Life Together

5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. 

BIG IDEA:

What do we have to know?

Why do we need to know it?

What do we have to do?

Why do we have to do it?

ME

I am weak. There, I said it. While most messages shouldn't focus on the pastor, I want to speak to you heart to heart. You see, I am weak physicially. During our Iceland trip, I was challenged to hike up to the top of this foss (foss means fall as in waterfall) but I never climbed so steep and so high in my life. It was thrilling to get up there, to prove that I am not weak, but I was wobbly coming down. Weak. Mentally I am weak. I take 20mg of Paxil every night in order to balance the brain chemicals to prevent me from experiencing a panic attack. This is why sometimes for those keen enough you will see my hands tremble slightly when I am passionate, occasionally flipped the wrong cover for the communion, or ask the congregation to pray again even after announcement when we should be going into silent reflection. I have sleep apnea, which means I go to sleep with a Darth Vader mask on or else anyone around me will not be able to sleep because of what one unfortunate counselor once described as a freight train level of snoring, or I will suffocate and wake up and my brain doesn’t get the proper rest to have a good night sleep.

I am a sinner. I have done or at least thought of everything within the ten commandments where God told us not to do. This is not to give myself an excuse, only to prove this is where I am. And I like to believe this is where we are, if we admit it. Now why did I start off on a low note? This is not to ask for your pity, but just to demonstrate church is not made up of people who have it altogether. If you have that expectation coming in, you will be thoroughly disappointed.

WE

You see in the church, just like any part of society or a gathering group of people, there are those who are strong and those who are weak. And because of perceived strength or weakness, some of us who are strong unintentionally becoming intolerant to those who are weak. And vice versa, some of those who are weak, whether it is social awkwardness, moral failures, a gossiping tongue, we annoy those who are different. Couple that with some of us who are here for the first time to this community, just checking things out to see because this church is close to your home, or you want your child to grow up with good morals, or however long you may actually have come to MCBC but are sitting in the balcony and turn left when the message is done, we are all here today because we are church. And where there are people, there are disagreement.

And when we in the church disagree, we usually starts from something minor or insignificant. Who has the right to which room? Why did the youths not clean up the basement again? Why does the pastor ignore me, when I pass by him after service and said hi? And the cumulation of these human weakness and frailty, coupled with sin, can create the perfect storm for strife, confusion, or outright conflict. So what are we to do to maintain the ideal community of love and grace and hospitality, compared to the reality we are here with expectations we want met?

GOD

We’ve been for the past few weeks look into the letter Paul, an apostle, or follower of Jesus, wrote to the church in Ephesus. We looked at the community which is being formed, elected or chosen to be set apart to show what it would be like if Jesus is our king and we are ruled by him. How we receive grace, the gift of salvation which cost Jesus to pay for the penalty of our sin and wrongdoing. And then the gift of God, that everyone of us who accepted this grace is given gifts to serve one another in this community. And just last week, we looked at our relation to a God who sees us as his sons and daughters and what might that mean. You can go on the MCBC English website to revisit those messages. And next week we are going to conclude this series with Mike, our youth pastor intern on Standing your Ground in . But today, as you see we have an obvious drop in attendance, don’t worry, it’s just about half of us are away for the English retreat, we didn’t want you to be left behind so I’ve been tasked with sharing about the theme of retreat here so you have a taste of it: Life Together. Besides it being the title of one of the best Christian Literature written by one of my favourite theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who died a martyr for the faith for opposing Hitler during WWII, we are going to look at this theme through almost the end of the letter Paul wrote to the Church of Rome. Here, in chapter 13, he talks about a situation where for the sake of those weak in their morality, having to do with eating food sacrificed to idols, those who are strong limit their freedom to eat before these weak brothers new to the faith by sacrificing and abstaining for their sake. Sounds simple enough, yet why does Paul need two chapters of ink to resolve this? Because of a fundamental difference between these two groups of people. The Jews and the Gentiles. Which is kind of like the Jews and the Palestinians, or England and the IRA of days past, a tense situation. When you are called the chosen people, you get just a little bit more morally lifted or sense of superiority (even when in fact they are chosen for other nations to see), and the Gentiles, whom belong some of your oppressors, or people groups you look down on because of their status, reputation, culture, values and practices. Pride and tradition. Your Freedom as payment for my Restraint. This is a time bomb waiting to happen. Let’s see how Paul diffuses it. Open up to , it is on page 949 —— of the pew bible.

Jesus demonstrated the way to our life together through weakness.

(ESV): 14 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.

