INTRO
“Christian community means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. There is no Christian community that is more than this, and none less than this. Whether it is a brief, single encounter or the daily community of years, Christian community is solely this. We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
Jesus is the centre of all Christian Community.
We need others for the sake of Jesus Christ (1 Thes 4:9, 1 John 1:5-7)
We come to others only through Jesus Christ (Eph 2:14)
In Jesus Christ, we were chosen by the eternal community of the Trinity before time began, reconciled to Christ in time by his grace, and united to the church for all eternity past the end of time. (Eph 1:4, 18, 22-23; 2:14-15; 3:21)
When we see other Christians, we see those with whom we will share community for all eternity.
REVIEW
Community Begins With God
Godly Community Expresses Love, Unity, Generosity, Honesty, and Fruitfulness.
It is an outward focused love, a love that includes anyone who would receive it.
Therefore . . .
The Community of God Creates More Community
God’s Intention for His Covenant Community is That Through Her He Would Bless the Entire World
God wants to reveal His character and nature to the entire world through his community.
Unfortunately, human beings have fallen far short of God’s glory, we have sinned in not fulfilling God’s perfect purpose for us and are therefore guilty and worthy of death so . . .
The Community of God Also Redeems Community
He does this by planting the seed of his very nature into humanity.
Jesus IS the Seed of the Covenant of God’s Community
Jesus fulfills Community
Everything that Godly community expresses, everything that God intends for Godly community to do in the world, Jesus has fulfilled. He was with God in the beginning, in perfect community. He came to us as God as man and fulfilled perfect community among us. His life and death as us seals the covenant of God so that we can be free of our sin.
God Plants Community In Us By Grace Through His Covenant In Jesus Christ
Our Faith, Shown in our Obedience, Receives the Seed God Plants
+
If we wanted to, we could stop right there. This is the gospel. This is truth. By grace, through faith, we are now in Christ, and fully justified. (Eph 2:8-9)
Let’s consider this again. Here is everything I just said summarized in scripture.
Romans 3:22-25a (emphasis mine)
22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. (25b-26 - He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.)
In love and with purpose we were created from the eternal perfect community of the Godhead. We continued to fail to accomplish the purpose for which we were created. God intends to shine the glory of his very life through us, and we say no.
Still, because he loved the world so much, he gave his son, Jesus, to fulfill what we could not, to die as a guilty man though innocent, so that we can be justified through faith in him.
We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus (v24).
Freely. Justified. That means to be declared not guilty. Think about that.
This is better than forgiveness. Forgiveness is an act of mercy, and God is merciful. Forgiveness means that the criminal is brought before the judge, and at the end of the trial, the judge pronounces his verdict. The criminal is guilty. But when it comes time for the judge to make his sentence, instead of declaring a prison term, he declares the criminal forgiven. This is mercy. This is forgiveness.
This is radical enough.
In Christ, scripture says that we are more than forgiven. It says we are justified.
The meaning of this may be clearer if we see verse 24 in another translation.
NLT - God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. (Rom 3:24)
Justification is greater than mercy. It is an act of justice. The judge looks the criminal in the eye, and pronounces the criminal not guilty.
This is the exceedingly wonderful and radical good news that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not only does our final judge look upon a sinner and say “You’re guilty. I forgive you. Go and sin no more.” Our final judge looks upon the guilty sinner and says,
“You’re not guilty.”
vv25-26 say he did this to demonstrate his justice.
Forgiveness I can wrap my head around. A little bit. He lets it go. You don’t hold someone’s offence against them. But this is a wonder inescapable. He looks me right in the face, sinner that I am, and says,
“You are righteous”.
+
This is the wonder of grace. We could stop right here and bathe in the depth of the beauty of God’s mercy forever. Are you free? Absolutely. In Christ, through faith, you have fulfilled all God intends for you. And you are in Christ if you put your faith in him.
But this is not the end of the story, and this is not the end of grace.
God’s grace extends beyond legally calling you righteous, and continues working in you for the rest of your life to make you more like Jesus.
Jesus is our savior. He is also our role model.
God wants to make us like Jesus.
Jesus Models Community
(this segment paraphrased from Christ Centered Relationships 2 by Francis and Lisa Chan - 2008-08-10)
We’ve all heard this good news before. And it is so good. We love to be reminded of it. That’s why we like Jesus .
We really like Jesus. But if we are honest with ourself, we don't really want to become like him. We admire his humility, but do we really want to be that humble? I think we all think it's beautiful that the son of God would get down on his knees and wash the feet of his disciples. But is that really the goal of my life, and is my life headed in that direction of servanthood? Is yours?
