A Compelling Community

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A Compelling Community Hebrews 10:19-25 Justin Deeter — September 11, 2016

Introduction Today marks the launch of Community Groups. Tonight many of us will gather into each others home to meet, eat, fellowship, talk, and pray. Community Groups are multi-generational, home-based, sermon discussion small groups. I believe that the launch of Community Groups today is a paradigm shifting movement in our church. The vision for Community Groups finds its source in the Scripture. In the New Testament, we read about the early Church in the book of Acts and get glimpses of what the early church was like in the epistles. What we see is a very simple, but world-changing community formed by the power of the Gospel. The church begins to meet together for prayer and the teaching of the word, and as this compelling community grew, so did the numbers in the church. As a result, Community Groups is an essential component to our strategy as a church to make disciples. Our mission is to treasure Christ, equip believers, and send disciples for the glory of God. This mission statement encapsulates a three step process for making disciples at Forest Hills.

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First, we treasure Christ, exalt him, worship him, love him as we gather on Sunday mornings for Worship. The climax of morning worship is the preaching event, when the Scriptures are heralded and we hear from God. Second, we equip believers. We want to train one another so that we can grow as Christians into maturity. Our strategy is to equip believers through two aspects. We equip believers with the word, which takes place during Sunday school. There you are being taught about the Bible, learning what God has spoken to us in his Word. The second aspect is to be equipped with community, which happens through Community Groups. It is there that you will build relationships with other Christians, pray for one another, hold each other accountable, and encourage one another in the Christian faith and to obedience to Christ. Third, we send disciples. We don’t put on our pads to sit on the bench. We are equipped to be sent on the front lines of ministry of evangelism and discipleship. This is the work of every Christian, every member of Forest Hills Baptist Church, to be sent out from this church as a missionary whether its to your neighborhood or workplace, or to the other side of the globe. It is by though-ugly equipping you that you will be sent out as a disciple making disciple. And that’s it. That’s what the future of Forest Hills is going to look like. Over the years we are going to become increasingly focused on those three components of our mission and strategy. We will treasure Christ, equip believers, and send disciples for the glory of God. The purpose of this sermon today is to help cast vision for Community Groups. I hope to do two things this morning. First, if you are not in a community group I want to encourage you to join one. Second, for those of you in a Community

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Group I want to help you in your first meeting tonight think through what the purpose of your group will be, including how to make your group effective. In your community group you will not be getting a new Bible study or lesson. Instead, you will be discussing and applying the Sunday morning sermon each week. So tonight, at your first meeting you will be discussing what God has taught you through his word this morning, and encouraging one another to put it into practice. In this sermon I have one point. You need other people in the Christian life. It’s that simple. You can’t do it alone. God has designed the Christian life to function in community This sermon differs from our usual sermons at Forest Hills. This will be a topical message as opposed to an expositional message, though I do plan to show how this sermon is grounded in Scripture. Expositional preaching, such as preaching through a specific passage or book of the Bible, should be the normal diet of preaching in the local church and best builds up the church, but today we want to look at the topic of community and the church, and our focal passage for today will be Hebrews 10:19–25. “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting

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to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:19–25, ESV)

Lone Ranger Christianity Weakens the Church We live in a connected age. The internet makes the world a much smaller place. News travels immediately and status updates shared instantly to anyone in the world. The marvel of these technological achievements would astonish someone just fifty years ago. We would expect such powerful technology to bring people together. Yet, the hyper-connectivity of our technological age has brought isolation and has increased the power of individualism in western culture. What is individualism? One author defined individualism as that “meaning in life is found in a person’s ability to think and make choices for her- or himself. In its radical form individualism defines a person as the sum total of her or his own preferences, thoughts and emotions without reference to any external relationships.” (Pocket Dictionary of Theological terms, 65–66). It means, that all that matters is you—your life, your happiness, your dreams are all that matters. Individualism says that you don’t need anyone, especially not the church. All of this presents a unique challenge to the church, particularly the baptist church. Baptists believe that the church is a community of the born again, made up of members who have confessed Jesus as Lord and live life together in light of that confession. The church ought to be a community of the saints, a local manifestation of the church universal, living together on mission for their city. The church is inherently communal. We are not a collection of individuals who happen to sit in the same room at the same hour on Sunday morning. We are connected, bonded together in covenant love to one another. Paul in Ephesians describes how the Gospel takes “strangers and aliens” and joins us together as

