Gospel Community

I want to invite you to turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 9, and I hope you brought your Bibles with you this morning. We'll be looking at a handful of, of passages of, of scripture. and we'll begin in Acts chapter 9 as we talk about gospel community. having grown up in a, Christian home, I'm grateful grateful to God, for many things.

with regard to my parents, but one of the greatest. Of the things on that list of things I'm grateful for with regard to my parents. is their example of commitment to the local church. My dad was in the Marines for 20 years and so we lived as I was growing up in 6 different states and in 10 different houses.

and yeah whenever we moved from one place to another, the first thing my parents would do was look for, a local church, and once they found the church, they would be all in like right away. I remember moving, our family moving to Albany, Georgia, where my dad got stationed when I was 9 years of age and shortly thereafter. our family attended a church startup, called Circle Baptist Church. for the very first time, and it was a small church that met in, if my memory serves me correct, an auto workers union building, and the service for that morning, our first Sunday there began with the pastor coming to the pulpit and saying, our piano player is sick this morning and we don't have anyone to play the piano.

Is there anyone here who can play the piano for us? Well my mom raised her hand and long story short, she played the piano for the congregation as they sang that morning on our very first Sunday at this church and after that service my parents as we got in the car said to us kids, this is our new church home. And it was and they were all in and that church, as with the other churches became the hub of our life as a family every church that my parents were a part of whether that church was in Texas or Florida or South Carolina or Georgia or Indiana, they embraced that church as family.

And I have to tell you that none of those churches were perfect, by any stretch of the imagination.

All of them were filled with colorful characters. and a lot of memories, both good and bad, that we as a family were left with. At one church, a church member started arguing with the pastor toward the end of a Sunday morning service. In the service that evening at that church, a punch was thrown, and the church experienced a split.

Literally right down the middle. At another church, some of the lead deacons in the church, this was in South Carolina, would make a beeline for the front steps of the church after the service was dismissed. So that they could smoke their cigarettes as they chatted with fellow church members. At another church, a split.

Occurred A few years after our departure, because the pastor of that church wanted the church to accept a black family into its membership and some in the church were against that. Thankfully, many of those who left that church for that reason. circled back to that pastor years later to confess. Their sin and how wrong they were.

I saw my parents. Have to leave that one church I mentioned that it split down the middle with a lot of disappointments and wounds, some of which we as kids understood in. that moment, but I watched them not be disillusioned but dust themselves off and the very next Sunday, immediately setting about to find another church. And dedicating themselves to shortly thereafter a new flock with all of its own set of beauties and brokenness.

I've also had the privilege of seeing my parents remain a part of a church over the span of a handful of decades, and I've seen them stick with that church through times when I probably would have left. But I've seen my parents stay long enough to enjoy the fruit of their prayers and their patience and their labor. And through all of those ups and downs over the years and several churches, I've seen my parents be loved when they were not at their most lovely. And I've seen my parents love people when those people.

We're not very lovable. I've seen my mom deeply wounded by. Church members and I've learned the art of forgiveness from her. I've seen my dad be deeply hurt and slandered by a fellow church member.

And I've seen my dad months later stuffing cash into an envelope that he was about to send out in the mail. And when I asked my dad what he was doing, he said that he was sending. The money to this particular man because he had heard that this man had fallen on hard times financially and my dad said to me that he was sending the gift in cash in order to keep the gift anonymous because he didn't want to embarrass the man and knowing that the gift was from him. My parents taught us kids and they they lived this also that the local church is the center of God's activity on earth and that it will endure forever.

Other institutions will come and they will go, but when heaven and earth pass away and the scaffolding of human history is removed, the church. Is the one institution that will still be standing in the splendor of perfect holiness and my parents taught us that there is no better place to be. Than the local church, even with all of its present warts and wrinkles and imperfections, some of you have. Had the privilege of meeting.

My mom and dad and I'm grateful for that but if you have never met my parents, that's OK because you learn all the same things that I just mentioned from the example of the apostle Paul whose example we're gonna be continuing to look at today. As a church, we are here. To help people to journey from. The brokenness of sin to wholeness.

