What’s the point?

Introduction

Welcome

Sermon Series: Today we finish out our series on The Words of Jesus. This is our first series we’re wrapping up in possibly one of the most vital questions we can ask— what’s the point?

[School] I don’t know how school was for you, but by the time I hit 10th grade this was a question I was asking all the time! What’s the point?! Look there were a lot of subjects I didn’t understand. I had tutoring for geometry, Algebra 2. They did not come naturally to me, and they came naturally to everyone else in my school! I remember being in 11th grade taking Algebra 2 with a 7th grader! But in 10th grade God started to put this desire in my heart for pastoring and doing what’s happening right now, which helped me a ton, because guess which subject became my absolute favorite? Public speaking. Not because I’m psychotic, but because I saw the value in what it would lead to. I started getting books on public speaking, psychology of public of speaking, it was my favorite.

[Result] So naturally, when we had class presentations, guess who every wanted to pair with up? When we had debates, guess who everyone wanted on their team? I found my point in school!

[Big question] When it comes down to our relationship with Jesus, do you ever find yourself asking, “Whats the point?”

Tension: What’s the point?

[Probable questions?]

Perfection: Is it perfection? Is the goal of following Jesus to be perfect? To never make mistakes? To never say the wrong thing? To never do something that could hurt someone?

Social reform: Is it eliminate every problem around us? We walk past problems every day, Jesus would want that fixed. That’s what we have to do! Right?

Enlightenment: Is it spiritual contentment and enlightenment beyond this world? Are we aiming for a supernatural connection that makes us forget all of this?

When we don’t know the point, we find something else that we think fits. It’s often pressure disguised as purpose, a savior complex disguised as assisting others, or spiritual escape disguised as enlightenment. None of these things are in part bad, but they are meant to contribute to something bigger and more focused.

[Big problem] When we don’t know our focus, or our reason and purpose we rely on something external. And the problem is that external things change all too easily.

[Church Pressure] Can I tell you the question we were always told to ask in Bible college but never attempt to answer? What is the church? Once we determine an answer we have reached an extreme. This is where politics has entered the church.

Gospel of Topic: Misdirection

Creation: To remind you when God created humanity, he created them with purpose, with relationship, with wholeness.

Fall: And then they were challenged and introduced an external idea outside of the focus God gave them they fell. Believe it or not, human beings weren’t just existing in bliss with no thoughts. They had rich intellects, ideas, but they lost focus.

Then Jesus comes to restore and the words we focus on give us direction and focus to answer the question, what is the point?

Main Idea:

Let’s read together. His final words recorded in the Bible before he ascended and sent his spirit, his full self with us and in us.

Matthew 28:16–20 “Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them doubted! Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 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.””

Main Point: One of our primary aims in life is to be a disciple of Jesus and to help others become disciples of Jesus.

If this sounds overly simplified, what we’re going to do in this message today is break down what this means. Because often this is something that gets tagged along in our faith.

Bible Text:

[Greek] The New Testament is written in Greek and then translated over to English for us, so in the translation the meaning doesn’t fully take effect. I’ve heard sermons on how Jesus gave two commands, Go and Make. When in actuality, a better translation would be, “As you are going, make disciples.”

[Disciple Context] One of my favorite definitions of a disciple, is “someone who learns to do what the master does.” When we read the Bible we’re reading about a context in which disciples were a normal part of life. Rabbi’s especially would often have people who would work hard to be prestigiously offered the role of becoming a disciples. It’s similar to how we understand the relationship between a mentor and mentee to be, except the relationship is deeper covering almost every part of one’s life.

[Jesus’ Mission] Jesus mission in coming to the earth was to die on a cross, come back to life, and then continually restore humanity. But in the process he demonstrates for us the ultimate goal. And when I say ultimate goal, I’m not being cavalier in that statement. This mission Jesus gave us is the ultimate goal we can use to know with our lives collectively, are we following Jesus?

So the goal of this message is to break down the major phases of a disciple. You fall into one category at least, everyone does.

[Peter Narrative Focus] And to do this, I want to look at one of the characters in the Bible who shows exactly what Jesus is trying to do, what his end goal is, it’s someone we’ve already talked about in previous messages, his name is Peter.

Point #1- We encounter Jesus

The beginning of any journey of following Jesus and becoming his disciple starts with a moment when we encounter Jesus. For Peter, this moment occurs in Matthew 4:18–20 “One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him.”

This is not normal. A Rabbi did not really go out recruiting, and if a Rabbi did, they’d be looking for how much a student knew the Bible and was a faithful student. So this is disruptive to an established system because Jesus is trying to make a point— Jesus isn’t concerned with where you’re at, he’s concerned with who you’re following.

What does this look like for us today? How does this translate to our context? What does an encounter with Jesus look like? How do we respond to follow him and START being a disciple of his?

(Personal) I don’t really know when the first moment was that I started following him. When I was about 14 I had a teacher in school start making a lot of mean comments about the church I went to. I didn’t know why he was wrong so I started to pick up my Bible and read it. Something started to change me. Over the next couple of months of reading something shifted in me— I was becoming a disciple of Jesus.

