Enhancing the Beauty of the Bride, Part 9
Enhancing the Beauty of the Bride • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
This message is personal to me
My conversation with Mike yesterday
My conversation with Jenine about how blessed I am to have my greatest friends be my church
Old friend group - maintain so I have an opportunity to show them Christ - not the people I look forward to spending time with - I don’t get anything out of them. I am not edified by them. That’s why God gave me you.
Some of you have become my very good friends - my best friends are in this room - and there is nothing I love more than being together with you - and I am not just talking about just our Sunday worship service - you are the people I want to be part of my life - you edify me, you challenge me, you draw me closer to God.
And that’s what I want to talk about today.
Today we complete our summer series “Enhancing the Beauty of the Bride” based on the principles of the book Natural Church Development. For some of you that brings a sigh of relief, but I hope for others this has been an edifying experience. I hope it has made us all think about what makes a church, a church.
And so, for the final time, I want to look at our little picture of the church built from these essential elements of a healthy church:
Now, I will spare you a review of the seven other elements. I just want us to notice that those seven elements are the structure of the church. Metaphorically the foundation, walls, and roof.
But the structure is pointless if it built but stays empty. That’s why you need a door.
And the door is holistic small groups. What does that mean?
Well let’s first talk about the word “holistic” - it means that all the parts of a person or entity are interconnected and affect the whole.
If you remember our summer series from last year on mental health we talked about the holistic nature of people. Our mental and emotional health is inseparable from our spiritual, physical, and relational health. They each affect all the others.
And that’s why the church is supposed to care for people holistically. Christianity is not just about the spiritual. Yes, it is the spiritual reality that we have all come to know that unites us in Christ, but as a community, we are here for much more than that.
Pastors don’t just preach and teach. We council. We listen. We love. We minister to the holistic nature of God’s people.
The church doesn’t just focus on the spiritual outwardly - we don’t just evangelize and leave the hungry hungry or the fatherless to fend for themselves.
We minister to the whole person.
And as the church, we are, as we have seen, a family, a community, and a united priesthood in Christ. But that goes beyond just the spiritual reality of who we are. The church is a holistic entity. The church - because it is made up of holistic people - is about more than just our spiritual nature.
And that is why the door to the church is Holistic Small Groups. This is the door into the structure of the church.
And by that, I don’t mean you can’t come into the physical church and experience any of these other things without it - things like inspirational worship or loving relationships.
What I mean is that by entering through the door of holistic small groups you are better equipped to become part of the structure.
Let me explain. I’m going to throw some stats at you, but I think these are stats you’ll be interested in.
We currently have a membership of 81
We have averaged 131 people in our Sunday service over the last year
We have had 636 different people attend a Sunday morning service over the last year
So let’s assume our average of 131 - where are the other 505 people today? What happens to those other 505 people on any given average Sunday?
What makes one of the 636 part of the 131?
preaching, music, free lattes? Maybe.
What makes one of the 131 part of the 81?
convenience*, preaching or music, ministries we run? Maybe.
But here’s the real question: what keeps someone in the 81? What keeps someone as part of the membership? What makes someone part of the very structure that is Montclair Community Church?
What keeps people at any church for a long time?
Sometimes we stay for a time because it is our only opportunity to use our gifts. I was very tempted to keep my last church open because I couldn’t imagine not preaching.
Sometimes it is just convenient. Or maybe we’re just comfortable. Maybe we like being able to come to worship God and hear the Word preached in a place we can sit in back and run out right at the end of the service.
Maybe it is the only place we can complain as much as we want to and still be accepted. It would be hard to do that in a new place.
But all of these aren’t sustainable. These aren’t what make people part of the structure of the church. And eventually, if this is why we’re here, we will realize there needs to be something more.
And either we find it here, or we leave.
And that is where the idea of “holistic small groups” comes in. Because what we need as holistic people is a holistic church. A church that is not just preaching or just music or just a comfortable place to spend a Sunday morning.
