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Every Believer Fits in God's Community |
“THE WAY IT WAS AND THE WAY IT CAN BE”ACTS 2:42-47
Take note of that last sentence. “America (has become) one vast, terrifying anti-community” What an apt description of the world we live in – “anti – community”. (Against community) You and I, your family, your friends, and your neighbors live in a culture that is set up and functions in ways that keep us from experiencing what we were created to experience – community. We’ve discussed in other messages about the effects of individualism on community. We’ve discussed how our desire for privacy at all costs affects community. Now contrast that statement with the statement of Apostle Paul. “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” 1 Cor. 12:27
Here is the good news if you are a believer you fit, Jesus Christ has never redeemed anyone that he has not made to fit and equipped to have a functioning place in his body, in the community of believers.
Even though people may surround us, lots of people we can be and many times we are extremely lonely. I googled the word loneliness and was faced with 12,900,000 items on the web about loneliness. I was especially intrigued by an article on Wikipedia titled “How to deal with loneliness” some of the suggestions were good. Such as “for those with religious beliefs, consider fellowship with those of your faith.” One other suggestion I found to be rather strange. “Join an online community, sometimes it can help.” That seems strange doesn’t it? I’m lonely so I’ll isolate myself from people by sitting in front of my computer! Christ offers us so much more than joining an online community; He offers us real interaction with real people that brings real joy and real satisfaction Luke describes just such a community for us in the book of Acts. Let’s read Acts 2:42-47 “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 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) Before we begin to look at these verses over the next couple of week there is something that we must keep in mind. Many Scholars believe that Acts 2:42 and the verses that follow is Luke’s summary statement. Luke is summarizing the results of what has happened so far in his account of the days of the early church. Therefore we need to keep in mind what has previously transpired in order to properly understand these verses. What has already happened? 1. Jesus has said his final words while on the earth in a bodily form. His words are recorded in Acts 1:8 2. Jesus then begins to rise up through the air, through the clouds until he is finally out of sight. 3. The disciples follow the Lord’s instructions to wait until they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 4. The Holy Spirit was given to them so that they might be witnesses throughout all the earth. 5. The promise of the Lord comes true and the Holy Spirit comes 6. Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost and the Lord adds to the church 3000 7. Now we come to Luke 2:42 “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” 8. This means that what follows Luke 2:42 - 47 is a description of what was taking place with not simply the small group of disciples but with over 3000 Disciples of Christ! 9. When I factor that little nugget into what I read that makes it even more remarkable! It truly makes it an act of God. 10. Again, everything that follows applies to not a small number but to a very large and an ever growing number of believers. 11. The first lesson we learn from this passage is that a large church, a large group of believers can contrary to popular opinion experience true biblical community. Certainly the level of difficulty increases as the church grows, but it is not an impossibility and I would say it is not even an improbability if we learn from the community of believers at Jerusalem. 12. How can we, GCC experience the kind of community that is displayed here? 13. It may surprise you that the place to start is not by simply beginning to practice the activities that are described for us in verse 47. If we try and create community on our own by simply imitating the actions of these early believers we will surely fail. 14. We would fail because we would be ignoring the power, the person that enables us, empowers us to live in the kind of community displayed by the church in Jerusalem. 15. Who is the power, the person that is behind this supernatural display of community? 16. Let’s go back to Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 17. The only way that we as a church, as a community of believers can live in community that will have a dramatic impact on the world will be by the power of the Holy Spirit. 18. The only way that we can live in community, in true biblical community is through the power of the Holy Spirit. Apart from the power of the Holy Spirit there is zero possibility that we can live together this way. 19. When the Holy Spirit came in power on the Day of Pentecost He effected such a radical transformation in them that not only allowed them to live in community but also actually gave them the desire to live in community 20. What you and I need to realize is that each one of us who are believers have already experienced our own personal Day of Pentecost! The Day of Pentecost wasn’t about tongues, it was about transformation. It was about a radical new birth-taking place in 3000 lives. When you were saved you were saved in the same way that the 3000 were saved on the Day of Pentecost through the power of the Holy Spirit causing you to be born