We Belong in Authentic and Diverse Community.

go ahead and have a seat at this time we'll go ahead and dismiss our kids to uh to their class and for the rest of us if you have your Bibles I want you to go ahead and open them up to Acts chapter 2 Acts chapter 2 is where we're going to be spending our time we are about halfway through our vision series that we've been calling building the future by rediscovering the past and what we looked at just kind of so far nutshell I'm not going to go into all of it but we want to start off the the opening week with just the

idea of Foundations and we've been kind of giving this metaphor of building a cathedral what what are we constructing over the next hundred years 200 years um that is going to be something that communicates and the the glory and the beauty of God and it also is a place that is a place of worship a place of belonging a place of gathering and serving a place of contributing to the mission of God and so that is what we're essentially constructing when it comes to Christ building his his church and the mission and vision that he has given to the church and so in order to

build something that ultimately is going to last it also needs to be rooted it's got to be rooted in scripture it's got to be rooted in prayer it's got to be rooted in the glory of God and so we we began by talking about those foundations the foundations that in order for a church to be a church it's got to be about the glory of God it's got to be about who he is and who he says he is in addition to that it's got to be about abiding in Christ and the way that we abide is through prayer and through the word and so

we talked about that and how that's kind of the 30,000 foot view up um looking on to what God is doing throughout the world but then we wanted to bring it down to us like who who are we as the district Church how do we fit in the story and Narrative of God and what he's doing throughout history and so we started looking at the mission and vision of our church in light of the foundations and so we call ourselves a Christian Community that Treasures Jesus and helps others follow him through intentional discipleship that increases evangelism and so woven into the mission and vision of

our church are those distinctives that are foundational we are a Christian Community which means we are about Jesus we are all about what Jesus is about that's what brings glory to Earth is Christ coming to us and so what is Christ likee and that's what we want to spread that's what we want to grow in in addition to that we want to Treasure Jesus how do we treasure Jesus by abiding in him being in relationship with him that comes through prayer in his word and then not only that but we want to help others follow Jesus and that comes through this intentional discipleship that increases

evangelism so it's not just for us but it's for those who are outside of us it's for those who don't know Christ yet and so then when you kind of boil that down even further the rubber meets the road is where we value as a church is what actually cultivates that culture and so it's great to say we're about the glory of God and we're about prayer and we're about the word of God it's great to say that we are a Christian Community that Treasures Jesus and helps others follow him but what we value how we actually spend our time and how we invest our

resources is ultimately going to reflect what we worship what we treasure what we do with our lives and so we are spending the the four weeks St with last week looking at specifically our values and the first value being the fact that we worship through prayer and God's word because again we want to be rooted to the foundation so that was the first value and today's value is going to be the second one which is we belong in an authentic and diverse Community we belong to an authentic and diverse community and so there's this idea of belonging that we want to talk about and we've

been kind of again in that mindset of the cathedral we've been drawing up the blueprints we've been laying the plan and the layout for it determining the type of stone um and the beginning of kind of layering those stones what that plan's going to look like but the reality is is that the majority of us in this room are never going to see its completion we're never going to see its completion what we're doing as a church in cultivating the vision cultivating the culture of Christ is something that is going to last and take longer than our lifetime if we really want to make an

impact in the city of Indianapolis and Beyond it's going to take every day intentional discipleship that increases evangelism in order to actually see fruit that is making a difference outside of us it's going to take a hundred years at least to make a dent in what we are looking at here in the city as one um other another Elder named Dan Burkholder once said he says en Envision it like this we are taking the seed of the Gospel planting it in our city watering it and Watching God give it growth into a tree that we may never sit under its shade but our grandkids will

eat of its fruit like that's what we are doing on a daily basis is this type of work this type of of dying to ourselves because the reality is if we don't die to ourselves then what we want to build is something that we get to reap the fruit of we want to build the bigger faster church we want to build the thing that we get to sit back behold and look at and say look how awesome this was this is great but again what we've already seen and what we've already talked about in the analogies of shopping mall type um mentalities or bunker style

mentalities is they die they die until whenever the next bigger better flashier thing comes along or you just literally run out of resources because you have a bunker mentality if we only focus on ourselves and the here and the now and kind of fast food church or um microwave church then it's not going to last it's not going to be something that our children's children and their children's children something that will last for Generations ations and actually be fruitful for them and so that's why what we're really talking about is not marketing strategies it's not how to we gain as many people as possible but

