Please turn with me to Acts, chapter 2.
Last week and today, we are hitting on two points of what we could consider to be some of the core DNA of our church. Namely personal ownership of your faith.
What we mean by that is that as a church, we want to be more than just “Sunday Christians.” The Bible describes a way of life that lasts Sunday through Saturday. It influences every decision we make, every relationship we have, the way we carry ourselves in the world.
Last week Pastor Luke took us through Jesus’s prayer in John 17, and how Jesus prays for us, his people, the church, that we would make God’s Glory known by making Jesus known, by the way we live our lives toward one another. That each of us would take personal ownership of His Mission for us.
This week, I want to expand on that by talking about Personal Investment in the Mission, and I’d like to do that by observing the example of the very first church.
After Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, God sent the Holy Spirit to indwell all of His people, and the church was born. The disciple Peter preached the first ever Christian sermon on the Jewish holy day of Pentecost, and thousands of people responded in faith.
We see this story recorded in Acts chapter 2. So let’s read, starting with Peter’s magnificent final sermon point, and then seeing the people’s response.
36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
37 When they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” 40 With many other words he testified and strongly urged them, saying, “Be saved from this corrupt generation!”
41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles.
44 Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. 45 They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Acts 2:36–47 (CSB)
So here we see Peter’s gospel proclamation, that Jesus is Lord and Messiah. King and Savior. God’s chosen one. And the people believe and respond. And I think here we see them respond in three ways.
They respond with 1) Repentance and Baptism, 2) Gathered Worship, 3) Fellowship. Let’s take a look at each briefly.
Repentance & Baptism
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them.
Acts 2:38, 41 (CSB)
Belief in the gospel about Jesus changes everything. The right response of faith is first repentance, and then baptism. Repentance is about changing your mind. It is about admitting that you’ve been seeing the world all wrong. You’ve been seeing Jesus all wrong. You’ve been understanding God all wrong. You’ve been understanding your self all wrong, and its time for a change. A change of heart, and a change of mind.
Baptism follows this. Being baptized is the public proclamation that “I am with Jesus now! I am with his people now!” And we see 3,000 people respond to Peter’s sermon on that first day.
The first church was a mega church. And what did that megachurch do? They worshipped.
Gathered Worship
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles.
Acts 2:42-43 (CSB)
They came together to devote themselves to listening to the teaching of the apostles. In our day, this is the equivalent of reading and studying the Bible. It’s why everything we do on a Sunday morning and in our small groups is centered around The Bible. We sing the Bible, we pray The Bible, we preach The Bible. We are devoted to the apostles teaching.
They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread, speaking of celebrating “The Lord’s Supper” or “Communion”, and to prayer. Through our singing and our group prayer together here on Sunday and in our community groups, we also are devoted to prayer.
Finally, they devoted themselves to The Fellowship. And this is where I want to dig a little deeper this morning.
Fellowship
Notice here that is specifically says “the fellowship” – its a noun. The gathering of the people. They devoted themselves to the church. To each other individually, as Pastor Luke talked about last week, but also to the group. They took responsibility for each other.
We see this in action in the next couple verses.
44 Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. 45 They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.
Acts 2:44–47 (CSB)
Verses 44 and 45 can be a little bit of a head scratcher, especially for us Americans. Is this teaching communism? Should all of us sell our possessions and put it in a collective pot and redistribute among the congregation?
No. That’s not what we’re seeing here. Verses 44 and 45 are not teaching communal living. They are showing what Fellowship looks like practically: Personally Investing in making the ministry happen
Personal Investment in the Mission
Ministry is a group project. A shared effort. Both in the doing of it (we all should be engaged in the ministry of the church, spreading the gospel message and helping people follow Jesus’s teaching), as well as the funding of it.
And trigger warning, that’s what I’m going to spend the rest of the sermon talking about.
All of us should be engaged, according to our ability, according to the resources God has blessed us with, in funding the ministry of the church.
And I’m getting this from a connection between some words in this passage, and a few others in the new testament. It stems from the Greek behind the word “fellowship”.
- Noun: Koinonia: Fellowship, participation, contribution – Acts 2:42
- Verb: Koinoneo: Share, Participate, contribute – 2 Corinthians 8:4, Philemon 1:6
- Adjective: Koinos / koinonikous: common, shared, generous – Acts 2:44, 1 Timothy 6:18
Fellowship = Contribution, Participation
The “fellowship” that Acts 2 is speaking of, is talking about participating in the life of the church, contributing to it, sharing with it, from your time, talents, and possessions. That’s what we’re seeing here. Active participation and investment in the ministry of the church.
As a pastor, I sometimes hear of stories from other churches, and I hear from individuals who visit our church, that come and sit and see if this church is offering the kind of ministry services that they feel they need. They sit in the chair and keep a score card, and if they don’t feel ministered to they leave. And a common accusation on the way out is something like “there’s no fellowship there.”