Through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and there are 5 critical points of that journey that we are looking at in this brief series. The first of these points is gospel conversion that we looked at 5 weeks ago. The second is gospel centrality that we looked at last Sunday, and today we will be studying the third point of this journey which is gospel. Community As we did with the first two points of the journey, we'll be looking at the example of Saul of Tarsus, who later became the apostle Paul, and today we will be observing his attitude toward an engagement in gospel community on the other side of his conversion.

And so, if you have your notes in front of you. we'll be looking at 6, observations, giving voice to 6 observations about the apostle Paul and how he lived his life in gospel community. All of us, I think, can go deeper into the experience of this thing called gospel community, and I think we'll be inspired and blessed by the example of Paul, this morning. Number one, here's the first observation we can make about him.

After conversion, Paul pursued community. With fellow Christians after conversion, Paul. Who was Saul at the time pursued community with fellow Christians. In Acts chapter 9, you can read the story of Saul of Tarsus' conversion on the road to Damascus.

after he is baptized, we're told that he began to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in the synagogues and proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God, and he does that until the Jews in that city rise up against him and plot to kill him, making it such that he had to leave Damascus. And long story short, we come to Acts chapter 9, verse 26, where we are told that. Paul returns to Jerusalem for the very first time since his conversion. Paul had left Jerusalem for Damascus as an enemy of the church, trying to ravage and destroy the church, and now he returns to Jerusalem.

And what is the very first thing that we are told that he does when he arrives back in Jerusalem? Listen to what Paul does in Acts 9:26. The text says when he came to Jerusalem, he was trying to associate. With the disciples.

This is amazing to observe. The change in this man, the word that is translated associate means to attach oneself to for the purpose of becoming a part of. This is the word that would be used to speak of someone joining a team with the result being that he's now a part of that team. The Greek word that is translated associate here literally means to glue together.

In fact, this is the word that is used in Ephesians 5:31, where Paul says for this cause, a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife. That word cleave is the same Greek word that is used here in Acts 9:26, and the two shall become one flesh. Paul says in Ephesians 5:31. So obviously this is a very intense word.

And Luke, the historian uses this word to describe what Saul was trying to do with the Christians in Jerusalem. Now that he has been converted to Christ. Saul did not just want to hang out with these brothers and sisters, he wanted to join up with them and be a part of them. He wanted to be on their team.

One of the clearest signs that a person has been truly converted to Christ is that they desire to associate themselves deeply with other believers in Jesus. Amen. And we see this on display in Saul after his conversion. Yet notice how his first attempt at community worked out for him initially.

In Acts 9:26, Luke says he was trying to associate with the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple. Imagine this happening to you. You get saved and then you hear all about this wonderful thing called gospel community in the local church. So you come into a local church and you put forth effort to join up with the believers in that church, only to discover that no one is interested in doing community with you.

They seem happy enough to do community with. One another, but not with you. In fact, everyone is freaked out by you and afraid of you, and they don't even believe that you're a true Christian. They can't imagine you actually being transformed by Christ.

They can imagine other people being saved and transformed by Christ, but not you. If that was how your first. Attempt at gospel community went down as that's how it's going down with Saul here, how would you have responded? Would you be hurt?

And disillusioned. Would you give up and walk away from that church? And spend the rest of your life posting messages on Facebook. About how awful the Christians in that church are.

I've read such posts. But Paul did not do that. In fact, the tense of the verbs that are translated trying. And associate is imperfect.

Which speaks of continuous action in the past. Literally we can translate this as saying that Paul kept on trying. To associate with these disciples in the Jerusalem church, which implies. That he was not received right away and that his efforts were being resisted, yet he kept on persisting.

Evidently he did not let rejection discourage him. In fact, he probably understood why they are finding it so difficult to accept him, and he probably saw it as an understandable consequence of his past sins, but he did not give up because he knew he needed this. He kept on trying to associate, to glue himself together to them and to be a part of them. Well, observe what happens next in verse 27 where we see the picture brightening.

Verse 27, the text says, but Barnabas. Took hold of him, literally, Barnabas seized him. And brought him to the apostles, and described to them how he saw, had seen the Lord on the road and that he had talked to him, and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus. This is an amazing mercy from God.

With a delicious twist of irony. For years, Paul had been seizing Christians. And bringing them before the authorities and accusing them. Before those authorities so that they would be rejected and thrown into prison.

