1. A Life of Learning - Why Church Matters - Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

good to have you guys here I invite you if you haven't already open arrivals list need the book of Acts chapter 1 and we in this month leading up to moving all of our gatherings and and our offices and kind of all our activities over to the Northeast we it occurred to us that this is such an important teachable moment for us as a church it's a time of transition and it's the perfect time for us to to refocus our understanding and our vision of what the biblical vision of the church is what on earth are we and what do we think we're doing and what does it mean for us to be faithful to our calling and so on and so we just this is a great time for us all to think through what does it mean to be a part of a church what does it mean to be a part of this church and what do we think that we're doing and what does it mean for you guys to participate so I just put this great so we're going to do is spend the next few weeks camping out and the first chapters of the book of Acts which is like it's like a foundation story of the Jesus Movement and how this whole thing got started and why how we're sitting here today and so we have some ground to cover and we're going to learn about the the idea and the reality of discipleship in the New Testament tonight so you guys ready for action oh yeah okay Acts chapter one let's just dive in Luke Luke who is author both of the gospel after his name is this is his part - it's a two-part work Luke acts until he opens up here just like he did the Gospel of Luke and he says in my former book Theophilus Gospel of Luke I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles he had chosen after his suffering he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive he appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God oh to have been a fly on the wall of those Bible studies you know with the risen Jesus and what's interesting is you there's a nun a passages in the New Testament that refer to this little period here after the resurrection but before his ascension and Paul like for example in 1st Corinthians 15 he mentions that one of these appearances was to a group of 500 people at once who were eyewitnesses to the Risen Jesus so this isn't like Jesus occurring you know appearing to little small groups of five people in a closet like that is a very public over period of like over a month hundreds and hundreds of people are seeing Jesus and what is Jesus doing he's eating with people because that's what you do when you're alive from the dead yes so verse four on one occasion while he was eating with them he gave them this command he said you guys don't leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift my father promised which you heard me speak about John baptized people with water but in a few days y'all are going to be baptized or immersed with the presence of the Holy Spirit and so you can imagine I mean this send this remarkable incredible thing has happened that not even death gets the final word in God's good world anymore because of the good news about Jesus and you can imagine the rearing to go they were into therapy tell people and Jesus essentially says hurry up and wait and just stay put right here we gathered around him verse 6 and they asked him Lord is this the time you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel and he said to them sheesh you guys you know come on this is not it's not for you to know about the times or the dates the father has set by his own authority to forget about the timeline here that's not the main thing oh that many Christians throughout history would have hated these words right so verse 8 he said here's the point and here's what I do want you to do you're going to receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you all will be my witnesses starting right here in Jerusalem so this is a community of Jewish followers in Jesus the Messiah of Israel but then it's going to break out of the boundaries of just the tribe of Israel is going to expand their cousin's up north and Samaria and then just outside the bounds altogether to all the nations of the earth to become included in the people of Jesus okay so this connects with what Josh was talking about last week when Josh opened up the series about the mission the vision the nature of the church he gave this this wonderful definition that the church is a community of people who are gathering around not a religious idea not a philosophy of life not a certain mode or practice of spirituality we gather foremost around a person around the Risen Jesus the crucified risen Jesus and we believe that he's alive and that he's real and that we're looking towards him at the center and we believe that he's real and that he's looking back at us and that he's guiding us as a community we gather around the Risen Jesus who's present with us by the Spirit of God and particularly the church is a community people around Jesus who are in a living vital relational connection to Jesus and with each other and we are a group of people empowered to become what does he say here the Holy Spirit empowers Jesus followers to become what we just read it a second ago here so it should be my witnesses witnesses to bear witness to the reality of the kingdom of God breaking into our broken screwed up world changing us individually and we bear witness to that how does the church bear witness turn to chapter two with me so these you know couple hundred on this day 120 Jewish believers in Jesus they're gathered in Jerusalem on one of the great feasts of Israel of Pentecost and so tens and tens of thousands of extra people would have been packed into the city of Jerusalem of the pilgrimage pilgrimage feast and so they're gathered there and what Jesus said was going to happen happen they have this profound mysterious and very powerful experience with with the Holy Spirit who who mediates the present very presence of the Creator God and of Jesus himself - to Jesus as people and and that what happens what happens is they begin to bear witness to Jesus in a really remarkable way so there's all these different Jewish people but from different parts of the world from different languages and so you have a group of 120 believers and Jesus and then all of a sudden they start sharing the good news about Jesus but in languages