Christian Community
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Introduction
Video: May We Be One?
Did you know that the Bible says that Jesus prayed for you? We often call it “The High Priestly Prayer” and it is found in John chapter 17, where hours before Jesus went to the cross He prays first for His Disciples that were standing there with Him in this moment and then He prayed for us.
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
That is you and I. We believe in Jesus because of the witness, the testimony of these first disciples as it has been passed down for us in God’s Holy Word. He is praying for us, His Church, and what does Jesus pray for us?
21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
Jesus is praying for us here, and He continues to desire these very same things for us today. That the “oneness” that His Church displays will be an unmistakable evidence that the one whose name we wear as “Christians” was lovingly sent by the Father. That our “oneness” would be a testimony of Jesus to the World.
So in his final hours here on earth, Jesus prayed this for us. This shows us several things. One that His knew that His mission at the Cross would be a success, but also that it would ignite “The Unstoppable Movement of God” that we call the Church.
That the Ekklesia would be a gathering of people who believe in Jesus because of the testimony of the Apostles and that belief would grow in them the love of God that would be recognized by the entire world.
Jesus continues to pray:
22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
Tension
Is that our experience Church? Are we here today to satisfy something deep in our souls or are we just here to listen with the ears outside our head. “I in them” Jesus prayed. When Christ is in us we have the ability to come together like no other group on earth. To become “perfectly one” with the brethren, not for our glory or the glory of our little local expression of Church, but that the world would know of Jesus.
It is an engaging questions, isn’t it? Have we elevated Jesus above everything else in our life? Our political views? Many of us stiffened when we heard that one… “What’s wrong with my political views?” maybe nothing - but the point is are you politics subject to Jesus or have we made Jesus subject to our political views? That is the more important question. And the same thing holds true for every area of our lives:
Our financial future,
Our career goals,
Our homes equity,
Our family vacation plans,
Our hunting schedule. (Common Pastor Dan - don’t go there! Somethings are sacred…yes they are…and that is exactly my point)
I am not saying that convictions and plans for any of these areas are necessarily wrong - I am just asking “Have we elevated Jesus above all of these things?”
How would we know if we have done that? What would that look like? Well since the beginning of the Christian Church this has been evidenced by Christians voluntarily choosing to sacrifice anything they have to help out someone else in the Church.
Many of us have John 3:16 memorized but what about 1 John 3:16? For it says:
16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
The “brothers” means the Church. Elsewhere Scripture teaches us to feed the hungry, clothe and feed the poor but here the emphasis is not just on anyone who has needs - but specifically laying down our lives for those in the Church. It continues to say:
17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
How can we wear His name and yet not submit to His lead in this. All of those other areas are good things to be aware of and planning for (especially the hunting schedule) but are those plans driving our life - or do we hold them with an open hand so that we be willing to sacrifice any of those things to care for the Church that Jesus loves and gave His life for.
This morning we are going to see how the early Church demonstrated this so well…at least for a little while. We will finishing off chapter 4 of Acts on page 912 in the Bibles in the Chairs. I’ll pray and then we will read more of our heritage and calling as it was demonstrated through the early Church.
Truth
1. Believers demonstrate biblical community through an attitude of selflessness (Acts 4:32).
1. Believers demonstrate biblical community through an attitude of selflessness (Acts 4:32).
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.
Because they belonged to those who believed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it now colored how they saw everything else in their life and it drew them together in a bond like nothing else in our world can. And we know that people can come together around a lot of different issues or ideas but there has never been anything like this. Whatever divisions they had before they believed, now they were “of one heart and soul”.
It is important that we see more here than just some nice sentiment. For one thing we can see this as an answer to Jesus’ prayer in John 17, “...that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them”.
But Jesus prayed in line with what God had been doing among His poeple for generations. God has always desired His people to be of “one heart and soul”. There were seasons where God had done this same thing in the past. In 2 Chron 30 it says:
12 The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the Lord.
King Hezekiah was faithful to lead God’s people back to a right attitude toward worship, righteousness and God’s holiness and so God worked to again give them all “one heart”.
Later in the history, after God’s people were exiled because of their unfaithfulness to His Word and will, God gave His people hope for a future time when He would again give them one heart. Through His prophet Ezekiel, God said of that coming day:
19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
And these are just a couple of examples, because this “one heart” thing was something that God has always wanted for His people.
