WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.879 This core value that we're closing off with today is about our life together. 00:00:06.299 --> 00:00:07.480 It's about relationships. 00:00:07.719 --> 00:00:10.120 It's about our togetherness, if you like. 00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:15.400 And like all of our core values, this core value is highly practical. 00:00:15.640 --> 00:00:17.179 All values are highly practical. 00:00:17.859 --> 00:00:25.339 That is, what we value deep down in our hearts drives our behaviours, our attitudes, our motivations and our actions. 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:27.219 And this core value is no different. 00:00:27.219 --> 00:00:43.980 If we say that Jesus is our supreme treasure and that we value ensuring that Jesus, obedience to Jesus and loving him is the centre of our life together, then it results in certain actions, behaviours, attitudes. 00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:52.500 For instance, treasuring Jesus together says that as a church we are committed to making corporate worship, what we're doing right here now, a weekly priority. 00:00:52.500 --> 00:00:58.280 We're committed to meeting together in small groups, more intimate opportunities for nurture and service. 00:00:58.859 --> 00:01:03.759 Small groups being the main network for discipleship and pastoral care and relationships. 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:09.000 Treasuring Jesus together by engaging to watch over one another in brotherly love. 00:01:09.219 --> 00:01:11.159 By remembering one another in prayer. 00:01:11.659 --> 00:01:13.599 Aiding one another in sickness and distress. 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:16.119 Cultivating Christian sympathy and joy. 00:01:16.659 --> 00:01:18.259 Being courteous in speech. 00:01:18.399 --> 00:01:25.879 Being slow to take offence but always ready for reconciliation and mindful of the command of our Saviour to secure it without delay. 00:01:26.579 --> 00:01:29.000 We're committed to welcoming people from every background. 00:01:29.560 --> 00:01:32.859 We're committed to openness towards new people and the avoidance of clickiness. 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:36.599 You know what I mean. 00:01:36.599 --> 00:01:48.280 We're committed to pursuing increasingly visible and authentic and practical ways of loving each other. 00:01:48.280 --> 00:01:56.259 And we're committed to being personally involved in one ongoing ministry towards building up the St. Paul's family according to each other's gifts. 00:01:57.319 --> 00:02:04.719 So this value not only says that we value being together, but it talks about how we are together. 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:09.859 It says that the way we relate to each other is supremely important. 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:12.400 In fact, more important than anything. 00:02:13.699 --> 00:02:19.960 We are a multi-congregational, culturally diverse, complex church. 00:02:20.039 --> 00:02:26.860 And our vision is to see more and more different people come and treasure the Lord Jesus with us. 00:02:27.400 --> 00:02:33.280 The diversity that exists in this church will always threaten to drive us apart. 00:02:33.860 --> 00:02:34.300 Always. 00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:35.460 Every day. 00:02:35.859 --> 00:02:37.520 It will threaten to drive us apart. 00:02:39.039 --> 00:02:45.560 What is greater than our diversity, however, is the Lord Jesus and our unity in him. 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:48.000 He's the one who unites us. 00:02:48.079 --> 00:02:49.000 He is our glue. 00:02:50.819 --> 00:02:53.060 Jesus must be the main thing for us. 00:02:53.539 --> 00:02:59.259 His standards for our relationships must inevitably be our standards. 00:02:59.259 --> 00:03:11.319 And so I've been wrestling this week as I've been out there on the Bobcat to try and work out what do I say to encourage a biblical kind of life together at St. Paul's. 00:03:11.319 --> 00:03:25.340 Because apart from the cultural and generational diversity, there's also individual personality preferences or relational preferences and differences personality-wise. 00:03:25.340 --> 00:03:37.020 And my best guess is that there is at least four different kinds of people in this room who need at least four different kinds of messages to do with this. 00:03:37.020 --> 00:03:45.379 On one extreme are those people who say, I don't feel any need for personal relationships and I don't care if I actually have any relationships. 