“A MISSIONAL CHURCH?”

A sermon based upon Acts 2: 42-48.

Preached by Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, 

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Sunday After Pentecost, November 19th    (Series:  THE MISSIONARY CHURCH)

Last week, we learned that a church on mission has only one message: Jesus is “the way, truth and life, no one comes to the Father except through him.”    Until we get clear on this very narrow message, we don’t know what our mission is.   We would be like the business that went out of business and put a sign on the door: “We went out of business, because we didn’t know what our business was.” Without being clear about Jesus, and doing church like he is the only true way, we are ‘out of business because we didn’t know what our business is’. 

Today we want to think about, in more detail, what does a church on mission look like?   I also want to ‘teach’ you a new word: Missional.   Because the world around us has become ‘our mission field’, we must learn to be ‘mission-minded’ in a whole new way.   Instead of sending missionaries, we are the missionaries:  ‘Every Baptist is a missionary’ a European Baptist used to say.   To exist in a culture like ours, we must think less about maintaining our church, and we must become ‘missional’ in our own neighborhood.

So, what should a missional church look like?   In Acts 2: 42-48 we see the kind of church culture that was a thriving, spiritual community which quickly grew from 120 to 3,000 members.  It was precisely this kind of ‘missional’ community and culture that challenged the religious status quo of that day with the saving and healing power of Jesus Christ.

HAD ALL THINGS COMMON (a church that cares, v. 44)

Let’s start with the line in verse 44 which tells us how they ‘had all things in common’.   We read how they ‘sold their possessions and goods’ to give to those in need. 

Perhaps the first thing we need to get out of the way is that this is community, not ‘communism’.   Under communism people did not ‘sell their possessions and goods’, but their property it was forcibly seized.   Under communism there the attempt to equally distribute goods, always meant the ‘leaders’ got more.   And finally, under communism, people were more in need than ever before.   No, this text is not teaching communism, but it is teaching community.

When we arrived in eastern Germany, the former GDR, right after communism fell apart, we learned why.   Communism was not true Socialism.  People did not get enough food.  People did not have any money or property.  Buildings were crumbling.  The government was corrupted.  People lived in fear.  The infrastructure of was falling apart.  Communism could not be sustained.  It was a failure not only because it was ‘forced’, but because it failed to do justice and it failed to worship God.   Communism will not work, but community can.

What is happening here is true ‘community’.   Everything that is happening is spirit led and freely given.   A true human ‘community’---is a community of the Spirit that is centered on faith in God, and focused on giving themselves to others because of a shared purpose---to the be body of Jesus Christ in the world.   Don’t make this text any more complicated.  Here, the Spirit of Jesus has taken hold of human hearts. Here, people give themselves to God and neighbor, so that community happens. 

What does this mean for us today?   It reminds us that being a church on mission means that we are people, coming together to create community around a common, shared purpose to love as Jesus loves us.   We don’t just teach or talk about being a ‘community’, but we are doing it, and literally ‘banking’ on it.    We give ourselves to God’s saving purpose that is bigger than ourselves so we can also be saved from ourselves.    A community in Christ organizes itself, not around my family, your family, our around traditions of the past, but a church that is missional, longs to create God’s family now, by sharing our lives with each other.     

DEVOTED TO APOSTLE’S TEACHING (a church that learns, v. 42)

It is also important to understand that the ‘purpose’ of God’s community, is not to meet physical needs alone, but it is to participate in what God wants to do in our lives right now.  

This brings us to the second necessary trait of a ‘missional church’.   Here it is named as ‘being devoted to the apostle’s teaching’.   

There are many types of communities, clubs, political and group associations in our world.   Many of these are worthy, good causes and Christians can and should participate in many of them.   But the church of Jesus Christ, is a community with a purpose no other community has been given.   We have been ‘commissioned’ by Christ to ‘go into the world’ and to ‘make disciples’ an d ‘teach’ all nations, what Jesus taught us.    This is what the ‘apostle’s teachings’ were and still are.   Before the church was called church, is was called ‘people of the way’.   This way of Jesus Christ is the way of love which starts with the way of ‘fellowship, breaking bread, and prayers.’   This is where it starts, but not where it ends. 