again, through the Holy Spirit giving life to your dead soul. We don’t have to wait for another Day of Pentecost if we are believers, we have already experienced it. Let me remind you that the Holy Spirit is referred to as the “Spirit of Christ” in both Romans 8:9 and 1 Peter 1:11. We received the Holy Spirit at the time of our new birth but we have an ongoing need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We see this in the book of Ephesians where we are commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit. How are we filled by or with the Holy Spirit? By taking in the Words of Christ, by taking in the Scriptures, by saturating ourselves with the Scriptures so that the Scriptures guide our daily actions. As we walk by the Spirit, which simply means we obey the Scriptures, the Bible describes that as being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Therefore in order to live in and to live out the kind of community that Christ desires for us to have and that Christ died to make possible for us we must be living Spirit filled lives. It is only through the gospel of Jesus Christ that the barriers that divide us are broken down, all prejudices are conquered, and all class distinctions are done away with. The only way that we can experience unity together is by our union with Christ. Even though we know we should live this way we still have difficultly living this way, we are all so selfish by nature, unwilling to help each other out. If you want to know how sinful you are just taking a couple of moments to review your actions of the last 24 hours you will quickly see just how selfish we can be. If you are selfish you are not Spirit filled and if you are selfish you can’t live in community.
Selfishness is the enemy of community. It is in these areas of our lives that the gospel of Christ must be brought to bear. You may not have a problem with the “big sins” but you probably do have problems with the little sins, they may seem like no big deal to you but you need to pay attention to them because they are revealing what is in your heart and what is controlling your heart. If you are controlled by selfishness, the Spirit of Christ is not controlling you; you have effectively set yourself up as god. You obey yourself you serve yourself. It’s easy to display community when the ice storms hit and the power goes out. It is much harder to display community in the day-to-day interactions that we all have with one another. Again, this is where we as believers need to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to bear on our lives, every moment of every day. To demonstrate just how sinful we are and how easily our own hearts can deceive us consider this. The world, the unbelieving world desires community but they reject the only one who can provide us with real community. Meanwhile the believers who can through Christ, through the gospel experience real community either live as if we don’t have a need for community or we reject the power of the gospel that will help us live in community. I wish I could get each and every one of us to see that the gospel is not just for the future, for the life that comes after this one, the gospel is for this life, the one you live right now. The life that you take to work each day, the life you live as you rub shoulders with those you love. The life you take into the classrooms, and the dorm rooms. Until we realize that and we begin to live the gospel each and every day we are not going to be very effective witnesses for Christ.
Is the picture that Luke paints for us a realistic one? We may be tempted to look at Luke words and say he is describing utopia. He is, but not in theory but in practice. Luke is describing not a perfect church, but a model church. He is describing a Spirit filled a Spirit led community. How do we know that? If we examine what Luke says we find that the two things that we have been talking about, being filled with the Spirit and not being selfish are on display. Notice first of all the Luke says that they, this large group of brand new believers in Christ were devoted to the apostles’ teaching. What do you think they were teaching? They were teaching about Christ. What do you think was their textbook? It was the Old Testament. They were going back to the Scriptures and from the Old Testament they were preaching Christ. I’m sure they were teaching them what Christ had taught them as well. Here is my point, they were devoted to the Scriptures, they were having regular, perhaps daily intake of the Scriptures which led to them being guided by the Scriptures, by led by the Spirit. Notice it says they were devoted to the apostles’ teaching. To be devoted is to be persistent, to be perseNo desirvering in. In other words it wasn’t hit and miss, it wasn’t sporadic, it wasn’t when they felt like it. It was regular consistent intake of God’s Word. Laura asked me one time if you could think too much about God. What is the answer to that question? The answer is no! You can’t think too much about God. Unfortunately the problem we have is that we think far too little about God. Listen to what the Scriptures encourage each one of us to do. “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” (Psa 1:1-2 ESV) “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts.” (Jer 15:16 ESV)
If you have little desire for the word that should give you pause. If you have little desire for the Scriptures then one of two things are true. One you are certainly not a Spirit filled Christian, or worse you may not even be born again. You may not be a Christian.
