Title: Community-God’s Community
Date: 1/29/17
Place: BLCC
Text: 1 Corinthians 1.2
CT: We as followers of Jesus are called to be HIS church.
[Screen 1]
FAS: I read an interesting book recently by J.D.Vance. (A young man in his 30s). It is titled, “Hillbilly Elegy”. It caught my interest by claiming to give insight into providing a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election. It was credited to being a book both sides of the aisle could understand. It claimed to give the reason for why the working white class came out so strongly in the recent presidential election. It gave a first hand look at what it was to grow up in a poor eastern Ky. town and then in a manufacturing town in Ohio. And back and forth. The author who is the main character in this memoir got through this childhood to become a Yale Law school grad after going through the marines and overcoming many obstacles. It was a good read, but the part that caught my attention was the way he spoke of the church he had been exposed to as a child.
Here is what Mr. Vance said about the church he had known as a child:
“Religious folks are much happier. Regular church attendees commit fewer crimes, are in better health, live longer, make more money, drop out of high school less frequently and finish college more than those who don’t attend church at all.”
He based this on a phenomenon that social scientists had long observed over the last several decades.
It was found that the relationship was causal: It is not that people who happen to go to church live successful lives also go to church, it’s that church seems to promote good habits.
Doing the wise thing as I recently taught in Sunday school.
I liked what I was reading.
Then I read this paragraph. “The juxtaposition is jarring: Religious institutions remain a positive force in people’s lives, but in the part of the country slammed by the decline of manufacturing, joblessness, addictions and broken homes, church attendance has fallen off. The church offered something desperately needed by people like me.( Vance speaking) For alcoholics it gave them a community of support and a sense they were not fighting addiction alone. For expectant mothers it offered a free home with job training and parenting classes. When someone needed a job, church friends could either provide one or make introductions. When my Dad faced financial troubles, his church banded together to purchase an old used car for the family. In the broken world around me –and for the people struggling in that world –religion offered tangible assistance to keep the faithful on track.”
LS: What would God think of the church today and what it is doing? [Screen 2] What would Jesus want us to do as a church?
What would Jesus think of our service? What would he notice? Would he see a church that is self-absorbed with their music and performance and preferences? I pray He would not. I pray He would see a church that is doing its best to follow his lead and reach out to others and encourage and build up each other in unity in Him and Him alone. I pray he would see a church that serves its community as it serves its Lord. [Screen 3]
I got the idea for this series after reading 1 Corinthians 1.2, To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:
The church. God’s church. We are to be set apart as God’s people. To represent Him and be His light and service to a dark world. Do we? We get this warning in Hebrews. [screen 4]
Hebrews 10.24-25, And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, [Screen 5] not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Church is really not an option if we are to follow Christ.
There are many who see the church as negative and would love to see it fall.
Jesse Ventura (wrestler and former Minnesota governor) said, “Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other peoples business”.
Less extreme criticizers of the church say things like, “I want Jesus but not the church.” Or “I am a spiritual person, but I’m just not into church”.
There are probably church experiences for some folks that made them feel this way. I can’t change that. Wish I could. But it breaks my heart for someone when they feel this way.
To have Jesus without the church is impossible—the church by definition is all those who follow Jesus. The problem is, this is the way many people view the church.
So this is where my series comes from. Are we doing what Jesus truly intends for his church? Are we guilty of things that cause others to call us hypocrites? There probably is some validity to that claim. I have been one myself I am sure. The church sadly has given those outside the church fodder for much criticism to be leveled our way.
I love the church. But what we are going to look at in this series is “What Jesus truly intends for His church”.
We live in a society that tends to individualize everything. We tend to make it all about ME. Not the least of which is the church. We have come to believe that due to maybe the language barrier between us and the first century church, the Bible is speaking of us as individuals when in reality it is speaking to us all as the church in many instances. Example: [screen 6] Philippians 1.4-6,
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, [Screen 7] being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you (plural) will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
The word “you” is plural in translation as well as in context in this scripture.
Another example: [Screen 8] 1 Corinthians 3.16-17, Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? [Screen 9] If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
God does say we as individuals are the temple as well in other texts, but here it is plural in context and original language. Paul is stressing to the church in Corinthians that they are a unified assembly. They are not to see themselves as a collection of competing interests or independent individuals. One misses the point if the plurality of this text is not used. If one tries to destroy the church, one is trying to destroy God’s temple.
In God’s plan throughout the Bible, He is trying to redeem, and empower a people, a community. He is doing this from the beginning to end. [Screen 10]
Genesis 12.2, I will make you into a great nation, [Screen 11]
Revelation 21.3, And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. (God’s community)
Through Abraham God birthed His people.
