We are nearly two weeks into fall, my favorite season of the year. Fall, in my opinion, is the perfect season: brilliant colors, warm days and chilly nights, bonfires, hoodies and sweaters, apple cider and hayrides… When you see those signs, you know that FALL IS HERE! What’s not to love?

 

Of course, every season has its signs, but it seems that fall has the most brilliant indicators that the season has finally arrived. The same should be of the church – signs that say to the world, “Christians are here!” Acts 2:42-47 shares many of those signs that scream to the world, “Christians are here!” So for the month of October, we will look at just four of the many signs that screams, “Christians are here!” through the acronym of FALL.

 

The first sign that should tell the world “Christians are here” is “F”…FELLOWSHIP! We can also call it community.

 

Acts 2:42 says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (emphasis mine).

 

The Greek word here for fellowship is koinónia, and means: “what is shared in common as the basis of fellowship, partnership and community.” What we share or have in common is Jesus Christ, and that common bond was made possible through His blood.

 

When you sit in another church and feel a common bond…that’s Jesus. When you go to work and look forward to connecting with a Christian friend…that’s Jesus. That relationship with Jesus unites all Christians, of all kinds and denominations, from every corner of the world.

 

It was that common bond of Jesus that united all Christians of Luke’s day and enabled them to have “all things in common” (v.44). That fellowship they shared was a sign that indicated to the rest of the world two things: first, that they belonged to Jesus Christ, and second, that they had experienced a true change of heart. As Christians, we are to have a heart that acknowledges that God is the giver of all things, and that he shares with us from His abundant storehouse and that nothing we have really belongs to us. So, out of a heart that has really been transformed by the power of the blood of Christ, we share all we have.

 

One of the screaming signs that indicates “Christians are here!” should be the way we share life with one another – the good, the bad, the ugly, the burdens, the joys, the pains – and out of a radically changed heart give it all, knowing that our Father has it all covered.