"What the Neighbors Saw" with Pastor Chad Stuart - April 11, 2026

The early church didn't start with an outreach strategy. They simply lived in a manner so different that their neighbors couldn't look away. From the plague-ridden streets of Alexandria to the court of a pagan emperor, history continues to tell the same story: when a community becomes completely devoted to Jesus on the inside, they become irresistible on the outside. Listen in as Pastor Chad explores Acts 2:42–47 to discover what it means to be the kind of people who live in a way that our neighbors can't ignore!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

There's a kind of common theme, or or it's a regular part of a plot line that you see in books and in movies. It goes like this. There is a neighbor that nobody really knows. Maybe they never come outside. Maybe the house looks a little different from the others on the street. Maybe there's a rumor that's been started. Somebody's older brother once told their friend who told them, who told them. And before long, this exaggerated story has been passed down, and the legend grows that this person is scary or dangerous or weird or different. Not because anybody actually knows this person, but because no one sees them, and silence has a way of filling up, and a lack of sight has a way of filling up with whatever we're afraid of or whatever is unusual. Hopefully, you read in in school or maybe later in your life the book To Kill a Mocking Bird. This is part of that story. If you know this story, you know the name Boo Radley. The children of Makum have constructed this entire mythology around a man who they've never even said a word or has never said a word to them. A man who, it turns out, has been quietly leaving them gifts in a tree, watching over them, caring for them from behind this wall that they've built. Maybe if you're a little bit uh younger, you grew up or you watched a movie that my boys enjoyed, a baseball movie called The Sandlot. And in this story, there's a beast that lives behind the fence, a supposed uh enormous, terrifying dog on the other side of the fence who's controlled by a very mean and scary man. And the kids have turned the man and the dog into a monster until one day Scotty Smalls comes face to face with the beast, and the beast is a gentle dog with a big name, Hercules. And his owner is a kind old man named Mr. Myrtle, who's just glad to have someone to talk to. The pattern that exists in these movies and these books and various other places is the same. The legend or what people create in their mind about these individuals is due to absence, an absence of sight, an absence of knowing. The monster lives in the gap between what people see and what actually is true. The weird and unusual is that space between what people see and what actually is true. And in the stories, when the when the neighbor is actually seen, things begin to change. When people see the neighbor and get to know the neighbor, something changes. The early church was seen, and this seems to have made such a difference. They made themselves seen not as a project or not as a program, but as a way of life, and it made an enormous difference for the kingdom of God. If you have not already done so, you can open your Bibles there, and that's where we'll be mostly this morning. Although we're going to take a dip into James as well. Last Sunday morning, 265 of your fellow church members were up the road at our church grounds, the fire site, and we acknowledge there together a promise fulfilled. Jesus said, In three days, I will live again. And we confirmed our recognition that we believe that promise was fulfilled and was true. We also confirmed our belief in a promise that is yet to be fulfilled, which Jesus made, where he said, I will come again. We are resurrection people, and all last week we celebrated the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus and all these things that Jesus has done for us, the cross as the payment for our sins, the resurrection as our hope for future glory, and the second coming as that glorious return that we look forward to, that glorious reunion that we all desire to be a part of. But what is in the in-between? From the resurrection of Jesus till the second coming of Jesus, what is in the in-between? Luke answers part of that question in the book of Acts, chapter two. Jesus has returned to heaven to prepare a place for us, just as he promised in chapter 14. Jesus sent his Holy Spirit, also promised in chapter 14. And Peter goes to preach on the Holy Spirit, goes to preach with the power of the Holy Spirit. Next Sabbath, there, as Pastor Candace mentioned, we'll be at the General Conference Auditorium. One of our elders, James Weingartner, is going to be preaching on the Holy Spirit, and hopefully with the Holy Spirit as well. And maybe we can also have 3,000 baptisms after that, James, but no pressure, just a thought. But come and be blessed by that next Sabbath there at the General Conference Auditorium. And if you show up here, it's not just Lutherans, it's uh the Lutheran governing bodies. So it's you know, the it's like our GC governing bodies. So it's basically like working worshiping in this crowd every week, you know, it's just the same group. But we're we're good to have it to have them here, or that we're grateful that they're gonna have their meetings and that we get to be at the journal conference. But so Peter's preaching. 