There is no being a Christian, without learning what it means to love, trust, obey to keep learning what it means to follow Jesus.   That we should follow Jesus never changes, but how we are to follow Jesus is something constantly changes.   It changes not because the God’s love changes, but it changes because the needs of the world changes.   Being ‘devoted’ to the ‘apostle’s teaching’, means that we are constantly and consistently ‘going deeper’ into what it means to be faithful to Jesus in our own time and place.   Only a church that is never satisfied with what it knows and does, can be ‘satisfied with’ and satisfy Jesus, as the song says.  

In year’s past, Baptist churches ‘made disciples’ through programs like Baptist Training Union, and through Sunday School classes.  In our society these forms of discipleship are disappearing.   I have a friend of mine, whom you know, who is pastor of a much larger church than ours.  He said:  “When we lost Training Union in our Churches, we lost our Church Leaders.  Now, that we are losing our Sunday School, we are losing the knowledge of the Bible and the knowledge of what it means to be Christian.”   He might be right.  But I’m still hopeful, that we we can find ways not to lose our ‘discipleship’, that is, our ‘devotion to the Apostle’s teaching’.    What might that look like?

When Teresa and I began to work in Germany, we were guests of one of the largest Baptist churches in all of Germany; the Hope Church, located in one of the most populated areas of all of Europe.   This was a ‘working class’ church, and it was a church on mission.  It was the first time I had ever been a part of a church that did not the kind of Sunday School, I knew.  For you see, Sunday School was a British and American invention.  It wasn’t something that had ever existed on continental Europe.  They still did have discipleship, and they type of discipleship and devotion they used,  fit an ‘unchurched’ fit their ‘unchurched’ world even better.  

Each week, or at least twice a month, a ‘teacher’ who was often a ‘deacon’, would lead a House Group in his home.   They would use a type of ‘lesson’ just like our Sunday School, except there was a very personal, informal, relaxed, relational, atmosphere.   It was much more than teaching, it was teaching and then sharing the journey of life and faith together.   People who had never been to church before, were invited become part of these ‘small groups’ which were intentionally fitted to introduce people to the truths of Scripture, and most important the truth about Jesus.   Sunday morning primarily for Worship by Christians.  How can you know how to worship, unless you know ‘who’ or ‘why’ you are worshipping?  

This is how a culture that had lost its knowledge of God, introduced people to faith.    The small group, where people came to know and care for each other, as they learned together, was how people learned to relate to God and to each other.  There are many other things I could tell you that might work, but perhaps the most important point is that the church on mission must share and care together, even before it can rightly teach the way of Jesus.  Christians must show how they are devoted to Christ’s way, before others can know that ‘the way’ is right.  

DISTRIBUTED TO ALL, AS ANY HAD NEED (a church that shares, v.45).

The early church was a community that proved its devotion to Jesus, not only with words, but also with deeds.    I find it unremarkable that the early church was a community poised to meet the physical needs of the people in its own community.    Isn’t this what we remember most about Jesus, when we think of him as someone who ‘went about doing good’?   The ‘good’ that Jesus did, was not only to die for us, but it was also to live and show us how to live with each other, and especially how to reach out ‘to the least of these’---those who still find themselves on the margins of life; the sick, hungry, lonely, or those in special need of love.   

Remember how Jesus began his ministry, quoting Isaiah, saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me….”    Jesus went on to tell how he was called to ‘bring good news’, but this ‘good news’ was never only words, but God’s love was a verb.   A community in Christ must still be a community that is a verb of caring, learning, and sharing love with each other, and showing love to others in our community.  The word ‘distribute’ is simply ‘to share’ (NAS), which is ‘to share equally and fairly’ with those around us who are in need of hope and help.

