Mark 1:42

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. ... So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42–47)

We were created for community—and the connected life is the abundant life only Christ can give.

Life in Connection: Why Fellowship Matters

This is our third study in a series we're starting the year with called Life in Connection, seeking to clearly articulate our mission, vision, and values as a church—who we are, why we exist, what we do, and how we do it. We began with "Know the Vision," then spoke about the importance of worshiping together. Today we're talking about connecting with community.

Our vision statement says that because of the cross of Christ we have been connected to God and one another in life-giving and satisfying communion. We place a high value on connection here—our name, our vision, and our values all speak to this idea of being together, being a family. No fewer than seven times in our three-sentence vision statement do we see ideas of connectedness, communion, and togetherness. The church is to be the expression of community. That is God's desire for us.

A Culture of Isolation

These concepts aren't earth-shattering, but we live in an era where more and more people are living separated lives—separated not only from extended family but from immediate family. Our culture is abnormal to human history, though normal to us because we've always lived this way. For decades people have left what they know—what they're connected to by blood and family culture—and gone across the nation or the world to set up a life. We see the ramifications of this disconnected, independent existence.

In 2006 the American Sociological Review published research showing social isolation in America grew dramatically from 1985 to 2005. The number of people saying there was no one with whom they discussed important matters nearly tripled. Those saying they had only one close person to confide in pushed the figure from a quarter of all Americans to almost half. Of over 330 million Americans, nearly half have no one—or only one person—they'd turn to for counsel or confide in. That's a heavy reality.

In May 2013 another study found that one-third of all middle-aged Americans—35 to 55—are chronically lonely. So much so that more Americans now die by suicide than in car accidents. From 1999 to 2010 suicides among the middle-aged increased by 30 percent, and among men in their 50s by 50 percent—most rooted in loneliness. We live surrounded by people, yet you can live in a Southern California development close enough to touch your neighbor's house and never know their name. Your garage opens in the morning, you drive to a cubicle, you return, and the garage eats you at the end of the day. Sometimes people die in their homes and no one knows until weeks later.

Life Is Better Together

You don't have to look far to prove the cliché true: life is better together. It's not as fun to watch a football game alone. In my neighborhood, when the Chargers score, I hear it erupt from five directions—not one person, but many gathered together. We don't plan barbecues just for ourselves; we want to invite people, because life is better together.

I had a fresh reconfirmation this week. I've been to Disneyland ten or more times—there's no ride I haven't ridden—so it's become mundane to me. But this last Thursday my wife and I brought our two oldest children for the very first time, and you re-experience it through them. My daughter Addison is a princess every day of the week—crown, fairy dress—and as we walked in, everyone said, "Hi, princess." Coming around the corner onto Main Street, she saw the castle and gasped, "Oh my gosh." You experience it freshly again. The daily realities of life become mundane and lonely if we're not living life together.

Humanity Was Created for Community

Life was meant to be lived in community because humanity was created for community. God made us this way. Turn to Genesis 1. We keep going back to Genesis because every worldview must answer questions of origin and purpose—where we came from and what we were created for. Christianity is a faith, but it is also a worldview, and Genesis 1 and 2 reveal our origin and our purpose.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness; let them have dominion..." (Genesis 1:26)

God is one God existing in three persons—the doctrine of the Trinity, which every orthodox Christian holds. Within the Godhead there is already community and relationship: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God did not create us because He needed friends or relationship; community already exists within the Godhead. Yet He said, "Let us make man in our image."

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:27)

He expressed His image in humanity as male and female. People struggle today with the gender realities of God, but every time God is revealed in Scripture, He is revealed as "He." When God created man in His image, He created them male and female as an expression of who He is.

"It Is Not Good That Man Should Be Alone"

Genesis 2 restates the creation account. There we read God's reason:

And the Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone..." (Genesis 2:18)

God looks upon humanity, created in His image, and says it is not good for man to be alone. To fulfill this, He not only created woman but gave humanity the ability to perpetuate community.

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply..." (Genesis 1:28)

Make more, to have more community. The two become one in united community, and from there they perpetuate it. Science agrees all human beings share a common ancestor; that ancestor is described here. From one man God created woman, and from that union He brought forth the human race. God created us to live in community.

Community Lost in the Fall

Of course, the story gets complicated in Genesis 3. God had commanded that they not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day they ate of it they would surely die.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. (Genesis 3:7)

Their eyes were opened, they saw they were naked, and they covered their nakedness—an expression of shame. Yet the last verse of Genesis 2 says the husband and wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Before sin there was no shame and no fear; afterward they were instantly filled with shame and tried to cover it. From one, God made two to join them as one flesh again—but when shame entered through sin, division and separation came. Community between humanity was broken.

But it wasn't only community between people that was broken.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves... "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself." (Genesis 3:8, 10)

We were united together in community and united in communion with God. Both were broken at the fall. That means every generation since has experienced the loss of community—yet because we were created for it, there remains deep inside a yearning to have it repaired, to be in community with one another and communion with God. Humanity longs for this, even when it cannot articulate it.

The Search for a Satisfaction We Cannot Find

All of man's attempts at religion, fraternity, clubs, and civic projects are attempts to bring community back by his own strength. Even our city officials are always trying to restore a sense of community. But I would posit that there is no genuine, satisfying community outside of Christ. Because man can't find lasting oneness, he moves from relationship to relationship and is never satisfied. In a fallen state we grab onto fallen representations of community but are never satisfied with the counterfeit.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards tapped into this. In June 1965 the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" hit number one in America. The lyrics speak of dissatisfaction—with commercialism, with frustration—and Rolling Stone magazine still ranks it number two among the greatest rock songs ever recorded. They still headline with it, and Mick Jagger at seventy-plus in tight leather pants screaming it looks like the walking dead. But it endures because it connects with us at a level where we all admit: I can't get no satisfaction.