what we're really talking about is individual discipleship it is taking who Christ is and helping you treasure him helping you see him helping you learn and grow in what he has commanded us to observe in the Great Commission and letting that actually change and trans transform your life on a daily basis so that you are a husband who is Christlike a father who is Christlike a mother who is Christlike a a spouse who is Christlike you are a coworker who is Christlike so that what we are ultimately communicating with our lives as we are growing and maturing in Jesus is proclaiming Colossians 3:11 Christ is

all and is in all like we believe that we want to get Christ not just something that we focus on on a Sunday morning but something that we focus on we get it to the fringes of society like it's getting Christ to your fingertips so that when I walk into my workplace I'm walking in with the mindset of intentional discipleship that increases evangelism like how do I treasure Jesus in this place while also helping my co-workers come to follow him how do I work in such a way that it does reference um 1 Corinthians 10:31 that says where whether you eat or drink or whatever

you do you are doing it to the glory of God so there is a way to drink that is to the glory of God there is a way to eat that is to the glory of God there is a way to work that is to the glory of God and so it's it's essentially making everything Christian and that's a good thing it's a good thing simply put we call this idea Christendom or as the Wikipedia States Christian States Christian Empire countries that are majority Christian where Christianity not only dominates culture but it influences it to the fringes of society like that I mean that's a

that's a pretty good definition of it what we're doing with that is again taking the seed of the Gospel planting it in our city watering it and Watching God expand his glory through the gospel message by making Sinners become Saints by making Sinners become come like Christ and it begins to cultivate and influence the culture at large so that eventually we get to this place where the architecture of the city is Christian the best music is Christian the best art is Christian the best theaters and stories that are told are Christian and this is something that has ebb and flow of society for the last

2,000 years I mean when you go back and you you you date yourself back four 500 years and you visit those type of places like what was the things to see if you go to Europe and you're going to look at the greatest work of art or the greatest architectures or the greatest structures they're Christian they're Christian by story they're Christian by Nature they're Christian because at that time Christendom was so spread throughout and ingrained into the the culture that the glory of God being displayed in them doing everything to the glory of God was making sure that what we build reflects and communicate something

about who God is what we sing reflects and communicates something about who God is what we design and art is reflecting and communicate the beauty and Renown I mean it's the reason why they weren't just taking two hours to paint a picture but they were taking two years paint it because again it mattered to them why because the glory of God matter to them and so this is what we are ultimately building and that's why the first week was we worship through the word and through prayer because again through prayer and the word we are bringing the glory of God down prayer is ascending us

up to the throne of God and being able to sit under the feet of God and being able to be comforted by him and make requests of him and to ultimately pray that your kingdom would come to Earth as it is in heaven like that's what we want to see we want to see Indianapolis be a kingdom that reflects the kingdom of God if we don't want that we're not Christian we're not Christian we want that we desire that and that is a way in which we worship what that then pulls us into we pulled that from acts 242 where we saw that they were

devoted to the teachings and to the prayers something else that we also see in Acts 242 is our second value which is what we're going to be talking about today this idea of belonging to an auth authentic and diverse community and so as you're there in Acts 242 I'm going to read it for us and I'm going to read actually a few verses here um that pertain to this this idea of Fellowship this idea of a belonging to a body and what that means for them it says they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to 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 I'm going to skip down to verse 46 not because verse 45 is uh not good it's just we're going to cover it next week and the week after as well um but verse 46 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 this idea of again we talked about devotion which is more of a they were continually devoting themselves to this endeavor to this body of Christ to this mission of the church and one of the things that they were continually devoting themselves to is the fellowship all right so we're just GNA from here on I'm just going to talk about it in the idea of the fellowship now Adrien Rogers who was a pastor down in Tennessee once said Fellowship is not coffee and donuts uh which part of me kind of takes that personally because we always do coffee and donuts and I love coffee and

