God's People Who Share - Phil Whittall

Welcome to the Grace Church Weekly Podcast. We're an international church right

in the heart of Stockholm, Sweden.

Each week, we share a message that's rooted in the faithful teaching of God's

Word and open to the vibrant work of the Holy Spirit among His people.

Here's this week's message.

It's good to see you, Church, and it's good to be with you.

To praise Jesus together. I'll be reading from Acts chapter 2,

Acts 2 · chapter mention

and we'll begin in verse 42.

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.

One day, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer at three in the afternoon.

Now, a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called

Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.

And when he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.

Peter looked straight at him and said, as did John.

Then Peter said, look at us. So the man gave them his attention,

expecting to get something from them.

Then Peter said, Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you.

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Taking him by the right hand. He helped him up, and instantly the man's feet

and ankles became strong.

He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple

courts, walking and jumping and praising God.

When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as

the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful,

and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and

came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade.

When Peter saw this, he said to them, fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you?

Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness, we had made this man walk.

The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers,

has glorified his servant Jesus.

You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate,

though he had decided to let him go.

You disowned the holy and righteous one and asked that a murderer be released to you.

You killed the author of life, but God

raised him from the dead we are witnesses

of this by faith in the name of Jesus this man whom you see and know was made

strong it is Jesus's name and the faith that comes through him that has completely

healed him as you can all see may the same Jesus be glorified today.

Almighty god lord we want to acknowledge we want

to praise you that it is in and

through this same jesus whom you have glorified that

is seated at the right hand of the father that we gather together today

to lift high his name to come

together to be encouraged to come together and

to say you are still the god who heals you are

still the god who is worth and who gives so much more

than just money that you provide that we were

all beggars we were all needing

to be saved and you

have sent your son and we

want to know more of you and

we want to magnify and lift high this saying jesus christ of nazareth we pray

it his name in his name alone come to us show us yourself that we might be overjoyed

and leap and praise to your great name. Amen.

Hey, good afternoon, church. Great to see you.

My name is Phil and my privilege to be part of the team here,

Grace, and to be able to speak God's word to you today.

Today, we're doing this series on everyone being a witness,

being a church that is witnessing to what God has done for us to others,

in the hope that they too would share in what we enjoy.

We enjoy the relationship with God. I was one of the things I was just,

so as we were worshiping was, and as it's been my heart is here.

Jesus is so good. He's so good to us. He has sustained us. We are here another week.

He's been good to us this week. He's been in relationship to us.

Whether we have asked him or not, he has been ready to engage with us,

to be close to us, to meet all of our needs, to hear us when we pray.

Whether we have talked to him or not, through his spirit, Jesus was ready to bless you this week.

All through the week, he was ready to speak to your heart, ready to show you

from his word how good he is and how kind he is and how faithful he is.

One of the best gifts. There's nothing better in all of creation than God.

God is perfect in every way. And so what better gift could God give you than himself?

And that's what he did in Jesus Christ. He gave himself to us.

We have the very best gift that God knows how to give himself.

He gave Jesus to you and Jesus gave the spirit to you so that you would know

that you belong to Jesus and that Jesus is yours.

And so we want other people to share in this great joy.

Our sins are being forgiven. Our burden, no guilt in life, no fear in death,

all gone because Jesus has taken it from us. Amazing.

And we want others to know. And so we want to be a church that shares with others.

And so as we look at this passage here in Acts chapter 2, we're in an environment

Acts 2 · chapter mention

where something incredible has happened.

And the church is astonishingly growing.

So 3,000 people joined it very early on. That's a large number.

Here in Scandinavia, it's been a long time since the church or any church,

in a very short space of time, thousands of people have joined.

And it continued to grow day by day.

There were people joining. So I just want us to take a moment to think about the environment.

We get a description of what this growing young church looked like.

The things that were happening in it.

And to make it our prayer to take on board some of those things.

And to think through for ourselves.

And then to look at the story of Peter and John, this incredible story,

Peter and John encountering this lame beggar.

Now, I am terrible at DIY.

If you want something knocked down, I could help you.

If you want something put back up, I'm not the person to call.

I can tell you who you should call, and it's not me. But I found this in our house.

I don't use it, which might explain things. This is a spirit level where you

should know, you know what this is, right?

So you can know if your shelf is on straight, you know, you get it wobbly and

I'll put it on the wall and it'll slightly be like this and I'll draw a line that goes upwards.

