Following Jesus' Way of Living

*Some of the following thoughts are born out of reading Alan Hirsch's book "The Forgotten Ways" In AD 100 there were between 25k & 100k believers In AD 310 there were between 15 million & 20 million believers How does that kind of growth happen in 200 years? When you add the following elements to that growth, you really begin to scratch your head: • It was illegal in most places to be a Christ follower. • No buildings or common meeting places existed. • No Scriptures (small portions at best). • No professional leadership. • No ’hot’ services to attract folks. • It was hard to join the church – you had to prove yourself. What is different between the believers before AD 310 and believers today? We have the same God. We have the same Holy Spirit. We have more knowledge, resources and tools. We live longer. We are more mobile. One might think we should be at least as potent in our cultures. We have lost something. For the next few weeks, I think we are going to be discussing two important concepts that need to be rediscovered in the church today; Mission and Discipleship. I think we may have lost the original intent of these concepts in the church. Mission: the idea of personal responsibility to take Jesus to everyone we know as a way of life. Discipleship: following Jesus and becoming increasingly like Him. We cannot become missional nor disciples based on a consumeristic approach to church – we cannot consume our way into mission or discipleship. We have tried for the past 40 years of the church and the church is still declining in the west It is true that some churches are growing – but most are growing from ‘switchers’. Those who have bought into the consumeristic concept of church jump from one church to another based upon what feels best or good for them. This makes perfect sense because it is what the church has promoted for the past 4 decades. Hopefully together we’ll discover mission and discipleship in fresh(er) ways. Contributing problems There are a few contributing problems that have caused us to lose a truer sense of mission and discipleship and they need to be acknowledged (not knocked) so we can be informed move beyond them. Church = Church has become to mean meetings like this one. In our culture and experience, church is a set location that we go to in order to hear talks (like this one) and to experience God. It is a place many Christians go to ‘get fed’. This understanding of church has caused us to be consumers where at best 80% of the people are in the audience and 20% actually ‘minister’ or put on the service. It might actually be more like 95/5% ratio. Our Mission has Followed Church = Church is confined to a set location or event and our concept of mission (evangelism) has also been confined to a location or event. At best mission is for a select few ‘super saints’ who go to foreign lands to share Jesus. Professional Clergy = The common belief is that the clergy have the answers, they know what to do, they have a closer relationship with God than the common folks, they are the leaders and in authority. Most things need to be ran by them because we need to do things orderly and in a biblical manner. This has lead to weak anemic people who don’t know the Bible or what to do if the leader is gone. Intimacy with Jesus = Intimacy with Jesus has become diluted to tasks that need to be done like Bible reading, prayer and attending meetings. These are not bad nor wrong concepts, in fact, they should be continued. However, doing them void of intimate engagement with Jesus will never produce a close bond. We would do well to teach people how to be intimate with Jesus while surfing the web, mowing the yard, shopping for new shoes or playing a video game for the first time. The Answer We must follow Jesus’ example of living life for God. We must dare to be dangerous in our following Him. We must be willing to be holy rebels if we are going to change church. Allow me to give you some initial thoughts on Mission from Luke 4-5. (Are there any questions before we dive in here?) Jesus was on Mission from the Outset. Luke 3:21-22 Note that Jesus was pleasing to God – He always did the will of His Father. Luke 4:1 Jesus was led by the Spirit of God – even into uncomfortable and hard places (a 40 day fast followed by a great testing by the Devil himself). Luke 4:18-19 This is Jesus’ job description if you will. This job description is wet with mission. Here we find at least 5 assignments or principles that Jesus is to live out. All of them are outward focused: • Preach the Gospel to the poor. • Proclaim release to the captives. • Recovery of sight to the blind. • Set free those who are oppressed. • Proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. Jesus certainly began by being outward focused and on mission. There is no hint of consumerism in his job description. Notice verse 22, the people were blessing Jesus. When he read these words (above) from Isaiah and said that He came to do those things, the people who heard it thought it was for them and they were blessing Him. More on this in a minute… Luke 4:25-26 Here we see that God has always been on mission to those much different than His chosen people. Jesus is addressing the same crowd of Jews in a synagogue and reminds them that God is on mission (just like Him) to those who are different or outcasts. Elijah and Zarephath. Elijah was a Jew and Zarephath was a Gentile. There should not have any dealings with one another according to Jewish law. God, however, sends one of the greatest prophets Israel had to a poor Gentile women and food was provided for her until the famine was over. Luke 4:27-28 teaches us again that God has always been on mission. Here we learn about Elisha (Elijah’s protégé) and how with all of the leprosy in Israel, God brought the enemy, a Gentile, to him to be healed of leprosy. Through the reading of Isaiah about the Messiah being on mission and through Jesus relaying these two stories of how God has always been on mission and moved towards those different and further away from God, Jesus was teaching the world that He was on mission and so should those following Him. When the people heard these things, verse 28 tells us that the same people who were blessing Him a few minutes earlier (v. 22) were now filled with raged when they heard these things. They were taking Jesus out to a cliff and were going to through Him off to His death, but He slipped away. The Jews liked Jesus when they thought that He was going to come and teach, heal set free and proclaim the Lord’s favor on them. However, when it was clear that He was for all people and that it wasn’t all about them, they were filled with rage. Luke 4:42-44 Jesus left Nazareth and was off to Capernaum. He cast out a demon (v. 33-35) and healed many in that city (v. 38ff). The people were again clamoring for Him to stay and not leave. Just like the folks at Nazareth, they wanted Jesus all to themselves as well. Verse 42 tells us that when the day came for Jesus to leave, the crowds followed him and tried to keep Him from going away from them. Jesus tells them His mission. “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.” Luke 4:43 “Just as the Father as sent me, so send I you.” Just like Jesus, we are on mission for our whole lives. Luke 5:1-11 This passage teaches us about how Jesus’ first disciples were called to follow Him. Jesus uses this opportunity to begin with the end in mind as He calls His first disciples to follow Him. He begins by breaking or challenging their paradigm about what they knew most about, fishing. After He taught the crowds, He instructed Simon Peter to shove off into the lake and fish. Simon had fished all his life and he knew that this was not the time to go fishing. He also knew that the fishing was lousy. They has spent all night fishing and had caught nothing! They had just finished the laborious job of washing their nets and now, a non-fisherman wanted them to do something unconventional. It would cause them to have to haul their nets back to shore to washed yet again. Something deep in Simon stirred and He did as Jesus instructed and there, they caught a large amount of fish. Jesus often does things that are not the normal way of doing things. We must be careful to listen to His Word and His voice in our lives. As soon as they arrived back on shore, Jesus invites them to follow Him. He tells them that they will in deed continue fishing, but no longer for fish, but for men. Jesus begins by telling His first disciples that following Him has mission at the center of the task! Mission is at the center of being a Christ follower. They left everything and followed Him. Luke 5:11 Questions, Comments, Concerns or other Discussion on this topic?