Acts 2:41-47

November 18, 2001   

Committed to Christ’s Church

What does commitment look like? When we say someone is committed we may either say it with admiration or derision. They may be committed to their spouse or committed to the mental hospital. There is an obvious joke there I will forgo.  Commitment to one’s children will mean effort and sacrifice. Commitment to a job may entail unpleasantness, long hours, low pay. The north woods are filled with committed people this weekend. Sitting uncomfortably in a tree stand for hours is a sign of commitment should necessitate commitment. Nevertheless we commit only to that which we believe to be important.

Jonathan Thompson, Dion Hughes and Darthy Brown spent about 14 hours a day riding a roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia in hopes of winning a new Jeep. The contest started March 13 with 24 riders. Second and third place prizes are season passes to Six Flags. The trio has already broken the U.S. record of 11 days and the world record of 23 consecutive days of coaster riding. And they've turned down a sponsoring radio station's offer of $1,000 each to stop. They ride from 8 a.m. until 1 a.m., with breaks for lunch, dinner and a five-minute break each hour. They must sleep on sleeping bags on the platform next to the coaster. They can't carry books or radios and they're not allowed to take aspirin. Crazy, yes, committed, certainly.

What about commitment to the church? Commitment to Christ’s body, His bride is an expectation.

But what does that commitment look like? Often commitment extends no further than an hour’s appearance once every few weeks. Commitment in the church is far too similar to what we see at Lambeau Field: 22 men in desperate need of rest being watched by 50,000 in desperate need of exercise. Our passage speaks of commitment to three vital aspects of the church. READ Act 2:41-47

In v42 Luke summarizes the response to Peter’s sermon on Pentecost. As the church grew from 120 to over 3000 he describes their hunger. They were devoted, a word which means ”to make a binding promise or pledge.” It was used of courage in battle, the willingness to face adversity to reach a goal. It is commitment at any cost. In our passage Luke shows that a church must be committed to the word, to others and to the Lord.

The church must be committed to the Word

They devoted themselves first to the apostles’ teaching. They gave a high priority to understanding the truth. It was the apostles’ preaching, their proclamation of Christ’s present reign and rule, explicated from the Scriptures that caused them to see their own sinfulness and know they needed a savior. This crowd wanted to know more how this Jesus, accredited by God the Father but rejected by them, now rules over all creation.

A.W. Tozer, a pastor from a previous generation once said,

“We have gotten accustomed to the blurred puffs of gray fog that pass for doctrine in churches and expect nothing better. From some previously unimpeachable sources are now coming vague statements consisting of a milky admixture of Scripture, science, and human sentiment that is true to none of its ingredients because each one works to cancel the others out. Little by little Christians these days are being brainwashed. One evidence is that increasing numbers of them are becoming ashamed to be found unequivocally on the side of truth. They say they believe, but their beliefs have been so diluted as to be impossible of clear definition. Moral power has always accompanied definite beliefs. Great saints have always been dogmatic. We need a return to a gentle dogmatism that smiles while it stands stubborn and firm on the Word of God that lives and abides forever.”

They were brought to faith by sound theology, clear biblical exegesis of God’s Word and for that they hungered even more. What Peter preached was not that which could be deduced from observation, but only that which came through revelation, God laying the foundation through the prophets of the Old Testaments and the apostles of the New, with Christ as the cornerstone.

With the apostles now gone, where do we find such apostolic teaching today? In the Bible.

The oral teachings of the apostles were recorded in the New Testament. So a modern apostolic church is a church that teaches the truth of the New Testament as well as the Old Testament, upon which rests the New Testament. The source of all normative Christian doctrine is apostolic teaching alone, not Christian tradition, nor human reason or personal experience--though these may be useful as they conform to the Scriptures.

Today, Christ's church possess this same teaching of the apostles, found in the Scripture, the depository of such teaching. Thus the first thing we look for when we look for a church, is whether or not the teaching of the apostles is central.

In order to be devoted to the teaching of the apostles we must know what it is that they taught.

The first step in knowing what the apostles taught is a satisfactory translation. While it would be wonderful if we all read Greek and Hebrew, we would still need a Bible translated in the vernacular. God’s Word is to be read in the common language, so that its words and meaning are part of our everyday vocabulary.

For several centuries the KJV stood supreme in the English language. A masterpiece of scholarship and literature, it shaped our culture. But language is fluid and languages change. New manuscripts discovered in the past four hundred years have meant a more accurate sense of the original texts, lexical studies have improved our understanding of Greek and Hebrew. New translations have been produced to meet the demands of new generations. Twenty five years ago the New International Version sought to fill the void among English speaking Christians. It’s goal was to be a translation which would make use of the best scholarship of its day in order to produce a rendering which people could easily understand.

