Biblical Community (Part One)

We’re going to take a break from the gospel of Luke for a couple of weeks and talk about biblical community. There are a couple of reasons for this. One, is that as we slowly launch our life groups I want us to see and embrace the importance of doing life together. But secondly, next Sunday we’ll be passing out a document proposing a few changes to our constitution in regards to how we care for our membership and membership rolls.

So here is what I believe, Lord willing, we will do for the next three weeks. Today I want to see from God’s Word the necessity of being in a biblical community. Then next week we will see the church’s role in this for your spiritual growth, and then maybe on the 21st we will cast a vision for what it looks like doing ministry together.

Today I have one major goal.

I want us to walk out of here with a renewed awe and praise of the Lord for his care in placing us in a community. I want us to be grateful to the Lord for His church. I want us to leave in awe. But I also want us to leave convicted—if necessary—for our lack of treasuring vital community; to repent and commit to vital companionship.

I also want to make the argument that the greatest means for Christian growth is to be radically committed to a local church. Or to state that negatively I’ll make the argument that part of the reason for the struggles that we have is because of our lack of true biblical fellowship. You find me a person that is disconnected from the body and I’ll show you somebody that has sin running rampant in their life. Someone whose passion for Jesus is dwindling. Someone who is doing shoddy evangelism. Someone whose identity is slowly being found in other things.

You might have heard from that, “someone who doesn’t come to church on Sunday.” That’s not what I mean. You can come to church every Sunday, attend Sunday school ever week, come to our Wednesday night gatherings, etc. and still not be engaging in biblical community. So we aren’t talking this morning about “coming to church on Sunday”. No, this is talking about a commitment to gospel-saturated community.

Here is the claim that I am making this morning. Dedication and commitment to a gospel-saturated community is not optional. As a believer “joining a church” is not something that is optional. Or to put this another way the Bible does not present community with other believers (church) as one thing that you juggle in your busy schedule. The biblical picture is not of you and I standing alone juggling all of our individual things like career, sports, friendships, chores, leisure activities, money, etc. and then throwing church in there somewhere.

To live apart from being vitally connected and dedicated to a local church body is living in direct contrast to the redemption that Jesus Christ is working in your life. (Now, I know that the church plays a role in this too—church can be incredibly unhealthy and hurtful and harmful to your growth—we’ll talk about that next week).

We’re going to land in 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 but it’s going to take us probably 75% of our sermon time to get there. So, I’m going to go ahead and pray and ask the Lord’s help.

PRAYER

Let’s listen for a moment to the story of the Bible. The narrative of the Bible is in direct contrast to individualistic community.

The Story

To begin the story I want to go back to the Garden of Eden. Actually we are going to go back even further than that. In Genesis 1 God fundamentally charges mankind with enjoying Him and extending His glory. One way they do this is by being fruitful and multiplying. Genesis 1 is the helicopter view of creation. Genesis 2 is the on the ground version of creation. And in Genesis 2 we read a very striking verse in 2:18. Here we read, “It is not good that the man should be alone”.

Up until this time everything in creation has been very good. But this one thing is not good. While I do believe that this is partially because God didn’t want Adam to have to live on TV dinners, frozen pizza, and fishsticks, I believe there is more to the “it is not good” than simply Adam’s need for a companion. Even more vital than Adam’s physical, emotional, and psychological needs is Adam’s mandate to image God. What is not good about man being alone is that he cannot faithfully image the Trinitarian God. What I mean is that God eternally lives in a community with Himself.

I’ll pause and let the smoke in our brains clear for just a second. God is a community. Father, Son, and Spirit. Mankind is called to reflect that community. Relationship is fundamental to being human. Living in community is part and parcel of what it means to be a person.

You and I do not live in a community that perfectly reflects and brings glory to God. We live in the midst of shattered communities. Our society, our families, our marriages, and even our churches are often decimated by shattered community.

