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TSP 4th Sunday of Easter
35 Plays1 month ago
Pastors Brandt and Hardaway continue their discussion from the book of Acts.
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Transcript
Introduction and Focus of the Episode
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Speaker
Greetings and welcome back to this week's episode of This Sunday, where Phil Brandt, Pastor Brandt, and I take a look at the readings for the upcoming Sunday and the calendar of the church
Fourth Sunday after Easter and Prayer
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here.
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This week, we'll be digging into the fourth Sunday after Easter. I'll open us up with the word of prayer, the call it of the day for that Sunday, and then Dr.
The Early Christian Community
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Brandt will lead us into our reading and our study. We pray.
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Almighty God, and merciful Father, since you have wakened from death the shepherd of your sheep, grant us your Holy Spirit, that when we hear the voice of our shepherd, we may know him who calls us each by name and follow where he leads. Through the same Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Amen.
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man
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The reading from Acts for the fourth sunday after or the fourth Sunday of Easter.
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Acts chapter 2. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers, and awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, and in all who believed were together and had all things in common.
00:01:27
Speaker
And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.
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And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
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Here ends the reading.
Good Shepherd Sunday: Jesus as Shepherd
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No, it's Good Shepherd Sunday.
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We get to read the 23rd Psalm. We hear those wonderful words from from John as he talks about Jesus as the Good Shepherd. um Great text.
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Great text. what I really like about this text is it shows the people of God almost immediately, well immediately,
00:02:27
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stepping into the shepherd role. that that That Jesus is shepherding his people through his people today. And last week, you may remember, we we the the words right before this are that 3,000 were added to their fellowship that day.
00:02:46
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3,000 people got baptized. um i I just try to imagine, you know what would an organization be like that suddenly added, you know, it says they had about 120 on the day of Easter that gathered, you know, that were there, that, you know, when when they when they picked Matthias, they had about 120 people. um And all of a sudden, you've got an influx of 3,000 joined that organization.
00:03:15
Speaker
mean, just structurally and in terms of its ethos, in terms of the character of that that group, what would have that been like? You know, it would have been chaos. I think about any if if one Sunday ah any of the churches I ever served, if one Sunday 3,000 people suddenly showed up and said, we want to be a member of this church.
00:03:43
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how would we How would we assimilate? How would we integrate these people? Or are in fact, would it be more the case that my congregation would be integrated and assimilated into this new thing?
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and And what what i what i I really like is that immediately after that statement, they added 3,000 people, Luke tells us what those kind of what that group of people is like.
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and And he gives us a number of really beautiful, wonderful things that he uses to describe this is what that group, those people,
00:04:23
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as they interacted with each other, what that congregation was really like. and And really what you see there is Jesus, the good shepherd, through his Holy Spirit and his presence in that community, shepherding. Jesus rose from the dead you know for a very specific... you know I think we oftentimes think Jesus rose from the dead and now he ascended up into heaven and he's kind of you know up there...
Christian Community as a Miracle
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listening to angels sing heavenly top 40. don't know. when know
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and and And that what what i I love is that Jesus rose from the dead for a very specific purpose, and that was to take care of you. Jesus rose from the dead to be the shepherd who takes care of people, who looks after the flock,
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and And what we see here in this this final these final words, these are the last words in chapter 2 of Acts, is that Jesus is doing it. Now, is there anything, i mean, it says the disciples do some miracles, here but is there anything particularly miraculous about any of this? Is it, is it you know, Jesus showing up in his beard and and robe, taking care? No, it's it's it's happening through the community.
00:05:45
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It's happening as these people meet together, eat together, take care of each other, worship together, pray with one another, that Jesus is shepherding.
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and that And that he rose from the dead to do that. He didn't just rise from the dead to go and go to heaven and leave us, but he rose from the dead to be present and to be in his people and among his people.
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and And he's doing it today. He's doing it through the pastor who preaches that you listen to. He's doing it through that that Christian who puts their arm around you on a sad day and and gives you a hug. um He's doing it through that that spouse that forgives you when that's what you really need to be is forgiven because you've just messed up.
00:06:31
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um he he's He's shepherding you through the parents who fed you as a child and through the children who sometimes remind you of your own failings. um he's He's there. he's he's in all of those things.
00:06:48
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Shepherding. and And I love this text for for how it it brings Jesus the shepherd into my life. Okay, because yeah it's it's one thing to think about that image of Jesus the good shepherd. And and we oftentimes have, you know, Jesus the shepherd and you got a sheep there. And i can and and we can sing, I am Jesus the little lamb. But yet, how does he do that?