3,000 are baptized. It's this amazing, it's this first giant revival of Jesus uh of the of the Christ followers, of the Jesus followers, and then the church gets into the day-to-day existing. And Acts chapter 2, verses 42 through 47, which Rebecca read, is what the day-to-day looked like. And I'll read it once more, just to remind us again, Acts chapter 2, verses 42 through 47. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, and all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings, and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day they were attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. The engine of everything is really kind of seen in passage in uh verse 42. Four things they were teaching, they were fellowshipping, they were eating together, and they were praying together. That's it. There wasn't programs, there weren't flyers sent out, there wasn't uh a five-point plan, there wasn't strategy. They just kept showing up day after day doing these four things together every day. Teaching, praying, studying, and eating together, fellowshipping together and eating together. And the Greek word translated that they were devoted to this day by day, means that there was a single-minded, steadfast fidelity to this. Not casual attendance, not once a month here and there, but every day showing up. And out of that devoted life came awe and signs and wonders. And out of that awe and signs and wonders as hearts were moved. The people became, these followers of Jesus became extremely generous. Verses 44 and 45. They sold their possessions and and they distributed to anyone who had need. And then verse 47 gives us the result of that. They had favor with all the people, and the return on that favor was that God was saving people day by day. They didn't plan this, they didn't make church announcements to say, hey, we need you to do this. It's just what they did. They were just living, and as they just lived as followers of Jesus, the church grew. What I want us to focus on this morning is that first phrase in verse 47, that they grew in favor with all the people. How does a community go from devoted inward life? You know, they're gathering with each other, they're gathering together just like we do here. They're they're they're fellowshipping with one another, they're studying the Bible with one another, they're listening to teaching, they're they're eating together. How do they go from that to favor with all the people? What is actually happening in this moment? I believe the answer can somewhat be some uh summarized in James chapter 2, verses 14 through 17. James chapter 2, verses 14 through 17. James asks the question, What good is it, my brothers, if someone he has faith, someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace and be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is it? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James is not here introducing salvation, uh works-based salvation. In fact, we're in a Lutheran house, so I should acknowledge that Martin Luther disliked the book of James more than any other, because he was worried that people would think that they're saved by their works. But that's not what James is doing. He is saying that a living faith produces living action. A living faith produces living action. James is telling us we can see which kind of faith we have, whether we have a living faith or a dead faith by what someone sees, what happens when you see someone in need. The Acts 2 community had living faith. They saw needs and they responded to those needs. They moved in action in those needs. If we put Acts 2 and James 2 together, we could say it like this: a dead faith produces nothing that the neighbors can see, but a living faith gives the neighbors much to see for the kingdom of God. And here's the problem: if the neighbors cannot see anything that a community of faith is doing, there is no favor. If everything that we do basically exists in this space in here, then we are just another one of many churches on New Hampshire Avenue. Without living faith, the blinds are drawn, the shrubs are overgrown, blocking the view. But the Acts 2 church had a living faith, and it produced favor with all of their fellow men. In the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 3, Paul is talking about uh the process of really gaining favor with man and opening the hearts of people. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 16, I, Paul, planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. Every Christian, all of us, in every aspect of our lives, should be either planting seeds or watering seeds. You can't grow the seed, I can't grow the seed, you can't save anybody, I can't save anybody. You're either planting the seeds or you're watering the seeds so that God can grow them. And that's what's happening in this space in Jerusalem in the early church. They're planting seeds, they're watering seeds, and God is bringing the growth. Well, how are they planting and watering seeds? By what people are observing in them. The community around them sees how they're living differently, and these are seeds being planted. The followers of Jesus were taking care of each other. They were taking