1. What is the “Great Commission”? Matt 28:18-20

• Power, priorities, promise
• Trispectival:
  • Authority: All authority is given to me.
  • Control: Make disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching
  • Presence: I am with you always!
• Breaking it down:
  • Main Verb: “Make Disciples”
  • Who: All nations!
  • Participles – “how”
    • Going
    • Baptizing
    • Teaching to obey

2. What is a Disciple?

• Mathetes: to teach, instruct hence: “learner”, Pupil
  • KJV: “Teach the nations”
  • Matt 10:24 “A disciple is not greater than his teacher, nor a slave his master”
  • Greek philosophers had disciples
  • Hebrew Rabbi’s had disciples
  • John the Baptist had disciples
  • Not classroom instruction!
• Goal: become like your teacher
  • Luke 6:40  “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.”
• Misconception:
  • Disciples are a special level of Christians
  • Alpha Christians
  • Elite “seal team six” spiritual commandos!
  • Unattainable and unnecessary.
• Reality:
  • Every Christian is a disciple
  • Disciple was original word for Christ follower!
  • Acts 11:26  “And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.”
  • Disciple: “Once lost, now found, cast off, brought near, grace addicted ragamuffin telling the story of His glory!”
  • Expected of everyone
  • “Devoted Disciples: a redundancy
  • A Christian is called to a life of discipleship.
• What did Jesus look for?
  • Three things:
    • Faithful
    • Available
    • Teachable
• All of our core values describe a “devoted disciple”

3. How do we mobilize disciples?

• “Discipleship” has taken on many meanings:
  • One-on-one
  • Small group
  • A program of the church
• How would Jesus’ disciples have understood this command?
  • We are disciples – what did Jesus do?
  • Jesus called us to follow
  • We watched and listened
  • Got on the job training
  • He then sent us out.
  • And now we are to make disciples
• “Disciples making disciples…”
  • Not a separate program…
  • …Why the church exists
• Focus on Core Values
• Mobilize around the Great Commission
• What role are you playing as a disciple in fulfilling the great commission?
• Three areas of focus
  • Church
  • Community
  • The Nations

- Ignatius of Antioch, 35-108 A. D.

“Please pray for me,

that I may have both spiritual and physical strength to perform my duties;
that I may not only speak the truth but become the truth;
that I may not only be called a Christian, but also live like a Christian.
Yet I do not want people to look to me as an example,
for at best I can only be a pale reflection of Christ Jesus;
let people look away from the reflection and turn to the reality.
Christianity is not a matter of persuading people of particular ideas,
but of inviting them to share in the greatness of Christ.
So pray that I may never fall into the trap of impressing people with clever speech,
but instead I may learn to speak with humility,
desiring only to impress people with Christ himself.”

“In your presence,” says David, “is the fullness of joy.” (Ps. 16:11)

And this joy shall arise chiefly from the vision of God, and partly from the sight of all the holy angels, and blessed souls of just and perfect men, who are in bliss and glory with them; but especially from the blissful sight of Jesus, the Mediator of the New Testament, our Emmanuel, God made man.

The sight of Jesus will be the chief cause of our bliss and joy.

— Lewis Bayly“Meditations on the blessed state of those reconciled to God in Christ”

1. God’s Word gets us started. James 1:18

• The “word” ties this section together
• The Word gave us new birth – 1 Peter 1:22-23
• What we do with the word proves our genuineness.

2. Work with the Word within you. James 1:19-21

• God’s word is at work within us, but we must receive it meekly!
  • “Implanted”
  • Don’t fight against God’s Word (that’s what fools do!)
  • Nurture your regeneration!

3. The Word tells you who you are, before it tells you what to do.

• The indicative precedes the imperative
• Ephesians 1-3/4-6
• Romans 1-11/12-15
• Not “Should” or “Ought”, but “Because” and “Therefore”
• All “dos” are grounded in Christ’s “done”

4. Apply the Word to yourself as you apply yourself to the Word! James 1:22-25

• If you never make it past hearing, you are deceived. James 1:22
  • Also defrauded of an opportunity for growth.
  • Careless listening
  • Rom 2:13, Luke 11:28

• God’s word shows us our true selves. James 1:23-24
  • Mirror metaphor
  • EX: Shaving Cut.
  • Forgetting is a sin! Deut 8:19

• Look for the application
  • “Gaze intently” – stoop down to examine
  • “Persevere” – continues
  • God blesses doers!

5. Three tests to know the Word is at work. James 1:26-27

• You control your tongue. James 1:26

• You help the helpless: James 1:27
  • Because God does! Ps. 146:9

• You grow in holiness: James 1:27
  • Separation in the world, not from the world.

J. C. Ryle was a man of the Word.

The first bishop of Liverpool, and subject of John Piper’s biographical message at next week’s Conference for Pastors, wanted his people to read the Scriptures. And we want the same thing, for ourselves and for you.

To help us out, Erik Kowalker recently compiled a list of tips straight from Ryle’s bookPractical Religion. Here are eight profitable ways to read the Bible:

1. Begin reading your Bible this very day.
2. Read the Bible with an earnest desire to understand it.
3. Read the Bible with child-like faith and humility.
4. Read the Bible in a spirit of obedience and self-application.
5. Read the Bible daily.
6. Read all of the Bible — and read it in an orderly way.
7. Read the Bible fairly and honestly.
8. Read the Bible with Christ continually in view.

For more on these eight ways read the full post.

When my kids were younger they always loved to hear stories of my youth. I told them of falling in the canal by my elementary school, getting picked up by the police for shooting BB guns (and dropped off a block from home!), and of firing bottle rockets into the rooms of my dorm mates in college!

