OPEN: The past two weeks we’ve been talking about iPods. Ever since Apple Computers began marketing these miniature music machines in 2001 they’ve been a popular item with both adults and kids alike.
iPods have been marketed in various shapes and sizes and colors, and there are all kinds of different accessories have been developed to make them even more desirable. Different styles of earbuds (ear phones) cradles for them to set in so that you can play your music through hi-fidelity speakers. I’ve even seen a flotation device that holds your iPod and external speakers so that you can listen to your favorite music in the pool.
But the ultimate in iPod extras has got to be something called the iDiamond. Designed by Heyerdahl Jewelers out of Norway:
• The case is made of 18 karat white and pink gold and is embedded with 312 diamonds.
• The earbuds (also made of 18 karate white & pink gold) has 118 diamonds.
• Estimated cost of this item - $45,000.
• Now if you just wanted the earbuds… you could get them for a mere $6500.
Now you might ask – who would buy such a thing?
(wait for them to ask)
I don’t know. I haven’t a clue.
But somebody will! This is a one-of-a-kind accessory, and somebody with a lot of money will want it!
Now as I was thinking about that it occurred to me that that’s the way it is with many things in our lives. I don’t want this I-Diamond toy… so it wouldn’t matter how much it costs – I wouldn’t buy it. BUT if there’s something I DO want… I’ll find a way to get the money to purchase it.
• If I need a new car – I’ll find the money somehow.
• Need to buy a house – I’ll find the money.
• Want to go on a cruise or a trip badly enough – I’ll find a way to get it done.
It just depends on how badly I want that SOMETHING
If you want something badly enough… you’ll find a way to get it.
That’s the way we try to operate at the church.
The leadership prays and talks about which way they think God wants us to go as a congregation. And if we think God wants something done… that’s what we want to do. For example, we strongly believe God wants our church to grow, so we’ve done everything we can think of to make that happen. That’s why we have a part-time youth minister, children’s minister, and young adults’ minister.
We believe God will want us to have more space to minister to those extra people, so we’re committed to building an addition onto the building. And we want this to be a reality so badly, we’ll find a way to get it done.
Let me repeat… if you want something badly enough – you’ll find a way to get it.
APPLY: Now, that brings me to today’s text. The setting is this:
It’s only a couple of weeks since the church got started at Pentecost and already they’re in trouble. Peter and John went down to the Temple at the time of prayer. At the Temple gate, they found a man who had been lame since birth (he’s now 40 or so) and when the man asks for alms, Peter replies “Silver and gold have I none, but what I have I give to. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk!” Then he takes the man by the hand the lame beggar springs to feet totally healed.
The healed man is understandably excited and begins shouted and jumping around… and he literally clings to Peter and John all the while. This in turn draws the attention of those gathered to pray at the Temple, and a large crowd gathers. Peter, never one to pass up a chance to speak, begins to preach, and the result is that the church grows by nearly 2000 men that day.
All this commotion and preaching gets the attention of the Priests and the Sadducees - who promptly have them arrested.
The next day they’re brought before the Sanhedrin. They’re questioned, threatened, and commanded not to preach about Jesus anymore. But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.” Acts 4:19
Then they go back to the church and they have an old-time prayer meeting.
They tell the congregation what the Sanhedrin has commanded, and then they began to pray.
I don’t know how long they prayed.
And I’m not sure we know everything that they prayed when they did pray.
BUT I do know, that when they got done Acts 4:31 tells us “…the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”
Then - right after this incident we’re introduced to another problem the church faced.
When the church began back at Pentecost, this was a big feast day for the Jewish people. The law required that God’s people return to Jerusalem from wherever they were living. And some of them lived several days journey away. Some in Africa, Italy, Greece and other far-flung nations. But once Peter preached his sermon on Pentecost, some 3000 men repented of their sins and were baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins. Now all these people were part of an exciting body of believers… and nobody wanted to go home.
They don’t have jobs. They don’t have permanent homes.
And, if they’re going to stay… they’ll need help. They’ll need money.
Soooo… the early church met their need. Acts 4:34-35 says “… from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sale, and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.”
