So Whose Job Is It Anyway

So Whose Job Is It Anyway? Acts 2:42-47; 5:1-10 Cascades Fellowship CRC, JX MI Sept 24th, 2005 Last week we began a series on stewardship – a topic we all love to talk about (please laugh, this is awkward enough). As we looked at Deuteronomy 8 and Luke 19, we discovered that stewardship is about a lot more than money – it’s not just about the budget. We found out that stewardship has to do with all of life – every breath is given to us as a trust and it really does matter how we spend it. Stewardship is all about discipleship, all about following Jesus Christ and using the resources he entrusts to us in the way he would use them. Our problem, as we found out last week, is that we are not naturally bent towards good stewardship. Since our nature was twisted by sin when Adam fell, we tend to want to look at ourselves as owners and not as stewards. We want to forget that we are beholding to a Creator, that we are somehow self-generating and that all that we have came to us by the strength of our own hands. By nature, we want the credit, the glory for what we see as the fruit of our hard work. So now, we who were created to be stewards in the midst of creation must nurture the desire and practice of stewardship. We have to work at being good stewards. And last week we found out how we do that. We foster a spirit of gratitude by reminding ourselves daily about everything that God has done for us. We remind ourselves that everything we have was given to us by God – that our very lives are contingent upon his good pleasure. Whether we are talking

about our bank account or our family, that special talent or learned skill, all of this comes to us by the hand of God and the only proper response is to use it in gratitude as God desires. By implication, that really means that stewardship is everyone’s responsibility – it belongs to each believer to be a good steward of what God has committed to him or her. Now, there are those in the church whose special responsibility it is to encourage us into being faithful stewards of the things that God has given us. We call them deacons. Our church order describes in Article 25, Section D the deacon’s responsibilities as The deacons shall represent and administer the mercy of Christ to all people, especially those who belong to the community of believers, and shall stimulate the member’s of Christ’s church to faithful, obedient stewardship of their resources on behalf of the needy – all with words of biblical encouragement and testimony which assure the unity of word and deed.i But church order does not relieve the rest of us from thinking about stewardship, from conscientiously trying to be faithful in giving of our time, of our money and our other resources. We cannot wipe our brow and say, “Whew! Dodged a bullet there!” Believe me, as a pastor I would love to forget about stewardship – I would love not think about, not preach about, not worry about it at all – but that luxury is not left to me. And not just because my salary springs directly from your generosity. I cannot forget about stewardship because it is an essential part of our identity in Jesus Christ. By definition, a disciple of Jesus Christ is a good steward. But what does that look like?

In Acts 2:42-47, Luke writes to us about the early church and its character as the Holy Spirit took root and hearts dramatically changed by the power of the gospel. In this little passage we have this incredible snapshot of the Christian community as it began to take shape. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. The first time I encountered this passage, I was in the Navy during the Cold War Era.

My worldview revolved around two polar opposites – a free

market democracy and communism. And of course, in those days communism was known as the evil empire and the United States the shining knight of righteousness. If only the world were that simple. When I read this passage for the first time, I was shocked! I couldn’t believe what I was reading. “All believers were together and had everything in common.” Do you know what that sounds like? Communism! But communist don’t believe in God, so how could Jesus and they be on the same wavelength? I suddenly found myself in a mini-crisis of faith. Was communism holy? It wasn’t until sometime later, when I was able to read Scripture without importing into it all my own preconceived notions, that I realized Acts 2 is not

espousing communism. Rather it is giving us a picture of how a just society operates when proper stewardship is applied. Let’s note a few things here to get a grip on how they were being faithful stewards. The first thing to note is how they used their time. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.” The stewardship of time is possibly the most underrated in importance and the most abused of all the resources God has given us. Let’s face it; in today’s world we have so many things to distract us. Our society seems to be steadily shifting toward being built around our distractions. Why do I say this? How much do we compensate actors, athletes and musicians that make it to the “big time?” Billions a year. We buy the tickets; we buy bigger screens, better sound systems, more realistic games. Distraction has become one of the most valuable commodities available, right up there with food, water and air. And none of us are immune to this. If it’s not TV or movies or sports, it’s something else. We all find ways to use our time in entirely selfish ways. Yet we all live on borrowed time. Not one second of your life is yours exclusively. You are not a self-generated self – in other words, you have time because God has given it to you. How are you spending it? How should you spend it? In the early church they marked time together.

