Apostles Church

If this emerging community is going to shape an emerging Colossae and the greater Roman world it must become a certain kind of community.

A Community Devoted to Kingdom Prayer. Paul calls the church to pray; “continue steadfastly” busy yourself with this activity. You have to proactively and intentionally cultivate this activity in your communal life. It is difficult, but it is indispensable to the life that God is calling us to as a community. So many things competing for your time and attention, so many things you could busy yourself with. Being watchful (brings to mind Jesus in the Garden, you could not watch and pray with me distracted by sleep. Busy yourself with prayer. There should be things we have to turn down because our prayer commitments. Our mission depends upon it. Paul asks for prayer that God would open a door for him. In other words, without God moving and pushing and opening up opportunity to speak this beautiful message that renews lives and creates a more just and gentle world, this mission will fail. God has chosen to move in response to the prayers of His people. So, Paul says, pray and God will move in response to your prayer and the Gospel will go out clearly and powerful and bring transformation to people and cities. God will move in our city in power when we continuously ask him to do it. It has happend before in our city: Jeremiah Lanphier – in 1857 with the city in economic panic and spiritual decline, put up handbills inviting others to join him for prayer at North Dutch Church, corner of Fulton and William Streets from 12-1pm. September 23, 1857, no one came for the first 30 minutes – just Jeremiah Lanphier. At 12:30 six people showed up. Next meeting there were forty intercessors. They decided to begin meeting every day. Within six months, ten thousand business men were gathering daily for prayer throughout our city; sparked a movement that spread across the country and within two years, a million people were added to  churches across America. Spurgeon once said, “If God be near a church, it must pray.  And if he be not there, one of the first tokens of his absence will be a slothfulness in prayer.” We must pray, pray, pray. If this emerging…We must become a praying church who in the words of Isaiah “give God no rest.”

A Community that Provokes Dialogue. Provoking. As we live out this new life that God is forming in us, giving our love and loyalty to Jesus and not the American Dream, subverting the cultural norm by embracing the patterns and values of Jesus’ Kingdom, there is a provocation that naturally happens. Paul is saying questions about your faith are bound to come because your conduct is consistently contrastive to that of the dominant culture. The fact that Paul expects this community to be able to answer those outside the faith implies that the ethos and ethic of this community would provoke others to question them. Paul expects this community to be utterly free from the enslaving expectations of the culture and its normal pursuits of power, possessions and pleasures so much so that the culture would pause with curiosity. This emerging community had made a clean break with the images of Caesar, pagan worship, dividing lines of status based on ethnicity or economics, the sensuality and promiscuity of the empire, and consumerism to the neglect of the poor and marginalized. They gave such dignity to women, children and equal status to slaves of the empire that they undermined the very systems of the empire. This was so subversive to the empire that it led to questioning, even trial and death. You cannot live in the way of Jesus and not bump up against a culture that runs counter to it.  Dialogue. 4:6 conversation – this includes your everyday dialogue about everyday things. Your speech should be gracious, pleasant, seasoned so that it is not boring or out of touch. Be interesting people. But, more specifically he refers to dialogue about Jesus. Paul says you will have opportunities, so make the most of them. Our city is pregnant with opportunities for conversation about Jesus. Make the most of the opportunities to speak a positive word about Christ and his Gospel and His Church. In other words, when our lives provoke dialogue we don’t attribute it to our moral decency or code of honor or family upbringing. We attribute it to the Gospel.  4:6 “Let your speech be gracious…” Gospel is not only the substance of your answers, it shapes the spirit of your answering. It is gracious, pleasant, and leaves people with a positive opinion of Christ. Christians are often and sometimes rightly accused of being self-righteous, condemning, judgmental, arrogant and ignorant. I remember a time in my life when my zeal expressed itself in arrogance and self-righteousness. It lacked humility, love, and respect and turned a lot of people off. The problem was that I was not truly believing the Gospel I was spreading. The Gospel has within itself the resources to free us from self-righteous, condemning, judgmental attitudes. When the Gospel really penetrates our heart we understand that we are saved by grace, not by our works robbing us of all boasting and arrogance. Our righteousness is like unclean rags before God, so we need Christ’s righteous record credited to us by faith, robbing us all self-righteousness. The Gospel says that we are spiritually and morally bankrupt without anything to commend us to God and as such we have no moral superiority that qualifies us as judge of anyone. The Gospel gives us a hero who serves and dies for his enemies and loves without condition and calls us to do the same. When grace penetrates the heart it pours from the life. If we as an emerging community are going to shape an emerging New York, it will require provocative living under the Lordship of Christ that addresses the questions and objections of the culture with Gospel Answers and with Gospel Answering, so that even if people do not agree with our message, and many won’t, they find us gracious people shaped by a message of grace.

A Community of Participation. 4:7-18 is a list of people in the Roman world, some with Paul serving and suffering with him in his missionary efforts and others in Colossae who are a part of this church. It is easy to skip over parts of Scripture like this, because 1) we can’t pronounce half the names and 2) we fail to remember that these are real people with real lives in real cities. They are like us. They are trying to build careers and make friendships and pay rent and get a date and teach their children how to be human. These are people struggling to live out their faith in the shadow of the empire like you and I are trying to live out our faith in a culture dominated by the American Dream. If we look at their lives, they will inspire us. They are all very different yet all fully engaged in the Church and in the movement of God. People who served as leaders in the community and people who led as servants in the community. People like Epaphras who are uniquely gifted in praying and who wrestle and agonize in prayer for the community (Kristian Rose). People like Nympha, a successful woman who loved Christ and exercised incredible hospitality, hosting the church in Colossae in her home at great risk to her own life (Vinita and her hospitality). People like Archippus who was called to live and lead in the city of Colossae (like many of you who love this city and are choosing to stay here to serve and bless it). Point: Leave the Fringe. Move from observation to participation. Move from attending to belonging. While you are here in NYC and while you are here at Apostles, make it the best years of your life. Pray like you have never prayed; give like you have never given; serve like you have never served and build the best relationships you have ever built. Leverage your life inside the church and outside the church to make the church and the city a better place. Join a community group; find a team to serve with; find a mercy ministry to get involved in; share the message of Christ with co-workers. God is moving, he is always at work. Don’t miss it. If this emerging community is going to shape an emerging New York, it must become a community where the norm is participation – giving our hearts and hands to the movement of God.