The Antidote for Offense

Doctrine vs Real Life

(or Dealing With Difficult People)

Preached 9/26/21

Psalm 73

[audio]

 

INTRODUCTION:

Theology is a lot of different things to different people.

• To some it is the lofty and grandiose pursuit of wise sages to inhabit dusty libraries, mountain caves and monasteries.
• To others it is something to learn to become one of the “right” crowd and then use to denounce heretics.
• And, to others it is frankly just a few things they can use to use as slogans to demonstrate our spiritual superiority.

The word Theology means the study of God, which is why we think of it as such a lofty, lonely, difficult pursuit.  But in actuality theology is the framework for all knowledge and moral evaluation of the universe.  The knowledge of God is sort of like “the force” is described in Star Wars – "It Surrounds Us. It Penetrates Us. It Binds the Galaxy Together."  Nothing makes sense without it, and there is no ultimate meaning to anything we do without it.  As people of God it should be like the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the ground that we walk upon.  Anyone not interested in it has a weak claim to being a follower of Him at all.

What the Bible reveals to us about God is essential to understanding everything.  And it is because life has so many foibles and difficulties that we sometimes have problems staying true to what we have learned in church.  Some people just give up and chuck the whole religion thing at the first sign of difficulty.  We have all, I’m sure, been near that place at some point.

One of the biggest obstacles is people.  On the macro scale we think of evil dictators and oppressors and mass murderers – names like Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin come to mind.  Then on a smaller scale we think of burglars, robbers, rapists, killers, and other malefactors around us.  On a smaller scale our day can still be ruined by a person who cuts us off on the freeway and gives us the finger, or the family member who ruins our family gathering, or even someone at church that says something insensitive.  I’m sure that I have probably offended everybody in my church at some time, and just about everybody here over the last 40 years has hurt my feelings at least once.  That’s because we are human and still being made more like Christ every day.  And we have a long way to go.  But so many have left churches because of a silly argument with someone and just announced that they are no longer going to a church any more.  I knew an associate pastor at a church who got so upset at a perceived injustice that decades later his own children did not attend any church at all and blamed the church they were in as kids.  There is something VERY wrong with this scenario. 

But however wrong this seems, we don’t really have much of a leg to stand on, so we?  In the end we tout our spiritual creeds, but it seems that our enthusiasm drains out when it gets hard.

To all of this we find hope in the 37^th Psalm.  In it the author gives an account of his own fall from grace because of evil people and how he found his way back to the love of God, which makes it a wonderful resource for us!

 

I  Pat Theology vs The Real World (1-14):

The psalm of Asaph starts with a beautiful and comforting statement of absolute truth. 

Psalm 73:1   Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

This truth is the message of the entire psalm, and it is one which the psalmist probably learned as a child.  It is a deep and abiding statement assuring us about the nature of God and of his faithful love for his people.  It was (and is) the key to faith, as we read in a key verse in great faith chapter in Hebrews 11:6 which tells us

Hebrews 11:6   And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

But the problem we sometimes have is that the real world seems (just seems) to indicate a different reality.  Any Christian who reads that “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good…” (Rom 8:28) eventually runs into situations that do not seem to back up that assertion.  The result is often disillusionment and bitterness for those whose gospel teaching consists solely of the message “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”  (The Bible also promises us that we will have affliction and persecution in this world, but somehow that promise gets left of many “God’s promises” books at the local Bible bookstore for some reason.)

Asaph now admits that he had this exact experience in his own life in the first section of Psalm 73 which goes from verse 2 through verse 14.  Look how this section is bracketed:

Psalm 73:2-3, 13-14  ² But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. ³ For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.    ...    ¹³ All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. ¹⁴ For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.

Wow.  Just wow.  This seems to almost be a complete repudiation of his premise, doesn’t it?  It almost seems like verse one was intended to be ironic and that he will now repudiate it.  But that is not the case.  Instead, he will show us his imperfect human side, which all of us can easily identify with, and he then will take us through the solution to that problem so that we can escape it also.  So before we write off Asaph, notice two things:

• His story in verses two and three are written in past tense.  This is not his current view of life.  And…
• He says that his feet had almost stumbled and that his steps had nearly slipped.  The mark of a true believer is that we may come across various situations that challenge our faith, but that the Lord is the one whom Jude described as “him who is able to keep you from stumbling”.  As Jesus told Peter “behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail…" (Luke 22:31-32a).

What we do see at the end of this part of the psalm is that whatever Asaph observed caused him to question everything that he had learned and was trying to live by.  All of his holy living and sanctification was for nothing. How did he get to this extreme point?  It was because he had a worldly focus (or a self-focus), and we will see here that a worldly focus leads to a pity party.

So what did he see in the world that shook his faith?  Let’s read his observations:

Psalm 73:3-5  ³ … I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. ⁴ For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. ⁵ They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.

The people he observed were described by two adjectives – wicked and arrogant.  Both their actions and attitudes were bad, but Asaph was angry because these arrogant evildoers seemed to be allowed to have prosperous, comfortable lives.  And Asaph was bitter and jealous of them.  Isn’t that a very human emotion?

It reminds me of a time when I was a young teenager and the government passed a new law requiring reflectors on bicycle spokes.  I was riding my bike to the store with a friend from school when I was stopped by a policeman and given a ticket because I had not yet installed reflectors on my wheels.  I remember being upset and (without thinking about what would probably happen) pointed at my friend (maintaining a safe distance down the street) and said “but he doesn’t have reflectors either!”  So the policeman gave him a ticket, too.  I do not blame him at all for being too mad to talk to me for quite a while.  I felt so dumb for doing that!  But I imagine you might feel the same was if you got a parking ticket and looked down the street at many other cars parked the same way without tickets, or watching lawmakers ignoring the laws that they place on the people - just like what Jesus condemned the Pharisees for doing. That really gets our goat – and it should.  But it shouldn’t cause us to   We get very angry at perceived injustices and are eager to mete out righteous punishment on those who “get away” with things, aren’t we?

What was the attitude of these evildoers toward God?  Asaph piles on the description.

Psalm3:6-12   ⁶ Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. ⁷ Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies. ⁸ They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. ⁹ They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. ¹⁰ Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them. ¹¹ And they say, "How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?" ¹² Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.

No wonder Asaph was upset and disillusioned.  But we know that all of this disillusionment was in his past.  How did he escape?

II  Seeking God and Confessing Sin (15-22):

First he confessed that he knew that this was a wrong and sinful attitude.

