What is the Church: How Jesus defines community

Ephesians 2:11-22 “Therefore remember that previously you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision” which is performed in the flesh by human hands—remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the people of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you who previously were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the hostility, which is the Law composed of commandments expressed in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two one new person, in this way establishing peace; and that He might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the hostility. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.

So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”

What is the church? Is it an event or place? Is it all people who believe in Jesus? Is it a group of people who are in similar location who believe in Jesus; or is it an individual who believes in Jesus and as long as we believe in Jesus we are the church and are not required to gather together with other believers?

67% of Americans claim to be Christian while only 20% of Americans attend church weekly. Why do you think there is such a huge gap between those who are Christians and those who attend church weekly? The most common answer when I have asked someone is “I practice my faith in other ways.” When I am talking with my family members who are Christians but do not attend church regularly, they are skeptical of church because of ways the church has hurt them. They have seen pastors abuse their power; they have been hurt by people at these churches, or they simply say that they did not feel a part of a community.

My friends and family who have made this choice tell me that church just makes things more complicated and there is a lot of drama. They do not feel the church today is what the Bible calls for it to be. I cannot help but agree with their reasons for not attending church even though I might not agree with the decision to abandon church. Their reasoning is sound.

Why my family members and many professing Christians feel this way is that we have made church services and events are an end to themselves, rather than a tool to prepare us for the real work of living as a follower of Jesus. Therefore, we come to church in order to“receive” something from church. In order for church to be valuable to us we expect the church itself to fix all our problems. We expect the church itself to give us a spiritual and social experience that we cannot get elsewhere.

We look at the church like we look at a business. We give money, then we get a product back. Pastors who have the best intentions empower this thinking so they can “reach people”. Meaning, get more people in seats and lead people to give their life to Jesus. This is a great intention, but leading people to Jesus and then telling them to stand at a door, make coffee, or just keep showing up is not what the Christian life is about. In doing this, we lead people to the well of life and then we just want them to stay there rather than giving them a bucket to take the water home to allow them to live their everyday lives refreshed.

Pastors have made their events the only place where Christian community happens and it is based around them rather than around Jesus. Instead of facilitating Christian community to be something that their congregations live out, pastors teach their people to be solely reliant on the church organization creating baby Christians who never grow up to be able to live out the Christian life Monday-Saturday.

The church became something more than what it is supposed to be and not in a good way. The church tries to be a secondary culture that mirrors the world. While yes, the early church was a counter-cultural movement, the church did not act exactly like the world. The early church was counter-cultural because they were genuinely different and were making an impact on the outside world. Not because they had everything that the world offers with some Jesus glitter.

Churches today start their own schools, have their own daycares, have their own music, books, and create organizations that enable Christians to hide from the world. What the church is trying to do is rather than engage with the world, we build silos and put up walls to protect ourselves from the world. The church tries to provide a better product than the world and hope that is enough for people to join our club. What we do is rather than equip people for a mission to go into the world; we invite people into a gated community to hide from the world.

Human communities build walls and create silos grouping together those who think, act, and live like they do. Christian communities on the other hand are based solely on the one who has made us one — Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:22-29) . There are no divisions in the Christian community. The walls of Jesus’ coming kingdom in the New Creation are described as having open gates (Revelations 21:22-27). If the finalized version of God’s kingdom has open gates then why do churches try to close their gates? Is Jesus not enough to unite us together (Romans 10:12)? In human communities, we worry about those who are not like us getting in, but for the Christian community there is no dividing wall, for Christ has destroyed all that divides us (Eph. 2:14-16).

Christians not only build gates between them and the outside world, but we build gates between us and other Christians. There are over 200 different Christian denominations in America today. This does not sound like a people who are one in Christ. This is just one symptom of Christians creating communities based on human qualities and not creating communities like Jesus instructed us. Jesus should be enough to overcome all differences (Colossians 3:11), but for some reason Christians are known as some of the most divisive and conflict ridden people in the world. This division within the Christian community is the thing in which hurts our witness to the world the most. Jesus told us that by your love for one another they will know you are my disciple (John 13:35). This verse is just talking about Christians loving one another.

