Sermon Tone Analysis

Vision Moment:

Prayer time

Redemption Kids Workers Training Next Sunday

Park Outreach Oct 6th (Signups)

Review:

Faithful to being the kind of church that glorifies God and makes an impact on the community

Purpose Statement - We exist to reflect the nature and character of God to the world.

Mission Statement - Make disciples who make disciples in every nation and neighborhood until all have heard and seen the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Vision Statement - We see a multicultural, multiethnic people that take risks to live out what it means to love God and love others.

Introduction:

The purpose is what we’re called to be the mission is what we’re called to do and the vision is what we believe we will look like if we’re faithful to be and do what we’ve been called to be and do.

If the great co-mission that Jesus started is to make disciples we must begin with a clear definition of what a disciple is, what discipleship means, and how we plan to do that

Scripture: Matthew 4

After Jesus is baptized, He’s led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he’s tested by the tempter (devil) for 40 days with no food

Jesus then moves to Capernaum to begin His ministry

Matthew tells us that he began to preach, what were his sermons about?

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”

Repent of what?

Israel clogged the flow of blessing to all families of the earth (YHWH promised Abraham)

How?

By assuming YHWH only cared about Israel’s national security; by believing that YHWH was mostly concerned with outward adherence to the law

Jesus demolished their false preconceptions about YHWH and revealed to them (and us) that the greatest enemy is not a human army, but the greatest enemy is the host of spiritual beings in rebellion against YHWH and His reign in the cosmos.

The Sermon on the Mount is all about repentance from believing YHWH is only interested in a dull adherence to the law; in order to be the humans we were designed and created and called to be, we must be transformed at the heart level (motivations, wider world view, perspectives, dependence) radical change must happen

What does the next phrase “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” mean?

Jesus is announcing that the Rule of YHWH is breaking onto the scene on earth and His way will be on earth as it is in heaven

What would it look like if YHWH were to take His world back over?

It would look like the Sermon on the Mount; it would look like the “blessed” person in the beatitudes.

Okay, so what does Jesus do in order to put God’s missions project back on track?

Matthew 4:19-22

He calls a small group of fisherman to follow Him

Then, He gathers a group of diseased, afflicted, sick, demon oppressed, and paralyzed people of Galilee and Syria

And then what does he do?

He begins to proclaim the “Gospel of the Kingdom” to them

After he teaches them, what does he do?

He heals, he performs miracles, he calls more highly unlikely followers (Matthew), he deals with doubters and haters, he teaches some more, then he empowers and sends out those followers.

When we look at the life of Jesus in the BIG PICTURE He’s really repeating a lot of what we just saw.

So from that, I think we can confidently say what a disciple is and what a disciple is not:

What a disciple is not:

A disciple is not a super Christian; they don’t have it altogether (insert any disciple’s name)

A disciple is not someone who never fails (Peter)

A disciple can be a person who knows very little (initially) about Jesus, the Bible, or the Church

Certain camps of Christianity have made a distinction between Christians (to simply be the ones who have enough faith to believe Jesus is the only way to the Father) but disciples are like the college students (they really want to read books, become pastors and teachers and missionaries, etc) but that is a distinction that Jesus and the Apostles never made

Are we teaching LORDSHIP salvation?

I prefer to call it Christianity.

Did Jesus say these things to Israel and then because the majority rejected Him, He decided to change His mind?

Where do we think Peter, James, John, and Paul received their teaching?

Let’s be very clear,

“A disciple is someone that is following Jesus, being transformed by the Spirit, and is committed to the mission of the Father.”

We get this from Jesus own call, “Follow me, I will make you, fishers of men.”

Follow Me - A disciple is someone who is following Jesus (Head)

Not everyone literally began to follow Jesus around, like his group of 12

So many stagnant Christians

What all of them did have to do was respond to the invitation of Jesus

Too many know the right answers, but are not submitting to the transformational work of the Spirit and certainly aren’t committed to the mission of the Father

Everyone wants to be a part of something BIGGER

The invitation to accept His authority and his truth

To follow a Rabbi meant to agree with his teachings - including who He claimed to be

You’re all committed to something, what is it?

Is it the Father’s mission or a mission of your own choosing?

You find that in your career,

A follower of Jesus is one who sees Jesus as LORD, leader, and master of all of life

A follower of Jesus is someone who understands that Jesus calls us to accept His free gift, but recognizes that following Jesus is connected to the dreaded “O” word

You cannot say you LOVE Jesus and disobey Jesus, that’s called lying

A follower of Jesus is an imperfect follower of Jesus; one who is struggling to see Jesus as more than just an encouraging friend and cheerleader.

Jesus is LORD

But the wonderful thing about this is, Jesus is not like any other King or leader.

If we must be led by someone, we want it to be Jesus

I Will Make You - A disciple is someone who is being transformed by the Spirit (Heart)

Jesus doesn’t just tell Simon Peter and Andrew to follow Him, He tells them HE is going to make them into something

In order for this to happen, we must humbly acknowledge that we are incomplete and require real, radical change

Read through the Gospels, was this a one time thing?

No it was continual.

Peter is a great example.

Even the Apostle Paul called out Peter for being out of step with the Gospel because He wouldn’t eat with Gentiles while the Jews were in town.

A disciple is again NOT someone who has already gone through the transformation, but one who is being transformed

Jesus calls us and then by the grace-filled work of the Spirit, He unmakes us and then remakes us again

What will that look like?

Sermon on the Mount, Fruit of the Spirit

The Spirit of GOD works through the WORD and the PEOPLE of God to bring forth this transformation

We’ll learn this later, but GOD loves to involve others, so we learn that

Fishers of Men - A disciple is someone who is committed to the mission of the Father (Hands)

Discipleship begins in the head, extends to the heart, and leads to a change of what we do with our hands.

What were Simon Peter and Andrew?

They were fisherman.

Jesus took what they were familiar with and He repurposed it.

Now they were going to become fishers of men.

A fisherman’s career was much like yours and their pursuits were much like yours

Jesus wants to change that.

Jesus does call some to vocational ministry, but not most

Most people will be disciple-makers through their jobs, with their neighbors, and places you play

Money, fame, power, prestige don’t taste the same when you’re feasting on the WORD

As He’s changing you, you become more aware of the needs of the world around you

2 Cor 5:

Who was that written to?

Pastors?

Missionaries?

Nope.

The people in the chairs.

Disciples know that they have been rescued by Jesus for a greater mission

We are going to spend next week discussing spiritual gifts and how we can use those for serving the Church and others