Ep. 027 - Radical Openness: Financial Wisdom from the Early Church | Acts 2 & 4

Episode Transcript

Spencer
Pentecost must have been one of the most amazing events in history. You have high winds, then flaming tongues of fire over the apostles heads, all of these languages being spoken. And then we've got Peter preaching to the masses and 3,000 people being baptized into the faith, all in one day. It's clear that the Holy Spirit was moving. But one of the things that's amazing as well is seeing how the apostles used their finances in light of what the Holy Spirit was doing. And that's what we're going to get into today.

Austin
Spencer, as I think about language, Charles Taylor, in his book “The Sources of the Self” says language is one of the key components of culture. And when I was working with Latino students in Colorado, one of the funny things that we would do was we would show them a video called “Qué difícil es hablar el español” – how hard it is to speak Spanish.
And we'd have students from Guatemala, from Mexico, from Honduras, all over the place. And the funny thing is, they would use the same words, but they would have different meanings. And I think about this like the Tower of Babel as well, and how God confused their language and how it almost eroded that cultural just flavor that they had.
And it was just funny to watch our students that spoke Spanish, that interacted with people from different cultures in Latin America. Interact with this video because they're laughing hysterically. Where my American friends who have no idea what is being said in the video are like, Why is this funny? But it just it highlights that reality, that that language is really important and it's the shared culture and the shared community that we have that's created through the language that we use.
And so we think about our US lexicon and the phrases and the themes that push us towards an individualistic framework of the world that we live in. We think about G.O.A.T. the greatest of all time. The American dream, the rugged individualist. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Any reference made to the self-made person. We live in an age where we are so driven towards individualism that this reality that we might need other people is almost an anathema in America.
So what are some of the thoughts that you've got, maybe just on our cultural perspective of how do we interact in a world where we really need each other? But the language says we don't.

Spencer
Yeah, and you could even go back to arguably prior to World War Two, when we start to see Russia going the path of communism, we've got concerns and then certainly in the Cold War. And so we've got this last hundred years, this cultural memory of being very concerned about communism and kind of steering away from that. And there's all kinds of issues with that government and everything that was done.
But in some ways, we have to come back to the biblical narrative, which is that we do need each other. And that perhaps some of the fear that we had drives us towards this language and this individualistic side of things that doesn't really have biblical support in a lot of ways. So I think as we come back to where we are and the drivers of our culture, the reality is that money is rarely discussed in the church, but also among believers within the church.
You know, you could have people sharing all kinds of different vulnerable elements of their life, difficulties with a spouse, difficulties with kids, intensity at work, all kinds of different things, but have no idea on the financial side of things what's going on in one's life or their stress or pressures or what have you. And we also see that some of our greatest fears are really involved there.
So, you know, you think about surveys and one of the greatest fears is that you end up being taken care of by someone and maybe not having the funds to pay, you know, that person. You think about the way even our architecture is. A lot of our church buildings are designed a little bit more like malls than they are.
You know, a place of worship there. So there's all kinds of different elements that it feels like the culture moves us towards this idea of individualism and that the church culture moves in that direction. Not all churches, but, you know, we're kind of taken along that direction. And some of it I understand you know, you have churches that say, we want to be very seeker sensitive.
This is one of the things that people know. And so we're going to make it like what they know. That's a slippery slope. You know, we have to be very careful about that because we do want to signal, I think, ideally as we walk into a place that this is a sacred place that we want to engage in worship there, that it is fundamentally different.
So with that, you know, as we as we look at the way that the early church dealt with their finances, I think there's things that we can pick up. And, you know, this is not to embrace any particular political ideology. There are all kinds of different challenges, whatever political context we're in, but we recognize that there's a spirit of openness with respect to finances in the early church that maybe we don't see reflected so much in our normal church culture here in the States.

