PCI Essentials Part 3 - Community
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Introduction
Over the last number of weeks we’ve been looking at what it means to have an encounter with Jesus - a life-changing encounter with Jesus…an encounter that is more than a passing conversation, but an encounter that makes you unsatisfied with the life you currently have to the point where you are ready and willing to accept a call from Jesus to give your life to him and leave your old way of life behind and enter into this new way of life in the kingdom of God.
Today we take this further, because after the encounter and the call there is community…and that’s what we’re looking at today.
What does it mean to be a community of believers - what does it mean to be part of the church?
And also, what is the purpose of the church?
Big questions, all to be answered in one sermon - so we’re really scratching the surface here - but this morning will help you get a flavour of what the church is all about.
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And when it comes to other communities, with a most of them, their purpose is clear. For example, a golf club has a purpose to provide golfing facilities to its members and a place to eat and drink.
A bowling club is a group of people who gather and meet with the primary focus to play bowls.
Helping hands is a group of people who gather primarily to knit. They meet under a common interest or focus and that’s the basis of the community.
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Now when it comes to the Christian faith, the church is extremely important, and it’s extremely important to know its purpose. And we see that in our passages today, which make it pretty clear why there is a need to meet together and also the purpose for meeting together.
But before we do, we need to address the cultural issue of individuality...
Today we are quite an individualistic society. We like to be left alone. Even in my street, most people (myself included) like to keep themselves to themselves. It’s the way society has changed.
We talk about a personal faith in Jesus, which is true. Our salvation is NOT from the church it’s through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Now, Roman Catholics theology would say that salvation IS through being a member of the church. They believe that once you’re baptised, that’s you saved and in the kingdom of God.
We don’t believe that, but in some cases the pendulum has swung too far, where people SAY they have a saving faith in Jesus Christ, but this is MY faith…and I do it MY way…and I don’t NEED church…and as a result they don’t come near a church.
I have visited many many people in the course of my training who are on the books in the church but who never darken the door of the church.
And that goes against the teaching of God through the words of Jesus and through the writing of Paul in Ephesians, which we read earlier.
Being a Christian is NOT an individual thing…and it stems RIGHT from Genesis…in fact, right BEFORE Genesis.
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In the creation story, God said that man shouldn’t be alone, and so he made woman. Right there we see God’s intention for companionship…for relationship, but that was in a more intimate sense.
However, later in Genesis, after Adam and Eve sin, God is walking in the garden and they hear him walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Now we can conclude from that that this was something that God did - there was fellowship between God and Adam and Eve before they sinned. There was a community in the garden of Eden.
But even before THAT, God made man and woman in HIS image…and in the image of God there are three persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit…Three persons, one God. Three persons with different characteristics, but all three existing in unity with each other - despite their differences.
And we’re made in God’s image, so we, as a community of believers should reflect the image of God, by living together in unity…COMunity.
And so the Godhead - the Trinity - is a model of what a community of believers should be - different persons united together in God despite their differences.
And later in Genesis we see God starting the redemption process and he does it through families - through Abraham, through Jacob, through the tribes of Israel…each and every time God has a community of people for himself - a community of believers through whom he works his purposes.
So church isn’t a new thing…and it’s NOT an optional extra.
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I think it’s kind of ironic that Manchester United is called Manchester United. It would be fine to call them Manchester United if they were the only team in Manchester…but they aren’t. There’s Manchester City (and probably others, but I don’t know football).
But the fact that there is another team in Manchester means that Manchester IS NOT UNITED.
If they were united there would be one team…and one set of fans, despite their differences, all focused on the one goal - to be the best team in the country, to play the best football or whatever football fans look for in a team.
United means that people stand together, despite their differences, because they have a common goal - something that brings them together that transcends their differences.
That’s what it means to be united in Christ…that we all have differences, different gifts, abilities, interests, but we come together and we work WELL…we ACTUALLY WORK WELL as a single unit because we are united in our faith in Jesus Christ.
And that is Christ’s prayer for the church.
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In John 17, Jesus prays for his disciples and all who will believe in him...
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
But the gist of this prayer is in verses 21-23...
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 wanted his disciples to be as one, just as Jesus is one with the Father in the Godhead. There’s the trinity coming back into play…Jesus has a vision for his disciples and ALL WHO WOULD BELIEVE, which means US TOO, that we would be one like Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one.