I love donuts um but I understand his point it it's far more than just Gathering bodies in a building but unfortunately I think of Christian Fellowship today is measured by simply that let's just get bodies in a space and like call that Fellowship we're just getting them together and that is what Fellowship is or or it'll just happen on its own if you just get them into a space and unfortunately it's not that several of our networks will send out uh reports that I fill out for the year and it's something along the lines of how many people do you regularly have in attendance and

and it and I'm always like screaming as I'm like filling out these reports because I'm like I I understand why they asking the question because um numbers matter I mean numbers matter in scripture I get it like you want to know the health of the churches and the health of the network based on how many people are a part of it are there um you know are there Trends in increase or there Trends in Decline and so what they want to know but at the same time what the majority of the questions are geared around is just counting numbers and and rarely ever do you

have questions like how many people are you you um baptizing or uh there's never any other questions like how many times was the Gospel shared or how many scriptures were memorized or how many people experienced a degree of Joy greater than they did last year or how many people started supporting the church financially for the first time in their life like how many people increased the frequency of their prayers how many people gave up an addiction because the spirit of God strengthened them like there's rarely ever questions about discipleship rather it's just always questions about Warm Bodies like how many bodies are in the room

and it's just always a frustration I had when we speak The Fellowship of the Saints belonging to a church we interpret it as simply belonging membership similar to a streaming platform that you maybe give $10 to a month and say I am a part of this I am a member of this I belong to this it's got to be more than that it's got to be more than that if a Biblical fruit the early church was this Devotion to the fellowship then how would they Define fellowship what would they say Fellowship is because again it's what we want to Value it's what we want to

cultivate in order for us to be a church that is biblical well in Greek it is coinonia coinonia and is quite possibly one of the most broad terms used for what it is attempting to actually Express in words there is no singular word that adequately explains what the essence of Fellowship is so if you're like give me a give me a one-word definition there is no one-word definition for what Fellowship is other than maybe just calling it church but wrapped up in coinonia is multiple capacities one is partnership in the form of participation so you're a part of something but you're engaged in it like

there's a participation on your your end ransford hates this definition but it's literally part of the Greek cultural definition of Fellowship social intercourse it's a weird one it's a weird one but it's part of the Greek definition of what coinonia is which is just show it's just this deep level of interaction on a social Spectrum continues on it says a pecuniary benefaction which is just monetary generosity it goes on to say to commun communicate and have communication it says to commence communion it it has forms of contribution and distribution so you bringing something to the table but at the same time dispersing from the table

out to others it also embodies um all of this is embodied in the idea of fellowship and so the term itself is compound but yet very common the origin of coona is actually the root word Co which was literally the Greek vernacular it's the Greek language of the time it's what the New Testament was predominantly written in is co Greek um McGee who is another Theologian he says Co Greek language was shared by more people of the Roman Empire than any other language it was understood on the Wares of Corinth on every ship that was sailed through the Mediterranean it was in common use in

Jerusalem it was in common use in the temple area in in Athens on Mars Hill and it found its way even into the amphitheater this language of the New Testament was a universal language it was called coin because it was common to everyone and therefore everyone had it in common so then precept Austin which is more of like a a resource online Place uh where you can go and just find tons of commentaries on personal study but precept Austin defines Fellowship as that which is in common belonging to everyone and so it's taking this idea of Fellowship where it's it's allowing for a lot of

things to come into it in order to have something in common but then taking that one thing that's in common and then spreading it to everyone else around you and so then it allows us to have this idea that Christianity is is very exclusive yet inclusive exclusive and yet inclusive what what I mean by that is Christianity is proclaiming amongst the fellowship we are exclusively all about Jesus so so we can bring in people from all different backgrounds from all different political agendas from all different ethnic Society we we can bring in anybody and everybody as long as as a common denominator you believe in