that people can understand but that they've never learned before that's remarkable you know that doesn't happen every day and it's to draw the huge crowd huge huge crowd gathers and who stands up who sees a moment here and stands up to address the crowd look at verse 14 chapter 2 verse 14 Peter stood up with the eleven the other who were eyewitnesses and followed Jesus before his crucifixion and now after Peter stood up with the eleven he raised his voice and he addressed the crowd fellow Jews and all of you living in Jerusalem let me explain this to you listen carefully to what I say and what goes on what follows is one of it's one of the first one of the most profound compelling amazing sermon one of the first Christian sermon ever and what it is is it's a Jewish believer in Jesus addressing a whole bunch of other Jewish people and so this is not like street preaching in Portland or something this is a this is a thousands of Jewish people who are devout Jews they're they're followers of the out--we they're devout they pray through the Scriptures they hear the scriptures and synagogues are waiting for the Messiah there I already have all the pieces in place and Peter presents to them and demonstrates from the very Hebrew Scriptures that they all agree or God's word that Jesus was in fact the Messiah and how effective is his witness here look at--look so the end of the speech he goes down look at verse 41 after the Peters sermon is over verse 41 it says those who accepted his message they got baptized on the spot and how many people were we talking here so about three thousand were added to their number that day now as someone the pastor works at a church that just stresses me out think about I usually like how would you even deal with that hole and so that's awesome and it's so many people like how do you responsibly take care of something like that that grows that much in dead but there that's what happened so so look at what Luke's done here he gives you the story you're going to be empowered to be my witnesses what's the very next story about it's about both this group being empowered to be witnesses through their words as they tell the story in languages they didn't know and then Peter gets up and he shares verbally the story of the good news about Jesus and it's a very effective witness the church continues to witness keep reading the witness does not stop keep reading verse 42 so they the hundred and twenty and now three thousand at least three thousand one hundred twenty they devoted themselves they started a new life of habits and routines together they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching and to fellowship to the breaking of bread and to prayer everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the Apostles all the believers were together they had everything in common they were selling property and their possessions to give to anyone who had need everyday it continued to meet together in the temple courts and breaking bread in their homes eating together with glad and sincere hearts praising God enjoying favor of all the people and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved so people are added to the number of Jesus's people through the witness that's empowered by the spirit you guys with me here that's what these opening chapters of Acts are all about and that's the church fulfilling its mission how does the church bear witness to Jesus in Acts chapter 1 and 2 well a couple different ways that's nice so through through verbally telling people who didn't know the story of Jesus like telling it right telling the story of the events of his life is death and resurrection the meaning of those events and why they're significant for everybody everywhere and for all of human history all right so that's one way of bearing witness and when it's empowered by the spirit it's effective but it is not the only way to bear with because what happens the gospel is is a story that when you when you're faithful to tell the story just tell what happened and why it's significant and why it was a story of what happened with Jesus is precisely the answer to the human condition and what what wrong what's wrong with our world and what God is doing about it when we when we're faithful to tell that story it's not be ashamed of it just talk about Jesus and what happened things happen stuff happens when you tell that story things click with people and conversations and stories that you have no idea about in people's lives you know in their past leading up to that moment you have no idea things happen and so that is one way that the Holy Spirit empowers the witness but here's what's interesting this paragraph that we just read about the life of the church is also a form of witness did you guys catch that how does the Lord add to the number of his people through the witness of the church well how does the church witness through people like Peter telling the story but also through just like these believers adopting this new routine and common life together that's so attention-getting and bizarre to on lookers that it's just attractive and it also is a form of witness do you guys see that here so the spirit-empowered witness it happens through word and deed that's what I'm getting at here actually that's not what I'm getting at that's what Luke's getting at here so it's through word and and that word creates and brings into being a community of people who are being transformed by that word and then whose common life together reinforces the message and itself becomes a message just the common life of the church itself when it's faithful to living out the story of the gospel itself is an effective witness so what we're going to do in the next few weeks is really dives into this depiction of the church here in this paragraph and explore what does it mean for us and kind of let it kind of reinsertion in this time look at verse 42 with me what marks this community and their common life as as a witness and where we read that they this was community was marked by something it's that they devoted themselves to something now that word devotion they're what make part of what makes the Bible so difficult to read I think for us sometimes is that there are certain words that just become charged Christians subculture words and then they kind of they get used so much we don't know what they mean anymore this is