Discipleship Path - Come

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

I’m not asking for a show of hands, but as we begin a new year I wonder how many of us are making New Year’s resolutions. This week I read some very interesting statistics regarding those who do:

23% fail in the first week

43% fail in the first month

Only 9% complete their resolution

Over the years I’ve gotten a lot smarter when it comes to New Year’s resolutions - I just don’t make any and then I never fail. I love this meme one of my Facebook friends posted this week.

It seems like I’m not alone. Studies show that the older we get the less likely we are to make these resolutions:

Almost half of 18-29 year olds make at least 1 resolution

For those from age 30-49, the number drops to 31%

For those 50 and older only 21% made at least 1 resolution

So as you may have already concluded, I’m not a big fan of making New Year’s resolutions. However I do think the start of a new year is a great time to evaluate our walk with Jesus and determine what we might need to do in order to take that relationship to the next level.

Tension

And there is some pretty good evidence that there is a great need withing the body of Christ for His disciples to mature in their walk with Him.

The Barna Group, a Christian research organization, has identified “seven cornerstones of a biblical worldview”. Those seven cornerstones are what I would consider to be the basics of being a disciple of Jesus - things like:

Jesus is the only means to salvation

The entire Bible is true, reliable and relevant

Absolute moral truths exist and are defined by God.

In their latest study, 66% of Americans identified as Christians. Can you guess how many of them possessed a biblical worldview? [Pause for answers]. I’ll give you a clue. Only 4% of adults in the U.S. had a biblical worldview.

Unfortunately among those who identify as Christians, only 6% had a biblical worldview - 6%!

That is really disheartening isn’t it? As I reflected on those numbers, I concluded that two things are going here:

First, there are certainly a large number of people who think they are Christians for various reasons, but they are not in fact genuine disciples of Jesus.

Second, and perhaps more relevant for us today, is that there are some people who have made a genuine commitment to Jesus and put their faith in Him alone in their salvation, but who have remained spiritual babies and never matured as God intends for them to do. They are the ones that John refers to as “spiritual children” in his first letter and the ones that the writer of Hebrews addresses with these words:

Hebrews 5:11–14 ESV

11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

There is little doubt in my mind that here at TFC we have people who are at all different levels of maturity in their walk with Jesus. There are some of you who frankly are still just feeding on spiritual milk. That’s where all of us, including me, started, and there is nothing wrong with starting there. But there is something wrong if we stay there, just like there is something wrong with a child who is still only drinking milk when they become a teenager or an adult.

So I want to ask all of us to think for a moment about our walk with Jesus and our spiritual maturity. I want all of us to consider not how we measure up in comparison to others, but rather how our spiritual maturity measures up to where we were a year ago, or five years ago, or for some of us maybe even where we were fifty years ago.

Unlike our culture in which we typically go to school for a certain number of years and graduate and then our education is complete, developing spiritual maturity is a process that is never complete. That’s why Paul, arguably the most mature disciple of Jesus ever, wrote these words near the end of his life:

Philippians 3:13–14 ESV

13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

If Paul needed t press on toward spiritual maturity, I think it’s fair to say that all of us need to do that as well. So if your relationship with Jesus is no deeper today than it was last January, I think it’s crucial that you figure out why that is and take whatever steps you can so you’re not in the same boat next January.

Truth

As a church, our goal is to help people become more mature regardless of where they currently are. So we have developed a Discipleship Path as a guide to help each person evaluate his or her spiritual maturity and identify “next steps” that they can take in their journey with Jesus. It’s the graphic on the back wall that you pass every Sunday when you enter this auditorium.

Obviously no diagram can perfectly capture the process of discipleship, which is a life-long pursuit for every disciple of Jesus. Although we have broken the process down into five distinct steps, the truth is that there is often a lot of overlap between these steps (i.e. it is possible to serve and to share while a person is growing). It is also true that none of these are ever fully completed during our lifetime, but rather actions that ought to characterize the life of a believer throughout his or her life. But as long as we keep those limitations in mind, this discipleship path can be a helpful tool in identifying the next steps in each person’s spiritual development.

So over the next five weeks, we’re going to spend some time talking about each of the five steps on the path. It is our prayer that this will be immensely practical for all of us and that everyone, regardless of your current level of spiritual maturity will commit to take one or more concrete steps to develop a deeper relationship with Jesus.