I never cease to be

amazed by what I read about the early church. What kind of church do you think

we would have if we devoted ourselves daily to the teaching of the Scriptures – not just in our own personal devotions, but in community with other believers? That is what the early church did. They came together at every opportunity to receive instruction, to proclaim God’s goodness and to call upon the mercies and grace of God in Christ in prayer. They inhabited one another’s houses and one another’s lives. They came together for meals, enriching the nourishment they received from the food with food for the soul. They gathered in small groups before small groups were the in thing! And their lives were the richer for it. How do I know this? Because the passage says that they were continually filled with awe at the wonders of what God was doing in their midst. They were witnesses to the great redemptive work of God and it was thrilling for their souls. The early church used their time wisely – to gather together, to grow into Christ and into each others lives – and not surprisingly they were rewarded with the tangible sense of God’s presence and power. The second thing to note about this snapshot of the early church is that they were good stewards of their material resources. Now, in our “buy low, sell high” society our first response to this is “You’ve got to be kidding me! So what you are saying here is that you want me to sell everything I have and put the proceeds in a common pot so that we can take care of other people’s needs?” Be at ease; that is not a demand I can make of you. In fact, I would argue from this passage that any church or pastor that makes that sort of demand of you

violates the Scriptures and places himself in the seat of judge – a seat reserved for Christ alone. Remember our second passage for this morning, Acts 5:1-10. What does Peter say to Ananias after he lays the gift at Peter’s feet? “Ananias, why have you lied about this gift? Wasn’t it yours to begin with?” In other words, Ananias there is no law against keeping some of the proceeds for yourself. If you cannot give the whole thing in faith, it is better to give a smaller gift. But you chose to try and grab glory for yourself by claiming a false sacrifice.

You see, Ananias’

problem was that he wanted to be a big wig in the church, not that he wanted to keep some of the proceeds for himself. It was pride that got Ananias killed. Getting back to our first passage, what you see happening in the early church is a sharing of money, property and other material resources in order to meet the needs of the less fortunate among the believers. It wasn’t so much that everyone simply sold everything and then the whole community lived off the proceeds. Acts 4:34-35 says,” There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.” In other words, as the need surfaced those who had ii

plenty opened up their purse strings or sold property to provide for the need. Why? Because “all the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.” That is how Acts 4:32 explains it.

Good stewardship of property and other resources requires first of all that we realize everything we have God has given us, just as we talked about last week.

We must see that we have what we have for a reason – God has

committed it to us for a purpose and that purpose is not self-satisfaction or entertainment. The final thing to note about this passage is that they were good stewards of the spiritual vitality of their community of faith. Now follow me here. Don’t you find it intriguing that one of the things that Luke says marked the early church is that they continued to gather in the temple courts? The reason I find this part of the passage so striking is that Luke records it as an activity separate from the fellowship – that is, the practice of taking meals together – and from submitting themselves to the teaching of the apostles. The early church apparently sensed the necessity of gathering together as God’s people before his face – of coming together in a structured, worship environment where the sole purpose of the gathering was to express as a community their love and devotion to God. There is something special about the gathering of God’s people for corporate worship. Remember, this is a snapshot of the life of the early church – how the believers in Jesus Christ lived out this new found faith. And I have to tell you, when I look at this picture of the church – remembering that this was their heartfelt, spontaneous response to the Gospel – I am frightened for the church today. Because what marked the early church? A willing stewardship of time, talent,

money and possessions. Everything, and I mean everything, was surrendered to the cause of Christ, not one thing was withheld. Even the language Luke uses to describe the church in action alarms me. See the word “devoted” on v.42? It is the same word that is translated “they continued” in v.46. It has the sense of continually, doggedly, even mule-headedly persisted in being instructed by the apostles, in coming together to share their meals and their hearts, in recognizing needs and then liquidating assets to make sure the needs were met. The early church recognized in a way that seems to escape the church today that they belonged to better reality in which they were finally free to live as God had created them to live. They seemed to realize that what they had in Jesus Christ was a real treasure – the only true treasure – and like Paul considered everything else to be expendable for the sake of the Gospel. You see, the reason why it bugs me is because it wasn’t just the really spiritual people, or the ones all caught up in the heady, emotional rush of things that were doing this. It was all of them. Ananias was the exception, not the rule. They were all good stewards. In fact, by definition, to be a follower of Jesus Christ in the early church was to be a good steward – to use what God had given for real, eternal good. So then I am left with the question “When did it change? When did stewardship become the responsibility of the officers of the church?” Of course, the answer is it didn’t change.

It is still every Christian’s

responsibility to be a good steward. And then, after I lament the state of the church generally, my gaze finally starts to wander close to home and I have to

admit that I, too, would have felt a bit awkward in the early church. I have to confess that I am probably more like Ananias than the ones who sold assets and gave the full amount to the church. You see, the real problem is it is one thing to talk about stewardship and to say we are good stewards; it is another to live it. Let me ask the question that none of us want to answer. Where do you draw the line? When does giving to the church – whether it is time, talent, money, or assets – become just silly? How much time is too much? How many gatherings in a week are too much? When is the church asking too much? If we are going to be the kind of stewards God intends us to be – the kind we read about in Acts 2, these are questions we are going to have to wrestle with. The bell has rung, and round one has just begun. What kind of steward are you?

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Manual of Christian Reformed Church Government CRC Publications Grand Rapids, 2001 p.151 All Scriptures texts taken from The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.