Acts 4 ... Boldly Speaking (Pt. 1/3)

8Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Rulers of the people and elders, 9if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

Peter does this warning every time he preaches, said it to the crowd at pentecost, said it to the crowd after the lame man was healed, now says it to the council that's questioning them the same way they questioned Jesus. There's this theme of you messed up, but God saw that coming, and he's prepared a way for you to be saved from his wrath.

Sometimes we present the gospel like people's lives are pretty good already, but if they just received Jesus, their lives would be that much better. Peter's messages didn't quite sound like that, he made people's rejection of God plain to them, and that "there is salvation is no one else". The gospel isn't about how much better your life would be with Jesus, but that we messed up, that we don't don't have life at all apart from Christ.

Jesus said that he will separate the wheat and chaff (what's leftover after the valuable wheat is gone) and will throw the chaff into unquencable fire (Watt 3). Jesus said the worthless servant, who did nothing with what the master gave him, will be thrown out of his property, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt 25). Jesus says that he will separate the sheep to his right and goats on his left, and those on the left will be thrown into eternal fire (Matt 25).

Hell is real! I know we don't want to talk about it, good grief even I don't want to talk about it. We all want to think that Jesus is all nice and peaceful and cuddly. But he said himself that hell is real, that He would be the one who judges who goes there. Some of you here are not followers of Jesus, and really I don't want to have to be the one to say that you by your nature have chosen against God, and that because God being in nature God, you choice will have consequences, and those consequences are described here in His word. Telling you that stuff doesn't feel good to me! I'd rather us come and sing some songs and just leave it at that. But I know that's the most loving thing I could say to you this afternoon, that Jesus died hanging on 2 pieces of wood, He rose from that death and made a way for you to choose God, and the journey to that reunion with Him can start today if you so wished.

To those of you who are sure you are followers of Jesus, how much do you have to hate someone to not warn them about hell? Jesus doesn't just enhance our lives, he saves from certain eternal damnation. Saying that is not judgement, it's the same truth and you and I live by, the very thing we want people to be saved from. The question to you guys though, is do you believe in hell enough that you'd warn people about it? That you'd plead with people not to go there?

Some of you know that I went to Hong Kong in April. And one afternoon when me and Dorothy were touring the beaches with my oldest uncle, he mentioned that we should probably pay our grandparent's grave a visit. You could sense the hesitation in his voice. He was Catholic, and was clearly uncomfortable with the pagan stuff that surrounded the grave sites (they have separate pagan and Christian semetaries in HK). I figured why not, we could at least pray when we're there. Then I thought about, well, what am I praying for exactly? My grandparents wanted nothing to do with Jesus, nothing to do with righteousness, and as much as I don't want to fully acknowledge it or think about it, I know they're in hell. And my mom's family has long since gotten over it. So what exactly is there left to pray for? Then God brought my mind to Luke 16, the story of the rich man and Lazarus.

19"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

22"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

25"But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

27"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, 28for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

I just remembered this story, especially the part about the rich man's reaction to hell. He just wanted a drop of water, but when he was denied that what did he want instead? He desperatedly wanted someone to warn his brothers. He begged that someone would go and tell his loved one not to go down his path.

The gospel isn't the cherry on top. Apostle Paul said that we've been given a ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5)

"that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

We are called to more than just bless/"love" people, we are called to help reconcile people to God. And so we need to tell people they need to be reconciled, that they are far from God, that they've chosen against God, and they need to know the consequences.

This is Church(?) ... The Challenge (Pt. 5/5)

When we look at the New Testament church, we see that it wasn't about buildings, or programs, or services. What Christ wanted of the church was so different. 1 John 4:12 says "No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us." Jesus said the second greatest commandment is that we would "love our neighbour as ourselves", that we would meet, as much as we could, the needs of those in and around this community. The challenge to me, and our first challenge as a Christ-centered community, is not to explain all of that away anymore. I was talking to my Dad about this. And he was trying to explain to me that the believers in Acts 2 lived the way they did because they thought Jesus was coming back really soon. In my mind I was thinking, "And you know that any better? We're allowed to live our North American lifestyle because we know when Jesus was coming back any better than the Acts 2 church did?"

We need to put away the million reasons and teachings on why we can't be church like that anymore, why we won't aim for that anymore, why church ought to be about something else now. Shouldn't it bother us that we have to say Acts 2 church as if its some other different entity than the church today? That we have to say Acts 2 church like its different from our church? God's challenge is for us to come at "Fellowship of the Believers" with reverence and humility, embrace that I'm that camel that needs to go through the needle, and ask God for help, to fill me with the love that compelled him to sacrifice abd abandon everything.

And here I have to apologize to you guys, flipping over the table and changing everything all at once wasn't the wisest thing to do. That in my exasperation I threw my hands up and said "you guys figure this out" rather than be a Godly leader and push us through the small steps that would take us from who we are to who God wants this community to be. But that is the commitment we're making for this coming year. To take this community, take it one step at a time, one Holy Spirit-enabled moved at a time, to the church that Jesus spoke of when he said "you will be known as my disciples by the way you love one another". Bit by bit we will become more like Christ in the way He loved, bit by bit we will be more like the community Christ left behind in the way we give ourselves away. I don't know how long that will take, I don't know how many baby steps we'll need to go through, but I will not, this community will not, aim to settle for anything less.

So our first baby step, can we give a bit more of our time and care to those around us? Those who aren't praying in community make a 30 minute commitment to doing so, even if its just staying around after service to pray over someone you don't know. Those who are already doing that I challenge you to come out to prayer meetings, to pray for what this community is touching. Those who are doing both those I challenge put a 30 min commitment a week to sharing life deeply with their non-christian friends and family.

This is Church(?) ... Fellowship of the Believers (Pt. 4/5)

42And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Isn't that beautiful? They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, they were living it out. They were praying, communicating with God, and God was responding in signs and wonders. Then Luke spends the rest of the passage talking about this community. This community that ate together, share everything together, gave themselves away, and were happy about all that, joyous about doing that. Luke found this community of sacrificial love, giving one's self away, so important he repeats it in 4:32.

I was having a conversation with my co-workers the other day, another one of those conversations that proves to me that people want God, people just hate church. I was just sharing with them, as another perspective to their horrible stints with church, that the original church was as described in Acts 2. They all thought it was crazy, but they all thought it was good. People thought exactly the same back then too, 5:12, people thought they were nuts, didn't dare to join them, but held them in high esteem.

The priorities are exactly reversed in church goer's today. What do people want in a good church? Deeper teaching, good worship. Our church has focused on those for a long time. And there's nothing wrong with either of those, but really, what are important priorities for people's relationship with God has become people's sole focus in their relationship with the body of Christ. Church simply becomes a place for spiritual consumers to go and get what they want, with no regard to what God wanted of His royal priesthood, His holy nation. Luke didn't describe the first church as a school, or as a rock concert, or even as a building. He described the first church as a community, a community of Christ that was giving themselves away to each other and to those around them, giving ridiculously, insanely, and in the eyes of the rest of the world (as I sensed from my co-workers), retardedly.

The Acts 2 church heard the gospel, they received it. They repented. They were baptized and received the Holy Spirit. And in response they lived the "Fellowship of the Believers". The question that dawned on me was, if my life doesn't look like that then what does it say about where I am with the gospel? What does it say about my repentance? What does it say about my baptism? What does it say about where I'm at with the Holy Spirit?

Hard question. Harsh question. The period of time this year when I was angriest was when I was finally facing and wrestling with this question. If these people received the gospel and lived Acts 2 in response, then where am I in that? Where am I with God? The realities of the contrast between my life and the life of the Acts 2 church was starting to condemn me. I guess God saw that too, because He immediately brought my mind to Luke 18:18.

18 And a ruler asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

19And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.'"

21And he said, "All these I have kept from my youth."

22When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."

23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. 24Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, "How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."

26Those who heard it said, "Then who can be saved?"

27But he said, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."

28And Peter said, "See, we have left our homes and followed you."

29And he said to them, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life."

"Who then could be saved?" I'm glad someone asked that question to Jesus then because that was the question I was asking Jesus now. Jesus' response to disciple's question wasn't just grace; it wasn't just that rich people could go to heaven too. The church and the way they lived in Acts 2 confirms that Jesus was saying that it would indeed be possible, that God would help us, live with such insanity, such sacrifice, such love; that we are called, and would be transformed, to live Acts 2 to it's fullest.

This is Church(?) ... Acts 2 (Pt. 3/5)

The only place I knew where to start was Acts, I knew there was a passage on the church in it. So I start in Acts 1. We're not going to go through all of it in detail today, but I do want to walk you through what was the beginning of the church. So flip to it, and try to stay with me.

Jesus told them to wait for Holy Spirit (1:4). He told them, don't do this without me, without my power, without my blessing. Subsequently Jesus returns to heaven, and they choose Mathias to replace Judas, who hung himself.

We go on to chapter 2, and things just explode. The Holy Spirit rained down at Pentecost. Tongues of fire came, and each disciple was communicating in a foreign tongue. No matter how you interpret the whole situation on speaking in tongues, you got to admit they were given power to proclaim the gospel, not just in word, but in power, that something astonishing to the outside world was going on. You see that theme all throughout the new testament, also shown later on in recounts of people being healed, raised from the dead, and of Luke speaking about many signs and wonders performed among them.

Still at the end of that, some people didn't get it. They thought the disciples were drunk. So Peter addresses the people with this simple message. First explaining that the power that is displayed has been foretold by the prophet Joel, that they're not drunk. Then explaining to the men of Israel, who already knew about their sins and already were expecting a saviour, that Jesus was it (2:22).

Peter concludes with a call to repentance, baptism, and the receiving of the Holy Spirit.

36Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."

37Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"

38And Peter said to them, "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. 39For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself."

40And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." 41So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

Here's the part that really dawned on me as I looked at this passage early in the school year. People always ask, well what does it mean to repent? What does it mean to be baptized? What does having received the Holy Spirit look like day to day? And I finally realized is that the answer is right in the next passage, the fellowship of the believers, a birds-eye view of how the first Christ followers lived. These people heard the gospel, these people repented, these people were baptized, these people received the Holy Spirit, and they lived this way. See the flow?

This is Church(?) ... How I Got Here (Pt. 2/5)

I'll be the first to apologize for the removal of snacks. I still remember me and Cedric having this huge argument about it, about how important snacks were to get people to chat and fellowship. And I remember saying that if people liked it so much, they should do something about it.

Not the greatest attitude back then. I was so tired. We grew bigger and bigger, more attendance, more programs, more events. We had a small group of people who cared for this community deeply, but increasing our time and effort was spent administrating this corporation, and trying to recruit more people so we could cope with what we wanted most, which was people coming to service. And silly us in response to our tiredness we just created more programs where we invited them to come and sit: more encounter nights, more prayer meetings, more retreats, more bible studies, in hopes that some people would be inspired to partner with us in this ministry. During this time I was on the elder board watching Mississauga campus collapse after a decade in the same mode of growth. Dozens of people were leaving, almost all of them the ones who had given their effort wholeheartedly at Westside for so many years. We were 2 years in here and I was certain with the way we were going we were heading for the same fate.

I was distraught. I cared for this place, I loved this community. I had moved from my childhood church where I really didn't encounter God, to this community where for the first time I haven't just read about and memorized my being forgiven, I actually felt it, received it fully. I'd say I went from a church goer to a Christ follower here. The hardest thing was that to me we weren't doing anything overtly wrong, all of these programs and events had great intentions; they were in pursuit of God. People grew closer to God here, I grew closer to God here, no doubt that was real. So I couldn't figure out why God had seemingly pulled his hand of blessing away from Mississauga, and why even with all of our events we weren't seeing more of the disciple makers that God said in the Great Commission, like it says on the front of our bulletin. And because I'm me, I was angry. I was frustrated, I was lost. I didn't know what to do.

In a move that I now realized was long overdue, and severely backwards, I turned to the bible, leaving behind years of what I was taught about church, to figure out how a Christ following community was supposed to look like; rather than what we wanted church to be like, what God wanted church to be like.

