Melissa and Rachel walk through the different ways that Jesus modeled community and what we can learn from Him. Tune in this week to see how you can be challenged in your relationship with the community around you!
Show Notes:
1. Jesus was very often surrounded by people, he seemed to fully embrace his role within a body of people
- Now large crowds were going along with Him;
- Mark 5:24
- And He went off and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him.
- Mark 10:1
- Getting up, He *went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan; crowds *gathered around Him again, (and, according to His custom, He once more began to teach them.)
- Matthew 4:25
- Large crowds followed Him from Galilee
- Matthew 20:29
- As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him.
- Luke 5:1
- Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the Word of God
- Matthew 5:1
- When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him.
2. We also see a decent amount of Jesus escaping large crowds to be with his more intimate group of people. Because that’s also necessary when we live and operate within a community.
Matthew 15:39
- And sending away the crowds, Jesus got into the boat (with his disciples) and left.
Mark 6:45
- Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd away
Matthew 8:18
- Now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him, He gave orders to depart to the other side of the sea.
3. The final way we see Jesus model community is there were times Jesus simply needed to be alone with God
- “They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.'” (Mark 14:32)
- “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” (Mark 1:35)
- After healing many, and before feeding the 4000. “Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there.” (Matthew 15:29)
- After hearing that John the Baptist had been beheaded. “When Jesus heard, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.” (Matthew 14:13)
Our community is better served when we each have time alone with God
Each of us needs 3 things:
- Time alone with God
- Time with an intimate circle for deeper growth
- Embrace new people to be part of bringing the Gospel to the world.
