This is a sermon that I am even more scared to preach than the one about the believers selling all their possessions and sharing. The reason I am afraid to teach on these few, apparently innocuous verses, is that I don't want people to get mad at me. You've probably heard about the ancient practice of killing the messenger who brings bad news. I feel a little like that sort of messenger. The topic that this verse raises may cause some people to feel guilty. Others may feel like I'm picking on them, or trying to be demanding. So please, as we approach this topic, keep some things in mind. First, I am approaching these verses, to the best of my ability, the way the Holy Spirit is leading me to. In other words, I am the messenger, not the originator of the message. I have said before, and I'll say it again: I try, to the best of my ability, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to simply teach what the Bible really says. I don't ever prepare a sermon with someone specific in mind. Second, if you feel angry or guilty as a result of what I say here, please ask the Holy Spirit to shed light on it for you. Maybe He does want you to repent and change the way you are living. Or maybe the devil just wants to make you feel bad, even though you are already living in the center of God's will. The Spirit can sort that out for you, if you ask Him.
So, what in these verses could possibly have me so frightened to say it? It is a tiny little phrase in Acts 2:46, that is often poorly translated in modern English Bibles. I will take a stab here at giving you a fairly literal rendering of it. I will italicize the two phrases that I think are so important here:
And day by day, devoting themselves with one mind in the temple, and breaking from house to house, bread, they were sharing food with exultation and singleness of heart...”
I have often mentioned that it is extremely important, when studying the Bible, to consider the context of any verse or passage. In context, this verse and the passage it falls in, are telling us something extremely important about the first disciples. And that is this: they lived for a single purpose. We've explored the meaning of the word devoted in previous weeks. How could these disciples be devoted to the apostles' teaching, devoted to fellowship, devoted to prayer and the breaking of the bread – unless their very lives were focused on these things? How could they possibly have sold all their goods and possessions, and be filled with a Holy fear of God unless they were living with a singleness of heart; living with one simple purpose?
You might be thinking: Is that all, Tom? Just that the disciples had a clarity of focus in heart and mind? What's so scary about that?
Well, consider this little modern day parable:
Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said, "We can't keep the Christians from going to church. We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the Truth. We can't even keep them from conservative values. But we can do something else. We can keep them from forming an intimate, abiding experience in Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken.
"So let them go to church, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can't gain that experience in Jesus Christ. This is what I want you to do, demons. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day.
"How shall we do this?" shouted his angels.
"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent countless schemes to occupy their minds," he answered. "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend; then borrow, borrow, borrow. Convince the wives to go to work and the husbands to work six or seven days a week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work.
"Over stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive, to keep the TV, the VCR and the CD's going constantly in their homes. Fill their coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, sweepstakes, mail order catalogues, newsletters, promotional offers, free products, services and false hopes.
"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their ‘relaxation’ exhausted, disquieted and unprepared for the coming week. Don't let them ever go out in nature. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts and movies instead. And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotions.
When they want to do something for Christ, give them so many options and good things to do that they quickly become exhausted, and never get around to doing what is best and needful. Crowd their lives with so many good causes that they have no time to seek power from Christ. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family unity for the 'good of the cause.'"
It was quite a convention in the end. And the evil angels went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busy, busy, busy-rushing here and there. Has the devil been successful at his scheme? You be the judge.
For my part, I believe the devil has been pretty successful with this strategy in America. When I first started in full time ministry in 1991, I was a youth director. I had an eighth grade confirmation student who was about 6'3” tall. I kept inviting him to youth meetings, until his dad came and talked to me. “We have to do basketball,” said his dad. “You see, he's obviously tall, and he's not done growing yet. But if he doesn't play in Jr. High, then he won't make the team in High School. And if he doesn't make the team in High School, he won't make it in college. And if he doesn't get a college basketball scholarship, he'll probably never be able to go, and he will definitely never be a pro-ball player. So we just don't have much time for church stuff.”
I found, to my shock, that a lot of parents had this same attitude – not always so blatantly, but it was there, in various forms. I don't think it has gotten better over the years. We have to have the kids in t-ball, baseball, football, soccer, piano lessons and swimming. If we don't, we feel like we are somehow depriving them. Men and women have the same approach toward their careers sometimes. We have to work hard and get ahead, or we won't be...ahead. As a people, we tend to live scattered lives, running from work to extra-curricular activities for our kids, or to various social commitments we've made, collapsing every night exhausted and maybe occasionally wondering why God doesn't help us out more. Is it possible, that God might refrain from helping us with things he doesn't particularly want us to be involved in? Or is possible that we don't receive his help, because, frankly, we don't have time for it?
