Biblical Community

Intro

Community, this term is something that should define a church, sometimes it does and sometimes it does not. We as a people are called to live as a community together, a church, a faith family. We are called to be here for one another, to love one another, to love and worship God together, to be a united force in this world that is so divisive.

Today, we are going to be talking about community, and what a biblical community is.

What is a community?

The God we worship is a God Who has eternally existed in community. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have dwelled in perfect unity, love and joy before and throughout time. This triune God created humanity as the chief of His creations for the display of this relationship.

In the beginning it was written that “it is not good for man to be alone” ().

We read in the Gospels that among Jesus’ final words before the cross was a prayer for the unity of His people, a unity expressive of the unity found within the godhead ().

We know from the testimony of the early church that community was the natural result of the Spirit’s influence upon the Church ().

It is apparent that community is not some secondary Christian teaching but is central to the outworking of God’s purpose in the world. God is glorified when He is properly reflected; by dwelling in unity, we rightly image our communal Maker.

Our relating with one another, reflects God to the world. If we are in turmoil, we are incorrectly representing God. If we live in unity, love, and harmony, then we represent to the World what it means to be a Christian Community.

The purpose of community goes far beyond just “hanging out” together, the purpose of community is to battle for deep and abiding relationships with each other, to truly live life together.

The purpose of community goes far beyond just “hanging out” together, the purpose of community is to battle for deep and abiding relationships with each other, to truly live life together.

What defines a biblical community?

As we read , believe community can be broken down into a few different terms:

1.) Love-

We are called to love one another, this is not something that comes naturally for us, some of us could be perfectly content not talking to one another, not living life together, not being a family here at epiphany, but listen, God has so much more for us than this, so how do you love one another? Look back to vs. 1 of , “by the mercies of God.”

We love one another because of the mercy of God, God’s mercy is what helps us love, we know God’s love for us, we live in it, and we are able to love one another in that way!

We love each other. Look at verse 9 with me. “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” You might circle that word and put a little note to the side, because it’s a word that I’m guessing is familiar to many of us. It’s“agape” love. Love must be sincere. It, literally, says, “Love, ‘agape’, without hypocrisy.”

What’s interesting is this word, “agape”, literally means selfless love or self-giving, unselfish love. It was a very rare term in Greek culture and Greek literature. In fact, many Greeks thought that “agape” love was weak love. You are supposed to be self-giving and selfless? No, you promote self, which is very similar to our culture today. It was a radical thing in the first century for them to say, “We love each other selflessly.

We love each other at great personal cost to ourselves.” I’m convinced it’ll be a radical thing in our culture today when we show “agape” love in a society that says everything is about building yourself up and promoting yourself. We say, “We give ourselves. We lay down ourselves for each other.” That’s the kind of love we have for each other that causes us to hate evil and cling to what is good.

In our culture today there are many opponents of the church due to the very fact that when they came to the church, there was not love, so how do we turn these opponents of the church into our brothers and sisters in our faith family?

Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” ().

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” ().

And not only will love and harmony in our congregations help win the lost; they will help keep the found. In a day where we are increasingly marginalized and mocked, it is even more important that we find our greatest place of belonging in the church. Mere attendance and association will no longer cut it. Maybe we could get by, when society was on our side, in thin relationships with fellow believers. But as opposition increases, the richness of our life together in the church will matter more than ever.

2.) Consistency

tells us to not neglect meeting together, as is the habit of some. We are called to meet together, we read in that the early church met together daily, this is not about sitting down in rows of chairs together in the temple, but the church got together and lived and experienced life together.

Chris Surratt in his book “small groups for the rest of us” said, “Coming to church for an hour every Sunday is not enough to change the world. We were designed by God to walk this life shoulder to shoulder with other people.”

We see in verse 10 that we are to be devoted to one another.

“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.” Two main words there in the original language of the New Testament, and the first one is a word that’s a compound word. It combines the word “friend” with the word for love that refers to family love, and so it’s a picture of a friend and a family together. What you’ve got in the second part of that sentence is you’ve got the word “philadelphia”, which you know is brotherly love. It’s a combination of brother and the kind of love you have for a friend.

