PARTICIPATION GROUPS, PART 3: STUDY

Matthew 7:24-29, Colossians 1:9-12
David Bruce Linn, Pastor-Teacher
17 October, 2004
All Rights Reserved

In William Golding's disturbing book, The Lord of the Flies, a group of English boarding school boys are marooned on an island where they have to fend for themselves. They begin with an earnest desire to maintain English civility in spite of their primitive surroundings but end half-naked, carrying spears, covered with war paint, and shouting war cries. In the process of disintegrating morally and spiritually they invent a demonic idol to whom they eventually sacrifice, they develop bloodthirstiness, they succumb to mob rule, and they murder several of their number in the spirit of tribal solidarity. The rules of English society evaporate because they are not internal, and what they find in their own hearts is desperately wicked. Christians have an external guide in the word of God which becomes implanted within and so can guide us even on a desert island. Small participation groups have a key role in the study, implantation, and implementation of the word of God so that we ourselves do not fall apart. We need...

1. P-Groups where people can hear the word of the Lord (Mat. 7:24).

2. We need p-groups where the authority of Christ is honored (Mat. 7:24-29).

3. We need p-groups which help people "get it" (Colossians 1:9).

a. Paul used three special Greek words to explain the thing which he prayed the Colossians would receive: epignosis, or super-knowledge; sophia, or wisdom, and sunesis, or understanding. It is not a case of "Just the facts, ma'am." It is essential for a believer to discover what the facts mean. It is my belief that revealing the meaning of the main facts of Christianity accounts for the enduring blessing of the works of C.S. Lewis.

b. Jesus knew we would have trouble getting it: "Let these words sink into your ears..." Banging on the words of Jesus in a participation group does wonders for our understanding. It is one of the reasons our church switched to small group format in our Sunday-morning Christian Growth Classes. Christ invites us to lean hard on his words and discover what they mean.

c. Jude 10 reveals that we can know a thing factually and still not "get it:" "But these men revile things which they do not understand..." We must strive to "get it."

4. We need p-groups which help people become doers of the word (Col. 1:10-12).

a. The proof that we "got it" is that we do the things Christ instructs us to do.

b. Obedience to God's word is not punishment, but an opportunity for joy in the Lord. No obedience, no joy.

CONC: At the end of The Lord of the Flies, the savage boys are seen hunting down the leader they elected when they first were stranded on the island. They set fires to smoke him out so they can spear him. He runs and runs until he is exposed on the beach. He trips and falls in exhaustion and certain death, and almost bangs his nose on a perfectly white pair of shoes belonging to an officer of the Royal Navy. Instantly the hunt ceases, the war cries are silenced, and civilization comes flooding in again. The perfection of the white uniform conveys a rebuke more powerful than words. As we meet to study the word of God together we, too, are brought up short with the standard of God's purity and the message of his love for us. No believer can long survive without it. The community in our p-groups helps us to learn the word, to understand it, and to do it. Are you in?