Three times it says do not: do not quarrel, and do not despise, and do not pass judgment. Instead twice it says, we should welcome them, why? Because God himself has welcomed them. Keep this in mind now that we see the context of strong and weak.

(ESV): 15:1 We who are strong have an obligation

to bear with the failings of the weak,

and not to please ourselves.

How? By using the failings of the weak at our expense, to jeer and sneer and laugh at them. To create who is with us and who isn’t based on however you defined weakness to be. As long as there is an us and a them, there can be no unity and no life together. Weak in context is weakness towards falling back to former ways, particularly pertaining to meat sacrificed to idols, to eat or to abstain. This may sound trivial for us today, but in Ephesus it was a matter of principle. It was the law. The Torah, God’s law, through which the Ten Commandments came from, had a very specific set of dietary restrictions. Gentiles can eat anything, Jews can’t. But when Jews take not eating prohibited food from Torah as their badge one honour, those gentiles who eat everything, especially food sacrificed to idols or false gods, wear a badge or shame and should disassociate with connecting with them. Paul says this is the old way of associating with one another. Instead,

The strong should identify themselves as one community with the weak so much so the reproach or insult hurled towards the weak the strong also receives willingly. With gentleness and patience, trying to correct their weak, even if it means entering into it and not seeing immediate success or overcoming such failings.

2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

Why?

3 For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”

Reproaches = insults; Rude communication that belittles or offends somebody or something unjustly

Who reproached = harshly criticize; to find fault with real or merely perceived faults in a harsh and demeaning manner

It always go back to Jesus doesn’t it? Not only do we not further criticize or ridicule the weak, we do the exact the opposite, because Jesus would have done to same for us. In fact, he did do the same for all of us. During his earthly ministry? Who defended the weak, the oppressed, the misunderstood, widows and orphans who had no social status in a patriarchal world? It was Jesus. Who honoured a prostitute, a tax collector, several of them in fact, with grace, hospitality and service? It was Jesus. Who went head to head with the strong, the muscles of the oppressive system of scribes, Pharisees and sadducees? It was Jesus. But when it comes to him needing defending, he wasn’t so lucky. When he was reproached he had no defender for his name. He took on all the insults, sneer and jeer even though they were wrong, why? Because he has thick skin? Perhaps only by total hatred poured onto an innocent man can in exchange be overcome by an overflowing of total non-retaliatory love (even if Jesus can call upon legions of angels), he chose not to. This is the basis of our life together. A debt of gratitude we equally owe to Jesus. How much more so his community.

, written many hundreds of years before Jesus was born, aptly describe the way Jesus created a path for us to forge a life together:

(ESV): 7  For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach,

that dishonor has covered my face.

8  I have become a stranger to my brothers,

an alien to my mother’s sons.

9  For zeal for your house has consumed me,

and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

10  When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting,

it became my reproach.

Why else should we have a life together?

Through the enduring and encouraging Spirit, we can be forged to a Life Together.

We

4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction,

that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Paul here is talking about the Old testament, which was the only ‘scripture’ they had, from Genesis to Malachi. Later, Paul will mention ‘Christ becoming the servant of the circumcised to confirm the promises of the patriarchs,’ who refer to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, beginning with Abraham in : land, seed, and blessing. They were promised to become a nation who will bless other nations.

Their faith despite hardship or Jesus in particular and God’s faithfulness and rescue is a blueprint for all of our lives that although we are weak, reproached, the story ending is a hopeful one. Does not the resurrection nullify any temporary and momentary suffering and losses?

What is our hope? Our Hope in his character that our God is faithful and his promise that his presence is with us, and in his deed (not that he need a track record to prove himself to us). But just so you know, God had Jews and gentiles in mind from the beginning of his plan.

In both the verse 4 and verse 5, we come to Two key words to look out for:

Endurance = the power to withstand hardship or stress, especially the inward fortitude necessary

Encouragement = consolation; act of giving relief or comfort in affliction

The LORD of the universe carefully wield these two poles in faith throughout biblical history so that his plan of having life together with us, and in turn we have life together with one another. In , Paul says it is in our suffering which we produce endurance, which produces character, which produces hope. Yet, from time to time just when we think we can’t make it, we can’t go on, God also provide the encouragement as well as the ultimate hope as he shapes his community. Therefore, endurance and encouragement are not only his tool to forge his life together community, it is also who God is, the enduring one and the encouraging one.

Paul now turns these two aspect of God’s character, as revealed since the beginning of time, in the days of the patriarchs, of Moses, of David, into a request.

It is a prayer. It is a benediction.