Jesus like Jesus Christ is what we are all about and because we are all about Jesus Christ we want to then be formed and conformed to the image of Christ based on what Christ taught us to observe that's the whole Matthew 28 and the the the giving of the Great Commission so it's being about Jesus it's being about his teaching and that's what the church has in common it's exclusively about Jesus but it's inclusive to anybody so it's open for anybody to be able to hear this message and come to the gospel and that's what creates this Fellowship is is you can be different and

come around the center person of Jesus Christ and then take Jesus Christ to anybody and everybody and so it creates it's a group of diverse people coming around a singular common goal to help illustrate this it reminded me of the Fellowship of the Ring for the tolken fans here in the room um I've seen the movie I have finally seen the movie I know I've kind of always harped on like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings that like I'm just never going to watch them um but in just research I've become like a tolken fan by not even reading his literature I've become a

tolken fan by just like biography and who he was as an individual and that like he led CS Lewis to the Lord and and what they did in their conversations amongst the inklings which was this like pup theology like more about who they actually were in real life has actually started drawing me towards their their writings um but in Lord of the Rings I did watch the first movie but even in watching the first movie I was like I'm not going to be be able to really draw this point home in making the connection so I did call ransford because I know he is the

Lord of the Rings expert and I actually just texted him I said can you give me like a connection between the Fellowship of the church and The Fellowship of the Ring and he was like can I call you and I was like I knew at that moment I was like I'm gonna get way more than I asked for um so I'm still going to botch this but the idea was The Fellowship of the Ring the big idea is the destruction of evil and the Triumph of good was their common goal but you get this group of people who recognize this and they commit themselves to

this endeavor um but it is a diverse group that comes together ones that you would essentially say like they shouldn't be in the same room um together they they and even at the point of um probably to a degree some Prejudice amongst one another within the room but it really got me started thinking of a better group that I don't know if it was what tolken in fire tolken to create the diversity within the group but acts 13 is a group of five leaders in a church that should not be together as leaders in a church and so I I want to show you this

because I again I just think what the gospel does among relationships that cultivates diversity of people who hate each other um this is one of the most beautiful examples that we see when it comes to this so turn over with me to Acts chapter 13 as well because I want you to see this in front of you acts 13 um looking at verses 1 through3 says this now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers Barnabas Simeon who was called Niger Lucius of sirene Manan a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch and Saul and while they were worshiping the Lord in fasting the

holy spirit said set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off in a sermon on acts 13 Matt Chandler Drew attention to the diversity of this group of men and because at first if you just read like if you're just reading through the scriptures and if you're just reading through acts and you come to this passage it's very easy to just read the names and just move on like what was their activity what were they doing in the church what was the discipleship okay

so you've got these five men who are leading this church some of them are prophets some of them are teachers some of them are Apostles um but they're leading this church in Antioch and for those who don't know Jerusalem was where the gospel started um but after the persecution of Stephen and and the um the deacons were formed it scattered the center of operations of Christianity and it moved from Jerusalem to Antioch and so this is essentially the place where like everything is Flowing out at this point so these are like the leaders of the leaders essentially um but if you just read their names

and you just move over it and move on you won't actually see the beauty of what the gospel cultivated amongst this group of men and so I want you to see this of just who they are Barnabas we first meet Barnabas formerly known as Joseph in Acts chapter 4 he is a levite he's a native of Cyprus who is with the first church in Jerusalem I mean like he was he was in with the first church of Jerusalem if the apostles ever renamed you then that means you're in like with them like they they've adopted you you're in so he he was like my mom

calls me Joseph but they're like nope Barnabas like you're now Barnabas that's who you are um he was also very generous to the church because he sells his property and he gives he gives it all to the church and he's encourager because Barnabas literally means son of encouragement and so if you're like hey what could I be for the church like just be a Barnabas all right be a Barnabas like be an encourager constantly and then we have Saul and Paul and I know I'm going out of order here so those that are like I'm following a list like I'm sorry but uh we also

have Saul Paul um during the time when Barnabas is with the church in Jerusalem someone who is sold out for the church in Jerusalem you also have Saul who during that time is a persecutor of the church hates the church like is requesting for documents in order to go into cities and drag out the the women and children um in order to imprison them if they uh are all about Jesus I mean there is some he is someone who is dead set on being anti- anything that is Christian and is going to exhaust all of his privilege and status and resources in order to try

and stop everything that Barnabas is all about so where Barnabas is like I'm selling everything and giving it to the church to advance this mission Paul is like I'm going to get rid of or I'm going to invest everything in trying to kill this thing that is the church so these two guys couldn't have been more opposite on the spectrum of life goals yet here they are leading a church together because the gospel not only reconciles our vertical relationship with God but it also reconciles our hor horizontal uh relationships with people it cultivates a fellowship I mean it it this would be conjecture but it