(Immediate) There’s moments like what Peter experienced in which Jesus calls and there is an immediate response we have to choose to follow him! At the end of almost every message we preach here we try to make this clear in case someone is here and is sensing Jesus is calling to them and wants to respond.

(Progressive) But there are other people who progressively through questions choose to follow Jesus. Luke 19 tells us the story of a tax collector named Zaccheus who was watching from a distance. He heard about Jesus, then he watched him, then he listened, then he got lunch with Jesus, then he chose to be a disciple of Jesus.

It doesn’t matter how you start following, whether it’s immediate or progressive, the end goal is that we follow him. This what an encounter with Jesus does- it catalyzes a relationship.

(Rejection) Because there is a reality that we have a choice to reject the invitation Jesus gives to follow him. There’s the reality that we can start following him and even walk away. There were many people who got close but didn’t want to keep following, one of 12 disciples who was closest to Jesus even made the decision to stop follow and reject everything Jesus stood for.

(Relational clarification) Let me make this a little more clear for a second. We use a lot of different words in church, it can be hard to know what’s what. Let me help provide some clarity on this by summarizing our relationship with Jesus as used to pray with two words in our prayers, Lord & Savior:

(Savior) Romans 10:13 “For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”” We call him our savior because of what he did on the cross. He saves us from our sin, the evil that exists in the world that we cannot solve. He saves us from the punishment we deserve in being separated from him- hell. And invites into an eternity of purpose, peace, and pleasure with him in heaven.

Lord: But he also becomes our lord, that word is used in that same verse. Lord meaning he has authority to speak to my life now. I follow him at this moment, as I will follow him in eternity as the master. As the one I will become like. But in him being my lord it means there’s a different level of care from him.

So let me ask you as we consider this significance: what has your response been to the encounter’s with Jesus you’ve had? Because an encounter with Jesus isn’t a sighting, it’s a transformative moment.

(Just savior?) Is he just a get out of hell card for you?

(Lord & Savior?) Is he Lord and savior, the one who leads you, cares for you, supplies your needs?

(Rejection) Or have you chosen that he’s neither. If you do find yourself in this boat, let me just give you some hope. Peter also made that decision until he realized Jesus would call him again because he cares that deeply.

[Recap] Making this decision is foundational. It’s where we begin in the path of following Jesus and becoming a disciple. Let’s keep talking through this.

Point #2- We grow in community

Matthew 16:13–18 “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.” Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being. Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.”

Here’s what this moment shows us, “We grow in community.” We become who we were meant to be, in community. We start stepping into the purpose placed on our lives, in community. We receive clarity on who God is, in community.

[Time] Notice how this is chapter 16 and Peter is called in chapter 4? Didn’t just call Peter and tell him this on day 1! What happens in community is that relationships become built that are honest, built on truth, and focused on the one who heals and repairs relationships.

[Therapy] I remember when I was in a counseling course learning about different therapeutic techniques and they were talking about different types of techniques and our professor just kind of stopped and told us: at the end of the day what makes 90% of these techniques powerful is your relationship with the client. If you don’t build a strong a relationship with your client where they trust you, you’ll see little to no progress. This is in a field of relational professionals saying at the core, “relationships produce growth.”

Even addiction recovery groups recognize this, the way out of addiction is through relational connections.

So now imagine with me what relationships that were all focused on Jesus could do. Imagine what could be produced from growing in a community like this.

What does it look like to grow in community?

Experience real love as I’m known for who I really am [Hebrews 10:24–25]

Carry struggles and problems together [Galatians 6:2]

Speak truth and encourage one another [Ephesians 4:15]

Confess and find healing [James 5:16]

Build each other up using unique gifts, skills, and talents we have [1 Corinthians 12:12–27]

We stay accountable each other, to a real change [Proverbs 27:17]

We join a mission that makes more disciples

Do you have community that’s helping you grow or do you just have people in your life that help you exist? Let me ask this a little more clearly, because I was in church for a long time and had developed a warped relationship with God. That’s why we don’t follow him alone. Let me ask you about a few types of relationships we find in community:

Do you have a mentor? Do you have someone who really knows you. And you might ask, “Colin isn’t that your job?” A healthy capacity for a mentor is about 8 people. Jesus could do 12! And 1 one of them ended trying to kill him. That’s not to say I’m not available to you, but I want you to understand that my responsibility is not to mentor every single person but to make sure that you have someone who can step in as a mentor for you! And boy do I have some solid recommendations. In fact at the end of every service these people who are here to pray for you, they’ve been trained to not just pray but be a spiritual mentor for you!

Do you have a team? A team is the wording that makes sense to a lot of us, but do you have people who are roughly at the same place with you also moving forward? Not to compare but to support. Bad habits are broken because of a team of connections around, good habits die if we don’t have a team to help us hold them up. How do we get this? We show up at Bible study, we join a team to serve— we put ourselves consistently in the same places as people so we grow in community together.

