Love God, Connect with Others, Serve the Community

Please turn to or turn on your Bibles to Acts 2:42-47! As you are doing that let me ask some questions: What are your values? You don’t need many of them. Business Professor Brené Brown teaches that you “only need two core values.”^[1] I think you may need a few more, but you need have some. The questions for you to think about today are: What drives and guides your actions? Are your values changing? For good or for bad? I know of a new husband who would rather go and spend time with his wife than go to a concert that a couple of years earlier he would have jumped at the opportunity. He will remain nameless, but he is married to my daughter so I get why he would want to spend time with my baby girl. Our values change. The big question is: are your values aligned with God and His Word? Life seemed to pick up speed and move into fourth gear for many of us this week with going back to school and work. It is so easy to get caught up in the busyness of life that we can start to lose our way. And the values we once held dear, no longer guide us. As followers of Jesus, we believe our values come from God’s Word – the Bible. The Bible doesn’t not change. The early church had some values they adopted almost at her inception and those values served the church well. We have tried to adopt those similar values here at Temple. Let’s read Acts 2:42-47! The context is that the followers of Jesus proclaimed Him to those in Jerusalem at Pentecost – a Jewish festival. Many were saved that day as the gospel of Jesus Christ was preached. This was the birth of the church with 3000 souls being added that day. And immediately the church committed to some values and practices that we read about Acts 2:42-47. If you don’t have a Bible, we would love to give one to you. Read Acts 2:42-47!

We have tried to simplify the values of the early church found in Acts 2:42-47 into our TBC core values: Love God, Connect with others, Serve the community. We believe the order is important and without the first value of loving God, our connection with others and serving the community takes a different track. One can connect with others and serve the community, but without a love for God it has no eternal value. Recall 1 Corinthians 13:3, “If I give away all I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” This is because connecting with and serving others may actually be selfish. Yes, you heard right! We may serve others so that we can serve our own needs about feeling better about ourselves. There are whole industries built around poverty tourism where NGOs will enable the rich to help the poor so the rich can feel better about themselves. In contrast, the Bible teaches that true love for each other comes from God’s love. 1 John 1:7 clearly teaches, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” So if you are struggling to love others, seek God and He will give you the love you need for others. And if you refuse to love others, then take this warning to heart from 1 John 1:8, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”Ask yourself if you are truly of the faith, if you don’t love your brothers and sisters in Christ, if you don’t love your neighbour and if you don’t love your enemy. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Love God is our first value. How do we do love God? We must first be born of God (1 John 1:7). Are you born of God? Has Jesus Christ given new life? Were you once dead in your transgressions and Jesus came to give you new life by His own death and resurrection? Are you saved as Acts 2:47 describes? Or are more like the walking dead – a zombie – in spiritual terms? You must be born of God to truly love. And then we grow in that love as we hear and obey God. We know and hear God from His Word. This is what Acts 2:42 starts out with, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.” The apostles’ teaching is code word for Christ’s teaching and commands. When we devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching, we grow. The number one spiritual growth engine in your life is reading and obeying God’s Word daily. The late great pastor of All Souls Church in London, England, John Stott, summarized these verses well in describing the church as, “a learning church, a loving church, a worshipping church and an evangelistic church.”^[2] Learning, loving, worshipping and witnessing are all sourced by loving God as described in His word. Loving God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength is the greatest commandment as Jesus taught us in Matthew 22:37. That loving the Lord expresses itself in worship as verse 47 declares. We love God when we read His Word, when we pray, we sing worship songs privately and publicly, when we thank God for the beauty of the sunset or the blessing of our family and friends. What are some other ways we can worship God?

But in the same way that God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit loved each other and that love was shared beyond the Trinity when God decided to create the universe and particularly human beings, we too are to share our love with others. This is why the second value we have at Temple is Connect with others. Notice how fellowship is listed next in Acts 2:42. Fellowship is critical. As Sri Lankan evangelist Ajith Fernando insightfully explains, “The most important thing in the first few days after conversion is fellowship with other believers.”^[3] Like about the new babies born into our church. When the babies first entered the world, did you new parents give them a book to read? Do you expect them to start talking to you? How about getting up and doing a little jig praising you for how wonderful a parent you are? No! You held them! You drew them in! You fellowshipped with them! And out of that fellowship, you will teach them to talk and to read and to praise! This will also happen when new believers get in a group with older believers. They will teach them the Bible, and how to pray and praise God!

In my travels to countries which experience greater poverty and persecution, I have noticed that the believers love to fellowship with each other. I don’t think this can be easily explained by them living in a warm culture. Certainly, they don’t have as many technological distractions, but every human on the planet has the same number of hours – 168/week. We all have the propensity to be distracted by our favourite things. There are third world distractions as well. So why do many believers around the world love to hang out with each other? They meet in each other homes often. They have multiple worship services throughout the week. It is because their love of God that causes them to love each other and fellowship together. They are diverse, but like-minded in Christ. 

