As we begin this morning, I want to invite you to take a deep breath in.
Now breathe out.
Once more… IN…. OUT.
Clearly this is how we are to live, breathing in and out.
Again, and again. Day after day. Year after year.
Once more. IN…. OUT…
The truth is that if we only breathe in, eventually our lungs get full, and we can’t take in any more. Have you ever timed how long you can hold your breath? 15 seconds. 30 seconds. 1 minute. Eventually we get that feeling of having to let our breath out so we can breathe in again. The science behind that feeling is that we have chemoreceptors in our brain stem and lungs that monitor the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in our blood. As we hold our breath, the oxygen level drops and the carbon dioxide level rises. There comes a time when the chemoreceptors will tell the muscles of the diaphragm that you need to breathe, and our lungs will exhale so we can take in oxygen.
I was curious what the record was for holding your breath and was stunned that it wasn’t 5 minutes or even 10 minutes. It is 24 minutes and 37 seconds! That’s crazy. It was achieved by a professional breath hold diver (didn’t know there was such a thing) who train themselves to hold their breath. He also used pure oxygen to keep the O2 levels as high as they could be during the hold.
Most of us, however, need to breathe in and out much more often, in fact it is how God made us, to breathe in and out. Over and over and over. The body of Christ, the Church, was also created by God to breathe in and out. We are in a series called We Are the Church, and we are going to look at how God created the church to breathe in and out, and what repeating that action means for us today.
One of the passages that we have turned to during this series is the story of the first church that was formed on the day of Pentecost. After Jesus rose from the dead, He not only appeared to His disciples to prove His power over sin and death, but He told His disciples to remain in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came to them.
Then they gathered around him [Jesus] and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. Acts 1:6-9
So the disciples stayed in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came.
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 2:1-4
The Holy Spirit filled the followers of Jesus. The word “spirit” is the Greek word pneuma which means wind, spirit and BREATH. The Holy Spirit breathed into the followers of Jesus and gave life to the church. It was also this breath that gave the disciples courage to share the good news of Jesus. In the story, they immediately went out onto the streets to share what God had done through Jesus. In fact, it doesn’t even say that they left the upper room, we just find them on the streets proclaiming what God had done, and they were sharing all of this in several different languages.
The power of the Holy Spirit didn’t just move the disciples from where they had gathered in the upper room to the streets, it moved them from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Once again the church was breathing in and out. The church had gathered in Jerusalem where they were filled by the Holy Spirit but in just a few years they would be all through the Roman world and looking toward Spain, the end of the world. The church is at its best when it is gathered and sent. Breathing in and out.
We see this movement over and over again in the picture of the first church we have been looking at from Acts 2.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising 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
The church gathered for teaching, fellowship and prayer. They gathered for the breaking of bread, to be nourished and fed. All of this helped them grow in their faith and be strong. They reminded each other about everything Jesus said and did. This teaching allowed them to take in the word of God. Prayer allowed them to draw in the spirit of God. Fellowship helped them feel connected and strong. The breaking of bread, whether that was eating together or the sacrament of communion, gave them nourishment. They were a church gathered and it was important for them to gather so they could be faithful and strong. All of this is still an important part of breathing in as the church.
Most churches today do a good job of gathering together. We breathe in God’s spirit and power during worship, times of prayer, and the study of God’s word. We breathe in as we fellowship together and break bread. Like most churches, we do a good job breathing in, but healthy churches also breathe out. The first church breathed in and out. Let’s go back to verse 42.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 2:42
They breathed in, but then immediately something happened. There were outward manifestations of what that breath of God did in them. There is no transition here, no meeting or discussion, as soon as they breathed in, they breathed out.
Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. Acts 2:43
The apostles did many signs and wonders, and it doesn’t say that everyone in the church was filled with awe, or that all those who knew them and were part of the fellowship were filled with awe, it said that everyone was filled with awe. The followers of Jesus didn’t just gather together and enjoy the power and work of the Holy Spirit themselves; they went out and shared that power with others. Gathered and sent. In and out.
Again, most churches do a good job breathing in. We do a good job with worship, fellowship, teaching and prayer. We love to gather, and we find comfort, peace, and encouragement in our relationship with one another, but we struggle to breathe out. It’s not as easy to think of ourselves as being sent into the world because we think that is what someone else does. We think being sent is for special people who are called to go overseas or work in specialized areas of ministry, but the reality is that the church, and remember we are the church, we are being sent into the world. We are being sent by the Holy Spirit into our homes, our schools, our neighborhoods, and communities and places of work to share the good news about Jesus. We are to be gathered and sent. We are called to breathe in and out.
We see this over and over again in the story. Look at Acts 2:44.
All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.
They were gathered together, they had all things in common, but then it says, they gave to anyone who had need. Not anyone in the church who had need, but ANYONE who had need. Gathered together and sent into the world. Breathe in and out.