We need intimacy and interaction (focus on those two words today). We need relationships. We need people that show us Christ and that walk with us on our journey in this world.
And that is not the Sunday morning service. This isn’t intimacy and interaction with each other. This is spiritual worship. This is spiritual unity. We corporately interact with God in an intimate way as one united body.
But we need more than that. We are holistic people that need a holistic church.
And, as I said, this is personal to me. I speak from experience, because this is what brought my family here: the community that our church is where real relationships are made.
You all kept me here!
Because I come from a church background where following rules and having the right outward appearance on Sunday morning is all that mattered. There are plenty of those churches. But history shows us that those kinds of churches are in decline.
They are a constant revolving door of members that don’t stick around very long.
Because they are missing a big piece of the puzzle.
They are missing that intimacy we all need. They lack the interaction between people. There is no doorway there to becoming part of the structure.
Listen, the fact of the matter is that we have two ways for Christ to be revealed to us.
We can find Him in His revealed Word. And we can find Him in each other.
We know Christ through His Word and each other - passionate spirituality is stirred up in relationships. Loving relationships. Gifts are nurtured in relationship. Inspiring worship when we all come together is the result of our relationship with each other.
I want to be at a church where my friends are. I want to be at a church where I have people that I can lean on and who lean on me. I want to be at a church where people know me and I know them.
Because I want to be at a church where God is working through His people.
And these holistic small groups is how He does that on an intimate level.
So what are our holistic small groups? In the context of MCC, where is this door?
Well, first and most obviously, we have our community groups. And that name “community groups” is intentional. These small, intimate groups are where community is built up. It is where there is interaction. It is where friends are made and relationships are built.
They are holistic. There is spiritual building up through studying the Bible together. But that isn’t all there is. There is emotional support between the members of our community groups. There is physical support. The members of the group know what’s going on with others in the group and work together to meet each other’s needs.
List groups - encourage to join one/start one
Speak on the men’s group as a community group - great Bible study and more - (share victories and failures, pray with and for each other, we can encourage and rebuke each other in a safe place where everything stays) - (meals together, walking on Saturdays, fellowship - offer: prayer, support, friendships)
There are a number of commands in the Bible about doing such things.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Do you know where this happens? This happens in intimate relationships. In friendships. This happens in our community groups.
All of those “one another” commands in the Bible are about intimacy and interaction like we have in these groups.
Love one another
Instruct one another
Admonish one another
Care for one another
Comfort one another
Be kind to one another
This happens in holistic small groups.
But our community groups are not our only holistic small groups. It isn’t the only place relationships are built and intimacy and interaction happen. We have all of the ministries that we run. The people involved in any particular ministry are very often their own holistic small group.
ushers, LT, worship team (some have become great friends of mine), MOPS
VBS this week
And it certainly doesn’t end there.
Bible study on Tuesday night
Sunday morning study
But there’s more. There are organic friendships that grow out of mutual love for Christ and each other. Friendships that mean support and help and empathy.
Just look around on a Sunday morning down in the fellowship hall. There are friends sitting together all over the room. People who are part of these holistic small groups that get to spend time together every Sunday.
Brothers and sisters, we don’t have a small trap door to go through for you to become part of what’s going on here. We have an industrial garage door. You can get through the door no matter how much baggage you’re carrying, and you are invited in.
And I want the door to grow larger and larger so that multitudes can come in!
Okay, let’s consider that an unreasonably long introduction and let’s get to the Bible to see what holistic small groups are like.
Let’s think about how the church started.
It started when Christ called a small band of disciples to Himself. It starts with Christ and His Apostles, the cornerstone and the foundation of the church according to the Apostle Paul.
Now, the Apostles didn’t show up to hear Christ preach for 40 minutes once a week. They didn’t run into each other once a week and have a few minutes together.
They had consistent intimacy with Him, and each other. They consistently interacted with Him and with each other. This is how they grew into the foundation of the church.
