NOV 8 2015 | They Had Everything in Common

Sea Change Church · "They Had Everything in Common" · Adam Stadtmiller · November 8, 2015
Acts 4:32-37
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

If you have your Bibles, open up to Acts 4, 32-37. We are once again looking at the first church in Jerusalem, a church that was birthed out of the crucifixion of Jesus. Look at that. A church that was birthed out of the crucifixion of Jesus. Oftentimes I think, where is my life being crucified at the moment? Where does God want to rise beauty or raise beauty out of the ashes in your life? And we looked at this word a few weeks ago, midst.

What do you do when you are in the midst of something? And oftentimes, when God has you in the midst of a place perhaps you've been before, maybe it's so that this time you can walk into it boldly with the new revelation, with the stronger ankles, with the stronger grip, and be able to have a different way of approaching it than you did before.

Maybe God has you there for a reason. And so we look at that. We're looking at this church that was birthed out of the midst of the crucifixion. In the midst of the crucifixion, they said we will no longer run away from Jesus. They were a church that had been scattered over and over. But after the crucifixion, they were a church that unified, stuck together, and would not scatter and would not flee until God told them to go.

Because the next time that they would scatter, because the shepherd came and said, I want you to scatter to the ends of the earth that you might proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. And if we're going to move, if you're going to move, if you're going to change from that place that you were in the midst of, we don't want to move because we're scattering with fear. We want to move because God says, this is where you're to go next.

This is the place you're to be. This is a church that unified behind prayer. This is a church that sourced their direction. It is a church that sourced their power. It is a church that sourced their hope from unity together and from the power of the Holy Spirit through the name of Jesus Christ. And we see the name of Jesus over and over again being used in the first four chapters.

If you get a chance, camp out in the book of Acts with us for a while. This has got to be a dialogue. I'm speaking from the front, but you as well are reading as well. You as well are picking up through the book of Acts and begin to circle where it says the name of Jesus. I put a quote in here from Emerson, like Emerson. He says the reason why the world lacks unity and lies broken and in heaps is because man is disunified with himself or disunited with himself.

Isn't that true? That oftentimes we are broken within. We have no unity. Let me give you one of the core understandings of today's sermon. Unity, true unity, can only be sourced from God. You are not going to get unity by trying harder. You are not going to get perfect unity because you make some decisions. Decisions help, but ultimately that final hinge pin that will bring you into a unity of the Spirit has to be sourced from God.

Now as a church we can make decisions, but God has to step in and make that unity happen. And the same thing goes with yourself. Where are you disunified? Where are you disunified with your vision, with your hopes, with your dreams, and then the way it's actually playing out on paper. Where is the culture that you are creating in your life? All of us are creating a culture in your life.

Let me show you how culture is created. Culture is created through actions, repeated actions, accepted and repeated actions. Whatever you accept and whatever you repeat will become your culture. And the way to change the culture of your life, whether it be the culture of your tongue, Proverbs 18, 19, says in the tongue is the power of what? Life and death.

What's the culture of your tongue? Is it death or is it life? It doesn't take too long to go to the market to hear people speak. To sit in a Pete's coffee or a Panikin and listen to people talking what they talk about. And you will hear either life coming out of their mouth or you will hear death. There's two. There's either life or death. And they come in the power of the tongue.

What is the culture of your tongue? And culture, the culture of your marriage, the culture of your friendships, the culture of your home, the culture of your health. Every culture, the culture of this church happens because we accept something and we do it over and over. This is a church that started to change its culture after they were threatened and persecuted and Jesus Christ was crucified.

And they said we will no longer be a scattering church. We will no longer be a church that is all about individuals. We will come together as one. And it's a powerful story. Let me read starting with verse 32. Now the full number, circle that. I put it in highlight there. The full number of those who believed were of one heart and one soul. That's powerful.

You hear people say they want to be in an axe church. I saw that yesterday on someone's Facebook page. I want to go to an axe church. I'm not really sure you do. Because you're going to have to give up being king of your own opinions. You're going to have to give up and submit to the culture of unity. It's funny. I remember I told my first discipler.

