By His Grace Church

A Gath­er­ing of Friends is a new group of peo­ple who are meet­ing at the Lake­view Town Hall for fel­low­ship and ser­vice on Sun­days from 10 am to 11 am.
The les­son below was a foun­da­tional ser­mon for this Gath­er­ing.
If you wish more infor­ma­tion please call Chaplain/​Pastor Grace. 870−431−5251

The scrip­ture les­son today said we are friends of Christ.
Scrip­ture Les­son: John 15, 15 – 17 [show]John 15 I Am the True Vine [15:1]“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine­dresser. [2]Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. [3]Already you are clean because of the word that I have spo­ken to you. [4]Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch can­not bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, nei­ther can you, unless you abide in me. [5]I am the vine; you are the branches. Who­ever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do noth­ing. [6]If any­one does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and with­ers; and the branches are gath­ered, thrown into the fire, and burned. [7]If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask what­ever you wish, and it will be done for you. [8]By this my Father is glo­ri­fied, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my dis­ci­ples. [9]As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. [10]If you keep my com­mand­ments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s com­mand­ments and abide in his love. [11]These things I have spo­ken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. [12]“This is my com­mand­ment, that you love one another as I have loved you. [13]Greater love has no one than this, that some­one lay down his life for his friends. [14]You are my friends if you do what I com­mand you. [15]No longer do I call you servants,(1) for the servant(2) does not know what his mas­ter is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. [16]You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that what­ever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. [17]These things I com­mand you, so that you will love one another. The Hatred of the World [18]“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. [19]If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, there­fore the world hates you. [20]Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A ser­vant is not greater than his mas­ter.’ If they per­se­cuted me, they will also per­se­cute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. [21]But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. [22]If I had not come and spo­ken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin,(3) but now they have no excuse for their sin. [23]Whoever hates me hates my Father also. [24]If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. [25]But the word that is writ­ten in their Law must be ful­filled: ‘They hated me with­out a cause.‘ [26]“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who pro­ceeds from the Father, he will bear wit­ness about me. [27]And you also will bear wit­ness, because you have been with me from the begin­ning. (ESV) John 15 – 17 I Am the True Vine [15:1]“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine­dresser. [2]Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. [3]Already you are clean because of the word that I have spo­ken to you. [4]Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch can­not bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, nei­ther can you, unless you abide in me. [5]I am the vine; you are the branches. Who­ever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do noth­ing. [6]If any­one does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and with­ers; and the branches are gath­ered, thrown into the fire, and burned. [7]If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask what­ever you wish, and it will be done for you. [8]By this my Father is glo­ri­fied, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my dis­ci­ples. [9]As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. [10]If you keep my com­mand­ments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s com­mand­ments and abide in his love. [11]These things I have spo­ken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. [12]“This is my com­mand­ment, that you love one another as I have loved you. [13]Greater love has no one than this, that some­one lay down his life for his friends. [14]You are my friends if you do what I com­mand you. [15]No longer do I call you servants,(4) for the servant(5) does not know what his mas­ter is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. [16]You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that what­ever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. [17]These things I com­mand you, so that you will love one another. The Hatred of the World [18]“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. [19]If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, there­fore the world hates you. [20]Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A ser­vant is not greater than his mas­ter.’ If they per­se­cuted me, they will also per­se­cute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. [21]But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. [22]If I had not come and spo­ken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin,(6) but now they have no excuse for their sin. [23]Whoever hates me hates my Father also. [24]If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. [25]But the word that is writ­ten in their Law must be ful­filled: ‘They hated me with­out a cause.