Radical Generosity: Unity

INTRODUCTION

We’re are back in our series, Great Grace, journeying through some important events in the book of Acts. My heart as we go through this series is to seek out God’s heart for the church as he is bringing all of us together to live out life on mission, to serve and love one another, and to grow together into the body of Christ to reveal through the church just who Christ is.

Today we are continuing our exploration of Acts 4:32-35, where the church is practicing this Radical Generosity with one another. We’re learning how the process of giving worked in the early church. And the strange thing here is that, if you look closely through the New Testament, there’s lots of mentions of giving, of sharing, of providing for those in need, of taking care of the people who can’t take care of themselves. There’s not a lot about rules for giving, and even less so when it comes to the idea of tithing—that’s actually a firmly Old Testament concept. But it does talk about sacrifice. It talks about responding with grace and compassion. It talks about a generosity that is rooted right here, in the heart, and overflows abundantly. It talks about treasures that are stored up so fully in heaven, that you no longer require the storehouses of earth. That’s Radical Generosity.

PRAY

Last week we talked about how Radical Generosity is unlocked, first and foremost, with Surrender. Surrender, as we defined it last week is about making space for God in your priorities and pursuits. It’s not about what your giving up, but by what you gain when you let go of things that matter to you more than they should, when you let go of things that are rule your life but don’t offer you any lasting joy or comfort or peace in return. Nothing that this world offers you will satisfy your every need, your every desire. And yet every voice of influence in the world, because they do not know any different, they beg and pull and tempt you with substandard sufficiencies of the self. And as we gradually give in, we start investing in ourselves, stingy with our time and money and service, and unable to let go. The obstacle to surrender is Self-Sufficiency. What is the solution? Christ-sufficiency. Seek more and more of Jesus. When you let go of whatever it is that you think will satisfy you, and you invite God to take a hold of every part of your life, radical generosity will follow. You can give without the need for return. You can share without fear of lack. You can serve without the requirement of affirmation, or praise, or glory. You don’t need to filled up by all of that, because you are full of God’s Spirit and truth.

Until you truly surrender, you will never experience the kind of freeing joy and simple peace that accompanies the Radically Generous life. That is key number 1.

UNITY

The second key is Unity. Back to Acts 4:32. First, they believe. Then what? They were of one heart and mind. Slow down for a moment and think about that image. Imagine you shared a heart with another human being. Every beat, every flutter, is totally synced up with someone else. When a loved one walks into the room, your heart races the same way. When you get scared, or discouraged, or anxious, when you are laughing or crying, you feel the same. Your desires and hopes and dreams are shared, because you share one heart. Strange right? But that’s what’s going on here.

What if you shared the same mind? Your synapses fired the same, your brain waves moving in perfect unity. The way that you think about the world, about God, about relationships, about right and wrong, good and evil, all the same. Your worldview, your process, your decision-making, are all in sync. You learn the same, speak the same, understand the same. One mind. Weird, sure, but that’s what’s going on here.

There’s all kinds of verses in the Bible about how God gives us a new heart and a new mind. Here’s are a couple of my favorites:

Ezekiel 36:24–28 CSB

“ ‘For I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

Romans 12:1–2 CSB

Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

I’ve never really noticed this before, not when it comes to unity. The Bible talks about how God works to replace the old calloused and selfish heart with a selfless and loving one. The Bible talks about how my mind will be rewired and made new so that I will think God’s thoughts after him, so that I will know his will and what it means to have goodness reign.

I can see that, I’ve experienced that, but honestly I only ever thought about that on a personal, individual level. But watch what Acts 4:32 says: they were of one heart and mind. That new heart, that new mind, we actually share with one another. It’s not just similar hearts and minds, but one set of desires and loves, multiplied among the people of God. One set of knowledge and understanding, multiplied among the people of God.

What does this mean for us? And how does this unlock Radical Generosity? It means that, when we surrender our hearts and receive that shared heart, we begin to love as one. When we surrender our minds and receive that shared mind, we begin to learn as one. I think this heart and mind that we receive is actually the heart and mind of Christ himself. It is Jesus loving through us. It is Jesus perceiving the world through our eyes, and it is his worldview that we come to know and understand. There’s actually support in the Bible for this. Paul says that we have the mind of Christ in 1 Cor. 2:16. And while the human heart is somewhat unique, Paul makes it clear in Col. 3:15 that Jesus rules the heart and directs its every desire, its every want.

In Christ, we have unity. Unity here means that we love and learn as one. It doesn’t matter where you come from, or what you do, or who you know, unless who you know is Jesus. Because we are united by Christ, we share our loves and our learns. So, when you feel pain, I feel pain. When you feel joy, I feel joy. When you are scared or confused, I am scared and confused. When you see injustice, I see injustice. When you see beauty and life, I see beauty and life. We love together, and we learn together.

Do you remember that Bonhoeffer quote from last week? Remember what he said?

We belong to one another only through and in Christ.

Unity means no one is left behind or alone. No one is left in the dark, no one is left hungry or forgotten. Unity means that we love and learn like a family, as one. A unified people are acutely aware of the needs among us, the lacks, the hurts. And that awareness leads to compassion and grace and action. Action that looks like giving up whatever you’ve got for the sake of others, like selling off instead of storing up. We love together, we learn together, and then, we give together.

Look how this plays out when it comes to giving in the church—and just imagine it playing out in our own community!

No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common (Acts 4:32).

