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Well, I must confess to you that there are times when I'm overwhelmed with a sense of

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nostalgia.

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Do you ever feel that way?

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There are times I'd like to hear the white sisters sing again, or watch the Palermo

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brothers and laugh at them.

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There are times when I see a 55 Chevy go down the street and I take a second look.

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And I've often thought about those days when you drive into what was called a drive-in

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and you actually had your meal brought out to you and put on your glass in the door.

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Do you remember that?

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With a hang right there?

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Nostalgia.

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There are some advantages to living in the past, among them it's cheaper.

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But we can't do that very long because change presses on us from every direction.

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In fact, change comes so rapidly that we hardly have time to live the present moment.

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Which leads me to say that if you're a person who by nature resists change, you're probably

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living a frustrated life.

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Here are some of the change agents that are at work in our culture today and which have

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shaped the 90s to be what they are.

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The breakdown of the traditional family.

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Think of the kind of change that that has brought to us, along with the attempts to

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redefine what family means.

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The graying of America.

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The Rand Corporation predicts that by the year 2000, the life expectancy of Americans

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will be nightly.

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Think of that.

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There are more Americans today, over 65, than there are teenagers.

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And yet we have youth pastors.

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Think of the change forced upon us by secularized, value-less society.

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For the only absolute is relativism.

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And the highest value is placed on self-interest.

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That has driven enormous change in our culture.

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The changing role of women, with unconventional and unnatural expectations being placed upon

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them.

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Coupled with a bewilderment about what men are and are to be about in our culture.

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Then think of violence.

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Crime which is perpetrated by youths and others who have no conscience and no concept

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of right and wrong.

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In the last 40 years, excuse me, 50 years, crime among those who are 18 and below violent

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crime has increased fourfold.

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Think of the change that that has brought to our world.

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I don't have time to talk about drug abuse and cultural and spiritual illiteracy.

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People are so ignorant of where we come from as Americans, what our history is.

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Not to mention our religious, theistic roots.

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The influence of technology and the growth of computers and the Internet.

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Privatization.

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The ability that we have to cocoon and isolate ourselves from others.

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You see, all of these are dynamic change agents that are fundamentally changing the world

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in which we live.

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And this has precipitated a host of crises, one of which is the crisis of community.

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The word community comes from a Latin root that means common.

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A community has something in common.

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But today in our culture we are so confused by the change that instead of talking about

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our commonness, we boast in our diversity.

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The notion of community is sinking along with the Titanic.

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And the crisis that has affected our culture has affected Christians also.

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I believe that the crisis of community is one of the greatest crises that our nation

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faces.

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And the effect of it has brought isolation, fear and despair to our fellow citizens and

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to many of us.

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Some church strategists and Christian sociologists are saying that the church is in a prime position

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to create new expressions of community in the early 21st century.

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In other words, we are in the midst of a cultural crisis, but that cultural crisis is presenting

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to us an unprecedented opportunity to create new communities.

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And so they say growing churches, that is churches with a vision to fulfill the great

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commission in their community and who are therefore growing numerically and maturing

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in godliness will provide innovative ways, they say, to provide this sense of community

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that people are longing for.

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Folks are looking for a way to connect, to escape the loneliness and the isolation of

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a collapsing culture.

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There are certain questions that are being asked in the midst of this crisis, and these

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come out of the loss of community.

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Do I have significance?

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Do I have worth?

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Secondly, how will I survive?

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In the midst of all of the pressures and the stress created by this change in my sense

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of isolation, how will I survive?

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Third, who am I?

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And how do I fit in?

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You see, community used to provide us a sense of where we fit in the world.

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But the loss of community doesn't give us that definition anymore.

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And finally, the question, what is truth?

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By that I mean what is transcendently true?

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What is not true just today but is true tomorrow and it was true yesterday?

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What is the truth that holds together community?

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And I would propose to you that that is perhaps the central question of the election this

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fall.

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We have two competing answers to this question about what is truth.

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As I've been thinking about this, I've decided that I want to devote a few weeks this fall

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thinking about community and particularly the community that God has established.

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I'm thinking of the church of Jesus Christ.

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I want us to take a look at the heart and the soul of God's new community.

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And our key text is going to be in the book of Acts, the second chapter, and I invite

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you to open your Bible with me to that text where I'm going to begin reading in verse

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41.

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So then those who had received His Word were baptized and there were added that day about

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3,000 souls and they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and

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to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer, and everyone kept feeling a sense

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of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.

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All those who had believed were together and had all things in common and they began selling

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their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need.

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And day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple, breaking bread from house to house,

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they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising

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God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord was adding to their number, day

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by day, those who were being saved.

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What we have here is God's new community.

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It is rudimentary, it is only primal here, it is not developed, but we find nonetheless

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in this first paragraph regarding God's community certain basic ideas that make the church what

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it is today.

