Cheers: A Place Where Everybody Knows Your Name (7/24/16)

Cheers- “A Place Where Everybody Knows Your Name.”  

Acts-  “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common.” 

How can we splice these two together?  Not to make The Church like a bar, but to make the Church a place where everybody knows your name… because Christ knows their name and they know Jesus’ Name.  Pastor Jim used this 1980s sitcom to illustrate that the relationship we have with eachother is welcoming and powerful when it flows out of the relationship we have with Jesus Christ.

The following recording is from the 9:30 service.  Click on the play button, then scroll down to follow along…

 

Our scripture reading was from Acts 2:40-47.  Open the below drop down box to follow along.  The New King James Version is shown below…

 

A Place Where Everybody Knows Your Name…

One of the most beloved comedy TV shows was “Cheers.” It was a lovable comedy where America tuned in every Thursday night to follow the life of Sam Malone, Diane Chambers, Norm Peterson, Cliff Claven, Coach, Carla Tortelli, Woody Harrelson, Fraser Crane and Lilith, and Rebecca Howe. Each week the viewers saw this tight group of friends caring for each other, laughing with each other, holding each other accountable, sharing good times and sad times with each other.

AT THE END of each episode, regardless of what happened, they all had each others back.  The theme song of that show says, “Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. And they’re always glad you came.”

If we are able to look beyond the bar environment, we see the story of friends who truly care for each other. A place where first-time guests want to return. A place where people came in to celebrate or not feeling good, but when they left they were changed and feeling better about life.
Despite the teasing and the one-liners bantered about by the cast, we sense a genuine close-knit group of friends who truly care for each other and who always supported each other. And this unity, this closeness, was witnessed by all.

 

A Place Where they Knew THE Name!

Let’s leave the Boston hang-out of the 1980’s, and visit a real place in Israel during the 1st century…
The book of Acts is a retelling of the story of Christian communities during the first weeks and months following Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. Acts was written by Luke (a Greek physician), and it was written as a “second volume” to the Gospel of Luke.  If you want to learn the foundations of our faith, try reading the Gospel of Luke and continuing right through the book of Acts.  Your Bible might entitle this book “The Acts of the Apostles”, but to be clear, the Holy Spirit is the main force at work in these pages!

What were some of the characteristics of that Church? For one thing, the early Christians were a minority, as far as religion was concerned.   They considered themselves to be Jews, not a distinct religion, but the continuation of God’s revelation to humankind through the Hebrew people.

Is there something we can learn today from our ancient ancestors in the faith? Can the Christian Church be a place where we can salute each other with a loving, “CHEERS,” and be a place where everybody knows your name? MORE THAN THAT, can the Christian Church return to its roots so that the Church may be restored to a place where everyone knows Jesus’ name!
Let’s look at some of the distinguishable characteristics highlighted by Acts 2.  Take another look at verse 42:

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

 

Cheers was a place where everybody knew your name…
The early church was a place where ___  …

 

…They continued in the Apostles’ Doctrine

The word “Doctrine” sounds like a bunch of stuffy rules.  But this isn’t was is being implied here.  The Greek word “Doctrine” is probably better understood as “teaching”.

These disciples- the people who came out to the church-  followed their teachings. Early on it was the oral tradition and then as time went on included the writings of the Apostles which we have in our New Testament.
John Wesley said,

“I want the whole Christ for my Savior, the whole Bible for my book, the whole Church for my fellowship and the whole world for my mission field.”

In other words, don’t cherry pick anything in the Teachings (i.e., Bible).  Remain steadfast to the teaching- ALL of the teaching.  Don’t pick and choose from other religions.  Don’t bring God down to our level and force Him to fit into our preconceptions.  Instead, pull us up to God’s level and discipline ourselves to obey.  Otherwise we’re going to create a god in our image and worship that instead of the true God.

Jesus says go into ALL the world.  Frequently, the cast would go out on “road trips” and things would turn into a mess.  But God created His church to go out into the world and make a difference.  He makes it all work out and creates order out of what could have been chaos.

