Our Community in Our Intimacy
Unity, Harmony, and Community – Part 4
John 17:20-26
We have been talking about unity, and harmony for the last couple of weeks. We discovered that we must be in unity in our belief. This means that we all believe not just in God, but also in His Son Jesus Christ – to whom God has delegated all authority.
We talked about harmony and the fact that harmony is important because it displays our differences. When we discover our differences and then share them with one another, it can be like a song that other people want to hear.
Today I want to talk to you about community. Jesus expected us to act in community. Just like I said last week, we need to go from being single as Christians to acting and living in the plural. This means that we need to learn to grow and be with one another.
Community is made up of two words come and unity. When we come together in unity, we can be in community. But community also sounds likes this phrase: Come, you need me. You need me, and I need you. We need each other.
In these verses today, we see that the key ingredient for community is one word: love. The verses 23 and 26 form a book-end to the concept of community. This is not the only place where love take the most important role in our relationships.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, I can have all kinds of spirituality, and I can try to be in harmony with others, but it I don’t do it with love, I sound like a clanging bell. Love is the defining value for community. You can act alone without love. You can work with other people on a superficial basis without love as well. You can come in and say hello with you co-workers. You can finish your job and go home. You can sit in front of the TV or on your chair and read the newspaper. You can find yourself very alone even in your most intimate relationships. You can do that. But that is not community. Community demands that we love one another. Loving one another demands that we get closer to one another. Love demands intimacy.
“In an effort to get the work of the Lord done we often lose contact with the Lord of the work.” A. W. Tozer
Community means contact, and contact requires intimacy. Intimacy means connection from the innermost areas. You need community and contact with others and with God. You need intimacy with others and with God.
FIVE TESTS OF INTIMACY
I know I am intimate with the Lord when.....
1. I fearlessly worship Him.
Worship is a lack of self-awareness in God’s presence
1)expressed love
2) sacrifice
3)confession
4)surrender
2. I instinctively understand His heart.
Because I spend time in the Word
Because I spend time in prayer
3. I honestly communicate with Him.
About my sins
About my needs
About my doubts
4. I selflessly pursue His priorities.
1)Worship
2)Evangelism
3)Fellowship
4)Discipleship
5)Service
5. I constantly experience His ....
Presence
“Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Matthew 28:20
Peace
“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace.” John 16:33
Power
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” Acts 1:8
Perhaps you need to ask yourselves these questions. Then you can see if you are experiencing real community.
Let me give you a simple illustration:
Someone has drawn a helpful analogy about the importance of unity and community in the church to the life of a honeybee. As I understand it, honeybees cannot live in isolation. You always keep bees (plural), you never keep a single bee. If you isolate a bee, you can give it the most favorable temperature, you can give it plenty of water and plenty of food ... but the bee will die within two to three days. There is something about the community of bees that keeps individual bees alive. You can keep bees, but you cannot keep a bee.
In a sense that is also true of the church. One of the chief sources of our strength is our unity. If we are not as vital in our witness as we might be, it is probably because our bonds of love are not as strong as they might be. The church at Pentecost had an intense fellowship.
Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
(Acts 2:44-47 NKJV)
You need contact and community with God and with other Christians. Christians in this sense are like bees. You cannot be a Christian and try to do it alone. You need other Christians. Jesus knew this and that is why He started the church. Christians can’t make in this world alone. They need the bond of love with other Christians to help them through their difficult times. This is why we have house groups. Our IBC Bremen house groups are the way in which you can build community. Our IBC Bremen house groups are the way in which you can learn to love.
God loved Jesus with enormous love. Jesus knew this. Jesus wants you to begin to take steps to intimacy. When you have learned to become intimate with your love to God, you can share that same intimacy with others. This is what our house groups are meant to teach – get you closer to one another.
THE STEPS TO INTIMACY
1.Begin with Jesus (17:20)
"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
(John 17:20 NKJV)
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
(John 17:3 NKJV)
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
(John 1:12 NKJV)
The first and most essential step to intimacy with God is to accept His Son Jesus Christ. You cannot get closer to God if you have not decided to accept and follow His Son Jesus Christ.
2.Commitment brings Connection (17:21)
that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
(John 17:21 NKJV)
Baptism is the first step of obedience in following the Lord.
Membership allows you to connect with God’s people.
Ministry allows you the opportunity to give to others what you have been given.
One of the reasons that Christians don’t know how to love is because they have not learned to grow. One of the reasons that Christians don’t grow and therefore have difficulty in relationships is because they have not learned to be in community. So if you want to learn to love, if you want to learn to grow, you are going to have be in contact with other people. Now, our house groups can provide that safe contact.
Some people in this room have problems understanding the love of God. Jesus prayed right here that you would understand the love of God. However, Jesus expected the context of learning the love of God would come in community with others.
“they may be perfect in one”
“the world may know that You loved them”
3.Involvement in the Big Picture (17:23)
I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
(John 17:23 NKJV)
There are two major goals described here: Maturity and Mission. God expects us to grow up and to set aside our differences because His plan is much bigger than ourselves. God wants us to let the world know about Him. This is bigger than any church building plans or any programs that we may think are important to us. Everything we do must be for God’s glory and for His plans. That ultimately means to help bring more people into His kingdom. But in order to do that, we have to see the big picture. In order to see the big picture, we have to quit looking at the little things that bother us between ourselves.
4.Allow God to love you. (17:26)
And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them."
(John 17:26 NKJV)
God loves you. That is a fact. It is just as much a fact in life as gravity. It is just as much a fact in life as day and night. God loves you. You just have to allow God to love you. You can’t do the other three steps to intimacy without this one. You don’t decide to become a Christian because someone makes you do it. You do it because you know that God loves you. You don’t decide to be obedient to God’s commands and become baptized because someone makes you do it. You don’t become baptized because you are forced to. You do it because you know God loves you. You don’t get involved in growing up and telling others about Jesus because you are told to. It is not like a law that says you have to do it. You do it because you know that God loves you. I encourage you to take the steps that are necessary for you to grow in intimacy with God. He really loves you and He wants to do lots of good stuff in your life. But you need to draw closer to Him to do that.
