Devoted to....Jesus?

Yesterday morning I preached on the passage in Acts that everyone is familiar with. It was Acts 2:42-47. This is what the text says:

⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. ⁴⁴All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. ⁴⁶Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,⁴⁷praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Now, the verse that jumps out at most of us when we read this passage is verse 45--"selling everything and giving as they have need." And how could it not, particularly in the times we live in now, presidential elections, "Joe the Plummer," and the list goes on and on. And quite frankly most of what I read on this passage (commentaries and articles) dealt primarily with this verse as a key to interpreting the passage. However, I think that we miss the point when we dwell so much on that particular verse and don't take the whole paragraph into consideration. I do believe that these elements will be present within a church body, but to view this simply as a list prescribing things a church MUST do seems to me to miss the point.

What I see in this passage overall, is the complete devotion to the teaching of the apostles and to the fellowship. The words in bold highlight this point. These people were so completely devoted to one another and caring about one another that the thought of another being in need was unacceptable. So the question to ask is not, "MUST we do these things to be called a church?" Rather the question we have to ask of this text is "HOW did they get to the point where they were this devoted to each other?"

I believe the answer to the question truly hinges on the first part of this paragraph--the devotion to the teaching of apostles and to fellowship. In other words they were committed to putting what they were taught from the apostles into practice for their lives, and they were devoted (committed) to each other.

Let's look at each aspect separately (as much as we can) and then put them together at the end.

Devoted to the Apostles Teaching

The apostles were a group of people that were trusted to pass on the teachings of Jesus. These people had spent time with Jesus and so they were trusted by the people to teach them exactly what Jesus had taught while he was on earth.

And when I read the Gospels I see that Jesus was very concerned with meeting the needs of others (followers and non-followers a like). But he also seemed to be concerned with the way people in the church took care of fellow brothers and sisters. This seems to be very evident in Matthew 25 in the parable of the sheep and the goats. In fact it almost seems as thought judgment for Christians is based on this idea of meeting the needs of fellow brothers and sisters. However, the most intriguing thing about this passage is that the goats divided on the left, and the sheep on the right both ask the same question: "When did we see you Lord?" It seems that even those who fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirst, clothes to the naked, comfort to the sick, and visited those imprisoned did not think they were doing anything extraordinary. Why?

The reason is the phrase "blessed by my father." Dr. Haddon Robinson made a great observation that the idea of being blessed runs throughout Matthew, starting with the Beattitudes (characteristics of a Kingdom Citizen) in chapter 5. And you look at the Beattitudes in chapter 5 and then read this description of the sheep in chapter 25 you see why those who did all those "good" things didn't think anything of their actions. Their character had become so much like Christ that they didn't analyze what they were doing. They didn't wonder if it would be a good financial investment to help someone, they didn't worry about the thought of being taken advantage of, rather they saw a person in need and helped because that is what they were called to do (Phil. 2:1-4).

Devoted to Fellowship

1 John 4:12 says this: "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." In other words John is writing to believers telling them that if you want people to see God, then love one another, let God's love be complete in you, and the world will know God exists because of your love for one another.

In John 17, Jesus prays that the body would be unified so that others will know that Jesus was really the Messiah that came to bring reconciliation between God and humanity.

Devoted to Apostles teaching and to the fellowship

So it is clear that what was being taught by the apostles to these new believers was this: If you want to be a witness to the world about the existence of God, and to the Savior Jesus Christ, you are going to have be an alternative to the way this world lives. You are going to need to be so devoted to each other, that you are willing to do anything to make sure your brothers and sisters are taken care of. Not so that you might get some sort of accolade about how great of a person you are, but so that others may see a different kind of love in this world. If you really want to give witness to this world about Jesus and his love, then take on his character. If you really want to give witness to this world about Jesus and his love, then you must be devoted to one another and take care of one another.

And because of this teaching and this devotion it says that the "they enjoyed favor with all the people." Numbers were also added to them daily, and a lot of people turn this into a list, saying "if you do these things then your church will grow." I think that misses the point, I think the devotion to each other and to the word is why God blessed them, and their witness was so strong.

So the question to ask of our churches today is this: What are you devoted to? Are you devoted to Jesus? Are you devoted to each other? And of course the answer from churches everywhere will be a resounding YES!

And I would say this to them: Look at the choices you are making. Will you watch more hours of football on Sunday afternoon and evening than you will spend praying, reading and communing with God? Will you spend more hours watching things you have recorded on your DVR, Tivo, etc, than you will in fellowship with other believers? Will you spend more hours reading blogs on the internet than you will asking those around you what they are struggling with and then committing to pray for them and do whatever it takes to meet those needs.

