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Community - Genesis 1-11; John 17
A sermon preached by Ian Garrett

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This morning we start a series of sermons on what the Bible says on certain topics. And we begin with the topic of community.

Some friends moved house two years ago. They had a house-warming party. And they invited the neighbours on either side – who’d lived in the road for years. And at the end, one of those couples said, ‘Thanks for getting us all together – we’d never actually met the others.’ And I guess most of us feel that sort of loss of community. More people than ever before in the UK are now living on their own – nearly 1 in 3. More people than ever before are divorcing. And even within family homes, there’s less community. One writer says this:

Increasingly, the home has become a leisure centre in which each individual does his or her own thing – watching TV in their bedrooms, listening to music on their headphones, etc. The only thing many households now truly have in common is the fridge.

But it’s a problem inside church as well. In a recent survey of churches, people said they were so busy that, apart from Sunday, they could only make one time in the rest of the week for church. So the prospect is that church, too, becomes less of a community and more of an activity in which we pass like members of a gym, coming and going anonymously for our own spiritual fitness.

So what does the Bible say about how we can find community? We’re going to work through several parts of the Bible which speak to this topic. Let me start by defining what I take to be the two main ingredients of community: shared lives (ie, relationships), and shared purpose (or task) – both of which Christ offers. And let’s turn to our first heading:


First, CREATION AND COMMUNITY (Genesis 1-2)

If you’re asking what the Bible says on a topic, one approach is to think through the Bible in order: from creation (how God meant things to be at the beginning), through the fall (what’s gone wrong) to salvation (how God is putting things right through the work of the Lord Jesus). So would you turn to Genesis 1, where we see how God meant us to be community creatures. Genesis 1.26:

²⁶ Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." (Genesis 1.26-28)

So, v26, we were created in God’s image - in some way like God – to be able to relate to him. So the first Biblical thing to say about community is: that we’ll only find the full sense of identity and purpose that we need from knowing God. And if we look only to human community – whether it’s marriage or family or friendship – to meet those needs, it won’t deliver, because we’re asking human community to deliver what only relationship with God can.

Having said that, we were created for human community – shared lives in a shared task. And the task – what I’ll call our creation task - is there in v28:

“Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule…” (Genesis 1.28)

Ie, the task is having and nurturing children so that there’s a next generation who know God and who take responsibility for his world under him. And chapter 2 spells that out more. Look at 2.18:

¹⁸ The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." (Genesis 2.18)

Now people often assume that where it says Adam was ‘alone’, it simply means he was lonely and needed company - so that marriage is then seen as the solution to loneliness. But in fact God doesn’t simply say, ‘I will make a companion… for him’, but a ‘helper’. Ie, the problem is not simply loneliness. The problem is: he’s alone in a task that he can’t do without help – this creation task of having and nurturing children under God. And that’s why God created woman, and not simply another man. That’s described next, and v23:

²³ The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman,' for she was taken out of man." (Genesis 2.23)

So that was basically the first marriage, with God officiating. And then Genesis makes a general statement about marriage for all time, v24:

²⁴ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. (Genesis 2.24)

So look at this first picture (below). The crown stands for God, the circle stands for the world. And the basic unit of community was meant to be the married family. And marriage is like a triangle with the three corners of v24: One: a man will leave his father and mother – ie, move from the unit he was born into, and into a new unit in which, God willing, more children can be born and nurtured. Two: he’ll be united to his wife – that’s the permanent commitment word, expressed in the unconditional ‘I will’s’ of the marriage service. And three: they will become one flesh – which includes sexual union, through which children can be born inside the security of the triangle, as opposed to the insecurity outside it:

So God meant the married family to be the basic unit of community. Application: we should work to strengthen and protect our own marriages and others’ marriages. And we should argue for the wisdom and benefits of marriage in our culture. Having said that, the vision of the Old Testament (OT) was not just for the ‘nuclear family’. The OT law encouraged extended family. And where grandparents and other relatives are nearby to help with children and the work of the home, we should cultivate extended family. And for the many of us who don’t have extended family anywhere near, we need to compensate and help one another. And some of our midweek groups for mothers and for parents and children do that. But it’s those who are single and away from family who feel especially out on a limb – especially those whose job mobility or studies bring them here just temporarily. And one test of our church community is how well we look after them – eg, the doctor in Newcastle for just a 6 month hospital job; or the student – whether international or national.

