11.17.2013 Following Jesus Then and Now - What does that Look Like?

11.17.2013 from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

Let’s pray – Lord, we thank You that You are with us – thank You for Your grace. You love us and we belong to You – help our hearts to be attentive to You. Thank You for the forgiveness we have in You – there is only hope in You – we can’t find grace, forgiveness, or righteousness in ourselves – we have life that we might be made right. You have sent Your spirit – we have this power inside of us to will and to work – in Jesus Name – amen.
Acts 2:42-45 42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.
These practices have acted as a foundation for what the church is to be like and how the church is to be and what we do when we gather. What we see – we’ve been talking about how to follow Jesus then and now – THIS is how the church followed Jesus after the death and resurrection of Christ. When Jesus was on earth, they were with Him personally wherever He went. After Jesus was raised from the dead, the SPIRIT came upon His followers – and what He did in coming – the Spirit – gathered us all together and discipleship takes place in church using these four things – it is a new concept of what it means. The context of discipleship takes place in the church. Jesus gave examples of how to do it, we see that in the gospels – and this is how the disciples placed it into their context and lived it out.
We have the same calling. We have the example of Christ in the gospels and the example of the first Christians – and we have to put that into our context – how do we do that here and now? It will look different; we are in a different situation. But it is our job to figure out how to live like that today.
46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread [as]from house to house, they were taking their [at]meals together with gladness and [au]sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
They were continually devoting themselves to these things – they were persevering – persistent – a habit of the church. What it meant – you were engaged in those four things – it was a priority for their lives – something they were devoted to. What does that mean? What are you devoted to? What does that look like? We are devoted to our families – what does that look like? You make sure you take care of family – that you see and visit family – it is a priority. God is first priority, right? God, family, the Cleveland Browns? Ha. Because God is a true priority in our lives, the church must become a priority in our lives. Your relationship with God is directly tied to your relationship with the church. Now – let me explain that – you might be thinking – that is not really true – but let me show you how that is exactly true. I don’t mean that it is directly tied to this building owned by this entity called Grace Summit Community Church. It is not tied to the activities or ministries of this church – and it is not even tied to Sunday morning services or your small group – but what it IS tied to is the other believers who are following Jesus in your life?
How can you love God whom you do not see when you do not love the brother that you do see? Jesus said, to the extent you did it for the least of these my children, you did it for Me.
Our relationship with God is directly tied to our relationship with the other followers in our lives.
When we think of devotion – we think of family. The same kind of devotion that we have to our family. And when we think of these four purposes – they are to connect – to bring people together in relationship.
A couple other quick things on devotion – social media and our devices – there are a lot of people devoted to social media and their devices – they have to check it all the time – they have to post and check constantly. Some do it in church! Up here – you can see! Musicians – they know! Just sayin'!
When we think of our devotion to something like that – if you get an important text – I’m okay with it – but we need to translate our devotion – and ask – am I just as devoted to God and these things as the things that we are devoted to?
COFFEE! If you are devoted to coffee – you schedule it! If I wake up early, I think it is worth getting up for and getting it going! We understand devotion in other realms – we need to translate that into the realm of our relationship with God and His people.
How did they do this? They had all things in common. That does not mean that they lacked ownership of things – but they shared all things. In context, this was a unique situation – there were some unique circumstances taking place. People came to Jerusalem for Passover – and they get saved and decided to stay! Then there were needs – significant needs. So they started sharing with one another. We see their sacrificial generosity – they were even selling stuff in order to provide for this extreme need. Publicly and privately – they gathered as groups and from house to house. Regularly!
I think in this – it is encouraging – a year and a half ago, we were talking about strengthening small groups – and that is happening.
Thursday night – we asked the men – what are you looking for? And they all said more steak dinners! Just kidding. Either – I work in an unhealthy environment or I work on my own – and my opportunity for relationship with other guys does not naturally occur – I have to make time for it!
It says – they ate meals together – and the result – everyone was in awe – even the outsiders! They thought it was cool and they were scared of them! They had never seen anything like that. I don’t think that can be said for church today – well, it might be said, but not in a good way.
Acts 5:11 And great fear came over the whole church, and over all who heard of these things.