So, what we’ve got is a picture here of the care that we are intended to have for each other as a church; it is intended to reflect the care of a family. All throughout the New Testament, we see a picture of the church as an extended family, so to speak, and many times even deeper than biological family. We see that in the teachings of Jesus. We see that all over the pages of the New Testament, and it’s a reality all over the world, especially in places where people have to leave their families in order to come to faith in Christ.

God has called us to live in community and that means being consistently in that community with one another.

3.) Authenticity

This is a commitment as a community to authenticity in a few things, first our authenticity in our relationship with God, this comes from knowing, cherishing, learning, and living God’s word. We have to be a people of truth, and truth is God’s Word. This is how we grow as a people,

John 17:17 ESV

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

We grow through reading, applying, and living God’s Word. Church we will not grow without the Word of God, it will not happen.

It’s authenticity in our commitment to the Worship, authenticity in our worship, worship is many things, but we must be authentic in the manner in which we worship, we worship God with how we live, we are called in Phillipians to live in a manner of the calling we have in Jesus Christ. We must be authentic in the manner in which we worship here at church, when we worship together, we do not put on a show in what we do, its not about instruments, and lights, and all of it, it is done here at epiphany in a way that God gets the glory, not myself, nor any of our leaders.

Also, we must be authentic in our worship as a congregation, as we sing, we sing with our hearts, its not about style of song, its about manner of our hearts, our hearts must be focused upon God, as we worship, it is not a time for distractions, it is not a time to catch up with one another, it is not a time to allow outside influences distract us, such as things going on at home or work, it is a time to let all things go and completely focus upon God.

Also, our fellowship must be authentic,

in is that we outdo each other in honoring each other and heaping honor upon each other without favoritism. We don’t just honor the people who are like us. We don’t just honor the people who are in this socioeconomic status or that socioeconomic status. We don’t honor the people who do all of these things. We just outdo each other honoring each other. We all know...we all know what it’s like to be honored in that way. It makes you feel like you’re valuable in this family, and that’s what the picture is here. You outdo honoring each other.

in is that we outdo each other in honoring each other and heaping honor upon each other without favoritism. We don’t just honor the people who are like us. We don’t just honor the people who are in this socioeconomic status or that socioeconomic status. We don’t honor the people who do all of these things. We just outdo each other honoring each other. We all know...we all know what it’s like to be honored in that way. It makes you feel like you’re valuable in this family, and that’s what the picture is here. You outdo honoring each other.

I say that. I’m guessing there are many of us who don’t know a lot about what it means to be honored, and I pray that you’ll be honored here at epiphany; I pray that you’ll experience great honor from the people of God. We are to honor each other.

if you have issues with someone else in this church, it is time to get past it, we have people who are dying and going to hell every hour and we are all on the same team, let’s get past things that bother us about one another and keep the main thing (Jesus) the main thing in our lives and ministry.

If we are going to grow as a church, then we must be committed to our faith family through love, consistency, and authenticity. We have to be an example in forgiveness and mercy, to truly hold each other higher than we think of ourselves. Epiphany, if we get to that point, we are going to grow like crazy, the world craves this, people want to be a part of something that is a community, a faith family. Let’s commit to being a faith family here at epiphany.

I say that. I’m guessing there are many of us who don’t know a lot about what it means to be honored, and I pray that you’ll be honored in The Church at Brook Hills; I pray that you’ll experience great honor from the people of God. We honor each other.

What destroys community.

Lack of Commitment

this is heart breaking for leaders in the church, and earth shattering for those who are curious about the church. I want us to look at a complete outsiders perspective, someone who has never been to church, never heard much of this Jesus guy that people in the church talk about. SO they start studying a bit, they see that Jesus calls Christians to love the church and to be a part of it, but so many are not committed in any way to it.

We are telling the world that we love God, but we are not that committed to the family that God has called us to be a part of!