a horse I like to ride right and so so I think it's very important for us to recover these terms so when you hear the word in the Christian setting of life devotions I do devotions have you been doing your devotion that is a very specific meaning that's like a code word right so I'm just like when when people are new new Christians are coming to a choice it's like what it's what is this code language so what that means is establishing a rhythm of reading your Bible and prayer on some kind of regular basis right so that's not what is not what he's talking about here that's a very good thing to do that's not what he's talking about here so this is not actually particularly a religious concept at all that you devote yourself to something he's just they this is a group of people who became marked by a new set of habit by a new set of routines it was generated as a response to this announcement the good news about Jesus and so they devoted themselves and so we all have these these are things just think through it like what see what something you do every day you do it every day hopefully brush your teeth or something like that you know or like a basic hygiene you know Portland some of us drink a lot of coffee every day multiple times per day and so we all we all have an orient much of our lives around habit rhythms and routines you can tell an enormous amount about somebody and about what they value and what their priorities are by looking at their habits because it's clearly what they prioritize and repeat and do and repeat and what marked this community was a community of people who individually and collectively adopted a whole new set of and this itself as interesting angle of vision on what it means to be a church group of people around Jesus who if I've become a Christian I'm adopting a new set of habits and if I'm growing as a Christian it's about constantly refocusing and re centering myself on a core set of habits together and I want to focus on these habits tonight and I'm going to write them up here come translate them so we can really get our minds around this here there's four things did you see him here and in verse 42 or the four four things what's the first thing that they devote themselves to okay the Apostles teaching so they really think through what this means so this community of people just exploded from a couple hundred to thousands overnight so what does that mean that they devote themselves to the Apostles teaching well it means that they're gathering look down to verse 46 the course says verse 46 every day they continued to meet in the temple courts which and temple courts as masters think of a large open space a few football fields fyz and there's a big building the temple but there's all this open meeting space it's the largest open space still in Jerusalem today and so this is where you can gather five hundred eight hundred a thousand people but clearly they did but they're not just meeting in large gatherings what are they also doing what does it say they're meeting in homes throughout the city and in the region and so what does it mean that a community of thousands of people devotes themselves to the Apostles teaching they're clearly gathering a simple way of saying this of their absorbing and hearing teaching is this is a community that's marked by learning this is a what is a church it's first and foremost it's a community that's learning something it's devoted to becoming learners now this is a big wide expansive concept that we're going to explore most of the rest of our time here but this is mentioned first the Apostles teaching we'll talk about what that means in a second what's the second thing they devote themselves to second habit that marks this church fellows sure there's another Turkey words right so a fellowship which I think most of it just means hanging out right so this is a great time of fellowship for whatever but it's just mean is great to hang out with you and talk and catch up hear your story so that's included in fellowship but that's not primarily what this word means this word is actually so significant this is what we're going to camp out on next week the habit of fellowship and essentially some of you know the Greek word underneath this because it was kind of a popular one especially in the Jesus movement in the 70s some of you have the wood fetching plaque on your wall Koinonia anybody Koinonia it means Koinonia means a commitment to share to share your life and your time eyyyy and hanging out but more profoundly your stuff and your energy your time and your resources in your very life itself and it's a commitment to shared life and shared stuff what's the third thing boobers 42 third thing how buddy the breaking of bread so eating together and eating together as it is kind of for us today if you invite someone to your place and you know you you buy the food and prepare it for them you have it at your table at your apartment or your house or whatever that's that's not simply being friend there's a symbolic statement being made there of sharing and opening your life and for the for the early Christians we know this was the setting in which what we call communion and we do in our in our large gatherings with the bread in the cup this was the setting meals when Christians would gather they would have as part of their time of Prayer or something as a part of the meal of taking the bread in the cup together to remind themselves as a broken body in the shed blood of Jesus and so this is about creating relational connections and inviting people into each other's lives and so how do you I'm just going to say being together but it's not it's not just casual it's a commitment to sharing life and and investing in relationships with each other with your table and what's the last thing they dedicates themselves towards prayer and some of you actually have different some of you have prayer singular does anyone have prayer the prayers plural yeah of you that's literally what Luke says here they dedicated themselves to the prayers and this is still almost entirely a Jewish community in which there is already a 2,000 year old tradition of the prayers that you say it morning noon and evening you say the Shema prayer Yahweh Yahweh alone is our God love your God with all your heart soul mind and strength you pray that three times a day and then there are cycles of praying through the