We Are Family
Acts: The Work of the Spirit Through the Church • Sermon • Submitted
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· 30 viewsThe Holy Spirit purposed to create a unified community that continually grows in its devotion to Jesus Christ, its generosity towards others, and its witness to the world.
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1. In Christ there is no East or West,
in Him no North or South;
but one great fellowship of love
throughout the whole wide earth.
2. In Him shall true hearts everywhere
their high communion find;
His service is the golden cord,
close binding humankind.
Chorus
Join hands, then, members of the faith,
whate'er your race may be;
who serves my Father as His child
is surely kin to me.
3. In Him those walls shall tumble down,
that bear hostility,
and the whole family of God
shall dwell in unity.
Chorus
4.In Christ now meet both East and West;
in Him meet North and South:
all Christlike souls are one in Him
throughout the whole wide earth.
Chorus
Introduction
Introduction
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
I worked
I worked as a systems engineer and project engineering manager with Motorola before my life as a pastor. I started in 1995 and, at the time, Kim and I had one child. That summer, my hiring manager took me out to lunch. And he asked my what my goals were and what was important to me. I told him that my family was probably the most important thing to me. As far as my goals, I said that I wanted to eventually become a corporate VP. He asked me, “Do you think you can be a corporate VP in this company and still have a quality family life?” I said, “Yes, I do.” He said, “I don’t. I look at the director level right above me, and I see how much time they have to spend away from their families. How much they have to travel and how much is required of them. I think it’s impossible to have an upper level management job in this company and have the type of family life you’re describing.”
That summer, my hiring manager took me out to lunch. And he asked my what my goals were and what was important to me. I told him that my family was probably the most important thing to me. As far as my goals, I said that I wanted to eventually become a corporate VP (y’all see…). He asked me, “Do you think you can be a corporate VP in this company and still have a quality family life?” I said, “Yes, I do.” He said, “I don’t. I look at the director level right above me, and I see how much time they have to spend away from their families. How much they have to travel and how much is required of them. I think it’s impossible to have an upper level management job in this company and have the type of family life you’re describing.”
Talk about bursting my bubble! Here I was, fresh out the gates. Having my ideal job with my ideal company, with my visions of grandeur about how my life and career were going to go. And my boss sticks a pin it to bring me down to reality.
We can experience that same bubble bursting feeling when we read this text at the end of , and compare it with the reality we see. Luke describe the first days of this new covenant community. We hear him describe what can only be viewed as an ideal situation, perfect harmony in the church. People respond to Peter’s preaching with repentance and faith. The church grows from 120 disciples in chapter 1 to 3,000 people added in v. 41. Then everybody’s getting along, supporting one another, loving God and loving their neighbors. They have a good reputation with people outside of the church community. And the last word of our passage is that the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
If you were a passerby in Jerusalem in the days after that Pentecost, you would’ve heard these Christians singing,
Everyone can see we’re together, As we walk on by. And we fly just like birds of a feather, I will tell no lie. All of the people around us they say, “Can they be that close.” Just let me state for the record, We’re giving love in a family dose. We are family. I got all my sisters and brothers with me. We are family. Get up everybody and sing!
We look at the church today and our bubble bursts. It’s so often that’s not the song that comes to mind when you think of the church, whether you’re on the inside or the outside. You can even get nostalgic and yearn to have been back there during those days. Just like my ideal for my new job and new life were dashed when my boss told me it was impossible to have both, our hope for the ideal that we seemingly read in this text can seem impossible when we see that challenges and divisions that exist in the church.
Notice this with me though. Life for this new community isn’t messy yet. We only have to go a few chapters into Acts before the harmony is disrupted. Persecution comes. Ethnic division comes. It won’t be long before the bubble bursts in this very book.
So what are we to do with these verses? Are we to look at this harmonious group of Christians and say, what we see is the prescription for the church today, and if she doesn’t look like this she’s not being faithful? Or are we to say this is an impossible ideal and we should have no expectation that the church can look like this? My answer to both of those questions is, no. As the apostle Paul says in , there is one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith and one baptism. One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. So those who follow Jesus Christ should be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. This text helps us do that, not by giving us a manual for the church, but by unveiling the identity of the church and giving us markers for its life as a new family created by the Spirit under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Don’t get scared when I say this...We’re working through this text with six G’s, Guilt, Grace, Gravity, Growth, Generosity, and Gladness.
