Mountainview International Church

This week we enjoyed a fabulous meal with Jim and Cheryl Macaluso and their family. After some great Italian food we began to talk about matters related to the church. Jim shared with us (the Braniff’s were there too) about the flow of his week. Apparently at about 12:09 PM on a Sunday his week is at a 7 day high-point. Then from that moment on he experiences a slow decline until around 11:00 AM on a Sunday morning he reaches a 7 day low-point. Jim had seen the Mountainview Moments and he was excited. But, not just about his picture! He was excited because we are beginning a series on 24-7 Christianity! He told us of the things he was hoping to get out of this series is a greater ability to keep things from going so downhill during the week and to maintain his faith, day to day, at a higher level.

A great hope for all of us here at Mountainview in 2010.

Our series on 24/7 Christianity is based on a well-known passage about the early church in the book of Acts. As we look in great depth at this passage we are we are going to ask ourselves this question: What does it looks like to live for and serve Jesus, 24 hours a day, seven days a week?

In a minute a couple of people are going to read the passage for us in English and Spanish. But beforehand I want us to note something very interesting. I didn’t notice this when I was planning this series. Only on sending someone an e-mail about the passage did I see it. Acts 2: 42-47 has two, 24/7’s in it! An X-Files moment no less! A great way for us to remember where to find this passage and a poignant reminder from above to follow Christ 24/7!

42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2: 42:47)

Thank you.

We’ll leave the passage on the screen for a minute. I want to ask a question. At Mountainview we don’t often call for responses from the floor! But this morning we will be asking for some ideas. Our opening message is on the centrality of Christ and worship. The question I want to ask is this. Where do we see the centrality of Christ in this passage?

I think we see the centrality of Christ in two significant ways. Luke, who wrote the passage, tells us that the early church devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching. Luke also says that they devoted themselves to the breaking of bread.

Devoted to the Apostles teaching!

If we read the whole of Acts chapter 2 we discover that the first church of Jerusalem was essentially a Jewish church. We should be astounded that they were devoting themselves to the Apostles teaching rather than the Old Testament or the latest commentary by Rabbi so and so.

The Gospels (the Apostles teaching) have a clear focus on the person and work of Jesus Christ. There is considerably more focus on Jesus Christ than on God the Father! These Jewish believers wanted to know all they could about Jesus and what he said.

Traditionally the church has tended to look at Jesus through the eyes the Pauline Epistles (Paul’s letters). However, there are a growing number of people who suggest that we begin to see the Gospels as our primary texts about Jesus.

About four years we encouraged everybody at Mountainview to read through the Gospels a couple of times. I found it in an amazing experience. Each day, I challenged myself to read what Jesus said and did and then to go off and try and put His life and words into practice. To devote myself to the Apostles teaching! It was extraordinarily difficult! Jesus’ words are incredibly challenging and hard to apply. However, one of the fruits from the exercise was that my appreciation for Jesus expanded vastly. I grew hungrier to know the Jesus of the Gospels and to experience His reality in my daily life.

I would encourage you to take time to read and re-read the Gospels. For there is no better way to come to trust and love and worship and serve Christ than meeting him for oneself through the Apostles teaching.

The passage also says that they devoted themselves to the breaking of bread.

Devoted to the breaking of bread!

I believe the reference to the Jerusalem Church “breaking of bread” is letting us know more than they took communion on a regular basis. Communion, the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, is a religious rite that is focused exclusively on Jesus. Luke is letting us know that they placed Jesus at centre-stage in their lives and community.

It’s very common for people to say that the belief in Jesus as God developed over time. Dan Brown in his bestseller novel the, Da Vinci Code says that the belief in Jesus’ divinity was not embraced by his earliest followers, but invented by the Council of Nicaea (they wrote the creed we studied leading up to Advent) that was convened by the Emperor Constantine in AD 325. Just a novel, yes! But Dan Brown is giving voice to the majority opinion. Many of the people we rub shoulders with believe the earliest followers of Jesus did not think of Jesus as God and that this idea developed over time.

