A FAMILY AFFAIR

Mark 3:13-19; Acts 2:42-47

Dr. Wm. J. Maxwell

First Presbyterian Church, Newport, RI

June 19, 2005

The title of this sermon may not be familiar to some of you, but to others it may. Quite a number of years ago, back in the mid 60’s, there was a half hour sitcom on television by this name. The situation behind it, as I recall, involved a bachelor in New York City, played by actor Brian Keith. He was quite content living in an affluent apartment and living a busy bachelor’s life.

But suddenly, he “inherited” two nieces and a nephew, due to the untimely death of his brother and sister-in-law. One happy bachelor, living all on his own and at his own pace, suddenly finds himself as a “family man” with a teenage girl and twins! With this sudden change, Brian Keith’s life became a “Family Affair.”

The early Church had a similar experience of very sudden growth. It all began when Jesus called twelve men to be His disciples, following a night of prayer.[i] We are told that Jesus had a purpose in mind in selecting these men. Jesus desired their fellowship, as well as the opportunity to equip them for ministry.

This surely happened, but by the time just after Jesus’ ascension, the Twelve had grown to 120. The family was getting bigger. And then, after Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost, suddenly, in only one day’s time, the Church grew from 120 to 3,120! This was a Family Affair of epic proportions!

One may well wonder how this “church family” got along, and Luke, the author of the book of Acts, wastes no time in telling us. Our brief but very important passage for this morning describes how they lived in community together. We are told in verse 42: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

These attributes are worthy of our reflection as we consider our own church today. Let’s look at these four attributes and consider how we may incorporate them more fully in our community life together.

FIRST OF ALL,

THE CHURCH IS TO BE A LEARNING CHURCH.

We are told first that the members of the church devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. The original has the idea of “continuing steadfastly in” or “attending diligently to …” The members of the early church were committed to attending to the teaching and instruction of the apostles.

Here, we see that they were not content in remaining infant Christians, but they were willing to follow the mandate given later by the apostle Peter: “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” [ii] We need to see this, as did they, not as merely an invitation, but as a mandate, as an imperative. All of us are to grow spiritually in the grace and knowledge of Christ.

Every church – ours included – needs to be a learning and studying church. The church leadership must supply the saints with good, solid, biblically based opportunities for spiritual growth and maturity in Christ. But likewise, and just as important, the people of God need to take advantage of these opportunities and invest their time and effort toward growth.

But as we do, I must offer a warning: we must always remember that mere growth in knowledge is not to be the supreme goal before us. Knowledge about Christ does not necessarily mean knowledge of Christ. We need to learn more about Him, but only with the ultimate goal of growing our relationship of intimacy with Him.

The authors of The Sacred Romance point this out for us, I believe, in a very impressive way.[iii] They place us in a sidewalk café, listening to conversation between a fiancée and her betrothed. This is the way the conversation goes:

She: I’m looking forward to our wedding day. I do love you

so much. I really wish I could see more of you.

There’s so much about you I want to know better.

He: Yes, dear, I know. I’m going to send you a book that

describes more about my life. I’m sure you’ll get a lot

out of it.

She: I’ll be glad to read it. But I just want to hold your hand.

[She continues somewhat mischievously.] I just want

to kiss you.

He: I’m sure you do beloved. Let me send you a tape

describing the role of physical affection at different

stages of courtship. You’ll find it worthwhile, I’m sure.

She: (Somewhat disappointed) That’s wonderful, darling.

It’s just that I so look forward to our wedding day. I

want to be with you so badly. I think of us being, you

know, ‘together,’ day and night.

He: Yes, intimacy is important. I’d like to send you to a

weekend seminar that really should be quite helpful.

Okay, by this time, we’ve heard enough! We want to say, “This is ridiculous. Dump that guy!” But wait a minute. Consider our relationship with God, as the authors remind us:

Yet this is very much the way we often carry on our love affair with God. We picture Him as being much like the man in the café, and so we sigh, try to push down our disappointment, and go on being good Christians.

Head knowledge alone without relationship is merely religion. The Lord Himself desires more, and so should we! A living, abiding, growing relationship of intimacy with God through Jesus Christ should ever and always be our ultimate goal.

II

THE CHURCH IS ALSO

TO BE A PLACE OF FELLOWSHIP.

The members of the early Church continued steadfastly in “the fellowship.” The word here is the word “koinonia” and it means sharing or having things in common. We may note that the believers of the church did this literally in sharing from their abundance with those in need.

But they also shared in other ways. They shared in Christian conversation, in the sharing of both joys and concerns, in mutual convictions, in the experience of persecution, in eating together, in worship and in prayer. The bond in Jesus Christ came to be seen and experienced in many ways, and so it is to be today.

But quite frankly, it isn’t always so. Writing a column in the Boston Globe some time ago, Ellen Goodman once called us a “nation of leavers.” When you stop to think about it, you begin to realize that she is right. Consider how our forbears first emigrated to America from foreign lands, from Europe, Asia and elsewhere. Once here, people began moving westward, as the so-called “frontier” opened up. They then continued until the Pacific Ocean impeded any further movement.