Let me say right up front, that I know churches can contribute to the problem. We can pull together so many good programs and activities for people – but are they really the things God has for us? I've known people who were far too busy attending church conferences and functions to actually live their lives for Jesus. You see the problem is this: we are involved in so many good things, we don't the have time or energy for what is best. Extracurricular activities are often good. Social events are good. Work is good. But have they replaced what is best?
These first disciples show us a different way of living. Their minds are in one accord. Their hearts are dedicated to a single, simple purpose. I've outlined that simple dedication before: To experience the Real Presence of Jesus, living in Real Relationships with People, fulfilling the Real Purpose of making new disciples of Jesus.
Now, I want to make something clear. The first Christians generally had to work at some job or another to put food on the table. Some of them were even slaves. So I'm not talking about quitting your job or ignoring your responsibilities. Paul writes about this to the Thessalonian Christians:
In fact, when we were with you, this is what we commanded you: “If anyone isn’t willing to work, he should not eat.” For we hear that there are some among you who walk irresponsibly, not working at all, but interfering with the work of others. Now we command and exhort such people, by the Lord Jesus Christ, that quietly working, they may eat their own bread. (2 Thess 3:10-12)
So the Lord recognizes that we have to make a living. And it isn't a matter of becoming a monk and withdrawing from all life either – if we did that, how could we interact with people in such a way that we were involved in making disciples? However, I think there is a real challenge for us here. What are we living for? And, even more to the point: does the use of our time reflect a singleness of heart and mind?
Especially in America, living with a single purpose has enormous implications for the way we use our time. I am convinced that most of us try to live with more than one purpose in life. When I try to do that, if I was honest, my purpose in life could be described as: “ To serve God, and to be comfortable.” The first part is OK, but that “to be comfortable” makes it a dual purpose. And that causes problems when the purposes conflict with each other. What if being comfortable isn’t conducive to serving God, or vice versa? Others might want to “serve God, and have a good career” or “Be a disciple, make disciples, and achieve certain financial goals.” There is nothing Biblical about this. Sometimes, God makes his servants comfortable. Sometimes he gives them fulfilling careers, or wealth. But we need to pursue God – not the other things. If He wants to give the other things also, well and good. If not, can we still say, “well and good”? You see, when we try pursue more than one simple purpose, we get tired and burned-out.
Others of us really do live to “be a disciple and make disciples”. But we fall into the trap of doing many good things, instead of the two or three best things. We might run all over town participating in workshops, ministries and conferences – all good and wonderful things. But often these wonderful spiritual things, keep us from truly connecting with Jesus, and concentrating on the two or three things that will be most effective, and are most important. Many times, perhaps almost always, we need to turn down the good things for the best things; the non-essential for the essential. This is the crucial and difficult task in learning to orient our lives around a single purpose: saying “no” to things that are good, but which are not best, or essential.
As best we can, we are trying to build our church around this principle. You notice we don't have a lot of programs and activities. That's because our desire is that we come together on Sunday, and then interact with each other and minister together in our home groups, living our lives together with singleness of heart and purpose. How can we show the love of God to a person in a practical way if we are all just too busy? How can we devote ourselves to fellowship if we don't have time to make a phone call, or drop by the home of someone in our group once in awhile? Sometimes, maybe we technically have the time, but we're too exhausted by our other activities. The answer is not to force yourself to do more. The answer is to live with singleness of heart and purpose, and learn to say “no” to things that are not essential to that.
“I'm just too busy” is usually an acceptable answer in America. Sometimes we even admire busy people. But I think that would have been a strange and foreign sounding concept to these first believers.
I believe that this challenge to live with singleness of heart is actually a gracious offer from God. Martha had a bunch of things to do. She was very busy. She bustled around, worried and upset, uptight, stressed. Her sister Mary sat quietly and at peace, at the feet of Jesus. Martha complained. But Jesus said to her:
""Martha, dear Martha, you're fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it — it's the main course, and won't be taken from her." (Luke 10:41-42 The Message)
You see it is hard and draining to live for more than one purpose, or to live for the purpose that isn't the Lord's. Martha didn't have time for both cleaning the kitchen and sitting at the feet of Jesus. So what does Jesus say? Don't clean the kitchen. Now, if you are like me, a clean kitchen might be important to you. You might have to make some hard choices and say “no” to things that are really good, but not best. However, when Jesus invites us to singleness of heart, he is inviting us to slow down, to experience grace and peace. It is worth it. Won't you accept that invitation today?
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