00:03:45.379 --> 00:03:51.919 At the other extreme are people who say, I actually need personal relationships and you owe me personal relationships. 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:54.500 And if I don't have any personal relationships, it's your problem. 00:03:54.500 --> 00:04:01.280 Now, both of these extremes inevitably are deficient in love and they're tarnished with pride. 00:04:01.879 --> 00:04:04.560 But the form of their loveless pride is different. 00:04:05.300 --> 00:04:11.740 The one expresses loveless pride by rejecting the need to give love or to receive love. 00:04:12.280 --> 00:04:18.920 And this is the pride that that's the sort of pride that looks from a heart that is, if you like, strong and self-sufficient. 00:04:18.920 --> 00:04:30.020 The other extreme of loveless pride by, it expresses its loveless pride by feeling that people owe them love and then blame others for not giving them love. 00:04:30.620 --> 00:04:35.280 And that's the way pride looks like in the heart of the person who is weak and self-pitying. 00:04:36.379 --> 00:04:38.920 Granted, those are two extremes on this spectrum. 00:04:38.920 --> 00:04:49.759 Ultimately, both extremes need to discover what real love is, why God designed us to give it and to receive it from him and from each other. 00:04:50.400 --> 00:05:00.600 Now, the other two kinds of people are probably those who are moving from those two extremes towards each other on the spectrum because they've recognised their deficiencies. 00:05:00.600 --> 00:05:16.500 They recognise Jesus' personal sacrifice in coming across the universe to meet them, in coming to us in particularly in love and forgiveness and want to change by his enabling grace. 00:05:16.500 --> 00:05:22.420 And so the first of the second pair of people is moving from self-sufficiency and says, 00:05:22.620 --> 00:05:29.500 I don't naturally look for close relationships where I can be loved and actually love others, but I want to grow in this area with you. 00:05:29.980 --> 00:05:30.939 Will you help me in that? 00:05:32.220 --> 00:05:38.000 The other person in this pair is moving from self-preoccupation and self-pity and says, 00:05:38.240 --> 00:05:41.160 I know that others need true friends just like I do. 00:05:41.160 --> 00:05:48.460 And I would like to try to be one to someone else without thinking about myself and my needs first. 00:05:49.840 --> 00:06:02.680 And so in wrestling with all this complexity, I decided that the best thing I could do for us this morning is just give you a whack of the New Testament. 00:06:03.940 --> 00:06:07.780 And what it says about our life together. 00:06:08.300 --> 00:06:09.660 I think this is the best thing I can do. 00:06:09.660 --> 00:06:16.100 So let's start with Jesus and his relationships before we get to the church that he founded. 00:06:16.180 --> 00:06:23.460 And I think this is essential because I think it's easy for us to project our relational expectations on a church relationships, 00:06:23.780 --> 00:06:29.740 as I mentioned just a moment ago, and expectations which are neither biblical nor practical. 00:06:30.740 --> 00:06:39.280 For instance, there's unwritten core value that we must know everyone in the church for it to be a genuine church. 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:48.279 And another unwritten core value is that we all must have a personal relationship with the pastor or with the leadership of the church. 00:06:48.379 --> 00:06:54.939 That's another unwritten core value, which is both unbiblical and unreasonable in its expectation. 00:06:54.939 --> 00:06:58.939 Jesus modeled something for us in terms of relationships. 00:06:58.939 --> 00:07:06.199 From all the hundreds of followers, he chose 72 for a special ministry in Luke chapter 10. 00:07:06.199 --> 00:07:16.699 And the reality is, you can't know 70 people particularly closely. 00:07:17.420 --> 00:07:22.980 And so he also chose 12, out of those 72, for a closer partnership in life and ministry. 