Book of Psalms on different cycles and the early Christians adopted these they also adopted the prayers of Jesus this was a just really what we could translate this as they gathered to worship to pray to Jesus and pray to God the Father in the name of Jesus empowered by the Holy Spirit worship and so here you go whatever a community of Jesus is according to the vision here it's a group of people who are gathering in all kinds of different ways big big gathering through out homes for these cores sets the purposes here learning and we'll talk about what they're learning in a minute here the specific focus there they're humbling themselves and letting their minds be remade with a whole new story they're sharing their lives and their stuff together they're investing in relationships with each other and they're doing it all as a response of worship and gratefulness to Jesus there you go let's church church right there it seems very simple business it is kind of simple actually facilitating gatherings for these purposes now just stop and think this through with me so I'm sure I'm sure there are already lots of communities in Jerusalem and there are many in Portland that do this kind of thing pretty well you know the just the second and the third you know so sharing your stuff particularly food together and hanging out you can do that like at any street corner in Portland yes I think so many temples of food and fellowship right in the city of Portland so there's nothing particularly churchy about that so what so what makes this gathering unique it's the one who's the focal point of their worship that they're looking towards Jesus at the center and it's also the Jesus who's making them and remaking their minds as they learn a whole new story in a new way of life together and so this is the set of the set of devotions this is the set of habits becoming a Christian and joining a church involves letting these become habits that become priorities in my life that's a part of the vision of the church here now how you guys done okay let's take the next step here to this this first one they're learning the Apostles teaching what does that mean and why is it first right it's first because like I just said if you didn't have that and you didn't have this and you know you could do this with anybody anywhere so whatever they're learning and the one that they're worshiping makes this a whole unique thing unto itself they're learning the Apostles teaching which is different so what did think back what did Peter just do he got up he addressed three thousand people and what story did you tell he told the story of the gospel right and which is it's retelling the story of the life the death the resurrection of Jesus what those events mean how in Jesus God was among us reconciling the world to himself absorbing into himself the collective sin and the results of humanity selfishness and brokenness leading towards death he absorbing it into himself on the cross overcoming it with his love when he rose from the dead and offering that new life and grace a chance to become a new kind of new kind of human being again by Jesus's own personal presence and commitment to me and so that's the stories that Peter tells he tells that story and that's different than the Apostles teaching so think about this so what what the best gist the gospel that's the announcement of the good news about Jesus what the Apostles teaching is is it it's teaching that helps me explore the million and one different implications of that announcement so the the New Testament doesn't exist yet so it's being written you know it's very time when the story is happening yet so you have the actual apostles they're still alive and so what they are guiding they're guiding these new followers of Jesus in is explore what does it now mean to live as if the gospel is true as if Jesus is truly the risen Lord of the world who loves me and gave himself for me what does it mean and it creates this whole the gospel is so it's a world creating announcement and what the apostolic teaching for us it's in the form of the New Testament it guides us and exploring what it means to live as a follower of Jesus because the gospel creates a whole world that it takes a lifetime of learning to learn how to how to let that seep into every nook and cranny of my life so the thing to think about it what think about like this with me so I got I got my first skateboard I was just thinking about since recently because his Christmas time and so I got my first skateboard as a Christmas gift I was 11 years old and this was very similar to the impact of the gospel I'm my life nine years later when I became when I was 20 and here's why because I got so my parents are so rad they got me my first skateboard that was epic in and of itself they got me a stack of skateboard videos which was awesome VHS tapes the actual tape inside you know have you put them in the VCR remember that whole effing and so a sack of and for those of you interested Santa Cruz Streets of Fire anybody notices part holy cow that was incredible and then a whole series of Bones Brigade videos the one that H in my memory is banned this and public domain anybody Frankie Hills part the opening part incredible yes alright so what they also gave me was a hit my first hit pack because there was this was you know this was a time when those not what old women wore that was a time with like this was cool and it was pattern to match my skull pattern parachute pants right and what they also gave me was a subscription to Thrasher Thrasher Magazine and so here's here's what happened this was not just I didn't just get a gift and I took up a new hobby this was about over the course of that year I adopted a new identity and a new look a new way of viewing myself and a new community right and a new crew of people who were being transformed in the similar way I was and then through these videos and through this media and through Thrasher Magazine I was being brought into this world and what this world is the urban landscape and when I remember the first time I saw Rea Barbies part and he's this kind of a rid one of the contributors to what street skateboarding is today and he just took a normal sidewalk with like bus stop benches and plaid pantry stairs and a handrail and a little curb cuts and wheelchair ramps on the sidewalk and he turned that into a skate park as he