This week John continues our sermon series ‘What is Church?’ with ‘Giving’ – Acts 2:42-47 & 4:32-37.
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good morning some of you will know that today is the day of the London to Brighton cycle ride and Keith who was preaching last week and Gavin who was leading last week are off on a cycle ride and it made me think of an illustration I heard of a long time ago and so I’ve got one of Gavin’s bike wheels his other bike not the bike that he’s using today and um the thing about a bike is it has these these Spokes and the illustration I want you to remember is that the spokes get closer and closer together the closer they get to the center and we in the church the closer and closer we get to our lord Jesus the closer and closer we get to each other the closer we get to the Lord Jesus the closer we get to each other and that’s kind of how our Bible reading starts we’re going to be reading from Acts chapter 4 and starting at verse 32 and Acts chapter 4 starting at verse 32 in the church Bibles it’s on page 1096 1096 Acts chapter 4 and verse 32 all the Believers were one in heart and mind oops thank you all the Believers were one in heart and mind no one claims that any of their possessions was their own but they shared everything they had had with great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there was no needy person among them from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them and brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles feet to be distributed to anyone who had need Joseph A levite from Cyprus whom the apostles called Barnabas which means son of encouragement sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles feet and as Jillian’s already said this morning we are looking at what church is meant to be what is church and we’ve looked at various things over the weeks and now we arrive at looking at church what is church giving and it’s no accident that I’m speaking to you on a day when Keith and Elsie are not speaking to you in fact they’re not even here because I think it must be quite embarrassing if you’re a pastor and you’re being paid by the church and you stand up and say the church is about giving because my salary is paid by your giving and please give a bit more it must be quite embarrassing but I can say that because I’m a volunteer and I can say just to remind people that maybe particularly new people who don’t know how Baptist Churches work the Baptist Churches don’t get any money from the government and they don’t get any money from the Baptist Union of Great Britain or Baptists together they certainly don’t get money from slab Bar Council across the road all the money that comes in is money that you give it’s money that you put in here that’s the only money we’ve got or maybe you’re giving by standing order that’s money that you give to us or maybe you’re giving with that wonderful new machine that we’ve got outside that means you can tap and pay or you’re giving with our online donation facility that is the money that we have and nothing else so if you think oh it’ be nice to paint that bit of the door that doesn’t look quite nice well we need money for that and so giving is what it’s about and we’re going to look at giving this bit of the Bible teaches about giving but it doesn’t just sort of say you need to give it gives us the the context because giving is only a part of what we do and in fact if you just give because somebody said you should give you miss out why you give and I think it’s quite important to understand that we give because of what God has spoken to us and what God has given to us and what he’s shown us and we give because of love and that’s the reason that we share and we share all sorts of things together but I think I need to start with a very important question because a lot of people have looked at this bit of the Bible and they’ve said I think it was a mistake because the Bible’s very honest and it does tell us about people’s mistakes so maybe this bit of the Bible is telling us about a church that made a mistake and there’s three reasons why they think they might have made a mistake the first reason is they think well maybe they misunderstood how soon Jesus was going to return again and they thought well I don’t really need a house I could live without a house for another week you know Jesus is coming back next Tuesday and so maybe they misunderstood it and other people say well maybe you know this was all wrong and actually in the next bit of the chapter uh chapter five we read about somebody who died you know they just sort of got got completely wrong and uh that it caused the death of somebody and other people say oh no I think it was a mistake because if you look a bit further into acts you’ll find that they organized a collection for the church in Jerusalem so if only they’ been sensible and not sold their houses they wouldn’t need a collection and there’s answers to all of those if you’re interested I can give you more details but I honestly think that most of the people who say these things are saying them because they don’t like this bit of the Bible and they’d really rather that it didn’t apply to them and that they didn’t have to be like that and sharing all the Believers were one in heart and mind it was a fellowship it was a joining together they were one they got close to Jesus and they got close to each other in heart and mind and this word in the Bible that we often translat Fellowship is actually a very very rich word sometimes it can’t be translated Fellowship because it has other things that it means it means communion it means communication it means sharing it means partnership contribution distribution so when I Was preparing this service um I read that um you know um Peter was a fisherman and he and James and John uh used to go fishing together and it says uh Peter started following Jesus and so did James and John who were his Partners in fishing and that word Partners means they were in Fellowship it’s that’s it’s a rich word it’s a a word that means sharing all sorts of things together now no one claimed that any of their possessions were their own but they shared everything they had I’d just like to point out that they didn’t say and the rich ones shared some of the things they had it says they all shared everything that they had no one claimed this is mine you can’t have it it’s all for me in the Bible we have a story that Jesus of what happened to Jesus what happened to Jesus was a man came up to him a very very rich man and he said