Growth, Generosity, and Gladness..
Guilt
Guilt
I want to work through out text with three G’s, Guilt, Grace, and Gratitude.
Peter closes his sermon in v. 36 with the words, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” In his sermon, Peter was specific right. He made sure they knew who he was talking about. “Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with might works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst… this Jesus you crucified and killed by the hand of lawless men.”
Peter closes his sermon with the words, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” In his sermon, Peter was specific right. He made sure they knew who he was talking about. “Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with might works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst… this Jesus you crucified and killed by the hand of lawless men”
Those words were extremely significant. They were a point of contact between what the Bible said and where the people stood in relation to that. They were “cut to the heart.” They experienced a sharp pain; the type of pain that comes when you’re stabbed with a knife.
In other words, they are not in a pleasant place after Peter’s sermon. They’re not shouting, “Hallelujah, Jesus is Lord! Bless his holy name!” No. They have a deep and painful emotional response that penetrates to the core of their very being. Nobody likes the feeling of guilt. Nobody likes the heavy painful burden of knowing that you’re condemned. I spent 10 years as an associate chaplain for the jail ministry at our local detention center in Howard County, MD. Our church did a monthly worship service at the jail over those years. Very regularly we interacted with incarcerated men and women who asked us to pray for them because they had a court date coming up. What they wanted to hear from the judge is leniency, and mercy. They wanted to hear, “not guilty.” No one wants guilt. Everyone wants grace. That’s the case for us when it comes to judges who sit on the bench. It’s magnified exponentially when it comes to God who sits on the throne. But when it comes to God, you can’t get to grace until you’re confronted with your guilt.
Listen. Let’s consider the situation of these people who were gathered on that Day of Pentecost. These were not people who rejected the Bible. They were described by Luke as devout men from every nation under heaven, Jews and proselytes. These were people who already believed the Scriptures to be the authoritative word of God. So Peter’s application of the Scriptures carried weight with them.
The deal is this though, whether you’re familiar with the Bible or not. The point of connection for between these people who heard Peter’s sermon in the 1st Century and those of us living here in DC in 2018, is the need to recognizing our guilt before God. The church could sing “We are family” then, and it can sing “We are Family” now because we’re blood relatives. We don’t come from the same mama and daddy, but we all come by the blood. We all come by the blood of Jesus that has dealt a death blow to our guilt. Jesus is the “take it or leave it” proposition. The question is have you gotten to the point of realizing that if you reject Jesus, you have rejected God and are bearing a burden of guilt that you cannot carry? You can try to come up with some means to assuage your guilt, or cover it up, or brush it under the rug. But none of that works. Everybody has got to get to the point of realizing that we bear guilt before a righteous, holy, and just God that we are unable to remove and do away with. And therefore, we all need help.
Here’s the point of connection for us, when it comes to recognizing our guilt before God, between these people who heard Peter’s sermon in the 1st Century and those of us living here in DC in 2018. The real take it or leave it proposition is Jesus. Jesus is still today a “take him or leave him” proposition for many. The question is have you gotten to the point of realizing that if you reject Jesus, you have rejected God and are bearing a burden of guilt that you cannot carry? You can try to come up with some means to assuage your guilt, or cover it up, or brush it under the rug. But none of that works. Everybody has got to get to the point of realizing that we bear guilt before a righteous, holy, and just God that we are unable to remove and do away with. And therefore, we all need help.
Grace
Grace
The only acceptable response to the unbearable weight of guilt that every person has, whether you acknowledge it or not, is to receive the offer of God’s grace through repentance and faith in Jesus who is both Lord and Christ.
Peter’s response to their question is full of grace. He has experienced the forgiving love of God. He knows firsthand what it is like to reject Jesus. He knows what it is like to deny Jesus. He could hear their question, what should we do, and recall in his mind what it felt like when Jesus was on trial and he denied three times that he knew the Lord, just like Jesus said he would. He knows what it’s like to be cut to the heart.
So he can say to them,
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
So he can say to them… (rd. 38-39)
Peter says, “Turn around!” That’s what it means to repent. I was going in this direction, but God interrupted my flow, opened my eyes so that I could not only have my undeniable guilt exposed, but so that I could also be exposed to the forgiving grace of God in Jesus Christ and put my trust in him. Repentance always always includes faith. Repentance and trust go together. When Jesus first came on the scene to begin his ministry what did he say in ,
“The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news.”