‘ [26]“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who pro­ceeds from the Father, he will bear wit­ness about me. [27]And you also will bear wit­ness, because you have been with me from the begin­ning. [16:1]“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. [2]They will put you out of the syn­a­gogues. Indeed, the hour is com­ing when who­ever kills you will think he is offer­ing ser­vice to God. [3]And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. [4]But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remem­ber that I told them to you. The Work of the Holy Spirit “I did not say these things to you from the begin­ning, because I was with you. [5]But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ [6]But because I have said these things to you, sor­row has filled your heart. [7]Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advan­tage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. [8]And when he comes, he will con­vict the world con­cern­ing sin and right­eous­ness and judg­ment: [9]concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; [10]concerning right­eous­ness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; [11]concerning judg­ment, because the ruler of this world is judged. [12]“I still have many things to say to you, but you can­not bear them now. [13]When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own author­ity, but what­ever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. [14]He will glo­rify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. [15]All that the Father has is mine; there­fore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. Your Sor­row Will Turn into Joy [16]“A lit­tle while, and you will see me no longer; and again a lit­tle while, and you will see me.” [17]So some of his dis­ci­ples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A lit­tle while, and you will not see me, and again a lit­tle while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?” [18]So they were say­ing, “What does he mean by ‘a lit­tle while’? We do not know what he is talk­ing about.” [19]Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are ask­ing your­selves, what I meant by say­ing, ‘A lit­tle while and you will not see me, and again a lit­tle while and you will see me’? [20]Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sor­row­ful, but your sor­row will turn into joy. [21]When a woman is giv­ing birth, she has sor­row because her hour has come, but when she has deliv­ered the baby, she no longer remem­bers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. [22]So also you have sor­row now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. [23]In that day you will ask noth­ing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, what­ever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. [24]Until now you have asked noth­ing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. I Have Over­come the World [25]“I have said these things to you in fig­ures of speech. The hour is com­ing when I will no longer speak to you in fig­ures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. [26]In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; [27]for the Father him­self loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.(7) [28]I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leav­ing the world and going to the Father.“ [29]His dis­ci­ples said, “Ah, now you are speak­ing plainly and not using fig­u­ra­tive speech! [30]Now we know that you know all things and do not need any­one to ques­tion you; this is why we believe that you came from God.” [31]Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? [32]Behold, the hour is com­ing, indeed it has come, when you will be scat­tered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. [33]I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribu­la­tion. But take heart; I have over­come the world.“ The High Priestly Prayer [17:1]When Jesus had spo­ken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glo­rify your Son that the Son may glo­rify you, [2]since you have given him author­ity over all flesh, to give eter­nal life to all whom you have given him. [3]And this is eter­nal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. [4]I glo­ri­fied you on earth, hav­ing accom­plished the work that you gave me to do. [5]And now, Father, glo­rify me in your own pres­ence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. [6]“I have man­i­fested your name to the peo­ple whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. [7]Now they know that every­thing that you have given me is from you. [8]For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. [9]I am pray­ing for them. I am not pray­ing for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. [10]All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glo­ri­fied in them. [11]And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am com­ing to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. [12]While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruc­tion, that the Scrip­ture might be ful­filled. [13]But now I am com­ing to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy ful­filled in them­selves. [14]I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. [15]I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.(8) [16]They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. [17]Sanctify them(9) in the truth; your word is truth. [18]As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. [19]And for their sake I con­se­crate myself,(10) that they also may be sanctified(11) in truth. [20]“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, [21]that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. [22]The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, [23]I in them and you in me, that they may become per­fectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. [24]Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foun­da­tion of the world. [25]O right­eous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. [26]I made known to them your name, and I will con­tinue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (ESV) Foot­notes 1. [15:15] Greek ‘bond­ser­vants’ 2. [15:15] Greek ‘bond­ser­vant’; also verse 20 3. [15:22] Greek ‘they would not have sin’; also verse 24 4. [15:15] Greek ‘bond­ser­vants’ 5. [15:15] Greek ‘bond­ser­vant’; also verse 20 6. [15:22] Greek ‘they would not have sin’; also verse 24 7. [16:27] Some man­u­scripts ‘from the Father’ 8. [17:15] Or ‘from evil’ 9. [17:17] Greek ‘Set them apart’ (for holy ser­vice to God) 10. [17:19] Or ‘I sanc­tify myself’; or ‘I set myself apart’ (for holy ser­vice to God) 11. [17:19] Greek ‘may be set apart’ (for holy ser­vice to God)

“No longer do I call you ser­vants, for the ser­vant does not know what the mas­ter is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that what­ever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. This I com­mand you, to love one another.”
That we are to love one another and bring oth­ers into the cir­cle of Friends.

