Vision Sermon #2

Kyle Eaton

Rock Hill, revisiting the vision • Sermon • Submitted 7 years ago

Discipleship

Mission of Christ

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Intro Video: https://player.vimeo.com/external/74666822.m3u8?s=48e7c629c8f33c5323bb1583d68c4a3940ed567b&oauth2_token_id=901768848

Vision Sermon #2: What is a Maturing Disciple?

If you were here last week, you remember that we asked ourselves the question: Why are we here?

And our answer was simple and profound all at the same time.

We exist to multiply gospel-centered disciples, small groups, and churches that bless the city, the region, and the world.

We make disciples who make disciples, who make disciples…just like Jesus commanded us.

But the we asked the question: How do we do that?

We make disciples by Declaring, Displaying, and Delighting in the gospel of Jesus Christ through a redeemed community of sent people.

· We declare the truth of the gospel by unapologetically preaching the Bible and telling others the good news about salvation in Jesus Christ.

· We display the gospel by loving one another, serving the least of these, and living under the rule and reign of King Jesus (obeying his commands and showing off the good life).

· We delight in the gospel by experiencing relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We can experience his power and love…not just “know” about it.

So, there is a truth encounter, a kingdom encounter, and a power/grace encounter with God that happens in our discipleship.

But before we move on too quickly, I want to ask what might seem to be an obvious question, but the more I ask it, the less obvious it actually is. What is a Disciple?

If our mission as a church is to make disciples, and we know that we do it by declaring, displaying, and delighting in the gospel…don’t you think it would be helpful if we make it clear what a disciple is.

I’m going to go about this 2 ways.

1. A simple, clear, obvious statement about what a disciple is.

2. A 6 Part profile of what maturity looks like so that you can set goals and measure progress.

First, the statement:

A Disciple is someone who lives like the Death and Resurrection of Jesus is true!

As simple as that statement seems, it really gets to the heart of it doesn’t it? Do you believe the gospel of Jesus is true!

· Is Jesus who he claimed to be…the Son of God and only true Savior of the world…or not?

· Did Jesus die on the cross for the forgiveness of sin and rise again on the 3rd day or didn’t he?

· If it isn’t true, then Jesus is a fascinating historical figure, but of little importance to you and me today.

· However, if it is true…if he was the Son of God who lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death to make atonement for sin, and rose again defeating death itself…then he is of infinite importance to us all.

And so a Disciple believes the Gospel…and lives like the death and resurrection of Jesus is true!

It sets the trajectory of our lives and defines our purpose. Jesus is God. He is Savior, he is Lord, he is worthy to be worshiped!

While that little line is helpful for running things through, I find that a rubric for setting goals and measuring progress in this can be helpful. What does someone who lives their life like the death and resurrection of Jesus is true look like?

6 Identities of a Maturing Disciple:

1. Worshiper

Someone who worships God above all things. No longer do we serve and worship creating things, expecting them to fulfill us, but we serve our creator, who loved us and gave up his son for us. ()

Someone who worships God in all of life. There is no sacred/secular divide

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The way to live in light of the gospel is to present yourself as a living sacrifice…that is your spiritual worship to God.

And so, yes, we worship God is a special way when we gather together as God’s people, but this is simply the overflow of our lives to him…this isn’t a disconnected reality from the rest of our weeks, but the overflow and reorientation.

In light of this, a worshiper has developed the ability to integrate their faith and work. Their vocation is far more than just a place to collect a paycheck or a venue to share their faith (it is that), but it is an opportunity to serve the rule and reign of God by contributing good work that benefits others. A place to make a contribution to the greater good of others…while honoring our God through our excellent work.

This is a person who worships God each day by spending time with him. By stoping from other activities, opening up his word and allowing him to speak to us. The Bible isn’t a dead book to this worshiper, but the living and active voice of God that speaks into the situations I will face today!

That’s the first Identity or grid to assess your life through. Do you worship God in all things? Have you allowed an insidious idea to creep into your life that there is…God stuff…and not God stuff to life?

c. No sacred/secular divide

2. Family

Not only does the worship of God drive us, it defines us. We center who we are, not on our performance, achievements, or pleasures, but on what God says of us. For those of us who are IN CHRIST (by faith), this is what is now true.

John 1:12–13 ESV

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 1:10 ESV

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

John 1:10–14 ESV

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:11–13 ESV

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 1:4 ESV

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

This means that we have been adopted into God’s family. No longer are we his enemies, but now his sons and daughters.

The crazy part of this, which would have shocked a traditional, family-centered society, is that now the family name the primarily defines us is not Eaton or Johnson or Smith or Gervais or Addink or Peterson, but Christ!

John 1:13 ESV

who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Meaning, In Christ, we are family. Yep, if you are in Christ, even you. Hey…every family has to have their crazy uncles, right?!?

Meaning that all this foolishness going on about race in our country should be answered by the church community, but showing the watching world how God makes us famly!

Just as God is Trinity - or other-centered community, so we now as the people of God, the family of God are to live in other’s centered community in such a way that demands a gospel explanation.

This can be one of the most beautiful things to see when its working and ugliest things to try to forget when it doesn’t.

How do we live together like family? The New Testament is chalked full of commands on how we are to live with “one another.”

There are 59 of them, 30 different

“Love one another, serve one another, forgive one another, bear with one another, stir up one another to love and good deeds, do not neglect meeting with one another, accept one another, do not grumble about on another, be hospitable to one another, encourage one another...”