care of their neighbors. Anyone who had need, they were taking care of. And the people were looking on, and what the neighbors saw gave them favor towards the Christian. And the ultimate result of that favor was the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. I plant, you plant, I water, you water. Considering this, considering this, if you are a follower of Jesus, every action in your life should be assessed by this question. Will this crack open the door of someone's heart to receive, to potentially receive Jesus? Acts 2 shows us how it works. Being seen by our neighbors. Yes, Peter preached, and there was a massive conversion. But then the the real growth, day by day, those who were being saved came about as people observed what others were doing, the lives that they were living. As they were seen by their neighbors, this growth happened. Not always in preaching, not always in programs, but always in living. Not always in preaching, not always in programs, but always in living, we can grow in favor with our fellow man. I want to illustrate this to you or hopefully convince you of this through a scientific explanation, a social science behavioral or a behavioral science explanation, and a story from history. And then at the end of those three things, those three quick things, I pray you'll be motivated to do two things. One is, I pray you'll be motivated, even though I wish that we didn't have to necessarily do this, but I pray you'd be motivated to go out these doors and to sign up for April 26th for our community service day. But secondly, and more importantly, I hope you'll be motivated to ask God to make your life a life of living, of planting, of watering, so that your life grows in favor with your neighbors. So that God can be seen in everything that you do. So the scientific illustration. We experienced these before this, but we learn the language of this in elementary class and some science class in elementary about our five senses: our sight, our hearing, our smell, our taste, and our touch. We understand this from early on that we have these five senses. There is a unique effect that sometimes occurs where the triggering of one sense leads to the involuntary triggering of another. One of the most well-known accounts of this was an experiment done way back in the day by John Locke, the English philosopher, who documented a man who had become blind who said he experienced the color of scarlet when he heard the sound of a trumpet. Whenever he heard a trumpet, he would see the color scarlet. This trumpet sound triggered involuntarily another sense entirely. The effect where stimulation of one sense leads to an automatic involuntary experience in a second sense is called, and if someone knows this word better than I do, please help me with it. I'm really struggling with it. Did I say it right? Synesthesia, thank you. I said it right. So says the English teacher, so I take it as gospel. What Luke is describing in verse 47 is a kind of spiritual synesthesia. The neighborhood in Jerusalem watched this community, their eyes saw what was happening, and they saw these non-Jesus followers, these pagans saw that the Christians were selling their property and helping whoever was in need. They saw the people eating together and fellowshipping together with gladness and sincerity of heart, no pretense, no performance. They saw the people loving their community, and there was a new sense awakened in them, which was favor and openness to the things of God. A something triggered in them when this part of their mind was observant of something, there was an openness, a curiosity, a hunger for whatever these people held. One sense seeing the Christian generosity involuntarily activated another, a receptivity that had not been there before to Jesus. Nobody planned it, but the trumpet sounded and the neighbors saw Scarlet. The trumpet sounded and they saw Jesus. I think that just as God made our senses that way, that we are actually scientifically made that way spiritually as well. That one thing triggers another. This isn't just my speculation. This is the second illustration. It's a study done by imperial uh by behavioral scientists, according to uh Dr. Arthur Brooks, who is a professor of Harvard and author. Some of you might have read some of his books. Arthur Brooks, a social scientist and professor at Harvard, has studied what opens people up to something bigger than themselves. He himself is a Catholic man, and so he says, something bigger in my life is God, is Jesus. And he says, There are things he said that he has found to empirically crack the door open toward the divine, toward the things of God. He says there are six levers that do this. I'll share with you uh the first five quickly, and then I'll give you the six that applies to this message. But the first thing is he says, get people to ask big questions. When you're having conversations with them, get people to ask big questions, like, why am I alive? What is the meaning of my life? He says, these big questions, when people start asking questions like this, the door is cracked open for the gospel. He said the second thing is falling in love. If you know someone who's currently falling in love and they are not a follower of Jesus, go talk to them about Jesus. He said, people when they're falling in love, he