 Humans communities decide who they want in their community if they think, look, act, and believe like they do. Christian communities the thing that bonds us and mediates not only between us and God, but also person to person, is Jesus Christ. However, we have treated Jesus as if He is not enough for us, so we started making communities that were based on if we agreed theologically, intellectually and culturally. Christ became the minor focus while cultural values, theological interpretations and other petty things became the major things which defined our churches. Rather than Christ being the center, it became about the pastors and singers, and programs. Jesus’ mission to unite all humanity is ignored, so we can build our own kingdoms in our own image rather than in the image of Christ.

What if instead of focusing on if we agree on every doctrinal, cultural, and intellectual subject, we allowed Christ to be enough for us to be brothers and sisters in Christ? What if we acted as if we were all on the same team and pursed the mission Jesus gave us 2,000 years ago?

We must allow Jesus to be greater than our differences. We like to mock the Jewish Christians for enforcing Jewish customs on the Gentiles, but we do the same thing today. The customs we try to enforce are different customs, but it is the same act. Just as Paul in Ephesians 2 is talking about how through Jesus, the Jew and Gentile has been brought together.

We must know that those of us who have been saved for 50 years and those who have just come to faith are one. Those who are Methodist and those who are Baptists are one. Catholics and Baptists are one. What Paul in Ephesians 2 is rebuking is not Judaism itself, but the human built constructs and barriers which Jewish Christians were using to make it harder on the Gentiles. This is not an issue isolated with the Jewish Christians of the 1st Century, we are still making the same mistake today.

To repent from this issue and become the Church Jesus wants us to be we cannot  continue to operate this secondary culture that looks like the world’s with some Jesus glitter. It is time we open our gates which divide Christians from each other and from the world and live out the Great Commission. If we will do this we will not have time for the petty arguments to divide us. It will become irrelevant whether we are Baptist or Catholics as long as we truly believe that Jesus is enough.

The goal must always be Jesus Himself. Jesus is the one thing which is the essence and life of Christian community (Eph. 2:20-22). However, how can we do this if Jesus is not something to be obtained? If Jesus is wholly other, how can Jesus be a goal of a community? Unlike communities the world builds, which the foundation is based on intellectual agreements the church is based purely on relationship. We have to do nothing but to enter a relationship with Jesus Christ to become a part of any Christian community because all Christian communities are one, because Christ is one.

Jesus already accomplished Christian community in Himself on the cross. With Him on the cross was all hostility and hate died with Him for those who follow Him. Jesus has brought us near, not only to God but to each other (Eph. 2:14-16). We do not have to do a thing to accomplish this because Christian community is a reality not an ideal. Christian community has already been done for us. We do not have to build it, or create it, we simply enter it when Jesus becomes our Lord. When we make Jesus Lord of our life we become part of the body. Church membership does not give us this access, volunteering doesn’t give us this access, we automatically enter it when Jesus becomes Lord.

Why does the law not have power? Why was the law not able to cure the brokenness of humanity? Because it was done through human effort (Eph. 2:11). It was up for humans to live up to God’s holy standard. This was by design because, as the law exposed our sinfulness, grace “super-abounded” (Romans 5:20-21)! Therefore, why do we try to create a law of our own when we have Jesus? Why do we try to add to the work of Jesus like it needs our help? Christian community is not created through human vision or effort, it is a present reality in which we can do nothing to improve or create. But we can step into it and experience its benefits.

What makes the Church different is not how we do things it is why we do them. Our goal is not community in itself. We are not seeing the approval of others or even the friendship of others. We are seeking the life of Jesus alone and to be able to experience that life in its fullness which to do so requires us to live in unity and community with others.

