Gospel Community

Neal Ledbetter

Description

Similar to Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Gospel Community explores one of the rare jewels of the Christian life. Namely, the new kingdom-family we inherit as a result of our new identity in Christ.
Do you long for genuine relationships where you can know others and be known by them? Do you desire more than just gathering in the same space with others without any real connection? Yet, simultaneously, do you find yourself occasionally pushing back when someone gets too close? Why do you think you have that longing, and why do you think deep-abiding relationships are such a struggle to find and maintain? In this book, Pastor Neal Ledbetter makes the case that the gospel of Jesus Christ gives us answers.
In the gospel, we are offered the endless treasure of Jesus and the never-ending, overflowing supply of treasures found in him. One of the rare jewels that comes with a new identity in Christ is a new gospel community, kingdom-family, and people to which we belong and in which we can know and be known. Paul calls it our inheritance in the saints (Eph 1:18), our citizenship with the saints, and our membership among the household of God (Eph 2:19–22). This new gospel community and kingdom-family is simply too important and too wonderful a treasure to ignore, avoid, or treat as unnecessary, unimportant, or secondary to our lives.
This study will explore the extraordinary gift we have been given in gospel community. We’ll see how the gospel transforms us individually and simultaneously forms us into a new people. We’ll survey how we are intended to live together and the only sustaining motive and power for doing so. And finally, we’ll examine several characteristics necessary to experience the rare jewel of gospel community.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Biblical Meditations
• Philosophie et théologie
• Belonging
• Community
• Kingdom
• Identity
• Family
• Church
• Gospel

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 20 juin 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798385000319
• Langue: English

Extrait

GOSPEL COMMUNITY
 
 
 
Embracing The New Kingdom-Family That Comes With Our New Identity In Christ
 
 
 
 
 
 
Neal Ledbetter
 
Edited by Abby Braden, Sophie Mi ller, and Julia Summe rlin
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Copyright © 2023 Neal Ledbetter.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
All scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis copyright © 1960 C.S. Lewis Pte. Ltd.
Extract reprinted by permission.
 
ISBN: 979-8-3850-0030-2 (sc)
ISBN: 979-8-3850-0031-9 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023911046
 
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date:   06/16/2023
DEDICATION
To my girls. I write so that you may know.
CONTENTS
Series Introduction
Preface
Introduction
 
PART 1 : A NEW PEOPLE
 
Chapter 1       What Is Gospel Community?
Chapter 2       Why We Want Gospel Community So Deeply
Chapter 3       Why We Fail To Experience Gospel Community As Intended
Chapter 4       How The Gospel Transforms Our Experience of Community
Chapter 5       How Gospel Community Transforms Us
Chapter 6       Why Gospel Community Is So Important To The Christian Life
Chapter 7       Our New Kingdom-Family
 
PART 2 : A NEW WAY OF LIVING
 
Chapter 8       One Body With Many Parts
Chapter 9       Each Is Unique And Vitally Important
Chapter 10     Each Part Is Strategically Gifted and Arranged For Service
Chapter 11     Why It Matters
 
PART 3 : A NEW UNITY
 
Chapter 12     Who We Were
Chapter 13     Who We Are
Chapter 14     How We Now Live
 
PART 4 : A NEW PURPOSE
 
Chapter 15     A New Command
Chapter 16     A New Motive
Chapter 17     A New Purpose, Result, and Mission
 
PART 5 : A NEW COMMITMENT
 
Chapter 18     Commitment
Chapter 19     Vulnerability
Chapter 20     Honesty
Chapter 21     Humility
 
