A sense of belonging 

by Apostle André Pelser

Preached Sunday 17th July 2011 at Harvester Reformational Church Cape Town

Mark 9:41: For whoever gives you a cup of cold water to drink in My Name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.

Four facts that will give you a sense of belonging to Christ:

1. It is a basic human need to belong somewhere
2. Your problems become His responsibility (Is 9:6)
3. Cast all your cares upon Him for He cares for you (I Pet 5:7)
4. Look forward to the prize (Phil 3:14)

I once dreamt how friends rejected me for not sharing their experience. They climbed down a steep hill and I didn’t. So they ignored me. I felt sad and dejected. Then one stepped forward and said, ‘Stay here, you belong here.’

Luke 24

I.                  The disciples’ need for belonging

1. He came to His own and they did not know Him. At birth and even in death, even after His resurrection His own people rejected Him. Satan tempted Him to doubt His own identity. Is 53 He was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. We despised him.
2. Cleopas (‘of a renowned father’) and the other disciple missed the significance of history’s greatest moment even because they were too focussed on their own disappointments and problems. They had a ‘sad conversation’ about the events in Jerusalem.
3. They did not recognise Jesus because they did not look for Him. They walked away from fellowship into loneliness. When they left Jerusalem (‘possession of peace’) they went to Emmaus (‘hot springs’) to enjoy luxuries and pamper the flesh.
4. When people are pre-occupied with their dashed hopes and frustrated plans they cease to look for Christ Jesus and fail to recognise Him in the midst of their storm.
5. Their false expectations made Him a stranger. They expected a militant Messiah and they saw a gentle Saviour instead. They wanted a champion and instead saw a suffering Saviour. Humility and Meekness are never popular with the masses.

2.      Jesus’ sense of belonging

He opened the Scriptures concerning Himself and applied it to the situation. Jesus lived the Word. The Word was made flesh. He was the promised Seed in Genesis, the suffering Servant in Isaiah, the Pierced One in Zechariah, the Promised One in Malachi. The thread of the anointed one is woven throughout the prophetic Scriptures and holds it together. When He opened the Scriptures to them, their sad conversation turned into glad tidings! (v.34)

3.      Jesus’ willingness to belong

How easily they constrained Him to stay with them. Stay here with us! That’s all it took! (v.29). Jesus in us is the hope of glory. We need to share Him with others. Through understanding of the Opened Scriptures we abide in Him and His Word abides in us.

4       Making room for other people

We need to say to those who are looking for a place to belong, ‘Stay here with us!’ or ‘You belong here!’ until their eyes are opened and they can see Jesus Christ clearly among us. Then their hearts will burn with excitement! Christ accepted you; accept one another also (Philippians 1).

Blessings of belonging to a body of believers

1. Heaven’s resources are made available to all. It is at our disposal. The God who created the universe is at hand where two or three gather together in His Name!
2. The world was startled by the power of the atom bomb. We serve the God who created the atom! His power works mightily through us who believe! It is the same force that raised Jesus from the dead! (Eph 1:19-22)
3. The marriage of the Prince and Princess of Monaco as well as Prince William caused a great stir in the world – but we have an invitation to the wedding of all ages: the wedding supper of the Lamb! Jesus and His bride invite you to attend His marriage!
4. When we are born again, we are adopted into God’s family! We have all the rights and privileges Jesus had! We are co-heirs and joint-heirs!
5. Some political prisoners are happy when they receive amnesty, but when you are born again, you are set free from all your guilt and condemnation. You can stand in the presence of a Holy God without any sense of inferiority as a child of God!
6. There was great rejoicing when WW II ended – but we can rejoice because Christ fought and won the battle over sin and the world for us! We share in His victory! He is the conqueror that displayed Satan as a defeated foe to all the universe – and we are more than conquerors just by following Him. We can now cast out demons in His Name and they have to obey us!
7. Jesus broke off sins handles and claimed that the devil has nothing in Him. He can get no grip on his life. He can’t control or manipulate Him. He gave the devil no place. He purges us from our old sins and makes us vessels of honour to Him.

Requirements to belong to a body

1.  Jesus gave the prescription to qualify as one of His followers: ‘deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me.’ Without self-denial the cross is simply an irritation. People who are not willing to deny themselves cannot fit into a body. If self is too important you cannot be part of a team.
2. Mutual submission is a key to an apostolic body of people. Mutual respect and acceptance helps to discover the gifts in one another in order to regard others higher than you.
3. Submission to spiritual oversight is a vital aspect of belonging to a body. There are those who have to give an account of you before God. You can ensure that they do not do it with a heavy heart, but with a joyful report. Correction is part of the job description of a leader. Rebuke comes when someone has not received correction or hardened their hearts against leadership. A rebuke received speeds up the spiritual growth of an individual, but a person who ignores and rejects a rebuke is foolish.
4. Carrying weight in a body is important to lighten the load of the others. To attend a church is a good habit, but it carries no weight. Every member has to do its share in a body of believers to cause growth (Eph 4:16)
5. Understanding the protocol in a church allows peaceful relationships. Protocol is often the unspoken modus operandi that you sometimes find out through trial and error.

Remember the Lord builds the church

The Lord adds those who are saved to a church because He knows the role they will eventually play in a church. If you build a church on a church growth system, the system has to be honoured and obeyed. All new converts do is to learn the system until they are able to teach it to others. This is not how Jesus builds a church. He builds the person and the person learns to obey the Spirit – first by obeying the leadership.

Shoot roots before you try to bear fruit

The Lord builds slowly. Anything that God plants, grows.