Acts: Community

So we're making our way through Acts, the book of Acts in the New Testament.

This is the historical record of how the Christian church, how churches started.

So how your grandma's church started, how a church in Asia started, how our church started, how a church in South America started, how any church, Christian church started.

This is the beginning.

Acts chapter 2, this is the beginning of the Christian church.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And so we're going to be talking this morning about how Peter preaches this sermon, and then out of this kind of first Christian sermon by Peter, a church starts and this church grows.

And one of the things that it says that this church does is they just keep meeting together.

Like they just all the time, they keep meeting together.

Now, when I was in college, uh we had cell phones, but nobody used cell phones.

I'm dating myself just a bit.

So that was it was the time where like you got a cell phone and you kept it in the glove box for an emergency, but you had like 20 minutes for the month.

Remember, and you calculated, you're like, well, I got 30 seconds a day, you know, and that was a big deal when you got to make that call.

So nobody used their cell phones.

And so I can distinctly remember if you wanted to get together with your people, like your group of people, your community, and say the evening, I can remember you get I'd get home from class and it'd be about noon or say one o'clock, and I'd call my friend Julie, and she wouldn't be there because she'd be at class, and I'd already know she wouldn't be there.

But I would call her apartment and I would leave a message, hey, it's Russ.

I just got home from class.

It's 1 p.m.

I know you're at class.

I'm gonna leave to go to the gym.

This there was no like, hey, it's Russ, call me back, right?

Like you had to be very distinct.

I'm gonna go to the gym.

After the gym, I'll be at the intramural fields, I'll be back here at the house from 4 to 6.

Please call me between 4 to 6.

We'll hang out.

Okay?

So then she would get home at 2, she would check her machine, right?

Check her machine, and she would hear that message, and she would call me back, knowing I'm not there, to leave a message on my machine, and she would say, Hey, it's Julie.

Just got home from class.

It's 2.

I know you're at the gym, because I'd already told her that.

And she'd say, Hey, I'm going to the computer lab to work on a project.

I'll be there till 5.

I'll call you back at 5.

I know you'll be at home, because I'd already told her that.

And the whole time, while I'm at the gym and I'm at the in the mural fields, she goes to the computer lab.

We're not concerned.

We're not anxious.

We're not, oh, we can't wait.

Like, how are our messages?

And I need to check a message.

There's no anxiety about this.

It's gonna work out.

We're fine and content to wait for a message.

We know this community thing is gonna work out later tonight.

And so then I get home at four, I check my machine, right?

Again, several times a day.

Every time you come home, I get home, blinking light.

It means you have friends, and so blinking light, check it.

Julie has the message for me.

I'm like, all right, she's gonna call it five because that's what she told me.

So I start studying.

She gets home, she calls it five.

She knows what Sherry's doing, our other friend, I know what John's doing.

We all get together later that evening, right?

Like amazing, like an amazing process.

A lot of back and forth, but at the same time, all very content that this is gonna work out.

And the most amazing thing about it is when we actually get together.

When we actually get together, groundbreaking, we're actually together.

Because there's not the interruption, right?

Not the interruption of everybody else who's not there that you're communicating with on your phone.

And what I mean is this is that your presence and their presence, community, sharing a present moment life, it was not divided at any moment during the entire day or in that evening.

And you know what I'm talking about, because you've been to lunch with somebody at the canvas sandwich shop, and you invited your friend up there because you've had a rough few weeks, and you couldn't wait to get together with your friend because you needed to share some of your life with your friend.

And you got there and you get your tomato soup, and your friend says, Hey, what's going on?

What's going on with your life?

And you start in.

And you're gonna you're sharing about the problem at your work or your romance or your marriage or your kids or whatever it is, a school project, the stress, the anxiety, the fear, you start into it and you're barely communicating it without breaking down in Canvas.

You're barely making it through.

And right right in that moment, your friend looks at you and says, Can I take this real quick?

Boom.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, okay, great, great.

Yeah, oh yeah, I'm at lunch.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.

All right.

Yeah, I'll ring you back later.

Sounds good.

All right, all right, talk later.

Bye.

And then I look up.

Sorry.

And you're thinking, yeah, sorry.

Because I'm sharing my life about to break down, and you answered your phone, right?

I'm never inviting you to Canvas again to share my life because you broke the community.

You you the fully present life together was stolen.

Right?

And I do this to you.

I'm not saying I don't do it.

I do it all the time.

And you do it to me, and we do it to each other, right?

The difference is when I do it to you, it's because I really need to take the call.

If you do it to me, if you do it to me, you're just rude, is how that's how it works.

But I mention all this because we're looking at community.

I don't think we can look at community without looking at the fact that it's probably easier than ever to feel connected.

And yet all the research shows that it turns out that all of our connection, while it's really good for some things, it actually creates more isolation for real deep relationships.

And it challenges the quality of community when we're actually with people.