Remember, that this stuff was all new to the early converts to Christianity;  they didn’t understand anything about Jesus or the Christian faith. Acts 2:8 tells us that the converts were ‘Parthians and Medes and Elamites,’ and Jews gathered from every corner of the Roman world. They had come up to Jerusalem, and the bulk of them knew no more about Christ and Christianity than what they picked up out of Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost which we have in Acts 2:13-40. But that was enough to change their hearts and their wills and to lead them to a real faith.

This is why would instruct a young preacher named Timothy when some conflict arose in Timothy’s church;

“Keep on being faithful to what you were taught and to what you believed. After all, you know who taught you these things. Since childhood, you have known the Holy Scriptures that are able to make you wise enough to have faith in Christ Jesus and be saved.

Everything in the Scriptures is God’s Word. All of it is useful for teaching and helping people and for correcting them and showing them how to live. The Scriptures train God’s servants to do all kinds of good deeds”

(2 Timothy 3:14-17 – CEV)

These early disciples would also have realized that the Old Testament taught the same things they were now hearing from these Apostles…

 

Here’s the Greek Word of the Week…

And “continued steadfastly in the Apostle’s teaching” isn’t a one and done.  You don’t listen to one sermon, attend one Bible study, or even read the entire Bible through cover to cover and say, “Check it off!”  The original Greek words here are in the active, not passive, tense. This means that the learning was continuous. The early Christians never thought “they knew it all,” they kept learning and wanting to learn more about this Jesus and how he can impact their daily life.

 

…They Practiced Fellowship

The first century church had a perspective which was more more intensive than our Pot Luck dinners.  During the early days of the church, all our early spiritual ancestors had was each other. Under many of the Roman Emperor’s, Nero and Domitian especially, there was severe persecution. Remember that from the time Jesus died, rose, and ascended to heaven, until 315AD, it was against the law to be a Christian.
So Luke uses the word “fellowship” in our text in  a much broader sense than we’re used to.  In the original Greek, “fellowship” means “joint participation” or “sharing something in common.” So, what is (or- WHO is it…)  it that we have in common???

Drag your cursor across this space if you actually need to read the answer: | Jesus |

The word that Luke writes is koinoonia.  It’s more of a partnership than a simple get-together for pizza.  It means being completely focuses on Jesus Christ.  This word koinoonia is used many times in the New Testament (New Living Testament shown below)…

The early church shared in the Holy Spirit, which was sent by Jesus.  They shared in the Lord’s suffering.  They shared in the Lord’s ministry.  Fellowship…  Sharing…

Here are some other things the Bible says about fellowship…

 

If we take Jesus out of the Church, everything falls apart.  He is the glue that holds it all together.

In the early church the focus was totally on Jesus.  He didn’t leave any wiggle room.  The church isn’t supposed to be a social club where we share our common interest around stamp collecting.  The characters in Cheers were drawn together to share each others company (and to drink).  For us, we must draw together to share the things of Christ.  We’re here because of Jesus.

 

…They Prayed Together

They got together for some good ‘ole fashioned “Prayer Meetin’s”.  They took their prayer lists home from church on Sunday and poured over them throughout the week.  They prayed for leaders; not only in the church but in the community.

These early Christians knew that they could not face the challenges of life or in organizing the Church in their own strength. They would have understood Old Testament passages such as…

 

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, said:

“God does nothing but in answer to prayer.”

Nothing happens apart from prayer.  Someone else has said,

“PRAYER is the difference between the best YOU can do
and the best GOD can do.”

Prayer isn’t a rabbit’s foot, but we’ve GOT to become a praying church again.  We must unite with other churches to pray together so that The Church can become a force in this world.

 

…They Broke Bread Together

The practice of “Breaking Bread” (sharing meals) was an important foundation. For ancient Hebrews breaking bread was associated with the Passover.  In fact, every meal was a cause for prayer and thanksgiving to God.  Even today, we take advantage of this opportunity and “say grace”… thanks… before every meal.

“Breaking of Bread” is used to refer to a “normal meal.”  But throughout the New Testament, people also understood that this phrase refers to The Lord’s Supper (or Holy Communion).    In fact, the early Church held a fellowship meal with the Lord’s Supper.

In the first century, Roman persecution prevented Christians from working and earning a living.  So, they HAD to share what they had (including food) in order to survive.  And even today, the human need to eat gives us opportunities to thank God and to share with eachother.  In God’s place where “everybody knows your name and breaks bread together,” we constantly take advantage of opportunities to have coffee & donuts in the narthex between services, or to have a meal on Tuesday nights before Bible study, or to have pizza before a youth meeting.

Fellowship around the breaking of bread was an important part of the early Christian life.  It wasn’t just food; it was an opportunity to gather and share in the things they had in common…. Jesus.  But this opportunity could also be mis-used to propagate false teaching or to just “pig out” without recognizing the spiritual meaning of what was happening…

 

 

 

…They Held God in Reverence

Verses 43 and 47 of our scripture (Acts 2) reminds us that God was at work; we’re standing on holy ground…

43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

47 … praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

 

There was an awe, a wonder, a sense of praising God for all of the wonderful things which were taking place.  When we come to worship, we come for one reason: to Lift God Up!

• Paul talks about having reverence for God in Ephesians 5:21 with respect to “submitting ourselves to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
• The “writer to the Hebrews” (probably Paul too!) tells us to “offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28c-29) because even Jesus “offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” for God (Hebrews 5:7) in the Garden of Gethsemane.

God doesn’t wink at sin.  He’s not just a celestial store clerk.  He’s not my “buddy.” Believers should have a fear or reverence for God.  We do this because He is so holy.  He’s totally powerful.  He’s above His creation.

The early church got it.

We stand in awe of Him because of all that He has done to redeem us. This redemptive love should make us stand in wonder and amazement that He would die for us while were still His enemies as Romans 5:8 says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

 

 

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Oops… when preaching a sermon- as much as you’d like- you can’t ignore that clock that’s hanging on the back wall.  So (as an exclusive for our “online fans”)… here are some more things the early church did.  The text under the below “drop down box” was not included in the spoken sermon…

Warning:  Just because this material was not included in the spoken sermon, don’t assume that it won’t be included in the Quiz!

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He’s My Brother

That theme song to Cheers is probably pulsing through your mind as you consider this sermon.  But here’s another song to consider as we wrap this up:

The road is long… with many a winding turn,

That leads us to  “Who knows where?”

But I’m strong… strong enough to carry him.

He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother… So on we go.

His welfare is my concern…. No burden is he to bear, we’ll get there.

For I know…  He would not encumber me.

He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.

If I’m laden…  at all,  I’m laden with sadness,

That everyone’s heart Isn’t filled with the gladness…  Of love for one another.

It’s a long, long road… From which there is no return.

While we’re on the way… to there, why not share?

And the load… Doesn’t weigh me down at all

He ain’t heavy… he’s my brother

This hit (“He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”) was recorded by the Hollies (and also by Neil Diamond) in 1970.

Is your heart feeling heavy for the world?  Is your heart breaking for a culture that just keeps feeding us one lie after another?  Jesus carried a cross for us.  He hung on a cross for us.  And yet, He cried out, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do!”  Our burden wasn’t too heavy for Jesus to pick up.

We may not be meant to carry an actual cross, but we are called to share eachother’s burdens…

 

Make the Church like Cheers?!?

The Christian Church needs to become a place of intimacy…a place like Cheers.

Norm Peterson and Cliff Clavin, while certainly not theological giants, nevertheless understand something that the Christian Church needs.  The Church needs to be an inviting place, a welcoming place, a place where all can feel at home. A place where everybody knows your name.

Why?

BECAUSE we have been called by the One who loved us!  He died for us and rose again for us.  Thank God that Jesus didn’t say “I don’t have time.”  Thank God that He DID say, “He ain’t heavy… he’s my brother!”  “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!”

Jesus taught us His name, He has called us by our name to God, and He invites all of us to learn the names of others He is calling as well.

 

That sums up the what Jesus meant for the Christian Church. A place where everybody knows your name… a place where your burdens can be met… a place where Jesus calls each of us by name.

Let’s allow God to use us.  Let’s become part of a place like that!

 

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Quiz Time!

As you reflect on what you’ve just heard/read, give this quiz a try.  If you don’t understand an answer (or if you disagree with the “correct” answer, post a comment)…

 

Unless otherwise noted, Bible quotations in this post are from the New King James Version (NKJV) or from the New Living Translation (NLT).

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