(This sermon was given at our annual "Unity Service" where our Spanish, Creole, Burmese and English speaking members join in Worship. Scriptures, songs and prayers were offered in different languages and the sermon was tranlated from English into the other langauges).
OPEN: A mom looked out a window and saw her young son playing church with their 3 kittens. He had them lined up and was preaching to them. She smiled and went back to doing some housework. A while later she heard meowing and scratching on the door. She went to the window and saw that Johnny was baptizing the kittens. She opened the window and yelled out, “Johnny, stop that! You’re gonna drown those kittens.” Johnny looked at her and said: “Well, they shoulda thought about that before they joined MY church.”
Johnny believed it was HIS church. He was in charge and he set the rules.
And over the years, that’s been one of the main problems that divided churches. Too many people would believe that their congregation is… THEIR church. It belongs to THEM!
ILLUS: Years ago, a man was visiting here and he joked with me: “It must be hard… working for 150 bosses.” I smiled and said “Oh, I don’t have 150 bosses - I have 150 people I minister to, but I only have ONE boss. My boss is Jesus… and I work for Him”
ILLUS: Our sign out front says “Church of… CHRIST.” Now, some people believe that’s a denominational designation. And it might be… for some congregations. But not here. That sign says this is a church … of CHRIST. This church belongs to Jesus. The people belong to Jesus; The building belongs to Jesus; The land belongs to Jesus; Our offerings belong to Jesus.
ILLUS: (Produce $100 bill) This is a $100 bill. Every Sunday I put a tenth of my income in the offering plate. Why do I do that? Because Jesus owns ME, and He owns everything I possess. I agree with King David who said “I will not offer anything unto the Lord that costs me nothing.”
And so every Sunday I put my tithe (1/10th of my income) in the plate, because everything I have… is from God. And this is my way recognizing He owns me/ and all I have. It's all about Jesus!!!
Ephesians declares that - we should be “eager to maintain THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit — just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call — ONE LORD, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:3-6
We have ONE LORD (PAUSE)… one faith, one baptism, etc.. ONE LORD! And that ONE LORD is what gives us UNITY as a Church. And who is that one LORD? It’s Jesus - because… it’s all about Jesus.
Even when we became Christians it was all about Jesus. Notice what it says in Acts 2:38 "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
We’re not baptized to belong to a church. We’re not baptized to belong to a denomination. We are baptized in the NAME OF JESUS CHRIST to belong to Him for the forgiveness of sins, and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have ONE Lord AND ONE baptism. It’s all about Jesus.
And being baptized into Jesus is what keeps us in unity. One Lord… One Baptism … and (Pause) One Faith.
One Faith? What is this ONE FAITH makes us ONE? Well, that’s what Acts 2:42 is all about. We’re told that here that “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
The early church continually focused on these 4 things, and these 4 items were what kept them unified.
The first of these was the Apostles’ Doctrine, or the Apostles’ teaching. Notice whose doctrine this was: it was the APOSTLES’ doctrine. It’s not MY doctrine. It’s not the doctrine of this congregation. And it’s not the doctrine of numerous denominations across the world. It’s the Apostles’ doctrine And what was their doctrine about? It was about Jesus, because it was ALL about Jesus.
When Peter and the other Apostles attempted to find a replacement for Judas (who betrayed Jesus and had taken his own life) Peter said that the replacement had to be someone who “accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us — one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection." Acts 1:21-22
In other words, an Apostle had to be someone who’d KNOWN Jesus firsthand. He had to be somebody who’d been with Jesus from Jesus’ baptism by John until His resurrection from the dead.
The Apostles weren’t necessarily experts in theology, but they were men who had seen and had followed Jesus. So, the main thing they focused they would have focused on…Jesus. Their doctrine was all about Jesus, because… it was all about Jesus.
When we study the Bible and hear sermons here at church, the focus MUST BE to preach and teach NOTHING but the Apostolic Doctrine as put forth in Scripture. Our belief is simple: We believe what is written. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” II Timothy 3:16-17
Now you’d think UNITY would be SOLELY based on Doctrine… but it’s not. The early church also devoted itself to FELLOWSHIP. Without fellowship you’re not really going to have Unity! There are folks who say you can be just as good a Christian without going to or being with the church - but they’re saying they can be united in Christ without being part of His body. That’s not going to happen.