It goes on to say that they met in the Temple courts but then also out in people’s homes. Acts 2:46-47
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.
The church didn’t just meet in the public religious spaces like the Temple courts. They didn’t just gather in the worship building, they also gathered in people’s homes. They were the church in the community, in people’s homes, neighborhoods and the workplace. They were the church in the world and because they were in the world, people noticed their faith and were interested in how they lived, and what they believed. The church was out in the world touching the hearts and lives of the people in very powerful ways. They enjoyed the favor of all the people. Again, they didn’t enjoy the favor of some of the people, or the church people, but all the people, and we know some of these people were outside the church because the passage ends by saying, God added to their number daily those who were being saved.
I find it interesting that when it says the Lord added to their number, it doesn’t tell us where that addition happened. It doesn’t say they gathered in larger and larger numbers in the Temple courts until they had to hold two services or build a bigger building. In fact, they were able to add people daily specifically because they didn’t see the church as just a public gathering of Jesus followers in a religious place. Church was also what was going on in people's homes and out in the community.
The church God created and the church God blesses is both gathered and sent. Church doesn’t just happen when we gather together here, it also happens when we meet in people's homes and connect with others in the community to share our faith in Jesus. The healthiest and most effective churches are those that understand we are to be both gathered AND sent.
No church can be healthy if they only focus on just one or the other. If a church is just gathered and only breathes in, we might grow deep in our faith and have great fellowship with one another, but we will fail to share God’s love and the transforming message of Jesus with others. We might grow deep but we will not grow wide, and we will fail in the one clear mission Jesus gave us, to make disciples of Jesus Christ in all nations and among all people.
If the focus of the church is just on gathering together, we also become the church we saw a few weeks ago that was gathered around Jesus. All the people were gathered in a home and so focused on Jesus that they didn’t see 4 friends who brought a paralyzed man to Jesus for healing. A church that just gathers together fails to see the needs of others. We also fail to see the lost and lonely and hurting people who need the love and power of Jesus.
If we only breathe in, we fail to be the church God created us to be, but if we only breathe out, we might help and serve a lot of people, but we will fail to nurture them and teach them and help them grow into a fully mature follower of Jesus. A church so focused on being sent into the world can go out and do really great things, but in time forget why we are going out in the first place. Just being sent into the world runs the risk of losing sight of Jesus. To be the church God calls us to be, we need to be gathered and sent. Once more breathe in…. And out.
While many churches are good at breathing in, and some churches are good at breathing out, I believe Faith Church is striving to be a church that breathes in and out well. As Pastor David shared last week, we focus on three relationships. We breathe in as we focus on a relationship with God and the church, and we breathe out as we focus on a relationship with the world. Gathered and sent. Breathing in and out. All three relationships are needed.
Finding ways to interact with and bless the world, and being ready to share Jesus with others need to be rhythms of our life and faith. Next week, Pastor David is going to share more about what it might mean for us to be sent out to be the church in our community in new ways. What fresh expressions of the church can we create in our community so that people can come to know about Jesus? We can’t just find ways to gather more people together, we have to find ways to be the church in the community and world.
As we consider what it means to be both gathered and sent, I want to invite you to think about whether you see yourself as more of a “gathered” person or a “sent” person? We each experience and express our faith in different ways, and God calls us in different directions. Are you naturally a gathered person who loves the connections and relationships in the church? Do you thrive on being in the world and get excited thinking of different ways and times and places we can share Jesus with others? Knowing how God created us is important because that might be where God will use us most effectively.
But I also want to encourage us all to lean into some growing edges that might challenge us. If you need to breathe in more, if you need to get more connected in the life of the church, join a small group or ministry team. Focus on what it means to be a part of the gathered community. If you need to breathe out more, find a way to serve God in the community. Invite your neighbors or coworkers over for dinner and get to know them. Have your small group host a dinner for friends or serve together in the community. Breathe in and out.
We are at our best as a church when we learn that we were created to gather to be the church and to be sent out into the world to be the church. Gathered and sent. Breathe in and out.
Next Steps
We are the church - Gathered and Sent
Read Acts 1:6-9, 2:1-4, and 2:42-47
Identify the times the church was gathered and sent.
What do each of these situations teach us?
Gathered
● How would you define the gathered church?
● Why is the gathered church so important?
● What activities of the gathered church help you the most?
● Where might you need to grow in your relationship with the church?
● Why are most churches so focused on being gathered and not sent?
Sent
● How would you define the sent church? Is it just the church serving the physical needs of others or is it something more?
● Why is the sent church so important?
● When have you felt like part of the church sent out into the world? What were you doing?
● What impact did that sent church experience make in your life and in the lives of others?
● Where might you need to grow in your relationship with the world?
Are you a more gathered person or sent person?
How can you tap into what feels comfortable for you?
How can you push yourself to grow in new ways?
