The Blessings of Community - Ian Forest-Jones

There are rewards and blessings for the friends of Jesus. What must we do, and who must we do it with, if we want to enjoy them?

The scripture focus of this sermon is Mark 1:29–39. You would do well to read the passage in advance of reading the transcript or watching the video of this sermon.

This sermon was delivered at Penrith Church of Christ on Sunday, 21 June 2026.

Transcript

Good afternoon everyone! I was once asked to be the guest worship leader and preacher for a church with a 9:00 am start time. For reasons unknown even to myself, I assumed the service started at 9:30, so my wife and I were on our way to the service when we got the call that the congregation was waiting for us —and I thought we were going to arrive early! Thankfully, they had a lot of announcements that day and nowhere else to be.

This explains why I am very happy to be with you all here today, at a service that starts at the very reasonable time of 3:00 pm. Hard to be late for this one ☺

My wife and I actually visited your church a couple of months ago. At that service I heard you were looking for guest preachers, so offered to ‘throw my hat in the ring’, so to speak. I am grateful to Cate for passing on my offer and to Matt for accepting my offer. It is a pleasure and honour to be with you again to worship our Lord and to share with you my reflections on your current theme of “From The Heart”.

I am so pleased for you that you now have the local council’s permission to work toward establishing a church building in a nearby industrial estate.

The Reward and Blessing of Video Games

When I was a teenager, I discovered that if I helped out with chores around the house, my mum would reward me with extra time on my video games. Giving my time and effort brought me not only the satisfaction of helping but also unexpected blessings.

Of course, my video games of choice at the time were Pong and Space Invaders; games not quite at the level of Forza Horizon Japanor God of War Laufey, but quite satisfying in their own way.

The Reward and Blessing of Faithfulness

Getting back to the subject of rewards and blessings, the great evangelist Billy Graham wrote in his autobiography Just as I Am:

[My wife] Ruth and I had a vivid illustration of this on an island in the Caribbean. One of the wealthiest men in the world asked us to come to his lavish home for lunch. He was 75 years old, and throughout the entire meal he seemed close to tears. “I am the most miserable man in the world,” he said. “Out there is my yacht. I can go anywhere I want to. I have my private plane, my helicopters. I have everything I want to make my life happy, yet I am as miserable as hell.” We prayed with him, trying to point him to Christ, who alone gives lasting meaning to life.

Later that afternoon we met with the pastor of the local Baptist church. He was an Englishman, and he too was 75, a widower who spent most of his time taking care of his two invalid sisters. He was full of enthusiasm and love for Christ and others. “I don’t have two pounds to my name,” he said with a smile, “but I am the happiest man on this island.”

Billy asked Ruth after they left, “Who do you think is the richer man?” She didn’t have to reply, because they both already knew the answer.[1]

What and Why?

From these two examples, we can easily see there are rewards and blessings for the friends of Jesus. We need only ask what must we do, and who must we do it with, if we want to enjoy them?

Before I reflect on this topic, let us pray:

Holy God, speak to us
what has been told from the beginning,
your Word that is the foundation of the world. Amen.[2]

The Rewards and Blessings Include Purpose and Power

Throughout the 30 years of my ministry career, I have discovered that when we place our faith in Jesus there are rewards and blessings. The author of The Letter to the Hebrews highlighted this point when he wrote:

Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and is a rewarder of those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)[3]

This very challenging verse indicates that we place our faith in Jesus because he proves to us that our creator-God exists. Plus, it admits we are rewarded for doing so. This point also comes up in a letter written by the apostle Paul, who wrote:

I do all this for the sake of the gospel, in order that I may become a participant with it. (1 Corinthians 9:23)

Paul not only believed God exists but sought to live his life in such a way as to please God because he had discovered the Gospel, which is the good news that Jesus is Lord!

Before you join the apostle in such a commitment, I am sure you want to know what are the rewards and blessings enjoyed by the friends of Jesus. From the scriptures read for us earlier, we discover the rewards and blessings enjoyed by the friends of Jesus include purposeand power!

All of us want purpose and power, and will do anything at all to get them. This fact can be seen farcically in The Red Bull Flugtag competition, a contest in which teams must build homemade, human-powered flying machines and pilot them off a 9m high scaffold in the hope of achieving flight. The contest is known for its creative designs, entertaining performances, and the spectacular, if often brief, flights off the pier into the water below.