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And so we're going to consider this morning the beginning of this new community of God.

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What I want you to see is that as one who has been born from above, if you're a Christian,

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you have been given status in God's new community, and whether you realize it or not, or to whatever

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degree you realize it, that status has given you a radical change in your life.

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There are several truths about the community that you are a part of if you're a Christian,

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and the first truth that I see in the broader context here is that this new community we're

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talking about is bought by Christ's death.

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In chapter 1 and verse 3, Luke begins to write this second of his historical books.

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He says, the first account I composed, theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and to teach.

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Until the day when he was taken up after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the

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apostles whom he had chosen to these, he also presented himself alive after his suffering.

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Luke has written about the suffering of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel bearing his name.

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He has spoken about his death, his burial, his resurrection from the grave, and now he

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recaps that just in a moment about his suffering and his resurrection.

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And in doing so, he reminds us that this new community of God is a community for which

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a price was paid.

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It is the apostle Paul who states it outright.

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When in Acts 20 and verse 28 he says that the church has been bought by his blood.

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When Christ died, he died for the world, but he also died so that he could purchase a people

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for God's own possession, a particular people.

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By the right of purchase, those who are in the community are owned by God.

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We are not our own, we are His by right of purchase.

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Revelation 5.9 recounts that song that we will sing in heaven, saying, Were the art thou

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to take the book and to break its seals, for thou wast slain, and its purchase for God,

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with thy blood, men from every tribe, tongue, people and nation.

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This new community of God is a community that is bought by Christ's death.

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Peter joins and says in 1 Peter 1, You were redeemed, that is, you were purchased, with

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precious blood, the blood of Christ.

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And so in the next chapter he goes on to say, You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood,

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a holy nation, a people for God's own possession.

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You were once not a people, but now You are the people of God.

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Another way of saying that is, now You are the community of God.

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Once You were cut off from God.

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You were estranged from God because of Your sin.

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You were indeed a slave of sin.

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You belonged to it.

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God intervened and paid for you the price of Your slavery.

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So that now You belong to Him, and You are His community.

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He has paid the price and has bought You for Himself.

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That's one truth we see regarding the new community and its beginning.

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It could not and it did not exist before the death of Christ, because the death of Christ

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bought it.

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And so in the new community a person has worth, you see.

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Jesus Christ died for You.

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You have worth in His sight.

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There's a second truth regarding the new community and that is, it is based on Christ's ascension.

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Acts chapter 1 of course gives several verses to this time when Jesus met with His disciples

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in the Mount of Olives and was taken up from heaven out of their sight and the angels announced,

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He's coming again, now go to work.

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The ascension of Christ.

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The church is based upon the ascension of Christ.

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You see the distinction of the church in part is that Christ indwells each of His disciples.

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That would have been impossible had He remained on the earth.

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He could have stayed on the earth and lived through every generation that has lived since

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His time.

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He could still be alive today on the earth.

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The problem is He could not dwell in each of His disciples.

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He had to go back to heaven for that to happen.

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And when He returned to heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father in the heaven

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lays, He was then able to come and to live in each of us who receives Him.

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And there's a distinctive of the church that did not happen before.

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Christ indwells each of us, and so Paul says in Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with

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Christ, but it is no longer I who live.

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Christ, what?

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Lives in me.

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Christ lives in me.

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In Colossians 1.27, he says the mystery is this, that Christ is in you.

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Not merely in heaven, but He's in you, bringing the hope of glory.

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And so what we really have in the book of Acts is what Jesus continued to do.

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We read earlier in the first verses about how Jesus began to do and to teach.

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That's what he wrote about in the Gospel of Luke.

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Now he's writing about what Jesus is continuing to do in you and through you, His people.

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You see, the church was bought by Christ's death.

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It is based upon the fact that He ascended to heaven, and because of that He now dwells

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in each of us.

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And so in this new community, a person not only has worth, but because Christ is in Him,

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He has the resource for living.

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Third, the church, this new community of God, is born in Christ's promise.

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Now He calls the promise, the promise of the Father in verse 4, but it was also the promise

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of the Son, that they would send the Holy Spirit.

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Jesus said in John 14, 18, I will not leave you orphanless, I will come to you.

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You see, this new community is born in Christ's promise that the Holy Spirit would come.

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In John 15, verse 26, when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that

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is the Spirit of truth, the promise of Christ, the Holy Spirit.

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And that's what Pentecost is about in Acts chapter 2.

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We began reading in verse 41 when it said, So then those who had received His Word were

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baptized, that is Peter's Word, the sermon, the message he preached at the temple on the

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day of Pentecost.

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They heard His Word, they received His Word and were baptized, and became a part of the

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new community.

