#The Holy Spirit brings...Unity to the Church

And it's wonderful to see you all today.

And hello to our sites, Himmel and Hatfield, who are joining us

this morning as well. Oh my goodness, wasn't that a

wonderful baby dedication. I just love stories.

And if you are visiting today, you're part of the family here

who've had the baby dedicated. Can I just say a massive warm

welcome again? And if you are new to church and

you're visiting again today, we love having visitors.

And our prayer is that you feel at home here today and might

even consider coming back. Who knows?

So I grew up in the middle of a beautiful, messy experiment.

My parents had moved from Pilgrims Hall in Essex to North

Devon to live in community with two other families in one large

house. And my parents were bursting

with passion and the Holy Spirit and they bounced into probably a

good four or five local churches over a period of a couple of

years, basically saying, here we are, we're ready to serve, we'll

do whatever you want. And sometimes they were met with

a absolute closed door. We don't want you, you're not

needed here. And other times, over a period

of time, it was clear that their passion for the Holy Spirit

wasn't quite the fit that that church wanted.

And so they did what all pioneers would do, and they

started a church on the ground floor of a house in a room

called the Pink Room, because it was very large and it was very

pink. And growing up, I saw the two

sides of the coin. I saw the beauty, the radical

community and fellowship. I saw people on the margins of

society finding a home, finding a community.

I saw the literal blood, sweat, and tears of sacrifice.

But I also saw the shadows. I saw the betrayals that keep

you awake at night. I saw the crushing weight of

leadership and the deep let downs when holy people act very

unholy. In my early 20s I met Chuck and

not long into our relationship I said to him, I love Jesus but

I'm not so mad on his church. I'll do anything for the Lord,

but don't you dare ask me to do anything in terms of church

leadership because I absolutely will not do it.

The truth was I felt justified in my distance and I felt safer

in my cynicism. But God has a sense of humour

and an even greater sense of restoration because he has this

incredible ability to this, to take a broken vessel and heal it

so deeply that the scar becomes a badge of passion.

And I stand here today as someone who was out but who is

now absolutely all in. Because the church, though

flawed as she is, is God's only plan A.

There is no other vehicle. There is no other way.

The local church is God's beautiful bride and the true

hope for the world. And as we read our passage this

morning, we're going to see that you can't separate the Christian

from the church. You cannot love the King and be

ambivalent to the his Kingdom. You cannot love the groom yet

reject his bride, because Jesus loved the church so much, with

all her flaws, her messy pink rooms, her complex people.

But he didn't just give her a nod of approval.

He purchased her with his own blood.

And if she is worth his life, then she is worth our heart.

Let's look at why as we continue in our Impact series, as we make

our way through the book of Acts, and as we see how a group

of ordinary people change the world.

So we're in Acts chapter 2, and we're going to read from verse

Acts 2 · chapter mention

42. It's going to come up on the

screen. But if you have a Bible with

you, you might want to turn to that now.

And this is what it said. 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 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 favour of all the people.

And the Lord added to their number daily those who were

being saved. Amen.

So today we're going to dive straight into the heart of

something supernatural. We're looking at how the Holy

Spirit brings an unbreakable unity within the Church.

Now I don't need to tell you guys that we are living in a

world that is defined by fracturing and constant splits

and extreme polarisation. Deep, jagged divisions seem to

be the new normal now, don't they?

Yet we as the people of God, we are called to step into a

radically different blueprint. And today we're going to see a

powerful alternative way to live.

Now, most things, be it businesses or empires or

movements, they start small, dreaming of greatness that

they've yet to achieve. But this passage in Acts shows

us that the church at its birth was the church at its best.

Why? What was their secret?

Well, their secret was the presence of Koinonia, and it's a

Greek word that Chuck actually spoke about in his preach a few

weeks ago when he spoke about money and partnership.

Koinonia functioned as a revolution, a partnership so

deep that it revolutionised the early church's most basic

rhythms of life, from their theology to their wallets to

their dinner tables. In the Holy Spirit's economy,

fellowship isn't the absence of conflict, it's the presence of

Koinonia. It's a gritty all in commitment

that beckons us into a shared life and shows us a beautiful

picture of what the Church can look like at her best.

And we see this in verse 42. It says they devoted themselves

to the apostles teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking

of bread and to prayer. And what we're looking at here

is a blueprint of a devoted community.

It isn't just a group of friends.

It's a supernatural partnership. It's a deep level all in

fellowship, forged for one single purpose.

