Devoted - Living as Disciples to glorify God

Part 2 - Servants Learning to Point to Our Glorious King

Intro Good morning FCBC.

This morning we are continuing a 4 week series that we are calling DEVOTED. Living as Disciples to Glorify God.

This series is all about discipleship. And in case you weren’t here last week, we are doing this because in one sense we can say that the Christian life is all about discipleship. We are taking another look at our mission statement as a church from the angle of discipleship. Here’s our statement:

I love this mission statement….but only because it expresses truths of scripture. And from the point of view of discipleship I believe it matches up perfectly with the quintessential passage on discipleship - Matthew 28:18-20. This is where the risen king Jesus gives his last words to his followers before He goes to glory with his father. These words will be read every week in this series because they are so important, and in fact, I’d encourage you to memorize them if you haven’t yet! Here they are:

A couple things to note in case you weren’t here last week.

Matthew 28:18-20

“…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.”

WE EXIST To Glorify God by Pointing the Affections of All Peoples to the All Satisfying

Person of Jesus Christ.

• First, We defined a disciple as a follower or a learner. Not just intellectually, but someone who gives themselves holistically to the teacher and teaching…someone who is all in.

I think its good to look again at a couple definitions given by others, first, one from last week by Dallas Willard:

Matthew 28

”Go…make disciples…teaching them…”

disciple = learner / follower

– Dallas Willard

A disciple is someone who is constantly revising their affairs to follow through on their decision to follow Jesus.

And then, one I really like, adapted from Jeff Vanderstelt’s definition:

I like this one the most because it hits at the heart of what we saw last week.

We saw that the verses in Matthew 28 don’t happen in a vacuum, but are smack in the middle of God’s glorious plan. His plan from beginning to end in scripture was to make a people. And through the devotion of Jesus as he came as the king to save all those who would believe in Him, He made a new people. God’s glorious new people, the church. A people devoted to their king who is devoted in love to them. A people with a new identity through their baptism. And through their trust in Jesus and their baptism they come into relationship will all the people of God, the church.

And throughout the New Testament the church as God’s people is always broken down and expressed as local churches. So we are not just individuals that gather from time to time to consume some spiritual stuff, but we are a GLORIOUS NEW PEOPLE - in the local church.

And because we can’t be a people just by gathering together for a couple hours on a Sunday, we live out this reality in groups like Life groups in order to help each other do two tings as disciples in order to glorify God:

– Jeff Vanderstelt

“Disciples are those that are worshipping Jesus, being changed by Jesus, and obeying Jesus increasingly in all of life – and teaching others to do the same”

• To glorify God by getting the “Kabod” - the weightiness of God’s glory into every area of our lives. We teach each other and help each other see how God could be more important in our families, work, play, money, sex, and every area of life. By being together as his people we get each others voices speaking into how God might be the most weighty in our decisions and our time and how we use our treasure and gifts to his glory.

• To glorify God by showing and declaring the excellency (doxa) of the glory of God in the way we live as a family together. As we are close and consistent in life groups, we break our monotony and autonomy of our lives down as we are awed by his glory expressed through one another. Each one of us coming together

So as we believe in Jesus we are brought into God’s plan for his people, remember this throughout the rest of the series. The local church is the context for discipleship and its amazing…again in the words of Paul Tripp:

Matthew 28

“Baptizing them in to the name of the… “

“Father” = Our Identity as God’s glorious new people - Family

“Son” = Our Identity as Pointers to God’s glorious King - Servants

but there is more for us to look at this week:

Remember, Discipleship isn’t first about WHAT WE DO, it’s about Who God is and What he has done. God as a Father had a plan for a people, for a family, and that’s our identity as his church. We then build relationships, and live as his people, but not because we have to, but because we get to.

Next, God as the Son - Jesus is our glorious king who came to serve us. As he said earlier in Matthew 20:25-28

– Paul Tripp

Your life is much bigger than a good job, an understanding spouse, non delinquent kids, Bigger than beautiful gardens and fashionable clothes, nice vacations, in

reality you are part of something immense something that began before you were born and will continue after you die…God is rescuing fallen humanity, transporting

them into his kingdom and progressively shaping them into his likeness and he wants you to be part off that and the church is right at the middle of that..

