I LOVE MY CHURCH
COMMUNITY
DR. JIM DIXON
ROMANS 12:3
MARCH 14, 2010
Some of you are introverts, some of you are extroverts. Some of us figure that we’re somewhere in between. I was reading an article in Psychology Today and I shared it with our staff and with our elders, and I share now with you. It’s about introversion and extroversion and some of the mistaken ideas that surround them. For instance, some people think of introverts as shy, and psychologists tell us that introversion really has nothing to do with shyness. Shyness is identified as a personality disorder that can inhibit us socially and may have roots in low esteem. But you see, introversion is a totally different thing. You can be an introvert and you’re not shy at all. You might even be very skilled relationally. You might even be able to work a room.
But the difference, according to psychologists, between introversion and extroversion is your felt need for socialization. If you’re an introvert, you have a low felt need for socialization. You’re well-adjusted, but you just don’t have a strong desire for constant socialization. And if you’re an extrovert, you have a strong desire for lots of socialization. That’s the difference. But you see, we’re all crafted by God and we’re different, but all of us need friends. All of us need community. All of us need relationships. God has made us that way. It doesn’t matter whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, we need the body of Christ. We need the church. We need this divine community.
So today, we look at the church as a community and our first teaching simply is the church is our community. That’s our first teaching this morning and it seems tautological, it seems obvious, it seems self-evident, but it’s amazing the number of people who call themselves Christians and virtually never go to church. It’s amazing the number of people who call themselves Christians and do not seek out the body of Christ. So, we need to take a good look at this core of biblical truth: The church is our community.
Now, some years ago Christianity Today magazine reported on a survey that was conducted regarding the Billy Graham crusades. Of course, Billy Graham has conducted crusades faithfully by the call and power of God over many decades, and literally millions of people have come to faith in Jesus Christ and have found Jesus Christ as their savior and as their Lord. They’ve come forward at one of those altar calls. This survey reported on by Christianity Today tried to identify the long-term effects of those altar calls. How many of those people who accepted Christ were still walking with Christ one year later? How many were still walking with Christ five years later? How many of them were still walking with Christ 10 years later? And the results were kind of discouraging. They found that about 15 to 20% of those who had come forward at Billy Graham crusades were still walking with Christ after 10 years. But one of the key factors in whether or not someone was still walking with Christ was the church. If the person who came forward at the Billy Graham Crusade found a church and became part of a Christian community, committed to a local congregation, they were more likely to continue in the faith. The church, the community of Christ.
Of course, the apostles understood this. They understood that the gospel does not simply call us to Christ, but it calls us to the church. The gospel calls us to Christ and the gospel calls to his community, to his ecclesia, to his church. And so, when the apostles went forth, like the Apostle Paul, they evangelized, seeking to lead people to saving faith in Jesus Christ, that they would receive Christ as Savior and Lord, but they also planted churches. Everywhere Paul went, everywhere the apostles went, they planted churches because the gospel calls us into the community of Christ.
Of course, missionaries understand this, so today missionaries go forth to the nations from our church. Missionaries go forth to over 60 nations and they seek to evangelize, seek to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ that people might come to him in saving faith, receiving him as Lord and Savior. But they also plant churches because the gospel summons us to Christ and to his church. So, we have the word for church, the Greek word ecclesia. We saw last week that this means assembly. It means to be called into assembly, summoned into assembly. The gospel summons us into assembly and this has always been true of God that he has summoned his people into assembly. So, in the Jewish world, you had “sunagoge,” you had synagogues. And this word also means gathering or assembly; again, God calling his people into assembly.
Some years ago, I preached a sermon called Temple, Torah and Tribe, a cute little alliteration there. And I’ve tried to focus on God’s purpose in the temple, and then God’s purpose in giving us the Torah, and then finally God’s purpose in establishing the tribes of Israel and the 12 tribes, the sons of Jacob. It was about the purposes of God. We understand from the beginning God called the Jewish people into community. And that’s true today, but today there’s one community and it is the church. There is one community into which we are called, and there are local congregations in the church universal and we are such a local congregation, called to be community. It’s always been this way.
