“The Church You’ve Always Longed For”
Acts 2:42-47 5.20.07
What is this thing called “church” supposed to be? False ideas about church…
• A building
• A high-falutin’ affair where you dress up and go to
• A “show” where you’re entertained, sort of an “amateur hour” about God
• And then, some folks seem to think that church is supposed to be “all about me”
o “Me Church” clip
A good place to find out what church is supposed to be all about is to look at the very first church on record; there are some queues that we can take from the early church that I believe translate well into our setting 2000 years later. I believe that this church, this first church, though it lacked in business savvy, organizational development, technological advancement, marketing know-how, and even theological fine-tuning, nonetheless represented the kind of entity that every one of us would find appealing, the church that you’ve always longed for! Let’s look at our text for the morning, found in Acts 2:42-47:
“’They’ devoted themselves” – “they” were the early followers of Jesus, what we call the “church” in its earliest form. The context of this passage is that the church was formed after God’s Holy Spirit came in a powerful display to a group of about 120 people gathered together in prayer, and the result of the message given by Peter, one of Jesus’ followers, was that 3000 people began to follow Jesus and were baptized, an unprecedented event. This passage today explains how these people, the early church, conducted their affairs. And they had several committed focuses (“devoted” connotes a deep level of commitment):
I. The Commitments of a Great Church
A church is defined by the commitments that it makes, its “core values”. We have spent some time hashing through our commitments at Red Oak. Notice the early church’s core values:
A. Teaching
Specifically, the author Luke records this as “the apostles’ teaching.” This refers to the body of truth about Jesus’ life and work, what He did and taught, His crucifixion and resurrection from the grave, and the like. It was important that those who had been eyewitnesses of Christ’s life and teaching, His death and resurrection, transmit these truths to those new to the faith.
This church was a learning group. They wanted to pursue understanding and growth in their relationship with God; they were not content with “business as usual”. I hope today that that characterizes you, that perhaps one of the key reasons you are here today is because of a desire to develop spiritually as a person. Church cannot be a place where the already convinced gather to show off their spiritual goodness and congratulate each other on the fact that they are enlightened; it must be a place where people humbly admit their ignorance and seek to learn, grow, and develop.
This wasn’t some merely mystical group, a group that had had some kind of experience with Jesus but whose minds were not in touch with their experience; quite the opposite! We do not turn our minds off, but we turn them on, when we truly experience Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that the key to changed living is changed thinking, that our minds do not think correctly as a result of our sinfulness, and the antidote to this is learning and understanding the Word of God; two of our core values are that we will be “Bible-centered” and be committed to “intentional disciplemaking”, and by this we mean that we will intentionally teach the Bible in a variety of ways in order to help people grow in their knowledge of it, so that in growing in knowledge, they’ll be able to live differently, live to please God in their daily lives. Next, they were devoted to
B. The Fellowship
Notice that there is a definite article in front of the term “fellowship”; what this signifies is that those who made up this church weren’t so much devoted to doing something—“fellowship”—as they were to the people with whom they would fellowship, “the fellowship”. These folks were committed to each other in some deep and meaningful ways, ways which we’ll explore in more detail in a few moments. There was an integral relational component to the church. And it’s my observation, from having been in a whole lot of churches in my 29 years...that in way too many churches, the people who are seated all around us on Sunday morning are only incidental to our experience of God. In other words, in too many churches, I could do my own thing with God, and if there weren’t another soul in the building except maybe the minister and the choir, I wouldn’t be hampered much at all. And I think that’s sad, and it certainly wasn’t the experience of the early church.
Two of the core values of Red Oak (on back of your bulletin) are that we will be “relationship-based” and that we will hold “meaningful membership”. We will value the relationships that are formed within our church; we will consider it the normal course of events that you will make deep connections with other people in our church, and that those who join our church will be truly committed to it. This means that if someone wants a church where she can just “float” along and do her own thing with God, where she doesn’t have to get involved with anyone else, where involvement in the church doesn’t really mean too much, then Red Oak is not the church for her! The early church was made up of folks who were committed to each other. Third,
C. Breaking of Bread
This refers to the Christian observance of Communion, which some call “Eucharist” or “The Lord’s Table”, which would have often been shared together. Christ told His followers to “remember” Him as they ate bread and drank wine together, as the bread they received would symbolize His body and the wine His blood. And Christian churches have since the beginning observed the Lord’s Table together as a way of remembering.