Christ Came to Reconcile Us to God and One Another

Turn to Ephesians 2. You were once Gentiles, non-believers in the flesh, without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation... so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. (Ephesians 2:13–16)

Sin brought death, and death brought separation. But Jesus breaks down the middle wall of separation. This is why we're called Cross Connection: through the cross of Christ we are brought back into connection with God and one another. He came and preached peace to those far off and those near, "for through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father." Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." The communion devastated in Genesis 3 is restored through the cross.

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:18)

Having been reconnected to God and one another, we now carry the ministry of reconciliation, because God's desire is that all humanity experience communion with Him and community with one another.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ... (2 Corinthians 5:20)

We go forth with a message: you are disconnected and longing for community and communion with God, and it is found only in Christ. It's not found on Facebook. One-seventh of humanity has a Facebook account, yet the American Psychological Association now describes "Facebook depression"—you have hundreds of friends who only post their best moments, so everyone's life looks easy and yours feels miserable; you post a picture, no one comments, and you sink lower. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat—they create a sense of community but not real community. You can sit in a coffee shop with twenty people all on their devices, completely anonymous, five feet apart.

I remember riding a crammed New York subway in 2002, before smartphones—everyone buried in a book, headphones on, wanting nothing to do with anybody. Don't talk to me, don't touch me, leave me alone. Jesus' death in our place opened the way to be reconnected to God and one another in life-giving, satisfying community that extends into eternity. Escape from eternal punishment isn't the only wonderful thing about salvation. Yes, we look forward to paradise with Him forever—but what about now? Now God desires that we live in community and communion with Him.

The Church Is God's Plan for Restoring Community

It is within the church that we experience and express community. Return to Acts 2. On Pentecost, God poured out His Spirit on 120 believers in Jerusalem. Onlookers asked what it meant, and Peter stood up empowered by the Spirit and preached grace and salvation: you crucified Jesus, but He is the Messiah, the Lord, the Savior. Cut to the heart, they asked what they must do, and he said, "Repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins." About 3,000 were saved and baptized, united together as one in Christ.

What did they do? They continued steadfastly in four things: the apostles' doctrine—the teaching of those who lived with Jesus and saw Him heal, feed, cast out demons, and rise from the dead; fellowship—the Greek koinonia; the breaking of bread; and prayers. We often misunderstand "breaking of bread" to mean the Eucharist, but here it's hospitality, eating meals together, experiencing oneness in relationship. They had all things in common and sold their possessions to meet one another's needs. I'm not advocating a 1960s commune lifestyle, but that caring and sharing is koinonia—true New Testament fellowship. They gathered in the temple and broke bread from house to house with gladness and simplicity of heart, and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

Connect Groups: Fellowship, Hospitality, and Prayer

Our aim at Cross Connection is to promote a vision for fellowship and community. One of our biggest desires for this year is to increase opportunities for it—first by talking about its importance, and second by intentionally creating those opportunities. More than a year ago I shared our desire to start a home group ministry geared toward living in connection. We call them connect groups; about three are going now, and we want every member of our body involved.

This isn't merely a home Bible study ministry. There is no lack of good Bible teaching in our day—it's all around us in Southern California, on the internet, on the radio. What is lacking in our church and most churches is fellowship, hospitality, and prayer. Even within the church, many people are lonely and say they have no friends. So we want to create an environment that extends fellowship, hospitality, and prayer. If the Lord lays a home Bible study on your heart, God bless you—start one. But connect groups are something different.

To do this we need connect group hosts—not leaders, hosts. A connect group host is, first, a person who has a heart for people; second, a person willing to open their space; third, a person who will serve their guests; and last, a person who will simply talk of Jesus. You don't need to give a ten-point message on Ephesians 1. If you have a heart for people, you'll open your space, serve those who come in, and talk of Jesus, you can be a host.

We're inviting interested people—men and women—to a connect group host meeting on Wednesday, February 12th at seven o'clock here at the church, about an hour long, where we'll explain what this looks like and a few requirements. We can't just hand it to anyone who walked in yesterday, but the heart of it is simple. We're aiming for 100 percent of our church to be involved in home group ministry. This is why, nearly five years ago, we ended our midweek Wednesday Bible study—to open opportunities to live in community, because we were created for it.

The awesome thing is that genuine, satisfying community—found only in Christ—is evangelistic. All humanity longs for community with one another and communion with God, so if we create opportunity for it, we believe God will add to the church daily those being saved. Paul says in Romans we're to stir people to jealousy, that they see what we have and want it. Besides salvation and eternity, one of the greatest things the church has that the world never will is community with one another and communion with God.

An Invitation and Closing Prayer

If you are still living disconnected from God and the body of Christ because you have not received salvation in Jesus Christ, we want to give you the opportunity today. Jesus came to reconcile us to God. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in Christ and experience communion with God and community with one another.

Closing Prayer

Father, we thank You that You loved us so much that You gave Your only begotten Son to die for us in our place, to make the way open that we could have fellowship with You and with one another. Father, pour out Your Spirit upon us that we would experience afresh and anew what it is to be one in You. In Jesus' name. Amen.