Think about what we have in the Gospel accounts about the time Christ had with His Apostles. They were all together for over three years. So that means we have such a small part of what they all did together recorded. Because the Gospel writers had a specific purpose in writing.
But think about spending three years with that small group of people. What is that like?
Have you ever spent a week with extended family or friends on vacation - people you don’t normally spend that much time with consecutively? How do you feel about them after that week? Are you ready to hang out with them again the day after you get back?
Well, that’s part of intimacy. You learn each other’s shortcomings. You learn each other’s weaknesses. You learn what you don’t like about people. If you haven’t figured out what you don’t like about me, spend some time with me. It will become plain very quickly!
But do you know what happens in those situations? You are forced to make changes in order to accommodate each other. You adapt for the betterment of the group. You sacrifice for the sake of each other.
And while that’s happening, you get to know each other’s strengths. You get to use your strengths to accommodate the weakness of others in the group. Where one is weak, another is strong. Where one is in need, the other provides. You learn that you can lean on them and they learn that they can lean on you.
That is a holistic small group.
That’s what Jesus and His Apostles had.
And I know, you may say that we can’t compare ourselves with the Apostles because they had Jesus as part of their group. He was the focal point of the group and the head of the group.
That’s not different for us in any of our groups.
And when you consider that we need each other to see the love of Christ in action and for Him to work on an intimate level - well then we need each other that much more. We need that intimacy and interaction to know Christ.
Because after Christ spent that time with His Apostles, He gave them the Great Commission and tasked them to pay it forward. He tasked the church as a whole to do what He did.
Because you don’t make disciples from the pulpit. It is a part of it, but that isn’t where the rubber meets the road.
You don’t make disciples spending a few minutes with someone while you have a bagel and coffee and talk about the weather.
Disciples are made in intimate relationships. They are made through regular interaction.
They are made in holistic small groups.
And the disciples of Christ did as they were commanded. And we read that after the Spirit was poured out on the church and after Peter’s inaugural sermon:
Acts 2:42 (ESV)
And they [the church] devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
They - the church - they did a few things here. They devoted themselves to the Apostle’s teaching. Just like the Apostles devoted themselves to Christ’s teaching. That is an important part of becoming a disciple of Christ - hearing and understanding His revealed Word.
That’s why we’re here today.
But it doesn’t stop there. They devoted themselves to the Apostle’s teaching and “the fellowship.”
The word in the Greek is κοινωνία
This is intimacy begin spoken of. This is interaction. The word can also be translated, and is in the Bible translated elsewhere, as participation, sharing, contribution, or partnership.
It was used as a legal term to speak of a contractual agreement to share in the responsibility of something.
So realize, “fellowship” as the Bible describes it is more than just occupying the same space at the same time.
It is being intentional about participating. About contributing. About sharing responsibility together.
And what are we sharing responsibility in when we are in this kind of fellowship?
Each other. The church. Holistic people and a holistic group of those people.
This is the fellowship we are in. That is what the early church did.
And they did it intimately as they interacted with each other.
Notice also that they shared in the breaking of bread. And while many believe this is a reference to taking Communion, and that is part of it, it is more than that. This is talking about table fellowship.
In a few verse we read:
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
This was happening day by day, or daily. This is fellowship beyond the ordinance of Communion. This is being together beyond the church gathering on a regular basis.
And we see here that they broke bread in their homes.
Now, there were no church buildings at the start. The churches met in homes.
And I think that was actually better in a way. Because we tend today to think of church as a place. We talked about this when we covered inspirational worship. When someone says “where do you go to church” we give them the name of the church and maybe even the address. We talk about the place and say: “that’s my church.”
But it’s not. You here are my church.
In those days, there was no “place” for the church. When Paul writes to “the church in Corinth” he was not writing to the only church building in the city. Neither was he writing to one particular church and ignoring the fact that there were others by calling that one particular church “the church in Corinth.”
No. He was writing to the church. All the Christians of the city. Not only because there was no centralized location for worship, but because the church is not a place.