I will go as far to say that if we do not live in a genuine Christian community participating in it how Jesus taught us, then we are not really living the Christian life at all. While our salvation is secure, we will never experience the life of Christ to its fullest without being in community with others. There is no version of Christianity where other people are not involved. Christianity is not a personal identity or belief, it is a life. A life which requires others to experience it to the full.

Jesus never shows us a version of being His follower, which does not include living life with other followers of Jesus, and which does not include life without those who do not follow Jesus. Everywhere Jesus went there were His followers, and those who were not His followers. We look to the life of Jesus to get the blueprint of the Christian life and the community which He had on earth included followers of His and opponents of His.

The Christian life is not meant to be a gated community of just friendlies, and it is not supposed to be a lifestyle where you are not a part of a community of other followers of Jesus. While the church itself (the body of Christ) is only those who are His followers, this body is always engaging with the outside world telling the world about Jesus. This body is on a mission to bring others to become a part of this body. Therefore, the Christian community is always a mix of followers and unbelievers.

When Jesus is asked what is the greatest commandment what does He say? Love God and love others (Matthew 22:27-40; Mark 12:29-31; Luke 10:27)  Jesus ties together the love of God to the love of others. At time we can look at  Jesus as an object of knowledge. Jesus is something or someone to learn about and the more we know about Jesus the more holy you are. Does Jesus describe following Him as an intellectual pursuit? NO. Jesus calls us to live a life of self sacrifice in service of others. How are we to serve others if we keep our faith in Jesus a private matter?

Remember, you were the one who was once far away who Jesus draw near. For us who know Jesus the wall in which Jesus broke down was not just between us and fellow followers of Jesus, but the wall in which Jesus broke down for us is between us and every other human alive. We are not to live our lives with closed gates but with open gates. We will live each and every day looking for an opportunity to make a disciple of Jesus. We will love the world around us no matter the cost. Christian community does not only impact how we treat those within the community but those who are not yet a part of this community.

The Great Commission tells us to make disciples (Matthew 28:19). Leading people to Jesus is just step one. Making disciples does not happen through events, but through followers of Jesus living out the radical life in which Jesus calls us to 24/7 as a community (Matthew 28:16-20). The key thing that will help us open the gates is to stop making church services and events the goal in themselves.

Coming to church is the starting point. Sunday service is to be a celebration, and act at the point of facilitations of Christian Community throughout the week, not the actual work or essence of Christian community. I am not meaning we have to live together or always be together, but you should be able to find lifelong friends who are an integral part of your life. You should not just see these people at church once or twice a week, talk to them in the lobby, then go home.

You should have meaningful conversations with your church family, you should discuss the scriptures together, confessing your sins to one another, and praying for one another, at a minimum weekly. The weekly gathering in the early church was to facilitate these activities, but we have simply turned it into an event where you sing songs and listen to someone monologue for 30 minutes to an hour. This is why we have put conversation starters on the tables in the fellowship hall, and I want each of you to find someone who is not your spouse or family member, and go in there and have a meaningful conversation or at a minimum before you leave today schedule time for this week where you are going to do this.

These things are what empower us to go into our community together and fulfill the Great Commission to tell the world about Jesus and teach them how to follow Him. Christian community is a blessing where everyone can work together through the mediation of Jesus Christ how to live life as His follower. The unbeliever can come and experience the visible representation of God’s work on earth. The point of this community is not the services or events, the point of this all is to experience the life of Jesus to the fullest. Our services, programs and events are the mere facilitator of doing this.

The church is not built off of human efforts and vision. This is the vision in which Jesus laid out for us 2,000 years ago (Matthew 28:16-20). The reality of Christian community is present, we just have to be aware of it and start living it out. Jesus has already built the body, we just have to join in the work He is doing (Romans 10:6-10). While we do have work to do, we can rest in the fact that this is happening with or without us. Do you want to miss out on what God is doing? Jesus has done the handwork for us. All we have to do is not mess it up by building gates of our own making creating our own little kingdoms. Jesus has already brought us together through His blood so we can all enjoy this new life as one.