INTRO/REVIEW
“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
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)
In the beginning, God. (Gen 1:1)
All community began with the perfect community of the Father, Jesus the Son, and Holy Spirit since before the beginning of time. (Gen 1, Eph 1, Jn 1, Col 1)
In love, humanity was formed for community in the image of God. (Jn 1:1-3, Gen 1:26-28)
God wants to reveal His character and nature to the entire world through his community. (Gen 12:1-3, Ex 19:3-6, Dt 4:1-8)
Jesus was born into God’s community, and is the perfect, exact reflection of the character and nature of God. (Jn 1:14-18, Jn 5:19-23, Col 1:15-20)
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 his eternal community in us through faith in Jesus. We receive it by faith.
Jesus Redeems Community
Colossians 1:19-20 – For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Jesus Models Community
1 John 2:6 - Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
God’s covenant community follows Jesus, as Jesus follows the Father. God’s community prays as radically as Jesus, gives as generously as Jesus, and speaks as boldly for truth and justice as Jesus. Through his redeemed covenant community, God continues to reveal his goodness to the entire world.
God Establishes His Covenant Community
Acts 2 – The Day of Pentecost
After Jesus’ ascension, the disciples were waiting together for the Holy Spirit to come, as Jesus had promised.
During the Jewish festival of Pentecost, while they were all together, a wind blew in their room, and 120 disciples were baptized in the Holy Spirit. They began speaking in other languages.
People from all over Asia were present in Jerusalem because of the festival. When the disciples left the building, ecstatic and speaking in other languages, the crowds thought they were drunk. Whatever the manifestation of the Spirit was, it was enough to draw a crowd. The people gathered, and Peter began the very first gospel service by preaching a sermon from the Hebrew scriptures.
Peter’s sermon introduction is a little shaky, “Hey everyone, we’re not drunk!” By the end, he’s found his stride. After expounding on the Hebrew scriptures to explain the gospel, he ends with
Acts 2
36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38 Peter replied, “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. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
This is the beginning of the first church. They remained in Jerusalem for a while, before persecution caused them to be scattered, and the gospel spread throughout Asia and Europe.
The community they shared was beautiful, but it was not new. Filled with the Holy Spirit, and following in the footsteps of Jesus, the early believers were participating in the Community of God that had existed before time began.
John 17:5, 20-23
3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
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. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
From eternal and perfectly satisfied love and joy, the community of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit created humankind. In Jesus’ death, he fully justified and redeemed mankind to God. By faith, the church could now participate in the eternal community.
To know God is eternal life. By faith in Jesus, the church is filled with the Spirit, and enjoys community together with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit forever.
Just as Jesus had revealed the Father, so did the early church community reflect the nature of the community of God in their fellowship.
Acts 2:42-28
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 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, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
(What is a church?
1) The local church is made up of regenerated, Holy Spirit filled believers in Jesus (context– vv36-41).
2) The local church accepts and submits to the authority of scripture (v42).
3) The local church (literally “ecclesia” in Greek, meaning “gathering”) meets together regularly (v46).
When they gather, they
a. study and learn scripture together (v42).
b. praise God together (v47). They probably shared stories of miracles (v43) and provision (v45).
c. worship God and be in awe of his miracles together (v43).
d. participate in God’s work by sharing and being generous together (vv44,5).
4) The local church breaks bread together (vv42,46) and baptizes people (context v38. implied v47.) as visible symbols to remember the good news of Jesus and salvation.
5) The local church is in unity (v44) and they share real life together (v46).
The unity of the church in Christ is expressed by the members in a diversity of God given gifts through faith
6) The local church is an agent of God’s demonstrative love on Earth. (v43,44,45. v47 – favour – evidence of their love)
The church loves
a. God (Mt 22:37).
b. each other (Jn 3:14;13:34-35).
c. their neighbours (Mt 22:39; Rm 13:9-10).
d. strangers (Hb 13:1-2).
e. their enemies (Mt 5:43-45).
7) The local church shares the GOSPEL with the world.
(v47, context – Ax1:8, Jn3:16-17)
This is God’s mission to the world.)
(Next Week – The Church Community in Purpose)
The Church Community in Practice
1. Joyful Love
(Trinity - God is Love – 1 John 4(esp. vv.7-8), Psalm 16:11)
1 John 4:7-8 - Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Love does not exist in a vacuum. A lover has someone to love. To say that God is love is another revelation of the community of God. Because God is triune, he has within himself the ability to share love for all eternity. God is love, and love comes from God.
John 15:9-13 - “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
(John 17:13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.)
To share in the love of God is not a burden. We love each other as he loved us. When we remain in his love, the love he shares with the Father, we will share that same love with each other. This is eternal love, God’s love, existing in the church. In it, we are filled with the joy of the eternal community.
