April
21, 2002 (Year A, Easter 4)
Acts 2:42-47
Kingdom Lifestyle
In
Romans 12:2 St Paul makes a statement that may be one of the most important
things we could ever hear as Christians living in the Western World at the
beginning of the 21st Century. In
that verse he admonishes the Roman Church: Do not conform any longer to the
pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
(Romans 12:2a)
Like
the Roman Church of Paul’s day we too need to be transformed, CONVERTED if you
will, by the renewing of our minds. Our
culture presses us into its mold and seduces us with values that are absolutely
alien to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our
cultural experience, growing up in the USA, blinds us to the character of
Biblical Christianity. WE NEED TO
BE CONVERTED IN OUR THINKING.
As
American Christians we tend to see salvation and Christian faith as individualistic
experiences. We love the individual
– our cultural icons tend to be rugged individualists. We see this typified by the cowboy (the Marlboro Man!).
Even the Army’s new recruiting theme is “An Army of One.”
That statement makes no logical sense – but it appeals to the
individualism of our age.
As
American Christians we tend to value personal freedom and mobility
so we see a large number of Christians in our culture who are spiritual nomads,
traveling from church to church looking for that peak religious experience or
the local church that is most like a shopping mall!
We
are consumers who value choice above all.
We want our televisions to offer us 500 channels and our churches to
offer us just as many entertaining program options.
We
tend to think that the abundant life – the fulfilled and satisfying
life – is one in which we focus on fulfilling ourselves personally.
Christianity is about “being the best me I can be” or “getting in
touch with my own spirituality”.
While
it is true that we must personally decide whether or not we will become
followers of Jesus Christ, accepting him as our Savior and Lord, the Christian
life is essentially and irreducibly a life LIVED IN COMMUNITY WITH OTHER
BELIEVERS.
Jesus
called the community where God rules and reigns the “Kingdom of God.”
That Kingdom Community will be perfectly realized at the end of time, but
right now we are to experience a foretaste of the Kingdom here in the church.
The church is not just a building. More
than anything, the church is a community, a family of people who are called out
of the world by the Holy Spirit to follow, serve and love Jesus Christ.
The
tragedy is that most of us – even Christians – see the Church as optional.
What really matters, we are told, is one’s own personal relationship
with God. The Church’s job, in
this view, is merely to enhance and support that personal walk with God.
Beloved,
this is unconverted thinking. The
New Testament depiction, presented in Acts 2:42-47, of what it means to be a
disciple, a follower, of Jesus Christ, is that one necessarily has to live that
life within a community of other believers.
THE BIBLE KNOWS OF KNOW SUCH THING AS SOLITARY CHRISTIANITY.
So
why don’t we see the Church as essential?
Why don’t we crave involvement in the Body of Christ, the Church?
Why is it enough for some people just to occasionally show up on Sunday
morning? We avoid involvement with
the church because it involves COMMITMENT, INTIMACY and GENEROSITY.
I.
COMMITMENT.
Living in a community requires commitment.
Becoming a committed follower of Jesus Christ within the Church is like
getting married. Just as many
people want to opt out of the COMMITMENT OF MARRIAGE by merely cohabiting, so
many Christians want the benefits of the Christian Community without a
commitment to that community. BUT
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO EXPERIENCE THE ABUNDANT CHRISTIAN LIFE WITHOUT THE
SELF-SACRIFICE INVOLVED IN RADICALLY COMMITTING OT BE A PART OF THE CHRISTIAN
COMMUNITY.
Christianity
without committed involvement in the church is a SHAM -- it is no Christianity at all.
Extra ecclesiam nulla salus.
A.
I have been married now (to the same woman!) for exactly 22 years.
I have been a Christian minister for 15 years.
In that time I have seen the shallowness of people’s lives as they seek
to experience the blessing of the husband/wife relationship without the
commitment involved in marriage. I
want you to know that the blessings of marriage CAN ONLY BE EXPERIENCED THROUGH
LAYING DOWN YOUR INDIVIDUALITY OUT OF LOVE FOR ANOTHER PERSON.
