The Generosity of the Early Church

Introduction

In Acts 4, the early church modelled a Christian generosity that flowed from grace. Revd. Mark Fletcher shows how a transformed view of money and possessions builds authentic community and frees us from anxious self-reliance. Discover why giving as an act of faith remains the clearest sign of where our trust truly lies.

Have you ever considered that there is something strangely contradictory in our society’s attitude to money and possessions? We treat them as if they are the most important thing, and yet at the same time we have a sneaking suspicion that life was better when we had a lot less. We tell stories of communities — maybe our grandparents’ streets, where you never had to lock the door and everybody looked out for each other. Or we remember our younger days, when we lived on a shoestring but had the time of our lives. We sort of recognise that these things that we work so hard for end up becoming a burden to us. I think it’s strange. I think we know that what matters most in life is not money or property, but life and people and relationships and being part of community. In fact, I think we despise those who just want more and more, and who seem to think that money is the most important thing. And yet we don’t quite know what to do with ourselves. Like misers, we are so attached to our belongings that we think we can’t live without them, even though at the same time we feel trapped and isolated by them. We love those stories of people who have managed to live more simply, to be free of those things, and yet we think we can’t do anything about it. Which brings us to this remarkable passage in the Acts of the Apostles. It is an amazing time in the world. It is an amazing time in the life of the early church. However, if you’ve been reading along — and I’d really encourage you to do that when we’re doing these series; you know, we can’t preach on every passage in these books, and it’s a good thing to just be reading along in the book of Acts as we are studying this — if you have been reading along, you will know that the storm clouds are gathering. This new church has not gone unnoticed by the authorities, and people are starting to feel threatened by what is happening. And so at the beginning of chapter 4, Peter and John are arrested for no obvious reason, and the temple guards try and intimidate them and silence them. But far from being intimidated — I think, as you would expect — once they’re released, the apostles go back, talk to the church, and pray this, in verse 29: “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.” And of course, that is what they continue to do. And so despite the threats and the storm clouds, there is this great sense of joy in what God is doing amongst them. And there is also a great sense of unity. Did you see verse 32? All of the believers were one in heart and mind. I have a sneaking suspicion that is the only time that has ever been true in the church.

The only time in the history of the church when you could say that. No division, no arguments, no bitterness — just joyful gratitude for what God is doing. So it is; it’s a remarkable time in the life of the church. So what’s going on? Well, a couple of things to say. The first is that, as we said, we are still in the aftermath of Pentecost. And did you see verse 31? They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Do you remember at Pentecost we talked about the fact that in the Old Testament, the people who received the Holy Spirit were, well, the great people — great kings, or great prophets, or great priests. But suddenly they were all having this incredible experience of a personal encounter with God. And as Peter goes on to say in his epistle later in the New Testament, you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation; you are God’s special possession. Imagine what it would be like if we really grasped what that meant — that we could really feel what God has done for us and the privilege that we now have. Because according to the New Testament, the person sitting next to you is actually royalty. You might want to look over to them and say, “Your Majesty.”

And you can reply, “Your Royal Highness.”

And so overwhelmed was the early church by the privilege of this, that they are moved to incredible generosity to one another. Secondly, it’s a response to the resurrection. This is verse 33: “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” And it’s important to note that. It is really important. This is what the apostles are preaching — that the early church is not just, well, it’s not a new way of being religious. It is a response to an event which, if true, changes everything. Jesus is raised from the dead. Sins are forgiven. Death is defeated. And death is not the end. It changes everything.

And of course, the key word there is the Lord Jesus. “Lord” is this word kyrios, which means ruler. And the early church saw themselves not just as a religious gathering, but as part of something new that God was doing in the world — a new and better kingdom, a kingdom unlike all of the kingdoms of this world. And so as a response to that, they share everything they have. And of course, that’s not just about money at all. It’s about shared lives and authentic community. It’s that realisation that everything they have comes from God, and so therefore we are simply entrusted with it to do what is right with it. And what we do with it matters a great deal.

There has to be a better way than the ways of this world. We know this, don’t we — that all of our modern prosperity hasn’t made us any happier? And for all of our virtual connectedness, the modern world is tragically a terribly lonely place. There has to be a better way. The great author Kurt Vonnegut was once asked what his advice to young people was, and he said this: the most daring thing that you can do is to create authentic communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.

How true is that? And that is what the early church was, and that is what the church is called to continue to be. But we cannot ignore that one crucial aspect of that is the way that we treat our money. Verse 34: there were no needy people amongst them. 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. You see, it’s never forced or coerced; these actions are voluntary, and occasional, as the need arose. But there is a deep sense of wanting to give back to what God has done for us, a sense of a generous response to the generosity of God and of the community. There’s this desire to build a better and fairer way of life, and that affects how we see our money. Verse 34: God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them. You know the word “grace” — simply the word “gift”. The gift of God was at work in them. And if they had the faith to recognise the gift that God had given them, then they wanted to respond with generosity.

