Sermon Tone Analysis

Big Idea of the Message: Salvation be based on a personal relationship with Jesus, but our faith must be lived out in community with other believers.

Application Point: Rather than seeing church as something we attending , we must be personally connected to a christian community AKA a local church

“first rule of the safari is this, always stay with the group!”

The same rule applies to believers.

If we become isolated, we weaken ourselves and become more vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy.

American individualism has emphasized a personal relationship with God to the point that many people who call themselves Christians think community, walking together in life-to-life accountability, is an optional part of the Christian Faith.

But intentional Christian community is a nonnegotiable part of being a healthy and effective believer.

John Wesley said, “Christianity is not a religion for solitude and solitary.

The Bible knows nothing of solitary religion”

When we are born again we are meant to be born into a family of believers that can nurture us, love us, feed, us and help us thrive in the faith.

This morning we are continuing our series, WE ARE THE CHURCH!

We spent the past couple weeks talking about the Mission of the Church and the Gospel!

Today I want to talk about Community!

Our Mission is to see peoples lives transformed by the love of the Gospel so they may experience salvation and wholeness in Jesus Christ.

We see this from the very beginning of the church.

We see that mission being fulfilled by being a church that Worships Jesus, Builds Community and Engages our World!

So this morning I want to talk about the importance of Christian Community

If you have your Bible open up to Acts Chapter 2, If you don’t have your Bible the words will be on the screen!

LET’s PRAY!

What event has just taken place in Acts Chapter 2?

Pentecost…

Acts chapter 2:1-13, Holy Spirit came upon the church!

Acts 2:14-41 Peter preached a powerful message of repentance!

And 3000 people repented and were baptized…

AND THE CHURCH WAS FORMED!

So everything we talk about today is based on the understanding that it all requires the power of the Holy Spirit… Human efforts in and of themselves do not build the Church… That passage tells us what the early church looked like… In essence Acts 2:42-47 is a vision of the early church!

Vision is diffrent than Mission… The Mission tells us what we do, the Vision discribes who we are… Vision gives us a picture!

Here at NCCF our full vision statement is:

To be a healthy Christ-centered community, led by the Holy Spirit, transforming our community by the power of the Gospel; meeting in LIFT groups for the care and discipling of one another; and convening together, in multiple campuses, weekly for biblical teaching and worship.

The most important piece of all this is that what we do must be led by the Holy Spirit!

The minute we begin to work out of our own power or just us try and build the church off of good ideas or marketing campaigns we are no longer building the church… even if it works!

So as we talk about building community this morning understand that all of this is based upon walking in step with the Holy Spirit… being a Christi centered community begins with Pentecost… it begins with being filled with the Spirit of God…

SO WITH THAT IN MIND: LET’S LOOK AT VS 42

In this one verse, we see four things that create biblical community!

These are not the only things but they seem the 4 common attributes of Christian community.

The idea that they devoted themselves covers all for activities…

They were devoted to the apostles teaching, they were devoted to the fellowship, they were devoted to the breaking of bread, and they were devoted to the prayers.

They were faithful and devoted to this newly formed community.[ii]

So let’s unpack these 4 things:

1.) THE FIRST THING THEY WERE DEVOTED TO WAS THE APOSTLE’S TEACHING.

VS 42… And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching…

Biblical Teaching is at the core of Christian Community… and it is one of our 4 Values here at NCCF.

Jesus spent a significant amount of time teaching His disciples… the great commission is twofold commission first to go and baptize… and then to teach!

Having appointed elders that teach God’s word has been at the center of Christian Community from it very beginning.

Starting with Jesus, then the apostles and then those who were appointed in local churches to teach, by the Apostles and so on…

There are at least 72 verses in the New Testament that speak of Jesus or one of His disciples teaching…

There are even more verses that talk about the importance of teaching and what should be taught.

SO TEACHING IS AT THE CORE OF CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY…

Teaching in the context of a local church provides vision, instruction, and doctrine!

All three of which are critical to biblical community.

Any community, In order to function properly has to have a common vision, a common set of expectations, and someone to cast vision… It true of a business, its true of a club, it’s true of a family and it’s true of a church…

This is an important element of community… the gathering together for teaching!

It is something that we need to be devoted to…

Doug Murren commented in a blog post that many Christians today attend several different churches… but are not committed or devoted to any local church.

