The Gospel Unites Generations
In Luke’s gospel account of Jarius’ twelve year old daughter and the woman who suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years, there is a convergence of two generations. During the same twelve year period, a child was born and a woman began to suffer from a chronic illness. At the end of this twelve year span, both were healed by Jesus (Luke 8:40-56).
Interestingly, the number twelve in the Bible signifies God’s government, control, and reign. These two miraculous healings by Jesus which demonstrated His sovereignty over sickness and death, and that happened moments apart, also demonstrate that both young and old have the same need; namely to know the transforming person and power of Christ.
Because Jesus not only raised the dead, but also died for our sin and triumphed over death Himself, all who trust him, young and old, can know His reconciling love and resurrection power in them through the indwelling Holy Spirit. (Colossians 2:6-15)
One of the ways that Jesus shows the power of his reconciling love and resurrection power is through the unity of the body of Christ (John 17). But sadly, because many churches rely on pragmatism rather than the Holy Spirit to fill seats, there’s a lack of unity in the church, especially between the older generation and younger generation.
The New Testament exhorts the elders to teach the younger and for the elder not to despise youth (Titus 2:4; 1 Timothy 4:12). But today we divide the older generation and the younger generation based on such things as music preferences and worship expressions. Some churches today not only do church to appeal to the preferences of certain generations but some actually offer separate services to accommodate these preferences.
But what if we are supposed to unite around the supremacy of Christ and lay aside our personal preferences and non-essential interests so that we can unite to the glory of Christ? What if the older and younger generations have something to give to each other by the sovereignty of God in unity that will make the church stronger and exalt the sufficiency of Christ over our preferences? What if the older generation is to prepare the way for the younger generation, like the Old Testament saints (12 tribes of Israel) prepared the way for the New Testament saints (12 Apostles)? What if the love of Christ would be seen best not by dividing the church by what style of services people prefer, but by the younger generation rejoicing in seeing the older generation singing the old hymns and joining them and vice versa?
I submit to you that the converging of the older generation and the younger generation in Christ is the New Testament way. Unity by the love and truth of Christ is God’s plan to show the world that Jesus was sent by God and that we are truly His disciples in whom His Spirit dwells (John 13:35; 17:20-21).
I appreciate what Pastor Mark Dever shared at the Sing Conference about unity and worship music:
In the New Testament we see that the compelling unity of the early church was motivated by gospel love. Concerning the church’s unity, Doctor Luke writes,
The unity that the early church experienced led to an extraordinary display of generosity. Their unity did not mean uniformity. When it says that they had all things in common, this doesn’t mean that they all had the same taste and preferences, or even the same wealth. Don’t get the idea that in order to have unity, everyone has to be the same. When the bible says that, “no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own," this doesn’t mean that it was a sin to own your own house. The bible is not teaching a form of communism or communal living, say, like the cults of Jim Jones and David Koresh.
The unity that they experienced, the reason they were of one mind and one accord, was the result of their mutual love for Christ and desire to fulfill His mission to make His love known in the world. Because of their love for Christ, they didn’t insist on having their way. They could put aside their non-essential differences in order to maintain the unity of the faith.
Again, Christian unity is not sameness. Christian unity is motivated by gospel love (2 Cor. 5:14-16). When we truly know the love of Jesus, who laid down His life for us, we are able to die to selfish desires so that we might live for Him. It’s that love that makes us a beautiful and compelling witness to who Jesus is to the world.
In the light of the beauty of the unity of the early church, let me ask you, what are churches in American known for? What stands out that makes us distinguishable from the world? Is it a love and unity that is so compelling that it causes people to say that the resurrection of Jesus that they proclaim must be true? Otherwise how can you explain the sacrificial and voluntary generosity of their community? I can understand loving your own family that way and taking care of your own. But they love each other more beautifully than we love our own families.
And if it’s not sacrificial love and unity that we are known for, should we come up with a cheap substitute, like better music and programs to attract people to the church? Of course not. We are not supposed to win people to church, but to Christ. And we are to do so with the message of the gospel backed up by a community of faith that lives out the love of the gospel. How is this possible?