They were a community locked in eyes fixed and completely

devoted to the same pillars of life.

The fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer.

But before the shared meals and the shared wallets, there was a

shared truth. Now this wasn't just a

philosophy, it was the bedrock of the early churches existence.

They were devoted to the word of God.

And this devotion of God's Word isn't just a priority, it's a

sovereign force, which means that the Bible has the final

say, holds the ultimate power, and has absolute authority that

is active and moving and reshaping our lives.

Now just think back to Genesis. Think back to the very beginning

of the Bible, right at the very beginning of creation.

God didn't just suggest that light appear.

He spoke. And the Word acted as a

sovereign force that reordered chaos into cosmos.

And it's the same sovereign force for our lives that doesn't

negotiate. It settles the matter.

It overrides everything else, including our emotions.

Now this means that when my heart and the Bible disagree, my

heart is the one in the wrong. When the Word of God takes its

rightful place, it begins to override every other competing

voice that is competing for our attention.

It overrides our preferences, our politics, our personalities,

our social status, our past. This truth, God's Word,

overrides everything, including friends, our wounds, including

our pain, our deepest pain. When we've been hurt by people

or let down by the world, our emotions can become like a

choppy sea. The Scriptures were the

foundation for the early churches unity.

Because you cannot have a partnership if everyone is

following a different map. If I am navigating by my trauma

and you're navigating by your ambition and someone else is

navigating by their political preferences, then and then

adding to the mix your truth and my truth, we've got carnage.

The Word of God, the Bible, is the only thing powerful enough

to bridge the gap between our differences when our preferences

want to divide us. It's the only thing powerful

enough to demand a sacrifice from our bank accounts when our

culture demands that we hold it all for ourselves.

It's the only thing powerful enough to keep us at the table

when the grit of life actually makes us want to run.

And what we know is that if we don't allow God's Word to come

and to shape us, then we start to steer our life by our own

wounds instead of God's Word, and we can be in danger of

becoming a theology of one, letting our pain dictate.

Scriptures are the only thing powerful enough to tell our

souls the truth. When our feelings align to us.

It reminds us that we are chosen When we feel abandoned and

forgiven. When we feel condemned to

forgive even when we don't want to.

To choose not to take offence, even though it's easier to do

so. The Word of God calls us to a

better way, a higher way, a way of discipleship, a way of unity,

a way of Koinonia. And I know that for some of us,

just like it was for me, you're going to be carrying around

wounds. Those pink room wounds.

Church hurts. Church scars, church pain.

Those tender, roaring, deeply personal areas of hurt.

Friends, I know how painful those things can be and how deep

they can go because I have been there.

And the reality is that these wounds, they usually tell us to

pull apart, to protect ourselves, to say they separated

from everyone else. And let's be honest, that's so

much easier to do in a large community like Verso.

It's so much easier to hide in a crowd, to show up for church and

then disappear, not giving anything of ourselves,

protecting and preserving. Perhaps like I did, maybe you

found yourself saying, I really love Jesus, but I'm not mad on

his people. Maybe the wounds of church hurt

have caused you to Cut the Rope and you've been drifting for

many years. And if that's you today, I just

would love to just gently challenge you.

As real and as painful as these wounds are, they are not your

guide nor your compass. The word of God is Numbers 23.

Verse 19 says God is not human, that he should lie, not a human

being that he should change his mind.

Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfil?

In other words, feelings lie. God does not.

He is not a man that will change his mind.

Hallelujah, Jeremiah 17 verse 9 says the heart is deceitful

Jeremiah 17:9

above all things and beyond cure.

Who can understand it? In other words, the heart is a

very bad compass. Use the Bible instead.

Friends, when the pink room hurts, the screaming, and our

circumstances feel like a storm, we hold tight to Scripture.

It is our compass and it is our guide.

I love what Proverbs 3 verse 5 to 6 says.

Proverbs 3:5–6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own

understanding in all your ways. Submit to Him and He will make

your paths straight. You see, it doesn't just suggest

that we trust God, it explicitly tells us what not to put our

trust in. You see, we mustn't lean on our

own understanding, and our understanding is where our

feelings, our pain, and our reasoning live.

It's part of us that says this situation is hopeless or I could

never forgive that person. Yet God's Word is saying don't

put your weight on that. It's like a broken crutch.

