ReDo: You. Me. Us.

I haven't posted my sermons for a few weeks. I'll get caught up in a couple of weeks. This is from February 17, 2013.

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We’re continuing to talk about the process of spiritual renewal.  We’ve talked about spiritual renewal as a renovation of our lives.

Spiritual renewal is the Holy Spirit filling us, preparing us, and empowering us to fulfill God’s call in our lives.

I believe true renewal is not strictly an individual phenomenon. It begins with the individual, but the renewal of individuals leads to a renewal in their congregation, which in turn, leads to renewal throughout the community. Spiritual renewal should be like a drip into a pool. It starts at a specific point, but ripples out in all directions. Or this might be a more appropriate image… As water fills the top glass, it flows out and into the next level and then to the next and so on. Just as the Spirit flows from us to the congregation around us and out into the world.

Last week we looked at individual renewal. We looked at the story of Jonah and the personal revival he experienced in the belly of a fish. After running from God, he made a decision to accept God’s call. We also talked a little about John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Wesley’s life was a bit of a spiritual roller coaster until he experienced his own personal revival. At what was essentially a Bible study, he experienced his “heart strangely warmed” as the Holy Spirit filled him and gave him assurance of his salvation and empowered him to fulfill God’s call.

But we have to realize that a personal renewal is well and good, but what good does it do as it relates to the Kingdom of God? I can feel renewed and refreshed – like God is sitting in my living room with me each night and that is wonderful: for me. Here’s the problem with that, my mission as a disciple of Jesus Christ is not me. Your mission as a disciple is not you. If renewal stops at the personal level, well, that’s no renewal at all. That’s just me holding Jesus hostage.

Renewal is not true renewal unless it spreads. Any one of you can feel closer to God than you’ve ever felt, but what good does it do if you leave it at that? Well, for you it’s a good and wonderful thing, but we’re not called simply to feel good and wonderful about ourselves. We’re not called to feel close to God and leave it at that.

In other words, my faith is about more than me. Your faith is about more than you. Spiritual renewal is about more than me and it’s about more than you.

This week we are talking about letting the Spirit that renews us flow from me and from you and renew US.

Our scripture this morning gives us the ending of the story of Pentecost. If you remember, the disciples experienced an amazing spiritual renewal. The arrival of the Spirit empowered them to go out and preach to the crowds gathered in Jerusalem. Acts shares the sermon that Peter preached that day. Our reading this morning picks up following that sermon.

Acts 2:37-47

New Living Translation (NLT)

³⁷ Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”

³⁸ Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ This promise is to you, and to your children, and even to the Gentiles—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” ⁴⁰ Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”

⁴¹ Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.

⁴² All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.

⁴³ A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. ⁴⁴ And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. ⁴⁵ They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. ⁴⁶ They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity— ⁴⁷ all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about the mission statement of the North Alabama Conference. That mission can be summed up in two word. Making disciples. There are two levels to that disciple making. One is bringing people to Christ for the first time. Encouraging and enabling people to accept Jesus Christ as their savior from sin and death, and in doing so, to begin the journey of salvation. And that’s the second part. Making disciples includes helping those who have taken that first step to live as disciples. Maybe we can think of that as growing disciples. That encompasses the bulk of the people here; most of us have taken that first step. And all of us who have are living in the second step. We are growing in our faith. More importantly, we’re growing together.

Both of these levels of disciple making are seen in our scripture this morning. The first is obvious. 3000 people were baptized and added to the church that day, and “each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.”

The second is there as well and it’s this second part of disciple making I want to focus on for a few minutes. Let’s look back at our scripture.

⁴² All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. ⁴³ A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. ⁴⁴ And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. ⁴⁵ They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. ⁴⁶ They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity— ⁴⁷ all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people.

If you have your Bible, I want you to underline a few words. In verse 42, underline teaching and prayer. Then in verse 46, underline worship. These are the things those first believers devoted themselves to doing.

The first of those was teaching and being taught about Jesus. The disciples were instructed by Jesus to teach the things he taught them. Here we see they are doing just that. They are telling the stories of Jesus. They are sharing his teachings and his ministry. In doing so they are teaching these new believers how to live like disciples of Jesus.

They devoted themselves to prayer. They know that they can’t do it on their own. So they do as they learned from Jesus. They pray.

They worship. They know from whom and from where salvation comes. They know that God is good; that God is worthy of praise.

This outline of the early church gives us a good outline for what a renewed church looks like, and how to be a Spirit led, renewed church ready to fulfill the twofold mission of making disciples. Bringing people to Jesus and helping them grow into committed disciples of Jesus Christ.

But there is an important element of this formula that I haven’t mentioned. Look back at verse 42. Teaching, prayer, and fellowship. And in verse 46. They worshipped, together. Those 5 verses, 42-46, talk about sharing, meeting, and doing things together 9 times.

Which brings me back to this. Why do you think the water is able to go from this cup to those and from these to those? Because they are connected. Without that connection, they would fall apart. Without the togetherness this bond creates, the water would simply pour out of one and onto the floor.

This is what the church should look like. Connected. Together. So that when one of us is filled with the Spirit; it flows out and into all of those around us. And it flows out of them and into those around them. And on and on until it flows out of the church to transform the world.

There’s a word for the connectedness demonstrated in Acts. koinōnia. It means fellowship. But I don’t think fellowship is a strong enough word for what koinōnia means. I saw it translated in one place as “fellowship by intimate participation.” It means community. It means sharing. We are created to be in relationships. Relationship with God and relationship with one another.

To truly live into our calling as disciples of Jesus Christ, we can only do so in community. It is only through living out our faith together, through sharing our faith journey that we become true disciples. I’m going to spend a few weeks talking more about this after Easter, but let’s look at what Acts 2 tells us about a renewed church in terms of togetherness.

The essential part of this scripture is koinōnia – fellowship. Our connection to one another is essential. Our salvation journey is a shared journey. It is not an individual event. How do we live that out?

We learn about Jesus. We teach each other about Jesus. Through Bible study groups, we read and we share and together we grow closer to God and become more like Jesus.

We pray. Pray together. Pray for one another. Pray with one another. When I was in college, I worked at a small church in Opelika. On Wednesday nights the men participated in a prayer group. We sat together and went around the circle and all prayed out loud for a list of people and whatever needs we had and for one another. The first time I went I was terrified and embarrassed and didn’t want to go back. I did. After a few weeks, that group became a vital part of my faith. It helped us grow closer. It helped us grow in our faith.

Worship together. Come together and sing and praise. Don’t worry about who is watching or what else is going on in the room. We’re all here for the same reason. To worship God and to surround ourselves with others who are worshipping!

Back to this idea of a twofold concept of making disciples. That is our mission. To make disciples. Not just to “win people to Jesus” and not just to grow ourselves closer to God. But to make disciples. To bring people to Jesus and to help them grow as disciples as we grow along with them. It’s not an either/or proposition. It’s not a question of will we be a church that wants to reach out or a church that wants to reach in. Instead it is both/and. We can do both. We should do both. In fact, we are called and commanded to do both.

If we commit ourselves to allowing the Spirit to renew us, that renewal will flow from us. The Spirit will pour out and this congregation – The Bridge – will be a renewed church. Ready to let the spirit flow from here and transform the world.

Amen.