While we won’t take time to discuss textual traditions or translation theories, the editorial board of the NIV chose a translation technique which produced fluidity at the expense of accuracy. Wanting to avoid a wooden style of word-for-word translations, they adopted dynamic equivalence, in which they sought to translate thoughts rather than words. While their desire for readiblity was admirable, dynamic equivalence misses the mark, for it too often forces interpretation upon the reader where translation would do. We communicate not wordless thoughts, but thoughts that are best expressed through words.

For this reason, it is the decision of the Session to begin to use the English Standard Version.

This translation stands in the lineage of other great versions, using the best texts, interpreted by the best scholars, reviewed by theologians, pastors and lay people. Their translation theory is essentially literal, seeking to be true to the original languages without sacrificing the approachability of the text. Following in line with the tradition of Tyndale, the King James and the revisions during the last two centuries, the ESV maintains the integrity of the original.

This will be the version I will be using from the pulpit and in the classroom. The church has purchased several dozen copies which will be available in December. On the literature table is a brochure describing this translation with a reprint of this found in the upcoming newsletter.

The church must be committed to others

The next character trait of a committed church is one which people long for in a church, but quite often do not understand. The word fellowship in v42 is koinonia, which means partner, companion or sharer.

But how could the early church have real fellowship when coffee had yet to be imported, donuts were a long way off and church softball was unheard of.

For many fellowship is nothing more than a sentimental feeling, like singing Kumbaya around the camp fire. But fellowship is not coming to a church and liking everyone equally. Fellowship is not having a congregation that thinks alike, looks alike, with the same social and political agendas, the same hobbies and interests, and made up of cookie-cutter people. Koinonia is not sharing with each other all of the gory details of the intimate parts of our lives, which in turn become common knowledge in the church as in some kind of an encounter group.

Fellowship is uniting different individuals around the Lord Jesus Christ, through Word and Sacrament.

The devotion of these early believers to fellowship similar to their devotion to the apostle’s teaching. This koinonia, partnership is what God works in our midst, it is not something that we can accomplish through programs. A strange thing happens when Jesus Christ is the center of our collective gaze. All of a sudden, we find ourselves liking people outside of our normal circles, because of our common faith in Christ. We find ourselves developing new and meaningful friendships, we find ourselves willing to share our burdens with our fellow Christ-adorers, and we will desire to spend meaningful time together sharing our lives and faith in Him with one another. We find ourselves desiring to help those who have less than we may have. Our fellowship as individuals and as a congregation will only be as great as our ability to focus upon the glories and mercies of Christ. For in him, all of our individual differences and personalities, sins and flaws may find true unity and fellowship.

If you want to see fellowship explained, look down in verses 44-45.

They were so generous that they threw in their property and sold in because there were people in need. We could look at this and say they were in a commune or they were communist, but they weren’t they were Christians. The difference between a Christian and a communist is this: a communist says, “All yours is mine;” while a Christian says. “ All mine is yours;” The one is for getting the other is for giving. The goal in fellowship is to destroy, not property, but selfishness.

Luke repeats a form of koinonia in v44 – they had all things in common (koine). This word group is used of sharing with others, of being generous and giving. The early church devoted themselves to fellowship, committed to serving one another.

We are too often like the porcupines stranded one bitter cold night in the middle of a large frozen field, with no way to escape the biting wind. They could not burrow into the frozen ground. As they huddled together to keep warm, their sharp quills began to pinch and hurt. The closer they moved together, the more the pain increased. Some of the animals could not bear the pain and drew apart to sleep alone. In the morning they had frozen to death.

Fellowship is not about coffee and danish, as wonderful as they are. Fellowship is not about a great softball game or laughter over the dinner table, as desirable as that may be. Fellowship is about service. Fellowship is about sacrifice.

Next Sunday our deacons will present a survey they have created in order to better equip us to fellowship through service. Just as the early church sold what they had so that they could aid others, each of us here possess so much that can aid one another. While fellowship is not about the church telling you what you need to do with what God has given you, it is important we create a means by which you can help one another.

The church must be committed to the Lord

The next characteristic is divided into two aspects: breaking bread and the prayers. At first glance breaking bread is an extension of fellowship, thus justifying many Christian’s favorite form of fellowship, eating.

But the breaking of bread, while incorporating a regular meal in the early church refers to the participation in the Lord’s Supper. Breaking bread continues the cross-centered focus of this passage, the work of Christ is central. As important as a teaching ministry is to the life of a church, serving others is equally vital. Yet all that must come under the authority of our adoration of Christ’s work for us through the sacraments and prayer.

Notice the manner in which it is celebrated, in v46, in their homes with gladness and generosity.