would cruise down the street and I was like yes yes yes and it was like this it envisioned me that all of a sudden I grew up just two blocks away here on Hawthorne and so all of a sudden Hawthorne from Safeway f27s all the way down to water Avenue from my friends and I this was our it became our skate park now I've been as long as I can remember you know Hawthorne Boulevard like riding or walking riding my tricycle or something around these streets but all of a sudden the same exact street became my skate park because I now lived in this world where the urban landscape is a skate park and your arch nemesis in this world is the security guards right and so and so you know you what is the role will you do what you see them doing in the videos that just hurl abuse at them even if they do nothing to you yeah and so that's what you do you know and it's just identity and and I lived in that and I still kind of live in it virtually online you know by being addicted to Thrasher Magazine calm anyway so do you guys get what I'm saying here we I brought me into this storied world it was a world creating event for me the gospel is like that where it we all have stories and our view of God or maybe you don't believe in God or whatever God is the divine energy and all things or is the perpetually ticked off old man or whatever like your dad or something and so we all come with an angle and a vision about a story of what the world is like and what the gospel does is it announces to you that the world is different than what you thought it was and that there are whole ways of viewing yourself and your relationships and God in the world that might just be plain wrong or they're just deficient for their distorted or skewed and it review it the gospel is this announcement that the the being who is responsible for this huge crazy strange wonderful world that we live in is not distant is not aloof is is is perpetually and eternally committed to his good world that God has made and revealed God's own self to us in Jesus of Nazareth uniquely and perfectly and that God's God's heart is a heart that beats for love and for justice and to set all things right and to redeem in to reconcile sinful broken humans to himself amen and that that creates a whole different story for your lives and it takes a lifetime to retrain your mind about what the word g.od means about your own identity about your own value that the son of God loves you and gave his life for you and that you matter and that you have a story and that you're a part of a community that needs you and needs your story of what Jesus is doing if you you get it takes a lifetime and it reshapes it's a whole new story for how you think about your money and how you think about what you do for job or career how you think about sex and what you do with relationships and conflict and forgiveness it's the whole landscape of human experience completely remade in a whole brand-new worldview and so your this is going to happen overnight you know saying this is going to take a lifetime which is why learning the Apostles teaching which is what the New Testament does it gives us it proclaims of us this world and what it means to live in the world created by the gospel and so both in large gatherings and small gatherings the apostles creaking fossil screeching teeth yeah it tops the list it happened it frames all of these because we're sharing our stuff together not just because it's like love and share our stuff it's because our foundation story as a community has its sensor that a self giving act of love Jesus himself on the cross so that others could have lives and if that's the foundation story of our community then of course this is how we're going to do life together and we're going to do it not like thinking that we're amazing people who are finally getting communal life right we're doing it as a response to worship to Jesus you guys get what I'm saying yeah okay so this is a vision of x2 now I'm just going to we're going to look at two other biblical passages here but they all they all tie together right here so in other words what x2 is painting for us even though it doesn't use the word is that it's painting a life of a community of disciples disciples and you might know that word and you the word doesn't occur here in Acts chapter two and so what what does this have to do with discipleship this right here has everything to do with discipleship we're making disciples the next passage I'm just gonna throw it here on the screen and that you all can't see I'm sorry about that but coming in a month here you won't be able to see Matthew chapter 28 and Josh appealed this passage last week we're going to return to it right now this is some of Jesus's last words the Risen Jesus to the community of disciples in that 40 day period that acts talked about and and here Jesus says this it says then Jesus came to them and said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you and surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age Jesus is a personal presence at the center of the community that we're looking to and what's the main task or commission given here it's not bear witness doesn't use that word but it uses this idea of making disciples now I don't know do we anybody use disciple in anything other than church subculture language do you use disciple and like day to day conversation disciple to talk about liking it did you use it this week no look well they write like case is settled that's perfect though there's a religious word and but the concept is not particularly religious at all and so here's here's the thing our English word disciple it's kind of a funny words religious word the Greek word for disciple is masa a taste once you say it with me so mas a taste that's not the word Jesus uses right here the word he uses is is the verb the action of making a disciple and that's my say two of you can see that let's just say it with me my face to you see the connect the root words the same Masai taste is somebody who mas a two O's and what is word ma say two of means it means to become a learner of to commit to the two learning at the feet of a teacher you commit yourself to someone to learning from them and all of a sudden we're right back here at Acts chapter two alright so a community of Jesus is a community of disciples what is a disciple it's just it's someone who's committed himself