Text: Acts 4:32-37, Title: All for One, Date/Place: NRBC, 8/26/07, AM
A. Opening illustration: A pastor thought God gave Him an idea, and he presented it in the monthly council meeting. After giving his most impassioned plea and really “selling” the idea to the counsel, the counsel voted and voted down the pastors proposed changes 12-1. The moderator looked at the pastor and said, “Well pastor, it’s 12 votes to 1. Looks like you’ve been out voted. Looks like time is up for the evening, so will you please close in prayer.” The pastor, not wanting to give up yet on what he felt God was leading him to do then lead in prayer. As he prayed, he lifted his hands up to heaven and prayed, “Loooorrrdddd - I know my brothers here do not have the same vision you have given me. Please help them to see that this is not MY vision, but YOOOOUUUUURRRR vision!” At that exact moment, a lightning bolt with a loud clap of thunder burst in through the window in the meeting room, striking the table, splitting it in two and knocking all the council to the floor. As the dust cleared, the pastor looked at the moderator and said - so, what do you think about that? The moderator, dusting himself off, sighed and said, “Well, I guess that’s 12 votes to 2, then...” 100 years of Christian fellowship, unity, and community outreach ended last Tuesday in an act of congregational discord. Holy Creek Baptist Church was split into multiple factions. The source of dissension is a piano bench which still sits behind the 1923 Steinway piano to the left of the pulpit. Members and friends at Holy Creek Baptist say that the old bench was always a source of hostility. People should have seen this coming. At present, Holy Creek Congregation will be having four services each Sunday. There has been an agreement mediated by an outside pastor so that each faction will have its own separate service with its own separate pastor. Since the head pastor is not speaking to the associate pastors, each will have their own service, which will be attended by factioned members. The services are far enough apart that neither group will come into contact with the other. An outside party will be moving the piano bench to different locations and appropriate positions, between services, so as to please both sides, and avoid any further conflict that could result in violence.
B. Background to passage: This passage is a small interlude between the prayer and speaking the Word with boldness, and the first of the internal struggles of the early church. Here we get another picture of life in the early church. And the recurring theme is unity.
C. Main thought: In this passage, we will see that there are four keys to spiritual unity for the church
A. Same Passion - Christ (v.32)
1. The whole church had the same heart. A heart set ablaze by Jesus. Their passion was to know Him in the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, and be conformed to His death. Christ is the main source of unity. He was the focus of their individual lives, and thus when they came together they really were together. They were in love with Jesus. They lived their lives for Him and His glory.
2. Philip 1:21, 3:8, 14, Jer 32:39
3. Illustration: “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all turned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship” –Tozer, The Sunflower is probably the most amazing flowers God created. They literally follow the sun. No I don’t know about you, but one the most amazing things I have seen is a field of sunflowers. Watching one follow the sun through is cute. Watching hundreds in absolute unison follow the sun is actually quite incredible. Something I found out recently, is that Sunflowers continue tracking the suns direction long after sun set. Through 360 degree’s they ensure that they are always oriented in the direction of the sun. Their unity is totally dependant on one thing. Their relationship to the sun.
4. We are not called to be cookie-cutter believers. But there should be a common desire in all our lives for Christ. A common drive that causes us to pursue Jesus. A common thirst for which we all crave, and thus we gather together to drink deeply from the Water of Life. When division or disagreement exists, we must be willing to examine our own hearts, and see if our passion at that moment is the fame of His name. If disagreements affect our pursuit of Christ, they must be dealt with. Is Christ the preeminent one in your life? Is pursuing Him the most important thing to you? Is He your treasure that you would sell out to gain?
B. Same Convictions - Word (v. 32)
1. The word used here is psuche, which can be translated soul or mind. I prefer to take it to mean mind, because the word heart really conveys feelings, and so does soul. But I think Luke is making a point by saying that they also thought the same things. They were able to achieve this feat by allow scripture to dictate their thoughts. They had a common standard upon which to determine a thought’s correctness.
2. Philip 2:2, Pro 13:13, 1 Cor 1:10
3. Illustration: "Christian unity is not found in uniformity, organization or a particular church, but rather in Jesus and our commitment to His teachings and living them out in our lives. It is only as we join together with others who look different than we do but share a common love and commitment to the Truth that is Jesus, that we can know the completeness of the body of Christ." “It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried” –B F & M 2000,
4. Historically, we have been people of the book, but our society, culture, and religion has not made the bible the anchor in recent years. Lazy discipleship has produced a generation or two or three that do not know the scriptures. Then the liberals and church growth movement came along and gave us all these new ways to do church better and more culturally relevant and more palpable; and we did not line them up with scripture. And so now we are faced with the task of realigning an existing structure with the Bible. But as our confession states, the bible is the only rule for faith and practice. Rugged individualism in America teaches us to try things in the courtroom of person opinion, public opinion, or expert opinion. This makes one persons statements just a valid as another. We are people whose worldview is based on a Creator God who gave us the manual. But the sooner we get back to judging all things first upon scripture, the more unified we will be. We desperately need to develop a deep respect and conviction for all that is found within our Holy Book!