But this is the spirit level to know whether something is straight and if you

can get it just right, you can get a little bubble in between the lines and you know that you're.

What would you use as a spirit level for a church?

Like how would you know for a church whether the church is off one way or another

or is lining up so things kind of, it's harder than it looks, in the middle.

This is one of the passages that traditionally people have used to measure off church with.

Because here is a church just off to the day of Pentecost, filled with the Spirit.

The apostles are still there.

They've just seen Jesus raised from the dead. And so then we get this description

that Luke gives us of the church.

And so since then, up to now, people have looked at these first few verses and

measured it and gone, this is how we measure the health and the state of a church.

Does it look like, in some of these things, this?

So the very first words of this, starting verse 42, is they devoted themselves.

They devoted themselves. Their hearts were given to something,

or in this case, a few things.

You can have a devoted husband or a devoted wife, for devoted parents,

loves their children, really committed to their welfare and their well-being,

loves to spend time with them.

It's no hardship because I'm devoted.

I love my family. It's no hardship to spend time with them. I'm devoted to them. I want the best for them.

There are other things in my life I'm devoted to, I'm committed to,

committed to making sure that in my week, a certain number of things happen.

Whether or not someone pays me, I'm committed to doing some things.

What is it in your life that you're devoted to?

Who in your life are you devoted to?

Committed to? Giving of your energies and time to?

As a church, what kind of things do you think a church should be devoted to?

Giving our energies to?

Well, there were four things that the early church said they were devoted themselves

to. The apostles' teaching.

They were privileged to have all of the 12 with them.

And of course, where else would you know? If you believed in Jesus, who better to ask?

So what was Jesus like?

Hey, what did Jesus say? When these things are happening, literally,

what would Jesus do? Well, he did these things.

What was it like to be around Jesus?

And so the apostles would teach them and tell them. this is what it's like.

This is what he said. This is what he did.

They wouldn't have been, they're

building and telling and sharing all the things that Jesus said and did.

And they're going, tell me more. They want to know.

We don't have the 12 disciples, the 12 apostles with us, but we have a pretty

good record of what they taught.

Everything we need for life and godliness has been given and recorded.

Everything we need for Christian maturity, everything we need to know about

what it is to grow up in Christ has been given to us.

Now, not all of the apostles contributed to this, but we're pretty confident

that everything's here is what they taught because this is the apostles' teaching.

So we can find out. We can be just like them.

We can commit ourselves to listening from the apostles and hearing what they

had to say, to hearing what they taught, to watching what they do,

and to also hearing the stories that they told other people that got recorded in the Gospels.

Hey, what was Jesus like? I'll tell you what, I'll write it down for you.

Let's share it around the churches so that you know, so we can know.

So, how are we doing? How are you doing?

In what ways should we measure ourselves up against devotion to the teachings

that have been recorded, the traditions?

Are we tempted to step outside of the boundaries, the lines that have been given

to us for one reason or another?

We're trying to keep ourselves within. This is what it means,

I think, to be a biblical Christian.

It's to say it's the Bible that defines the lines.

If I want to keep myself inside the lines of the teachings of Scripture,

sometimes there are some things which aren't easy to understand,

and I have to work a little harder to make sure I understand it.

What were they trying to say and who were they saying it to?

There's some times where you have to put a bit more brain power into working it out.

But most of the time, for most of the things and most of the questions,

what it says is what it means.

And it's not so hard to keep yourself within the lines.

I'm devoted to the apostles' teaching.

Fellowship, committed to loving one another, meeting with one another,

encouraging one another.

They were committed to the breaking of bread, this remembrance of what Jesus

has done for us on the cross, keeping that central.

So bread and wine, the symbols that God gave us, and to pray,

devoted to prayer, to thanking God, praising God,

bringing their concerns to God, inviting God into all of life.

This is what they were devoted to.

And as a result of this devotion and these commitments that they made,

it says, awe came upon every soul.

And there were wonders and signs being done. There were things the Spirit of

God was doing through the apostles, confirming God is with us.

We're seeing things happen that it's going wow that's

amazing like our kids were at new day christian youth festival in the summer

in the uk with about 10 000 other teenagers and they heard people say get up

onto the stage in front of 10 000 people and say god healed me i had this problem,

My foot was twisted, but now it's straight.

My leg was broken, now it's healed. I had this allergy.

They were seeing, hearing stories of the blind seeing and the deaf hearing and the lame walking.

And so there was awe. Isn't God amazing?

