10.20.2013 Following Jesus Then and Now – First Century Discipleship in the 21st Century

10-20-2013 from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

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The Great Commission –
Matthew 28: 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
This is the original mission of the church. When Jesus went back to heaven – He said, "here is your job, your mission, your calling."This is the mission of the church and the mission of the church TODAY – it is my mission and your mission – even to the end of the age. We are to be given to this. The emphasis on this verse – the focal point – make disciples. Everything refers back to that. How do you make disciples? You baptize and teach.
This is a six week series – and after that, Advent – This will be something like – Following Jesus Then and Now – First Century Discipleship in the 21st Century.
This is an introduction – a setup to where we are going over the next six weeks. Part of this – for me – over the past few weeks with the government shutdown – has stirred this in me. How? I have been involved in the Christian world – committed to this mission for 37 years – since 1976 I committed my life to this. I went to a conference the focus was THIS VERSE – and so much has taken place in our country and world to reveal the problem – things that are going on in our nation and culture – revealing significant problems and changes.
We can’t look at this and not realize that we are a divided nation – there is great hostility in our country. The problems are much bigger than a budget crisis. It is bigger than anything in the political realm – much bigger than that.
I believe that, there are times in the past where Christianity had significant influence in our culture. I do not believe that this was ever a Christian nation – you can disagree with me on that. But I would say that today, Christianity has very little influence on our culture. Some say - and I agree- we live in a Post-Christian culture. We have lost our ability to influence culture
This next statement may bother you – “this loss is not a death to be lamented, but an opportunity to be celebrated and grasped”
“The church no longer occupies the position in the post modern world that it held in previous generations. Its current social status more closely matches that of the early church than it does any time in history.”
Christians are becoming what they once were – aliens and strangers. They formed communities that were separate – totally different from what was out there. Then they took this commission in to those communities – making disciples and then bringing them into this new culture –
Over and over the New Testament talks about this – a new people – a new race – a peculiar people – a different race – do you view yourself that way? A different race – no longer Caucasian or African American – you are more connected to other believers than to those who look like you.
The first Christians were homeless in their homeland. They were uncomfortable living in the place they were from. We will no longer feel at home in the nation we have lived in. That is a good thing in one sense – we shouldn’t! Because of our relationship with Christ. We have the opportunity to become the church that Jesus intended originally – a separate people taking this mission to a world that has rejected God. In order for this to happen – it requires a significant paradigm shift. We need to make changes in our thinking, vision, philosophy, strategy, politics, and theology. What is discipleship? What does it mean to be a disciple? What did Jesus call His disciples to? How did they act as disciples in the new testament church and how does it translate to today.
How did Jesus interact with people? Looking at His ministry – other than His birth and when he was 12 – what is the first thing that happens? The baptism – Jesus gets baptized – and it was a confirmation – the confirmation came from John – Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world – this is the one – the one to follow – the Christ. Jesus has one witness – John the Baptist. Then we have the voice of the Father – This is my beloved Son – a second witness. And then a third – the dove that comes to rest on Him. He is the One – listen to Him! All things have changed!
The second thing that happens in His ministry – this is key – there is a confirmation and then a confrontation – Satan. It is through this confrontation – the power of this world – where Jesus does battle with the enemy.
Eph. 6 tells us that there are powers – our struggle is not against flesh and blood – and it lists these powers – these enemies we are to engage in battle with.
There are Satan and his demons and this structure of the world that comes against God. Satan is the ruler of this world. We might think the world is on our side – but is it? Not in the least bit! It is on the other side – and the structures of the world – the systems of the world – and behind it is this enemy whom Jesus confronts. Pilate asks – are you a king? My kingdom is not of this world – if it were, you wouldn’t believe what I could bring down on you right now! Shock and awe? That is nothing – like a water pistol, comparatively. He has brought us into that kingdom – and we need to learn to live in that kingdom.
There are many ways the enemy attacks – I will generalize into two –
Direct opposition – Sometimes the enemy comes at us directly – through temptation – persecution – there are many places today where Christians are imprisoned and persecuted and killed for their faith.
It is important to understand that we are in a situation where are culture MAY move in that direction. I am not being doomsday saying it will happen in the next two years – but we need to be prepared for the possibility.
Second – Accommodation. Instead of this direct confrontation – there is this opportunity to share power with him.
