Small groups – for common life (Sermon at FFMC, 10/9/17)

Small groups – for common life
 ⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)

³² All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. ³³ With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all ³⁴ that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales ³⁵ and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need. (Ac 4:32-35)

Introduction

I enjoy watching shows where some worldwide catastrophe has occurred. Maybe a zombie apocalypse, or a lethal viral pandemic, or an alien invasion, or some massive natural environmental disaster. In these movies the characters are completely free to disregard normal rules. They loot shops for provisions. They kill everything that moves. They even drive on the wrong side of the road. The point is that when something cataclysmic – earth-shattering – has occurred, normal rules are suspended. Who cares when you drive on the wrong side of the road when the police are all zombies? The old rules no longer apply.

The early church in Acts 2 was in a similar situation. Something earth-shattering had happened less than 2 months before. Someone had been crucified but had risen from the dead and was making appearances to many witnesses. We sometimes sniff at gullible ancient people who (we think) are so stupid that they would believe in miracles. That is not the historical record of the New Testament documents written only a few decades after the events. People really had to be convinced that the resurrection of One who claimed to be divine really occurred. Jesus Himself had to ‘present himself alive...by many proofs” (Ac 1:3). Furthermore, those who followed this risen Messiah were performing miracles that authenticated their message!

The early followers of the risen Jesus were living in a new world. We must feel the freshness and excitement of those earliest days of the church. All the old categories and priorities were now thrown out of the window!  These people were experiencing something not just life-changing, but world-changing.  New realities led to new priorities and actions. They acted in togetherness and in sharing. They shared time together, and they shared their possessions. The Greek word for fellowship/sharing is “koinonia”. This is a general word (“fellowship, association, community, communion, joint participation, interaction”)-a bond for a united purpose. The nature of the bond varies depending upon the nature of the purpose. For example, in Luke 5:10 Luke describes James and John as “partners” (koinonos) with Simon in the fishing business. The koinonia of the early church was rooted in divine truth (the apostles’ teaching, from the Lord) , affirmed by shared ritual (breaking of bread) and a real connection with God prayer) (v.42)

Why did they share so?

4 fundamental reasons:

1. The early church shared because they were together in a new relationship.

They were the ones chosen and called by God (“ecclesia”). They were recipients of divine grace. They had found ultimate truth and meaning in the Risen One. God had made them members of a family. More than all this, they were saved not just as individuals, but saved into a community. (“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” Eph 2.19). They had become family. So they trusted one another. They became loyal to one another. They felt a oneness together.  We share with our families what we would not share with outsiders. They felt one another’s joys and burdens, achievements and failures.

2. The early church shared because they had new attitudes to personal wealth

The truth of the gospel meant that in the light of salvation, earthly possessions no longer gripped their souls. Heaven was more real and more precious than what they owned. Then, as now, people’s financial status determine their worth. But to the early Christians, ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ did not determine worth, but only indicated needs to be met. The remembered “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Cor 8:2)                                                                            

3. The early church shared because they found a new source of joy.

They had “glad and sincere hearts”. They honestly enjoyed being together! They were happy to share! Their joy was God-given. It was rooted in their salvation and overflowed out to others around them. They were a happy people who became happier when they shared what they had.  (2 Cor 8:2-5 ² for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. ³ For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, ⁴ begging us earnestly for the favor^[b^] of taking part in the relief of the saints)

4. The early church shared because they had a new experience of God’s Spirit in their lives.

Often it is the youngest Christians who are the most enthusiastic. The first experience of the power and reality of the Holy Spirit living in us is transformative. We need to go on being filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18). Only the Spirit changes us. We cannot do the works of God without the Spirit of God. We need to depend on His power, not human resources and contacts and ideas. He stops church from being a social club or business, and He makes us a holy people in touch with God.

We are more like the early church than we might think. Like them, we also know that Christianity is not about personal experience alone, but about world-changing truth. Christ's birth, death and resurrection has changed reality forever. We must not just know, but feel the truths of what they felt so that we have the basis for doing like they did. And we must ask for the Holy Spirit’s power to do it. This kind of sharing of life cannot be done without Divine assistance. It goes beyond good organization and programs motivational talks.

But let’s note.

·         Their sharing is not forced, but voluntary (c.f. Annanias and Sapphira, Ac 5:1-11)

·         Their sharing does not eliminate wealth divisions. This is not an early form of communism. The Bible does not condemn riches, but it tells us not to seek them, to put our trust in wealth or to allow it to make us arrogant (1 Ti 6:17-18, Js 1:120))

·         Their sharing does not condone laziness (2 Thes 3:10)

·         Their sharing is under apostolic supervision

Conclusions

Let me close with some thoughts. Sometimes we say that “God loves you so much that even if you were the only one Christ would have died on the Cross for you”. We rightly celebrate the love of God for each one of us. We can rightly say with Paul “The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal 2:20), but it is a stretch to say that because Jesus loved all of us He would have died only for one of us. This kind of individualistic viewpoint is the root of the reason why some people think that they do not need to be in church or join a small group. We individually need to come to God for salvation, the plan of God is not to save us as individuals – it is always for a community,  a “people belonging to God” (1 Pe 2:9).

Brothers and sisters, at least 20 times in the NT members of the church are asked to do things with and for “one another”. (care for, love, live in harmony, welcome. Instruct, do not deprive, comfort, serve, submit, bear with, encourage, exhort, stir up, confess sin, pray, show hospitality, greet). These exhortation tell us that we are saved into a community with a responsibility to each other. The fact that even the early churches had to be reminded so many times to do things with and for  one another tells us that it was not always easy. The experience of Acts 2 is not normative. Like us, they needed encouragement to live in a community.

So in practice:

Don’t begrudge time spent together. Enjoy the times we have in each other's presence. Sometimes a listening ear is all that is needed.

Support each other in times of crisis – a death, an illness or accident, the loss of a job. Provide transport, meals,

Don't confine expressions of togetherness to times of crisis. Be hospitable. Open homes for SG meetings.

Help with academic difficulty. Lend books or notes.

Help with contacts and suggestions.

Sponsor people for trips or camps or seminars or dinners.

The idea is to be on the lookout to bless one another.

All this is only possible in small groups.  Church is too large to interact. We come and leave with little opportunity for this kind of group life. Small groups are where the rubber of the Christian life meet with the road of living in the world.

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