It Takes a Village

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

In 1996, Hillary Clinton, who was then the First Lady, wrote a book titled It Takes a Village. The title came from what is purported to be an African proverb, although no one has been able to verify it’s origin. The premise of the book is that it takes more than just the immediate family to raise a child. From my perspective, the major flaw with the book is that from Clinton’s perspective the “village” was the federal government and it’s main purpose was to justify even greater government intervention into the lives of our families. However, I do think the overall premise that people and groups outside the immediate family do have a great influence in the raising of our children is certainly true.

Tension

Unfortunately, we live in a culture where people have become more and more isolated. As I’ve shared before, in some ways one of the worst inventions of all times is the garage door opener. That has made it possible for us to leave and re-enter our homes without ever having to interact with our neighbors.

And the church has not been immune to those trends. We now have a whole generation of those who claim to be Christians who also claim they can live as a Christian without ever being an integral part of a local church. As we’ll see this morning, that flies in the face of what the Bible teaches and is completely contrary to the life of the disciples in the first century.

And I worry that the COVID pandemic is only going to hasten this trend. Based on some recent surveys, there are a lot of Christians who have gotten pretty comfortable watching church in their pajamas in the comfort of their homes and many say that they say they probably won’t return to the church building even after the pandemic is over. I am grateful for the technology that has made it possible for many of you to continue to be part of our church family over the last year or so, but I do worry that at some point that will become the norm for many. And that’s a shame, because as we’re going to discover this morning, there is a sense in which it does take a village to raise disciples of Jesus. So if we want to become mature disciples we need to be active participants in that village.

Truth

This morning is the third message from our current sermon series - Living in Light of Eternity. In this series we are studying Paul’s first letter to the church in Thessalonica - a church he had founded only months before he wrote this letter. In the letter, he is giving them some practical advice about how to live as they waited for the return of Jesus - advice that is relevant for us as we continue to do the same thing.

Sometimes, I think we can view Paul as being kind of cold and unfeeling. But the passage we’re going to read this morning is a window into Paul’s heart. And we’re going to see that in fact Paul is a loving, caring man who desires to pour his life into the lives of his fellow disciples.

We’ll begin this morning in verse 17 of chapter 2:

1 Thessalonians 2:17–3:5 ESV

But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy. Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

Here is the main idea we’re going to develop today:

It takes a village to develop a mature disciple of Jesus

Before we get into some of the specifics in this passage, I want to ask you to take a moment to scan through this passage and look at all the pronouns. First, from Paul’s perspective, you will see that he rarely uses “I” or “me”. Instead most of the first person pronouns are “we” and “us”. Sometimes I think we get the idea that Paul’s ministry was carried out in isolation. But we see here and elsewhere in his letters that it was almost always a team effort.

And all the second person pronouns are plural - that means that every time you see the pronoun “you” in these verses, you can replace it with “y’all”. In Greek, verbs can also be either singular or plural and nearly all the verbs in this passage are also plural.

So right away we get the idea that this passage is all about community. While there is an individual aspect to discipleship, overall it is a process that takes place within the community and it involves everyone in that community. Or to put it in the terms we are using this morning - it takes a village.

The second thing I want to note here is that Paul is not satisfied to just make converts. His goal is to make disciples. It’s not enough to just get people to make a decision, or to raise their hand or even pray a prayer. So Paul doesn’t just leave these new disciples to fend for themselves. He sends Timothy to check on them and see how they are doing. And then, since he can’t return in person, even though that is what he would prefer to do, he writes this letter to help the people in the church there in Thessalonica to mature in their faith.

Most of us are familiar with what we usually call the “Great Commission”, but I want to call your attention to one specific aspect of what Jesus said to His disciples after His resurrection:

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Notice that the task Jesus gave to His disciples, and to us, is to “make disciples”, not just “make converts”. There is no such thing as a Christian who is not also a disciple. And since becoming a mature disciple is something that is best accomplished within a community of like-minded disciples, Jesus never intended for there to be any “Lone Ranger” Christians.