This is a miracle when you think about it. Counsellor Jay Adams would bring this out when he would counsel couples before they got married and when they struggled their marriages with high expectations, “What happens when you bond two sinners together?” Do they cancel out each other’s sin or do things often get worse? Bible Scholar Tremper Longman III puts it this way, “Individual sinners are harmful, sometimes deeply. But sinners bound together behind a group cause can cause great devastation.”^[4] So that explains why when people get together in families, in school, in business, in government, in neighbourhoods, in mosques, synagogues and even churches there can be problems. But the miracle is that the church is one of the most multicultural and multigenerational diverse groups on the planet, contrary to popular opinions, and most churches are united like ours is by the grace of God. This was the case in the first church of Jerusalem. Check out Acts 2:44-46, “And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts.” The commonality was because of Christ – the conduit of the love of God. 

Therefore, the love of God leads to fellowship just as the Holy Trinity – Father, Son and Spirit have fellowship based on their love for each other. The Greek word “koinonia” in verse 42 means fellowship. In fact, a related word to koinonia is “koinokos, which is the Greek word for generous”^[5] found in verse 44. The Early Church “had all things in common and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.” (Acts 2:44) “Christian caring is Christian sharing.”^[6] Now, lest you think this is an example of socialism or communism, Warren Wiersbe states, “This was not a form of modern communism, for the program was totally voluntary and motivated by love.”^[7] They were glad about it. This was not what we read in our Ukraine church planter’s description of what the people in the occupied territory are forced to by Russian troops. Loving one another is voluntarily. It leads to learning about Jesus who was the greatest sharer of Himself to others and this leads to worship of Jesus and finally witness of Jesus. The Early Church was God’s gift of Christ’s continuing ministry for the world. And this is attractive to some. Finally, we read in Acts 2:47, “the Lord was adding to their number day by day those were being saved.” “Salvation and church membership belonged together; they still do!”^[8] The Lord saves people to a loving environment! Love God and Connect with others.

This is why we encourage you to join a small group, youth group, Young Adults, a Bible Study, Alpha, and or a prayer group. You can find them all on display and ways to connect to them at our Ministry Fair after the service. Our Ministry Fair is not just about serving, but about connecting. Connect with others. That connection also includes our B.L.E.S.S. outreach initiative as you reached out to your neighbours, classmates and co-workers. You Begin with prayer, Listen for the need, Eat with them, Serve the need and Share the story of Jesus. Connect with others. Start with loving God, then fellowship with other followers of Christ and then connect with others praying and hoping for gospel opportunities.

So as we Love God, Connect with others, we also need to Serve the community. We see this third core value of TBC in verse 45, “And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.” We already talked about the generosity as overflow from the love and fellowship of God and each other, but it also had an effect on their city. Physical needs were being looked after. The early church was heavenly minded, which meant they were earthly good. They “let their lights so shine before men that others saw their good deeds and praised God in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). It is hard not to notice the results of the early church putting themselves in the position of God’s grace. Look at verse 43, “And awe came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.” Now I need to say something dangerous. It is dangerous because it could be misunderstood. Here it is: in my 27 years of ministry, I have never witnessed more miracles of healing than what has occurred this summer. You heard just a few of them a couple of weeks ago during our testimony time. We are doing nothing special and we certainly don’t deserve these miracles, but God is blessing. We studied all of 2022 how to persevere in suffering. Suffering is also a blessing because we get to know and depend more upon Christ. I just think these miracles are signs for people to be interested in our Saviour Jesus Christ. 

But it isn’t just miracles – it is ministry. Serve the community involves the health and physical needs of people. Look at Acts 2:47, “praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” The church was for their community and it caused people to want to follow Jesus. We here at TBC want that too. We are For Cambridge because Jesus is for our city. This is why we must serve. I love our church because I know if there is a need, we can call on you and God will stir you up to help. This is “doing good as we have opportunity to everyone, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10). This service must also include those in our community. The Food Bank and the Bridges are the most well-known places to serve, but there are so many others. We want you to be community liasons of Jesus. Just showing the love of God will get you into gospel conversations.  

Beloved, so many of you are loving God, connecting with others and serving the community. Let’s continue to do that in Jesus dependent ways. And if you are not, it is time to get in the game. Some of you think you have been sidelined after years of being in the action. This weekend is about being redeployed in the King’s service. At very least, you can do the most powerful thing is and that is to pray. Put your hand in front of you mouth! Do you feel it? That is your breath. You’re not retired in the King Jesus’ service here on earth. You still have breath to love, connect and serve. Let’s keep loving, connecting and serving for God’s glory until we breath our last!

^[1] https://brenebrown.com/resources/dare-to-lead-list-of-values/. Accessed September 6, 2023.

^[2] John R.W. Stott, The Message of Acts (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1990), 82.

^[3] Ajith Fernando, The NIV Application Commentary on Acts (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998), 125. 

^[4] Tremper Longman. Daniel (The NIV Application Commentary) (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition, 197.

^[5] Stott, 83.

^[6] Stott, 84.

^[7] Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1989), 411.

^[8] Stott, 87.