Through Moses God set apart His people.
Through David God led His people.
Through Jesus God redeems His people.
Through Paul God expands His people.
Through the church God continues to grow and nourish His people.
The church is where we come into God’s plan here today.
We all must be in community to further the gospel.
The disciples lived in a community with Jesus to work together to learn how to extend the gospel to all who came in contact with them and would come later.
The Apostle Paul worked with many men and women, Silas, Timothy, Barnabas, Luke, Mark, Priscilla, Aquila, Titus, Gaius and on and on to extend the gospel to more and more people including the Gentiles. Including “Us”.
I am sure if you are a follower of Christ today there is a group or should I say a community of people who had a part in your finding Jesus as your Lord and Savior. I could name several that were part of the community that reached out to me. Mary June Small, Ms. Dottie Marshall, Nida Fryman, John Anderson, Frank Lynam, my mom. That is just scratching the surface. I bet most of you could fill up a page of people who were part of the community of people who brought you to Christ.
Are you being that part of a community that is doing that for others? Are you reaching out to those you may have influence over to guide and help along the way to God’s ideal for them? Your family? Your children? Co-workers? Your neighbor? Your rival??
That’s why God had the church established. Not as an institution to rule and force others to conform, but as a place of Christian brotherhood that would draw all people to the life saving gospel of the cross. A place to follow Jesus and be changed.
I quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer: (A Christian who was martyred during WW2). [Screen 12] Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. [Screen 13]
Jesus’ prayer for us was this, John 17.23 “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”. [Screen 14]
We are to be unified in Christ as His church.
In 1957 a graduate student at Columbia University named Gordon Gould had been working with "pumping" atoms to higher energy states so they would emit light. As Gould elaborated his ideas and speculated about all the things that could be done with a concentrated beam of light, he realized he was onto something. In his notebook he confidently named the yet-to-be-invented device a LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation).
Nearly sixty years later, we are still seeing the impact of this remarkable tool. Very recently, Lockheed Martin boasted about their new laser, a ground-based prototype system that burned through an entire car engine in seconds. From a mile away. The company called this laser system the most "efficient and lethal" version on the planet. (Science understands the power of the unifying beams of light. Should we not use the wisdom of God to understand the power of unity.)
Because from a spiritual perspective the laser represents the ultimate expression of the impact we can have in a world in need of light. If we are able to understand the stunning power of unity expressed in a laser beam and translate it into our own lives, into our churches, we might have a greater impact on those around us than ever before.
Sam Rodriguez, Be Light (Waterbrook, 2016), page 61
It is limitless what a church can do when it is unified behind Jesus Christ.
Oh to be a church like NT Wright speaks of in his book Simply Christian:
Church is a place of welcome and laughter, of healing and hope, of friends and family and justice and new life. It’s where the homeless drop in for a bowl of soup and the elderly drop in for a chat. It’s where one group is working to help drug addicts and another is campaigning for global justice.
It’s where you will find people learning to pray, coming to faith, struggling with temptation, finding new purpose, and getting in touch with a new power to carry that purpose out.
It is where people bring their own small faith and discover, in getting together with others to worship the one true God, that the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. No church is like this all the time. But a remarkable number of churches are partly like that quite a bit of the time.
BLCC is pretty close. May we be led by our Lord to be that church.
A healthy church is built out of building blocks of healthy Jesus following Christians. A church that prays is made up of individuals who pray. Also a church that evangelizes and speaks the good news to others is a church that consists of individuals who share the gospel. We must have strong individuals to have a strong church.
But the opposite is also true. Healthy churches will produce healthy individuals. A community that is saturated with prayer will produce individuals who pray. A church with a true passion to spread the gospel will produce individuals who have that same passion to reach others with Jesus Christ.
May we never be a church that does not produce the type of people our God seeks. [Screen 15]
CT: We as followers of Jesus are called to be the church.
If you are not yet a member of God’s community, come join us today. Be part of the community that strives to bring true forgiveness, joy and peace to all we meet. Know the peace of your own salvation as you commit to Jesus by your confession of faith and baptism today. Jesus prayed that you would. Be an answer to our Lord’s prayer today.
Bibliography:
Overdorf, Daniel. Rediscovering community: what the Bible says about the church. Joplin, MO: College Press, 2012. Print. Intro.
Vance, J. D. Hillbilly Elegy: a memoir of a family and culture in crisis. New York, NY: Harper, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, 2016. Print. pp.92-94
