Today’s post is on the implications of Acts 2:42-47 for the church today.

If I were to take an aerial picture of our neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri in 1958 or so and another picture of our neighborhood in Cordova, Tennessee in the year 2016, one would immediately notice a striking difference: In 1958, my brother and I could run through backyards practically to Nebraska without once crossing a privacy fence. Almost no one had a privacy fence. However, today if you look at a picture of our neighborhood in Cordova, Tennessee everyone has a privacy fence. In fact, our neighborhood code requires that you have not just a privacy fence but a particular kind of privacy fence.

Privacy fences reveal and are a metaphor for a big change in American society. Once again, I remember talking to a very successful oil executive in Houston Texas around the year 1980. In 1948, he said, even in his affluent neighborhood, people got together on Friday evenings and cooked out together. They watch the children play, the men barbecued, the women prepared the table and the side dishes, and everyone ate together. There was community. I remember the same thing in Springfield, Missouri growing up.

One question I have been asked repeatedly at evangelism seminars is this: “How many of you know your neighbors?” Interestingly, the answer is always, “Not very many.” Americans have increasingly become isolated. There’s even a technical term for this, “Cocooning.” We are so busy at work, and our children are so busy at school and with activities, that Americans increasingly just want to be left alone when they have time off.

Almost every denomination in the United States is experiencing declining church attendance. Often, people suggest that this is a result of a declining interest in faith. I’m not sure this is the only explanation. Almost all social organizations are experiencing a decline in participation. This includes neighborhood associations, fraternal associations, societies, and other social groups that provided meaning and friendship for prior generations. For example, my Dad’s Rose Society has experienced a decline in attendance and participation, as has the Masonic Lodge and the Daughters of the Eastern Star.

Given all this, it is obvious that Americans  need  to get unplugged from our isolation and plugged back into into community.

The Ultimate Community.

In two weeks, we will celebrate Pentecost. At Pentecost, we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and the beginning of the Christian church as we know it. On Pentecost Sunday, we’re going to talk a little bit more about the role of prayer in the Christian life as we talk about the beginning of Nehemiah. Next week, we’re going to talk a little bit about the role of the Bible as we move towards Pentecost. Today, I’m going to be picking up after Peter preaches his first great sermon on the day of Pentecost.

If you will remember, in Acts Peter preaches the first sermon (Acts 2). He explicitly sees Jesus as the fulfillment of all of the prophecies of the Messiah in the Old Testament. He explains the cross and resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit. When Peter is finished, we are told that the people were cut to the quick (v. 37). They asked Peter what they should do (v. 37). He responded that they should repent and be baptized, receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit (v. 38). Apparently, 3000 people believed on that day (v. 41). Then, we read the following:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 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 (Acts 2:42-47).

Prayer: Triune God, who exists and lives in Loving Community: We confess that we find it hard, very hard, to create and sustain community. Please come among us this day that we might see and feel what you desire for each of us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

The Community of God.

A most striking things about the Bible that often goes unnoticed is the importance of community. When God wanted to put into place his plan to overcome the effects of sin and the Fall, he chose a person (Genesis 12:1). Out of that person (Abraham) he created a family, then a tribe of families, and eventually a nation. In other words, God created a community. Through the history of the community we call, “Israel,” God prepared his people to receive his ultimate revelation in Jesus Christ.

When Jesus came, the first thing we see him doing is calling his disciples together and creating a community. It was within the intimate, loving, nurturing, and discipling context of that community, that Jesus prepared the disciples to carry his message into the world. We can too easily pass this by. So far as we know, Jesus never told the disciples to write the Bible. He himself never wrote a book. What we do see is Jesus calling disciples, teaching disciples, sharing his love with disciples, correcting disciples, and building close personal relationships with the disciples. Jesus created a community we call, “Church” by everything he did during his lifetime.

The last thing we see Jesus doing in Matthew, and the other Gospels, is commissioning the community he had created to go into all the world and share the gospel (See, Matthew 28:16-20). In Acts, Jesus commissions his disciples and then sends them as a community back to the Upper Room to pray and wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:1-8). When the Holy Spirit came upon the Church, it did not come just upon Peter, or upon the Twelve, but upon all those, men and women, who had been waiting and praying for the gift of the Spirit.