Today, people are still leaving, only in a different way … they are leaving from each other. Yes, New Englanders often pride themselves in being very independent, but it appears that more and more all over the country are adopting this same attitude. At the same time, however, inwardly we struggle, for the reason that God created us for community. From the very beginning, God declared that it is not good for us to be alone.[iv] Adam was not left alone to himself, and neither should we be.

When it comes to the church, we cannot ever expect it to be perfect. Oh, so often we do, and that is precisely when we end up being very disappointed. Along this line, someone once came to Charles Spurgeon and said he was leaving his church. “I can’t stay in a church with so many problems like this. I’m going to find the perfect church.” Ever one with quick wit, Spurgeon replied, “Well, when you find it, please don’t join it, because you’ll ruin it!”

That’s sound advice for all of us. Dear friends, the only perfect “church” exists in heaven. It will never be found on this side of heaven. But that doesn’t mean we should then exclude ourselves from such fellowship. By God’s grace, we can nevertheless find in the church a fellowship where we can begin to discover intimacy, hope and healing, for we were created and redeemed with this very purpose in mind.

III

THE CHURCH IS TO BE A SACRAMENTAL CHURCH.

The early Church was clearly a sacramental body of Christians. In verse 41, we are told that after their conversion, those who had believed were baptized. Then in verse 42, we are also told that the Church celebrated the Lord’s Supper, in a very possible interpretation of the “breaking of bread.”

Protestant churches don’t often consider themselves to be sacramental churches. We do this because of an emphasis on the preaching of the Word, and the fact that we have only two sacraments, compared with the Roman Catholic Church having seven sacraments.

We need to recall, however, that it is nevertheless Christ Himself who instituted these two sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and that they are thus powerful in their visible and invisible demonstration of God’s grace in Jesus Christ, and the most meaningful ministry of the Holy Spirit. They are also powerful in their witness to the world.

Charles Colson has written of a powerful experience of baptism. [v] It took place in a Kentucky prison where, following a Prison Fellowship seminar, nine inmates indicated they wanted to be baptized. Clergy were called according to the individual’s choosing, but there was no baptistery in the chapel, as the inmates wanted to be immersed. They thought of using a horse trough placed in the exercise yard. But that meant that all the other inmates could watch the service through a chain link fence. It also meant that these nine, all from the sexual offenders’ unit, would be subject to even more scorn and abuse from the other prisoners.

But these new believers were determined to be baptized. So, one by one, they marched out in front of all, to be seen by all, and to be ridiculed by so many. But they simply did not care about the catcalls and the verbal abuse, for they were broken men made whole, weeping, yet rejoicing, and made aware only of God’s all sufficient grace.

Yes, the Church is to be a sacramental Church, in a powerful witness of God’s love and grace in Jesus Christ, first to ourselves, and then to a watching world!

THE CHURCH IS TO BE A PRAYING CHURCH

Not only did the believers dedicate and devote themselves continually to teaching, fellowship and the sacraments, but they also continued steadfastly in prayer, or more literally, “the prayers.”

As we make our way through the book of Acts, we will see how very true this statement is of the early Church. In his Gospel, Luke records the consistent prayer life of Jesus. In the book of Acts, he records the consistent prayer life of the Church.

Similarly, our life of prayer in the church today is to be just as consistent. In fact, far from an empty exercise of piety, you and I are to be “devoted” to prayer … unceasingly! We are to heed Paul’s admonition to be “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication … making supplication for all the saints …” [vi]

Prayer is never to be seen as mere ritual or routine. Beyond our prayers of adoration, confession and thanksgiving, our prayers of petition are a God-ordained means toward His sovereign working in the world, and we need to thus take such prayer seriously.

A few years ago, Dois Rosser went to a very remote area of India. [vii] He was there to build churches and he and a friend visited a very small community to do so. But he was totally unprepared for what he saw. Coming out of their grass huts, it was clear to him that these men, women and children had a disfiguring kind of leprosy.

He also discovered that the church building they had attempted to build was but a rectangle with walls only waist high. At the same time, however, Dois Rosser found an incomparable joy, a joy and an all sufficient grace only Christ can give. It was there in all of their conversations, in their singing and in all of their witness.

Dois promised them that he would return with the needed supplies to finish the church building. But then one more surprise. Just before Dois and his friend left, the lepers asked if they could pray for them. With the two visitors in the middle, all the lepers encircled them in a great circle. They then prostrated themselves on that bare earth, and on that bare earth they then offered deep, heartfelt prayers, thanking God for His grace and mercy, and interceding for their new friends.

In a land of deep poverty and suffering, the power of God was present with His people at prayer. And oh dear friends, if we here so many miles away would only prostrate ourselves before the Lord in prayer as well - if not physically and literally, then certainly in spirit before the Lord - and pray for one another, what great things might we see God do in our midst!

Thanks to Luke, we have a description of community life in the early Church. But may it be far more than this. Could it not be said of us as well? Here, in this place, is a people who have devoted themselves to be a learning church, a church of fellowship, a sacramental church, and a praying church. May it be so. May it be so!