Acts 2.36-47
Sharon remarked that in her diary
it says that today 20 March is the first day of spring.
Whatever the weather this year
isn’t that appropriate for this occasion?
Spring is all about new beginnings and new growth
and I pray that these words of mine will help you, William
and help us all think about what is needed for a church to grow.
Or rather, what is needed for churches not so much to ‘grow’
as to ‘flourish and mature’ i
Not all growth is good.
A couple of years ago we had a jungle in part of the church grounds in Cork.
There was growth all right, decades of growth of wild sycamores and brambles
and how much money and effort it cost to cut it all down.
We are delighted to have the problem today of not enough seats.
It is so refreshing for those of us who worship usually
with 20 or 30 or 40 people
But, William, you strike me as a realist
and you know that not every service in Cahir or Fermoy
will not be as well attended as this one.
I know you won’t get depressed about that
and I urge everyone here please don’t be seduced by the idol of a big church.
Please do not worship the idea of being a big church
in place of worshiping the God who loves us, big or small.
Arguably one of the worst things in Christian life in Ireland
has been the existence of huge churches
where people hide in the crowds
and everybody seems to be Christian
but not so many take discipleship seriously.
What you are coming to, William and Sharon
are small but flourishing and maturing fellowships.
I have been struck in my visits, as have all the visiting preachers
by the warmth in Fermoy and Cahir, the sense of intimacy and friendship
which flourishes in a small group and is lost in a crowd.
I want us to look today at the the flourishing and maturing
of the early church in Acts 2. 36-47.
A short reading but packed full of detail to inspire and challenge.
It is not that we have to seek to copy slavishly every aspect of what they did
but we certainly need the spirit of their life and worship together.
We can sum it up like this:
CHURCHES FLOURISH AND MATURE WHERE
GOD’S WORD IS PROCLAIMED
PEOPLE PRAY
PEOPLE LOVE EACH OTHER.
AND GOD’S LOVE AND PRESENCE IS KNOWN
AMONG HIS REPENTANT PEOPLE
CHURCHES FLOURISH AND MATURE WHERE
GOD’S WORD IS PROCLAIMED
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching
Here was a church growing with the Word of God being taught clearly.
I wonder if people noticed a few minutes ago
when William was answering his questions
how often the Word of God was mentioned.
That reflects the heart beat of the Presbyterian church
that the central emphasis in worship is on
reading the Bible and on preaching and responding to the Word of God
Is it not significant that we read here that the early Christians
devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching?
Just a few minutes ago also the Presbytery laid hands on William
to ordain him to the ministry of word and sacrament.
What was that about?
Simply this,
everyone here who believes in Jesus Christ
does so because some else told them about Jesus
and someone else told that someone else and so on
all the way back to the days of the New Testament
and the Lord Jesus appointing his apostles to spread his message.
This is not the time and place to go into the big debate
as to true ‘apostolic succession’ who has authority to lead the church.
William’s ordination recognises that there is a chain of communication
and there is a prime duty upon church leaders in every age
to preserve the apostolic teaching
because rather like the game of ‘Chinese whispers‘
the message can so easily get changed and corrupted in the handing on.
So the important question is not
who has laid hands on to ordain this minister
or even who the at precisely happens when the hands are laid on
but the question is, does this minister teach faithfully the apostles’ teaching
and another important question is
are the people willing to learn from the apostolic teaching?
Are we willing to learn more about Jesus and how to follow him?
This does not mean that preachers always get it right
or that learning always has to be done by listening to someone at the front.
But it does mean that where the Bible is neglected,
the life of the church suffers, there is no more flourishing and maturing
and where the church starts to wither, the wider community suffers
because the good news of Jesus is no longer told
or not so clearly told as it could be and should be.
As somebody said long ago but so rightly
not to know the scriptures is not to know Christ truly.
I know William you have a desire not simply to preach the word
but to apply God’s word that it may be relevant to people’s lives
so that they are not just hearing a good sermon
or going to an interesting bible study group
but they are really engaging with God’s word
being blessed by it, changed by it, challenged by it..
Let us all then keep praying that
William may do what he has been ordained to do
to preach and apply God’s word
CHURCHES FLOURISH AND MATURE WHERE
GOD’S WORD IS PROCLAIMED
PEOPLE PRAY
and William needs our help to preach and apply the word of God.
We read also in Acts of a church flourishing and maturing through prayer.
People prayed:
This passage does not tell us what they prayed
but we may guess from other places in the Bible that they prayed
- for themselves to become more like Jesus
- for each other to have help and hope from Jesus and grow more like him
- for the apostles to make the message clear
- for God’s presence to continue to be known among them in awesome power
- for people to become aware of their need to repent and be reconciled to God.
William, you are privileged to come to fellowships in Fermoy and Cahir
that value prayer
where in Sunday morning worship,
it won’t be left to the minister to say the prayers
but they will be glad to join in and share openly in prayer.
And on Sunday evenings and other times they will gather for prayer
and they will welcome you into your homes to pray with them
and you will at other times be much in prayer for them.