00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:26.180 Mark chapter 3, verse 14, he says, 00:07:26.180 --> 00:07:36.819 But even 12 sometimes is too many to hang around with. 00:07:37.939 --> 00:07:40.060 Especially if your lounge room is not big enough. 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:44.519 And so Jesus had a closer bond with three, Peter, James and John. 00:07:45.319 --> 00:07:49.120 And on a number of occasions, it was just those three that were with Jesus. 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:53.220 Often are the most significant times of his life. 00:07:54.540 --> 00:07:57.740 And even three sometimes is kind of too much to handle. 00:07:59.139 --> 00:08:02.920 And Jesus seemed to have a unique bond with just one, John. 00:08:04.040 --> 00:08:09.840 Five times in his gospel, John refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. 00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:13.259 And so Jesus had his great crowds. 00:08:13.419 --> 00:08:16.199 He had his 72, he had his 12, he had his three, and he had his one. 00:08:16.539 --> 00:08:20.119 And as he put his mission and his church in motion, 00:08:20.359 --> 00:08:22.919 he not only modeled these levels of relationship, 00:08:23.399 --> 00:08:26.139 he sent his ambassadors out in teams as well. 00:08:26.519 --> 00:08:33.439 Life and ministry with Jesus was life and ministry together. 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:36.039 It was no individual operating. 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:38.079 And the Apostle Paul followed the same pattern. 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:41.759 Christian ministry, it appears, is ministry together. 00:08:42.440 --> 00:08:47.379 I don't think it's an accident that at every church that Paul planted, 00:08:47.780 --> 00:08:51.560 he appointed not one elder pastor, but more than one. 00:08:51.900 --> 00:08:57.180 And when Paul and Barnabas had a bit of a blue about John Mark, 00:08:57.639 --> 00:08:59.920 because he abandoned them on the first mission, 00:09:00.300 --> 00:09:04.560 these two giants of the faith didn't head off in isolation by themselves 00:09:04.560 --> 00:09:05.560 and do their own thing. 00:09:05.559 --> 00:09:10.319 They formed new teams and got the blessing of the church with those new teams. 00:09:10.519 --> 00:09:13.059 Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. 00:09:13.559 --> 00:09:17.259 Paul chose Silas and departed himself on a new missionary journey. 00:09:17.719 --> 00:09:21.099 And when he met Timothy in Acts chapter 16, 00:09:21.359 --> 00:09:24.939 he asked him to travel with him as a ministry co-worker. 00:09:24.940 --> 00:09:31.300 And over the next years, six of the 13 letters that Paul wrote, 00:09:31.400 --> 00:09:36.620 he addressed to the churches as coming from both him and Timothy. 00:09:36.960 --> 00:09:39.880 Even though Paul himself was the one who penned the letters, 00:09:40.160 --> 00:09:42.660 he wanted to send it from the team. 00:09:42.659 --> 00:09:51.860 Now, of course, the pattern of life together is not just a matter of ministry strategy and partnership. 00:09:52.259 --> 00:09:58.139 You notice in the New Testament, there is a predominance of togetherness language. 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:07.659 Listen to how many writers describe what life together as Christians should actually look like. 00:10:07.659 --> 00:10:13.659 This is the sort of church life that we ought to fight hard to shape here at St. Paul's. 00:10:13.659 --> 00:10:18.360 John 13, Jesus started with these words, 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:21.740 a new commandment I give you, love one another. 00:10:22.659 --> 00:10:26.879 As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 00:10:27.439 --> 00:10:33.159 By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. 00:10:33.480 --> 00:10:36.299 Now, of course, the Apostle Paul picks up this theme 00:10:36.299 --> 00:10:41.360 and states the commandment to love each other in dozens of ways. 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:43.460 Quite literally, Romans 12, verse 5, 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:49.500 In Christ, we who are many form one body and each member belongs to all the others. 