9 Essentials to Living the Christian Life: Community

He was a German pastor. He was one of the few that opposed the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler. And for that, he died. April 9, 1945. His name, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Can you not hear?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer. How many of you have heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer? Okay, a number of you. He could have stayed out of the country of Germany. He was in the U.S. in the late 30s, and friends urged him not to return to Germany, but he said the shepherd must be with the sheep.

So he went back. In the late 30s, he was the leader of an illegal seminary

a seminary that the Gestapo would ultimately shut down but he taught 25 German pastors pastors who he was training to take the truth to the German people. And out of his experiences in that community of believers where he led the seminary he wrote a little book called Life Together. It's about a 122 page book and I highly recommend it. It is one of the best short books I have ever read on Christian community. And it is to Christian community that we turn today.

There are nine essentials we're covering for living the Christian life. We covered, number one, Christ must be the center. Number two was the Word. The Word must be the foundation on which we stand. Thirdly, last week we looked at prayer.

And today we turn to Christian community as the fourth essential. So if you've got your little picture, this is what it should look like now. Put community on the horizontal arrow.

and our verses of Scripture that go with this are Hebrews 10, 24, and 25. Hebrews 10, 24, and 25.

Let's read these together. They're in your handout for today. Let's read in unison. We're a community. So let's read the word in unison.

Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and so much more as you see the day approaching.

The context, the historical context. written to a group of Jewish Christians, Christians who have undergone much persecution. The book was probably written shortly before the destruction of the temple by the Romans in A.D. 70, and it is likely that the Jewish Christians could foresee that something was going to happen with Rome. They may not have known the temple per se was going to be destroyed, that the Jews and the Romans were headed toward a great clash.

You get a real sense of what was going on in a few verses in Hebrews 10. So if you turn to Hebrews 10 with me, let me just read a few verses that help put the context for us of what was going on with these Jewish Christians to whom the writer of Hebrews wrote. Hebrews 10, verses 32 to 36.

Hebrews 10, 32 to 36. Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution. side by side with those who were so mistreated. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. Where are the better and lasting possessions? In heaven. So do not throw away your confidence. It will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done you will receive what he has promised.

Do you hear that? Persecution, public insult, confiscation of property, standing by others who were in persecution. The book of Hebrews is largely written to encourage those who are undergoing persecution. And that's particularly apparent as we lead up in the few verses leading to our focal passage for today. Look at Hebrews 10, but let's go to verse 22.

How do you persevere in the faith? 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. let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful and let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds there are three let us's there the niv gives us two other let us's in verse 25 you should sort of ignore that that's not a good English translation right there. There are three let us's. Let us verse 22, verse 23, and verse 24, and verse 25 should more accurately read, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the manner of some, but encouraging one another. Verse 22 talks about faith. Verse 23 verse 24 talks about love faith hope love essentials if we're going to persevere but I want to focus on verses 24 and 25 for today as we talk about this idea of community and the first question I want to ask is what kind of community are we supposed to be as Christians what should our community be like?

And there are two aspects that I think this verse points us to. We are to stir one another up to love and good deeds. We are to be a community of love and a community of good deeds. Now there may be more to what we're supposed to be in a community, this text as he's writing to Christians under persecution who need to persevere, he says this community should be a community of both love and good deeds. What is a community of love?

Let me at least give you some ideas. I think I've given you seven things in your handout for today. I'm not going to pause to explain these in much detail today. This will come a little later in our study of the essentials for Christian living. But if we are a community of love, we are a community that is patient with one another.

We are a community that is kind.

We are a community that is not selfish or self-centered. In fact, this love, and the word here for love is agape, agape love is always other-centered. The opposite of agape is selfishness and self-centered because agape love is always, always, always focused on the other person. A community of love is forgiving.

a community of love is anchored in the truth and does not delight in evil which makes this kind of love agape love so different from the kind of love you hear about in our culture the kind of love that says you just kind of let people do anything they want to do at any time and if you dare tell somebody that they are wrong that the path they have chosen for their life is not a good one you can't love that person can you that would be sort of the philosophy of our culture the bible says just the opposite is true if you truly love someone you will always let that love be anchored in the truth and the truth knows that not every path people choose is the right path for them and that they will be better off if they are on a different path the path chosen by god it's the The kind of love a parent shows for a child. The kind of love that says, Child, I'm not going to let you just do anything. In fact, I'm going to discipline you if necessary to put you on the right path because I love you. That's agape love. It is a community that is unfailingly protective.

We're willing to surround our brothers and sisters in Christ protect them and to help them. And lastly, a community of love is a place, is a beacon of hope and light to a decaying and dark world.