Now, I am aware that not every church is as welcoming as every other church, and I have visited churches where I’ve been completely ignored when I walked through the door. Maybe I just look like a pastor and so no one bothers, or something.
And I’m not saying that Stonebrook is perfect at this either. But fellowship is not about having your felt needs addressed. Fellowship is about contributing, participating, and sharing. So my counsel to you if you are wondering if there is any fellowship here is to dive in and participate. You’ll find the fellowship there, by definition.
That’s the application I’d like to help us make as we look at Acts chapter 2.
Talking about taking ownership of our faith and being actively involved in prayer and worship and relationship is one thing. But when we talk about actually having skin in the game of ministry, sacrificing our time, giving from our skills, and our pocketbook, that’s where we squirm a little.
Maybe the question you could ask yourself about Acts chapter 2, as you seek to discover its relevance for your life is “would I have fit in there?” Does the way that you live your life in relationship to the church in any way resemble Acts 2:42-47?
It’s important to say that the church is the people, not the building, not the 501c3 legal structure organization, it’s the people. But, the larger that group of people called the church gets, the more organization needs to happen, the more systems will be in place, like the human body has more systems in it than a fish’s body. More complex nervous system for example. More complex circulatory and musculoskeletal systems.
Acts goes on to tell the story of needing to put systems in place to make sure people weren’t neglected. But notice what those systems are: not spreadsheets and policies and software. Those systems are people, contributing their gifts, skills, time, and money to make ministry happen.
The larger this group of people called the church grows, the more organization and systems need to be in place to keep it healthy and thriving. But at the end of the day the church is the people. The ministry of the church is the ministry of the people. And the funding for that ministry comes from the people. From personal possessions willingly and gladly offered to make ministry happen.
So the second application question for you is: “What has God given you to contribute to the fellowship?”
Making Stonebrook’s Ministry Happen in 2024-25.
For the last several weeks you’ve been hearing about opportunities for fellowship in terms of volunteer needs, especially in the children’s ministry. There are those kinds of needs everywhere, stay tuned.
But we don’t often talk about the financial needs. So I’d like to spend just a few moments on the church’s budget. This is another opportunity for fellowship (again, see verses 44-45). Here’s how our budget works.
As a church, we co-create the budget. Each year, we ask our ministry leaders to work with their teams to pray through what God might be leading them to do this ministry year to reach out to the ISU campus and the Ames area. We ask them to submit a proposal for the financial aspect of that need.
The finance team, then compiles and validates these request. (They make sure ministries aren’t asking for 100,000 avocados, or a helicopter. At least not without good reason.) They then put together a budget proposal for the elders to look over and potentially tweak. (We rarely have to. They do great work) Then the board of trustees (comprised of elders and deacons and few other leaders), work through modifying and approving that budget. After that the day to day spending is steered by the finance team with the oversight of the elders. At any point we welcome you to check in and see where things are and we can provide a report. It’s a great process.
This past year we’ve experienced unprecedented growth as a church. We’re very excited about what God is doing here. With that comes unprecedented need for funding. The requests from the different corners of our ministries came in at $1.25M. That number is a little difficult to fathom out of context. But for a church of our size, that is a very average number.
What isn’t average is that only 12.5% of that number goes toward our facilities and administrative needs (insurances, utilities, maintenance, IT, cleaning, etc), and the rest (87.5%) goes directly to ministry staff, programming, and mission giving. That’s a pretty good balance.
But it is an unprecedented increase in need, an unprecedented ask. This past year, you all have given $867,000. We’re asking the Lord and you for a 44% increase in giving this year. Which has never happened in our history.
So to hit this new target we need all hands on deck. And I guess that’s where you get to decide whether we’re right about what God is leading us as a church to attempt this year in ministry.
Historically, this church is a very generous church, with its time, talents, and money. And we elders are extremely grateful for the sacrificial hearts for the mission. For your fellowship. And we’re eager for those of you who have recently joined us to experience the blessing of that participation, (as 2nd Corinthians 9 and Philemon 6 describe).
And that brings me to my final point. The final statement in our passage today. The purpose and the heart of all of this talk about money. What was the effect of the first church’s response to the Gospel message? What was the effect of their repentance and baptism, their worship, and their fellowship?
The Effect: Evangelism
Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Acts 2:47 CSB
Every day, the Lord saved people. Every day more and more people heard the gospel proclamation from God’s Word. More and more people saw the gospel lived out as each Christian actively owned their faith, actively participated in the fellowship, actively invested in the ministry.
As Jesus freely gave them mercy, forgiveness, and salvation, and along with that, everything they needed for life, the people freely gave of their gifts to help others hear about, see and know Jesus.
And that’s what we’re here for. That as we share what Jesus has freely given us, more and more people get to see and hear that Jesus is Lord and Messiah. Jesus is King and Savior. Jesus is the only hope for the world.
Pray with me.
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