wouldn't be far to say that some of the friends or maybe even family of Barnabas were personally attacked by Paul and then now you have Paul and Barnabas in a room praying together I mean this is what the gospel does then you also have Manan who says it was a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch lifelong member that simply means he was a part of the inner circle of Herod antibus or Herod the tetrarch and if you have any familiarity with the herods they're not good like they're not good no no if you ever see in the Bible Herod something they're they're the

bad guy okay they're the opposite of Christianity Herod the Great he was one of the go he was the one in the gospels when the wise men didn't return with news about Jesus's birth had all of the babies in Jerusalem killed that were under two years old so not a great guy Herod antibus or Herod the Tetra AR um here's here's what we know about him he married his stepbrother's ex-wife which is just awkward at the family reunion but upon marrying his step-brother's ex-wife she had a daughter uh who you do not want your daughter to be like essentially uh she would come into the

court of the king and she would do dances for them and Herod was so filled with lust that he went to her and he said whatever you want I will give it to you now again just think of how deplorable this man is because he just married his brother's his stepbrother's ex-wife who has a daughter he's now filled with Lust For Her willing to give her anything she then goes and talks to her mom about it and her mom filled with hatred towards John the Baptist says here's what you are to go request of him John the Baptist's head on a platter and and essentially

Herod is like well I have no problem right now with John the Baptist but so filled with lust for the daughter that he executes John the Baptist cuts his head off like this is what Manan grew up with like this was his like Inner Circle this was his friends and he's here with Paul and Barnabas in this church the center of operations because gospel does a work in cultivating people's lives and transforming them then you also have the ethnic diversity of this whole group Barnabas is from Cyprus which is a henis IC Jew Simeon is of Unknown Origin but they call him Niger which is

Latin for black and so every Theologian and historian I've read all say that his skin was black and Lucius is an African from Cene Manan again is a Palestinian Greek herodian and then you have Paul who is a Jew but not the same kind of Jew as Barnabas Paul is a hebraic Jew at the end of the day as Matt Chandler said this group has the makeup to be a phenomenal reality TV show um they were raised to hate one another like they were raised to hate one another yet the gospel transcends ethnic barriers it brings them together for one purpose and it is to

advance the gospel to advance the gospel and so the the gospel brought together a group of men into a fellowship who otherwise would have shown Prejudice to one another even to the point of killing each other when I was studying the commentary on acts 13 I have this set of comments commentaries on my desk um that were actually gifted to me by Kelsey's family uh they were her grandfather's um Tom I was like trying to remember the name our youngest son shepher Thomas was named after him but he was a church planter in Colorado um back in the day and so I was gifted his

commentaries and when I opened up Acts 13 uh and just looking at the whole commentary there was just one line that was underlined and it was just I get emotional I talk about family it's your family um but get emotional thinking about it because it's like as I'm studying it and looking at it it's like I can see what he cared about I can see what was envisioned on his mind in his heart and he had just one line that was underlined in this there was no race Prejudice there was no race Prejudice among this Brotherhood which meant it stood out to him he cared

about it maybe even envisioned a church body in Colorado that that could reflect the same thing and now here we are raising his his great grandkids to Value Fellowship to value a body that is authentic and diverse um in order to reflect ultimately like who Christ is and the fellowship that he is cultivating among the church and now it's easy for us to look around the room and we say like are we doing it um are we cultivating it yes we are a bunch of um 25 30 year old white people who are you know essentially at the early start of our careers and our

families as well but I believe that what the gospel is communicating to us and what the gospel is cultivating in US is the ability to change our dinner tables so that we can change the communion table like that's what we're after like we and it's not going to change unless we change the dinner table unless we are willing like these men in Acts 13 to be able to to say hey I I know what you've done I know where you've been I know what your background is culturally I know you know the differences that we share but you know what like Christ was pretty different

from me too like it's Christ was not a um white American in his mid 20s like like that's that's not who we worship okay we worship a middle eastern Jew that's who we worship like all the scriptures there's not one white person that's a part of them like we do realize that right like it it takes hundreds of years for it to get to anyone who considers themselves Ango and that's because they believe this as well that the gospel was for all and that the gospel can transform and that the gospel can cultivate a fellowship that is diverse that the gospel can ultimately bring Heaven

