The Spiritual Discipline of Community: The Fruit of the Heart
The Spiritual Discipline of Community
The Fruit of the Heart
John 13:34-35
34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
The disciples receive a command that if obeyed will keep the spirit of Jesus alive among them and present for everyone in the rest of the world to see.
Love is more than a commandment, it is a gift, and like the other gifts of the Christian’s experience it comes from the Father through Jesus to those who believe in him. – as jesus says in 15:9 “as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. And as 13:34 & 15:12 “as i have loved you” emphasises that Jesus is the source of the Christians love for one another. Jesus is the fabric, needle and thread of Christian community. He is what draws and keeps us together; His love that is working out in the lives of people is the joy and life of Christian community.
Jesus love is not only pleasant but powerful; it brings about their salvation. It is expressed in his laying down his life, an act of love that gives life to men.
According to John, God is a Father only to those who believe in His Son and who are identified as God’s children by the Spirit of Baptism into a new birth. The “one another” that the Christian is to love is correctly defined in
1 John 3:14
14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.
To be precise, this community of love is not for those who Jesus died for, for he died for the sins of the world, but this love is between those who have received this gift of salvation. It is this community of love that God places us in and we learn to live in.
Today we are looking at growing in the Spiritual Discipline of Community
Discipline is a word that means the ‘intentional actions we undertake to achieve a desired outcome’ the things i do to achieve a goal –
Reading – to gain a set of knowledge
Dieting – to achieve certain health concerns
Exercise – to achieve certain health concerns
I can have personal disciplines of timeliness, or financial – these are certain things I do because I want to live a certain way. These disciplines are based on my own individual perspective. When personal disciplines are based on another persons expected disciplines – they become guilt ridden and a drudgery. Try instilling the discipline of getting up a certain time into a child – it is a joy!
The outcome of Spiritual disciplines often focus on the persons own perspective of how they would like their own spiritual lives to look to themselves, others, and God. But Jesus has a picture of how he wants our lives to look. Spiritual disciplines are to help us live the reality that we have been saved by the grace of Christ which we have received through faith.
Spiritual disciplines are to help me look more and more like Christ and we embrace them out of our own great love for Jesus.
The spiritual discipline of community takes a concerted look at me as a Christian with the understanding that for me to grow in my faith and become the follower that Jesus would want me to be means I must be in a close and authentic relationship with other Christians in the context of a church, the body of Christ.
Heb 10:19-25
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Since we have the extraordinary opportunity to enter into the Holy presence of God almighty, because Jesus died on a cross. The reality of our salvation must never be underestimated or understated. We must continually draw near to this truth and we need others to help us live out this salvation, and others need you and I for them to live out their own salvation.
What is Christian Community?
I have friends. I have family. I have friends who are not Christian, some who are Christian and I have friends who are brothers and sisters in Christ. I have family who are not Christian, family who are Christians and family who are brothers and sisters in Christ.
Christian Community is formed, based and sustained by a focus of Christ as the center of the relationship. Not other interest or relational ties. I had a conversation recently with a friend who he and I share a close brotherhood in Christ and he was frustrated with some of our mutual friends because all they want to talk about when they are together is their travel plans, favourite sporting game, their jobs or family. “Not that those things are not important” he said “they just aren’t the main thing” I would rather talk about what Jesus is doing in us, around us and in the world, than what movie I just saw or what color their going to paint their living room. He was feeling the pain of Christian community that has lost its focus.
- 1. Christian Community is a community of people who belong to one another through and in Jesus Christ
This community is gathered in what the Bible calls ‘the body of Christ’ and we belong to one another just as part of a physical body belong to the whole. No Christian community is more or less than this. What does it mean to belong to one another in Jesus Christ?
A Christian needs other Christians because of Jesus Christ
It is in Christ we begin to discover the depth of God’s love for us, and it is out of that love that Christ compels us to love others. We are able to love because Christ first loved us and gave himself for us.
A person no longer seeks his salvation or justification in himself but in Christ alone. It is only through God’s Word do we discover we are guilty of our sin, whether we feel guilty or not
AND it is through God’s Word Jesus pronounces us not guilty and made righteous, even when we do not feel righteous at all. The Christian no longer lives for himself, in his own strength and to prove his own goodness, but lives by God’s promises and God’s justification to make him good
Christ’s salvation and God’s living goodness comes to us only by God’s Word. There is no other proclamation or promise that delivers this life giving hope. We are dependent upon the Word of God being spoken to us. There is salvation & hope in no other method but by God’s Word being spoken and received. God’s Word comes to us that its life and power may be received by us and by God’s Holy Spirit work powerfully in us to transform our lives into the fashion and image of God. The Christian needs God’s Word transmitted from one person to another.
