Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

If you have your Bibles let me invite you to open with me to the book of Acts chapter 11.

We are taking a break from our long journey through the gospel of Mark and we are progressing through a mini-series on the mission of our church:

We are spending four weeks in this mini-series because this month marks 7 years since the beginnings of St. Rose Community Church… and after 7 years of ministering together… after next Sunday…, I will be taking my first ever Sabbatical… this will be a three-month period where I take a break from preaching…, and refocus on the Lord, my family, and the future of St. Rose Community Church.

But before doing that, I wanted to remind myself and I wanted to remind us all of why we exist as a church.

The mission statement of our church is this.

Love the Lord.

Make Disciples.

Plant Churches.

By His Grace.

For His Glory.

Our aim in this mini-teaching series is to show that that mission statement and our collective mission as a church is not something that we made up.... rather it is a summary of what we see happening in churches from the earliest days of the Christian movement.

The church at Antioch we have been looking at over the past two weeks is a result of disciple-making ministry and they were a church that was engaged in disciple-making ministry.

Lets Pray

Acts 11:26 (ESV)

....And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

The word Christian was not the primary word that Christians would have called themselves in the early years of the church’s existence.

In fact, no one had used the word “Christian” until it was used as a derogatory term for these Christ followers here in Antioch.

The term Christian was given to them because they talked about Christ continuously and sought to live their lives like Christ consistently.

But if the word “Christian” had not been used until this point in Christian history… what word had been used?

How did the first believers refer to themselves?

Well, the word they would have used, appears in the text more than once here.

Acts 11:26 (ESV)

….. in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

And then Notice that Luke does not even embrace the term “Christians” even after he acknowledges that they were called that.

He chooses rather to keep calling these new believers - disciples.

Luke chooses to use this word because Jesus chose this word.

Jesus never used the word Christian, rather he intentionally chose to use the word disciple when referring to those who would become his followers.

He left his disciples with this mission and with this language.

Matthew 28:19–20 (ESV)

19 Go therefore and make disciples....

The Antioch church was a result of the Matthew 28 great commission.

The disciple-making mission had now moved out from Jerusalem and had spread to Antioch.

I want to ask four questions this morning that are provoked from the apparent presence of disciple-making in Antioch:

What is a disciple?

Why is disciple-making the mission?

Where are disciples made?

How do I make a disciple?

This is not a typical expositional sermon that we usually engage in where we simply move through a text explaining each phrase…, but rather we are asking questions about the particular concept we see represented in the church at Antioch.

So let's begin with question #1.

#1 What is a disciple?

When we ask the question what is a disciple?

We are essentially asking the question, what is a genuine Christian?

What are the traits of a person who has received eternal life?

Let me provide you here with four essential traits for being a disciple we see in the Antioch church.

If you say you are a Christian… these traits should describe you.

IF you want to make disciples… these traits are those that you should be instilling in others.

What is a disciple?

Disciples are Believers

This should come as no surprise.

To be a disciple of Jesus, you have to believe that Jesus is who he says he is.

When the persecuted Christians from Jerusalem arrived in Antioch, they came preaching a message which had to be either accepted or rejected.

Either Jesus was the Lord of the universe who came to earth and died for the sins of mankind or he was not.

Either he rose from the dead or he didn’t

Either he was the fulfillment of all the Old Testament Scriptures or he wasn’t

The doorway into discipleship was first and foremost real belief in the person and work of Jesus and that if this was true, it had major ramifications for their lives.

Faith is the first principle of discipleship from which everything else flows.

You have to believe that Jesus is who he says he is.

You have to believe that you are sinner separated from God…, but that God loved you so much that he made a way through the sacrifice of His Son to pay the price for your sins.

but initial faith is only genuine and real if it overflows into more than just faith.

Genuine faith in the person and work of Jesus, leads to the Daily following of Jesus.

Essential to the very word disciple is the concept of learning.

This is a slight repeat from last week but it's important.

What is a disciple?

Disciples are Believers

Disciples are Learners

You cannot be a disciple and not be a learner.

Its essential to the word disciple.

We are followers of a teacher… and we have much to learn.

We are finite which means we do not know everything.

And we are sinful, which means we are prone to believe wrong things.

We therefore must always walk in a spirit of learning…

We must be ready to be corrected,

ready to be taught,

ready to grow in understanding.

I had an important conversation with my 4-year-old just yesterday…

He has gotten into a habit where when he hears something he does not want to hear, such as instruction or correction from Anne Marie or I… he will actually plug his ears.

If we say no to something he wants, or we correct him on something he has done… his first instinct is to physically close his ears…

Yesterday, he did that, and I asked him why he was closing his ears:

He said it was because he didn’t want to hear what we were saying..

I asked him if he remembered the Adam and Eve story.

He said yes.

I asked him what God told Adam and Eve.

He said not to eat the fruit.

And I asked what Adam and Eve did anyway.

He said, they ate the fruit.

And then I said… they closed their ears to God… they didn’t want to hear what he had to say.

And now all of us have a sinful tendency to close our ears.

Christians break that habit, though,

We are a people who take our fingers out of our ears… and we want to hear anything and everything that God has to say.

This was the great need of the hour in Barnabas’ mind.

It's why he sent for Paul To come to Antioch.

They needed teaching.

But Barnabas didn’t just do this because he saw the need.… he did it because he knew the command.

This is what it means to be a disciple According to Jesus.

Matthew 28:19–20 (ESV)

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.”

But remember again, it's not only content that is taught…

Disciples were learners not just of truths, but they were learners of a lifestyle.