Coming Alongside: Experiencing Biblical Community
Acts 9:19-30
Intro:
Bob Torrence was by far the best athlete in our neighbourhood. Didn’t matter the sport – street hockey, football, whatever. Bob was the best – he even went on and played for the Calgary Stampeders for awhile – he was that good. So you can imagine that whenever we got a pick-up game together, and Bob was coming to play (which wasn’t very often), we all wanted to be on his team. Playground rules usually designate the two best players as captains, who then pick their teams from the rest of the available players, and Bob was always the captain.
I remember the spring-break clearly. My brother and I had carried our hockey net about ten blocks to Bob’s street, with my beat-up goalie stick and the baseball mitt we had rescued from someone’s garbage, and we got set up to play. Then came time to pick teams. I hated that part, always have, probably always will, because of feeling humiliated on more than one occasion… Humor writer Adam Ruben describes it like this, and I could relate: “Choosing teams for any sport was always a special moment for me. After all the other players were picked, the selection came down to me and a fat kid lovingly nicknamed Dumptruck. Then an argument would ensue, with both teams insisting that neither of us should be allowed to play football, or indeed to walk the earth at all. This was, of course, until they realized they could trade me to the other team for non-human bonuses: “If you take Adam, we’ll give you an extra fifteen yards and this pointy rock you can hit him with.” Good times.”
But this particular day was different. Bob was the captain, and of course had first pick. I can still almost hear his words: “I’ll take Stevie-wonder…” Now – let me be clear – no one else has ever called me that (Praise God) – and I hope no one ever will… But he picked me first. Bob Torrence wanted me to be his goalie. I was shocked, but certainly motivated to play hard! I was elated when I made a good save, and Bob said, “That was an awesome save!” I was crushed when the other team scored on me, until Bob said, “Forget about it, you had no chance, you’re still ‘Stevie-wonder’, you’re the best!”
Someone to come alongside:
I’m confident we can all point to times in our lives when someone has come alongside of us and encouraged us – when someone we admired, who was “in”, or “with it”, or “cool”, or the best at something, included us. Supported us. Welcomed us. Made us feel like we were unique and special and valuable. And we were accepted.
We also likely each know what the opposite feels like. How it feels to be excluded, looked down upon, left out. I was the fat kid in Jr Hg (maybe that was why Bob picked me – I blocked an awful lot of the net…), so I know what it feels like to be excluded and left out. And so, believe it or not, does the Apostle Paul (who in Acts 9 is still named Saul).
Acts 9:19-30
Last week we read the first part of Acts 9, where Saul the great persecutor of the church meets Jesus on the road to Damascus, and becomes a child of God. I told the story of how Ananias risked everything – how he loved God enough to love Saul as much as God loved him – and went and greeted him as a brother and healed his blindness. Let’s read what happens next…
Do you really believe that God can change people?
I want to zero in on Barnabus’ role in the story, but can’t jump there without one other observation first, which I’ll make in the form of a question: Do you really believe that God can change people? Sometimes we get jaded, don’t we? We see people, and label them, and assume that the things that are wrong with them will be there forever. We think of family members, or friends, and don’t really hold out a lot of hope for change. Sometimes we even give up praying for them, or if we do still pray for them we do so without really believing it will make much difference. And having given up, we don’t think to share a little about what God has been doing in our lives, or we don’t think to invite them to come to a Christmas service or a men’s breakfast. When you start to wonder if things can really change, look to Saul. And have faith. God has changed you, hasn’t He? And, more important yet, God is STILL changing you, isn’t He? And He changed Saul. So don’t give up hope, never stop praying, and never stop believing that God really can do it. He really can take the old and make it new, take the broken and make it whole, take the dead and make it live. He did it for you and me, He longs to do it for others.
A Bit of Background
As we read chapter 9, it seems like everything rushes along quite quickly – Saul meets Jesus on the Damascus road, Ananias heals him, he preaches and makes people mad, narrowly escapes out a window in the wall, goes to Jerusalem and after Barnabus intercedes meets the disciples, again gets people mad enough to try to kill him and again escapes. As we read it, it seems to happen really quickly – it seems like Saul just explodes onto the scene as an incredibly mature, powerful Christian leader – without any time to grow or mature or develop. It is one of those factors that we see and think, “well, that was Paul – I could certainly never be or do anything like that…” Well that is not the case: listen to Paul’s own words in Gal 1:13-18, “For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.
Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days.”
I mention that bit of background to emphasize this point: spiritual growth takes time. It takes time to get to know and love Jesus more, it takes time to develop our spiritual gifts and learn to use them effectively, it takes time to share faith and lead others to Christ. It is not instant, we don’t just wake up one morning and discover that we are suddenly more mature Christians. It takes time, it takes reflection, and it takes choosing to cooperate with what God is doing in our lives. Yes, Paul started fast, because he was well trained in theology even prior to meeting Jesus, but he still took time to mature and grow – I think that is what he was doing in Arabia – getting to know Jesus in the desert, maturing as a child of God.
