The Heart of Community
Sermon Review
09 April 2000
Reading - Acts 4:32-35
Relationships are very important in life - they can make or break the quality of our lives. They also make or break the quality of church life as well for they are the heart of Community. God has always been intent on developing relationships between people and Himself, and between people also. Consider the following:
Relationship with God
God has always been intent on establishing relationships with Himself eg. John.14:21,23. This is implied in the 'vine' analogy that Jesus used about himself and his followers John.15:1-8. But this emphasis on relationship is quite clear in John.17:3 "This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."
Too often the Protestant Church has reduced Jesus to a 'sin-manager'. That is, if a person places their faith in Christ they receive forgiveness and eternal life like you would receive payment into a huge divine bank account. Willard Dallas, in 'The Divine Conspiracy' calls this a 'bar-code' faith – one that a divine scanner passes over and okays acceptance into heaven like a shop scanner registers the price and payment from a bar code.
The truth is that eternal life is not provided like payment into some account, but in a person. Jesus is eternal life (John.14:6) and we receive eternal life because He comes into a believers life via the Holy Spirit. Forgiveness is only an aspect of His coming - it is not the central issue in the gospel. Eternal life occurs because of an established relationship with the one who gives life. Eternal life is an outcome of the presence of God in a believer's life, not because of come kind of 'bank account'
So, relationship is integral to salvation in Christ; anything less is a distortion.
Relationships Between People
- But God is also intent on bringing people into close relationships with others cf. last week's sermon, 'Introduction to Community'. That is why people are saved through faith individually but incorporated into the world wide church which is called 'The Household of God', or 'The Family of God' etc. People are intentionally saved 'into' community so that in practice they can grow in relationships with others. Relationships are so important that 'Love' is provided as one of the key signs that a persons profession is real and authentic eg. 1John.3:14,18-19, 4:7,8,12,16,17 etc.
- Consider also the outcome of the Spirit of God descending at Pentecost and establishing the first Christian Community in Acts.2:42ff., 4:32ff. Close relationships that were supportive, loving, and practicaly caring!
- With Christ as the Head, each believer is joined together and to grow up in love Eph.4:15,16
Conclusion
So, relationships between people are at the heart of the Church, and intended by God to be so. Community in fact can only happen in relationships, and therefore the quality of 'community' in any church will depend primarily on the quality of the relationships between the people in that church.
This is why I asked you last week to look around and see how many had never been in your home, or you had visited, or had some contact with outside of church time. The reason is that in order to develop 'community' in any church, people need to know each other. It is true that Community can take many forms eg. the new Claude Street Christian Community in Armidale; the the form established in early Acts (remembering that this only lasted 7 years and was not taught by the New Testament writers as being one to copy, and in fact was not reduplicated in the N.T. records). However, whatever form it takes it must include close caring and loving relationships! In order for this to happen we must get to know each other so that indeed we can, weep with those that weep, and rejoice with those that rejoice' (Rom.12:15). Remember, the healthiest body is one that feels the pain of its weakest or smallest part just like feeling and responding to a hammer dropped on your toes. Anything less means that corporate cancer (ie. cells that are flourishing at the Body's expense) or largescale leprosy (insensitivity to people's pain or happiness) is at work in our midst. Where these two exist, 'community' is doomed.
So, work at getting to know each other better. Be willing to both know and be known. Broaden your contact with each other and eliminate the unintended development of leprosy or corporate cancer. Lets continue to work intentionally at developing closeness with each other so that we might have an impact for God in the wider community.
Blessings