Category: Bruce’s Blogs

Throughout this year, we have been focusing on how we, the church, are a community and how God builds us up as the Body of Christ through our faith as it grows. In the sermon series through Paul’s letter to the Colossians, we have seen how the supremacy of Christ is the foundation of our faith and how our faith in Christ alone empowers and enables us to be the church and to do what God has called the church to do, namely live as disciples who share the Gospel and make disciples. It is this faithfulness to Christ that led Paul to praise and thank God for each of the churches to whom he wrote letters (except the Galatians, who seemed to have abandoned quickly their faith in Christ alone).

Paul thanked God for the faithfulness of even the Corinthians, to whom Paul had written about their worship services, “In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good” (1 Corinthians 11:17, NIV 1984). Even though this first letter to the Corinthian Christians was full of rebuke and instruction to correct bad doctrine and practice, Paul was thankful for their faith in Christ.

Some of the evidence of the Corinthians’ faithfulness was their desire and effort to collect an offering for the church in Jerusalem, who were suffering greatly. In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul was encouraging them to follow through with their desire and complete their offering. It was this act of faith, Paul told them, that was not only praiseworthy for him but for others as well:

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. (2 Corinthians 9:12, 13, NIV 1984)

In this statement, Paul reveals that our faithfulness expressed in giving for the sake of others not only takes care of specific needs but also leads others to praise God. While there is a sense of gratitude for the giving, there is also thanks from the giving. It’s one thing for others to be grateful for our expressions of faithfulness through giving, but it’s another thing for God to receive thanks from our giving. Certainly this is one reason why Paul was able to praise God for the churches’ faithfulness.

It’s also a reason why I praise and thank God for your faithfulness. During our Tuesday morning prayer time, we regularly praise God for the faithfulness of the people of this church body, and certainly a big part of that is your faithfulness in giving.

I hate the crass nature of talking about money, but the simple fact remains: we need to pay the bills – gas, electric, water, and more – so that we can continue simply to meet in the building and use it as a tool in our efforts to share the Gospel and make disciples in this community. That our attendance has dropped but your offerings have continued to cover our expenses is a testimony to both God’s faithfulness to us and your faithfulness to God. Praise God! Keep up the good work!

Please don’t take me the wrong way; giving can be only evidence of faith, not assurance of salvation. My concerns are not about finances, even though they are important indicators of our health. My primary concern is not that we have a robust bank account or that we can pay the bills or that we will ever fill all the seats in the building. My primary concern is that we will all grow in our faith and knowledge of Jesus, that God will continue to build us together as the Body of Christ, and that we will continue to be faithful in our mission to make disciples. As you continue to show yourselves faithful through giving, we will find more opportunities to share the Gospel, to make disciples, and to bring praise to God. I continue to pray for you, to praise God for your faith. May we all be faithful so that God will continue to receive thanks and praise from our giving.

Even though our youngest child has graduated from high school, I still think in terms of a school year. So fall, for me, is the beginning of a new year. Fall is also my favorite season of the year because of the transitions we experience so vividly in the color of the leaves, the coolness in the air, and the shortening of the days. These things, the beginning of the school year and fall, keep me mindful of the cycles of life because they draw together both a beginning and an ending. While classes begin, summer is ending; where students enter a new phase of life and learning, the earth and those who tend it prepare for harvest and winter’s rest.

The coincidence of beginnings and endings within cycles are important. Usually we focus on one or the other, but the fact that endings lead to beginnings or that beginnings come out of endings is important for understanding the cycle, not just as a system but as a whole. These cyclical transitions are critical times for examination and planning.

That’s how I spend much of my time in the fall. In addition to preparing weekly lessons and sermons and dealing with the regular concerns of ministry, I spend a lot more time and effort in the fall examining the past year, or more, and making plans for the next year, or so, in regard to writing, preaching, teaching, and growing. In the fall, I prepare myself by planning a yearlong calendar of sermon series, lesson series, and newsletter articles, often with a theme that spans the whole calendar year. If you consider the past few years, you should be able to trace my thinking: Year of the Bible (2017); Trust and Follow Jesus (2018); Grow in Community (2019).