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The Holy Spirit came on Pentecost with the sound of rushing wind and with fire upon

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the heads of the apostles as they proclaimed in tongues they had never studied, the message

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of Christ.

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Pentecost was a feast of the Jews, as you know, that came fifty days after the Passover.

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There was God's design and plan that on that day there would be given birth to the new

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community, a new entity, a new group would exist that had never existed before.

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It existed in God's decree from all of eternity.

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But in time and space, in human history, it had never existed before until this day, this

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very day that we read about in our text for this morning.

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And when the Holy Spirit came, He baptized believers into the body of Christ, that is

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the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

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Thus some subsequent work that happens after we come to Christ, the baptism of the Holy

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Spirit is when He places us into the body of Christ.

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But it is that baptism of the Spirit that gives birth to the new community.

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If you have been baptized by the Holy Spirit, you are a member of the new community.

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If you're not a member of the new community.

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So you see in this new community of God, a person has identity.

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Now there is a fourth truth that I see arising out of the broader context here, as we see

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the beginning of this new community, and that is the new community that is bought by Christ's

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death, which is based on Christ's ascension, and then is born with Christ's promise, is

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fourthly built on Christ's gospel.

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Wherever the church is constructed indeed, it is built upon this foundation of Christ,

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crucified, buried, and raised for our sin.

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That is the message of Pentecost, as Peter proclaimed to those gathered Jews the identity

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of Jesus.

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He said to them, He is Lord, He is Christ, and He reminded them that they had nailed

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Him to a cross by the hands of Godless men and had put Him to death.

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And it says when they heard that, they were stricken in their hearts.

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It is the message of Jesus Christ that is the foundation of the church.

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This new community is built upon that foundation and there is no other message that can successfully

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supplant this one.

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If a church forsakes this message, it is no longer a legitimate community of God.

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The community of God is based solely upon this message of Christ, crucified, and risen

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for the sake of our salvation.

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What I'm saying to you is that in the new community, a person finds transcendent truth.

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I believe that from its very beginning, God provided for the citizens of this new community

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to experience what our culture desperately seeks because of its current crisis.

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We have a crisis of community in our culture.

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And I said before that there are questions that are brought to the fore because of that

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crisis, the question of worth, am I significant?

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And you see, God provided in His community, yes, those who are citizens of this community

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have eternal worth.

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Christ, the Son, died for them.

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And there is the question of resource, how will I live?

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How will I face the pressures of this world without some sense of community?

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You see, in the community of God, we have Christ in dwelling us, and we can do all

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things through Christ who strengthens us.

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We can be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might we have resource.

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Out of our cultural crisis, there is the question of significance, who am I?

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And where do I fit?

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But you see, in God's new community, He has provided for that.

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For we are baptized by the Holy Spirit.

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We fit into the body, and we are gifted to play certain roles in that body.

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And so we have identity.

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We know who we are in Christ, and we can come to understand what our role is and serve out

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that role.

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And so we have identity.

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And then there is the question in our world of truth.

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What is truth?

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What is the underlying truth that holds us together as a people?

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And you see, in the new community, we have that truth.

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It is the truth of Christ crucified and risen from the dead.

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I hope that what we have learned this morning about the beginning of the new community will

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humble us and make us realize anew the grace of God in calling peoples like you and me,

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and calling the likes of us who in this world may be zeros, nothings, as He says to the Corinthians,

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whom He has called to be a part of the new community, the eternal community of God.

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And I hope this truth will also impress upon our hearts the necessity of being a loyal

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member of the community of God.

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I recognize that we live in a day when we are told there is no more loyalty, and we

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see many, many illustrations of that, even in the church, sadly.

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You see, God has called us to loyalty.

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And that's what this table is about, that we come to this morning, the Lord's table.

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It is a table that reminds us that we are a community gathered around Christ, His death,

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His ascension, His promise.

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We are gathered around this table reminding us of His gospel.

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And we are called to come to this table as loyal citizens of the new community, and to

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give ourselves afresh to Him every time we partake of these elements, and to examine

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our hearts, and to find that disloyalty that has been there, and to acknowledge it and

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confess it, and to recognize in coming to this table that God has done a great work

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of grace, and that He has selected you, and you, and you, and you, out of this crisis

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in our world, to know what community is all about, and to share in communion with Him.

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Let's pray together.

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And as we share in this communion, it is important that before we say we are loyal because we

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partake of these elements, we make sure we are.

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That we are loyal to the community that Christ has purchased.

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That we are loyal to the community that is called His body.

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That our allegiance is to Him.

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And so we examine ourselves and confess our sins.

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And having examined and confessed our sins, we may claim His cleansing, and we may come

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as loyal citizens and partake humbly, thanking Him for His grace.

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For Jesus, as we partake of this bread this morning, it reminds us of your suffering by

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which you bought the church, and that we are not our own.

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We are yours.

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We eat it with thanks.