Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

So just a review of what we have been looking at over the past couple months.

We began thinking about the church by looking at the

As we talked about the vision over the last several weeks one of the main things that we talked about was making disciples.

Certainty of the church

Owner of the church

Identity of the church

Foundation of the church

Invincibility of the church

Authority of the church

Then we considered the marks of a true church

The right preaching of the gospel

The right administration of the ordinances

Then we considered marks of a healthy church

Godly leadership

Covenant membership where we come together to live out Biblical commitments with one another

And we talked about the greatest of this commitments which is a commitment to love one another as the Lord has called us to love one another.

In the final weeks together I want us to think Biblically about the mission of the church.

It is an amazing thing, when I asked Landon to preach for me last week, I asked him some months back and I told him that he could preach on whatever the Lord laid on His heart.

I didn’t tell Landon anything about the sermons that would follow his sermon from last week but Landon’s sermon was really a perfect introduction to these final weeks in this series.

Last week Landon read and looked at

We looked at

18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in

heaven and on earth has been given to me.

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

( ESV)

As he pointed out making disciples is modified by Matthew, he fills out this idea of discipleship using two adverbial participles in this passage.

The first is baptizing (expound upon that)

The second is teaching (expound upon that)

Today I want to talk more about discipleship and get a little more practical about how all of this will work out for us going into the future.

To help us do this I want to ask four questions for my points today.

I have borrowed his outline for some of my points today.

I. What is a disciple?

A disciple of Jesus Christ is a Christ follower.

A disciple is one one has accepted the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, someone who is trusting in Him as Lord and Savior.

So the first fundamental part of being a disciple is one who has repented of their sins and trusted in the redeeming work of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and the hope of eternal life.

A disciple is one who has publicly identified with Jesus by publicly proclaiming their faith in Christ through baptism.

Somehow in Baptist churches we have come to believe that someone publicly announces their faith in Christ by walking up front at the end of a service, but that has not been the biblical pattern that we find in the New Testament.

Someone publicly announces their faith in Christ through baptism.

Baptism is a way to announce to everyone who is in attendance that you have died with Christ and that you have risen to new life in Chirst Jesus and now the life that you live you live by faith in Jesus Christ trusting in His redeeming work for your salvation and following Him as your Lord.

So you see discipleship and following Jesus does not begin with something that we have done but it begins with what Jesus has done for us and His invitation for us to come to Him for salvation and to follow Him.

45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

( ESV)

11 I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

( ESV)

You see even though man was created good he feel into sin and is in need of a Savior.

The Bible teaches us that Jesus is the only Savior for man.

And what is Jesus' invitation?

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

( ESV)

Listen if you are here today and want to know about being a disciple of Jesus Christ, the first part of discipleship is turning from you sin, turning from living for yourself and to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and to entrust your life to Him, that is to submit to His Lordship seeking to follow Him.

To be a Christian is to be a disciple.

One cannot seperate Christianity from discipleship.

One cannot say, I am a Christian but I am not a disciple of Jesus Christ, the New Testament knows nothing of such a creature.

Being a disciple begins by trusting in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, publicly professing faith in Him through baptism and then living a life of following Jesus.

What I mean by following Jesus is by learning more of what His will is for your life and growing in obedience to the Lord's will for your life.

So a disciple is a Christ follower.

2. What is discipling?

Did you know that everyone alive is a disciple of someone or something.

What i mean by that is that everyone alive is following someone or something.

They are following a teacher, a hero, an idol, an idea, or the list can go on and on.

We could simplify this biblically and say this, everyone is either following Jesus or satan.

Anything that keeps you from following Jesus Christ is ultimately of satan.

Either you are living for the kingdom of this world or you are living for the Kingdom of Christ.

One of the two.

Jesus teaches us this again and again in the New Testament.

Think of the parable of the man building his house upon the sand and the man building his house upon the rock in the gospel of Luke.

47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like:

48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.

And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.

49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation.

When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great."

( ESV)

Now we can go a step further and say this, not only are you either following Jesus or following satan but we can also say that either you are teaching and influencing others around you to either follow Jesus or to follow satan.

Whether you realize it or not you are a powerful influence in the lives of people around you.

Your spouse, children, grandchildren, friends, siblings, co-workers, church members.

Let me ask you this, Are you showing people and teaching people what it looks like to be a Christ follower?

Let me say this, if you are a Christian, if you are a Christ follower, then Jesus calls you to be intentionally involved in the lives of others for their spiritual good.

That is you are to be intentionally involved in the lives of others to help them become or grow in being Christ followers.

You may ask, well specifically who am I to help in growing in being a Christ follower?

That moves us to our third point.

3.

Where should we disciple?

What are your thoughts?

The local church.

Did you know that when you join a local church you are agreeing that it is with that group of people that you are going to live the Christian life.

That you are agreeing to disciple and be discipled in that body of believers.

Membership in a local church is an agreement to the greatest discipleship program ever invented and that is the body of Christ.

If you are a member of this church then you ought to be involved in discipleship relationships with other people within this body.

Again let me clarify this, if you are a member of this body you ought to be intentionally involved in the lives of others members in this body for their spiritual good.

You are to use the gifts that the Lord has given you for their spiritual good.

You say well how does that work?

How to I get in such relationships?

Small groups like Sunday School is a good place to begin building relationships like this.

Relationships where the Lord can use you for the spiritual good of others.