God puts His Word into the mouths of men & women in order that it’s truth may be communicated from one person to another.
God has determined that we should seek and find His living Word in the witness of other Christians, from the mouth of one to the heart of another. Therefore,
A Christian needs other Christians who speak God’s Word to him or her.
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds
This last week a friend of mine encouraged me greatly in the course of our conversation by reminding me of a verse of scripture and speaking it to me. He brought real encouragement to me by sharing God’s Word and not relaying some sentiment based on my attiributes or some other worldly perspective that may taste good at the moment but never provide substance to last the challenges we face.
We need each other again and again when we become uncertain and discouraged, for by ourselves we can not help ourselves without discounting or dismissing God’s truth. We have the uncanny ability, in our own flesh, to justify our own foolishness and deceive ourselves. We need other Christians who can walk along side of us to remind us of the truth of the gospel, to bring a word of encouragement, or challenge us with a word of truth. When our own hearts become weak, the strength of God’s Word through the conversation of a Christian friend becomes the way God restores our hearts and minds in Christ.
The goal of Christian community is to remind and encourage one another of the message of salvation.
Christian community is where relationships are formed and built in the context of the gospel of salvation.
Among men there is strife, but Eph 1:4 says of Jesus that “He is our peace”. Without Christ there is enmity between God and humanity, and between humans. Christ is the mediator and made peace with God and among people. Without Christ we could not know God and we could not know one another, our ego would keep us apart. Christ opens the way to God and to each other.
Now Christians can live with one another in peace. Relationships can be formed that go beyond the commonalities of life because we have something greater and stronger than any common interests, we have the commonality of Christ, who transcends race, or culture, or economy, age or personal interests.
Christians can now love one another deeply and serve one another sacrificially. We love and enjoy one another not because we are like each other but because Jesus brought us together.
Think about the disciples, some of them knew one another before Jesus called them and set them on the journey of their lifetime, but for the most part, they didn’t know each other, they were not alike in nearly any way and often over the 3 yrs they traveled together with Jesus, they were one each other’s cases. But know, Jesus calls them to love each other in the way they have and are about to experience His own love for them.
We become one in the body of Christ. But this can only happen by way of Jesus, there is no other way.
In Christian community we are the living body of Jesus.
20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,
The person who is in Christ, is truly in Him and He is in us. We can no longer be separated from Christ. When Jesus came to earth from heaven he truly took on a physical body as God in flesh. When he died on the cross, he died in the flesh. When he resurrected from the dead, it was his flesh that came back to life.
Now we are in Him, and He is in us, that is why the Bible calls us the Body of Christ. We belong to Him for all eternity with one another.
We can only have community with one another through the body of Christ
The more genuine and deeper our community becomes the more evident will Jesus be among us. This is what we celebrate when we partake in the Lords Supper. This is why the Lords Supper is only available to Christians – not just anyone who walks in off the street.
This is what the Spiritual discipline of Community looks like.
1 A deep, abiding, growing, protected, advancing love for all the other Christian brothers and sisters who are part of the body of Christ that God has placed us into.
John 13 “As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
2 Speak God’s Word to one another
Heb 10 - “consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
Col 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom”
- Encourage one another with Truth – v 25
1 Thess 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up,
- Teach one another how to live out God’s Word
Rom 15:14...instruct one another.
- Remind each other the message of the Gospel
1 Cor 15:1 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel
3 Pray for one another Rom 12:10 – “faithful in prayer”
James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
4 Serve one another Gal 5:13-14 “...serve one another in love.”
Heb 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another
5 Enjoy the fellowship of one another, we seek opportunities to be together over other things in our lives.
6 Worship together
7 Forgive each other – Christian community often breaks down here
Eph 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
8 Extend Grace to one another
- Patience
- Kindness
- Bear with one another
Our Christian community is to help us know, love and follow Jesus, and Jesus said that the rest of the world will know Jesus because He is alive, present and obvious in us.
Christian community requires something of us however – a choice. A willingness to connect into the body of Christ, with a heart that is more willing to give than to get,
I will love and serve these people and receive their love and service. A heart that is willing to accept others and say I will look towards how I can be with them because I see Jesus and I want to see and know more of him. Because I have been loved by Him, through him I will love others and turn around and find myself in Christian community.
This morning as we approach the Lords table we are affirming that we are a part of his body. That we need one another
1 John 1:3
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
1 Cor 11:23-32
The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. 32 When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.