And that always, if we're a community of love, we are going to be a community of good deeds. Because as we love others, we're going to do good deeds to help them. other words be engaged in what bonhoeffer calls in his book like together the ministry of helpfulness the ministry of helpfulness listen to what he says about a community that is has this ministry of helpfulness and good deeds he says we must allow ourselves to be interrupted by god god will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by preoccupied with, quote, more important tasks as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves. But when we do that, we pass by the visible sign of the cross raised across our path to show us that not our way but God's way must be done. We must not assume that our schedule is our own to manage but allow it to be arranged by God.

Are you so busy you just don't have time to help anybody else? So preoccupied with self, with my schedule, my obligations, my duties, that we don't even stop to see the needs around us. If we're a community of love and good deeds, we will not be self-centered, but we will see the needs of others and we will let God interrupt our schedules to help.

well how do we get to be this kind of community

and that's what i really want us to focus on for a few minutes if we're going to become this kind of community i'm going to suggest first that we must recognize the importance of christian community The text says, let us consider one another. The text assumes Christian community. You know, in our country, we think as individuals. We do not think collectively. We think about our personal duties and obligations, but we don't think about the personal duties and obligations of the community.

We think about what will I do or should do. We don't think about what the community should do. We Americans have a real problem and difficulty, I think, developing community because of our individualistic heritage. You know, our hero is the loner who's on the frontier, who can stand alone.

We need to capture more of the idea of community. not so much in what I do as he is in what we do. We are one body with many parts. And if you listen to Scripture over and over and over, it presses us toward this idea of community. And I've given you some verses there, but let me just listen as I read them.

1 Corinthians 12, 27. Now you, plural you, not singular you, you are the body of Christ. And each one of you is a part of it. Matthew 5, 16. Let your light shine.

Not your singular. Let your plural light shine before men in such a way that they may see your, plural, your good works and glorify your plural not singular father who is in heaven most of us when we hear that passage let your light shine before men in such a way that let me see your good works we're all thinking individually oh i've got to be a good example i've got to live in a way that god gets glory no that's true as far as it goes but the emphasis is that on a as a community plural we must let our light shine so that god gets the glory first corinthians 3 16 you plural are god's temple and god's spirit dwells in you plural not singular the writer of hebrews when he's encouraging us to run the christian race he

run with endurance the race that is set before us. And all of those one another's of Scripture, they just echo with community, don't they? I gave you a sheet, I think. Did y'all get that? I printed out.

I just wanted you to read all of the one another's of Scripture. Do we do this in community? Confess your sins to one another. Be devoted to one another. Accept one another.

Greet one another with a holy kiss. That was their way of expressing greeting. You can shake my hand. But greet me. serve one another show tolerance for one another be kind to one another forgive one another encourage one another consider one another be hospitable to one another love one another all of those assume a community of faith So we must take and recognize the importance of Christian community.

Secondly, we must consider one another, our text says. Let us consider one another. That word consider has the idea that we will think carefully about one another. We will study one another. We will examine one another.

The reason we are to study one another, examine one another, think carefully about one another, is that we're trying to discern what makes one another tick. We want to know what winds our clock, and we want to know what makes us tick so that we can be in a better position to then help one another on this journey of faith and to encourage one another. Have you stopped to consider your brother or sister in Christ? Have you really tried to get to know him or her? Have you tried to get inside his or her skin to know what they're dealing with, their difficulties, their fears, their hopes, their aspirations?

Do you hurt with them when they hurt? with them when they cry.

How close are you? We are such a hurried people. We rush into church. We can't wait to leave. And we rush home.

And we may say a word of greeting, but how many of us stop to start to get to know one another?

Let us consider one another. Bonhoeffer says in the community of the church there are several ministries that are very important and I thought some of them were interesting particularly as we think about getting to know one another considering one another he says any good community should have a ministry of holding one's tongue

and a ministry of listening

Do you hold your tongue and listen to your brother and sister in Christ to try to understand them? Or are you always just chattering about yourself?

He says we need a ministry of meekness. That is, we consider one another, we won't have that harsh, negative, judgmental attitude. way? Do you see how they act? Do you see how they behave? We need a ministry of meekness, gentleness, kindness as we consider one another. But for God's grace, you would be going through the difficulty that your brother and sister in Christ is. But for God's grace, you could fall into that same sin.

But for God's grace, you could be hurting like they are. So don't abuse God's grace by being harshly negative toward your brother and sister in Christ. Be gentle. And we must have the ministry of intercessory prayer.

Bonhoeffer really hit me hard on this one. How often does the teacher stop to pray individually for you? Pray collectively, but when do I stop to pray for you, Jay, Tully, Kathy, individually? It's an area I need to work on. How about you?

