In years gone by here I’m making an educated guess I think that there’s been some discussion on this verse! Of course there has, it’s literally written on our wall out there!!
What are these 4 things, what do they mean, how do they happen, what are they based on…
OVERVIEW
Important to remember the context of Acts 2 > what’s happened before this? Pentecost, the Holy Spirit appearing in tongues of fire, people speaking to and hearing each other in their own languages, the Spirit of God being among people and bringing them together in this amazing way > more to come on that in a few week’s time!
That bit of context helps us remember IT’S NOT ALL ON US > these 4 things are not about us, it’s not like ‘we achieve these 4 things = then that means we’re a good church,’ or ‘we’ve done our job’ or something like that > it’s actually really important for us to guard against that way of thinking, as if being and doing church is ticking a number of boxes or crossing off things on a list. That couldn’t be further from the truth!
To think that way and to operate that way is actually putting limits on God, it’s actually trying to put God in a neat-and-tidy box that we can open up on Sunday morning and then close up again for the rest of the week > if that’s what we think church is we’ve got a serious problem.
The Holy Spirit is the instigator and enactor of faith, not us. God shows up and we receive from him. We cannot possibly limit God – but we all try to. We are the ones who are limited, limited in our understanding, limited in our capacity of what we can do on our own > which in spiritual terms is actually NOTHING without the work of the Spirit.
We are guilty of thinking TOO SMALL > all of us fall into the trap of thinking small, as if our church and our friends and family and the people we interact with are all there is, when if fact that’s only a tiny percentage of who’s actually out there around us, in our own backyard, connected in to our church around our local area, state, country, even overseas > all that and we haven’t even mentioned those who’ve gone before us in the faith, much to learn from there.
We tend to think SMALL but God calls us to THINK BIG > Only thinking small leads us to look down, to look inward only, to miss what else is happening around us.
Thinking big is to open right up, to think about not only ourselves but how we all fit into this world we’re living in > when we do that our perspective shifts dramatically, we start to see all the other ‘sheep’ out there, all the other paddocks, not limited to our own little patch… more ‘not only what IS but what COULD BE’ / God is a God of POTENTIAL not LIMITATION…
Onto the Big 4 things, what are they are how do they play out among us?
‘APOSTLES’ TEACHING’
What is apostles’ teaching??
Simplest form: what the apostles taught, what Jesus’ followers taught, which is not teaching that they came up with themselves but teaching of Jesus given to them and given to us. What evidence do we have of apostles teaching? New Testament > Gospels, Paul’s letters, other letters from other apostles, and then we have our confessions and statements of beliefs which are based on these teachings.
So we have A LOT of content! This is NOT something that we learn once and then we know it, we don’t ‘graduate’ from knowing apostles teaching, all of us are always learning because what the apostles teach is that God’s word is revealed to us in Jesus through the Spirit, who is active in our lives and the lives of others > ongoing learning journey all through life.
That’s why we continue coming back to the Word again and again, we always have more to learn and we always need God’s help.
‘FELLOWSHIP’
We can think of this as the environment for this ongoing learning, this lifelong learning journey.
This is where it happens, community together, being and doing church together. Participating together, sharing together is the original sense here. We’re not consumers, we’re participants – church is not like going to the shops to get a product, and it’s not like sitting on the couch at home and watching a TV show, it’s a community to belong to – much deeper purpose, connection there. We are not meant to be just on our own, working this out for ourselves > this is a shared thing, as hard or as challenging as that may be at times.
Who knows Bonhoeffer’s ‘Life Together’ book? One of the things he talks about are our two modes, ‘the day alone’ and ‘the day with others.’
That helps us see the purpose of time on our own and time with other people, both are important, necessary for our walks of faith. And the key point is both modes are with God > the day alone is actually with God, and the day with others is also with God. He is always with us, whatever mode we’re in.
‘BREAKING OF BREAD’ (How is this different to fellowship?)
Not a coincidence that we hear Isaiah’s (53:5) words today > ‘By his wounds you have been healed,’ by Jesus giving his body and blood for us > that we receive together in the bread and wine of communion > we are healed – who needs some healing today?! This is a good thing, a very important thing for us to receive as we continue to do.
So the ‘breaking of bread’ is in the bread and wine, Jesus body and blood broken and given for us.
And it also happens in our fellowship together, us doing life together in community, when we share a meal together, when we share morning tea after worship – this is our first opportunity to live out who God calls us to be! Receiving from God, then giving to and receiving from each other in community. When we catch up with an old friend, when we meet someone new, all these everyday interactions that happen and we have a chance to be in community > God reaches us there, God has designed us to live in community and he shows up there.
‘PRAYER’
And this is how we communicate with God, how he speaks to us and how we speak to him.
I can share with you some thoughts from our district bishop who’s recently been on retreat, great to have opportunities to retreat and to park some of the everyday things to be able to spend time with ourselves and with God >
‘Prayer does not begin with us, but with God’s command and promise’ (Luther)
God calls us to pray, and he promises to hear, to listen to what’s on our hearts.
‘Prayer is as essential to the life of the soul as breathing is to the life of the body’ (Thomas Merton)
Beautifully put, we have to do this! It’s so important! We get to do this, we all have direct access to the creator of the universe at any time – right now, on a random Tuesday afternoon, in the middle of the night – through the Word and through prayer, we’ve got to make use of this.
Like our bodies will struggle without water and good food, our souls will only struggle if we don’t have prayer, if we aren’t connected to the one who made us and sustains us.
‘Prayer is as natural and as real as conversation between good friends’ (Bishop Mark’s own reflection)
Think of a good friend you can talk to about real things that matter to you in your life – that’s what it’s like to talk to Jesus, even better he is not only your friend but your Saviour, he gives you new life and he gives you those good friends as well! We have to lean in to this, it is so good and so important for us.
So to sum up, NONE OF THESE THINGS are our work, our own efforts, none of this is independant of God, he is the source and sustainer of it all!
God is NOT saying here’s the content, now you go do it. No, he’s saying here’s the content, now let’s be in relationship and do this together > big difference there.
We have the APOSTLES TEACHING, words from Jesus himself, words to live by, be empowered by and keep coming back to.
We have FELLOWSHIP, the environment we find ourselves in for this ongoing learning and trusting journey we’re on together.
We have the BREAKING OF BREAD, which is Jesus’ body and blood broken and given for us, and all those opportunities we have for being together over a meal, a coffee, a walk, all these ways we can find connection and community with each other.
And we have PRAYER, our way of hearing from and speaking to Jesus himself, as important as being ‘essential to the soul’ but also as natural as a chat with a good friend.
So let’s trust together in what we have received, where God calls us to be, how God reaches us and how God calls us to reach others – this is the sort of stuff you write on a church wall!
Lord we thank you for teaching us, for giving us people to do life with, for what your Son has done and won for us on the cross and that we can have direct access to you, our maker and our sustainer. Help us as we journey together as your people, not limited by what is but inspired by what could be. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
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Tom Kitson 