says empirical studies show that people who are falling in love are more open to God than people who don't love. Go figure. A God who is love, God is love, uses love to open our hearts to the things of God. This is a trigger. The third thing is a person who is in a transcendent moment. That word is rough for some folks. Some folks think of that in a in a new age kind of way, but all I mean by this is someone who is in a situation or or or standing in awe of something bigger than themselves. Have any of you ever stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon? You ever stood in the shadows of the of the giant redwoods of California? Have you ever been on the north shore of Hawaii and literally felt kind of your body rumble when those waves came crashing down? These are transcendent moments. If you're ever with someone in that situation and you want to talk to them about Jesus, that's the time to do it. They'll be much more responsive to God things in that moment than if you're trying to tell them about Jesus while you're standing in line at Taco Bell. Or like the people that were trying to talk to me as I was getting on the Metro in DC yesterday. You know, the metro in DC, there's nothing transcendent about it. It's just like, uh, but man, someone's more open. And Arthur Brooks says this is one of those levers. This is a lever, transcendent moment. The fourth is when someone finds that their work is not about money. Or power or prestige, but they find a higher value in their work. So, employers, if you have employees and you want to share Jesus with them, help them to see that their job is not just about the money they're making or the power they can have or the prestige they have, but help them to see that their work has a value greater than any of those things, and they'll be more open as they see that to talking about and learning about God. And the last one, number six, of the levers that he says, empirically open doors of hearts for the gospel. The last one that is relevant for this passage is beauty. And Arthur Brooks describes it this way: He says, There are three kinds of beauty that lead people toward truth: artistic beauty, natural beauty, and moral beauty. Moral beauty, he says, is what happens when you watch people who are truly doing things of great moral good. It makes you, he said, this is still Arthur Brooks, it makes you choke up. It stops you. It triggers something you weren't looking for. Brooks argues that moral beauty, witnessing genuine, selfless goodness in another person, is one of the most powerful levers available for cracking open a closed heart to the gospel. Not argument, not program, not strategy, just the sight of people living with radical, inexplicable generosity and goodness and gladness. That is Acts chapter 40, chapter 2, verses 44 through 47. The people saw these average neighbors. They saw them living with this radical generosity, and that moral beauty was a lever that triggered something that said, you know what? I might be open to what those people believe. And history confirms that this selfless service helped people become followers of Jesus. Moral beauty in action works not because we manufacture it, because when it is genuine, it triggers something in the watching world that only God can complete in those people. So they begin to search for where does this moral beauty come from? And then God shows up and he's like, I'm right here. And this is the moral beauty. This is it. It's found. All goodness and beauty is found in God. In the third century, a devastating plague swept through the Roman Empire. Millions died, cities were paralyzed. The non-Christian response, according to history records, was self-protection and self-preservation. They would throw, according to records, the non-Christians, the pagans, would literally throw their own family members into the street and abandon them so that they would not get sick. They would flee away from the places of the plague at all costs. This seems rational, but it was also terrifying to witness. The Christian response was the opposite. Dionysius, the bishop of Alexandria, described what he saw. Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of the danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ. And with them departed this life serenely happy. For they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains. Serenely happy, cheerfully accepting their pains. That is moral beauty. That's something different inside of these people coming out. Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage, pushes congregation even further. He said to them, Do not just serve your fellow Christians, but also serve your pagan neighbors. Writing this, Cyprian wrote, There is nothing remarkable in cherishing merely our own people with the due attentions of love, but that one might become perfect who should do something more than heathen men or publicans. Thus the good was done to all men, not merely to the household of faith. What was the impact of this? Christian sacrifice for fellow believers stunned the watching world. They weren't even taking care of their own like this, and they they had never seen such communal love like this. But even more amazing was the Christian sacrifice for their non-Christian neighbors resulted in mass conversions among those that were cared for and the