Psalm 73:15   If I had said, "I will speak thus," I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

Sometimes it is best to look at our anger and evaluate what our anger is saying.  Asaph realized that if he actually said out loud what his feelings were saying that he would be renouncing God and misleading God’s people.  How many arguments between family members would dissipate in shame if we actually articulated what we were feeling?  I imagine something like this: “I refused to talk to you all afternoon because you,  because you …, you… well, you, um, used, um, too much peanut butter and I wanted to put it on both pieces of bread – gee that sounds childish when I say it out loud…. Sorry.”

We know that the word used by the apostle John in 1 John 1:9 that is translated “confess” is the Greek word homologeo which means to “say the same as”.  This is the first step of repentance – saying the same thing about our sin that God says, no more, no less.  But changing our attitudes is more difficult.  It takes a reprogramming of our point of view.  Asaph describes that difficult process next:

Psalm 73:16-17a  ¹⁶ But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, ¹⁷ until I went into the sanctuary of God;

Asaph admits that changing your feelings is hard.  He describes it as a wearisome task.  Changing your attitude is not something that we can do by sheer willpower.  Just like a computer, our psyche needs new data to come to a new outcome, and Asaph goes right to the correct source.  He steps into the presence of God and asks God to show him the eternal, omniscient, holy point of view.  And we see that godly focus brings correct perspective.

Psalm 73:17b  ^… I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.

Asaph had been looking at current events, but in the eternal perspective all of the prosperity of the wicked was short-lived and temporary.  They were standing on quicksand and hell was below them.  They were benefiting from the common grace God gives to all humanity in his mercy, but God promises that He will repay all wrongs and punish every sin.  Over and over God promises to save and vindicate his people.  And Asaph saw that once he entered the sanctuary of God to learn and worship.  Asaph’s part was to continue to keep his own heart clean.  He had no responsibility to worry about whether God would take care of the injustice – He would indeed!  Asaph realizes that the end condition of the wicked was nothing to envy:

Psalm 73:18-20   ¹⁸ Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. ¹⁹ How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! ²⁰ Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

In the New Testament we see similar principles later.  John in Revelation describes the wicked being “thrown into the lake of fire” with “the devil who had deceived them” where “they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”  Paul warns the Christians in Rome against trying to even the score ourselves in frightening language indeed:

Romans 12:19  Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."

Finally, Asaph comes back to himself and how his own whiny attitude looks from his new vantage-point in the sanctuary of God:

Psalm 73:21-22   ²¹ When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, ²² I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.

He says that he was more like an unthinking animal than a human being in his envy and distrust of God’s moral leadership of the universe.   I have recently watched several videos of psychological studies on monkeys and on dogs where more than one animal is given identical treats for doing certain tasks.  After a while one animal is given a really nice treat as a reward for a task.  The second animal got very excited but when they did the task their reward was the greatly inferior one.  In both cases the animal that got the crummier reward got very angry at the situation.  It is a natural, fleshly reaction.  We imagine what we are owed and then if we don’t get what we imagined we perceive it as injustice.

Asaph also realizes that his bad attitude did not damage God at all but only hurt himself.  How often have we done the same thing – ruining our own day just to hold on to the end of our anger?  It reminds me of a meme I saw on social media the other day that really convicted me of doing this.  It pointedly asked:

“Was it a bad day?  Or was it a bad five minutes that you milked all day?”

What if we asked ourselves that same question every time we got cranky and had a bad attitude about something?  I imagine we might have more happy days!

 

III  Renewed Faith (23-28):

Now that Asaph has gotten his attitude adjusted and his perspective changed to God’s perspective, the blessings flow down like a heavy rain upon his head.

Psalm  73:23-24   ²³ Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. ²⁴ You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.

Asaph now comes back to his original statement in the psalm.  He is surrounded by God’s lovingkindness and faithfulness, he is buoyed up on angels wings into the presence of God and rejoices in his ultimate eternal reward with God in heaven.  There are many fewer Old Testament references to a heavenly afterlife than in the New Testament, but this is a beautiful one indeed, full of hope and joy and anticipation.  Asaph continues into a song of praise, love and longing for his God:

Psalm  73:25-26  ²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. ²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever..

So we see our third point - a correct perspective brings assurance and peace.

 

III Conclusion: Perspective is a Double-Edged Sword!

So in this psalm we have the answer to spiritual discouragement and doldrums.  But there is more that we need to take from this.  What do I mean?  Well consider the words of Asaph.  It would seem that this Psalm could be used to support a “holier than thou” attitude and spiritual pride.  If we aren’t careful we can adopt a callous attitude toward the unsaved and even a vindictive attitude toward people in our own church.  To correct this error we will look at the verse that we already quoted from Romans 8:19.  But now let’s read it in context.  The verse that tells us that God will avenge himself has interesting surroundings.

Remember that Romans has two parts.  The first eleven chapters give a detailed theology of salvation – why we need it, how it is provided, how to get it, and what it accomplishes.  Starting at chapter twelve Paul changes to what the results of salvation should be in our behavior. Remember that chapter 12 starts with the admonition to make our bodies a living sacrifice, acceptable to God.  In verse 14 he starts a section telling us how to relate to one another.  Now let’s look at our “revenge” verse in context:

Romans 12:14-21  ¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. ¹⁷ Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. ¹⁸ If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." ²⁰ To the contrary, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head."  ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

So the fact that God will deal out vengeance for sins isn’t used by Paul to encourage aloofness or elitism.  It is used to encourage compassion and love.  And not just love for good and nice people, but specifically for the bad people.  Not just the clumsy and thoughtless, but for those who we can legitimately refer to as enemies (v20), to those who are evil (v21), and those who specifically do terrible things to us (v14).  And the reason is that God is going to punish them?  How does that make any sense?

I want to propose a mental picture as an illustration of what I think Paul is getting to here.  Imagine someone who has really hurt you in the past year.  Perhaps it is a stranger who humiliated you or endangered you in public.  Perhaps it is an unknown person who stole something from you.  Perhaps it is a corrupt bureaucrat or businessperson who cheated you.  Just pick someone whose spiritual state is unknown to you.  Have you thought of someone?  Good, let’s go on to the illustration.

Imagine I handed you a box now.  That box has no features other than a large, unlabeled red button on the top that you can press.  I tell you that this person will get an annoying traffic ticket when you pressed the button.  Or maybe a pie in the face.  Or they will step on a rake or something.  The common feature is that it will be annoying, mildly painful and embarrass them in front of their friends.  And they will never know that it was because of you.  Would you be tempted?  Of course you would.  It would be mostly harmless but they would “get what’s coming to them” and that would make you feel a bit better about your own pain.

