not surrendered to the Spirit, to Jesus, to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, do it. You can't find inner unity until you find unity with God. Psychological unity comes through unity with God. Physical unity begins with unity with God. Emotional unity begins with unity in God. And that's why in Psalm 133 we read, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity, for there the Lord commands the blessing. Only place in Scripture where God commands a blessing is when a people are unified. And same for each of you in this room. As you are unified in your heart and your soul with Christ, he commands a blessing over you. Come to Him. In John 17, the high priestly prayer, Jesus prays this, that they may all be one as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And the glory which you gave me, I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one. I in them, and you in me, and they may be made perfect in one.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

Thank you for listening to the Road Church Podcast. We pray today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world. For more information about The Road Church and to find more content like this, go to theroad.org. That's theroad.org.