You know that the story of the Bible is that God is redeeming the fall. He is making all things new. Central to this is God’s recreation of a people for His own possession. This is what you see with Abraham. This is what you see in the Exodus. In Exodus 19 God lets them know what He is doing with them. He says to them, “you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”. But we also read that this was a conditional promise, “If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant” is what the Lord said.

The Old Testament is a history of the Israelite failure to keep that covenant. They cannot do it. And that is why a New Covenant was promised where God would change the hearts of people. And we see in the work of Jesus Christ that He does just this. We see in the Cross that Jesus actually redeems a people for His own possession.

Look at Revelation 5:9, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation”. Yes, these are individuals that are being saved. But these individuals are considered as one, “a people for God”.

Consider Titus 2:14. “who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” Let’s consider the context of this one. In the first ten verses of Titus 2 Paul outlines what a biblical lifestyle should look like. But notice what he does in verses 11-14. He starts with the word “For”. That is like saying, “Here is the reason I say that”. And then Paul presents the whole Bible story. God saves people from sin and calls them to wait for the Lord Jesus who will complete our salvation, and now notice this in verse 14, “who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness (that’s the rescue us from sin part)” and to “purify for himself” (that’s the holiness part) now notice this, “a people for his own possession”.

This goes back to Exodus 19. We are that people for his own possession. Jesus secured a people for Himself. Even Revelation 21:3 shows this,

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

I am laboring to show that this is the story of the Bible:

God created humanity to know him and to enjoy and rule over his creation. Humanity, in the person of Adam, rejected God—and the effects have trickled down to our very day. Humans still reject God and live in rebellion to him and conflict with one another. But, just as the effects of sin have trickled down to our very day so has God’s redemptive plan. From the beginning of creation God has been in the business of creating a people for himself: a new redeemed humanity. We see pictures of this in God creating a people for himself through Abraham. We see it in God rescuing his people out of Egyptian slavery. Even through times of great disobedience we see that God is always drawing out of sinful humanity a people for his treasured possession. Through this God continues to promise that he will provide a new covenant—or a new contract. This new covenant causes His Law to be written on the hearts of His people and this new covenant brings about cleansing and forgiveness. Ultimately we see the story come to a climax in the person and work of Jesus Christ. “He came to die for his people to redeem God’s new humanity. And he rose as the first among many who would enjoy new life in a new creation. God is now gathering his people through the mission of the church and will present them, drawn from all nations, as the perfected bride of his Son.” He is building his kingdom and he is doing it by rooting out of his kingdom all sin and unbelief, and filling it with passionate worshipers from every people, tongue, tribe, and nation.

In other words when God saved you he placed you into a family. That is not optional. So to try to live out the Christian life as an individual divorced from a local community is going against the story of God. It’s trying to write your own story.

The Christian Life

Now that’s all well and nice but I don’t think I’ve proven the point yet that being dedicated to a local-church community is an absolute necessity. Nor have I proven what I said earlier: “If you believe in Jesus Christ and you are not vitally connected you are living in direct contrast to the redemption that Jesus Christ is working in your life.

So here is what I will do. I’ll look at a few things central to what it means to be a follower of Jesus. And I’ll show from Scripture that you cannot live the Christian life apart from a vital commitment to a local church body.

You cannot fulfill the Great Commission in Matthew 28 apart from the local church. Now certainly one can go and tell somebody about Jesus without being connected to a local church. One could even do a significant amount of discipleship. You could even make disciples. (Of course, I’d probably argue at this point that what you’re doing is actually creating your own community). But I want to ask can you, “teach them to observe all that I have commanded you” without being intimately connected to another band of believers?

One of the central things that Jesus taught is this, “This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you”. Now let me say here that it’s one thing to “love people” and quite another to actually love a person. We can talk quite generically about loving other believers. But I want to ask you this—are you really able to “love one another” apart from doing life together with them?

