This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Waterford Lakes, East Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. Good morning, everybody. It is really good to be back. I've actually only been able to worship with you all twice before today, I believe, if my memory serves correctly. Once was at Camelot Elementary School or Middle School, which is elementary. I remember that, and then you went to Avalon, and I was there once. But it's been a long time since I've been here, and I see a lot of faces I know, many I don't know. It's encouraging to be with you and to represent UPC before you. We are brothers and sisters now, I guess. But we are brothers and sisters in Christ, and it's good to be able to reconnect. As I was sitting in the chair, though, I was having a bit of a memory jogger. The last time I was in this room was probably about 13 years ago. My son, who is now 20, almost 26, was in a student here at Discovery Middle School. He was in a play right up here on this stage. I was sitting right in here somewhere watching my son in this play, and in this play, the party play, he got to kiss Molly Tilly. Many of you know the Tilly family, and my wife and I looked at each other and thought, can we arrange a marriage or something? It didn't work out. But anyway, my son now is 26, he lives up in Chicago, and so that's kind of my memory of this room. It's the first time I've been able to worship you guys here at Discovery, but it's really good to be here. Let's turn in our Bibles and listen to the Lord's message to us this morning. Today I want to speak to you from the Book of Acts. Acts chapter 2, and then we're going to look at Acts chapter 4, two different places in the Book of Acts. Scott explained to me this fabulous series that you guys have been in for quite some time following him, right? Following him into various things, and so he asked me what I'd like to speak about, and I thought, one of the things that I care most about is community. And so we're going to talk today about following Jesus into community, and these two passages will get us into that subject. First is Acts chapter 2, 42 through 47, here God's Word. And they, they is the early Christians, and 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 all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings, and distributing the proceeds to awe 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, and the Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved. And then if you'll turn a page or two over to Acts chapter 4, we'll look at chapter 4, verses 32 through 37. Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. This is God's word. Let's pray together and let's ask God to use these passages in our lives today. Heavenly Father, it's such a privilege to be with the saints here at CKC. Lord, we really forget sometimes what a privilege it is to worship together as your body. Lord, we would not take that for granted this morning. There are people, there are Christians throughout the world today for whom this would be such a luxury. And so we come humbly before your word this morning and pray that your Holy Spirit will use it in our lives to address the needs of our hearts. Lord, our biggest need is for Jesus. And so we pray that whatever we see, whatever we talk about this morning, it will ultimately lead us back again to the cross, where we receive the power we need to put these things into practice. Let's pray this in Jesus, wonderful name. Amen. If you were around in the 1930s and 40s, I'm not sure any of you were, but if you were, or if you watched television in the 1950s, and some of us did, I think, I did. You will instantly recognize this little piece of music. All right. All right. You get the idea, right? No, that's not the finale of William Till overture. It's the theme song of the lone ranger, right? Of course, many of you do remember that. That it aired on the radio from 1933 to 1954, almost 3,000 episodes of the lone ranger on the radio. Or the TV series, that's the part I do remember. It starred Clayton Moore as the lone ranger and Jay Silver Heels as Tonto. It ran from 1949 to 1957 for years after that in reruns as well. Anyone remember what the announcer said at the beginning of the show? Oh, come on. Yeah. Drink your ovals in here. Maybe so. I don't know about that. But he said, a fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hardy high-hoes silver away, the lone ranger. It was Racini's William Till overture, of course, but it was the theme song of the lone ranger. Well, that may be just a little bit of nostalgic cultural history for you this morning, but the lone ranger mentality is what I'd like to talk about today. The lone ranger mentality is alive and well in 2015. What I'm talking about is American individualism. American individualism. Think about the most popular TV shows. I don't know if you watch Survivor, many people do. American Idol. So you think you can dance. My favorite, the Bachelorette. America's next top model, dancing with the stars, the next Iron Chef, the voice. I mean, on and on this list goes, what's the common thread through all of those shows? It's one person who gets to the top, often at the expense of everybody else below. Or who are the most popular movie heroes among us today? It's people who are powerful individualists, who overcome all the odds because something about them puts them above the rest. You've got Triss Pryor, the divergent series that many of you probably enjoy. You've got Katniss Everdeen of the Hunger Games. My favorite guy, Jack Bauer of 24. Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, who are all these people? Strong solitary types who fight through pain and tribulation, right? And end up conquering evil by themselves largely. They may have a little bit of help around them, but the hero or the heroin is this one figure that's in the middle of spotlight. Let's bring it home a little bit. Think about the neighborhoods around Orlando. Think about your own neighborhood. I'll think of my neighborhood. Think about relationships that you do or don't have with your own neighbors. So many people have superficial, if any, relationships with their neighbors nowadays. We don't even know the names of many of our neighbors, much less do anything with them. And many people in America are awfully lonely. I read about a recent survey not long ago that found that 90% 90, not out of 10, of the adult male population in America lack a true friend. It's the lone ranger mentality. Now, I know if you press me, lone ranger really wasn't alone. He did have Tonto, but you get the point, right? That this mentality of I can do it, I'm all I need, really pervades American culture. What is this individualistic spirit done, though, to us, the church? That's where I think it is more dangerous. How has that seeped into the church of Jesus Christ today? It's pretty easy to see that we've absorbed this spirit of the age. Millions of Christians believe it's basically all about me and Jesus. We might come together with our church family from time to time, but ultimately it's about me and Jesus. Many of the songs we sing, I mean, I love them, but many of the songs that we sing as believers today are very individualistic. Even one of our favorites, Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me so. Listen and watch some of the lyrics of what we sing and some of the hymns and so on. Many of them are very much me and Jesus. Look, I'm overselling the point probably. I'm not saying that Christianity is not about you and Jesus. Of course, it is. There are plenty of Bible verses, especially in the Psalms, right? The Book of Psalms, the Book of Worship, is very much about me and Jesus. And that we should celebrate, but Christianity is more than that. It's more than that. It's about us and Jesus. It's about us collectively and Christ. Jesus died on the cross, not just to save individuals from their sin, but to save us from our sins and to create a new humanity. A new social order is called the church, a body where Jesus loves us. This we know for the Bible tells us so. That's the theme song of the redeemed. So what do you think about these passages from Acts that I read a little bit ago? I can imagine two different reactions. Some of you may think as you think about the early Christians and the way they lived, the way they did church, some of you might be thinking, well, forget that. I mean, that is just so different from today. There's no way in the world we could do that. It's impossible, so impractical. That's one reaction. But then there's another reaction. Others of you, I'm sure, are thinking, I sure hope that's possible. I sure hope that we can experience that because I want that. I don't know how to do it. I don't know exactly what it would look like. I don't know where to start, but I want that. What they had, that belongs here. Well, I fall into that group. How about you? I want community. I know I need it. And this individualistic spirit that I find so hard to resist. I know that it eats away at my soul, and I need you. You need me. We need us together. We need one another. And so let's fall into that second category. It does look impossible. I will admit. It does look completely impractical. It seems radical. It seems over the top. Extreme. In fact, I see two different extremes in these descriptions of the early church. And that's what we're going to look at this morning. Two different extremes in the life of these early Christians. I'll tell you what they are, and then we'll look at them each one. And then I've got a few practical applications. In these passages, I think what we see is extreme commitment. And then we see extreme generosity. So, are you ready to dig in? Let's dive in and see, first of all, extreme commitment in the early church. These early Christians were bound together by an extreme commitment to each other. Let's look at chapter two first. In verse 42, the very first verse that I read, it says that they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship. That word devoted, it really means to give consistent long-term attention to something or to someone. It really should be read this way, more continuous action. It should be read like they were constantly committing themselves to the fellowship. Constantly committing. If you've ever trained for something like an Iron Man triathlon or marathon or half marathon or whatever it is, you know you have to consistently commit yourself to that activity, right? And that's what the early church was doing. They were devoting themselves to one another. It says in verse 44 of the same chapter that all who believed were together. This means that they were in the same place often. They got together a lot. And then in verse 46 of the same chapter, it says that day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts. Now look, let's not idealize these people. It's easy to do, right? It's easy to idealize their lives and say, well, their lives were so very different from ours today. They lived in this idealistic setting. Let's don't do that. These people