Find It Together
Acts 9: 1-10
A man was having difficulty communicating with his wife and concluded that she had become hard of hearing. So he decided to conduct a hearing test without her knowing about it. One evening he sat in a chair on the far side of the room. Her back was to him and she could not see him. Very quietly he whispered, "Can you hear me?" There was no response. Moving a little closer, he asked again, "Can you hear me now?" Still no reply. Quietly he edged closer and whispered the same words, but still no answer. Finally, he moved right in behind her chair and said, "Can you hear me now?" To his surprise, she responded with irritation as she answered at the top of her voice, "For the 4th time, yes!" It’s funny how we often accuse God of not hearing what we say when in fact, it’s really us who have difficulty hearing God. Perhaps one of the most challenging things to hear from God is the purpose of your life.
Saul unknowingly experienced that in our Scripture today. Saul was very well educated., trained by Israel’s best rabbi of the time and he was the star pupil. He knew the Old Testament from cover to cover but to the prophecies about the Savior and the identity of Jesus, he was deaf. Saul thought he was being faithful to the Law and the will of God by persecuting Christians because they were speaking blasphemy and worshiping a man rather than God. In a sense, Saul could see the physical but spiritually he was blind to what God was doing. He thought he knew God’s purpose for his life but was sadly mistaken.
In this series, we’ve been talking about discovering God’s plan for your life. We learned the first way to do that is to follow Jesus into God’s work in the world. You just can’t sit there and try to figure out your purpose. You have to get off the bench and get in the game, by getting out to serve and your life purpose will begin to emerge. Last week, we learned that we are meant to grow in our faith but if you stay a child in the faith, you will never come to grasp or understand the greater things of God, including God’s purpose for your life. But how? We learned five disciplines for spiritual growth: daily devotions with God, lifelong learning, investing in key relationships, visioning for the future and eating and exercising for life.
In our Scripture today, we see the third key to discovering God’s purpose for your life: community. It’s in community that we experience the presence of Jesus and God’s purpose for our lives. Saul is greeted by Jesus on the road to Damascus, who asks him, “Why do you persecute me?” At the end of the conversation, Saul is blinded and thus in need of help. He is instructed to go to Damascus where he stayed for three days when a Christian named Ananias is sent to heal him and fill him with the Holy Spirit. And something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes. I want you to notice that this is not just a physical healing but it is a spiritual healing as well. The moment that his sight returned, Saul got up and was baptized into the faith and then “Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.” It is in community that we can experience the full presence and the purpose of Jesus for your life.
It is in community that we experience the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Up until the resurrection, the full Spirit of God lived in the body of this man named Jesus. But, the miracle of Jesus in the world was limited to space and time. Jesus could only be in one place at a time. When Jesus was resurrected, he promised that we would not be alone but rather the Holy Spirit will dwell in this community. Wherever the community of Jesus is, there will be the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. A spirit without a body can do nothing! It is in community that we will experience the power of the Holy Spirit and the presence of Jesus, not just individually but corporately. We will experience that when we are together. “Together” is the most important word we read in the book of Acts. “They all joined together constantly in prayer.” Acts 1:14 “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.” Acts 2:1 “All the believers were together and had everything in common.” Acts 2:44 “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…” Acts 2:46 “The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together.” Acts 5:12 “On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done.” Acts 12:27 It is only when we come together as the body of Christ, which is the church, that we can experience the spirit of Christ and the purpose of Christ flowing through our lives.
Christians come together because of a shared faith, a shared mission and a shared life. The majority of people who are associated with the church do not understand what the church is all about. They see the church as being the same as a club like the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, or Rotary. But it’s not. With a club you come together because of similar interest, ideas or causes. Christians come together because of a shared faith, a shared mission and a shared life. It is here that we find life in Jesus and our purpose. If I am not in the body, I am like a toe that is severed from my body. The moment I am severed, there is no life in my toe and it begins to die. We need to understand that in this community, I can have no life in Christ when I try to operate outside of the community of Christ. As Americans, we are rugged individualists and that applies to our spiritual life too. We try to make it about “Me and Jesus.” It is only as I am connected to the community of Christ’s people that the life of Jesus and the Spirit of Jesus will show through me. So it’s critical that I stay connected to the body of Christ. When you see the church as a club, you can think “Oh, man, it’s a Saints home game this week and I’ve got tickets. I’m going to the Saint’s game!” We decide based on what is the neatest thing I want to do. But you have to realize that it is only as I am connected to you and you are connected to me that we function together as this body and that the life of Jesus and the Spirit of Jesus flow through us.
Because we have this shared life and shared purpose, it’s bigger than you. When we’re here working on what God’s purpose is for your life, you’re tempted to think about a purpose that is just for you. We come to believe we can follow Jesus and serve him on our own. Nothing could be further from the truth. God never intends for you to serve Him and accomplish His will apart from the body of Christ. The way you discover your individual purpose or giftedness is by understanding the shared purpose that we all have together, our mission, and your role in it. Ephesians 4:16 says, “From him (Jesus) the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” All of the gifts of God were embodied in Jesus. After Jesus was resurrected, all of the gifts of God are embodied in the community of Jesus, the church. None of us in the church have all the gifts. But when all of us are joined together, we embody all of the gifts of God for the world which together enable us to accomplish the work of Jesus in the world.