Family gatherings are made richer by sharing our stories. I’m sure you can remember stories that your family told around the table at holiday meals. Maybe the ones grandpa told year after year!

Families are shaped by stories. and our Christian family is no different. Our story is the story of Christ and the role we play in that story.

It’s a story of Creation: Made in the image of God, with incredible value, worth, and dignity.

It’s a story of the Fall: Rebellion and disobedience marring and twisting that image and putting us at odds with our Creator, under a curse along with all of creation.

It’s a story of Redemption: The hero of our story, Christ, coming to live the perfect life and die a sacrificial death for us so that we could be delivered from sin, hell, and death and reconciled to our Father.

It’s a story of Restoration: Our hero, Jesus, one day making all things new, overturning the curse of sin, and making us kings and priests to rule and reign with him!

That’s a really great story. and it’s true! That’s the story we need to tell one another. That’s the story we need to share around the table at holidays. That’s the “message of Christ”! Let’s make sure it “dwells among us richly”!

The well wisher of your soul’s happiness,

Pastor Tom

Text: Col 3:16

1. The Word of God creates the People of God

• Creation
• Call of Abraham – Gen 12
• Moses @ Sinai – Ex 20
• Ezekiel & Dry Bones = Ezek 37:1-6
• Peter @ Jerusalem – Acts 2
• Paul’s Letters – Col 4:16

2. The Word of Christ = “The Message of the Gospel”

• Not 4 Points or 5 Steps
• The message announcing what God has done in and through Christ!
• Connecting God’s Story and your story
  • Col 1:15-20, Col 3:1-4
  • How does the gospel shape your identity?
  • Pharisees were shaped by the word, but not the word of Christ!

3. “Dwell Among You”

• “Dwell” – “He who dwells in a house is the master of the house, not a passing guest”
• “Richly” – Abundantly, savoring it’s richness
• What does it look like?
  • Shapes our conversations
  • Shapes our attitudes and actions
    • Col 3:5-11, Col 3:12-15
    • Not moralism but Gospel Transformation!
• Shapes our values and priorities
• Connects our story and God’s story
• “Gospel Fluency”
• “Spiritual Two-Stroke engine”

4. “Teaching and Admonishing”

• Teaching: What we need to turn to
• Admonishing: What we need to turn from
• Note: No leaders – every member ministry
• Informed and shaped by the message of Christ!

5. “Results in Worship”

• Singing – Outward expression
• In your hearts – inward reality
• Evidence of Gospel Fluency

2 Timothy 3:14-17

1. “Continue” in the Scriptures: 2 Timothy 3:14-15

• Make reading the Bible a lifelong practice
• Never too old: 2 Timothy 1:5 – Lois & Eunice
• Never to young: “from childhood” – 5yrs old
• Strengthen your faith in the Scriptures

2. Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing:  2 Timothy 3:15

• To make you wise
• For salvation
• Through faith in Christ Jesus
• Christ is the theme though all of Scripture!

3. Put God’s Word to Practice: 2 Timothy 3:16-17

• Divine Origin: God Breathed
• “All Scripture”?
  • Paul expected his letters to be read: 1 Thess 5:27
  • Exchanged: Col 4:16
  • and Obeyed: 1 Cor 14:37
  • Peter calls Paul’s writing scripture: 2 Peter 3:15-16
  • Paul Calls Luke scripture: 1 Tim 5:18
• Human Profitability:
  • Teaching: sound instruction in the Gospel
  • Rebuking: Exposing false teachers
  • Correcting: Behavioral & ethical side of rebuking
  • Training: the positive side of correcting.
• Human practicality
  • Competence
  • Equipped for every good work!

Samuel Bourn:

All true fear of the Supreme Being can only spring from a right knowledge of him. And it consists, first and fundamentally, in conceiving and believing him to be what he is, most powerful indeed, but at the same time, most wise, just, and benevolent. . . .

The character and title most certainly ascribed by our Savior and his Apostles to the Supreme being is The Father: the appellation [or name] by which we are taught to address him, [is] Our Father in heaven. . . . But if we impute to him qualities inconsistent with the parental character, and represent him to ourselves, as seeking and delighting, not in the happiness, but the misery and ruin of his creatures; we dethrone as it were, the Father, and set up in his stead a tyrant. . . .

And the dread of such a false deity is widely different from the fear of God . . . producing timidity, distrust, dejection, horror and despair and leading to all the . . . corrupt methods, by which, men, deceiving themselves, may hope to appease his wrath and gain his favor.

“On Religious Fear,” Discourses on Various Subjects of Natural Religion and the Christian Revelation, vol. 2 (London: R. Griffiths, 1760), 356–57, quoted in Lou Priolo, Fear: Breaking Its Grip, (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2009), 8–9.

Friday, December 9

Sweet and lively bread

Before Christ’s coming into the world, all men universally in Adam were nothing else but a wicked and crooked generation, rotten and corrupt trees, stony ground, full of brambles and briars, lost sheep, prodigal sons, naughty unprofitable servants, unrighteous stewards, workers of iniquity, the brood of adders, blind guides, sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death: to be short nothing else but children of perdition, and inheritors of hell fire.

But after [Christ] was once come down from heaven, and had taken our frail nature upon him, he made all them that would receive him truly, and believe his word, good trees, and good ground, fruitful and pleasant branches, children of light, citizens of heaven, sheep of his fold, members of his body, heirs of his Kingdom, his true friends and brethren, sweet and lively bread, the elect and chosen people of God.

— Church of England“Homily on the Nativity”