Sermon Tone Analysis

The Best and Worst of the Church

acts4.32

acts4.32-

To see a large number of people all on the same page is something that gets attention real quick.

Can you think of a large group of people that you have seen who are all on the same page to the point where someone would say, “they are of one heart and soul”????

And just for the record we are talking about the early church here, and they could have over 5,000 people at this point.

They were not all in one gathering, and met in homes through out their city daily.

And yet it says that the FULL number of those who believed were of one heart and soul.

The message this morning is one of contrasts.

The best and worst of the church.

We need to remember where we are in the story of the NT though.

Jesus has lived a perfect life and died an innocent death.

His disciples were all in hiding when he appeared to them.

IN the beginning of the books of Acts Jesus tells them to wait for the promised Holy Spirit before going anywhere and telling anyone about him.

In they receive the Holy Spirit and Peter stands up to preach the gospel to a large crowd.

People from all over the known world were in Jerusalem to worship the Lord, and they all miraculously heard the gospel in their own language as the disciples that were waiting for the Holy Spirit were now speaking in what is called tongues, meaning other languages as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.

This spectacle is the reason why Peter has such a large crowd to preach the gospel to.

It says that 3,000 got saved that day.

acts 1

In we are told that Peter and John are going into the temple to pray when they come across a lame beggar.

They are used by God to heal this man and again there is a large crowd of people wanting to know what is going on, so Peter preaches to the again.

This continues on into where the religious leaders of that time are now coming to arrest Peter and john for this disturbance.

They are told to not speak about this Jesus anymore, and Peter tells them he would rather listen to God than man.

Ultimately they are released and go back to tell the other believers what happened.

At this point they are praying and asking God for boldness to continue to preach the gospel, and all of the sudden the place they are praying was shaken and they were again filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak with boldness.

All of this leads us up to this passage we have here today.

Let’s look at this in light of the context...

This is the best of the church… This is what it looks like to be a true biblical community of believers.

Notice that the Full number of them were in one heart and soul.

Something so powerful had happened to them that it overruled any of there regular differences.

This is a big thing!

There is visible fellowship with other believers.

“One of the ways our faith in Jesus is displayed to the outside world is through the visible fellowship of believers with one another.”

Al Mohler

Al Mohler

This is when the church is at its best - when it is united.

that is what we see here… the full number of those who believed were in one heart and soul...

The church is at its best when we are united

According to this text they were truly united.

This is an ideal way of being united, to the point where no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own.

This is how a congregation should approach its mission and relate to its members.

By displaying unity to the point of being willing to share anything you have because it really belongs to all you are with.

Unity is more than agreeing on a statement.

It is more than just sharing whatever is in your hand.

Unity is a matter of the heart and soul.

When we say heart and soul we mean this… The heart is representative of your passions and affections.

Your soul is seen in your mind, will and emotions.

When we say someone gave their heart and soul to something, what do we mean by that?

This is more than their best efforts, it is deeply connected to there inmost being.

Unity is not something that is flippant… True unity is rare and it cannot be faked!

Today many churches will try to obtain unity with people by ignoring doctrine, and by watering down the gospel message to make it more palatable to people it may offend.

But we cannot dilute the message of Jesus and his exclusivity, the reality of Hell, or the fact that we are sinful.

The unity we must pursue is founded on sound doctrine.

That is why God showed so many miracles at the onset of this new truth being preached.

People needed to know that God validated what was being said.

And so we see that Luke testifies to us why this unity existed.

So yes, there was great power being demonstrated, but that isn’t the key, as much as some would like to make that way.

Why was there great power and great grace?

Because they were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

This is the central theme to the gospel!

This was at the core of their message, and it was their great mission to spread news about the resurrection of Jesus.

R.C. Sproul said it this way - “The crowning proof of the salvation accomplished in Jesus Christ was His resurrection from the dead.”

The crowning proof of the salvation accomplished in Jesus Christ was His resurrection from the dead.

These guys were eyewitnesses to this and that is what they were telling people about.

These men walked with Jesus and talked with Jesus, and they now were telling everyone how they had witnessed his resurrection.

They did this with great power, with fierce passion and unwavering hope.

And because they were preaching truth about the resurrection of Jesus, Great grace was on them all!

The church is at its best when sound doctrine is preached

Sproul, R. C. (Ed.).

(2015).

The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (p.

1920).

Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust.

There is nothing more central to Christianity than preaching about the resurrection of Jesus.

This is the basic of sound doctrine.

And this strong preaching of Jesus bring great grace on them all.

What did that mean?

Great grace was upon them all?

Well, remember I said that a few chapters ago the religious leaders of that day asked them to no longer speak about this Jesus and teach in his name.

It would seem that all of the believers were giving testimony about this Jesus, that the great grace was for them to stand up in the face of oppression and testify about Jesus.

It would seem that the believers had love for each other because they first had love for Jesus.

They knew that there material goods would fade away but the joy of the resurrection will indeed last forever.

This is why it is easy for them to give up what they do not need so that other can have what they do need.

and so we continue to see the best of the church in the next two verses.

2 things to notice here.

First, the giving that happened spontaneously because of the needs around them.

It doesn’t appear that they had a special service to highlight the need of a people group, or that they needed a marketing campaign to help raise funds for their next outreach.

Nope, they just said to themselves, “I don’t need this extra house, or field”, so they sold it.

The church is at its best when it meet the meeds of those who belong to it

There may not be a more un-american version of the church than this one right here.

We literally live in a land of riches and opulence.

We have TV shows about people who have so much stuff that they cant get rid of anything, we call them hoarders.

We live in a society that is guilt driven and likes to give only when something hits them in a unique way or tugs at certain heart strings.

Yet this isn’t what we see here about the early church.

It says there was not even a needy person among them...

And while this may seem crazy to our culture, it had special meaning to them.

Remember these were Jews who were trying to live a certain lifestyle in worship to God.

Before Jesus they were still trying to obtain covenantal promises from God by obeying the law.

And what we have just read about there being no needy people among them is actually what their goal was.

This promise made the to Children of Israel was to be seen in sabbatical years when debts were forgiven.

It was a product of following the law given to them and was a goal of their society.

And yet they could not see this happen unless it came to the time when they had to forgive debts and extend mercy beyond what was normal.