onlooking world. In fact, years later, the Roman emperor Julian, known as Julian the Apostate, launched a campaign to revive paganism in the recently Christianized empire. All this Christian growth had grown out of this moral beauty that people had observed. And Julian said, we've got to fight against this. And Julian was known to be brilliant and determined and deeply hostile to Christianity. But he had a problem. He could not argue with what the neighbors had seen their Christian brothers and sisters do. So he wrote a letter to the one of his pagan priests, urging him to get the pagan temples to start acting more like the Christians and caring for the poor. He refers to Christians with obvious irritation as the impious Galileans, and he writes, We ought then to share our money with all people, but more generously with the good and with the helpless and the poor, so as to suffice for their needs. He wrote, It is disgraceful that the impious Galileans support not only their own, but ours as well. All men see our people lack aid from us. The emperor who was trying to destroy Christianity was forced to look at Christians were doing and tell his own priests, we need to imitate that. He said, You need to imitate how they're caring for others. He didn't want to admire them, but he couldn't ignore what he saw. The trumpet sounded, and even Julian's hostile heart had to admit that there was beauty in what it triggered in others. This is favor with all the people. Here's the word for us right now. We are a church rebuilding our house, literally. The side of the road is an is a is an empty slate right now. It's soon to be a construction zone. And I think how uniquely powerful it would be if a church who was having to rebuild their own house was not consumed with building walls, but instead was consumed with showing their neighbors how much they loved and cared for them. That is the kind that makes people stop and ask questions. The church will go up and there will be people that will be drawn to the building, but will make people have favor is if we, through true hearts of love, go out and are seen in our neighborhoods as followers of Jesus. Not by all that we say, but by all that we do. When Spencerville shows up, over 300 of us, or hopefully even more than that, show up on April 26th, cleaning yards and sorting clothes and handing out food and building beds, delivering furniture, whatever it is we may be doing, riding cars to those who are struggling. When we do just the everyday living of loving our community around us, we are sounding our a trumpet. We are making ourselves seen. But it can't just be one day. We must plant and water, we must grow in favor every day through the everyday living of being seen by our neighbors. You in your neighborhood, me in my neighborhood, you at your work, me at my work. So let's show up every day and be seen. Let's sound the trumpet. Let's let's be the trigger. Let's be the synthesisia that reminds people that there is something more. And maybe in that moment, someone's heart will crack open. Just a little bit to the gospel. And in that moment, Jesus will never fail in doing this. Showing up at that heart and beginning to speak to them. That is his mission. Our mission is to be the levers, the triggers, the trumpets. What is seen? And Jesus shows up when that heart is cracked open. When people have favor, says, Here I am. Here is the beauty of God. One word, one prayer, one act for us this week. Our one word is seen. I want to encourage all of you and myself as well. Make yourself visible. Make yourself more visible. Let the neighbors see what Jesus' followers actually look like in your neighborhood. That's your one word, seen. Am I seen? Ask yourself, am I seen? Last week we were talking about with, and we were talking about Jesus with us. Now we're saying, are we seen? Are we with the people and seen by the people? One prayer. Lord, give me a sincere heart. Not just on April 26th, but before then and after then. Let all come, let moral beauty flow out of my life that is genuinely devoted to you. Pray that prayer. Lord, let moral beauty flow out of my life that is genuinely devoted to you. And then one act. Actually, two acts. Sorry. But it doesn't go with my one word, one prayer, one act. One act, which is two. Go out these doors, sign up for the April 26th week. But between now and then and after then, spend some time sitting down and say, how can I become more morally beautiful to the neighbors around me? That I may grow in favor, not for myself, but so that Jesus can reach a heart for them. Lord, we thank you so much for your grace, for your mercy, for your love for us. Lord, we have so much to be grateful for, to rejoice in, to celebrate as followers of you, Jesus. Lord, help us not to be content to carry that privately. But help us to be a people that let that let that flow out of our lives. Help us to have a living faith, as James says, one that can be seen and experienced by others. Lord, and we pray that you'll do for our world around us what you did for that church in Jerusalem. Lord, that you will, as people see us living differently, the something in them will crack open. And Lord, we thank you that you will show up and you'll speak to those hearts and you will invite them to follow you. We love you, Jesus, and we thank you. Amen.