This is a conscious turn towards God and his actions through Jesus. And the verb “repent” here is plural. You all repent. You have to love the connection. Peter is being obedient to the commission that Jesus gave at the end of Luke’s gospel. When he said in 24:46
and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
We’re in Jerusalem and Peter is proclaiming repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus. When you read through Acts you’ll find that the call to repentance is one of Luke’s “favorite terms to describe how (some)one should respond to the offer of forgiveness.”
“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ( ESV)
We’re in Jerusalem and Peter is proclaiming repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus. The call to repentance carries throughout the book of Acts. As Darrell Bock says in his commentary,
“It is one of Luke’s favorite terms to describe how one should respond to the offer of forgiveness.”
What happens in repentance? Your mind starts to change. You start to think and act in harmony with Jesus’ teachings.
Acts for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1–12 God’s Rescue Plan (Acts 2:37–41)
Join this movement, allow the death and resurrection of Jesus to become the badge you wear, the sign of your identity, with you and your children (verse 39) sharing in the new life of the baptized community, the life which has the stamp of Jesus upon it, the life which is defined in terms of turning away from the course you were on p 43 and embracing Jesus’ way instead.
teachings. That undeniable burden of guilt gets lifted. Yesterday during the conference some of us sat in on Dr. Carl Ellis’s workshop, New Paradigms for Urban Discipleship. He talked about what happened with a man he was visiting and trying to disciple years and years ago. This man was in prison and he was also a Muslim. Dr. Ellis said this man was admittedly burdened with a heavy load of guilt and he didn’t know what to do about it. He asked him, who is God to you? The man said, God is my Creator. He said, that’s right. But what you need is for God to be your Savior. The man said, I never thought about that. Dr. Ellis said, I want you pray tonight and ask God to be your Savior. The man did that, and when Dr. Ellis came to see him the next day, he said he could almost see the glow preceding this brother before he came around the corner. He was grinning from ear to ear and said he felt like a ton of bricks had been lifted off of his shoulders. What did Dr. Ellis do next? He gave him the Gospel of Luke and said, I want you to read this and we’ll talk about it. The man read the gospel and could see Jesus clearly and understand like never before. His mind started to change. He started to think and act in harmony with Jesus’ teachings.
That’s what happens in repentance and faith. But Peter says some other things, doesn’t he? The call to repentance is plural, “y’all repent.” The command to be baptized is for each one to participate individually, “be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ.” Baptism is a sign that someone belongs to the company of God’s people. It is a sign and a seal of the covenant of grace, of a person’s being ingrafted into Christ, of my belonging to him. While I do it in faith, baptism isn’t a sign of my faith, it’s a sign of God’s grace. Everything Peter says in his response to their question is about the grace of God. And sometimes people get confused and think that Peter is giving a formulaic statement about the words that have to spoken in baptism. While those words, “in the name of Jesus Christ,’ may have been confessed by the person being baptized (), Peter’s not giving a magical formula that the person doing the baptizing has to say, “I baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ,” for the baptism to be valid. Jesus has already said in to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What Peter is talking about here, is what he’s already talked about in his sermon. He quoted from Joel in v. 21, “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” That Lord is Jesus Christ. He’s the one you call upon for salvation. As Peter will say two chapters from now in 4:12, “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
That’s what happens in repentance and faith. The call to repentance is plural, “y’all repent.” The command to be baptized is for each one to participate individually, “be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ.” Baptism is a sign that someone belongs to the company of God’s people. It is a sign and a seal of the covenant of grace, of a person’s being ingrafted into Christ, of my belonging to him. While I do it in faith, baptism isn’t a sign of my faith, it’s a sign of God’s grace. Everything Peter says in his response to their question is about the grace of God.
What they would receive through repentance and faith, what we receive through repentance and faith are the free gift of forgiveness of sins (what we do not deserve, cannot buy, earn or bargain for), and the free gift of the Holy Spirit. Notice he’s not talking here about the gifts of the Spirit, but the gift is the Holy Spirit. And this promise, he says, is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.