We don’t expect you to do that alone, so Ryan and I and our Elders are available to walk alongside you and help you in any way we can. Over these next five weeks, we want to encourage you to use the tan cards you see in the seat backs or that are available in the lobby. As you decide on next steps, would you take a moment to fill out one of the cards and return it to us? That will do two things: First we want to rejoice with you as God leads you to take those next steps. And second, it will enable us to do whatever we can to assist you in carrying out those steps.

I know we’ve spent a lot of time setting the stage, but I am confident that it has been time well spent. So let’s move on to the first step on the discipleship path. We’ve labeled that step “Come” but our main idea this morning will expand on that a bit:

Application

Spiritual growth occurs when I answer Jesus’ call

Throughout His ministry Jesus consistently called on people to follow Him. Those who chose to heed that call began a journey of spiritual growth. Those who chose to ignore or reject that call stayed right where they were.

We’re going to look at a passage from John chapter 1 this morning that will give us some further insight into how we can grow spiritually by answering Jesus’ call:

John 1:35–42 ESV

35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). 42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).

In this passage we find four actions we can take and attitudes we can develop that will help us answer Jesus’ call.

HOW I ANSWER JESUS’ CALL

Be sincere

The question that Jesus asks in verse 38 are His first recorded words in His public ministry: “What are you seeking?”

Obviously Jesus didn’t ask that question for His benefit because he already knew the answer.

Keep in mind that as disciples of John the Baptist these two men were likely already convicted of their sin and were seeking the forgiveness and righteousness that they believed the Messiah would bring. But Jesus doesn’t ask them who they are seeking but rather what they are seeking. While Jesus already knew their hearts, He wanted these two men to reflect upon their motives.

Later in His ministry we learn that those two men only were searching for Jesus because the Father had drawn them.

John 6:44 ESV

44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

There is a sense in which all of you have come here today only because the Father has drawn you. But it is also true that Jesus expects us to answer that call with sincere hearts and the right motives.

One of the things we see consistently in Jesus’ earthly ministry is that He is very patient and compassionate with those who seek Him with a sincere heart. Think about the woman at the well in John 4 or the woman caught in adultery in John 4 or a short little cheating IRS agent named Zacchaeus we read about in Luke 19. In spite of their sin, Jesus deals with them gently because they come with a sincere heart. He never excuses or condones their sin - in fact He confronts it directly. But just like He is with us when we approach Him with the right heart, He is patient.

On the other hand, He is a lot less patient and compassionate with the Jewish religious leaders who are trying to trick Him or catch Him doing something wrong.

While Jesus can call us whenever and however He wants, the New Testament consistently shows us that He is most likely to do that we we are seeking Him with a sincere heart that genuinely desires to know Him deeper, even when our lives are messed up and fall short. That leads us to our next principle...

Be searching

At first glance the response of the two men to Jesus’ question to them seems a bit strange - “Where are you staying?” But they were not merely asking where Jesus resided. Note that they had already addressed Him as Rabbi or Teacher even though there is no indication they had ever heard Him teach. Their question is essentially asking Jesus if they can come hang out with Him and have a deeper conversation because they genuinely want to learn from Him.

Jesus calls us because He wants to have more than just a casual relationship with us. He is looking for people who are humble and teachable and even have a sense of curiosity that causes them to desire to go deeper and really get to know Him as He really is.

So let me ask you - Why are you here today? Is it out of a sense of duty ore because you think that it will earn favor with God. Or are you here this morning with a humble, teachable curious heart that desires to go deeper with Jesus?

Be steadfast

The verb “come” in verse 39 is a present tense imperative in Greek. That has two important implications. First, as an imperative, it is a command. There are several other places in the New Testament where Jesus uses a slightly different word when He invites people to come, but both words function as invitations that demand a personal response.

More relevant for this principle, the present tense means that this is not just something I do once. We could accurately translate it “keep on coming”. In other words, Jesus doesn’t just issue one call in my life. Once again, that is why or discipleship path is a circle to remind us that this is a lifelong process, not just something we do once. And as we’ll see over the next few weeks, Jesus often calls us to commit, grow, serve, and share.

