RELIVING PENTECOST: THE CHURCH COMMUNITY
THEME: THE CHURCH BECOMES A SPECIAL COMMUNITY FOR GOD’S PEOPLE.
TEXT: ACTS 2:42-47
At the end of the Civil War in Richmond, Virginia, on the Sunday after the surrender, a worship service was held in one of the historic church buildings in the city. It was an old church building that had a balcony where the slaves of the owners had sat for many years, with their masters and their families sitting downstairs. The practice in this church had been to have two calls for the Lord’s Supper, one first for the whites downstairs, and then one for the slaves upstairs. But on this given Sunday at the first call to communion an older black man, a former slave, began down the central aisle, right after the call. Naturally enough there was surprise and shock downstairs, but what was even more of a shock was when an elderly, white, bearded gentleman got up, hooked his arm in the arm of the former slave, and they went forward and took the Lord’s Supper together. That man was Robert E. Lee. There was forgiveness and healing and reunion around the Lord’s Supper table. On that day, in that building, for the first time, the people were a church. It was a church.
The idea of church in modern culture is not a positive one. There are books about people leaving church to practice the faith on their own. There are thousands of people who have rejected the church because of the behavior of Christians within the church. The modern church does not have a positive reputation in society. People want a relationship with Jesus but do not want to be part of the church. People have felt rejected, mistreated, used, and abused by local congregations. Instead of the church being a community of God’s people, the church has ransomed the divine role into corrupt substitutes. Instead of the church beaming acceptance, love, grace, and joy into the world, the prevalent message that is communicated is one of jealousy, rejection, jockeying, and intolerance. The original intention of the church seems to be clouded to the present world. The only way that the church will restore the power of Pentecost is for the church to go back to the original intent of the body of Christ. It must restore the sense of community that is found within the church. The sense of worship, fellowship, sharing, and love must be restored in the church of Christ.
On the day of Pentecost, after the people were saved from their sins, and the sin of putting the Son of God to death, the people were added to the church. Those added to the church formed a community of like minded individuals that were interesting in growing deeper in Christianity. It was a group from a common Lord and mission. The picture that is presented in Acts, is one for all ages to imitate. If the present church could go back to the ancient passion of the early church, the power of Pentecost would be restored for this generation.
Unlike some of the modern imagines, the ancient image of the church is one of beauty. Acts 2:42-47 paints the picture of those freshly saved Christians. “And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together, and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. And day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
I am not sure about you, but this picture seems different from the picture of the church today. The picture of the church today does not seem to fit this description. There seems to be some intense unity among the new Christians. Everyone seemed to be pulled together. Whatever background, whatever past, whatever color, whatever former views, all the people become one in Christ. There was a unity of purpose within the early church. The people were united through the instruction of the Apostle’s teaching. It seemed that the people could not get enough of the word of the Lord. There was no New Testament to read, but the inspired message was coming to the Apostles. There was a genuine hunger for the message of the Lord.
There was also fellowship. The church was spending time together with one another. You cannot forge relationships with people you do not spend time with. We cannot have strong bonds with one another with those we never see. Fellowship is not a nervous time. It is a not a time of covering up and putting on a fake happy smile. It is a time of being known and knowing. Church seems to have lost this sense. We essential cover up ourselves at church because if people really knew who we were, they would reject us. Fellowship is accepting embrace of one another. The people were worshipping together, they were partaking of the Lord’s Supper together, and the people were eating together. There seems to be a true bond in a relationship. Through the power of Christ, through the common confession that Jesus is Lord, it is a unifying true. It brings people together. The people, who would never have had contact before, are now one in Christ. And these people are sharing in relationship with each other.