So to summarise so far: marriage is nottask of having and nurturing children under God. So that a commitment to marriage should be a commitment to parenthood, God-willing. And of course whether or not we can and do have children is in his hands. But then it needs to be said that marriage is not the only solution to loneliness – there’s friendship, there’s family and there’s church family. So, eg, it bothers me in the debate over whether the Bible allows divorced people to remarry, when you hear those in favour saying, ‘Well, otherwise aren’t you condemning someone to a lifetime of singleness?’ Well what’s that saying? That those of us who are currently single are ‘sentenced to loneliness’? (Incidentally that’s over 50% of the adult JPC congregation; those of you who are married are the minority in this church.) But that comes out of this wrong view that marriage is the only solution to loneliness, which just isn’t true. Now I do think that good marriage provides a depth and constancy of friendship which you don’t get as a single person, even with the best friends and fellowship. But it’s simply not true to say: ‘singleness equals loneliness’.


Secondly, THE ‘FALL’ AND COMMUNITY (Genesis 3-11)

So that’s creation. But we then have to take into account the effect of the fall - the rejection of God. And I’ve tried to picture that:

God is now ‘crossed out’ in human thinking (although of course he’s still there), and men and women now wear on their own heads that little crown that says, ‘I will rule my own life.’ Which fractures human community. Read Genesis 3 onwards, and you find that marriage becomes conflict instead of co-operation; you find family breakdown as Cain murders his brother Abel in chapter 4; and you find societal breakdown in the violence and sexual chaos that finally lead to the judgement of the flood in chapter 6. And In chapter 11 you find the division of nations and language groups.

And the lesson of Genesis 3-11 is that there is no community - as God meant it to be - where human beings reject God. The rest of the Bible is then the story of God working to rescue that situation, so onto heading 3:


Thirdly, SALVATION (Old Testament)

Turn on to Genesis 12.1:

¹ The LORD [ie, God] had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household [ie, the fallen human community you were born into] and go to the land I will show you.
² "I will make you into a great nation [ie, a new community]and I will bless you [ie, bring you back into relationship with me]; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12.1-3)

That’s the foundational promise of the Bible: God’s promise to create a new community that experiences the blessing – ie, the benefit, the goodness - of knowing him and living his way. So since Abraham, God’s plan has been to have in his world a community that knows him, that lives as he meant us to, and that therefore attract others to him. So now there’s not just that creation task of nurturing children under God, but also what I’ll call our salvation task – of making God known to a world which is rejecting him.

Well, the rest of the OT is the story of how Israel failed to be that new community. But in failing they actually prepared the way for the coming of Jesus. Because their failure showed that a far deeper work of salvation than the Exodus from Egypt would be needed if sinful human beings were to be changed. Which takes us to heading 4:


Fourthly, SALVATION (New Testament)

Would you turn into the New Testament (NT) part of the Bible, to John 17. This is Jesus praying for us on the Thursday night before the Friday when he died for us. John 17.20. Jesus prays to his Father in heaven:

²⁰"My prayer is not for them alone [that is, his original apostles]. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message [ie, believers in all generations – so this is what Jesus wants for us, v21],²¹that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. (John 17.20-21)

So what the Lord Jesus wants for our church is that we become a united community just like the Lord Jesus and his Father are, if I can put it like this, a united community. Just like God the Father and God the Son are as close as that, just like nothing comes between them, just like nothing divides them, just like they love one another and co-operate with one another totally – that’s the kind of community Jesus wants JPC to be. How? Well, read on to his second request, second half of v21:

May they also be in us… (John 17.21)

Remember, he’s praying to his Father. So ‘us’ means ‘God the Father and God the Son’. So he’s saying, ‘May they also have a deep, personal relationship with us, with God the Father and God the Son.’ And that second request is the key to the first. Only if we’ve experienced what it is to come back into relationship with God, through his love shown in the death of Jesus, will we be able to relate to one another as Jesus wants. Eg, only if I know that I’ve been totally forgiven by Jesus at unimaginable cost will I really have the will to forgive you when I need to. Or eg, only if I believe that God has accepted you and made you my brother or sister in Christ will I really accept you myself - not simply treating you as some acquaintance, but as someone for whom I’m deeply responsible because you are family to me. That’s what Jesus is on about. And end of v21, he wants that:

so that the world may believe that you have sent me. [And v23:]. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17.21,23)

I remember a student being interviewed here in church about how he came to trust in Christ. He said it was watching the quality of relationships in the Newcastle Christian Union. I remember his exact words. He said, ‘It was the only university society I found which really united different people. All the others were simply cliques that just welcomed their own kind. The only people who accepted me as I was, were the CU.’ And that’s the kind of community the Lord Jesus wants us to be.

So imagine a church where no newcomer goes away on a Sunday thinking, ‘No-one talked to me.’ Imagine a church without cliques – where the seventeen year olds mix with the seventy year olds and the nationals with the internationals. Imagine a church where most weeks most members have other members into their homes for a meal. Imagine a church where people who are sick or going through the mill don’t go a day without a visit or a call. Imagine a church where single parents can say, ‘I don’t know what I’d do without their support.’ That’s the church Jesus is praying for us to become. And if we’re even something like that, and if the world sees it, it’ll be a great witness to Christ.