It goes on to say, verse 44, all who believed were together,

they had some unity amongst themselves and had things in common.

And there was incredible generosity.

When there was need, they loved one another and sought to meet it.

And day by day, they went to the temple together, broke bread in their homes,

received food with glad and generous hearts.

Sometimes we just live in so, our lives have got no margins to them,

and it can be a week before you see another Christian.

Here, for 90 minutes. And then you go away again and it'll be another 90 minutes,

another week before you see some other Christians for 90 minutes.

Your amount of contact time with fellowship with other believers amounts to

about an hour and a half or a couple of hours a week.

Feels like modern life squeezes us sometimes into a mold, which makes it feel

really difficult to even get close to this.

Nora and I were watching some of the World Athletics Championships before we

came to church this afternoon, and we both like running, and he's faster than I am.

And we're just discussing, like, if we were running with these guys,

running around, how far behind would we be?

These athletes would be giving us, I don't know, two laps, three laps,

four laps, head start and beating us.

And sometimes life seems to be just like that. It's just so far away.

What's the point of even trying when it just feels out of reach.

And sometimes this description of church can sometimes feel out of reach for us.

Life doesn't work like that for us.

And I just want to just take a moment to go, are you sure you're happy with that?

Are you sure you're happy to accept that? That the picture in the Bible of church

should be, not for me, too far out of reach.

Is it? That's the question. Let your own heart decide.

They were praising God. And here's the thing.

And the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved.

Challenge for us as a Grace Church, really honestly, is that,

now whether that's, I mean, people being saved is not something I have any control over.

That salvation is a work of God. But there is a church here that was able,

if people wanted to be saved, there was a group of people, they knew where to

go, and there was a way in because they could be added.

They could be included. They weren't kept outside. This wasn't some,

it wasn't a difficult group to join because people were joining it every day.

They could find this and join it.

But in our experience, in our church history, we're just a long way from that.

That feels way out of reach day by day. Is that possible?

Is it really possible in Stockholm, in Sweden, that every day,

even every week, every month would be like, could someone be saved every month and added to the church?

Sometimes it feels a long way ahead. And that's why we're doing this series.

Because we want to see, is there a way that God would speak to our hearts in

order for us to be trusting in God to close the gap,

to close the gap so that we begin to see, want to see, long to see,

praying to see, and being willing to do what's necessary for our part to share

what God has given us with others so that they too could see what's happening

and want to know Jesus and that Jesus might save.

Family members, neighbors, colleagues, children, partners, people you see every day.

Remember, the spiritual condition of humanity is lost.

They're not found. They're not safe. They need to be saved and brought in.

That's the condition, right? That's what they're telling us.

So that's what the scripture tells us we were lost but jesus can find us and

what jesus wants for his people is to have a heart for the lost that we care

about the people that god puts in front of us.

Can we pray that day by day, can we pray?

Well, we might not start with day by day. We might go, that's,

yeah, no, that's world champion Olympic level faith. We're not there yet. That's okay.

But we could pray for the Gatsun folks. We could pray for the people we know to come tonight.

So you've got a church with devotion, teaching, fellowship, committed to the

cross at the center, prayer. There's a sense of awe.

There's generosity, there's worship, there's rejoicing, and there's growth.

A community that you could join that wasn't closed to new people.

Now we'll go to, let's have a look at this story of Peter and John.

So they're committed to praying. In that case, they're committed to praying

publicly or go out to the temple to pray at the hour of prayer in the afternoon.

And there they meet this cripple who'd been not able to walk from birth,

and he's brought to the gate in order to beg. This is how he survives.

And so he quite naturally he asks peter and

john for some money and here's

the thing here's the first thing that stood out to me peter directed his gaze

at him and so did john someone asked them for something peter and john gave

them their attention didn't walk past,

maybe they remember jesus saying something about that remember jesus going told

this story of religious people on their way to the temple walking past someone

in need maybe we shouldn't do that you know you can draw the connections so

they stop and they give him their attention,

makes me think because sometimes i'm in such a hurry between one thing and the

next that an interruption,

there's an hour of prayer, they're on their way to get there,

and they get stopped, and they're interrupted.

They're held up in their errands.

They could easily, it's an easy thing to do, isn't it?

Got to go and pray, I'm sorry. I mean, I do that. I do that.

I just walk past people because I've got somewhere to be.

Peter and John were willing to stop, and they fixed, they directed their gaze at him. They saw him.

They saw the person. They were seeing him.

