Now What?

Introduction

As we close out this week the question becomes now what? Where do we go from here? What is life like after camp in 2021.

Our last teaching we are going to look at 3 stories in the Bible and walk away with three action steps. I am not going to lie, I got these steps from a church up in Portland OR called Bridgetown.

The first story I want us to look at is in Luke 10. It is a famous story about Martha and Mary.

38Now as they went on their way, Jesus ▼ entered a village. And a woman named bnMarthabowelcomed him into her house. 39And she had a sister called bpMary, who bqsat at the Lord’s feetand listened to his teaching. 40But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are branxious and troubled about many things, 42but one thing is necessary. ▼ Mary has chosen btthe good portion, which will not be taken away fromher.”

38Now as they went on their way, Jesus ▼ entered a village. And a woman named bnMarthabowelcomed him into her house. 39And she had a sister called bpMary, who bqsat at the Lord’s feetand listened to his teaching. 40But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are branxious and troubled about many things, 42but one thing is necessary. ▼ Mary has chosen btthe good portion, which will not be taken away fromher.”

38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Jesus comes into a village, Martha invites him into her home and she starts to run around trying to do stuff for Jesus. To clean the house up, to get the food ready. Did you see what the text said?

- “She was distracted with much serving.”

o Serving – Gk. Diakonia – dia-co-nia

§ Here the word is translated serving but it is the same word translated ministry later on in the Bible.

· Now when I say the word ministry what comes to mind?

o On Christianity.com they define ministry as “giving of our time, talents, and resources to bless and help others.”

This is something we value in the church, we look for people to serve so often we encourage people to serve, to step into their giftings, to step into how God would want to use them and this is a good thing. Serving, ministry, it is a good thing and we should all take part in it. But according to this story what is most important?

- Being with Jesus, sitting at Jesus feet, letting Jesus teach you.

This is not something that we like to do, even pastors, even people who have been following Jesus. Sometimes we get too caught up in doing good, in shining our light to the world that we don’t actually spend time with Jesus.

Picture

In the book of Galatians Paul is encouraging the Galatians to walk by the Spirit, to let the Spirit of Jesus guide them. And he says in Galatians 5 he says the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Paul says these are the markers of a believer, so we strive to produce the fruit, yet too often that is the issue.

- In John 15, Jesus actually says that he is the vine, his followers are the branches, and that apart from Him we can produce nothing.

o This makes sense. If we believe that Jesus is King, if Jesus is our savior, then we will spend time with him, learn from His teaching, talk with Jesus.

So the first step is to BE WITH JESUS.

Our next step we see in Luke 9.

In the context of Luke 9 Jesus does a crazy miracle and feeds 5000 people. Right after this is the first time that one of His disciples actually says that Jesus is the Messiah, the King, the Christ. This is big because of the weight behind this world. This is the first time that this word is used to describe Jesus meaning that the entire OT has been pointing to Jesus.

- Which in their mind they are hoping that Jesus is a violent revolutionary? He is going to take over Rome and with him His followers will take over with Him. So Peter calls Him the Chrsit, Jesus says your right and then says this

22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

Imagine the discouragement they would have felt. There is actually another account of this where Peter says I will not let this happen to you Jesus. This is what they want, they don’t want their King to die. Jesus goes on to say this:

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels[1]

For us the cross is a symbol of Jesus, of salvation, a cool thing to wear on a necklace. But back then the cross was a sign of a failed revolution. Crosses is where they would hang revolutionaries who got caught.

- So Jesus looks at his followers and says if you want to come after me you will have to take up your cross. What would Jesus go to do on a cross? He would go to die. Jesus gave over his life on a cross for humanity.

o Jesus is calling us to do the same thing. We are to sacrifice for others, ever for others that we disagree with or even hate, the lifestyle of a follower of Jesus is taking up their cross for others. There is no arguing with this.

§ This is usually one of those teachings that we think about later and we think that we are the exception. But our King went before us on the cross, we are to do the same. Dying to ourself and our desires.

· Can you picture how shameful the cross was for Jesus? People looking upon Him, saying I thought that was the guy, what a disgrace. Yet that is how He won, Jesus won the battle by dying. He is calling us to do the same. So we lay our life our desires, even our opinions down for others.

The Second step is to become like Jesus. We develop a lifestyle of serving others, showing them a piece of heaven by serving them even if they don’t look like, talk like, or think like us.

Last example we get at the end of the book of Matthew

The context of this passage is that it is the last few passages of the book of Matthew. Jesus has risen from the dead and he is talking with His disciples.

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 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.”

This is a passage that you may have heard before, it is called the great commission and is viewed as highly important because they are the last words of Jesus in the book of Matthew.

- All Jesus is saying here is go welcome people into the Kingdom, show them by your life that Jesus is King then teach them what you know. Go share the Kingship of Jesus with people.

o This is not some guilt trip that Jesus is trying to make either. Notice how he starts off the passage, Jesus says I have all authority, therefore go.

§ We don’t go because we feel guilty, we don’t go because the pastor preached a emotional message. We go because we believe that we belong to the King of Kings and he has already conquered anything that we face. We belong to the King with all authority.

· One pastor puts it this way “Jesus is saying ‘I have authority, so go conquer the world? How? The same way Jesus conquered, by carrying a cross.”

o Jesus is saying, if you belong to the King then start acting like it. If you dispkay to the world another way of living they will want to follow too. This is when you teach others just as you have been taught.

Now notice how the book of Matthew ends.

- V. 20 Jesus says, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

o Jesus tells His disciples, I am a King who has conquered, but I am also a King who is with you. I will not leave you.

In the beginning of the book of Matthew, Mary, Jesus mom is told that she is pregnant with Jesus. In Matthew 1 the author gives us kind of a cut scene of what just happened.

23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall call his name Immanuel” [2]

The book begins with God with us and ends with God with us. Nothing has changed. Jesus is faithful. The only question becomes, are we?

- Notice how the book of Matthew ends. We don’t know what the disciples did. We read 28 chapters of Matthews account of the good news of Jesus and then it ends, just like that, leaves you hanging, not the best story telling I guess.

o However, that is the point. Jesus gives them the great commission and we are left wondering did they obey?

§ And at that moment, you pause, look around the room and realize, they did. The message of Jesus spread to the ends of the earth because their obeying of the great commission.

- The gospel of matthew is not calling you just to pray more, not calling you to keep devotions, not calling you to fast, or do the whole list of Christian things we say to do. The gospel of Matthew is calling you to a Kingdom, a Kingdom that is ruling the world whether you admit it or acknowledge it or not. It's calling you to a lifestyle. Calling you to a cross. The question is which one of the final great commissions will you obey? Finishes with 4 commissions and the last one isn’t told of whether they obeyed or not but the very fact that we are here shows they did. Question is, should it be any different for us?

We are to do what Jesus did, as we go display a lifestyle showing the Kingdom is here.

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Lk 9:21–26). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. [2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mt 1:23). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.