But now, here he is after conversion, literally being seized by Barnabas, who brings him before the leaders of the very church that he once persecuted, and Barnabas is speaking as Saul's advocate. Describing God's work of grace in him. Barnabas is acting here like he's on the church's greeting team. And he notices that a person is not being made to feel welcome, so he takes hold of him and brings him before the apostles and speaks as his advocate.

Before them. By the way, we have people like Barnabas here at Cornerstone. Someone shows up at Cornerstone for the first time or two, and they're not just made to feel welcome. They're made to feel seized.

By energetic brothers and sisters in the Lord who. Are delighted to get to know them and wrap their hearts around them and learn about them and then bring them to other people and introduce them and bring them into their own care group. And we're blessed to have such people. In fact, we probably ought to say every Sunday before the greeting time, find someone you don't know and seize them.

That's what Barnabas is doing here, and it's a beautiful thing to see. And wonderfully as he brings Saul of Tarsus to the apostles, the leaders of the church, the apostles end up receiving Saul and embracing him as a brother in Christ and allowing him to become one of them. We see the result in verse 28 where it says, look at this, he was with them. Saul was with them, going in and going out throughout Jerusalem, speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord.

I love prepositional phrases in the Bible. And I love that little phrase here in this verse with them. This little phrase here tells us that Paul didn't just move about throughout Jerusalem, nor that he merely spoke out boldly in the name of the Lord, but that he did these things with them. He did these things in community with the apostles.

And the other disciples of Jesus in the Jerusalem church. He's doing life and ministry together with them. What we see here are at least 2 miracles of gospel community. The first miracle is that Saul of Tarsus now wanted to be a part of the very community he once hated and sought to destroy.

And number 2, that these people whom he once persecuted were able to overcome their fears and to overcome any instinct to retaliate, and they welcomed into their community the man who once committed great evils against them. And now they're all doing life together and serving the Lord together as one. It's amazing. This is the power of Jesus Christ, who reconciles those whom he saves, not only to himself, but also to one another.

This is the miracle of gospel community, community that bears the imprint of the gospel of Jesus Christ in every way. Well, what happens with Saul after his time in Jerusalem? well, we learned from Galatians that he ends up working his way north, to the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and then he seems to have spent. About 10 years in this region, these regions involved with the churches that were there, and primary among them was the Church of Antioch, which is where we find Saul of Tarsus when we come to Acts chapter 13.

So let me have you turn there. But eventually, Saul Tarsus felt that it was time to depart from the church of Antioch and to bring the gospel to places where it had not yet gone. And this brings us to the second observation that we can make about Paul and how he did gospel community after being converted. Number 2, let's word it this way, when Paul departed from his home church, which the Church of Antioch had become, he did so in community with others.

When Paul departed from his home church, he did so in community with others. In other words, his decision to leave. Was done in community with others and his actual leaving was done in community with others. Listen to what happens in Acts 13.

Beginning in verse one, it says, now there were at Antioch in the church that was there, prophets and teachers, Barnabas. And Simeon, who was called ***. Which reveals to us, by the way, that this Simeon was a dark skinned man who was from the African region of Nigeria and Lucius of Cyrene and Menon, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch and Saul. What a beautiful mix of different nationalities and skin colors and backgrounds who are all saved by Christ and laboring together so beautifully here in this local church.

Look at verse two. While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them, Saul and Barnabas, away. At first blush, one might get the impression that these men are.

Having a prayer meeting, they're praying and fasting, and the spirit suddenly speaks and calls Saul and Barnabas. To go to this work that he had called them to. But a closer look reveals that this is not exactly what is happening. If you look again at verse two, notice what the spirit of God says to the leadership of the Church of Antioch.

He says to them, set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called past tense. This is actually a perfect tense verb. The work to which I have already called them. And again, the tense of the verb called is the perfect tense, which speaks of an action that has taken place already in the past with abiding results up to the present time.

And this is significant. Because it tells us that the spirit of God is not calling Saul and Barnabas into this ministry right in this moment. But it tells us that the spirit of God had already at some prior point, called Saul and Barnabas to leave the church and embark on this missionary venture. Yet, evidently, Saul and Barnabas didn't just leave after the spirit of God had called them.