And this is not the last we hear of God’s desire for His people to “be one” as we hear the Apostles calling the Church back to this throughout the New Testament letters. A few quick examples would be:
1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And did you notice how in every one of these the unity and oneness is found in the love that comes from the Holy Spirit that dwells within them…as we talked about last week.
So this isn’t something that we should just look back on and sigh, “those were the good ole’ days” but something that we should both expect and invest ourselves toward in our Church today. This “Oneness” is something that we THE CHURCH should be known for.
And what of the second part of the verse: “...and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.” I mean what is going on here?
Is this saying that we should just sell everything that we have and give it to the Church? Sure, if God so leads you to do so. That was certainly what Jesus told the Rich Young Ruler that he must do in order to “inherit eternal life”. But we know that you can’t buy your way in to heaven, so what was Jesus up to?
Well, the full instructions that Jesus gave the Rich Young Ruler was not to just sell all his stuff. Somehow this young man believed he had a spotless record when it came to obeying the law, but
22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
You see in the end, it wasn’t the selling of all his stuff, it was about this young man’s attitude toward his stuff. It was to illuminate for the young man where his true treasure lay. He wasn’t elevating Jesus over everything else in his life, he wanted earthly treasure more than he wanted “treasure in heaven”.
In contrast to the Rich Young Ruler, these believers from the early Church understood the value of “treasure in heaven” and so they treated their earthy possessions of much less importance.
When we realize the great value of what we have been given in Christ then our attitude toward our earthly treasures changes. It isn’t that having “stuff” is a problem, it is when our attitude toward our stuff is selfish, self-focused or self-sufficient that we miss out on the life that God has for us.
1 Tim 6 tells us:
17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
The “treasure in heaven” was what the Rich Young Ruler left behind when he turned his back on Jesus, but it is what brought the early Church and attitude of sharing generously anything they had with one another.
And as much as we want to apply the title of “rich” to others, we know that on a world scale we are all near the top. And the point is not about comparing incomes, it is about comparing attitudes toward our incomes. When we share “one heart and soul” then our attitude toward our stuff is that it all belongs to the cause of Christ anyway. This brings us to our second theme for the week:
2. Believers demonstrate biblical community by fulfilling their purpose of proclaiming Christ (Acts 4:33).
2. Believers demonstrate biblical community by fulfilling their purpose of proclaiming Christ (Acts 4:33).
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 between two statements of how the early Church shared together in Community life, is this declaration that the sharing was just an important by-product of the movement but not the end game. The end game was and is to declare and demonstrate the new life that is found only in Lord Jesus Christ. It was to share the “life-giving message of Jesus Christ” in both word and deed.
One of the things that we strive to be intentional about here at Friendship Church is that the message of Jesus Christ in some way or form goes out in everything that we do. Whether that be in the women getting together to paint or the teens going to a night corn maze or the sending of Christmas Shoe boxes. Whatever we do, we never want to miss an opportunity to boldly proclaim the name of Jesus.
I remember sitting in a large room of volunteers for orientation at a food bank in Minneapolis several years back. The Host was offering a short history of their ministry and one of the things that struck me was how honest she chose to be about a division they had in their history.
You see at one point their ministry was struggling to meet their financial obligations and one of the struggles that they identified was that many secular companies said that they wanted to send volunteers and donations, but they felt they couldn’t because their ministry was so overtly Christian.
Now you didn’t have to be a Christian to volunteer and there was no high pressure alter call or anything, this ministry just wanted to be honest about why they do what they do. So in their orientations like the one I was sitting in that day she told the whole room - We do this because of Jesus.
The host shared with us that it was a difficult time in their ministry because many of their staff left to form a more “corporate friendly” food bank, but she said that even though that was a hard time, God has been faithfully supplying their needs since that day and they were finding through prayer and being faithfully “Christian” God was opening doors into more places then they ever have before.
Even this past week I went back to look and right on their website it says: “The Gospel is the reason Feed My Starving Children exist. We strive to listen for and follow the will of Jesus Christ every day in all we do.”
And I use this as just an illustration, but if a Christian ministry could take such a stance - shouldn’t every Christian Church. I believe that if a Church ever found itself placing a higher emphasis on meeting people’s physical needs than do in sharing the Gospel then they have ceased to be a Christian Church.
The Church is never just a charitable institution or social justice program - although we do get involved in these type of things. At the end of the day, a Christian Church is always about proclaiming the message of Christ.
