Our Bible class at Titirangi recently had a reunion. It was great
catching up with people whom I hadn’t seen for over twenty years. One of the
things about such events of course is that photos surface of what you were like
back then. They capture you in a certain
moment in time, and it also makes you think just how much you have changed over
the years and just possibly to do some re-evaluation of who you are and where
you are going.
Take exhibit B here,… when I posted this comparison on facebook people
commented asking me where the smile had gone. And no I’ve never smoked dope…One
person even suggested I needed to give up ministry if it was having that effect
on me and making me look so unhappy. It’s hard really to make those kinds of
judgements on a snap shot. What I want to focus on today is the snapshot Luke
gives us of the early church life in response to the coming of the Holy Spirit
and look at what it can tell us today of the Spirit’s work in the Church.
Luke separates out incidence in
the first part of Acts with short Summary Paragraphs. He paints pictures or takes
snap shots of the church at several stages of its progress. And down through church history how we are to
use those snapshots has been a point of contention, some say is it just historical
curiosity? They give us a glimpse as to what the Church was like, and that’s
all, let’s face it things have changed so much since then. At the other end of the spectrum people call
for a radical reformation of the church back to its roots: We need to get back
to being the church like it was in Acts… some do it uncritically without
thought to the way things have changed. John
Polhill suggests its somewhere in between that the snapshots in Acts, acts as a
lens to help us assess the church today. He says “Luke’s summaries present an
ideal for the Christian community which it must always strive for, constantly
return to and discover anew, if it is to have the unity of the spirit and
purpose essential for an effective witness.”
We are working our way through the book of Acts, the series is called
“Fire and Wind: encountering the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts and in our
lives today’. And our main focus is the work of the Holy Spirit as it came in
power in the life of that first community of believers. And Luke gives us a
great snapshot of what that meant for the church in the summary we had read to
us this morning and we want to explore it has to say to us today as God’s
Spirited people ?
Of course in our reading today we sort of started in an awkward place,
we started smack bang in the middle of Peter’s sermon at Pentecost. I wanted to do that because we need to put Luke’s
summary paragraph in its context. As we saw last week Jesus had told his
followers to wait in Jerusalem until they received the power of the promised
Holy Spirit and they would Be Jesus witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria
and to the ends of the earth.
They had done that and gone back and devoted themselves to prayer. Then
at the festival of Pentecost, the promised Spirit had descended on them, It was accompanied by signs, a sound like rushing
wind and tongues of fire, which is where we get the title for this series from
and as a sign of the parameters of their mission they had been enabled to speak
in different languages, all the languages we are told of those gathered from
the extent of the Jewish diaspora. Peter and the other eleven had stood up to
explain what was going on to the crowd that gathered. His sermon, which we’ll
look at more at Pentecost this year, is a great example of what it means to be
a witness to Jesus. It highlights who Jesus is and how people can know what God
was doing through him. In response we are told the number of believers grows
from one hundred and twenty to over three thousand. Then we get our picture of what that new community
was like. How they lived in response to the coming of the Holy Spirit.
We are given insight in to what they devoted themselves to in verse 42,
in v 43-47 we catch a glimpse of their routines and communal life and then in
the second half of verse 47 we see the impact that had on the city round
them. John Stott provides a helpfully
way for us to explore these verses by saying it shows a community that was
known for four things…
It was a learning church, it
devoted itself to the teaching of the apostles, Ajith Fernando says that as
they had just had three thousand new converts there was need to teach people
about who Jesus was what he said and how it was to affect how they live. It
reflects Jesus words in the great commission, that they were to teach those who
were baptised to obey all that he, Jesus had commanded them. We don’t have that
many examples of what the apostles taught, Paul shows us how he took the gospel
and applied it to the situations the new churches found themselves in. Can I
say going out on a limb a bit here, I wonder if the sermon on the mount, which
I believe is central to church renewal, isn’t an example of the apostles
teaching, not that it wasn’t Jesus words pure and simple, but had been put
together like it is in Matthew as a teaching unit. It’s interesting down
through church history one of the markers of spiritual renewal and revival has
been a growth in a hunger for the word of God, and a willingness to allow it
speak into our lives. That comes through in repentance and reformation. As we saw as we looked at John last year the work of the Holy Spirit is to lead his people into all truth. We need to be a
people whose minds and imaginations are immersed in and transformed by the
Gospel.
It was a loving church; they shared meals, they meet regularly, they
meet in each other’s houses, they shared table fellowship, helped to meet each
other’s needs from their own resources, it’s summed up by the word koinonia or
fellowship, they had a ‘common life’ and shared things in common. They were
known for their hospitality and generosity. People often wonder if this wasn’t
some form of early communism, but the sharing of possessions dos not seem to be
forced; rather they saw other people’s needs as more important than private
ownership or their own comfort. In Acts 4 Barnabas is picked out for special
mention because he sold a plot of land and gave the money to the apostles to
distribute to the poor. I often comment
that the barriers to us loving one another are, the backs of each other’s heads
at worship; which is why we have morning tea and a greeting time; the doors to
each other’s houses; Christian community is all about hospitality, often our
Bible’s, in small groups we can focus on the bible and forget to share our
lives with each other, and our zips… no not that kind of zip… but the zips of
our wallets. Again historically marks of moves of the Holy Spirit result in a
genuine desire for unity and compassion and generosity for the poor.