Instead, it seems that they brought the matter to. These brothers in Christ, they brought the matter to the leadership of their church for prayer, trusting that if the spirit of God was truly calling them to leave the Church of Antioch and embark on this new work, that the spirit of God would tell the leadership of the church the same thing that he had told Saul and Barnabas. So evidently they did that. And as the leadership of the church fasted and prayed together with them, the spirit is now saying to them, set apart right now.

Do this right now. Set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have already called them. And so these leaders in the church of Antioch. Give heed to this revelation from God, and they lay their hands on Saul and Barnabas and they send them away with John Mark going with them as their assistant.

Now, I just want us to think about this and appreciate the beauty of this. Had Saul and Barnabas received the call from the Spirit of God to leave. And go on this venture. And then upon hearing that call, had they stood before the church and announced to the church that, hey, the spirit of God has called us to go, and we wanna let that tomorrow we're leaving.

Had they done that, I don't know that anyone in this church would have faulted them for that. After all, Saul was an apostle. Who's going to argue with him over that? But had they approached things in that way.

They would have cheated themselves. Out of a beautiful opportunity for community. They would have cheated themselves out of the opportunity to have other godly people participate. In their decision together with them and to provide objective confirmation of their calling from the Lord.

And they would have cheated the leadership of the Church of Antioch out of the joy of participation in their decision. But because Saul and Barnabas have done things the way that we're seeing in the text that they clearly did them. They now have the blessing of objective confirmation of their call. To leave the Church of Antioch and to go on their first missionary journey.

And whatever discouragements lie ahead of them on this journey that might make them wonder if they did the right thing, they would be able to be encouraged in the thought that their decision was bigger than just them, but the leadership of the church participated with them in the making of this decision. In fact, when we piece the picture together from the book of Acts and. And Galatians, we learned that actually in the very early stages of this missionary journey. Saul ends up getting very sick.

You learn about that in Galatians 4:13 and 14. He gets very sick. and around the same time, John Mark, their assistant, abandons them. And returns home to his mommy in Jerusalem.

Something that you find out later in Acts really bothered Paul. And all of this happened before Saul and Barnabas really even got into the meat of their missionary work in the Galatian region. And I, and I share these things to say that you can bet. That after Saul fell ill, so early in their venture, and John Mark had abandoned them, that Saul and Barnabas were probably left scratching their heads.

And wondering if they had made the right decision. To leave the Church of Antioch and to go on this venture. But in their moments of discouragement, They would be able to remind themselves that this decision was bigger than just us. And that the leadership of the Church of Antioch had participated.

In their decision together with them, and that would hold them steady and encourage them. What I love about Saul's example so far in the two passages that we've seen, Acts 9. verse 26, I think it is, and here in Acts 13, what I love about his example is that he's teaching us in Acts 9 how to join a church. And in Acts 13, he's teaching us how to leave a church.

In a way that both coming and going is characterized by gospel community. As I've mentioned to you guys in recent weeks, we've had a number of precious. Brothers and sisters leave Cornerstone over the past year and a half, and many of those who have left have departed from Cornerstone because they are moving out of state. And we have deeply appreciated those who As they're wrestling with this decision that they have come to us.

As leaders of the church, and they have said to us, hey, we believe that the Lord is leading us to move, but we. Want to invite you into our journey so that you can be praying with us and so that you can speak into our lives as we seek the Lord's will in this decision. And I, I, as a pastor, deeply appreciate the humility of this approach, and even the trust in God that it manifest. Such persons are manifesting an attitude that says if God is truly telling us to leave this church.

For another church in another state, then we will trust God to say the same thing. To the leaders. Of cornerstone and so when people have approached us with this posture we've been able to have the blessing of talking with them and praying with them about their decision and we end up being able to affirm them and their decision to go and we as leaders are left feeling blessed to have had participation in their decision and they now have the blessing of having had. Our participation.

As they move to another state and. Maybe soon thereafter encounter discouragements, as some of them indeed have, they can always encourage themselves with the thought that their decision was bigger than just them. Because others participated. The leadership of the church had participation in their decision and they made their decision in community with others in the church.

Just what is not to love? About leaving a church in this way that entails gospel community like what we see here in Acts 13 and what so many people in our church have done in recent months. Thankfully, Paul's example goes even beyond what we've seen thus far. He ministered.