12 [f]At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s portico. 13 But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem. 14 And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number,
Apostles teaching – the apostles witnessed the life of Christ – and they testified to that – they were simply telling the stories of Who Jesus was and what He did. They were continually devoted to hearing and telling that story. How do we do that today? We devote ourselves to the Bible – reading it, listening to teachings – Sunday, radio, podcasts, books, and The Book itself. Just Sunday is not enough devotion – it is a good start. There is a lot out there – be careful what you listen to – or read! It also works out when we share with one another. You have a responsibility in the church community to read it for yourself and to tell others about it – teach one another! Exhort one another! That can take place in small groups or in simple times of gathering together. A big part of this is simply the gospel – what the apostles were teaching was the gospel –
Mark 1 – the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ – it is the story of the Messiah – the Savior. We need to learn to be engaged in the preaching and teaching of the gospel.
DO you have a two minute faith or grace story?
I tried to restore my relationship with God – I knew there was something wrong – I tried to get it right by going to church and trying to be a good person – but even if I did that – there were still things I did wrong and that created guilt. Sin hindered me from having a right relationship with God – then one day I heard that I can’t get into a right relationship with God through those things –but through grace. Jesus died for those wrong things I did – and I learned that I needed to put my faith in Christ to do those things in my life.
That is it! My story relates to those who think they can do it on their own but still fail. Your story connects with someone else – and you need to have that story down – less than two minutes. Maybe you were brought up in a Christian family – you still have a story. You are still a sinner – totally separated from God. We all have this story.
Fellowship – Koinonia – it has become – diluted down to potluck dinners and friendship – but it was the sharing of a common life – we share relationship and struggle and the suffering and the common purpose – we share materially – common. It goes on and on.
Phil 1:27 – like Roman soldiers, shoulder to shoulder striving together for the faith of the gospel. The Roman army was so powerful - watch one of those shows – there was no room for the enemies to get in because there were no gaps – they were so connected and they were able to adjust quickly – likeminded. When we think of fellowship – that is a much better image to think about.
Breaking of Bread – communion – worship – and with worship – maybe the church has pendulum swung and overemphasized the personal aspect of worship. We tend to focus on the personal experience in the worship time. Their worship was corporate – God’s people coming together to adore God together. Worship is about God, right? Worship is about adoring God – and that should be the focus of worship.
Prayer – this probably needs its own series!
Breaking of Bread – in the Bible – there are – He talks about the Breaking of Bread – and that is probably more than what we do here e- Meals play a significant role in ministry and the discipleship process. We view meals differently today – we view them as a way to transport food into our stomachs. We do meals for business… for them it was much more.
“It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of table fellowship for the cultures of the Mediterranean basin in the first century of our era. Mealtimes were far more than occasions for individuals to consume nourishment. Being welcomed at a table for the purpose of eating food with another person had become a ceremony richly symbolic of friendship, intimacy and unity. Thus betrayal or unfaithfulness toward anyone with whom one had shared the table was viewed as particularly reprehensible. On the other hand, when persons were estranged, a meal invitation opened the way to reconciliation. Even everyday mealtimes were highly complex events in which social values, boundaries, statuses and hierarchies were reinforced. Anyone who challenged these rankings and boundaries would be judged to have acted dishonorably, a serious charge in cultures based on the values of honor and shame. Transgressing these customs consistently would make a person an enemy of social stability.”(Page 796, Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels: A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship – edited by Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight, I. Howard Marshall)
Luke’s gospel mentions how meals are done over five times!
Luke 5: 27 After that He went out and noticed a tax collector named [m]Levi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me.” 28 And he left everything behind, and got up and began to follow Him.
29 And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them. 30 The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and [n]sinners?”
The Pharisees saw the importance of meals and who you ate with – it determined who was in and who was out. If they were not part of the true Jewish faith – you were not to have meals with those people!
Matthew was a tax collector – the person who cheated everyone in the community! Think about it – I have this person over for dinner and have a party in his honor – how would you feel about that? That is what is happening here!
Luke 14: 7 And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not [e]take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then in disgrace you [f]proceed to occupy the last place. 10 But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who [g]are at the table with you. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Here we see this – Jesus is not just saying this to be cute – but He is laying out their rules. When you have a meal – rich people – and they had specific seating arrangements – and everyone knew the order – but Jesus is saying – don’t follow that! Meals were to signify the status of the guest – can you imagine that?! People invited people of the same social status because they would return the favor – and Jesus says no.
Luke – two more meals – the Last Supper – where Jesus comes in – He is the host – the one who has invited everyone – what does He do? He serves the meal – it was unheard of! What Jesus is doing in this community – He invited everyone to His table – and what He is doing with Communion – You are invited in to this relationship – everyone is invited into this community – but He has flipped everything around – those who think they belong – they are the outsiders – they are the ones on the outside. As we come to communion – what we have – a deep expression of God’s love for us – and we have a deep expression of how we are to love one another.
Jesus said – I am the Lord – but what am I doing? I am among you as one who serves – and what are we doing? Proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes – and we are remembering that He was among us as the one who served – so we are proclaiming ourselves servants of one another. As we take this together – we receive – in one sense – our forgiveness – we receive grace – but we also give forgiveness when we give grace, because there is no distinction – all distinctions are set aside.
Let’s go ahead – bring the musicians up – I will pray for the bread and cup – and come up whenever you want and to take it. Because it is meant to be an intimate time with one another and with God – it is important to do it with a proper heart – give yourself a moment or two to center your thoughts on Christ. If you have to get something right in your heart, do it! If you cannot do that, I urge you to NOT take the bread and cup.
Lord, thank You that You gave Your body and that Your blood was shed that we might have life. We take this bread and cup to remember You.