Of course, we can’t do that by ignoring Jesus’ commands to feed the hungry and care for the poor but we never trade one in for the other and then still consider ourselves a Christian Church.
We will have some time in our Table Talk groups to grapple with the relationship between these two important aspects of Church Community so please if you want to unpack this more then let me invite you to stick around for that.
But what we see represented so well here in the early days of the Church, is that in midst of generous self-sacrificing for one another the Church is still about the message of Jesus.
1. Believers demonstrate biblical community through an attitude of selflessness [And]
1. Believers demonstrate biblical community through an attitude of selflessness [And]
2. Believers demonstrate biblical community by fulfilling their purpose of proclaiming Christ (Acts 4:33).
2. Believers demonstrate biblical community by fulfilling their purpose of proclaiming Christ (Acts 4:33).
3. Believers demonstrate biblical community by meeting specific needs in the Church (Acts 4:34–35).
3. Believers demonstrate biblical community by meeting specific needs in the Church (Acts 4:34–35).
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.
So there was clearly economic diversity here in the early Church and so to meet the needs among them, some of the people who had investment properties sacrificed them in order that no one among the believers would be in need. In some ways, this section seems a little redundant, because it already said that they shared all things in common not to mention back in chapter 2 Luke gave us a similar picture of Community life. There we read among other things:
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.
These two sections describing the early Church paint quite a picture to try and live up to, but one thing that I want to make sure that we don’t miss is how this is about more than just sharing money.
Focusing on just the money, some people have gone so far as to say that these verses somehow justify communism, because they shared all things in common, but that is not even close to what is happening here. For one thing, no one is requiring that these people sell these houses and lands and later in Acts there is all kinds of evidence of individuals owning personal property.
It wasn’t about the money, it was about these believers who were now of “one heart and soul” and so they wanted to share with one another if anyone of them had a need. And they knew of each others needs because they were together. They spent time together. They did life together. It wasn’t just financial or economic things that they shared in common it was their lives.
Gospel Application
Our world has learned to do a lot of things differently over the past 18 months and just like any time you TRY something new, you learn things. And as I have talked with Pastor friends of mine, one of the things that seems to come up in our conversations is that many Christians have learned through this pandemic that sitting at home watching a Sunday Service like a Saturday Morning News show has a lot of advantages. You can just roll out of bed late and grab your coffee and watch the show still in your pajamas. There is a lot to be said for that kind of experience, but is that really Church?
And of course I am not talking here about those of you who are watching online and want to be here but can’t because of health issues and concerns, you are the reason that we want to continue to offer our service online.
I am talking about those who may be asking the question “Is the way that we do Church really worth it”.
I mean…to have to get up early on a weekend and get ourselves and the kids dressed and drive all the way to Church when we could just plop down on the couch and watch a service from all kinds of different Church’s online. Not to mention that the Church is full of people and people can be messy, right? I mean we deal with people all week long, is it really worth it to gather together with a bunch of people who sometimes seem just as messed up as we are? Do we really need all that?
I want you to know that I am not afraid of this question. I think that this is a good honest question to be asking. One of the reasons that I chose to tackle the book of Acts this years is so that we could ask ourselves questions just like these. What do we come here for? Is what we have made Church to be what it is supposed to be?
Because if Church is just about downloading information to take with us for the rest of the week... then maybe the online Church thing is a better way to go. But I believe that the Bible paints a different picture of the point of the Church. I think that the Bible paints a picture of the Church being something that cannot be experienced individually but something that is dependent on a messy community like ours. That the messy is big part of the plan.
You see, so many people that I talk to are disheartened about the idea of really belonging to any particular Church because they have had a bad experience. Someone hurt them, someone sinned against them, someone wronged them in all of these…very believable ways. We all know that stuff happens. I have yet to meet anyone who has not had a “bad experience” at one point in their Church story.
But I believe that those bad experiences give us the chance to demonstrate that the Church is a community unlike any other gathering on earth. A community where people are so overwhelmed by the grace, mercy and forgiveness that they have recieved in what Jesus did for us on the Cross. That we as a distinctly Christian Community are able to demonstrate a supernatural self-less forgiveness that leads to the kind of reconciliations that makes the world around sit up and notice.
Landing
You see a True Christian community happens when people unselfishly participate in one another’s lives so that the Gospel is both declared and demonstrated by the Church in such a way that the world wants to know more. That is what we see here in the early Church, and I believe that is what God wants to do here at Friendship Church. Will you pray into that with me this morning.