You got a new mic there, Kalen? Let me use that one. Thanks, buddy. Perfect. I remember I told my first discipler. I said, I want to be like Paul. I remember I was a new Christian. Okay. Or a rededicated Christian. I was, you know, I'd been a Christian for a long time. But at one point I said, you know, my life ain't working this way anymore. And let's change it.

I got all fired up. I read the entire Bible. He said, highlight whatever you think is important. The first seven pages of my first Bible are all highlighted. The whole page. Like, what's the point of highlighting if you highlight the whole page? I said, I want to be like Paul. He says, are you sure? You know about Paul? Oh, I want to be like Paul. You know what?

I didn't really want to be like Paul. And nowhere do I still want to be like Paul. Forty lashes? Like, a bunch of different times? Shipwrecked at sea? No. No, no, no. I'll just hang out here in La Jolla and try to do my best to encourage people. I like him. Some things I want to be. Are you sure you want to be in an axed church? Church took sacrifice.

One heart, one soul. And no one said that any of the... I laugh at this. No one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own. Who wants to be in that church? I don't want to be in that church. You know what I mean? Like, everything you own is like, just come on. I had another guy at Point Loma Nazarene. His name was Boogie. And he was my...

He was another guy that was discipling me. And he took this literally, and he just opened his door and said, anything you want from me, you can just come into my dorm room and take it. Like, I'm just... Acts one church. He did that for about three years, and then he got a lock on his door. You know, it was just like, do you really want to be that church?

It says, anything of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. This was a community that said, we are going to live communally. We are going to live communally. I want to say, this was not a mandate from scripture. This was not something the apostles told them to do. This is something the church said, this is what we want to do as an individual church.

We have to be careful not to look at the first church and think every church needs to be this way. This was a decision of one group of believers in history that God wanted to touch radically to show you how it could be. Not that it should be, but how it could be. And there are some beautiful things to take away from this congregation. They held everything in common.

And with great power. And you see what happened. Every decision you make releases something. Right? Every decision financially releases or contracts something. I read in the Proverbs this morning. It says, you know, the lazy person, it says their want will come on them like a warrior. Their want. If you're lazy. If you're a sluggard. Because they made a decision.

Whatever decisions you make will have a repercussion. But the repercussion of the way they chose to live as a church, they had great power. And the apostles were giving their testimony. It freed the apostles to give their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. What else did it release? And a great grace was upon them all. Some of them?

No, all of them. God said, if you're all going to be in, then you're all going to get the blessing. I'm going to say unity is so powerful. That's one of the things that has really encouraged me in this share campaign. And sharing is just, look, the financial sharing is just one piece. There are so many other things. We need to share in each other's sorrows.

We need to share in each other's hopes. We need to share in each other's dreams. We need to share in so many things. But the more of us that are unified in one thought of changing La Jolla, of believing in revival, of praying for families, of praying for the things that we want to see happen in the world, the more that we do that, the more power is released.

Because God turns on the tap further with unity. Every person that gets unified, the tap turns on a little bit more. And a little bit more. And every time somebody gets unified in a church or in a group or in a family, and unity comes from where? It's sourced from where? It's sourced from God. We make decisions, but he's got to step in and bring that unity.

And every time we do that, that tap opens a little bit more. And there was the ability to have a testimony for the apostles. There was great power and great grace. I want to say in your family, how unified is it? How unified is your family? And what will it take to bring unity to your family? Just making a decision. I'm going to keep my mouth shut so we don't have any arguments.

It might help, but that isn't what's going to bring unity. It might bring some momentary peace. There's things you can do to bring peace. But to bring unity means you're going to have to source it from God. Where everybody is on page saying, we disagree with this, but we're willing to go to God together. You see, when you have a disagreement in a family or in a business of believers, And this is why the scripture talks about not being hooked in or yoked together with non-believers, because you're never going to have the godly unity.

You might have unity. You might have peace. You might make a lot of money in business. But the opportunity to have godly unity only comes when you have believers where all can enter in and source that from God. I want to say, if you are in a contentious situation with other believers right now, in your family, in your life, in your work, draw them together and say, hey, let's go to God.

