A story is told of a master archer who thought he was the best in the world. As he travelled he noticed a bard with several targets painted on the side. Inside every target, dead center at the bullseye, was an arrow.
The archer was amazed that someone could be this good. He stopped to investigate and asked around to find out who this person was. A young boy came forward and said it was him, and offered to show how he did it.
The boy took his bow, drew an arrow, and shot at the barn. The arrow landed on the wall of the barn, nowhere near the middle of any target. The boy dropped his bow and arrow, ran into the barn, then emerged with a can of paint. At that moment, he painted a target around the arrow.
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Is the church hitting a target or just painting arrows?
The modern church tends to look for great sermons and motivating messages. We make our gatherings into a show that inspires and leaves people feeling good about themselves.
But is that the target that God has given us as a church?
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV)
The target that Jesus gave us was to make disciples. The body of Christ is to be made up of disciples who make disciples.
We define being a disciple as:
- Following Jesus
- Being changed by Jesus
- Joining the mission of Jesus.
Are we hitting that target? If not, how do we do so?
One anothering: How we hit the target.
Paul gave us another type of target. He told us what should happen when the church gets together. What he told us gives us insight into the most effective way of hitting the target of discipleship.
What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.
1 Corinthians 14:26 (NIV)
We’re told that when we get together, the things we do should build the body up. The idea is to develop one another, to strengthen one another, and to prepare one another to go out into the world to make disciples.
Paul told Timothy to use scripture so that the servant of God can be thoroughly equipped for service. That’s ultimately what it means to build up the body of Christ: to equip them to be the church.
Church is the locker room, not the game.
Ultimately, Sunday should be the locker room talk before the team hits the field. It’s the “Go get ‘em” speech that says “Remember, here is the game plan, now let’s go do it.”
Jim Putman: “Church is a Team Sport.”
Church was never meant to be the show, it was never meant to be game day. It was never meant to be about paid professionals doing it all and being watched by the rest of the congregation. It was never meant to rise or fall on how good the preacher is in the pulpit.
Instead, it’s meant to be the practice grounds. It’s meant to be the locker room. It’s meant to be the place where the people of God build one another up. Church is the place where we re-group, where we train, and where all of its people train to BE the church.
So how does this locker room thing happen?
When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he spoke about how different people would speak up with a tongue or a prophecy or a word. People shared with one another and poured into one another. That’s very different than today’s model, isn’t it?
The building up happens through the one anothers. When we do life and faith together and we build up one another, that becomes so much more powerful and effective than any half-hour sermon or any Sunday School lesson.
Building up one another in scripture
He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
1 Thessalonians 5:10-11 (NIV)
So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.
Romans 14:19 (NASB)
Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.” For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Romans 15:1-4 (NIV)
In Romans 14-15, Paul goes in depth about how we relate to one another as believers. He talks about how we might be at differing levels of maturity. Ultimately, he brings us to the point where those who are more mature should bring the others up and build them up in their faith.
The ultimate point of one anothering.
This is the final message in our series on One Anothering. We’ve been looking at passages in the New Testament that use the term “one another” to understand better what it is to be the body of Christ.
That’s the question we have to ask as we think about the target we were given. How do we help one another grow as disciples? How do we help one another make disciples?
What can we do to help one another follow Jesus more effectively? How can we help one another have the walk with Christ that transforms us? Is there anything we can do to help one another as we join the mission of Jesus?
The whole point of this mention could also be the final point of this entire series:
We are meant to do life and faith together so that we can build one another up to be His church.
God built His church to be a place where we can grow as disciples. He built it to be the training ground, the locker room where the growth happens. Jesus did it this way with His disciples, doing life with them and building them up in preparation for their mission to go make disciples.
This is what we were tasked with as well. All of the one anothers that we looked at are part of building up one another:
- Loving one another
- Worshipping with one another
- Belonging to one another
- Encouraging for one another
- Praying for one another
- Bearing one another’s burdens
How do we do this?
God called us to be disciples who make disciples. He called us to follow Jesus, to let Jesus transform us, and to join Jesus in his mission.
And he called us to help one another come to that point. The most effective way of doing so, according to His word, is through the one anothers.
An hour on Sunday morning isn’t going to do the trick. The church was never meant to be an occasional gathering. God designed things so that we should be spending time together in relationship.
That reality leaves us with a question. As we look at what God has told us about doing life and faith with one another, what do we do with it? Is it just another lesson we learn, or is it something we begin to take to heart?
Are we ready to take life and faith to the next level? Where can we begin to develop the relationships where we do life and faith together, where we build up one another?