Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] So if you've been around the last few weeks, you will have heard a lot about Acts chapter two, and we're there again today, as Fiona thankfully read.
[00:00:09] So just a bit of context around this passage.
[00:00:12] So this is after Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit came upon the believers, the followers of Jesus.
[00:00:18] It's after Peter's speech, which we will come back to very briefly. And it's after about 3,000 people chose to put their trust in Jesus and become followers or believers of Jesus.
[00:00:32] But I guess where I want to go today is that it's my understanding that if you want to learn how to love your neighbour, well, so caring for people, and if you want to experience authentic and transformative community, you actually need to know God's love deeply yourself.
[00:00:50] And I actually think these come in reverse order. Well, primarily the last one comes first and so we're going to look at it that way. And so knowing God's love deeply and forming your identity in Christ.
[00:01:04] So I think we know the world is in desperate need of love, right?
[00:01:09] It is our deepest desire as human beings is to be truly known, truly loved. And this is the kind of love that brings safety.
[00:01:18] It's the kind of love that transforms us because. Because it allows our true self to be loved. It's the sense of true acceptance and worth that makes us feel loved.
[00:01:31] And because we feel loved like that, we can be us, even the vulnerable us.
[00:01:38] And I think babies are a beautiful example of this.
[00:01:42] Babies cry out for comfort in an uncertain world. But the familiar voice of a parent or a carer, the scent of milk, so sustenance, the comfort of familiar and loving arms, all of these soothe the fears of being unloved, unsafe and unwanted.
[00:02:02] So the world needs love and we each need love.
[00:02:08] But our need for love cannot be truly fulfilled by other humans.
[00:02:13] We need God's love love, and we need to receive it continually on a heart level and not just on a head level, intellectually.
[00:02:25] And so as we consider receiving God's love, I want to bring your attention to the concept of our identity, being in Christ as followers of Jesus.
[00:02:37] Now, if you've been in church for a little while, you've probably heard this phrase about having your identity in Christ, but do you know what it actually means?
[00:02:47] And have you actually tried to explain it to someone in your own words?
[00:02:53] Because it's the kind of phrase that can get thrown around, but that we don't actually know how to live out.
[00:02:59] So Colossians 3 says that for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
[00:03:07] Romans 8 tells us that as Christians we receive a spirit of sonship, but. And you can include daughters in that, that we are children of God, that we are co heirs with Christ.
[00:03:18] And then Ephesians 2 says that it is by grace that you have been saved. It is by grace that all of this happens.
[00:03:26] And essentially what these are getting at is that when we choose to put our trust in Jesus, there is an identity, a new identity that we receive as a gift of God's grace.
[00:03:40] And that identity is as a child of God and a co heir with Christ.
[00:03:46] In other words, our existing identity as human beings who are prone to sin is now encapsulated, is now hidden and covered with the identity of Jesus, who is the Son of God.
[00:04:02] Does that hit you yet?
[00:04:04] Your identity in the world is now encapsulated with the identity of the Son of God, clothed with this gift of this new identity.
[00:04:15] And as such we are called to see and live and relate from this new identity as children of God.
[00:04:25] Now, if you haven't chosen to trust Jesus yet and to receive this gift, I hope that today spurs you on in that journey. But for those of you who have chosen to put your trust in Jesus, how are you going at receiving this gift of this new identity and actually living it out?
[00:04:46] Because I'm assuming that like the rest of us, this is actually a real challenge.
[00:04:53] And to be honest with you, I'm still processing and working out how to welcome and live into this new identity.
[00:05:02] It's one of the most formative and challenging things that we can do and society doesn't help us do it.
[00:05:13] So our culture tends to form our identity in what we do. It's typically the first question that you get asked when you're meeting someone for the first time, oh, what do you do?
[00:05:23] And we tend to fall into the cultural expectation, oh, I'm a pastor, I'm a builder, I'm a parent, I am my responsibility, right?
[00:05:33] Because we are hardwired to connect based on achievement and busyness and where and how we spend our time.
[00:05:41] But what happens in the downfall of that is that we typically let that flow into forming our identity, including our sense of acceptance and worth.
[00:05:53] So I have a friend who recently felt called by God to quit her job and spend time investing in the people around her and in the church that she was a part of, just voluntarily.
[00:06:04] And people didn't know how to respond to her, not even the people in the church, because they had nothing to connect with in the sense of the worldly identity. Of how you spend your time, what you do, and to give up your employment for the sake of serving God voluntarily.
[00:06:24] There was nothing concrete that made this person worthy in the sense of the world's sense of identity.
[00:06:33] And that's how ingrained identity becomes that if you don't have something that you do, people don't know how to connect with you.
[00:06:42] It's an interesting challenge that she found even in the church.
[00:06:47] Now, in Acts 2, in the passage that we've looked at, we see the followers of Jesus devoting themselves to teaching and to prayer.
