ANGEL TREE DVD AT OFFERING AND NEW MEMBER RECOGNITION IN ALL 3 AFTER OFFERING.
BULLETIN STUDY QUESTIONS:
The Church means…
COMMUNITY VS. CONTRACT
FAMILY VS. FORMAL
LOVE VS. LAW
RELATIONSHIP VS. RULES
“No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” John Donne, English poet
Donne wrote the above when he lay dying. The church bell rang to summon people to worship and the funeral bell tolled each time someone died, therefore it tolled often.
- Name some organizations you’re a part of. What ones do you feel more a part of and why?
- What kinds of things make you lean toward being a rugged individualist, pretty much taking care of yourself? What things make you lean more on others?
- List some new things you’ve learned about biblical “fellowship” today. What changes will these bring in your practice of fellowship?
- How do you define “church”? How about “church member”?
I. Intro. John Donne is best known for the poem in your bulletin today. After living a wild youth during which he entertained his friends w/ erotic poetry, He was trained as an attorney. After he turned to Christ, he became a pastor. At age 52 he thought he was dying from the Black Plague that was ravaging Europe. It was then he pondered the great themes of life and death, as I am upon my father’s death. One theme was “the church.” How connected are we and should we be? [This is the essence of our church’s mission statement. GIVE HERE]
. “The church is…universal; so are all her actions. All that she does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me, for that child is thereby connected to that head which is my head too, and engrafted into that body whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me. All mankind is of one author, and is one volume. When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language…[finish from above/bulletin QUO]
II. Lots of questions have come up recently about what it means to be a church member and what it means to be a church?
A. Several people brought up the self-promotion, edifice complexes, emphasis on the wrong things (numbers, nickels=$, noses) of many churches in America, the denominations and disunity, the ones like country clubs, the ones w/ hypocrites, the online church, TV church, or house churches?
B. On membership: What does it mean to be a church member? What about all the non-members who support and participate more than members? What benefits are there? Where does it say it’s required in the Bible? Why are the requirements more than getting into Heaven?
III. First we need to think differently. I don’t mean change your mind about something. I mean change your frame of reference, the WAY you think. My son tells me that law school doesn’t teach you what you need to know to be an attorney. It teaches you how to think like a lawyer. Now that’s scary! Is anybody comforted by that thought? I have to be careful, now we have one in the family.
A. Illustrations of this would be getting the whole health care debate to focus more on prevention than just controlling costs, accurate diagnosis and healing disease. Another is the entire way of fighting cancer is moving away from curing or cutting to boosting the body’s immune system. These are whole new ways of thinking about a problem.
B. We need to re-think church and church membership. One of the ways we in the US/West think is individualistically. It’s rooted in our DNA as Americans. America was made great, we think, by rugged individuals. There are times we need stand up and stand out individuals, but most countries, including God’s people the Jews, don’t place near as much emphasis on the individual as we do. They place way more emphasis on what God does with His people, His nation, the corporate body, how no man is an island.
1. One danger is this can sound Communistic or socialistic, right?
2. If you read the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence you’ll find both; the “We the people…,” but also the guarantees of the individual’s rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…”
3. We need to think WAY more in terms of us/we than I/me. In the American church we too often have an “every man for himself kind of thinking,” when it comes to interpreting Scripture (That’s not what it means to me…”) to getting guidance (we only go for counsel after we’ve followed our own leading and we’re in knee deep. I was gratified when someone called me wanting a “clearness committee”).
4. This often comes close to the sin of the nation of Israel in the book of Judges where “everyone did what was right in their own eyes” (Dt 12:4, 8, 13-14; Judg 17:6; 21:25).
IV. Make no mistake, there are many ways we are treated as individuals by God. We must come to Him for salvation as an individual. It’s not a decision your family, church, or country makes for you. HAVE YOU? GOSPEL HERE.
A. We are held responsible individually for our sins (Ezek 18:3-4).
B. Or are we? What about the corporate dynamic to sin, where one man sinned and the whole nation paid (Josh 7)?
1. What about when a member of a family sins and the sin gets passed down through the generations, something that is often referred to as “generational curses” (Ex 20:5; 34:7)?
2. This also works positively. Early on in the Bible Abraham is promised that blessings will come to his family, his descendents and to the whole world if HE will obey God. I’d say we could call that corporate blessing. One man, or a few, do what’s right, and many others are recipients of the blessing.
3. That works in our military. Relatively few sacrifice so that the nation can live in freedom.
4. So much of the Bible is about the family, the community, the nation. In the NT when the father gave his heart and allegiance to following Jesus, then the entire household was baptized & blessed (Ac 16:29-34).
a. Does this mean the jailer’s family didn’t need to make a personal decision to follow Christ themselves? Not at all. But a holy father has a holy influence on his family that is powerful. So does a holy wife (I Cor 7:13-14).
b. Are you underestimating the sanctifying power of your influence in your family if you are radically in love with Jesus, follow Him no matter the cost, and show that first and foremost in your home. What if we really believed in a father’s or mother’s ability to change an entire household? These passages show it’s possible.
V. Understanding the word “fellowship” might help us. The word we translate “fellowship” is usually the word “koinonia.” It means “participation, partnership, partaker with, communion, communication, involvement, sharing, having/holding things in common with,” like the early (Acts 2) church showed when they shared their possessions, not considering anything as their own (2:42-47; 4:32). Sounds communistic, eh? But look at the results.
A. My point: we think WAY too individualistically instead of how much we are connected. We are members of one body; His body. We should hurt more than we do when one member hurts. I know we can’t know everyone [THINK SMALL GROUPS], but how much do you hurt when someone you do know hurts?
B. Bottom line is we have to be involved with one another. It has to go deeper than what we describe as fellowship today, which is usually coffee and chit chat.
VI. So back to some of the biggest reasons people give me for NOT joining the church…I’m involved, so that makes me a member. There are many members that are as involved as I. The piece of paper I sign doesn’t matter.
A. For you who are involved participants. Thank you. The church could not go on without the many who are not members, but are incredibly involved in serving and supporting in all ways. The paper doesn’t matter. Really?
B. How many follow that same logic with your marriage? We could all point to examples of folks who have the legal marriage papers, but don’t serve and support their spouses like you. But you still have the paper.
C. “Unfair comparison!” You’re forced to have the paper. Not really. Living together is becoming way more common.
D. People will leave here today saying: “The pastor is encouraging living together.” Chill. I’m not. Most of us have the piece of paper because the Bible says we should submit to the governing authorities that say it’s important (unless they tell us to do something that contradicts God’s Word; Ac 5:29; Rom 13; 1 Pet 2).
E. Well the same Bible tells us we are to submit to our spiritual authorities who ALSO say THIS piece of paper is important (Heb 13:17 P & project these references only--Ac 16:4; Mt 16:19; 18:18; I Pet 5:5).
F. How about all those who are members and are not living up to the covenant they signed [read Covenant]? We are trying to change that, raise the bar of discipleship or what it means to follow Christ…for ALL of us. All of us need to take our covenant of church membership more seriously.
VII. Jesus will always be calling us to follow Him more closely which will be more costly to us. Where is He calling you to greater closeness and cost? Often this will be greater closeness spelled “involvement & love” toward His church, His Body, your family. Will you do it? If not, why not?
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