The Early Church: Abiding Together
Notes
Transcript
Do you miss church, yet?
Do you miss church, yet?
I can’t tell you how many people have said that as much as they like being able to do church in their living room without pants, it’s just not the same.
Perhaps for Christians, this COVID crisis has made us realize how right it feels to be together, and how unnatural it feels for Christians to be apart.
The Early Church was on to something. If you read through Acts, Christianity is hardly ever described as an individualized thing; Christianity always happens in community.
We’re in the middle of a sermon series exploring what church is about at its core, and what the fundamentals of Christianity were about for the Early Church.
Today, we see that as much as we make Christianity out to be an individual experience today, for the Early Church, Christianity was about abiding in God’s Word together.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
The Early Church was Devoted to the Apostles’ Teaching as Jesus’s ongoing voice.
The Early Church was Devoted to the Apostles’ Teaching as Jesus’s ongoing voice.
The Apostles’ teaching is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it is the voice of the Shepherd. The voice of the Shepherd calls through the apostles’ writing of the Scriptures.
For Christians, for the sheep, the voice of Jesus, their shepherd, becomes the only voice they follow.
English Standard Version Chapter 10
The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
Christians only know the voice of Shepherd because they are devoted to hearing and learning the voice of Jesus, and they hear his Word in the Scriptures.
Why do they follow his voice? Because they know it is the voice of safety.
In the ancient world, sheep knew exactly the voice of their shepherd, and they followed it to the extreme...
...so much so that the shepherd had to be careful not to call to his sheep if there was a chasm between them, because the sheep would follow his voice over a cliff.
The sheep are devoted to the Word of the Shepherd because they have complete trust that he is the source of life and safety, and security against danger and death
We have the Shepherd who died and rose and robbed death of all of its power, and we know that in Jesus we have the only gate to eternal life; that is his Word, the gospel.
Jesus warned about the voices of strangers, thieves and robbers who threaten the sheep.
I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
What is Jesus saying here? Bad doctrine is the most dangerous thing in the world, because it tries to steal away the sheep.
And what does it lead to? Jesus says “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”
Other voices try to lead you away from the only one who saves you, the only one who has defeated death itself, to lead you to your destruction.
What strange voices call to you? What other voices tell you that Jesus isn’t the only way?
Recent surveys have found that the majority of Christians in the U.S. believe that “good people” and even non-Christians may attain eternal life.
Friends, that’s not what Jesus, the Shepherd, says! He is the only way!
Sheep who know the voice of the Shepherd, who are devoted to the apostles’ teaching, and who know the Scriptures learn to instinctually recognize strange voices.
The Early Church was all about abiding in God’us Word together as sheep follow the voice of the Shepherd.
The Voice of the Shepherd keeps us from going astray after false sources of security and life
The Voice of the Shepherd keeps us from going astray after false sources of security and life
Look at what Peter said as he wrote to the Early church:
19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
As Christians, we don’t claim rights and individual liberties as if we need those to live. Jesus is our only life, our abundant life, now, even if it means we suffer!
That’s why the early Christians were willing to be martyred. They didn’t have the right to worship legally, gather in public, or proclaim Jesus; they followed Jesus to death.
They’d probably look at us funny for complaining when the government doesn’t give us special treatment.
Back then, special treatment for many Christians meant not being fed to lions! Look at us today, we get to broadcast to millions of viewers on Facebook!
We go astray when we turn our faith or worship into a right or entitlement, because it’s relying on our rights and freedoms as the source of security, not Jesus.
We don’t need rights and liberties to follow Jesus, because we have abundant life even if we’re killed for following him. Individual liberties and ideologies can be false voices!
Republicans. Democrats. CNN. Fox News. Facebook shares and political memes. Conspiracy theories and worldly agendas. They’re all the voices of the world.
The America we live in tells you that you get to be you, and you get to define who you are, and you get to choose which voices you trust for freedom, security, and life.
But that’s not what our Shepherd says. He invites you to something much better.
Our Shepherd invites you to leave everything. He invites you to abandon your ambitions and allegiances in this world for one much bigger and better and eternal.
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
It’s kind of a sad story of a man who didn’t leave everything to follow the voice of the Shepherd. But look what the Spirit does after the resurrection of Jesus:
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.
The early Christians were enabled by faith to let go of individual possessions, preferences, and concerns. They all left everything and followed Jesus.
Following the voice of the Shepherd means exclusively buying into the Word of God as the only source of safety and comfort.
For Christians, abiding together means abandoning anything else that is a strange voice leading you away from the Shepherd.
Only follow the voice that leads you closer to Jesus into fellowship with other sheep.
The Voice of the Shepherd gathers the sheep.
The Voice of the Shepherd gathers the sheep.
I don’t know what’s more comforting than that.
Sheep are dumb. Sheep don’t know what’s dangerous or what’s life-giving.
We are sinners who are spiritually dumb and engage in sin as a fun pastime.
If it’s up to us, we’re going to walk off a cliff, get gobbled up by wolves, and starve.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd who gathers the sheep, who leads the sheep, who goes after the sheep, and who’s voice has the power to call the sheep to himself.
Look what it says in Acts 2:47:
And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
The Lord added! Jesus is the one who gathers his sheep and grows the church!
We kind of have a weird way of thinking about church. Many Christians consider church a thing they can opt into.
They add church to their schedules, they make it an activity to check off, an errand as they go about the rest of their lives.
Friends, the hand doesn’t opt in to being a hand. The foot doesn’t decide to be a foot today.
We need to remember who we are and who God has made us to be. Just as Christ has been raised from the dead, we have been made new in Christ!
Who we are fundamentally is the church of Christ, the baptized people of God.
Just like babies in the womb only know their mother and depend on them for everything,
the only thing we know for certain in this life is Jesus’ Word, and he is the only one we can depend on.
When we get to gather in person at church again, let’s prioritize gathering every Sunday as if it could be the last, because we were all just reminded every Sunday could be.
Abiding in his Word together is who the church is and always has been. We have a Shepherd who gathers us with his Word.
And until we can be together in-person again, remember that you have a Shepherd who has not abandoned you. His voice is calls to you as faithfully as it always has.
Let us continue to abide together. Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed, alleluia!