The rich surrendered their wealth to the poor.
Now, there are those who have looked at this passage and thought to themselves: that sounds a lot like communism. In fact, those who are enamored of the concept of communism have been known to appeal to this text in support of their ideology.
(pause)
ILLUS: Years ago I ran across this following definition of the various forms of government. They compared capitalism (the economic model we try to follow in our country) with communism and socialism, and they used a simple illustration to drive their point home.
In a capitalist system: You have 2 cows, you sell one, and buy a bull.
Under a socialist government: You have 2 cows, the government takes 1 cow and gives it to your neighbor.
Under a communist government: You have 2 cows, the government takes both of them and gives you part of the milk.
But then, in a government run by US bureaucrats: You have 2 cows, and the government requires you to shoot one, milk the other - and then tells you to pour the milk down the drain.
Communism and Socialism are man-made attempts to remedy the abuses of capitalism. Capitalism has definite advantages when it comes to helping people become wealthy, but once people get rich they often tend to want to stay that way and can oppress poorer folks to get that done. Communism and socialism evolved as a way to rectify the inequities that capitalism can create.
Of course, the problem with both of communism and socialism is that they generally don’t work. And they don’t work because (1) they discourage creativity and (2) are forced on people. People don’t like to be forced to give up their possessions to anybody.
What the early church practiced here was neither socialism nor communism.
One preacher called it Commonism (Glenn Durham, sermoncentral.com, in his sermon “Commonism in the Church”)
They held all things in COMMON because they WANTED to.
It wasn’t imposed upon them by the church.
That’s what we find in Acts 5 where we read the story about Ananias and Sapphira.
This early church couple saw that others were selling their land and receiving great honor. They wanted to cash in on that excitement, so they sold some of their land as well… and gave only a portion to the church to use for the poor.
Now had they lived under a communist organization they would have been required/forced not only to sell their property, but also to give all of the proceeds to the church.
But notice what it says in Acts 5:4,
Peter rebukes Ananias for what they’d done.
“Didn’t (the land) belong to you before it was sold?” (you didn’t have to sell it)
“And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal?” ( you didn’t have to give any of it to the church).
“What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."
In other words, Ananias and Sapphira sinned against God not because they gave only a portion of the sale of their land. No, they sinned because they lied about their donation in order to manipulate the church into giving them the praise everyone else got.
What the early church wasn’t communism – it was COMMONISM.
They held all things in common because they wanted to.
They wanted to take care of each other so badly… they found a way to get it done.
Let me repeat the theme I introduced at the beginning of the sermon:
If you want something badly enough… you’ll find a way to get it.
And these folks wanted to take care of the poor among them so badly found the way.
They sold land they owned to help out.
This was such a prominent practice in the early church that a skeptic named Lucian who opposed all religion, included Christianity (and who lived about 100 years later) was impressed.
“It is incredible to see the fervor with which the people of that religion help each other in their wants. They spare nothing. Their first legislator [Jesus] has put it in their heads that they are brothers.” (Glenn Durham, sermoncentral.com, in his sermon “Commonism in the Church”)
ILLUS: We try to do the same thing here at our church.
We have a food pantry, give out vouchers for energy bills, pass out food baskets. And there’s a jar at the back of the sanctuary where you can anonymously put in money to be distributed to the poor and needy of our community. And that’s not even mentioning the help many of you give individually – without any of us even knowing you do it.
(Pause…)
Now as I was studying this passage… something else occurred to me.
It occurred to me that this whole section of Scripture was meant to be read as a whole. It doesn’t seem to me that it was intended to be chopped up into individual stories. In fact, the Com-monism the early church practiced followed immediately on the heels of the previous story and struck me that one incident led to the next.
This is what I’m seeing here:
1st the early church gave themselves to God.
Peter and John were commanded not to preach about Jesus by the Sanhedrin and they basically refuse. They say their first priority was to obey God. “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
In other words: you can do what you like… but we’re going to put God first. And because leaders like Peter and John gave themselves first to God the church followed their example. And because honoring God was a priority for the early church they were driven to find ways to take care of the poor among them.
