The Nine - The Church

Acts 4:32–37 ESV

32 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. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

PRAY

Intro

Recap the nine

Jason last week taught on Jesus and his life death and resurrection as we looked at another marker in the Bible that tells this grand story of redemption.

Obviously we know that Christ is the main focus of the whole of scripture but it’s important for us to understand that when Christ rose from the grave He established his church as the continuation of the kingdom work here on earth.

And that is what we will be talking about tonight.

What is the role of the church in the kingdom of God.

Acts 4:32 ESV

32 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.

First we see here that the believers in the first century church were of one heart and soul.

What does this mean? Did they all think exactly alike and act alike and speak alike?

No! in fact we see throughout the new testament that very early on within the church. (not as early as this but still within the first century church) We see them having disagreements about who should be allowed in the church, how should you act in the church, what should you wear, who you should do business with…

The one heart and soul that this verse is referring to is that these believers were unified in their love for Jesus Christ and their confession that He did in fact raise from the dead.

Which is what we are unified with as well. Regardless of family background, hobbies, social status…

Whether we are in this building or we are out at school we are unified by our love for Jesus and our desire to follow Him.

The church has always gathered together to encourage one another and to share about Jesus who is not dead but is risen.

Acts 4:33 ESV

33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

So the church was unified together because they all collectively recognized that Jesus Christ did in fact raise from the dead and He was truly God and the disciples testified to that fact.

Sharing about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.

As the first century church gathered together to talk about Jesus so do we. And what is amazing is that even today, two thousand years from when this first church was meeting we are still opening the testimony of the apostles that was divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit and written down in the Bible that attest to the fact that Jesus has rose from the dead.

People have tried to disprove the bible, they have tried to disprove the testimony of the apostles about the resurrection of Christ, and yet for some reason more and more people continue to come to faith in Jesus Christ because we do not believe in made up fairy tales or lies, we don’t even believe in the words of twelve men, but that the apostles were able to testify to the risen Christ because they were empowered by the Holy Spirit.

The first role of the church in the kingdom of God is the proclamation of the Gospel.

Mark 16:15 ESV

15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

We should be able to tell our friends, our neighbors, our teachers.

Will you be hated for it, YES!!! but the bible never promises us that we will be liked, it tells us that the gospel is offensive. But it brings life to those that will accept it.

So just like the church has done for thousands of years your job as the next generation of Christ is to continue the tradition of proclaiming the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Our second role as the church is to serve the Lord.

Acts 4:34–35 ESV

34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

The church in Acts 4 saw that there were some that were in need, (probably of food and of shelter and other basic necessities, and they ensured that anyone that was in need of anything would be provided for.

They specifically took the example of Jesus to love your neighbor as yourself literally and many of them were selling any excess that they had and it was being distributed to those that were in need.

Through how they loved others they served the Lord.

PAUSE

Before you go home and tell you mom and dad that you need to sell your house and your cars and live in tents I want to point out a couple things.

The selling of houses and land does not mean that they were selling everything that they owned because then they would be the ones in need. Instead it appears more so that they were selling excess of what they had and were distributing it to those that needed it.

This is not an example of communism in the Bible.

Many people like to point to these verses and say that Christians were the first communists and that is a terrible understanding of the text.

There were certain wealthy Christians at that time or people who had more than their neighbor and out of the abundance of love for one another they were freely giving what they had to help out their fellow christian.

No one was obligated by the church leaders like the apostles to give in this way or to give this much.

The church still does this today.

We give of our tithes because we are commanded to biblically and many people in our church who are wealthy are some of the most generous people I have ever met.

In fact there was a man just this week that called me and desperately wanted to give the student ministry a financial gift because he wanted to ensure that if any students needed to go to summer camp but couldn’t afford to go they would be able to go to camp without needing to pay.

There are millions of stories like that happening all over the world but they are often done in secret because these people are not bragging about what they have but rather blessing others who are in need.

The church has used vast resources to build incredible organizations that have benefited not just the church but humanity as a whole.

A majority of hospitals (especially ones like St. jude, st. vincent, st. ect.) they were founded by the christian church

Many colleges especially ivy league colleges STARTED OFF as seminaries with the goal being to teach people how to study and know God’s word.

Food banks, disaster relief, homeless shelters, orphanages. Many of these services are often run by and maintained by Christians.

So I don’t want you to go home tonight and sell every possession you have but I do want you to ask yourself.

God what have you given me that I can use to bring you glory?

It may not be money (I don’t have a lot of money to give besides what I give for tithe)

I don’t know what the financial status of our small group leaders are but what I can tell you is that week in and week out regardless of what they give financially to our church they are here encouraging and strengthening the next generation of believers

You may not ever step foot on a stage

There are incredible men and women who serve the Lord in incredible ways and never receive the earthly recognition they deserve

But God sees and He is counting what they do as righteousness

We see one of those people at the end of Acts 4.

Acts 4:36–37 ESV

36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

Here we see an example of one of these land owners selling a field he owned (notice it didn’t say he sold everything) and he brought it to the apostles and laid it at their feet.

This man’s name was Barnabas and he is a major part of the first century church.

What was amazing about Barnabas was that Barnabas didn’t desire to get a pat on the back or to get recognition for what he did but instead Barnabas desired to obey the Lord and to serve Him.

It’s amazing what God can do with a heart that desires to serve Him

Here’s somewhere else that we see Barnabas being used God.

Acts 9:26–27 ESV

26 And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

Barnabas was the very first person to vouch for and defend Paul

The guy who wrote more than half of the new testament

Barnabas would also be used by the Lord to help encourage and raise up a guy named John Mark

The guy that wrote the book of Mark

Barnabas would follow Paul on many journeys evangelizing to the gentiles across the known world

Barnabas doesn’t have a book named after him in the bible, he probably isn’t on anyone’s top ten influential christian figures but Barnabas understood that we as a church are not called to make our names great but instead we the church are to…

Tell people about the Gospel of Jesus.

Serve the Lord in whatever way you can.

PRAY

Who in your life needs to hear the gospel?

How has God equipped you to serve Him and glorify His name to those around you?