Sermon for April 10th, 2016

Acts 2:37-47

37Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” 38Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” 40And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”

41So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. 42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

First Church: What Should We Do?

In today's scripture reading, the Apostle Peter preaches a three minute sermon, and the church--the real "First Church" which is the subject of our sermon series this month--goes from 120 members to 3,000 all in one day. If that's not an argument for shorter sermons, I don't know what is!

I'm also reminded of the story about the three local churches--Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian--who worked together to sponsor a community- wide revival. After the revival had concluded, the three pastors were discussing the results with one another. The Methodist minister said, "The revival worked out great for us. We gained 4 new members, Hallelujah!" The Baptist preacher said, "Amen, brother, but we did better than that. We gained 6 new members, Praise the Lord!" The Presbyterian pastor said, "Well, we did even better than that! Thanks be to God, we finally got rid of our 10 biggest troublemakers!"

It's a fun joke, but there's also a bit of sad truth to it--in many churches, evangelism and "church growth" are all about shuffling around members from one church to another...meanwhile, the total number of church members in our country and in our city continues to decline.

And so we read scripture passages like today's, we see a growing, thriving church back in the first century, and we say, "Wow. What it must've been like to be part of that very first Christian community!" We read how they all took care of each other, financially and materially. We read how glad and generous they were, and how everyone loved them--they had the goodwill of all people. And we ask ourselves (hopefully) how can we be *that* kind of church? How can we be that kind of people?

Well. I'm so glad you asked.

I think it's easy with passages like this one to see the big things, like 3,000 people, amazing wonders and signs, and radical acts of generosity. But it's also easy to miss the little, but important things, the persistent things that created that kind of environment. They're all there as well, and that's what I want to focus on today.

Right before today's scripture passage, Peter preaches a sermon. It's always tempting (especially for a preacher) to think that the sermon was what did the trick. But as I said earlier, it was just three minutes long. Peter quotes a few passages from the Hebrew scriptures (the Old Testament), tells them about this guy named Jesus of Nazareth, about his death and resurrection, and that's pretty much it. It's a message you've heard many times, and one I imagine most people in our community (believers and non-believers alike) are pretty well acquainted with. No, I don't think it was the sermon, and in any case, that's not today's focus.

Our passage begins with the response of the crowd, which, for whatever reason (let's just call it the movement of the Spirit) is "cut to the heart." Listen to their response, the first words out of their mouths: They "said to Peter and to the other apostles, 'Brothers, what should we do?'"

What should we DO? Interestingly, they don't ask, "what should we BELIEVE?" Somehow, 2,000 years later, we have made belief, and not action, the primary criteria for acceptance into the church community. You want to be a Christian? Ok, first you have to believe what we believe, accept all of these doctrines and ideas about who Jesus was and what the Bible *really* means, and then once you believe all these things, then you can belong to our community.

Peter and the apostles don't seem to be too worried about uniformity of belief. Most of the doctrines and creeds of the church won't even be formulated for another few hundred years, and as we'll see later in Acts, even Jesus' earliest followers didn't always agree on who he was and what they were all supposed to believe about him.

Instead, the crowd asks what they should do, and Peter simply tells them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven."

Repenting is something inward, something invisible between just you and God. Baptism is something outward, visible, something the community can see and remember. Sometimes, as was likely the case with all the adults that day, the repentance or inward change comes before the outward sign of baptism. But later, Peter says that this "promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him." Sometimes the outward sign of baptism comes first, when we are only infants and before we have the ability to even understand it, while the inward change, the repentance comes years afterwards when we are older. In any case, both pieces--internal and external--are essential to forming a cohesive community.

Later, Peter tells the crowd, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." That's not a very good translation of γενεᾶς τῆς σκολιᾶς. σκολιᾶς means bent or twisted--it's where the medical term "scoliosis" (a bent spine) comes from. And while γενεᾶς is root for generation, it's also the root for genetic, something inherited. I don't think Peter is talking about the corrupt world around them. I think he's telling them to leave behind

We must read acts through a lens of moving from individual to community, which is what they were trying to do. This is hard for us...because we are an individualistic society (like Jerusalem and Rome).

Repentance = admitting in a self-centric, try-harder, individualistic culture (Pharisees and Americans) that we can't do it on our own.

Three legged stool: teaching, fellowship (koinonia?), and bread-breaking/prayers (worship). Everything else (including serving, giving, sharing, miracles, growth) flow from this.

Our fellowship is Wednesday nights.

Historic notes or marks of the church in Reformed Theology.

They "devoted" themselves. This implies consistency and discipline. Talk about workout conversations with Luis.

Frequency is not monthly or even weekly, but "day by day."