But now imagine I hand you a different box instead.  It looks like the last one but it has Romans 8:19 inscribed on it and I tell you “if you push the red button, that ground will open up under that person and they will immediately fall into the lake of fire where they will be punished for what they did to you in terrible suffering that will never end.  I imagine that just about everybody would shudder and push the box away in horror.  “It’s too much!” we might say.  But that is what Paul is ultimately talking about here.  God is just, and all sinners will be punished for their sins.  Period.  And his vengeance is eternal. 

But Paul uses this here, not to encourage us in our assurance and hope - that’s what the first eleven chapters of Romans are about.  He encourages us to love our enemies.  Why?  Because just like Asaph, we can see their end.  And it should drive us to compassion.  It should drive us to forgiveness.  It should drive us to return good for evil.  It should drive us to comfort them when they are crying.  It should cause us to rejoice with them when they are happy.  It should keep us from looking down on them.

Because we see their end.

And if we understand that, we want them to be saved from that end.

We are not only to return good for evil – we are to “overcome evil with good”.

What they did to you, whatever it was, will be punished by the just and holy God.  And it will happen one of two ways.  Either they will pay the debt of that sin against you (which, as David says in Psalm 51, was actually against Him), or the punishment will have been paid for by Jesus on the cross because that person that hurt you received the salvation offered in Christ.  And if they do the latter, they will be a recipient of the same amount of God’s loving grace of salvation as you were.  And they will deserve it just as little as you did.  And you will be set free to enjoy Jesus together for eternity in heaven, where no matter how nasty that person was in your estimation, you will not be able to remember that slight thing.  As Paul writes in Romans 8:

Romans 8:18   For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

So, enter the sanctuary of God, look at eternity, and say with Asaph

Psalm  73:23-24   ²³ Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. ²⁴ You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.

And in that light, don’t envy the wicked.  Seek after the Lord, and love the other sinners.  That’s our job.

 

Do You Believe? Do You Really Believe?

Preached 8/22/2021

John 12:17-44

[audio]

INTRODUCTION: Jesus Perplexes  (11:1-16)

In just a couple of weeks we’re going to reach a solemn anniversary – the 20^th anniversary of the 9-11 attack on the US.  On that September morning four airplanes full of innocent travelers were deliberately crashed into three buildings and a field, killing thousands of people without warning.  Those of us who vividly remember that day (I was less than 10 miles away from it when it happened and had flown into Newark airport the day before) remember that the most intensely repeated and debated question was “where was God?”  Many said that God could not have been there or He would have prevented it. There was the idea that God’s job was to prevent death from happening and if He did not do it then He was absent or weak or that He just doesn’t care about us. 

The truth is that we have that kind of attitude all of the time.  We have life all figured out and we decide in advance what God should do for us, and if He gets it wrong we can sit in judgment over him in our own smug self-satisfaction.  We keep bending our theology until we make the following assertion: a bad thing happened, and if God was there it would not have happened.  The problem is that when we look at life with this limited perspective, we make God very tiny. When we twist reality like this

• It leaves no allowance for God’s rule,
• it leaves no understanding of God’s love and
• it leaves no room for God’s mercy.

I remember one time on the radio show of a famous woman who gave advice to people, one of her callers - a Christian woman -  gave thanks to God during a call for saving their family from being seriously hurt an auto accident.  The host, who claimed to be very religious, actually furiously yelled at the woman, saying “how dare you say God protected your child!  Other kids die in traffic accidents every day!  How dare you say that God treated you special!”  The truth is that our faith must fit into the real world.  There is a lot that we don’t understand, but if your theology leaves you in unbelief or rebuking God for getting it wrong, then maybe your theology needs to be better thought out. 

Now at this church we pride ourselves (probably the wrong word to use, but maybe not?) on keeping our theology pure and being “Bible believing Christians”.  Our fellowship’s motto is “the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible.”  We love carrying our Bible around and sending our kids to learn it, and we go to church once a week to hear someone talk about it.  We like being “orthodox” and believing in Jesus.  But sometimes I wonder if we spend too much time “believing in Jesus” rather than just “believing Jesus”.

Turn to John chapter eleven.  This chapter contains the well-known and well-loved story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead by Jesus.  Lazarus was one member of a family with at least three siblings.  He had two sisters named Mary and Martha.  We don’t know anything about Lazarus (other than that he is going to die) but there are a few other places where his sisters are mentioned.  Martha and Mary had very different personality types and most of us can see ourselves in one or the other of them.  Martha was organized and responsible and ran her life according to plan.  Mary, however, was emotional and spontaneous.  In Luke we read the story of a time when Jesus was at their house and Martha was being a good host and making a fancy dinner for their guests.  While this was going on Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus enjoying his teaching.  Martha was so frustrated that she ended up asking Jesus to make her sister help her with preparations but Jesus would not, instead praising the devotion of Mary.

Here in verse 2 John describes Mary as the one “who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair.”  We know from the story that the ointment was very expensive, so she really did live in the moment and gave her all in worship.  It is in this context that the story comes to us.

As the chapter begins, we see that the sisters’ brother becomes very ill, and they send a message to Jesus asking him to come.  Jesus had moved to a different location across the Jordan river to teach after the Jewish leaders had tried to stone Him and then tried to arrest Him.  He was having a fruitful ministry there but it was probably a couple days of travel away from the town of Bethany where they lived.  

The family of Lazarus, Mary and Martha was a family that Jesus had a good and friendly relationship with.  The sisters described their brother as “he whom you love”. (The Greek word for love there is phileō, or brotherly, friendly affection).  When Jesus got their message he said, "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it."

Now John writes something that seems strange in verses 5 and 6, but verse four and later in the chapter shed light on it.  Still these two verses sound like they don’t go together:

John 11:5-6    ⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶ So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

To make a long story short, Jesus then announces to his disciples that they will be returning to Bethany because Lazarus is asleep, but that He is going back to wake him up. The disciples don’t understand, so Jesus plainly tells them that Lazarus is now dead.  Continuing the theme from verse four, he says that He is glad that He was not there (to save him from dying) because there is a higher purpose – their faith.  Still they are going back to where they had been in danger, so they misunderstand him and Thomas actually says that he expects to join Lazarus in death when they return. 

