Together

Acts 4:31 Great stuff!

V33 More great stuff! What about the verse in between?

V32 No-one claimed that any of his possessions was his own

How does this grab you? Possibly reactions vary according to how much you own!

V34-35 A good bit of Marxist redistribution? What does this stir in you?

Want to suggest one word to summarise these verses here – community!

The challenge today is not so much focussed on the stuff we might lose or gain as our attitude towards others

These believers had a togetherness that overruled the natural tendency to want to have control of individual possessions

They were living for something bigger than themselves and their own ambitions and dreams

They surrendered their individualistic lifestyle to embrace a new model without the old dividing walls

See the sandwiching of the verses here:

V31 – Holy Spirit power

V32 – one in heart and mind – possessions surrendered

V33 – power and grace

V34-35 – sharing of possessions

This whole bit about togetherness is tied up with the Holy Spirit power bit – we can’t expect to see the one without embracing the other

Google maps / Google earth – easy to see satellite images of where you live

One thing that stands out is an enormous amount of boundaries – fences and walls dividing one person’s house and garden from another’s

Human beings love to build walls and fences – it’s a way of protecting what is ours and demonstrating our ownership of it

What are we expressing when we say mine?

My house, my car, my family, my life – this belongs to me, I control it, you can only come in if I choose to invite you

Tearfund Congo letter – came through my letterbox, into my house, into my life and made a request on my bank account

The letter explained the magnitude of the need and explained how my money could make a difference

DRC is a long way away – 4000 miles means that these people do not live in my neighbourhood, my town, my country and as far as I can see the problems there were not caused by anything I have done

I just needed to choose my response to this request to share what is mine

BUT! Do I have the right to build a fence around me and mine like this?

Matt. 5:42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Pvb. 3:27 Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act.

My natural thinking says that what is in my bank account is mine and I can choose what I do with it and whether or not I want to share it

The word of God demolishes the protective fence I have erected and shows me that what I used to consider an act of generosity is in fact simple obedience and should be a natural part of my Christian life

Homeless man approaching stately home – asks the butler if there is any spare food – “do you like cold rice pudding?” – “yes” – “come back tomorrow, it’s still warm!”

The people in the big house think they are doing well because they share with the person outside – they see a gift – he sees a big wall of separation between their lives

Sometimes giving to a far off need like the Congo can reinforce this separation – we give to a need without letting the people with the need enter our lives in a significant way – we can be like the butler at the door of the stately house passing food out rather than inviting the hungry man in

We remain comfortable and in control – we are happy to have done good and that makes us feel good – and still we fall far short of the call to open our lives and our hearts and to recognise that we are part of a much bigger human family

God is calling us to demolish the walls and fences of separation that we have built between ourselves

We have not realised the significance of many of these barriers we have erected but they are preventing us living the life that God intends and they are a barrier to his grace and power

Unless we can defeat the spirit of individualism we will not see the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we long for

Every time we say “my” or “mine” we are in danger of missing the purposes of God

If we are really Christians then we are his and so is everything we own

Wedding vows can contain the line: All that I am I give to you and all that I have I share with you

Things that were separate are now shared – one house, one bed, one bank account

When you are married you say “I” a lot less and “we” a lot more. “Ours” replaces “mine”

It is the same when we become part of the bride of Christ, part of the family of God, part of the brotherhood of believers

Our language needs to chance – “we” not “I” – “ours” not “mine”

This is not just about possessions but remember that Jesus said “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”

The extent to which Acts 4:32 disturbs us is the extent to which our hearts have failed to grasp this stuff

Material things and our attitude to them are an indicator of what is going on inside

Matt. 6:22-23 Good eye = generosity

When this is right everything else is right!

What we see in Acts 4 is a community of believers who share life with each other – a people who no longer separate themselves by saying this is my possession, my house, my family, my time, my money, my life

The danger is that we don’t all take ownership – the church can have an identity that is separate from us – belonging to the pastor or the denomination or the long standing members or the building or its history

We can very easily come and meet here in this building – which is not anybody’s home – a neutral venue – we can do our stuff on a Sunday – and then return to our own homes and our own lives which we live in our own independent ways

Our homes remain our castles, our lives remain secret and separate, our dreams are not shared, our sins not confessed and our resources are not pooled

Those who are having a tough time don’t come because they can’t manage to keep up a good appearance and are worried that they might cry in public – what have we become if this is not a safe place to come and cry??

Others come and feel inferior thinking that they are the only people who struggle with their particular sin while everyone else seems to manage to live a pretty much perfect life

We need to be real with each other – we need to share our lives with each other – we need to laugh cry and pray together – we need to confess our needs, our struggles and our sins – we need to share what we have learned and celebrate what God is doing – we need to share the good things with which God blesses us – we need to be more like a family and less like a club

Will you hear the call and tear down the dividing walls and fences?

Independence will always rob us if we let it – will you let it?

Open your home, open your life, share your possessions – let the power and grace of the Holy Spirit in!