What is your church celebrating this year? A new staff member? Old staff member retiring? Opening a new facility? Anniversary of something? A new sound system? (It might happen.) I don't know what your traditions are, but there are lots of things that make us come together and rejoice. In my tradition, these moments seem to always revolve around some type of meal. But what does the Bible say about our celebrations? What are we supposed to honor and how should we honor these times?
While there aren't many commands to celebrate in the New Testament, we can look back to the beginning of the church, and find that God's people have always found reasons for revelry. However, their reasons for celebration were a bit different from ours. We'll learn from an example in book of Acts, that the early church really rocked the house.
In Acts chapter 4 Peter and John were arrested for healing a man and then proclaiming Jesus in the Temple. Imagine how tense this situation must have been for them and that 1st Century church. A few months prior, your teacher and the Messiah, Jesus, was brought on trial before most of these same men. If they killed Him, what could happen to the disciples? Certainly death was a real possibility. The early church gathers to pray but certainly this was not a reason to celebrate. It is great when God turns our mourning into dancing!
Continuing in Chapter 4, we find their hearing. There is a lot of heated discussion but the counsel is not really sure how to act in this situation. They ultimately decide to let them go with a stern warning. It is great to see the boldness of these men because they stood up against the religious authority. Even after being threatened, they still stand up and say they will not stop speaking about Jesus. Now there is a reason to celebrate:
When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, "Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them..." Acts 4:23-24 (ESV)
Here's where the celebration of the early church sounds a bit different. It's not a pot-luck. That could have happened later, but initially, it's a prayer celebration. I think this is the greatest lesson for us today. Whatever the cause, we need to start the party with the reason --- praises to God. You can continue reading the prayer in Acts 4:25-30. It is a great teaching in corporate prayer. They hang on to the promises that God made and point back to all that they had gone through.
It's interesting that in the prayer there is only one request. They don't ask for their own safety and they don't ask for blessings. They don't ask to change the Jewish Counsel's mind. They only ask for continued boldness to speak the Word of God. That seems to be somewhat different than my prayers. I think I would be praying for this not to happen to any of us again, but they pray - please don't let us stop in the mission. This is attitude of the celebration.
In many ways, this reminds me of some of the things we see happening in our world today. I think of Pastor Saeed Abedini who was recently released from more than three years in a prison in Iran. Although the official charges where different, he was arrested for similar reasons as Peter and John proclaiming the message of Jesus. From the things I've read and heard, Pastor Saeed was actually able to reach people in this dark prison. He took the Gospel where no missionary is ever allowed to visit. This ought to be a reason for the 21st Century church to celebrate and pray that same manner. We need to pray that believers in every country be able to speak God's message with boldness.
What I really like is the end of Peter and John's prayer (Acts 4:31 (ESV):
And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
Their celebration ended and the place was rocking. Now that is a celebration! I don't know about you but I've never been in a church celebration ended in an earthquake. I am certain that I have been shaken inside on more than one occasion. But I am pretty certain that this was not a figurative expression. I believe the ground was shaken.
So what can we conclude with a look at this first century sample celebration? If we're looking for a real earth-shaking time, we need to give God first place in our celebrations, both public and private. The cause for celebration to them was thanksgiving to God. Finally, our attitude should be one that is focused on the Kingdom. We need to come together and celebrate God's message being boldly sent forward.