It’s people.
And, meeting in homes meant that the church gathering was much smaller, and much more intimate. I am not saying it is bad to have 130 people together to worship, not at all. I hope we have more each and every week.
I am saying that it isn’t enough to just do what we are doing this morning. We need that intimacy that the early church had. And we can’t let the fact that our circumstances are different from theirs change the fellowship we have together.
We can’t neglect the people because we have a place. We can’t neglect the fellowship and breaking of bread because we have a place to meet together for the Word of God to be preached every week.
That isn’t the model we are given in Scripture.
The church - the people - were together consistently. There was regular intimacy and interaction.
And there is something else the early church did:
And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
And of course, because of the next verse, we tend to assign a purely physical explanation of this:
And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
And this is part of that holistic care of each other. When one is in need, we who have should meet their need. The physical is part of this.
But I think this is not so much clarifying verse 44 as adding to it. The believers were together, they had all things in common, and in addition they would sell what they had in order to help the poor among them.
Let’s go back to verse 44 again:
And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
I don’t like the word “things” here. For one, it is such an ambiguous word, isn’t it? Second, we tend to think of “things” as physical things. But third, the word isn’t in the text. This is another case of translation carrying with it interpretation.
The text literally says “they had all in common” or “they had everything in common.” And the word here translated “in common” is an adjective that means “shared.”
They shared everything.
The word “in common” in Greek is κοινός
Sound familiar? It is in the same word family as our word κοινωνία that was translated fellowship.
You see, I believe that this is, in part, expanding on that fellowship - that participation - that partnership.
What was their partnership in? We already saw this - the partnership is in each other and in the church. It is a shared responsibility for each other and the church.
But what part of each other? Just the spiritual part? Just the physical part?
Well, clearly from the whole description here, that isn’t it:
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
This is awfully holistic, isn’t it? We see here the physical. We see here the spiritual. But we also see relational and emotional needs being met.
That is what this is saying:
And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
All who believed were together, and they had all things shared.
So, what did that shared responsibility for each other include?
Everything.
Mind, body, and spirit. Physical, emotional, mental, relational, and spiritual.
What did that shared responsibility for the church include? The church that Christ said would be built through discipleship - intimate relationship and interaction with each other? What is part of this partnership we all have as Christ’s people?
Everything.
This is describing a holistic church made up of holistic people.
And we see here the most important part of this. And this seems so obvious, and once I say it, you’ll maybe think I’m not so smart because I am stating something so obvious - but the most important part of this is the very definition of holistic small groups.
This is the door through which people enter to become part of the very structure of the church that Christ is building.
They were together.
Simple, right? The Christians were together with their church. With the people. They were regularly and consistently together with each other.
That’s the whole “group” part of holistic small groups.
And it is the most important part.
And we read of the church being “together” twice in our short passage today. In this verse we read that all who believed were together and had that holistic partnership.
Then, in verse 46, as we have already seen:
Acts 2:46 (ESV)
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
They worshipped God together and had small group table fellowship together which as we see here affected their emotional state along with their spiritual and physical.
But in this chapter of Acts, we actually read of people being together four times. We have these two examples we just talked about, and we have verse 1 where we read:
Acts 2:1 (ESV)
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.
And in verse 6 when the Spirit is poured out we read:
Acts 2:6 (ESV)
And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.
And here is something you don’t realize reading an English translation. Each of these four “togethers” are different words in the Greek. There are four aspects of togetherness being described here.
In chapter one of the book of Acts, Jesus gives the Apostles their marching orders to bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth, He ascends, Judas is replaced, and we read this:
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.
Who is the “they?” This is the Apostles. The foundation of the church. The first holistic small groups. They were together in that one place. Jesus is now ascended, and yet they are still together.
And the word used here for together is ὁμοῦ - it means "he same.”
Maybe you can hear in there an English prefix used to describe two people that are the same in a specific way. The word speaks to the unity, the sameness, or the oneness of those that are together.