Our Corporate Apologetic - we get to be communities of light and love. Inviting people into that is one of the best ways we can live mission (certainly not the only way, but one of the easiest ways)

So, a disciple of Jesus worship God in all things, lives together with the family of God in a compelling way…third

we are now

a. Just as Trinity is individual in other-centered community…so now we are

b. Live, love and bear with the people of God like family.

3. Servants-

Mark 10:42–45 ESV

And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Mark 10:42–45 ESV

True Greatness in the Kingdom is determined by those who make themselves servants of all. Why is this?

Because God is like this. The Father makes much of the son, the son makes much of the Father, the Spirit empowers the son to make much of the Father, the Spirit opens our eyes to the beauty of the son who reveals to us the Father’s heart. Like a dance....The Trinity is beutifully other’s centered. And in this, we see what real life, true life is about.

Additionally, Jesus…God in the flesh…the one who had every right to demand worship, service, honor from everyone else, made himself nothing, took on the very form of a servant…and showed us how to truly live.

If you think I’m just trying to get you to do stuff, then you haven’t yet discovered the upside down nature of the Kingdom of God in this yet.

The way to truly live is to pour your life out.

The way to find life is to lose your life.

The way to find true greatness, is to not think of yourself and your life all the time, but see your life as an opportunity to serve.

To be sure, this means finding ways to serve in your church…but much more this means adopting a posture to serve in all of your life.

More than this, it means that you see your life as not your own, but now owned by another and at the discretion of another.

So, how do I live life as a Servant? I put everyone about my life on the table and ask God to deploy it as he sees fit.

My money, my time, my gifts/abilities, my home, my vocation, my everything…Not mine…I’ve been bought with a price.

Now simply opportunities to steward them to make much of God!

So, a Disciple is a worshiper of God in all things, someone who lives among and loves the family of God (crazy uncles and all), and someone who has found true greatness in pursuing a life of serving.

4. Witnesses-

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Do you know what God’s grand plan is to tell the world about what his son has done? You and me! We are his plan!

This verse in Acts tells us that we will be given the Power of the Holy Spirt for a very specific purpose. What is it?

To be his witnesses: In Jerusalem, In Judea, In Samaria, to the Ends of the earth. That’s shorthand for “everywhere & everyone” People near to you and far away from you. People like you culturally and unlike you culturally.

This means that for you Christian, your home is to be a missionary outpost, your job is a missionary assignment, and your money is missionary ammunition.

Your home is a missionary outpost station

Your home is to be an Outpost of hospitality, kindness, safety, and grace in increasingly hostile world. It ought to be an Orchards in which the fruits of the Spirit can be grown and shared.

Your job is a missionary assignment

Whether your place of work is a cubicle, a construction site, a corner office, or even a home that you are constantly trying to keep in order, you are in a place that I as a paid Christian cannot get. You are going everyday into spaces that pastors cannot reach. So then you are to be missionaries, entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation, sent with a purpose to contribute good work toward the Kingdom of God. This is part of your unique missionary assignment. God didn’t send me there, he sent you!

Your money is mission ammunition

Money is something we sometimes shy away from talking about, but why? If you are in Christ, it’s not your money, it’s God’s anyway. Just like everything else about you. Your money is missionary ammunition meant to blow big holes in the gates of hell.

Romans 10:14–15 ESV

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Romans 10:13–14 ESV

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

We are his witnesses, we are worshipers, we are family, we are servants, two more.

5. Prayers

If we are going to make any headway as his missionaries, we must pray that he moves and works. This is a New Identity. We used to assume it as being part of the others but no more.

A disciple of Jesus spends time talking to him. Daily, sometimes minute by minute.

We want him to talk to him.

We want him to talk to us. And he does

We want him to move…and so we ask him to move on our behalf and he does.

Prayer preserves the glory of God in our movement by reminding us that we can never do it on our own. And when God does move, he gets the glory because he gave the resources.

Every month, usually the first Thursday of the month, we set aside a day for prayer and fasting. Asking God to speak, asking God to move, asking God to heal, asking God to bring his Kingdom and make earth like it is in heaven!

Finally, what ties all of these together is the last Identity. We are...

6. Learners

We spend the rest of our lives becoming what we are. We are these things and we are becoming these things.

The word disciple means literally “learner.”

The whole scope of the New Testament usually follows this pattern:

Apart from Christ this is who you were.

Now in Christ, this is who you are.

So live like you are or become what you are!

Philippians 3:12–20 ESV

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Philippians 3:14–21 ESV

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Philippians 3:12–16 ESV

The Christian life is one of pursuit. That balances both resting and striving. That rests in who we are in Christ, and strives to become more and more of what we are. It’s a crazy paradox, but the Scriptures are filled with them.

So, how do we keep on keeping on in this task that God has given us? WE believe the gospel, and strive to become what we are.

Do you live like the Death and Resurrection of Jesus is true?

What about this grid? Which one of these areas do you want to grow in this semester? What area: as a worshiper, family member, servant, witness, prayer, or learner do you want to see some actual progress in over the next 4 months.

Can we just stop for a moment…Can you pray and ask God what he would have you do in light of this? Which one of these things pricked your heart and stirred something in you?

Would you right it down in your notes or somewhere where you are going to look at it again? Would you consider sharing it this week at your City Group

If you don’t know what a City Group is…a group of people meeting in homes this week, processing the message and seeking to live this out together… Join one…info in the back…they’d love to have you.

Let me pray for us

Romans 8:14–17 ESV

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

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