(And you think your kids never listen to you….)

 

I Martha the Theologian  (11:17-27): Jesus Teaches

John 11:17-20   ¹⁷ Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. ²⁰ So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.

In verse 17 we see Jesus and his disciples arrive on the scene in Bethany.  To understand what happens, we should set the stage and describe what the scene was like as they arrived.

It is now four days since Lazarus died and his body has been sealed in its final resting place in a tomb.  Unlike in our culture where we go to a funeral for an hour to pay our respects, hear a few stories, and say a few words to console the grieving relatives before going home to continue our day, funerals in those days would last much longer.  Also, while a funeral in our day might be as much as a week later to make sure a convenient time is found for people to attend, in that day, the body would be buried right away because there was no embalming or refrigeration.  A notice would be sent out and family and friends would come and stay with them, not for an hour but for seven days, which means that at the time Jesus arrived the initial week of the mourning was only at its midpoint!

The people would show their solidarity with the bereaved by crying and wailing loudly for the seven days with the family. There were even professional mourners hired - women who were hired to lead the wailing and kept the somber atmosphere that was expected.  This was not self-serving or theatrical, it was considered a caring way to show sympathy and share in the suffering of the family.  We can infer from John’s narrative that Lazarus’ family was an influential and well respected one because so many came to join in this customary tradition with them.  Since they were only two miles from Jerusalem many people probably came from the city to show their respects.

Jesus arrives during all of this and Martha hears about it.  She immediately comes out to meet him, but Mary stays in the house.  Martha’s first words seems to contain a statement of faith but also a bit of rebuke:

John 11:21-22   ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you."

I don’t really see this as a rebuke so much as a statement of frustration and sadness.  From her statement here and her following words she was a strong believer with impeccable theology.  Like Jesus’ other disciples she had seen Jesus heal many people and had no doubts in his ability to do so.  And yet there are a few missing pieces.  Remember the Roman Centurion whose faith Jesus had been amazed by?  He had asked Jesus to heal his servant but understood that Jesus had the inherent authority to declare it to be so no matter how far away he was.  He knew that Jesus did not have to be present to heal.  Also Jesus had raised a couple of people from the dead by this point. 

But I don’t want to pile criticism on Martha at this point.  Imagine what the last week was like for her – her brother becomes deathly ill and the sisters (and their whole town) immediately realize that his only hope is to be healed by Jesus.  So they immediately send messengers out to find him and bring Him to Bethany to save Lazarus.  Days and days go by while Lazarus’ condition deteriorates.  They tend to him and keep going outside to look down the road to see Jesus come.  But they do not see him.  Hope wanes until the hour comes when Lazarus breathes his last.  Choking down tears, they run out into the street to see if Jesus has arrived at the last moment to save the day.  But the Savior is nowhere to be found.

Now the body is tended to and buried forever and the tentatively prepared for funeral begins in earnest.  The rabbis taught that the spirit stayed around the body for three days before departing for Sheol so there was still hope for a miraculous revival.  But still Jesus did not come.  Now it was too late.  Lazarus was gone.  The fact that they had had hope probably made this day seem even darker.  So we can excuse Martha for her statement – waiting for Jesus to come and heal her brother had been her only thought for so long that it came pouring out.  BUT – she had not lost her faith, and even now declares that she believes Jesus is still worth believing in.  But maybe she still has a ways to go.  Jesus immediately replies:

John 11:23  Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."

Jesus’ statement is filled with a message of unbelievable hope.  Could He be saying that something amazing is coming?  Or is that too much to expect?  Jesus’ reply could be taken two ways, right?  Martha chooses the lesser but more orthodox option:

John 11:24  Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day."

Bravo to Martha for replying with good theology.  She had understood the teaching Jesus had been giving about the promise of life after death for believers.  But perhaps her hopes had been dashed for too long and she chose the safe answer.  Jesus did not chastise (or praise) her but continued to unfold truth about Himself to her:

John 11:25-26   ²⁵ Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

To her statement of religious doctrine, Jesus hits her with an enormous dose of theology.  He it not just a prophet, asking God if He will do things.  He Himself is God and has the power and authority over life and death.  At this point we need to remember the purpose of John’s gospel, given by John himself in the last chapter:

John 20:31  … these [things] are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Unlike the other three gospels, John is constructed around a few sevens:

1.  There are seven specific signs that point to the deity of Jesus

2.  There are seven discourses where He revealed things about Himself and his salvation ministry, and

3.  There are seven “I AM” statements where He pretty much explicitly says who He is.

Remember that when YHWH revealed Himself to Moses and Moses asked what his Name was, he replied “I AM who I AM”.  All Israelites know God as the eternal self-existent one, with no beginning and no end, the uncreated creator, the Lord of Lords.  When Jesus made these “I AM” statements there is no doubt that his meaning was understood by the Jews.  Not only was their reaction severe, but John even uses an unusual Greek construction to translate Jesus words.  The words ἐγώ εἰμι are not the usual way of saying “I am <something or other>” but we do see this construction used in the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament Hebrew scriptures (the Septuagint) to translate God’s self-naming from Exodus three at the burning bush.

So Jesus holds nothing back for Martha.  He reveals himself as the One with total power over life and death.  She can have hope if she will just lay hold of it.  But it seems like this is still too enormous of a concept for her.  She gives a wonderful testimonial about Jesus that is at least as good as Peter’s great confession when Jesus asked him “who do you think that I am?”  She replies:

John 11:27  She said to him, "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world."

Bravo, Martha.  And yet with our hindsight it seems not enough.  But Praise God, Jesus is not giving up on her yet.  So we have seen Martha, the rational sister, the planner, the hard worker, and the intellectual theologian of the family.  What about her sister, the “emotional, devotional” one?  Martha goes and gets her sister Mary now (maybe the conversation is getting a bit too hot with its overtones of gigantic truths?). 

