Scripture: Acts 4:32-35
Theme: Proclamation/Unity/Compassion
Title: The Nitty-Gritty of Daily Christian Life
Grace and peace from God our Father and from Jesus Christ our Messiah, Savior and LORD who came to take away all of our sin and infill us with His Holy Spirit!
For some people the dates of April 26 - 28 and June 21st will be very important days. For others that date may be in July or August or October and may be even in December. Those are the days that some people will be getting married, their children will be born, they will be signing up for higher education or getting their first real job after playing football or basketball in college.
We all may have a certain date that we are looking forward to. It may be the day that we are getting married, getting a new job, celebrating a birthday or anniversary or looking forward to getting our first driver's license, our first retirement check or something else. We anticipate, we plan, we put things in place and finally the big day arrives. We are now in High School or College. We are now married. We now have a job. We now have a cat or a dog. We just had our first child. We own our first car. We now have our first home. We are now retired. We have just received our first pension or Social Security check.
All of those are wonderful events and they are to be celebrated. We are to make it a big deal when we enjoy an important milestone in our lives.
Last week we enjoy celebrating Resurrection Sunday. We focused on Jesus coming out of the Tomb and ushering in the New Age of Salvation and the Infilling Presence of the Holy Spirit. We celebrated the New Birth, the forgiveness of sins and the fact that one day as His redeemed children we will live forever on God's New Heaven and Earth.
But until that eternal day happens we are to live life here on this earth. We are to enjoy all the milestones and celebrate them. However, the truth is that some of the most difficult parts of life happen after those milestones. They follow the days and weeks after we start High School, College, a job, a marriage, owning a dog or cat or bringing a baby home. After all those celebrations there comes real life - day to day life. On Resurrection Day the Disciples rejoiced and then as we read in our passage this morning they started getting down to the nitty gritty of living out a life in Christ. They began to learn what it meant to be born again here on this earth and in this Present Age. They began to understand what it meant to live for Jesus day by day. They began to understand the nuts and bolts about being a Christian in the here and now.
We all know that is one thing to begin High School or College and quite another thing to graduate. It is one thing to begin a marriage and quite another thing to be able to celebrate your 40th, 50th or 60th year anniversary. It is one thing to begin a job and another thing to actually go to work day after day after day. It is one thing to get a puppy or kitten but quite another thing to raise it and live with it day after day. It is one thing to bring a baby home but it is quite another thing to raise up a human being ready to live life on their own. It is one thing to begin a Life in Christ and quite another one to live in such a way to reflect God's image and glory in our world today.
In our passage this morning the Disciples are learning what it means to be a Post-Resurrection follower of Jesus. They are learning what it means to live a Spirit-filled life. They have already watched Jesus ascend back into heaven and they have celebrated Pentecost Sunday. They have watched as the church has grown from 120 to 3,000, to 5,000 and more.
All of that can be quite euphoric. It can cause a lot of excitement but then comes the day to day living out what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Then comes the nitty gritty of what that means at home, at work, at school, in the local Body of Christ and around our communities.
St. Luke shares with us some principles of what that means day to day. He wants us to be aware that Jesus died so that we could not only begin a life with Christ but also that we can enjoy a life in Christ. Let's see what Luke shares with us that the Early Church learned so well:
I. They learned that It is All About the Resurrection
"Christ is risen" "Christ is risen indeed". The Early Church kept its focus and its main message on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ their Messiah, Savior and Lord. The Cross, the Tomb and the Resurrection were kept foremost in their hearts and minds.
Years ago a pastor1 shared an experience he had in Russia. He had gone to Russia to celebrate Easter. He was fluent in Russian and over the years had study the Russian Orthodox Church and had led tour groups all over Russia. On this particular Easter Sunday he found himself at one of the largest Russian Orthodox Churches as they were getting ready to start their Easter Services.
It was midnight on Holy Saturday just minutes away from the beginning of Easter Sunday. Large crowds had gathered in the square in front of the cathedral. Right at midnight as Holy Saturday gave way to Easter Sunday, someone knocked on the large doors leading into the church. At that moment the priest on the inside flung open the doors and said in a loud voice (Russian of course) to the waiting crowd, "HE IS RISEN!".