There are probably people in your life in some way or other that are asking

something from you and they need to be seen by you.

They need you to give, they really need you to give them your attention to them.

And then Peter said, look at us. He's giving them attention.

And so we've got this kind of, you know, this moment of staring contest,

sort of our eyeballs are, look at me, we're looking at each other,

but he's getting his, they're getting their attention, but it's also an honoring thing.

My imagine is, is that the beggar knowing his station in life is eyes down.

He's hoping for something, but he's not, he can't be too brazen and too confident.

He can't be too, So asking for money, Peter sees him and says, look at us.

He's seeing the person and they're engaging.

And there's the crucial thing in the middle, right?

He's expecting one thing and Peter immediately disappoints him and says,

silver and gold, yeah, I don't have that.

But here's the key phrase. What I do have, what I do have, I give to you.

What do you have that you can share?

What has God given you that you can share? That's the question.

Do you have a home that can be shared?

Food that can be shared? Money that could be shared?

But most of all, you have the gospel that can be shared.

The gospel is designed to be shared. And you haven't.

You haven't. I haven't. God has given the truth of the gospel to us and there

are people who need to receive it.

So if they don't receive it or hear it, it might be on them.

But we get encounters with people, don't you? You have encounters with people.

You have moments where if you give them your attention and your time,

there is the possibility of you giving something to them that they need.

It might not always be a gospel presentation in that moment,

it might be a moment of willingness to hear someone and show compassion for them.

Realize that actually someone, the person you're talking with,

is burdened and you have an opportunity to say, you know, God loves you,

can I pray for you, can I just bring this bird, I can see that you're troubled,

can we pray, can I pray for you?

It's a way of sharing, of giving and meeting the person where they're at and

sharing something that God has given you.

Maybe they feel hopeless, but you've been given hope.

Maybe they feel lonely, but you've got that. You're never lonely because God

is always with you. We'll never abandon you nor forsake you.

There's so many ways we can look at the needs of people's hearts and know that

we do not have that because God has given us the riches of Christ are ours through faith.

But amazingly, in this case, Peter knows that what this person needs is healing.

There are broken people around who need healing. In this case, it's physical healing.

And so at the moment, Peter says, rise up and walk.

Incredible faith. Takes him by the right hand, pulls him to his feet.

And at the moment, not when the hand goes out, but when the feet go down, the healing comes.

The hand goes out, still not healed.

Rise up, pull you up, healing comes. There's a moment of real faith on Peter's part.

Stretch out the hand, let's see what God's going to do. Because he can let go

and the guy could just crumple.

Right, that's a possibility. Peter's faith in the name of Jesus pulls him to his feet.

I believe, aside from our conversation today about sharing the gospel,

that God still heals people today.

That God's power is undiminished, that he is still able to stretch out his hand and to heal people.

And so if today you are struggling with an illness, in some physical limitation

that you would like prayer for.

I don't know whether God will heal you, but I'd love to pray for you.

I'd like to stretch my faith to say, in the name of Jesus, be healed.

And let's see what God will do.

And you know what? You can do that with each other.

It doesn't have to be me. You can just turn to the person and say,

would you, you came with or ask someone, could you pray with me?

And let's pray in the name of Jesus and see what he will do.

But as a result of the need being met, it results in praise.

God meets the needs of this guy. He's healed.

And it results in praise, walking and leaping and praising God.

It's the same spiritual condition. When God meets a spiritual need and freedom

comes, results in praise.

God has changed and transformed us. And so people are filled with wonder and

amazement at what happened.

When I'm thinking about sharing the gospel and people becoming Christians,

there's the next bit of the story that really

that that spoke to me because it

says in verse 11 he clung to peter

and john the man held on to peter

and john sometimes it's

like that when you new christians they're like

suddenly you've got a shadow like go

away i've got my it was like there they are again they're

clinging that they're suddenly that oh you're just

there oh there they are again clinging to

you because their life has been transformed and they're like what

happens now what do i do now like whoa can you pray to god yeah does god hear

you when you pray yeah how do i do it they're suddenly their whole life has

been transformed and they're clinging to you,

because they don't know where else to go. Suddenly, this is a whole new reality.

They don't just know everything about what it means to be a Christian unless

a Christian tells them what to do.

But sometimes, when you get someone suddenly in your life, and you hadn't really

planned it, you can sometimes be, oh, wow.

That generosity of heart, that willingness.

You see, if we want the de-church to come back, if we want the people who don't

know Jesus to come back, maybe they did know Jesus and they don't come,

or they're interested, we invite them to church.