00:07:14
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yeah how How does he actually pull that off? um and And I think Acts 2 gives us a beautiful way of saying this is how he does it. Peter, by the way, also is talking this way today in the epistle meeting.
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But yeah, so so they devote themselves to the apostles' teaching. right So what are they doing? what's One of the first things to notice about that community of Christians is they listen.
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yeah I mean, we oftentimes think sheep are are not very bright. But that's just not true. Sheep are actually relatively intelligent and far as far as barnyard animals go.
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um But they have very poor eyesight. they They just don't see very well. But they have very sharp hearing. And so you know a lot of times, you if you've ever spent any time around sheep, they you'll bring them up to you'll you'll kind of drive them up to a gate and they won't go through.
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They'll just turn to the side because they can't see that it's open.
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And so what a good shepherd has to do is kind of pick one up, put it through the gate, and they'll hear it on the other, and they go, oh, I can go that way. And they can hear that sheep out there, and then they't then they'll follow right through.
00:08:29
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um So yeah, I mean, and and so Jesus' words that that we heard in the collage just a few minutes ago of that were echoing Jesus' words about that we may hear his voice.
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That is spot on for Jesus, the good shepherd. It's not that we see the Good Shepherd coming over the hill to rescue us. We hear him. And so they start off, they devote themselves to the a to the apostles' teaching.
00:08:55
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They listen. that It's funny. Maybe it's not funny. I'm just recognizing one of those times where Jesus did that in my life. It when I met my wife.
00:09:07
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Uh-huh. We're both believers. She was raised in the Lutheran church. I wasn't. I was a church worker, so I understood the Bible. yeah ah Well, I thought I understood the Bible. We'll put it that way.
00:09:19
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but But as soon as we we met and we started dating and doing all those things, almost every single time we would sit down and have a meal together, there' there obviously you say grace before the meal, but there's so many times where we were studying God's word.
00:09:38
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and And it wasn't, I'll be honest, it wasn't necessarily led by me in the traditional sense that we might see that. It was this understanding, hey, we kind of like each other, My wife had been devoted to God's word, lived that life that I hadn't, and recognized there might be some differences here. So if we're going to end up being something long-term, husband and wife, well then we need to be doing this together.
00:10:07
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And you ah she she denies it to this day, but over the course of, I don't know, two or three months, she took me through Luther's small catechism. Start to finish. But it wasn't for the academic purpose of going through Luther's small catechism like we sometimes excuse me perceive that.
00:10:28
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I was being shepherded by my wife, but through his word. and just I look back and was like, wow, that was... That was amazing. wait just Just to get to experience that. And it's just like Luke was saying last week, not not so much breaking, you know, what going forth, I forget, breaking from the the role that he's playing and looking directly in the camera and saying, this is what this means. He's still in the narrative, but as we're reading through the narrative, we're going,
00:11:04
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a That's maybe one way how it works. Yeah. Oh,
00:11:12
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yeah Yeah, this is, this this is i mean, I think one, i think it's just, Luke is, Luke, I think putting this immediately, this this little summation of this picture of the community right after this influx of 3,000 is really important because what he's he's really saying is as it grows, these are the things that it is.
00:11:35
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and And when you join the Christian movement, when you become one of the next batch of baptized, this is what you're signing on for. This is who you're joining.
00:11:48
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And I think that's that's really, really crucial.
Communal Living and Early Church Dynamics
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And I think it remains something that, you know, I... I don't want to make you, you got to be really careful with this. And we're going to run into this in just a second in this reading that, that we don't make, make Luke's description of this group into a prescription for all groups.
00:12:07
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That it doesn't become that all of them look exactly like this. I think Luke is describing something that is, that was noteworthy and is, is, is worth paying attention to that, that this group had a particular character and an ethos about it.
00:12:23
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It was living together in a particular way. And that you could identify things that said that is that is who they are. And so, I mean, the first thing they're doing is they're listening.
00:12:36
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They are a group of people who attend to the teaching of the apostles. The next thing is that they also are very devoted to the fellowship. And this is perhaps...
00:12:51
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the next line, of course, to the breaking of bread and to prayers. This may be the only reference in the entire book of Acts. There's one a little bit later possible referencing the Lord's Supper, which is very interesting because because we know that you know Paul talks about it in Corinthians and elsewhere. You have references to the Lord's Supper, but...
