"The church of Jesus Christ was founded on the giving of two gifts." Many years ago now, I heard a pastor say that in a sermon and it had a profound effect on me. I'd never heard it said quite that way before. He said when the first disciples went out to share the good news about Jesus Christ and what He had done, they went proclaiming two gifts of God. The first gift was the gift of the Gospel. They told people of the urgent need for them to recognize the brokenness of this world—the brokenness of their own lives. They told people that they were more sinful—farther from God—than they ever imagined they were and therefore, in deep, deep trouble. But they also told them that there is a God who loves them anyway. A God who has a truly unfathomable love. A God who says to us—"no matter how bad you are, no matter how disobedient, no matter how filthy and dirty you've become, no matter how far you've strayed from me—I still love you and I will forgive you and I can give you a new start—new life that lasts forever!" That precious gift of the Gospel brought thousands of people in the first century A.D. out of hopelessness and despair into a meaningful and joyful new life!

Now, I knew that gift well. I had lived all my life hearing Christians talk about that gift. But, this pastor said, "But that's not all they had to offer! The church of Jesus Christ was founded on a second gift as well—the gift of their fellowship, their life together." The first disciples of Jesus went out and told people they could not only know the forgiveness of sins—they could join their community. They invited outsiders into an existence that, while not perfect, was so much better than anything they had ever experienced. They told people, "In our community, we love each other deeply. We care for each other. We help and support and encourage and cheer one another on through life. We share our resources. We bear each other's burdens. And everyone is welcome in this community."

Nowhere in the Bible do we see these two gifts more clearly than in Acts 2:42-47. It says there, of the first Christians, "they devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching..." That's the first gift. The gift of the Gospel—that awesome message that we are loved and treasured by God not because of what we've done but even in spite of what we've done. That no sin, no failure, no mistake, is so great that God cannot forgive you. That Jesus Christ lived the perfect life for us and died on the cross in our place and rose from the dead to give us new life! That's "the apostle's teaching"—the first gift!

But then, also, the second gift: described in a single word that occurs three times in just these few verses: the word: "together". "All the believers were together...they met together...they ate together." They did life together.

That's the title of this new sermon series this weekend: "Life Together", where we're going to focus on this second gift from God. The title of the series is actually taken from a book that Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote many years ago on the subject of Christian fellowship. The book is called "Life Together." And in it, Bonhoeffer talks so eloquently about what this second gift is and why it's some important. He says,

"The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer. Longingly, the imprisoned apostle Paul calls his "dearly beloved son in the faith", Timothy, to come to him in prison in the last days of his life; (so) he would see him again and have him near...Remembering the congregation in Thessalonica, Paul prays, "night and day...exceedingly that we might see your face." (I Thessalonians 3:10). The aged John knows that his joy will not be full until he can come to his own people and speak face to face instead of writing with ink. (II John 12)... Man was created a body, the Son of God appeared on earth in the body, he was raised in the body, in the sacrament the believer receives the Lord Christ in the body...The believer therefore, (praises God) for the bodily presence of a brother. The prisoner, the sick person, the Christian in exile sees in the companionship of a fellow Christian a physical sign of the gracious presence of the Triune God." [Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Life Together, Harper & Row, p. 20.]

Wow! Bonhoeffer is saying, we have to understand that the reason that the early Christians were "filled with awe " (Acts 2:43) and had, as Acts 2 says, "glad and sincere hearts" wasn't just because of what they believed about Jesus. It was partially because of what they believed. But their joy, their comfort, their hope was equally derived from their life together.

This is such an important message for the church today to hear, and especially a church like ours in suburban America. Because in modern suburban America, the value of community is constantly being undermined. Our fast-paced lives increasingly pushes us every one of us away from the gift of life together into individualism and isolation. The famous pollster, George Gallup Jr, said of American isolationism,

"We are physically detached from each other. We change places of residence frequently. One survey revealed that seven in ten do not know their neighbors. As many as one-third of Americans admit to frequent periods of loneliness..." [Gallup Jr., George, Emerging Trends, vol. 19, no. 3 (March, 1997).]

Gallup's been telling us for 10 years that this is a serious problem. But God's been telling us it's a problem for literally thousands of years. You heard it today in our reading from Ecclesiastes, "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work. If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up." For some of you here today, the most prominent sin in your life is not any of the obvious sins like lying or cheating or swearing or stealing. It's the sin of pride that says, "I'm completely independent. I don't need anyone else. I'm not going to rely on anyone else. I'm going to bear my burdens alone." God says to you today through these words of Scripture, "That's not My plan for your life. I have two gifts for you."

Now, I could go on and give you a long theological treatise today on the blessings of life together. But I've decided not to do that today. I think it will be far more effective if you hear it from people you know who working to build this second gift into their lives. Recently, we passed a video camera around to a bunch of our small groups, what we call PEACE Groups, and we asked them to share about the blessings they have personally experienced in their group from sharing life together with other Christians. Take a look at what they said...

[SHOW VIDEO]

That's a great witness to the two gifts that God offers us in and through Jesus Christ: the gift of the Gospel and the gift of life together. My question to you is this: are you experiencing the joy of both gifts in your own life?

One final story, from a beloved author. He writes,

"I have a son who was born without a left hand. One day in Sunday school the teacher was talking with the children about the church. To illustrate her point she folded her hands together and said, "Here's the church, here's the steeple; open the doors and see all the people!" She asked the class to do it along with her—obviously not thinking about my son's inability to pull this exercise off. Yet in the next moment it dawned on her that my son could not join in. Before she could do anything about it, the little boy next to my son, a friend of his from the time they were babies, reached out his left hand and said, "Let's do it together." The two boys proceeded to join their hands together to make the church and the steeple."

The author concludes, "This hand exercise should never be done again by an individual because the church is not a collection of individuals, but the one body of Christ." [Frazee, Randy, The Connecting Church, Zondervan, 2001, p. 242.]