A Community of Unity
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
A Community of Unity
A Community of Unity
“Hello Outpost family and welcome to week one of our new study called Gospel Community. Earlier this summer, a group of us leaders went away for a couple of days and planned out the next years worth of ministry. Through much prayer and thought, we came away from the retreat with a ministry plan that emphasizes the gospel for the next year. Now, that may sound like a long time to focus on a single subject but the reality is that the Gospel spans from Genesis to the Revelation and touches virtually every aspect of the Christian life and faith. The gospel is the power of God to salvation. The gospel is the main theme that spans the entire story of the Bible. The gospel is the story of Jesus. The gospels are a collection of four books in the NT. The gospel is what sanctifies us. The gospel is also what binds us in this community we call the church. The gospel is so much more and honestly a single year isn’t even enough to mine the depths of its beauty and transforming power out of the Bible.
Over the next eight weeks we are going to explore what the Bible has to say about what it means to be part of a church. We have an incredible vision and mission that will truly bring about change in our community and most importantly will lead others to Christ; however, a well stated vision and mission have no power on their own to do anything…it takes real people in community with skin in game to make our vision and mission a reality. Over the next eight weeks we will be talking about what it means to commit to this gospel community we have come to call The Outpost Church. At the end of these eight weeks we will hold a big celebration service (hopefully in our new building) where we will formally commit in a covenant together to the principles of this gospel community. We will hold a baptism service for any needing baptism and will all publicly acknowledge our commitment to this gospel community.
At the end of this sermon today (and each week hereafter) we will spend time working through these concepts together and committing to the different aspects of our gospel community. I encourage you to be open and engage with one another. This is a really easy first step for us to begin building community and I honestly can’t think of a better format to do that in then in homes sharing a meal together.”
INTRODUCTION
Have you ever noticed how much of our economy is based around subscription based services.
And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled.
This is the equivalent of Paul going to the local coffee shop on a Thursday morning hoping to catch some people in a Bible study. He is successful but essentially runs into a women’s group but that doesn’t stop Paul and Luke.
A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.
And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
Lydia is an upwardly mobile independently wealthy fashionista.
Explain Lydia’s circumstances: She had narrowed down that the God of Israel was the one true God (radical departure from the normative pagan belief system in a pantheon of gods held by most in her status). Most women of her status would have a little shrine of gods probably gods of fertility, gods of wealth and business, and gods of health that she prayed to…but not Lydia. She is actively seeking out God but is missing some information about who Jesus is and how the good news of the gospel effects her.
Lydia was engaged in a search for God and it is through a greater understanding of the gospel and having questions answered that she comes to faith in Jesus.
Maybe this is some of your stories. Perhaps you grew up in a home that valued a Judeo-Christian ethic but church was never part of the equation (or perhaps it was only church on easter & christmas sort of thing) and when you were finally confronted with a clear presentation of the gospel it was the missing piece that you had been searching for. Not only is this some of your stories, but in the context within which we live here in America, this is a very common situation.
It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling.
Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.”
She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out at that very moment.
This little girl is enslaved by spiritual and physical evil.
It is a move of supernatural Holy Spirit power that brings life where there was none.
Explain how spiritual evil was probably brought on through her own trauma. She was probably trafficked at an early age and forced into either harsh manual labor but more likely sexual servitude. The trauma she had experienced had opened her up to the possibility of demonic possession; a fact that her newest slaveholders were exploiting for financial gain. This little girl has probably been exploited her entire life and her soul is literally crying out for help in this moment. In an act of Holy Spirit power, Paul commands the spirit to come out. Her conversion is both instant and assumed in the story insomuch as she is now rendered useless to her masters.
Maybe this isn’t your story, but perhaps you can identify with it. The reality is that we live in a city where this type of physical, mental, and economical oppression is leading to very real spiritual oppression.
Explain the cycle that people go through that lead to this. People are hurting and crying out and are waiting for the power of the Gospel to transform their hearts and bring hope.
