January 27, 2013, Live Baptized!

- Baptism marks a significant moment in the life of a believer and in the life of the church.

- It is a moment we publicly proclaim our commitment to Jesus Christ.

- It is a sacred moment when, as the church, we set apart new believers to the life of faith recognizing them as people whom God has called and set apart to walk with him in faith together with us.

- Christian Baptism is a moment filled with meaning and purpose, but is that all it is? Is it only a moment, a single, solitary event in a person's life and in the life of the church? Or is baptism something more?

¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in^[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (ESV, [a] Or into)

- I believe it is clear that baptism is something more than a single moment or solitary event.

- We already recognized last week that baptism reflects obedience in the life of a disciple.

- Now, the thing about obedience is that it's not momentary. Real obedience is an ongoing thing. Real obedience keeps on being obedient.

- So the first thing we can say about a baptized life is that it is an obedient life. A baptized life is an obedient life.

- The second thing I think we need to notice about baptism from the great commission comes as we're reading along and we come to the little word "in."

- Now that little word in the Greek can be better translated as "into" which carries a different force of meaning and implies that these words of Jesus are no mere formula for how to do baptism.

- No, these words of Jesus reveal that the disciple must learn to view baptism as an expression of our new relationship.

- We are baptized into fellowship with the triune God.

- We have recognized before the fact that God is eternally existent in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, means that God has always been in relationship.

- That he has created us for relationship is easily seen from the very beginning.

- Over and over in the very first chapter of Genesis, like the steady beat of a drum, we read, "and God saw that it was good," and then like a marvelous revelation of his grace God announces, "it is not good for the man to be alone."

- We were created for relationship with God and with one another, because God is a relational God.

- To be baptized into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is to be baptized into fellowship with him and with his people.

- Therefore, a very significant part of our discipleship to Jesus Christ must be the renewal of our relationships with God and with one another in obedient faith.

- Renewed relationships is the reason why the main emphasis of the New Testament is on love.

- What is the key focus of the Sermon on the Mount? Matthew 7:12, "Do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the law and the prophets."

- What is the greatest commandment? Matthew 22:37- 40, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. The law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

- What was the new commandment of Jesus? "A new command-ment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:34-35, ESV

- What does Paul say is the only thing that counts? The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. Galatians 5:6b

- What is the first thing Paul mentions as he lists the fruit of the Spirit? The fruit of the Spirit is love. Galatians 5:22

- What is it that Paul tells Christian to put on above all things?

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." Put on love.

- What is it that the letters of John stress most? A few times, John tells his readers that he's not giving them a new commandment, but the commandment that "we have had from the beginning" of Jesus ministry, "that we love one another."  2 John 1:5

- Renewed relationships are loving relationships.

- That brings me to the second thing I want to say about baptism A baptized life is a life of loving relationships with God and others.

- A baptized life is an obedient life, and a baptized life is a life of loving relationships, also, a baptized life is a God-ordered life.

- Jesus instructed his disciples to baptize others into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

- We are not only baptized into a renewed relationship with God, we are also baptized into his country, and we are under his authority, his orders.

- How can we understand this? We all live in a particular province of a particular country and that country is Canada.

- As I think about that, I like to think that there's a little patriotism in all of us.

- As Canadians, we are multicultural so we all define what it is to be Canadian a bit differently, while we all hold some values in common.

- I served my country for five years as a member of the West Nova Scotia Regiment, and I like to think of myself as a Canadian first and a Maritimer last.

- As a patriotic Canadian, I have certain loyalties that I subscribe to, or believe in, and behave in Canadian ways.

- I tend to think in a Canadian way as opposed to an American way or British way.

- As a Canadian citizen, my loyalty is to Canada.

- I could say a lot more, but I think we get a little bit of the picture.

- As a disciple of Jesus, I need to be living a God-ordered life.

- I need to be learning to think in the ways that God thinks, looking at my life the way God looks at my life and at the lives of others the way God looks at their lives.

- I need to have godly values and I need to behave in godly ways.

- As a citizen of God's country, my loyalty must be to God.

- A baptized life is a God-ordered life.

- So, a baptized life is an obedient life.  A baptized life is a life of loving relationships.  A baptized life is a God-ordered life.

- So I say: Live in obedience, live in love, live God-ordered, live baptized!

January 20, 2013, Make Disciples!

Scripture: Matthew 28: 20

¹⁸ Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. ²⁰ Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” - NLT

- So far this year, we can sum up the sermons of January 6 and 13th with two simple commands: "Stay Salty!" and "Shine!"