to become a learner of your learner and learned the remaking of our mind is one of the top missions and priorities of the church because of the gospel it remakes the world and we learn to live in the world created by the gospel and we do it together by these routines and habits here and so one of the primary tasks of the church is to facilitate gatherings and environments where people are not just alert and you can see here this isn't just learning like ideas this isn't becoming bookworms this is learning a way of life and a new way of thinking and we do it together and this is exactly what Jesus is talking about here and as we are becoming learners one of the primary things is that we're teaching we're being taught the teachings of Jesus and the teaching of the Apostles do you see this is here we go I'm just trying to make it super clear you guys with me here it's not that complicated excellent okay so when when does one become a disciple of Jesus then for some of us the word disciple has connotations or connections is that it's like the marine core of Christianity or something like that like okay sure you know they said their Christian beliefs their faith in Jesus but you know I was a Christian for a while then I became a disciple a follower of Jesus or something and that's very common understanding there's nowhere to be found in the New Testament according is we're going to see in just one more passage here the moment you pledged your faith in Jesus and responded to the good news about him you became my disciple look at what Paul says here in Ephesians chapter 4 and add this to the list here fusions 4 verses 20 through 24 Paul describes this community of Christians mostly non-jewish hundreds and hundreds of miles away from Jerusalem couple decades later and he describes this process for them and he says you all learned Christ when you heard about him and were taught in him and what is the Greek word for learn maha - Oh laughing - so you could equally translate this as you became disciples of Christ you became learners of Jesus how and when did you become a disciple well he says two key moments here one is when you heard about him - like Peter's announcement in Acts chapter - or like a friend or like your parents for some of you at some point you heard the good news about Jesus and if it clicked with you and you responded in faith and you pledged your face to Jesus that was when you became a learner of Christ you became a disciple when you heard and responded but it doesn't stop there because he says you heard and responded but then continued this journey of being taught in him and what's the content of that teaching well it how did he describe it here he says just as the truth is in Jesus you were taught and learning to take off your old humanity of your former way of life to be renewed in the spirit of your mind here it's all about the learning the new way of thinking and the new way of life and to put on the new humanity which is created to be like God in true justice and holiness so the word disciple actually never occurs once in Paul all the Paul's letters he never says like be a disciple or you know but he talks about the idea of growing as a disciple all the time because he talks about learning all of the time and about the remaking of your mind hey guys yeah okay I just dumped all the content I'm going to dump on you right now okay so so this is a big deal and this is primary to what it means to be the church is that we are we're gathering in rhythm and routine so we can establish habits together individually and corporately we gather in big gatherings we bake gather in home gatherings and and the primary thing that reshapes everything else is that we are a learning community that's learning to live out the announcement of the gospel and the implications of that for every facet of our lives and we do it together because we you can't do this by yourself I like to imagine trying to learn some of you've done this before no you've never done it before you've never learned a language by yourself you never have and even if you went into a closet and learn a language by reading a book you're learning from that person because the person wrote that book so even have this exact it's exactly what's going on here it's learning it's nor learning a brand new language a way of talking a way of articulating a whole new way of thinking and you cannot do it alone and so the remaking of our minds that happens together by our investment of our commitment to each other by spending time together and all of it is an active worship to Jesus come on now somebody say man or something I uh so so okay so I just want to reflect on this that's all the passages I want to read and really what I want to do now is just stop and reflect on what this means for us door hope right now in a season of transition and I want to throw a handful of questions put the ball in your court to ask you what it means to be a part of this community of disciples first of all the word disciple making or discipleship I think when again in church subculture language some of us hear that a very certain idea it comes into our minds and I'm going to venture a guess here and what when I say the word like discipleship for are you being discipled are you deciphering someone our minds immediately go to one person who's been a Christian for a while maybe with someone who's a newer believer and it's they commit to having coffee or breakfast or something together one-on-one over a series of a year or something reading the Bible and praying for each other you guys with me here I say discipleship that's we're making disciples that's what comes into our mind that is an immensely important habit as a Christian but that is not what the New Testament calls discipleship making disciples is something that happens in when all of this when you are a learner if you can learn in a million different environment disciple making is happening right now and you didn't even know it was happening right our minds are being challenged by the Scriptures we're being taught and thinking things through and what does it mean for us and might of Jesus's life death and resurrection where disciple making is happening right now and ax2 is one of the biggest gatherings they had was for learning it's learning the Apostles teaching here we go what's happening right now yeah and so when we limit the