00:10:49.639 --> 00:10:50.879 Romans 12, verse 10, 00:10:50.980 --> 00:10:53.440 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. 00:10:53.800 --> 00:10:55.340 Romans 12, verse 10 again, 00:10:55.600 --> 00:10:57.740 Honour one another above yourselves. 00:10:58.220 --> 00:10:59.840 Romans 14, verse 19, 00:11:00.019 --> 00:11:04.539 Make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 00:11:05.060 --> 00:11:06.899 Romans 15, verse 14, 00:11:07.019 --> 00:11:08.120 Instruct one another. 00:11:08.460 --> 00:11:10.120 1 Corinthians 12, verse 25, 00:11:10.120 --> 00:11:12.340 There should be no division in the body, 00:11:12.340 --> 00:11:15.560 but that its part should have equal concern for each other. 00:11:15.879 --> 00:11:17.299 Galatians 5, verse 13, 00:11:17.480 --> 00:11:18.720 Serve one another in love. 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:19.940 Galatians 6, 2, 00:11:20.340 --> 00:11:21.639 Carry each other's burdens. 00:11:21.759 --> 00:11:22.639 Ephesians 4, 2, 00:11:22.740 --> 00:11:25.759 Be patient, bearing with one another in love. 00:11:25.860 --> 00:11:27.120 Ephesians 4, 32, 00:11:27.720 --> 00:11:29.720 Be kind and compassionate to one another, 00:11:29.860 --> 00:11:30.700 forgiving each other. 00:11:30.779 --> 00:11:31.919 Ephesians 5, 21, 00:11:32.460 --> 00:11:34.840 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 00:11:34.980 --> 00:11:36.060 Ephesians 2, 3, 00:11:36.059 --> 00:11:38.859 In humility, consider others better than yourselves. 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:40.179 Colossians 3, 9, 00:11:40.559 --> 00:11:42.039 Do not lie to each other. 00:11:42.119 --> 00:11:43.639 1 Thessalonians 4, 18, 00:11:43.779 --> 00:11:44.779 Encourage one another. 00:11:45.119 --> 00:11:46.899 1 Thessalonians 5, 15, 00:11:47.059 --> 00:11:50.500 Always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. 00:11:50.879 --> 00:11:53.559 And then the book of Hebrews joins in the chorus. 00:11:54.039 --> 00:11:58.019 Let us consider how we may spur each other on towards love and good deeds. 00:11:58.079 --> 00:11:59.919 In chapter 10, verse 24. 00:11:59.919 --> 00:12:03.299 Then James pipes in, in chapter 4, verse 11, 00:12:03.459 --> 00:12:04.919 Do not slander one another. 00:12:05.259 --> 00:12:07.019 And then in chapter 5, verse 9, 00:12:07.139 --> 00:12:08.599 Don't grumble against each other. 00:12:08.679 --> 00:12:10.299 And then in chapter 5, verse 16, 00:12:10.699 --> 00:12:14.620 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. 00:12:14.719 --> 00:12:15.839 Then Peter joins in. 00:12:15.939 --> 00:12:18.199 1 Peter 4, verse 9, 00:12:18.360 --> 00:12:21.339 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 00:12:21.479 --> 00:12:22.679 Chapter 5, verse 5, 00:12:22.819 --> 00:12:25.759 Clothe yourselves with humility towards one another. 00:12:27.639 --> 00:12:29.079 And I have to cut the rest out. 00:12:29.919 --> 00:12:38.019 The predominance of other person-centered togetherness language is the church. 00:12:40.500 --> 00:12:49.679 What is obvious in all this is the predominance of loving, Christ-exalting personal relationships. 00:12:50.139 --> 00:12:56.399 There is no such thing as isolated, individualistic, meet-my-needs consumer Christianity in the Bible. 00:12:57.139 --> 00:12:57.740 No such thing. 00:12:59.919 --> 00:13:06.059 You cannot fulfill the command to love and serve and give by yourself. 00:13:08.459 --> 00:13:15.019 Normal, essential Christianity is loving, Christ-exalting personal relationships. 00:13:15.019 --> 00:13:23.419 But notice, as we turn to 1 John, how profoundly God-centered those loving, Christ-exalting personal relationships are. 00:13:23.819 --> 00:13:31.519 John explains on numerous occasions what our horizontal relationships of love have to do with God. 00:13:31.740 --> 00:13:33.899 He says this in 1 John 3, verse 10, 00:13:33.899 --> 00:13:38.980 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. 00:13:39.379 --> 00:13:47.100 Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother. 00:13:47.100 --> 00:13:58.440 In other words, loving each other is the living evidence that we are born of God. 00:13:58.440 --> 00:14:01.920 That we are the church. 00:14:02.580 --> 00:14:03.980 That we are his children. 00:14:04.120 --> 00:14:05.580 That we share in his nature. 00:14:06.580 --> 00:14:09.140 1 John 4, verses 7 and 8. 