Sermon Tone Analysis

The subject of our time tonight is the topic of community, the community of Christ, but our church community.

We want to address tonight:

What creates a sense of community?

I read something this week that asked the question, other than the internal people that are members, are their any missions external to the church going on that the community (external) would miss the church if it were closed?

I made somewhat of a mission statement for the church independent of any other person’s influence as a slogan or mission statement for the church”

“Come Celebrate Christ in the Country”

Now, I must admit I was shallow in my thoughts.

We are to go, not come.

As I thought about my leaving for two weeks, I wanted to leave for a time of reflection.

I want the Lord to instill vision during this sabbatical.

Would you commit with me to prayer, ponder and consider the Holy Spirit’s lead as God’s people here at Mt Zion find His footsteps for our future?

Can we collectively as a church come up with a mission statement for our church?

A mission statement is only just that unless we live out its meaning.

“If we want to be the kind of church that “goes into the world to share Jesus,” then we need to be a church that makes worship our priority, prayer our focus, and community our goal.

Someone asked me where I got that word community from because in Acts 2:42 it says, “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

Well, the word for fellowship is the Greek word “koinonia,” and it means fellowship but it also means so much more.

I pulled out my copy of the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament – abridged version – and found four pages of definition.

The words used more than any other in the definition were common and participation, communion and union.

So I don’t think it is too much of a stretch to understand what Dr. Luke was getting at.

The kind of fellowship that the early church had which is the kind of fellowship that we need is summed up in the word community.

Acts 2:1 says it this way, “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.”

And in v. 44, “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.”

I see in those verses community, and I would like to break that word down into its two component parts: communal unity.

Everything they owned was considered to belong to everyone else – that is communal living at its most basic level.

And they were together which means they were united.

Listen to me, my friends.

When we became Christians, we became part of the body of Christ.

We were called to belong and not just to believe.

God invited us to be members of His family which means that we were meant to live in relationship with each other – in community.

Last week I defined the term community for you as togetherness for the purpose of survival.

The early church needed each other because they lived in the midst of intense persecution.

But community is also togetherness for the purpose of service.

Just as Jesus loved people and met their needs, we are called to love people and meet their needs.

The greatest act of service you can perform is to speak love and healing into the lives of hurting people.

And then community is togetherness for the purpose of sharing.

My friends, it is our responsibility to share our love, wisdom and resources to help others through their trials.

With that in mind, look with me at our Scripture tonight.

Acts.

2:42-47

Worship was their priority.

Prayer was their focus.

Community was their goal.

Tonight, I want you to see what this kind of community looks like.

Community has a Focused Purpose

Too many times when we think about the purpose of the church, we think in terms of programs and activities.

Rick Warren made famous the concept of The Purpose Driven Church in which he listed five purposes: fellowship, discipleship, worship, ministry, and evangelism.

And many who would read this passage of Scripture would immediately jump to v. 47 where it says, And the Lord added to the church daily  those who were being saved and say that the early church’s focused purpose was evangelism.

But it wasn’t.

Others might look at v. 42 and say that it was worship or fellowship.

But it wasn’t.

Some would say then it had to be ministry.

But it wasn’t.

Listen to me.

All of these things are good, and all of these things are important, and all of these things would be considered as purposes of the church, but I want you to understand this.

The focused purpose of the early church was simply to love God, love their fellow Christians, and to love the lost.

Do you see what that looked like?

If someone had a need, they met it.

That’s what Christian community does.

It helps you face life’s problems by providing the support and encouragement of other Christians.

Several years ago, I read an article in Leadership magazine by Carl Conner.

It was about the dangers of standing alone.

He tells the story of a time when a wet, six inch snowfall hit North Carolina.

Along I-40, stood several large groves of young, tall pine trees.

The branches were bowed down with the heavy snow – so low that branches from one tree were often leaning against the trunk or branches of another tree.

But where the trees stood alone, the effect of the heavy snow was different.

The branches had become heavier and heavier, and since there was no other trees to lend support, the branches snapped.

Listen to me.

When the storms of life hit, we need to be standing close to other Christians within the community.

The closer we stand, the more we will be able to endure.

But the Christian community also helps you find guidance, direction, and correction through the wise counsel of other Christians.

Ephesians 3:10 tells us that God’s intent was that “the manifold wisdom of God should be made know through the church.”

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 and pray together.

He helps us make right choices and good decisions through our interactions with each other.

And my friends, there has never been a time when this guidance has been more necessary.

Our society today is telling us that wrong is right and right is wrong, and without the strength that comes from godly brothers and sisters in Christ, we too often are willing to compromise our principles and join in what the world calls fun.

But through the community of faith we are guided into paths of righteousness and are able to resist the sinful and deadly ways of the world.

We need each other if we hope to change the world because without each other, the world is going to change us.

Community has a Fixed Plan

Not only does community exist because of a focused purpose but also because there is a Fixed Plan.

Look at this.

V. 42 – they worshipped, they fellowshipped, they prayed.

V. 44 – they took care of each other.

V. 46 – they worshipped, they fellowshipped, and they worshipped some more.

And here is the fixed plan – the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

Listen to me.

I believe that this has been God’s plan for His church from the beginning.

George Barna did a study a few years back asking the question, “What draws you to a church?”

The first answer was that someone invited them.

The number 2 answer was this: how much people seem to care for one another.

When God’s people have a focused purpose to love God, love each other, and love the lost, people are drawn to become a part of the community.

I will never forget what one of my professors told a class of preacher boys at Seminary.

He said, “If the sheep are healthy and happy, they will naturally reproduce.”

He was talking about the church.

When the church is healthy and happy, lost people are going to get saved.

So if the fixed plan is to reach lost people, how do we get there?

First, we need to become a healthy, happy church.

We need to be the church God intends us to be.

I want you to see something I mentioned to you last year: the structure of how Luke is writing the book of Acts.

It seems as if he is flipping back and forth between two perspectives.

One perspective is that he looks at the church from the inside.