Acts: Gospel Community

In a few weeks, my family will go to the beach.

And so we're gonna get in the car.

We're gonna get my wife's car because my wife's car is a little bit nicer than my car.

But my wife's car is old.

It's actually over a hundred thousand miles.

It has a hundred and twenty-four thousand miles.

So it's old for a car.

It's getting older, but it still moves.

We pile in it, we pack it up, we move down the highway.

And so as long as it keeps moving, it is doing what it was created to do.

On road trips, I tend to drive because I have control issues, and my wife tends to send shotgun because she has napping issues, and the girls are in the back watching movies, and the entire time we are moving forward.

As the car was created to do.

Movement.

Now, as a church, we are essentially a movement supported by structure.

We're a people served by a building.

So you can see the room behind me, and if you're watching online, it means you're not in this room.

You're not in this building, but that doesn't mean you're not a part of the church.

It doesn't mean we are not one church.

Because we are a people served by a building.

That's never been more clear for us than the last three months, where most of you have not been inside of our church building, and yet we never cease to be a church moving forward.

I've been walking these rows behind us.

Empty rows for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks.

I've been walking them during worship while Sam leads worship.

And I'm just by myself.

But I'm not.

Because we are a church, gospel together, we are a church.

So we continue as a church, whether we're online or in person, we continue to have shared purpose and we continue to have lavish grace upon ourselves from God and to each other.

And so this week I want us to look at Acts chapter 2 at that first church, to look at the way that they had shared purpose and lavish grace.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Look at Acts chapter 2, verses 42 through 47.

Acts 2:42–47

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Now we're going to keep reading.

I want to read down through of verse.

I got my notes down here, by the way, below me.

You can't see them.

Verse 47.

But we're going to spend our time on verse 42, but I want you to feel verses 43 through 47.

I want you to feel what these people were like.

And this is not a prescription for who we should be.

This is a description of their generous and gracious hearts.

And what we should be like.

Verse 43, and all came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, and all who believed were together and had all things in common.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.

And day by day attending the temple together, breaking bread in their homes.

They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all people, and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

At the big church that I used to work at before coming to work at Redeemer, starting Redeemer.

At that big church, we had a fellowship hall.

We called it the Commons, but it is a fellowship hall.

A lot of churches have these fellowship halls, these big rooms, and all sorts of different things happen in them, right?

Like you share a meal in them, you have a covered dish dinner, you have a membership reception.

That's what we did at this big church I used to work at.

The room was there for being together and a share life, a fellowship hall.

Now, verse 42 says they were devoted to teaching.

So they were devoted to a pursuit of a Jesus-shaped spirituality for their life.

Then verse 42 says also they were devoted to fellowship.

There's that word, but the word's more than it's more than just a building or a room.

The word comes from this word koinos.

Koinos.

And that means a group that shares together.

It's an intimate term, it's a deep knowing.

It's a knowing, a relational knowing from the innermost parts of our beings.

Fellowship.

That's why verse 42 leads us into this idea of the breaking of bread and of prayer.

Breaking of bread leads us to this idea of shared life, and it also leads us to the idea of communion.

So being known and being loved by God and being known and being loved by others.

And then prayer leads us into this idea and our practice of a surrendered life, both personally and communally.

And our nature is to live separate, to live unknown, because we're not sure or we're afraid if we are known by God or by others, would we be loved?

If I'm known, will I be loved?

And a gospel together, a church, our church mirrors to each other what we know from the gospel that in Jesus we can be fully known and fully loved.

And so our church gets to mirror to each other.

You can be known and loved in Jesus.

18 years ago, Christy and I, we were dating.

This was before we were married.

I don't even think we were engaged.

I'm not, I don't, I don't remember, but we we were attending a large Baptist church in our hometown, really big church, huge, thousands, thousands of people, tons of programs and ministries, all sorts of stuff.

They did stuff well.

But one week I got asked to guest preach.

I think I was still in seminary, so you know you took these options, these opportunities.

So excited.

Go guest preach at this small country Baptist church.

And the sanctuary was small.

It was not impressive.

They didn't own a cool warehouse.

They didn't own a good sound system.

There were no smoke machines.

There were probably 50 people there.

They sang together.

After that opening hymn, a person, I think a man stands up and he was kind of leading the service, and he said, Hey, we're gonna have a time of any praises and prayer requests.

And I thought, oh, there's no way.

No way people are standing up in a group and doing praise and prayer requests in the middle of a worship service, right?

That'd be that wouldn't be refined to do that.

And sure enough, as soon as he said that, a lady stands up and she says, Hey, my sister is sick.

Would you please pray for her?

And everybody nods along and says, Oh, we will.

We're praying.

I got that.

People are writing it down.

And I'll never forget it.

A man stands up and he, as soon as he stands up, he starts to tear up and he says, His mama died.

And he begins to thank everybody.

Thank you.

Thank you for being there.

Thank you for showing up.

Thank you for praying for us.

Thank you for praying for my mama.

Thank you for praying for me.

Thank you for praying for praying for my family.

Thank you for bringing that meal.

He just begins, and he has tears coming down his face.

I never seen anything like it.

It wasn't a big stage.

It wasn't professional.

And here is what I learned.