I often think that one of the things that affects the way we treat money is that we feel like the world is a selfish place — and I think broadly we would be right to do that. We feel like, well, nobody’s going to look after me, so I need to look after myself, and therefore we end up holding tightly to what we have. But when you’re excited, and you have the experiences of the real generosity of God and of other people, it loosens our grip on the things that we are holding too tightly to. It inspires a generous response. And can you imagine the witness that this would have been to the world in the first century — that there is a community which works in such a radically different way than the rest of the world? I think probably one of the great problems for the church is that, for most of its history, it has not looked very different to the attitudes and the priorities of the outside world. We need to live in a way that shows that we trust not in our wealth or our possessions, but we trust in God. But I’m struck that this isn’t just nostalgia. This spirit has continued to live in the church to this very day. And there are some amazing examples of that. One of the ones that I love the most is — well, I don’t know if you know the story — that on a bright Sunday morning in 270 AD, a young man was sitting in his church in Egypt. And the gospel reading that day was very familiar. It said this: if you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and then you will have treasure in heaven; and then come and follow me. And we’ve all heard that verse, but for this young man — his name was Anthony — he was deeply convicted by the Holy Spirit. And he got up and left church that morning, and he did exactly that: sold all that he had, and then travelled out into the wilderness of Egypt, living a life of simplicity and prayer, and in doing so sparked a movement which changed the world. Anthony, we now know as St Anthony the Great; he is the father of monasticism. And those communities, where people take vows of simplicity and poverty and live in community committed to prayer and serving one another and the wider world — they have had the most profound impact on the history of our world. Today, people live by faith. There’s an organisation that you might know, just over the hill, called L’Abri, and it’s a wonderful community where young people can come and experience community, perhaps in a way that they have never done before. They can ask honest questions and work and serve together. It’s a fantastic organisation, and it functions, in turn, entirely by faith. They go month to month, depending on the provision of the Lord and the generosity of God’s people. It’s an amazing thing to do. And I’m also struck that, at our best, church is a place of incredible generosity, where people give sacrificially and care for one another selflessly. I don’t know if you know, but the largest source of charitable giving in the world is faith-based and, in many ways, Christian-based. Last year — my statistics are slightly old; I was looking for something more up to date — but in 2016, in the UK alone, 16 billion pounds of charitable giving came from faith-based sources, and that’s echoed across the world. Christian aid agencies carry out incredible, life-changing work in the poorest and most difficult parts of the world, and they do so funded almost entirely by the generosity of God’s people. That spirit is still at work, and where it is at work, it changes lives.

So I think this is a precious story. And this glimpse into what the early church was like needs to challenge our poverty of faith — to think about what it looks like to really live in response to the grace of God. What does it look like for you to handle your money honourably before God? Whether he has entrusted you with a little or a lot, he has entrusted you for a purpose. Our society puts its trust in an idol, a false god that promises security and happiness, but in reality delivers neither. We are called to live differently, and to be seen to live differently. And it may well be that the way that we use our money is the clearest indication of where our priorities lie and where our trust is. The great John Calvin, in the 16th century, wrote in response to this passage. He said: we must have hearts that are harder than iron if we are not moved by this narrative. In those days, the believers gave abundantly of what was their own; they sold their possessions. But in our day, it is the lust to purchase that reigns supreme. And that was 400 years ago. How much more true is that in our day? We know — we know that life is actually a gift, a gift from God given in Jesus Christ. And he promises us life in all its fullness, that flows out of our relationship with him and the community of the saints that we are called to belong to. We must live differently. We respond to the grace of God with conscious and deliberate generosity, and in our lives, and in our community, and with our money, we respond. Giving is an act of faith, an act of worship. You can do great good in big ways and small. If you have been entrusted with much, then much is expected of you. And healthy churches and healthy Christians give sacrificially and joyfully in response to the sacrificial generosity of God. Because we know that life and security are found not in our wealth, not in our possessions, but only in our God.

Let’s be still together, shall we?

Heavenly Father, the early church was overwhelmed by that experience of you, of your hope, of your grace, of your Holy Spirit, of what you have done in the world. We pray that we might have a glimpse of that same truth — that our lives would be shaped not by the culture that we inhabit, but by who you are and the privilege that we have of being part of what you are doing.

Enlarge our hearts, we pray.

Give us the faith to live differently, through Christ our Lord. Amen.