And with one voice - loud and clear - they all thundered back in unison - "RISEN INDEED!".
The man testifies how even though he had walked with Jesus for years that moment was sacred. Here he was in the midst of a communist nation hearing the Good News of the Gospel, the resurrection and the abiding presence of Jesus among the people. Here they were gathered together at midnight waiting for their opportunity to greet Sunday Morning with the best news of All - Christ is Risen - He is Risen Indeed!
That is our core message. That is the message we must keep front and center. That is the message that makes what we do here important. That is the message we are to proclaim each time we pray, we worship, we celebrate communion and baptism, we read the Word together and we study God's Word together. It is all about Jesus, the Resurrection, the New Birth and living out the Risen Life day by day.
Without the Resurrection there is no reason for us to gather together. Without the Resurrection the Bible is just a book. Without the Resurrection our prayers are just words that fill up the air. Without the Resurrection there is no New Birth. Without the Resurrection we are still under the penalty and power of sin.
But with the Resurrection everything changes. With the Resurrection we can celebrate today and tomorrow and the day after that. We can be progressively transformed. We can actually enjoy the New Birth and the Infilling Presence of God's Holy Spirit. With the Resurrection we can have hope. With the Resurrection we know that God is in control and that some day we will be raised up and will meet Jesus in the air and will live forever on the New Heaven and Earth.
You see, first and foremost it is not about our particular brand or tribe. It is not about our wonderful programs, our stain glass windows or our amazing staff. It is not about the colors of our carpet, our well manicured campuses or even our state of the art technologically marvelous light and sound shows. It has always been about one thing - THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST - OUR MESSIAH - OUR SAVIOR - AND OUR LORD!
Once we make sure that this message and this mission is in place then we can go on to actually live out a genuine life in Christ in the nitty gritty day to day existence. But first and foremost we must proclaim the Resurrection of Jesus and experience a New Life in Christ. Then St. Luke tells us that we learn how to possess:
II. A Spirit of Unity of Heart and Soul
+ Proclaim the Resurrection and then live out our New Lives in Unity of Heart and Soul. Pretty easy don't you think? I mean all of us who have gone to school, been married, had a child or worked in an office, factory, hospital or anywhere else knows just how easy it is to enjoy unity of heart and soul with others.
Actually, we all know too well the opposite. We know the difficulties of finding total acceptance and becoming perfectly aligned with another person or a group of persons. We know how much work it takes to discover the same page and stay on that same page. We know how difficult it is at times for a group of people to stay unified without wanting to harm one another or even kill one another.
The Unity of Heart and Soul that we find in the Early Church was not without its moments of disunity and disharmony. The Early Church was not trying to become a collection of identical robotic Christians. All you have to do is to read through the book of Acts and you find that the Early Church experienced some great periods of struggles in which they had to accept one another and find a way to be in alignment with one another.
It took time, listening to one another, sharing with one another and being able to be flexible. It took allowing the Holy Spirit to lead them to smooth over some wrinkles. It took them surrendering themselves to become One.
It takes time today. We must listen to one another. We must share with one another and we must be flexible with one another. We don't want to compromise on the essentials but we do show agape love. We do allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into a place of Oneness of Heart and Soul.
Paul understood this. Listen to the word he wrote the Church at Ephesus:
“I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” - Ephesians 4:1-6 (NRSV)
Unity of Heart and Soul is not always easy. At times it involves hard work. We all have heard stories of how families, businesses and even churches have been torn apart because people could not accept one another and come into some type of alignment.
There is a famous story shared by William P. Barker about a little church that was once located in East Tennessee that suffered a great deal from a time on disharmony and misalignment. It all happened over the practice of foot washing. It seems that some of the congregation believed that a person should wash the right foot before they washed the left foot. Others believed the exact opposite. They believed that you should start with the left foot and end with the right foot.
Believe it or not, an argument broke out and within a few weeks the church was divided between those who were leaning towards the right foot and those who were leaning towards the left foot. Finally, it got so heated that those who believed that Jesus started with the left foot decided to leave and start their own church. According to Mr. Barker they took the name "LEFT-FOOT BAPTIST CHURCH" so that anyone coming to their church would understand first and foremost that they would start with the Left Foot.
