Making an Impact:
Caring for Other Believers
It’s been said that the church is like a family. I’ve always wondered about this because some of the families I know don’t function all that well. In fact, there were times when I was growing up that I wasn’t the best brother to my sisters…
I may have mentioned before that one of my goals growing up was to get all 4 of my sisters to cry at the same time. This was actually quite challenging but I’ll never forget what happened one evening when I finally accomplished my goal.
We were driving in our car on a Friday night heading to our Grandparents’ house in Wisconsin. I decided that this was a good time to launch my attack. I pinched Cathy, pulled Jean’s hair, insulted Mary, and threatened Beth. As I sat there with a big grin on my face while they cried, my dad, who is normally a soft-spoken man, said, “All right. That’s it.” He then pulled over to the side of the road, slammed on the brakes and said, “Get out. We’ll pick you up on Sunday.”
I couldn’t believe it. I had finally accomplished my goal and here I was standing on the gravel shoulder on a deserted country road in Wisconsin. As I shut the door, my dad pulled away and drove off…
It’s difficult for us when someone we know is not living the way we think they should or when they do stuff that hurts other people. I know it was hard for my dad when I had all my sisters crying at the same time. And, as the drama portrayed, it’s difficult for us when someone in the church community doesn’t measure up to God’s standards. When someone is not acting like they’re supposed to.
We’ve been camping in the Book of Acts these past weeks in order to better understand the foundation of the church. If we want to make an impact, we first of all, need to be completely committed and fully devoted to Christ. As we are sold out to Jesus, we will also want to focus on 6 key lifestyle values these key ingredients were clearly evident in the early church and need to be in our church as well:
Instruction in God’s Word get the Word into our heads, our hearts, and our hands.
Mobilizing for Ministry we will see fruit, we’ll be fulfilled, and the church will be fortified when we use our God-given gifts for ministry.
Praying with Faith As we pray earnestly, God will answer even if we have some doubt.
Adoring God in Worship We are to see God as awesome and worship Him with reverent and rejoicing hearts both corporately and in our individual lives.
Caring for Other Believers this morning
Telling Others the Gospel next week
As we’ve been going through this series, we’ve been spending time in Acts 2:42-47. I want you to notice the first part of verse 42: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship…” 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. As we learned at our church picnic two weeks ago, the First Rule of Church Growth is this: “If you feed them, they will come.”
Take a look at verses 44-45: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.”
Having my friend Pastor Ray here a couple weeks ago reminded me of something he told me once. As you may know, he’s from the South. One of the most challenging things for him living in Chicago is that it’s difficult to find a restaurant that serves grits. I asked him once what a “grit” was. He told me that there’s no such thing as a “grit”. They don’t come by themselves they come in a community of other grits. You can’t just order one grit.
You know, we’re a lot like grits some of us are “grittier” than others. We’re not here on our own we’ve been created to be in community with others. Other people have touched our lives -- parents, neighbors, friends and teachers (Sunday School). Some touched you for the better, and others may have made you cry.
God made us that way. He said that it is not good for human beings to experience the oppressing, isolating aloneness that wounds the heart. Genesis 2:18 says that “It is not good for man to be alone…” God made one human being and said, "They don’t come by themselves."
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. Many of you are experiencing that every week in your TLC group.
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, as we sang earlier, 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. 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.
A Mystical Unity
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.”
When the Holy Spirit of God took charge of the lives of these believers on the day of Pentecost, #1, He produced a mystical unity among them. 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. 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.
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.
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 mystically by the Holy Spirit: If we want to experience what the early church did, then we must value community over isolation. The early church wanted to be together. They wanted to be connected with one another.
Question. Do you value community over isolation? 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 PBC to be a caring church, then we must value community over isolation.
A Ministerial Unity
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.
We move from a mystical unity to #2, a ministerial unity. 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 mystical 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 next week.
Let me give you principle #2: If we want what the early church had, then we must value ministry over selfishness. The first church experienced ministerial unity because they valued ministry over selfishness.
In this area of unity and purpose, it is so vitally important that we understand the place of decision. Our mystical unity comes as the result of the Holy Spirit’s action in our lives. Our ministerial unity comes as the result of our decision to pull together to accomplish our cause.
If PBC 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.
One way you can do that is by becoming a member of Pontiac Bible Church. There’s a membership class scheduled for two weeks from today. If you are not a member yet, I encourage you to attend this class. Some of you who are already members may need to recommit yourself to the community here God is looking for active members who are fully committed to ministry over selfishness.
A Material Unity
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.”
We have seen a mystical unity produced by the power of the Holy Spirit, a ministerial unity which resulted from a decision to fulfill the commission of Jesus, and now, third, we see a material unity which happened because of the love of Christ.
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.
Here’s the third principle: 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 Christianity 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.
Are you giving on a regular basis to the ministry of PBC? Someone asked me when I was candidating if I believe in teaching the tithe or the giving of 10% of our income to God. Let me tell you what I told him. A tithe is a good place to start. We should be willing to give even more to give generously and sometimes even sacrificially.
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 demonstrate mystical unity, ministerial unity, and material unity. 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 Isolation which is based upon our mystical unity.
2. Ministry over Selfishness which comes from our ministerial unity.
3. People over Possessions which flows from our material unity.
In a book by Miraslav Volk called Exclusion and Embrace, he says that there are really only two options available to us in relationships. We can embrace people, take them by the hand, do life with them and open our heart to them. Or, we can exclude people, to grow cold and distant and to shut people out of our life.
Brothers and Sisters, are you doing life with others by embracing them or are you intentionally, or unintentionally excluding people? If we want PBC to be a caring community, we need embracers, not excluders.
Let me finish the story I began at the beginning of this message. After my dad left me by the side of the road, my sisters stopped crying and started pleading with my Father to come back and get me. Eventually, what seemed like hours (which in reality were only minutes), my dad turned around and picked me up.
Do you know what my sisters were doing? They were embracing me. Even though I had wronged them, they extended grace and community to me. Even though I deserved to be excluded, they reached out to me. I’m sure they had second thoughts after I got them all crying again just a short time later…
Do you know anyone standing by the side of the road this morning? Anyone you know like the sister in the drama? Have you pled with our Father to go back for him or her? Are you willing to make the trip yourself?
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.