The extraordinary unity of the early church, which was motivated by gospel love, and was manifested in generosity, was mobilized by grace. Sandwiched between the testimonies about the supernatural unity and sacrificial generosity of the church, we read in Acts 4:35,
The statement, concerning how with great power, the apostles gave testimony to the resurrection of Jesus, is followed by, “and great grace was upon them all.” What does this mean? John Macarthur explains:
The testimony of the early church was that they had all things common. When they said, "mi casa es su casa," they meant it. This was the result not of some chosen economic system, but a worthy response to the power of the resurrection of Jesus. As a result, they were a living and beautiful testimony to the life-giving power of the gospel.
The psalmist sang, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” Psalm 133:1
How beautiful it is when young and old are singing praises to Jesus together, not apart, because of their mutual love for Jesus and one another. Let’s seek to not only be a part of a gloriously beautiful church where there’s supernatural gospel unity but let’s by the grace of Jesus all do our part to make it happen.
May we all seek to manifest the unity and love of Jesus, as we are motivated by the gospel of Jesus and mobilized by His grace that is greater than all our sin.
In His service,
Pastor Marco
Interestingly, the number twelve in the Bible signifies God’s government, control, and reign. These two miraculous healings by Jesus which demonstrated His sovereignty over sickness and death, and that happened moments apart, also demonstrate that both young and old have the same need; namely to know the transforming person and power of Christ.
Because Jesus not only raised the dead, but also died for our sin and triumphed over death Himself, all who trust him, young and old, can know His reconciling love and resurrection power in them through the indwelling Holy Spirit. (Colossians 2:6-15)
One of the ways that Jesus shows the power of his reconciling love and resurrection power is through the unity of the body of Christ (John 17). But sadly, because many churches rely on pragmatism rather than the Holy Spirit to fill seats, there’s a lack of unity in the church, especially between the older generation and younger generation.
The New Testament exhorts the elders to teach the younger and for the elder not to despise youth (Titus 2:4; 1 Timothy 4:12). But today we divide the older generation and the younger generation based on such things as music preferences and worship expressions. Some churches today not only do church to appeal to the preferences of certain generations but some actually offer separate services to accommodate these preferences.
But what if we are supposed to unite around the supremacy of Christ and lay aside our personal preferences and non-essential interests so that we can unite to the glory of Christ? What if the older and younger generations have something to give to each other by the sovereignty of God in unity that will make the church stronger and exalt the sufficiency of Christ over our preferences? What if the older generation is to prepare the way for the younger generation, like the Old Testament saints (12 tribes of Israel) prepared the way for the New Testament saints (12 Apostles)? What if the love of Christ would be seen best not by dividing the church by what style of services people prefer, but by the younger generation rejoicing in seeing the older generation singing the old hymns and joining them and vice versa?
I submit to you that the converging of the older generation and the younger generation in Christ is the New Testament way. Unity by the love and truth of Christ is God’s plan to show the world that Jesus was sent by God and that we are truly His disciples in whom His Spirit dwells (John 13:35; 17:20-21).
I appreciate what Pastor Mark Dever shared at the Sing Conference about unity and worship music:
“[It’s a] counterproductive idea to have different styles in different services; to have an earlier traditional service and a later contemporary services. [Disciple] your young people to want to sing hymns not because they like them but because the older generation does and it will edify them. [Teach them that] the motivation for their singing should not be what allows them to express themselves, like in their own personal quiet time with their eyes closed, but with their eyes open looking at all the people they’re worshiping with and thinking, what can I do to build them up today. And [teach] the older generation to want to sing newer [Christ exalting songs] because that’s going to help the younger generation get encouraged in the gospel. It doesn’t matter if they like it; if things are true, then use those instruments to edify each other. Stop trying to put that spoon in your own mouth. Put the spoon in the mouths of each other.”
In the New Testament we see that the compelling unity of the early church was motivated by gospel love. Concerning the church’s unity, Doctor Luke writes,
“Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.” Acts 4:32
The unity that the early church experienced led to an extraordinary display of generosity. Their unity did not mean uniformity. When it says that they had all things in common, this doesn’t mean that they all had the same taste and preferences, or even the same wealth. Don’t get the idea that in order to have unity, everyone has to be the same. When the bible says that, “no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own," this doesn’t mean that it was a sin to own your own house. The bible is not teaching a form of communism or communal living, say, like the cults of Jim Jones and David Koresh.