Do you pray? We must consider one another if we're going to be the kind of community we need to be. but then we must having considered one another we must help stir up love and good deeds you see in your handout i think i underlined the word stir up did i do that and i put a word there paroxysm i had to go look that word up the english word paroxysm comes from this greek word that is translated here stir up this is such a strong word i probably can't emphasize to it to you i spent two hours yesterday just thinking about these greek words and looking up in my greek dictionary trying to grasp exactly what is meant the the same greek word that is translated here stir up is the same greek word that would be used for the word convulsion everybody know what a convulsion is where you kind of get that intense sudden tremoring of the muscles or part of the body. And the sense is here that we want to incite one another. We want to provoke one another. We want to stimulate one another in such a way that we will be people who are participating in love and good deeds. So as we consider one another, try to figure out where each person is and how each person ticks, we then must go a step further and figure out how can we stir up one another to be people of love and good deeds. It's critical for us to try to figure out how to help one another be light shining in the darkness. We've got to help one another become all God wants us to be.

This is not just a responsibility of the preachers. This is a responsibility for each believer to help stir other believers up. The next point is if we're going

which A?

Matthew 5.16 Let your light shine before men. How do I know, the question was, how do I know the you is plural in Matthew 5.16? Let your light shine. In English, the word you can be either singular or plural. Isn't that true?

I can say you and mean an individual in English, or I can say you and mean a group. Is that true? Everybody understand? You in English. Excuse me?

That's right. Y'all. Y apostrophe A-L-L. There's you individual, and there's you plural, which we correctly say y'all, so nobody's confused about which we mean. Greek is different the singular U in Greek is one word the plural U is a different word so when I look at a Greek New Testament I can tell if the U is singular or plural and all of those verses I went over a minute ago those were all I was telling I was saying they are plural and that's easy to tell from the Greek text okay so you know because the Greek word is different our English translations we don't sometimes know just when we see the word you everybody understand that that answer that question thanks for asking that that was a good question okay if we're going to consider one another if we're going to stir one another up to good works the writer of hebrews doesn't tell us all the ways that we do that but he tells us there at least two things we got to be about if we're going to consider one another get into each other's skin and then help stir one another love, and good deeds. And one thing we, I put it positively here, we must gather together regularly.

He says it negatively, not forsaking our own assembling together. Now, doesn't it make sense? If we are going to get into each other's skin and get to know one another, and if we're going to try to stir one another up, we got to get together, right? I can't get to know you i can't help stir you up to be what god wants you to be without gathering together with you if we fail to gather gather we don't have that opportunity and as the writer of hebrews wrote to the great group of hebrews christians that were under persecution apparently some of these jewish christians who were under persecution weren't meeting together now they had a pretty good reason. When they got together, there was danger. There were authorities looking for them who when they gathered as a community, they could be imprisoned. They could suffer torture.

A lot of bad things could happen. So we can somewhat sympathize with maybe why they weren't gathering. But the writer of Hebrews says, uh-uh, you've got to get together. Even though there was to assemble together. It's so important in community, that time of gathering together.

What are our excuses for not gathering together?

Those Jewish Christians, maybe we can understand. What are our excuses? What kind of persecution do we face? How difficult is it for us to gather together? How hard is it? What authorities are trying to stop us or prevent us.

So what are our excuses?

Are we lazy? We don't think it's important. We don't appreciate it. Oh, I'm on vacation. So I'm not going to go to church. I'm on vacation.

Wow, what an excuse for not church. You've got more free time, so you're not going to go to church? Boy, that's a good one.

My community isn't the way it ought to be. Oh, it's just, you know, man, that music is terrible. The sermon is boring. You know, it's just not the way it ought to be. I want to go to a church that is perfect.

The music is like the angels. The pastor preaches with the passion of Paul and the eloquence of Apollos. The Sunday school teacher does the same. And that's just not the way it is. My community is not the way it ought to be.

Bonhoeffer says, He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter. Do you hear what he says? Those of us who have our dream of a Christian community, we help destroy the real Christian community because the real Christian community just never measures up. And we're always thinking about our dream church. And that's what we want, the dream church.

Folks, it doesn't exist, particularly if you are part of it. The dream church doesn't exist. This is a place of real people who are sinners, who have faults, who fall short. But Bonhoeffer presses, and I think scriptures would press us, that it is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in the world to share God's word and sacrament. And listen to what Bonhoeffer says.

It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us. Therefore, let him who until now has had the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God's grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare, it is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren. The community would be taken from Bonhoeffer. He would lose it.

He would be in prison for nearly two years before he was executed. He lost the community. but he knew what a treasure it was. Do we treasure community? The enemy wants us to ignore it.