Now, there’s a movie that came out a couple of years ago and the movie was called Lars and the Real Girl. It actually came out in the year 2007, just a couple of years ago. I don’t know how many of you saw it. The movie is actually a very good movie, and it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screen Play. The man, the actor, who played Lars, Ryan Gosling, was nominated for best actor in the Golden Globes, so it’s a pretty good movie in terms of its reputation. The movie, on one level, is kind of hilarious, even a little bit flaky, but on a deeper level, this movie is touching and insightful and carries deep meaning. The movie is about this guy named Lars whose parents have died and he’s just broken and he’s unable to function relationally. He’s unable of function socially. He won’t even allow people to touch him, but he’s horribly lonely. He’s horribly lonely and so he does a really weird thing. He buys a life size doll, a life size female doll he calls Bianca and she becomes his friend in a make-believe reality. His friends think him very strange, family members and people in the community, but they decide to love him. They decide to come alongside him and for the sake of his ultimate healing, they would, for a period of time, embrace his imaginary friend. And so, this is a movie of redemption and the power of community.
I hope you buy the message. I hope you buy the fact that we all need each other. We need friendship, we need community, we need relationships and people who care about us. We all are like that. God has crafted us that way and we’ve said many times that we’re all messed up. I mean, we’re all “bozos on the bus.” We’re all messed up at least a little bit—maybe not as messed up as Lars, but we’ve all got issues and we need love and we need people who will look past our eccentricities and love us despite those eccentricities and collectively, as a community, we, by the power of Christ, begin to find healing and more and more Christlikeness. This is the plan of God. This is why he said, “I will build my church and the powers of death will not prevail against it.” This is his community.
I received an article from Dutch Franz this past week. Dutch is our Executive Pastor and I’m very blessed to serve and partner with Dutch in ministry. He often sends me articles and this one is from a business magazine called Bloomberg Business Week and the article is about evangelical pretribulationists. I thought, “That’s kind of strange in a business magazine.” It’s about evangelical pretribulationists, evangelicals who believe that Christ is going to rapture his church, his people, before the time of great tribulation. Now, you understand that in the evangelical world, not all are pretribulationists. In fact, not all people are premillenialists in the evangelical world. Some are amillenialists, and within the premillennial world, not all are pretribulational. Some are posttribulational. There’s a great variety of views and we’re obviously not going to get into that this morning.
But for those evangelicals who believe that Christ is going to rapture his people before the great trouble, before the time of great tribulation, there’s this issue of, “what do we do with our dogs?” What do we do with our dogs, you know, when we’re raptured? The dog may be at home. We might be raptured right out of our car and the dog might be in the car. What do we do with our dogs? And so, there’s this new company, according to this business publication, that has been established to take care of your dog. And you can imagine that the person who founded this company is not a believer, not a Christian, but here’s a chance to make some money off some kind of strange people is what he’s thinking. And he promises to find some good non-believers who will take care of your dog. You just pay up front now and this is the deal.
We live in a strange world, don’t we? We live in a very strange world. I think many of us love dogs. I’ve come very slowly to like dogs, and Barb and I have a little Yorkshire terrier and she’s a great little dog—amazingly affectionate. You can just go out in the garage for a minute or two and come back in to the house and it’s like, “Wow, welcome home.” She just comes up and gives your leg a little hug and when you sit in a chair she wants to jump up in your lap and she wants to kiss your face. She kisses Barb’s face. She tries to kiss my face. And God has crafted these little animals with a lot of affection. In fact, you can look at the world of animals and you can see a lot of beautiful truth from God because God is the creator. So, you can look at the animal world and you can see a lot of incredible things regarding the mind of God in messages, even for us as people, the crown of his creation, possessing the Imago Dei, human beings.
I think one of the messages that God has for us in the animal world is kind of “from the birds.” You have that message, “birds of a feather flock together,” and it’s true. I was driving home a couple of weeks ago and going down Daniels Park Road and I’m on that dirt part. Off to the side I see cars stopped and people with cameras and they’re looking at an American Bald Eagle: Just a beautiful, majestic bird. They’re rare in the parts of Colorado down here in the south of Denver, but people were just amazed, and the Bald Eagle stayed there for a number of days and Barb saw it the next day. It’s a beautiful, beautiful bird.