In the Galatian region. on this first missionary journey, and he didn't just lead individuals to Christ, but he planted churches, in that region. In fact, in Acts chapter 14 verse 23, we're told of something that Saul and Barnabas, I believe now Paul and Barnabas are doing before they left the city of Lystra, which was in this region. And the text says when they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

So we see here that Paul was not just an evangelizer of individuals and seeing individuals get saved, but he was literally a community organizer. A gospel community organizer setting up local churches. In which the people that he had won to Christ could live and do community with one another. But eventually, Paul and Barnabas complete their journey.

This first missionary journey and they make their way back to their home church in Antioch, and then sometime later, Paul leaves again with a brother named Silas on a second missionary journey, a journey which ended up taking him to a number of cities, one of which was Thessalonica, where he leads people to Christ in that city and organizes them into a gospel community called a local church. And sometime thereafter, by the way, he gets run out of town from there. He couldn't stay as long as he wanted to.

And he ends up having to go to other cities, but eventually Paul writes a letter to this particular church of Thessalonica, and in the process, he says some things that.

Leaves us with another observation about how Paul did community. Number 3, Paul imparted the gospel to people in the context of life on life gospel community. Paul imparted the gospel to people in the context of life on life gospel community. In First Thessalonians chapter one.

verses 5 and 6, I would encourage you to turn there. Paul speaks to the Thessalonian Christians about his time with them several months prior, and he says in verse 5 of 1 Thessalonians 1, he says, for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. And you might read those words and think, wow, Paul must have been an amazing preacher. No, he goes on and says to them, just as what men we prove to be among you for your sake, verse 6, you also became imitators of us and of the Lord, verse 7, so that you became an example.

To all believers in Macedonia and Achaea. We learned something here about how the gospel should get imparted to others. Paul is saying to the Thessalonians, our gospel did not just come to you merely through the words that we spoke to you, but our gospel also came to you in the form of the men. That we were in relationship with you.

Which is part of why it came to you in such power and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. Paul then says in verse 6, you also became imitators of us and of the Lord. In other words, these Thessalonian Christians began to impart the gospel back to Paul. And to one another and to lost people, not just through the words that they spoke, but also in the form of the people that they were in relationship with them.

Just like Paul had done with them, and just like Jesus had done with his disciples. Imagine that a community of Christians who are seeking to impart the gospel to one another. And to the lost through their words, which is vital. But not just through their words, but also through the people they are in relationship with those that they are seeking to win to Christ and bring along in Christ.

That's gospel community. Later in 1 Thessalonians 2, if you go to the next chapter, Paul reflects again on his time with the Thessalonians. months prior, and, and he says things a little bit differently. He says to them in verse 7, but we proved to be gentle among you.

As a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children, having so fond and affection for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives. Because you had become very dear to us. We see here a beautiful elaboration on how to do gospel community and entails drawing close to people. And then imparting not only the gospel to them, but also your own life.

That's what Paul did and that's what he's describing here. Paul infused the gospel into himself and into his life, and then he gave his gospel late in life. To other people To the lost and to those he had won to Christ. And notice all the language of love and tenderness in this passage.

He says, having so fond and affection for you, he says, because you had become not just dear but very dear to us. And then in the context of all of that love, he doesn't just say that he imparted to them the gospel. And his life to them, but he says we were well pleased. To do so.

This is the essence of true evangelism infuse your life with the gospel and then give your gospel laden life to others in the context of loving relationship and speak the truth of the gospel to others in the context of that. Relationship And I especially love the word that he uses that is translated tenderly cared. Here in verse 7, this word literally means to warm. In a context like this, it, it means to give another person your own warmth.

A warmth that is passed from you to another person in the context of close proximity. If a mother of an infant notices that her child is cold and hungry, what does that mother of that infant do? She gathers her child into her arms and holds the child close. And the body heat and the nourishment that is in her is passed from her to the child in the context of close relationship and deep affection.

And this is the language Paul is using to describe what he did. With these brothers and sisters. This is the way Paul was with people. He knew that he had something inside of him that people needed.

He knew that he had the gospel. He knew that he had gospel wisdom. And so how does he pass that gospel wisdom from himself to others? Well, he didn't lob it at them from a distance.

Instead, he loved them. He gathered them close to himself, and then he would teach them and feed them what he had. And as he did so, what was in him would pass from him to others in the context of close and loving relationship. To accomplish this, he had to do more than merely give them the gospel, he had to give them himself.