Application

So let’s see what we can learn from this passage about what a disciple-making village looks like:

IN A DISCIPLE-MAKING VILLAGE, THE PEOPLE...

Are with one another

Or to be even more accurate, maybe I should say “they are with one another- and actually enjoy it”.

We see in verse 17 that Paul eagerly desired to be with the people of Thessalonica in person, to see them face-to-face. That’s not surprising after what we read last week when Paul wrote that he was “affectionately” desirous” of his fellow disciples there. Paul genuinely liked the people and longed to be with them.

Unfortunately, as we’ll talk about more in a moment, Paul was prevented from being with those people in person right now, so he had to disciple them by other means.

That’s not altogether different than what we’ve experienced as a church over the last year or so. For a period of time, we were limited to only a handful of people being in this room every Sunday so we had to minister to you using technology. But I can tell you that Ryan and the worship team and I all missed being able to be with you face to face. It’s not easy to sing or to preach to an empty building. And even when we were able to start meeting in person again, we have had some limitations that make it hard to really enjoy each other’s company.

I can’t tell you how excited I am to be getting to the point now that most of our church family has been able to gather in person again. But as I mentioned earlier, I am concerned that there are some who have become so comfortable with just attending church online that you’ll continue to do that even when you could be here in person. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for the technology that makes it possible for us to disciple people remotely, but it’s certainly not the ideal.

So if you haven’t been ready to rejoin us in person yet, or maybe even join us in person for the first time, I want to encourage you to consider doing that as soon as you can. And if that’s still not an option, I hope that you’ll at least find a way to get together with other Christians in some smaller settings on a regular basis.

Persevere with one another

Both Paul and his companions - Timothy and Silas - and the people in the church in Thessalonica, were facing opposition and persecution for their faith in Jesus. Paul claims that he had been hindered by Satan from returning to the city to visit the people there. Since it’s not our main focus this morning, we don’t have time to dig into that idea in depth. But I don’t think that Paul is trying to say that there is a demon behind every bush. He is merely pointing out that Satan would like nothing better than to keep Christians from gathering together, so he had influenced the Jews there in Thessalonica to run Paul out of town and keep him from returning.

And when he sent Timothy back to minister in his place, that left Paul all alone for a while in Athens. And as someone who had to lead a church on my own without much support for several years, I know the toll that must have taken on Paul.

Paul also points out that if the people there in Thessalonica were left on their own, it was much more likely that Satan would be able to tempt them and draw them away from God.

I think Satan understands that it is much easier to pick off a lone sheep than one who is part of a flock and so he does everything in his power to try and isolate disciples of Jesus when they are going through trials. And from what I’ve observed, he’s pretty good at that. My heart has been broken over and over when I witness those who claim to be Christians who isolate themselves from God and God’s people when they encounter some difficulty in their lives. But those are the times when we most desperately need others to go through those trials with us.

Value one another

When Paul was unable to go back to Thessalonica himself, he sent Timothy there to check on how the disciples were doing. And I love how Paul describes Timothy in verse 2:

“…our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ...”

Even though Timothy did not have all the credentials that Paul had, he was a valuable part of Paul’s team. I mean Paul could have written something like this:

“I’m unable to come to you right now, so I’m sending Timothy. Sorry, but he’s the best I’ve got. I know that he’s not an apostle like me and he hasn’t been a Christian for a long time and he doesn’t have a whole lot to offer, but I suppose he’s better than not sending anyone at all.”

A lot of that would have been true. But Paul recognized that even though Timothy might not have had the same qualifications he did, he was gifted by God and had a lot to offer to the people of Thessalonica.

This is a great reminder of how important every disciple is to the body of Christ. We all have different gifts and talents and abilities. Some are more public than others. But they are all equally valuable and equally necessary in the process of making disciples. That means that if we’re going to be effective in developing mature disciples, we need every single one of you to do your part and exercise your gifts here at TFC.

Encourage one another

Paul sent Timothy to Thessalonica so that he would...