concepts of becoming or growing as a disciple to just one form one on one that that takes place I think it just makes the picture too small when the New Testament talks about making disciples it's much more expansive and robust than that and so here are the three questions I want to pitch towards you and just think about yourself your own story who you are as a Christian your own commitment or lack thereof to being a disciple here at door fo so the first question is who are disciples in a church community who who are who are the disciples and who were called to make disciples in these passages that we've looked at did you get any like elite core of like the qualified leader you're the one who make disciples or something like no no who's a disciple if if you self-identify as a Christian and have pledged your faith and Jesus in response to him your disciple Congrats your disciple okay so you may not feel like you're a very good one and that's okay whatever most of us aren't and so we're growing and we're learning that's the hope you're a learner along with us that's the whole point and so right from the very beginning you know you might be a newer believer or coming back to your faith after a very very long time and you are a disciple and the Spirit of God is in you and you're looking towards we want to encourage you to look towards Jesus and we want to remind you that he's looking at you you know it might kind of freak you out but it's true and and you're growing and you're learning you have something to offer you you have the very least have your story to offer of what on earth God's doing in your heart that makes the gospel compelling and real to you and how God's changing you that story is is so precious it's such a precious gift that you have to share with other people here you may not feel mature or whatever none of us really are so and so and those of us who think we are is just a facade and be better if you just saw through that quicker and we can get on with the real growth you know and so where and so if you're a new believer what does it mean to become a disciple well I mean we have gatherings here it's happening right here so way to go you're doing it right now you know so we have all kinds of joining a community group you know and that's one of the ways that we bring people like an axe to into smaller groups together and it's about learning each other's stories opening our Bibles together praying for each other that's a form of discipleship we just had our first Friday of late-night prayer together that's a form of disciple making because we're learning to pray and learning different forms of Prayer together it's there you go get just get involved come you're doing it right now you're doing a great job and all your disciple and so that's the role of discipleship right from the beginning for someone who's been a Christian a disciple for a long time there comes it becomes a shift and this is an important one where the mark of a growing and maturing disciple is about this shift towards an others centered view of the world it's a part of the remaking of our minds in community and so a maturing disciple experiences the shift of seeing the church as helping me grow and about offering things that help me grow - gets turned inside out and this now becomes the place where I simmer the first question I ask is not how can the church help me it's how can I contribute to the mission of making disciples here and and so that may be you know part of certain structures of gatherings that we have community groups or serving with the kiddos or something like that it may be just beginning to notice the people around you if you haven't noticed there's hundreds of people here right now and I'm guessing a lot of them you don't know and I'm guessing maybe some of you didn't even notice that there were some people just sitting absolutely by themselves for the first ten minutes of the gathering here and maybe some of you may not notice there's people every week will walk in the front door who clearly like weird where do I go you saw and it's just taking that initiative to say this is just a wonderful place to meet new people initiate relationships and be a part of our collective mission here which is making helping each other grow it's not that complicated but somehow it we make it complicated if I say and so that's the hope it's all of us when when does someone become a disciple when when does growing as a learner of Jesus take take place we'll Paul said right here at hat it starts you become a disciple the moment you pledge your faith in Jesus and you heard and then it's a life long remaking of your mind and so this is what's interesting is that you get some disciples maybe they've been a Christian for a long time and they were already kind of bookworms and so the whole like learning a habit of engaging with Scripture and and while learning from the teachers in my community but learnt taking responsibility for my own engagement and learning from the Bible in my own day-to-day rhythms and habits that's part of growing as a disciple and so it's funny if some people get really good at that because they usually already have a disposition towards that but then there's all these other areas of their lives where there's still like babies maybe so they're like they're really like like there's stingy not generous at all like why one of the core practices of the gospel compelled us tours they haven't learned to manage how their money works in their life so they actually have something to share with other people and their total like unforgiving jerks towards people but they really know the Bible well and you've met these Christians okay and so and so that's great I'm happy that persons around at door of hope because they need to grow and so does a person who doesn't know the Bible very well at all they have a more generous disposition but they're really struggling with with issues of forgiveness with some serve people on that that's great that's great let's room to grow and all of us are at different places in different parts of our lives becoming more and more devoted consistent followers of Jesus it's all of us and it's all the parts of our lives all the time are you guys with me which at least is a last question so that's who s when does it happen and at least of the last question that's where and so one of the most difficult things in in