If you are a follower of Christ, you need to understand that
Jesus didn’t save you to isolation but to community. When Jesus was asked what
the greatest commandment was, His response was very revealing. I’ll paraphrase,
“the most important is to love God with
everything you are, and the second flows from that, to love others as yourself,
all the Law hangs on these two” (Matthew 22:37-40).
Vibrant Christian community is at the heart of the Gospel.
Learning to get a clear picture of who God is leads us to a deeper love for Him
and an understanding of how we are to love others. God is a Triunity…meaning He
is a 3-in-1 God. The Trinity is complete and relational, and He invites us into
that relationship.
Living in community with other believers is a picture of how
the Trinity is in community within the Godhead.
Listen how Peter describes it:
“But you are a chosen
race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that
you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into
his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people;
once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter
2:9-10)
He is not addressing individual believers, but believers in
community. Once we were alienated, alone and far off, but now we are a people
who belong to Jesus!
Let’s take a look at the early church and see how they
understood community.
“And they devoted
themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of
bread and the prayers. And awe came upon
every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And
all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were
selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all,
as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking
bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their
number day by day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:42-47)
What an incredible story! Just before this part we hear that
Peter and the Apostles were preaching and 3,000 people were added to the
church. These were brand new believers with just a few leaders. They were
hungry for God and reflected His love to each other organically. This wasn’t
programed or institutional, this was an outflow of their love for their Savior,
Jesus Christ.
1.
Apostle’s Teaching
The early believers gathered to listen to
the apostles teach what they had learned from Jesus. Their teaching was built
on the foundation of the Old Testament Scriptures through the lens of Jesus’
death, burial and resurrection! Today we have their teachings in the New
Testament. Lakeside, Loft and small groups are built on the foundation of
correctly handling the Word of God.
2.
Fellowship
Fellowship is a partnering together and
sharing of each other. This is more than just hanging out. This is being
intentional on spending time together for the purpose of encouraging one
another in our relationships with Jesus Christ. Youth group and small group is
built on providing a positive and safe environment that can help us achieve
this focus.
3.
Breaking Bread
Refers to the importance of following through
on the ordinances of the church that Jesus Christ instituted. We regularly
practice these at Lakeside in the forms of the Communion on the last Sunday of
each month and baptism by immersion as people respond in obedience to Christ’s
call.
There is also something important and
powerful about eating meals together. Conversations happen over food. Snacks
and meals are an important time to engage with each other.
4.
Prayers
Learning to pray together and for each
other is important. The youth staff values the importance of praying for and
praying with each of the students. Students learn how to improve their prayer
life by listening to leaders and each other pray out loud.
5.
Sacrifice
The Early church gave of their own
possessions for the care of each other. Many of the new converts were from out
of town, who only showed up for the festival. Having received Christ, they
stayed around to learn. The new church came together to make sure everyone had
a place to stay, food to eat and needs met.
A vibrant community is one that cares for
one another. Jesus said, “they will know you are my disciples by your love for
each other!” How we treat each other in youth group will reflect our true
belief about God. If we are a Christian, that means Christ is more important
that “being cool” or “fitting in” with this world. Our brothers and sisters in
Christ should be treated in such a way that reflects the love of Christ.
6.
Together
They loved to get together. They met daily.
They ate meals together. They did stuff together. They developed true
friendships. Youth group is an amazing place to make friends and grow. But don’t
just let it stop on Wednesday nights and occasional activities, spend time
together.
The youth leaders and I were talking about
how our love for each other is going to impact the youth group. The 5 of us are
regularly together 3 or 4 times in the average week, sometimes even more. We
communicate often and care for each other. We hope the love for each other we
model will flow into the lives of the students we lead.
7.
Growing
This amazing passage ends with, “and the Lord added to their numbers day by
day those who were being saved.” A vibrant community is a growing
community. An old Irish proverb captures this, “The greatest thing a friend can
do for their friends is to share them.”
Just as the Holy Trinity, who lacked nothing
and had perfect love within the Godhead, saw fit to invite us into His love
relationship, so too are we to invite others into our community. When we love
God and love each other well, we will see God adding to our group.
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