What Make the Church the Church | Everyone is Welcome | Pastor Jamie Kemp

What Make the Church the Church (Week 2)  l  Everyone is Welcome  l  1 Peter 1:18-21 MSG

Life Group Guide: https://bit.ly/life-group-guide

What if church was more than just a place you attend? What if it was a community where everyone belongs?

In Week 2 of our series, "What Makes the Church the Church," we explore one of the defining characteristics of the early church from Acts 2:42–47—their devotion to fellowship (koinonia). The first Christians discovered that following Jesus was never meant to be a solo journey. We are saved individually, but we grow in community.

Whether you've been following Jesus for years, you're new to church, you've recently moved to Jakarta, or you're simply exploring faith, this message is for you.

At IES Jakarta, we believe:

No matter where you are on your spiritual journey, you are welcome here.

Join Pastor Jamison as we discover how God uses authentic community to encourage us, strengthen our faith, and transform our lives.

Transcript

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Welcome to IS Jakarta. I'm Pastor Jamie, and I'm excited that you're joining us for this week's message. At IS Jakarta, from young to old new visitor to founding member, married and single, no matter where you're at on your spiritual journey, you are welcome here. To find the most updated information about IS Jakarta and how you can get connected, follow us on Instagram at IS Jakarta. Thanks for listening. I love the walk-up music this month, man. I want to keep it going. So uh so great to see you guys this evening. And uh maybe you can help me settle a family debate that we're having. Um for the last five months, I've been uh going back and forth uh to Jokcha uh to help with the leadership transition that that's happened with the ministry I used to lead, the ministry I started there in Jokcha. Um and so when I go back to Jokcha, I I usually fly. Um I don't mind flying. I basically have the Jokcha and the Jakarta airports memorized. All right. Uh but my kids, on the other hand, when they travel with me, they prefer to take the train. All right. Now uh now I think the train is long and boring. It takes like six or seven hours. I prefer to fly because it's just one hour. Some of you guys got the joke. Um uh uh I can fly back and forth to Jokcha in a single day and uh have three meetings and fly back, no problem. There's no way I can take that trip, uh, a trip like that on the train, go back and forth in a single day. So, so when I'm taking a trip, um, I prefer to fly. Now, how about you? Are you uh more of a train person or a plane person? All right, do we have any trained people or players? I am definitely a plane person. Now, now we've all taken trips before, right? Like last week, Pastor Josh and the IS teen staff, their leadership team, they took took a trip to Malaysia for the Alpha Conference, and man, I'm so jealous, it looked like an incredible time there. I wish I could have been there, but here's what I was thinking. Trips are usually planned out with specific times and places. You know, the goal is the destination. When you're taking a trip, the goal is the destination. Let's get there. But a journey is a little bit different. A journey is something different. A journey is more like an adventure, right? There's something to be learned or something to be experienced. The focus is more on the experience than the destination. So if a trip focuses more on, hey, let's get there. This is there's a time and a place, there's specifics. A journey feels more like, hey, there's something to be learned. We can we can stop and look around and experience this journey together. It's time to stop and look around. So our faith is more like a journey than a trip. That's what I want to get at. Our faith is more like a journey than a trip. We hear this a lot of times in church that that God is more concerned about the journey than the destination. And in many ways, I think that's true. The Lord is very much interested in your everyday life of who you're becoming, the man he's created you to be, or the woman he's called you to be. Now, don't get me wrong, the destination is important. I mean, God wants you to step into the person of God he's created you to be, but in his timing and in his way. I like how the message paraphrase puts it. It says this in 1 Peter in the message. It says, Your life is a journey, you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ's sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished sacrificial lamb, and this was no afterthought, even though it has only lately, at the end of the age, become public knowledge. God always knew he was going to do this for you. It's because of this sacrificial Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God. I think a lot of us can relate to this. That first sentence that said, Your life is a journey, you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. Your life is a journey, you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. For me, it was moving to Jakarta. You know, no, for you it might be starting a new business, finding friends, committing to a life group, uh, uh, uh, getting a job, getting married, having children. You know, these are all part of the journey that the Lord has called us to in our faith, this might be the most important part of the journey. Last week we we started a series, and in in some ways we started a new season here at IES called What Makes the Church the Church? And after this, and what we discover, what we're looking into is after this incredible, life-changing outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we see in Acts 2.4, we see then the story goes on to tell us how these new Christians, how these new followers of Jesus, how they lived their lives and conduct and live their lives of faith. It says this in Acts 2.42. All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship and the sharing in meals, including the Lord's Supper and a prayer. A deep sense of awe came over all of came over them all. And the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders, and all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money, shared money with the with those in need. They worshiped God together in the temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper and shared their meals with great joy and generosity, all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. Last week I pointed out that these early believers they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. And that's why our starting point, our our starting point for life and ministry at IS is the Word of God changes lives. Our biblical core value is that, that the word of God changes lives. We are committed to the word of God at IS. We also see, though, that it goes on, it says, these early believers, they they were committed not only to the word of God, but they were committed to fellowship, to koenia, to one another, and so are we here at IS. Here's how I like to say it. And I I I heard uh uh teacher Kay, and I think I even heard Pastor Tirsa say it that no matter where you're at on your spiritual journey, you are welcome here. No matter where you're at on your spiritual journey, you are welcome here. Some of you are committed Christians and you're growing in your faith, you're serving and ministry and making disciples, and that's great. You're welcome here. Some of you are new to Jakarta, like me, and you're looking for a church and a community, that's great. You're welcome here. Some of you have grown up in church and and you're just here because you know your parents are gonna ask you if you went to church this weekend, and that's great. You're welcome here. Some of you have no spiritual background, right? You're not even sure how you ended up here. That's great. You're still welcome here. Some of you haven't been to church in a really long time. Life's been busy, and and I get that. I mean, you still uh believe and you and you might have a faith, but it's just not as active as it as it used to be, and and and that's okay. You're still welcome here. Some of you come from a totally different religious background, and you're trying to figure out what you believe and why why you believe, and that's great because you're still welcome here. Some of you are single, married, young, old, student, working, European, African, Javanese, Batak, Horas, Australian, Sunday, no matter who you are or where you come from, I'm serious. You are welcome here. And that's the biblical core value that we want to get at. That number one is we believe the word of God changes lives, but number two is everyone is welcome. Everyone is welcome. I meet with a a group of guys for Bible study every Tuesday, a different group of guys every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday for a Bible study. And one of my favorite things is uh, especially on Tuesday mornings, is when a new person shows up. Because when a new person joins our Bible study, um everybody stands up and we we hurry to get another chair and to add it to the circle. And and there are some weeks that we have as many as 12 or 13 people in the Bible study. We basically dominate the coffee shop at that point. And so it's it's it's it's always fun to watch how how the group of guys, we always make room for one more person. You know that joke, right? How does it go? Um, how many Indonesians can you fit in an elevator? One more. I love that one. You guys have been there, right? You just don't want to be that person who gets in and it starts to buzz, like, ah, it's like you lost. Like, I gotta go on a diet or something like that. So so, but that's how I feel about our soap Bible studies that I'm a part of. You know, um, how many guys can we get to come? How many more, you know, how many guys can join our Bible study? One more. We can all there's always room for one more. So, so the men in this room, if you're if you're looking to take a step of faith and connect with other guys, come find me or another guy who's in the soap groups. Man, we'd love to get you connected and join the Brotherhood of Believers. Because here at IES, we recognize that we're all on this spiritual journey and we're all at different points along the way. So there's no pressure to perform or pretend. We invite you to come with your real life issues and interests. No matter where you're at on your spiritual journey, you're welcome here. The apostle Peter, when we read through the New Testament, he knows a little something about a spiritual journey. Here's what he writes in first in his first epistle, first Peter says this Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as strangers, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Capodicea, Asia, and Bithhnia. Two things I want you to notice in just that short verse. First, when the apostle Peter is addressing the churches in Asia Minor, which is now uh modern-day Turkey, he calls himself an apostle. He's not just a disciple of Jesus, he's now recognized as a leader in the early church. Now that's important. We're gonna put that information kind of in our back pocket to figure out how he got to that position. But the second thing I notice when he's writing is the apostle Peter is writing to the persecuted Christians who have been scattered all throughout the area. In some translations, they're called foreigners, they're also called refugees, aliens, exiles. But here's my favorite word. In some translations, it says, I'm writing to all the sojourners. I love that word, sojourners. And we see this word used throughout the Old Testament, meaning a person who's just passing through, a person who's on a journey, a person who's on their way. That's the idea of journey. Our faith is this continuous process of growth and transformation. The Bible even describes it as that we are being transformed from glory to