Community of Believers (10/3/11)

Shalom,

Please begin by reading Acts 2:42-47.

"They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people." Doesn't that sound absolutely wonderful? Wouldn't it be thrilling to experience that kind of fellowship and the appreciation of people outside our churches? The joy of our Lord so filled the lives of these early believers that they enjoyed each other's ongoing company and the people of Jerusalem liked them, too.

Does your local population like you? Do they even know you exist? We need to find this same kind of joy in our fellowship and service so we can also have the same kind of strong influence on our communities. Not only will we experience a greater sense of the joy of our salvation, but others will be drawn to our good witness of faith. Our individual and corporate relationships with the Father, Son, and Spirit should be having a good influence on the people all around us. I know we don't live in a perfect world where everyone wants to know how to be saved, but we can certainly do a better job than we've done in the past to share the Kingdom of our Lord with our communities.

We hear a lot about "inter-faith" gatherings in our world today. All sorts of religious people are meeting together for prayer and service and other activities. The ongoing dialogue between many different faiths appears to be gaining momentum for a greater ecumenical agreement. The move toward being tolerant of every belief system is overwhelming many people. I'll be honest. I can't accept that this is what Yahweh wants us to be doing. He's a very jealous God and doesn't like it when we compromise his truth to be more accepting of one another.

"Inter" means: between, among, in the midst of, mutual, and reciprocal. How can we be true Christians, following the Word of our Almighty God, and fully accept the beliefs of those who deny and reject the truth of the Bible? According to his Holy Word, Yahweh set apart a people to proclaim his name, shine his light, and share his truth with the world. The people who trust in him for salvation and who strive to live holy lives will be blessed. The people who reject his salvation and deny his truth will not. If we want to see the same kind of results as the early Church, we have to stand against the ways of the world and their "tolerant' outlook. If we're going to serve the One True God, we can't tolerate anything but the Gospel of Jesus the Christ.

When we proclaim a message of Jesus being "the Way and the Truth and the Life" (John 14:6) we'll definitely stand out. And doing this could mean being very successful in bringing more people into the Kingdom, or being persecuted for proclaiming the truth that many don't want to hear. We can read in the Book of Acts how the early Church had favor in some places, and were jailed or killed for their faith in others. Their evangelistic efforts were strong and brought many people to the place of receiving Jesus as their Savior. But they also faced terrible persecutions for not aligning with the "system." We can see the same sort of thing throughout history, or still ongoing in various parts of our world today.

If we're unwilling to face opposition by proclaiming the straight and pure Truth of the Gospel, we'll never see anything like the early Church did happening in our communities. We must make a decision to stand strong for the Gospel and our Lord, no matter what other people think or do. If we shut ourselves up inside our buildings and bask in the good feelings we have in fellowship with one another, we're missing out on the blessings of sharing the Gospel. It's great to love one another and enjoy each other's company, but without new growth our individual bodies with wither and fade away. It's definitely time to expend more of our energy into evangelism and the public proclamation of the Gospel.

Look at the beautiful time these early believers were having. They shared their assets with one another. They met "daily" for prayer and praise and worship and teaching. Miracles were happening. Doesn't that sound good? Wouldn't you like to experience this kind of Christianity? How have we become so ingrown and separated from our communities? We have to make some kind of effort to reach out beyond ourselves.

Look at the way they influenced their community. Does our community look on us with favor? I believe for the most part we could say yes, but I also believe there are many who hardly know we exist. We're the people of Yahweh. We claim to have the Truth, the one and only Truth that comes directly from the Creator. We're to be expressing the heavenly Father's love toward others in the way we treat and serve them. We give to missions to help spread the Gospel around the world. But what about those within our own towns and communities? What are we doing to bless and reach them?

The alcoholic or the single mother or the abused child down the street doesn't know or care about how we sent needed items to Africa, or how we provided food after the floods, or how we support a seminary in India. They know they have needs and we haven't made them aware of the amazing God and Savior we serve. They know they're hurting and we haven't reached them with the loving concern their Maker has for each and every one of them.

After the time for the service had come and gone, the student began to wonder if he'd got his directions mixed up and gone to the wrong church. He was just leaving a note when a pickup truck slid to a stop at the bottom of the steps. A man in overalls jumped out and asked, "Are you the guest preacher?" The young man replied, "Yes, I am." Then the man began to apologize and explained, "Joe Crane's fence broke and some of his stock got loose. We've all been over there rounding up cows and repairing the fence. Every one's there. You can come and speak to us there if you'd like." The student thought a little and said, "No, thank you. You're preaching a better sermon than I ever could. I'll just come and join you in the work."

Our communities need to be aware of our presence in the same sort of way. If something is needed, we should be some of the first people to respond. If someone is hurting they should know they can come to us to talk and pray about their concerns. Our best sermons are our loving service and friendly actions to others, especially to those outside our fellowships. I need to do better at this myself. We're to be affecting our community by sharing the Gospel, but we're also to be the best citizens of our communities.

It's much more than doing "nice" things for people. The Gospel of Nice has become a cheap human substitute for biblical service done in the light of our Savior's love. We need to help them and then also tell them we're doing it because our Lord and Savior sent us. We need to proclaim the Gospel in some way. When we let people know we're helping them in the Name of our Lord and Savior, they are made aware that we serve a loving God. When we have the opportunity we can then tell them the whole Gospel story and attempt to draw them closer to the one who can save them. Jesus is the most important part of doing this community service. It's not about letting people know how loving our church is, but how loving Jesus is. He's the reason we to work at blessing other people.

Our communities and nations need another Great Awakening. We need a move of the Holy Spirit to bring peace, righteousness and godly living to the forefront again. According to Henry Blackaby and Claude King's book Fresh Encounters, a spiritual awakening occurs when large numbers of people experience new birth in spiritual life in a short period of time. Spiritual awakenings aren't just times of mass decisions for Jesus, it's more about people's lives being radically changed by the Gospel of the Kingdom.

Here are some examples of the kinds of things that we should see taking place:

Bars closing for lack of business.

Police work dropping due to a decrease in crime.

Stores receiving money and stolen merchandise from people convicted by their sin.

Reconciliation taking place between racial and ethnic groups, individual relationships being healed.

Foul language being replaced by more civil and wholesome speaking.

Private and public acts of immorality decreasing.

Marriages being restored and family life becoming stronger.

Don't those things sound great? We can work toward making them a reality. Standing in the presence of our Holy God is an awesome experience. Any encounter with the Father, Son, and Spirit carries with it responsibility and accountability. No one can be in their presence without a serious response. If we've truly met and invited Jesus into our hearts, we're now responsible to help other people do the very same thing.

Yahweh is holy and demands holiness from his people. If we've met Jesus in salvation, we have the responsibility of sharing him with others. We can be more like the early Church and impact our communities with the love of our Savior. People need Jesus. We have the words of life. Somehow we've got to bring these words of life to more people, especially those in our own communities.

Blessings & Peace, Mike