You CAN fulfill the Great Commission and the Great Commandment in a local body. You can’t apart from it. Again this isn’t talking about attending a building at the same time each week with other people. That’s not a whole lot different than a group of people deciding to watch the same movie every Friday night. It’s actually living together throughout the week.

I think it’s instructive what Mark Dever says here,

“We demonstrate to the world that we have been changed not primarily because we memorize Bible verses, pray before meals, tithe a portion of our income, and listen to Christian radio stations, but because we increasingly show a willingness to put up with, to forgive, and even to love a bunch of fellow sinners”.

I don’t think Dever is just pulling that out of thin air. Jesus said that the world would know that we were Christians by our love. So you cannot really fulfill the Great Commission apart from a local church. But you CAN within the local church.

You cannot image God apart from the local church. Fundamental to being human is being in community. And fundamental to our task as humanity is to image God, “to make God visible”. 1 John 4:12 argues that the way that God’s love is perfected in us—ultimately the way it is made visible is “if we love one another”. Now in this same letter John says, “let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth”.

You want to see what it looks like to love one another in deed and in truth? See Acts 2:42-47. That’s the biblical community that we are talking about. It’s centered in Jesus. And it shows itself in true love towards one another and mission. So you see from there that you actually DO get to image God by loving one another.

The one another’s

There are a host of “one-anothers” and commands in Scripture that cannot be obeyed apart from the local church. In fact I would argue that only a handful of things pertaining to the Christian life can be rightly lived out apart from the local church.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. –Hebrews 10:24-25

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:1

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. ... (Every one of these is in the context of the body) I could have used a similar list from Ephesians or Colossians.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (Here you see your “proclaiming his excellencies” comes from being put together into this community).

There are so many more aspects that we could speak on. Discipline. The Lord’s Supper. Baptism. So many more. But let’s look at one more.

The body metaphor

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; ...

I could have used sections of 1 Corinthians as well. Over and over again the Scriptures use a picture of the church as “the body”. Living apart from the body is like a hand trying to live apart from the body. It’s going to wither up and die because it has been detached from its life source. And that is fundamentally what we are saying this morning.

I’m not saying this because I’m a pastor and I want to try to be a part of building some massive church. I’m saying this because I love you and I’ve seen nothing but death apart from the local church. The Bible paints a picture of a place of light/life (that’s the community of blood-bought redeemed believers) and the a place of darkness/death (that’s the community of the world). To place yourself outside the body is to dwell in darkness and death. This is where sin grows. This is where affections for Christ grow cold.

So what happens whenever we buy the lie and embrace this “other story”?

I like how Jonathan Leeman describes it:

What you get in a nutshell is the church at Corinth. And it is there I want to turn for our closing thoughts.

Read 1 Corinthians 1:1-9.

I want you to notice two things that Paul does here with this church at Corinth. In verse 2, listen to how Paul places the Corinthians into the big story of community. This messed up church Paul says, “listen you guys are a part of God’s story of redeeming humanity. You aren’t a special church. You aren’t special believers. You are just like all of us, “called to be saints together” with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

What will rescue this church and its members out of all those issues is a return to a gospel-saturated community.

Lastly, notice verse 9. Paul is grounding their identity together in Jesus Christ. He uses a word that we often use of doing church together. “Fellowship”. It’s the Greek word, “koinonia”. It means self-sacrificing conformity to a shared vision.

The shared vision of the church is the mission of Jesus, to enjoy God’s grace and to extend His glory. In order to see this come to fruition they sacrifice everything.

We’ve been sharing this in somewhat negative terms. But I want to close by showing the positive love and care of the Lord Jesus in putting us together with other believers.

I don’t have to carry my burdens alone

I can see b/c of you

You increase my love in Jesus

You spur me on to good works and missions

I can exercise my gifts.

I need the church and I’m thankful that the Lord has given me a community of believers to live life with.

--

Invitation. The gospel for unbelievers. Joining a church. Baptism. Life Groups.

You were created for community. Community with God first and foremost. And community with others.