The enemy wants us to believe it's not all that important. He wants us to buy into the lie of my generation. I don't need to go to church to know God and worship him. That's true as far as it goes but there's a lie in the truth. The God who made you, the God whom you know, the God whom you worship wants you in community.

It's a command. For whatever reason, he has chosen community as the means by which he will show the light to a darkened world. So to not be in community is to ignore his truth.

And when we gather together, we must encourage one another.

this word encourage I almost use the word exhort that's a good King James word the idea here is that we will verbally encourage one another that we will verbally implore one another in fact the word can mean beg we will beg one another to be those people of love and good that God wants us to be. You know, we can encourage other believers by praying for them. We can encourage other believers by being a good example ourselves of the Christian faith. But that's not enough. The scriptures here are saying you've got to go a step further.

You need to be encouraging one another verbally, imploring one another to be all God wants you to be. Don't forget now, we don't want to forget the ministry and listening. We don't want to forget the ministry of meekness or the ministry of prayer. There are times to keep our mouths shut, but as we gather together, there is a time when each of us should be encouraging one another. It is not the responsibility alone of the pastor or the Sunday school teacher. The writer of Hebrews says it is a responsibility of every believer to be this encourager, this one who exhorts, the one who urges us to be all that we are supposed to be.

Do we do that? Do we do that? This becomes more and more important as we see the day approaching. That's what the text says. We're going to encourage one another more and more as we see the day approaching. What day?

Some translations capitalize that word day because they think a specific day is in mind. Well, I think most likely it's the day of judgment.

And that day of judgment was going to come on the Jews in a certain sense in A.D. 70 when the temple was destroyed. And the writer of Hebrews may have already seen that day coming. But I think in the bigger picture it's the day of judgment, the day when we will finally stand before the Lord. And I think the writer is saying, folks, it's going to get tougher to persevere as a Christian.

The closer that day comes, it's going to be harder and harder. I think the church before that day is going to go through some really tough persecution. We've seen it at times in churches' history. I think it's going to be really difficult. Really difficult.

we're going to need one another and the encouragement we give to one another. So let me give us some lessons for life.

May we cherish our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Do we cherish one another?

Or do we just take one another for granted? Number two, let us pray for one another.

Prayer is my most difficult spiritual discipline. It seems I choose to do everything else first, and then I finally say, oh yeah, I should pray about this. I think as we pray for one another, we begin to cherish one another. We begin to care for one another. Can I ask you, you may not be able to recall everyone's names, but you can pray for this class.

And the individuals in it. Would you do that? How about our church as a whole? Pray for the members. Be positive.

Avoid a spirit of judgmental negativity about our church. Speak words of praise more and words of negative criticism less. There is such a thing as constructive criticism. can help our church be better. But how often is our spirit one of just focusing on the things we quote, don't like, close quote.

I think we need to be more positive. We need to be present.

We need to make being a part of this fellowship a priority.

Fifthly, we need to be serious about the church.

i often wonder why god has chosen this way but he has chosen the church as his means to glorify himself and to draw people to him it is through the church that light goes out into the world it is through the church that we help preserve a decaying world so we need to be serious about the church. You need to find your role in this church. You have a role. You may not realize it. You do.

And whatever that role is, be it what you view as a big role or a little role, you need to do it with intensity and with focus. It is only when the whole body is working, it is only when the whole body is performing its role that this body is the light and that we can accomplish what we want. Loffer said there should be no one permitted to stay in the church who will not work at his role. He was so emphatic that it was imperative for people in the church to be about this that he would press to say no one should stay if they're not going to be serious about it. Sixthly, be part of a smaller group.

It will help you in this idea of getting to know one another and encouraging one another. And lastly, thank God for the blessings He has bestowed on our community of faith. Do you ever stop to do that? There are many. May we pause to do that.

Bonhoeffer's last sermon was to a small group of prisoners.

just a small group just before he didn't realize it but he was about to be executed you know what his last sermon topic was by his wounds we are healed and as he finished talking to this small group of prisoners with that sermon he was summoned by the Gestapo, and everybody knew what that meant. He turned to one of his fellow prisoners, and the last words he said that were recorded are these. This is the end for me, the beginning of life. On April 9, 1945, they hanged him naked because he had been implicated in a plot to rid the country of Adolf Hitler. but as he passed from this life to the next, he entered the community of saints that sits at the feet of its Lord, where each chapter of the story is always better than the one before.

Let's pray. Forgive us, Lord, for taking our role and responsibility in your church too lightly.

may we be intentional in our encouragement of one another as a community of faith to be all you want us to be for it's in Christ's name we pray Amen