Or are you just thankful that Jesus was spit on, and abused, and taken advantage of, but unwilling that you would ever let that happen to you? Do you love the fact that he laid down his rights, while you spend your life fighting for yours?
Some of you praise him, you sing songs, and you love him because he loved you enough to suffer his whole time on this earth for your sake, but you're going to make sure you have fun while you're down here. If so, you think Jesus is a great Saviour, but he's not a great role model.
I say that because a lot of times I'll give messages, and it’s about the character and teachings of Jesus Christ and the way we are to follow that character. I’ll teach about radical generosity from the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus says we are to give to an evil person whenever they ask of us, or that community life, real church life means that everything we have is shared, and it's met with a hostile defensiveness of someone’s life and property and boundaries and I just need to stop and ask,
Is Jesus Christ your role model?
Think this through. Is it the desire of your heart that you would be the servant that would lay down your life for someone else?
1 John 2:6 - Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
1 John 2:6 - Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
This isn’t an option for the Christian life.
Can’t I just be a Christian and admire everything about Jesus but still look nothing like him? John says no.
Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
Philippians 2:3-5 - Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
In community, our attitude is just like Jesus. We walk like him and talk like him. We think like him and react like him. God’s intention for his community in Jesus has not changed. We are to be his hands and feet in the world.
God intends to bless the entire world through his covenant community. Through us.
God’s Covenant Community Blesses the Entire World Through
1. Prayer and Intercession
2. Generosity and Mercy
3. Proclamation and Justice
The Hebrew scriptures are brimming over with instructions in how to be merciful, laws concerning justice for the poor and the alien, stories of intercession by God’s people for the nations of the world, and prophets and priests that intercede for God’s people. When God’s people do not reflect his mercy and justice in the world, the prophets weep as they call for people to repent and return to God’s way.
This hasn’t changed. God’s intention for his people today is the same. We are still to be a blessing to the world. We are salt and light. In Christ, we are empowered to do it. Jesus Christ is our role model.
So when we look at Jesus, we see God’s perfect intention for how his people are to practice prayer, mercy, and justice in the world.
How radical is Jesus’ prayer? That’s how God’s community prays.
How liberally does Jesus give? That’s how generous God intends his community to be.
How boldly does Jesus stand up for truth and justice? God’s community stands as boldly.
Jesus is our Saviour. Once saved, Jesus shows us how we are to live.
Jesus’ Example Of
1. Prayer and Intercession
Jesus prayed often
Luke 5:16
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
(Mark 1:35
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
Luke 6:12
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.)
Solitude, silence, and spiritual health of individuals in a community is necessary for the health of a whole community. We all need our time alone with God. It is essential. Jesus is God, and he often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. If the Son of God has to withdraw from community to pray, certainly we do as well.
Turn off the TV. Torn of the cell phone. Turn off the computer. Turn off the music. Spend time in the Bible. Spend time in prayer. Every day.
How we pray
Matthew 6:9-13
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
Jesus often prayed alone, and we should do the same. However, he did not teach us to pray only for ourself. This is a corporate prayer. Our Father, our daily bread, our debts, our debtors, lead us not, deliver us are all requests of a community. One could legitimately say that we are praying for all Christians everywhere when we pray the Lord’s prayer. We pray that everyone should be fed, and that all should be delivered from evil. Nowhere in this prayer is one single person praying for themselves. The only individual is the target of the prayer, Our Father in heaven.
If your prayers are always about you alone, or only you and yours, how would you pray differently if you only prayed using the pronouns “we” and “our”.
How we pray for each other (intercession)
Jesus’ powerful prayer in John 17 gives a good example of how we can intercede as God’s Covenant Community.
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.
Jesus prayed that we would be one. Let’s pray as Jesus did. Let’s practice this, too.
One way of promoting unity and humility in the body is to watch our pronouns. It’s easy to criticize other Christians. Nobody has more ammunition on the church than people in the church.
But what if we disciplined ourselves to only ever speak of others in the body of Christ as “we” and “us”. Think of this next time you want to talk about something in the church that you do not personally identify with. Instead of “those churches need to start caring more about social justice”, how about “we Christians still have more we can do in the realm of social justice”.
How we pray for enemies
Jesus prays from the cross.
Luke 23:34
Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
This is a prayer of intercession. Beyond all possible imagination, while Jesus is incurring upon himself the greatest injustice ever inflicted by mankind, he prays on behalf of those who are abusing him.
There is no indication whatever of repentance or sorrow on the part of those for whom he prays. Still, he intercedes to the father on their behalf.
The Lord’s prayer says (Matt 6:12) “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
God’s covenant people are a praying people. We have been called to be a blessing to the world. For those who oppress, abuse, and mistreat people, even us, we bow our heads in prayer and ask God for mercy and for their salvation.
