Grace Powerfully at Work (Acts 4.32-37)

Introduction

How would you feel if you were told you have won a big house with a swimming pool or a new Porsche 911 in a competition? Or how would you feel if you heard from your solicitor that you have inherited a million pounds from a distant relative?

The Bible teaches that the way we think about the money and possessions that we don’t have, and the way we use those we do have, has a direct effect on our level of happiness.

Do you want to be happy? Of course you do. We all want contentment. Well, that word ‘contentment’ appears 7 times in Scripture and 6 of those 7 references are about money and possessions.

We’ve all read stories about lottery winners have gone on to become thoroughly miserable as well as fabulously wealthy. And how many insanely rich celebrities are still happily married 25 years after tying the knot? Or even 10 years?

Many of us feel uncomfortable when someone talks about money and possessions in church – “Oh no, the preacher’s going to make me feel guilty, I should have stayed in bed…”

But preachers keep telling us that Jesus spoke more about money and possessions than he did about heaven, hell, salvation and eternal life put together.

The Bible as a whole says a lot about money and possessions. That’s because God wants us to know his will about earning, and saving, and budgeting, and spending, and giving and sharing. Why is God so interested in such mundane, everyday things? Because the way we see the money we earn and the things we own has a direct impact on our spiritual health.

For example, Jesus said this, “If you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?”

Attractive Community

You might find the Amish communities in Pennsylvania a bit weird. I do. I find their rejection of modern fashions, and transportation and technology quite strange.

But their commitment to godly community is absolute and they are amazing people.

You’ll probably remember the news story from 8 years ago. On 2nd October 2006, a shooting occurred at an Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County. A lone gunman called Charles Roberts shot ten girls (aged 6-13), killing five of them, before committing suicide in front of the class. The first week after the shootings, the Amish families who had suffered this trauma responded in four ways that shocked the world.

Firstly, some of the elders visited Marie Roberts, the murderer’s wife, to offer comfort and forgiveness.

Secondly, the families of the murdered girls invited Marie Roberts to their own children’s funerals.

Thirdly, they requested that all relief money collected for those grief stricken Amish families be shared with Mrs. Roberts and her children so they could enjoy all the benefits they would have done had their father been alive to provide for them.

And fourthly, dozens of Amish families attended Charles Roberts’ funeral.

OK, they might be a little off the wall in their dress sense but these people are beautiful because they are so like Jesus. That’s what Israel and Gaza need. That’s what Syria and Iraq need. That’s what Ukraine and Russia need. The local church, when it gets it right, when it just does what Jesus would do, is the hope of the world.

We were in South West France three weeks ago, in Cognac country, which is full of sunlit vineyards on rolling hills. I love looking at fields of vines. The way God has designed the vine is very instructive; not once did we see a single grape growing on its own on the branch of a vine; grapes only grow in bunches. And God has used the same template for Christians. Perhaps this is why Jesus said “I am the vine.” If we are going to be in him, it’s not as isolated individuals but as communities – churches. Like grapes in a bunch, we only grow together with others, never alone.

We’re looking at Acts 4.32-37 this morning and it is a sketch of Christians living, believing, and growing together. Let’s look at the passage now.

This brief extract starts a new episode in Acts. As Kathryn was explaining last Sunday, the section from 3.1 – 4.31 makes up one story; the healing of a crippled beggar and the subsequent aggro from the authorities who found it annoying that people were going round doing signs and wonders in the name of Jesus. That’s what we want to do; be as much of a public nuisance as possible by doing the kind of wonderful things Jesus did.

The story ends by saying that these Christians, under great pressure, decided that they couldn’t stop what they were doing just because the clergy said it broke the rules and the government said it breached the peace. So they prayed for more of the same and they were filled with the Holy Spirit again and they spoke the word of God boldly. That’s what we need.

The very next verse, the one our passage begins with, starts by saying that all the believers (note that word “all”); there was no two-tier Christianity… all the believers were one in heart and mind.