good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life and in the conversation they got to a point where Jesus looked at the man looked at the man very caringly and he said you need to sell everything and give the money to the poor and then come and follow me and you will have treasure in heaven and Adrian PL who some of you may have heard of um he he said I wonder what would have happened if supposing that rich young man because I think you know he went away very sad he he didn’t do that he just went away very sad I wonder if that man had bumped into zakus now zakus you remember climbed up a tree and uh and then when Jesus said I’m coming to your house for tea as the little Sunday school song has it um he he said I am going to give away half of my income salvation has come to this house I am so blessed by God I’m going to give away half my money and I’m also going to repay anybody that I’ve cheated and tax collectors were famous for cheating anybody I’ve cheated I’m going to pay back four times over so if you just do a little sum and say supposing 10% what he had is what he had cheated and he’d got himself then if he gives away half that’s 50% and then four times the paying back the 10% that he’s got of cheating people it’s 90% of what he got he decided he was going to just give away 90% and that was his own decision this man uh decided he wasn’t going to do what Jesus said when Jesus said give away everything I wonder what sort of conversation they would have had he said and he’s written a little a little funny story about that Jesus looked at this man and loved him and I can’t help thinking do you remember when Jesus looked at Peter when he denied him and it says and Jesus looked at him and Peter went out and wept bitterly and the artist here imagines that this man just couldn’t look back into the face of Jesus and I would just say to you if you’re worried about this giving stuff try looking into the eyes of Jesus with great power the apostles continue to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus we focus on the resurrection if we have a cross in the church it’s a cross without a dead body on it because Jesus the Lord Jesus rose again but you might think it’s a bit random isn’t it to have this description we’re talking about how they shared together shared everything with each other um and then you come on with and the apostles testified with great power but I can’t help thinking it’s not an accident and it’s there for a purpose that our giving to one another is actually a vital part of our witness Jesus said to his disciples a new command I give to you as I have loved you so you must love one another by this everyone will know that you’re made my disciples if you love one another if we can’t love love one another then how can we love those who are outside the church if we can’t love one another we won’t have the great power in the church that the Church of Jerusalem had when they were testifying and witnessing God’s grace was so powerfully at work the Apostle Paul talk about Grace like this you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sake he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich in the English language one way we can remember what Grace is is with the acronym God’s riches at Christ’s expense God has enabled Jesus Christ’s payment to be in our place and that makes us rich we love because he first loved us Grace was so powerfully at work in the church in Jerusalem that there was no needy person among them what is church church as we see it in Acts chapter 4 here is a place where God’s grace is powerfully at work and where there is no need person this has always been God’s plan back in Deuteronomy written years before the amongst all the regulations it says there need be no poor people among you for in the land the Lord your God is giving you for inher inheritance he will richly bless you and I believe here in this church we can look around and we should look around and realize that doesn’t need to be any poor people among us from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles feet and it was distributed to anyone who had need now in this church you don’t put it at Keith’s feet um if you want to give to somebody else in the congregation obviously you can just give to them or if you want to give it anonymously if you take one of these little envelopes that you can find as you come in and you write on it pin fund person in need fund then it will go to people in need in this church so that’s how we do it we have something similar that the money was given to be used by the leadership of the church something similar and we call it the pin fund but I really feel I have to get to the nitr of a sermon about money in the church and that is do I have to sell my house too how much should I give how much must I give and I’m going to answer that with two questions how much have you received and another question how much do you love because we can’t put numbers on these things and things change from year to year so the answer is how much have you received how much do you love that will tell you how much to give it’s between you and God Barnabas didn’t sell his house but he did sell a field maybe you don’t have a house to sell maybe you don’t have a field to sell but maybe you could share something else so that there are no needy people among us what could I share could I share a lift could I share a meal maybe one I cook myself maybe one we go out and eat somewhere could I share a gadget I’ve got a a spare wheel here or or maybe I should have something a bit more useful have I got something to share have I got time so often people just want a listening ear they want some time it just something that takes time can I give a smile to encourage somebody who’s down can I say hello to somebody I don’t know to make them feel part of the church and welcomed and important and worth saying hello to can I give as Jesus put it a cup of cold water to one of the least of the little ones who are my disciples can I share you may have seen on the news about very sad tragic death of Dr Michael Mosley and he was famous for producing some things advice about healthy living and it was a series called just one thing and he focused in on maybe he said maybe if you try this one thing it would help you with your health maybe if you tried uh doing this to sleep better maybe if you tried standing on one leg as one of them maybe if you tried just one thing and so I want to leave you by asking is there perhaps just one thing that God is saying to you this morning about all of this about sharing