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”