Austin
And, you know, I think about this quote from James K Smith that I'm going to butcher it, but essentially it says the way to the heart is through the body and the way to the through the body is through story. And so as we look at Acts 2, I think one of the things that we need to do is we need to really imagine what is going on here.
You know, you think about the flaming tongues of fire, you think about the winds that are coming through. You think about the multitude of people that are coming to faith and Jesus. We think about just the historical what has just happened in this time. And Jesus has just been killed. He's raised from the dead, and now he's sent the Holy Spirit.
And if we really look and see what that was like, we can imagine what these first believers were experiencing and their openness to what God could have been doing. And I think as we enter that story, as as Smith talks about, as we enter and imagine that, then we can start seeing God was at work, then and God is at work now and God is unchanging.
Yes, the Book of Acts took place in a very specific time, in a very specific towards a very specific people. But the movement of God does not change. What he is doing in the world doesn't change. So, Spencer, you want to read us through Acts 2:42-47.

Spencer
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Austin
So this is really a powerful movement. There's a lot going on. They're breaking bread together regularly. They're praying together regularly. And I think these practical elements of just being involved in one another's lives, it leads to a transformational community. It's the reality that if I know you to the point where we are getting together and praying every day and we are sharing meals together every day, then things about life are going to come out.
You may learn that I'm struggling with a sickness that's just happened, or I may learn that, you know, your parent is in need. And if we are really committed to a radical community of faith where we share everything. Where we legitimately share all of our fears and concerns, then we're going to choose to be involved in this together.
And you think about this body of believers in that time and place. They were a minority. It's not like in the modern West, in the United States, where most people would claim some sort of faith in something. It's these people were the minority. They were the persecuted minority. And so you really had to be vulnerable and honest. And I love verse 46, and it says, They receive their food with glad and generous hearts.
There were going to be some people just like today, that they're going to be some people that have more that share with the people that have less. They were selling their possessions and distributing proceeds as any had need, as all had distribute the proceeds to all as any have need.
There's this reality that they knew each other and they didn't just donate to everything to this general pot and be like, It's a commune! Everybody has everything. There were people that had more and they divested themselves of the more for the benefit of those who had less, and it was for the benefit of the Christian community.

Spencer
But you really see a couple of things here. As you said, there was a sharing in terms of the need, but we also see that there's still private ownership. This is not a commune. You know, there's people that see, hey, I have an excess I'm going to meet that need. And it wasn't all at once. You know, it's clear that this happens over time.
So there's a sense that we have both sides of things and it's really aligns with the Old Testament narrative. What God wanted from his people, which is basically radical generosity to your brothers and sisters to keep them out of poverty. But at the same time, private ownership and working really hard. So it's the best of a lot of different systems together saying, no, everybody doesn't own everything like in communism.
But at the same time, there's a level of expectation that's going to be sharing that's far beyond maybe where we're at or we're a typical capitalist society, you know, would be at. I think the other thing that's interesting about this is they're so close to the resurrection. So you have to think if their experience was just a few weeks ago that Jesus is raised from the dead, then if you embrace that, then everything else is small potatoes because you say, okay, I believe a man was raised from the dead.
I believe this is going to be my destiny. And walking with the Lord, if I make that leap every other leap is just a very, very small step. So of course I'm going to make my extra land available. Of course I'm going to have this brother or sister into my home and feed them or clothe them or do whatever I might need to do if I truly embrace that.
Now we see in other passages that some folks maybe got up to that line and then couldn't get across, like Ananias and Sapphira. But by and large, we see that the Christian community really embraced that.

Austin
And I think it was an embrace of the theme that we come back to over and over and over, that God owns it all. And if God owns it all, that I can be open handed with it because I may have private ownership or private stewardship of this stuff temporarily, but at the end of the day, they've seen the resurrection.
They know that's their future destiny and that everything here is just fleeting.

Spencer
We've got that sense of God as provider, really. So we've got maybe a more visceral sense than any other point in history that God will provide because he's raised his son from the dead. So, you know, you embrace that truth. And again, everything else kind of falls into place. But the provision, you know, if you give up something, then you have a sense that next year, two years, five years, ten years, twenty years, it's you're going to be provided for.
Because if God can raise a man from the dead, what can he not do? You know, we had to come back to Romans 8:31-32. You know, if he did not spear his own son, but give him up for us all, you know, what will he not do for us? It's logical. But if we can embrace it, it is powerful.