had kids. These people had jobs. They had homeowners association meetings. They had rotary club. You know, their kids went to soccer games. They had dating relationships. I'm sure they had hobbies to maintain. They had yard work to do and so on and so forth. But somehow, whatever they had to do, somehow they found the time to invest in each other. Extreme commitment. And then the second thing that I've seen this passage is that not only were they bound together by that, but they blessed each other with extreme generosity. They blessed each other with extreme generosity. Again, chapter 2, same chapter, verse 45. Says that they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And then over in chapter 4, verse 32, it said that no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And then verse 34 of chapter 4, there was not a needy person among them for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it down at the apostles' feet and they gave it to people who had the need. That is an extreme degree of generosity, is it not? Now, let's ask this question of that point. Is God in those passages mandating what we might call communalism? Do we have to give up our possessions in order to be believers in Jesus? Do we have to pool our resources as a church body and stop being capitalists? Some people might conclude that. But the answer is no. No, you don't have to sell your possessions and goods to be a believer in Jesus. You don't have to bring the proceeds of your yard sales and lay it down at the elders' feet, although they probably say that wouldn't be a bad idea. But that's not what God is commanding here. No, God is calling, hear this. God is calling us to something much harder. You know, it would be relatively easy for someone, a pastor or a church leader to mandate, to command people in his church to sell their things and bring the money and bond it together. That'd be fairly easy. God is calling us to not communalism, but to community. And that is really something harder. He's calling us to share from our hearts. Not because we have to, but because we want to, and because we love our brothers and sisters in Christ. That is much harder. Even that extremely hard for God to say to me, Mike, how much do you love your, your fellow Christians? Do you see them in need? What do you have that could help them? That's tough. That's hard, especially in this individualistic culture in which we live. God is not imposing rules from the outside. So instead, he is talking to our hearts and asking us, what are our desires? Do we want to minister to other people? If we do, it will show up in things like this. These early Christians were not required to share their property with each other. No, they did it for two reasons. They loved each other, and they knew they needed each other. And so they gave. See, that was the source of their generosity. Oh, your chariots in the shop? Here's mine, take it. Oh, you need a place to stay? We've got extra room in our house. Come on in and bring your stuff, bring your kids. We'll share our space with you. You lost your job. What do you need? Do you need food? Do you need money? What do you need? What can we do to help? See, those were the kinds of things that were always being said in the early church. Aristides was a Christian philosopher and apologist back in the second century AD. He lived in Athens around the year 125. And Aristides once wrote a letter to the Roman emperor Hadrian in order to defend the Christians of his day against persecution. And I'd like you to read. It's kind of a lengthy quotation. But I'd like you to see what Aristides wrote, Emperor Hadrian, about the believers. Here, I'll read it for you. He says, the Christians, O King, have found the truth. They do good to their enemies, and they love one another. From widows, they do not turn away. And they deliver the orphan from him who treats him harshly. And he who has gives to him who has not, without boasting. And when they see a stranger, they take him into their homes and rejoice over him as a brother. And whenever one of their poor passes from the world, each of them, according to his ability, gives heed to him and carefully sees to his burial. And if they hear that one of their number is imprisoned or afflicted on account of the name of their Messiah, all of them anxiously minister to his necessity. And if it's possible to redeem him, they set him free. And if there is among them any that is poor and needy, and if they have no spare food, they fast two or three days in order to supply their lack of food. That's pretty extreme. Extreme commitment, extreme generosity. Those two things help turn the world upside down for Jesus in the first century. So what would it look like here at CKC, these things that we've been learning from the early church? What if you went to extremes? What would this look like at UPC, the church I serve, if we went to extremes like this? What if we devoted ourselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer? Here's the question. Let's ask this. What would that require of us? And I think we've got to say three things. That it would require of us in order to see the extreme commitment and generosity of the early Christians once more made visible in our bodies. Let me suggest these three things. First, it will require that you redefine the good life. What do you conceive of as the good life would be the question? What is the good life for you? Is it a three-car garage? Is it a house at the beach? Money for retirement? Or maybe it's not material things like