Those people didn't do big church.

Great.

But those people were a big church to each other.

They were a church to each other.

Fellowship.

And that's point number one.

I know it took me a while to get there.

Point number one is this community is a reaction to the gospel.

So the context here in Acts chapter 2 is Peter just preached.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Peter just preached the gospel.

This good news of Jesus as a final sacrifice.

That all we need, the grace of God and this person, the work of Jesus is all we need.

Full forgiveness, full acceptance, full righteousness.

We are in right standing with God.

We are his beloved.

It cannot be taken from us because of the work of Jesus.

What good news our sin is put upon him.

His righteousness is given to us.

And these people, their response to this good news was to just keep meeting together.

And this good news and this fellowship was so captivating, other people just kept showing up.

And we have to ask, what was it about?

This group of people, this fringe group that was so magnetic and life-changing.

Point number two is this gospel community is a place of guiding truth and tenacious grace.

Gospel community is a place of guiding truth and tenacious grace.

So back in the car on the way to the beach, right?

You've been on a road trip.

I don't know if you've been on a road trip with three girls, three little girls in the backseat lined up, squished together, one, two, three, one row, all tight together.

There's laughter during the movies, and then as soon as the movie shuts off, it's like whose elbows where and her legs over here, and I need a snack, and whatever's going on.

Like I got to switch.

I can you switch it from this American Life podcast over Dave Matthews Band, Dave Matthews Band back to this American life.

I want to listen to Brene Brown.

I want to listen to Coldplay, flip me around, do this, do this.

And I want a snack.

What about me getting a snack?

And then eventually I'm gonna put those girls in their place, and then eventually, you know what's gonna happen.

Christie's gonna put me in my place.

I am talking about guiding truth is being laid down out in that car.

You know it if you've been on a road trip.

And I have four girls in a car with me, you know eventually they're gonna give it to me, and I'm gonna get some guiding truth.

And here's what I've learned in all of that guiding truth, and a lot of times it is true, and I need to be quiet or I need to do something or I need to get better clothes or something, they're gonna let me know about it.

Here's what I've learned.

If the car is not a place of tenacious grace, also we are all doomed.

The car life has to be a place of guiding truth and tenacious grace.

God's truth is going to reveal to you the way to go and your inability to get there.

And God's grace will rescue you of all of that inability, failure, sin, shame, condemnation.

God's grace is going to rescue you from that and empower you by the Holy Spirit inside of you to continue to walk, imperfect, but continue to walk in an ongoing walk with Jesus.

Where we are known and we are loved, and we mirror that to each other, and the Holy Spirit is working in our lives.

Last point, point number three: gospel community feeds our souls as we learn about and experience the presence of Christ.

Gospel community feeds our souls as we learn about and experience the presence of Christ.

Maybe you remember last October when I told you about Fat Bear Week up in Alaska.

I was very excited about it.

I think about two of you were excited about it, but I'm nerdy enough.

I still followed this on Instagram.

And it's amazing, by the way, the bears are back.

They're coming back to Brooks Falls and Katman National Park there in Alaska.

You can go follow it also.

It's very exciting.

The bears are beginning to feed again here at the beginning, the middle of June.

They're really gonna start to feed in July, July, August, September, October.

There in October, we're gonna have Fat Bear Week again.

We're gonna talk about it.

And there's gonna be a couple bears who got the fattest from July to October.

If you remember last year, it was Lefty the Bear versus Holly the Bear, girl power.

Holly won at the beginning in July, she looked like me, right?

Like she could get just blown over by the wind.

By the end of it in October, she looked like a dump truck.

And what we learned from Holly back in October, what I believe we're learning now as a church, is that when something is lavish, you don't move on.

When something is lavish, you don't move on.

This early church, they were receiving a lavish love of God in the person and the work of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit in them active.

And that was freeing them from bondages of the heart, bondages of judgment, bondages of sin, shame, condemnation, bondages of performances, legalism, the law, bondages of escapism and hiding.

This lavish love was freeing them and calling them to walk with God.

They were like Holly, the bear.

Something's lavish, you don't move on.

That's why they kept meeting together.

That's why they didn't move on.

They were feeding on the lavish love of God.

And listen, Redeemer, this is where I want us to end today.

It will never be about our building.

That's good news if you're still at home.

It will never be about the building.

As good as this building serves us, it serves us so well.

It's going to serve us in the future, but it serves us.

It is not us.

As good as programs could be, as good as we hope them to be, as well as we want to perfectly execute them, as well as our services could be, and as well as we want to have all that tight and so well done, and the exercising of our gifts for you and service of God, as well as we want to do all that, it will never be about our building or our services or the execution.

It will always be about the lavish love of God in Jesus.

It will always and only be about that.

So let's pray together.

That's good news.

God, thank you.

Thank you that this building is in service to your church.

Thank you.

That structure is in service to your church.

Thank you that we are a movement, a people, a living, a thriving thing.

A group of people that wants to walk with you.

Forgive us of all the ways that we continue to be bound up by our own sin and shame, feeding on other things and not the lavish love of God.

Help us to be more and more a gospel community devoted to your teaching, devoted to the fellowship, devoted to welcoming your move in our lives, our relationships, and our church.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.