Return to Jerusalem (vs. 26):
In the chronology, Paul returns from Arabia and stirs up trouble in Damascus, narrowly escapes with his life, and heads for Jerusalem. Listen to verse 26: “When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple.” See why I said earlier that even the great apostle Paul knew what it was like to be excluded, rejected, left out? He comes back to Jerusalem, I’m sure eager to meet the disciples who had walked with Jesus and heard Him talk and teach, hear the stories, share his joy at meeting Jesus and no doubt apologize for the terrorism he had caused the early church – and they wouldn’t let him in. He tried to join, but was left out.
Unfortunately, sometimes the same thing happens still today. People walk into the doors of a church, maybe they even “try to join the disciples”, and instead of a welcome they feel left out. Instead of finding community they find exclusivism.
To me, one of the most amazing things about the early Christian community, which we have been reading about in Acts, is how open a community it was. Philip went to Samaria, and the apostles welcomed the Samaritans. A little further along, Peter goes to the Gentiles, and the church welcomes them. Even in the early story of Saul, Ananias welcomes him as a brother in Christ.
But then there is a little hiccup. Saul returns to Jerusalem, and the disciples are afraid. “It might be a trick,” they think, “he might be just trying to get inside our community so that he can destroy it.” They are quite naturally afraid.
Son of Encouragement
Back in chapter 4 of Acts, we met a generous Christian named Barnabus. Verse 36 of Acts 4 tells us that his name means, “Son of Encouragement,” which was a description of his character and of his major role in the early church. Here, in Acts 9, we see Barnabus using that gift and coming alongside Saul.
Coming Alongside (vs. 27):
Verse 27: “But Barnabas took him (Saul) and brought him to the apostles.” Barnabus came alongside Saul, and introduced him to the others. He vouched for him, he bridged the gap and sponsored Saul into membership.
Most often, that is what has to happen before anyone can really become a part of a community – they need someone inside that community to reach out to them and form some kind of relationship, some kind of bond, that then opens up the rest of the community to them.
And that is exactly what our world needs for people to come to know Christ. They need someone who knows Jesus already to take them and bring them to Christ. That is our role, according to Jesus: “To go into all the world and make disciples”. We go to them, we take them by the hand, and lead them to Jesus and into the community of Jesus, known as the church.
Barnabus is a beautiful model for us. Think about it: Barnabus had to get past his own fear. He had to forgive Saul. He had to trust that Saul’s conversion was genuine. And then he had to get out of his own particular zone of comfort and go to Saul, put his own neck on the line, and bring Saul into the early Christian community. We need to do the same.
As we do, it is bound to shake things up a little bit. It is bound to change our community – both our large community and our smaller community groups. Sometimes that is what holds us back – we don’t want things to change so we don’t invite anyone else to be a part of community. And often the result is that those people never have an opportunity to experience the love of God for them, to see the love of God in action, and hear that Jesus’ amazing love for them took Him to the cross. Those consequences can be eternal.
What Happens When Someone Comes Alongside
But look at what happens when somebody does come alongside, as Barnabus did. They are included in community, they are welcomed, and their lives are changed. Now I want you to think for a moment of someone in your life or your circle of influence who is not a part of community – who does not have a group of people around them to support them through life, to love them unconditionally, to be there to share the great times and the difficult times. Can you imagine how that feels for them? When they get the bad-news phone call, and have nobody to phone and cry with – nobody who will drop everything and come over – nobody who will be there and love them and listen without judgment. You probably can, because you probably have felt it at times also. And then, I trust, you found community in Christ. THAT is what you have to share! That is your testimony!! And that is my testimony. I was lost and alone, and then God revealed His love for me and placed me in the midst of a group of people who loved me too – even though at my core I am just as unlovable as everyone else.
That is what Barnabus did for Saul, and that is what we need to do for others. We need to come alongside them, get rid of our fears and apprehensions, and invite them into community. Now, I know our church community is not perfect. No human community is. That is why love is so important – so that when we do blow it, we can love one another through those hurts and those mistakes, and grow as a result. But we do have community – as a large group and as a lot of smaller groups. And you and I live in a world that desperately needs that.
And note this: we are not “recruiting” people to our community because we want to be great, or because that will somehow make God happier with us. We are not doing it for us. We invite people because they have a need – they have a deep pain – and you and I know the answer. The answer is found in the love of God, in His embrace, in His welcoming a lost child home. And those people God has placed within your circle of influence need to experience Jesus as the answer to all the questions and all the pain in their lives.
Conclusion:
A few of the authors of Scripture were given a vision of heaven. One of those was the Scripture I began the service with. But I didn’t read the whole passage, I wanted to save the last part to end my sermon with. Here’s why: Isaiah 6 goes like this: Isaiah sees a vision of God in heaven and sees the worship that is there, recognizes his sinfulness and confesses, he is forgiven, and then one more thing happens, which I will read in a moment. That is what needs to happen for us as well – that is the basic model. We come to church, and we are to meet God. As we truly meet him, we are horribly aware of our own sinfulness and our need for forgiveness, which God freely gives. And then we come to the end of the worship service, and the same thing that happened to Isaiah should happen to us as well. Isaiah 6:1-9.
