Life in Connection 2.0 | Sunday, September 27, 2020

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper, and to prayer. (Acts 2:42, NLT)

Why small groups and house-to-house fellowship aren't optional extras, but the very identity of the church—especially now.

The Joy of Gathering

This last Sunday we had a pretty good-sized gathering at the beach for a baptism—our first baptism this year. We highly value baptism at the church because we think it is very important to obey the Lord's command to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It is one of the ways we identify ourselves with Jesus as His followers and associate ourselves with His death, burial, and resurrection. At the end of our service we'll share together in communion, another way we obey, identify, and associate ourselves with Christ.

Before we do, I want to say thank you. Thank you to those of you who call Cross Connection your home church, and who during this chaotic year have continued to be faithful to the Lord and to His church. Thank you for your prayers, emails, cards, and faithfulness in giving. When this all first began, we made adjustments to our budget because I was more than a little concerned this would drastically affect our ability to continue ministry and to provide for our staff. That concern was entirely unfounded—because of you. You are faithful to the Lord with the first fruits of your finances, and you show by your faith and faithfulness what it means to be a church and a follower of Jesus.

This Is Not Ideal—But It Is What God Designed

Before the shutdown we were experiencing a season of growth and were about to add a fourth Sunday service. The irony is that the week after I shared those plans, the shutdown began. Here we are almost seven months later. I've said it before, but it's worth saying again: this is not ideal. This isn't what I would have planned for our church in 2020. But I am continually trying to accept that this apparently is what God designed for us in 2020. Pray for me on that one; I'm praying for you too.

I don't have the same level of joy preaching to a camera as I do standing here on a Sunday morning with you all in this room. If you've thought, "Miles must like what we're doing or he'd just open the church back up"—no, wrong, incorrect. Hear me: we will begin meeting again in our sanctuary, and I look forward to that day. My speculation is that a lot will change in November. Why are we not meeting like some other churches? Because myself and our leadership—our pastors and elders—sense that this is what the Lord would have us do at this moment. As soon as that changes, we'll follow Him wherever He takes us.

There Is Joy in the Gathering of the Saints

I'm not the tearful type, but standing in the surf with Pastor Mark, looking back at the group gathered in support of those being baptized, I had tears come to my eyes. Why? Because there is joy in the gathering of the saints. When I was in grade school, a man came to an assembly and asked, "Why do you go to school?" Kids said, "To learn." He said, "No, you really come to see your friends." That's not entirely true, but it stuck with me. We gather at church to worship and study the Scriptures, but another big reason we gather is for fellowship—and that joy has been missing in a big way these last several months.

We're still able to worship, pray, partake of communion, and study the Scriptures, but fellowship and its joy have been missing. So we've been seeking to address that, and one of the ways is through small groups. We think fellowship with one another is essential, and since we've been unable to gather in a large group on Sundays, we've encouraged you to prayerfully and carefully gather in small groups.

The Pattern of the Early Church

One of the New Testament authors wrote that reminders are a good thing even when we already know something. The focus of the early church was teaching, fellowship, hospitality, and prayer (Acts 2:42). This is not new to you. As long as I am in this tent, it is right to stir you up by reminding you. The earliest Christians were devoted to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread and communion, hospitality, and prayer—and the church has continued in these things for twenty centuries, whether freely in open societies or quietly under the threat of persecution. The church continues to be the church.

We are committed to faithfully continuing in the apostles' doctrine, preaching through the Scriptures. We continue to receive your prayer requests and pray for them each week. We are breaking bread in communion. And we are asking you to continue to fellowship with one another, being hospitable just as Peter, James, John, Bartholomew, Thomas, the Marys, Martha, and the rest of the early Christians did in Jerusalem 2000 years ago.

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 2:46)

Normal Christianity Is House to House

For the better part of the last four or five months my family has gathered with our connect group a couple of Sundays each month to watch the service and share a meal. It has been a beautiful period of time. My wife and kids have enjoyed it, I've enjoyed it, and the other families have loved it. If you're not gathering with others within the body of Christ in your own home, you're not doing what the church has done throughout its history.