[Pastoral Moment] I hear so much about “What type of church people want to go to.” And there’s something true about identifying the place, but a lot of us hide behind preferences that excite us rather than put ourselves in a community that will help us grow to become more like Jesus. I’m not even telling you to disregard your preferences, I just want to ask you, what’s your motivation? To be at a perfect church, or to become a disciple of Jesus.

[Recap] We become disciples when we encounter Jesus, when we grow in community, but we become full disciples when we enter the third stage of development.

Point #3- We multiply freedom

This last stage is exactly what’s described in the verse we’re focusing on today, We multiply by making more disciples. Or as we say here, We multiply freedom. Not the brand or idea of this church, but at the core of our mission is a belief and conviction to make disciples.

[It was meant for more] Can I just tell you something about what God does. When he does something in your life it’s something that’s good that has life. It’s very similar to a fruit, that’s why Galatians 5:22-23 shares some of the results of what God does in as become a disciple. The reason, at least my view on it, why Paul refers to these results as fruits is because there is something part of the DNA structure of a fruit. Come on what makes a fruit different from a vegetable? Seeds. Part of a fruit’s nature is that it is meant to reproduce more of itself.

When God heals us, it’s not meant to be just for us. It’s meant to inspire others, to build up faith, and usher in more miracles.

When God speaks to us, it’s meant to just be for one person, it’s meant to give others hope that they also will hear from God.

When God takes someone who before him was living their life in a chaotic way that hurt people, and takes them to a new place in a new identity, surrounds them with a family and sees them grow to look and talk like Jesus, guess what the goal is? For that same person to help others in the same way!

[Intentionality] To be a disciple meant that there were key instructions given, important lessons learned to become more like Jesus. Making disciples doesn’t happen organically, it doesn’t happen naturally. Our natural desire is to become less like Jesus, so there is effort we must put forward towards intentionality. It means we show up with a plan when we say, for each and everyone of you what our goal and desire is for you in what following Jesus looks like. What does that look like at Freedom Church? It’s all on our website under the section called CORE. Because it’s meant to teach you the core things of following Jesus.

[Boundary] And here me on this so you understand my heart, there are some things in our lives we are ready to multiply, that you are ready to multiply. We will be so safe and intentional as church with a lot of roles that are reproducing character traits into other people because some multiplication moves beyond just serving and goes into leadership.

Prophetic: What if?

Freedom Church focus: Let me put this as simply put as possible. The success and failure of this church comes down to whether helped the overall mission of making disciples. That means that every single thing we do comes down to this point- making disciples of Jesus.

We have to focus on every phase

If we only focus on those encountering Jesus and starting their relationship, we never tackle deep subjects, which lead us to greater convictions, necessary healing, discernment in understand what is of God and what it isn’t. In short, we sprint but we don’t run for long.

If we only focus on Growing in community we never help other people start their journey. We sit inside these walls, talking, dreaming, thinking, and accumulating knowledge that puffs us up in ignorance but never moves us along to do anything. It’s important we as a community come together, but it’s important this not be the only phase we stay in.

If we only focus on multiplying but never take time to grow in our depth to understand ourselves, what drives, what motivates us, and I mean really motivates us, we multiply something that becomes unhealthy without clear identity. We turn into a pyramid scheme where we just want to see a church look like it has a perfect image, sound a certain way, without asking, is this what’s needed for people right here to become disciples of Jesus?

[The movement of discipleship]

Let me tell you why this is so impactful. And please don’t hear this as a self righteous comparison, hear it and understand why a movement needs to be cultivated

If we were a church that reached 1,000 people a year, we would see over 30 years, 30,000 people reached by Jesus.

If you chose to help one person follow Jesus this year, and then next year you and that person both helped other people follow Jesus the year after, and each year every person just helped 1 person, in a matter of 30 years we would see 1 Billion people following Jesus. Let’s just say 90% didn’t even follow through on it. We would see 100,000,000 million disciples of Jesus.

[Disclaimer] I’m not introducing something new, it’s not as if we’re the first church that found this out. But I want you to hear me. This is our agenda- to lead those far from Jesus into freedom with him.

Practical

[Grow In Community] If you’re in a phase where you know you need to keep growing, it’s time to let other people see you. Join Bible Study. Talk with one of our leaders, talk with me! Let some people come into your life, because we don’t grow alone! Don’t leave this place without finding more of your community. You can even sign up on tap tag to meet with a mentor and start this journey for you!

[Multiply Freedom] Can I tell you, you don’t need to be fully grown in every area of your life to start multiplying. There are ways you can start multiplying what Jesus has already done in your life. Let me tell you one the easiest ways we can help with this, right after service downstairs myself and some of the team will be there to walk through a team you can jump on here or other areas outside of the church you can start serving.

Closing/ Recap

[Encounter Jesus] But I know some of us have been in the phase like in which Jesus has been calling out to us. He’s met us. And he doesn’t just want to be in the distance anymore, he wants a relationship between you and him that’s close. One where you’d come closer and begin to look like him, talk like him, act like him.