Here, the Apostles were together as one.
And we have already talked about this when we spoke about how we are united to each other because we are each united to Christ. We are one body - we are many, but in Christ we are really one.
The Apostles were together in a single place - there is the obvious part of the “group” idea, they were together - but they were together as a single entity. They were a single, unified group made up of a small number of individuals.
And this is the idea of a holistic group. Remember, holistic means the constituent parts of a whole are inseparable and intertwined.
When we speak of individuals, this means we are multifaceted beings but each facet is an indispensable part of the the whole. Each part affects every other part.
When we talk of the church as a whole, we are all members of one body, with Christ as the head, and each body part is necessary for us to be whole.
When we speak of a small group where there is intimacy and interaction, it means that each member is a part of the whole that affects every other member. But the focus is on the one. The parts are there to make the one. To serve the one. To benefit the one.
That is how the Apostles are being described as “together” here. They were one, in one place. Because at this point, they had no one else and no where else to go. They had to be there to wait on God to fulfill His promise.
And we are no different.
This is why even in our small groups, Jesus is still the head and the focal point. We come together in our small groups so Jesus can work through each other. He is still the point.
But through that, He takes us and makes us one inseparable whole.
That is the idea of “together” here.
Then, after the promise of the Spirit is poured out, and He comes like a mighty rushing wind, we read this:
And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.
Because of the Apostles and what they were doing together, others came together.
The one Greek word is translated here as “came together” because it is a verb. That means that there is action involved. There is intentionality involved. There is will involved.
Here the moving of the Spirit draws these people together. And they hear the Apostles speak in tongues and they hear Peter’s amazing sermon, and at the end of that, we are told that 3,000 of these people that came together were saved by God.
What a miracle!
As far as it concerns holistic small groups, this is talking about the desire that leads to action - to our coming together in a group. To our “togethering” if I can make up a word.
And this is an important one. Because this is where we usually get caught up.
It’s like starting a diet or a workout routine. Getting started is the hardest part, isn’t it? If you’ve ever done either of those, you know once you get started, it isn’t as horrible as you thought it might be.
Then, if you are consistent with it, it goes from not so difficult, to easy, to enjoyable.
This same tendency to avoid the start is a huge problem for a lot of us when it comes to our walk with Christ.
I love VBS, but by Friday the getting in my car to come back here seems daunting…until I get here and love every bit of it
This is what happens to us when it comes to reading our Bibles, or serving in a ministry, or joining a small group, or in some cases even staying after service to fellowship downstairs.
Until we do it, doing it seems difficult or maybe just unimportant. But then we do it, and we realize it’s better than we thought. Then we do it consistently and we find that we need it and even enjoy it.
But first we need to get over that first hurdle. Being intentional in doing even what we think we don’t want to do.
And why do we need to do it?
Well, I think our first reaction to that is to believe that we need it. That it will help us grow, that it will provide a support system for us, and that it will help meet our needs. And all of that is true.
But primarily, I want you to consider joining a holistic small group - a community group, a ministry team, or just come to fellowship after service to start making some friends - I want you to consider doing it - to want to do it - for the sake of the group.
Again, the oneness we just spoke about it the important part. Yes, Jesus will work through the other parts of the holistic group to minister to us - but He will also work through us to minister to the group.
Not only is a piece of charcoal left in the bag not on fire for anything, but the fire in the grill isn’t burning as hot as it could be. The other coals would burn even hotter if more coal is added.
Action is needed here. Intentionality is needed here.
Are you still going to put it off?
Then we have this idea of togetherness:
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
All who believed were together and had everything in common. We already spoke about the having everything in common. But what about the “together” here?
Well, there actually isn’t a word for “together” here. It is translated that way because that is the sense of what’s being communicated.
But there are actually three words here that are translated as together. The preposition that here means “in,” the definite article “the,” and the direct object “them.”
It says here that these believers were, literally, “in the them.”
