Sunday Sermon
sunday morning 26th July 2009
Acts 14v21-28
Last time we saw Paul in Lystra: Gospel opportunity created through the healing, Gospel message given and then there was Gospel opposition.
Following Pauls near death experience he moves onto Derbe where they “won a large number of disciples” v21.
This account of the last stage of Pauls mission work seems to give us a picture of the whole disciples making process: which is obviously the fulfilling of the Great Commission.
1) the continual work of making disciples v21, 24-26 – stage one getting believers
The first stage in making a disciples is Going and Getting
P&B have been doing this the whole time and here there is no exception.
The Going is simply what they did. They were on the go, from place to place.
After Lystra comes Derby, then Pamphyilia, then Perga, and then the seaport of Attalia.
And as they are going they are working at making disciples.
Which v21 tells us they were very successful at. How did they make disciples?
The first thing they did was preach the good news.
Simply they told people about God and what he had done for the world in Jesus Christ.
App
The Great commission in most English translations seems to tell the church that it has to “go” and then make disciples. But the literal translation is “having gone,” or “as you go”.
In other words the expectation is that we are going! We are living and being in Chrsit!
And we are going with a goal, to make disciples.
And with a means of making disciples: the gospel.
We have lost our focus and therefore our reason for existence if we forget that we are a “Going church with a Message”!!
We are all to play our part in this great Going and Telling!
Some of us may be Pauls and we can tell the message, others of us may be Barnabas’s and we can encourage! We all have our parts to play with this great aim in view.
2) the continual work of making disciples v22-23 – stage two building up in the faith
Next we see P&B making a return trip to those who had become disciples.
And in this we see the 2nd stage in the disciple making process.
Jesus says that as we are going we are to make disciples which is stage one.
Then with the new disciples we are to baptise and teach obedience, Mat 28v19b-20a.
That is what these next verse deal with:
a. they strengthen the disciples: when you strengthen something you make it stronger than it was previously. So they were seeking to make the disciples stronger!!
b. they encouraged the disciples: the word encourage means to walk along beside.
That is what they did to encourage the people, they walked with them for a while!!
As they walked along side them they spoke to them. Many troubles for glory! We might say no pain no gain! Troubles to enter the KofG!!
c. they appointed leaders form amongst the disciples v23. This was done with prayer and fasting – that is they were looking for Gods appointment not just their own.
d. finally they trusted in the Shepherd of the sheep, to disciple the new disciples.
Ultimately a disciples is one who follows the Lord, and He is the one whom they trusted in the first place, and He must be the One they continually trust!
App
There is so much we can learn from this second stage of discipleship, every point in the process is essential!
The need to grow as disciples, to become strong! Am I getting stronger?
The need for encouragement! Am I getting along side to encourage ?
The need for leadership! Am I praying for our leaders?
The need to trust the Teacher! Am I trusting the Chief Shephed?
3) the continual work of making disciples v27-28 – stage three Rejoicing in the Presence of God.
Finally we see the end point of the process: the Presence of the Lord in and through all the work “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” Mat 28v20b.
Here we find P&B back at base. And they report, surely with a sense of great joy, astonishment and delight all that God had done through them!
As they had been about the disciple making business the Lord was with them working in amazing and wonderful ways.
The promised presence of God accompanied their obedience.
· Not that His presence meant they had no problems!
They faced strong opposition in almost every place, Paul was almost stoned to death etc.
But the great thing was that God was with them, God was working, opening the hearts of the Gentiles to believe!
V28 Then they stayed in Antioch for a long time we are told. Apart from anything else they were recharging their batteries! They were having a rest.
App
a. We are told to make disciples and we must go out making disciples.
But ultimately it is God who makes disciples! But He will not make disciples unless we make disciples! So there is no get out clause here, no excuse for inactivity!
b. Only as we make disciples will we enjoy the glory of God’s presence.
