Broadway Christian Church

Broadway Christian Church

8-28-16

Pastor Ryan David Cochran

A NEW KIND OF COMMUNITY (PART 2)

Colossians 3:15-17

“Father, we thank you that your Word tells us about who you are and also instructs us about how to live with one another—how to live in this world that you have made for us. So, Lord, as we hear from you today, I pray that you would speak to each of us wherever we are. If there is healing between people that needs to happen or relationships that need to be mended, that you would cause that to happen. If there needs to be healing between people and you, Lord, we pray that you would cause that reconciliation to happen. Lord, for all of us, I pray that we would come to better know how to live as your church. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Our daughter, Evangeline, had her 4th birthday a couple of weeks ago. It’s really funny—her whole life now is based on “before 4 and after 4.” “Hey dad, do you remember that time we went to the zoo?” “Yeah, I do.” “That’s when I was 3. Now I’m 4.” A couple of weeks before her birthday, Katie and I were trying to decide what to get Evangeline for her birthday and we realized that later this summer we have a 10 or 11 hour car ride and so we thought, “We can get Evangeline one of those Leapsters.” It’s a little handheld device and it’s “educational,” so we can feel good about giving it to her. We decided to get her a Leapster.

I hopped on Amazon.com and began looking for a Leapster. It was amazing that within just a few seconds, I was able to assimilate all of this information that was in front of me. How good of a Leapster can I get for how little money, right? Within seconds, I am able to assimilate all this information on this computer screen. If I go with this option, I get a little bit more—I get a little carrying case and an extra game, but if I go with this one, well, that’s not quite the newest model but it’s not quite as expensive, and I think Evangeline would like this color more. All of these things just happened within a few seconds and in a couple of minutes I had decided how much I could get and for what price. I knew exactly the Leapster that we should get for her.

I did all of this really without thinking about it. It came very naturally to me. I think that as Americans we are very well trained in this art of consumerism. We are trained in the practices of cost/benefit analysis. We are very good at analyzing price and quality, about analyzing how much I can get for how little. We are very good at making a decision on whether or not something is a good buy for us. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. In fact, it’s very useful when you’re on Amazon.com to be able to do that and do get a good buy. But I’m struck by how natural this comes to me now. These skills are in me. I do them without thinking about it—all of us do. This may be good on Amazon.com, but we also tend to bring these attitudes and these skills into our relationships and into the church.

We come to church as trained consumers and if we’re not careful we begin to ask some of the same questions of the church as we do from our purchases. What will I get out of this church? How little is it going to cost me to get this thing that I need? Friends, the church is not a place that provides religious goods and services to people. The church is intended to be a community of people that we commit our lives to, that we’re willing to sacrifice time and energy for, a group of people that we would even be willing to die for.

Turn in your Bibles with me to Colossians Chapter 3. In this passage, Paul says that in the church we are to put on love, that love is to be the defining marker for us as a community. Unfortunately, this word love is so watered down for us in our lives that it sometimes doesn’t have a whole lot of meaning. Here is how the Bible defines love in I John Chapter 4. “This is love, not that we love God but that God loved us and He gave His Son as a sacrifice for our sins.”

Love, by God’s definition, is sacrificial. It is about self-sacrifice. Love is not about a feeling that comes up within us when we see somebody that we like or that we appreciate or that can give some benefit to us. In fact, it’s just the opposite in the Bible. While we were sinners, God loved us and gave His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us. When there was nothing good and nothing desirable about us, Jesus died for us. Love is not about our own self interest, but about the interest of others. There is no true love without a willingness to sacrifice ourselves in some way for the one that we claim to love. Love and cost/benefit analysis don’t go together.

The Scripture that we looked at last week talked about the danger of sin in the church and the way that sin can tear down the community. Well, this passage today speaks more about how we are called to be this particular kind of church. Once we continue to grow and to be refined and sanctified so that sin is more and more less a part of our lives, Paul also gives some positive instructions here about who we are called to be as the church.

Let’s begin reading Colossians 3, beginning at verses 12-17. “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

This Scripture raises the bar to our commitment to one another in the church. It tells us that we are called to pursue the unity of the church, even at great cost to ourselves. The decision to be a part of the church, to be this kind of community that Paul describes here—that decision can’t be made half-heartedly. It cannot be something that we enter into with only our own benefit in mind. The church, the Christian community, is not a social club that we enter into and go out of as if it doesn’t really matter. According to Christ’s teachings in Colossians, our relationships with others and the church must be pursued and entered into with our whole hearts and with ultimate concern for the well-being of those brothers and sisters next to us as well as for the concern of the unity of the church.

This morning, I want to talk specifically about the way that we actively pursue the unity of the church. The sermon is going to be a little bit different this week in that I think I’m probably going to be doing a little bit more teaching than I am preaching. I want to give some very practical instructions about how we pursue unity in the church.

Let the Peace of Christ Rule (and be thankful!)

Verse 15a: “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.” In the church, the peace of Christ must rule. The peace of Christ must have authority in our church. When Paul is talking here about peace, he is not just talking about inner tranquility in our hearts or a peace of mind. He is talking about peace between one another and that this peace must rule in our church.

The Bible is very realistic about the church. The Bible never paints a picture as the church being a perfect place. In the verse right above, verse 13, “Bear with each other whatever grievances you may have with one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” These are instructions that are very honest and clear that the church isn’t a perfect place, that grievances against one another are going to happen, that forgiveness is going to be required between us. We are not always—in fact we are very rarely-- a group of very patient saints who always seek the benefit of those around us, right? We are very rarely that kind of people.