It is now 30 years since I knelt for ordination in a service like this.
At that time I knew that prayer was important.
Thirty years on I will say prayer is not important it is vital.
In the opening words of a classic book on prayer
‘Prayer is the breath of the soul.’
and no individual Christian ordained or not,
can flourish and mature without prayer
And no fellowship can flourish and mature without prayer.
Make time, William, for your personal time of prayer with God.
Make time to pray with Sharon.
That can all too easily be forgotten in the rush of life
(as this preacher must confess).
People of Fermoy and Cahir pray for them
and friends from all over Ireland
keep them and these churches in your prayers.
CHURCHES FLOURISH AND MATURE WHERE
GOD’S WORD IS PROCLAIMED
PEOPLE PRAY
PEOPLE LOVE EACH OTHER.
All the prayers in the world will be as nothing without love
We see this in vv 44-45
in the way they shared their possessions, so generous and practical.
We see this in 46 in their meeting together every day
in temple prayers and in each other’s homes
expressing their love for each other
breaking bread together and eating with glad and generous hearts.
That includes what we would call the Lord’s Supper
and in ordinary meals together.
they were a community more than an institution,
a family more than a formality.
One of the main problems of church today is of seeing it as an institution
an impersonal organisation, which has a function but not much fun.
Banks or post offices for example are institutions.
You go in every now and the to put money in or take money out.
You do your business and then you leave.
The only person you will speak to is behind the glass.
If you meet a friend in the queue, that’s a bonus but that’s not why you came.
Were many of us raised unknowingly
with that view of church as an institution?
It had a function but not much fun.
We went on Sundays, or occasionally on weekdays,
we did our business with God as best we knew how
but we didn’t really experience the church as church should be:
a community, a fellowship, a family.
Do we still wonder why a younger generation stays away from church?
They couldn’t care a button about institutions
but they love fun and they are rightly hungry for community
a community of welcome, acceptance and perseverance
a community of love.
William, they are not perfect in Fermoy and Cahir
that is why they need a minister
but they have a sense of fun and welcome
and concern for each other.
Let me share with you two negatives as you seek to encourage them in love.
One is not to keep score of wrongs -
(reference 1 Corinthians 13.5 love keeps no record of wrongs))
The time will come when they will annoy you, disappoint you
and you will annoy them and disappoint them.
Don’t keep score of their or your wrongs - that’s part of love.
And do not keep score of your right things
reference here the Pharisee in Luke 18.11
he was so pleased with himself,
he thanked God for all the right things he had done
but God was not impressed.
Which brings me to my last point.
CHURCHES FLOURISH AND MATURE WHERE
GOD’S WORD IS PROCLAIMED
PEOPLE PRAY
AND PEOPLE LOVE EACH OTHER.
AND GOD’S LOVE AND PRESENCE IS KNOWN
AMONG HIS REPENTANT PEOPLE
It was the repentant tax collector who was accepted by God
and God loves his penitent people.
I wonder were we struck in the reading by the sense of God in the early church:
v 43 ‘Everyone was filled with awe,
and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.’
God had visited their city. He was in their midst and they knew it.
Don’t you long for such a sense of God among us?
A sense of the nearness of God.
A sense of awe and praise,
a sense of the love of God poured out in the Holy Spirit
earthed out in glad acceptance of each other and generosity to each other.
How does that happen?
It comes about as we respond to what Peter said at v 38
The people hearing about Jesus’ death and resurrection
were cut to the heart, deeply moved about their sinfulness
and they asked “What shall we do?"
38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ‘
William was ordained today as a minister of word and sacrament.
Lets pray for him as he prepares at some point to baptise people
and to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.
Lets pray that every time he carries out those sacraments
that along with the outer sign there is for minister and people
a sense of repentance of brokeness and openness to God.
Sometimes we get distracted by debates about the sacraments
what’s the right way to baptise, to keep the Lord’s Supper.
I think the real question is about repentance.
Have we and are we still repenting?
Baptism happens to us once reminding us
that Christ died for our sins once for all
but repentance should be the ongoing reality.
You only need to be baptised once but you need to be repentant always.
It has been a curse on Irish society
that so many have had the outer form of baptism
and so few have had the inner reality of ongoing repentance.
God loves the repentant, those who are humbled because they realise their sin
those who want to let him back to be Lord in their lives,
but God has no time for those who could wave a baptismal certificate at him
but in their hearts have nothing to do with him.
When you and I William stand at judgement
and give account of our ministries -
when any Christian stands at judgement
God’s question will not be
did we get the ceremonies and practice right
but were we right with him
were we daily repentant longing to become more and more like Jesus?
CHURCHES FLOURISH AND MATURE WHERE
GOD’S WORD IS PROCLAIMED
PEOPLE PRAY
AND PEOPLE LOVE EACH OTHER.
AND GOD’S LOVE AND PRESENCE IS KNOWN
AMONG HIS REPENTANT PEOPLE
People who have put Christ in the place of self in their lives
and keep putting him there.
May this first day of spring be the first day of a new season for these churches
and for the communities that they serve.
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