ILLUS: I read a question on the internet quora.com last week. The question was this: “Is it a sin for a Christian to NOT go to church?” (REPEAT) Well I thought about that for a little while and then I wrote this:
“Is it a sin for Christians not to go to Church? That’s really not a good question. A better question would be this: “Why would a Christian NOT WANT to go to be with the church?” Because Church is all about being with each other. Church is FELLOWSHIP.
And the Bible tells us THIS about the church: Husbands should love their wives, “just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Ephesians 5:25
You see, a Christian is someone who belongs to Jesus, and Christians ARE Christians because we love Jesus, and we want to follow Him. But if we deliberately don’t want to be WITH HIS church (the church that Jesus said He loved SO MUCH and that He died for her) how can we say they truly love Jesus? Jesus died to create his church – and that means… church is all about Jesus because He loved her so much He was willing to give His life to establish her!
But why was the church so important that Jesus would die to create it? Well Hebrews 10:24-5 tells us “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
You see, we need fellowship (not just showing up on Sunday) and we need that fellowship because it creates a unity. We fellowship in order to STIR EACH OTHER UP to love and good works, and so that we can ENCOURAGE each other. (PAUSE)
And, of course the early church took communion. Every Sunday they gathered to “break the bread’ together. In fact, they were so well known for this practice of the Lord’s Supper that the pagans of Rome accused them being Cannibals - because the bread represented the body of Christ, and the CUP represented the blood of Christ. And they because they were “eating” Jesus’ body and “drinking” His blood – well, that’s what cannibals do.
But for the early Christian, the practice of “breaking the bread” reminded them WHY they were a church. They were a church because it was all about Jesus – all about His sacrifice – all about the fact that He had died to save them.
In addition, Communion was a “FAMILY MEAL” where they’d sit down together as a family and eat together.
ILLUS: There was a study done years ago that found that the simple practice of a family … sitting down together for dinner promoted “good mental health and morality.” According to the head researcher (Dr. Elena Compan Poveda), “Union rituals (such as sharing meals) serve to transmit belief systems and norms of behaviour.” Kids from families who DIDN’T eat together were more likely to suffer from more mental health problems than youth in families that DID eat together. (https://collegiateway.org/news/2002-food-currency)
Do you think God knew that? Do you think that God knew that when we eat communion together it would be good for us - it would be good for our mental health; it would be good for our morality; and it would be good for our unity. Yeah… God knew that, because – after all – it’s all about Jesus.
Lastly, the early church devoted themselves to PRAYER. In Matthew 18:19-20 Jesus said “If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered IN MY NAME, there am I among them.” WE GATHER AND WE PRAY …IN JESUS’ NAME!
And when we pray IN HIS NAME prayer becomes our lifeline to God. Prayer is where we tap into the power of God. And when 2 or 3 of us UNITE in prayer… powerful things can happen. There is power in unified prayer IN THE NAME OF Jesus.
The early church prayed all the time. One man listed the different times the church prayed. * They prayed during the day (Acts 3:1). * They prayed during the night (Acts 16:25). * They prayed when choosing new leaders. (Acts 13:3). * They prayed for those needing physical healing. (Acts 9:40). * They prayed before going on journeys. (Acts 21:5). * And one time – when they prayed during persecution – “the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:29-31)
They prayed and they prayed and they prayed, AND when they prayed … they prayed in JESUS’ NAME. They prayed AS a united body of believers, and they laid hold of the power of a mighty God.
CLOSE: And SO… it’s all about Jesus. Jesus is what gives us our power. Jesus is what unites us as a church. We may speak 4 different languages here (many of us came to church wearing a T-shirt or hoodie that said “Jesus is Lord” in Spanish, Creole, Burmese, English) but we serve the same Jesus.
And we’re UNITED in Jesus because He owns this church. He owns us (Baptized in the name of Jesus). We’re united because we learn about Him in what is taught and preached; because we are dedicated to being with His bride/church – fellowship; because we gather around HIS table each Sunday to remember His sacrifice; AND because we pray in HIS name as a body of believers. And when we (as His church) are united in Jesus we can turn the world upside down and change the lives of others so that they want Him too.
Because… it’s all about Jesus.