Austin
So let's move on and let's look at Acts 4:32-37. There's a couple of chapters later. So we again, we're building off of what Luke has already told us in Acts two. And again there's that open handedness as Peter and John have just healed a man born blind. They preach Jesus raised from the dead.
They're dragged before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish leaders. 5,000 people come to faith in their preaching. And so then we get these verses.
32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.
Spencer
You know, again, we just see that openness that you were talking about to be able to share with one another that spirit that has power in people. And, you know, here we have to just kind of think about the fact that the disciples, the apostles, they still have places to say it wasn't like they were out in the streets, just, you know, because they had sold everything.
There was still some level of private ownership there. But the logical conclusion, I think, is you could see that those that have extra again knew it and they sold so that that freed them up. You know, one of the practical implications here is Barnabas gives over the land, sells it and places, you know, the proceeds of the apostles feet.
Well that freed him up to be able to leave and go to Antioch and then, you know, on missionary journeys because when you have more assets, if you had land certainly back at that time, it makes it more difficult to travel. So there's this example here of a generosity that then empowers missionary journey thereafter.

Austin
You know, it opened Barnabas to go, but as I think about it too, if we're living in this hope of the resurrection, we get some of this tension in the books of Thessalonians, where Paul is admonishing some of the believers because they kind of have gotten lazy and just hoping for the resurrection. So they're not doing anything. But I think there's this posture that we're seeing in Acts that's different from that, that they're hoping for the resurrection, but they're still acting as if it could happen tomorrow.
So why am I holding all of this stuff if tomorrow Jesus is going to come back? And I think that we need to live in that tension and that imagination, if you will, that what would we do if Jesus came back tomorrow? Is our stuff really that valuable in our own hands? That if Jesus were to come back or if Jesus were to say, go to Iran, go to China, go serve me in whatever country that do we have the willingness to lay aside our physical possessions to go?
Or if somebody said, hey, I have a need, do we have a willingness to sell something to help meet that need or to give away the possessions or the cash that we have to meet those needs of brothers in Christ? And I think that's the openness that that really is the linchpin question here. Are we radically open to God, to what he would say, an open handed with our stuff?
Because it's God's at the end of the day to begin with?

Spencer
Well, and I think this applies even to our vocation. I was talking with a friend who's a Christian a couple of weeks ago and he was saying he felt called back into the workforce. He said his mid-seventies, I think, got called back into the workforce because he has decent health and he has skills. He has no responsibilities, you know, right now at home.
So he wants to be able to push resources towards people who are in need and be able to partner with those, especially those that are in the midst of kind of dire economic circumstances around the world and walk alongside them. I thought, wow, what a beautiful thing that you have someone that's willing not just to say, okay, well, I'm going to take from my excess.
I actually want to try to create some more excess that I can give to brothers and sisters who are in need. Walk alongside them.

Austin
Yeah. And, you know, I think about their the question isn't if we're going to be in it at some point, all of us will be in need. You know, we came into this world with nothing and we leave it with nothing. There is a point in all of our lives where we will age, where our bodies are going to start breaking down.
And I would much rather have people by my side than have resources by my side, because if I have people that love me and that care about me and that are willing to do the things that I would want them to do because I would want to do that on their behalf, that's far more valuable to me at any place that I'm in need.
And similarly, there's going to be times in my life where I have excess and I can just like you were talking about this friend, go and be a blessing to the world. Be that conduit of God's love and grace and provision. So I think it really comes down to are we willing to be needy? Are we willing to, before the father and before our brothers and sisters in Christ, be needy?
And if we come back to that language that we live in those cultural waters, we don't like to be needy. It's almost seen as a sin to be needy in the West, you know.

