Engaging in Authentic Christian Fellowhship

Here are sermon notes from Sunday 27th January 2013
Preached by Alan at Exeter Temple


 Bible Reading: Acts 2:42-47

In our fragmented society people are genuinely looking for community. There is a hunger for meaningful relationships.
Phil Potter, “The rest of the world is aware that life is essentially about relationships and the battle to get on with people. They recognise only too clearly that community is important but all around them they see conflict and sadness. No wonder then that they often demand a decent model from Christians before they will believe.”
One Pentecostal minister said, “Not until the Church engages the power of the Spirit in our life together, will we be what God called us to be”.
All Churches need to be places where people can experience the benefits of real love and acceptance. When people encounter Christians they need to see a living demonstration of the grace of God. If that is so, then relationships need to exist between us outside of our meetings. We need to find more ways of encouraging close community such as is demonstrated in Acts 2:42. What emerges wouldn’t be exactly like it was in Acts 2 because we live in a different culture and a different age, but we can share the commitment, support, servant-hood and focus expressed there.
Too often rather than a model of good community the church has been a mirror image of what we find in our culture.
BEAR OUR HEARTS
A Christian community should be a place where we can be honest with one another, where we take the masks off.
Ephesians 4:14
“Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.’ (NIV)

‘No more lies, no more pretence. Tell your neighbour the truth. In Christ’s body we are all connected with each other’ (The Message)

James 5:16 ‘Confess you sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.’

We cannot just expect people to bare their hearts if when they do they receive criticism or become the target of gossip. A fellowship works best when people share what is really going on in their lives but trust has to be built up.
A Christian community should be where we can be real with one another? This doesn’t mean we have to abandon privacy but we have to get beyond what one church leader calls “the veneer of hymns” and “how are you?” clichés.”
We sometimes fear that if we are honest, people will despise us but in reality honesty helps people to understand us and to each out to us.

BEAR WITH ONE ANOTHER
Colossians 3:13 ‘Bear with one another and forgive whatever grievances you have against one another. Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you.’
Cupboard love is an affection we have for others when we are being given what we want, but is withdrawn when we don’t. It is based on feelings and it moves on from one person to another. Community will never be built with cupboard love.
Covenant Love is based upon commitment, a better or worse kind of commitment. It is not based upon feelings alone but neither is it just a cold and calculated determination not to break a promise.

Romans 12:10 “be devoted to one another in brotherly love.’
Brotherly love and devotion are not emotionless words. When the Spirit is amongst us we will find a growing affection for one another even for people we may find difficult.

Ephesians 4:32 brings in the importance of forgiveness. ‘Be kind and compassionate, forgiving one another just as Christ forgave you.’

Forgiveness towards others is the overflow of the life that has been forgiven. At the cross God didn’t give us what we deserve, he gave what we needed, which was His mercy and we received forgiveness. We are instructed in God’s word to be merciful as He is merciful. We are to forgive as we have been forgiven.
Selwyn Hughes said that if we fail to forgive those who have offended us we break the bridge over which God’s forgiveness flows into us.
Since God requires us to forgive it is something we can do. God never asks us to do something impossible. Don’t wait to forgive until you feel like forgiving. You will never do it. Feelings may take time to heal after the choice to forgive has been made, not before. Forgiveness may be tough but it is possible and if we are to have authentic Christian community it is absolutely necessary. Bear with one another.

BEAR ONE ANOTHER’S BURDENS
Galatians 6:2 ‘Bear one another’s burdens.’
We are to love as those who are responsible to help one another. Of course there are different kinds of burdens, physical, material, emotional and spiritual. Sometimes we Christians do need to be much more practical and bearing a burden literally means carrying someone’s shopping, digging a garden or babysitting. But at the same time do not think that praying for someone is a second best way of bearing someone’s burdens. We underestimate the power of prayer.
There are many people who need their burdens carried in our community and it would not be hard to find someone to help.
Many of us will help in any way we can if we are asked to do it, but I would suggest we take it a step further and we look for opportunities and ways we can bear someone else’s burdens.
Sometimes we are the ones that need a burden carried and lifted from us, and we need to be willing to let other people help us carry them at times. That is not always easy because we have the sense in our minds that we do not want to bother anyone or be an inconvenience to someone else, but we may need to accept the help of others at times instead, Bear one another’s burdens.
To some people this picture of Christian community is one they really desire. They have had enough of only a superficial surface fellowship with other Christians. To others it sounds a bit demanding and to be honest true community is costly. The question is, “Can we be truly Christian without it?”

1 John 4:19-21 “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says “I love God yet hate’s his brother he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command, “Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
The devil hates us to enjoy true Christian community. He will do everything to keep us at a distance from one another. A united, supportive community means we will be much more effective at building God’s kingdom.
This is because God blesses unity.
Psalm 133 says; that when brothers dwell together in unity the Lord bestows the blessing’.
In the Bible when God’s people are in one accord the Holy Spirit has so often been poured out.
Revival may hinge on our willingness to bare our hearts, bear with one another and bear one another’s burdens.


God bless

Carol