A former gang member started coming to a church in the States. He was heavily tattooed and rough around the edges, but he was curious to see what church was like. He had a relationship with Jesus and seemed to get fairly involved in the church. However, after a few months this guy stopped coming. When asked by someone why he didn’t come anymore, he gave the following explanation: “I had the wrong idea of what church was going to be like. When I joined the church, I thought it was going to be like joining a gang. You see, in the gangs we weren’t just nice to each other once a week—we were family.” Francis Chan who tells that story comments, ‘That killed me because I knew that what he expected is what the church is intended to be. It saddened me to think that a gang could paint a better picture of commitment, loyalty, and family than the local church body.’
The passage that we are studying this morning is one of two pictures
of church life that we read of in the opening chapters of the book of
Acts. One of the notable things about
these two descriptions of rich fellowship is that Luke records them both after
he has described a significant work of the Holy Spirit. Are we dependant on the
Holy Spirit in the life of this church?
Is our confidence in the speaker, the band, the three year plan, the
events and programmes we run, or are we crying out to God that he would give us
the sort of fellowship that he can create through the person of the Holy Spirit
and which he blesses? Let’s look at what
a Spirit-filled church looks like.
1. Word: A spirit-filled church lives under the
authority of the Word
They devoted themselves to the
apostle’s teaching (we have their teaching recorded in our New Testament,
and we can see how they used the Old Testament). There is one thing that I really want to
emphasise at this point: we are called to do what that word says. Devoting ourselves to the word means that we
are willing to respond to its challenges.
James writes of the fool who sees what the word says and then does not
do it. A Spirit-filled church and
Spirit-filled people submit to the Word.
A girl in
Think of our relationships.
Jesus called us to love our enemies.
Do we simply hold awkward people at a distance are will we actually love
and care for them? Think of our
families. Do those who know us best
testify to the reality of our relationship with God? I talked to someone recently who said of her
husband, ‘I know he’s not perfect but he really is a godly wee man.’ If you are married could would your spouse be
able to say such a warm thing about you.
A friend said that as he grew up he decided he would never treat his
wife the way his father treated his mother.
His father never seemed to see the connection between his faith and his
marriage. Being Spirit-filled is not
simply about having lots of enthusiasm.
It shows its reality in our striving towards holiness and in particular
in our relationships with others. After
all Jesus said ‘if you love me you will obey my commands.’
2. Willingness: A Spirit-filled church is willing to make
sacrifices for other members
They devoted themselves to the Apostle’s teaching and to the fellowship. The word translated ‘fellowship’ comes from a
word which means ‘to have in common’.
The church is not simply everyone who turns up for the Sunday
meeting. The church is those who have
been ‘born again’—those who have a common faith in Jesus. On the word translated fellowship (koinonia) Ajith Fernando writes, ‘Its
basic idea is sharing, but it is used also to denote intimacy and fellowship in
general.’
That shared faith, makes us a part of one family. Here we read that this family had everything
in common and selling their possessions
and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.’ There was a voluntary and ongoing giving to
help meet each others needs. They were
willing to make sacrifices in order to help needy members. When we get to chapter 4 we will read that
because of such giving there was no needy
persons among them.
When we looked at chapter 1 we saw that the primary purpose of the
church in the world is to reach out in mission.
But this does not mean that once someone is saved we simply move on to
the next potential convert. Rather the
saved are brought into a loving community.
We seek to build one another up for service, we seek to encourage one
another towards holiness, and we even care about their emotional and physical
needs. Indeed if we don’t model that
sort of community our efforts at evangelism will be less convincing.
So do we view our fellow believers in this church as family? Do we care for their needs as we would for
one of our sons or daughters? Are they
more important to us than our money? Are
we even willing to spend the time it takes to listen to them?
3. Worship: A spirit-filled church delights to
meet together in corporate worship.
In this church we emphasise that worship is something we do with all
of our lives. Worship is not just about
singing songs and meeting together.
However here I want to emphasis ‘corporate worship’, when we meet
together as a community and focus our attention on Jesus. They devoted themselves to the Apostle’s
teaching and to the fellowship, to the
breaking of bread and to prayer.
‘Breaking of bread’ appears to be a reference to the Lord’s Supper
and this was probably done as part of a larger meal. Sharing the Lord’s Supper should be something
precious to us. Here is something that
Christ himself has given in which our minds and hearts are reminded that he died
for our sin and has brought us into a covenant relationship with him. They
broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
praising God. In a Spirit-filled
community they delight to meet together for corporate worship.
When I was a child we went to church. It didn’t matter if you wanted to go to
church, you went. There was a sense of
obligation to church attendance.
Now-days people have a take it or leave it attitude towards church
attendance. We go if we feel like
it. It depends what mood we are in. We will go if there is nothing more pressing
to do. I am not saying that you can’t
miss church if you are depressed or sick.
But we are robbing ourselves and others if we don’t devote ourselves to
the discipline and joy of meeting together.
4. Witness: A Spirit-filled
church is not inward looking
And the Lord added to their
number daily those who were being saved. The forth mark of a Spirit-filled church is
their witness.
There is a connection between the quality of fellowship and our
witness. In John 17 Jesus prayed for
those who would believe saying, ‘that all
of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may
believe that you have sent me . . . May they be brought to complete unity to
let the world know that you sent me and loved them even as you have loved me.’
Note that it is the Lord who added daily those who are being
saved. No doubt he used the preaching
and sharing of the gospel—the New Testament speaks of how people come to faith
as in response to the message. But in
all that we do in mission, and mission is to be central to all we do, we are to
depend upon God to work—which will surely mean that prayer will be central to
our attempts at outreach. The call to
pray is one of the central things I see as we look through these early chapters
of Acts. Which is timely as Tuesday
night’s meeting will give us an opportunity to pray together as church.
Conclusion
The elders of the church where Francis Chan was pastor began to ask
the question “why don’t we live like the believers who made up the first
church?” What followed their discussion
was a beautiful time when the laid everything at one another’s feet. We surrendered the keys to our cars, homes,
and bank accounts. The elders looked
Francis in the eyes and said, “What’s mine is yours. If anything ever happens to you, I will
support and care for your kids as much as I would care for my own. I will be your life insurance.”
From there, they began going to some of their friends in the
congregation and expressing our commitment to them. This mentality began to spread. New life began to permeate through the church
as new life as individuals began to back up their words with sacrifice. Cars and homes were being sold and given
away. Expensive holidays were joyfully
replaced with caring for others. People
were being welcomed into other’s homes—not for meals, but to live. ‘This is a small example of the kinds of
things that happen when people start to walk with the Spirit and ask the Holy
Spirit to affect every part of their lives.’
I don’t know about you but I yearn for that sort of community. And when I think of the sacrifice that it
would take to live like that there is the realisation that in one sense it is
no sacrifice at all. For what would be
gained in terms of fellowship and joy surely outweighs whatever is given in
terms of possessions and self. But for
such a community to really enjoy this fellowship, for such sharing to be more
than going through the motions, it needs to be a response to God’s working
through the Holy Spirit. So cry out that
the Holy Spirit who now dwells in each of his children would grab our attention
and change us, and so our fellowship together would be enriched beyond our
expectations.
Copyright note:
Unless
otherwise stated all Scripture quotations taken from the HOLY BIBLE,
NEW
INTERNATIONAL VERSION.
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission.
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