Each of these yearlong themes was chosen and followed through my preaching, teaching, and writing so that we might grow in our faith in that particular direction, that we might be strengthened by that specific aspect of our faith. Just as each of us has grown through various stages in our life cycles as humans, there are specific areas of our spiritual lives that need specific training and strengthening, as we read in Hebrews 5:14: “Solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”

Sometimes we revisit those areas, needing more advanced or more focused more-of-the-same. Certainly, in 2017, the “Year of the Bible,” I didn’t begin focusing on the Scriptures as if I or we had not previously considered the Bible as the foundation of our faith and practice; I/we always had and always will. However, it was good for us to reestablish our focus on the Bible, especially considering that the world around us is not convinced of the truth of God’s Word and that many seek to undermine our faith in God’s Word. In the same way, in 2018, it was good for us to refocus on what the Bible tells us about Jesus and how we can trust and follow him, and throughout 2019, it was important for us to strengthen our relationships with each other as a community, as the Body of Christ. These are not new ideas, but it is important for our continued growth and health that we remind ourselves not only of what the Bible says but of how that knowledge trains us and changes us to be more like Christ.

So the cycle continues. As we watch students go back to school, we find ourselves revisiting the Scriptures with renewed interest and growth. We find ourselves reaffirming our faith. We find ourselves examining what we do and how we do it. And as we do, may we find ourselves still focused on God and his purpose for us.

Diversity among people is an undeniable reality, but unfortunately diversity has become divisive. As I mentioned in the sermon on August 11, diversity doesn’t have to be divisive. In fact, it seems that not only has God created diversity among humans, he expects it within his kingdom. In Revelation 7:9 we read a beautiful description of the diversity we can expect in heaven:

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. (NIV 1984)

John’s description tells us who we will find there with us: multitudes of people “from every nation, tribe, people and language.” Simply stated, we should anticipate the diversity of heaven to reflect the diversity of humanity on earth.

One of the obstacles that the church faces because of diversity is the fact that there are many people of diverse religious and philosophical backgrounds who insist that “heaven,” however they might define it, will be inhabited by people from many religious backgrounds (better still, any and all, even if they claim none). However, the Scriptures show that salvation is by God’s grace to all who put their faith in him (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; and more), specifically because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

While that simple biblical fact is restrictive, it does not negate the fact that God’s kingdom – in the here-and-now and through eternity – is diverse. John tells us that Jesus’ sacrifice was made for a diverse multitude of people as well:

And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” (Revelation 5:9; NIV 1984)

Clearly, the God who created us in diversity has planned his kingdom to be diverse as well. So, diversity within the church is not only to be expected but to be embraced.

Certainly, this creates a serious tension within the church. Whereas John’s vision of the eternal kingdom of God reflects the diversity of humanity, Paul’s description of the church reveals a unity that transcends human diversity: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28; NIV 1984). While we cannot deny that we’re all different – in many obvious and even not-so-obvious ways – we cannot deny that God has made us “one in Christ Jesus.”

The struggle, then, is for the church not only to reflect diversity but to live in unity in our diversity. Paul shows us how God leverages diversity to build unity within the church:

If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. (1 Corinthians 12:17, 18; NIV 1984)

That is, unity in diversity is a necessary characteristic of the church. It is not merely a simple fact that we’re all different; it is a purpose of God that he has made us different and called us together to be unified in our differences to be the body of Christ, the church.

As we grow up together as the church, we will likely continue to experience the struggles, tension, and conflict that arise because of our diversity. Through those struggles, we must trust God to unify us in Christ, using our differences to bring other diverse people into his kingdom.

The sermon from Sunday, July 14, really got me thinking about the church as a family. The accounts of Barnabas and Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 4, 5, as I mentioned in the sermon, are easily reduced to a moral plea to be generous in your giving. While that is true and a good takeaway from the stories, it’s far too simplistic and somewhat removed from the context of the history of the early church.

The key to the story is found in Acts 4:32: “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.” The early church shared everything they had not because they were generous individuals but because they were united in their faith; they were “one in heart and mind.” Because the early church had a shared faith in the resurrected Lord, they had a shared identity in Christ. They were the family of God.

Paul confirms this and explains it further in Romans 8:16, 17:

Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Paul tells us that our position as God’s children comes about if we “share in his sufferings.” While this certainly refers to the opposition and persecution the early church faced, as the book of Acts shows clearly, in the context of his letter to the Christians in Rome, this is primarily a reference to baptism, as Paul explained in Romans 6 using phrases like “buried with him” (vs. 4), “united with him” in death and resurrection (vs. 5), “crucified with him” (vs. 6), “died with Christ” and “live with him” (vs. 8).