He has a vision that we would be united, despite our differences, through our faith in Jesus.
Now, that sounds nothing like a personal individualistic faith where I believe in Jesus in MY way and I don’t NEED to come to church. That sounds nothing like that.
And so to those people who don’t come to church but who are able to, I’m thinking, why aren’t you attending church? If Jesus’ final prayer before he died was that we would be one, together, united together, as one body, then why are you not obeying the dying-desire of the person you say you follow?
And for those who AREN’T able to come to church, I also have to ask the question - what are we doing as a church to help them remain part of this community?
Because the world is looking on - we talked about this last week. And the reason why Jesus prayed this prayer of unity is on the screen - look at the last sentence...
Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them.
We are to be united to show the world what the love Christ looks like as we demonstrate it to each other.
Now, how well do we do that?
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In Ephesians 4 Paul says that God gave different people, teachers, evangelists, pastors and so on, for a reason. And it’s in verses 12 and 13...
12 to equip his 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.
So we have our ministers to equip God’s people - that’s you - for works of service.
My job as a minister is to equip you as God’s people so you can SERVE him…to love each other, to go and make more disciples - that’s my job.
And the ultimate aim of that is that the body of Christ may be built up until we ALL reach unity in the faith…there’s the oneness again…and in the knowledge of the son of God and become mature.
So, to equip you, to help make you mature in Christ, to reach maturity in your faith we have our Sunday services, where we come, as A BODY - ONE BODY - to worship Jesus together as ONE BODY…to pray together, as ONE BODY, and it’s why we have a sermon every week. The equipping, the maturity, the faith comes from a knowledge of Jesus which comes from studying the word of God...
…which is why we preach from the bible and the bible alone, because it is THE VERY word of God himself, given to us for our maturity and teaching and correction…so that we can be built up in unity.
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Now, Paul has used this metaphor of the body before. He uses it in 1 Corinthians 12 when talking about spiritual gifts...
12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
We are ONE body and each member has a gift, but also each member is needed. Paul says...
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”
So we need each other in this body of Christ. There is not one person who is not needed, but if they don’t come to the church to be part of this worshipping community then the body is fragmented. We’re trying to walk without feet or see without eyes. We NEED EVERY BELIEVER to be part of this church community - that was Jesus’ prayer.
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In Galatians Paul says this...
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
This is what it means to be part of a community in Jesus - we are a family, a covenant family who have made covenant vows.
Remember the vows at baptism to parents and to the church?
We stand up and make a vow, before God Almighty, to look after, to teach, to bring up our children in the ways of Jesus, to support our parents and our church children in their walk with God.
Now HOW can we do that if we are absent from the community of Jesus here in church?
We can’t!
If people have given up meeting together, which we have been told not to do (Hebrews 10:25)...
25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
…then we are neglecting a vow made to GOD HIMSELF - and we cannot take that lightly - we’ve neglected a vow to God to support our family members within the church. And if we aren’t actively part of this worship community then we’ll have to answer to that.
We are to bear one another’s burdens…which means both parties are involved. I bear your burdens and you bear mine - it’s needs to be a two way street. And the only way to do that properly is when everyone is together as one community.
And when we do that we see the love of Jesus Christ in action - and the world, who is looking on, will see a difference in us. That’s why Jesus prayed for this unity, so that the world might believe.
We all need to journey with other Christians in our Christian life, and what seems to work best, especially in a large congregation, is when a group of like-minded people get together to study the bible and pray with each other.
We need to move past the social meetings and move towards support, prayer, encouragement and being built up in our faith - actively sharing each other’s burdens and learning from each other and the Word.
That’s why we have our midweek meeting and small groups, and I’d love to see more starting.
If you’re on your own, as an individual Christian, then you miss out on this.
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Now, what do we do with those people who only come to church every now and then? or what about those people who want to be an individual Christian - who say, 'my faith is personal to me, but I don’t need church’?
What’s the deal with them? Are you saying, Andre, that they’re not saved?
No, I’m not. They may have made a profession of faith - I don’t know. Only God knows that - only God knows who are truly his.
But if they aren’t attending church, if they are NOT part of the community of believers, there are a few questions I would ask...
Are they bearing fruit in their lives for Christ?
How is their faith being nurtured? How are they being built up in maturity and in faith? How are they being one with other Christians as Jesus wants them to be?
