Compelling Christian Community

Listen Link: http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw

Acts 2:42-47

I want to tell you how I related to the Christian Community before I first became a Christian and then after. I remember being in church with my mom and brothers. Mom was the Sunday School teacher. Back in those days we had little suits and stiff hair. That means my mom used some kind of hair styling gel or something so that when she combed our hair it would stay where she put it. She may have even used her own hair spray for that. I called it stiff hair because that’s what it felt like up there on top of my head. There was Sunday school and there was worship and there were some meals together. I really have no recollection of actual events put on by the church. That doesn’t mean the church wasn’t doing it, just that it is not in my awareness.

What I do remember is the sanctuary. In fact, I think they had rounded pews and a balcony. Sort of like here. I know the pews were made of dark brown wood and the pews had deep maroon upholstery. I was just a kid, under twelve, and I do sort of remember that I liked the pastor, but I really don’t remember anyone else being very important to me or caring about me.

I also remember one Sunday after the worship service when my brother Paul and I explored our way into an upstairs area where we found a crawl space that went out over the drop ceiling of a stage area. This was in a side room like a fellowship hall, not the sanctuary. There were two by fours holding up the paper ceiling tiles, so we knew we had to keep our feet on the two by fours. But, I slipped. My foot went right through the ceiling, a tile fell about 15 feet and smacked on the floor. That caused a number of adults to look up and see my whole leg sticking down out of the ceiling. They cared about me then, for a while.

But when we stopped going to church, I don’t think I missed it much. Then in high school, I made a friend and that family was hospitable so I could stay over at their house on many weekends, and they went to Church on Sundays, so I did too. That was a little bit of compelling Christian community. That family invited me to church and I didn’t mind. That was my first time attending a Covenant Church. It was a small congregation like this one. They were friendly the way grandparents can be and that was nice. I eventually got to be in the choir because my friend Bill was, and we did our best to sing the parts. But we also made fun of the songs being sung.

I wasn’t a true believer, just a participant. People talked about the gospel around me, but I don’t remember anyone actually trying to get me to believe it. It was sort of like they thought since I was there I must already be a believer. Except for my high school Sunday School teacher. She really tried to talk with each of us as individuals and see where we were with the faith. For her, I think I faked it. I knew what I was supposed to say and I let that count for faith.

And again, nothing made me love to be there. It was just part of being with Bill. And I didn’t miss it when I moved on to college and I didn’t go to church during college. Still, whenever I was home from college, I would keep going to church with Bill because the people were so nice to me. That’s a little bit of compelling Christian community. But I warn you, even cults can pull that off, at least to draw you in and as long as you don’t study what they really believe.

Now, when I became a Christian, my old high school buddy invited me to go to his college campus and meet with his Inter-varsity fellowship group. It didn’t matter that I didn’t have any classes there. I was warmly welcomed and taught about prayer and discipleship. They even paid my way for me when the whole group went to a nearby amusement park for a fun day. That was radical hospitality to me. That was compelling Christian community. They were offering me a lot and they really were a huge blessing to my fledgling Christian life!

As a Christian I enjoyed fellowship in college and other churches so I could say a lot about how important church is to me, but let me finish here with a story that makes my church experiences of compelling Christian community significant for you. As I developed in my faith, I thought maybe God was calling me into the ministry, but I didn’t want to put myself forward. Maybe that was some of the false humility that I talked about last week.

But it changed with the help of the Menominee Covenant Church in the UP, where Kathy and I lived as young marrieds for about 5 years. In that church, I was free to serve God in any capacity. I got to be the janitor, in the choir, involved in visitation ministry, and eventually a deacon on the board, not to mention Sunday school teacher and VBS volunteer along the way. They were the people who started mentioning that I probably would be a good pastor. Then there came the day when the pastor invited me to try doing a sermon as pulpit supply for him. I don’t even remember it, and I don’t think it was very good. But those nice people told me I should just keep working at it and honor God’s call on my life. So now, twenty-six years later, here I am loving you and trying to encourage all of you the way I was encouraged way back then.

But, we have to get to the text. We preach the bible here! “They (the believers) devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” That was their devotion. It was their attention to the main things that would strengthen them in their new faith. First they respected the authority of the Apostles, the ones who had been with Jesus for three years and had seen and heard everything he taught and did and especially could verify that he really did die on the cross for our sins and that he really did rise again form the dead. 

“Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.” Jesus’ power to do miracles was transferred to these apostles. This wasn’t just for show and they weren’t just in awe because it was so cool. These special acts were called signs because they signified that the Apostles was really were the telling truth that they got from God.