- And we have these two directions straight from an eyewitness to Jesus' teaching, Matthew.

- This morning we can sum up today's sermon with another simple command from the eyewitness Matthew: "Make Disciples!"

- We understand that it is the job of the church to make disciples and we know that in order to make disciples that we need to do evangelism.

- But let me begin this morning with a very basic question: What is evangelism?

- Well, I believe that very short, straightforward question has a straightforward answer.

- Evangelism is an invitation to become a student, obeying and passing on Jesus' teachings.

- I know this definition is simple, but experience teaches us that the most profound truths of life are often very simple, while sometimes also difficult, requiring endurance and perseverance to be accomplished.

- How do we know this definition is correct?

- Well, very simply, we know this definition is correct from reading the Great Commission.

- ¹⁸ Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. ²⁰ Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” - NLT

- Does anyone know what the key command is in this passage?

- I'll give you a hint. It's not "go" because the Greek actually has the feeling of "as you are going." 

- As you're going about your daily life, as you're going about your business, as you're going down the road, that's the general feeling of "go."
- So if the command isn't "go," then what is it?

- The key command is this: make disciples. Make disciples is the one word in the Greek, which presents the main idea of the passage as a command.

- So, Matthew is telling his readers, as an eyewitness, that Jesus commanded his disciples to make disciples.

- Making disciples, as Matthew understood it, was the bottom line for Jesus.

- Matthew put this at the very end of his gospel so that his readers would get it.

- His readers would immediately see that this is what Jesus expects of his church.

- Making disciples is to be the top priority for the church, as well as individual Christians.

- Now, what is a disciple?

- A disciple is someone who has accepted the invitation of Jesus to become a learner or student under him.

- The mission of the church is not to create converts, but to make disciples.

- Disciples are students of Jesus who learn to say and do the kinds of things he would have us say and do.

- Isn't that what the great commission says? "Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you."

- Disciple-making involves two key ingredients: "baptism in the threefold name" and "instruction in the practice of all [Jesus] commanded" (MSG)

- The qualities of a disciple of Jesus are made very plain in the Great Commission.

- The first quality is obedience.

- A disciple receives baptism as an act of faithful obedience while learning to obey everything Jesus commanded.

- The second quality of a disciple is becoming steeped in the person of God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (We'll look deeper into baptism in the threefold name next week.)

- The third quality of a disciple is interacting with God and one another in student-teacher relationships.

- We are learning from our Lord and Teacher to become teachers and equippers of new disciples ourselves.

- The fact that we teach because we are called to teach implies that we must all see ourselves as learners or students of Jesus on this journey of becoming like him.

- What is it that we are to teach?

- We are to teach the wonderful message that in the person of Messiah Jesus, crucified, buried and risen, God has come near and his kingdom is available to all by faith in Jesus. That is, the gospel, the good news, the evangel.

- It is this good news, which is the basis for our evangelism. What is evangelism? Evangelism is an invitation to become a student, obeying and passing on Jesus' teachings.

- Somewhere along the way in the last 150 years the waters got muddied and our understanding got muddled and many church people started thinking that you don't have to be a disciple in order to be a Christian.

- Somehow we got to thinking that you can say yes to Jesus w/o saying yes to discipleship, becoming his disciple.

- Many of us church people started thinking that it's okay to leave the pursuit of discipleship to the professionals.

- Guess what? That's part of the reason why the church in North America is not experiencing the dramatic growth that much of the developing world is experiencing today.

- Too many of us have washed our hands of the responsibility of making disciples because we learned that we don't have to be disciples.

- The church has does not influence the world as it should because our authority to teach comes from our relationship with Jesus and the world can only see that relationship when we submit to him as his disciples.

- Our goal, as students of Jesus, is to learn from him and pass on how to obey everything he has commanded and we have this on his authority as the risen Lord whose rule extends to all nations for all eternity.

- "Every single person who is won to Christ must be anchored in Christ and taught how to live for Christ in day-to-day decisions." (Osborne 2010)

- To that end, Jesus leaves us with a simple and direct command: Make Disciples!

Prayer: - Lord Jesus, maybe some are here today who need to renew their commitment to learning how to be your disciples.

- maybe we all needed this reminder today that as your people all of us are called to be disciples who make disciples.

- Help us, Lord, to make disciple-making our top priority, as we help one another to be salt and light and as we reach out into the world with words and works of compassion, meeting needs that will open doors for others to become new disciples.