 

II Mary the Worshipper  (11:28-37): Jesus Empathizes

John 11:28-31  ²⁸ When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." ²⁹ And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

So Jesus has asked Martha to go and bring Mary to Him.  While Martha goes out of her way to try to ensure a quiet meeting, it is not really possible that she could make it there alone.  As we said previously, it really was the duty of the visitors at the funeral to stay with and weep together with the bereaved, so when Mary got up and left, the crown came with her.  We can also see plainly that Mary is eager to see Jesus and comes immediately.  But her first statement to Jesus is to make the same lament as her sister:

John 11:32  Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

So both sisters, despite the difference in their temperaments, were at the same place emotionally.  The desperate hoping and waiting had taken its toll.  Their frustration came out in the exact same words.  If only Jesus had come more quickly, all of this grief and hopelessness could have been averted.  But while Jesus had taught Martha, it was now time to have the whole family here for a more powerful teaching time – this time teaching by demonstration.  But John first includes more detail in the story, and there is more here than the exercise of the power of deity.  Jesus is not just some sort of avatar of the Most High – a remote control robot operated by the finger of God.  He is a bridge between God and man.  As the writer of Hebrews put it:

Hebrews 4:14-16   ¹⁴ Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

John now records something amazing.  For the first time in the story he tells us what Jesus is feeling during this time.

John 11:33  When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.

There is a commonality between human beings that is part of our design.  We are not designed to live alone.  If a child is isolated from birth it will die.  We are designed with the ability to empathize with each other.  We can actually pick up on and feel and understand the emotions of our fellow people.  And Jesus did the same!  This is an important part of being human.  (If a person does not develop empathy by an early age it is almost impossible to teach it.  In fact, there is serious concern among psychologists about what the long term effects of not being able to see faces will have on this generation of children growing up for years seeing nothing but the tops of people’s faces.)

There is a lot of disagreement (or at least pointed discussion) between bible teachers on what emotions Jesus was feeling here.  The term translated “deeply moved” (brimaomai) is used for various strongly felt emotions.  Some believe it signifies anger at the effects of sin and the suffering of people in despair without faith and hope.  Some say it is anger at the unbelief of God’s people (and even the sisters) here.  Some say it is frustration at the lack of understanding expressed here.  There is another side that believes that this is only describing his common grieving with the people at the funeral, a sharing in their sadness.  The first group points out that there are better words that describe grief if that was used, but the second group points out that there are also better Greek words for anger.  So I agree with others that say that this is a bit of both.  Surely one of the things that we have seen Jesus get very frustrated with is the lack of faith and understanding among his disciples.  But He also “sympathize[s] with our weakness”.  He is the one who sends the Comforter to us and says “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matt 11:28) and the one who “had compassion for [the crowds], because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matt 9:36). John Peter Lange put it this way:

“… He stirred Himself up from the deep.  He moved Himself in the spirit to such a degree that the disciples perceived His agitation in His bodily appearance, -- hence: He convulsed Himself ; He billowed up, -- He surged up.  A divine storm of the spirit passed through His breast, under which His human nature quaked.

Now we see two responses.  Jesus is not going to sit around lamenting the situation.  He is going to act.  There is an old joke that says “a lot of people complain about the weather, but nobody does anything about it!”  Jesus is going to do something about it!

John 11:34  And he said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see."

But Jesus is not just going to dispassionately snap his fingers and perform a technical repair of a broken machine.  He is going to minister to humans as a human himself.  He feels the pain of the people around Him, and he manifests that shared emotion. Now the manifestation of this stirring up and human emotion is described in what is both the shortest verse in scripture and also one of the most beloved verses in the Bible:

John 11:35  Jesus wept.

Now the weeping of Jesus was not like that of Mary and the other mourners.  John uses the Greek word klaiō for their weeping which describes loud lamentation and wailing.  What Jesus did in verse 35 is a word (dakryō) which speaks more of quiet sobbing and shedding of tears.  And the people notice.  He is one of them.  He understands. 

John 11:36-37  ³⁶ So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" ³⁷ But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?"

But in the end, this section ends with everybody on the same page, saying the exact same thing.  Man, is Adam’s race hopeless or what?

IIc Jesus the I AM  (11:38-44): Jesus Acts

Now Jesus takes control of the situation, and He gives a sign that differentiates him from all the other religious leaders through history.  Remember that his earthly ministry is going to end with his crucifixion in a very short time. But He has promised to give the nation one more sign, the sign of Jonah.  He has raised people from the dead before, but both Jairus’ daughter and the widow’s son were only hours dead.  Lazarus has been in the grave for more than three days.  This is quite a different thing, and leaves no doubt as to his power.  He is going to prove that he is “the resurrection and the life”.

He springs into action.

John 11:38-39a  ³⁸ Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. ³⁹ Jesus said, "Take away the stone."

Once again Jesus is “deeply moved”, and the text seems to point to the lack of faith among the people manifesting as complaining about his not being there to heal his friend as the cause.  And now we see the faith-filled theologian try to stop Jesus from doing something foolish!

John 11:39b  Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days."

Martha demonstrates that she just doesn’t get it.  Jesus in his great “I AM” statement told her exactly what He could and would do, and she is here telling Him not to do it.  There is an amazing parallel between her and Peter.  Remember that right after Peter gave his great confession to Jesus about who He was, he turned around and told Him not to go through with the plans that He revealed to them about his death.  Now Martha has given almost the same word-for-word testimonial and then turns around and tells him that what He is calling for is foolish. Before we get too smug toward Martha, though, perhaps we should examine ourselves closely.  How many times even this week have each of us told God how unreasonable it would be to obey Him in something – just because it would look foolish or because we are too tired, or because it cramps our lifestyle?  Jesus replies

John 11:40  Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?"

It’s like He is replying “did I mumble?  Did I stutter? Come on!”   I can almost picture Him doing a quick facepalm before he goes on.  Now Jesus has an interesting conversation with his Father.  But it is not for the Father’s benefit.  It is for the crowd.

John 11:41-42  ⁴¹ So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me."  

Jesus is always teaching.  This sign is important.  It has the same purpose as John’s gospel, and is the crown of all of the signs listed in it (except his own resurrection, of course).  But it is easy to say that you are the resurrection and the life, but it is going to be impossible to demonstrate it unless it is indeed true.  The proof of the pudding is in the tasting, and this pudding is the best!  Now the only person in this whole chapter who obeys Jesus without any questioning or whining comes into the story:

John 11:43-44   ⁴³ When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out." ⁴⁴ The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

 

III Conclusion: (11:45-53) The People React

So a mighty miracle happened there in Bethany, and it was a preview of what would happen days later at Calvary with Jesus himself.

To this mighty miracle there were two responses:

• Some people become believers and followers of Jesus
• The rest hated Him and planned to kill Him.

As always, it all comes down to the heart.  John wrote earlier in his gospel that some people rejected Jesus because they loved darkness rather than light.  There are just two responses, receive Him or reject Him.