to Earth in what we see in Revelation when it says on that day when we get together and we are singing the praises to the lamb that what we are worshiping is among a sea of people from every tribe tongue and Nation like that is what we will be doing which means that the gospel won like it won it won as it was spreading and cultivating and influencing culture it broke down all of the barriers that cause us to separate and segregate ourselves and our lives it allows us to actually take that step forward and engage with someone who's completely different than us whether it's

again whether it's politically whether it's ethnically whether it's socially whether it's economically regardless of what it is it gives us the fervor to say even though we are different the gospel allows us to be able to have a relationship and it reconciles us in a way where we can come around under one common goal setting our differences aside and being able to be in tune with one another as we are tuned ultimately to Christ himself Adrien Rogers uses the illustration of T tuning instruments um and because my father-in-law Bryce is not here I won't watch this because he would be the only one that would

probably really know if this is right or wrong um but Adrian because he's a Pianist all right so he's usually the one that's on our piano but for those that didn't know um Adrian Ro Rogers uses this illustration of two pianos having two pianos um and and in his illustration he's like there's one over here there's one over there and those pianos it they ought to be in tune with one another but if you try to tune one piano to the other it's nearly impossible to actually get them in tune with one another another without there being a tuning fork and so he says you

need a tuning fork that you tune one piano to and then you tune the other one to that one as well and then all of a sudden these pianos are now in harmony with one another and so if they're not in harmony then it's just a cacophony which again is just a musical term that I barely I'm not pretending I understand what that means either but um it doesn't sound good okay it doesn't sound good it doesn't work well together if you ever have gone to a symph um and if it's a cacophony then it is awful it's it does not sound good it would

be like me right now giving all of you instruments and saying play one song it's probably going to be pretty bad all right unless you're I don't know something about you and you're like these prodigies but um it's not going to be good it's all got to be tuned it's got to be trained it's got to be worked into and he's saying that's what Christ is doing with us as a body of Christ is he's tuning each one of us us to himself as he's conforming us to his image that doesn't mean that he's making all of us the same he's making all of us

like him but in this body multiple differences multiple members all having different functions all having different gifts and abilities all having different backgrounds and cultural backgrounds it's creating a symphony of relationship a fellowship that works in harmony with one another that works in you with one another because we are centering it around Jesus if we try tuning the the the sound of the church to each of ourselves individually what do you get you're going to get divisions within the church well I think we should do this I think we should do this I think we should go this way well I think we should sing

this I think we should read this I think we should study this I think we should and if we just keep going that route of what we all individually trying to tune ourselves to then it is is just going to create a bunch of silos a bunch of Divisions and we're not going to be centered around one individual Jesus Christ the mission that he's already given us to go and make uh Disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the father Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you if we're not centered around that mission and then

fleshing out that we are to pray to him and that we are to hear from his word okay what does that mean what does it mean that I'm going to come to you and just say hey here's how I think you should live your life no it's me coming to you and say hey here's how Jesus says you should live your life from his scriptures he's telling us to teach one another to observe all that he's commanded what has he commanded well that's what we want to get after we want to conform to his teaching not our worldly advice not our because I did just

turn 37 and I'm looking at some 25 year olds and being able to say hey 25y olds here's how you can live your life no 37 is no different than 25 we still have no idea what we're doing in our life but what we do know is that Jesus is the way the truth and the life and we want to know what his way is what his truth is and what his life is all about so that as I live my life I'm able to live according to his way and his truth and his life and he goes on to say in John 10 that

that is life and having it abundant having it abundant and so again this is where secular culture gets into problems is when we try to recreate redefine what we believe um life is or should be lived apart from God's way truth and life you're going to get a ton of division you're going to get actual um it's intolerance it's not tolerance nobody tolerates anybody that disagrees with them anymore because we're again we're trying to tune everyone to our own thing and then all it does is it just breathes Division and War it's all it is if you go back throughout all of history and you

come to the common denominator of why War exists it's because there are people who are not in tune with Christ period if we were in tune with Christ what does it actually create on the earth peace peace it creates quietness it creates Harmony it creates a fellowship in his book apologetic written in the summer of ad. 197 so we're going back a little bit tertullian recounts that when the Roman government became suspicious of the early church they called on the fumari and you're like I have no idea who the fanari is they were the this ancient Roman secret Intelligence Agency of spies so just think