We were each born into a fam­ily, made up of: par­ents, sib­ling, aunts and uncles, friends, neigh­bors, fos­ter and step par­ents, friends of the fam­ily called Aunt or Uncle. There were so many peo­ple who would influ­ence us.

We went to school and made more friends. Say­ing some­one is like a brother or sis­ter to me.
As we grew up the type of friends we chose also changed. Bobbie runs fast, I want him for a friend I want him on my team, to Melissa taught me to dance and she really lis­tens.
We got jobs and our rela­tion­ships and friend­ships also devel­oped and deep­ened.
This jour­ney of devel­op­ment has occurred through­out our lives. Each step­ping stone, each lost, each gain has helped to mold us into the peo­ple we are today.

The belief sys­tem we had as a child, has also changed through time and learn­ing, our under­stand­ing and our rela­tion­ship with God.
Now many of us are seek­ing a new fam­ily of Friends. A new Church home.

This brings me to the ques­tion. “What is the church?”

Many peo­ple think of the church as a build­ing. A place you go for an hour a week to be enter­tained or taught some­thing. I find it ironic that when I ask peo­ple what church they attend, they usu­ally iden­tify a build­ing. Even giv­ing me direc­tions to its location.

I would offer to you that church as a build­ing is not the bib­li­cal under­stand­ing of church.

The word “church” comes from the Greek word ekkle­sia which is defined as “an assem­bly” or “called-​out ones.” The root mean­ing of “church” is not that of a build­ing, but of people.

Romans 16:5 says “… greet the church that is in their house.” Paul refers to the church in their house — not a church build­ing, but a body of believers.

The church is the body of Christ, of which He is the head. Eph­esians 1:22 – 23 says, “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over every­thing for the church, which is his body, the full­ness of him who fills every­thing in every way.”
The body of Christ is made up of all believ­ers in Jesus Christ from the day of Pen­te­cost (Acts chap­ter 2) until Christ’s return.

The body of Christ is com­prised of two major aspects:

1) The uni­ver­sal church con­sists of all those who have a per­sonal rela­tion­ship with Jesus Christ. “For we were all bap­tized by one Spirit into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free — and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Corinthi­ans 12:13). This verse says that any­one who believes is part of the body of Christ and has received the Spirit of Christ. The uni­ver­sal church of God is all who have received the spirit through Jesus Christ.

2) The local church is described in Gala­tians 1:1 – 2: Here we see that in the province of Gala­tia there were many churches — what we call local churches.
A Bap­tist church, Lutheran church, Catholic church, Presbyterian Church, Mor­mon, etc., those are not the church, as in the uni­ver­sal church — but rather are a local church, a local body of believ­ers. The uni­ver­sal church is com­prised of ALL who belong to Christ.

Mem­bers of the uni­ver­sal church should seek fel­low­ship and edi­fi­ca­tion in a local church.

In sum­mary, the church is not a build­ing or a denom­i­na­tion. Accord­ing to the Bible, the church is the body of Christ — all those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. (John 3:16; 1 Corinthi­ans 12:13).

Local churches are gath­er­ings of friends from the uni­ver­sal church.

The local church is where the mem­bers of the uni­ver­sal church can fully develop and apply the “body” prin­ci­ples of 1 Corinthi­ans chap­ter 12: encour­ag­ing, teach­ing, and build­ing one another up in the knowl­edge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the rock on which the Uni­ver­sal and the local church is built. A Gath­er­ing of Friends has as our foun­da­tion, Jesus. Jesus is the head of the Church.