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“fellow citizens with saints and members of the household of God” (Eph 2:19). In Christ, we are being joined together, being built up into a temple of the Lord. Individualism, then, swings a wrecking ball to this Holy Spirit directed construction of the church, and sadly many churches have only accelerated the destruction. It is common now for churches pander to a consumeristic culture and market the Gospel to prospective customers. We bring in lights and sound machines, upward leagues and rocking bands, musicals and beach trips. All of these methods appeal to our innate love of self as consumers who want a church who caters to me, myself, and I. Yet, when churches becomes a business with a product it only fosters the idolatrous individualism of the culture. As a result, the church has produced a generation of church hoppers, an assortment of disconnected worshipers who happen to be watching the same show. In the process we’ve compromised what essentially makes the church the church. The evidence of this compromise is found throughout baptist churches: meaningless membership rolls, a neglect of church discipline, confusion about baptism, and a full calendar of activities that have nothing to do with Christ or the Gospel. Are you a Lone Ranger Christian? Do you go to church without being the church? Does anyone know you here, or do you just come for the music and some mediocre at best preaching? Do you attend worship in the company of strangers or in a community of brothers and sisters? You see, attending church and being in the church is two very different things. The Lone Ranger mindset in the church has only weakened the church. It’s produced spiritually immature Christians who have grown up on milk instead of the meat of the Word of God. It’s produced a superficial community who spends more time talking about football scores than prayer. It’s produced worldly

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Christians whose lives are indistinguishable from culture around us. The church has gone from a community of sinners transformed by the Gospel and engaged on mission for Christ, to an assortment of moral individuals gathered for fellowship and fun. Is it any wonder then why the church has lost its influence on our culture today? Now, I hope you see this as a BIG problem. I know I certainly do. I’ve seen this Lone Ranger, consumeristic mindset of individualism seep into many churches, including our own. After all, our culture is constantly telling us that its all about me! Yet, individualism not only weakens the church, it kills it. Many churches are

now shutting their doors because they’ve become social clubs instead of churches. They became so selfish and so inwardly focus, that they stopped reaching their community. Therefore Jesus has rightly removed their lamp stand. So how do we cure this disease called individualism in the church? Well, I think Hebrews 10:19–25 has the answer, and Community Groups are how we are going to put it into practice.

What Biblical Community Gives Our passage from Hebrews today was written to a suffering church. Indeed, the book is filled with warnings to the church not to abandon their faith Christ. The early church encountered persecution, rejection, and alienation from the larger culture. It cost something, culturally to be a Christian. Though the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is free to all believe, discipleship has a cost. Indeed, Jesus tells us to count the cost of following him. So, Hebrews was written to a suffering church to encourage them to hold on to the faith. Yet, this is a message not given to individuals, but to the community of the church. Notice the pronoun

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throughout our passage: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope…let us consider how to stir up one another.” The Christian life is a community project. It involves us walking together as we follow Jesus. The opening verses gives the basis for how the Gospel forms the community called the church. By the blood of Christ we can now confidently come before God. Through Jesus’ death on the cross we can pass through the curtain to know and have a relationship with God. His blood has cleansed us and purifies us. In order to be apart of the community of the church you must be cleansed by Christ. You must come to him by faith. You must turn from your wicked ways and trust in Jesus who took on the punishment for your sin. All of this by the grace of God, and when God saves you something amazing happens. Your relationship to God is restored, but you are brought into relationship with other believers. The adopting love of God not only gives us a Father, but brothers and sisters called the church. The Gospel has vertical dimensions and horizontal dimensions. This Gospel caused community has three benefits, listed here in Hebrews 10. First, Biblical Community gives us perseverance. Our brothers and sisters in