So let's look at this text in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

They did not have cell phones at the time, just to kind of give you a historical context.

Jump in in verse 42.

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

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 in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing proceeds to all as any had need, and day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.

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

So a few points to kind of work our way through this passage.

We've looked at this passage the last few weeks.

Last week we talked about money, and we even we dived into speaking in tongues.

That was fun if you want to listen to that sermon.

And then this week, community.

And here's point number one community is a reaction to the gospel.

Community is a reaction to the gospel.

Peter preaches this sermon, and he's telling everybody, and these are different people, different cultures, different languages.

They're here in Jerusalem, and Peter preaches the sermon about how Jesus is finally the relief, the final sacrifice.

You don't have to keep sacrificing your life as to merit some position with God.

You are relieved of that to a way of grace through faith, and God gives us what we need in Jesus.

Their response to this is that's amazing.

I just want to keep coming around that message and these people.

And there's no berating from a pastor or manipulating to try to get you to sign up for a small group.

Like it doesn't even exist.

It's not like, hey, let's get 10 signs in the parking lot on the way in to try to get you to sign up for the small group.

It's just a reaction.

The message is so good.

I just want to be around people who know this message and speak it and talk about it.

Where can I find those people?

I'll make time for that.

They couldn't get enough.

And then that's interesting.

On top of that, then there's more and more people being added, just showing up.

Just showing up to this.

And you have to ask, why?

Like, what was it about this fringe group that was so attractive?

And I think this is point number two.

Gospel community is a place of pervasive grace.

Gospel community is a place of pervasive grace.

This is why the community is about teaching and the fellowship.

They gathered to hear about Jesus, to hear somebody teach about it, talk about him.

What was Jesus saying?

What did he say?

What did he mean?

So he taught a way of life, but then he said he was the fulfillment of the law, that he was fully sufficient for us.

And they were learning what their lives should look like, not under a covenant of law, which is what they all came out of, right?

Like, like do this and then you will be accepted.

That's a covenant of law.

We have that in religion, we have that in the world.

Do this, be religious, be good enough, be successful enough, then you will be accepted.

And Jesus comes along, and the teaching of the apostles comes along, and it's under grace, which says, no, no, no, no, no.

Through God's grace, you're already accepted.

You have all the acceptance you'll ever need.

And these people are gathering, they're going to go, like, what does life look like now?

Like, what does life look like if I'm truly forgiven and free?

Now, what does life look like?

So you remember my phone calls back in college?

Let's go back to those phone calls.

Because eventually, John and Julie and myself and Sherry, we would get together in the evening and we'd hang out.

Now, the beautiful thing about this little group of four was none of us were romantically interested in each other.

Right?

So we were free without any pressure of having to impress each other.

Now, every once in a while a miracle would occur for me in college, and I would get a date.

And it would be a miracle.

This one day, miraculous day, I'm in economics class, 101, huge 200-person class, and I spot across the auditorium this very pretty girl.

And so, you know what I did the next day?

I sat across the auditorium, just about right where she sat, and she sat one seat away from me, and it took me about a week.

You know, a little conversation here, there, borrow a sheet of paper, you know, that kind of thing.

Over time, worked my way in just a little bit, and I finally asked her, I asked her out, hey, do you want to do something tonight?

Now I that's I thought it's a pretty clear date question from a guy you don't know extremely well.

Hey, do you want to do something tonight?

And she responded, and what I thought was very much a date response.

She responded and said, Hey, um, yeah, I would really like to.

I'm working tonight, but it's at my apartment's clubhouse.

But why don't we could have dinner there, so why don't you bring dinner there while I'm working, and after dinner, we'll do something.

That's a date response, right?

Date question, date response.

I am so pumped up the rest of the day.

I am on this.

I am planning what food I'm gonna pick up.

Is this takeouts and not too fancy, but not Captain D's.

You know, you're not showing up.

You don't want to show up at Captain D's.

I'm planning what I'll wear.

I'm making a list of my best stories.

I am going into this.

She was so pretty.

I'm, you know, I am just, I am so, I'm starting getting dressed.

I put on Dave Matthews' band to get pumped up.

I am going for this.

And I don't know what happened between Economics 101 that morning and when I walked into that clubhouse that night.

But when I walked into that clubhouse that night, I walked in and it was me, and it was her looking very pretty, and it was her roommate.

That is not how you want dates to start.

I was not looking for a small group.

I was looking for a date.

And the rest of the night, the rest of the night, I'm just doubting everything I had said in Economics 101, reviewing it.

Where was I unclear?

Everything I am saying is now that much more pressurized, and I don't have to just impress one person, one girl.

I have to impress two girls to win over the one girl.

I mean, I I've got so much pressure, I'm sweating.

There's no margin here for mistake.

I have to perform.

I mean, I was anxious, and then I go home, right?

You know, you go home after something like this, and what do you do?

You go home, you just review everything.

You're just running everything back through that filter.

