Wonder Experienced in Community

Introduction

Let’s Pray

Slide #1

This morning we are going to talk about the Wonder that was experienced in the early church community. Our main idea this morning and what I hope we will leave with is - There is Life in Community. It’s important that we recognize our need for community. I think over the last few months, God has really placed this idea on my heart. He’s reminded me over and over again that there is incredible importance and value when God’s people gather in a community, and what this really will look like as we go into the world. God through the bible calls us toward this time and time again. But what is community? We talk about it a lot in church and when we meet with people, we encourage you to join the community or find community. But what is it?

We are probably familiar with this idea of community being defined as a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. In a sense that is what community is people who are in the same place or who have shared interests coming together. What we will find out today that community in the Christian sense is so much more.

I think as people we want community. We want people to spend time with and to go through this life with. I know for me, as a bit of a extrovert, I really love spending time with people. And I’ve found throughout life that people gravitate toward some sort of community whether good or bad. When I went back home after finishing university in 2009 I found myself leaving the community that I found in university, a group of Christian young adults that I had being doing life with for 3 years. I went home to their not being a strong community of young adult believers and so I ended up gravitating toward a community that was made up of my work colleagues. This community was focused on career and partying. And so I found myself pulled toward this group of people which wasn’t directing me toward things that would better my life. But God is good and he began encouraging me through my friends from university and eventually directed me toward a group of young adults, who were not all from my church, but were meeting together, studying the bible, and growing together. And this was the push that I needed to chose and be apart of a community that would give me life.

There is life in community. And with that we will look at the book of Acts this morning. I’d encourage you to turn with me again to verses 42-47.

Slide #2 & 3

- “42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

42 And athey devoted themselves to the apostles’ bteaching and the cfellowship, to dthe breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe5 came upon every soul, and emany wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and fhad all things in common. 45 And fthey were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, gattending the temple htogether and ibreaking bread in their homes, they received their food jwith glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and khaving favor with all the people. And the Lord ladded to their number mday by day those who nwere being saved.

b See

c ; ;

d ; [ver. 46]; See ch. 20:7

5 Or fear

e See

f ch. 4:32, 34, 35; []

f [See ver. 44 above]

g ch. 3:1; 5:21, 42;

h See ch. 1:14

i [ver. 42]

j [ch. 16:34]; See

k ch. 5:13

l ver. 41; ch. 5:14; ch. 11:24

m ch. 16:5

n ; [ver. 21, 40; ch. 16:31]

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016. Print.

Slide #4

Background

Acts as a book is written by the Apostle Luke and he spends a bit of time writing about what the early church was and things that they were going through as the begin going out into the world sharing the gospel.

We see here the believers had just experienced this supernatural event. They had all come from different places and had gathered together as one. Then the Spirit came and they were able to hear each other in their own language as they talked about all that God had did through them. The bible tells us that many people were being added into the list of believers during this time. The community was growing. We are seeing life formed and nurtured into this new community.

As we look at this thought this morning - there is life in Community - our passage begins to give us some ideas of what was going on in the midst of their community which help us as we experience community together and as we look to see our community grow.

Slide #5

1. They committed themselves to 4 things. ()

You see immediately that all the believers devoted themselves to four key things; teaching, fellowship, sharing meals and praying.

Teaching

We see the focus on teaching, specifically teaching from the apostles which would have been the preaching of the gospel. The apostles were instructed by Jesus near the end of his ministry on earth, and we read in Matthew, to go into all the world and to share all that he had taught them; to share the gospel. And so we see the early church meeting together and taking in this teaching. They make sure that they were present and doing exactly what we are doing now. They devoted themselves to do this. It is so important for us to be regularly meeting together and talking through and learning about the bible and how we should live our lives.

Slide #6

I love what one commentary said, “They first of all devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. Meeting together in the temple courts appears to have been for the express purpose of hearing the apostolic preaching, though doubtless there were also opportunities for teaching in the home context.” Understanding what was going on during this time, there was a thirst for learning more and more about Christ; about who he was and what he was about. And it didn’t just stop during their times together in worship but was brought back home.

Slide #7

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” The early church knew that in order for them to grow in their faith they needed to be in a place where they were receiving teaching about Jesus. There seems to be an eagerness to do this together. The bible is our source for knowing how God wants us to live.

d ; ,

e See

Why should we do this? The bible backs this up for us when it says in , “16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” The early church knew that in order for them to grow in their faith they needed to be in a place where they were receiving teaching about Jesus. There seems to be a real desire to do this together. The bible we know is our source for knowing how God wants us to live.

2 That is, a messenger of God (the phrase echoes a common Old Testament expression)

f []

g See ch. 2:21

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016. Print.” The early church knew that in order for them to grow in their faith they needed to be in a place where they were receiving teaching about Jesus. There seems to be an eagerness to do this together. The bible is our source for knowing how God wants us to live.