God has placed no limitations on his gift. We can talk about the work of the Spirit through the Church because God hasn’t placed a limit on his gift. Peters’ audience didn’t get it yet. They were still going to be ethnocentric for while. They’re in Jerusalem and all of them are Jewish by birth or conversion, but Peter states in the strongest terms that this promise is going to expand far beyond the confines of Jewish ethnicity and national boundaries. The promised gift is for everyone God calls to himself. Every Christian receives the gift of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because everyone needs to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ. You’re not a wind up toy with a little knob on your back. And the Holy Spirit comes and winds you up and lets you go so you do it on your own now. The type of living that God cares about is living as a disciple of Jesus Christ. That means an ongoing growth an ongoing learning to obey all things that Jesus commands, out of love, gratitude, and devotion to him. It means an ongoing directing of our lives according to his word and for his honor and glory. That’s the family identity! And you need power to do that. You ain’t got the juice to do it if you were left on our own. We’d be just like those wind up toys. You wind it up and let it go, but it’ll eventually run out of juice and stop unless you wind it up again. That isn’t how God works. His grace is such that he provides what we need to live the life he calls us to live.
Gravity
Gravity
You’d think that once Peter told them what to do about their guilt, and the promise of God’s grace, he’d be done. But he goes from grace to gravity. Luke says in v. 40 that with many other words he bore witness (that word has the sense of a serious urging, a solemn warning). So I would translate v. 40 like this,
“So with many other words he seriously urged them and exhorted them by saying, ‘Be saved from this crooked generation.’”
The generation is crooked, not simply because the society was immoral or full of unethical people. It was crooked because they rejected Jesus. They’re part of the generation that literally crucified Jesus. And Peter continued to impress upon them the gravity of what they needed to do. Stop being an unbeliever. Be saved. Be rescued. There was a great response right? Incredible numbers beyond our imagination. How many people were there? We don’t know, but Luke says that those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
Peter was a powerful preacher! He impressed upon them the gravity and urgency of their need to be rescued by God. Luke says those who received his word were baptized. What’s crazy is, as powerful as Peter’s sermon was, there were those who didn’t receive his word. There were those who didn’t get the gravity of what Peter was saying.
I know it’s a little rough for me to mention those who didn’t receive his word when 3,000 people did. But I’m doing it to point out that even when the apostles were preaching everybody didn’t respond with faith. The message of the cross and the gravity of our condition is foolishness unless God opens our ears to hear his call and receive his grace.
Growth
Growth
That’s what happens for the 3,000 who received Peter’s word. They got the gravity of their situation, then we find that they are growing. Not just in number, but in devotion. Not just in width, but in depth. That word for “devoted” in v. 42 has the sense of persisting in something. Holding steadfastly to something, staying close to something. Luke is particular about the things that they persisted in, devoted themselves to. Each of these four things has a “the” in front of it; the apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, the prayers.
The Holy Spirit was at work. He had caused these people to be cut to the heart after hearing Peter’s sermon. Peter’s preaching was hard. He didn’t say, “God accepts you just as you are,” one time. Luke doesn’t record him saying, “Jesus is there with open arms just waiting to receive you.” He said, “y’all are guilty because you crucified the one God declares to be both Lord and Christ.” The Spirit moves and there is this phenomenal numerical growth. But notice the other growth that the Spirit produces in these people. They grow as disciples. Luke doesn’t say that after their conversion they all spoke in tongues like the other 120 disciples. He says in v. 42, that they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers. The growth that the Holy Spirit came to produce was a community of worshippers. People whose very lives are devoted to Jesus Christ
John Piper is right when he says in his book Let the Nations Be Glad, that
“missions isn’t the ultimate goal of the Church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.”
Right here at the inauguration of the new covenant community, in its early and formative days what do we find? We find that they are growing as worshippers. That word for “devoted” has the sense of persisting in something. Holding steadfast to something, staying close to something. Luke is particular about the things that they persisted in, devoted themselves to. Each of these four things has a “the” in front of it; the apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, the prayers.
What they were concerned to do is continue learning more and more about Jesus. They were hungry for Jesus so they persisted in sitting at the apostles’ feet.
“they sat at the apostles’ feet, hungry to receive instruction, and they persevered in it.”
Here’s the deal. This is what the Holy Spirit does! He creates in us that same kind of hunger. Let me tell you, you never “arrive.” You never get to the point where we can say that we’ve learned all that there is to learn about God’s truth and how it applies to the life of worship for his people. The family identity is a community who’s always hungry for Jesus. We’ll always be growing in that. We don’t have the 12 apostles with us anymore, but we have the apostolic teaching.