We learn here that pre-conversion, evangelism and post conversion evangelism is rightly done in the context of love and affection and tender care and the giving of oneself to others that you're seeking to win to Christ and to bring along in Christ. But being With Christians in the local church. Is not merely about ministering to them. And we actually learned that from Paul.

It's also about receiving ministry and encouragement from them. In fact, turn to Romans 1. And in Romans 1, I want you beginning in verse 11 to listen to how Paul speaks about his desire to be with the Roman Christians. Beginning in verse 11, he says to them, for I long to see you, so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, so that you may be established.

So yeah, he wants to be with them in the flesh. So that he can bless them with some spiritual blessing as he ministers to them. But then look at verse 12, that is, that I may be encouraged. And look at the relational language here that I may be encouraged together.

With you, while among you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine. What language we find here. What's remarkable about Paul's language here, as he anticipates being blessed and encouraged by them, is that Paul is an apostle who's literally been to the third heaven and back. He has seen and heard things that he can't tell anyone about, and yet here he is.

In a fallen, broken world, having a burning desire to be with these flawed Christians. And he is anticipating receiving special blessing. And encouragement by being with them and experiencing their faith directly. In person You might hear that and say, man, Pastor M, I, I would love to have that perspective.

The problem is that people in the church are so messed up. Their flaws, their immaturities, they really bug me. I've been hurt, Pastor Milton. Well, this leads us to another observation that we can make about Paul and how he did community after being converted.

Number 4, Paul did not allow brokenness in Christians to diminish his enthusiasm for ministering to them. Paul did not allow brokenness in Christians to diminish his enthusiasm for ministering to them. In the history of the church, few people have been more disappointed and more hurt by Christians in the church than the apostle Paul, right? Few people have had more reason to give up on the institutional church than Paul did.

In Philippians, Paul speaks about some who were preaching Christ out of selfish ambition. Trying to cause him distress in his imprisonment. That's really low. In that letter, he has to call out two women in the church by name who were in conflict with each other, and he had to give someone else an assignment to help these women to resolve their conflict.

Regarding the Galatians, Paul talks to them about a former time when they used to love him and would have plucked out their own eyeballs for him. And when they had once received him as an angel of God, and yet they have since become alienated from him. And Paul has to ask them in Galatians 4:15 and 16, where is that sense of blessing you had? Have I become your enemy?

In 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 10, Paul quotes some of the criticisms of his preaching that had trickled back to him from. Some of the Corinthians, they had criticized his physical presence as weak. And unimpressive, and they described his speaking as contemptible. And that got back to Paul.

They loved the golden tongue. Of Apollo, and Paul was no Apollo. We have evidence in Paul's Corinthian letters that the Corinthians refused to support him financially while he was among them, though he was entitled to that financial support. Paul worked hard when he was among them, working full time as a church planner and also working as a tent maker in order to generate income sufficient to cover his needs so as not to be a burden.

To them Yet the Corinthians never put 2 and 2 together and offered to pay. Paul a dime to support him. In 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 16, Paul mockingly agrees with some of his critics in the Corinthian church who suspected that he was just trying to get financial support from them, and he says, crafty fellow that I am, I took you in by deceit, didn't I? Some of the Corinthians, as many of, were practicing immorality.

They as a congregation were affirming and even celebrating a brother in the church who was sleeping with his father's wife. They were suing each other, taking each other to court, they were getting drunk at the weekly church potlucks, they were abusing the Lord's table. They were selfishly ambitious and full of jealousy and ruled by a partisan spirit. They were aligning themselves with Apollo, or Peter, or even Christ in opposition to Paul.

Some of them viewed Paul with suspicion and doubted that he was even an apostle at all. On so many levels, the Corinthian church. Was a mess. And had caused Paul a whole ton of grief, giving him every reason to wash his hands of them and be done with them, but he never wrote them off.

What did he do instead? Well, he wrote this church more letters than he wrote to any other church, 4 to be exact. He writes them a first letter which is lost to us. He then writes a second letter which we call 1 Corinthians.

He then makes a painful visit to them to address. Their problems, and after this visit, he writes them a very severe letter that is now lost to us. But speaking about this severe letter, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:4, out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears. You ever written a letter like that?