“What is the pur­pose of the local church?” So you can say when Asked what Church do you Belong to? “I belong to the Uni­ver­sal Church.”
I think that is only part of the story… We also need to be fed on a local level. As you came today to The Gath­er­ing of Friends you were invited to get some cof­fee or water, a snack and join us at the tables for Chris­t­ian Fel­low­ship. Not only to feed your soul, but to care for the body as well. Acts 2:42 could be con­sid­ered a pur­pose state­ment for a local church/​gathering: “They devoted them­selves to the apos­tles’ teach­ing and to the fel­low­ship, to the break­ing of bread and to prayer.” Accord­ing to this verse, the purposes/​activities of the church should be 1) teach­ing bib­li­cal doc­trine, 2) pro­vid­ing a place of fel­low­ship for believ­ers, 3) observ­ing the Lord’s sup­per, and 4) praying.

The church is to teach bib­li­cal doc­trine so we can be grounded in our faith. Eph­esians 4:14 tells us, “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teach­ing and by the cun­ning and crafti­ness of men in their deceit­ful scheming.”

The church is to be a place of fel­low­ship, where Chris­tians can be devoted to one another and honor one another (Romans 12:10), instruct one another (Romans 15:14), be kind and com­pas­sion­ate to one another (Eph­esians 4:32), encour­age one another (1 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 5:11), and most impor­tantly, love one another (1 John 3:11).

The church is to be a place where believ­ers can observe the Lord’s Sup­per, remem­ber­ing Christ’s death, pas­sion and shed blood on our behalf (1 Corinthi­ans 11:23 – 26).

The con­cept of “break­ing bread” (Acts 2:42) also car­ries the idea of hav­ing meals together. This is another exam­ple of the church pro­mot­ing fel­low­ship. Do you see a pot luck in our future?

The pur­pose of the church accord­ing to Acts 2:42 is prayer. The church is to be a place that pro­motes prayer, teaches prayer, and prac­tices prayer. Philip­pi­ans 4:6 – 7 encour­ages us, “Do not be anx­ious about any­thing, but in every­thing, by prayer and peti­tion, with thanks­giv­ing, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which tran­scends all under­stand­ing, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Another com­mis­sion given to the church is pro­claim­ing the gospel of sal­va­tion through Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18 – 20; Acts 1:8).

The church is called to be faith­ful in shar­ing the gospel through word and deed. The church is to be a source of light in the com­mu­nity, point­ing peo­ple toward our Lord and Sav­ior Jesus Christ. The church is to both pro­mote the gospel and pre­pare its mem­bers to pro­claim the gospel (1 Peter 3:15). The church is to help each indi­vid­ual to develop the poten­tial of all they can be.

Some final pur­poses of the church are given in James 1:27: “Reli­gion that God our Father accepts as pure and fault­less is this: to look after orphans and wid­ows in their dis­tress and to keep one­self from being pol­luted by the world.” The church is to be about the busi­ness of min­is­ter­ing to those in need.

This includes not only shar­ing the gospel, but also pro­vid­ing for phys­i­cal needs (food, cloth­ing, shel­ter) as nec­es­sary and appro­pri­ate. To be Christ like.

The church is also to equip believ­ers in Christ with the tools they need to over­come sin and remain free from and clean up the pol­lu­tion of the world. Each local gath­er­ing needs to develop the gifts of the members.

So, what is the pur­pose of this local church?

Paul gave an excel­lent illus­tra­tion to the believ­ers in Corinth. The church is God’s hands, mouth, and feet in this world — the body of Christ (1 Corinthi­ans 12:12 – 27). We are to be doing the things that Jesus Christ would do if He were here phys­i­cally on the earth.

The church is to be “Chris­t­ian,” “Christ-​like,” and Christ-​following. The church, the Gath­er­ing of Friends is the vehi­cle, The reli­gion is God, who is the only destination.

So next time you are asked: “What church do you go to?” you might reply I belong to the Uni­ver­sal Chris­t­ian Church and I attend a local Gath­er­ing of Friends.

I wish to leave you with this thought: A reli­gion, A Church is active, not pas­sive. John 14:12 [show]John 14:12 [12]“Truly, truly, I say to you, who­ever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. (ESV)
has Jesus speak­ing: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.”
We have work to do!
Do I hear an A-​men!