Just this last week Barb and I were going home to Castle Pines North and we drove into the region of Forest Park and there is a tree where Barb wanted me to see a little hummingbird’s nest that’s not currently in use. It was just an amazingly small, crafted thing, and all of this is by the plan of God. But have you noticed you don’t see American Bald Eagles and hummingbirds hanging out together? Wouldn’t that be a strange thing if these majestic Bald Eagles and hummingbirds were hanging out? It never happens because birds of a feather flock together. That’s how God set it up. Understand, we’re Christians and I marvel that there are believers in Jesus Christ who don’t want to get together with other Christians. How can that be when we’re called to the same flock and we’re of the same feather and we have the same worldview given to us in Holy Scripture? We have the same savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the same Lord, and we’re all sinners saved by his grace. We are, by his grace, sons and daughters of God called into his family and now we’re brothers and sisters. How can we not want to come together in community?
Of course, another message God might give to us from the animal world is from wolves. Wolves are amazing animals. Can be very majestic. Of course, you know, the message from God would be don’t be a lone wolf. Don’t be a lone wolf. You can see a movie like Dances with Wolves and the strange thing about the wolf in that movie is that it’s a lone wolf. You can watch a movie like White Fang. It’s a pretty good movie, but the strange thing is that wolf is a lone wolf. Most wolfs aren’t. God has crafted wolves to live in community, to live in the pack. Most wolves live in a pack of 8 to 20 animals, covering a territory of about 130 miles. Amazing animals. And in their pack, they find affection, they find community, they find play. Gods crafted it that way. You begin to see the mind of God, how God thinks. Even in the animal world God has provided for these communities and this felt need for communities.
I think from the lions God would say to us, “Have a little pride.” And the truth is, lions are powerful, they’re scary, they’re majestic—500 pounds of muscle. They can run 35 miles per hour. They eat 75 lbs. of meat at a single meal. These are amazing animals, but they have a great need for affection and love and they have prides. Their communities are called a pride, and in that pride they care for each other and they play together and express affection for each other. You see the mind of God because he crafted all things and you can see the beauty and the consistency of the mind of God.
So, he calls us into community: the flock, the pack, the pride, the church. It’s all from God. I know in a large church sometimes it’s hard. We talked last week about how awesome it is around the throne of God as myriads and myriads of angels worship him. How awesome it will be in the New Jerusalem as innumerable angels in festive gathering and the assembly of the first-born and the spirits of just men made perfect. We’re all there, worshipping him. We talked last week about how incredible and awe inspiring it is to worship God collectively, corporately, as the body of Christ in this place. But it might be, as you think about community this week, maybe you’re sitting there and you don’t feel that sense of community. You might feel a sense of worship, and you might love the music, but maybe you’re sitting there and you’re not really feeling a sense of community and maybe you need to do something about it because it takes a little effort to experience the community of the local church.
So, you might need to join the choir. It’s a 300-person community. You might need to join a small group. That’s maybe 10 or 12 people in a smaller community. And we have hundreds and hundreds of small groups in this church. We would love to help you join one. You might need to join a ministry and be part of a ministry team and experience the community of that ministry team, whether it’s teaching Sunday School or working out in the parking lot. But you’ll begin to experience community. You’ve got to make an effort, and this is the summons of the gospel to the church, that we might experience the community of being brothers and sisters in Christ.
Well, before we come to the table, before we come to the Lord’s table, I want us to take a little look at the church and communion. As you come to communion, we hope that you would understand the fullness of its meaning. There’s great meaning in communion and many different layers of meaning and some of this richness of meaning we see in the various titles that’s given to communion by the church universal. So, in the Catholic world, communion is often times called the Mass, and I think most of you know that in the Catholic world communion is often times called the Mass. And why is that? Well, the word is very old, this word “mass.” It’s very old and its etymology is uncertain, but there are some scholars who believe it comes from a word meaning meal. And that makes some sense. This is our community meal.