Let’s deal with another issue. What if you have little desire for Christian community? That is a good indicator that you are out of fellowship with God. If your fellowship, if your relationship with God is strong then your relationship with your brothers and sisters in Christ will be strong. Ask yourself who do you desire to be with the most and the answer will give each of us tremendous insight into our spiritual condition. Let me suggest some very easy ways that you can begin to spend time consistently in the Scriptures. One way is to have one or more people that you allow to hold you accountable in this area. Every one of us should have someone that we allow to ask us sometimes the difficult questions, the hard questions that help hold us accountable. Don’t get mad or angry when a brother or sister in Christ asks you these kinds of questions, they do it because they love you and are concerned for you. Another way to have regular daily intake of the Scriptures is to take advantage of the number of resources that are available to us because of technology. For instance for several years now I have followed the daily reading plan put out by Crossway who publishes the ESV bible. Every morning when I turn on my computer and open up my blog reader, guess what is faithfully waiting for me? Each day I receive that day’s Scripture reading. I can either listen to it or I can read it or I can do both. You can have the same thing sent to you via e-mail every day as well. How about using I tunes? Something new that Crossway stared this year is that you can have a daily pod cast that you subscribe to delivered right to I tunes every day. All you have to do is open up I tunes and listen to that day’s reading. I know you have time for this because the average day’s reading is about 15 minutes. Do you have an I pod? Download the pod cast onto you I pod or mp3 player and listen to it as you get ready or workout or just listen to it. Have a CD player in your car? You can get the Bible on CD and listen to each day. There are numerous ways to get into the Scriptures every day, you just have to choose which one works for you and be consistent with it. Some of you are beginning to meet with one another during the week. That is a great time to read the Scriptures together and hold each other accountable. We can’t have true Biblical community until our community has a common focal point. Our community must center on Jesus Christ. The Scriptures are all about Jesus Christ. Because these believers were devoted to the Apostles’ teaching, they were in turn filled with the Spirit, they were living by the Spirit and therefore there is absolutely no hint of selfishness in their midst. Remember Luke is describing the actions and the attitudes of 3000 people. Isn’t that amazing? Verse 43 says “And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.” (Acts 2:43 ESV)
Let’s ask ourselves this question, what was it that inspired such awe in those who witnessed what was going on? Certainly the awe came from the wonders and the signs that were taking place. But could it be that part of what inspired awe was the sight of thousands of people living in community. Living lives in which selfishness has been abolished. Wouldn’t that strike awe into your heart if you were to witness such a thing just in your own house? Imagine witnessing it in whole groups of peopl How do we know that they were living unselfish lives? Notice what Luke records in the very next verse where he records that that had all things in common. What that means is that as a need arose within the community another in the community met that need. They gladly gave from what they had or they sold land or possessions and met the need that existed. Think about that, still today when someone steps up and meets a need, when someone performs a selfless act it makes the news! Why because unfortunately it is the exception rather than the rule in our world. The events of life present us with the opportunity to demonstrate the kind of community that produces awe in all those who witness it. For instance Nolan sent me an e-mail Friday night suggesting that the ice storm has presented us with an opportunity to help out someone who has a mess to clean up because of the storm. We can do that in-house. Jason and Laura have damage that needs to be cleaned up. Here is another opportunity that we can as a community of believers can demonstrate community to those outside of the church. One of the men who participated in the Biggest Loser – Jim Wylie his wife passed away just a few days ago. Her viewing and funeral are this afternoon right here in Berea. The viewing starts at noon. All of us could take just a couple of minutes to stop by the Funeral home and pay our respects to Jim and his family and to tell them we were praying for them. That would be a tremendous witness for Christ. We need to view each one of these opportunities as gifts from Christ and to be good stewards of them so that He may see fit to provide us more. |