Being the Church - Followers of the Way! (2)

Being with Jesus.

DRAFT MISSION STATEMENT - Whitby Christian Fellowship is a community where followers of Jesus, practice the way of Jesus today, as we grow in faith together. We do this by walking with Jesus in the way; learning from His life and teaching and carrying out His purpose and mission on earth.

DRAFT ACTION STATEMENT - We strive to live out the life of Jesus in our community throughout the week, then gather at different stages as a collection of Communities.

I. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE WITH JESUS?

What does it mean to BE WITH JESUS?

Mark 3:13-19:

It means to be called away to be with Jesus - “Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him.”

It means to be WITH JESUS - “He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him.” - NOTE - Matthew 4:18-22: It means being called to follow Jesus “and I will make you fishers of men.” personalised to Peter in Luke 5:10-11.

It means to be ing prepared to be SENT OUT TO PREACH by Jesus - “and that he might send them out to preach. and to have authority to drive out demons.”

It means to be in COMMUNITY WITH OTHERS - “These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder); Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” - even with some dodgy characters!

John 1:29-51:

John the Baptist introduced his disciples to Jesus as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the worl”(v29).

It means following Jesus - “When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” (v37).

It means staying where He is staying - “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?”(v38).

It means responding to his invitation to “come and you will see...follow me…come and see...”(v39,,43,46).

It means experiencing His presence to discover His true identity as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” and even “greater things” like “heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (v51).

The New Testament defines a disciple as someone who is with Jesus learning how to be more like him.

So to sumamrise, to be with Jesus means to be in his presence; following Him where he leads; being prepared to be sent out by Him and becoming fishers of men and discovering the truth about who he is and what it means to live for God in the Kingdom of Heaven.

And don’t miss the reference to the Kingdom of Heaven. This is an aspect of Jesus’ teaching related to His teaching of the Kingdom of God that it’s so important that we need to grasp.

The Kingdom of Heaven was the theme of Jesus’ preaching and a summary of the centrality of His ministry - Mark 1:15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Jesus inaugurates the Kingdom of God. He brought in a whole new order in which people could live under the rule of God whilst at the same time living in a world of falleness, sin and corruption.

The church is NOT the Kingdom but an outpost or physical manifestation of it as believers gather together.

The Kingdom of God is entered into by new birth(John 3) and those who enter it become “salt and light” in the world(Matt 5). They permeate the world and influence it so that God’s Kingdom comes as His “will” is done “on earth as it is in Heaven”(Matt 6).

The Kingdom of God then is not physical - “Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”(Luke 17:20-21).

The Kingdom of God is growing, beginning as a “mustard seed”, small and insignificant but becoming “the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.” (Matt 13:32).

While it grows, it permeated; influences; is assaulted by Satan so that “weeds” grow up among the “wheat” and only Judgment Day will separate good from bad.

It’s also the greatest prize we can possess - a treasure in the field or a pearl of great price, which is so valuable that it s worth selling everything you have to possess it (Matt 13:34-35) which is why Jesus exhorts us to “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”(Matt 6:33).

Hopefully none of this is particularly new to you but the key thing to get is that life in the Kingdom of God is not a future event, it is now!

Eternal life does not begin when we die and go to Heaven, eternal life, began the moment you were born again! - John 5:24 “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”

BUT THIS BEGS AN IMPORTANT QUESTION - How do we do this today when Jesus has departed from us and ascended to His Father in Heaven?

II. WE CAN ONLY BE WITH JESUS, THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT:

The Answer to our question is given in John 16:5-16 - He has given us “the Counsellor…the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

The Holy Spirit is the means by which we can be with Jesus today! And what does He do?

In the “world”, that is those outside of the Kingdom of God, He will "convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.”(vs 8-11)

For His disciples, He will “guide you into all truth...he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. “(vs 13-15)

This is really important for us to grasp.

Jesus’ teaching on the Holy Spirit in John’s Gospel is surrounded by the command to “abide” in Christ in John 15:1-8 . - love Him and His people and obey His commands (John 15:9-17) and John 17.His High Priestly prayer for all believers.

The key truth that I want you to grasp from what Jesus taught here is John 15:5 “apart from me you can do nothing.”, reinforced by John 17:11 “protect them by the power of your name” that the only way we can stand firm in a world of hostility is to remain in Jesus and be protected by the Father as the Holy Spirit lives in us and empowers us, and teaches us of Jesus!

It’s not enough to have great teaching and be orthodox. It’s not enough to be determined to follow Jesus by our own self-effort. We are transformed by the Holy Spirit as we intentionally follow Jesus.

However its important to see that we are not passive in this.. We care called to “abide” in Christ, to actively maintain our union with Him:

“The general human failing is to want what is right and important, but at the same time not to commit to the kind of life that will produce the action we know to be right and the condition we want to enjoy. This is the feature of human character that explains why the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We intend what is right, but we avoid the life that would make it reality.” ― Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives

Jesus calls us to intentionally be with Him and follow Him and this is our focus tonight.

It comes from being aware that we need the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives; expose ourselves to the teaching of Jesus and praying that the Holy Spirit will reveal Jesus and His truth to us.

So let’s pull this teaching together:

We are called to be with Jesus and follow Him. We can do this as we are filled with; taught and led by the Holy Spirit everyday of our lives. We are able to do this because have been born again of the Spirit of God and inaugurated into the life of the Kingdom of God where we seek to do God’s will on earth as it is done in Heaven. Every day is Kingdom life and every day we live must be influenced by the teaching and lifestyle and practice of Jesus

We need Word and Spirit, we cannot be transformed otherwise.