Explain how this landed Paul and his associates in hot water and eventually in Jail.
The crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods.
When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely;
and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Explain how the Jailer took the punishment farther than needed. Explain that the jailer is probably an older soldier too messed up to fight in battle.
The jailer is a blue-collar, rough-neck mans man who enjoys his job a little too much.
We get to see his conversion story as well.
Read: Explaining as you go...
But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them;
and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.
When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.
But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!”
And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas,
and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house.
It is a bold act of love that softens the jailers heart and opens him up to receive Jesus as his savior.
Perhaps this is your story. I know that it is where many of the people in our community are. They have had their hearts hardened by hearing the gospel and hearing how churches and Christians are supposed to act but have never seen it lived out. What could churches accomplish if they were filled with people who actually lived out the gospel?
So…let’s just recap...
The Philippian church begins with:
A wealthy female CEO and fashion mogul.
A poor little girl with an extremely messed up past.
A rough-around-the-edges working class ex-military man.
Do you think these wildly different back-stories ever created tensions as they sat around their little house church?
The question then is: What in the world could bring this group of people together in such a way that just a few short years later we would get Paul’s letter to the Philippians in which we see a church united in spite of opposition and standing in a firm commitment to one another and to the mission of Jesus?
For this answer I think we need to look at another story.
Someone said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.”
But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?”
And stretching out His hand toward His Disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers!
“For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”
In this moment, Jesus redefines and re-prioritizes our closest relationships.
He says it a little differently in Luke’s gospel chapter 14:26.
“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
The people who originally heard these words of Jesus had no idea that He was going to die on a Roman cross.
Explain the following Jesus as the soldier concept…we have no plans tomorrow.
Carrying a cross is the ultimate act of commitment.
I looks like:
Loving the Lydia in your life who you might have radically different views about life from. It looks like meeting the needs of the little slave girl with a jacked up past. It looks like being patient, and gentle, and kind to the rough-necked jailer who is still growing in his faith or who might not even be saved yet and is looking for an example of the gospel made real.
Luckily for us, we have the post crucifixion/resurrection view of this statement…because we know that under our own power, we just don’t have it in us to pick up our cross. Jesus did it for us and made a way for our hearts to be made alive and transformed by the gospel.
Give the J-hook speech.
It is as we go back and believe in the gospel every day that we are transformed by its power.
It is when we do this that we can truly love our father, mother, husband, wife, brother, sister with a love like Jesus.
Jesus is painting picture in that passage in Matthew of an entire community of people living together and being transformed by this gospel power. Talk about a marriage (if we are commited first to good looks well…those fade) if we are commited first to Jesus and his principles, we we continually be moving closer together under His design.
What Jesus was getting at in His statements in Matthew was: What does it look like for an entire community of people to be living out this ethic? If we are continually outdoing one another in love, affection, generosity through our obedience to the Father, it begins to look a lot like the church we see in Acts 2. A church were the Lydia’s are selling their homes and businesses so that the little slave girls among them don’t ever have to go without ever again. It looks like a church where the jailers and the Lydia’s meet joyfully and of one mind in unity submitting to the authority of the Bible.
What are the ways you are failing to commit to picking up your cross and following Jesus and what are the ways that has played out in your relationships?
Are you willing to begin a pattern of commitment this week by praying that God would reveal the areas you are failing to commit all of your life to following Jesus?
We are going to begin working this question and more out in the context of our expedition groups.
Will you pray with me
Which one of the characters’ stories do you most identify with and why? Lydia, the slave girl, or the Jailer? Perhaps your story is completely different…if so, would you be willing to share?
Give people plenty of time to respond to this. You might need to start with your own story. Essentially, you are asking whether they came to faith through more of an intellectual pursuit, whether it was out of bad circumstances and hopelessness that Jesus rescued them, or whether is was seeing the gospel on display that brought them to faith. If it is something else try and flesh out where they came from and what it was that God used to bring them to Himself.