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In Acts, we don't get any of them. and And that's kind of a mystery for the people who interpret and read Acts is why doesn't he talk more about these communities centered around a sacramental you know meal like this? um It could well be because in Luke's understanding of these things that this is such a holy thing, you don't talk about it openly.
00:13:41
Speaker
We know that the early church later would have some ideas like that. that that you know they they ah They really did practice like a closed communion in that if you were not a member of the church, when they when they started into the offertory after the sermon, okay when they after they got done with the prayers, they would say, okay, everybody who's not a member of this cout of this church, there's the door.
00:14:10
Speaker
You can leave now. And they would do them out. or are For our modern day language, the adult membership class meeting in the fellowship class while the rest of us have go have communion. right And so it may well be that Luke doesn't talk about those things just because that it we that's inappropriate.
00:14:32
Speaker
ah But I don't know. i don't know me that That's one guess. Again, Luke never turns to us and says, oh, by the way, here's why I'm not talking about this. He just doesn't do that. He narrativizes it. this ah This may be the only reference to the Lord's Supper in the entire in the entire book, interestingly.
00:14:51
Speaker
but that So they they attend to the fellowship. and And for me, and i as I hear that, that means that they're in that they're devoted to it. they are They are in the same way that when you're paying attention to the teaching of somebody, when you're devoted to the teaching of someone,
00:15:11
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you you are not, you're putting some effort in. Right? you you're You're not just present in the room, but mentally absent. You're there.
00:15:24
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When you're devoted to their teaching, you're there. But when you're devoted to the fellowship, to this breaking of bread and to prayer, you are you are you're you're in you're you you You've bought into it and And that fellowship, that relationship that this community has with each other, you know it means you're not just going to walk away because you got your feelings hurt.
00:15:52
Speaker
you're not just goingnna You're not just going to say, oh, I didn't like what that person said to me, so I'm i'm going to check out. No, you're devoted to this. you are You are saying, this is this is important to me. We're going to find a way to solve this problem.
00:16:09
Speaker
You know, it's it it's just you that leaving isn't an option at that point. beauty he's most Most of the young the epistles surround something of that.
00:16:24
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yep. It's addressing how the church addressed an issue. Mm-hmm. Hey, this popped up. Well, Paul writes, this is maybe how you should consider doing this. and Book of Hebrews, the church of Jerusalem being persecuted.
00:16:46
Speaker
what What do we do? What do we do? And the author's like, well, hold fast to your faith. la
00:16:54
Speaker
but But not just, oh, I don't like Netflix, so I'm going to cancel my membership and go to Hulu. Yeah. Yeah. We're devoted to Netflix, you know, or to or to Hulu. but But I am devoted to my wife. And if we have a problem, I'm going to, we're going to resolve it. I'm not just going to walk away.
00:17:14
Speaker
and And I get the sense that that's what we're talking about here, that they are devoted to this to this fellowship. ah And so much so that in in the next verse it says, and awe, I think is the is is how the the ESV translates this, but the the Greek word there is fear.
00:17:32
Speaker
And fear came upon them all, every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. they they they They come to have this sense that their community, that this community this group they are a part of, this teaching that they're hearing, this love that they have for one another is really part of something holy and something way larger than simply a an association of like-minded individuals, you know which is how the government defines a church.
00:18:08
Speaker
you know this is This isn't just a potluck with voters assembly. Right, right. This isn't just a ah bunch of people who have kind of a same sort of ethos, same sort of background coming together and enjoying each other's company until they don't.
00:18:22
Speaker
Right. this is This is, I am part of something God is doing in this place. And it is way bigger than me. And I feel honored, special.
00:18:34
Speaker
ah I feel privileged. to be a part of this. And so they have this sort of holy fear comes on them. i ah that that's That's not something you can program. That's really not something you can you can ah you can you can plan. But i I think about, you know, my, my I've seen that in congregations.
00:19:06
Speaker
I've seen that in places where I work. It isn't always present in a congregation. All right. um But I think when a congregation is is is really kind of running on all cylinders and when things are going well, that that becomes a possibility.
00:19:24
Speaker
And and and and i think all of us at some point or another have had that sense at some point in our lives.
00:19:35
Speaker
You know, it it may have been brief, may have been longstanding, but this idea that I'm part of i'm part of God's kingdom in a really interesting way right now.
00:19:47
Speaker
And this is, I'm doing something that is just holy and pure and good. That holy fear that that that came upon them. The apostles did wonders and signs.
