And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. – Acts 2:42-47(ESV)

Friends, this is an example of how the early church lived life. I encourage anyone who plans to stick with me through this to first read all of Acts 2, for from it has been gleaned the driving force and mindset of this piece.

I feel that most of American church culture today is far, far different than what is seen in Acts 2. Yes, of course our culture does contain natural institutions distinctive from that of the early Christians, but the differences today seem to be issues of the heart rather than slight cultural variances.

It is evident that, at least for a time, the early church written about in Acts was solely focused on and abandoned to following and surrendering to Christ together. The focal point was Jesus and His resurrection. The lives of Believers revolved around worshiping Jesus and on living together in that worship.

Now I am not at all intending this to be a ranting gossip of the church today. There are so many churches doing wonderful things today, and God is absolutely moving in spectacular ways. By “church,” I intend to speak about the people, followers of Christ.

I have found in life, in my selfishness, or perhaps just in my naivety, that as a good Christian member of society, my duty seems to be in graduating college, finding a full-time job and getting married.

“I think I’ll just leave the crazy radical-type stuff to the super Christians,” I think to myself. “They will be the ones going to die in countries I can’t even pronounce. I could never think about leaving my job to go on missions, I could get promoted soon.”

I hate the selfishness in my heart, and I think that many young American Christians feel the same way.

The astonishing thing is that there is no such thing as a non-radical Christian. Jesus calls us to die to ourselves daily and follow Him. He calls us to love Him and love others, taking the gospel everywhere we go -- there are no excuses.

What if American Christians truly began seeing their workplaces as mission fields, truly caring about and loving their coworkers? This is how we are called to live.

The church in Acts 2 is not a mere image. It is not a sweet Bible story. It can absolutely be our reality. We are not called to go to church on Sundays to get our God fill for the week. That is completely against every motive of Scripture. We are, as the very church, called to live together in community, worshiping Jesus together and living in light of His resurrection, loving Him and loving His people with the gospel. We have been given the unlimited power of the Holy Spirit of God to take the name of Jesus to the ends of the earth. It is such an incredible opportunity, and I don’t want to let it go to waste.

I long to live differently than society, knowing that I don’t belong here. My hope is that I will never lose sight of the gospel and who Jesus is, that I will not ever let my selfish desires take over and gain control, for I know that what Jesus has, even suffering, is far greater than anything I could do in my selfishness.

I want to live for Jesus alone, regardless of how society tells me to live and apart from my selfish desires, and the great news is that I -- we -- can.

It is possible to live in community as the early church did, pursuing Christ together and loving the people of God. People are in need. People need the gospel -- they need love. Together, we can love God, each other and those in need just as we are called to do, and it can be our joy to do it.