This is where a passage like this is so exciting! If we backup to the beginning of Acts chapter 2 we find we are at the feast of Pentecost - 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jews had gathered from to celebrate the feast of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit comes! The Apostles speak in other languages! Peter preaches his first sermon! More than 3,000 believe his message, repent and baptised, as followers of Jesus Christ. 50-something days after the death and resurrection of Jesus more 3,000 hard-core Jews are devoting themselves to Jesus in Jerusalem, Jesus as Lord was not a doctrine that developed over many centuries. From day one of the church, Jesus is Lord! Jesus is God! Jesus is worthy their, and of our, complete and total devotion!

Larry Hurtado, professor of New Testament at Edinburgh University, describes the devotion to Jesus that we see in the early church as:

A verifiable ‘big bang,’ an explosively rapid and impressively substantial development in the earliest stage of the Christian movement.

We also noted that they broke bread together in their homes. This passage tells us that they didn’t just gather once a week to give Jesus the central place to their Sunday. Throughout the week in their homes and work places they were working to give Jesus the central place. The early church was committed 24/7 to proclaiming Jesus as Lord.

One of the ideas that we had to help Jim keep the tenor of his faith during the week was to simply get together with another believer for lunch and “break bread together!”

The title for this message and many of the ideas were thought up several months ago. Lawrence jokes that he can plan the worship well ahead because I am thinking about what I’m gonna speak on six months from now. God works in amazing ways! Just after Christmas several copies of this book, Putting Jesus in His Place - the case for the Deity of Christ, arrive from Gustavo. It’s amazing because all 350 pages of this book (I’m already about half way through) speak to our issue. We don’t have time to cover everything. This is just a micro summary! (I have copies if you’d like to borrow a one).

The book demonstrates that from the very beginning to the very end of the New Testament the writers are declaring in a multitude of ways, over and over again, that that Jesus is God. The book is broken into major sections looking at Jesus under the following themes (using the acronym HANDS):

Jesus shares the Honours due to God
Jesus shares the Attributes of God
Jesus shares the Names of God
Jesus shares in the Deeds that God does
Jesus shares the Seat of God’s throne

For the rest of our time together I want us to focus on our worship of Jesus. New Testament believers worshipped Jesus as God. They glorified Jesus. They prayed to Jesus. They sang hymns to Jesus and about Jesus.

The writer Pliny in about 110 AD writes that Christian’s, “gathered on a certain day, before sunrise, in order to sing hymns to Christ as God”.

I want us to see a video clip from the movie Anna and the King. The movie is about a schoolteacher called Anna who goes to the Far East to teach the King of Siam’s children. Near the beginning there is a great scene and where she walks into the kings presence ignored protocol subjects should remain bowed before the king.

In Hebrew and in Greek the words used for worship refer to the act of bowing low to the ground or prostrating before God. Bowing low was an expression of great respect and reverence towards our superior – like a King!

In missional circles the idea of incarnating Jesus in society has become very popular – a buzz word. The idea is we go into a community and become the very presence of Jesus. Incarnational theology is great and it has a lot to commend it. But it also comes with a warning. In working hard to make Christianity and Christ himself more “approachable” we sometimes have the tendency to allow His humanity to overwhelm his Deity. The New Testament is working hard to elevate Jesus to the highest place in heaven and we can end up working hard in the opposite direction, to bring Jesus to our/to their level. Jesus can end up lower than us!

The New Testament scholar Grant Osborne warns that many of us have lost the holy reverence and awe all that we should have towards Jesus. He writes

Christians are guilty of the syndrome “Your Jesus is too small.” We have made Jesus our “big brother” and “friend” to such an extent that we have lost a sense that he is also our sovereign Lord. We must recapture the realization that he too is our God and worthy of [our] worship at the deepest level.

I want us to close with some very practical application. When Jesus was asked about the Greatest Commandment he declared we should worship God 24/7:

36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind [and with all your strength]' 38This is the first and greatest commandment

John Stott writes:

Nobody can call himself a Christian who does not worship Jesus. To worship him, if he is not God, is idolatry; to withhold our worship from him, if he is, is apostasy.