like ordering a church and it's something we just keep you know trying to figure out and wondering if we're not supposed to figure it out is that we can as a church like just the leadership and the elders and the community group readers we can facilitate the acts two thing gathering the gatherings gathering in homes the most difficult thing to gather is the one-on-one connections people becoming close best friends and so on and like suggest I can't Prague we can't program that you know what I mean and so and often what happens is people get frustrated with churches because they come and they're apart and they don't find the best friend you know a year within a year or something and they are frustrated and they leave or something and part of it and I'm trying to be friendly in this challenge here is that I think there's an assumption that the church ought to be doing this for me okay the in other words the church is helping me form a social network and we believe that forming social networks and forming deep friendships is a crucial part of growing don't you don't hear me wrong on that but that's not our primary task our primary task is to help facilitate gathering in large and small so that people find I mean we do end up being kind of a matchmaker Church just by nature of come on you know how many weddings did Josh and I do last summer but so that could that happen and and it's just like it's the same thing I really try and encourage people with like community groups sometimes it takes about two to four experiences in a community group before the chemistry happens you guys know what I'm talking about the chemistry it's the group where it's everybody's nice you know you shared stories and you you know you did that study or whatever does that sermon series or something but you're not particularly excited to join that group again so that's okay that's alright don't feel guilty about them throwing a different group and along the way pray that the Lord will bring someone into your life or even more so pray the Jesus will bring someone onto your radar that you can initiate with and you can invest in their lives and make history with them you know what I'm saying yeah and so I think a lot of people's frustration with Church is that you know we don't often find friends there and I don't we can't program that for you I think a lot of people's frustration with with church is that is that they think the church ought to be doing different kinds of things like for example spinning off you know nonprofits are starting different ministries towards towards justice or the poor or poverty and stuff like that and don't please don't miss hear me if you are a disciple of Jesus for any amount of time you will encounter the words and the teaching of Jesus a huge amount of them are focused on how if the gospel is working itself in your life you will begin to develop a compassionate caring action-oriented heart towards the poor in your community right just read the teachings of Jesus right so the from how ministry towards the poor and initiative issues of justice that is what the church should that's what the disciples of Jesus should be doing in the city and in a community is that what we see is our strength in the leadership of the church organizing that no no what we want to do is sit you in front of those teachings of Jesus till they keep you up at night and you can't stop thinking about the people who aren't in your warm apartment sleeping under the bridge and so that you join people in doing something about that and you are a disciple of Jesus the Spirit of God is in you your door of hope you are door hope in the city and you are go do it god bless you you hear what I'm saying here and so disciples of Jesus will be doing these kinds of things in the city it doesn't mean that we need to start a door of Hope ministry to do it you're a part of door folk you know what I'm saying it's just we make things a lot more complicated I think when we want the church to organize all these things when it what we're trying to do is facilitate gatherings of people I mean my being clear I'm just trying to achieve clarity for us the time of transition and I think it's just important for us to realize what we're doing as an organized community is there part of our rhythms and patterns and then what should just happen one of the greatest joints that I have in living in the Hawthorne area here and the 200 coffee shops that are between division and Burnside right is and so where I go to study and work on my messages and I can't I can hardly go into any coffee shop where I don't encounter one or at least two three people from door hope open Bibles there praying or talking to each other it's so awesome and you're just this is church that's church okay this is Church this is part of making disciples and that's Church because that's part of making disciples to you guys with me and so this is what we're part of and so that's where it happens it happens in all these different gatherings and we're all disciples all of the time so here's my question to my question to you what does it mean for you to be a part of door of hope you're a new Christian coming back to your face you feel stagnant you've been Christian a long time whatever you're a disciple you're a learner of Jesus you have areas where you need to grow are you in initiating finding looking for places where you can invest and help us make disciples both on your own or participating it in the gatherings that we facilitate are you are you actively looking to grow in the areas of life where your your decision as a disciple of Jesus and there's no shame in that that's all of us we all need to grow that's the point and what does it mean for you to be committed to this community of disciples that's the question I want to ask you and that's the question I want you to pray about as we transition to a new location and then think about the future of door of hope we need you the spirit of God's in you you're a follower of Jesus your disciple we need you to to respond to the gospel just like I need to and Josh and elders as we grow we grow together so let's think about these questions as as we move in to worship here let me close with the word prayer

Channel: Tim Mackie Archives

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Length: 53min 38sec (3218 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 21 2017