If we want them to stay, we need to invite them into our life.

If we want them to stay, we need to invite them into our life.

We need a willingness for our life to be opened into the fellowship.

We need to include the people.

Suddenly, there's this new person with needs. This new person who needs fellowship

and who needs prayer and who needs help and who needs answers to their questions

and needs some guidance and needs, hey, how do I read the Bible?

Well, hey, let's meet and read the Bible. Sarah's here.

Let's meet up and do that. Let's read the Bible together rather than,

best of luck, here you go.

Here's this thousand years old book. I'm sure it'll make sense to you the first time you read it.

Don't need...

So people can cling to you,

and i think it's okay that we then learn

hey go back to the first part there's a fellowship which is open their lives

which are open this is what we want to happen and so let's not resist it but

to welcome it the most important thing is the next bit where peter then speaks

to the people who are amazed and go,

beats me why you're amazed.

Jesus got raised from the dead. This is not too difficult for him.

Preaches the gospel to these people. And verse 16, he said, we're witnesses to this.

You each have a testimony. You're a witness to something. God has done something in your life.

Answer to pray, small ones, big ones. Brought you from darkness to light at some point or other.

Has shown you his love in some way or other, has spoken to you his word one

way or another, has met you in one way or another, you are witnesses to something that God has done.

Tell someone what God has done. Tell them what God has done for you.

But he's really clear, Peter's really clear, it's his name.

It's faith in his name. It's the name of Jesus that makes all the difference.

The person who's been made strong, physically in this case, but we're talking

spiritually, this person who gets healed, this person who gets brought to life

spiritually, this person who has their life transformed,

none to do with me, this was Jesus.

This was Jesus who did it. It's faith through Jesus that has given this man perfect health.

The old is gone, the new has come.

It's a physical picture of a spiritual truth. And that's what we're after.

We want this spiritual truth.

So let's, you know, if you're a Christian, if you're not a Christian today,

if you aren't sure about Jesus, you're not sure where you stand in relationship

to God and you want to know more, I'd love to talk with you.

I'd love to hear your questions and to tell you more about Jesus because Jesus

is amazing and faith in him changes everything for us and I'd love it to change it for you.

If you are a Christian, you're going to live as a, you get to choose how the rest of your life looks.

What kind of Christian life are you going to live?

What kind of church are you going to try and help shape and make?

Can you help make this church look a bit more like this one?

Through your devotion, through your prayers, through your commitment to the

fellowship, through your generosity, through your willingness to share with

others and share the gospel with those who don't believe. Maybe you're just passing through.

You're only in Stockholm for a short time. That's fine.

We'd love you to you know wherever you are be fully there for this for the season

that you're in this place commit while you're there and then when you go back

bring the same sort of commitment to the place where you're to your home church.

But that's the question. What kind of Christian life do you want to live?

What kind of church do you want to be a part of? It's not about saying we're

doing all this, ticking all the boxes, but we go, there's something here that inspires us.

There's something here that is compelling,

beautiful, this incredible community that was radically generous, incredibly loving,

full of worship and prayer, seeing God be at work and sharing and opening their

arms and their lives to other people saying, come and join in, come and join us.

And they did. Exciting.

Resisting the kind of challenges of the world around means making a decision

in your heart over what kind of Christian life you want to live and who you

want to live it with and what kind of faith and devotion we're going to commit ourselves to,

with the help of God and faith in his name.

It's called, the title is called God's People Who Share.

I guess my concluding thing is this. God has given us so much. He is so good.

Let's share what he has given us and be unafraid and unashamed to do so our

friend Rajesh next week will talk about God's people unashamed bold,

let's pray can I have the worship team back up maybe you guys would like to

just join and stand to your feet with me and let's pray,

what is it that you need to ask God for,

What business do you need to do with God right now to.

Fix your eyes, share what you have, and let's have faith in his name.

Heavenly Father, sometimes we can feel like this is just a long way off.

But Lord, we want to take steps in the right direction.

We want to walk in this way. We want to see these things happen and we want

to do it with faith in your name.

So Lord, help us to share what we have been given to the people that you bring in front of us this week.

The people we meet at work, the people we meet in our neighborhoods or on the

train, the people that we can get into conversation with.

Help us to look at them and to see them and to give what you have given us to

meet the needs that they have so that this broken world can begin to be healed, person by person,

through faith in the name of Jesus, we pray.

And all God's people said, Amen.