I said this last week during my message at the R2K12 conference. I preached on Saturday night. We had a rich time up to that point with the worship service on Friday, the workshops on Saturday morning and afternoon, and the hip-hop concert that evening. We had been dining on the things of Christ. We had been dining on Christ’s truths. But the difference between eating a big steak dinner at Morton’s steakhouse and feeding on Christ is that the steak dinner is going to leave us stuffed, but the more we have of Christ, the hungrier we are. It’s valid to ask, are you still hungry? Do we desire to grow to persevere more and more in the apostolic word?
This life of worship for the new community was sitting at the apostles’ feet and learning. But it’s also described as a devotion to the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers. All four of these are a particular description of what took place when they were gathered for worship. They were devoted to the fellowship. There was an enthusiasm for the common bond that they shared in worship. The attitude wasn’t, “let me go get my praise on this week.” There was a real commitment, a real desire to continually come together for worship. They looked forward to being together in worship. They were devoted to celebrating the Lord’s Supper. The breaking of bread is literally the breaking of the bread. There was particular bread set aside for their time of worship. They were devoted to the bread and the prayers. So, public worship for this new community included apostolic preaching and teaching, fellowship of the believers, celebration of the Lord’s Supper, and common prayers. The first and foremost thing that the Holy Spirit purposed to grow was a worshipping community. Guess what? That’s what he’s still doing.
But it’s a description of them persevering, devoting themselves with one mind, on one accord in the temple. You didn’t have to drag them to church. Should I go this week? Nah, I’ll skip it. That wasn’t there. The presence of the Holy Spirit brought a joyful desire for fellowship in worship.
Generosity
Generosity
And the practical outworking of this devotion to worship was an overflow of loving and sacrificial generosity. Luke so wants to impress this devotion upon us that he repeats himself down in v. 46. He says,
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
My reason for bringing this up is that what we read in v. 45 isn’t communism. It isn’t, “when you become a part of this community, you have to give up all of your possessions for the sake of the community.” There was a community like that at that time. It was just a few miles outside of Jerusalem, at Qumran. They were called the Essenes, a sect of Judaism that had separated itself from the Jews they believed were defiled because of their mingling and compromise with Rome. They wanted to be pure. If you wanted to be a part of their community, you had to give up all of your stuff. Even in Christian history we’ve had these verses misinterpreted as somehow requiring Christians to divest themselves of all wealth and live together in their own ghetto. That’s not what Luke is describing. He’s not describing communism, nor is he describing “Robin Hood-ism,” take from the rich and give to the poor. This isn’t socialism either. There’s nothing forced here.
In our Scripture reading from we see the firs fracture in human relationships. Adam and Eve sin against God, then they sin against each other. Adam blames Eve for making him sin. And it’s all down hill from there. Cain kills his brother Abel. On and on we go in a downward spiral. The Holy Spirit purposes in creating a new community to reverse that spiral. To replace animosity with generosity.
What’s translated in v. 46 as “attending” is the exact word and form that’s translated as “devoted” in v. 42. So their persevering in the apostolic teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers in the context of gathered worship spills out into a life of persevering together in worship, eating together in each other’s homes, sharing food with a gladness and singleness of heart.
(vv 44-45) Let me back up a bit and go into geek mode just for a second (blerd). All of the main verbs in vv. 42-47 are in the same tense in the Greek text. What Luke is getting at by using this tense is that what he’s describing is an ongoing practice of this community. He’s describing what they started to do and continued to do as time went along.
So what we have here is an unmatched generosity, driven by a rich devotion to God, a love for God and for one another. In between the devotion verses, here’s how Luke describes it.
And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
So much so that if there was a need, I wanted to be a part of helping to meet that need. Even if it cost me my property and possessions, I would gladly give them up so that my brothers and sisters would not be destitute or go without. It wasn’t a church hierarchy program imposed from without, imposed from on high. That’s oppression. This is the expression of love that comes from within. And it was an ongoing thing done as needs arose.
Let me back up a bit go into geek mode just for a second (blerd). All of the main verbs in vv. 42-47 are in the same tense in the Greek text. What Luke is getting at by using this tense is that what he’s describing is an ongoing practice of this community. He’s describing what they started to do and continued to do as time went along.