00:14:09.240 --> 00:14:11.940 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. 00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:15.080 Anyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 00:14:15.160 --> 00:14:20.820 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 00:14:20.820 --> 00:14:29.360 Love is the living confirmation that we are being born of God and that we know God. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:31.460 That's the rule. 00:14:31.640 --> 00:14:32.480 That's the test. 00:14:34.140 --> 00:14:35.620 1 John 4, verse 12. 00:14:36.120 --> 00:14:42.800 No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 00:14:43.640 --> 00:14:47.980 Loving each other is the outworking of God's love within us. 00:14:47.980 --> 00:14:53.720 It's the work of his saving presence, which is made visible in us. 00:14:54.580 --> 00:14:56.019 1 John 4, 16. 00:14:56.200 --> 00:14:57.080 God is love. 00:14:57.840 --> 00:15:01.440 Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him. 00:15:02.340 --> 00:15:08.500 Loving each other is the fruit of living in God and God living in us. 00:15:08.600 --> 00:15:16.080 In other words, our life together in relationships of love in this church is massively important 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:19.780 because it has totally to do with God. 00:15:20.500 --> 00:15:22.639 It is totally to do with God. 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:29.879 He is the source of it, the definition of it, and the goal of it. 00:15:30.300 --> 00:15:33.780 And let it not be said, because I don't think John left it unsaid, 00:15:34.200 --> 00:15:36.759 this love is the love of the cross. 00:15:36.759 --> 00:15:48.899 It's the love God showed in Christ Jesus when he died for our sins and the love that we have can only have because of what he's done for us. 00:15:50.039 --> 00:15:51.939 1 John 3, verse 16. 00:15:52.620 --> 00:15:54.460 This is how we know what love is. 00:15:55.340 --> 00:16:00.139 Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 00:16:00.319 --> 00:16:01.819 There's the definition of love. 00:16:01.820 --> 00:16:08.100 And so this core value of treasuring Jesus together, living in unity with one another, accepting and loving each other, 00:16:08.220 --> 00:16:15.980 is valuable finally and ultimately because it makes God look great. 00:16:18.420 --> 00:16:28.660 It displays to this loveless world the greatness and the glory and the value of Jesus Christ and his love towards us. 00:16:28.659 --> 00:16:40.699 Jesus Christ came across the universe to meet our needs. 00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:45.139 And if we cannot cross the floor to meet the needs of someone else, 00:16:45.980 --> 00:16:48.379 the problem is we don't know this Jesus well enough. 00:16:48.379 --> 00:16:59.320 In the final instance, our relationship with each other matters because the glory of God matters supremely. 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:04.559 Our aim in every relationship is ultimately to awaken the strength, 00:17:04.740 --> 00:17:10.980 to awaken and to strengthen and to deepen a joyful, fruitful passion for God through Jesus Christ. 00:17:10.980 --> 00:17:21.599 Isn't it just like God that he would design the church so that we get the joy of loving and being loved and he gets the glory as the goal of it all? 00:17:22.339 --> 00:17:23.400 What a design. 00:17:23.400 --> 00:17:37.500 And so I want to encourage you for your own soul and for his glory that this core value calls us to move from the extremes of self-sufficiency and self-sufficiency and, 00:17:37.500 --> 00:17:46.100 sorry, self-pity and to see Christ-exalting joy of treasuring Jesus together as a church. 00:17:46.099 --> 00:17:51.519 We need each other and our world needs us to need each other. 00:17:52.719 --> 00:18:04.959 Under God, may this value of treasuring Jesus together be written on our hearts in such a way that we pursue it with all of our actions and all of our behaviours and all of our attitudes together. 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:12.660 May St. Paul's be known for the quality of its Christ-exalting relationships, 00:18:13.279 --> 00:18:22.980 even more than its buildings, as our core values increasingly become our heart. 00:18:23.720 --> 00:18:24.500 Amen.