Following Jesus Together
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PRAY
Thousands of people have gathered to hear
of people have gathered to hear
the disciples (of the crucified Jesus)
shouting and preaching in the street.
For the first time in multi-cultural Jerusalem
every person is being preached to in his own tongue, his own language.
The confusions first brought about at the tower of Babel
where God stopped mankind's sinful greed for power
by confusing them by introducing new languages,
has in some ways been reversed.
Every language is being invited back to God!
Are these men drunk, how can they know these foreign languages.
How is this possible!
And so Peter,
a disciple of Jesus,
announces the full story.
He shows how Jesus fulfils the OT promises
that the Jewish leaders would have known only too well as they listened.
He shows how even this confusing scene before them was predicted by the prophet Joel,
hundreds of years before.
and he ends with the verse we begin with
“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
And the crowd is stunned.
The long awaited Messiah,
the one who would make humanity right again with God!
the Lord of all the Universe,
Jesus really was the the one from God,
the one we have waited hundreds of generations for, it really was Jesus!
This is amazing, incredible, wonderful, joy.....wait.
We killed him!
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Friends here today,
this is our common ground.
These are the steps that each of us has trodden.
This is the journey that every Jesus Follower in this room has taken.
We have been cut to the heart when we have realised
we too have brought about the murder of Jesus on the cross,
the Messiah, the Lord,
becasue we too have turned out backs on God in so many ways.
What shall we do?
Well we know don’t we, if we are Following Jesus:
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
How extraordinary that we walk the same path as every Jesus Follower in History,
we repent, we say sorry, we strive to turn from our rebellion against God.
We receive freely the forgiveness we don’t deserve
becasue Jesus died in our place.
We are baptised in order to represent the Lord’s death and resurrection in our place.
(And if you haven’t been baptised, then please chat to me or an elder afterwards)
We receive the Holy Spirit,
the guarantee,
He lives in us,
working in us to make us more and more loving towards God and towards each other.
Forgiven for things we don’t want anyone to know about, forgiven for our rejection of God.
Look around this room,
Indwelt by God himself by His HS!
these are your band of Brothers and Sisters,
We are blood related - in Jesus,
we share the same DNA - by the HS.
We have the same Father in God.
We are ‘Following Jesus Together’
We are ‘Following Jesus Together’
The Bible knows nothing of a Lone Ranger Christian - it’s not an option!
The only example I can think of in the OT is Elijah,
who basically tries to kill himself
becasue he’s so miserable without a spiritual family!
Following Jesus Together.
You see our vision as Grace Church is not just Following Jesus,
with a few ‘Power Words’ after it to make some points!
No, it is ‘Following Jesus Together’
I’m sure people here have annoyed you,
I’m sure some of you have been hurt,
insulted,
overlooked,
ignored,
unfairly treated.
But we are:
But do you know what, we are family. Not the family that fights and that stops talking too each other.
A family united under the common understanding that we have all hurt Jesus
far more than we have ever hurt each other.
A family that despite that hurt we’ve caused Jesus,
are forgiven and loved unconditionally by Him!
A family that unites together under the magnificence of Jesus whom we Follow!
A family that loves out enemies let alone our family
A family who keep short accounts becasue
Jesus keeps no accounts for his followers.
A family who are slow to angre,
becasue Jesus has only Love for his followers.
A Family who says yes easily
and hears no understandably - Because Jesus
We are a family that prioritises:
Following Jesus Together.
Just like that first church in Acts.
And so, that is our Vision as a church.
Following Jesus Together - Just like that first church in Acts.
So What does this ‘Following Jesus together’ look like?
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Following Jesus means listening to him,
learning from the bible - the apostles teaching,
it means spending time and effort with other believers, fellowship,
and it means remembering the death and resurrection,
the forgiveness and life we receive all through Jesus - breaking the bread,
and it means speaking to God often, prayer.
This renewed vision we are committing to at GC is nothing new, or complicated, or abnormal.
Following Jesus Together isn’t revolutionary to the Christian Church.
But it’s to remind us daily that this is who we are at GC, and it reassures us that we are together.
We are family.
But these things, bible, prayer, fellowship and remembering Jesus,
are not tick box requirements expected 2 or 3 times a month.
These are the things that need to characterise our lives here at GC!
Notice in v42 they devoted themselves!, end of v46 they were glad and sincere-
We’re going to use the word Passionately here at Grace Church.
These first believers in Acts
all decided to follow Jesus who has just been put to death!
This is brave! They had to stand against v40 - a corrupt generation.
And take risks and make sacrifice for each other in v45. -
We’re going to use the word - courageously here at Grace Church.