In his little book, The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis writes about how the devil was helping one of his younger demons named Wormwood learn how to destroy a church. He gave Wormwood this advice -
"The Church is a fertile field, if you just keep them bickering over details, structure, organization, money, property, personal hurts, and misunderstandings ... One thing you must prevent - don't ever let them look up and see the banners flying, for if they ever see the banners flying, you have lost them."
Those banners were signposts that pointed towards the reality that Jesus Christ has Risen Again and the Power of the Resurrection and New Life is what is most important.
Back around 1917 - 1918 the country of Russia was just beginning its journey towards adopting communism (dialectic materialism). This particular type of communism had at its core the belief that there was no god. Both Marx and Lenin believed that what was wrong with the world was the belief that there was a TRUE GOD and they felt that if they could just get rid of religion that the people of Russia would finally discover utopia.
At the same time all of this was going on one of the largest Christian denominations were holding some high level meetings. The meetings were filled with a spirit of disunity and harsh words were being leveled at various groups. The area that was causing the most problem was not what to do with communism or with Lenin or Marx but what to do with church candles. No one seemed to be worried that in a matter of years church services would be outlawed or shut down. The issue that was causing so many problems was whether the church should adopt the use of 18 inch candles or 22 inch candles to burn on Sunday mornings.
We tend to laugh at such stories like the Left-Foot Baptist Church or whether we should choose 18 or 22 inch candles. We think how ridiculous and childish. And yet how many of us have heard of fellowship groups fussing and fighting over colors of carpet, styles of worship, what time we should meet or how we should organize a Church dinner - who is going to bring what and how?
I remember in high school when we would start playing a piece of music in the band that every so often our band director would start tapping his baton to get all of our attention. He then would tell us to stop playing individual notes and start playing the music. He would tell us to listen to one another, blend with one another and join together in making music not sounding out individual notes on a page. It's the music that brings the magic. It's the music that creates joy.
It did not mean that trumpets started sounding like flutes or that drums starting sounding like clarinets. That would be impossible. That would go against the nature of music. Being distinct and even diverse does not mean we cannot learn how to be one in heart and soul. We needed one another. We needed what each brought to the music. We needed one another to make the music come alive.
The same is true of each and every one of us here this morning. We are distinct and different. God made us that way. He gave us all these wonderful and varied personalities and personality traits. He made some of us to be Type A while others to be Type B. Some of us are extroverts while others of us are introverts. Some of us are by nature more sanguine (enthusiastic, active) , melancholy (analytical, detail orientated, more feeling), choleric (independent, decisive) or phlegmatic (relaxed, peaceful, quiet) in nature.
The truth is that while we are all different we can experience unity in and through God's Holy Spirit. We may not always be on the same line but at least we can be on the same page in the same book. It's not always easy but if a car motor can experience unity with all its computers and moving parts then it is possible for us in the Church to experience unity. If a flock of birds flying together can discover a way to fly together in all kinds of patterns that help one another out then we can as well through the power of Jesus. The Early Church discovered the beauty of all of this and we can as well.
III. Finally, they learned how to Possess a Spirit of Love and Concern
There is nothing greater than the fact that we can help another person in this life. Whether that help be by way of finances and goods or by way of giving someone the benefit of the doubt or some of our time.
Jesus taught us that we are to be concerned about other people's spiritual, emotional and material needs just as we are to be concerned about own spiritual, emotional and material needs.
This is an area that the Early Church excelled. They willingly and graciously shared what they had with one another. They went out of their way to help one another. They were patient with one another, they had a listening ear and a giving heart. They learned how to do both the big things and the little things.
It is what set them apart from the other religions. They were not just about gathering together, spending some time preaching, praying and worshipping. They reached out in all kinds of ways. They helped people get jobs, they helped them build their homes and restore their lives. They helped them raise their families and took care of them while they were sick and in need. They gave them comfort and love.
The key to all of this was that the Early Church was proactive. Sure they missed out on the Day of the Resurrection when no one showed up to greet the Risen Jesus. And not all of them were willing to spend the 10 days in prayer as they waited for the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But by the time we get to Acts chapter four they are more and more of them accepting one another and aligning with one another.