00:20:00
Speaker
Now, what's a wonder and a sign? You know? I ah
00:20:09
Speaker
i used to i used to serve a fairly good-sized parish down in in southern Oregon, and and we would talk with the ah there with the with my elders and the people who were there. We'd talk about the Miracle Minute because we we had this area where we put on our robes and things immediately before the service.
00:20:27
Speaker
And um we'd go in there, and the church would be pretty empty. There were many people there. We'd throw on our robe and say a quick prayer. We'd walk out. The place would be full.
00:20:39
Speaker
it was like this miracle minute comes And I remember, you know, I remember really thinking about it. yeah It really is a miracle. You know, we we were getting, you know, close to 200 people in church on a typical Sunday at that point. And it's like, why are these people here?
00:20:56
Speaker
know, if you think about it rationally,
00:21:00
Speaker
are they here because my sermons are so good? No. I mean, is our choir, I mean, goodness sakes, they can hear a lot better music on the radio. They can hear, you know, what are they, what are they here for? and and And ultimately we had to say, I think this is a miracle. This is a sign and a wonder that God has touched these hearts and brought them to, brought them into this place to be, to be the, the, the, the
00:21:32
Speaker
to join their voices with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven today. And yeah that that that here we get to we get to witness a miracle. And so, I mean, I think we oftentimes hear that that phrase, you know, the apostles were doing wonders and miracles. And it may well be that that they were know healing the sick and casting out demons. They were doing all the things of Jesus.
00:21:56
Speaker
because i think that's another thing Luke is trying to get across to us is that Jesus hasn't left. He's just doing it through his disciples. He's doing the same work through them. And and Jesus did wonders and signs.
00:22:10
Speaker
The disciples were doing wonders and signs. And I think that's ah that's a real theological point that Luke is trying to make. But I but i think also the idea that, that wow, every Sunday,
00:22:22
Speaker
the members of my parish today open up their wallets and they put money in an offering plate and they support what this congregation is doing.
00:22:32
Speaker
You know how many people do that with their taxes to the government? Joyfully? Joyfully? Open up the wallet? Yeah, they don't do that. That just doesn't happen. And so, you know, I mean, they for nobody has got a crowbar in their wallet prying it open. This is completely volatile.
00:22:51
Speaker
They are... they are They are giving. And and that is that is, in fact, miraculous. Yes. When there's there's a gap or a bridging section between last week's reading in Acts and this one, verses 40 and 41, save yourselves from this crooked generation. And so you look at a couple generations, both both the the religious leaders, the Pharisees, Sadducees, that hearts were hardened, could not see how obvious it was that Jesus was the fulfillment of the law and prophets, but also just Roman culture.
00:23:31
Speaker
that that they were living in. yeah and So we're listening to Peter. Peter, when he writes his letter, I love the King James Version, 1 Peter 2, verse 9. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people.
00:23:50
Speaker
and love that word. Love that word. That you should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Yeah. Yeah, you you are a people everybody's gonna look at and and ah and and I mean, that word has changed a little meaning since the early 1700s.
00:24:10
Speaker
But it retains some of the good of that of the current usages. People look at you and they think you're a little odd. And that's okay.
00:24:23
Speaker
That's okay. um And and that that you are reflecting the fact that you are walking in a different light, you are walking on a different path, you are not conformed to the ways of this world, and that's going to make you look a little bit different.
00:24:43
Speaker
And and i think I think that's what this this marvelous passage in Luke is really talking about. They they just look different. and and And so, yeah, I mean, so so this is in and of itself a kind of miracle.
00:24:56
Speaker
And so when they talk about the apostles doing miracles, um I think we we we limit, we narrow that down sometimes to to the to the things that we would call a miracle today, which the the healing of the sick or the casting out of a demon or the the opening the eyes of a blind. Yes, miracle.
00:25:17
Speaker
I believe God still does those things. But but I think it also is miraculous that, that as we said last week, you know that 100,000 people are going to join Christianity today.
00:25:31
Speaker
You know, there's a miracle. And it doesn't, you know, it doesn't look miraculous to us all the time. You know, that God called a whole bunch of people to get up on a Sunday morning and instead of going golfing or fishing or whatever it is that they might have, they
Generosity vs. Prescriptive Practices
00:25:44
Speaker
came to church. They sang songs. They sang hymns. We prayed together.