5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you

to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,

6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What is the fruit of this labour. The key is in verse 6, this unseeming word in English translated as Together. It means without dissent, single-mindedly, in one accord, and was especially used in the book of Acts. This is the first community forged in endurance and encouragement, composed of Jesus believers who serve together and suffered together. Just feel the gravity of this word together throughout Acts:

(ESV): All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

This was just after Matthias was chosen to replace Judas the betrayer, and included women and Jesus’ immediate family!

(ESV): When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.

(ESV): 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

(ESV): 24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said,

(ESV): And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did.

(ESV): 12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.

(ESV): it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,

One immediate application you see in a life together is prayer. Life together means prayer together. It’s what kept the community together, when they can openly approach God together and lift up their praises, confessions, thanksgiving and intercede for one another. Pray not only at our three prayer meetings on Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday, but also begin the habit of letting prayer be the beginning or ending or during your conversation of life together. One thing I have learned even at first it seemed awkward at first is during a conversation I am trying to remember mentally what are some content in the conversation which can be turned into prayers, a request, a desire to change, a person or situation which is difficult, and at the end ask, “can I pray for you right now?” And if the content has been pleasantries, I would ask the person “is there anything I can pray for you?” It’s unnatural at first I know, but I pray we would become a praying church that glues us in our life together.

But just as at the same time this together is working to unite and bring harmony, there seems to at the same time be a force which wants to destroy this life together community in you trace the route of Acts. Two examples:

(ESV): 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. That’s Stephen, the martyr of God. Suffering and setback

(ESV): But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, 13 saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.”

Yet despite these united voices of attack, the church prevailed. You see:

A community which has gone through hardship together ought to become even more tight-knitted as they share the same destiny and direction. What a picture it will be when the weak and the strong has put aside their differences and point away from themselves toward the Father and the son.

YOU

So now we come to then, having heard this, what should we do? It sounds great, but where do we begin?

7 Therefore welcome one another

as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

That’s it? Well, don’t look lightly on this one little act, because it demands more than what it appears.

If welcoming one another is natural, we would all be doing it. Yet, the overall impression we often give to those coming back from university or visitors for the very first time is, “everyone already belong to some tight-knit groups already, I should probably just disappear in the crowd.” Maybe that is why when I am outside shaking hands I see some of you turn left exiting the sanctuary, towards the parking lot. You gave chit chat time a try, but you felt so awkward and alone there, so you made up your mind I will just come here for service and that’s it. In this case, our strength, of being a tight knit community became our weakness, because we are so close we are impermeable. But this is not how God in all history desired his community to be. It should be flexible, malleable, organic. Our strength is we are an ethnic church of predominantly a Chinese heritage, but our weakness has become we are like the Jews who, unintentionally, aren’t able to breakthrough the ethnic barrier. All of our clusters is homogenous. And it’s natural I know, for youths to be with youths, parents to be with parents, and young career to be with young career. But is that what God had in mind when he invites us to welcome one another. Only welcome those similar to us? I believe through grace these aspects can be overcome, if we would stop erecting walls which God in his endurance and encouragement has always meant for us to tear down!

But the greater, more difficult task is we don’t just welcome like, Starbucks welcome a customer, or Disney welcomes a wide eyed child, or a Hilton welcomes a weary traveller even though there is also much we can learn from them. It says welcome as Christ has welcomed you! That’s huge! Christ welcomed us into the kingdom of God at his own cost, his own expense. It means going beyond the surface level of hello and goodbye. It means welcoming one another in truth. It means letting our guard down and truly care for one another’s lives. It means pouring out our life, being vulnerable and risking being hurt or even betrayed. It means asking the difficult questions not for the sake of gossip, but for the sake of love. It means serving the most vulnerable among us. It means offering forgiveness and seeking it in order to have life together. When sin are dealt with quickly through forgiveness, and not held as grudges, you cannot but have harmony. It means crucifying our self-centred attitude I am not a guest but a host of MCBC, not just those who are serving as ushers or the pastors. Paul wrote this to ALL in the Church of Rome, not just those with titles.

There is now because of Jesus and his crucifixion and resurrection nothing which can stand in the way of anyone, weak or strong, from entering before God’s presence. Enter the home, and all the social implications it bring when we can visit Homes of one another irrespective of status and class.

WE

I began this message with my weakness. I don’t need to be strong if for the sake of Christ it may just let you know I need to be in life together with you because I don’t have it altogether. And perhaps we can now begin to have a deep conversation about the struggles and joys of life. MCBC. We want to have a life together, where no one is alone. But it needs to start with us. When we learn to not our laugh together, but also suffer together, struggle together, and marvel at how God beings us through those suffering and struggles together, God is glorified in every weakness revealed and restored, and every strength renewed and build up.