that. Maybe the good life for you is more relational stuff that counts like a happy marriage or obedient kids. Having lots of friends. Maybe it's having the job you've always wanted or having a lot of free time to do what you'd like or a healthy body. Now, obviously, those are really, really good things, aren't they? It would be great to have some or all of those things. But according to the Bible, those are not the good life. According to the prophets of the Old Testament, according to Jesus, according to the early Christians, according to the apostles, the good life is a life lived for others, not self. That is the good life. That's how we need to start redefining the good life. It's that I live for others. My things are for others. My time is for others. My abilities are for others. Paul says in Galatians 6, verse 2, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. The second thing I think it's going to require us, for us to experience these things, is that it's going to require that we depend on each other, depend on each other in everyday ordinary ways, until it begins to become a lifestyle of interdependence. Remember that wonderful year 2004? If you lived here in Central Florida, what do you remember of 2004? Hurricanes. Another thing is that was when CKC started. At UPC, we sent out many of you to begin CKC over in Avalon. In 2004, that was a big year, but I remember those three hurricanes. I remember my neighborhood. I remember how all of a sudden people came out of their homes and opened up their garages and brought out their tools and went to home depot for each other and helped me put plywood on every single one of my windows. This strong strapping guy I couldn't have done all by myself. It was a time of interdependence where we shared our time, we pooled our resources and we served each other. Why not we pretend that there's a hurricane coming and live that way? That would be what the Bible says is sort of our bar. That's what we ought to be doing. That's normal. That's the normal Christian life depending on each other. This means that when people ask you for help, do something about it. And even harder is when you need help, what do you do? Ask for help. That's harder, isn't it? Ask for help is much more putting ourselves in an exposed or vulnerable place to ask for help. Many of you know Jan Holtsclaw, right? Jan Holtsclaw is now dead and with the Lord, but Jan had cancer and she passed away almost exactly a year ago. Jan Holtsclaw, as she suffered with cancer, had a habit of sending out all these emails. If you were on that email list, you know what I'm talking about. And I suspect a few of you were. Many hundreds of people were on her email list and she would send out an email every other day, maybe every three or four days, to update her what she called rope holders. And she was referring to the guys in the book, in the gospels who let their friend down through the roof holding the ropes. She referred to us as her rope holders. And so she would write her rope holders and say, here's what's going on. I'm getting chemo today. I'm suffering from this or please pray for that. And at the end of her emails, often she would write these words, I need you now more than ever. That's good stuff to ask for help to depend on our brothers and sisters is a good thing to do because we need each other. We're like Moses. Do you remember that story in Exodus 17 when there was a battle going on down below and Moses as long as he held his arms up, the Israelites were winning. But when his arms began to get tired and weary and he began to flag the other, I think it was the amalachites were winning the battle. And so he brought alongside of him, Aaron and her, one on one side, one on the other to hold his arms up. We need errands and hers, right? When we are in the place of Moses or you need, I need to be an Aaron or her to someone who needs our help. When's the last time you asked for help? When's the last time you asked somebody in the church to pray for you? When did you last ask to borrow something that you didn't have from a friend from a neighbor? When did you ask an older Christian for advice or mentoring? Because you knew he or she had been through that before you. When did you last send up a cry for help? Any of you know the name Nate Larkin? Nate Larkin, he's behind the movement called the Samson Society. Nate Larkin wrote this amazing book for men named Samson in the Pirate Monks. Well, if you know Nate's story, you know that Nate struggled with sexual addiction for years. And one day a friend asked Nate, he asked him, Nate, do you have somebody to call when you're tempted? And Nate said, no, but that's okay. I call on God. And then this friend came back with call God by calling me. See, you call God by calling one another. We are the body of Jesus. We are his representatives. We are his hands and feet. Let's be that to one another. Third thing that I think it's going to require for us to experience these things is to have this community will require that we'd be really good at hospitality. Now, I have some of you are already. I just want to put it out there. Be really, really good CKC at hospitality. These early believers were. They were constantly inviting each other into their homes for meals, probably for board games, for fun, for prayer, for worship. Romans 12, 13 says share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Such a beautiful word, isn't it? May we grow as God's people in the gift of hospitality. Friends, these things that we're talking about up here on