And through all this they hope to grow in their own faith,
why devote yourselves to Jesus’ teaching otherwise,
and they sure are going to grow in number as they speak courageously the truth of Jesus. end of v47
The New International Version Chapter 2
And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
We’re going to use the word ‘Increasingly’ here at Grace Church.
‘Following Jesus Together’ Passionately, Courageously and Increasingly!
‘Following Jesus Together’ Passionately, Courageously and Increasingly!
They are ‘Following Jesus Together’ Passionatly, Courageuosly and Increasingly!
It’s worth saying that when
we as elders
spent a day together to hone our vision as a church,
we didn’t exclusively use this passage.
In fact I’m not sure it was even referred to.
We considered a much wider reading and understanding
of what it is to be a church according to the bible.
But it is not surprising that we can take almost any
NT passage about being a follower of Jesus,
and find that it involves being
‘Together’, being passionate, being courageous and increasing.
This is what it means to be a Christian.
And isn’t this what we want to be!
We want to be Passionate for Jesus
Passionately
,courageous for Jesus
Courageously
,Increase for Jesus
And we want to do it all becasue of what he’s already done for and in us.
It is by looking longer and harder at Jesus
that we will Follow him more passionately, courageously and increasingly.
When you see our church vision and see Jesus at the centre of those first three words, remember,
He is the way we can acheive this.
We will not get more
It is not you and I trying harder - although we absolutely should!
It is by being more and more amazed,
thankful,
overjoyed,
by the Jesus we crucified,
saving us for his family anyway.
Jesus is magnificent! Jesus is the centre.
It’s all about Jesus.
So I’ve given us an overview of the vision statement,
most especially that it is all about Jesus, and that we are all together in following him.
So for the last 10 minutes, I’d like to unpack a little of what we mean by those 3 words
We are pasionate by defult, becasue we are so overwhelemed by Jesus.
We are couragous by defult, becasue we are so consumed with Jesus
Passionately, Courageously and Increasingly.
We increase in faith and number becasue Jesus does the saving and the sanctifying by His Spirit.
So, absolutely we try harder at being passionate, corageous and increasing, but not by forcing oursleves to be more of those things, but by looking more and more at Jesus!
Passionately
Passionately
matt 22 37-
Jesus summed up all the instructions for living in the Bible like this:
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
If you’d like me to define passion, then here it is.
If you’d like me to define passion, then here it is.
It is to do something with all your ‘heart, sole and mind’
It is not just enthusiasm for something or someone, it is total life absorption!
It is more than being obsessed with a football team, or shopping.
To be passionate as we mean here is to infect your whole life.
You can’t get Jesus out of your head or your heart.
Your emotions are infected by Jesus, your thoughts are infected by Jesus.
It’s even more than the feelings you have when first dating someone:
That person may have had beauty and a wonderful character,
but Jesus defines beauty and has the most perfect character.
It is to love God so much becasue of what he has already done for us in Jesus,
that every thought,
conversation and decision is influenced by our passion for Him.
We speak of Jesus with our children, telling how he helped us as we thought through a difficult situation.
We think about our spending because we want,
with a passion,
to please Jesus with our money.
So we give money gladly and generously,
we share enthusiastically,
and use our money to buy us gospel sharing opportunities.
A coffee with that person you’d not normally spend your money on.
A holiday that can include that non-Christian family
All in the preyer that you can share the gospel with them.
I mean that
We pray hard about new jobs or promotions,
or moving house,
or changing our children’s schools,
Using our time as we retire
because we are so passionate about loving God and other people,
that we want those decisions to serve God’s kingdom first.
It means we are enthusiastic and positive about attending church,
reading our bibles,
singing songs from our hearts.
We go out of our way,
making sacrifices to welcome others,
to care for each others practical and spiritual needs.
We are passionate becasue we know how much Jesus loves us.
I could go on all day, but you get the idea.
And if you are feeling bad for not always being passionate.
Well don’t!
Simply look again at Jesus,
Look how magnificent he is, and how much he loves you.
We are passionate becasue we know how much Jesus loves us.
Jesus is at the centre of our vision.
We are passionate about following Jesus together.
We are passionate about following Jesus together.
I pray that we will be known in WP for our passion for God, for each other, for our community.
Courageously
Courageously
Before Jesus died he told his disciples of his future crucifixion.
They were worried, understandably.
who would teach them and stand up for them.
And Jesus said this in
And Jesus said this in
teach them and stand up fro them. And Jesus said this in
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
John
We will have trouble, but Jesus has already overcome the world.
It is the age where we need to stand for Jesus as a community, together.
The freedom to wear a simple cross has been taken from some of us in our work places.