This speaks to our identity as part of the holistic group.
This is tied in with our oneness and our intentionality about being together for the sake of the group, because this is about losing yourself for the sake of the whole.
These believers weren’t first mes and yous. They were just them.
I am not me, I am part of “us.” You are not you, you are part of “us.”
This is how we are when we are in intimate relationship.
My wife and I according to Bible, our vows, and the inscription in our wedding rings are no longer two, we are one. I am not me when it comes to my relationship with her. I am part of the holistic one.
We, in intimate relationship with Christ - united with Christ - in other words: made one with Christ - we are no longer who we were. We aren’t “mes.” In fact, we are called to lose our lives, to deny ourselves when we become one with Christ.
And in Christ, we are united to each other, and when we are in intimate relationship with each other - which happens in holistic small groups - we learn to deny ourselves for Christ’s sake and the sake of each other.
We learn to stop being me, and God works in each of us to place us firmly “in the them.”
That is being together as we are called.
Then, finally, we have this:
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
These disciples were together in the Temple, but also together in relationship outside of the Temple.
They ate together. They spent time together.
And we see here that being together resulted in gladness - emotional health. It resulted in generosity - they helped each other with their physical needs. They praised God together - they helped each other be more spiritually healthy.
And they were only able to do this because they were together.
And the word translated “together” here is our first word that means one or the same, combined with the word for “passion” or “strong feeling” or even “strong thought.”
This is singleness of mind and desire. This is them having the same love or the same feelings.
When one of them felt something - the rest felt it with them. What one desired, they all desired.
This is the same mental and emotional needs being met by and with each other.
This is why they were glad. This is why they could be generous. This is why they could be thankful and praise God.
They together built these things up in each other.
And that is what is done in a holistic small group. This is what that intimacy and interaction lead to. You helping me, and me having the blessing of helping you.
This is what we are called to.
But to do it, we need to be together.
And I want to finish by pointing out what happened through all this togetherness.
The Lord added to their number - day by day, or daily. People were being saved through this togetherness.
Note that we are told that through all of this togetherness that they - the Christians - had favor with…who? Each other? Other Christians?
No. With all the people. Literally, with “all the multitudes.”
Imagine that. The multitudes looking at Christians favorably enough to hear the message they brought and be saved.
Just imagine if the world saw Christians as being together.
And this brings us back to our structure. The structure of the church was growing here in the book of Acts. And here, it is because there was a door for people to enter through and become part of the structure.
The church together in intimate fellowship. Every part of the whole interacting with each other for mutual upbuilding and faith.
This is what too many Christians are missing out on.
And that means the world - the whole multitude of those who are looking at us - they are missing the door that leads to Christ. They are walking the easy way through the wide open gate.
Because Christ didn’t just tell us to enter by the narrow gate. He said we first have to walk that difficult road.
In other words, there is work to do. And it isn’t easy.
That gate may ensure our salvation in the end - and it does...
...But it is the door to the structure of the church that grows us in salvation now. It is the door that leads us to holiness in the here-and-now. It is that door that helps us bear the difficulties of the way to eternal life.
It is the door that makes us part of the very structure of the church Christ is building whose purpose is to save souls - lead people to the narrow gate - and to make disciples - lead people through the door of the structure.
The more we are in intimate fellowship. The more we interact...
...The more regularly and consistently we are together: the more we are focused on being one, the more intentional we are about coming together, the more we are identified by our togetherness, and the more unified we are in supporting each other spiritually, emotionally, physically, and mentally - the bigger the structure will be, the stronger and more well built it will be, and the larger the door will be.
All we each need to do is walk through the door first.
We all need to be part of a holistic small group, because this is where this all happens.
So I warn you - if you are not part of a holistic small group - you are shorting yourself and others. You are missing the support of friends and a deeper knowledge of Christ. And so are they.
But I also encourage you: if you are not part of a group - a community group, a ministry team, an intimate group of friends from within the church - then walk through the door.
I hope to see you inside.