For the body to function at peak level, I have to function. Mike Slaughter tells the story of his dog Luka, a giant schnauzer. Luka had an infected toe for several months on his back leg and one of the things that he noticed is that Luka will tend to drag that back foot causing him to scrape his toe. Their vet couldn’t figure it out, so he sent them to Ohio State University to a neurologist. Mike said, I’m thinking, “They’re looking at his head. It’s all the way at the other end of his body…at the farthest extremity, his toe.” Why are you looking at his head when the problem is the toe? The doctor said, “No, Mike, you don’t understand. Everything in the body goes back to the head. Your head is your command and control center that sends directives to every part of the body. Something is happening in Luka. There is a little disk in the spine which is not functioning properly and is disrupting the signal from the brain.” One little part in the body can disrupt the signal that is being passed from the head. And then he writes, “Jesus is the head of the body. One little part that’s not functioning, one little part that’s not healthy, will impact the whole body. You think what you do only affects you. You think if this week you’re not acting and functioning as Christ is calling you to act and function, it’s not going to hurt anybody but you. But the end result is that it disrupts the whole body of Christ. It is critical that you are connected to the body, so the direction of Christ is not disrupted to the rest of the body.”
Too many people are a part of the body of Christ but they are not functioning properly. You may attend or even belong to an institutional church, but you’re not a member of the body because you’re not functioning or serving in the body of Christ. You come here, you soak things in on Sunday morning but then you leave and never get involved in the ministry and mission of Jesus through Gretna UMC. Most of you don’t even know where to begin because you don’t know what your spiritual gifts are which you have been given to use in the work and service of Jesus Christ. It is critical that you discover and use your gifts. The scope and value of your life will be determined by the degree in which you use what God has given you for his purpose.
There are five things that happen when you’re connected in community. First, God connects us to strategic relationships. God sends Ananias to Saul to heal him and begin mentoring him in the faith. Jesus always will find another person, a strategic partnership, a mentor through whom he will speak to you, heal you and teach you in the faith. And you will hear God’s purpose for your life through the voice of other sisters and brothers in Christ. But it’s not just about you. God will also send you into the lives of others to speak the Gospel, heal the physical and the spiritual, teach them in the faith and help them discover their life purpose. Second, our fears and vulnerabilities are healed. It was Paul’s fear of the Christians which led him to seek to destroy them. Those fears and vulnerabilities became personal when Saul was blinded. As we face the inevitable trials, troubles and tragedies of life, God intends that we be supported, strengthened, encouraged and empowered through the community of believers. When we are weak, those around us become strong for us. Such is God’s plan. Third, community provides opportunities for ministry. Ananias was sent to minister to Saul. Apart, he could do nothing but together, he had the opportunity to heal and disciple Saul. You never really minister to someone until you touch and address their point of greatest need. Community gives us opportunities to minister in unique and personal ways to one another. Fourth, we discover and are challenged to live out God’s purpose for our lives. Alone, Paul was seeking out what he thought was God’s purpose for his life which was to destroy the followers of Jesus. But once Saul was surrounded by Ananias and of other believers, he then discovered what God’s purpose for his life really was: to lead the mission of Jesus to reach the Gentiles or the other 95% of the people in the Mediterranean. In community, others challenge you, push you and encourage you to do more than you would on your own and that’s to accomplish God’s purpose for you’re your life. Fifth, we receive guidance. As someone has aptly said, “we need the community of believers because none of us is as smart as all of us!” We need guidance to lead us safely through our spiritual journey, sparing us many wrong turns and harmful paths. Ephesians 3:10 declares that “God’s intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known.” God wants to guide us but he has chosen to do it through His people in the community of faith. He gives us wisdom for the journey as we study His Word, pray, discuss and share life together and live out God’s purpose for our lives.
We need each other. Ecclesiastes 4:12 says, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Together we have greater strength. If you only come to worship, you’re missing it, because the DNA of Jesus is imprinted on us through the small group. It is in the small group community that we experience the power of Christ and the purpose of Christ at its deepest level. So what is the church supposed to look like? It’s small groups of people who are seeking to put the needs of others ahead of their own. They are servants and ministers to one another who watch out for one another, care for one another and encourage one another to live for Jesus, become more like him and to discover and fulfill God’s purpose for your life. You are meant to be in community with others in the body of Christ and make it your goal to build them up. God wants us to leave our individualized and isolated lives and join together in uncommon community for our sake, for the sake of “Connecting diverse communities to a lifestyle devoted to Jesus” and for the sake of the kingdom of God.
Now’s not a time to make excuses. Now’s the time to say, “I want to go deeper with the Lord Jesus and discover God’s purpose for my life by being on community with others. Amen.