- Our gracious God and Master, prepare us to love you and love others like Jesus loves so that we are ready to receive with thanksgiving those new disciples whom you have set apart, so that we may continue to please you obedient service and zealous love.

- Teach us anew how to make-disciples which make disciples who love like you love and live like you would have us live.

- Father, forgive us for when we have thought and acted like being a believer instead of a disciple was good enough.

- We see now that we need to follow you through every moment of everyday as students of Jesus.

- We commit once again to learning your ways, following the teaching of your Son, Jesus, and obeying the instruction of your Holy Spirit. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

January 13, 2013, Shine!

- Last week we looked at Matthew 5:13, the instruction of Jesus that his followers need to stay salty by spending time with him in the Word, then obeying him.

- This week we are faced with another question:

Why does Matthew share with his readers the teaching of Jesus that his followers are the light of the world?

- Let's think about the properties of light for a few moments.

- One of the things I think about when I think about light is the difference in how we see things during the day versus how we see things at night.

- At night, we have very little perception of color at all.  Everything is in various shades of gray or even black.  In fact, the darker the night, the less we are able to see.

- But during the day, as long as our eyes work the way the designer originally planned then we are able to see all the colors God intended for us to see.

- On a clear day, colors are bright, on a cloudy day, colors are not so bright.

- We could say the same things of a well lit room versus a dimly lit room, couldn't we?

- So it's fitting that The Message says that we are here "to bring out the God-colors of the world."

- I think it is really interesting and exciting that Jesus says that his disciples are the light of the world; that we "bring out the God-colors of the world."

- Bible scholars tell us that light represents the goodness of God. If we are the light of the world, then we need to represent the goodness of God, and that goodness can only be displayed, be made visible through good works.

- Jesus wants his disciples' good works to be visible to the community.

- You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill." 

- Light represents the visible goodness of God in the life of a disciple, good works. So let me ask this question...

- How's your visibility?

- "If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand."

- Not only are we to be light of the world, we are to be light for one another, since we are God's spiritual house.

- Obviously no one hides a lamp under a bucket, only a fool would do such a thing.

- How's your visibility in the house? How's your visibility outside the house?

- "Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven." 

- The life of a follower of Jesus must shine with the goodness of God.

- We have a mission to the world to be the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus until the light of the gospel shines in every home.

- We are called to be active in the world, making a difference rather than hiding the Gospel's light under a measuring cup or a bucket.

- As we live lives of openness and generosity, we will inspire others to open up with God and he will receive all the glory.

- How's your visibility? Do we, as a church and as individuals, shine for all to see? Are we intentional about serving our community? Do we have a plan? Are we following and carrying out that plan to fulfill our role in carrying out God's mission? Or are we hit and miss, haphazard, doing the mission only when we feel like it?

- You can be sure that Jesus did not carry out his mission based on how he felt from one day to the next. Everything he did, he did according to the Father's plan and he did it intentionally and with conviction, through prayer and service to others.

- Let's go back to our original question: Why does Matthew share with his readers the teaching of Jesus that his followers are the light of the world?

- Matthew shared with his readers the teaching of Jesus that his followers are the light of the world because light represents the visible goodness of God in the life of a disciple, good works.

- Let your good works shine the gospel light for a God-glorifying, global impact.

- Something that shines is visible. What does visibility mean for the local church? 

- First, visibility means that we will be more involved by supporting community projects and attending community events.

-E.g., Attending Events hosted by community groups, i.e., Millville Elementary School, Beyond the Bell, the Legion, MYRCI, Village Council, GHLC

- Supporting Projects sponsored by community groups by participating in, as well as, organizing and hosting fundraisers to support projects

- Host fun events ourselves

- Second, visibility also means visible service to the community through meeting needs which will create opportunities to share the Gospel of Messiah Jesus.

- E.g.:

o   Collect Trash

o   Clean Sidewalks

o   Off-Site Workshops

o   Odd Jobs for seniors, widows, widowers, and the needy

o   Cleanup Parks

o   Friendship Trail Cleanup.

o   Community appreciation suppers, e.g., youth and families, fire department, teachers, seniors, Village Council

o   Collect for Food Bank

o   Volunteer at Food Bank (Woodstock)

o   Volunteer at Community Kitchen (Fredericton)

o   Free Babysitting for Christmas Shopping

o   Welcome Wagon

o   Community taxi to appointments

- I'm convinced that now is the time for us to be renewed in shining the light of Jesus for the glory of God. It's shine time!

- Let your good works shine the gospel light for a God-glorifying, global impact.