In the world of the early church, there were no social programs, no insurance, nor service ministries, so the church felt inspired to ‘meet’ the needs around them.  While we have many more social and service structures in our world today, the church, if it is going to prove God’s love, must find new ways to show and share Christ’s love.   And the greatest needs are always more than physical; they are also relational, social, moral, and spiritual.   Only the church is given the ‘keys to God’s Kingdom’ which means Christ has empowered the Church to put its finger on the moral, relational and spiritual ‘pulse’ of the community to ask questions, no one else is asking, and to see needs, that no one else might see.   The less people are a part of God’s saving community today, the more these relational, emotional, relational and spiritual needs will show themselves.  But are we ready to see and respond?      

WITH GLAD AND GENEROUS HEARTS (a church that is joyful and generous. v. 46)

Next, we need to see that this community that was led by the Spirit, came to care, learn, and share with each other so that they became a community full of gladness and generosity. 

Reflecting on what this means for us, I sometimes wonder ‘who’ would miss this church community, if it were gone or died?   The ‘gladness’ and ‘generosity’ known in the ‘worship’ of the early Christian community found the ‘goodwill of all the people’.   It was known by all around it! 

 Are we ‘glad when they said to us, let us go into the house of the Lord’?   What brings us the kind of ‘gladness’ that makes us happy to be a community in Christ and others know us as a ‘glad’ people?  What we also see here, is that the early church was so contagious that people could not stand to be away.  They couldn’t wait for the next Sunday, the next fellowship, and the next Bible study.  The text says, that they ‘spent much time together…. They broke bread at home… they ate their food with glad and generous hearts.   Could it be that the church was glad because it was also ‘a generous’ church?   When life is about giving what you have to give, rather than holding only to get more, people will see in us something they don’t have.

AWE CAME UPON EVERYONE (a church of wonder & witness, v. 43)

Finally, the early church was full of ‘awe’ and amazement.   Now, we might at first understand that these ‘apostles’ were doing ‘wonders’ or ‘miracles’, which we can’t do.   But notice, it does not say they were doing ‘miracles’, but these are ‘signs and wonders’ which might include ‘miracles’, but points to much more.   Signs are ‘signposts’ which point to Jesus.  Wonders are simply the things that make us wonder because of Jesus showing up in someone’s life.  The wonders the church did then, are really no different than the wonders the church can still do now.   These are the things that we can do because of Jesus, which wouldn’t happen in our community with a people who are following Jesus.  Can we still imagine doing things we normally wouldn’t do, but will try because of Jesus?

When I was a pastor in Lenoir, we had a special ‘home’ located nearby which was established for recovering ‘Alcoholics’.   That ‘home’ had a much better success rate of helping, because it was a ‘home’ which included teaching men to put their faith in Jesus.   When some of them came to our church to share with us, they shared reasons for their recovery?  They needed and found Jesus.  Yes.  They learned to study the Bible. Yes.  They gave themselves to stricter discipline. Yes.   All these were true, but the most important ‘sign and wonder’ that always came through was the influence one special person, either the director, or a special partner, or sponsor, who was coming along side of them, to show them the way.   The key to the ‘miracle’ took on ‘flesh and blood’, became a friendship of someone who cared enough to  take time for them, and to be with them when they were in need.

Do you know how the greatest ‘sign and wonder’ of the early church was expressed:  “Silver and Gold have I none, but what I have I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ…..”   Even when the apostles had nothing else, they always gave themselves.   The ‘wonder’ of the early church was exactly these people who came together ‘with all things in common’,  to ‘devote themselves to learning, and to ‘prayer’ and to care and share, so that they ‘they had the goodwill of all the people’.   This is why the church grew so rapidly.   It had a culture the world didn’t have.  And even when the miracles became less, the ‘signs and wonders’ became more and more the people who cared and loved.  “People to People” as the song says, is always the greatest miracle in life.

   You too are a ‘sign’ and ‘a wonder’ when you live in a the kind of community that points people to Jesus, by being Jesus in the world and to each other.   This is always the kind of church culture that becomes missional.  When we have one purpose; to care, share, and show Christ’s love, we become the body of Christ, that is indispensable; like no ’body’ else in the world.   Amen.