“…establish and exhort you in your faith...”

Although Paul had left the disciples in the church there with a good doctrinal foundation, he knew that it was important to constantly remind the people about the basis for their faith and to encourage them to continue to live in accordance with what they had been taught.

Let’s face it, most of the time when I preach or Ryan preaches, we’re not telling you something new and revolutionary. In large part, we’re just reminding you of what you’ve been taught and encouraging you to live your lives in accordance with what you already know. And hopefully, part of that encouragement is providing you with some practical ways to live out your faith.

But that is only one aspect of encouraging each other. And the great news is that every single one of you is capable of doing that right where you are. You can do that in your marriages, your families, your schools, your neighborhoods and right here at TFC. At times, it’s simply a matter of “catching” someone living out their faith and encouraging them to keep on doing that. And at other times, it’s coming alongside a brother or sister who is struggling in some way and offering to walk through that valley with them.

Since she’s not here today, I’m going to go ahead and embarrass someone who embodies this principle better than anyone I know. If you’ve ever been around Susan Hawthorne for long, then I know that you’ve been encouraged by her, maybe by a kind word or an email or a text message. We could all use a lot more Susans in our lives.

Rejoice with one another

Even though the disciples in Thessalonica are struggling in some aspects of their faith, Paul makes a concerted effort to celebrate the things they are doing right. We saw that at the beginning of his letter, where he gave thanks for their influence for the gospel in the entire region. And he does it again here when he calls them...

“…our glory and joy...”

Paul took great joy in the fact that the disciples there were growing in their faith and continuing to have such a great impact for the kingdom.

One of the practical ways that we can do this as a body is to celebrate together the spiritual milestones that mark our journey as disciples of Jesus. We’re going to do that this afternoon as we witness those who have put their faith in Jesus testify to that faith through baptism. I hope you’ll be there to celebrate with them.

We’ve seen this morning that...

It takes a village to develop a mature disciple of Jesus

The writer of Hebrews summed up much of what we’ve talked about today in these familiar verses:

Hebrews 10:24–25 ESV

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

As this verse points out, the closer we get to the return of Jesus, the more crucial it is going to be for every disciple of Jesus to be part of a local church that is characterized by the things we’ve talked about this morning. As we face increasing opposition and persecution, we are going to need each other to not only survive, but to thrive as a family.

Action

So I want to invite you to be an active participant in this village that we call Thornydale Family Church. We need you and you need us. I know that many of you are already an integral part of this community and if that’s the case, I want to encourage you to keep that up. But even if you’re already active here, it’s certainly possible that God has used this time to impress on you some things that you could either do for the first time or some things you could do better to improve our effectiveness in developing mature disciples. In that case, let us know how we can help you help us.

There are others of you joining us this morning who have just been dipping your toes in the water, so to speak. Maybe you just tuned in this morning for the first time or maybe you’ve been watching for a while, but you’ve never really jumped in completely and become a part of this community.

If that describes you, then I want to encourage you today to take a next step in your journey to become an active member of our village. For some of you that might mean attending one of our worship gatherings in person, either for the first time or for the first time in a while. For others, it might mean putting your faith in Jesus for the first time or taking the next step in your walk with Jesus by being baptized or joining our church. Again, if you’ll let us know that you’re ready to do that, we’d love to walk alongside you and help you take that next step.

Inspiration

A few weeks ago, the check engine light came on in Mary’s car and it suddenly started running real rough. Even though it would still operate, it had a hard time making it up the hill to our house. When we took it to the mechanic, he discovered that one of the cylinders wasn’t firing at all, so we basically had a 5 cylinder engine rather than a six cylinder engine.

I feel like our church is a lot like that car. Most of the cylinders are firing and we’re operating and doing some good things. But if we could ever get to the point where we had every member of our village contributing as God designed them to do, we would sure be a lot more effective.

The good news is that with a new coil, Mary’s car is now operating at 100% capacity again. And that gives me hope that we can do the same thing right here at TFC. My prayer is that all of us would do our part to make that happen.