Jesus declares that we should worship God (we should worship him for he is God) with all our faculties at all times. Jesus is calling for our 24/7 worship.

Let’s give some highly practical application to these 4 components of our worship.

With all my Heart!

I try to lead Mountainview by the principle that I’m primarily seeking to please Christ and not men. From time to time Christ has challenged me to choose between the comfortable road and the right road. Even this Christmas season I felt Jesus inquiring of me about what was most important in my heart: The success of Mountainview (my kudos in front of others) or himself? It was so strong that I ended up journaling a prayer affirming that, corrupt as my heart is, I would continue to work towards Jesus and the not the success of Mountainview being the most important in my life. The idea of giving Jesus the first place in our heart can make us do crazy things in the world’s eyes. We had a new family at Mountainview over for lunch. I told them that they should check out the Baptist church because it was closer to where they lived!

With all my Soul!

I was reading an interview with Billy Graham, now an old man. One of the questions they asked him was whether had any regrets about his life? His response was he would read the bible more and other books less. Amazing he should say this, because Billy Graham reads the bible all the time! Billy Graham is telling us he wants Jesus to reside deeply and richly and profoundly and securely within his soul.

In 2010, I’m committing to increase the amount I read the Bible and Christian books & to pray (So is Rob). I desire the success of my life and ministry to be based on Jesus that resides within my soul, not on skills I’ve picked up on the way.

With all my Mind!

I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of chatter going on in my brain (maybe I’m the only one). From the moment I wake to the moment I sleep, my brain is chattering away. Most of the chatter is less than helpful. Seriously! “Jerk, cutting me up like that!” “What a loser!” “Help it’s Friday and don’t have a clue what I’m going to say on Sunday!” On and on it goes like a maddening jukebox. One of the things that I’ve started trying to do is when I wake up and my brain starts chattering, is that I try to make one of the first thoughts of the day a connecting thought with Jesus. Or when I catch myself thinking bad thoughts I try to replace them with Christ-centred thoughts.

With all my Strength!

Strength comes from the parallel passage in Deuteronomy.

This past autumn was difficult. The church was growing and growing! My mum was dying and died! Leah, the right arm of administration at Mountainview, broke her left arm! I ended up with some medical issues that needed looking into (literally). Dear friends at Mountainview started burning out. Our staff team shrunk. On many occasions I was left feeling so impotent [lacking in strength that is]. But, it was a helpful experience too!

When we feel strong we tend to go it alone. Ironically weakness, helps us focus what little strength we have left on Christ! God gave me a crash course in weakness. A big lesson in the art of letting go! My faith is not based on my strength, but on the power of God at work with me. Like the Apostle Paul I can celebrate weakness because it paves the way for Christ to be glorified and worshipped by me in greater measure.

Conclusion

Luke tells of 2 men on the road to Emmaus. A stranger joins them. They are deeply upset about the death of Christ and talk with the stranger about the loss of their friend and shattered dreams for the restoration of their nation. The stranger begins to explain to them everything about the Christ that was written in the Law, (the first five books of the bible) and the prophets. The stranger revealed to them how the Old Testament leads to Jesus! Later the stranger breaks the bread. Their eyes are opened. It is Jesus!

24/7 Christianity begins and ends with a desire to know Jesus as Lord. To read God’s word daily! To discover how the whole bible leads us to Jesus. To grow in the knowledge of Christ and His love for us! And having had our eyes opened to see Jesus our Sovereign King, to worship Him, God the Son, daily, through our passions and words and deeds!

For if we see Jesus as he is and respond to him as we ought, Jim, Mountainview, excuse the pun, but every day becomes a Son-Day!-

We will close this service by singing hymns to Christ. Songs that focus our hearts on Christ the Lord! Songs that prepare us to go out and to worship and serve Christ on Monday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday, on Thursday, on Friday and on Saturday!

[Let us pray]