The New Society

The New Society –

I believe that the quality of community in our Western Society has declined over the last 20 years. That decline is evidenced in the increase of anxiety and depression in the population, and in the escalating statistics of divorce, suicide, drug abuse and juvenile crime. But most of all, it shows in the superficiality of our personal relationships.

The rise of individualism in our western world means that we no longer think of human relationships as the fundamental stuff of which life is composed. On the contrary, self-fulfillment is our catchphrase today. If relationships are important at all, it is simply as a means to ones self-absorbed end.

We can blame all this on something:

· Capitalism

· Consumerism or as one person writes

· The suffocation of the nuclear family

· Or even our own self-fulfillment or narcissistic agenda.

Whatever it is one thing is clear, our world desperately needs to rediscover the meaning of community. And by that, I mean the sense of mutual care and mutual involvement which comes from the understanding that we belong to one another. Few of us enjoy that sense of corporate identity today. And sadly, we keep looking in the wrong places. For example, Social Media: I have 652 friends on Facebook. BIG DEAL! That’s not really a community to speak of.

The opening chapters of Acts point us to the place where such community ought to be found. And the words read out from the end of and 4 this morning make it clear in the writers mind (ie Luke) that a Christian is not an individual, who enjoys a private relationship with God, but a member of a new society, undeniably bound up with other Christians in mutual solidarity of a very special kind. Sometimes we call this the “Body of Christ”. But most often it is known as ‘the church’.

Whichever expression you might chose to use, it refers to the new community to which Christian believers found they belonged, and which played a vital part in growing those ever increasing circles of influence through the world, which began back in Jerusalem then to Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Let’s look at three things this morning from that distinguishes this new community…..

1. The sign of membership

2. The experience of belonging ‘

3. And finally, a community that cares.

The sign of membership

The apostle Peter has just preached his first sermon since the outpouring of the Holy Spirit has taken place on the day of Pentecost, explaining from Israel’s history that Jesus,

who was crucified is both Lord and Messiah

Then we read:

37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ()

To be a Christian and a baptised member of the Church went hand in hand. Because baptism was the universal sign of faith: ‘Be baptized every one of you!” There were no exceptions and there was no delay.

Now we have lost the immediacy of that connection between faith and baptism today. The reason are many (infant baptism, some denominations not performing baptism etc). However the major reason for the separation of baptism from faith or salvation is morer fundamental still It lies in the fact that we have a view of salvation subtly different form the 1st Century church. You see we think of salvation as individualistic, something we each experience on our own. But for the early Christians, salvation was much more a matter of leaving a community under judgement, to find refuge in the saved community of the church. Let me read on:

40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

The Fellowship of the Believers

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship ….

Now it is true that an individual decision to turn to Jesus is required, bit it was a decision to leave one group, ‘this corrupt generation’. And join a new group, ‘the fellowship’ (of believers). You see this throughout the NT. The experience of salvation is tied up with the sense of belonging to the People of God. There was no such thing as a solitary Christian. To be a Christian was by definition, to be known publicly as a member of the local church. And it was baptism that signified that new identity. You couldn’t be a Christian without being welded into that new community. It was a job lot. How did you know who belonged to it? They were the baptized ones. Do you recall form the book of Joshua what the sign of membership to the People of God was? Male Circumcision…..

But this whole membership idea is kind of novel to us because we have been brainwashed by our individualism. I hear people say, “I don’t need to go to church to be a Christian”. Well you are sort of right, because being a Christian means having faith in Jesus Christ to save us from our own sin. But being an individualistic Christian is like taking a coal out of a stoked fire. What happens to the coal while the rest of the fire burns? – It goes out…….

Similarly, there is a new phenomenon in the western church where people church hop to hear their favourite speaker with little or no involvement in their local church community. Now there’s nothing wrong with hearing other speakers from time to time. But if it’s a habit, what’s happening? Community is not achieved, and fellowship is diminished for you and for the faith community you supposedly belong to.

Friends, stick with one church community, in good and tough times so that you can contribute meaningfully and be ministered to caringly and get on with the command to make disciples of all nations.

The reasons why people church hop are many. For some it’s dissatisfaction with the leader, for others, the music is not my genre, or there is nothing for my kids. It’s a kind of consumer mentality.