Now, like all churches, we’re far from perfect. But I do see a good deal of what I’ve just described. I guess the bigger question is: does the world see it? At least among the busy core of this church I often hear people saying that they’re struggling to spend time with people outside church. But, look again at the end of John 17.21: the no.1 purpose of our church community is, ‘so that the world may believe’. So it may be that over the summer we need to reconsider our church commitments and drop some things or say ‘No’ to some new thing, so we can make new friendships or deepen existing ones outside church. But we also need to find ways of introducing the non-Christian people we know into our church community, so that they see Christians operating together. I think often we find ourselves either with all Christians at church things, or being the only Christian – eg, in the office or the neighbourhood. But we need to find ways – like the Family Fun Days and sports teams and socials and so on – of introducing the non-Christian people we know into the Christian circles we know, so that what Jesus prays for in John 17 is going on.

So if you look at this next picture:

The Lord Jesus’ will for the church in this life is that we ‘may be one… so that the world may believe.’ But then look at John 17.24:

²⁴"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.’ (John 17.24)

And that’s the Lord Jesus’ will for the church beyond this life – that we’re ultimately with him and perfectly like him in glory. And that will be the first time since the fall when human beings have enjoyed unspoiled community with God and with one another. And in the box below that right hand picture, I’ve put two Bible verses which describe that community. Revelation 19 calls it, ‘The wedding of the Lamb [ie, of the Lord Jesus]’. It’s as if now believers are ‘engaged’ to the Lord Jesus, but living at a distance; then the relationship will finally be as close as it possibly can be.

And then in Mark 12, when asked about life after death, Jesus said, ‘When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels…’ Ie, there won’t be any more human marriage in heaven – not least because the quality of all our relationships will be better then the best marriage in this life.

So that’s a very sketchy outline of the Bible on community. Let me run through some final application for us:

First one: the church family is now a believer’s ultimate family. In Mark 3, Jesus was told that his mother and brothers were looking for him.

³³"Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked.
³⁴Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." (Mark 3.33-35)

So if you’re a believer, your biological family is not your only, nor even your ultimate, family. The church family is – this family that will last beyond this life. And therefore we should have towards one another a serious family commitment. Eg, are we really prepared to drop things and give serious time and effort to help one another - as family? Are we really prepared to stick with one another through our difficulties and mistakes - as family? And so on.

But if church family is a believer’s ultimate family, where does marriage fit in? Well, the married familyalso needs to serve the salvation task. Ie, in addition to that Genesis 1 vision of nurturing children under God, the family is now also to serve the task of evangelism. So we need to ask: how can we use our families and homes to reach others? Eg, children, especially, are great contact-makers. Our children put us in touch with numerous other families through mother and baby things, through nurseries and schools and clubs. That is a particular avenue of evangelism for many of us here.

The other thing to say about the married is that you are a sign, a visual aid, of our ultimate marriage-relationship with God. So Christians who are currently single should look at the married and think, ‘I have a relationship even better than that going with the Lord Jesus.’ And the married should think, ‘My marriage is only the second most important relationship in my life.’

Next point: Christians who are currently single are especially free to serve the salvation task. 1 Corinthians 7 contrasts the two states of singleness and marriage and makes the obvious point that marriage pulls you in more directions than singleness, so that singles have more undivided time and energy to serve the spread of the gospel and the building up of the church:

³²I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs—how he can please the Lord. ³³But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— ³⁴and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. ³⁵I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. (1 Corinthians 7.32-35)

So, eg, it’s no accident that many youth works and camps and Holiday Clubs rely on the labours of the singles. So if you’re single, or single again (through bereavement or divorce), the Bible encourages you to use the extra time and energy and money you have compared to the married, to serve the spread of the gospel and the building up of the church.

The other thing to say about the single is that they’re a sign, or visual aid, of the end of human marriage in heaven. So the single should think, ‘Even if I don’t end up marrying, or marrying again after being widowed, this is only temporary – I can look forward to the best of relationships in heaven.’ And the married should also think, ‘This is only temporary – only ‘till death us do part’.’

Finally, whether single or married, we all need the community of the church. The single need it – and not just with fellow-singles like in the 20s and 30s group. Singles need inclusion in the homes and families of the married. And if as a married person with children on your hands as well, that makes your heart sink, then remember: the married also need the community of the church – including the friendship and help of the single. Eg, if your heart sinks at the thought of having someone extra for Sunday lunch, just remember that they could be just what you need. Eg, they could actually make for a great lunch-time for your children. They could take the children off your hands for an hour or so after lunch. They could end up being your baby-sitter.

Because God intends our church community to be a ‘win-win situation’, where if we each commit ourselves to give of ourselves, like Christ, we’ll each find our needs more than met - in Christ, and in one another.