With One Mind: A Word Study Through Acts

In one paragraph

This message was a word study of the Greek adverb homothumadon, which appears throughout the book of Acts and once in Romans 15. Pastor Mark used it as a lens to review the whole arc of Acts, tracing the church from Jerusalem outward. The point was that being "in one accord" is both a description of how the early church moved and a pattern worth living into today. The word homothumadon is an...

Read together

1. Acts 1:8 Jesus tells disciples they will be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part
2. Acts 1:13-14 disciples listed by name, continually devoting themselves in one accord to prayer along with the women and Mary
3. John 17 Jesus' high priestly prayer asking the Father to make his followers one, unified as he and the Father are one
4. Acts 2 day of Pentecost, Holy Spirit comes, believers together in one accord in the temple breaking bread house to house
5. Acts 4 Peter and John released after arrest, companions raise their voices to God with one accord
6. Psalm 2 quoted by the believers in prayer asking why nations are insolent and rulers gather against the Lord and his Christ
7. Acts 5 apostles gather homothumedon in Solomon's portico, signs and wonders taking place, believers added daily
8. Acts 7:54-60 crowd rushes at Stephen with one mind, stones him as he prays for God not to hold the sin against them
9. Acts 8:6 crowds in Samaria pay attention with one mind as Philip proclaims Christ and performs signs
10. John 4 Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman, identifies himself as the Messiah and prophet she was looking for
11. Deuteronomy 18:18 Moses said the Lord would raise up a prophet like him from among the people and they should listen to him
12. Acts 12 Herod in royal apparel addressed people of Tyre and Sidon who came to him with one mind seeking peace; angel struck him dead for not giving glory to God
13. Acts 15:24-29 Jerusalem Council becomes of one mind, writes to Gentile churches asking only four essential abstentions, not the whole Jewish law
14. Acts 18 Jews rise up homothumedon against Paul in Corinth, bring him before Gallio who dismisses the case
15. Acts 19 near riot at theater in Ephesus, crowd rushes together homothumedon shouting great is Artemis for two hours, most not knowing why they gathered
16. Romans 15 closing blessing that God would grant believers to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus so they glorify God with one voice
17. 1 Corinthians 11 Paul says as often as believers eat the bread and drink the cup they proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again

Talk about it

1. The pastor described unity as something Jesus prayed for urgently before the cross, saying it was 'very, very, very important to Jesus.' What does it mean to you personally that Jesus spent some of his last moments before the crucifixion praying for the unity of his followers?
2. The sermon pointed out that homothumedon shows up in Acts describing both faithful believers and angry mobs, meaning people can be completely unified and completely wrong at the same time. Can you think of a time when you were certain a group you were part of was right, and later realized it was not?
3. The pastor noted that the early church was 'held up' in Jerusalem until persecution scattered them into the places Jesus had already told them to go. Have you ever experienced a situation where difficulty or disruption turned out to be what actually moved you forward in obedience?
4. The Jerusalem Council worked through a genuine disagreement between Jewish and Gentile believers and arrived at a shared position, with the pastor noting that 'it was achieved' rather than given. What practices or attitudes do you think made that possible, and which of those are hardest to maintain in a disagreement today?
5. The sermon closed with Romans 15, where Paul prays that God would grant believers to be of one mind 'according to Christ Jesus so that with one voice we may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.' What would it look like practically for this congregation, with its roughly forty different denominational backgrounds, to pursue that kind of unity without losing honest conviction?