But look at the experience of belonging the early church had…..

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ()

There appears to be a high degree of voluntary commitment which the believers displayed towards this new community that had come into being.

v.42 speaks of their devotion to the apostles teaching

There is something ‘spontaneous’ about their desire to do things together. They weren’t just spectators but were participants. You see church for them was not just an institution they attended on a Sunday, it was a community that formed the context of their whole lives and about which they were passionate about. SO the new community is devoted to the apostles teaching – no doubt of the OT Scriptures and the stories of Jesus’ life while he was with the apostles for three years. And connected to this teaching are the many wonders and miraculous signs being done by the apostles. Now I don’t seem to have the same supernatural power of signs and wonders that the apostles did but that does not mean it isn’t available to us today.

So is the apostles teaching back in the early church important to us today?

· The answer of course is yes!

· Why?

As the church has evolved it has erred. As it has moved from this fellowshipping community and evolved, church for generations and centuries in fact, has become an institution. And in many instances’ ecclesiology (that is, what a church might believe about itself and its buildings etc) has over-ridden the apostle’s teaching. But by devoting ourselves to the apostles’ teaching (ie the NT Scriptures and the OT Scriptures) we then aren’t governed by our own ideas, rather we are informed by God and his Spirit about his plans for his people.

One person was sharing last Friday morning how one person in their Connect Group who struggles to come to Sunday worship said, “I struggle to get to church, but the church comes to me!”. Church is not the building or the service time or music or Holy communion, but it is the people of God ’ing ….

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bready and to prayer

Of course coming to public worship is a great thing. However our public worship does not provide the intimacy of fellowship and shared concerns if we really feel we are going to belong.

One commentator (Keith Miller) writes:

Churches today are filled with people who outwardly look contented and at peace, but we are inwardly crying out for someone to love them. Confused, frustrated, guilty, often unable to communicate, even with their own families. But the problem is that other people they see in church look so happy and content and self-sufficient, they have never had the courage to admit their deepest needs.

Do you really want to have the experience of belonging as one of God’s children?

Join a Connect Group or form a DTG (Discipleship Transformation Group) and read God’s word, share your concerns and prayer needs with one another and challenge yourselves to be witnesses to the saviour that the world is desperately crying out for.

The last thing I want to glean from this passage is seen in 2:44-45

44 All the believers were together and had everything in common 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.

What we are seeing here is a community that cares

When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost the world was turned upside down. You see the Holy spirit transformed the hearts of thousands of people. Look at who is gathered at this outpouring:

5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia Pontus and Asia 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

What do you notice in these verses?

There are a whole lot of people groups from different nations gathered able to understand each other though they had different languages. The Holy Spirit is actively involved and had created a new kind of caring society among them. God’s Spirit didn’t drive them apart but pulled them together.

There was no competition, rather a desire to share and care and help out as well as getting on with testifying to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus as tells us. (don’t read just put up on screen)

33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them.

Now as the new community of believers gathered together and shared their possessions and testified to God, what do we see happening?

The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. ()

I read these chapters of Acts and consistently amazed at just how fired up this new community is and just how incredible God’s love for people like me is.

Last week we completed H4W for the year and by all accounts it was a great time and great success. We worked with other churches. We went out to the community and the community agreed with us that helping out the needy with food was and is a good idea, and a powerful sign of the joy and friendship shared was seen in the unpacking and distribution of this to the agencies. There may not have been much gospel proclamation but as we knocked on doors there seems to have been a trust from our neighbours to support the project.

And you know what? As we were active in the H4W project there was a real sense of belonging among the people of St. Mark’s and other churches that I think comes from doing things with each other and caring for each other.

There is another group of people in the church joining with other churches to begin praying for our block. And I wonder what God’s spirit is going to do as we again are doing things with one another and caring for one another and our wider community?

I want to encourage us all to get involved at St. Mark’s. Don’t just sit in that grand stand, but get out on the playing field of life as God’s people testifying to the amazing plan he has for our lives. And God knows, we live in a world desperately longing for authentic loving and caring Christ-filled communities that don’t just talk about God’s love but show God’s love. Let us power on being a community captivated by Jesus Christ connecting with the world. Amen!