Christ help us press on in the faith, holding fast to our confession of hope. Satan, the predator like he is, pounces on the isolated. When we are isolated, disconnected from the community of saints, we are vulnerable to temptation. As I look back on my own spiritual journey, the times I’ve been the weakest was when I wasn’t connected to the community of the local church. Biblical community puts people into our lives who both hold us accountable and reaches out to us when we stray. You need to have the sort of good, godly friends in your life who have both permission and courage to rebuke you. Our sinful hearts are prone to wander, and the community of the Church is God’s means of keeping us

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in the faith. Biblical community protects us from ourselves. We need one another if we are going to hold on to the confession of our hope. Second, Biblical community gives us growth. When you are surrounded by other

Christians, they encourage you to “love and good works.” As the body of Christ assembles, we stir up one another to godliness. We admonish one another to faithfully follow Christ, to maintain our spiritual disciplines of word and prayer, to share the Gospel with our friend, or to give generously to the poor. Biblical community will help you grow exponentially in your faith, much more than you ever could grow on your own. To neglect true community is to limit yourself to spiritual immaturity. If you want to grow in godliness and effectiveness as a Christian for the glory of God, you must engage with others. You must open yourself to the instruction other believers. None of us have arrived. We must have the humility, willingness, and openness to be taught (even by believers much younger than us!). We are all sinners. We are all works in progress. The Holy Spirit is sanctifying us, and one of his primary ways of doing that is through the person sitting next to you. This means that your brother or sister has much to teach you, and so too do you have much to teach your brother and sister in Christ. This is why we’ve designed community groups to be multi-generational because each generation has much to teach another generation. We have much to teach one another, and we must develop relationships in community so that we can mutually benefit as we grow together in Christ! Third, Biblical community provides encouragement. Sometimes the Christian life

is hard, and we feel like giving up. Sometimes we feel plagued with guilt, and struggle to find joy. This is where the community of the church ought to come into play. Here we must preach the Gospel one to another. We must remind ourselves of the glorious good news of Christ, who is our encouragement and

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hope! We are saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, but how quick we forget! How quick we forget the promises of God! Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book Life Together wrote the following: The Christian needs another Christin who speaks God’s Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth. He needs his brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother’s is sure. And that also clarifies the goal of all Christian community: they meet one another as bringers of the message of salvation.” (23) Indeed that is the goal of Christian community, to regularly herald the Gospel to one another, encouraging one another with the Christ who saves and who will come again!

Developing Authentic Community So as your community group meets for the first time tonight, how can you begin to develop this sort of authentic community. How can you get past the superficiality into real life on life discipleship? Many of you will be getting together tonight with people you barely know. Perhaps you’ve seen them in the hallway from time to time, but you’ve never had substantial conversations about the Lord. Because we are not used to this type of community, it can be awkward, particularly early on. Give it time as you get to know one another. You will learn one another’s gifts and sins pretty quick. You will figure out their quirks and

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annoyances, but that’s part of the messiness of true community. We accept one another for our faults, and bear with one another in our weaknesses. So give your community group time to develop relationships. However, if you want your community group to thrive and put into practice what we see here from Hebrews 10, it starts with you. Here is what’s required: First, be teachable. Have the humility to learn from others. This means laying

aside your pride. Give permission for others in your group to correct you, instruct you, and even rebuke you. Ask for feedback from others in your group, and listen to what they have to say. Watch the lives of others in your group and replicate them as they follow Christ. Second, be vulnerable. As you develop trust within your group, open up about

your life, your struggles, and what’s really going on. Community Groups are a safe place to take of the mask, and be you. There is no need for hypocrisy or acting like you have it all together. Pride kills vulnerability. Have the courage to open up and ask for prayer. Confess your weaknesses so you can rely on the strength of your group. There are no need for “unspoken” prayer requests at community groups. Third, be a servant. Put yourself last in your group. Look for ways you can serve

the members of your group. For those of you tend to dominate conversations, give others an opportunity to speak. If someone has a need in your group, looks for ways you can meet it. Fourth, be committed. Hebrews 10 has a great deal to say about the importance

of regular, weekly church attendance. As people in our culture attend church less and less frequently, many of you should be alarmed. Attending church once or twice a month won’t do. You need the church, because the church helps you