[00:06:54] They met daily in the temple courts and they practiced gratitude with sincerity and they praised God.
[00:07:01] Was their identity rooted and grounded in Christ?
[00:07:08] The shorter answer is that we don't know, because only God knows the heart.
[00:07:14] But we do know that engaging with scripture and prayer and being in Christian community can transform us if we're willing to engage our heart and not just our head.
[00:07:28] Possibly they were just striving and being busy for the church.
[00:07:32] I like to think not.
[00:07:34] But these are well formed coping mechanisms that we use to get our sense of acceptance and worth from our identity of being busy or helping people.
[00:07:46] So I just want to look at this a little bit, because as children, we learn to get our needs of acceptance and love met.
[00:07:52] We develop coping mechanisms. And these also help us to manage pain and especially emotional pain.
[00:08:00] And I think that unless we are intentional about reassessing these as life goes on to see whether they're actually still serving us and other people well, these learned patterns for coping tend to follow us into adulthood, for better or for worse.
[00:08:17] And the truth is that we often transfer these coping mechanisms, these patterns and these underlying beliefs into our relationship with God, and we reinforce them in Christian community as well.
[00:08:31] So I just want to give a couple of examples.
[00:08:35] The sense of not feeling good enough.
[00:08:39] And so we work really hard and we keep serving the church and other people, even though we might be absolutely exhausted and possibly our families falling apart in the meantime.
[00:08:51] But what we miss in that is God's extravagant love for us and the humbling gift of both giving and receiving and not just giving.
[00:09:03] You know, the people who just keep going and going and going because they never feel like they're enough and they're trying to earn their way to feeling loved and worthy.
[00:09:15] Another one is sometimes we have this sense of feeling so messed up or like a mistake or unwanted, we believe that no one would actually love us if they truly, truly knew us, possibly not even God.
[00:09:30] And so we can pretend like we have it together.
[00:09:35] We don't let our vulnerabilities show. We don't let our true warts show.
[00:09:40] We pretend we have it together in order to feel accepted and loved.
[00:09:45] Or maybe we've been so hurt by people that we feel like we can't trust them.
[00:09:51] They always hurt us.
[00:09:53] And so we end up keeping them and other people and God at arm's length.
[00:10:01] Or we wait for them to let us down or betray us. And in the midst of that, we miss out again on that humble, vulnerable relationship with God, that loving relationship with God and with other people.
[00:10:18] But this striving and self depreciating and self protection can hinder us from the longing that we have to be truly loved.
[00:10:29] And I think God is just waiting for us to open up our vulnerable heart to God's extravagant love again and again and again and again and again and again.
[00:10:46] I really want to go into the story of Peter, but we don't have time. If you don't know the story of Peter, just can you talk to someone about it afterward?
[00:10:56] But just to touch on what I love about Peter is that when we see him here in Acts 2, you see him full of courage and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
[00:11:05] But there's a maturity in Peter that he's here that he didn't necessarily have at the start of following Jesus.
[00:11:12] And I think part of that is there's John 18 where Peter denies knowing who Jesus is three times.
[00:11:21] And there's John 21 where Jesus restores three times Peter's denials.
[00:11:29] Peter, do you love me?
[00:11:31] Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? And what I love about this story is that Jesus invites Peter to know God's love in the midst of his pain and guilt and fear and shame and insecurity and hopelessness.
[00:11:47] And Jesus restores Peter's sense of call and his identity in Christ and encourages him to move forward in it.
[00:11:56] And all Peter had to do was be open to receiving it, to open up his heart to God's process of renewal and embrace his felt vulnerability and allow Jesus into the emotionally painful areas of his heart.
[00:12:16] He just had to receive Jesus met him there.
[00:12:20] Jesus was willing to restore him.
[00:12:25] And so I think that if we're truly to receive and live into our identity in Christ, we need to come to a place of understanding with our heart and not just with our head.
[00:12:38] That nothing we can do can make God love us more.
[00:12:44] And with that understanding we can open the vulnerabilities of our heart to receive the love of God in Christ.
[00:12:51] So in other words, we need to let God love us.
[00:12:58] Our vulnerabilities, our wounds, our fears, our whole self and not just the parts that we think are acceptable enough.
[00:13:08] Because if we want to love other people, well, this needs to be our maturing process. I believe if we want to learn, well, sorry, no, we need to receive. To learn to receive our sense of acceptance and worth from our identity as children of God and co heirs with Christ.
[00:13:30] Because if we seek it from other people or are from works and acts of service, we end up entering really dangerous territory.
[00:13:40] And that's where I want to go next.
[00:13:43] Experiencing transformative community.
[00:13:48] So to be in community really requires vulnerability.
[00:13:53] So in Acts 2, we read that they learned together, they shared together, they shared meals together, possessions and money and. And really together is the word that is important here.