Are you willing to sell your possessions so that another member of your church might be able to pay an electric bill, or buy groceries, or put gas in their car? When a member of your church shares a prayer request do you say "I will pray for YOUR problem," or do all present respond with "how do WE take care of OUR problem?" In other words if someone is suffering in your church do you think of it as you suffering as well?

When I read this passage in Acts I see a devotion to one another, a devotion to the teachings of Scripture, and a genuine love exists because of that. In a society that tells us we are all alone, everyone is an "enemy" preventing you from reaching the American dream of wealth and fame, the church has to be a place where devotion to EVERYONE is evident. May we reclaim this spirit of community and be a witness to this world for Jesus Christ.

If we aren't willing to devote ourselves to one another, then all we do on Sunday mornings is gather to sing songs, listen to a sermon and make ourselves feel better about our PERSONAL salvation, but we are delusional to think that we have witnessed to the world about who God is, and his desires for his Creation.

An 'Exodus' Church?

A few weeks ago I attended a luncheon on the "Missional Church." Now I am always a bit a nervous when I go to meetings like this because the term 'missional' has become a bit watered down and can mean a variety of different things. Nevertheless I decided to go and see what would happen.

As the speaker began his talk, he went to the passage in Acts that almost everyone that talks about missions these days recites--Acts 1:8. His thesis was that every church should become an Acts 1:8 church and take mission trips at home (Jerusalem), in state (Judea), overseas (Samaria and ends of the earth). His take was that when you are going on mission trips and seeing millions (ok he said hundreds, I exaggerated for effect) then you have a healthy "Acts 1:8" church.

And as I sat there I couldn't help but think that Christ came and died and suffered for a heck of a lot more than for churches to be able to go on trips to three different regions of the globe. And as I sat there in complete exasperation about what I was hearing I started to wonder where this whole fascination of "labeling" churches came from. I mean really everyone is wanting to be a "Great Commission" church or an "Acts 1:8" church and so on and so on. And yet I can't help but feel as though these labels miss the point of the church. I am not into labels of a church, but if I were I think I would choose to be an "Exodus Church."

In Luke 9:28-33 Jesus is talking to Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration concerning his "departure" he was going to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. Now this word "departure" is literally translated "exodus." So Luke seems to be saying that this work that Jesus will accomplish in Jerusalem is like a second "exodus." I believe what Luke does here by linking the Exodus to the cross is huge, and I believe most of our churches miss the point when it comes to the mission of God. We must first understand exactly what the Exodus accomplished for the Israelites.

The Israelites were oppressed in Egypt. In fact Christopher Wright in his book Knowing God the Father through the Old Testament, says that they were oppressed in four different areas:

• they were politically oppressed as an ethnic immigrant minority vulnerable to the host state's manufactured hostility against them

• they were economically exploited as a convenient source of cheap labor in the host state's agricultural and construction sectors

• they were socially victimized through intolerable interference in their family life and then through a program of state-sponsored genocide.

• they were spiritually oppressed in servitude to the Pharaoh--one of the claimed gods of Egypt-- when they should have been free to serve and worship Yahweh (Wright, 45)

In the event of the Exodus, God does two things for the Israelites. First he reveals that He is a God who can be known and WILLS to be known. Throughout the Exodus and the entire Old Testament we are constantly reminded that God does things for his fame and his renown (a huge risk considering He is using fallen humanity in order for people to know Him). In chapter 19 of Exodus God establishes His covenant at Sinai and the Israelites become His people. It is important to note here that this covenant also gives proof of God's faithfulness to his promises. This covenant fulfills the promise that God made to Abraham in Genesis.

The second thing the Exodus did for the Israelites is that it redeemed them in all four areas of their oppression--politically, economically, socially, and spiritually. This is a huge point when it comes to the mission of God. You see God is in the habit of redeeming all aspects of life. The mission is not to establish trips to different geographical locations (which in my view is a distorted reading of Acts 1:8 in itself), but it is the total and complete redemption of humanity in all aspects of life.

The cross (or second exodus) is part of that plan. The plan is not trips. The plan is total redemption. This is precisely what happened at the cross. Jesus died so that we might have access to the Father and we might be grafted into his plan of redemption (if we are honest sometimes we try to graft him into our plan of redemption--i.e. how many 'salvations' we can get on a mission trip).

The church must get back to what the focus of it's mission is--holistic redemption. We need to get away from labels, and gimmicks and focus on the needs and hurts of this world. God is deeply concerned for these things and we should be too. If you don't think he is concerned for the oppressed then you haven't read your Bible. He hears the cries of the oppressed and he responds.

May we be a church that does the same.