We don't have to agree. Let's go to God. Even if we don't pray together, let's take 30 days and fast, maybe on afternoons at lunch. I had one of the people in this church said they were at their, they had an issue with somebody at work. And it was their employee. And at the end of the conversation, the employee was crying. Never good. Okay? Never good when the employee is crying.

And the person went into their office and they thought, you know, that person's a believer. My employee's a believer. I'm going to go ask them and say, hey. He called her into the office. He says, hey, you're a believer, right? Yeah, I'm a believer. And he goes, I'm a believer too. And he says, let's go get a cup of coffee. And on the way to get a cup of coffee, he said, hey, how about we stop and pray?

And he said, I couldn't believe it. It was 12 o'clock in the afternoon, okay, in the middle of La Jolla. And there we stood on the sidewalk and prayed. We went and had the best time. And she came back. And she came before she left for work. She came back into my office. She was happy. And she said, you know, this is an answer to prayer. I've always prayed that I could work for a godly boss and have a godly work environment.

And he said his answer to her, if we ever have a disagreement again, we're going to go to prayer together again. Bingo. That is it. You see, that is how you source unity. It's not going to come by a few great decisions. This was a church that made the right decisions. But the number one decision was to lift their voice up in prayer. And we saw that last week.

They had everything in common. They had great power. And grace was upon them all. I want to say, if we are in unity as a church, you are going to, and you come to this church, you are going to feel the overflow of that blessing. If you come to a place with believers, it doesn't have to be this church, but if you go to a church with believers, there is a blessing that is upon a group of believers.

And you are going to have an overflow. It's like when a wave breaks and you get splashed by the wave, you are going to get an overflow of the blessing. You want to go to a spirit-filled church. You want to go to a church that has a unified understanding of what they're trying to accomplish that makes Jesus Lord, where you source grace, peace, and hope.

And you will have an overflow of that on your life. You can step into blessing. Verse 34, there was not one needy person among them. For as many as were owners of lands or houses, they sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid them at the apostles' feet. And it was distributed to each of them and had need. This is radical. Everyone that had property went and sold it.

Every single, now this is a congregational decision, but every single person that had property went and sold it and gave it to the apostles. Now, you have to realize what they're coming. They had just seen Jesus resurrected from the dead, and Jesus had shown up in physical being to many of them. They had seen Lazarus raised from the dead. They were living in a powerful time.

You know what? They wanted more. This is the thing that they were asking themselves. How can I get more of that? What does it take to get more? It's a great question. Do you want more? John 5, what does Jesus say to the guy in John 5? Do you want to get well? Jesus, what a question. Why do you ask questions like that, Jesus? Do you want to get well? Of course he wants to get well.

Not everyone wants to get well. I saw River Runs Through It this week, one of my top five movies. I love River Runs Through It. Got a soft spot for Brad Pitt. I don't know why. And Leonardo DiCaprio. I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. I love that, love that. I cried all the way through to my 20s. It just hit home. And they're trying to help some guy, and Brad Pitt says, well, sometimes he looks off into the distance.

He says, sometimes people are just happy you try to help them, even if they don't want it. You know? And not everybody wants help. Not everyone wants to get better. That's the sad thing. Not everybody wants unity. Because some of us want to live in a wilderness. They laid it at the feet. 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, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.

Now, we know the next time I speak, I'm going to be speaking about Ananias and Sapphira. They do the same thing. And they come and bring it, but they kind of hold some back, and they lie about the money that they're bringing, and it doesn't go so well for them. One of the things... Not so good. Piled under a bunch of stones. One of the cool things you're going to find in this scripture, it says it over and over again in many different ways.

There was no compulsion to do this. The apostles were not saying, everyone must do this. If you don't do this, you're really not in. They weren't saying that at all. The people, the congregation was the one that made this. The power was in the congregational decision. There is no place, you see in this text, where the apostles said anything about doing this.

It was the congregation that said, we are going to change our congregation. You know what? Everyone's... I always hear, hey, you've got to be a leader. You've got to be a leader. Not everyone has to be a leader, but you know what the world needs sometimes? Great followers that know what to follow. That actually say, no, no, no, I'm not just a sheep that goes anywhere.