In Practice (Acts 2)
46 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, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
The early church loved each other so much. They always wanted to be together, and they shared their lives with joy and sincerity
Godly community is a community of love.
2. Humble Unity
(Trinity - Mutual, Humble, Willful Submission – Phil 2)
Philippians 2:1-4
1 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
(John 17:20-21 - “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 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.)
The Christian life is one that necessarily requires submission to an other. We cannot live in isolation. There are no autonomous, individualist Christians. We encounter our entire life of faith in the Word of God which comes to us from outside of ourselves. Our righteousness comes from without, not within. We hunger and thirst for righteousness, and therefore we hunger and thirst for the life giving word which sustains our faith and directs our practice.
God puts his Word in the mouth of others. (How can they hear without a preacher (Rom 10).)
When we are affected by the word, we want to tell others.
Satan is overcome by the word of our testimony. We build one another up in mutual submission to and proclamation of the Word. Christ in the testimony of our brothers and sisters is always stronger than in our own hearts.
In Practice (Acts 2)
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
The unity of the early churches was in their mutual submission to scriptural teaching, and each other. They reminded one another of the gospel frequently (communion). They had teachers among them, pastors, apostles, and elders of the church. They were not all the same, but they were all equal.
Ephesians 4:2-6, 11-16
2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
There was a lot of preaching going on in the early church. It began with a sermon, and the apostles and elders of the church continued to preach to share the message of the gospel with the new believers. Paul once preached a sermon so long that a young man fell asleep and fell out of a window(Acts 20:9). He kept preaching for the rest of the night. The early church’s hunger for preaching and the word was insatiable. (When the church’s mercy ministry to the poor was growing, different believers other than the main preachers were chosen to lead the practical ministry (Acts 6:3-4).) Everyone had a role in the early church. They were all different, and all essential.
Members of Godly community are humble, considering others before themselves, submitting to the authority of scripture, and respecting the diversity of gifts in the community.
3. Mutual Generosity
(Trinity - Common Ownership - Matt 11:27 – Father handed everything over to Jesus - John 16:15 – Jesus and God share everything.)
John 17:10, 22-23a
10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.
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.
Like the unity of the Father and Son, the unity of the early church extended to their possessions. They shared everything they had, and there were no poor among them.
In Practice (Acts 2)
44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
Godly community is generous and shares together.
4. Honesty and Understanding
(Trinity - 1 Corinthians 2:11 – Only the Holy Spirit fully understands the thoughts of God.)
In Practice (Acts 2)
43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 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, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.
The community of Christ shares life together, supernaturally and naturally. We experience miracles together, and we spend time in each other’s homes. We pray for each other, and we smell each other’s bad breath. We understand one another (Phil 2 - make my joy complete by being like-minded), and we trust each other.
Members of Godly community are honest, seek to know each other better, and live in understanding.
5. Fruitfulness
(Trinity - Co-Creating, and co-redeeming – Genesis 1:26, John 1:1-5)
Matthew 28:16-20
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Acts 1:8 - But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
John 3:16-17 - “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
God’s church continues to carry out his mission in the world. He continues to bless the entire world through our intercession, our acts of mercy, and our bold proclamation of the gospel to everyone, everywhere.
In Practice (Acts 2)
46b They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Godly community is open and ready to share their community with others.
Godly community is fruitful, begetting more community.
The local church is an agent of God’s demonstrative love on Earth.
The church loves
a. God (Mt 22:37).
b. each other (Jn 3:14;13:34-35).
c. their neighbours (Mt 22:39; Rm 13:9-10).
d. strangers (Hb 13:1-2).
e. their enemies (Mt 5:43-45).
Like a family, the love within a community only grows in fullness as the community grows. As a parent’s love grows with each new child that their love produced, so also does Godly love in community seek to share that love with others, and see the community grow. God’s love (and therefore our community’s love) is an outward focused love, a love that includes anyone who would receive it.
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John Wesley said “There is no holiness apart from social holiness”. It is in community that we practice our faith and grow in the word and Christlikeness. Bonhoeffer expressed the importance of community life by reminding us that when God‘s love feels distant or non-existent, the body of Christ’s love is tangible.
The Body of Christ is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit among us. We are participating in the eternal community of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Scripture is clear that the community of believers is not only a blessing, but a necessity. Without it, we die. When we separate ourselves from community, we separate ourselves from the life of God. We chop the living body of Christ into dead members.
God places the lonely and the orphans into families. Through our church, we experience the living Body of Christ together.
(Next Week – God Sends His Covenant Community into the World – The Church on Purpose)
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