Understand this: normal Christianity is the community of the saints continuing daily with one accord from house to house. This is not new to the shutdown life under coronavirus—this is what we were calling you to before 2020. We've been promoting connect groups for eight years, with as much as 40 to 45 percent of our church involved at times. Almost ten years ago we cancelled our midweek Bible service back in 2011 to focus on small groups. So this is not new—but now it's more important than ever.

We will meet again in person for larger corporate gatherings just as we did before the shutdown. But going forward, continuing with one another, gathered from house to house, will always be essential. This is what we mean when we say at Cross Connection that we exist to experience and extend life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. The word translated "church" in the New Testament means gathering and assembly. Coronavirus shutdowns, mask mandates, and Gavin Newsom will not prevail against the gathering of God's people.

Be the Church—Life in Connection 2.0

If Cross Connection is your church—and especially if, before COVID, you served on a Sunday with hospitality, security, ushers, greeters, children's ministry, tech, or worship—you should now consider serving by opening your home to a small group for fellowship. It doesn't have to be big; it can be two or three couples. You don't have to meet every day; it can be once or twice a month. You can meet in a park, meet outside, wear masks if you feel you need to. Do you really need my permission, or the government's permission, to interact with other people? I hope not. Call it a protest if you'd like—we're called Protestants. We've been protesting for 500 years; why stop now?

If you're willing to help fulfill our mission of life in connection with one another, go to athome.lifeinconnection.com and get plugged in. Read the information on the website and open the link to serve as a host, or, if you're looking for a group, we'd love to help you get plugged in. Now is the time to be the church. When you can't go to church, it becomes all the more essential to be the church.

This will still be essential even when we get back to church, because we live in an increasingly fractured and isolating society, and God created us to live life in connection with Him and with one another. If the culture is generating more division and separation—and I would suggest it is—then we the people of God need to work against that. This is like a 2020 reboot, a hard reset, and we're booting into Life in Connection 2.0.

Walk Worthy of Your Calling

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Ephesians 4)

Now is the time to be what God has called us to be, to walk worthy of that calling in humility, patience, and love—and the Lord will continue to add to the gathering of His people those He is saving. That sounds really good to me.

The Lord saved us so that we could be reconciled to God and to one another, joined back to Himself and gathered in as His family, His people, the body of Christ. The church is not just a building or the time we gather on a Sunday morning; it's the gathering of God's people, whether corporately gathered or scattered throughout the community. During this time we're learning to be the church in a new way so we can reach our community and our world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Greatest Hope for Our Culture

That is what is needed in our society more than anything. It becomes clearer to me every day in 2020 that what is desperately needed in the United States and the entire world is the gospel of Jesus Christ—the good news of salvation from sin and death in Him. It is only in Jesus where we experience the kind of reconciliation we desperately need. As people constantly look for something to fix the problems of our society—especially in an election year—we as the people of God need to recognize that the greatest hope for our culture is the good news of Jesus. May God unite us as His church to reach into our community in North County and beyond, so that, as Acts 2 says, we would have favor with all people and the Lord would add to the church daily those who are being saved.

Communion

As I said earlier, we want to partake of communion together. Baptism is one of the two sacraments we observe at Cross Connection; the other is the Lord's Supper. Hopefully you have some bread or crackers and some grape juice or other liquid to remember the body and blood of Jesus. We do this because Jesus did this with His disciples on the night He would be betrayed by one of His own, Judas Iscariot. As He partook of the bread and the cup with them, He said, "Do this in remembrance of Me."

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me."

Let's partake together and remember His body broken for us.

In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

Let's partake together.

Closing Prayer

Lord, we remember today Your body that was broken for us and Your blood that was shed for us. Just as the prophet Isaiah foresaw, You were the suffering servant beaten for us, bruised for our iniquity; the chastisement for our peace was upon You, and by Your stripes we are healed and cleansed. We know from Hebrews that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins, but You, Jesus, are our propitiation, the atoning sacrifice. You who knew no sin became sin for us, that we would receive Your righteousness.

We remember that today with great joy—that we are forgiven because of what You did and said on the cross: "It is finished." It is paid in full. We are so grateful that You gave everything for us, and that in You we are more than conquerors over sin and over death. Help us to walk in that victory, rejoicing in You. And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.