It’s this sharing with Christ, this unity with Christ that unifies us in Christ together. This was part of Jesus’ prayer before his arrest: “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:22, 23).

Jesus prayed that his followers would be united in him, just as he and the Father are one. This is the kind of unity we see in Acts 4:32, as the early church were “one in heart and mind.”

Obviously, that kind of unity doesn’t happen overnight. Just as infants eventually grow up to be adults, so newborns in Christ grow into mature believers. It’s a natural process that Peter describes: “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:2, 3).

This takes time, and it also takes the church living together as a healthy family. It’s for this kind of growth that we have elders, preachers, and teachers within the church, Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:11-13, so that we might grow up together in our faith and in our service to God. Then, Paul continues, “We will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:14-15).

Our growth is not merely our own individual growth, it is growth within the body, the family of God. As we grow together in Christ, we grow together as the family of God. We become “one in heart and mind,” like the early church. Then we can live as the church God planned, loving God and others boldly, sharing what we have generously, especially the Good News of God’s love and forgiveness through Jesus.

When we Americans celebrate our independence, we mean it. According to the American Pyrotechnics Association in 2014, consumers spent about $675 million on fireworks to celebrate Independence Day. This kind of spectacular celebration seems to be what the Founding Fathers had in mind. In a letter to his wife, Abigail, John Adams wrote on July 3, 1776, about how he expected Independence Day to be celebrated in the future:

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

There’s no doubt that we excel at the “pomp and parade” aspects of our Independence Day celebrations, but what about the first part, the “solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty”?

Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to fit with many Americans’ view of freedom, liberty, and independence. Rather than celebrating freedom through “acts of devotion to God Almighty,” many revel in acts of devotion to self. This understanding of our American independence begins with the very words that announced on July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence states:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

From this starting point of American independence, our liberty has most often been defined very personally; that is, all of us, each of us has the right to pursue our own happiness. That’s what many people believe is the foundation of freedom. In fact, while we celebrate freedom for all, most are more focused on independence, even freedom from all.

But that’s not the freedom we received when we put our faith in Christ. Throughout Romans 6, Paul makes a clear argument that before our conversion, we were slaves to sin and death, but when we became Christians, we received a different kind of freedom. Paul writes in Romans 6:22, “Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.”

In our culture, freedom means “I can do what I want, as long as I don’t hurt anyone else.” In Christ, our freedom leads to holiness, a benefit of the Holy Spirit living within us. Self-control and holiness, being a slave to righteousness (Romans 6:19), these are benefits of our freedom in Christ, and they lead us to live not for ourselves but for others.

Our freedom in Christ is freedom to serve. Paul clarifies this in Galatians 5:13, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” This is what makes our Christian freedom superior to even our American freedom. Whereas American freedom for all leads to liberty for each individual, Christian freedom of each individual leads to service for all. Instead of living for “my” own happiness, each Christian lives in service to others that they may find not mere happiness but eternal life and freedom in Christ.

This is why we serve within the church; it’s a celebration of our freedom! We have a worship team that serves not because they have to but because they want to lead others to Christ. We have children’s ministry volunteers (and we need more!) who serve to lead others to Christ. We have volunteers who weed the flower beds, mow the grass, and do many other tasks, serving to lead others to Christ. As we celebrate our nation’s freedom with cookouts and fireworks, let us also celebrate our freedom in Christ by serving others.

Do you remember that kid who used to do all the silly things that would make people laugh and get them into trouble? How about the kid who always knew the answers and reminded the teacher that she had forgotten to collect the homework? What about the kid who always had the newest clothes or toys and showed them off at school? What about the kid who rebelled no matter what the teacher asked? Yeah, we grew up together.

It’s interesting to think about the kids we grew up with. Not only do we remember the shenanigans but we remember the circumstances and the consequences. Most importantly, we learned something. Life lessons, good and bad, stick with us, and growing up with other people through shared circumstances certainly leads to important lessons we don’t forget.

