The Fellowship of Believers They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily. Acts 2:42-47

What is God’s Picture of a Christian Community? See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. - Hebrews 3:12-14

He Says It A Little Better Than I Do “How does the church help us avoid an evil heart of unbelief? The answer is that we must be the church for each other. And what is the main thing that the church does for each other? We speak to each other in ways that help us not to be deceived by the allurements of sin. Or to put it positively, we speak to each other in ways that cause us to have hearts of faith in the superior value of Christ over all things. We fight to maintain

He Says It A Little Better Than I Do (cont.) each other’s faith, by speaking words that point people to the truth and value of Jesus. That’s how you guard against an evil heart of unbelief. Unbelief means failing to rest in Jesus as your greatest treasure. So helping each other believe means showing people reasons why Jesus is more to be desired and trusted and loved than anything else.” - John Piper

How Have We Strayed From What God Wants For Our Community? 1) Our relationships with one another are not about encouraging each other in our relationships with God

What is God’s Picture of Christian Community? As a prisoner for the Lord then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

What is God’s Picture of Christian Community? (cont.) But to each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it … it was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

What is God’s Picture of Christian Community? (cont.) Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. - Ephesians 4:1-16

How Have We Strayed From What God Wants For Our Community? 1) Our relationships with one another are not about encouraging each other in our relationships with God 2) We view community as something that happens to us instead of something we help bring about.

Two Pictures Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie – the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk. At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. - John 5:1-9

Two Pictures One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was present for him to heal the sick. Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” - Luke 5:17-20

What does it look like to actively bring about a community of relationships about Jesus? Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ. - Ephesians 4:15

Speaking the Truth in Love 1) Reminding each other of who Jesus is and His place in every situation of our lives.

Speaking the Truth in Love 1) Reminding each other of who Jesus is and His place in every situation of our lives. 2) Challenging each other in love.

Speaking the Truth in Love 1) Reminding each other of who Jesus is and His place in every situation of our lives. 2) Challenging each other in love. 3) Encouraging one another and affirming who God has created us to be – nothing more.

“The Elephant in the Room”