That’s the emphasis of the verb tense I pointed out. This was an ongoing practice among the church. In the very next verse Luke says day by day they broke bread from house to house. People still owned houses. And presumably, they still had stuff in their houses. This is an outworking of what Jesus says is the greatest commandment. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. The presence of the Spirit in the church brought an abundance of generosity.
“The aim of the early Christians was to abolish poverty so that needy persons, as a class of people, were no longer among them.”
Even after persecution came to the church, even after divisions and challenges arose, this abundance of generosity continued. The apostle Paul, in his second letter to the church in Corinth, talked to them about the example set by the churches in Macedonia. (rd. )
He says these churches had a severe test of affliction. What was their test of affliction? They were churches who were in extreme poverty, but Paul says they begged for the grace to take part in the relief of the saints, that is, they desperately wanted to give towards the relief of their brothers and sisters in the Jerusalem church who were enduring famine and affliction. He says, they gave beyond their means, of their own accord. Why would they do something like that? What would motivate them in their poverty to give beyond their means? What’s clear is that they weren’t motivated by the vile and ungodly prosperity nonsense we hear today, “sow a seed and reap a harvest.” No. Their abundance of joy overflowed in a wealth of generosity. Their abundance of joy in the Lord made them wealthy in generosity even though they were poor.
Even though the practice of voluntarily selling goods and property to create a continual pot of funds wasn’t a practice that the later church kept up and codified as a rule, what continues is the call for an abundance of generosity to mark the people of God. Can I tell you this family? Do you see how these things flow? If we are devoted to worship, to the teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers, we’ll know one another. We’ll be doing life together. If we’re doing that, the needs will be identified as they arise.
But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? ( ESV)
And the Lord will continue to give us opportunity to provide a wealth of generosity to one another, whatever the need is. There was no shame in their game. The folks who had need didn’t try to fake it and act like everything was alright, and they didn’t need anything.
Gladness
Gladness
What’s so healthy about this church is that with all of their devotion to worship, all of their generosity towards one another and their fellowship with one another, they’re not an “ingrown” church. They’re not a church that’s only focused on and only cares about themselves. They are still a witnessing church. They are still sharing the truth and love of Christ with those around them.
“Those first Jerusalem Christians were not so preoccupied with learning, sharing and worshipping, that they forgot about witnessing. For the Holy Spirit is a missionary Spirit who created a missionary church.” (Stott)
How do we know that they were a witnessing church? Luke says in the second part of v. 47 that the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? … So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. ( ESV)
So these folks are obviously sharing the gospel, sharing the good news. They’re not an isolated, private club or community. OK, but our last point isn’t witness, our last “g” is gladness. I want to make this connection for us. Luke doesn’t give us an evangelism and outreach program for this church. But here’s what he does say leading up to that last sentence (rd. 46-47a…)
You know what I think? This is speculation on my part, and I know it can be dangerous to speculate, but I don’t think this is a far reach. These folks seemed to have a contagious gladness of heart. There was something obviously different about them. Their sharing amongst each other is described as being done with glad and generous hearts. There was joy emanating from this community. It wasn’t just in their homes. This gladness and joy was evident in their public praise in the temple. The temple was the primary place in Jerusalem where crowds would be found. So they didn’t just stay in their homes, but they were out among people so that their gladness of heart could be seen. God’s praises were constantly on their lips.
The temple is gone. We’re not living in Jerusalem in the first century. But what continues is the gladness of heart and the joy that the Holy Spirit gives. It’s a joy that he makes evident.
The Christian life is different! It stands out. They are living a life of praise and are praised by the people. When Luke says they had favor with all the people, that’s the people outside of this Christian community. I started out by saying that this was the ideal, right? Persecution is coming in ch. 4. That “favor with all the people” only lasts a minute. The point is that this wasn’t a show. Their gladness was real. Their joy was real. So their witness was real. When this new community opened their mouths to say God cares, all people had to do was take a look at how they cared for one another with such generosity.
What we experience here might fall short of this picture of the ideal Christian community. However, the Spirit has come. He has indeed been given to us. So what we know to be true is that in Jesus Christ we ourselves are guaranteed to continue growing in our devotion to him, our generosity to others and our glad witness to the world. We are family.