Let’s Get Real, Church About COMMUNITY
Acts 2:42-44; 4:30-34
INTRODUCTION
I am going to test your memory banks this morning. I will give you the first few words of a familiar TV show, and you tell me the shows name.
They're creepy and they're kooky, Mysterious and spooky, They're all together ooky, ( The Addams Family)
Well, now, take down your fishin' pole and meet me at The Fishin' Hole, We may not get a bite all day, but don't you rush away. ( Andy Griffith Show)
Farm livin' is the life for me. Land spreadin' out so far and wide Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside. ( Green Acres)
Boy the way Glen Miller played Songs that made the hit parade. Guys like us we had it made, Those were the days. ( All in the Family)
Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got. Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot. Wouldn't you like to get away? Sometimes you want to go Where everybody knows your name, ( Cheers)
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, A tale of a fateful trip That started from this tropic port Aboard this tiny ship. ( Gilligans Island)
This week, the last star who was the name sake of the show died. Bob Denver played the hapless, shy, bumbling first mate Gilligan.
By the time I was watching it, it was in re-runs but it would come on right after the Brady Bunch and my sister and I would sit and watch the adventures of this unfortunate group who had only wanted a three hour tour.
What made the show so funny was the unique and different personalities of each of the castaways.
The Skipper was smart and fearless, he knew how to take charge and lead the group.
The Howells were filthy rich and they knew how to handle anything that required a knack for business and administration.
Mary-Ann was the comforter and encourager, always ready with a coconut pie for whoever was feeling down.
The professor was better than McGyver. He could figure out a way to fix any problem, other than the fact that they were stuck, with one of his incredible inventions.
Ginger could act and she could get them out of whatever jam they were in with whoever was visiting the island at the time.
And Gilligan was the one with the servant’s heart. He would do anything for anyone and usually mess it up but it was always done with a great heart.
It was a great show. It was also a great picture of a community. They survived because they each complimented one another’s strengths. They worked together and because of that, they were able to handle whatever each new episode challenged them with.
They each had a sense of belonging, that their gifts and talents were important. They each felt that sense of support that the others provided, their lives were intertwined together.
In one memorable episode, Gilligan got upset and felt unloved, he moved into a cave by himself on the other side of the island. He quickly realized that he couldn’t survive without the support of the others. He had lost the third benefit, that sense of wholeness that comes through community. He knew that he needed the rest of the group and that together they could accomplish things that he could never do alone.
It’s a picture of community. A group of people, maintaining their individuality and uniqueness but coming together as one to live life together and move towards one goal, in their case, to get off the island, in our case, to advance the Kingdom of God here on Earth.
We could learn a lot from this group. This is the kind of community and togetherness that we see in the early church and this is what we can see in this place. But how does it begin?
P.S. I want to challenge us today to be Devote ourselves to authentic community.
A community is defined as ‘A unified body of individuals with common character and common interests, who share joint ownership and participation in something.’
The early church fit this definition but what was it that really made them a community?
In Acts 2:42, we read that, All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper[i]), and to prayer.
Notice that verse 42 begins with “They devoted themselves. Or literally they continued steadfastly, they committed themsleves,. One translation says ‘they were like family together. ( CEV).
In the original Greek, the word translated continually devoted means “to attend constantly, continue steadfastly, wait on, or to strongly carry on.”
It was not a one time commitment or a religious duty. They commited themselves totally to the fellowship as a lifestyle.
The early church understood this, they did things together and their lives were intertwined and connected with each other.
The devotion of these early Christians was not merely an emotional attachment. It was a devotion that was authenticated by their strength and commitment, their steadfastness, and it caused the rest of the world, to take notice.
Take a look at verses 2: 44-45: “All the believers were together and had everything in common.
The Greek word fellowship means to “share something in common.” The rest of the passage fleshes out this concept as we learn that they were “all together” (verse 44), they met together in the temple courts (verse 46), and they ate together (verse 46).
This passage mentions three times that they ate together. Shared meals played an important role in the life of the early church. They seemed to follow the North American maxim, “Feed them and they will come’
What did the believers have in common? Everything. They were not clones, there was tremendous diversity among that group. If you read in the early part of Acts 2, the group of people that were saved and became the early church were made up of people from all over the known world. They each brought their own personalities and gifts, there was uniqueness. But at the core, at the center of it all there was common ground.
Like that first group of Jesus followers, our church is made up of very unique individuals and becoming a community doesn’t mean that we lose that. We need your unique gifts and talents. We need your unique perspectives and viewpoints, your personality quirks and your senses of humor.
Each of your individuality will make us what we are as a ministry. But when we have many different types of people, spanning the generations, there is always the potential for conflict.
The early church was unified but as you read through Paul’s letters in the rest of the NT you can see that conflict begins to rear it’s ugly head. It’s human nature. In a church that is not a community, conflict will tear it apart. This is where you’ll see church splits and some of that ugly stuff that many churches are known for.
The church that works through that and has developed community is the one who is able to concentrate on what they have in common, instead of what their differences are. When we begin from a common ground, we can work through the problems and conflicts.