00:25:48
Speaker
know, that's a very... Devoted to the preaching of the word. Yeah. Devoted to the... You know, the apostles teaching the Old Testament, the New Testament. This text that was written so long ago.
00:26:00
Speaker
We're still focusing on Still seeing it being transformative in our lives. but these These are but the oldest words any of your people or any of our people are going to hear this week.
00:26:14
Speaker
Yeah. They're 2,000 years old. Who else is reading 2,000-year-old stuff? yeah Where else are you reading that? yeah Maybe if you take a class in Homer, or if you're reading something like guy you're reading old stuff. But i mean how many of us actually do that ah other than this? ah But this is totally still here.
00:26:34
Speaker
So they were selling. And so here we get into this part where we got to be a little careful about prescriptive and descriptive use of this, you know, where it isn't always something that, that, that does, does it always have to look like this? No.
00:26:48
Speaker
All who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. i mean, at this point, I think a lot of people want to back read and sort of anachronistically read back onto this, you know, oh, these guys were in a commune.
00:27:09
Speaker
You know, they were in some sort of ah of ah of a hippie commune group that ah that was was trying to reinvent the the economy and the society about around a giving culture or something like that. And it may well be that they that they were, in fact, doing some some radical things. as we As we come a little bit farther on, we hear that Barnabas sells a field and gives it to to people and things like i don't know.
00:27:39
Speaker
exactly you know the I don't know exactly how to read what was happening there, but what I do want to read out of that and what I do see in there is that that that Luke is positing or he is he's positioning this community as being radically different than the larger Roman society.
00:28:01
Speaker
Because the larger Roman society was very much egocentric in that That you needed to take care of yourself.
00:28:13
Speaker
And then you, out of that excess, took care of other people. And that what um what this Christian community was exemplifying was an agape, self-sacrificing, self-giving kind of community where we were looking out for each other.
00:28:33
Speaker
and And in the ancient and Roman world that Luke is writing in, that was actually really quite unusual. I mean that that almost all relationships were commodified in some way, you know, that that I would help you, but you're going to help me. And and I'm going to do a mental calculation as I'm considering how much help I'm going to give you is how much help you're going to give me.
00:28:57
Speaker
and there's there's Would you say that we possibly still have i strong elements of that in our Western society? i think I think that is simply human nature.
00:29:10
Speaker
I think all societies have that. All societies struggle against it. I think what's really miraculous is that in some way, shape, and form that are that that Western culture, or i guess Christianized cultures, um not only Western, but any Christianized cultures, actually call people and find success in calling people to living a different way and to living that in a way that is that is that is putting the other person's needs maybe before my own and that is sacrificially giving and that we valorize, it we hold that up and we say, that is a beautiful and a good thing. The Romans would not have actually held that up as a beautiful and a good thing to do.
00:29:53
Speaker
They would have said that's foolish. in In the same way that they would have said that, you know, when Jesus says, blessed are the meek, they would have scratched their head and said, that's nuts. Meek people are the ones who get stomped on. You want to be the stomper.
00:30:07
Speaker
You don't want to get to be stomped on. and ah And so you don't want to be meek. You want to be aggressive. mean, that was the way the Romans raised their kids. You know we would hold up, you know meekness as at least a worthy thing to say that, you know, listening to somebody else and letting somebody else get their way once in a while is a good thing.
00:30:27
Speaker
You know, that that that's that that's actually a that's actually a social virtue that we have. It helps us get along better. um The fact that that is a virtue um is is really remarkable.
00:30:41
Speaker
But that that what one of the things that I think what Luke is really saying here is I don't know that he's making statements so much about economy. You know, right that that he's he's not really trying to go for a a sort of socialism here.
00:30:58
Speaker
And I think attempts to to read that in there are are really misguided. But I do think contra, I guess, the you know the the the assertive capitalism,
00:31:11
Speaker
of some people today is that what Luke is saying is that these people saw their resources instrumentally for the sake of other people.
00:31:26
Speaker
You know what mean? That they were looking at, they were looking at, at the needs of their neighbor and they were saying, God has given me money to help them. rather than Rather than, you know, kind of ah a crass or ah or a naked capitalistic kind of way that that we might think about it is that that God has given me all of these skills and abilities so I can amass more money to myself.
00:31:54
Speaker
Right. And we see this most easily, quite frequently with my different food banks that churches operate. well Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I bought an extra pallet of canned goods.
00:32:08
Speaker
Yep. I had the money and it's plain and simple. And they had a big sale on it. So I thought let's, I'm going to maximize that and bring a whole bunch of cans of soup or beans or whatever it is to the, to the food bank and share it with hungry people.