But beyond this, it also seems to refer to simply eating together (see :46). The early church observed the Lord’s Table in different fashion than we do; they would partake of it in the context of a regular mealtime. This led to some problems which the apostle Paul addressed in I Corinthians, but it didn’t invalidate the practice, and there is great value in simply sharing meals. We eat together as a church most Sundays in some fashion or another; we love being together, eating good food, enjoying the bonds of friendship and love that we experience in Christ. It’s pretty clear that this is what was going on in the early church as well in varied forms. Fourth, they were committed to
D. Prayer
While they communicated with each other as devoted members, they communicated with God as well. Prayer is universal, in the sense that people from a variety of faiths engage in some semblance of it; in Christian faith, we pray to the God Who tells us to address Him as “Father”, we being by faith in Christ His children. In the context of the Acts 2 passage here, it seems that what is being implied is more than just solitary prayer, but prayer together as brothers and sisters. And it was an important enough facet of their practice that it is mentioned here. The great church in Jerusalem, according to Luke, was committed to teaching, to the fellowship, to communion, and to prayer. Note next
II. The Effect of a Great Church - :43
“Awe” – when’s the last time you thought of church as an awe-inspiring place? And yet, if God is real, then there ought to be some awesome things going on in church. The apostles were performing “signs and wonders”. There aren’t any apostles around these days, and the purpose of signs and wonders wasn’t the entertainment value, but rather as authentication of the message that they were proclaiming. When the Scriptures say that “awe” came upon “every soul”, it isn’t merely referring to those who were followers of Christ, but even those who rejected Jesus as Savior were amazed at the things going on in the early church. That’d be a great place to be, where the reputation in the community was that “something’s happening over there!” Third, note
III. The Lives of a Great Church - :44-47a
Look at the stuff these folks were involved in! They truly “did life together” (see :44-45)!
• This sharing of possessions wasn’t socialism, an externally-forced “leveling” of people with regard to status, but rather a voluntary reaction to the persecution that they faced in some quarters as a result of being a minority with a mission. And so that everybody was cared for, their attitudes were, “we don’t really own what we have; it’s on loan from God anyway; what we have, we have to share.”
• Is this what you think of when you think of “church”? People voluntarily selling their stuff and sharing with others who had needs within the group…
• Meeting the needs of others does several things:
o Helps those who receive the things
o Changes those who do the giving
o Pleases God, Who is Himself the Giver of all good things
Further, they found joint worship invaluable. Though they were the church of Jesus Christ, they were at this point all Jews or Jewish proselytes, and so it was natural for them to go the temple in Jerusalem and to continue to use this a section of this as their meeting place for discussion and connection. They did this regularly, and then convened to their homes where they connected further. This is a blend of the formal and the informal; at Red Oak, we want to replicate this in that we come together for worshipping God every Sunday morning, but we also convene in people’s homes during the week in order to worship God, learn His Word, and encourage each other.
Note their attitudes in all they did: “glad and generous hearts”. They enjoyed themselves in their experience of God and each other; they were glad to be there, not some manufactured joy, but a real, sincere, heartfelt, “this is fulfilling” kind of joy. We’re dedicated to the proposition that church can be something that is exciting, that is fulfilling, that is a joy-filled experience as together we meet God, and then go out to serve Him. This was happening in the early church, and it can happen again!
And their gladness overflowed into generosity. You know, it’s funny—or sad, whichever way you want to look at it, but it seems that statistically, the richer folks are in America, the less generous they seem to be! No wonder there are a lot of miserable people, unhappy people, people with plenty of money but who hoard it to themselves and find little joy in life. Sad as well is the fact that many of those folks call themselves “Christians”, but seem to be more materialistic American than Christian, more in love with the goodies that money can buy, and that they think will make them happy but doesn’t, than with Jesus, Who is the Source of joy! These early followers of Jesus enjoyed themselves as they worshipped God, and they became generous givers as they’d generously received!
Beyond this, though, they had the favor of those on the outside. Sadly, let’s face this fact: there are a lot of people outside the church who don’t have a particularly favorable opinion of it.