I know who to follow. I know when I hear the voice of the shepherd. I know when I see a work of God. I am going to follow it, and I am going to support it. You can lead by following, and this is a congregation that led by following. I want to ask you, as your pastor, lead. Lead. Decide a ministry you want to do. Step up and do it. We can't, us elder board, it isn't our job to come up with every ministry.

To help every single person in the church. Maybe there's somebody you know, you go over and help them, and you guys are great at this. But I want... But we're going to lay it on the line that this has got to be a back and forth. You have to be a congregation that says, we want to change the congregation we're in. We're not a bunch of... We're not...

I won't allow you to be pew sitters here. I just won't. You probably won't like it. You'll be... You'll want to go, because I'm going to continue to ask you to be a part of the story and write the story with God, who is what? The author and perfecter of our faith. Come to church when no one's here, and walk the church grounds on your own, and pray for it.

Pray for the... Go to the high schools and pray for revival for the church. You know, show up. Cook somebody a meal. Whatever. Whatever you do. Go do it, church. We release you. I release you to go and change the world for Jesus, and start here. Remember, this is the first church that was willing. It says the first church at Jerusalem had decided what kind of church they wanted to be, and were willing to do what it took to create it.

What kind of church do you want? I so often hear people say, that's the kind of church I want. That's the kind of church I want. The question is, is that the kind of church you're willing to create? See, there was an impetus. There was a thought in that congregation that it wasn't just about the apostles. Were they willing to lay it on the line to create what you want?

What kind of church do you want? It's easy to sit back. I want this. I want that. The church should have this. The church should do this. What would it take for you to jump in and create that church? Create the church you want. You want a loving church? Show up early and welcome people when they walk in the door. Just show up. You know, I know one thing.

I'm calling people out on occasion. Marcy shows up. Marcy's one of my neighbors. She lives not far from me, we found out. First time I noticed her, I noticed this woman sitting in the back that would come early during the worship and just sing and praise and sing worship over the church. And I'm like, who is this crazy worship lady who keeps showing up every week?

I know people don't show up a half hour early and sing worship and pray over the congregation unless they got a little something happening, you know, vertically in their relationship with God. And I, you know, no one asked her to do that. Thanks. No one asked her to do that. But she showed up. Creating the kind of congregation she wants. Because she believes that if you seed, if, I asked her to close the door for the high school room if anybody's wondering.

Everybody's like, look, what happened? What's going on there? So crazy. If you seed, perhaps you can lay the seed that will grow the kind of church that you want. Verse 32. Let's look at it in the notes. Now, the full number of those who believe are of one heart and one soul. Perfect unity. Unity is a quality of God that can only be sourced from God.

Look what it says in Ephesians 4.3. This is a great verse. Make every effort. Okay? So you have to make effort for unity. Effort's your part. You're efforting. Okay? To keep the unity of who? Who owns the unity? So your job is to what? Make what? The effort to do what? Keep whose unity? The Spirit. It's not your unity. It's your effort and His unity. You cannot get, from what I see in the Scripture, you cannot get unity.

You can't keep unity. We are a broken, splintered, fractured people. We're broken. And the only way to have unity, thank you, my love, the only way to have unity is to keep God and source that unity from Him. I'm married. I know that you can't have unity without God. I have a brother. I know you can't have unity without God. I have a mom. God love you.

You're amazing. You never do anything wrong. I know that when push comes to shove, that we have to go to God. That we have to go to God. If it was based on me keeping unity, my wife and I would no longer be together and my mom and I wouldn't talk. I'm not kidding. I mean, it sounds like a joke. But we probably wouldn't be speaking. Like most people's relationships.

Because relationships are hard. And people hurt you. And people wound you. And you hurt people. And you wound people. But the Spirit of God has done a good thing in restoring. And we've gone to God over and over again. And when push comes to shove in our marriage and we're thinking, geez, how do we go another day? We know where to go. Do you know where to go for your unity?

And are you with someone that's willing to go with you? And if you're not, you can pray them into that place, I believe. Ephesians 4. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through what? The bond of peace. Peace brings a bond. The full number. No grapes in the wine. I mentioned this. My former pastor who I work for, Mark Foreman, who I have great admiration for at Calvary Chapel.