The freedom to offer to pray for people,
to speak of Jesus,
to warn people of their fate if they rebel against God
It’s all become hard if not seemingly impossible for us.
Biblical values are being deteriorated.
Freedom to Discipline of our children in a biblical way is being removed,
The institution of marriage is being destroyed,
schools are teaching our children that God does not exist.
Our work places expect us to bend rules,
push moral standards.
Put work before family.
This country is teetering on the edge of rejecting all things biblical.
A time is coming when some in this room
may loose their jobs for standing up for God’s standard,
or for speaking of Jesus to a colleague!
Perhaps in our life time some will be arrested for holding firm to a truth, or speaking of Jesus.
In fact, I hope it does happen, becasue if it doesn’t, I wonder how ‘Courageous’ we are being.
Our families or friends may reject us as we hold firm to our faith
in times of great pain and turmoil, illness, and grief.
People might not understand us prioritising church (togetherness) over sports or social time.
I know this all may sound scary,
and it is,
but that is what we are called to do.
We cannot be passionate without being courageous.
But we want to include the word courageous in our vision,
because we want to recognise that times are changing in Britain.
And far from being moulded by the culture around us,
And far from being molded by the cultre around us, we want to stand Courageously for Jesus, togetehr.
we want to stand Courageously for Jesus, together.
This is something we need to all go home and pray about.
Lord, make me courageous for you!
Help me not fear my boss at work,
or loosing my job,
or the respect of my friends.
Help me fear disowning Jesus much more.
when it disrupts our ‘togetherness’ as a church,
despite the lies the world may tell you about oppertunity,
rights,
comfort and selfishness.
We can be courageous, becasue Jesus has already overcome all of this world.
We wont miss out on anything, because you have everything in Jesus.
You do not need to go on that dream holiday,
you can travel eternally in the new earth.
You do not need to be CEO of Barclays - you are heir to the glory of God.
You do not need the approval of your boss, your colleague, your friend or even your family -
You have the approval of the King of Kings, Lord of All!
Let’s stand for Jesus courageously as a church.
We will take risks for His glory and Kingdom.
We must speak of Jesus, even when our employer says we can’t.
We must stand for the truth even when our schools teach our children something else.
But Jesus has already overcome that, and we have a new creation to look forward to when Jesus returns.
This is a tough, but exciting word, so lets be, Following Jesus together courageously!
Increasingly
Increasingly
The bible has a lot to say about increasing in our faith. We call it sanctification. And it happens by the HS working in us through His word, the bible.
Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,
Like a baby who cries his eyes out if he’s hungry,
that’s to be us desiring to ‘grow up’ in our salvation, in our faith.
We should be desperate for more and more of Jesus,
who is found in his word.
Cry and cry like a baby desperate for milk.
Passionately following Jesus,
courageously standing for and speaking of Him,
desperately crying out for more and more of him in his word.
I know we are all busy people, but isn’t this who we want to be!
We will read our bibles and take it seriously.
We will, where-ever possible, join a mid week group to discuss the spiritual milk.
We will priorities Sunday services.
All Because we want to increasingly follow Jesus together.
I think the best way to remember what Increasingly means
is to remember this is the Word that reminds us we are never fully satisfied until Jesus returns,
and we see him face to face.
We want to increasingly be more like Jesus, we will not be satisfied, perfect, until he completes the work in eternity.
So we crave for more and more.
And the other aspect of increasingly, is to increase numerically.
There is no promise that we will grow as a church if we stay focused on Jesus and strive to fulfil our renewed vision statement.
if we devote ourselves to the
word,
prayer,
Follwing Jesus Togetehr Passionatel
the lord’s supper and fellowship
- although it probably will happen if we are faithful in doing those things.
But this is us as a church declaring our desire to see God’s Kingdom grow in WP and beyond.
It is another part of us not being satisfied until Jesus returns as he has promised to do.
In fact still in 2 Peter, speaking of Jesus returning he says this.
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
So we will keep welcoming and inviting people to join us.
courageously standing for and speaking of Him,
We will strive to plant more congregations and churches
desperately crying out for more and more of him in his word.
We will support and send missionaries across the world.
We are so thrilled that Jesus saved us, we want to see many more join us. We want to increase.
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So What now?
Please pray that this vision statement is a powerful tool for us to use,
But let’s pray that this vision statement is a powerful tool for us to use,
By alwasy looking to Jesus at the centre, and woth our brothers and sisters at our sides, I think this is a vision we can acheive.
to focus our attention on Jesus,
and on the mission he has laid out for His church,
applied in a way that is relevant and helpful today, here in WP.
Are you willing to join us in
Will you join us all?
Following Jesus Together, Passionately, Courageously, Increasingly.
PRAY