Don’t we all want a purpose to our life? For these teams, their purpose is to fly and to do so with style —or not!

Don’t we also all understand that any purpose for our life is going to require effort and perseverance to achieve —in other words, we need power? And the flugtag competition shows there is nothing wrong with getting a little help from our friends and enjoying ourselves along the way!

So how do we know the rewards and blessings enjoyed by the friends of Jesus include purpose and power? A prophet once wrote,

Have you not known, or have you not heard? Yahweh is the God of eternity, the creator of the ends of the earth! He is not faint, and he does not grow weary! There is no searching his understanding. (Isaiah 40:28)

The prophet here declares God’s existence, that he is the Creator and that he is Lord over all, always. This is the good news! This is the Gospel! Do we believe this or not?

As Creator and Lord, Yahweh has proven himself, time and time again, that he cares for his creation and especially cares for his people. How does he care for his people?

Those who wait for Yahweh shall renew their strength. They shall go up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not grow weary; they shall walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

Our Creator and Lord shows he cares by giving strength to the weary and the powerless. Those who trust in the Lord soar as if with wings, which is far superior and more reliable than the wings on the worthless and ineffective contraptions of the Red Bull Flugtag designs!

Trusting in the Lord, the friends of Jesus will run and not become weary, we will walk and not faint. We will certainly not crash and burn after just a few steps, nor will it matter if we look good doing it.

The rewards and blessings enjoyed by the friends of Jesus include purpose and power even when those around us are fainting and weary, stumbling and falling under the consequences of their sin. The free, full, and forever life Jesus promises to his friends is very much like soaring on wings, running without becoming weary, and walking without becoming faint. The question, then, is what kind of life do you want to live?

Develop Your Lifestyle Based on Works of Piety and Mercy

To answer that question, first notice with me that both Jesus and Paul had purpose and power, yet both did something to gain those rewards and blessings. From their example, we learn to develop our lifestyle based on works of piety and mercy.

Despite the claims of this fallen world, we do not get a purpose for life nor the power to achieve it by searching our hearts or contriving it in our own minds. We find purpose and power in exactly the same way Jesus did:

Getting up early in the morning while it was very dark, [Jesus] departed and went to a deserted place, and there he was praying … he said to [Simon and those who were with him], “Let us go elsewhere, into the neighbouring rural towns, so that I can preach there also, because I have come out for this very reason.” (Mark 1:35–38)

Jesus found his purpose and his power through prayer, which is a work of piety, a practice by which we express our respect for and devotion to God. Through such practices, the Holy Spirit transforms our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength (Mk 12:28–31; cf. Rom 12:1-2). Works of piety express our personal devotion and our respectful public worship.

But prayer is not the only work of piety the friends of Jesus practice. There is also:

Public worship of God
Reading God’s Word
Sharing The Lord’s Supper
Family and Private Prayer
Searching and studying the scriptures, alone and in community
Fasting or abstinence
Christian sharing

How does the Holy Spirit form us into friends of Jesus through these private and public works of piety? As was described by English author T.H. White (1906-64 AD), who was himself inspired by the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus (ca., 535–475 BC):

Choices become habits, habits become character, and character becomes our destiny. (T.H. White, channelling Heraclitus)

Incorporating these works of piety into our lifestyle is a choice that will help us form habits, by which the Holy Spirit renews and reforms our character, which then becomes our destiny. That is to say the traits and behaviours that constitute one’s character are the driving forces that determine the course of our life.

Who we are internally, our character, is composed of our virtues, values, and consistent patterns of behaviour. These matter more to God that what we produce and thus our character influences what happens to us in the long run, whether we are rewarded and blessed at the final consummation of all things.

Beyond their works of piety, both Paul and Jesus committed themselves to works of mercy, which express our personal compassion and our commitment to public justice.

In our scripture readings, Paul specifically described his conviction and practice of preaching. Jesus also stated this purpose was his own but we can easily see he did far more than preach as he travelled throughout Galilee. He also healed the sick and drove out demons (cf., Lk 4:16–21). Preaching, healing, and deliverance are works of mercy arising out of Jesus’ compassion and his commitment to justice.