glory. It was never meant, our faith was never meant to be a one-time event or destination. You may have started at one spot, but the Lord is leading you to a better place, a promised land, or as the writers of Hebrews say it, say it, a new country. So today, I want to give you three simple points about the spiritual journey that we're all on. So, and we remember that no matter where you're at on this journey, you are welcome here. Point number one, if you're taking notes, is this everyone is called to the journey. Everyone is called to the journey. Now, if you don't know, the World Cup is going on right now, all right? Not like right now, right now. Um I'm curious to see how many were at church tonight so that you can watch the 4 a.m. game. All right, so you're just like, I'm getting church out of the way so I can get up early and watch the World Cup. All right, so that's happening, but like the typical American that I am, I was totally into the World Cup until we got eliminated. All right, and so now it's basically for the next four years I'm not watching any soccer. That's just typical of most of us. So, but I've been trying to follow along, but I'm just not into it, right? I I know that soccer or football is called the beautiful game, right? You know, um, and that's great and all. I even had someone try to convince me like how great soccer is. They said, because I'm like, man, it's just kind of boring. There's only like one or two goals per game, you know. I'm used to scoring, I want more action in there. And they try to convince me to watch, they say, in soccer, it's not about the goals you score, it's about the goals, the goals you don't score. And I was like, what? That sounds terribly boring. Uh because they're like, oh, you gotta watch the artistic artistry of the soccer players. And I'm like, can someone just score a goal? Uh typical American, right? So so what I've been doing though is I've been watching just the YouTube summaries of the game, right? So so instead of watching two, two and a half hours of the game, I get to watch two and a half hours in just 10 minutes, right? That's kind of that, that's my commitment to the world's game, all right. So so I I and when you watch that, when I watch the 10 minutes, I'm just watching what? The highlights. It's the 10-minute highlight, they're cutting out all the people falling on the ground and the stretchers and all that kind of thing. They're cutting out all that. It's just the highlights. I just see the good parts. Sometimes life feels that way. We look around at other people's social media, their reels, their filtered photos with their choreographed dances. You see someone at church on Sunday and they seem like they've got it all figured out, right? It looks like, man, they've got life figured out, but that's just their highlight reel. It's so easy for us to look at someone else and think, man, they've got it all together. That they've got everything going for them. And the truth is, we're all walking this path of twists and turns and ups and downs in life. Some of you might even know that 2024 was one of the hardest years of my life. From October 2024 to February 2025, my life was completely upside down. But if you looked at my social media or if you saw me on the weekends, man, you'd be like, man, Pastor Jamie, he's got it all together. But really, man, I was hanging on by a thread. Some of you have been in those places. We're on the external, man, you you you had the good front, you had everything looked good, but behind the scenes, man, you were barely making it through. I was just with a couple this past week, and uh as they were leaving church, um, from all external perspectives, man, their life is great. You know, they're doing great, they have a beautiful home, a successful business, a healthy marriage. But but when I asked them, just kind of in passing, I was like, hey, how are you guys doing? The wife just breaks down in tears. I definitely wasn't expecting that. And then she told me that her mom was just diagnosed with cancer. I mean, I would have never guessed that by just looking at their outward experiences. I thought their life was perfect. Look around for a moment. The person here next to you, in front of you, behind you, and we don't know their story, and they don't know your story. But there's one thing you can be sure of. We're all on a journey of faith. We're all on this, and we're all at different points. Long before Peter was ever called an apostle, he was called a fisherman. He was a fisherman. We see this in Matthew, uh, the calling of Peter. It says this while walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting their net into the sea, for they were fishermen. He said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fisher of men. Immediately they left their nets and followed him. The apostle Peter's journey begins simple enough, much like many of our journey of faith. Jesus calls to you and to me, follow me, and I'll give you purpose and meaning. How have you responded to the call of Jesus on your life? I was thinking of the water baptisms that I announced earlier. You know, some of us have this misconception of water baptism that I need to get my whole life in order and then I'll get baptized in water. One is actually the opposite. It's more like my like water baptism is actually the starting point of your faith, and then you move on from there. It's not the ending point. Water baptism is the starting point, and then you move on from there. So Jesus calls to Peter to journey with him, and Peter accepts, and today Jesus calls to you and to me to journey with him. So no matter where you're at on your spirit, on your spiritual journey, you're welcome here because everyone is called to this journey. But number two, everyone has challenges on the journey. All of us have challenges on the journey. The apostle Peter's failures are a big part of his journey. Jesus calls him the rock, but he wasn't