I’ll use my own life to illustrate this:

When I was a sophomore in college, Jesus used a number of people, including my wife, to call me to make a decision to put my faith in Him alone for my salvation. As we saw earlier, the only reason I could come to Jesus then was because the Father had drawn me. But it is also true that it was my responsibility to respond to that call.

Throughout my life, there have been several times when Jesus has called me to serve Him and His body. And each time I had to respond to that call, whether it was a call to serve as an usher, or a Sunday School teacher, or a deacon, or an elder.

Roughly 25 years ago, Jesus called me to be a pastor. Believe me, that was a call I never expected to receive, but it is also one of the very clearest calls I’ve ever had. And again I had to respond to that call.

I don’t want to give you the impression that I’ve got this down. I have no doubt that there have been some times in my life when Jesus has called and I either didn’t listen to Him or I ignored that call. But I’m trying to make sure I don’t do that too often.

No doubt, other than the call to put your faith in Jesus alone, all of our calls have been different. And even that call probably occurred in a way that was a lot different than mine and certainly God used different people in your life than He did in mine. But I am absolutely convinced that if you are a disciple of Jesus, He will keep on calling you and you will need to keep on responding.

Be supportive

As John continues his gospel narrative, we see that the next day Jesus went to Galilee and called Philip to follow Him. And Philip went and found Nathaniel and basically said, “We’ve found the Messiah”. Not surprisingly Nathaniel was skeptical. Let’s pick up the account in verse 46:

John 1:46 ESV

46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

It’s really interesting that Philip uses exactly the words that Jesus had used the day before: “Come and see.” We’ve come full circle here just like we’re going to do with this sermon series. The first step in the discipleship process is always to be introduced to Jesus. And that almost always involves Jesus using His disciples to invite others to “come and see” Jesus. That’s why the “share” step we’ll look at in four weeks leads right back into the “come” step we are talking about today.

That is why as a church we always want to be place where people from all walks of life can feel comfortable to come and be introduced to Jesus. We don’t ever want to expect unbelievers to act like disciples of Jesus until they first get to know Him and enter into a personal relationship with Him by putting their faith in Him alone.

We don’t have to invite people to church for them to be able to “come and see”. We can certainly do that on a more personal level. However, we do know that most people attend a new church because someone they know from that church invited them to come. That’s something all of us can do to help others hear the call of Jesus.

Action

We’ve seen this morning that...

Spiritual growth occurs when I answer Jesus’ call

Today, and over the next four weeks, I believe that Jesus is going to call each and every one of us in some way.

It’s possible that He will call some of you to put your faith in Him for the very first time.

I believe he is going to call some of us to make other commitments - like being baptized or becoming a member of this church.

I am certain that He is going to call all of us to grow in some way - perhaps to join our church Bible reading program or attend the Bible Roundtable after the worship service or to join one of our Bible studies.

As we’ve talked about frequently before, ministry is not something reserved just for the pastors and elders, so it wouldn’t be a surprise at all if God calls many of us to a new place of service.

Finally it is clear that every disciple is responsible for sharing with others what Jesus has done in our lives. So I have no doubt that Jesus is going to call all of us to invite others to “come and see”.

What you do with those calls will either put you on a path of spiritual growth that will take you deeper and deeper in your relationship with Jesus or it will keep you right where you are and a year from now you’ll be in the very same place spiritually that you are today.

Before I close I’m going to ask everyone to take one more very practical step to help us cement what we’ve learned today. If you have been called by Jesus and you responded to that call by putting your faith in Him, there were undoubtedly one or more people who Jesus used in that process of calling you - the ones who invited you to “come and see”. In you bulletin there is a place for you to write down those names. Will you take a moment to jot down whatever names God brings to mind? For some of you it may be your parents. For others it may be a friend or family member or co-worker, or even someone you dated in college.

Once you’ve done that, if it’s possible, will you take some time this week to contact those people and that them for being part of your call to come and see Jesus? If you can’t do that in person, perhaps you can send a text or an email, or even go old school and send a letter or card.

Inspiration

I can’t wait to see how God is going to work in our church family over the next five weeks - and the rest of the year! If we’ll all do our best to respond to Jesus as He calls each one of us, there is no reason that together we can’t experience tremendous growth in our relationships with Jesus and bring His kingdom near to others in this community.