You and I were created for community. That’s why our topic this morning is so important. You were made to have intimate relationships, to serve people lavishly, to share the stuff that you have, to build into the lives of the people around you, to have people to whom you can entrust the secrets of your heart and to laugh, praise, pray and cry with other human beings.
But, here’s a weird truth about human beings. While we long for community, we also run from it.
It has been said that when humankind fell from grace, we inherited not only a tendency to hide from God, but a tendency to hide from one another as well. We struggle with conflicting desires.
On the one hand, we desire to be close to one another, and on the other, we want to hold others at arm’s length. We have learned to be suspicious of other people’s motives. At times we’ve been taken advantage of and we fear being burned again and so we erect barriers. These barriers effectively insulate us from one another, and become an impediment to true community in the Church.
Jesus prayed, in John 17:22-23, that we might be one, even as He and the Father are one: “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in Me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
But for that to happen, many walls have to fall down. Suspicion has to be replaced with openness; uncertainty has to be replaced with willingness; and fear has to be replaced with love. On the day of Pentecost, that is precisely what happened — the barriers came falling down. The Holy Spirit of God moved in and produced a wonderful unity in that first group of believers.
Our text today describes the extent of that unity as it existed at the very beginning. For a while, they were allowed to live in the glorious oneness which only the Spirit can produce. I believe this sense of community can be recaptured today when we allow Christ to be Lord, and surrender to the leading of the Holy Spirit in our personal lives.
I believe that deep down within us, we all long to be close, to be part of the same family, to be in tune -- and in touch with one another.
What will this community look like?
Acts 4:32-35 gives us an inside look at how the church cared for other believers. In this passage, we’ll see 3 different degrees of their unity they had a mystical unity, a ministerial unity, and a material unity. We’ll also discover three timeless principles that can help us experience that same depth of unity today.
As we look at this passage of Scripture before us, let’s see what kind of community the Spirit produced in this young church and what kind of community He can produce in us.
Lets read it together shall we,
Acts 4:32-37 NLT
32 All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. 33 The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. 34 There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them 35 and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need.36 For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”). He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the island of Cyprus. 37 He sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles.
Let’s begin by looking at 4:32: “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.”
The first thing we discover is that the first church valued COMMUNITY over SECLUSION
In the first part of verse 32, we read that the believers were of one heart and mind. They were experiencing a oneness, a unity which they could never have produced on their own.
The diverse multitude that had gathered from all nations and tongues had been melted together by divine love into a union which was mystical in nature and divine in origin.
Those things, which before had divided them, now faded away into insignificance. They had met the Lord. They were together and they were one.
Notice the three words mentioned in the first part of this verse: “believers,” “heart”, and “mind.” Unity was evident in these three areas. It was a unity of faith, a unity of emotions, and a unity of will.
It was a unity of FAITH. Notice that the "believers" were one. They were one with each other because they believed the same thing. They had placed their faith in Jesus and now were attempting to live out that faith. There can be no fellowship without correct belief.
1 John 1:7 says, "But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another."
It is only as we walk in the light of the truth of God’s Word that we can enjoy true fellowship with one another. A common faith unites us.
It was a unity of EMOTIONS. They were not only united by their faith, they were also united in heart. Their faith had brought them together and now their every desire was to follow Jesus Christ. They desired to express His love and to share that love with every human being they met. What had begun in faith had made its way to their hearts. They not only believed it intellectually and accepted it by faith, but they knew it to be true experientially. Because of the love of Jesus for them, they had fallen in love with Him; and along with Him, every other believer as well.
Now they could call one another brother and sister because they were in one family. I did some research this week did you know that the word “brother” occurs over 200 times in the New Testament beginning in the Book of Acts?
When the church was launched, terms like brother and sister were used because they were the best terms to describe the new relationships that now existed among believers. They could express the love and care and concern for one another freely and openly. The barriers had fallen down and they were one — one in faith and one in heart.
It was a unity of WILL. But they were also one in mind. The mind has to do with our decision-making processes. They not only believed the same things, and had a desire to follow Jesus -- they made a decision to do so together in community with one another. They decided to follow through on what had happened to them. They were willing to acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and all the other believers as their family.
If we, as the Church of Jesus Christ, are ever going to express the unity of the Spirit, we must not only desire to do so, we must decide to do so.
They had made this decision and they declared it publicly. It says, in the last part of verse 32, "No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had." They acknowledged to one another that they were one. They said, "What’s mine is yours; what’s yours is mine. We’re together in this thing." That indeed is a powerful acknowledgement of unity. Only God could do this. This was a mystical unity — something born of God, begun by the Holy Spirit and carried on in His power.
Is it possible to have this same kind of unity today? I believe it is. But it’s something which can only be done by the power of the Spirit of God working in the hearts of people committed to Him. We can experience this kind of unity when we yield to the Holy Spirit to produce it in us.
Now, let me give you a principle based on the fact that we have been united supernaturally by the Holy Spirit: If we want to experience what the early church did, then we must value community over seclusion.
The early church wanted to be together. They wanted to be connected with one another.