You might think, well, it’s pretty small, and that’s true. But understand that in the early church this really was a meal. It was associated with what was called the Agape Feast, and Christians gathered in the local church and they all brought food, all who could, and those who had abundance brought extra and those who were poor knew that some would share with them. There was this great community meal and it was followed by communion. Paul warned them that some of them were actually abusing communion because of the way they were behaving in the Agape Feast. Some of them were getting drunk, drinking too much; some of them were gluttonous and eating too much, not sharing. They weren’t caring for the poor and they were taking communion with the wrong heart and the wrong spirit. But understand, for the early church, often communion was associated with the Agape Feast, as a meal.
Of course, there are some scholars who believe that “mass” has a different etymology, and that it comes from a word from meaning “dismissed.” And you might think, well, that doesn’t make any sense. Why would communion have anything to do with being dismissed? But understand, in the early church, and for hundreds of years, right after communion, the dismissal was announced and people who were Christians were sent out into the world as light in the darkness, as salt in the earth. Dismissed.
Of course, in the Anglican world, in the Episcopalian world, normally communion is called the Eucharist and that is one of my favorite titles for communion, the Eucharist. It comes from “eucharistia,” a Greek word meaning thanksgiving. Literally it’s a compound word with a prefix “eu-,” which means good, and “charis,” which can mean grace. It can mean thanks, it can mean dipped, but we come to this table with thanksgiving. And we acknowledge, of course, that when Christ broke the bread, he gave thanks. And now as we come to his body broken and his blood shed, we come with grateful hearts. I hope as you come this morning, you come with thanksgiving, thankful for his grace, thankful for his gift, thankful for his goodness. I hope you come with a thankful heart. The Eucharist—what a wonderful, wonderful title for communion.
There’s communion in other parts of the world. In the Coptic churches and in the Armenian churches, communion is sometimes called the oblation, probably a title that, in the Protestant, western world you’ve not heard. But oblation can mean sacrifice, but its primary meaning is offering. So, this is the offering, the oblation, and we recognize the fact that Jesus offered himself in substitutionary atonement. He offered himself for my sin in my place and for your sin in your place. He is the offering. Of course, there is the sense in which we come to the table and we offer ourselves back to Him. I hope as you come to communion this morning you offer yourself back to him as a living sacrifice, as a living offering to him. The oblation, another beautiful, beautiful word for communion.
And communion, of course, is called the Lord’s Supper because it is our community meal instituted by the Lord. The Lord’s supper. And it’s sometimes called the Last Supper as portrayed by Leonardo DaVinci and it is the Last Supper because after that supper he went to the garden. He was arrested. He went to the cross.
Of course, in some parts of the world, communion is called the Divine Liturgy. In the Greek Orthodox Churches and in some of the Russian Orthodox Churches communion is called the Diving Liturgy—from the Greek word “leitourgias,” which originally had some association with sacrifice, but it meant worship. Leitourgias means worship. And particularly leitourgias referred to corporate worship. It referred to the temple worship, the worship that was administered by the temple priests and this word is passed on to us and of course, many times, those who do what Gene has done this morning and lead the congregation in prayer and in announcements are called liturgists, associated with this word liturgy and with this word leitourgias. But as we come to the table, we worship. This is the Divine Liturgy and we worship God and we focus particularly on his Son—the Son of God, the Lamb of God, our Savior, our Lord. We worship him as we partake this morning.
And then, finally, communion’s called communion and I don’t know if that makes sense to you. It makes more and more sense to me. It’s more and more precious to me that the Lord’s table would be called communion. The Greek word, the biblical word, is “koinonia.” It means fellowship. We have a fellowship in his blood. Koinoia comes from “koine,” which means common. And we are all common in him. The ground at the foot of the cross is level. No one here is above anyone else here. We’re all sinners in need of grace. We are the community of Christ. We are the community of equals and we come to this table as brothers and sisters and part of this divine plan called the church, the ecclesia.
So here we are, and I love the church. I love taking communion with you. I love the fact that we’re brothers and sisters forever. I love the fact that we’ve been saved by the grace of Christ. After this service we’re going to have time where you can come down front for prayer and our elders will be here to pray for you. If you’re sick, they’ll lay hands and anoint you with oil. We do this because we love you and because we believe in his power and his love and his mercy. So, we come to the table, and we thank God for the church and for the community. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.