00:32:24
Speaker
Just please no creamed corn. Yeah. yeah Yeah, there's some of those. I got to avoid some of those. But ah yeah, I mean, that, that you know, that that I think what what Luke is really pointing to here is ah is a community that has valued the neighbor
00:32:49
Speaker
valued the neighbor in a way that Roman society would have found really strange. In, you know, it, it, I, my, my, my degree is in classics and, and I, I spent a lot of time reading in Roman culture and, uh, in Roman culture, you, you had these patron client relationships, which were all commodified.
00:33:15
Speaker
They were all commodified. Everybody who was, who was in a, in one of these relationships was always, um was always you know they they were seeing what the other person was going to give them There was always a give and take.
00:33:27
Speaker
um Most Romans would have only had a handful of people they would have called true friends. right that That they would have said, this person is my friend, and I can count on them. they will always Their door will always be open to me. My door will always be open to them. They are they will be somebody that I can rely on, and they can rely on me.
00:33:51
Speaker
And i I always have their back.
Significance of Communal Meals
00:33:53
Speaker
um That would have been, for many of us, like a number like three to five people. yeah And every other relationship for them probably would have been in some kind of a commodified relationship. Could have been an ally.
00:34:06
Speaker
Could have been somebody that was ah that was a you know a regular friend. they but They might have even called them you know somebody that they cared about.
00:34:20
Speaker
That was always understood to be a commodified relationship. And and I think what Luke is really doing is is expanding the circle from past three to five. what he's What he's really describing here are these friendship relationships that that Romans would have understood, but they would have understood them to be just small.
00:34:42
Speaker
and And what Luke is really describing here is a big one. And and and this is this is actually one of the things we know that later on when the Romans come to persecute Christianity, they struggle with this.
00:34:56
Speaker
that This is part of what gets they persecute Christians for, is that they're hosting these meals. They're having these meals together. And the Romans can only understand those as they're buying something, right?
00:35:08
Speaker
they're there They must be buying something. And and the Christians are going, no, we just like each other. And the Romans, are they cannot get their head around it. They just can't grasp that.
00:35:22
Speaker
And the the result of that is that that you know they persecute him. If you want to read a great book about that, it's it's um Robert Louis Wilkins' ah the christians as the The Early Christians as the Romans Saw Them.
00:35:36
Speaker
Great book. It's it's a it's a really high recommend. High recommend on that one. um And I think this is what this is what Luke is actually pointing to right here is that they that they simply cared for each other.
00:35:50
Speaker
that they And they were willing to say that I'm willing to sacrifice material wealth, material goods to help these these people. Whether it was a ah full-on commune socialist sort of structure, I kind of doubt that.
00:36:06
Speaker
I really do. But Luke luke ah Luke does describe something that would have been shocking to the first century audience. Maybe he's also describing something that's shocking to this 21st century reader.
00:36:22
Speaker
And I have to be open to that, too. So David... He's definitely saying the power of Christ. Yeah. Which I'm talking about earlier. Yeah, yeah. The movement of Christ throughout this community. mean, this isn't just... Okay. Mm-hmm.
00:36:38
Speaker
where we were talking about ah recently the you know the idea of measuring things by numbers. Maybe that's not the the primary point here.
00:36:49
Speaker
It's a miracle. There's 3,000 plus more every single day joining, but it sticks out. Yes. there's There's a purpose for it happening like this. is and that It's so significantly different and so such a stark contrast.
00:37:06
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's not just, and and God could have done this this way, obviously, if he wanted to.
Joy in Christian Service and Worship
00:37:12
Speaker
It's not 20 people that have decided, you know, to go rent an Airbnb for a month and just go hang out in the woods and, you know, share everything. No, this this is huge. This is a town.
00:37:26
Speaker
Yeah. This a whole town's worth of people. Right. You know, and in the ancient world, of almost a small city at this point. I mean, a city i mean jerusalem you know a lot of cities would have had 20 or 30,000 people. You start with 3,000 and you're adding daily, you're up to us you're up to a small city here pretty soon.
00:37:43
Speaker
And they're just living differently. i think the place where I think about where i think about where Paul tries to ah articulate this is what it looks like is Romans 12.
