Reflections on "Finding Believers" Acts 28: 1-15

Doing the review in the introduction reminded me of how much I have enjoyed working through Acts over the last four months.  One of the great things about doing sermon series on different books or themes in the Bible is that I get to really dig into a particular aspect of the biblical text for an extended period of time.  

i was intentional about doing the collage of images as the introduction to help remind people of the stories we have read, and perhaps send some people back to Acts to read about the stories they had missed.

I thought the sermon was sort of flat, particularly during the Chapel service.  I made a minor change for the Sanctuary service:  instead of quoting directly the two long quotes from N. T. Wright and Nevada Barr, I sort of paraphrased and used on a portion of the longer quote.  I think that may have worked better, but not sure the quotes were as effective being spoken as they are when being read with time to digest the quote. 

"Finding Believers” September 28, 2014; FPC, Troy; Significant Moments in Acts; Acts 28: 1-15

Introduction: End of series on Acts. Collage of images:

drawing lots;

enthusiasm;

people being healed

Saul on his knees on the road to Damascus;

Eutychus falling out of a window – sitting on window sill; snoring away while the sermon was droning on; mid-air as he falls out of window; lying dead on the ground; being hugged and healed by Paul.

the animals from Peter's dream that instructs him about how the church will be inclusive of Jews and Gentiles

leadership chart that shows the development of the offices or elders, deacons, and teachers, as the early church develops its infrastructure

women at the river on the Sabbath morning talking and praying

leaders gathering at Jerusalem to decide important matters concerning what the church will look like;

a pair – reminder of Paul and Barnabas; or Saul and Ananias

Stormy seas that finish with a ship wrecked on a barrier reef

Big snake hanging from Paul's arm

lots of powerful images from Acts.

As we finish, three themes that run run throughout Acts: power of prayer; important role of community; desire to serve God.

Move 1: Power of prayer

a. Every story we read from Acts during the past four months has included some mention of prayer.

1. sometimes it might have been prayers of desperation like, “I'm in the middle of a storm at sea, God, so come help me!” but mostly the prayers were for guidance and direction.
2. The early church believed that in order to do what God wanted them to do, they had to be people of prayer.
3. They can cast lots to choose the next leader because they pray to God for to answer them through the choosing of lots.
4. They can dare to change – Saul to Paul or Peter changing his position on eating restrictions – because they are in pray about what to do.
5. they can heal because they have asked for God to use them as instruments of healing.
6. Prayer undergirds everything they do.
b. N. T. Wright in his book Simply Christian offers this description of prayer: “….Christian prayer is about standing at the fault line, being shaped by the Jesus who knelt in Gethsemane, groaning in travail, holding heaven and earth together like someone trying to tie two pieces of rope with people tugging at the other ends to pull them apart. “ Simply Christian, N. T. Wright (163-164).

1. I like that image – prayer what the church does as it stands in the world, pulled in different directions, but choosing to seek God's guidance.

2. We pray in part because we recognize that the world is not what God desires it to be and we need guidance to help change it.

3. Korean prayer article – this past August, a joint prayer service between the South Korean church and the North Korean church gathered to pray for peace and reunification of the two Koreas (Presbyterian Outlook, Sept 29, 2014, 6).


4. 49 years since N. Korea and S. Korea split into two countries.


5. Hopeless and helpless.

6. Church and its people turn to God in prayer.l

Power of prayer.

Move 2: Power of community.

a. Many of the stories in Acts are about the community of faith.

1. some of the stories are explicitly about community as they seek to define what the community of believers will look like.

2. But many other stories are not about defining community, but about living as community.

b. We see the power of community in the passage we read this morning about Paul arriving in Rome.

1. The extended community of faith has heard that Paul is about to arrive as a prisoner in their midst.
2. They do not know what to expect, but certainly he is not coming to be their next minister or to lead a revival (although he does end up getting to preach a bit while imprisoned in Rome).
3. They cannot welcome Paul into their homes or their community of faith because he is under that guard of the Romans soldiers.
4. And yet, they still trek at least a day's journey to arrive to greet Paul.
5. To show their support and solidarity for this man brother in the faith.
6. Notice how their presence impacts Paul 0 he immediately gives thanks to God and finds courage to face what is waiting for him in Rome.
7. William Willimon comments on this verse:  "IN a narrative filled with accounts power, miraculous deliverance, and divine intervention, this is perhaps the greatest power the Christian faith puts at the disciples' disposal -- the power of brothers and sisters in the church" (William Willimon, Acts from the commentary series Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, 186).
   
   

c.   Nevada Barr, Seeking Enlightenment Hat by Hat (191): She offers the answer to her father’s question: why go inside with a bunch of hypocrites instead of staying outdoors in God’s country. “Because God made we hypocrites, too. Because when Jesus said, ‘Wherever two or more gather in my name, I am there’ He wasn’t whistling Dixie. The mountain is for finding and adoring God in the wilderness. Church is for finding and adoring God in community: with others, through others, because of others, in spite of others. Only by finding this place of human interaction focused around the need for the spiritual was I able to recognize God in other people, and so, in myself. Without community, how would I share. Who would I help? How would I learn to accept help? Would I learn to serve others without others to serve? And could I know how if I wasn’t taught? To what would I, a human being, belong to if not to a group of human beings?”

1. The faith community for the early church and for us is where we are nurtured, shaped and formed.

2. Father died late on a Saturday night. I was scheduled to preach and lead worship the next morning.

3. called a colleague late that night to talk about what to do – didn't want to take away from worship with my own personal situation.
4. Colleague – do what you want about preaching and leading worship, but where else should you be in your time of need if not in the community of faith you serve.

5.  As I looked out at the gathered community, I discovered again the community of faith that nurtures us and the place where we gather to claim our hope.

The power of community.

Move 3: Finally, desire to be a part of what God is doing.

a. Paul found believers.

1. Paul arrives in a strange place and finds people who believe in Jesus Christ and want to serve him.
2. the Book of Acts is story after story of people who are living out their desire to follow Christ.
3. The story, of course, is God's story, but it's played out by the faithful whose enthusiasm for serving God send them into the world.
b. If Paul were to somehow arrive in our midst, I believe he would write that he had arrived in Troy and found believers.
Conclusion: The Acts of the Apostles does not end in chapter 28 but continues through us as we follow the resurrected Christ into the world.