Question. Do you value community over seclusion? Are you committed to your brothers and sisters here? Even when they do stuff you don’t like? When you’re hurting, are you willing to swallow your pride and talk to a brother or sister about it? Are you available to have someone else confide in you, or have you effectively isolated yourself from others? Friends, if we want HPC to be a caring church, then we must value community over seclusion.
The second thing they valued was SERVING OVER SELFISHNESS
Acts 4:33 says, With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.
These people were not only one in spirit, they were one in purpose. And their purpose was to preach the Gospel to every creature. It says here, that the apostles were giving witness "with great power." It says further, "much grace was upon them all." They were experiencing great power and great grace. Because of the great power which they now possessed, they could give effective and powerful witness to the grace of God. And when they did so, even greater grace was shed upon them.
There is nothing quite like a church that is united in purpose. Unity in terms of our ministry produces an even greater sense of community among us. That’s why it’s so important to move from a unity of spirit into a practical unity of purpose.
Otherwise, we will quickly become inward and introspective. And when that happens, it’s only a short time until we lose the unity altogether.
The whole purpose of our being one is not to bask in our oneness, but to join together in a common purpose. We’re a community but we’ve also been given a cause a job to do. There is work to be done. There is a Great Commission to be fulfilled. We’re going to talk more about that in a couple of weeks.
If we want what the early church had, then we must value service over selfishness. Its not our church versus that church. Its not the children’s ministry versus the maintenance ministry. It isn’t one person’s talents versus someone elses.
No, if we are going to walk in unity together, then we must serve one another in love.
The first church experienced community because they valued service over selfishness.
In this area of unity and purpose, it is so vitally important that we understand the place of decision. Our community comes as the result of our decision to pull together to accomplish our common cause.
If HPC is going to have unity of purpose, then we need everyone on board, pulling together, sharing the load. We have to decide that the overall purpose for which we are shooting is important enough to give ourselves in more than a casual way. We must decide to do so. It really goes back to the word devoted in Acts 2:42. We need to be completely committed and sold-out to the fellowship. We must decide that we are going to give more than our spare time to the endeavor, that we will be supportive, involved, active participants in the task God has called us to.
Thirdly, the church valued PEOPLE OVER POSSESSIONS
Look with me now at 4:34-35: “There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.”
Notice the spontaneous expression of that unity. In order to provide for the needs of all among them, those who had possessions sold them and laid them at the apostles’ feet so that they could distribute the money to those in need. As a result, no one lacked anything. This was a spontaneous expression of what God had done in their hearts. Their unity led them to voluntarily and joyfully share with others.
They valued people over possessions. This is something which was born from within, not something which was imposed from without. They cared, and so they gave.
Let me add that this passage is not to be taken as God commanding everyone to sell their possessions and live in a communal society.. But He is telling us, quite clearly, that our possessions are only a means by which His work can be accomplished. They are not ours, they are His, and we ought to hold them in such a way that when He desires to use them, we are able to give them gladly.
You can tell quite a lot about a person’s faith by his or her giving. People who are truly surrendered to Christ reflect their commitment in their giving. If Jesus Christ has your heart, He has your checkbook as well. If He doesn’t have your wallet, He doesn’t really have your heart.
There are many things that we aspire to do for Christ, which we may not be able to do, even though we have the desire. But one thing all of us have within our power to do is to give.
Summary
Friends, what happened in the life of the early Church can happen to us. We can be filled with the Spirit’s power, united in vision, united in purpose, united in our love and concern for one another. We can become people who make a difference in this world, if we are people in whose lives Christ has made a difference. We can enjoy the unity of the Spirit, the power of God, and effective ministry as we allow Christ to live His life through us.
Do these three principles resonate within you this morning? Do you value and live by them?
1. Community over Seclusion
2. Serving over Selfishness
3. People over Possessions
Brothers and Sisters, are you doing life with others by embracing them or are you intentionally, or unintentionally excluding people? If we want HPC to be a caring community, we need embracers, not excluders.
A few years ago at the Seattle Special Olympics, 9 contestants, all physically or mentally challenged, assembled at the starting line for the 100-yard dash. At the gun, the contestants all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with a relish to run the race to the finish and win.
All, that is, except one boy who stumbled on the track, tripped, rolled over a couple times and began to cry. The others, who were running ahead of the boy, heard him crying so they slowed down and looked back at him. Then they all turned around and went back. Every one of them. One girl with Down’s Syndrome bent down and kissed him and said, “This will make it better.” Then all 9 linked arms and walked together to the finish line. Everyone in the stadium stood and cheered for over 10 minutes.
People who were there still talk about what happened. Why? Because deep down we know this one thing: What matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What truly matters is helping others win.
Through Christ God has made us a family, a community of faith. This is our God-given support system.
Rick Warren puts it this way:
The Bible says we are put together, joined together, built together, members together, heirs together, fitted together, held together, and we will be caught up together and spend eternity together. You’re not on your own anymore.
There is great value in coming together, in being together. A Christian without a church is a contradiction. We need to be together!
RESOURCes
Sermoncentral
Caring for Other Beleivers by Brian Bill
Real followers Live in Community by Eric Snyder