It's going to let you down. Instead, trust in the Lord with

all your heart. And this is a call to move our

trust from the pink room, that internal wounded space, to the

Word of God, to look to the Word of God and in all your ways

submit to him. So when we come before the

presence of Jesus and we submit bit by bit and little by little,

our pain, our emotions, our disappointment, our trauma, and

we say, come Holy Spirit, come into those parts.

Come in. I give you permission to come

and do what only you can do. Come and minister.

Come and release that pain. Come and bring your healing Lord

to all those areas that so desperately need it.

We discover that as we journey with Jesus with our pain that we

no longer need to be ruled by how we feel, but instead we can

heavily lean on what Jesus is doing and who he says he is.

Fully trusting that Jesus will lead us into inner healing and

He will make a clearer path for us to walk down.

For the Holy Spirit is the only one who can reach into our inner

pain. He is the only one that can turn

ashes into beauty. He is the only one who can speak

a higher word over our history and and prove that the gospel is

bigger than any of our circumstances.

The church at its best is when we are all submitted to the

biblical truth of Scripture and where we all ask the Holy Spirit

to radically come and craft and shape us and kind of, I don't

know, rub off all the rough edges that we currently have.

Secondly, in verse 42, we see a community devoted to fellowship.

David Cameron in I think it was about 2007, he went on to

Michael Parkinson's chat show, Parkinson, and he was telling a

story about how he met the supermodel Kate Moss at a party.

And he said I was, as I was being introduced, I thought,

what on earth am I going to say to her?

You know, I'm a bit in awe of her.

And then I remembered that she lives in the same constituency

as as me and we'd had these terrible floods in West

Oxfordshire. And so I started to say to her,

it's very nice to meet you. I'm so sorry about the flooding

that's happened to your house. And I also know you like to go

to your local pub. And I've been to see the

publican and he's saying it's going to take at least six

months for the pub to reopen, but it will reopen.

So you know you will be OK. And you said he went on

Wittering on like this to her for quite a while.

And as she turns to him and she says you sound like a really

useful guy to know, can I have your number?

And he told Parkinson that he went back to his table

realising, firstly, I've just met the supermodel Kate Moss.

Secondly, the bad news is I think she thinks I'm something

to do with drainage. How many times do other people

get our identities wrong? Even worse, how many times do we

get our own identities wrong? In our culture, when someone who

doesn't know us is asking about us, often we'll lead with what

we do. I'm a bricklayer, I'm an

accountant, I'm a doctor. I'm a banker.

I'm a golfer, I'm a pastor, I'm a mum.

We scramble to cobble together an identity that makes us feel

comfortable, but it's deeply individualistic because the

church in Acts did not find their identity in what they did,

they found it in who they belong to.

It was completely countercultural even back then,

2000 years ago. For the world says you are what

you do, but the Kingdom of God says you are whose you are.

The Holy Spirit brings Koinonia by stripping away our job

descriptors and replacing them with a shared family name.

He takes a room full of people who think they are defined by

drainage or data entry or position or status, and he knits

them into a single supernatural body.

And this supernatural body is, is the Church, the fellowship of

the Holy Spirit. And we see this fellowship in

two Corinthians verses 13 to 14 that as Christians we would

often call the grace. And sometimes I think it can be

so familiar to us that we miss the miracle of it.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and

the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

This, friends, is where the rubber hits the road.

This is where our faith is put into action because we are

called to live this out in this messy, jagged reality of

everyday life. But this is also the space where

the Holy Spirit does His very best work, because He gives us a

supernatural ability to stay connected even when we feel like

we want to run, to break the divide that has kept us at arm's

length between another person for such a long time.

He gives us the power to look at the person sitting three rows in

front of you, who's offended you, who've let you down.

And he gives you the power to choose to forgive friends.

True fellowship is never free. It's expensive.

It's sacrificial and it's deeply costly, and it costs the early

church absolutely everything. Their time, their hearts, their

money, their possessions, and even their very meals.

They didn't just come to church, they poured their lives into it.

And so every time we pray the grace, we are asking the Holy

Spirit to come and to blur the lines of our individualistic

lives. We are remembering that we are

not like a bag of marbles, hard, self-contained and constantly

bumping and clashing up against each other.

Instead, through the work of the Holy Spirit, he makes us like a

bag of grapes, crushed, blended together and transformed into

something entirely new. The body of Christ, friends, I

sense that there is an invitation today to not to stay

anonymous, but instead become even more like the church in

Acts is calling us to be, calling us into something

beautiful, something that is bigger and more expansive than

just the sum of our parts. Because something happens, you

know, when we step out. When you're in venture land and

you're teaching the kids on how to minister in the power of the

Holy Spirit, or you're in village showing the little ones

how to pray. Or you're in the kitchen and

you're prepping coffee, or you're prepping food for Alpha,

or you're standing out in the pouring rain helping someone to

park. Something amazing happens.