Preaching, healing, and deliverance are not the only works of mercy the friends of Jesus practice:

Feeding the hungry
Clothing the naked
Caring for the sick
Visiting those in prison
Sheltering the homeless
Welcoming the stranger
Peacemaking
Serving the common good
Sharing the good news

Through these practices, along with works of piety, the Holy Spirit forms us into friends of Jesus through our choices, habit, character, and destiny.

Yet, there is a danger here that is likely to cause resistance in some of you to this message.

To illustrate this resistance, imagine with me that you live in California and are watching television in the late 1970s. A neat middle-aged executive peers out from the television screen. “Hello,” he says, his face crinkling into a sheepish grin. “I’m from General Telephone.” Boos and hisses explode off-camera. “Now, I’m aware that General Telephone provides less than adequate service.” Plop. A rotten tomato slides down his chin. “But we’re spending $200 million in California this year on improving our service.” He is hit with an egg. “Cables, switches, personnel, everything.” A cream pie splatters over his face. “Thank you for your patience,” he mumbles through the goo.

In another commercial, a woman at a crowded cocktail party asks her husband to say something funny. “General Telephone,” he replies, and everyone falls into paroxysms of laughter. The punch line: “We know some people think our service is laughable, but we’re spending $200 million in California this year to improve it. What’s so funny about that?”

These vignettes appeared on Los Angeles television as part of a zany [campaign run by] General Telephone of California —which has since merged with other companies to become Verizon. By tacitly conceding the company’s mistakes, the [marketing department] hoped the campaign would win sympathy and understanding among the system’s many disgruntled users.[4]

This is quite similar to the experience of local churches and Christians who are often ridiculed for their attempts to live as Jesus lived, belittled for our commitment to acts of personal devotion, public worship, personal compassion, and public justice. This ridicule can be so painful for Christians that we avoid any public works of piety and mercy altogether.

Having purpose and power as Jesus did means that only sometimes we succeed but mostly we learn from our mistakes. In dealing with our mistakes honestly, we represent the kingdom of God in this fallen world more maturely with each attempt. Our family, friends, neighbours, and associates may ridicule us for living a Christian lifestyle, but through these practices we gain the rewards and enjoy the blessings promised.

The rewards and blessings of purpose and power will be realised in our life when we commit to practising works of piety and works of mercy. Let us develop our lifestyle by incorporating these practices because we have placed our faith in Jesus and therefore want to do as Jesus did.

We Succeed and Learn Together

After incorporating these practices, the element of the answer I hope you adopt to the question of what kind of life you want to live arises in our scripture readings when we notice that Paul the apostle and Jesus our Lord both talked as if what they did was all about them, that the things they did yielded rewards and blessings for themselves alone. But we need to keep in mind Paul was writing to encourage a specific community of faith, in a specific time and place, and Jesus was setting an example for his immediate disciples, as well as “on behalf of those who believe in me through their word” (Jn 17:20).

Rather than assuming the timeless wisdom of the Bible is for us as individuals alone, let us take seriously that in our discipleship we succeed and learn together.

It is too easy to approach placing our faith in Jesus and living a Christian lifestyle as an individual rather than a team sport. The importance of being ‘on team’, together in community, was highlighted by author Aaron Renn in his 2024 book, Life in the Negative World: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian Culture.

Renn has long been known for his “Three Worlds of Evangelicalism” model describing the increasing culture war between Christianity and secular society.[5] Renn believes Western societies have come to have a negative view of Christianity. He argues that, since 2014, being known as a Christian is a social negative, particularly in the elite domains of society. Christian morality is expressly repudiated, seen as a threat to the public good and the new moral order. Subscribing to Christian moral views or violating the secular moral order brings negative consequences.

Renn’s analysis is very interesting for it is true evangelical churches do not hold a privileged position in any Western societies, any longer. By developing healthy, functioning, and safe communities of faith, with members known for integrity, churches exemplify the rewards and blessings of our Christian lifestyle, which will then draw people more readily to place their own faith in Jesus.

Taking Renn’s advice, we need to focus on strengthening this community, so that we might mature our faith and lifestyle together.