We are a group of people who get angry with one another. We are a group of people who lose our patience with one another. We are a group of people who tend to gossip against one another. We are a group of people who do not always act as if we love one another. We are not a perfect place here at Broadway. That’s because there are people here. When you have a group of people, sin is present and when sin is present, conflict is going to happen. There will be times when there is not peace and the Bible is not naïve about this.

The church is never painted as this perfect place, even in the Book of Acts, that book where we always say, “Hey, let’s look and see what the early church did.” Well, they were having conflicts all over the place in the Book of Acts. From the very beginning they are trying to resolve conflicts with one another. Many of Paul’s letters are written in order to figure out how the church should resolve conflict together. This has been a part of the life of the church from the very beginning. The Bible is aware of the reality of conflict between Christians. The Bible doesn’t expect our community to be a utopia where we all join hands sing Kumbaya all the time, that it’s this nice, peaceful place where we always want to be. That’s not what the Bible says. We are not a perfect community.

But what the Bible does expect of us is this: That we would love one another enough to handle our conflicts in a particular way. We are not always going to be perfect. We are going to have conflict with one another, but we must love one another enough to handle those conflicts in a particular way. “Let the peace of Christ rule.” So, how do we do that?

I think a good way to start is to back up, and before we think about what we should do if we are in conflict with another person, is to really even think about our attitude and our mindset when we go into a conflict with another person. I’m going to pick on someone my own size this morning, so I will pick on Tony. Imagine that Tony and I are in a conflict with one another and from the world’s perspective, and I think too often the perspective that we have in the church, is that our conflict is primarily between me and Tony, and that either I’m going to win or Tony is going to win or I’m going to lose or Tony is going to lose. So we engage one another at that level. I’m going to convince him that I’m right, or I’m going to somehow get something from him that I think he has stolen from me, or whatever it might be.

But from a Biblical perspective, if that is the only level, the only field on which we play on, both Tony and I are going to lose the battle, because Christians must understand that when Tony and I are in conflict with one another, that we are actually on the same side and that we are fighting a battle not against one another, but against the sin that is in my heart and that is in Tony’s heart.

Ephesians 6 says this: “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you may take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle, our conflict is not against flesh and blood, but against the rules and authorities, against the power of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

The conflict that is taking place between Tony and I—on one level it is just between him and I, but in the more important level, it is taking place in the spiritual world in which Satan wants to divide us and to divide the church. As the church, we are on the same team, fighting the same battle against Satan who is seeking to destroy the Christian community, and as long as we only fight the battles against one another, Satan will win. When conflicts come in our relationships, both God and Satan are at work to bring about his purposes in it. Satan wants to use it to destroy us and to divide us. God wants to use it to make both of us become more like Christ. Conflict can be one more thing that God uses to make us more like Jesus, one more way for my heart to be refined and sanctified and more humble and more righteous and more honest and truthful.

So think for a moment about your life. There is likely someone, who in this very moment, you are in some conflict with, someone that maybe you hold a grudge against or who you know holds a grudge against you. Imagine how your perspective on that conflict would change if you acknowledge where the real battle lies. If you acknowledge that your ultimate battle is not against that person but against the sin in your own heart, how would that change the way you enter into a conversation with that person about your relationship? What would it look like for you in that relationship, to allow the peace of Christ to rule over your relationship with that person?

Jesus and the Biblical writers offer us an interesting perspective on conflict that tells us that our battle isn’t between the other person but it is a battle with sin. As we are in these conflicts, our goal at the end of the day must always be reconciliation and unity together.

So, in the church, when we perceive that someone does something wrong to you, we can’t simply write them off. Paul says that you are all part of one body. “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.” Amputation is not an option for you! Amputation is sometimes necessary, but you don’t get to decide to do it all by yourself, and we will talk in a few minutes about when certain steps, drastic steps even, are taken. But you, as an individual, don’t get to decide to cut somebody off because they wronged you. You must pursue reconciliation and unity with the other person.

Since unity is the goal, there is really only two possibilities when somebody does something wrong to you—when somebody says something about you or somebody does something to you—there are really only two possibilities. One of the possible choices is to approach that person and to talk to them about it, and we will talk about that in just a minute. But I think there is another possibility as well. That first possibility comes out of this word “forebear.” The NIV says “bear with each other,” but many translations say, “Forbear with one another and forgive whatever grievances you have with one another.”

The Book of Proverbs and the Book of James both talk about being slow to anger and slow to take offense. In the church, as you live in the Christian community, there is going to be someone who says something to you or does something to you that hurts you and because of that, we need to be slow to anger and slow to take offense. To be slow to take offense is an essential part of the health of the Christian community—to be willing to forbear with someone’s weakness or to forbear with someone’s wrong is a sign, even, of Christian maturity. The willingness to forgive and to move on and to not hold anything against that person who offended you is what the Scriptures mean by “forbear with one another.”

This is not the same thing as holding a grudge. It’s not the same thing as ignoring the other person or ignoring whatever feelings you have about them in your heart. Forbearing is the conscious decision to forgive that person in your heart and to be in a right relationship with that person. So sometimes you are going to have relationships with people who hurt you and you are going to be called to simply be slow to take offense and to forgive that person and to move on.

But if someone offends you and you simply can’t do that, if you can’t forbear with that person, if you find that you continue to have bitterness in your heart, if you find that when you are walking down to the gym you make sure that you are sitting on the other side of the gym as that person and that you are not going to eat their macaroni salad—when you find yourself in that situation with that person, you are not forbearing anymore. That’s not forbearance to just ignore it. So, if that’s the case with you and you continue to have bitterness in your heart and there is not real community and relationship between you and another person, then that’s when a conversation is necessary, and it has to happen and we are so slow to do this.