If you don't like this church, go to that one. It's really good. It's in Carlsbad. He used to say that stuff all the time. I love it. Find a good church. If you don't like this one, find a good one. There's a lot up there. I can help you find some good ones. But if you like this, if you like what we're cooking, come on. He said, on your staff, you don't want to have grapes in the wine.

And that means wine is a blending together that all becomes one. It becomes fragrant. It gets as fragrant, you know. You guys know what wine is. Now imagine taking a beautiful glass of wine and coming to a restaurant and having that put in front of you. And then they take a grape and throw it in the wine. And they're like, hey, just chew that up in the middle of it.

You know what I mean? Like on the bouquet. Oh, what's that? You know? A grape in the wine is someone who doesn't want to be part of the unity of the body. This is a church that said, we're not going to be a grape in the wine. You know how easy it is to come to church and be a grape in the wine? To come to church with a list of opinions? Look, as a former staff member, I know how difficult it is to sit in there and not think, hey, if I said, pastor, I'd do this.

Oh, I'd do it. And all of a sudden, the temptation to be a grape in the wine. That you get to have a little stage where you can play out and be God. That if it was all based on you, everything would be working. But to say, no, you know, it takes sacrifice and submission to Christ to be a unified church. To be a unified anything. It takes humility.

It takes sacrifice. And that's, I mean, I want to be in that kind of church. And I want to do that. And I want to lead in that way. I don't want to be a grape in the wine. You can actually see pastors that are a grape. You ever been in a church where the head pastor's just not in tune? Don't name it. But they're not in tune with what the congregation's doing?

Or the whole staff? You know, I've seen organizations where the pastor just has no clue where the staff is, where the church is, what God's doing. But they are leading away. And I've seen them stay in a position for 10 to 15 years and take things from successful and fragrant down to nothing until they eventually close the doors. I've watched it happen.

And probably so have you. We want to be unified. We are not, me as the head pastor, I am not above unity. I do not want to be a draconian, you know, dictator that says we're going to do it this way. I want to say there's enough Christians in the world that want to be parented that you can grow a really large church by being a parent as a pastor.

You know that. There are enough Christians that want to be told what to do that if I got here and said this is what you should do and if you don't do this, you should do that. And I heap guilt on you because that goes back to what you were taught as a child when your parents heaped guilt on you probably or whatever that system might have been you grew up, that you will grow a church by being a congregation's parent.

I'm not here to be your dad. I'm here to be a leader that wants to join in with a congregation that wants to make a difference. I don't want to be a grape in the wine. We want to be a fragrant unity. And this was a church that was. They were all of one heart. They were all of one mind. And they took their opinions and they left them at the door. It's not that you can't be wise.

It's just don't be in bondage to your opinions. Few things will ruin, sour, and destroy unity like opinions. What are your opinions? I got opinions. You got no opinions, Carol? You got some opinions, don't you? Yeah, right. Right. I love their one heart. Listen to this. This is cool in your notes. The effective center of our being, our heart, and the capacity of moral preference.

Desire producer. It's what makes us tick. Your heart is your desire producer. Desire and decisions. Desire. What's your heart's desire? It establishes who we really are. Cardia. Now this is interesting. It's mentioned over 800 times in scripture. But never referred to as the literal physical pump that drives the blood. That is the heart. It's only used figuratively both in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Now I think Jesus was stabbed in the heart. So I had a little bit of a question. Because the Bible says he was stabbed in the heart. So that might not be exactly correct. Because I could be wrong. But I think when it's speaking about from your heart, I think that is correct. That every single time it's not talking about the literal physical pump.

It's talking about where your heart and your desire. What's your... Do you have a desire for this congregation? I mean, do you have a desire? The kind of church you want. What kind of church do you want? And are you patient enough to wait for it to develop? You know, it's so funny. God is so patient with me. And I'm so impatient with the things that I want to see happen.

He is so patient with me. So how patient has he been with you? 20 years doing the same thing? 30 years doing the same thing? Oh, it's okay. Come back again, child. I love you. I love you. Are you willing to wait for it to happen? Are you willing like many... I mean, I'm so impressed by the congregants that have been in the church 30 and 40 years through eight different leaders.