There is evidence to suggest that the early Christians celebrated the Lord’s Table as a part of a corporate meal. It was not the somber, funeral-like event that you see in many places today. It was reverent but joyful, prayerful but full of rejoicing.  It is right in public worship to be dignified; it is unforgivable to be dull.

It is here in the supper that the power and presence of Christ is made visible in the signs and symbols of the bread and wine. In the bread we see his broken body, in the wine, we see his blood shed for us. Thus, coming to the Lord’s table on a regular basis is one of the essential elements of the Christian life. For in the Lord’s supper we are feeding on Christ in our hearts through faith. Christ gives us visible signs and seals of his promise to return again in power and glory and in the supper he takes us up into heaven to himself, as it were, giving us a foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb yet to come.

Grace is foundational to commitment to Christ. Grace flows from the apostolic doctrines which is to under gird our lives. It is not about what they can say or do, not about what makes them feel good about themselves or aids in their interactions with others – but the focus of their worship is on the Lord. Not only that, it is not just God-talk or generic spiritual self help. The theme of all they are and do is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Their worship was about the cross.

Faith is remembering I am God’s priceless treasure when I feel utterly worthless. No doubt they devoted themselves to this vital characteristic of the early church for in breaking bread, in the Lord’s Supper they once again see that it is God who nourishes us to obey his commands.

The second aspect of commitment to the Lord is seen in prayer, our response to God’s grace.

We saw in Acts 1:14 that this had been the practice of the infant church from the very beginning, and we read in next chapter (Acts 3:1) that the disciples were still in the habit of participating in "the prayers" at the temple. Here we see that this is an essential and characteristic mark of Christ's church. And as we saw from early chapters, the praying church was quite likely a liturgical church as well, since Luke says that they devoted themselves to "the prayers" clearly suggesting formal prayers, probably centering in the Psalms and no doubt the Lord's Prayer, since this was the prayer that our Lord taught us, as his people, to pray.

The application is again really quite simple; Christ's church must continue to be a praying church whether in "the prayers" of corporate worship, or in our private prayers which are not explicitly mentioned here. As Calvin once wrote, it is "in prayer" that faith "digs up those treasures which the gospel of our Lord discovers." It is in prayer that I am reminded that I am a valuable treasure of God despite my feelings of complete worthlessness.

Last Sunday was one of the high points at Cornerstone. As we gathered on the property, walked around the land, enjoying the big pit, we gave a grateful praise to our gracious God for moving so mightily.

Having said that, as wonderful as that land is, as important as it is for us to buy and build so that we can devote ourselves to teaching God’s Word, serving one another and worshipping our Savior, we must not forget that there is no mandate to acquire property. We must not allow the next several years to cloud our vision for what God would have us do. A building is a blessing from God, not a requirement to serve God. A building provides the launch pad for our work, but if we do not possess the rocket and fuel, we will not travel very far. If we are not committed to God’s Word and worship we will have only bricks and mortar. We must remain very focused in the coming years to not mistake a place of our own, for being the people God has called us to be. 

Yet if we make these commitments our priority, if seek to honor our God, then we can trust our Lord to bring the increase in his timing. The final verse is a tremendous encouragement, taking the weight off our shoulders and acknowledging this is nor our church, but belongs to Christ.

There are two types of growth in the church. There is growth by addition and by nutrition. The addition is God’s work, what he asks us to do is focus on the nutrition, being committed to the Gospel in Word and Sacraments, in service and worship.

Commitment is what God asks of us, trusting him for the results. The commitment God asks of us is well illustrated by Tim Bowden, in his book, One Crowded Hour, about cameraman Neil Davis, who tells of an incident that happened in Borneo during the confrontation between Malaysia and Indonesia in 1964. A group of Gurkhas from Nepal were asked if they would be willing to jump from transport planes into combat against the Indonesians if the need arose. The Gurkhas had the right to turn down the request because they had never been trained as paratroopers. Bowden quotes Davis's account of the story:

Now the Gurkhas usually agreed to anything, but on this occasion they provisionally rejected the plan. But the next day one of their NCOs sought out the British officer who made the request and said they had discussed the matter further and would be prepared to jump under certain conditions.

'What are they?' asked the British officer.

The Gurkhas told him they would jump if the land was marshy or reasonably soft with no rocky outcrops, because they were inexperienced in falling.

The British officer considered this, and said that the dropping area would almost certainly be over jungle, so that seemed all right. Was there anything else?

'Yes,' said the Gurkhas. They wanted the plane to fly as slowly as possible and no more than one hundred feet high.

The British officer pointed out the planes always did fly as slowly as possible when dropping troops, but to jump from 100 feet was impossible, because the parachutes would not open in time from that height.

'Oh,' said the Gurkhas, 'that's all right, then. We'll jump with parachutes anywhere. You didn't mention parachutes before!'"