Our labels fall away. Suddenly you aren't the CEO,

you're not the bricklayer, you're not the pharmacist or the

student. You're a brother, you're a

sister, you're a partner. In this gritty all in life,

there is a bond that forms when you are tired, when you are

sweaty, when you are serving someone else.

That simply doesn't happen when you don't do it.

Let me tell you, being part of a team is where the fire is.

We just heard that, an amazing testimony.

That's what's happening in our kids ministry.

Children not just learning Bible stories, but actually hearing

from God and ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit and

seeing miracles happen. You know that doesn't happen by

accident. It happens because someone

decided to move out of their row and into the kids ministry.

It happens because a people, a a team of people decided that the

fellowship means pouring our lives into the next generation.

And we see the fruit of that sacrifice right here, right now

as we celebrated with a baby dedication, as we stood with

this dear family, you know, we weren't just watching a ceremony

there we were witnessing the fellowship of the Holy Spirit in

action. This sweet child is being bought

into the family that promises to be all in for him and the

family. Now.

He wasn't being dedicated into a social club.

He's being woven into the supernatural body, the

supernatural body that rolls their sleeves up, does the

dishes, shares the burdens, and invests in their time, their

treasure and their talents all together.

And finally, in verse 42, we see a community devoted to the

breaking of bread and to prayer. Now, these aren't religious

things on our To Do List. You know that.

We think I must remember to do that.

They are two things that keep a body alive, nourishment and

oxygen. The breaking of bread isn't just

a religious ceremony. It's where the Holy Spirit

performs a miracle in the mundane, where he takes a simple

everyday meal and transforms it into a sacred encounter.

How? Because the Spirit isn't just in

US, He's in the space between us as well.

He's the divine thread, knitting our separate stories into one

glorious narrative. And he makes the dinner table,

and he turns it into an altar of high worship and remembrance and

radical belonging. Koinonia is found at a messy

table where life is shared and spilled and redeemed and

friends, the invitation is if you are currently doing life on

the outskirts of this church family, I believe the Holy

Spirit is inviting you into something deeper.

He's calling you into the fire of Koinonia.

And perhaps that could look like so many different things, but

maybe it could look like joining a group, A versa group.

Maybe it could even look like leading a a small group, or

starting a prayer triplet, or helping an alpha, or helping to

lead alpha, or even starting an alpha in your workplace or with

your neighbors or with your mummy friends as the kids play

at your feet. Why?

Because everybody needs a place where they are needed and known.

A group is a place where it's hard to hide behind a Sunday

smile in our rows. It's so much easier to stay

anonymous in a group. Your grit meets my grit.

We. We clash, we pray, we stumble,

and we grow together. The Holy Spirit.

He uses that friction, that honest, messy interaction to

sand off our rough edges and make us look more like Jesus.

Small groups are where we share our lives, where we move from

Roe to circle. The breaking of bread is the

table where everyone belongs and everyone is welcome.

But we can't just eat. We also have to breathe.

And for the early church, prayer was their oxygen.

In April 2019, a deep sea diver called Chris Lemons found

himself 300 feet below sea level in the North Sea when suddenly

his umbilical line. It just broke and his only

source of light and air suddenly disappeared and he was left in

total crushing darkness. Now he had 6 minutes of

emergency tank air and the unfortunate thing for Chris was

that his crew didn't reach him for 38 minutes.

So by every law of biology, he should have died.

Yet when he came to the surface, when he was hauled back up, he

took a breath and miraculously made a full recovery.

Thank you, Jesus, that we don't have to live on an emergency

oxygen tank when it comes to our prayer life.

No, we don't. For the early church, it's so

clear that they didn't live only on 6 minutes of emergency

prayer. They, like us, have this

constant, unbreakable line to the surface, to the ear of

Jesus. They had, just like we have, a

beautiful, rhythmic, unlimited supply of prayer, found in a

quiet habit of seeking God's face, where our simple breath

turns into a conversation with the King.

Friends, we are a community forged in the fire of the Spirit

and fuelled by the breath of the King.

We are a church that is real, a community that is a family.

We are a fellowship that breathes together, breaks bread

together, changes the world together.

If you're able, I'd love to invite you to stand.