We live each day as members of the Kingdom of God, under the watchful gaze and instruction of our King, Jesus; energised by His Spirit to live out our lives in this world, slowly, methodically but deliberately seeking to influence it by being salt and light in the world so that God’s will is done on earth as it is in Heaven.

QUESTION 1 - Read through Matthew chapters 5-7, what aspect of life in the Kingdom of Heaven ought you be working on? (Hint: Don’t say “all of it”! Be specific).

III. PRACTISING BEING WITH JESUS:

“The first and most basic thing we can and must do is to keep God before our minds... This is the fundamental secret of caring for our souls. Our part in thus practicing the presence of God is to direct and redirect our minds constantly to Him.” - Dallas WIllard

How do we do this? This “practising of the presence of God” or drawing near to Jesus?

This will be our subject going forward over the next few weeks but just to signpost some of the ways we can do this...

WE LEARN TO BE WITH JESUS IN...

when we read SCRIPTURE.

when we SABBATH.

when we spend time in SILENCE & SOLITUDE.

when we choose SIMPLICITY.

This will take time and it is about building right habits

In the early time of our 'practicing' we may well be challenged by our burdensome habits of dwelling on things less than God. But these are habits—not the law of gravity—and can be broken. A new, grace-filled habit will replace the former ones as we take intentional steps toward keeping God before us. Soon our minds will return to God as the needle of a compass constantly returns to the north. If God is the great longing of our souls, He will become the pole star of our inward beings.”—Dallas Willard

BEING WITH JESUS IN SCRIPTURE:

So let’s begin with SCRIPTURE. What does it mean to be with Jesus in Scripture?

Lets link to what we believe about Scripture - “The divine inspiration and supreme authority of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, which are the written Word of God – fully trustworthy for faith and conduct.” (Evangelical Alliance Statement of Faith - Article 3)

Now let’s look at Jesus attitude to Scripture

Jesus read the scriptures, meditated on the scriptures, wrestled with the scriptures, interpreted the scriptures, found his identity in the scriptures, built his ethics on the scriptures, and set up the Kingdom of God upon the Foundation of the Holy Sciptures - Eph 1:20.

Jesus trusted the Scriptures completely, acknowledging its authority and its historicity in giving facts that we could rely upon including acknowledging that Adam and Eve were the first humans (Matthew 19:3–6; Mark 10:3–9) and Abel was the first prophet and was martyred (Luke 11:50–51). That Noah was a real person and that flood really happned (Matthew 24:37–39), That Lot and his wife really lived in a city called Sodom and and Gomorrah (Matthew 10:15;Luke 17:31-32)l that Moses lifted manufactured a serpent in the wilderness (John 3:14), ate the manna from heaven (John 6:32– 33, 6:49), and that Elijah performed miracles (Luke 4:25–27), and Jonah was swallowed by a big fish (Matthew 12:40–41), etc.

Likewise Jesus defended and taught all that the Scriptures taught from Moses and the Prophets to the writings and said that Scripture could “not be broken” (see John 10:34–35, Luke 24:25–27).

Jesus rebuked His disciples for not believing all that “the prophets” had spoken (which He equated with “all the Scriptures”). So, in Jesus’s view, all Scripture is trustworthy and should be believed.

Jesus used Scripture as the authoritative base for his own teaching and practice on matters such as church discipline (Matthew 18:16), marriage (Matthew 19:3–9), God’s requirements for eternal life (Matthew 19:16–19), and the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37–39).

Jesus also used Scripture to justify His actions like cleansing the temple (Matthew 21:12–17) and picking grain on the Sabbath (Luke 6:3–4).

Jesus relied on Scripture, the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17), to resist the temptations of Satan (Matthew 4:1–10).

In fact there are 11 times when Jesus is recorded as saying, “Have you not read . . . ?” and 30 times when He defended His teaching by saying, “It is written.”

He rebuked His listeners for not understanding and believing what the text plainly says.

For Jesus, all the Scriptures were trustworthy and authoritative, down to the last letter (Matthew 5:18). This teaching clearly rubbed off on His disciples and the writers of the NT who tell us the whole of Scripture is “the holy Scriptures,...are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

The Holy Spirit brings us into connection with Jesus through the reading and study of the Scriptures which is why after His resurrection, Jesus appear to the disciples and said: “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”(Luke 24)

Notice the last phrase, “all the Scriptures concerning Himself” - so important. Faith comes through hearing about Jesus and learning about Jesus as salvation is “through faith in Christ Jesus” so Paul asks in Romans 10:8-13 “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Lot’s more could be said here but the point is that we get to know Jesus through the reading and study of Scripture as the Holy Spirit ”guides us into all truth”! - “The Bible is the cradle wherein Christ is laid.” -Martin Luther

We at WCF take bible reading and study seriously - hence our Bible in a Year commitment last year and our commitment to Lectio Divina in our Going Deeper 5 step Plan to deepen your relationship with God through the disciplined devotional reading of the Bible - Preparation; Reading; Praying; Meditation and Contemplation.

“The Bible is the book of my life. It's the book I live with, the book I live by, the book I want to die by.” -N. T. Wright

“I want to know one thing, the way to heaven: how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way; for this very end he came from heaven. He has written it down in a book! Oh, give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! I have it: here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be: “A man of one book.” – John Wesley

So in practice this would look like this - Being with Jesus in the Bible: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”

Prepare

Read

Pray

Meditate

Contemplate.

QUESTION 2 - What does your practice of scripture reading look like right now? How did you get to that point and how might you work to improve it?