A Communal Relationship with Jesus Christ

(Sermon Outline)

1)      Christianity is about conviction, passion and power

a)      There is always a tension between true religion and dead forms of religion.

b)      There is an overemphasis about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and that Christianity is not religion but about relationship

i)        What Heresy is

ii)      The strengths and pitfalls of those statements.

c)       We have been studying the conviction, passion, devotion (dedication commitment) and power at work in Paul in his commitment to present every person mature in Christ.

i)        Part of that passion is to motivate people to do the right things for the right reasons.

(1)    The Book that made your world

d)      To begin exploring these ideas, let us look at Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1

e)      Ephesians 1:15–23 (NKJV) — 15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

i)        Conviction, passion and power

2)      A communal and personal relationship with Jesus Christ

a)      Caesarea Phillipi

i)        20 temples, the gates of hell, temple to pan carved into the cliff.

ii)      To the pagan culture, if a river flowed out of a cliff then a god must live in the cliff to control the source of life, so they built a temple there on the face of the cliff, above and around the cave from which the river flowed. Carved right into the face of the cliff there were alcoves in which were statues of the pagan god Pan. Through these idols the people worshiped Pan with the kind of rituals that one would expect for a fertility cult.^[1]

b)      Matthew 16:13–19 (NKJV) — 13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” 14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

c)       The importance of church

d)      Both Peter and Christ made implicit reference to this temple in their conversation. Peter referred to it first when he called Jesus “the Son of the living God,” in contrast to the lifeless stone god whose statues stood in this temple.To Simon Peter’s implied contrast Jesus gave the surprise response that Peter himself was a rock. In a sense Jesus was saying, “You are right, I am not like the idol carved into the face of this cliff, made of stone and sin, but you are like the cliff face. Here a lifeless god is pictured on a lifeless rock, but I, the Son of the living God, will be pictured in you as carved into a living rock.” Peter was to be a rock with the image of Christ engraved upon him, just as the image of Pan was engraved upon this cliff. ^[2]

e)      Wanting to do the right things for the right reasons

3)      LSCC Relaunch

a)      Creating a context to reach people for Jesus Christ and to grow to maturity through service/worship.

4)      The effects of a communal relationship with Jesus Christ upon the world

a)      1 John 4:20–21 (NKJV) — 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

i)        Who is my brother

b)      Conviction, passion, devotion and power

c)       Living Stones

d)      1 Peter 2:4–5 (NKJV) — 4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.