IT IS A TYPE OF DYING TO SELF AND IT CANNOT BE EXPERIENCED IN MERELY
"SHACKING UP"!
B.
By definition you cannot experience the richness, blessing and abundance
of the Christian life without a self-sacrificing commitment to the Church
through a local congregation.
Then
Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life
will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it
be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a
man give in exchange for his soul? Matthew
16:24-26
C.
For any family to remain together there has to be a commitment to a
lifestyle that sustains that family. In
the Church that was born on the day of Pentecost the scripture tells us that the
disciples, “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42)
·
Apostles’ Teaching
– Being committed to Christ through his Church means committing to the study
of God’s word as it is proclaimed in worship, taught in small groups, and
through your devotional reading.
·
Fellowship
– Being committed means that you are PRESENT for worship.
The church is your family and you spend time with the gathered church.
But more than that it means sharing our lives with others.
I’ll say more about this in a minute.
·
Holy Communion
– Committing to be sustained from God’s table.
Families stay together when they eat meals together.
·
Prayer
– You are committing to spend time with other believers and individually in
prayer for the Church.
·
All of this involves
TIME!
II. INTIMACY. All the believers were together and had everything in common…
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. (Acts 2:44,46)
Another reason folks avoid commitment to the Church is because the people who go
there are OBNOXIOUS! If you think
this is the case, you’re probably right!
We are sinful and fallen; often petty and thoughtless.
But we are also born again and being daily changed more and more into the
image of God.
A.
The way God chooses to shape us into the image of Christ is through
interaction with other believers in the Church.
We are like rough, unlovely gravel placed into a rock-tumbler.
Through the process of bumping into one another, rubbing against one
another’s sharp edges, we are smoothed and polished until we become BEAUTIFUL
PEOPLE of God. The Church is
God’s rock-tumbler. Yes, you WILL
get your feelings hurt in Church. But
it is through that process that God develops Christian character.
B.
The bible says that they had everything in common and were together.
This is INTIMACY. It means SHARING our lives on a very deep level.
It means GETTING REAL and BEING TRANSPARENT.
Sharing joy and sorrow. Sharing
our wealth. Sharing our struggles.
I think I saw this type of sharing going on as we meet on Monday evening
to learn more about Will and Josh and what it means to share your life with an
autistic child.
C.
New Testament Christians spent time eating together, not just the
Lord’s Supper, but common meals in their homes.
There is nothing like table fellowship to open the way to transparent
sharing and deep conversation.
III.
GENEROSITY.
The Kingdom lifestyle is one that is marked by GIVING.
Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had
need. (Luke 2:45) One
of the traits of someone who has truly accepted Christ is that they become
GENEROUS PEOPLE because they are responding to the outrageous generosity God has
shown them.
A.
The best picture of this in the NT is Zacchaeus.
In Luke 19 Jesus reaches out in love to this outcast and he responds by
accepting salvation. Listen to
Zacchaeus: Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and
now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out
of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” (Luke 19:8)
B.
There is the sense that now your possessions are not merely yours alone
– but they are given to you as a trust by God to be used for others.
C.
In our church we demonstrate this through TITHING .
This is the outrageous practice of SYSTEMATICALLY GIVING ONE TENTH OF
ONE’S INCOME TO GOD THROUGH THE LOCAL CHURCH.
·
Tithing breaks the power of greed in our lives.
Through tithing “stuff” ceases to have power over us.
·
Tithing is a JOYOUS EXPRESSION OF FAITH.
· Tithing means that our NEEDS will be met. God promises us this! Malachi 3:10 says:
Bring
the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me
in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the
floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room
enough for it.
·
Tithing is God’s means of meeting the needs of his people and reaching
the world.
CONCLUSION:
Are
you just going to be a taker?
A consumer?
Or are you ready to be a disciple?
Are
you ready to stop shacking up spiritually?
Do you want to try an adventure?
Will you be committed to living this kingdom lifestyle?
God
gives us the power to live this way through the Holy Spirit living in us.
All that remains is our decision to trust him to live the kingdom
lifestyle through us.
The result of this kingdom lifestyle is that God’s redeeming power is revealed and many come to know Christ as Savior.
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