But what about those of us who do call ourselves believers?  How much do you believe?  When we were talking about this story about a week ago, Donella and I started thinking about Martha’s response specifically.   She was a person who any church would be proud of.  I believe that her faith was genuine and strong.  She had obviously paid a lot of attention to Jesus’ teaching, and she had the same God-given insights that were manifested by the apostle Peter that pleased Jesus so much in Matthew 16.  So I have no intention of maligning her spiritual condition.

But we were struck nonetheless by how much deflection that she did to the statements of Jesus.  Every time Jesus made a promise she chose the less hopeful option.  To every powerful claim He made she parroted back a lesser but well learned spiritual truth.  Finally she recoiled in fear when Jesus was going to actually prove his claims by giving her her brother back.  What was wrong with her?  Why was she so afraid of blessing?  What held her back from jumping in with both feet into a life of total faith?

I can’t fault her because I constantly step back from the scary precipice of really following Jesus with a full heart.  I think that we all do.  We don’t really want to give up the unnecessary stuff that we like.  In the end we love singing about giving all to Jesus, but we keep a lot of treasures in our pockets that we pick up on the way to the heavenly city.  How much blessing do we miss because we won’t trust Him totally?  How much do we sacrifice because we are comfortable in the statement “oh, we don’t do that”?

Maybe we all need to spend time with the Lord this week (and Communion service is just a few weeks away) and ask Him – “You are not frustrated with my deflections and excuses, are you?  How does my faith look to YOU?”

An Authentic Church

Preached 5/30/2021

[audio]

Acts 2:42-47   ⁴² And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. ⁴³ And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. ⁴⁴ And all who believed were together and had all things in common. ⁴⁵ And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. ⁴⁶ And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

 

INTRODUCTION

How is your church experience?  Do you look forward to church?  How many church opportunities do you participate in each week?  Do you attend bible study?  Prayer meeting? Men’s group?  Women’s group?  Work days?  Retreats?  How do you minister to others each week? 

A question we should ask ourselves is: what does God expect of me as a Christian?  How am I doing?  How do I live out my Christian life in a way that pleases and give glory to God?  Is God pleased with my walk? 

Well, church has become many things to many people.  We have many different traditions.  But we have an account of church from before this complicated time, when the apostles were still here, guiding and leading the church.  One such account is found in Acts chapter two.  What did the Acts 2 church look like?

 

I. Obsessing (42-43)

As we look at this vivid picture of the first church in history we learn many lessons about how we should approach church today.  Yes, their situation was somewhat unique.  Two thousand years later our situation is different: the church of today is not run by the apostles directly, and it spans many countries and cultures and political environments. But the universal church is the same one started back at Pentecost.  It is the same body of Christ with the same Jesus and the same gospel and the same redemption by the same faith by the same sacrifice.  As the group Whiteheart wrote in a song called “the flame passes on”:

Because of them we know His Name
So let's lift the cross, and do the same
An unbroken line of believers
Building a human chain
And the flame passes on,

This beginning of the church, then, calls us to action.  Surely what the Holy Spirit started, and what the apostles cultivated, gives us an example to follow.  How we implement it might be different.  We have a church building in which to meet instead of just home groups.  We can use the internet to meet and exchange news.  We can send missionaries on jets to literally the far side of the planet in hours, and wire them funds electronically.  But those are just details.  It is still the same church.  We still have the same Lord.  We still have the same purpose.

So how did these Christian live?  When we look at the first two verses of our passage for today we see one main word:

Acts 2:42-43  ⁴² And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. ⁴³ And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

Verse 42 starts with a verb.  Depending on your translation you may have something like “devoted” or maybe “continued steadfastly”.  It is a Present Participle, which denotes an action that is repeated continuously.  It is active, so it describes what the Christians performed, not what they passively experienced.  But more interesting is the meaning of the word itself. The word proskartereō means to be attentive to, or to adhere closely to, or to persevere in or even to be in constant readiness for.  It was used of a military aide who stays by the side of his commander to do his every wish.  Sinclair Ferguson says that it could even be translated addicted to.  What were the early Christians addicted to?  According to verse 42 this addiction had three objects: 

1. The apostles’ teaching
2. Their fellow Christians
3. The worship of God

The Spirit of God produced an addiction… an obsession… a devotion to each of these three things.  And it was not just once a week.  We see in verse 46 that they got together to do these things “day by day”.  Lest we think that this was “convenient”, remember that was back before the 40-hour work-week.  It was before the two-day weekend.  People rose before dawn and worked until sunset - six days a week.  And yet the pull of these three things consumed them.  They were addicted.  This obsession is the mark of a redeemed heart.  But it also describes what Christians are commanded to do by our Lord in scripture. These are the marks of a Christian. Let’s consider each one:

 

The Apostles’ Teaching

While we don’t have Peter, James, John and the rest of the apostles among us, we have their teaching in the Bible.  God has miraculously kept the Bible around for thousands of years, and in our age there are more bibles around than in any time in history.  We are blessed beyond measure with books, websites and apps.  We have many translations into hundreds of languages to choose from.  We have bible study tools at our fingertips.  When I was younger one of the first study books I purchased was a HUGE NASB Exhaustive Concordance.  It is inches thick and weighs nearly 6 ½ pounds (I weighed it last night).  It was my pride and joy for years.  But now on my phone I can access BlueLetterBible.com and other sites which will show me various English translations with the Greek text alongside.  I can look at words and see their meanings and etymology.  I can click on a word and have it tell me that the word is a present active participle verb and what that means.  We are literally sitting on a mountain of bible study riches unparalleled in all of human history!  And today we don’t have to get in a chariot or ride a donkey miles from our farm to some poorly lit house across town to sit on the dirt floor and hear our neighbor teach God’s word by candlelight.  We can participate personally in Bible study discussions a thousand miles away through programs like Zoom.

With all of these amazing blessings from God, that addiction must be producing record numbers of participants, eagerly lapping up the precious words of God, that tell us about Jesus and his love and his commandments for our lives, right?  Unfortunately we know that this is not true.  As participation gets easier it actually decreases.  Even in a church whose motto is literally “the Bible, the Whole Bible, and Nothing But the Bible” we are happy if we get nine or ten people to call in to our Sunday school class.  Our fellowship in the word is sweet, but we wish there were more.