Now this part is the key for us today: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 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, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

It was a Christian community. And what was compelling about that was that they really loved to hang out together. They were so other focused, so otherish in their love for each other that they had everything in common. They could say “What’s mine is yours” and they really meant it! But they were not just sharing among themselves. They pooled their resources and they gave to anyone who had need. Anyone means exactly what it says, ANYONE who had need; not just other church members, not just close friends and family, but anyone. I am sure that the recipients of such gifts often wondered why these people were being so nice. And that led to questions and that led to conversation about Jesus and the gospel and repentance from sins and experience of forgiveness and filling with the Holy Spirit. That’s how the church grew. The Lord added to their number daily. God used the impressive, generous love of the believers to create a compelling Christian community that outsiders were just drawn to.

Let me put that another way. In the early church every believer was a disciple and every disciple accepted the great commission to go and make more disciples. But that was not understood to be just the Apostle’s job. It was everybody’s calling. The Apostle’s devoted themselves to the ministry of the Word. There was a completely new understanding of the Old Testament. The Apostles were busy teaching and explaining that to all the Jews who would listen. They explained it to the new believers.

The new believers could then go and talk about it everywhere; in their families, in their social circles and in their workplaces. They had a new attitude toward life, a stronger love and a deeper faith in their hearts. That showed up in the way they treated everybody with greater grace and forgiveness than the world is used to seeing. It also showed up in the way they had great courage to face the Pharisees and synagogue rulers and talk about Jesus with them even if it got them into trouble.

In our day, it’s going to look different. But it ought to feel the same. We need to let the Spirit lead us to express that otherish love in ways that are meaningful to the people around us so that they ask questions that allow us to share the gospel with them. And we will be filled with a love and concern for them that aches for a chance to tell them about the gospel that can save their souls. We won’t want to leave it at doing them a favor or giving them something they need. We will earnestly seek opportunities to meet their deepest needs by leading them to Jesus.

But let’s compare that to the way most churches do evangelism today. We host outreach programs and events that are supposed to attract unbelievers to the church building where we might get a chance to share the gospel with them. That model makes it the pastor’s and teacher’s job to get people to come and get people to listen and actually lead them to a saving relationship with Jesus. All the rest of the members usually see themselves as supporting volunteers who may or may not have time or money to actually give to the project. The end result is that most of the members of the church do not see themselves as disciple makers and don’t know how to make disciples.

I believe that is one of the reasons why so many churches are declining these days. The culture in which we live is not attracted to church just because something is going on there. They are already busy with all kinds of other interesting things. They might come if it is obvious we’re going to give something away, like food or stuff. But they do not know they need the gospel. And they do not see people around them whose lives are very different because of the gospel. But if you, in your everyday lives, out there in the wide, wide world, were full of the Holy Spirit, joyful in hope and bold in witness, then the unbelievers would be seeing something that would make them sit up and take notice.

That is what inspired me to start up the discipleship class on Wednesday evenings and to put that kind of announcement about it in the bulletin. You will have a chance to be taught to actually be what Jesus is asking you to be for him. God uses broken people like you and me to rescue broken people like you and me. And if your heart aches at all to be involved in this work, you will be blessed and equipped to do a better job if you would also come on Wednesdays. If your heart doesn’t ache for people who don’t know Christ, you may not know Christ yourself.

Someone might say, “Wait a minute, if we have the Holy Spirit in us doesn’t that make this kind of automatic? Why do we have to make any effort? We can just let the Spirit lead.” We go back to the verse in our text that says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching.” The Spirit gives the motivation and the transformation but not the information. We need all three.

Every congregation must be very intentional about developing community and especially intentional about learning how to be disciples that make disciples. It does not happen automatically or easily. We have the old sin nature in us trying to demotivate us. We have the whole world spirit to fight as we swim upstream against natural inclinations. And we have the armies of satan who will really get up in arms the moment we start advancing the cause of Christ. That’s when the battle really begins.

But by the power of the Holy Spirit, community is built and experienced as we commit ourselves to Christ and to one another; to weep with those who weep and to rejoice with those who rejoice; to serve one another and pray for one another and bear one another’s burdens. When it happens there is no more satisfying way to live. Congregational vitality is the result of pursuing Christ and pursuing Christ’s priorities in the world. By pursuing Christ we are healthy. By pursuing Christ’s priorities we are missional.

In view of all this, the experiences I had in those other churches was really not the kind of healthy compelling Christianity God would really like to form in us. Their version of community only worked on someone like me, who was already a believer. The version of Compelling Christian community that God wants to see would be more effective with unbelievers. It would create the attractiveness in each believer, not just in the events we put on. It would be something that can be seen by the unbelievers when they meet you out there where you work and live and play, not just when they come to church. The compelling Christian community that the Bible calls forth in us would work in us to compel us to love everyone better. That would have a positive impact on unbelievers, when God uses your words and your deeds to lead people to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. God wants to see that happening here. I want to see that happening here! Do you want to see that happening here? Amen?