Knowing the main characters backgrounds (refer back to notes 1, 2, & 3) what are some of the issues that could have been present as this group of people came together?
As is present in a lot of wealthier people from major urban centers do you think Lydia might have been a little bit liberal in her leaning? How do you think that clashed with the Jailer who was probably the polar opposite? I just imagine him wearing his MAGA hat to their first home gathering and walking in to see Lydia wearing her ‘vote for Bernie’ shirt. How do you think the little slave girl felt amongst the group (intimidated, out of place, afraid to be judged)?
Are any of these things issues still today? What are some of the major differences people bring to the table that cause us to keep our distance and erect invisible barriers of exclusivity?
Try and get everyone to think through the barriers that we erect to keep the little slave girl (maybe that is homeless people or people who have some serious past issues or crazy worldviews) out of our churches. How do cliques lead to certain people not feeling welcome?
What are some of the actions or attitudes that we possess that make us distance ourselves from other people who are not like us?
Do you think Lydia was ever worried about bringing the little slave girl into her home? She’s dirty…she smells…what if she steals something…what would my rich friends think if they saw me hanging around her…what if she’s only here because she’s looking for a handout? Do you think Lydia may have ever had to check her feelings about this girl?
Do you think the slave girl was ever weary about Lydia or the Jailer? What if they knew what all I have done in the past? Would they cast me out if they knew the things i’ve done just to survive? Could this have made her want to pull away and go back into isolation?
Do you think the Jailer was super excited for his children to be around the slave girl or around Lydia (who would have had radically different worldviews than him)? Do you think his gruff nature ever came back out as he approached his fellow believers? Do you think there were ever any conversations on the the car ride home between the jailer and his wife about how insensitive he was to the circumstances of one of the other believers?
How does a commitment to the gospel change the way we see people?
You are probably going to have a hard time getting people to answer this question. Have someone from your group read Ephesians chapter 4 (the whole thing). The answer is in verse seven…We all required grace and forgiveness from Jesus. Before salvation, we were all seen as sinners in direct rebellion against God. All people were created in God’s image and require the same blood of Jesus that you and I do and a commitment to Jesus means that we are willing to see people the way Jesus sees them and extend the same grace, mercy, and love that He has extended us.
Why do you think Paul uses the example he does in verse 16 to describe the gospel community of the church?
Because like a body, every member is vital. That means that in God’s economy, the little slave girl has just as much to give as Lydia does. The jailer is just as important as anyone else. The homeless man down the street is created in God’s image just like you were. Jesus died for your neighbor who can’t go two sentences without swearing and He has a place for them in the body that is just as important as you or me.
How does a community commited to the gospel and to unity stand in stark contrast to the rest of our society? How is should the Outpost stand out in our community and what can we do to make this a reality?
We live in a society that promotes rampant individualism. We live in the age of ‘you don’t need that negativity’ in your life and so we regularly pull away into cliques of likeminded people who really don’t challenge our worldview or stretch us to think differently about people who are not like us. The church should not look like this. The church, if ephesians 4 is to be believed, should be a beautiful collection of individuals being transformed by the gospel using their individual experiences, perspectives, and past stories to engage in the mission of Jesus and glorify God. I’m not giving any answers to the other two questions…I want you and your group to flesh this out…please record some of the answers you get.
Most importantly: How can we begin rooting out the attitudes and actions that cause division, erect invisible barriers for certain people or groups coming to faith, and are ultimately a sign of our failure to commit to the gospel?
Some suggestions: 1. Make it a point to talk with or meet someone who is radically different than you this week. Listen with empathy and listen for the things they say about the gospel or what their hope is in (money? a better job? a better marriage? politics? etc.) 2. Commit to praying that God would begin revealing these actions and attitudes to you…I promise that He will if you will be faithful to pay attention to your own thoughts this week and be in the Word. 3. Meet with other believers whom you trust and ask them if they see any ‘failure to commit’ in your life anywhere. If it exists in other areas…chances are it exists in your commitment to the gospel and to the gospel community of believers.