After Peter preached his sermon, the first thing God does is expand His community of believers. In other words, community is not optional. We human beings were made in the image of God. God exists as a community of love. We were created to exist in a community of love. One reason we have so much dysfunction in our society is that we have forgotten that community is not optional. Community is essential to the human life. Therefore, community is essential for the church. In fact, the church is supposed to model what a true Christian community is all about.

Elements of Community.

Our text today reveals for us six things that are clearly necessary for authentic Christian community.

• Bible Teaching. The Christian community is structured around and depends on teaching the Bible. This is what is meant by the phrase, “they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching” (v. 42). The Apostles were teaching new disciples the Old Testament and their memories of Jesus and how he fulfilled the promises of the Old Testament.
• The Christian community involves a deep fellowship (vv. 42-46). Our text tells us that the new disciples devoted themselves to fellowship, to eating together, to praying together, and sharing their lives. This kind of deep community is hard to create in a society devoted to individual self-seeking.
• Prayer. The community was devoted to prayer (v. 42). Jesus modeled a deep prayer life for his disciples. The disciples spent much time in the Upper Room praying for the Holy Spirit. Authentic spiritual growth does not occur just as a result of Bible study or church participation. Authentic spiritual growth occurs in response to prayer.
• Acts of love. In several places, we are alerted to the fact that the community was filled with love (vv. 42-46). Fellowship requires acts of love. We’re told that they shared meals together. Were told that they were generous. All of these things mean that they were constantly sharing God’s love with one another. We also know from other passages of Scripture and the history of the church that they were generously sharing God’s love outside of their fellowship.
• Spiritual Power. We are told that the apostles did many signs and wonders (v. 43). We are told that a kind of supernatural generosity characterized the fellowship (vv. 44-45). An unusual outpouring of the Holy Spirit occurred. Spiritual power comes in response to prayer and authentic community.
• Outreach. Finally, we are told that the community group (v. 47). In other words, they were not just a holy huddle. They were reaching out and sharing the good news in word and deed. People heard about the message of Jesus and they saw the difference that the message of Jesus made in the lives of the believers. They were attracted to what they saw and heard, and lives were changed.

The Community of our Congregation.

It can be hard to see, but everything that we do here in our local church and have done  for many years is structured around this particular passage of Holy Scripture. In particular, we have deliberately structured what happens for the children and young adults around Acts 2:42-47. For example, our Wednesday night program we call, “EPIC” is structured around Bible study, fellowship, a common meal, prayer, and the other elements of the early church.

Last weekend, some of us were at a Men’s Great Banquet. This weekend, a number of our women are at a Women’s Great Banquet. The Great Banquet weekends are structured around Acts 2:42-47, our passage for today’s blog. We hear talks based on Scripture together. We celebrate Holy Communion together. We eat meals together. We worship together. The idea of the weekend is to model God’s community of love in a special way for laypeople so that they can go back to their local church and share the same kind of love with others. The mission of the Great Banquet is to help churches become more like the New Testament church.

There is a similar weekend for our youth. In addition, week after week we have a youth program in which the young people come together, hear the apostles teaching, share a common meal, have fellowship together, and experience God’s love in a special way. When “Huddle” was created, it was consciously created to model the early church as described in today’s passage.

In other words, everything that we do, and in all of our planning for the future, we plan to help people become unplugged from isolation and plug-in to the community of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which we call the church. The church is not an organization. It’s a community modeled after the community of God.

God Sent His Son to Create Community.

When pastors get together, we often complain about how hard it is to create community. There is no question but what it is hard to create authentic Christian community. There is no question that what it is especially hard to create authentic Christian community in contemporary American society. However, it’s never been easy. For example, when God wanted to create his special community, his family, his people, his city, his kingdom, he sent his Only Son to show us what his community was like. His Son, as we know, had to give his life on the cross in order to create that community.

This is the hard fact: the reason community is so hard to create is that human selfishness and self-canteredness works against the creation of real, authentic community. It requires a special, kind of self-giving love, the kind of love Christ showed on the cross to create the kind of transforming community that we human beings truly need.

Amen

Copyright 2016, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved