Please turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 4. This evening we'll be reading from the end of Acts 4 and considering how God grows the church into a sacrificial community of believers. Acts 4, we'll be reading verse 32 through 37. We'll also read just a few verses from the end of Acts 2. When you find Acts 4, turn one page back to Acts 2. Before we do, let's ask God for His blessing upon His Word. Our Father, as we turn to Your Word, we pray that You would bless its reading and its preaching and its contemplation with Your Spirit. Apart from You, O Lord, we can do nothing. We need You. We need Your strength. We need the light of Your Word to guide us in the paths of righteousness. And therefore, we ask that You would come and that You would bring power to Your Word, that it not return void, but be fruitful within our lives. We ask this, Lord, for Jesus' sake. Amen. Towards the end of Acts 2, beginning with verse 42. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were to gather and had everything in common, selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Then turn the page, Acts 4, verse 32. All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For 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 as he 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. Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the book of Acts tells the story of how God grows the church. Its 28 chapters cover about 28 years in which time God takes that little group of believers that Jesus left behind, about 120 of them, and He grows them into thousands upon thousands with congregations in every major city from Jerusalem all the way to Rome. And this surprising story becomes all the more remarkable as when reading through the pages of Acts, we come to see that God doesn't do it with remarkable buildings. No buildings to speak of in the book of Acts. Neither does he use the coercion of military strategies or the power of political influence. He doesn't use the drama of stage performances, concerts, art shows, or anything of mass media. Nothing of that found in the book of Acts. But rather, God grows the church in this surprising and stunning way through the unseen power of His Holy Spirit. And he works through the message of a crucified king and signifies these truths with common, ordinary food. Bread, wine, and water. And if that wasn't surprising enough, as God grows the church, He doesn't go about looking for the glorious ones of society. The best and the brightest and the wealthy. the ones that you might most like to be around when doing something great and something grand. But God uses these common, ordinary means to call out common, ordinary people like you and I. God calls ordinary people, needy people, and He brings these people together into a humble, sacrificial community of believers. That's what we find at the end of Acts 2. And it's this community that we also find at the end of Acts chapter 4. A community of people that is distinctly sacrificial in its character. A community of people that is quite distinct from any other community that would have been in existence then or today. A community distinctly sacrificial in its character. And we see that this evening as we look at these verses, noticing its message, ministers and members. We notice, first of all, the sacrificial message of God's community. As we look through the book of Acts, we find that it's filled with preaching and teaching on almost every page. In fact, it has ten complete sermons. Peter, Stephen, Paul. And those sermons are surrounded by teaching of all sorts of circumstances. And as we look at this preaching and teaching, we find the focus to be, without surprise to us, but the focus to be upon the Word of God. a careful use of the law and a proclamation of the Gospel. And as we consider this preaching and teaching, we come to see that it has a very distinct sacrificial message. By sacrifice this evening, I'm not thinking about the narrow use of sacrifice as in giving up of life, though that's certainly included. I'm thinking more broadly about the sacrifice of giving. Gracious, generous, and at times painful giving. It's that kind of sacrificial message we hear come across in the preaching and teaching of Acts. Put for example at Acts 2. In Acts 2, we have Peter's sermon of Pentecost. And in the 22nd verse of that chapter, he says this. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pains of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. In this little segment of Peter's sermon, we see the message of sacrifice coming through as God the Father is said to have given up His own Son, have given up His own Son, Jesus. And how Jesus gives up the glory that He would have had in heaven and the intimacy of the fellowship that He would have had with the Father. He gives up His glory. He gives up that fellowship. And ultimately we read of how Jesus gives up His own life crucified on a cross. And this sacrifice is signified then in the sacraments and baptism and the Lord's Supper. Jesus Himself said that this is My body broken for you. This is my blood poured out for you. The message of Acts not only describes a sacrifice, it also prescribes a sacrifice. It calls for sacrifice. Listen to Acts 2.37. When they heard this message of Peter, they were cut to the heart and said, Brothers, what shall we do? And 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. The sacrifice prescribed through the message of Acts can be summarized as repenting, believing, and being baptized. When we repent, we give up sin. When we believe, we give up our hope or trust in anyone else who might bring us into fellowship and peace with God. When we are baptized, we give up, as it were, our own identity and our own life and are united with the crucified Christ. You see how this message of Acts carries out a distinctly sacrificial character describing the sacrifice of Christ while prescribing a sacrifice for all who would believe and repenting of sin and believing in Christ alone and in identifying with His crucified body in baptism and the Lord's Supper. Yet the irony is that this message doesn't end in death, does it? But this message ends in life. God grows the church into a community of living sacrifice. And we see this living sacrifice through the service of God's ministers and of His ministers. Of His ministers and of His members. in the second place consider then the ministers if we step back and we consider when jesus called the disciples we see that he called them peter james and john he called them away from his their their normal occupations he called them away from the priorities and opportunities that would have otherwise been theirs. And He calls them to follow Him. And little did they know then the full extent of what Christ was calling them to do. Little did they know then the kind of sacrifice that Christ would call them to bear. It's not until we get into the book of Acts that we see that picture develop as we see how they represent Christ through their ministry of Word and sacrament. We see that develop in Acts 2 as they commit themselves to the preaching and teaching of the Word. And at the end of Acts 2, as the believers devote themselves to the ministry of the apostles, just as the apostles likewise devote themselves in the carrying out of that ministry. And then again in our text at the end of Acts 4, we read about how with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and great grace was upon them all. This emphasis upon the teaching and preaching of the apostles, those first ministers of Christ, is brought out again at the end of chapter 5, verse 42. Every day, it says, that they were in the temple and from house to house, Every day, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. The full extent of what Christ calls His ministers to do is developed in the book of Acts as the story continues. And then we find in chapter 6 this interesting statement of their devotion. As the number of disciples are increasing, The responsibilities to care for the body is increasing. We find that the community is not quite perfect. There's complaints and there's some arguments and some issues have to be dealt with. And the twelve, we are told in verse 2, summoned the full number of the disciples and said, it's not right that we should give up preaching the Word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. What Jesus calls His ministers to do, quite simply, is to devote themselves to the ongoing of prayer and the ministry of the Word. For Peter and John, that devotion brought them into daily preaching and teaching about Christ. And it brought them beyond just the giving up of general otherwise good opportunities into the giving up of their freedom. As we read in chapter 3, they're thrown in jail. And again, in chapter 5. Or if we use the example of Stephen who himself became the first martyr giving up his own life. And then in Acts 9, we come to Paul. He too gave up his otherwise good occupation. He sacrificially gave up the priorities and opportunities that he might have otherwise pursued. And Paul, as a minister of Christ, becomes a chief example of what a minister of Christ is to commit himself in doing. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 23. He summarizes what that looked like for him. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 23, he talks about the labors that he gave on behalf of Christ and the church. He talks about his many imprisonments, countless beatings, oftentimes finding himself near death. Five times, he says in verse 24, five times I received at the hands of the Jews 40 lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, dangers from my own people, danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food and cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches that God is growing through the ministry of the Word. Many have commented that Paul's ministry is quite unique to his time and place. And that should be stated without dispute. And though Paul's ministry was definitely unique to his time and place, he is not alone in his sacrificial living and giving for the sake of Christ and the covenant community. In fact, it was just over a week ago that I had the privilege of meeting with a friend named Sam who was at one time a very high-ranking Muslim cleric. He picked up the Bible, started reading it, and the Spirit of God, the unseen power of God's Spirit, came and worked through the Word and the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he was converted. And he spent the past decades traveling the world as a minister of Christ and a missionary for Christ, boldly and fearlessly proclaiming the name of Christ against all that would be untrue and compromising. And the same meeting was another friend from Liberia. Before fleeing the persecution he experienced there, he talked about witnessing the beheading of his good friend. And we could go on to many other examples, couldn't we? Just these couple of brothers represented over 20 countries around the world where persecution for the name of Christ continues, where ministers and missionaries cannot proclaim the name of Jesus without threat of persecution or death. So while Paul's ministry may have been unique to his time and place, he's certainly not alone even today in what Christ calls for from his ministers. Nothing less than a living sacrifice, a gracious giving, a generous giving, and at times painful giving, even if necessary unto death. And you may be thinking, I'm sure glad I'm not a minister. But brothers and sisters, you know that the ministers are not alone in this calling. The members of God's people, the members of the body of Christ, are also called to this life of sacrifice. Think of what Paul says in Romans 12, verse 1, that we are to be a living sacrifice. Again, not narrowly defined as giving up our lives to death, if necessary, yes, but at a minimum, a gracious giving, a generous giving, if necessary, a painful giving for the sake of God's covenant community in the name of Jesus Christ. Members, too, are called to join the ministers and living sacrifices for Christ. Giving from the gifts that God has so richly given to us. Our text doesn't give the full extent of this giving, but it does talk about a few. We can consider the time, resources, and money that we see given for the sake of the community and the church. Look at verse 32, chapter 4, verse 32. The full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul. And the significance of that is the unity of this community. They were united with one heart and soul. A heart for God brought them into a profound unity. That would have been a marvel amongst the people. They were united of one heart and soul and no one said that any of the things belonging to him was his own, but they had everything in common. Now sadly, some have immediately gone to the idea of the Catholic monasteries with the phrase everything in common. But that's not what is being prescribed in this text. Not some kind of socialist agenda, an equalization of wealth, but rather giving and sharing as a community. The believers were unified in their understanding of and faith in Christ. And through that faith and unity, they gathered themselves into a community that was glad to give as there was need. A generosity was poured out from among the believers. Verse 34. So that there was not a needy person among them. For as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet. And it was distributed to each as any had need. The principles developed in this text are taken right out of the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 15, verse 4. God forbids that there be poverty amongst the covenant community of His people. And the believers respond to that principle by giving to ensure there would not be poverty in their community. And that principle is balanced with what Paul teaches in 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 10 when he says those who do not work do not eat. A beautiful development of unity and community and generosity and giving out of what God had so wonderfully and graciously and abundantly given to them in body and in soul. Giving of their time, giving of their resources, giving of their money, whatever was necessary to support the work of growing the church and kingdom of God. Now as with Paul, many have observed that this kind of unity and community and generosity was very unique to the early church. And indeed it is. Very unique to the early church. And yet, brothers and sisters, they're not to be alone. They're not to be alone in their living sacrifice and giving for the sake of God's church and His covenant community. While thinking about this text and thinking about modern day situations, I was reminded about Catherine and I in what seems like an age ago, only 15 years I suppose, were a part of a church plant in Howland, Michigan. We didn't really think anything about the policies or procedures of how to do a church plant. We gathered ourselves with a couple of other families and we started praying and we started studying the Bible and we started giving of our time and money and energy and whatever gifts else we might have had and the Lord used that to grow a church that's there today with hundreds of people. not because we're so great but because God through the unseen power of His Holy Spirit through the ministry of word and sacrament grows the church and uses the resources He gives His people to support the church and extend the church and the same of course is true for this church many of you know so much better than I of how this church was planted decades ago So, people sold fields and gave money so that we could be here today worshiping God as a unified community of people, rejoicing in the generosity of this community. We can think of Escondido United Reformed Church and we can think about the institutions we've been passionate to see in supporting the church. Lands that were sold for Calvin Christian School. Monies that were given time and talents and abilities that were invested to see something so important to this covenant community. Sacrifices were made to see the church and to see her sister institutions established. And I spend a lot of time at Westminster, California. The same story is true there. Lands are sold, monies are given, talents are invested, people sweat, tears and energies are invested to see the kingdom of God extend through the ministry of His church, through those ministers and missionaries and teachers of the next generation so dearly needed if God's work of growing the church will continue. Brothers and sisters, We would be remiss if we didn't underscore that amongst all the things we can list and the text lists, there is so many more that it doesn't. Of all the visible sacrificial giving that happens amongst a unified community of generous people are the unseen things. First and foremost, the prayers of God's people in private and in public longing and calling out for the Lord to be among us and to be gracious to us and to extend His love and His mercy beyond us to the world. The prayers of God's people so often unseen. The giving of time. A meal. A ride to the doctor. The hospitality of visitors or neighbors or other church members. The unseen things that God's people do to see the community thrive and grow. Timothy Stratt is a secular university professor and has a wonderful little course giving an overview to world history. And in giving that course, he focuses in on the significance of the Hebrews, the Greeks, and the Romans. And one phrase he said really struck me. That before Christianity, the world had never known the kind of sacrificial, gracious giving that was just common amongst Christian communities. What a statement to the world and to our neighbors of the generosity God gives to us when we share and give to one another and for the greater work of His kingdom. No wonder Acts 2 says that their rapport grew amongst the peoples. But lest we be too quick to pat ourselves on the back, we should step back and reflect. As I consider the past generations that God has blessed me to be a part of, I am so humbled by the heritage and legacy that those forefathers have left. The sacrificial living and giving that they have poured out into the people of God and into the community of the church is astounding. To think about all the churches that were planted and the schools started and the seminaries invested in and how they have grown and have left us such a rich, rich existence of knowing and serving God. And yet I wonder, what of our generation? What of the next generation that may be by far the most wealthy of any generation to precede it per capita? Whether it be the wealth of time, of resources, of money, of gifts, of education, the ability to read, the ability to teach. What of our generation and what are we doing with what God has poured out into our lives? Will our great-grandchildren look back upon this generation and marvel over the generosity that God moved through us unto others? Or will they mourn that we rather cultivated individual pleasures and opportunities and entertainments? You feel the weight of that concern. David Livingston was a missionary in the late 1800s. He spent a good deal of his life in Africa away from the other pleasures and opportunities that might have been his in London. And towards the end of his ministry and towards the end of his life, he was reflecting upon this leaving behind of the pleasures that might have otherwise been his. And he says this, For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office as the ministry. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Away with the Word and such a view and with such a thought. It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather, it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger every now and then with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life may make us pause and cause the spirit to waver and the soul to sink. But let this only be for a moment. All these things are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice. now we could say that David Livingston was quite unique to his time and place brothers and sisters he should never be alone we too are called in our way according to our giftedness and calling to be a sacrifice for the sake of Christ while knowing that whatever we might give in this life whatever Christ might require of us whether it be time, energy money, land, the ability to teach, the giftedness of a parent, the insights into business and economy, whether it be our own lives, whatever we might give in this life is nothing when compared to the glory that will be revealed in us and for us by Christ. Romans 8 Paul calls us into this kind of living with the encouragement and the power of the gospel. He says that who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it's written, For your sake, O Lord, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all of these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. You see, that's our assurance. That's our promise. That's our hope. That's the Gospel that has brought us into a unified community that is glad to give. And brothers and sisters, let us pray that God would continue to work within our hearts as He has through the saints of all the ages to continue to live sacrificially that the community might extend beyond us and through us unto the neighborhood, unto the communities of this city and unto the world. Not because we're great. Not because we're glorious. But because He is great. And because He's worthy of all praise. Our Father in Heaven, the truths of Your Word are so profound. The description of Christ's sacrifice. All for more faith to believe its full meaning. Along with the glory of His resurrection. That we too might respond, O Lord, and be the living sacrifice as you call us to. Father, as we've been identified with Christ through baptism, as we fellowship with Christ in the supper. May we rejoice in dying with Him that we would also live with Him in all of His glory. Lord, may this kindle within our hearts. May this truth, Lord, be further pressed upon our minds. May our faith be strengthened and may the work and ministry and light of this congregation be greater tomorrow even than it is today. We pray these things, Lord, in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen.