Sermon 16
Sermon by John
Metcalfe at Wonersh on 7th August 2005
Series - Discipleship
Godly Community
Let’s pray: “May the words of my mouth, and the thoughts of all our hearts, bring each one of us closer to you, our Lord and Saviour. Amen.”
It's good to be together this
morning as the family of God, because that’s our topic in this series on
Discipleship – living as a Godly Community. It seems to me that Luke’s words from Acts 2
are a roadmap for how we should behave as a church. Please turn to page 1094, and let me read
them through again, starting at the 42nd verse.
“They devoted themselves to the
apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to
prayer. Everyone was filled with awe,
and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had
everything in common. Selling their
possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he 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 favour of all the people.
And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
The word
that jumps out at me from that passage is in the first verse – the new
believers were Devoted. It made
me ask myself if I’m devoted. Are you
devoted? Devotion
is a good word. When we hear the word devoted, we usually think of
something good, perhaps a devoted mother.
I think of a mother who’s willing to sacrifice for her children, who
puts the needs of the children and her family ahead of her own needs – someone
who knows how to endure – someone who knows how to do practical things that
help her family … out of love. A devoted
father is reliable and tries to provide for his family, is someone who will
take a day off work to be at his child’s birthday party – well, don’t let’s
take the argument too far! But devotion is a good word. And not only where parents are concerned – if
I’m sick and need a doctor, I want a devoted doctor… and I want devoted
teachers for my children – and is it too much to ask for devoted politicians –
we want people who will go that extra mile.
Devotion is a good thing.
Devotion is good for the Body of
Christ, because we need to be devoted to some things as Christians, because
Christian life is not an automatic process.
We need to put effort into it.
God isn’t just an add-on to life – He should be a central part of our
lives, and there are certain responses that are appropriate. There are things that we should commit
ourselves to, and there are things we should be devoted to. And in this passage, we can see that the
members of the early church were devoted to certain things.
For example, they are devoted to worship. And they are devoted to community. They are devoted
to the apostles teaching, which means spiritual growth. They are devoted
to service … and they’re devoted to
outreach. That sounds like a good
prescription for our lives as
Christians – I think it would be good for us all to ask ourselves the question
“Am I like that – am I a devoted
Christian?” Surely these are important
foundations for any church that is balanced and healthy, and for a Christian
life that is balanced and healthy.
So, first it shows us that they
were devoted to worship. It talks
about them being in the temple courts.
It talks about them breaking bread in their homes and praising God. It talks about a community that has gathered
together around God … and in response to God, and praising God. Worship is incredibly important. Jesus was passionate about worship. Jesus said that the Father is seeking those
who will worship him in spirit and in truth – Evangelism is about seeking
worshippers of God. Jesus also showed
his passion for worship – one of the most impassioned moments of his ministry
happens in the temple when he knocks over the tables of moneychangers and said,
"His Father's house should be a
house of prayer and not a den of thieves." Jesus was passionate about worship. He knew how central worship was for human
life, and here we see the early church immediately stepping into the pattern of
worshipping in the temple, which they were familiar with as Jews. Later in the life of the church, they
developed uniquely Christian styles of worship that are dependent upon the
gifts of the people – then developed their own rituals and liturgy. Worship was central to the early church, and
we also need to be committed to worship.
We need to be devoted to worship.
It says here too that they were
devoted to fellowship, or community.
It says they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Fellowship, or
community suggests they were one with each other … more than a collection of
individuals. They worked together … they
looked out for one another. We sometimes
use the word “fellowship” in the sense of socialising, don’t we, discussing the
weather and the price of petrol over a cup of coffee? That's not the picture here. It’s one of building … of gathering together
as God's people and building a community.
That involves time. It involves
commitment. It involves recognising that
we can't do it on our own, and it involves sharing and lowering barriers. That can be hard – we’re used to achieving
things on our own. And we often think
that if we just get things straight with God, then everything’s fine. That’s not the picture we have here. There’s a commitment that happens among God's
people, which means that we get to know each other. We get beyond the façade, so that we become
accountable to one another.