This reminds me of the contrast in most churches and most church growth circles. Most congregations like people like them. Most church growth advocate advice that churches growth by reaching out to a certain group. It reminds me of this minister who tells the story of one afternoon watching a man pile bricks. He was measuring each brick. He mentioned to the minister, “I got to get them all exactly the same.” I said “Why.” He said, “I am building a church, and I want it to stand.” The man started stacking those bricks, they were just alike. I went by the next afternoon, and they were all just piles of brick. The wall fell down. I went around the corner, and I saw a man with a pile of rocks. You have never seen such a mess in your life. No two of the rocks were alike, as there were dark ones, round ones, small ones, big ones, and little ones. I said, “What in the world are you doing.” He said, “I am building a church. I said, “You are nuts.” The guy down there had them all alike, and he could not make them stand. He said, “This will stand, this will stand.” It will not, I said.” Yes it will the man said. And he went over to a wood tray, took something like a hoe, and began to stir something back and forth. Looked a lot like cement to me, but that’s not what he called it. He put healthy doses of that between the stones. I went back thirty-four years later, and it was still there. It was that stuff in between, looked a lot like cement. That is not what he called it. You know what he called it?
We would call it Christ today. Christ came into these people’s lives and brought them all together as one. Paul states in one of his letters. In Ephesians 2:13-16 “But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.”
The idea of church is some much bigger than the modern expression of church. The relations run deeper, the commitment to each other is larger, and the love for each other transcends that which is of the world. The idea of church being a place to come and listen to a lesson, a place to come to be right with God, and a place to come to have some swallow conversation, and not the place that God wanted to church to be. He wanted to church to have all things in common; he wanted the church to help one another, he wanted to church to love each other. We all come from different backgrounds. We all have different experiences. But we have something in common that is bigger, larger than our various backgrounds and difference, we have Christ. Christ is the cement that pulls us together; he is the cement that keeps us together. The church here should never be happy. The situation at this church should not be working. The odds of a Canadian minister working with a group of small town southern people should not work according to the world. But it seems to be working for me, maybe more for me than you. But it works because we have Christ in common. We have people from all different parts of the USA. We have people from all different religious backgrounds. But we have unity with one another because of Christ, because of what he has done. We cast off the difference to be united in Christ. We have the cement in the relationship.
This overwhelming unity has a tremendous aspect on the local community. When people see the church as a loving family, when people see the church as a group of people who are dedicated to one another and to the Lord, there is a strong desire, there is a strong pull to this group. The people see the church as something they want to be part of. Because man was made for relationship; it is in the nature of the godhead. We were born to be with one another. And who does not want to be loved for who they are. With time, we learn to accept one another. We learn to love one another. Our difference makes us special within the community. Our personalities create joy and happiness. We love each other for who we are, for what we are. This is the beauty of church. A group of people, which is the true name for the church, because church just means group in the Bible, this is the true identity of the church.
Fred Craddock tells the story of working with a little church in the Appalachians. It was between Chattanooga and Knoxville, it was called Watts Bar Lake. It was the custom of that church to baptism people in the Watts Bar Lake at Sundown. He mentions that on the sandbar, I with the person who was to be baptized, moved into the water to immerse the individual. After the baptism, the little congregation would gather to sing around a fire and cook supper. The constructed a little booth for changing clothes with hanging blankets. As the person finished, he changed clothes and went to the fire in the center. Once we were all around the fire, this was the ritual of that tradition. Glenn Hickey, always Glenn, introduced the new convert, gave the name, where they lived, and where their worked. Then the rest of us formed a circle around them, while they stayed warm at the fire. The ritual was that each person in the circle then gave him or her his name, and said this, “My name is… and if you ever need somebody to do washing and ironing….My name is…if you ever need anybody to chop wood...My name is…if you ever need anybody to baby sit. My name is…if you ever need anybody to repair your house. My name is…if you ever need someone to sit with the sick. My name is…and if you ever need a car to go to town. And around the circle it went. Then we ate. And then at a time they knew, I did not know, Percy Miller, with thumbs in his bibbed overalls, would stand up and say, “Time to go,” and everyone left. He lingered behind and with his big shoe, kicked sand over the dying fire. And my first experience of that, he saw me standing there still, and he looked at me and said, “Craddock, folks do not ever get any closer than this. In that little community, they have a name for that. I have heard it in other communities too. It that community, their name for that is “Church.” They call that “church.”