• Many have been burned in some way by the church. That might characterize some of you today, and I’m sorry, I really am. I daresay that millions of Americans have had bad experiences in churches—I have—and many have given up on the church because of this.
• Others see the church as being little more than a wing of some political party.
• Others see the church as being this weird little institution that does semi-secretive things that are odd and unrelated to the realities of life, or as an out-of-touch outfit that is asking questions nobody is asking, or fighting over trivialities and doctrinal minutiae.
• Still others see the church as an organization of killjoys, developing all sorts of rules and regulations that squelch the life out of people and turn a relationship with the God of the universe into a checklist of outward do’s and don’ts.
This church, though, despite the fact that it was following a man who’d been crucified, his blood demanded by a howling mob of some of these very same people, had a good reputation within the community. And I believe that it’s possible today for a church to have a good name in the community, to make a real difference in people’s lives. One of my dreams for Red Oak is that this will be the kind of place that will really be an asset in this community, that Marietta and NW Atlanta metro will be the better for our existence. And we’re going to be doing some things in this school, and in our Powder Springs Road area, and in the communities around here, that are going to help people, that will make this a better place to live, and the reason why we’ll do this is because we want to live out the Jesus Who lives in our lives, so that people will follow Him.
IV. The Secret of a Great Church - :47b
Here’s the secret: God was continually at work in this situation; people were being added all the time to this early church. Notice several things about this with me:
• “The Lord added…” The growth of the early church was the work of God. True, we have a role to play in it, but it is God Who is working here in Acts 2.
• “To their number daily those who were being saved”
o Every day, God grew His church, and part of that involved the regular day-by-day witness of the people in the church to what God was doing in their lives and in their midst.
o Those who were becoming followers of Christ were placed into the church, signifying that people who are truly following Jesus Christ are functioning, active parts of a church, that those who claim to follow Jesus but place no priority on being involved in a church can’t possibly be following Jesus as closely as they’d like to think they are.
o Only those who were being saved were added to the local church. The church isn’t some kind of club for everybody; there are admission requirements, and the first one is that it is a group for people who know Christ as Savior. Now, there is a place, a big place, for folks who are considering becoming a follower of Jesus; some of you are in that camp, and we’re thrilled that you’re here! And we hope you’ll attend regularly! And we’ll try our best to love you and care for you and answer questions and pray for you and share our lives with you in whatever ways we can. When it comes to membership in the church, that is for those who are committed to following Jesus, what the Bible calls being “saved”.
In the church I’ve always longed for, God shows up. And He does so in clear ways. And where God shows up, things change. Finally
V. The Message of a Great Church - :47b
The good news, gospel message of the Bible tells us how to be saved, and it is the message of the church:
• God created man in His image, and in order to have a relationship with God.
• Man, though, committed sin against God, did things that were evil and displeasing to God, and broke the relationship that God desired with man. The entire Old Testament is the story of man’s breaking that relationship over and over again, and God’s judgment upon man for doing that.
• But it also points to the fact that God was going to send a Deliverer, a Savior, in order to pay the price for man’s sin.
• This was Jesus, not just any man, but God Himself, come in the flesh.
• Jesus Christ died on a cross, and the Bible says that when He did, He took on Himself the entire sin of the entire human race. How do we know that this Bible witness is true?
• Because Jesus, just as He predicted He would, rose again from the grave. The resurrection of Christ is the watershed event of Christian faith, for it gives evidence of the truthfulness of the message of Christ, and if indeed Jesus rose from the grave—and there is good, solid evidence to back this up—then that’s something that every one of us has to deal with: a once-dead man Who claimed He would resurrect actually did. Pretty compelling evidence, and we must then give pretty serious attention to His message.
• Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” Now we can ignore that statement, try to pretend that it isn’t true—but then there’s this nagging resurrection thing! We can say that it isn’t politically-correct for Jesus to say such a thing—but then there’s this nagging resurrection thing! If Jesus rose from the dead, we need to deal with that fact—and if He rose from the dead, He has established His credentials to be believed.
• And that is the response that is called for, according to the Bible; Romans 10 says that if we confess with our mouths that “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in our hearts that He rose from the dead, we will be saved. The heart belief is the critical internal factor that will lead to the external mouth confession; God calls upon us to believe, to exercise simple faith in Who Christ is and what He has done in dying for our sins and rising again from the grave.
