4/27/25 Acts 4:32-35 “Let the Holy Spirit Take You!”

24 Apr 4/27/25 Acts 4:32-35 “Let the Holy Spirit Take You!”

4/27/25  Acts 4:32-35     “Let the Holy Spirit Take You!”

I hope you all had a very good Easter.  Ham dinners are now the tradition at Easter.  I don’t know what the Jewish people would say about this because they still don’t eat pork. I don’t know why we insist on pork but I will leave that for you to research.  We have also had Sunday school and church programs that help us celebrate what some say is the greatest feat in human history.  Jesus rose from the dead.  We celebrate this by our Palm Sunday programs.  I miss seeing all the children coming into the sanctuary waving their palm leaves.  They do such a fine job.  We have Maundy Thursday services honoring the last supper and Holy Communion.  We also have very somber Good Friday services to honor Jesus after He had died.  We kind of rest on Saturday before we come to our joyous Son Rise service on Sunday morning.  Hopefully this sets the tone for your day and your life as Jesus has now risen from the dead and is among us.  If that is not worth celebrating, then I don’t know what is.  Lastly, we have our own celebrations as we gather for a meal or whatever later in the day.  It is really some kind of week and it is no wonder that they call it Holy Week.  Today, we are going to move ahead to the disciples who now did not have the physical person of Jesus to lead them anymore.  However, they did have the Holy Spirit and He showed them the way to a most wonderful life still with Jesus.  This has always been one of my favorite passages because it tells us what faith is really like.  Let’s see if we can pump our faith up to a higher level.

I think that it would be safe to say that we all have cars or use them.  They need gas to run.  Recently, I was out of town playing golf and I noticed on the way back that I did not have much gas.  By the time I got to Fargo, I had about six miles of gas left.  I cut it close.  I realized when I was filling with gas that people need a refill also.  We see people all the time who are full of the Spirit and that is good.  But we also see those with slumped shoulders and sad faces who are not so full.  It is up to you to minister to these people also.  And just as a little tip here, everyone needs someone to help them get back to Jesus at some point in their lives.  You are that someone.  Make it your mission in life to notice these people.

Just as a little reminder here about our reading, this is just a little after Pentecost.  If you remember, Pentecost is when the Holy Spirit came to dwell in the disciples.  Peter was speaking in his own language to people of many different languages.  All the people heard as if he was speaking in their language.  I bet the United Nations would like to do this as easily.  This was also the beginning of some real persecution of the disciples, especially Peter and John are mentioned here.  Nothing is going well for them except one thing.  They are surviving with the help of Jesus through the Holy Spirit.  I believe that many today have totally lost this concept.  If you can get your prayer life going in the right direction, this is a place to aim.  Jesus is always the answer.

We begin with the statement that all believers were one in heart and mind.  That is quite a statement and I think we had better unpack it just a little.  At the time this was written, they had the main Temple in Jerusalem.  Then they had synagogues in the surrounding areas.  This only makes sense, I guess.  And for some reason, they actually preached the Old Testament word pretty much the same in all places.  However, there were many differences in the application of this word.

One of the reasons for this was that everyone had to also make a living.  Even the Pharisees needed jobs to live.  It was really only in Jerusalem where they had professional priests that did not need an outside job.  As soon as you enter this into the religious equation, then you start to have many different activities to help the local synagogue.  This only makes sense and is why most of the action of the Bible takes place in Jerusalem.  Now Jerusalem Jews had spies all over the land to report things that really were not right.  This is why Jesus got into so much trouble but that is not our focus today.

It is the same way in our world today.  We have what we call denominations.  These are the umbrella organizations that rule over many individual churches.  This may be a good thing in today’s world but I have to question if they are all of the same heart and mind.  If they were, then we would not have so many of them.  But I’m not going to dwell on those pros and cons today, either.

It is in our individual churches where we have to start to be of one heart and mind.  That heart and mind must be the same as God’s.  Here is what I mean.  We used to belong to a church that wanted to build another campus.  The main church was rather settled in their ways and they needed a new kitchen so they could keep up with the demand of more people attending.  Then there were a group of people, mainly younger, who wanted to build a satellite church a few miles away in another neighborhood.  They went back and forth on this and finally it was settled that the kitchen would wait.  Today, they have the new church and a new kitchen in the old church.  It is really amazing how things turn out when you have the same heart and mind.

Many years ago, we were part of a church that owed over $100,000 dollars on their building.  That was a lot of money in those days.  Well, a professional fund raiser was brought in to help.  There were many who were against this and it almost split the church.  But once again, God prevailed and raised well over the needed amount was raised.  One of the worst things that we do in our churches is not totally believe in God.  We like to only believe when it is convenient.

The other thing I want to address here is that this section does not talk about socialism in any way.  People, usually non-believers, will try to tell us that this is some form of socialism where were share all that we have and have no personal property.  I don’t see this at all because the people doing this were the movers and shakers of this new church.  They were not just members, although some could have been, but this was their life.  These were the new priests of the church.  They would have done the same no matter what profession they were a part.  If something is your livelihood, then you will usually support it with your time and money.  That is the only way for it to grow.  Of course, in this case, they not only believed in Jesus but they knew Jesus because they had been with Him.