00:37:55
Speaker
you know what he is by the renewal of your mind and then he talked about put the other person first you know when they when they have something sad you cry with them, when they have something good to happen you laugh with them you you you just live in this totally different world than the way that the relationship than the way the Romans think about it yeah it says I love this this next line, it says day by day they were they attended the temple together so they they were going to church together they were going to the temple and They were breaking bread in their homes.
00:38:26
Speaker
They were eating together. um And they received their food with glad and generous hearts. They're just having fun. And they have they have joy. you know that that That they don't come to their Christianity with grumpiness.
00:38:46
Speaker
all right or with with this sense of, oh, I've got to do this duty and get this done. du They're enjoying themselves. i find that I find that to be an absolutely precious, important part of this text.
00:39:00
Speaker
They were praising God, having favor with all the people. People saw this and they went, well, I want to be a part of that.
00:39:09
Speaker
um And the Lord was adding to their number day by day.
00:39:15
Speaker
What does our church look like? you know what do we yeah i i once heard a i heard a a ah pastor tell me, and he said, I've really come to the conclusion that that you will become more and more like the God whom you worship.
00:39:35
Speaker
If you think God is judgmental and crabby, you are going to become more and more happy. But if you understand God is joyful, if you understand that God is is is filled with joy over his creation and over the opportunity to forgive people, you know that that what Jesus has done on the cross has brought God enormous joy, you will become more and more joyful.
00:40:09
Speaker
yeah This reminds me of a a pastor telling me this month, or some setting going, when we are leaving communion in service on Sunday morning, why is everybody always so somber?
00:40:27
Speaker
ah It's like, this is one of the God's greatest gifts to us, and he's excited. and so And I took that to heart in some ways. Not that I'm going to be leaping around and hollering. My wife wouldn't have liked that. I'd have to... I ask for forgiveness quite a bit. um But even in our our structure of service, how often, um so for for most of the divine services in the LSB, have communion and the prayer and the closing, and then you're closing hymn.
00:41:05
Speaker
why do we not always have our happy, joyous hymns? o At that point. At that point. And and there's there's, we all have our favorites, sure. But isn't that the moment where we...
00:41:22
Speaker
If anything, somebody is is wrestling with the the the fact that they have been forgiven. It's okay to be somber. I don't want to say that there's something wrong with that. But but maybe, okay, you're just distracted, you're tired, you're worn out, but, oh, we get to see my favorite hymn next.
00:41:40
Speaker
Yeah. You know, or or yeah it' something something just to help us, even myself at times. No, I just received something amazing.
00:41:51
Speaker
Something holy and good. Yeah. Yeah. It's not just church is almost over. I wonder what's for lunch. Yep. Yep. Yep. I, ah I, yes, I, I, I mean, I, I think that this idea of, of, I mean, it's interesting that they, that they, that, that he pairs this with that a fear came upon them.
00:42:13
Speaker
That, that these two things are not, are not exclusive. that that they they felt that they knew they were in the presence of the holy, that they were in the presence of of the divine, that God was doing something big in our midst.
00:42:29
Speaker
And yet at the same time, they're breaking their bread with with generous hearts and rejoicing with one another. And they are they are happy because this great thing is happening in their midst. And they aren't they aren't coming into this with this perception that they are um that they are somehow because God's involved, we've got to be sad. No.
00:43:00
Speaker
yeah I wonder ah I really... I mean, for that reason, one of the places I... one one my Philippians has become one of my favorite books in the Bible. You know, we're where Paul just can enjoin them to rejoice and rejoice again, I say. you know and And I love that first chapter where he says, yeah, they're probably going to kill me, but hey, I'm happy.
00:43:18
Speaker
Yeah. you and and i go either I either Paul needs to be on medication, okay, or he has tapped into something that is essential about God and the divine. And and I obviously go for the second.
00:43:33
Speaker
yeah um I can see, though, why somebody might think he needs to be on medication, you just by the work what he says right there. Yeah. But but that that, and I like it that Luke here just tells us that what are some of the hallmarks of this early Christian community?
00:43:51
Speaker
they They cared for one another. They were looking out for each other. The vulnerable, the poor in their midst were getting help from the people who had means. And they were devoted to the fellowship.
00:44:05
Speaker
They were breaking bread together. They were praying together. They were listening together. they were They were having their meals in their homes, and they were they were they were enjoying one another, and they were just having fun.
00:44:23
Speaker
I can't wait to preach this someday. Yeah, this is go to be a great story. go be raor what is what is what does god What does God want for us, you know? um I think, you know, I think about, I think about a lot of Christians that I've seen who who oftentimes are engaged in service and and they're not happy doing it. And and I just kind of want to say, God doesn't need your service as much as he might want your joy.
00:44:47
Speaker
Why don't you go do something you want to do do? Do something good for people that you want to do, you know, rather than grumpily, I don't know, serving cookies after church or, you know, or, or, you know,
00:45:02
Speaker
cleaning or doing what it is you do, why don't we say, let God let god find somebody to do that who wants to do it? And i think that that that we we sometimes need to just let people, let something not happen because God hasn't called somebody who wants to do that.
00:45:20
Speaker
Oh, I remember, is going to be about 20 or 30 years, every year having to do a spiritual gift inventory for the church so that the church grew. look, Mr. Smith is a banker. would love to be the financial secretary of the church. Now, wouldn't he?
00:45:39
Speaker
And Mr. Smith's like, I have to do this five days a week. Could I please serve cookies after church the before
Aligning Service Roles with Personal Joy
00:45:48
Speaker
Sunday school? I haven't seen that inventory done recently. That might be a good thing.
00:45:56
Speaker
but I mean, i I think it can be good to match people up to the things that give them joy. it A lot of times those inventories were were conducted in a way that really was trying to fill slots in a congregation.
00:46:09
Speaker
and And I think that's really the wrong way to the wrong way to to approach that. is is I think we we need to sometimes just be asking this question of what do the people in this parish like to do?
00:46:21
Speaker
What are they good at? yeah I knew a parish, I encountered a parish a number of years ago who had a bunch of old guys. They put together a grilling team.
00:46:33
Speaker
And they actually turned it into a catering business. hey mean they would They would go out and and just show up and grill for these big events. They would do it for their church. It was a big church.
00:46:45
Speaker
Then they would they would do it for anybody because they loved hanging out together and run it and and they they built this huge grill on a trailer. oh and so they like me up a grill and They would stand around and do this and they they really enjoyed serving food to people and and feeding, you know, they'd throw a bunch of burgers, hot dogs, whatever you wanted on there, pork chops, whatever you wanted. They would grill them for you. And so you could be doing your event and they would just come out a Saturday and do this for you. And it was it was such ah it was like, wow, you know what?
00:47:20
Speaker
I think they're doing they're doing Jesus' work here. And And they're having a blast. ah and what well and And how you you look at the the hundreds and thousands that are seeing what Luke is is showing us and describing to us.
00:47:39
Speaker
Maybe that's one of the things that the Spirit kicked into we were keyed into with with the the early church right there. is that praising God and having favor.
00:47:50
Speaker
ye this is This is fun. And reverence and awe and fear do have their place. Absolutely, 100%. aye But maybe, i don't know, maybe we'd start to see a little bit more, well, maybe some more excitement from our communities and in our people.
00:48:14
Speaker
If we added just a little bit of joy, you know, what we've been talking about, yeah what what brings you joy in serving God? Because it's most likely a gift that he's given you to use in his service.
00:48:29
Speaker
And if you don't know what it is, well, let's pray about it and try to figure it out. And if it's something that we're not doing, well, who knows? That's a great idea. We should start. I'm going to tell my church this Sunday. We need to build a grill truck.
00:48:44
Speaker
cause i think that'd be fun
00:48:49
Speaker
Could be. good Well, i if let me know when you do it, Matthew.
Conclusion and Preview of Next Topic
00:48:52
Speaker
i will show up and and ill I'll eat some brisket. Oh, yeah. the The church is waiting for the Texan in the Northeast now to to show them what real brisket is. i actually had an idea of a ah Bible study paired around like a week a monthly fellowship meal called What's Pastor Smoking?
00:49:15
Speaker
and know You know, if I could put that in the local newspaper, just speak i would i would get a lot of fun out of that. That would be good.
00:49:26
Speaker
Matthew, this has been so much fun. Thank you. As always, yes. Yes, I look forward to next week. All righty. God be with you. And also with you. Amen.
00:49:46
Speaker
Well, I think that got us a couple more weeks down the road. i like it. next week Next week is is the is is the martyrdom of Stephen.
00:49:57
Speaker
o
00:50:00
Speaker
that's going to be a That's always a bit of a challenge. But um it's actually a fantastic story. um Yes. And especially that that right at the end, there's some really interesting things in there. So I'll look forward to look forward to doing that.
00:50:17
Speaker
It's always been one that I prefer to teach in Bible study than preach on. i have used it as a text for preaching.
00:50:28
Speaker
a