[00:14:06] Now, I know people who long for this kind of community.
[00:14:10] Why isn't the church like it was in Acts is what they say. And I know people who have tried to live it, and I know people who have been hurt.
[00:14:21] Because sadly, perfection doesn't exist in a world of human beings who are prone to sin, to greed and lust and arrogance and pride and deceit. And the list can go on.
[00:14:34] Now, maybe this account in Acts was a true representation or maybe it was a highlight reel, I don't know.
[00:14:44] But they're human beings. And if you keep looking into Acts, you see in chapter five that greed and deceit was very much present. So sin is present.
[00:14:53] It's not perfect.
[00:14:56] But even still, we're not to give up hope or to stop seeking transformative community, but actually to experience authentic and loving. And transformative community often requires more of us than we're willing to give.
[00:15:14] Because it's scary, because it actually requires your true self and your vulnerabilities.
[00:15:22] So I would say it requires building trust and vulnerability, even with people who are very different to yourself.
[00:15:30] That it requires allowing ourselves to be truly known and seen, warts and all, so that we can receive the blessing of being loved and received by others.
[00:15:46] An imperfect human, communal representation of God's love.
[00:15:52] Hence why we came back to identity in Christ first. Because it's not about having our worth from other people, but it's about learning to be received by other people.
[00:16:02] It requires being aware of our wounds and our learned coping mechanisms and patterns so that we can be careful to not bring those past hurts into future situations and conflicts.
[00:16:17] It requires confession that is received with care and to which the grace of God can be extended.
[00:16:27] It requires a willingness to receive feedback from brothers and sisters in Christ.
[00:16:34] It requires Patience to discern the will of God together.
[00:16:39] It requires forgiveness.
[00:16:42] And in all of it it requires courage.
[00:16:45] Because man, it can be messy and it can be painful, but it can also be transformative.
[00:16:57] And so again, we need to have our identity in Christ first and foremost. Because if we fall to finding our acceptance and worth primarily in the opinions of other people or in works of service, we find ourselves lacking humility and being unwilling to accept loving critique and timid when we need to speak up courageously.
[00:17:23] Now, whether you're up for that kind of community or not, because to be honest with you, a lot of people aren't.
[00:17:29] A lot of people want to keep up those masks and those protective mechanisms because actually to be in real community is far too scary.
[00:17:39] So whether you're up for that or not, there are ways to increase your connection in community.
[00:17:46] Maybe there's someone here that you don't know.
[00:17:49] You can actually introduce yourself to them, or maybe there's someone that you don't know well.
[00:17:56] You could invite them around for a cuppa or go out for a meal together.
[00:18:02] You could pray for specific people in your church. You could even ask them, what could I pray for for you?
[00:18:10] And you could check in with them.
[00:18:13] You could join a small group or speak to someone in leadership about a small group being started.
[00:18:18] You could identify two or three people that you feel safe with and you could start an accountability group or explain that you need a safe space to be real about life and to see if they're keen for that as well.
[00:18:33] We don't have to do life on our own and we don't have to keep our self protection mask up.
[00:18:42] I'm more and more convinced that we have to get outside of our individualistic selves, outside of our own heads, and learn how to be vulnerable in community.
[00:18:54] Because it's really hard, but it's really important and it can be really transformative.
[00:19:02] In John 13, Jesus spoke to his disciples about the importance of loving one another.
[00:19:08] He said a new command. I give you love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another.
[00:19:17] By this everyone will know that you are my disciples. And if you love one another.
[00:19:27] Now I love that this occurs at least in John's gospel, just before it's Jesus telling the disciples. And it happens just before Peter is going to deny knowing Jesus.
[00:19:44] And it's almost this sense I have of like, it's like Jesus is kind of saying like, you know, Peter's not going to get it right.
[00:19:51] We're not always going to get it right. But would you love him as I have loved you, love one another through your shortcomings and lead one another to me and to my love.
[00:20:02] Like by your love for one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples.
[00:20:12] Can you imagine a faith community that actually practiced loving one another as Christ loves us?
[00:20:22] Would that not be incredibly transformative, where we're actually known shortfalls and all, and still loved?
[00:20:32] And I wonder what that would do for our sense of identity and acceptance and worth.
[00:20:38] And what a powerful witness of transformative love, the transformative love of God, What a witness that would be to the wider community and the eyes of society.
[00:20:52] Because church is not a place that we should feel like we have to put on a mask to be a part of.
[00:21:00] But if our identity is not found in Christ, we fall prey to the temptations of having our sense of worth and acceptance found in love from one another and in our works of service and helping people, which makes actually loving our neighbour, those in society and acts of works, righteousness rather than an overflow of God's love.
[00:21:28] So identity in Christ, learning how to be in community, and the last is actually loving your neighbour as an overflow of God's love.
[00:21:38] So in Acts 2, there's a really strong sense of community among the believers, but I have to assume that this community, this sense of community, also flowed into the wider community.
[00:21:52] So in verse 46, the Greek word for homes is the word oikos. And you may have heard this before, but it refers to more than just a house building.
[00:22:02] It's the social unit of family and friends. They are essentially hubs of hospitality and community.
[00:22:11] And I also suspect that the selling of possessions and the giving to one another and to those who had need was not just reserved for followers of Jesus.
[00:22:23] You know, Jesus commanded us to love one another and to love our neighbour, and that is someone in need.
[00:22:31] And so when you read the accounts of Jesus's life, you'll see how highly he views loving all people, caring for all people, and especially those in need.
[00:22:43] So the church is not called to be a social club of friends.
[00:22:47] It's called to example the love of God to the world.
[00:22:53] So how are you going at loving those in your world?
[00:23:01] I know that you talk about open hearted acceptance.
[00:23:06] Do you live this out?
[00:23:13] It's worth thinking about.
[00:23:17] 2 Corinthians 5 calls us to be ministers of reconciliation, to join God's work of reconciling the world to himself.
[00:23:27] And that's not with manipulation or coercion. It's by exampling the love of God, both in how we love one another as fellow Christians and how we show God's love to society.
[00:23:43] And so again, to do this, well, we need to know our identity in Jesus, otherwise we fall prey to people pleasing and flattery and fear of rejection. And again, the list can go on.
[00:23:56] And ultimately we just end up being nice people who do nice things, rather than being people who live in the ways and the works of the Kingdom of God, knowing our identity in Christ, in whom we have access to every spiritual blessing, Ephesians 1 and living holy Spirit empowered lives.
[00:24:22] So if you could imagine with me a Launceston and beyond, where Christians actually became chaplains to their neighbours, either their physical neighbours or their connections in the wider community.
[00:24:39] Where we learnt how to love one another well, where we learnt how to love our neighbour well in society, all because we learnt how to receive the love of God for ourselves.
[00:24:53] Now, if you're just thinking about how to love your neighbour well, I want you just to introduce you to this, it might just be a simple acronym for you to think of. Bless loving your neighbour well, so begin with prayer. So pray for your neighbours. Again, I'm using neighbours as a broad term. You can think about your physical neighbours on your street, or you can think about those you connect with at work or in society.
[00:25:20] There's a term, I know it's called people of peace and it's essentially people who like you, listen to you and are willing to serve you.
[00:25:28] And we don't like the serve, it's too humbling for us, typically as Australians, but people who like you are willing to listen to you and there's enough connection there that actually you serve one another.
[00:25:42] And so just begin with prayer. God, bring me people of peace.
[00:25:46] Show me people of peace. Who are these people that God is at work in?
[00:25:52] Listen, actually engage in meaningful conversation, not just pleasantries.
[00:25:59] Listen to their needs, their longings, their hurts, eat together.
[00:26:05] Meals are a great avenue for creating connection and building friendship.
[00:26:13] Serve. Look for opportunities to help other people.
[00:26:17] This shouldn't.
[00:26:19] It should be simple, but it's not because we get stuck in ourselves and share your story.
[00:26:27] You don't have to have a 30 second testimony up your sleeve.
[00:26:31] It can be helpful. But I think that if you're following Jesus and you're building friendships, sharing your faith will probably just become a more natural part of conversation.
[00:26:43] So bless your neighbours.
[00:26:46] So there's a lot here. I've got just a summary there if it's helpful, but I just want to give you a moment to pause to ask Holy Spirit to reveal what God wants to say to you today as you reflect on. We've looked at our relationship with God, having our identity in Christ and so that our sense of worth and acceptance comes from God first, we've looked at our relationships with others, with other Christians and the transformative power of loving community and our relationships with those in the wider community.
[00:27:26] Looking for people of peace and seeking to bless our neighbours, to pray for them, listen to them, eat together, serve one another and share your story.
[00:27:37] So I'm just going to pause, give you a moment to reflect and just, yeah, see what's standing out to you and then I'll pray and hand back over.
[00:27:47] So, God, as we just pause, would you bring to our attention what you want to speak to us about today?
[00:27:56] God, would you highlight one thing for each of us that.
[00:28:01] Yeah. That you just really want to lay on our heart and call us to step into.
[00:28:06] We just want to pause and listen to you, God.
[00:28:36] Jesus, you said that by this, by our love for one another, the world will know that we are your disciples.
[00:28:47] God, would you help us to love one another?
[00:28:51] God, would you help us to actually open up ourselves to you and to be vulnerable enough and courageous enough to do that with one another?
[00:29:04] God, by your spirit would you transform us for your sake, for your glory and for the good of those around us.
[00:29:15] And we pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