about this all right in 197 what the church was doing was so disrupting the cultural norm that they call like Roman officials called on the Central Intelligence Agency of these these ancient spies in order to infiltrate or come into the church services to figure out what are they doing what's going on there like because whatever's going on there is different than what's going on everywhere else and here's what the spies come back and actually say um let me find it they say of the Christians they say they are A peculiar type of folk they did not have Idols instead they worshiped one by the name

of Jesus who was absent then they added how those Christians love each other how they have coinonia Fellowship one with the other how they don't kill each other like that's just fascinating to me like that's what the report came back of them coming into church service Church body and like and studying what the church was like if you know anything about the Roman Empire like everybody is always living their lives looking over their shoulder waiting for someone to stab them in the back plunder their house and take all their possessions like that's how it grew and expanded that was the culture that was cultivated amongst

the the Empire and they're saying of the Christians they they love each other like they don't fear one another like they're in harmony with each other they they they they don't kill one another and they worship this one who's not even there I mean I just love that that they picked up on that like they're saying there's no graven in image of an idol because at that time in Roman again Roman mythology and in Greek mythology they would build and craft these little Idols of these gods that were just robing the characteristics of the one true God and they're worshiping all these Idols putting them

in temples putting them in their households and they're saying they're worshiping something that's invisible what are they doing and ultimately as we know they're worshiping the one true God it took them back a bit because the culture they experienced was way different than that and honestly is that not what we are called to be countercultural like the church is not hey let's try to mix in with the culture so that we try to break down the barriers of Christianity with with culture with nonse with with secular culture like let's try to look like them so that they can come in and understand this no they

should actually come in to this and it should be awkward it should it should be awkward because if you're if you don't know Jesus and you're coming into a body that is worshiping Jesus that should feel not natural to you not natural and at the same time the way that we relate with one another in fellowship with each other should look differently like they should be able to say man look how look how gracious they are to one another like look look how um giving they are to one another like everywhere else they tell us like earn your keep like do for yourself like earn

your way make your way like you know trample over people as you climb that hierarchy of Corp you know your corporate job or whatever it is like do whatever you can to get yourself ahead if that includes taking out other people on the way like that's what culture is teaching us and discipling us and Christianity is saying lay your life down for your brother like Christ increases we decrease and it's not thinking of it's not thinking less of yourself but it's just thinking of yourself less I think that was Jen wilin that said that one time it's just this mentality that we put others first

because we have come around this common goal that that's exactly what Jesus Christ did I came not to be serve but to serve I came to seek and to save that which was lost I came to build and create a people of every tribe tongue and Nation that's what he's called us to at the beginning of the second century so this is earlier than tertullian Ignatius of Antioch who was discipled by the Apostle John in a letter in a letter to polycarp the bishop of the Church of Smyrna sorry that's a lot of Who's Who Ignatius was an early Church Father who wrote a letter

to PO carp who was a pastor in smyna while Ignatius was in transport to his own martyrdom which can we just think about that for a moment like he's on his way knowing they're going to kill him for his faith well as he's on his way knowing that they're going to kill him for his faith he's writing letters to the churches that he interacted with at the beginning of the second century and this is what he wrote sorry find it he said polycarp read this to the church labor together with one another strive in company together run together suffer together this one's weird sleep together

and awake together but you get what he's mean as the stewards and Associates and Servants of God be longsuffering with one another in meekness as God is towards you I mean this is a man who's on his way to be and if you know anything about the story of Ignatius um he he gets to Rome and they throw him amongst Lions and the lions like dismember him I mean it's it's brutal and he even says like on his way there there's there's um friends of his in Rome and in the letter he even tells his friends in Rome like do not thwart the plans to

kill me and to to to Martyr me because I want to be poured out for the Lord I mean he even goes on to say and it's just crazy he's like if if they throw me to the Lions and the Lions don't seem um like that they like want to eat he's like I will entice them he's like I hope that they tear me limb from limb like in this mindset because he knows that like he is going to attain Christ like he's gaining Christ no matter what and it's all about Christ like to the last moment of his life what he cares about most