C. Same Focus - Evangelism (v. 33)
1. Every chapter in Acts mentions and exemplifies the evangelistic fervor that the early church demonstrated. So it will probably be a consistent theme in the preaching of this book. But that is the point! Evangelism was the primary goal of the church then, and it still should be today. Their focus was on their mission, and this created a unity of purpose.
2. Philip 1:27, Matt 12:25,
3. Illustration: On the sheet that listed the PROBLEMS, such things were listed as: • Should not serve coffee in church • Should serve more coffee in church • Should have shorter sermons • Should have longer sermons • The music we have is terrible • It’s terrible we don’t have more music like what we have On the sheet with the heading of WHAT IS NEEDED, things were listed like: • Need to spend money on more chairs • We don’t need to spend any more money • Pitch all the songs and start over • We need a new preacher We can see the humor in that illustration, but there is something else we can see, too. We can see the unhappiness of those in the church. We can see the lack of unity as a body of Christians, and there is one more thing … we can see a church that has dropped the ball in its teachings, because nobody mentioned Jesus Christ. I would say the biggest problem that church had was that everybody was focused on what they wanted, and nobody was focused on what Jesus wanted. Once we were asked the kingdom question in our finance committee meeting, it easily helped us make some changes. Tell about Herb Reavis talking about church members who come just so they can find something to get mad about…The life saving station,
4. Great power and great grace will be upon those whose focus is winning people to Jesus. When we are focused upon how we can win people to Jesus, we don’t have time to fuss about the temperature in the building. Budgets come into focus, if we think in terms of reaching people. We don’t get mad about things that are petty, when we are broken and searching for lost people. That is part of the reason that we don’t evangelize and grow—because we are concerned deeply about tradition, and the kind of music, and whether or not we have Wed night suppers, but very little about the lost around us. We realign our church with the goal—making hard-core, sold-out, self-sacrificing, faith-sharing disciples for Jesus.
D. Same perspective - Stewards (v. 34)
1. Having the same passion, same thoughts, and same focus led to or flowed from having a biblical perspective on life. Luke includes for us again the reality that the in the early church it was common for people that were better off, to sell property to relieve the suffering poor. And they did it so much so that they eliminated poverty in their midst. Critics say that this was too far fetched, that Luke made up this rosy idea, but it never existed in reality, because it is so good. But the opposite is true they viewed the world and all its things as simply a means to an end. They were given use of possessions, technology, livelihoods, families, etc, to glorify Christ. And so they viewed themselves as stewards. And that is why they were so quick to sell off possessions for kingdom needs. There was nothing in the world whose purpose is not to glorify Christ, so it’s all dispensable.
2. Heb 10:34, Luke 16:11-13,
3. Illustration: “Life is not just a few years to spend on self-indulgence and career advancement. It is a privilege, a responsibility, and a stewardship to be lived according to a much higher calling.” Tell about the wealthy woman who felt a little guilty until the moth flew out of her purse as she went to retrieve her car keys to go home. The preacher said he had a hard time getting the moth to go in there…
4. When we come together in church each one with the perspective of everything in their lives is owned by God and simply to be used at His disposal to bring honor to Himself, unity flourishes. Whatever resources God has granted you stewardship of are to be managed his way. So your job is God’s way of financing His kingdom. Your car is a way of raising up disciples and evangelizing and serving others. Your time and talent is to be used for the kingdom goals. With this attitude there is no fighting over money, because it is not ours, it is His. And we will spend it the way that He wants it spent, because our passion is Christ, our guide is the Word and the Spirit, our goal is evangelism to the glory of God. But as well as our passion, our thoughts, and our goals, we must fight to keep the Bible’s perspective on money, rather than the world’s.
A. Closing illustration: Each of us will never forget what happened September 11, 2001. Out of that terrible day we saw our nation join together in unity. Our unity was in sorrow, fear, but more importantly, a greater cause and greater good…Don’t we have a greater cause to sacrifice our own personal agenda’s to?
B. Recap
C. Invitation to commitment
Additional Notes
• Is Christ Exalted, Magnified, Honored, and Glorified?
