Acts 4:32-37 • Life-Sharing Community

This morning we are continuing our journey through the book of Acts. It’s amazing how the events in the life of the early church coincide with what’s happening here in our church. We’ve read about how the people had responded to the message of Jesus and to the presence of the Holy Spirit. Many of them responded in the most appropriate way, they wanted to be baptized! Bu that’s not all because last week, we read about how the early church got together and they prayed. The Bible says, “when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken.” (Acts 4:31) Well we’ve been praying for some time now, and I believe yesterday there was some intense prayer at our little prayer table. I don’t think the building was shaking, but we were shaking with excitement and joy as God gave a location and building.

It’s all so amazing, yet I believe this is God’s plan for His community… His church! God promises that His church will be victorious. Jesus promises in Matthew 16:18, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” It means that the universal church is destined to be used by God in the most exciting and amazing ways. I really believe that Jesus loves the church in a way we do not yet understand.

Of course, I also believe that it requires our desire to follow Christ and be transformed by His presence. That’s what we see at the end of Acts chapter. Let’s read it together.

If we are honest there, this might be one of those passages in the Bible that might seem a little scary… because everybody here shared everything they had. Some of them would even sell their homes and their land just to be sure that everybody was taken care of. It’s pretty radical really. What if this kind of sharing a condition of church membership? Everyone be ready to sell your house, your car, your big screen TV, whatever you have and bring the proceeds here and we will just use up. Some of us who don’t own much would come out all right. Some of us who own a lot would be a little reluctant, I suspect.

Yet, these early Christians were a pretty radical group. They didn’t worry about material things. They were living so “powerfully” in the light of the resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit, that all were passionately on mission with Christ. The picture here is so radical, that sometimes we like to dismiss it. We might try to rationalize it… and think that all this “sharing” was just because the church was getting started and we don’t need to do that anymore… or this was before they learned that some people would take advantage of the system. There are lots of ways we might rationalize the radical nature of the early church. But whatever we do, we cannot dismiss it. Because what we find in this passage is that the church is called to be a life-sharing community. That’s the reason people around them noticed what was happening and why such an ordinary group of people would eventually change the world.

1.So what does that mean for us today? What does it mean to be a life-sharing community? First of all, it means that we embrace a common purpose. Verse 32 gets right at this… it says that the believers “were of one heart and soul.”

2.There was a prevailing sense of unity of purpose among those of the early church; they had a common purpose (this was more than just being on the same team, It was more than just subscribing to the same set of beliefs, here is a deep passion for the mission of Christ).

3.I am always disappointed when I hear about a particular church that can’t agree on its mission (you know how it goes… this group wants to focus on that and this group, over here wants to focus on this). It’s silly because we all have the same mission… and that’s the mission of Christ and Jesus made it clear that “He came to seek and save the lost” Luke 19:10 (He came to touch and change the lives of people). His mission is the mission of the church.

I think it is a little bit like what happens in the game of football. (Now, I know that when I say “football” it means two different things… to everybody else in the world it means this (image of soccer players)… but only to Americans it means this (image of American football players)…) But in the American version of football, there’s this game called the Pro Bowl, where the best athletes on profession football teams are selected to play. Every year, it’s the American Football Conference versus the National Football Conference. It’s interesting that each team wears the same colored jersey that represents their conference the AFC or the NFC… but at the same time they wear the helmet of the team that they really play for… like the Chicago Bears or the Dallas Cowboys. And every year it’s obvious… even though they all wear the same jersey, they don’t really play for that team. When they come to the Pro Bowl game, they don’t really hit hard or run fast… because they don’t want to “mess up” their contract. The truth is they really play for the team that’s on their helmet. It’s a good analogy because church it’s tempting to be like the football players, where we wear jerseys that say “Jesus”, but we wear a helmet that says “Ethnic culture” or it says “Music culture” or it says “Generational culture.” And that’s the team we play for. That’s the side we’re on.

1.You see, the reason the early church made such an impact was because they were all on the “same team” and with the “same passion”. Verse 33 says: “And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus…”

2.Their mission was to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. That’s what they thought about, that’s what they focused on, it was the focus of every meeting and event. Their lives were woven together with a sense of purpose and unity… and because of that they saw each other as partners in a great mission.

It doesn’t stop there, because when a life-sharing community embraces a common purpose, the community also beings to develop a spirit of generosity.

1.Verse 32 says, “no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was hiw own, but they had everything in common.” Stories like this are pretty common throughout the life of the early church. When they saw the need of a brother or sister, the natural response was to do what they could to help.

2.It wasn’t mandatory giving… it was heartfelt concern. You have to wonder where does giving like that start? Where does it come from?

3.And I think verse 32 tells us, because it tells us that no one thought of their stuff as their stuff. Generosity always comes from the conviction that the things that we own—our money, our home, our computers, our cars—all of these things really aren’t our after all. Generosity comes when we recognize that all we have is God’s and we have the joy uf using it.

4.What we do with our resources will demonstrate more clearly than anything else whether we believe that our lives are just for ourselves… or we truly belong to Christ.

5.There are lots of ways to be generous but there is something special about giving to the Lord. That’s the reason churches collect an offering. Giving to the Lord in this way is a special thing and actually an act of worship.

6.The Old Testament talks about bringing our tithe, which is actually a value of about 10%. However there were other offerings the value actually was closer to 23% of their income and then there were different kinds of offerings. There was the burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, the sin offering… just to name a few.

7.In the New Testament, Jesus talks about giving in a different way. He tells the rich young ruler, “go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven…” (Mark 10:21). Jesus lifts up the example of the poor widow who puts two small copper coins into the offering box, because she gave all that she had to live on (Luke 21:3-4).

8.This kind of generosity is so beautiful. I believe a healthy church teaches that tithing, giving 10% of your income, is sort of the starting point… but the more you give, the more beautiful it becomes.

9.I have had the privilege of knowing so many beautiful people who give generously to the Lord.

10.You know that I am a missionary. People often ask us, how are you able to live in a foreign country as a volunteer? We don’t receive a salary here, we do have a mission organization that guarantees that my family and I have enough resources to live on but the money just comes to us because we are missionaries.

11.In the last 10 years, our mission board has changed the way missionaries are supported. We, missionaries actually go to churches and individuals and invite them to be a part of God’s work.

12.When Amanda and I felt the call to work here in Hungary, we were a little hesitant to have to ask for money but wiser, more mature Christians told us that we would love it because it is a wonderful opportunity to meet some amazing people who really love Jesus and I have to tell you that’s exactly what we found. The people who are supporting this ministry are truly inspirational.

13.I want to share the story of some of these people (Pastor Ray and Pat Gimmi; Palestine Missionary Baptist Church; and a pastor’s daughter). They give because they want to be part of God’s work.

14.These are beautiful stories of giving and they inspire me to give more, to stretch a little further in my financial giving, and be a part of God’s work in a greater way. I hope that you feel the same way!

15.I believe that this is what the early church experienced. I want you to notice something in verse 33. There’s this curious little phrase stuck right in the middle of this passage that says this: “And much grace was upon them all.” Much grace was upon them all…

16.I think it means that the early church was blessed because of their generosity. I want us to know that blessing. I think that we are beginning to experience some of it, now. I’m excited about what God is doing in the life of this church and I want it so bad for every person here.