It’s when we don’t remember the lessons that we find ourselves reliving the same problems over and over. While change is often necessary for growth, it is also important to maintain some continuity with the past, which is what poet and philosopher George Santayana meant when he famously wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

This is no less true when it comes to the church. The history of the church goes back nearly 2000 years, to that first day of Pentecost after Jesus’ death and resurrection, which is recorded in Acts 2. The book of Acts is a historical account of the formation and life of the early church. Acts records what those first-century people said and did as they encountered the message about Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection and how that Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-8) prompted their faith in Jesus, their salvation by God, and their transformation by the Holy Spirit. It shows how many continued their faith in God but left behind their Jewish religion; it shows how many left behind godless beliefs and lifestyles and followed a new way of faith and life. It chronicles the struggles people had with God, the Gospel, their faith, and their new-found family, the church.

Simply put, Acts is a straightforward, unvarnished look at what it means to grow up together in the church. Much of it was good; some of it was bad; and some of it was just plain ugly. And doesn’t that sound like some of your own experience growing up in the church? Whether you can think back to your own childhood or to your first contact with the church as an adult, don’t you have both good and bad memories? Didn’t those experiences teach you lessons about yourself, about others, about God and the church? Sure they did. And even though there are nearly 2000 years of history between us and the early church, even though their languages, cultures, and experiences were different from our own, there is a strong line of continuity between us and them: Jesus and the Gospel.

So, essentially, we’re growing up together in the church with them. We can “remember” Peter, the forceful fisherman who both defended and denied Jesus before his crucifixion and resurrection and who also preached the first Gospel sermon, led the church, and was imprisoned and beaten for his faith. We remember Barnabas who gave selflessly to meet the needs of others, as well as Ananias and Sapphira who also gave but with selfish motives and lies. We remember men and women who not only worshiped and prayed together but who ate together and shared their possessions with one another. We remember people who were were strong in their faith and those who were weak; those who grew and those who fell away.

When we read Acts, we “remember” and we grow – together. This was Luke’s purpose for writing his accounts: “So that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught” (Luke 1:4). This is why we’re going to spend the summer “growing up together,” studying the book of Acts. Get ready to remember the first time you heard the Gospel, the struggles you’ve had with your faith, and even the fears of living out your faith. Get ready to grow in your faith, together with your brothers and sisters.

For many churches, “community” is a value. That is, they want to develop among the people of the church a sense of belonging to the group. Their goal is to get people to think about “we” and not just “me,” which certainly agrees with scriptural descriptions of the church being an assembly, at least, and a body, at its best.

Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to forget that the body that is the church is not merely a body of individuals built together to form a community; it is the Body of Christ lived in community. While we might value togetherness or belonging, we must value the church as a body whose health and activity is expressed in community but not defined simply by putting people together and keeping them together.

Community often starts with simple interaction, when individuals visit and return and begin to feel welcome and comfortable. That comfort and connection leads to association, when someone feels comfortable saying, “I am a member of Thus-and-Such Church.”

However, we can’t reduce membership in the church to mere association; to be a member of the body of Christ, one must be united with Christ. Paul makes this abundantly clear in Romans 6, where he uses phrases like “crucified with him,” “buried with him,” and “raised with him,” among others. Joining the church is so much different than joining an organization; it is not merely putting one’s name on a roster but becoming a whole new person. Being joined with Christ changes our identity and our nature, as Paul reminds in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” That’s where we start; that’s where the growth begins.

As it grows, community transforms as individuals whose initial connections were found in having similar interests, experiences, or needs truly begin loving and caring for each other. This is what we see in the early church, as Luke documents its beginning and growth in the book of Acts. This summer we will follow the early church in a series of sermons through Acts. While there’s a lot of names, places, and events that happen in this historical account, we’re going to focus on the early church as a community.

In the book of Acts we see the formation of the church on the day of Pentecost, when thousands heard the Good News about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus for the first time. When they heard the message, they responded in faith, and it changed them. Peter preached; they were baptized; they devoted themselves to the Gospel; and they started taking care of each other as they had needs. And God responded: “The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). They didn’t simply join the church, God built the church from this newly formed body.

So when we value community and desire to see the community grow, we can learn a lot from the early church. Regardless of what the big church across town or across the country might be doing, our model comes from the Scriptures. The church growth experts agree: programs, events, and gimmicks might be valuable, but only if they’re used as tools to build on the foundation of the Gospel and if they’re used to help people grow in their relationships with God and with other people. Otherwise, they’re as healthy and effective as fad diets; the dramatic changes might bring quick results, but they’re not sustainable (trust me; I know).

