More to Life Groups: The Class Meeting (2)

Introduction

Matthew 16:13–17 NIV

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.

Pray.

College Student….

64% of Americans say they believe in Jesus.

less than 9% are following him.

Since WW2 the proclamation of the gospel as been as such that it is possible to be a christian and not be a disciple.

Comer:

The demotion to discipleship to an optional secondary phase in your spiritual journey has created a two tiered church across the world and for sure in this country. Where we have a wideband of Christians who have a nominal faith that is really a syncretism of the way of Jesus to the left or to the right. Who are consumer-oriented in all honesty and whose primary reference point for spirituality is the self-life and not the self-death. 

Then you have a minority who are actually following Jesus and are apprentices or disciples. 

The greatest issue facing the world today. With all its heartbreaking ? is whether those that are identified as Christians will become disciples, students, apprentices, or practitioners of Jesus Christ. Steadily learning from him how to live the life of the kingdom of the heavens into every corner of the human existence.

Rowan Williams….

In other words, what makes you a disciple is not turning up from time to time. Discipleship may literally mean ‘being a student’, in the strict Greek sense of the word, but it doesn’t mean turning up once a week for a course (or even a sermon). It’s not an intermittent state; it’s a relationship that continues. The truth is that, in the ancient world, being a ‘student’ was rather more like that than it is these days. If you said to a modern prospective student that the essence of being a student was to hang on your teacher’s every word, to follow in his or her steps, to sleep outside their door in order not to miss any pearls of wisdom falling from their lips, to watch how they conduct themselves at the table, how they conduct themselves in the street, you might not get a very warm response. But in the ancient world, it was rather more like that. To be the student of a teacher was to commit yourself to living in the same atmosphere and breathing the same air; there was nothing intermittent about it. -Rowan Williams

Williams, Rowan. Being Disciples (p. 2). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.

Disciples:

The 12 disciples, called together to live and learn. Why 12? Well there is theological and cultural reasons here but think about the practical. It is a learning size. Typical for any teacher of the law to have a following of disciples like this. They would repeat back to each other teachings....they would ask questions and process things together. They would learn from hands on experience.

Think about this question that Jesus asks them one night…Who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am?

I always imagine them sitting around a fire with this text. I don’t know why. Eating and thinking through the events of the last couple of days. Probably, talking about the shock on people’s faces as Jesus fed 4 thousand with just a few loaves of bread. Probably blaming each other for doubting that Jesus could do it. Peter with a mouthful tries to convince the rest that he knew Jesus had it the whole time....then Jesus asks, what are people saying about me?

The right answer

Who do you say that I am?

Well you’re the Messiah, the son of the living God.

The right answer again.

But Jesus is not interested in just right information....We know this by the relationship with Peter. Peter (and the 12) will spend the rest of their journey learning what it means to follow Jesus, the messiah.

The implied question here is the point of transformation....How does your life reflect that I am the messiah, the son of the living God?

And after answering this question….it isnt resolved.

Matthew 16:21–23 NIV

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Peter understood the right answer, but had not yet understood the following. His agenda his big idea of the kingdom of heaven. His view of salavation.

And the rest of the gospels tell the story of the journey.

Dallas Williard:

“What we need to move forward is a curriculum for Christlikeness. We have a curricula for books of the bible, for systemic theology, parenting, marriage, work and vocation. What we need is a curriculum for how to become a non-anxious presence. To let go of outcomes. To suffer lovingly. To love your enemy. To forgive those who hurt you. To let your wounds, because we all have wounds, become sacred wounds. A curriculum to become the kind of person whom living the sermon on the mount is the natural byproduct of your inner life in God and your outter life in God’s community.” 

The class meeting:

And this is the focus of the class meeting. We call the class meeting, Life groups, by the way…better branding:) The whole point of the class meeting in John Wesley’s time was to provide space for people to internalize and grow in grace.

The beginning:

Early Wesleyan/Methodist societies were formed as a gathering of corporate worship and preaching, but this was not the core of the rapidly growing movement of the 17-1800s. In order to be a Methodist, membership within the Class Meeting was required at one point in the revival movement. According to Wesley, the meeting involved 12 people, men and women, equipped to encourage and “more easily discern whether they are indeed working out their own salvation” (John Wesley, General Rules, 9:69-70). The class meeting became an access point for evangelism and hospitality, reaching the unchurched in masses. Then, for the serious work of sanctification men “banded” with 2-3 men and women with women, to position themselves in intentional accountably relationships. The Band groups, as they were called, we will talk about next week, but for our purposes here the Class Meeting requires our attention.

These groups existed to encourage one another in love, to provide accountability, and to not just talk about the Christian life but to actually live it as well.

nineteenth-century American Methodist preacher:

“In these class-meetings many seekers of religion have found them the spiritual birth-place of their souls into the heavenly family, and their dead souls made alive to God.” - Peter Cartwright

“We have no doubt, but meeting of christian brethren for the exposition of scripture-texts, may be attended with their advantages. But the most profitable exercise of any is a free inquiry into the state of the heart.” - Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke

The class meeting was the heart of the Methodist revival. In 1776, Methodists accounted for 2.5 percent of religious adherents in the colonies, the second smallest of the major denominations of that time. By 1850, Methodist comprised 34.2 percent of religious adherents in the U.S, which was 14 percent more than the next largest group. And it is not hard to say that the most important growth factor was the class meeting....

A different kind of group:

Not your momma’s sunday school class. Listen, we have a strong sunday school program here. I am not telling you that our sunday school classes are not important. We should continue to support and resource these classes. What I am saying is let’s be clear that, in general, there is something very different about these groups. Mostly, Sunday school classes are centered around a teacher/lecturer/curriculum. It is information download where we go from one curriculum to another.

Formational: Consistently meeting together and accountability is formative. We are now considering our walk in Christ all throughout the week. We are learning to pray for our group. We are learning to have spiritual conversation that is honest. We are learning to listen!

Transformational: Son and daughter of God....how are you living this way?

Evangelistic: home groups, invitational to other people

So what are we doing?

QR code, informational meeting. February 22 after church

sign up at the welcome desk.

Questions to ask yourself:

Is Jesus the center of my life? Does my life surround the truth that I am a disciple?

What has following Jesus cost me? Not sadistic or self-martyrdom….

What is the part of me that is unyielded? Point of transformation. Sin and the small group. My own life…

Do i love people who cannot benefit me, impress me, or agree with me?

Am I becoming more patient, generous, humble, and truthful?