Like Abraham interceding for Sodom, Moses for Pharaoh, and Jesus for those who crucify him, there is no one who is exempt from the prayers of God’s people.
2. Generosity and Mercy
Mercy for sinners and outcasts
Matthew 9:9-13
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Jesus had a bad reputation for hanging out with riffraff. Hanging out with sinners and outcasts can be costly. It’s a lot more comfortable to protect ourselves from others, especially those we do not understand. But Jesus didn’t do this.
Jesus chose to live a life where he would incur the cost of standing beside the least of those around him, people who were on the margins, people who were ignored and despised. We have been called to live generously among the poor, and to show mercy to those who are abused and mistreated. Unless we know them, listen to them, spend time with them, as Jesus did, we will never truly be able to do this.
We can’t truly show God’s generous love and mercy with a cheque alone. We have to spoon the soup ourself. We have to build the orphanage. We have to stay up late with the junkie coming down from their high. We have to visit our friends in prison.
Who do you associate with? Maybe it’s time to get to know some misfits. Go ahead and tarnish your reputation a little. After all, Jesus hangs out with you. (snap)
Jesus’ posture toward sinners
In John 8 a woman caught in adultery is brought before Jesus by people ready to stone her. Jesus makes himself vulnerable, and gets down on the ground next to her. He tells the people that whoever has never sinned can throw the first stone.
Jesus called Matthew, a tax collector, to be one of his close disciples (Matthew 9).
(Matthew 25:31-46) Jesus teaches that whenever we feed a stranger, or invite them into our own home, or give them clothes, we’re doing it for him. When we visit a sick person in the hospital, or a criminal in prison, it’s him we’re visiting. Jesus identifies himself so closely with the marginalized, sinners, and outcasts that he takes our service to them as service to himself.
Our freedom in Jesus is freedom to be Jesus among the poor and lonely, standing on their side when they are most vulnerable. That’s costly for us, and for our community. Your brother might bring “Jesus” into your home. “Jesus” might smell bad. “Jesus” might wreck your stuff. We each incur the cost of other’s generosity. Are we ready to do that? This is a burden that we bear together.
Serving each other
John 13:12-17
12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
If we claim to live in him, we must walk as he did. Our Saviour and Lord and King put on a towel and washed the feet of his disciples. He washed Judas’ feet. He explicitly told us that we are to do the same.
We are to bear the burdens of each other’s freedom. Not only do we serve “the least of these”, we support the messy business of each other doing the same.
Mark 9:35 - Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
(Mark 10:44-45 - and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”)
3. Proclamation and Justice
Jesus’ purpose and ours
Luke 4:14-21
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
If we live in Jesus through faith, we walk as he did. His purpose here is the same purpose for God’s Covenant Community spoken through all the Hebrew Scriptures.
It is the purpose of our calling in Jesus to also speak out boldly for justice and for truth for the poor and the prisoners, to stand with the oppressed until they are free, to boldly preach the good news of God’s kingdom without compromise.
Jesus did not pull punches when it came to speaking truth with authority. Some of the strongest declarations of fiery justice in all of scripture are in the red letters, in the mouth of Jesus.
Jesus began his ministry by saying “The Kingdom of Heaven is here. Repent and believe the Good News” (Mark 1:15 and elsewhere). To repent means to turn around, act differently.
He commanded his disciples to follow.
He revealed the sin of the judgmental men who would stone the woman caught in adultery. After they were gone, he told her to go and sin no more.
He called the religious leaders hypocrites, and called them out for their oppression of others. In Matthew (23) he calls them whitewashed tombs filled with greed and self indulgence. He says they heap heavy loads on people’s backs, but are unwilling to do a thing to help them. He tells them to give their excess wealth to the poor.
He tells a wealthy young man to sell everything he has and give it to the poor to inherit eternal life.
When he sees people taking advantage of the religious faithful by hawking sacrificial animals at the temple, he makes a whip, overturns tables, and forcefully drives people out.
Jesus said he wished the entire world were ignited with fire and passion.
Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the highest authority, and the judge of mankind. He does not shrink to call injustice what it is. He weeps with the oppressed and will avenge them. James 5 calls him “YHWH Tsabaoth”, the Master Avenger.
God’s Covenant Community speaks loudly for justice and truth.
+
1 John 2:6 - Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
Like Jesus, God intends for his community to bless the world through
1. Prayer and Intercession
2. Generosity and Mercy
3. Proclamation and Justice
We are free in Jesus. Free to be his Community. Free to be the servants of all.
(Next Week – God Establishes His Community – The Church)
No comments:
Post a Comment