 

Other Christians

Speaking of fellowship, the next two items fit into that category.  The first type of fellowship is mostly horizontal and Luke describes it as Breaking of Bread.  To understand, we should first look at the word “fellowship”.  The Greek word koinōnia carries the idea of belonging, intimacy, participation, community, communion, and association.  It is to share life with those with whom we have something in common.  As Christians it is hard to even count that which we have in common. We have a common purpose for existing, a common eternal destiny, A common Savior, a common family, a common kingdom, a common comforter in the Holy Spirit. Paul warns the Christians in Ephesus to be careful to “maintain the unity of the Spirit” because

Ephesians 4:3-6  There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call--  one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Because we have all of this in common, we must desire that fellowship. We cannot have that kind of relationship with non-believers.  As Paul warns the believers in Corinth:

2 Corinthians 6:14  Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 

The apostle John tells us

1 John 3:14  We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.

In other words, it is completely natural to a Christian’s character to desire to share life with other Christians.  And God put this desire in his people on purpose, because that fellowship is part of our purpose on this earth.  We see this in the “one another” commands in the New Testament.  The word translated “one another” is allēlōn (allēlōus, allēlōis).  It is used exactly 100 times in the New Testament and forms the object of many, many commands, all of which flow from the main one:

John 13:34  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

Scripture says we are “members of one another”, “live in harmony with one another”, “welcome one another”, “instruct one another”, “greet one another with a holy kiss”, come together to eat and “wait for one another”, “have the same care for one another”, “through love serve one another”, “bear one anothers’ burdens”, “be kind to one another”, forgive one another, submit to one another, “bear with one another”, “encourage one another”, give thanks for one another, “stir up one another to love and good works”, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another”, “show hospitality to one another”, “clothe yourselves … with humility toward one another”, and “love one another”, “love one another”, “love one another”, “love one another”, …

Here’s a question: can we fulfill these commands by watching famous preachers on TV instead of going to church, or just by attending an hour long service once a week and then not coming back for 167 hours to repeat the same formula? There is a meme out there that is often posted on Facebook by well-meaning, earnest Christians that drives me crazy, Yes, it sounds all spiritual, but it is unbiblical.  (Half of it is scriptural, to be sure, but the other half is exactly against scripture and the mixing of the two negates the point of the good part.)  It usually reads something like this: “God does not want you to go to church!  He wants you to love people!” The error of this statement should be obvious in the light of the one another commands we have just listed.  There is a place that God provided to live out those commands.  It is in the assembling of believers together.  The Acts 2 Christians did it daily.  Consider one more verse on this subject: Hebrews 10:24. Now verse 25 of that chapter is the standard “proof text” that we go to prove that people should go to church.  But that is not the entire sentence.  Let’s look at the command in its entirety:

Hebrews 10:24-25  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Notice that the command to not neglect getting together is framed by not one - but two – one anothers.  The whole purpose of assembling together for fellowship is to have a place to fulfill our purpose in this world.  And it is no use saying “but I don’t get anything out of those get-togethers.”  The “one another” part is that someone else will get something out of seeing you.

By the way, there are negative one anothers also: Don’t provoke or envy one another, don’t “bite and devour one another”, “do not lie to one another”, don’t repay evil to one another, don’t hate one another, do not grumble against one another, don’t speak evil of one another.

 

Worship of the Lord

The third object of their addiction was the vertical element of fellowship: prayer. Our primary relationship is our relationship with God, but all through scripture He tells his people to worship together. This includes corporate prayer. Paul writes:

1 Timothy 2:8   Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.

God’s people are commanded to regularly pray together.  Lest anyone think that this verse allows for people alone in their prayer closet (though solitary prayer is also commanded in scripture), note the negative part: “without wrath and dissension”.  Obviously that implies that these men are in a prayer meeting.  If you are fighting with yourself in your prayer closet you have a problem …. that someone else should pray with you about.

 

II Belonging (44-45)

What was the result of this studying, this fellowship, this communion, this prayer and this fear?  They became a family – in every sense of the word.  The body of Christ became their home:

Acts 2:44-45  ⁴⁴ And all who believed were together and had all things in common. ⁴⁵ And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

This is a truly miraculous result.  Think about what a change in the human heart this represents. Parents, think back to you’re your children were toddlers. What was just about the most favorite word of every toddler when they start engaging in meaningful social contact with others?  “MINE!”  As we start developing a sense of self, the next step is to distinguish between “mine” and “yours”.  It takes a lot to unlearn that and practice the social custom of hospitality and sharing, but most people do… to some extent.  It is still hard to share, though we generally respect those who give generously to others.

When it comes to family we naturally go farther.  Even the natural tendency to share is greater there.  There is an almost universal saying that says “blood is thicker than water”.  If all else fails, family is the thing that we give (or ought to give) our all to. One of reasons that the lockdowns around the world have caused so much emotional and psychological distress is that many families were separated and could not get together for holidays like they usually would.  Not all families work out for good, but we generally give family members a higher priority than co-workers and neighbors.

In the first century church we see the idea of family taken to what would seem to be an extreme level.  Everyone seems to have others’ interests at heart.  For those first Christians the body of Christ was their family.  And there were two manifestations of this:

1. First, they were together.  This obviously refers to their actions in the previous two verses that we already talked about.  They just couldn’t get enough of their brothers and sisters in Christ.  
   

2. Secondly, they cared for each other.  Verses 44 and 45 make it clear that in the church everyone was taken care of. They were
• Unselfish – they thought of others,
• Generous – they valued others more than their accumulated things,
• Conscientious – they met real needs, and
• Impartial – they helped anybody in need.

In the end, they acted like the example Jesus gave in the parable of the Good Samaritan, who cared for a stranger, treated his wounds, brought him to an inn, paid for his room and board and put himself on the line for further needs.  This is the example given by Jesus when asked about fulfilling the command to “love your neighbor as yourself”.

We should point out that there is a tendency to misunderstand this passage.  Is the behavior of the early Jerusalem church normative for all churches?  Should we take a vow of privacy and give everything to the church?  Are we supposed to form communes and live together in rough robes?  Is this telling us that Jesus and the apostles are advocating Communism?  There are churches and movements that argue over these questions and we should address them quickly. If we look at these verses in the light of the rest of scripture we can quickly see what the point of this passage is:

1. First of all, in the text itself we see a few things.  The giving was voluntary. People brought offerings to the apostles,  who soon appointed deacons to administer charity to those who needed it.  There is no recording of any command to do so – it flowed from the people. In chapter five Ananias and Sapphira were not condemned for holding back part of the proceeds of their property sale, but for lying about it to make themselves look more spiritual. 