They begin to look at one another in a very different way. No longer were they "them" or "those people over there". They were members of one group of people. They experienced what it meant to become one in heart and soul. They saw a need and they all rushed to take care of that need. They didn't worry about who will get credit or who had given the most or the least. None of that mattered. What mattered was that they realized that the joy of life was to partner with one another. The joy of life was to experience what came to be called "koinonia" - fellowship - visible agape love for one another.
As you read the book of Acts you realize that this spirit carried on in many different ways. In chapter 11 there is this wonderful little story concerning the New Church at Antioch. A prophet named Agabus is given a message from the LORD. He tells the new church at Antioch that their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem and all around them will soon be facing hard times. There will be a famine that comes that will cause a great deal of pain and suffering.
It is interesting to see what these new Antioch church members do. Instead of saying to themselves - "How shall we survive?" "Who will take care of us?" "Oh, no we are not ready?" and begin to worry, complain and hoard supplies they do something amazing. They begin to talk to one another and say things like - "How can we help those who will be in worse shape than maybe ourselves?" "What can we do to bring some comfort to them?"
And so they resolved to send help to Jerusalem. That is one of the ways that Paul and Barnabas got involved in missions work. It started from the generous hearts and lives of those new disciples of Jesus in Antioch Syria.
+ It is what happens when we see a single mom struggling and working at a restaurant and we listen as the Holy Spirit tells us to give a gracious tip.
+It is what happens when we know someone is not meeting their bills and we find a way to pay it for them at the electric company or the water company.
+It is what happens when we visit someone living in the nursing home or in the hospital.
+It happens when we visit an elderly couple that is not able to get out very much.
+It happens when we take someone that is on a fixed income out for a wonderful meal and a time of fellowship.
+It is what happens when we stand/sit beside someone at a funeral not trying to explain but just being there in support.
+It happens when we have or support a Recovery Ministry/Grief Ministry or other type ministries that reach out to help those who are going through a difficult emotional or mental time.
+It happens when we make it a part of our Church Budget to support compassionate ministries both local and beyond.
+It is what happens when we spend the morning praying for someone else's children to come to Jesus.
+It happens when we spend time with the Holy Spirit asking for guidance and direction to know who to help and in what ways.
There are many ways today we can be proactive in reaching out and helping those who are a part of our fellowship and others as well. Some churches use the method of ARK - A Random Act of Kindness to guide them. I think that is a great idea but an even better idea is to help those who we already know that are in need. That means that we have to look around us and see who needs help that we are already going to church with, sharing a Bible study with or are working alongside.
Sometimes it seems that we are more concerned about the people who live a half a world away without realizing that the people we share sacred space, the people we learn from and the people we rub elbows with are the very people the LORD has placed in our path to show our love and concern.
Important events are fun to celebrate and enjoyable to experience. Most of life however, is moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day and week by week. It is in the nitty gritty of life that St. Luke wants us to remember our
+Main focus and message is on Jesus - the Risen Jesus. The Jesus who has ascended into Heaven and is seated at the Right Hand of His Heavenly Father. The Jesus who sends His Holy Spirit so that we can be Born Again and infilled with His Holy Spirit.
+We are to learn how to possess a Spirit of Unity of Heart and Soul. At times this is easy but at other times it requires some very hard work. We must listen to one another. We must take the time to really listen to one another. We must do our best to accept one another and we must allow the Holy Spirit to align us up with His Will and Way.
+Finally, we are to be open to ways in which we can co-partner with God in bringing freedom and peace to someone else. The Early Church did this by bringing their resources together and out of that collection they did what they could to help out those who needed some help the most.
We may choose the same or some other method. The important thing is not the method but the ministry of reaching out and helping those around us.
As we come to a close this morning I believe that we all want to do the nitty gritting of what it means to live out a Christian Life after the Resurrection. We want to live a Resurrected Life in the here and now. I believe we want to be an effective witness for Christ and a person who reaches out to help others. I believe that it is our desire to be on one heart and soul.
Closing song - Spirit of the Living God Fall Fresh On Me
1Illustration from Scott Hoezee