There was not a needy person among them because all those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the proceeds of what was sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet (Acts 4:34-35)

It’s easy to kind of pass over this because of the society we live in today, but slow down, take off your Crocs, and put on your first-century sandals for a moment. No one had any needs. Why? Because those who had land or houses sold them and gave the proceeds to the church. In this time period, people lived in tiered society. Here’s a picture of the different strata. The top is just a tiny fraction of the people: The king, or the emperor, and the governing class. Then from there, the group widens to include merchants and artisans and religious leaders. These are the home owners, the land owners, those who own businesses and can actually make their own wages and give their kids an inheritance and give their families what they need to be successful. Then you have day laborers and slaves, who are better regarded because they can contribute to society, but they have nothing to share, nothing of value that they own. Finally, you have the unclean, the blind and lame, orphans and widows, the expendables. These are people who no one cares about, no one needs, no one loves. They can’t contribute in any way, they have zero value to the society, and so they are cast away. They are nothing but needy dependents, hanging on to a life that’s barely worth living.

Watch what the church does. They share one mind and heart. They love and learn as one. They gather together and see expendables and slaves and “sinful” people, worshiping Jesus. They see the injustice that has happened to them. They are filled with deep compassion. And so the landowners—the merchants and the the artisans and the wealthy—they give all of that up. They sell off their inheritance, their status, their place in society, their securities and their comforts, their livelihoods. They sell off their futures and they give them to the church leaders. Then the leaders take that money, that future, and they feed the hungry and clothe the naked, they give them life to worship tomorrow, and the next day. No one had any needs. That kind of statement wasn’t a thing in the first century. Most had needs. A great number of the society were needy. But somehow, strangely, not in the Christian community. The type of generosity made possible in Christ is 100% counter-cultural to the way every other human system works. In the church, there is no ladder of success that you climb. There is servanthood, giving up what you have so that you can draw near to those who have not.

You don’t come to the church to receive. In Jesus, you have received everything you need. Instead, you come and share. You bring food, so the hungry will be fed. You bring money, so the poor will be rich. You bring spiritual gifts, so the body will be built up, and the hurting will be healed.

THE PROBLEM: SELF-SECURITY

Now, Unity leads to Generosity. The church that loves together, that learns together, gives together. But it’s not always so easy, so simple. There are barriers to this unity. There are obstacles.

Remember how Surrender gets stifled by Self-Sufficiency? Unity gets undone by Self-Security. Security says I need to have certain things to be safe, to be able to provide, to be able to take care of what’s most important. My kids ask me all the time why I have to go to work and I can’t just stay home with them. What’s my answer? It’s probably the same as yours. I work so that I can earn enough money to have a safe space to live, and food to eat with my family, and clothes to wear, and cars to drive. So I work many hours. And I take care of my possessions. And I have a savings account, and future investments that hopefully will one day allow me to retire and give my kids the opportunity to go to college and get a little further ahead in life than where I started. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with these purposes. God gave me a family, and he charged me with taking care of it, to providing for it, to keeping it safe. To do otherwise would be considered neglectful, unloving.

But, the question that arises is this: How much do I need to make this happen? There was a commercial I saw years ago where people are walking around holding these numbers that represented how much money they needed to be safe and secure and retire happily. Some had a few hundred thousand, others had several million. But the idea there was that everyone has a number that they need to reach to be secure. It’s practical, and it’s safe. But it’s a challenge sometimes to the unity we find in Christ. Because when I am concerned about filling up my own storehouse, I turn inward, away from the needs and hurts of the community. I separate, I put up walls, I protect my earnings, my income, my possessions, my time and my energy. And because my number is all that matters, my heart and mind become oriented around that. And it doesn’t matter that I’m climbing above the waves while others are drowning. Giving is more of a fantasy, afforded by the wealthiest of the wealthy. Our self-security ultimately tends to divide, to separate the haves from the have-nots, the good from the better, and the better from the best.

Unity, on the other hand, is impractical. It often means giving up your seat so that others can move ahead. It means losing your place in the race so that you can encourage someone else. It means risking your own personal security, safety, and comfort so that those who can’t even image those things might have a moment of relief.

THE SOLUTION: SECURITY IN CHRIST

So what’s the solution to self-security? Christ security. Jesus is talking about the kingdom of God, responding to all the religious leaders who are questioning the timeframe, and Jesus tells them that the kingdom will arrive unannounced so be ready. And then he says this:

Luke 17:33 CSB

Whoever tries to make his life secure will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

He says, if your focus is on the daily securities—on eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building (Luke 17:28)—you’ll miss out on the kingdom of God. You won’t see it, because you’ll be too busy securing yourself, erecting the haven, the refuge, the fortress of protection for yourself made with your own assets. The implication? Give it up. Jesus says that all the time to those who ask about following him. Sell your treasures, give away your security, take a risk, and follow me.

Later on, the author of Hebrews makes the claim that, in Christ,

Hebrews 6:19 CSB

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.

Jesus is our true refuge, our place of safety and hope. We come to him and find rest.

If Christ is truly the ultimate security, the ultimate rest for your life, would you give up everything in order to have that? And once you found it, what would be the point of all that other stuff you were storing up?

When Christ becomes your security, your storehouse becomes a vehicle for blessing others instead of yourself. Because in his refuge, Jesus doesn’t care if you’ve earned your spot. He offers safety from the storm regardless of your social status or your financial worth. With Christ, everyone needs the same salvation, everyone receives the same grace, everyone gets the same heart and mind. If you are truly secure, you can let go. You can give generously. You can bring the offering of your money, your time, your food, your stuff, to bless others, to build others up.

But the big question is: do you believe that? If you are struggling, what’s holding you back? It takes a risk to find unity, but with Christ, it’s worth it.

PRAY