Last Sunday I preached on the fact that fellowship is spiritual. Many times, we don’t think that it is. We think that prayer, bible reading, witnessing, worship, etc… are spiritual but fellowship is a waste of time; or something that we do during our “off time” from God. This could not be further from the truth. This is a series of five blogs explaining five reason why I believe that fellowship is spiritual and vital to the follower of Jesus.
The third reason that fellowship and community are spiritual is that the very idea of community is behind the word “church.” Jesus was the first one to use the word “church” in the Bible (surprise). But the word existed before He chose to use it. The thing is that the word always referred to a group of people. It was only after we started building buildings to meet in that the word “church” became a place. When Jesus picked that word it meant “group of people.” Today we go to churches to vote. In Greek cities, the “church” (group of voters) would get together to vote… This is the word Jesus chose to describe what His people were supposed to be.
So when Jesus says to Peter, “…on this rock I will build my church…” (Mt. 16:18), He is saying that He will build His group of people or community. Isn’t it interesting that when we decided to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus by personal confession (the rock), He places us into a group of people where relationships to others becomes important??? There is no such thing as a “lone ranger” Christian. By definition, it is impossible to be a Jesus follower alone. You can’t be part of the church without being part of a group of people.
The church was not man’s idea. It was Jesus’ idea. I know this because it makes no sense. From my experience, it seems foolish to throw a bunch of people together and expect them to get along much less to change the world. After all, if you put two people in a room, you usually have at least three opinions. This has to be God’s idea. Only He can make it work. After all, “the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man…” He wants us to spend time with people who drive us crazy. A rock only becomes smooth by crashing together with other rocks and knocking the edges off each other. Without community, who smooths off your edges? You just become a crusty, grouchy, judgemental rock instead of getting polished.
Lord, help me embrace Your idea of community. Help me stretch and prioritize relationships over tasks. Polish me.
