The King's Church in Ilford
The following is the text of the talk given on 22nd February 2009 by Robin Hawkins
"Jesus' Strategy for Building His Church"
Jesus' Strategy for Building His Church
I have wanted to teach the "One Another's" of the NT for a long time, but the moment has never quite seemed right. Now, as we continue exploring the values upon which Jesus wants to build his church, this seems the right time to do it. Last time I spoke, it was on the importance of the Church, and the importance of being a committed partner or member of it. I talked about how Jesus has called us to be joined together into this community of love, for a clear purpose - that of reaching the lost with the Gospel, drawing them into his family - the church - and helping them to become fully devoted followers of the Lord Jesus.
Jesus gave us the command to love one another, and as Tope explained last week, this is the selfless love that seeks the interest of the other person first. "Greater love has no man than he who lays down his life for his brothers." So said Jesus in John 15:13, and you can't get more selfless than that. However, Jesus left it to the other NT writers to give more detail on how we are to express that love - which they did through the One Another's. A quick glance through the list of these One Another's shows us that they are impossible to fulfil without being committed to a local church. It follows that we cannot be a fully devoted follower of the Lord Jesus, fulfiling His commands, without being committed to a local church.
The fact is people find it easier not to get involved, and there's no doubt that it is. Some people's approach to church life is illustrated by the question set in a police training exam: "You are on the beat, and you see two dogs fighting. The dogs knock a baby out of its pram, causing a car to swerve off the road, smashing into a grocer's shop. A pedestrian is seriously injured, but during the confusion a woman's bag is snatched, a crowd of onlookers chase after the thief, and in the huge build-up of traffic, the ambulance is blocked from the victim of the crash. State, in order of priority, your course of action. A student replied: 'Take off uniform and mingle with crowd!'"
We can choose not to pursue these One Another's, but we'll be the poorer, and less effective as a result. So let's look at this first group.....
Devotion is a strong word. It means to be given over to something or somebody. You may feel Jesus is asking too much of you. All I can say is that he is devoted to you and me - and we wouldn't have it any other way. "Do to others as you have them do to you." is the golden rule that Jesus gave us in Matt 7:12. The fact is we all want to be accepted, we want people to be kind to us, to honour us (take us seriously), to care for us, even to greet us warmly. So do it to others.
Dale Carnegie once said, "You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you!" Here are some pithy sayings about kindness:
- It is difficult to give away kindness. It keeps coming back to you!
- We can do no great things. Only small things with great love. (M. Teresa)
- The best way to knock a chip off another person's shoulder is to pat him on the back.
- The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer someone else up.
- Fill your day with random acts of kindness.
- Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.
The second group is one it would be good to meditate on long and hard! (Read it) Let's not pretend. This is easy to read, and often difficult to practice. But Jesus and Paul urge us to strive after it. This "peace" that Paul talks of is Shalom. Shalom is more than an absence of conflict. It is a state of mutual support and well-being. Nations practising Shalom have trade agreements and cultural exchanges. A church enjoying the Shalom of God is working together in harmony pulling together, blessing one another, and being fruitful together.
There are heart attitudes here which are going to be vital if we are going to fulfil these commands - and heart attitudes get changed by the grace of God in us. Do you remember me saying a while back that God's gift of grace to us is the Holy Spirit? Now there is only one Holy Spirit, and, as Watchman Nee observed, if we are all living according to the Spirit, we must be in harmony. The Holy Spirit cannot be divided. So the challenge we've got is to get close to the Holy Spirit. Make sure we are being filled with Him day by day. To be filled with Him is to be filled with Jesus. Like the spokes on a bicycle wheel, the closer we get to the centre - and that's Jesus for us - the closer we'll get to one another, and the more we'll be in harmony and agreement. We'll find we can't hold onto unforgiveness and be close to Jesus. We can't be proud and arrogant, and stay close to Jesus.
And what can I say about the peacemakers? They receive special honour from Jesus in the Beatitudes. Let me read you the story of Telemachus....(BOL p.151)
"Carry one another's burdens". When someone promises to do something and doesn't, it's easy to have a go at them. A kinder response is to recognise they're obviously under a lot of pressure, and to ask if there's anything you can do to help. Take the load off them. "Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep." When someone is grieving, we can come out with some dreadful platitudes. We mean well, but when someone's hurting, such platitudes don't always help. They just need to know someone cares enough to stand with them, and grieve with them.
There are two sides to discipling, as Dave Devenish pointed out in his "Setting People Free" course. One is to come alongside to help and encourage. To "Bind up the broken-hearted." But the other side is to challenge, warn, and correct. This side of the One Another's is not so popular, but we neglect it at our peril. We are to counsel one another, teach and admonish - warn - one another if we're in danger of straying off the path. People can stray off the path and still be in the meetings. But they've taken offence at somebody, so now they're not talking to that person. We stray off the path when we get worldly in our thinking, or when our doctrine becomes unbiblical. The fact is most of us hate being told, but again this reveals attitudes in us that we need to change if we're going to become like Jesus. Encouragement, Building up, Spurring one another on.... are all vital. How we all need more encouragement. Somebody said, "Reach down and lift others up. It's the best exercise you can get!"
"Serving... Offering hospitality... ministering (another word for serving!) - all these come as no surprise to us. Some people have a real gift for hospitality, and they're wonderful people to have around. Nevertheless there's a responsibility on all of us to be hospitable, and to open our homes to others. The same applies to serving and ministering. As John Maxwell said, "You'll know just how much of a servant you really are when people treat you as one!"
"Fellowship with one another" is partnership. It's saying, "We're in this together. You can count on me." But the meaning goes deeper than that. When John talks about having fellowship with one another, he's talking about an ability to impart Christ to one another. When we pray for one another, especially when we lay hands on one another, we are passing the Holy Spirit onto one another. When we share the Word, whether it be in LG, or in preaching, we're imparting something of Christ to each other. Even when we confess our sins one to another, we impart something of the humility and honesty of Christ. We come into a reality we weren't in when we were covering them over. We come into the light together. This is true fellowship. It is the privilege of Christians.
I find myself on one hand, thrilled by this strategy that Jesus has given us for building his Church; but on the other hand immensely challenged by them because they're not easy. But Jesus never said it was going to be easy - quite the opposite, He spoke of laying our lives down for one another - like Telemachus did. Too often our attitude to following Jesus over the rough ground is like the following feedback comments from hikers in the Bridger Wilderness Park in Wyoming.....
I think the reality for most of us is not like that. Most of us want to go for God. We just need a bit of help getting there. The change will start when we get these principles into our thinking, so let me encourage you to read them, and meditate on them. Then ask Jesus for opportunities to practice them, and be ready to respond when He gives them to us. This is Jesus' strategy for building this Church into one Body. How could the "One Another's" be anything but one of our foundation values?