So, when we are in our respective churches, you need to be of one heart and mind.  This does not mean that you won’t disagree on things.  It means that you will find the right way to settle things and there is only one way for this.  You need to be a praying church that follows Jesus Christ in everything and not just in some things.  This is the hard part.  It is my belief that we have many part time Christians.  We have many who have no regular prayer life and they end up in charge of important things.  You need to be tune with Jesus.  Every church, every church should have a prayer team.  I don’t see how many churches function as they do and not have prayer leaders.  If you don’t have one, then start one today.

This passage has so much in it that I doubt that I will cover it but here goes.  The next part tells us of ministerial unity.  These were the disciples of Jesus Christ.  They got to see first hand what Jesus did.  And just as a reminder, He did more than could be contained in all the books of the day.  In other words, He did a lot more than we read about in the Gospels.  Therefore, they believed with all their hearts, souls and minds.  They believed that Jesus was indeed God because of all the things He could do and did.

Therefore, they went out into the countryside preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Jesus performed many miracles during His time here but one of the greatest if not the greatest was His resurrection from the dead.  Jesus was dead.  There was no doubt about it.  If you read any modern account of His last hours, you will agree that He was indeed dead.  Experts now and experts then agree that no one could have survived what He went through.  After witnessing this, the disciples knew, not just believed, but knew for a fact that everything they knew about Jesus was true.  Therefore, they went forth and spread this wonderful news.  Their ministry was unified because they had all seen the same thing and witnessed personal miracles that Jesus had performed for each of them.

This was quite a group.  So how are we doing at this in today’s world?  I think that this depends on where you are.  There are some places where missionary work has been done really well.  Christianity is the fastest growing religion in many areas of the world.  This is due to dedicated men and women who go to the edges of civilization with this wonderful message from Jesus Christ.  Many Muslim countries don’t want us to know this but Christianity is growing quite rapidly in these countries also.  This is happening because people are absolutely dedicated, like the early disciples, to spreading the Word of Jesus.

Then we have the many areas of the world where the people have become complacent.  These are the places like Europe and North America where we have churches that stand empty.  It seems that we think we can do a much better job without Jesus than with Him.  We are like the people of the Old Testament where they spent a couple of generations following God and then they fell away.  They fell away into a total disaster in everything they tried to do.

This is a lesson that we have to learn also.  I’m sure that there are some of you that know this already.  Many of you know that I have an online presence that reaches 80,000+ people.  I get all kinds on here.  I have been called names many times.  I have been told how stupid I am for following Jesus.  I have even had several death threats.  And I think that this is all ok because by doing these things I am planting seeds where none have before.  I only pray that Jesus will come into the hearts of some of these people.  The point is that we all have to learn about Jesus.  I can only help one person at a time, the person in front of me.  Just like I can only minister to you one week at a time.  I’m not good enough to preach a sermon for you that will last two weeks.  So, remember to glorify Jesus in all you do.

The last thing I wanted to touch upon today is something that we have already mentioned.  What these disciples had was not their own.  They went out and preached and taught.  They did all they could do to introduce Jesus to a world that really did not know Him.  They were engaged in full time ministry.  Everything they did was to further the ministry.  They did not have time to work like we think although many of them did to a certain extent.  But they knew that they would be the reason that the Gospel message was spread.  They still loved Jesus so much that they would do anything for Him.  And almost all of them did until they too were crucified.  They had much support for this in the form of money and things.

I don’t think we do that well in this are either.  I don’t know how many new pastors I have met who think of being a pastor as being a job like everyone else.  This is totally not true.  For those that think this way, they either don’t do a very good job or they end up burnt out of ministry.  They usually don’t last long.

I have found that for the most part, pastors are really underpaid but that is ok, too.  We still seem to make ends meet.  Often times parishioners come forward with produce, money and other things that are needed.  I knew a pastor who was in a real financial bind to something like $422.  He never mentioned it to anyone but he and his wife prayed about it.  The day before it was due, he got an envelop in the mail with $422, they exact amount they needed.  There are many, many stories like this.

I am retired from full time ministry but I still fill in and have my online stuff.  I do get a little pay for the filling in part but nothing from the online part and that is ok.  That is really what I want.  The only reason I take anything from the churches where I fill in is so that they realize that they have some Biblical responsibility for paying their pastor.  Even then I have had churches who get out raged because I charge $200 for a Sunday.  These churches obviously need more work.  The point is that ministry is a job that requires total dedication.  To have that the local church has to step up to the plate and take care of their pastors.  This too will vary from area to area.

We can learn a lot from this passage.  These early preachers were totally with Jesus in everything they did.  Your goal should be the same.  Let the Holy Spirit who lives in you take you to places you never dreamed possible.  He will not let you down.  I have said this many, many times.  Jesus is the key to the best and fullest life possible.  Follow Him and you will never go wrong.  And, thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.