Spencer
But it does put us in a position where we need God to provide for us. And this doesn't mean that we don't save anything. It means maybe that we don't save it to a point where there are crazy circumstances that would have to happen for us to be in need. Maybe it gives us a little bit more latitude to say, you know, I've planned well enough for 99% of the scenarios or 90% of the scenarios are some reasonable number, but also not take on the anxiety, you know, that I could be in need at some point because we are in need.
We're in need spiritually. But even if we're in need in a certain set of circumstances, physically, we've been open handed and we've been good stewards, then do we think that God is going to say, Oh, you did a terrible job there, you know, poorly done by my terrible servant, but if you gave away, you know, resources to a point where, you know, you couldn't ensure everything you know would happen perfectly.
Yes, we need to save. Yes, we need to be thoughtful about that because we don't want to come to a point where, you know, we're throwing ourselves on the dependance of other people necessarily when we're 74 years old. But there's a balance there. And we've certainly swayed in our culture to trying to make sure that we would never be in need.
And it doesn't seem like that's the biblical example.

Austin
But I think this question that I wrote down earlier, do we rob our family of joy by chasing self-sufficiency to not be needy? And I think that's something we really need to wrestle with. Is that self-sufficient mindset? Is it robbing others of joy? Is it robbing my brothers and sisters who want to participate with me in life?
And that I think about times where I've given to other people There is such joy to give resources away If I'm needy and I'm trying to hide it, am I robbing somebody of that joy of participating with the Lord and giving to me? And so I think we just want to wrestle with that and say if all if everything is the Lord's and if we really are part of a global body of Christians that God has said it is, then there are times in Scripture where there is not a needy person among them, as we see in Acts 4. Are we willing to be open handed with God?
There's going to be times that I'm needy and there's got to be times that my brothers and sisters have joy and giving and meeting those needs.

Spencer
I think about in my own life and in walking with my wife as we open ourselves before the Lord, that that posture of openness. I feel like if we're listening to the Holy Spirit, there's that great joy in giving. We had an opportunity a number of years ago when our neighborhood was a fairly low income neighborhood, which, you know, it's changed now and homes are very, very expensive now in the neighborhood, it feels like.
But at that point, you could buy a home for $40,000 and put some money into it and then turn around and sell it to a friend at cost. And they'd have a great home. The challenge was no bank would really lend to you reliably for that renovation process, you know, and the people who want to live there. So we were able to provide some bridge financing because we felt like that's what the Lord was calling the studio.
There's a deep joy in being that conduit and saying, Okay, Lord, you have this. I think about other times when I've not been willing to be open and, you know, if I'm not open financially, it's much harder to feel like I'm really listening to the Holy Spirit and that I have that level of joy in that part of my life.
Instead, there's much more of a closed nature. There's much more skepticism, not just in my own life, but towards others institutions, people doing, you know, good work. It's just that, you know, again, we come back to the early church and see that level of openness, seeing the Holy Spirit clearly moving. And I think when we see that in our own lives again, we have that sense of joy and we have a sense of maybe even creativity of what the Lord would do in the midst of having an excess, having more than we need, because the Holy Spirit is very creative, you know, And as we look around, it doesn't tell, you know, the Holy Spirit
doesn't tell one person to do the exact same thing as another person. But that creativity, again, can be used in a way that blesses so many different people and also gives us great joy.

Austin
Yeah. And, you know, as I think 2,000 years ago through the movement of a Holy Spirit, through Pentecost, we are now embodied and emboldened to bring the love of Christ to the world. And I think about James K Smith in his book “Thinking in Tongues” he says a Pentecostal philosophy is marked by a position of radical openness to God and in particular God doing something differently or new.
You know, we think about what you were doing in the neighborhood. That was probably not something that many people were doing, but you had a posture of radical openness to God. You were listening to the Spirit. The Spirit said, Go and encourage, you do it. And I think about some of those neighbors that were blessed by that and the people that are in the neighborhood because of that.
And my life is enriched by some of that work that you did ten years ago. And it's a beautiful thing when we are radically open to the Lord. And so as we journey through this life together, may we individually, the church, be radically open to the spirit of God, in the words of God, and expect that God is going to do something incredibly beautiful among us.
So hopefully you enjoyed this and we'll see you guys next time.