Look at Jesus – Satan told him – “If you bow down and worship me, I will give you all the kingdoms of the world” – when we share powers with this world, we are bowing down in worship at the power of this world.
I will give you a practical example of that – and some of you may not like this! Capitalism and the free market system! I understand that structures are neutral – neither moral nor immoral – there is not one system that is God’s. But there are structures and systems in this world – so there are forces that lie behind them that can give them the potential and reality for evil. AND every structure has false gods tied to it.
What is the god behind capitalism? Greed and self-centeredness. You can live in a capitalistic system without worshiping the god of greed. What is the religion? Materialism and consumerism.
Here is my point – the church – and not all churches, but the church in America in general has shared power with the free market system and we have become materialistic as we have shared power. It has affected the way church does church. The church becomes a product and people become the consumers. If ‘we’ can just get more consumers in to consume our product… and we have taken on the strategy of the world. The focus is on budgets and buildings – it has affected the preaching. Not all preaching – but when we share power with the powers of the world, we become unable to speak power to those powers.
So – the budget crisis – the debt – the way we spend money – the church is not much different – and the people in the church are just as in debt, we aren’t free to speak to it! When the church struggles just as much with immorality – there is no power to speak to immorality – why? We are not different from the world.
12 reasons why a pastor quit attending sporting events
1. The coach never came to visit me.
2. Every time I went, they asked me for money.
3. The people sitting in my row didn’t seem very friendly.
4. The seats were very hard.
5. The referees made a decision I didn’t agree with.
6. I was sitting with hypocrites — they only came to see what others were wearing!
7. Some games went into overtime and I was late getting home.
8. The band played some songs I had never heard before.
9. The games are scheduled on my only day to sleep in and run errands.
10. My parents took me to too many games when I was growing up.
11. Since I read a book on sports, I feel that I know more than the coaches, anyway.
12. I don’t want to take my children because I want them to choose for themselves what sport they like best.
Disciples become a powerful community when they are shaped by the gospel – and they are a problem and the solution to what is going on around them.
“Our aim is to challenge those assumptions and to show what a marvelous opportunity awaits those pastors and laity who sense what an adventure it is to be the church, people who reside here and now, but who live here as aliens, people who know that, while we live here, ‘our commonwealth is in heaven.’
“The call to be part of the gospel is a joyful call to be adopted by an alien people, to join a countercultural phenomenon, a new polis called church…The challenge of Jesus is the political dilemma of how to be faithful to a strange community, which is shaped by a story of how God is with us.” Resident Aliens, Pg. 30
Discipleship is more than just some individualistic thing – that is our culture. Discipleship is all local followers of Christ coming together as a new community to do the work of the King.
Matt 4: 18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
When we think of the word disciple – it originally meant – used by the philosophers – a learner or student – and the word evolved – and by the time it got to Jesus’ time – it was used by Jewish rabbis and leaders – it is more than just a learner – a disciple was a follower or an adherent to a great master – so there were these great rabbis or philosophers – and people would adhere to their teaching – traveling from town to town – they used the word YOKE – Jesus used it – not heavy – the yoke was that teaching – how a person was to live – so these folks – right around 15 years old – the best of the best would join up with a rabbi – and if you were the best of the best and going to some Ivy League school – you have to leave and make a commitment – you are gone – that is what they were doing. They were gone – they were setting the course of their lives. These guys are centering their lives around Christ – around Jesus. For them, it meant getting out of their boats and leaving it all behind. Because Jesus was there. To follow Jesus – how could they follow Him? They had to go where He went. “The dust of the rabbi’s shoes” – you were good disciples – covered by the dust of his shoes! That mentality that you were so close that the dust came over you.
Today there is good news – Jesus died and rose from the dead and sent his spirit so we don’t need to go to Galilee – we can be a disciple right here. Our lives must be centered wholly on Jesus. In order to do that – we need to recognize that we are strangers and aliens – we are not consumers – we have lives that are centered on Christ – and as with these guys, there will be boats we have to get out of to be disciples – there are boats we will have to leave behind – it might be relationships – or dreams – or habits and behaviors that have to be left behind. But Jesus’ call has not changed.
One last verse before the band comes up –
Luke 9: 23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.
This is true today – it hasn’t disappeared. We don’t go to Galilee – but the taking up of the cross daily – selfless sacrificial service to the master – that is what it means to be a disciple – making Him the center of our lives. Let’s pray…