2. Secondly, nowhere in the epistles (which were written by the apostles to the church) is there any command for communal property or any command to own nothing.  We are commanded to generously care for other Christians and for our families. James tells us that true religion cares for orphans and widows in need.  Paul takes up an offering from the Corinthian believers to help the poor believers in Jerusalem.  He quotes Jesus saying that “it is more blessed to give than to receive” and that “God loves a cheerful giver”.  But Paul also warns the church to only give assistance to those who are really in need (“a widow indeed” 1 Timothy 5) and commands that  “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” 2 Thessalonians 3:10-11 so that they church would not be filled with “idle” “busybodies”.

3. All through scripture we see that some Christians had houses because they hosted churches in them.  In several places we see that the church consisted of believers from many different social and economic classes.  Onesimus was a slave.  So the bible definitely not teach that Christians were the first communists.

All of this should be obvious.  The point here is twofold: 

• Firstly, the phrase “blood is thicker than water” came to them to refer to the blood of Christ that joined them together in a forever family.  They had a new family now, and they were fully in love with and dedicated to that family. Does this eliminate our obligations to our earthly families?  Absolutely not!  Consider the commands of Ephesians chapter five which tell us not to neglect those relationships, whether we are fathers, mothers, children, wives or husbands.  Paul is very clear when he says this:

1 Timothy 5:8  … if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

The problem is this, however.  Many Christians are not really committed to their spiritual family at all and are willing to sunder their bonds with their Christian friends at the slightest perceived slight against their family members.  I have seen countless church splits because of this, and the vitality of local churches ravaged by those who reckon their spiritual ties to be much less important than their earthly relatives.  I remember one such person, when presented with the damage that their relative had caused to the church by their anger, telling the council “you don’t expect me to turn against my own (relative), do you?”  The facts didn’t matter.  Earthly blood was more important than Christ’s blood, I guess.  But think about this: Sapphira was taken by God because she repeated her husband’s lies to Peter.  Supporting family over righteousness and God’s family resulted in judgment.  I’m glad that God does not strike us dead like that now, or I probably would not be here to speak to you this morning.  But it is a stark reminder of how important our new family really is.

• Secondly and most importantly, they fulfilled the command of Jesus to love one another.  The same command we have. In his high priestly prayer in the garden of Gethsemane (recorded in John chapter 17) Jesus said that the world would know that He had come if we would just obey that commandment.  We will see in verse 47 that this was literally fulfilled in the church right at the start!

 

III Celebrating (46-47)

The mood of our public fellowship is manifested in the last two verses of the chapter.  As we read them we see a tremendous outbreak of joy and gladness:

Acts 2:42-47   And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Is your week a drag?  The Acts 2 church was filled with excitement and happiness and thankfulness.  With the word understood they knew what God had done for them.  With their breaking of bread together they did all of the one-anothers for each other and built each other up.  And they prayed together, sharing one anothers’ burdens, leading to love and encouragement and comfort.  Even the food that they shared became a sign of God’s goodness.

This was not an artificial happiness, but a joy of fulfillment and being loved.  They went to one anothers’ homes, broke bread, shared their burdens with each other, and praised God together.  A canned church service was not enough.  Their fellowship together let everyone participate in the praise and celebration.  Note that their fellowship was spiritual.  They talked about Jesus.  They fulfilled the requirements to be able to rejoice that are described by Paul in Philippians 4:

Phil 4:5,6,9  ⁵ Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ^…. ⁹ What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me--practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Note the parallel with our passage – thankfulness, prayer, fellowship, and devotion to the apostles’ teachings.  Fellowship is not just talking about common worldly interests.  Christian fellowship must be centered around Christ, or it’s just worldly babble, destined to dissipate in the final judgment.  Spiritual fellowship is this:

Colossians 3:16  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

How is your joy?

 

Conclusion

This is what the Acts chapter two church looked like, and it is what our churches should look like. But over the years our “worship” has become packaged, standardized, and formalized.  We turn on the “Christian switch” on Sunday morning at church (often just getting there as the official service starts) and watch the clock until closing time where we turn off the switch and high-tail it out of the parking lot.  Or maybe we stay to discuss movies, sporting events or video games with someone for a few minutes for “fellowship”.  And then we start the 167 hour countdown until our next exposure.  And we have let that happen without perhaps even realizing it.  Sinclair Ferguson made this interesting observation:

“Sometimes the very architecture of our church buildings suggests that being a member is like having a season ticket for a bus commute: you show your ticket, climb on board, face the same way as all the other passengers, are driven to the destination by the man at the front, disembark at the end, and get on with your life”.

Of course we say that church is fun!  We sing a couple of songs fervently and we listen obediently to the sermon (while perhaps thinking about what we plan to have for lunch).  And the church shrinks because we do not carry a sense of the joy of knowing Christ out into the world.

Church growth experts tell us that churches need to have more fun activities and lay off of the boring bible study and prayer.  People are put off by “religious” activities – we should have funny skits and lasers and smoke machines and a great big worship band and perhaps a crystal roof or songs from TV sitcoms instead of the old boring hymns.  But the formula for growth in Acts (that pesky book in the bible that gives the history of when the church turned the entire world upside down) has a different formula.  At least three times in the early chapters of Acts we are told of explosive growth in the church. 

• The first talks about 3000 souls being added to the church.  This happened not with a comedy skit but when Peter preached the unabashed gospel to the crowd at Pentecost.  The reaction? They were “cut to the heart”.  (A big no-no to church growth experts)

• The second is in our passage for today.  When the people pursued the three things – bible study, fellowship and prayer – every soul felt “awe” day by day, and “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”  The word “awe” is the Greek word phobos (from which we get the word phobia) that means “fear”.

• Beginning to see a pattern here?

• The third one is in Acts chapter 5 after the harsh church discipline of the lying couple.  It says that “great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.  We see an interesting contradiction in 5:13 and 14.  In verse 13 it says “None of the rest dared join them” but verse 14 says “and more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.”

So the outcome of a functioning Acts 2 church is an environment where the sense of God is overpowering.  Furguson ends his chapter on these verses with this conclusion:

“That is real church.  Outsiders will feel they are not really fit to join.  And yet at the same time the displays of God’s life-transforming grace in the fellowship awaken in them a deep longing for what they see – perhaps even with a little jealousy sometimes.  The result is that they are irresistibly drawn to Christ and all the blessings enjoyed in the fellowship of his church.

Yes, loving your church is a healthy addiction.  And the Spirit wants to make it contagious.”