This is Church(?) ... Introduction (Pt. 1/5)

So I don't know how many of you noticed, but we just had the return of snacks to our service about 2 weeks ago, with them wonderful baked goodies brought by Katie and Maria. And I'm not sure how many of you were here this time last year, but for better or for worse, our weekly gathering has changed a lot since then. Our community has changed a lot since then.

What I realized though, is that we never officially sat down and talked about where we as a community was going, and how me and Paul and Ced and Dom got convicted of where God wanted us to go. We're definitely not going to be able to talk about the entirety of that today. We'll probably be talking to you all summer about it, and definitely spending a ton of time in Sep to hit the ground running with it, but right now I just wanted to share with what I went through in this past year at Westside Hamilton, and the passage of scripture that really convicted me about where I feel God is wanting us to go.

Communion

26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." 27And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you, 28for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom."

30 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Christ spoke this during the passover meal, a day of remembrance for the Israelite of how they were delivered from Egypt. This was the original instituition of the Lord's supper, and we see the same idea of remembrance in the most vivd description of the church Christ left behind written some 60 years later:

42And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

43And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47praising God and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Acts 2:42-47

Here we see that one of the main tenets of NT Christian community, besides the apostles teaching (in the bible now), fellowship (which implied much greater intimacy than we usually see it today, akin to a welcomed partnership), and prayer, is this rememberance of Christ (quick apology to the congregation for not having done this with them earlier). The wording "breaking of bread" is a reminder that they didn't just gather to fellowship, it was mentioned in addition to that, an allusion to the original.

And so it goes on through the NT. And now we're taking the communion, handed down to us 2000 years later. Jesus talked about communion being a rememberance of him, what are we actually remembering?

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Eph 2:1-3

The beginning of our remembrance is that we were once dead. Romans 6 says we were once slaves to sin, powerless to do good. It goes on to say that we were saved from God's wrath; that we needed saving. Christ didn't just hang on a cross.

4Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:4-6

Christ bore, onto himself, the eternal conflict between holiness and sin; God's holiness that was supposed to burn against our transgressions, our iniquities, our sin. Christ shouldered that. This is the beginning of what we are to remember in communion. A serious moment, but it is not a dark moment. Because that's not the end of what we're to remember. We are not gather to simply remember and to dwell on our sins, and how much we needed Christ's death. Christ dying is not the end of the story amen?

4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

He was victorious over death so that we too may have life. This life, this freedom, this love, once totally unobtainable, still utterly unearned, undeserved, is what we're also to remember. Just as the original passover meal, during which Jesus spoke of this communion, commemorated the beginning of Israel's freedom from slavery in Egypt, this communion was designated by Jesus for us to remember how he brought us freedom from our slavery to sin. We gather, yes, to remember that we were once dead in sin, slaves to our sinful nature, but even more so, that through Christ's death and resurrection he gave us freedom from the bondage and ravage of sin. And what is to be our response?

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9

Calling Jesus Lord, believing that your heart is not just a decision that you make, its a commitment that you exercise. This life of freedom, that we may choose good, starts now, as we yield to him, follow him more and more here on earth, and onwards to all of eternity. Not that we could do it on our own, that task was described as putting a camel through the eye of a needle, but God makes it possible; that we'll know his will to be good, pleasing and perfect.

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Communion is not just remembering a dark sad moment; how sweet is that amazing grace, how joyous this moment that we're remembering today amen?

So before we take the bread and cup, I invite you all to gather with a couple of people around you (those of us who've been in this church for a while please invite those who haven't into your groups), and remember where you've been, or perhaps where you haven't been, with Christ lately. Spend some time praying over each other for the things that have been shared, James 5:16 says confess and pray for each other so that we may be healed. And when your group is ready, come down and grab the bread and the cup, hang onto them and head back to your seats. When everyone's gotten their's, I will call everyone back and we'll take it together.

I do ask that those have not exercised a commitment to following Christ, to being a disciple of Jesus, I ask that you refrain from taking the communion.

27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. I Cor 11:27

So I ask that if you don't really know what's really going on, that you refrain from taking the communion. But please do ask questions about what it means to follow Jesus in your group. What we're remembering today is the core of why we follow our God, and we'd love to share with you about it.