And then he writes them a 4th letter, which we call 2nd. Corinthians. Rather than turning away from these messed up Corinthians, Paul moved toward them, and he sought to love them all the more. And by the time you get to the end of 2 Corinthians.

You see that a lot of progress has been made, a lot of healing has been accomplished, yet all is still not well. In 2 Corinthians 12:15, Paul complains to them that it seems that the more abundantly he loves them, the less they love him in return. Yet amazingly, his enthusiasm for ministering to them is undiminished. In one of the craziest verses in the Bible, 2 Corinthians 12:15, Paul says to them, Most gladly, therefore, will I spend and be spent for you, even though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.

That's crazy But Paul knew that Christ had loved him when he was at his ugliest, and Paul was willing to do the same for these Corinthians. He was willing to spend and be spent for them, and to do so, not just gladly, but he says here, most gladly. And the question is why. What kept Paul so enthusiastic about loving broken Christians and broken churches, we certainly would want to know that.

For those moments when our own enthusiasm wanes, right? This leads us to our next observation about Paul and how he did community. Number 5, Paul understood that Christ laid down his life to serve the church in her present brokenness. Paul understood that Christ laid down his life to serve the church in her present brokenness.

Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 5:25 and following. He speaks of Christ's love for the church. And he says Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. You can check out Mike Barry's message from a few weeks ago if you want to go deeper into this passage.

All I'm gonna point out this morning is that this passage teaches us that Christ died for the church. He didn't just die for the church, but he died in order to be the one who gets to bathe the church and to clean up the church's messes. And tend to her spots and her wrinkles. Some Christians Do a whole lot of church shopping.

Looking for the perfect church to devote themselves to. And to settle in, but Jesus wasn't looking for the perfect church. He laid his eyes on the church when she was a filthy mess. And he said to his father, Father, can I love her?

Can I be the one who cleanses her? And who renders her beautiful. And the father said to his son, yes, but you will have to get crucified in order to do that. And Christ said, Then give me the cross.

So that I can be the one who loves her, the church, and who washes her. And sanctifies her and renders her. Beautiful. And without blemish.

And without spot and without wrinkle. In the mind of Paul, if Christ loved the church. This much and in this way. Then Paul wanted to be an imitator of Christ and love.

The church as Christ did. And you and I ought to think the same way. If Jesus loves and laid down his life for a church. That is still so far from perfect.

And if he delights to wash and to cleanse the church and tend to her spots and her wrinkles, then you and I should too, if we really wanna be like him. Related to this point, there's one final observation about Paul and how he did community. And this last point, and now this point that we're gonna look at is telling us a little bit about the fountain from which. Paul's mindset came 6, Paul held to the belief that the church.

Is the very fullness of God. Paul stubbornly held to the belief. That the church is even right now, the very fullness of God. In Ephesians chapter one.

Verses 22 and 23, Paul says something that's most remarkable about the church. That I don't think a lot of people would have thought to say. He speaks of God in verse 22 of Ephesians 1. And he says, and he.

God put all things in subjection under Christ's feet and gave Christ as head over all things to the church. And then about the church, he says, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Here in this passage, verse 23, Paul literally is describing the church. As the fullness of God.

And again, no one has been more hurt. Than Paul by people in the church, yet he still refers to the church as the fullness of God. That's an amazingly high endorsement of something that Paul would know is so full of mess and brokenness and even personal hurt to him. Along with a whole lot of beauty.

In the mind of Paul, the church is the fullness of God, meaning the ultimate location on earth where you can experience God's fullness, more fully than anywhere else on earth. Do you believe that? How could Paul talk this way about the church after almost 3 decades of rough and tumble experiences in local churches? How can he look at a community of broken sinners on their way to glory and call that community the fullness of God?

Well, he could talk this way because he was clued into a secret. And here's the secret. The church is not the fullness of God in spite of its imperfections. But partly because of its imperfections.

All the brokenness. And the mess that we experience doing life in the local church is God's plan A. All the distresses and the hurts and the disappointments that require you to forgive and really learn how to love other broken people who have not yet arrived, and all of your own present brokenness that requires you to let yourself be loved by others in your own brokenness. All of that ends up producing in you.

And in me, a flourishing that takes us deeper into the experience of the fullness of God. Better than any perfect church could ever achieve. I find it so striking that such an experienced man as Paul would refer to the church, after knowing the Lord, as he writes Ephesians, maybe about 28 years, that he would refer to the church as the fullness of God. If he were a brand new Christian in the first weeks of experiencing life at some great church, we would more easily understand him talking like this about the church.