Because he placed his own faith in Jesus, the Christian lifestyle of Paul the apostle involved him travelling and sharing, encouraging conversion, and equipping discipleship. The purpose of his letter to the community of faith at Corinth was to encourage and equip them to grow in their faith and more faithfully live Christian lifestyles in such a way that they might mature together. His letter contains acknowledgements of their successes, but much more recognition of their failures. He shared with them his own experience of purpose and power in the hope they would focus on what brought them to faith in the first place, that it might bring others to place their faith in Jesus.

Jesus called disciples precisely so that they would continue his work to extend the kingdom of God, calling others to place their faith in him and begin living Christian lifestyles. Jesus set an example for his disciples and instructed them most often in how to “love one another”.

When we look closely at what they did, as compared to what they said, we learn from the witness of both Paul the apostle and Jesus our Lord that we gain the rewards and enjoy the blessings of purpose and power together, with others in community. This is why we humbly accept we cannot live Christian lifestyles on our own. The friends of Jesus build each other up when we gather for worship, fellowship, and connection, understanding that we mature as we discover sometimes we win, but mostly we learn.

This is what it means to be a disciple of jesus: to develop our lifestyle based on works of piety and mercy, and to accept that we succeed and learn together.

Commit to Community

I hope you now appreciate at least bit more that being a disciple of Jesus requires that we commit to community. This means it is absolutely essential that we worship, fellowship, and connect with other friends of Jesus for the purpose of maturing in our faith and lifestyle.

Yes, there are works of piety and works of mercy we can do on our own, but our faith and lifestyle will be poorer for it. We will not have the wise counsel of those saints who have gone before us in faith and lifestyle, and gained experience and wisdom they can share with us as mentors. We will also not have peers with whom we can share our experiences and with whom we can test the timeless wisdom of God in these uncertain times.

We will sometimes succeed in our faith and lifestyle, but mostly we mature as we share with others our joys and sorrows, our struggles and achievements, our questions and doubts, our certainty and answers. Let us learn together; let us commit to community!

Be Part of the Solution

I have to pause here for a quick digression. I came across a classic art meme this week that I thought would be funny without distracting from my point too much, hopefully. It reads,

I just found out I’m part of the problem. That’s not great, but it does feel good to be part of something.

It is probably best to share such jokes at the end of the sermon, rather than at the beginning. I would not want anyone to tune out because they do not like my humour! ☺

From these reflections I am offering I hope you also take the next step beyond committing to community to also understand that you need to be part of the solution, not merely pointing out the problems. It is very easy to point out the problems, but how might you apply your time, talents, and resources to the solutions?

For example, you can offer to join the Production Team. Yes, this has a steep learning curve on quite advanced audio equipment, but this community needs people to help with controlling the computer and the cameras. These are not onerous or difficult tasks but they do require people willing to learn and be available to supporting events.

You can offer to join or even lead the Welcoming Team, which is a vital ministry for any church. Such teams need people willing to go beyond merely shaking hands at the door to helping integrate guests into this community.

A final option I want to highlight is your benevolence ministries. An important way we care for and support one another is by offering our skills and talents and resources to each other. All of us occasionally hit hard circumstances and transitions in life, so, as needs are raised, someone needs to know who can do what and how to activate your shared resources.

Your Production Team, Welcoming Team, and a benevolence ministries are important ways of growing your community. Be part of the solution!

Conclusion

There are rewards and blessings for the friends of Jesus. Among the many, there is the reward of power and the blessing of purpose. What must we do, and who must we do it with, if we want to enjoy them? Incorporate into your Christian lifestyle practices of piety and mercy that grow and stretch your faith, commit to this community of faith, and be part of the solution that grows this community into courageous and mature friends of Jesus.

Let us pray…

[1]Billy Graham, Just as I Am(HarperCollins, 1999); as quoted by Larson and Ten Elshof, 1001 Illustrations That Connect(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2008), 515–516.

[3]Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are taken from The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA, USA: Lexham Press, 2012).

[4]Paul Lee Tan, “5747 The Mia Culpa Campaign”, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times(Garland, TX, USA: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996), pg 1292.

[5]Aaron M. Renn, “The Three Worlds of Evangelicalism”, First Things website, Feb-2022, https://replug.link/c2de3980 (accessed 1-Feb-2024) and “Four Themes for the Church in the Negative World”, AaronRenn.com, 31-Jan-2024, https://replug.link/03e6f890 (accessed 1-Feb-2024).

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