Conclusion
For Further Reading
Special Thanks
About The Author
SERIES INTRODUCTION
In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he is beside himself with joy to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ (Eph 3:8). By the phrase “unsearchable riches,” Paul means two things. First, he is overjoyed to proclaim the person and work of Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, was buried, and rose again (Rom 15:18; 1 Cor 15:3–4). Everything Paul ever accomplished, anything he ever achieved, every possession he had or ever desired was eclipsed by the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus (Phil 3:8).
Paul saw Christ, and everything else lost its luster. He grew in Christ, and everything else grew dim. The more he stared at the spotless beauty of Jesus, the more he saw the dim shadows of his earthly treasures—such that he willfully forfeited everything else for the sake of knowing and growing in Christ. All that Paul previously valued became insignificant in the light of Christ. Paul’s greatest joy became presenting and proclaiming Jesus (Eph 3:2, 7–8; Gal 2:7–9), the treasure of Heaven that does not fail (Matt 13:44; Luke 12:33).
While Paul is overjoyed to proclaim Jesus, he is secondarily overjoyed to proclaim the never-ending, unsearchable riches that come to those who are in Christ Jesus. That is why Paul is relentless with the phrases “in him” or “in Christ” in the first chapter of Ephesians. Paul says that in Jesus we are given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph 1:3). Just read some of the many blessings we receive in Christ: adoption as sons, his glorious grace, redemption, the forgiveness of sins, knowledge of God’s will, union vertically to God with others and within ourselves, an inheritance, the seal and guarantee of the Holy Spirit, a surpassing eternal hope, gospel community among the saints, and God’s immeasurable resurrection power on our behalf.
In other words, Jesus is the treasure, and along with union to him comes an unsearchable, endless inheritance. Ephesians 1 is just the tip of the iceberg, and each blessing Paul lists is another snowflake on that iceberg worthy of a lifetime of study. For this reason, Paul prays that the Holy Spirit would give the church in Ephesus, and us, wisdom to understand, revelation to see, hearts awakened to feel, and minds opened to know all of the unsearchable, immeasurable, surpassing riches in Christ (Eph 1:17–19).
This series is devoted to the study of those riches. Each topic, whether it be Gospel Community, Gospel Peace, Gospel Marriage , or Gospel Identity , is a meditation on one of the endless rare jewels that come with life in Christ. Like a miner examining each stone, a botanist examining each leaf, or a meteorologist examining each raindrop, these meditations explore the individual diamonds of the Christian life.
God’s greatness, endurance, understanding, ways, and wisdom are unsearchable (Ps 145:3; Is 40:28; Ps 147:5; Job 5:9; Rom 11:33). So are the riches of Jesus. The Greek word for unsearchable means the riches of Christ are fathomless or bottomless. Their depths cannot be fully explored or discovered. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. It simply indicates how great, wonderful, immeasurable, and beautiful Jesus is and how endless and amazing his blessings are. They are unsearchable in quantity and quality. And each one, when explored, lifts our eyes to a God too wonderful to articulate. No wonder Paul breaks out in song in Romans 11 when recounting the wonder of God’s grace! “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Rom 11:33).
PREFACE
The s eedling thoughts in this book on the importance of gospel community began on a four-week backpacking trip in Europe in 2005. I was leading a small team of college students across Europe, each of whom were from the Christian university where I was employed. The aim of that trip, and the decade’s worth of trips that followed, was spiritual formation. We spent fourteen weeks prior to our travels studying the Bible and the gospel together. In that time, we studied what the gospel is, how it changes us, and how it gives us a new motive to love one another, share that love with others, and live missionally. We then spent a month traveling outside our familiar bubbles in the unfamiliar secular world of Europe, putting what we learned into practice.
We were Francis Schaeffer’s L’Abri on the move. Schaeffer and his wife founded L’Abri fellowship in Switzerland, where they spent years inviting skeptics and Christians into their home and into community to discuss the gospel and Christian worldview. We did something similar, except we traveled from city to city, stayed in hostels, and engaged in gospel conversations all along the way. Each stop and conversation was formative for us and for those we encountered along the way.
Those trips gave me a front-row seat to one of the great longings of the human heart and the answer provided in the gospel. Each night, as our merry little band of travelers sat around crepes and playing cards, laughing and recounting that day’s adventures, we also attracted solo travelers like moths to a flame. Little did I know before launching those trips, very few people backpack across Europe in groups of four or five as we were doing. Instead, they primarily travel solo or, at best, in a pair. So when a small group like ours gathered around a hostel table, talking meaningfully about the deep things in life, loving and encouraging one another, it stood out like a light in the darkness.
In God’s providence, I also read Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer on that trip. As I read Bonhoeffer’s classic on Christian community, it hit me that our little team was practicing Bonhoeffer’s principles. But, more than that, each night, when those solo and duo travelers pulled up a chair to join in the conversation, knowingly or not, they were seeking the gospel community Jesus died to establish and that we were privileged to experience.
I still remember one young man sitting with us in wonder. He said, “There’s just something different about you guys. You actually like each other.” We were a spectacle and oddity to him. He was in awe that people could be genuine, vulnerable, and loving toward one another. He was shocked that people could disagree without division. And he was surprised that the people who held firm convictions different from his own were the same people who were genuinely interested in him and his story.
One after another, night after night, day after day, year after year, those solo travelers were drawn into our orbit and became part of our little family. They went to dinner with us, climbed the Eiffel with us, hiked the Alps with us, and regularly reoriented their travel plans to migrate with us wherever we were headed next. Our love f