I love talking and spending time with new Christians. Very often they have an intense hunger for God’s word. They just can’t get enough of it. As we grow in our faith there are times where our desire and want to be in God’s word decreases. I know there are times where I’m in that place. And I know that I need to check my heart because I need fill my spiritual tank with truth from the bible. And one of the best ways that I’ve learned to do this is in community.

We started a small group in a former church with a few friends a number of years ago. And I was a really amazing time of growing together in our understanding of the bible. I remember often being struck with a thought from someone else on a thought from the bible and also being able to help someone else understand a piece of scripture better. I’d leave this group energized and uplifted. Why? Because there is life in community when scripture is at its core.

I would encourage you to consider joining a bible study or a Sunday School group. I’ve been to the Men’s study this week during our visit and have also spent time at the adult Sunday School groups. Folks they are good, there’s some amazing teaching and learning that take place here and I’d encourage you to check it out.

Fellowship and the Breaking of Bread

This verse also focuses on fellowship and breaking of bread. Fellowship here has the idea of association, communion, and participation; it means to share in something. It’s this idea of spending time with and caring for one another. It is said that the Christian Life is meant to be full of fellowship, of sharing one with another.

Slide #8

And we do this because of all the things that we share:

- We share the same Lord Jesus.

We share the same love for God.

We share the same desire to worship Him.

We share the same struggles.

We share the same victories.

We share the same job of living for Him.

We share the same joy of communicating the gospel.

I think a reason they were devoting themselves to spending time with each other is because of the encouragement that they got from one another. The Christian life isn’t easy and we need to be there for one another.

Slide #9

The bible tells us in tells us, “24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” It can be easy for us to fall back into doing things that were part of our life before Christ, but having a Christian community around us to help encourage and keep us accountable is so important. As this verse in Hebrews says to motivate and encourage each other toward loving one another and toward doing good things.

24 And zlet us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 anot neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and ball the more as you see the Day drawing near.” It can be easy for us to fall back into doing things that were part of our life before Christ, but having a Christian community around us to help encourage and keep us accountable is so important. As this verse in Hebrews says to motivate and encourage each other toward loving one another and toward doing good things.

z [ch. 3:13]

a []

b

c See

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016. Print.” It can be easy for us to fall back into doing things that were part of our life before Christ, but having a Christian community around us to help encourage and keep us accountable is so important. As this verse in Hebrews says to motivate and encourage each other toward loving one another and toward doing good things.

And not only were they just spending time with one another they found the importance of breaking bread together or having a meal. If you think about it the dinner table is an amazing place for connection and conversation. It’s a place where you don’t have a great deal of distraction and can spend really intentional time with people.

We know that there is opportunity for deeper bonding and relationship building when a groups when people share a meal together. Invite someone over. Spend time with them.

Along with spending time with one another, fellowship encourages us to care for one another. To be there helping and meeting one anothers’ needs. This is stepping in when a brother or sister is in need of something. I’ve seen church do really well in this, taking care of one another. There are incredible stories of groups of believers coming together to help and care for each other. I’ve heard many stories while being here of this church stepping up and meeting needs as they’ve been presented. For me that’s a really amazing sign of great fellowship taking place and is a sign of healthy community taking place. Again because there is life in community.

Prayer

Our verse this morning also talks about the believers devoting themselves to prayer, the most important aspect to this. Specifically the verse talks about the believers devoting themselves to the prayers. Meaning the believers were still in their Jewish rhythm of praying at specific times during the day. But what is different about these new believers would be the contents of their prayers. You see, they would be praying for each other, for God’s work taking place in their lives and they would be praying to God on behalf of others in their community. Praying was also taking place during their fellowship with one another. So while they were meeting together and sharing meals together they were praying. As we read through Acts we see Luke describe prayer as integral to the church’s life.

Slide #10

The Intervarsity Press Commentary does a really good job describing prayer in this verse when it says, “It is the essential link between Jesus and his people as they carry out his kingdom work under his guidance and by his strength.” They are praising God for all that he has done and pleading with him to continue his work through them. The bible reminds us time and time again to be praying.

Slide #11

In , “16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” And over in we read, “14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” This early group of believers recognized that there was an incredible amount of power in prayer.

16 vRejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” And over in we read, “14 And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. 15 And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for. “ This early group of believers recognized that there was an incredible amount of power in prayer.

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” This early group of believers recognized that there was an incredible amount of power in prayer.

v

h ch. 2:28; 3:21; 4:17

w See

i ch. 3:22; []

x See

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016. Print. “ This early group of believers recognized that there was an incredible amount of power in prayer.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016. Print.” And over in we read, “14 And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. 15 And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for. “ This early group of believers recognized that there was an incredible amount of power in prayer.

And this is the call on us. That as we spend time in community that we need to be praying. Being in prayer for one another and for God to move around us.