Here’s a question I’ve sometimes asked myself. How do you know if you are filled with the Holy Spirit? Have you ever asked that? Well, here the first evidence was their witness to the world. “They were filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God boldly.” So one evidence that we are filled with the Holy Spirit is that we talk about Jesus with other people.

It was great to see young adults speaking the word of God confidently all last week at Preston Park in our Camp of Champions, calling hundreds of young people to turn from sin and put their faith in Jesus. The Holy Spirit moved in power.

But there’s a second way you can see if people are filled with the Holy Spirit and it’s right here; it’s the love you find within the church.

“All the believers were one in heart and mind.” That doesn’t mean that there were no individuals, no personalities, and never any differences of opinion. It wasn’t a kind of spiritual North Korea in which all originality was suppressed.

But this verse was written because God wanted us to know that in the earliest church, before religion messed it all up, Christians were one in heart (meaning they all loved the same things) and one in mind (meaning they were all committed to the same faith).

One of the things I watch for as a leader here is loving, harmonious relationships. I look for and pray for deep friendships to develop. I rejoice to see people apologise when they hurt others and quickly resolve their differences with forgiveness and understanding. I like it when people spontaneously do helpful things without being asked. That’s loving. That is a sign to me that people are filled with the Holy Spirit.

I prefer leaders who are kind and humble to leaders who are gifted but argumentative. I tend to trust people who are generous with their things, who are hospitable, who give their time to prayer and to serve the Lord. That is evidence to me that the people in question are filled with the Holy Spirit.

And I find this short description of the life of the early church really appealing. John Calvin said of these verses “We must have hearts that are harder than iron if we are not moved by the reading of this narrative.”

It is a wonderful observation by Luke in verse 32 that “no one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.” No one was precious about their stuff. The Message Version puts it this way; “No one said ‘That’s mine, you can’t have it.”

And we know that everybody was struck by the quality of their love for each other, not just Luke.

Here’s an extract from a letter that has been found from the First Century. “Christians contribute funds once a month or whenever they wish, without any compulsion. The money does not provide banquets or drinking parties, but goes to support the needy, orphans and the aged, shipwrecked travellers, and Christians who for their faith are working in the mines or confined in prison. Their care for one another can only be offensive to those who hate their neighbours. Unlike their enemies, they share everything except their wives.”

These earliest Christians had radically different values to the world around them and everybody noticed. They didn’t fit in. They didn’t want to fit in. They stood out.

So when Luke says in v33 “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” he isn’t describing just preaching. He is saying that they had real authority because people could see that the gospel was transforming broken people into mended people, lost people into found people, cranky people into sorted people, and needy people into cared for people.

End of v33; “And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no [how many is that? No] needy persons among them.”

Some people wonder if what we see in v34-37 is a kind of Communism. But Communism is an imposed confiscation of freedoms. This is a voluntary sharing of blessings. There is no hint here of seized possessions or compulsory common ownership. Communism is responsible for some of the most soulless and unlovable cities on earth. People risk their lives to escape from it. This was an attractive community that was growing as the Lord added to their number.

We know from later in Acts that churches met in peoples’ homes. So some Christians obviously did not sell their houses but they certainly did make them available for the Lord’s service. God isn’t saying here I must sell all I have and live in a kind of kibbutz. However, I am free to do so if the Holy Spirit leads me that way. And so should we, where possible.

Some Christians today, as then, do choose to pool all their possessions. Two of my friends (they’re sisters actually) have chosen to live in a Christian community in the Midlands and they have a shared purse with others.

Another married couple I know lived for some years with widows and orphans in Watford, and they bought a house together with others as a base for this ministry. They felt called to that and did so gladly and voluntarily.

One of our married children shares a house with another Christian family and they live as a missional community.

But there is no obligation on anyone to live in community or sell all their possessions. Even in this passage it say “from time to time” this happened so it was not systematic or all-pervasive.

But the principle applies to us all. God wants all of us, in whatever way he specifically calls, to share deeply with others and this is about doing, not talking. God basically calls us to a life of giving, not hording.