How good was I?

How good was that?

How good am I good?

Did I make the cut?

Now, maybe you know the feeling from a date.

Maybe you know the feeling from an interview, maybe you know the feeling from a group of friends, or from a church, or from a small group that's just really not that healthy, where you feel like you gotta show up and impress people.

Now, here's the other interesting thing.

When I was with John and Julie and Sherry, I didn't feel any of that.

None.

Like, why?

Like, why so why would I feel it with one group of people and not the other group of people?

Well, because one is a community of law where I had to impress and perform in order to be accepted.

And the other was a community of grace, which started out with my acceptance.

Right?

And of course, in the community of grace there are standards, of course there are, but the grace overrides any of my failure, and it's the context of the community.

So, of course, in Acts chapter 2, they keep meeting together.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

They finally found a group of people who believe you are accepted before you perform.

So they've been bound up in this burden of trying to be enough and perform for so long, and then they hear that Jesus is enough for them for their forgiveness and their righteousness.

So, of course, they can't get enough of this and they can't get enough of each other.

It's easy to live our lives like we are on that first day, and the roommate showed up.

It's easy to live like that, where we're just anxious and we're trying to perform and we're uncertain of our worth or whether we're forgiven or whether we're righteous or we're important.

And so you worry about what clothes you wear, like you worry too much about that.

Or what you might say, or you drop that line about where you traveled last week, but you don't drop it to like tell people like where you went.

You drop it because you want to make sure that they know that you're kind of important.

Or like you drop the line where you went to grad school or that you did go to grad school.

You mention your job, just to impress a little bit, or who you read, or what shows you watch, or what shows you don't watch, right?

Like to make sure they understand, you know, that you're a little more righteous than they are.

Right?

Like just giving a righteousness report of some sort.

Or you just say, you know what, I'm just, man, we've been so busy.

We've been so we have been so busy.

You know, it's kind of like, I am so important.

I have so much to do.

I don't know if I'll have time for you.

Because I'm so important and busy.

So busy, so busy.

Can't even get to all of the things and invitations.

Right?

And it's all, underneath all of that, it's just like, am I enough?

Do you see that I'm enough now?

Am I lovable now?

Will you love me?

Will you love me now?

Am I righteous now?

Am I justified now?

And a community of grace is a place where we already know you do that.

You self-justify, and I do that, and I self-justify.

And we go, you know what?

Honesty, we all do it.

We can say that, we all do it.

I'm doing it now, you're gonna do it, you're gonna do it later.

We all self-justify, and we can confess that freely.

See, in other places we have to hide our issues and weaknesses, and we have to stay strong and stay in control because that's how worth is calculated.

But not here, not the church.

Worth is not calculated that way.

Worth is calculated based on God's grace to you, that it is given, it's received by you, it's imparted to you.

Point number three gospel community breaks the bread.

That's what it says here.

In their community, they're breaking, they're breaking bread like having meals, but they're also breaking the bread as a practice.

And the breaking of bread means the Lord's Supper.

So we serve communion here every week.

We do it for a reason.

And it's not tradition, it's part of our worship because the communion table speaks.

Even if I mess the sermon up, by the time I get over that communion table and I say pretty much the same thing, or why does he say the same thing every week?

It's on purpose.

It's so that if I screw all this up, at least that's right, right?

Like it cleans it up.

To hear once again that the gospel is not us being enough or maintaining something as to merit value as a person or righteousness before God, but to hear that the gospel is God's good grace to us, that in Jesus we are forgiven and free and deemed righteous forever, and then we get out of our seats and we move.

So our worship now has movement, and we're singing and we're hearing, and then you come forward and you receive it, and you can touch it, and you smell it and you taste it, and now our worship has all of the senses.

There is taste and there is smell and we receive it.

Now, another word for communion is Eucharist, which means thanksgiving.

And I thought that was incredibly fitting because this is our Thanksgiving table.

This is our true Thanksgiving table every single week.

So, as a community, we break the bread together every week, and we will always, we will always in this church break the bread together every single week, because it is the core of a healthy community to be remembering and thanking over and over and over again that it is by the body of Christ broken for you and the blood of Christ shed for you, that you are deemed righteous by God, secure, and beloved.

So, my brothers and sisters, may you receive the Eucharist this thanksgiving as you remember you are the beloved of God because of Jesus.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your good grace to us.

Thank you for this great passage in Acts 2 that shows us, that shows us this community of grace forming around the message of Jesus, the life, the death, and the resurrection, that you are the fulfillment of the law that changed people's lives, not because they were enough and they decided to pull their boots up and really make it happen, but because they surrendered to being enough.

And they were relieved of trying to be enough and live out of performance and began to receive that Jesus is enough, God's grace to us is enough, we are accepted before we perform, we are accepted before we have fruit as being a Christian.

Thank you for this good news that our absolution, our forgiveness, and our righteousness is complete.

And for this, we thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.