But that does not mean we will be given an easy life, we will not float to heaven on velvet cushions! Pauls word is: we must go through many hardships! But then we will, we do enter the KofH – which is of course the experience of Gods presence with us!!
c. remember to rest. That is to take care of your soul in the Lord. Making disciples of others requires that we are disciples ourselves! Stay and rest in Antioch a while!
sunday evening 26 July 2009
Col 3v1-4
Last time we saw in 2v16-23 Paul move from the fact that we have been given new life through the forgiveness of sin and the defeat of evil (2v13-15) to the need of living out that life to the full. Not letting people judge us with regard to the outward appearance, the things of the past, the shadows, because we now have the Real thing, we have Jesus and life in Him. If we let the shadows take first place the danger is that we no longer live the life that we have been given, we die. Anything that we use to bring us life apart from Jesus will only destroy, what are we to do then? Simply stay as close as we can to the Lord. Which is exactly what Paul goes onto say in our text tonight!
1. find yourself above v1-2
· We have been Raised with Christ
The starting point of this chapter is the reminder that what you see with the believer is not what you get!
The Christian is born again, altogether a new creation. The Christian is resurrected!
Raised with Christ
Because we are altogether different there has to be a new way of thinking and living.
· Seek above
The starting point of that new way of living is “seeking above”. Mat 6v33 – seek 1st the KofG.
Go searching, really desire, the above!! The key to living the new life is wanting it above all things. If you still want a bit of the world then it’s not going to work!
It can’t work because you are no longer of the world, you have been raised.
· Where Christ is at right hand of God seated
Seeking above is seeking for Jesus.
And there the vision of him is that He is in the place of glory and power.
· Think about the above v2
But how are we to seek Him? By filling our minds with Him, by thinking of Him.
Seeking is about using the eyes, thinking is about using the mind.
But it is from the mind that we live. If the mind is right so will the seeking be right.
The person whose mind is filled with evil will be evil in practice and vice versa.
· Don’t think about the below
Filling our minds with the above, with Christ, must mean that we exclude those things which prevent us thinking above, that is the below!
This is where the test comes in. Do we really want to Seek Him?
If we do then it will not be a problem excluding the earthly things.
App
These verses are fundamental to spiritual transformation.
The starting point is that we have new life. We have been raised with Christ.
The next point is to ask, then what do we do?
And the answer is seek Christ, think about Him.
Seeking Christ and thinking about Christ to the extent that we are excluding other things, shows that we are really on the right course.
- meditate, pray, fast, memorise scripture etc
2. above is where you are with Christ, in God v3
· For you died
Why this seeking above and setting your minds on Christ?
Because you died!!
However we are to understand that, the basic point is that life as you once knew it is over!
You died, your old life is gone, no longer there!!
· Your life is hidden with Christ in God
Where are we now? We are above, that is why we seek above!
And there we are “with Christ”, “in God”
‘My life’ is no longer ‘my life’! I am with Christ.
Further I am ‘in God.’
We are wrapped up in God. We have been raised to life in Him, our life as we once knew it is over, we are in God!
App
Much of the misery we experience as Christian is because we still try to live out our life as if nothing much has changed!
We forget that we are aliens here.
Not because we are strange but because our life is from a different place altogether.
Our life is from above.
So life as usual will no longer work because life has been radically changed.
Life as a backslidden Christian is miserable, like trying to drive a car with no fuel, it just does not work!
Life for the Christian should be glorious, should be divine because of our new life source.
We live with Christ in God. Power stations produce electricity miles away from where that electricity is eventual utilised. Our life is with God above, but we are to utilise that life on earth.
3. the glorious appearing of Christ will be our appearing too v4
One day we will eventually see what we are like!
We have no real comprehension of how glorious we are!
We haven’t a clue what our life is like.
We know that our old life is dead, we know that we have been raised with Christ.
We know that therefore we are to seek above for Christ where our life is.
Then one day there will be a great appearing!!
There will be a great revelation, a great dawning!!
A day of eye popping wonder.
· When Christ who is our life appears
He will one day be made manifest. He who is our life will be seen.
And then every knee will bow to his great glory.
The whole earth and all the nations will know that He is Lord.
But here Paul seems to dwell not so much on that great appearing but on the fact that when He appears, we too will appear!
· Then you also will appear with him in glory
Our hidden life with Christ in God will be made manifest!
We will then see who we really are!! It will be a day of amazement.
Because our appearing will be still ‘with him’, ‘in glory’!!!
App
We long for the great day of Christ’s appearing because we want to see Christ, but also that will be a day when we get to see ourselves!
When he appears, we appear.
