Monday, September 26

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Acts 2:42

They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Many years ago, while I was in college, my father helped me get a summer job with an electrician who attended our church. Technically, my role was called “electrician’s apprentice,” which is very funny if you know anything about my electrical incompetence! In reality, I was a “go-for” – and my job was to help the electrician by carrying wire and tools – but not to actually do any electrical work!

One day, after I had been on the job for just a few days, I was standing at the foot of a ladder while the electrician worked on top. He called down to me, “Hey, go get the 3/8th channel-locks out of my truck.” Now I had no idea what “3/8th channel-locks” were – he may as well have asked me to go get the man in the moon. But he issued the request so casually that two things were clear to me: first, it was clear that the electrician believed sincerely that any knucklehead should know what a “3/8th channel lock” is; and, second, it would be way too embarrassing to admit that I had lived 20 years, and finished two years of my college education, and still did not know what 3/8th channel locks were. So, in a split second, I made my decision. I said, “You got it!” and headed to his pick-up while praying that there would be just one tool in the truck – and that it would be clearly marked, “channel locks.”

No such luck. The back end of his pick-up looked like a Home Depot stored had exploded in it. There were multiple tool boxes and dozens of oddly shaped tools scattered all over the bed of the truck. I stared at the mess of tools and tried to imagine what a “channel-lock” would look like. But those two words just didn’t seem to go together. There was nothing in the truck that looked like a “channel” and nothing that looked like a “lock” – so I grabbed several tools that looked like they would be useful to an electrician standing on a ladder and shoved them into my pockets and headed back to where he was working.

As I arrived he said, “Hand it up here,” while sticking out his hand. I reached up with one of the tools I had decided might be a “channel-lock.” He took it and quickly looked down and said, “I said “channel-locks.” I said, “Oh, yeah, sorry,” and handed him another tool. This time the electrician stopped, examined the tool, looked back down at me and said, “You don’t know what “channel-locks” are do you?” I stammered out something like, “Well, not exactly…” and then the electrician started to laugh – and he laughed so hard I thought he might fall off the ladder. Then, with tears still in his eyes, he climbed off the ladder and took me to his truck and showed me what channel-locks looked like so I would know the next time he asked. And believe me, he teased me about that all summer long!

The point is that I was ill-equipped to do the job of an electrician’s apprentice. I didn’t know the work, the language or the tools required. And because I was ill-equipped to help, the electrician wasn’t equipped with the tools he needed to get the job done.

Notice what the Book of Acts tells us about the early followers of Jesus as the church was just beginning to create its “ripple effect” in history. These early believers had seen or heard about Jesus during his earthly ministry. They had heard Peter preach about what Jesus’ death and resurrection meant and now they come to faith in Jesus as Messiah and Savior. But what should they do next? How were their lives to be any different? What did it mean to be part of this movement? How would they equip themselves as freshly born-again followers of Jesus? How would they find the tools they needed to live this new life and to accomplish the purpose Jesus had given them?

They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 2:42

Read the first part of that sentence again: “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching...” The apostles were men who knew Jesus, and who God had chosen to use to share his good news with the world. So the best way to understand what Luke means by “the apostles teaching” is to think of God’s word. These early Christians devoted themselves to God’s word in order to be fully equipped for the task at hand – that is, living as witnesses to Jesus in a world that was indifferent at best and hostile at worst.

Think of it this way. If, as followers of Jesus, we do not devote ourselves to reading, understanding and applying his word to our lives, we are like that foolish young fellow who went looking for channel locks when he didn’t even know what they were!

Thank God for sharing himself with you and ask him to help you become more and more devoted to his word!

Pastor Brian Coffey