If you’re worried about a lack of activities; don’t. There are a lot of different things we can do to make sure this community continues to grow and be healthy. The book of Acts reveals growing community through devotion to the Scriptures, prayer, worship, evangelism, giving, serving, and more. As we wrestle with the issues of being the healthy, active body of Christ, as we struggle with growing as a community, let’s stay focused on the Gospel. Programs, events, and trends come and go; they’re expensive, time-consuming, and temporary, but “the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8).

“Are you here?” It’s all too common to have to ask this question of someone who is right there in plain sight. The problem is, they’re not really “here.” Most often, they’re face down in their phone (and no, it’s not just younger people). Sure, they could be distracted by something else, but it’s more and more common for people not to be present where they are.

This kind of disconnect seems to be growing. Even if families are gathered around the dinner table or riding together in the car, there’s no interaction because everybody is focused on their phone, a video game, or some other device. Husbands and wives grow apart, even though they’re sitting right next to each other, one lost in a show they’re binge-watching, the other lost in a “discussion” on social media. Companies are establishing phone-free zones at meetings because employees are too easily distracted by every beep and buzz from their phones.

Electronics disconnect happens in the church, too. It’s not just that people forget to silence their cellphones (and they do), but they answer their calls and texts and Tweets and more. Many preachers report that folks in the pews aren’t necessarily using their phones as electronic Bibles (as many claim) but for texting, email, web surfing, and even games. One preacher friend has said that his church had to set up a separate network because people’s usage during the service made it impossible to stream their worship service online. So even though folks are sitting in the pews, many really are not present.

The problem of presence affects healthy growth. The truth is, proximity isn’t presence, not in our families or in other relationships, certainly not in the church, especially not with God.

When evaluating our own spiritual health, many of us know that we need to be closer to God, closer to Christ. Where does that relationship with God begin? When we are united with Christ. In Romans 6:3-8 he gives us several descriptions; he says we were “baptized into Christ Jesus,” “baptized into his death,” “buried with him,” “united with him… in his death,” “united with him in his resurrection,” “crucified with him”; we “died with him” to “live with him.” We know that a healthy Christian life is when we are “in Christ”; yet we struggle being present with Christ.

This is nothing new. Remember the church in Laodicea? In Revelation 3:14-22, Jesus warned this church, who were supposed to be in Christ, that they were “neither cold nor hot” (vs. 15). But there is also hope and encouragement here. Jesus wanted to be with them, near them, among them; in Revelation 3:20, 21, Jesus said:

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.”

Isn’t that the kind of relationship we want to have? Where we can sit with Jesus and even eat with him? That’s the kind of relationship many of us look forward to when we get to heaven, but we don’t have to wait for it!

Don’t forget: Jesus promised to be with us (Matthew 28:20). Don’t forget: the church is the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27), and this body was made for close relationships (Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-35). Don’t forget Paul’s words in Romans 12:5, “In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others”; in other words, we are responsible for each other and to each other. As the body of Christ, we grow together as we help each other, teach each other, encourage each other, and serve each other. We can’t do that if we’re not present with each other.

Yes, that means we need to value our corporate worship time every Sunday morning. It also means we need to value the times we spend studying and praying together, whether in Sunday school, in Bible studies, or in home groups. It means that we need to pay attention to the prayer list and to pray for one another, and it means we need to call, write, and visit one another. Don’t let the distractions draw us away from each other or from Christ; the more we grow in presence with each other, the more we grow together.

No doubt about it, we’re experiencing a dramatic shift in our culture that has led people to fear community. Our culture is characterized by rabid individualism, the thought that I/me is more important than you/we. We live in a world that is driven by personal feelings and fulfillment instead of unity and mutual growth. And the more we focus on individuals, the more often we find conflict as individuals meet.

As a result, community has become a source of friction, tension, and fear. When individuals who have different – and not necessarily opposing – perspectives or goals, instead of working toward mutual satisfaction or benefit, there’s immediate friction. Even before we discover what another person’s point of view might be, we anticipate conflict; so we approach each other with an underlying tension. And simply because we don’t know, we let FUD rule – fear, uncertainty, doubt.

It’s no wonder so many folks prefer to be isolated from others. What we used to call neighborhoods are now designed as places where people share addresses within a plot of land that has been given a warm, welcoming “community” name but has limited access, sometimes gated and guarded. These communities are designed and built without sidewalks, but that’s OK; new homes are built without front porches, those relics of old-fashioned openness to neighbors. Now our homes are retreats or refuges, places where you can push a button to open the garage, drive in, and shut out the world.