Thirdly, it was a worshipping church: they devoted themselves to the
prayers, in v 42 and attendance at the temple, these things show that they had
regular times of public worship, and that they were still very much part of the
Jewish community at the time. They also had their own times of worship, they regularly
broke bread together, they celebrated communion, they experienced the presence
of the risen Jesus in their midst, as we know from Paul’s letter to the
Corinthians this seems to have been part of a gathering for a common meal. But is
also tells us that they meet by themselves to worship, it says when they meet
they rejoiced and praised God shows that in their meals together in their homes
that they carried on that worship in everyday life and in small groups.
It tells us that they were
filled with awe at the signs and wonders that the apostles were preforming.
There was a sense that they were aware of the moving of God in their midst. The
words ‘signs and wonders’ are the same words used of Jesus miracles I the
gospel and again show these miracles served the same purpose, they witnessed to
the reality of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.
Again one of the markers of the move of the Holy Spirit or genuine
revival is worship. People respond to God’s grace and God’s action with praise
and thanksgiving. Not just in songs and singing, although music seems to come
out of times of renewed encounter with God. But also in changed lives, new ways
of living: The movement for the abolition of slavery can be seen to be a
reaction to the moves of spiritual renewal in England and America. People tend to equate moves of the Holy
Spirit with manifestations of the Spirit in ‘signs and wonders’, maybe, it more
that we become aware of God’s presence with us, while its right to be in awe of
these things, genuine renewal is a rediscovery of the manifesto of the spirit,
living as God’s spirited people, more than the manifestations of the Spirit.
We also need to be aware of the importance of prayer in the life of the
church as well. There is some debate over whether this passage talks of set
times of liturgical prayer, which would have been the case with the temple
being in Jerusalem or being an element of everyday life. Once again the desire
to pray is a sign of the move of the Holy Spirit.
A couple of challenges, the
first is the challenge that the idea of Christian community has to the
individualistic society in which we live. Which seems to go contra to the
Koinonia or common life of the Acts church, we tend to see ourselves as
Christians first and community or church second, our faith is an individual
thing, but in scripture it is inseparable from being part of a Christian
community. Of having a common life that
has a regular rhythm to it. It’s not just to be fitted in round everything
else. I know we don’t get much
information in acts about how they fitted things in with work and family and
education and entertainment and sports and well life really. It does give us
the word devoted themselves, which speaks of prioritising and persevering with.
Many new communities are finding that having common rhythms and rituals of
daily prayer, regular gatherings and meals help to build that sense of
community and encourage each other in the faith. Being God’s spirited people
actually calls us to be a prophetic people, to live in a new way, and I wonder
if that change in priorities may not be what our busy-ness addicted society
actually needs.
Finally, the power and vitality
for community comes from the increasing presence and power of the Holy Spirit
in our midst. Darrell Bock says A
Vibrant Community extends itself in two directions: towards God and towards
neighbour." -.
Lastly, they were an evangelistic church, (yup Howard said the “E”
word) both their message spoken and proclaimed by the apostles and their
communal life witnessed to the Risen Jesus Christ. It resulted in them finding
favour with the people and God adding to their number those who were being
saved. You may have heard it said ‘proclaim
the gospel and if you must, use words’ that is not a biblical statement. Here
we see that the way the new community lived attracted people to the gospel
message, as generosity, hospitality and genuine love will do, but in giving
thanks to God they must also have told the story of what God has done for them.
But alongside that we know that the apostles were teaching and preaching, we
will see their actions in healing the lame beggar leading to chances to share
about Jesus Christ. We also need to remember that this whole summary comes out
of Peter’s sermon and peoples responses. Possibly the best way to understand it
is the metaphor that Joseph Aldrich uses of the gospel being a great song… the
proclamation is the lyrics and our lives are the tune which makes the words
catchy. Either way Luke is quick to tell us that it was the Lord who added
daily to their number those who were being saved. AS Paul says to the
Corinthians ‘one plants one waters but it the Lord who bring growth. One of the
signs of the Holy Spirit moving in a church is a growing concern and car for those outside
the faith, in prayer and in action.
Ok how do we bring this from the then and there to the here and now.
Our vision here at St Peter’s reflects that …
That we are called to be an authentic, vibrant, sustainable Community
Growing as followers of Jesus Christ
And inspiring others to join us on that journey .
Let pray for more of the Spirit’s presence and power to continue making
that vision a reality.
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