For many of us, our first circle of accountability
is our spouse. My wife knows what I struggle with and she holds me before God
and prays for me, and supports me … and then expects me to live the life that I
proclaim. You might be a member of a
home group, or a prayer triplet, and support one another. In Home groups we pray for one another and
look into God's Word together – together we try to discover how to obey God
more completely, and so community starts to happen. We need one another – it’s hard to be a
member of God’s community if we shut ourselves away from the others. Community is a basic commitment that we see
in the early church and it requires time, and it requires effort, so we need to
be devoted to it.
The next thing they were devoted
to was spiritual growth – they were devoted to the apostle's teaching. Wouldn’t it be just great if we became a
Christian and then automatically, day-by-day became better and better. Then after 25 years of being a Christian I
simply shine with holiness with no effort – I wish. It doesn't work like that – scripture uses
words like: struggle, battle, wrestling – none of them remind us of automatic
vending machines. So, we need to submit
ourselves to the Word of God. We need to
grow in understanding it and we need to wrestle with our wills and submit
ourselves to doing what the scripture says.
And we’re still submitting ourselves to the apostle's teaching, because
that is what we have here [Bible]. We need to be committed to spiritual
growth. We need to make time for it.
And then they were devoted to
serving – look at verses 44 and 45 – all the believers were together and
had everything in common, selling their possessions and goods they gave to
anyone as he had need. It comes up
here. It comes up in chapter four, and
again in chapter five, and again in chapter six. We can't escape it, they served one
another. They gave generously of their
time and of their possessions to help anyone around them that was in need, and
the story of the Good Samaritan helps us to identify who these neighbours
really are. This is another area of
devotion for a balanced church, and for a balanced Christian life. It’s more than just putting a cheque on the
plate for
Then we need to focus on outreach. A central part of the life of the early
church was the proclamation of Jesus Christ.
That’s how the church got born, and the apostles share this message
again and again throughout the New Testament, even to the point where their
lives were in danger, yet that didn’t stop them. Liz Tilley,
So, we see a church that focuses on
these certain things. They gather
together as God's people … and grow together.
They are a Godly Community, and they are a Devoted People. These are essentials. These are the things
that help us be the people that God has called us to be. So, if someone follows you around for a day,
what would they say are your priorities?
If they got a chance to look at the way that you use your time, the way
you use your money, how would they assess your priorities? It will clearly be different for a mother
with a two-year-old at home versus a retired person; it’s more than how much
time you spend on church activities – some of our moments of greatest devotion
to God will happen miles away from here.
And we must recognise that our families and our work deserve devotion –
that’s part of the life that God has given us.
But it’s still fair to ask: “what are you devoted to?” Where do you give your best time and your
best energy? The world needs devoted
people.
When the world looks at people like Mother Theresa or Billy Graham, or the
people who work in the inner cities trying to change things and represent the
gospel there, or when we look at the doctors who go to disaster areas to serve
people, it applauds them because it recognises devoted people. But perhaps the world fails to appreciate
people who proclaim a message that deserves devotion … a message that talks
about a God who loves us so much that he gave his Son for us … a God who is
willing to take the whole picture of our lives, and turn it over, and transform
it, and draw us back to himself … who let’s us have the incredible experience
of knowing him in this world, and share an eternity together with him – people
who have a message like that and share it, but then live routine or
hypocritical lives. That's what the
world is tired of. We need to do more
and touch people’s lives, and to do that we need to be a devoted people. The world needs devoted people. And that's what we want to be for ourselves
individually and as a church, because devoted people can never be satisfied
with where they’re currently at. A
devoted mother doesn’t say, "Now
it’s my turn, you can look after yourselves now!" And a devoted surgeon isn't going to stop
growing in her skills – she’ll try to stay at the cutting edge. Similarly, a church needs constantly to be
pushing forward, and taking the next step in being devoted to God, and we need
to do that in our individual lives. So
let's not be satisfied until we’re fully devoted to an incredible God who has
given himself to us without reservation, fully and entirely in Jesus Christ.
Let's pray. “Heavenly father, we thank you, we thank you for the incredible
privilege of receiving your blessing in Jesus Christ, and we pray now that you
look into each one of our lives and help us each take an appropriate next step
of devotion to you, for we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.”