ILLUS: A couple years ago, a Syracuse University professor named Arthur C. Brooks wrote a book called "Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism”. He was not particularly excited about the outcome of the study he’d done (he’d been raised a liberal) but from the evidence he amassed he concluded that conservatives who practice religion, live in traditional nuclear families and reject the notion that the government should engage in income redistribution were the most generous Americans, by any measure.
By contrast, secular liberals who believe fervently in government entitlement programs gave far less to charity. Liberals want everyone’s tax dollars to support charitable causes and were reluctant to write checks to those causes, even when govts don’t provide them with enough money.
From his research he found that liberals give less than conservatives in every imaginable way, including hours given to volunteer work and the % of liberals of blood they donate.
In other words, when people give themselves to God rather than government, they end up giving more of their time, treasure and talent to charities and to the poor.
And that’s the way it ought to be. Throughout the Bible, God repeatedly tells His people – that’s what He expects.
• Under the Law, God commanded His people “Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien.”
(Why?) because “I am the LORD your God.” Leviticus 19:10
• In Proverbs we’re told “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” Proverbs 14:31
• In fact, “He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done. Proverbs 19:17
What does that imply that you “lend to the LORD”? It means, He intends to pay you back, with interest… that’s how important it is to God that we make this a priority in our lives
But, what if you don’t have ready cash to help the poor?
Well, God has a solution to that problem as well… it’s called fasting. In fasting, His people can set aside the money they would have spent and food and give that to the poor.
• In Isaiah 58 God declares that the kind of fasting that pleased Him was the kind that ended up sharing “your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.” Isaiah 58:7-8
God is so honored when we sacrifice our own meals to honor Him in helping the needy that he will literally open the windows of heaven upon you.
Thus, people who give themselves 1st to God give themselves to others.
They end up wanting to help the poor so badly… they find a way to do it.
The next thing I noticed in this passage was that the early church gave themselves to prayer.
No sooner does the Sanhedrin let Peter & John go - they back to church & hold a prayer meeting. Now, had it been me - if the Sanhedrin had told me I couldn’t preach - I’m just honnery enough that no sooner than I’d stepped outside the door I’d start preaching… just to prove I could.
But not Peter and John.
Peter and John quietly make their way back to the church and then they begin to pray.
And we’re told that “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” Acts 4:31
BUT ONLY AFTER THEY PRAYED
And then… right after they prayed… in the very next verse we’re told: “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.” Acts 4:32
Prayer came before giving.
And I think their prayerfulness led to their giving hearts.
But, why would that be?
Well, too many Christians forget to include God in their plans.
They do good things, but they don’t often talk to God about what they’re going to do.
They don’t really mean to do that, but it happens.
Giving to the poor is a good work.
And when WE do that good work, we accomplish what we can do.
But when we pray before we do good works, we accomplish what God can do through us.
Prayer gives an extra umph to our efforts.
But more importantly that that - if we’re a people who pray much - we’ll accomplish more because we’re TIED IN with God. And the more tied in we are with God the more we’ll begin to follow His will almost spontaneously. In fact it should make us do good things … naturally because we’ve spent so much time with Him in prayer that we’ll do good things - just because.
So let’s revue. The early church gave themselves:
First to God
Then to Prayer
And then, they gave themselves to each other.
And they gave to the church to help the poor because they wanted to take care of the poor among them so badly… they found a way to get it done.
CLOSE: You remember that iDiamond we talked about.
Estimated value $45,000.
And you know… they didn’t sell it. (pause) They auctioned it. And they gave the proceeds – ALL $45,000 – to charity. But the money didn’t go to the poor… it went to “The Soil Association”. A group dedicated to organic food and farming.
Now, I’ve got nothing against organic food and farming but it’s significance pales in comparison to the value of God’s people giving to take care of the poor and the needy in their midst.
Sermons in this series:
i-Surrender = James 4:1-10
i-Serve = Luke 22:24-22:27
i-Give - Acts 4:15-4:37
i-Live = Romans 6:3-23