the screen. These things are not just optional, little extras. They're not just little add-ons to the Christian life. They are the essence of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Leslie Newbyggin, a name many of you recognize, he died in 1998. He was a British theologian missionary, churchman. He wrote a book called The Gospel in a pluralist society. And in that book, he says this, it's up on the screen. If the church, listen, if the church is to be effective in advocating and achieving a new social order, it must itself be a new social order. Listen, if we're going to be asking of our nation to change, to progress, to be more kind, more loving, we the church must be that people who are that and set the bar for the rest of this world. The people bound to each other by an extreme commitment. A people blessing each other with this extreme generosity. That's what Jesus wants for his people. Impossible, you say? It sure seems like it. Is it possible? How? How is this going to be possible? How will we, as God's people, resist this pervasive, long-range mentality and experience true community? Here's the answer, by remembering and by often recalling it to mind that we've been rescued by a God of extreme grace. The more the extremity of God's grace captures our hearts, we earlier saying, consume me. The more God's grace consumes us, the more we will be able to live out this extreme generosity and commitment ourselves. Why do I say God is a God of extreme grace because in chapter 4 it's in the text, verse 33 are these amazing words. I think these are the most important words for us to get out of the text this morning. Acts 4, verse 33, the very end of the verse says that great grace was upon them all. That's the source of the early Christians love was the love of God for them. You know, it was exactly one year ago tomorrow. I didn't realize this until I did a little reading. It was exactly one year ago tomorrow that we learned about the first confirmed case of the Ebola virus over in West Africa. It was March 23rd, 2014. And since that time, more than 10,000 people have been reported as having died from the Ebola virus and that number is way low. It's probably many, many more than 10,000. The Ebola virus causes this massive internal bleeding, you know, and has a mortality rate of as much as 90%. You remember Dr. Kent Brantley made news. We've seen his picture. He was very well known believer who volunteered. He signed on to go to Liberia and to work for Samaritan's Purse and to work over there. He was a family practice doctor. He was 33 years old. He had a wife and two kids, but he said, I'm going to go to Liberia and fight the virus. And he did. But then he contracted the virus too. He came down with Ebola. He was offered an experimental drug. You remember called Z-Map, but it seemed at the time that there was only enough for one person. So what Dr. Kent Brantley did was he said, don't give it to me. Give it to my colleague. It was a nurse named Nancy Wright-Bole. He didn't want the cure. Give the cure to my colleague. That's pretty extreme, isn't it? Stupid, some might say. You've got an opportunity. You could be made well. Look after yourself. Nope. Don't want it. Give it to her. What is that? That is grace. Unmerited sacrificial kindness. Now as it turned out, fortunately, they did have actually enough of the cure for both of them. But at the time, Dr. Brantley didn't know that. And he is doing quite well today, fortunately. But on the cross, on the cross, there was no serum for Jesus. He absorbed your virus of sin in his own body on the tree. And he took the wrath of God that was due you and me for our sin upon himself. He absorbed that virus, that cancer, in his own body, and gave us the antidote of his righteousness. Setting us free from condemnation, free from the wrath of God, free from hell, free from punishment to know nothing but the love of God and the free acceptance of him. And one day, to be with him forever, that's what Jesus did. Don't give me the serum. Give it to all of them. What is that? That's grace. Sacrificial unmerited kindness. Or what we could say is its extreme commitment and extreme generosity. Amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like us. We once were lost, but now are found. We're blind. But now we see. Let's pray. God, we are just astonished that you would do that for us when we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Lord, I remember the days when I wanted nothing to do with you. I was running a million miles an hour away from you. And yet you, the hound of heaven, pursued me, reached out, grabbed me, turned me around, gave me a heart to believe, eyes to see ears to hear the good news that I'm loved. And you did that for us, Lord. And so, Father, what our prayer is here at CKC, what my prayer is for my home church, UPC, and what we pray for the other churches that are in our area, Lord. We pray that this extreme grace would be upon us all that we would believe and understand the gospel and preach it to ourselves daily until it consumes us. Lord, we then would ask that this grace will result in an amazing amount of generosity and commitment toward one another that we might be able to show the world. The reality of the gospel by living a certain kind of life in front of this very individualistic world. We repent of our individualism, Lord. We give that to you and we run to the cross to believe that you, Jesus, can make us much more like you than we are right now. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.