Sermon by Dr. Jeffrey Jeremiah
November 6, 2005

"Connected to Community"
Ephesians 4:11-16, 25-32

We’re in this series looking at a number of important elements of God’s great desire for us, what His plan, His vision is for our lives. We’ve seen that first and foremost, His desire is that we glorify and enjoy Him forever. The only way you can begin to do that is to enter into a relationship with God’s Son as your personal Savior and Lord. That’s a critical relationship, but not the only one. When you become a Christian, you enter into relationship with other Christians, as you become a member of what’s called in the Bible the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, or the family of God. What we’re talking about is being connected to the church.

Just as God has a great vision for you in your relationship with His Son, He’s got a great vision for us as we’re in relationship with one another in His church. God’s passionately committed to doing something distinctive, something unique, something unlike anything else going on in any other group of people in the world in His church, among the men, women, boys, and girls who call Jesus Savior and Lord. It is in His church that His fullness, that is, the riches of His glory are on display in the world. It is in His church that His people find relationships that are a source of love, comfort, support, and encouragement. You see, the reality is that we were created not to be independent, but interdependent; we need each other as we go through this life, and the church is God’s main instrument for making that happen. The importance of all this is illustrated in the story of the man who suddenly stopped coming to church. After some weeks, the pastor visited this absent member on a very cold night. The minister found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for his pastor’s visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a big chair by the fireplace, and waited. The minister made himself comfortable and said nothing. After looking into the fire for a few minutes, he took the tongs and carefully picked out of the fire a brightly burning ember. He placed it away from the fire, to one side of the hearth. Then he sat back in his chair, still silent. The host watched all this in quiet fascination. As the lone ember’s flame diminished, there was a momentary glow, but then its fire was no more and it was cold and dead. As the minister rose to leave, his host said, "Thank you for your visit, and for your fiery sermon. I’ll see you on Sunday." There’s too much truth to that story. "Lone Ranger Christianity" is very prominent and popular: "I don’t need anyone else if I have a relationship with God." But going it alone in the Christian life is not God’s plan, and it leads to isolated, cold, and dead faith. This is why Martin Luther wrote, "Apart from the church, salvation is impossible." Not that you’re saved through the church. Salvation is from and through Jesus Christ. But because you can’t fulfill God’s great desire for you apart from the church, being connected to a community of believers becomes an indispensable part of your salvation, your life, your growth in Jesus Christ. In two points, I’d like to address why the church is indispensable to us.

First, it’s indispensable because it’s the community of God’s people. For most people the word "community" means a place where people live in homes that are in the same general area. We think of the "Fairwood community," the "Lake Meridian community," or the "Renton-Kent community." But originally, and in the Bible, community meant something else. It meant what we "have" or what we "hold" in common. In the church Jesus Christ is who we have in common. This is no mere man. He’s God’s Son. By His death and resurrection we are forgiven from sin and freed from the power of death and damnation. There is incredible diversity within our church family; we come from all kinds of different backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences. And yet in Jesus Christ we’re held together. He overrides our differences and unites us in Him. He is the head, the center of our life together. There is no church, no Christian community without Him. So we’re in this community that holds in common Jesus Christ, Who is sovereign God, King of kings, and Lord of lords.

Second, the church is indispensable to us because in the church God is committed to doing something special, something unique that sets us apart from every other community in the world. The rest of our passage gives us some insights into these distinctive characteristics. We have in Ephesians four what God’s committed to do as He displays the fullness of His glory in our midst. My question is, are you committed to the same as you’re a part of this community of believers? It’s to your benefit and blessing if you are! First, we see that God wants everyone to be involved in His community in a meaningful way. Every one of us has been given gifts to use. Each of us has something to contribute so that the church, "the body of Christ may be built up."

Next, God’s committed to spiritual maturity in our lives. Our life together isn’t stagnant, it’s dynamic. It’s all about growth, development, maturity. Without exception, God wants each of us to be "conformed to the likeness of His Son," Romans 8:29 tells us. That as time goes on we more and more demonstrate the character qualities of Jesus: His love, peace, patience, strength, courage, truth, and so on. Is there a sense in which we all have room to grow? Yes. But God isn’t through with any of us yet! He puts us in relationship with others who share Jesus Christ is common to help that growth occur.

The next four distinctive elements of Christian community address how we relate to one another in Christ. Verse 15 talks about speaking "the truth in love," and verse 25 calls us to "put off falsehood and speak truthfully" to one another. What’s being described here is honesty and openness. Real Christian community is built up when what is false, phony, fake is removed from our lives. Openness and honesty mean trusting one another in Christ enough to really say what we think and listening to the other person’s ideas, even when they challenge our own. Remember that famous line Jack Nicholson said in the movie, "A Few Good Men?" "Truth? You can’t handle the truth!" In a Christian community, we speak the truth in love because we know that the bond of Christ’s love is strong enough for us to "handle the truth," even if it’s hard sometimes.

Next in the community God’s committed to building: conflict and anger are handled in healthy and positive ways. We’re all too aware of unhealthy, destructive ways to handle anger. There’s verbal abuse. There’s passive-aggressive behavior where we quietly undermine our target. There’s blowing up like a volcano. There’s even physical assault. Some people equate anger with sin. But Paul writes in verse 26, "In your anger, do not sin." We sin when we nurse anger so that it simmers inside us, when we express it by saying terrible things about another person, or when we let it rage out of control. The best way to handle anger is to talk about the problem with the person who has upset you as soon as possible without losing your self-control. Instead of dividing and isolating us, anger handled in a healthy way can help us to respect and understand each other better. Another distinct characteristic of Christian community is verbal encouragement, building one another up with our words. Paul writes in verse 29, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs."

Lastly, the Christian community God’s committed to always has at its heart forgiveness. "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you" (v. 32). Biblical forgiveness means no grudges, no resentment. It’s wiping the slate clean when the person who has hurt you repents of that sinful behavior and commits to rejecting it. Forgiveness can be difficult when a hurt has cut us deeply, but we look to Christ, the One who has purchased our forgiveness for far greater offenses. As we do that, through the Holy Spirit working in our lives we can forgive others. This is what Christian community is all about.