How are they bearing the burdens of others in the church if they don’t know who the other people are and they aren’t part of that community?
Heaven when they die??? Perhaps, maybe…but experiencing life in the kingdom of God right here on earth - experiencing the love of Christ as part of being in a community of believers…No.
They’re missing out.
Are they more susceptible to being taken in by dodgy doctrine and the ways of the world, being tossed about like a ship in a stormy sea? Absolutely, because there is no one around them supporting them.
There is a real danger here on many levels.
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Ok then what about those people who can’t make it…people who are shut in, in nursing homes etc…what about them?
Well, that’s why we visit people…we bring the church to them. For some of our elderly members, they have done their part in the community of believers, and now it’s time that we do our part for them, by going to them and bringing THEM the love of Jesus. That’s one of the reasons why we visit the elderly shut in.
But I would like to encourage you that this isn’t something just for the elders and the minister - it doesn’t take any special training or gift to pop over and see someone who is shut in and can’t make it to church. In fact, that is one of your privileges as part of the community of believers, because we are all called to do this…
...and when we can do it for each other, it can allow the elders to focus on pastoring the more difficult cases where their specific gift and training can be used.
Do you see the body working as it should in that situation?
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One last thing before we close…the community of believers is not just the people we have in Hillhall.
We are part of a much much bigger community in Northern Ireland. In the Presbyterian Church we are all part of a Presbytery - a bigger governing community. We are interconnected through the churches within our Presbytery, and each Presbytery is interconnected within the denomination as a whole.
And we don’t stop there - we have other brothers and sisters in Christ who have slightly different understanding of the bible or church government - different denominations, but are still part of the body of Christ.
But we don’t stop there - worldwide we have a global church with whom we share as part of this community of believers.
So how do we share the burdens of those people? How are we part of that community?
Well, we can pray for them. That’s a simple thing to do.
But we can do our part by supporting the work of the national and global church, through prayer, through service - maybe volunteering in some way, and through practical financial giving.
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We are NOT an individual congregation. We are not a congregational church. If you think that Hillhall church is all you need to care about you’re in the wrong denomination.
Hillhall Church is a Presbyterian Church. And we support each other within this congregation - of course we do. This is our immediate family. But we also have a duty of care, a calling from God to support the larger family.
And here’s how the Presbyterian Church in Ireland does that.
They have a thing called United Appeal…see the unity in the title - the oneness...
In United Appeal each church has a target to reach - the target is based on the size of the church. And each church is asked to at least meet that target each year.
By doing this, we are living this whole thing out…we are helping the larger community in Ireland and the mission of the Church in Ireland and also across the world. By giving to the United Appeal we are showing our unity in Christ - that we are ONE body, with ONE mission.
This year, our target is just over £18,000.
Our Presbytery has asked us to set aside March 1st as United Appeal Sunday. That’s a handy time to do it. It’s just after payday.
So I would ask you to prayerfully consider redirecting your monthly giving - that tithe that God asks for you to give back to him, I would ask you to prayerfully consider giving that to the United Appeal on 1st March.
It’s a target that we have to meet regardless, so why not see if we can meet it in one fell swoop on 1st March?
That’s us recognising that we are part of a bigger community in Christ.
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The Godhead exists as three persons in one God. 3-in-1. All different, but wholly and fully and in every way ONE.
And God created us in his image - a relational people. People who work best together.
His plan to save the world was through communities, families, tribes, nations, and that plan continues today through the community of believers we call the church.
So let’s act as a community. Let’s love each other, share one another’s burdens. Let’s go and visit those who are part of this church but can’t make it out.
But let’s also go to those who say they are Christians, but never come near the door…for they are missing out on a community, a body of believers, united in Jesus Christ. They are missing out on seeing the love of Jesus in action.
They are missing out on this call into a new way of life in the kingdom of God, and chances are they are not bearing fruit, and chances are they are in danger of being swept away by the doctrine of the world.
So if you know a member of this church who are able to but aren’t coming to church, I would encourage you to go to them, and, speaking the truth IN LOVE, invite them back into our community of believers and exhibit the love of Jesus to the watching world, so that they might believe.
And let’s remember that we are part of a bigger body - the global church, who need our help and support just as each member here does.
So let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us in this.
Let’s pray.