Acts 4:32-35

I heard a preacher say that he pastored two churches. One church taught Sunday School and paid the bills. The other church was spiritually illiterate and physically needy. The problem, he said, was that the two churches met at the same time in the same building. Is this the way it was meant to be — “haves” and “have-nots” in the same church? The church Luke describes in our text indicates something better.

The people of First Church (and I do mean the first church) of Jerusalem displayed the common life. What is the common life? The Greek word for "common" is koina, a variation on koinonia, usually translated “fellowship.” Those who are share fellowship share a common life. “No man is an island, entire of itself.” What John Donne wrote about humanity should most truly describe the church of Christ. The common life is God's design for His church. Neither isolated individuals nor exclusive cliques fulfill His purpose for the church. Rather, we are to function as one body (cf. 1 Corinthians 12). No part of the human body pursues its own agenda. Rather, each part supports all the other parts in the service of the whole.

What is the common life worth? "We share our mutual woes, our mutual burdens bear, and often for each other flows the sympathizing tear." Recently, a woman in our church became quite ill and was rushed to the hospital. There she underwent surgery to remove a blood clot from her brain. In no time at all, the woman she lives with found herself surrounded by Christian sisters who stayed with her throughout those anxious hours. They not only prayed with her but in the days that followed, put themselves at her complete disposal. None of her needs were overlooked. This is but one benefit of the common life. I've been privileged not only to see other benefits, but to receive them as well. When my family moved to our present ministry, we were under a great financial strain. We were astonished to see how generous the people of our new congregation were. They helped us pay for car repairs, helped my wife find much-needed employment, and, best of all, helped us become better stewards of our resources. Does your church want to know whether its struggling single mothers have food in their refrigerators? Do people care when an ailing brother's roof leaks? Are the needs of "the least of these my brethren" being taken care of? If the answer to these questions is yes, you truly know the worth of the common life! How Do We Get The Common Life?

We must realize that the common life isn't built on what we have. It's built on what we lack! Why did these people sell property and lay the proceeds at the apostles' feet? Where did such cheerful generosity come from? The answer lies in Luke's wonderful statement, "great grace was upon them all." Only those who have received bounty they don't deserve can freely open their hands to help others. In my more sanguine moments, I’m tempted to change the name of our church to First Church of The Drowned Rat. (Fortunately, I’m surrounded by less sanguine leaders!) The idea is, the grace of God pulled us from the drink and deposited on a life raft like so many nearly drowned rats. In such circumstances, what sense would it make to toss someone overboard? What sense would it make to sniff with disdain at a fellow survivor: “He’s all wet!” We’re all in the same boat! We share a common life based not on a common strength but on a common and miserable need! The sooner the church sees the wonder of God’s mercy upon her, the sooner she will see the necessity of showing such mercy to all her members. God’s grace is the key to the common life. (Gary Robinson) Third Sunday of Easter (B) April 30, 2006 The Road to Reality 1 John 3:1-7 Once again, his hand wanders over to the mouse. Once again, he clicks onto a website. He knows it's wrong. He knows he's distancing himself not only from his wife but also from his God. He knows gray guilt is waiting for him in the wings. He knows the pleasure of the moment will soon melt under a rain of reality. But he thinks, "It'll be okay. He'll forgive me . . . again. I hope." If God is so willing to forgive us our debts, why not run up an enormous bill? If God is so good as to forgive us, why not be as bad as we want to be? In reply to a similar question, the apostle John wrote of the road to reality and the necessity of taking it.

The road begins with the Greatest Love. God has lavished love upon us. He has slopped and splattered us with love, as an inexperienced painter might slop and splatter walls, ceiling, and floors. How great a love is God’s love? He wants not simply to call us His creation, but His children! “This is love,” declares John, “not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). What a frank declaration of human need! None of us knew or cared for God! What a breathtaking show of divine intervention! God put on flesh and allowed it to be pierced for us! This is no Internet fantasy; this is historical reality. If God would do this for us, surely the only logical response is, “What are we doing for Him?” How can we live the same old way, knowing God’s desire not just to make us good but to make us His? The road ends with the Greatest Hope. If the love of God pushes us forward on the road to reality, the hope of seeing our Rescuer pulls us along that same path. The older I get, the more I realize that virtue is not simply a task God has given me to perform (under threat of Hell for failure), but part of the delight of my relationship with Him. The more we love Jesus, the more real He becomes to us. The more real He becomes to us, the more we want to be like Him. A child who believes good ol’ Uncle Bob is coming to visit may only be interested in the presents his uncle brings. The child of God who believes Jesus is coming in glory is distressed to think he may have no gift of love — no soul won, no sinful habit broken, no treasure sacrificed — to lay at His bronzed feet. The girl who truly loves her serviceman will remain faithful till he returns from overseas. If she didn’t believe she’d see him, she’d be relieved not only of love but of duty. In the same way, everyone who hopes to see his Lord purifies himself (1 John 3:3).

The road between love and hope is the High Road. Of course, we remain sinners as we travel. That’s the condition that brought us to the Great Physician in the first place: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). If sinless perfection were possible for us here, Jesus would not have had to die. But I’ve never met a believer who didn’t want to be better than he was. He doesn’t want to go on breaking God’s law, and he yearns to stay clean for Christ’s sake. A child playing in the mud may cry in rage as he’s dragged into the house for a bath. The child of God, however, cares whether he steps in the muck of sin. If he does, he’s not happy about it, nor will he be content until he’s cleansed of the filth. God helping him, he yearns for the High Road. Fantasies will no longer satisfy. He yearns for reality. He clings to Christ to keep him on that road.

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Sermon brief provided by: Gary Robinson, Preaching Minister at Conneautville (PA) Church of Christ.