Fourth Sunday of Easter ~ April 13, 2008

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ – He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Today’s message in some ways is a continuation of last weeks as we see how Luke not only records historical facts and stories for us but frames them in such a way that they are a teaching guide for the Christian life. Last week we not only heard the story of the two disciples who were on their way to Emmaus and encountered the risen Jesus but we learned that Jesus is always with us even if we don’t recognize that he is there.

Today Luke records in his second book, Acts, what the disciples and the Church were doing in the days after Pentecost. “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42, ESV) They devoted themselves to 4 specific things that is a guide for us as well.

The Apostle’s teaching is another way of saying they were devoted to being in God’s Word. They knew the importance of constantly hearing God speak in his word from the Old Testament as they would have heard in the Temple and now the words of the Apostles as they witnessed the fulfillment of all God had promised in Jesus Christ. We too are a church that is devoted to God’s Word and hearing, learning, studying and being devoted to it.

They were devoted to fellowship. The Christian faith is not one of isolation or individualism; it is one of community and fellowship. The disciples gathered together often just as we, the body of Christ, gather together. It is important that we see ourselves as a community of believers, working together to reach, care, and build as our mission statement tells us. It is a groups effort, each of us bring our own uniqueness to the whole, the body of Christ. Like a puzzle, to be complete, we need each piece, each individual, to make a whole picture.

The breaking of bread, or as we know Luke uses this term to refer to a gathering, a meal, that at its center is the Lord’s Supper. We too gather in worship to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. We know how vital it is tour our faith that we come to the Lord’s Table and receive Christ in the bread and wine. God comes to us to offer forgiveness and new life in His meal. It is a vital part of the community of Christ.

And prayer – which I think here, is more than just the specific act of speaking words to God, but is the response to God’s grace and mercy shown to us. It is what we would call worship. Not only is spoken words but in a life that sees God as with us, listening to us and wanting us to come to Him always. We gather in worship formally and informally to offer praise to God for all He has done for us.

Luke makes sure we see the importance of these items and of worship as he says again, the early Christians came to the Temple for worship and joined in fellowship and the breaking of the bread in their homes. And he also shows us their attitude – they had glad and generous hearts and found favor with God and the people. This might come as a surprise to you, but Christianity was very popular at this time! We heard last week that 3000 were added in one day after Peter’s preaching. That isn’t a little event. Or we don’t see Christianity as an isolated event of a few people who were in hiding like the disciples were right after the resurrection. This is an explosion of response. (And I think this is why later on we see more persecution because a few leaders were threatened by the “success” of Christianity)

What does this mean for us? When we are devoted to the basics of the faith, God will bless His Church.

One other thing I think is important for us to note – the early church’s evangelism program. Did you notice how they “found favor” with the people? By giving to those who were in need. In fact we will see a little later on in Acts that the “giving to those in need” programs were so successful that they had to appoint more people to help in the process. Yes, telling people about Jesus is at the heart of evangelism, but the vehicle in which they spread the Gospel is through helping those in need. People where hearing about Jesus not only in words but in acts of service. Yes, proclaiming Jesus is important, otherwise our acts of kindness are just acts, but on the same note, words without actions can sometimes be empty words. So, as we help people we are also creating opportunities to share the love of Christ.

But we haven’t hit on the heart of this passage yet. All of these things we have talked about are empty without understanding the last part of this passage – “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47b, ESV, emphasis added) The heart of Luke’s teaching and telling of this story of the disciples wasn’t to focus on the disciples or those who were coming into the church. The heart of the teaching is who is doing the action – the Lord! This is vitally important to our Christian life. All we do and say is a result of the Lord’s working in our lives. The church grows not because of some principles, guidelines, models, but because the Lord has added to His church. It is the Lord who is in charge, the Lord who works, the Lord who shows His grace and mercy to us. And it is the Lord who works through us to further His kingdom. Luke has framed this story to help us understand that 1) The Church is to be in action, is to be spreading the Gospel in word and deed. 2) In our action we need to know that it is the Lord working through us – all the glory goes to God and not ourselves.

The heart of this passage out of Acts, actually the heart of all of Scripture, is the Lord’s work in His world. We give glory to God because He is the one active in our world and our lives. We listen to His Word, are in fellowship with the Body of Christ, join in the breaking of the bread, and are always in prayer because the Lord has added you and me to His body, the body of Christ. And we are in action in the world, helping those in need and proclaiming Christ, because the Lord is working through us to add to His kingdom. So we can boldly proclaim: He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Amen.