Sermon Tone Analysis

Why Small Groups?

Why Small Groups?

What we’re going to do today is we’re going to dive into , which, if you’ll remember, if you were here earlier this year, we spent six weeks looking at what it means to make disciples.

We have seen, over the last year, that we are designed as His church, God’s church, to impact the world for the glory of His name, and He’s given us a strategy for how that looks.

It’s called disciple-making, “make disciples”, and that is a command.

It’s not something that some of us are called to and not called to.

If we have trusted in Christ, then we are commanded to make disciples of all nations.

What we’re going to do today is we’re going to dive into , which, if you’ll remember, if you were here earlier this year, we spent six weeks looking at what it means to make disciples.

We have seen, over the last year, that we are designed as His church, God’s church, to impact the world for the glory of His name, and He’s given us a strategy for how that looks.

It’s called disciple-making, “make disciples”, and that is a command.

It’s not something that some of us are called to and not called to.

If we have trusted in Christ, then we are commanded to make disciples of all nations.

So, what I want us to do this morning is I want us to pick up in the same text that we studied disciple-making in earlier this year, and I want us to see the implications of this text for what this looks like for us as a community of faith called the church.

I want us to begin to connect the dots between how my making disciples of all nations, how your making disciples of all nations is intended to happen in the context of a local church.

I want you to read with me starting in .

This is a prayer that Jesus is praying.

The predominant focus of His praying is for His disciples, whom He’s about to leave.

He’s about to go to the cross.

When you get to verse 20, there’s a shift, and He begins to pray, not just for the disciples then, but for all disciples of all time, all those who would follow Christ, which includes us today.

The pattern of our Creator…

Look at verse 20, and Jesus prays this,

David Platt, “Small Groups: Engage in Christ,” in David Platt Sermon Archive (Birmingham, AL: David Platt, 2007), 852.

Now, we’re going to focus especially on verses 20 to 23, and we’re going to let Jesus’ prayer there give us a picture of really what God had designed for His people all the way back at the beginning of creation.

As we begin to think about small groups as a church, I want to show you five reasons why I believe small groups need to be significant in the body of believers called the church, and why they need to be significant at Faith Bible Church.

I want to show you those this morning, then we’re going to unpack some of these more specifically in the weeks to come, but five reasons … and you’ve got them there in your notes … why small groups.

Now, we’re going to focus especially on verses 20 to 23, and we’re going to let Jesus’ prayer there give us a picture of really what God had designed for His people all the way back at the beginning of creation.

As we begin to think about small groups as a church, I want to show you five reasons why I believe small groups need to be significant in the body of believers called the church, and why they need to be significant at The Church at Brook Hills.

I want to show you those this morning, then we’re going to unpack some of these more specifically in the weeks to come, but five reasons … and you’ve got them there in your notes … why small groups.

The pattern of our Creator…

David Platt, “Small Groups: Engage in Christ,” in David Platt Sermon Archive (Birmingham, AL: David Platt, 2007), 853.

The pattern of our Creator…

What’s really interesting when you come to this prayer that Jesus is praying for all those who will believe in Him through the disciples.

He says … listen to this, in verse 21, “… that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”

We have been invited to join in the mystery of divine community.

What’s really interesting when you come to this prayer that Jesus is praying for all those who will believe in Him through the disciples.

He says … listen to this, in verse 21, “… that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”

Now, this is really interesting.

That statement is just loaded theologically.

“Just as you are in me and I am in you.”

What we’ve got to realize is that from the very beginning of Scripture, God is singular and plural at the same time.

This is a conversation between God the Son and God the Father.

We know that God the Spirit is in the picture as well.

We’ve got one God in three persons all over Scripture, and that’s huge for understanding why Jesus is praying this right here.

So, the plea, the prayer for unity in is based on the very character of God.

However, here’s where it gets even better.

When Jesus prays, He prays, “I want to give them the glory you gave me.

So, just as I am in you, and you are in me, I want them to be in me as well.”

What we’ve got here is an incredible picture in of the fact that...

David Platt, “Small Groups: Engage in Christ,” in David Platt Sermon Archive (Birmingham, AL: David Platt, 2007), 853.

We have been invited to join in the mystery of divine community.

David Platt, “Small Groups: Engage in Christ,” in David Platt Sermon Archive (Birmingham, AL: David Platt, 2007), 854.

We have been invited to join in the mystery of divine community.

God desires for His glory to be the foundation of our community in this world.

Think about it with me.

You share life with your Creator, God.

I share life with my Creator, God.

Through Christ, we share life with Him, and as a result … think of the implications for our unity with each other.

That means you and I share life together.

That’s the picture from the very beginning of Scripture, and it’s the way God has designed it.

David Platt, “Small Groups: Engage in Christ,” in David Platt Sermon Archive (Birmingham, AL: David Platt, 2007), 854.

God desires for His glory to be the foundation of our community in this world.

Now, this is huge.

This is not some manufactured, contrived unity that we have in the church, that we have with each other.

This is a personal unity, a unity of nature, the fact that the glory of Christ dwells in you, and the glory of Christ dwells in me.

That’s what provides unity.

God desires for our community to be the reflection of His glory in this world.

Now, this is huge.

This is not some manufactured, contrived unity that we have in the church, that we have with each other.

This is a personal unity, a unity of nature, the fact that the glory of Christ dwells in you, and the glory of Christ dwells in me.

That’s what provides unity.

What Scripture is teaching here is that there is an eternal glory that God has entrusted to us in the Son of God, Jesus Christ’s glory that He’s put in us, that unites all of us together.

It’s an incredible picture of unity.

The foundation … and this is why … this is why we can be one family, from every nation, and every tribe, and every people, and every language across this planet, united together across all socioeconomic levels, and united together across jobs or skills or passions because the glory of Christ is the foundation for our unity with each other.

What Scripture is teaching here is that there is an eternal glory that God has entrusted to us in the Son of God, Jesus Christ’s glory that He’s put in us, that unites all of us together.

It’s an incredible picture of unity.

The foundation … and this is why … this is why we can be one family, from every nation, and every tribe, and every people, and every language across this planet, united together across all socioeconomic levels, and united together across jobs or skills or passions because the glory of Christ is the foundation for our unity with each other.

David Platt, “Small Groups: Engage in Christ,” in David Platt Sermon Archive (Birmingham, AL: David Platt, 2007), 854.

Not only that, but God desires for our community … just flip it around here,

David Platt, “Small Groups: Engage in Christ,” in David Platt Sermon Archive (Birmingham, AL: David Platt, 2007), 855.

God desires for our community to be the reflection of His glory in this world.

God desires for our community to be the reflection of His glory in this world.

That’s what Jesus is praying in ...

John 17:

Jesus is acknowledging that His glory would be reflected in the way His church related to each other, the way His people related to each other.

This is huge.

A lost world cannot see God, but a lost world can see Christians, can see the church.

What Jesus is saying is very heavy here.

If the world sees Christians loving and caring for each other, then they will believe that God is love.

However, if the world sees Christians fighting and bickering with one another, then they will reject the gospel message.

They’ll reject it all together.

The plan of creation…

Jesus is acknowledging that His glory would be reflected in the way His church related to each other, the way His people related to each other.

This is huge.

A lost world cannot see God, but a lost world can see Christians, can see the church.

What Jesus is saying is very heavy here.

If the world sees Christians loving and caring for each other, then they will believe that God is love.

However, if the world sees Christians fighting and bickering with one another, then they will reject the gospel message.

They’ll reject it all together.

That’s why Francis Schaeffer, one of my favorite writers, said,

“Our relationship with each other is the criterion the world uses to judge whether our message is truthful.