There’s an old story about a vicar who had a farmer friend in his congregation and they were talking over the fence one day. The vicar asked Giles (because farmers are always called Giles), if you had one hundred horses, would you give me fifty?” Giles said, “Certainly.”

The vicar asked, “If you had one hundred cows, would you give me fifty?” Giles said, “Yes.”

Then the vicar said, “If you had two pigs, would you give me one?” Giles said, “That’s enough of that vicar; you know I have two pigs!”

Amy Orr-Ewing, who is a Christian speaker and author, tells of a local politician, who is an atheist, who came to one of her church’s services. He absolutely loved it. “Wow,” he said, “this is the only place I know where such diverse people get together. You’ve got old people, young people, singles, couples, families, wealthy people and those of modest means, the well-educated and the barely literate, the able-bodied and disabled, people of every political persuasion and none. You just don’t see that anywhere else. It’s just a pity about the God bit” he said.

That’s great isn’t it? But the point is that “the God bit” is not a kind of afterthought. It’s not a detail bolted on to the end. The God bit, having Jesus at the heart of that group of people, is the key to what makes it possible at all.

It’s Jesus who brings people together, it’s Jesus who breaks down barriers and it’s Jesus who shows the world what community should look like.

So people sold off land and houses from time to time, one of them was called Barnabas, and they brought the money from the sales and the Bible says they “put it at the apostles’ feet.”

There are at many ways in which this church lays money at the apostles’ feet to distribute to others in need in this way and I’m going to highlight just two.

Firstly, we have a hardship fund that comes from our own pockets. We started it up a few years ago one Gift Day. We have a few thousand pounds kept aside in the accounts to help anyone in material need and anyone can access it via a request to the pastoral team.

The pastoral team meets and assesses the request and, if we feel it is right, we ask Terry the treasurer to release funds from it. By its very nature it’s discreet and low profile but it’s there. Some who have been helped by the hardship fund have actually put money back into it when they have gone through better times, which is lovely, but we operate it as a source of gifts, not loans.

A second way in which we lay money at the apostles’ feet to distribute to others in need is what we call the parish share. This is not a kind of Anglican tax that we have to pay; it’s a voluntary arrangement whereby we agree to support other Church of England parishes in more challenging areas so they can reach out to their communities with the love of Jesus.

Stockton Parish Church would not be able to remain open – at all – given their circumstances. Alan Farish often says to me that all the blessing they have enjoyed in the last five years would not have happened humanly speaking without the incredible generosity of churches like All Saints’.

Conclusion

As I draw to a close I’d like to tell a little parable that M. Scott Peck shares in his book The Different Drum.

It’s about a decaying monastery that had only five monks left. As the Abbot agonized over the inevitable closure, it occurred to him to ask a holy man if he could offer any advice that might save the monastery - so he paid him a visit.

When the Abbot returned to the monastery, his monks gathered around and asked, “What did he say?” “He couldn’t help,” the Abbot answered. “The only thing he did say, as I was leaving was that the Messiah is among us. Though I do not know what these words mean.”

In the months that followed, the monks wondered whether there was any possible significance to those words: The Messiah is among us?

As they thought about it, they began to treat each other with kindness on the off chance that one among them might be the Messiah.

It so happened that people occasionally came to visit the beautiful monastery. The visitors began to sense a powerful spiritual atmosphere. An extraordinary spirit of community now filled the monastery and everyone felt it.

People began to come to the monastery frequently to picnic and to pray. They began to bring their friends, and their friends brought their friends. Then it happened that some of the younger people who came to visit the monastery started to talk more and more with the older monks.

After a while, one asked if he could join them. Then, another and another asked if they too could join the monastery. Within a few years, it once again became a thriving order, a vibrant centre of light and spirituality in the realm. But they never discovered which one of them was the Messiah.

“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power they continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was powerfully at work in them all.”

May this be a true description of this church as God leads us into the future, with the Messiah Jesus living amongst us.

Let’s stand to pray… 

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 27th July 2014