is that people are about Jesus and nothing else like if I'm on my way knowing that I'm going to be executed it's going to be hardpressed for me to be worrying about other things I'm going to be thinking about that moment and what he's doing is how many letters can I get written out on my way to Rome in order for others to hold fast to Jesus Christ him and him alone and nothing else because that's what you need as a church in order to have Fellowship among you to be able to belong to something that is authentic and diverse you're going to need Jesus

period and that's what he was about and if we are going to cultivate belonging to a fellowship that is authentic and diverse then we're always going to have to make sure that we one another are being tuned to Christ and him alone him alone and so that's why one of the things that we're going to be doing um for um within the women's brunch as well as within the men's the king's table is um we're going to be pairing up the church into pairs disciples and and this doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be like the only person that you go through Bible studies

with and that you're it's like a full-on discipling relationship ship but it's going to be a pairing of people that are checking in to see hey how are you doing like how are you um abiding in Christ right now what's prayer life look like for you how's your time in the word are you memorizing scripture right now if you are I want to hear it like use me as a a as a way to practice your memorization of scripture like how is like sharing the gospel what was the last time you had like a good gospel conversation and this isn't because we're trying to police

discipleship it's because we're trying to help tune one to Jesus period like that's what we care about don't let the the skepticism of secular culture come into US wanting to do a good thing amongst us that is cultivating and and tuning us to Jesus and so we're going to be asking everyone whether you're a member of the church or or or an attender of the church and not a member yet we're asking everyone to be a part of this and we're going to pair you up whether you know it or not and I'm just going to let you know who it is um and and

it's going to be a good thing for us why because it's going to help us continue cultivating this very thing that we are all about worshiping Jesus through prayer and his word and we we want to take that seriously we don't want to just say it in air War like we want it to hit the ground level so that our people are ingrained in it so that they are increasing in their evangelism because they are being intentionally discipled unto that so we're going to get serious about that and we're just going to do it all right and if you're like this is weird for me

like I just want to come on a Sunday you know and I might show up to an event every once in a while then there are other churches around us that do that tons of them that do that and that's okay go there here if we want to build a cathedral that lasts for generations to come if we want to see Christendom continue to spread to the fringes of society getting Christ to your fingertips if we want to see that if we want to be able to Proclaim Christ is all and in all then we're going to take discipleship seriously seriously and it's going to

cause us to rework our lives a bit it's going to cause us to reward and look at how I spend my time how I spend my money how I spend my relationships who I'm hanging out with what I'm watching and what I'm reading because if I want Christ is all to be in all then then I'm going to have to get Christ into what I read and get Christ into what I watch and get Christ into what I listen to and get Christ into what I talk about amongst my friends and get Christ into my work and my my neighborhood get Christ into my dinner

table and inviting other people who are different than me to come into that why because this is exactly what Jesus has called us to do and to be is a fellowship that is authentic with one another diverse that is cultivating all of his teachings and then calling ourselves to observe it to keep it to be strengthened by it and changed by it and transformed by it that's what we're going to be after and and and I'm just a firm believer if we get 10 people and you're like there's more than that in this room yeah I'm calling out those others but if we get 10

people who are serious about this who are serious about this then our grandchildren and our great grandchildren they'll have a place to worship they'll have a place to worship let's pray together father we thank you so much for your goodness to us and we just thank you for your grace and your mercy we thank you for your word that corrects us that reproves us that transforms and conforms us to the image of your son Jesus and we thank you that you created a fellowship a body of Christ a church representing all people coming around one Central goal to be about Jesus to do all things

to the glory of God and we pray that you continue to cultivate that Among Us right now that there are areas in our life that we know we know we don't Steward well for the sake of Jesus but that's what discipleship is about it's helping us become more like him in all aspects of our life and in all spheres of our and so God help us now help us because we know we can't do it on our own and that's exactly what communion has shown us is that we we can't earn our Salvation we can't work our salvation out we can't do it ourselves but

Jesus Christ had to intervene and come and be the perfect sacrifice for us in to forgive us of our sins by nailing them to himself on the cross and dying in our place and it is that act of communion of unity that we come together in and we remember Jesus Christ and we remember what he did to birth this people and this movement for all time it's in Jesus name we pray amen if you would go ahead and stand with me