Sadly, struggling churches often reflect the culture in which they live. Don’t think so? Go back through the letters to the churches – to the Church – in Revelation 2, 3. The concerns and rebukes of Jesus to the Church is often about how Christians look more like the world. That’s often what we see in churches today. So when the culture becomes self-centered and isolated, the church often follows suit.

That’s why conflict within the church is more often about personal preferences than biblical theology and doctrine (although those conflicts are often personal interpretation of Scripture). That’s when churches argue more about music style and volume than content. That’s when churches debate room temperature instead of whether they are “hot or cold” for Christ. That’s when churches are more concerned about bus trips than mission trips. That’s when churches focus on getting more people in the seats than getting Christ into people’s lives. While any of those points of distinction and division can be important, the discussion can be heated and messy, and many folks would rather leave angry than work through the mess toward unity and growth.

I get it; growing in community is hard work. It’s a lot easier to walk away and isolate yourself than to work toward growing in community. But the benefits of community far outweigh the fear of conflict and hard work. Among other benefits, we must remember that a healthy church community takes care of one another (Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-37); encourages one another (Hebrews 10:24, 25); and grows and works together (Ephesians 4:11-13). Perhaps most importantly, remember that a healthy church community helps one another “in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:16).

If fear of conflict, tension, hard work, or general relational messiness is keeping you out of the community of the church, it’s time to push that fear aside and grow up. Fear has no place in the church; it’s opposed to the Gospel and to God himself. Remember: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:18, 19). God loved each one of us despite our own mess of sin; let’s love one another and grow in our messy community.

As a congregation that comes from a historical movement to restore what the New Testament reveals about the Church, we have a drive to be more like the early church. When we read through Acts, we get a picture of a vibrant body striving to be what Christ has called us to be. But when we read through some of the letters to individual communities, we start to see that even the early church was pretty messy.

As we continue to read and study through just chapters two and three of Revelation, we start to see similarities with the modern church. If we want to be more like the early church – take a deep breath – we are. Consider the struggles of the churches to whom Jesus dictates letters in Revelation:

• It’s too easy to do the right things without love, and God can’t stand that (Revelation 2:2-4).
• It’s too easy to remain faithful to Christ as an individual and permit unfaithfulness within the church, and God can’t stand that (Revelation 2:13-16).
• It’s too easy to do more and more good things and tolerate false teaching and practice, and God can’t stand that (Revelation 2:19-23).
• It’s too easy to have an appearance of life in Christ but to be dead inside, and God can’t stand that (Revelation 3:2-4).
• It’s too easy to take confidence in things of the world and be indifferent to the things of God, and God can’t stand that (Revelation 3:15-18).

Sounds like an article straight from Christianity Today, doesn’t it? The problem, it seems, is that the Church often focuses on the blessings God promises but ignores the responsibilities of faithfulness: love, unity, humility, and obedience.

The struggle between faithfulness and compromise for the modern church is quite the same as it was for the early church, and it boils down to selfishness. That attitude is revealed not only in “what I want” but also in “what I believe.” If the Church cannot submit itself to God’s authority and the authority of the Scriptures, it will continue to slide away from faithfulness into compromise. Unfortunately, the widespread decline of biblical literacy within the Church makes Satan’s original temptation, “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1), all that more effective, as too many Christians just don’t know what God really said. So when the Church becomes indifferent to God’s Word, the Church slides further into compromise with a greater appetite for consumer-driven activity.

Frankly, that’s the same attraction that drives the relatively new perspective of Revelation that focuses on the second coming of Christ and what is to come after rather than being faithful until that blessed moment. Far too many Christians focus on the signs and happenings, often the sensational images made more sensational by books and movies, rather than their own faithfulness. The early church didn’t look to Revelation as a step-by-step guide to the end times; instead, suffering Christians looked to this letter from Jesus as a note of encouragement from the One who suffered it all first and who wanted them to keep on keeping on through it all. We should do the same.

How do I know that Jesus is more concerned about us keeping the faith despite suffering and temptations of selfishness than beasts, bowls, trumpets, and dragons? Read the letters in chapters two and three again. Over and over again, after warning and commending the churches (the Church), Jesus said, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches,” (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). Jesus knows our suffering and the suffering yet to come; he also knows that we are able to overcome it because he has already overcome it. If you’re looking for that kind of comfort and strength, you’ll find it in God’s Word, even (especially?) in Revelation.