This is a problem in the church today…

Too many Christians are simply not devoted to a local church… let alone to the teaching of the local church.

Many Christians see the church as a provider of goods and services… We talked about this last week… It is the difference between a eating at a restaurant and having a family meal…

It is why when some is looking for a church it is called church shopping.

As if the services a local church provides are something you can buy…

So in our culture if one church has a better youth group, and another a better children’s program and another a better preaching pastor… why not just send your kids to one church, your teens to another and then spend a Sunday at each of those churches and take a Sunday to go fishing.

I am not sure that is what it means to be devoted…

If you are a follower of Jesus… you need to find a local church where you can be devoted to the teaching of that church… Gathering together for teaching and worship is an important part of fellowship!

It is part of building community!

Now I am not saying that you need to be in complete agreement or that you should not question the teaching of a local church… you should read your bible and make sure what is being taught lines up… it is OK to ask questions…

That said you need to be devoted to a local church, hopefully since you are here today you are devoted to NCCF.

So if you want to connected to community you need to be committed to Teaching, which means here at NCCF you need to be committed to a Weekly Worship Service where we regularly teach from the word of God and you need to be connected to a LIFT Group…

Because each of our LIFT groups have a teaching component.

We also provide opportunities in our Adult Sunday school classes and teaching for children and students.

You need to be devoted to teaching…

But just spending an hour or two a week at church will not build community…

2.) THE SECOND THING THEY WERE DEVOTED TO WAS THE FELLOWSHIP

Fellowship is not having potlucks and playing bingo… Fellowship is about doing life together… it is about intimacy and trust… it is about caring for one another… it is about personal sacrifice for the good of the community…

Christian Fellowship is deeper than just a personal connection it is also a spiritual connection… Fellowship really refers to a unique connections that believers have with God and other Christians…

Fellowship is meant to be encompass everything from celebration to mourning… it something that takes place in each other’s homes… and in the market place…

Look at VS 46

Now the church began with over 3000 people… and it grew from there… I am going to make a crazy assumption here…

They didn’t know everyone… the apostles didn’t know everyone… they probably had people asking hey are you new here?

And they didn’t all meet in one home for fellowship… thousands of people cannot meet in a home for a meal…

SMALL GROUPS… OR LIFT GROUPS WERE PART OF THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH FROM THE BEGINNING!

IF you only attend church on Sunday you will never feel connected and you will never experience true fellowship, you will not feel like part of the community!

Even going to Church on Sunday and attending a LIFT group once a week will not be enough to build real community…

How often did the early church meet in their homes?

DAY BY DAY

FELLOWSHIP requires that you connect to smaller group of believers… that actual do life together… vacation together... Raise families together… care for each other… call one another… pray for each other… and minister to one another…

The miracle of the early church was that they were devoted to big picture, the apostles teaching… but they were also devoted to one another…

They were small groups of believer’s that had a common purpose!

Remember our VISION:

To be a healthy Christ-centered community, led by the Holy Spirit, transforming our community by the power of the Gospel; meeting in LIFT groups for the care and discipling of one another; and convening together, in multiple campuses, weekly for biblical teaching and worship.

To build community we must be committed to both meeting together in LIFT GROUPS but ALSO COMING TOGETHER WEEKLY AS THE CHURCH!

LIFT stands for Life In Fellowship Together!

If you want to be connected here at NCCF you need to be devoted to a Weekly Service and Devoted to doing Life In Fellowship Together!

In order to build community we have to meet together… we can’t neglect that part of our faith!

Any one here ever been to a drive in movie theater… We love to go to the Blue Fox Drive In in Oak Harbor.

Going to a Drive-in theater is a completely different experience than watching a movie in a regular theater.

At the drive-in, you can bring your own snacks, stay in your own car, and enjoy the show without even having to say “excuse me” to another person in order to get to your seat.

At the drive-in, you could show up to the movie in your pajamas, and no one would have to know.

you can text and talk on your phone and not disturb anyone… When you go to drive in you can enjoy the movie on your own terms.

Some Christians would love a drive-in option for church… That way you don’t have talk to anyone, just watch the show in your pajamas, and go home when it’s over.

But we can’t build community if we never get out of our car!

And that leads me to,