Really? Through ups and downs and dead seasons and new visions. And how many... Dick, how many visions have you been through? I mean, can you put... I was surprised he wanted to go for another one. But he wanted another ride. You know? So he signed up there. And here's the result. And no one said that anything that belonged to him was their own, but they had everything in common.

This was a congregational choice rather than an apostolic command. There was no one under compulsion. I want to say with what I handed out today to you, you are not under compulsion. The New Testament makes it very clear. You do not have to give. It is not like the Old Testament. It is a choice. God just says, hey, do you want to have hilarity? I want to see a church that has hilarity, that has joy in giving.

And if you've never experienced joy in giving, it's radical. It is radical to get to a place where you just can't wait to see what you're going to give next. Second Corinthians 9, 7 says, each man must give as he or she has decided in their heart. There's that word heart again. It's your desire. It's your desire. Not reluctantly or under compulsion.

There is, let me just say this. There is no, if you don't give, God bless you. Keep coming here. Be a part. God is not upset with you. He loves you. Totally cool. Totally cool. Grace, grace, grace. There is no longer any compulsion. But if you want to seek God and see what he says to you, not reluctantly, so, I don't think this is so hard, but just say, hey, I really want to do this.

Not under compulsion. It says that God loves that. I want to be one of the things, do the things that God loves. Don't you want to do the things that God loves? It says he loves it. Loves it. There's certain things scripture says he hates. But this says he loves it. Just, if you want to have a blessed life, go find out the things in scripture that God loves and just go swim in those things.

Compassion, joy, mercy, just fill your life. Just swim in a deep ocean. And this is one of those things, generosity. Generosity. Have a generous, God loves generosity and he blesses it. It says he will, in the Proverbs, he will repay generosity. Repays it. I don't know what that means. Unity freed the apostles to do kingdom work. They had great power, signs and wonders, as well as evangelism.

I love it. The more unified we are, I believe that God releases power. I believe that you will have more power in your life as he releases power upon this church. Because we see it in scripture. Great grace. Grace was a byproduct of unity. Next point. The congregation trusted the leadership's wisdom. I thought this was interesting. There's a lot these days of kind of deciding, like, well, I'm going to do this and do that and I'm going to do this.

This is a church that said we want to have strong leadership and we're going to trust them. There's been such a breach of trust by church leadership that I understand why congregations are leery about wanting to support them, especially financially. I get that. Let me say as a leader, let me, I just want to say I ask your forgiveness for that.

And in the position that I'm in, I believe that I can stand in the gap for other leaders that have failed. And thank God I haven't failed to this point. But I want to ask forgiveness. And if you've been wounded by that or by appeals that brought guilt or by someone cheating or by things you've seen on TV, I just want to ask forgiveness for that and that God would heal that within you.

But it says these guys, they trusted their leadership. We want to have a leadership you can trust. I want to be a leader that you can trust. And it's really hard. It's really hard. And if you've ever led, you understand what I mean. And this trust fueled the church's growth. They were courageous followers. Great leadership is rendered useless if not accompanied equally by great or committed followers.

It says, thus Joseph, who was called the Apostle Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a Levite native of Cyprus, sold a field, belonged to him, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet, and there was not a needy person among them. This is a beautiful church. It's a unique church. It's a church that decided who they want to be.

We are still deciding who we want to be. But you are part of the new generation of who we're going to be. And I think it's a beautiful story as we continue to write this story. Let's ask the worship team to come forward. Lord God, I thank you, God, for a church. Today we're talking about us as opposed to me. We oftentimes come to church for me. But let us have a greater vision than ourselves sometimes.

Let us not be the only people we cry for as ourselves. God, release a blessing, a great power now. You want to do mighty things here. And you're going to speak to each person. And ask the Lord to speak to you. Just ask the Lord to speak to you of what he would have you do in this congregation. It could be time. It could be saying, I want to be part of this.

Ask the Lord. Lord, we're just one generation. Another will follow. We'll all be gone someday. And others will follow. Let us lay the ground where God, they will look back and say, there was something special about that group of people. Lord, we bless you and we give you praise. In Jesus' name. Amen.