always firm and steady, stable. There were moments of great courage and great fear. And I can relate to this. There are moments where I have faith to move the mountains, and then there are moments where I feel weak and helpless. The night that Jesus was arrested, unfairly tried and convicted, crucified and killed, he first meets with his disciples, his life group, and tells them that one of you is gonna betray me. Peter stands up confidently and says, I'll never, uh I'll never deny you. And he says, I'm ready to die for you, Jesus. And Jesus says to him, Peter, truly I tell you this, this very night before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times. And Peter insists, I'll never do that. Well, we call that being loud wrong, right? Because just hours later, Peter not only denies Jesus, but he curses him. This is this isn't the most comfortable thing to talk about, but we all have struggles, we all have issues, we all have challenges. And there are moments of doubt, moments of fear and and insecurities. It seems like there's it almost seems like there's this pressure though, that when we come to church, that we have to give this appearance that that everything is is okay. You know, how you doing? Oh, I'm blessed and highly favored. You know, like this idea that, man, I gotta I gotta give this appearance that man everything is good, that I'm walking in the overflow of God's goodness. We want to hide our flaws and our problems. We wear masks to protect ourselves, thinking that if people really knew me, the messy, complicated, imperfect me, would they would they still accept me? I was talking to someone about this last week. Because here's the problem with everyone is welcome. Everyone is welcome. That means anyone can come, no matter your background, issues, or religion. Your success or fail, your first time member, first-time visitor or founding member, everyone means everyone. So you come here with your issues, your family issues. Some of you carry deep hurt from your past, a divorce or abuse, your family fighting all the time, and if that's you, you're still welcome here. Because everyone means everyone. Some of you come in with relational issues, some of you coming out of an unhealthy relationship, or or you've been hurt, lied to, or betrayed, or or maybe someone's let you down and you're you're having a hard time forgiving them and letting other people get into your life. But but every you're still welcome here because everyone means everyone. There's this story in the in the scriptures in Mark chapter one. I actually talked about it in our in the soap videos from this past week, when a man with leprosy he approaches Jesus, and and he and the Bible says, uh, filled with compassion, Jesus reaches out to him, reaches, reached out his hand and touched him. Now, this is shocking, not just to the people who are reading Mark's gospel, but but but but to the man with leprosy. From what I understand, when up when a person contracted leprosy in Jesus' day, they were they were isolated and ostracized from civil society. They were they were rejected and avoided. In keeping with the Levitical law of the Old Testament, lepers were considered unclean and unable to participate in religious and social activities. To touch a person with leprosy meant that you were now unclean to participate in religious and social activities. When I lived in Jokja, I would uh go running through different neighborhoods uh uh or the different campooms to train for a race, and there was this one neighborhood that I'd have to run through on my long runs that uh that had stray dogs, okay? And um, if there's one thing I'm afraid of, it's dogs. All right, a little confession um is uh I was chased and bitten by a dog when I was eight years old, and uh I uh I've been afraid of dogs ever since. All right, I don't like it's almost a paralyzing fear for me when I see the so if you have a dog at your house and you invite me over, just understand I'll be very still most of the time. All right. And they're like, oh, he's he he he's just he's just getting to know you by sniffing. I'm like, yep, I'm still not moving. Like some people are like underground petting the dog, and I'm like, Yep, until he moves, I'm not moving. Alright, so uh so I've almost got this paralyzing fear of dogs. So when I would run through the compoom, you know, I would I'd always have like a couple of uh rocks in in my hand just to kind of shoe the dogs away, you know, because that's what I kind of saw other people do, is that even if you just like fake you're gonna throw a rock, the dogs kind of scatter away. And so I kind of learned that early on in my training, in my running through the different neighborhoods. And and this is but but here this is exactly how the lepers of Jesus' day were treated. That oftentimes people would throw rocks at them to keep them from coming too close to them. They wanted to keep those people who are sick at a safe distance from them. So you can imagine how countercultural it is for Jesus when when he when he not only talks to the leper, but he reaches out and touches him. I mean, here's the thought that just just blows me away as I was reading the scriptures is I wonder how long it had been for that man sick with leprosy. How long it had been since he felt human contact. A day, a month, a year, years maybe since someone actually touched him. So you can imagine as he comes up to Jesus and falls before him and says, Jesus, uh uh uh uh would would you heal me? And and Jesus says he's filled with compassion. And he and it's in the and the man says, if you're willing, you can heal me. And Jesus touches him. And I love Jesus' response. I am willing. That's good. Some of you need to hear that. Some of you realize you're coming to Jesus with your needs, and you're saying, God, are you willing? Can you help me out here? And Jesus' word to you today is I am willing. I am willing. Jesus is willing. And then He heals the man. Jesus