The unity that they experienced, the reason they were of one mind and one accord, was the result of their mutual love for Christ and desire to fulfill His mission to make His love known in the world. Because of their love for Christ, they didn’t insist on having their way. They could put aside their non-essential differences in order to maintain the unity of the faith.
Again, Christian unity is not sameness. Christian unity is motivated by gospel love (2 Cor. 5:14-16). When we truly know the love of Jesus, who laid down His life for us, we are able to die to selfish desires so that we might live for Him. It’s that love that makes us a beautiful and compelling witness to who Jesus is to the world.
In the light of the beauty of the unity of the early church, let me ask you, what are churches in American known for? What stands out that makes us distinguishable from the world? Is it a love and unity that is so compelling that it causes people to say that the resurrection of Jesus that they proclaim must be true? Otherwise how can you explain the sacrificial and voluntary generosity of their community? I can understand loving your own family that way and taking care of your own. But they love each other more beautifully than we love our own families.
And if it’s not sacrificial love and unity that we are known for, should we come up with a cheap substitute, like better music and programs to attract people to the church? Of course not. We are not supposed to win people to church, but to Christ. And we are to do so with the message of the gospel backed up by a community of faith that lives out the love of the gospel. How is this possible?
The extraordinary unity of the early church, which was motivated by gospel love, and was manifested in generosity, was mobilized by grace. Sandwiched between the testimonies about the supernatural unity and sacrificial generosity of the church, we read in Acts 4:35,
“And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.”
The statement, concerning how with great power, the apostles gave testimony to the resurrection of Jesus, is followed by, “and great grace was upon them all.” What does this mean? John Macarthur explains:
“[This] grace can be understood in two ways. First, as in 2:47, it can refer to the approval of the people. Although the leaders opposed them, the common people had not yet turned against them. On the contrary, they were impressed by the believers’ love and unity. Second, and more important, the early church had God’s favor. A fellowship characterized by loving unity and evangelistic zeal receives God’s blessings.”
The testimony of the early church was that they had all things common. When they said, "mi casa es su casa," they meant it. This was the result not of some chosen economic system, but a worthy response to the power of the resurrection of Jesus. As a result, they were a living and beautiful testimony to the life-giving power of the gospel.
As Francis Chan observed, “We have come up with countless strategies to reach the lost when God promises that unity is the method that will work. Think about that: God gave us instructions on how to reach the world, yet we abandon the one set of instructions He gave us even as we scramble to create classes and programs and events that promote everything but the strategy God gave us! What if we took God’s description of the Church as a family seriously? What would happen if a group of people [young and old] sought Jesus fervently, loved one another sacrificially, and then shared the gospel boldly?
Sadly, there are a lot of people in our churches who aren’t interested in living out loving family like this. I’m going to say something that might be hard to hear: What if we let them leave? I know that goes against all the wisdom of modern church-growth strategies, but it’s exactly the kind of thing Jesus would do. While we design strategies to slowly ease people into Christian commitment and grow attendance at our services, Jesus called people to count the cost from the very start (Luke 14:25–35). He didn’t expect His followers to be perfect, but He did demand that they be committed (Luke 9:57–62). The people who leave your church because they’re turned off by the level of relational commitment will find another church that can provide what they’re looking for. You can’t shape the life of your church around who might leave if things start to feel too much like the New Testament.” (Letters to the Church, Francis Chan)
The psalmist sang, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” Psalm 133:1
How beautiful it is when young and old are singing praises to Jesus together, not apart, because of their mutual love for Jesus and one another. Let’s seek to not only be a part of a gloriously beautiful church where there’s supernatural gospel unity but let’s by the grace of Jesus all do our part to make it happen.
May we all seek to manifest the unity and love of Jesus, as we are motivated by the gospel of Jesus and mobilized by His grace that is greater than all our sin.
In His service,
Pastor Marco