Slide #12

I love this quote from Oswald Chambers when he writes, ““We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there's nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all. Most of us would prefer, however, to spend our time doing something that will get immediate results. We don't want to wait for God to resolve matters in His good time because His idea of 'good time' is seldom in sync with ours.” This is sometimes our view on prayer. I know for myself I get caught into this thought process of doing, so my immediate response isn’t prayer. The passage this morning is very convicting to me as prayer was a rhythm of the early church to keep them plugged into God. And so I’m convicted that my first response in situations is to go to God.

Being around the church you get to hear many stories of God faithfully answering when his people come to him in prayer. I’ve seen this take place in my life as well. Just in the way and process of Bethany and I moving to Sicamous it was so good to see doors opened, needs met and specific things sorted out as we prayed and as a number of people here and in our life group in Bermuda prayed for this to happen. There is life in community especially when they come together in prayer to God.

And I believe that if we want to see life and growth in our community we need to also be devoting ourselves to these things.

Slide #13

2. They saw amazing things take place and because of that there was growth. ()

And you know what. Because of devoting themselves to the apostles teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer the believers were able to see the power of God in incredible ways in their community. We see that they experienced a deep sense of awe come over them. This is evidence of the power of God and how it is able to change the heart of people toward a reverent honour of God. This sense of awe is inspired by the awareness that God was at work in their midst. Not only did they have this sense of awe but they were able to see the apostles perform miraculous signs and wonders. They were able to sense the power of God at work within them as well as see it take shape in front of them within their community of believers.

We then find that they were able to have amazing unity among their community. You see they were all meeting together, it is thought that more than 3,000 believers had gathered together at this point. And in this community that was forming there were people who had and those who didn’t have. What we are then seeing is that this community was taking care of one another. They realized that taking care of the needs of people in their community and following in Jesus’ command to love others was more important than their possessions.

Slide #14

Andy Stanley writes, ““If you see your brother in need, it doesn't matter if you already gave somewhere else. You should be open to the idea of God using you to meet your brother's unexpected need.” This early church community was doing just that. Meeting needs as they came about.

And in doing all of this they saw growth and life in the early church. Many people were being added to their numbers. There was such life in this community that the folks around them took notice and they wanted to know and take part in this new gathering of people.

Slide #15

Folks when we are in community with one another and are loving each other and in unity with one another, people will take notice and want to be apart of what is going on. This is something that cannot be ignored. We see this all throughout the book of Acts.

What we’ve been talking about up unto this point is God’s prescription for church growth. Not only in numbers but in maturity and love toward one another. If we take it upon ourselves to do what is being modelled in our passage; being taught, fellowshipping, praying and seeking unity we will see God take care of the rest and bring about growth in our personal lives and in the church.

Because there is life in community.

Slide #16

3. There are tough times in Community ()

And you know what, we will also find that there are moments where we face difficult times in our community. Times where our community needs to be corrected and set back on the right track. I’ve been apart of Church Groups in the past which were life giving, but I’ve also spent time in Groups within the church that needed to be corrected and set back onto the right path. I was part of a Group during a season where the church wasn’t doing very well and instead of focusing on all the things that our passage this morning in is talking about my group focused on and spent a lot of time in the muck of what was taking place in the church. Talking about what was wrong and the people involved. It wasn’t until getting out of that Group did I realize that the season of being in this group was affecting my relationship with others in the church and more importantly with Jesus.

Slide #17

In we read, “10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”

10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”

1 Or brothers and sisters. In New Testament usage, depending on the context, the plural Greek word adelphoi (translated “brothers”) may refer either to brothers or to brothers and sisters; also verses 11, 26

”

q []

r ch. 3:3

s ch. 3:4; [, ]

t See

u See

v [ch. 12:5; ; ]

w See

x

y See

z ch. 16:15, 17

a ch. 2:1, 4, 13; [; ; ]

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016. Print.”

We see that there were some tough things going on in the church. What is really interesting about these divisions is that it was caused because the people were removing their focus from Jesus and instead placing it on the people who they were following. This is what we need to protect our communities from. From building these idols of our group and straying from what we talked about is important; studying the bible together, having authentic fellowship, being in prayer together and experiencing unity. If we want to really experience life in our community we need to keep a check on these things.

Conclusion

As we close our time together, I want to remind one more time of the importance of community. And with that I want to encourage you to consider if you need to find a group to join to get this fellowship. Sometimes its easy coming into a church service and then going home and going about your week. But I want to challenge you to ask someone about a group you can try out. Maybe this is the next steps that you need to take to deepen your faith. And for those of you who are already apart of study’s and groups here at Evangelical. I’d encourage to you find someone else, another brother or sister, who you think needs to be apart of this dynamic community and who needs to get this life poured into them.

Slide #18

I want to leave you with a quote from A.W. Tozer, “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”

Let’s pray.