didn't come for the perfect, he came for the imperfect. You and me. He dined with sinners and tax collectors, he welcomed the outcast, he met people right where they were at, not where he wanted them to be. So no matter where you're at on your spiritual journey, you're welcome here. Everyone's called to journey, everyone has challenges on the journey, and last one, everyone can be changed on the journey. Everyone can be changed on the journey. That no matter what your past looks like, no matter how deep your struggles are, no matter how far you feel from God, change is possible. Transformation isn't just something that we we talk about like it's something we hope for, it's a promise from the Lord. The apostle Peter's life shows us that the Holy Spirit can change our lives. Before Jesus' death, Peter was this impulsive, sometimes cowardly person. But after the Holy Spirit comes on the to the disciples on the day of Pentecost, everything changes. He goes from being a fisherman who fails Jesus to becoming one of the to becoming a courageous leader in the early church. His story and countless others remind us that no one is beyond redemption. His story and countless others remind us that nobody's story is beyond redemption. Your past doesn't have to define your future. That's our amen line for the morning. All right, so, or for the evening, all right. Your past doesn't have to define your future. Here's the deal transformation doesn't have to be dramatic. For most of us, it's a daily process. It's the slow, steady change of heart and mind. It's the gradual from turning from the old self towards Jesus. I remember talking to a guy who confessed to me his struggle with pornography, and and and he, with tears in his eyes, he he says, Man, he loves the Lord. And he was crying because he just can't get free from this addiction. He's been struggling for so long, ever since he was a teenager. And and now, and of course, I believe that Jesus can can deliver him immediately. So you know what I asked him? I said, Well, can you can you do it for a day? Can you not watch pornography for one day? I didn't ask him, can you do it for a week? Can can he might have been like, probably, can you do it for a month? Well, maybe, maybe, or or a year, I'm not sure, the rest of your life? I don't think he could have answered that question, but can you do it for a day? Can you stay pure for a day? Now that I can do. Can you do it for a day? How does transformation happen? This daily commitment to Jesus. There's a simple kind of genius with that question: can you do it for a day? Why do so many problems remain unsolved? Why do so many bad habits remain unbroken? Why do so many goals remain unachieved? Usually because we're overwhelmed by the size of the habit or the issue or the goal, and we give up before we even start. Here's how Jesus put it. If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily and follow me. This happens best when we open our hearts, our lives to God's love, when we surround ourselves with people who lift us up, and when we choose to believe that we are worthy of new beginnings. Have you ever heard of the program AA Alcoholics Anonymous? It's a free 12-step program. I don't know if they have such a thing in in Jakarta or not, but it's this free 12-step program to help people overcome addictions to alcohol, right? And and and the beginnings of it are actually rooted in trusting Jesus for that freedom. Well, in the AA program, they have this mantra or this slogan, and it goes like this I get drunk, we stay sober. I get drunk, we stay sober. That idea of that if I try to do this on my own, I'm I'm gonna fail, I'm gonna fall, it's it's not gonna work out. But together, we stay sober. When I surround myself with other people, man, I I can overcome this thing. I can I can break free from this. Meaning I can't stay sober without the help of other people in my life. After I've been caught up in this addictive behavior, yes, I need to trust Jesus that I can change, but I also need support from my community of faith. Here's how I like to put it we are saved individually and changed in community. We are saved individually. Man, you gotta come to Jesus with your own junk and your own uh your own stuff and commit your life to Jesus. Then he places you in community, and that's where life change begins to happen. Here's one of my dreams for us here at IS. When I close in prayer and we dismiss, instead of rushing out, you know, some people I see people like the second I say amen, you're like elbowing people, get out, I gotta get to, you know, I have reservations, he preached too long. All right, so so I get that. All right, I'm trying to stay on time for you, all right? Uh but here's my dream is that when we dismiss, instead of rushing out, that there would be moment, a moment for us to sit and maybe reflect on what the Lord's saying to us. Or maybe it's it's coming to the front and finding one of the leaders or pastors and say, Hey, could you pray with me? Maybe it's praying with your spouse or even praying as a family before before you rush out of here, or or finding some people in your life group and say, Hey, let's pray together. And I'd love to see, instead of saying, I'm coming to church alone to receive from the Lord, just say, Man, I'm God's placed me in community, and that's where the life change really begins to happen. That we'd look for ways to minister and pray together with one another. Because our faith is more of a journey than a destination. How do we say it here at IS? We're a river, not a lake. We're a river, not a lake. And today I've invited Pastor Misha to come and share what's been happening in his spiritual Lord, in his spiritual journey with the Lord. Pastor Misha, would you come and share? I hope you enjoyed today's sermon. Feel free to contact us with any questions through our Instagram. You can share this podcast with others. And until next time, may God bless you and keep you.