Anchor Verses: 1 John 4:20-21, Acts 2:42-47
Focus: Christian community is not optional—it is the house we build on the foundation of our relationship with Jesus.
Introduction
- Your personal relationship with Jesus is the metaphorical foundation of your spiritual home
- Christian community is the house we build on this foundation.
- You were not only adopted as a son or a daughter, but as a brother and a sister and we have responsibility to nurture and feed Christian relationships
- 1 John 4:20-21- “20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”
- The way you love God can be verified, tested, and judged by the way you love one another. Love is not a feeling. It consists of action.
- Jesus lived in a group oriented society where the needs of the group were prioritized over the needs of the individual
- The primary group that allegiance was expressed in was the biological family
- Within the biological family, it was expected that your closest relationship would be with your brothers and sisters
- 46 While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. 47 Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.” 48 He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
- Jesus declares that it is his spiritual brothers and sisters who He will express allegiance towards
- We were meant to know each other deeply, follow Jesus with each other, and provide for each other’s needs. We were meant to be a family.
- Families eat together/Families pray together/Families know each other deeply/Families spend time together/Families hold each other accountable/Families share resources/Families bear one another’s burdens/Families encourage one another/Families forgive one another
- Love one another (John 13:34)/Honor one another above yourselves (Romans 12:10)/Build up one another (Romans 14:19; 1 Thessalonians 5:11)/Admonish one another (Romans 15:14; Colossians 3:16)/Bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2)/Forgive one another (Ephesians 4:2, 32; Colossians 3:13)/Be patient with one another (Ephesians 4:2; Colossians 3:13)/Be kind and compassionate towards one another (Ephesians 4:32)/Comfort one another (1 Thessalonians 4:18)
- Do you live life with your spiritual family this way?
- Community is a gift from God to help you grow. Don’t let it become another part of your to do list. Make it into a lifestyle
Community offers you support
- 1 Corinthians 12-16; 24-26- “12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 24 But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”
- You were not meant to make it on your own; you are a part of a body. Christianity is not a solo mission. Your purpose in God will consist of deep community with fellow believers
- The Holy Spirit uses the support you receive from others in the process of sanctification
- This growth won’t happen overnight or without pursuing tight knit bonds with people
Community turns you into a person who loves like Jesus did
- We want to become people overflowing with sacrificial love. This will require a painful process of sanctification because we are full of sin
- The Holy Spirit uses the messiness of community to help us in that process
- Jesus calls us to unity even in the midst of differing theological understandings, political ideologies, and personal preferences
- If you stay when things get hard, you will learn to be empathetic, compassionate, and loving towards people who are different from you like Jesus did
Community is the greatest tool we have to evangelize
- John 17:20-23- “20 ‘My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me”
- We have a lot of strategies to bring in lost people. Community is the only one that Jesus promises will work
- 1 Peter 2:4-5 “4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
- As individual bricks, when we come together, encourage one another, and take care of each other, the temple of the Holy Spirit will be beautiful and attractive to the world around us
- When we neglect each other, gossip about one another, or beat each other down, the temple will look like an undesirable pile of rubble to the world around us
Community is a catalyst for the power of God
- Acts 2:42-47- “42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 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, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
- The result of their gatherings were that God moved in power, needs were provided, and new believers were coming in everyday
- I want to see this in our church, but we need to be devoted to the same things they were
- Apostle’s teaching (Scripture), Fellowship, Breaking of Bread, and Prayer
- Fellowship (koinonia) is much deeper than just socializing. Most usages of the word in Scripture are talking about our relationship with God
- Being steadfast and devoted to these things is the key to the Spirit being poured out in our congregation.