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make it across the finish line of faith! Don’t neglect God’s means for your protection and provision in this Christian journey! So, make worship on Sunday mornings a priority. Do not neglect meeting together. Listen actively to the sermon on Sunday morning so you can share how God is teaching you with your group that night. Then, also prioritize attendance to community group. Show up at each meeting. Don’t let any other commitments get in your way. Put the meetings on your calendar and do not miss them. You need your community group and your community group needs you. Fifth, be invested. The relationships you make with people in your community

group should spill over into your work week. Be invested in the lives of others in your community group. If you were having a great conversation about a brother about being a godly father and husband, invite him out to lunch that week to discus it more. If someone asks for prayer for a big meeting that week, text or call them to let them know you are praying for them. If you have some extra tickets to the ball game, invite a couple from your community group to go with you. Be invested. Develop true, authentic friendships. True community is much more than just one day a week! Much more could be said, but those five things will get you on the right track. By the grace of God, the Spirit will begin to join you together as you grow together in the word of God. True community is messy, but its worth it. God in Christ has made us brothers and sisters, family with one another. Therefore, community is an outworking of the Gospel.

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A Compelling Community will Win the World for Christ Church, can you imagine how our city would change if we began to live out Hebrews 10 in our community groups? Do you know what would happen if we lived like this? I’ll tell you what would happen, the Gospel would go forth! Instead of replicating the culture, the church must provide a life-giving alternative. As the hyper-connectedness of our technological age breeds isolation, people are starving for community. Here, then, is the church’s great opportunity. The church, as a city set on a hill, must contrast the culture by modeling a self-denying community of love. The Gospel brings us out of our narcism into union with Christ, but also to one another in the church. The greatest evangelistic strategy the church can employ today is this: demonstrate a compelling and contrasting community that can only be explained by the Lord Jesus Christ. Although the primary focus for Community Groups will be equipping believers, we will also see the Gospel spread in our city because of it. The reason is simple, people are starving for community. If we model to the world what true Christian community looks like, they will listen to the Gospel we proclaim. You are encouraged to invite people, friends, neighbors, or coworkers to your community group. Community Groups will constantly be growing and constantly reproducing! Though our community groups only number in 7 today, that number will grow. As groups get to large, they will be split into two groups so that more people can be reached. We want to reach our community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we live in this sort of biblical community its going to transform the culture of our church. We will purge individualism from Forest Hills Baptist Church as we live in Gospel wrought community. As we begin this new venture

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together as a church, may God add to our numbers daily just as he did for the early church in Acts. Authentic community is contagious and compiles the world to listen to the Christ we proclaim!

Final Thoughts If you have yet to sign up for a community group, I pray you will do so—today! Chris will be by the welcome center to sign you up if you have yet to do so or go online and sign up for one on your phone or computer. If you don’t sign up this week, you can always sign up in the weeks to come. You need true community. God has designed you for it! Get outside of your self, your own comfort, and your isolation. Get involved in other’s lives and let them get involved in yours. As we love one another as Christ has loved us we will grow together as we live life together. For those already signed up, I’ll be praying for your first meeting tonight, that God by his Spirit would begin a marvelous work in your lives. As you grow closer to one another, that you would equip one another with Biblical community. The future is bright at Forest Hills because Jesus is alive and at work in us. By the grace of God we will grow together as we treasure Christ, equip believers, and send disciples for the glory of God!

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