But this is a man. Who's been a part of the church for almost 3 decades. And has scars and bruises to show for wounds he's experienced at the hand of Christians in churches. Sometimes people come to Cornerstone.

And after a few weeks, they come up to me and say, this church is the fullness of God. They don't use those exact words, but. They say things close to that. And sometimes I hear that and I assess how long they've been here.

And my thought is, well, let's just give this a little bit of time. And they'll eventually be coming up with less flattering descriptions. Of Cornerstone, and I would understand that. Because we're all broken.

But imagine someone being a part of Cornerstone for decades with all the mess. And all the brokenness, still bearing scars from their interactions with all the beautiful and broken. People of Cornerstone over many years, and they say after decades from experience, I can say. That this church is the fullness.

Of God Actually, I've been here. 30 years. And I can easily say that. And I know that many of you can say the same thing too.

And we say that not in spite of the brokenness and the mess that we've experienced, but partly even because of the mess and all the growth that God has produced in us and in others, even through that brokenness, right? There's so many directions we can go with this. Let me just close with this., we are living in a day today in which fault lines are just showing up everywhere. In our society, people are growing farther and farther apart based on all the things that divide us.

As tragic as all of that is, it presents us as a church. With an amazing opportunity. To show the world. What unity and togetherness and what true community in the gospel looks like.

Showing the world that there is something infinitely greater. Than what might otherwise divide us. Showing the world that there is something infinitely greater than even our present brokenness that would naturally divide us. And that's something Is Jesus Christ and the good news of salvation through him.

Which we call the gospel, a gospel that tells us that we are all united. Regardless of our background and skin colors and our histories. And personalities, age. We are all united.

In being sinners. In desperate need of the savior. It's not just the rich. That have a sin problem.

It's not just the poor that have a sin problem, rich and poor, all of us are united. And being sinners who stand in desperate need of a savior, and the gospel also tells us that Jesus is the savior for all of us. Regardless of our differences, he is the savior that we need. And this gospel of Jesus Christ promises us that when we believe in him, he unites us to himself and unites us to one another.

And that he releases to us, even in the here and now. He releases to us of his fullness as we live our lives in community with Him. And with the broken people that he loves. So let's embrace this thing like the apostle Paul did called gospel community.

With one another, and may the world see our unity and know from our unity that Christ is the true Messiah. And that they would also know that we are truly disciples of Him because We have love for one another. Will you join me in praying? To God for him to help us to.

Be this community. Lord God, as I look at the example of Paul, I am, I feel the weight of ways that I. Have and still fall short. I'm encouraged by the savior that Paul was every day looking to, to know that there is atonement for every sin and every failure, and it's that atonement and that forgiveness through Christ that.

Melts my heart and. Makes me want to grow and long to become more like you, Jesus. And also just the passages we've looked at. Show us the promise of community.

That hopefully leaves all of us saying I wanna go deeper. I wanna go deeper. God, take me deeper. We thank you, Lord, that you.

Do not wait until people reach perfection before you decide to love them and give yourself away to them. But you have come to us in our brokenness and in our mess, and you laid down your life for us when we were your enemies, and you have made us your friend, and even still we grieve. The spirit and we sin. And fail and bring pain to your heart and to others' hearts.

And yet you love us. And you cherish us. And you nurture us in your love. And you bring us together in this thing called the local church and, and.

Can you release your fullness to us in this context. And there are depths of this fullness that. All of us would have to say we've not tasted yet, but we want to, Lord. So help us to lean into community rather than lean away from it.

And know that There is much of your glory and your goodness for us to save her and be transformed by as we do so. If there's anyone here this morning, Lord, that has never put their trust in you and experienced salvation, touch their hearts even through this message, Lord, and draw them to yourself that they would see the beauty of such a savior who is the savior of the broken. Who's not Someone who presents himself as a friend to the perfect. But a savior and a friend to the broken, and it's that friendship that changes and transforms.

Draw them to yourself, Lord, and help them to see your beauty to such a degree that they would consider it an intolerable suffering to live one more day apart from you. We ask all of these things, Lord Jesus. In your mighty name, and all God's people said. Amen.