Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

For decades now, seminaries have been teaching prospective pastors to think of the local church as a consumer service provider.

Church conferences, books, articles, and denominational strategists were all well ahead of seminaries on this front… and most American Evangelicals now simply assume it’s true.

Most church members and pastors act and speak as though the local church is a product to be marketed or a service to be provided… Make the customer happy, and your church will grow!

You want your church to grow, don’t you?

Well, then apply these strategies:

Do a demographic study of the population nearby.

What kind of person lives within driving distance of your church?

What hobbies to they have?

What are they interested in learning about?

What are their specific felt needs?

Once you have this information, design your ministry programs accordingly!

Are there a lot of men nearby who like to fish and hunt?

Then start an outdoorsy men’s ministry.

Are there a lot of stay-at-home moms with young children?

Then start a mothers’ day out program.

Are there a lot of young adult singles nearby?

Then start a singles ministry with lots of fun activities and events.

Now, I’m not saying that this kind of targeted ministry approach is entirely wrong… but I do wonder if it doesn’t inevitably teach people the wrong thing about the church… about Christianity… and about the gospel.

I think targeted ministry programs, segregated by age and personal interest, will unavoidably teach people to think of church as a consumer service.

But church isn’t about you having fun or meeting your felt needs… It isn’t a consumer-based business, competing with others for your time and money.

If you’re a senior citizen or an empty-nester or a young married or a single adult or a teenager, then church is about you rubbing shoulders with other people who DO NOT share your personal interests and life-stage!

Church is about you gathering with a group of Christians, many of which are completely unlike you, so that the gospel of Christ might be our common bond… and so that the gospel of Christ might be shown to be THE greatest message and power in the world… What else could unite a hodgepodge group of folks who don’t have anything else in common except love for Jesus and love for one another?!

Friends, for more than 6 years now, I’ve avoided promoting any ministry program… not because I don’t want church members to be active, but because I want us all to be actively spending time and effort on discipling… which can take shape in any number of ways in our lives.

If you’re a member of this church – especially if you’ve been a Christian for more than 5 years – then it’s very likely that you sometimes wonder “What can I do?” or “Where can I get involved?”

It is very likely that you’re thinking like a consumer… “What church program can I jump into?” or “What group best fits my demographic?”

But I want to blow up that kind of thinking this morning… and I want to help you think about the church like most all of your Christian ancestors did.

Before there were church-growth strategists and before there were well-oiled ministry programs, local church members had been making disciples for centuries… Sinners were converted, Christians matured, existing churches grew, and new ones were planted.

And all of this happened by God’s power, of course… and through everyday Christians discipling one another.

Let’s look together at Colossians 3… and let’s consider what the Bible says about Christian discipleship and discipling.

Scripture reading

Colossians 3:1–17 (ESV)

1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.

7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.

8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.

And be thankful.

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Message

1. Discipling is Part of Discipleship

A. Remember the Great Commission

a. Jesus came to His disciples and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them… [and] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…” (Matt.

28:18–20).

i To be a disciple is to be commissioned as a disciple maker!

b.

In his book, Dever says, “The Christian life is the discipled life and the discipling life... Christianity is not for loaners or individualists.

It is for a people traveling together down the narrow path that leads to life.

You must follow and you must lead.

You must be loved, and you must love.

And we love others best by helping them follow Jesus down the pathway of life.”[1]

B. Discipling is Fundamental to Discipleship

a.

The point I’m trying to unpack and hammer home today: “Discipling is me helping others follow Jesus, and it’s fundamental my own discipleship.”

i Dever wrote, “discipling is basic to Christianity... We might not be his disciples if we are not laboring to make disciples.”[2]

b.

Conversion (“getting saved”) is the entry point into a life of discipleship (following Jesus), and part of what it means to follow Jesus is to embrace the responsibility Jesus gave to His people to make disciples (be discipling).

i We must stop pretending that there is a two-tiered Christianity, where some Christians are worldly and self-centered while others are striving for holiness and showing genuine love and care for fellow Christians.

2. What is Discipleship & Discipling?

I want to point out 3 distinctions of discipleship from our passage:

(1) Taking on a distinct perspective, and helping others do the same.

(2) Putting on a distinct identity, and helping others do the same.

(3) Focusing on a distinct knowledge and practice, and helping others do the same.

A. Taking on A Distinct Perspective, And Helping Others Do the Same

a.

This world now is less attractive… because the final day is in sight.

i “If then you [pl] have been raised with Christ… you have died [with Him, and to the world], and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (v1-3).

ii “On account of these [that which is ‘earthly’ and sinful] the wrath of God is coming” (v6).

b.

The world yet to come grows more brilliant in view.

i “When Christ…appears… you [pl] will appear with him in glory” (v4).

c.

Peace and gratitude are our present possession, despite the troubles and difficulties of this world.

i “Let the peace of Christ rule in yourhearts, to which indeed you [pl] were called in one body.

And be thankful” (v15).

d.

Brothers and sisters, we need help to take on this new perspective!

i We need others to remind us about the coming wrath of God, so that we will love sin a little less today.

ii We need others to tell us about their growing hope in the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that our own hope will not die today.

iii We need others to help us count our blessings, so that we will not be overwhelmed by our trials today.

e.

The Christian perspective is not natural to us.

We need help from others to take on this distinct perspective, and we must help one another.

B. Putting on A Distinct Identity, And Helping Others Do the Same

a.

The Christian is spiritually alive.

i Notice the play on “life” and “death” in this passage.

α.

One is either alive to the world and dead to God, or alive in Christ and dead to this world.

ii The Christian “has been raised with Christ” (v1).

b.

The Christian is no longer identified with sin but with God.

i “In these [the ‘earthly’ and sinful] you… once walked” (v7).