Matthew 20:25–28But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the

rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your

servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served

but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

So we have an identity we are baptized into from the Father and now of the Son, the king who served us….We are his Glorious new people - his family. And we are Pointers to our glorious King - his servants

For those that are more visual like me, here is another way to express it that combines our mission statement with these identities:

Matthew 28

“Baptizing them in to the name of the… “

“Father” = Our Identity as God’s glorious new people - Family

“Son” = Our Identity as Pointers to God’s glorious King - Servants

Disciples(Learners / Followers)

God the FatherGlorious New People = Church is Family

WE EXIST to glorify God

God the Son (King)Glory Pointers = Church as Servants

To glorify God BY POINTING

So today, we are looking the part of our mission statement that says we exist to glorify God by Pointing….

How we as disciples are:

SERVANTS LEARNING TO POINT TO OUR GLORIOUS KING

To glorify God BY POINTING

Servants Learning to Point to Our Glorious King

There are a few ways we do this, but before I share those, let me illustrate with an example of someone I came across this week that has done this very well in my opinion. Do we all know who this is?

This is Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia, and here is what an article published this week said of him:

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has helped Ethiopia achieve the kind of peace and reconciliation once deemed impossible, including resolving a border conflict with its East African neighbor Eritrea. Today, his efforts earned him the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.

Though some Ethiopians have questioned whether the recognition has come too soon, but the Nobel Committee stated, “… even if much work remains, Abiy Ahmed has initiated important reforms that give many citizens hope for a better life and a brighter future.”At 43 years old, Ahmed is Africa’s youngest leader. He made quick and deliberate efforts toward reform when he took office in April 2018. Ahmed signed a peace accord with President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea last year, after decades of political stalemate and two years of violence that cost 80,000 lives along the border. The two countries have grown increasingly open to one another, with resumed air travel and telecommunications…

The Nobel prize announcement commended his leadership, saying:He spent his first 100 days as Prime Minister lifting the country’s state of emergency, granting amnesty to thousands of political prisoners, discontinuing media censorship, legalizing outlawed opposition groups, dismissing military and civilian leaders who were suspected of corruption, and significantly increasing the influence of women in Ethiopian political and community life. He has also pledged to strengthen democracy by holding free and fair elections.

As previously reported, Ahmed also helped reconcile two branches of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which split for political reasons in 1991.

He also fostered reconciliation between Muslims and Christians in his hometown of Beshasha while a member of parliament…

The son of a Muslim father and Orthodox mother, Ahmed is a Protestant Pentecostal, or “Pentay,” like many Ethiopian politicians. His faith is seen as a driving factor in his push for peace. “There is something of the revivalist preacher in the way he evangelizes for his vision,” BBC News noted. “He has the energy, the passion, and the certainty.”

Now, without knowing the standing of Prime Minister’s faith in Christ, one thing I can say for sure…When I look at him, he points me to King Jesus. When I see the freedoms and peace breaking into Ethiopia, I think of King Jesus’ kingdom.

Amazing that a world ruler isn’t actually corrupted by power and given to further polarizing people, but seems to be freeing prisoners, helping the hurting and bringing in a measure of peace. He is for me a Glory Pointer….A servant king showing the excellencies of the ultimate servant king Jesus.

Oh and how we would all perhaps like to be in a position to help people like this. But Abiy didn’t end up as the prime minister overnight. By all accounts, he became a student first and encouraged others to be lifelong leaders who improved their knowledge. He did a Phd in inter-religious conflict studies that clearly helped him. His learning made him a servant and someone who could point to the glory of a servant king. And that’s the first way we grow as disciples together to glorify God, we learn, we first catch the glory of God before we can point to it.

1. Learning to become Pointers to God’s glory

It is actually very important to point this out about discipleship, even if it seems redundant to you. And I think this may help. Think about it. Who do you view as the most intelligent person you know. That if they speak you will listen. That if they offered a “masterclass” in something you would take it.

I’m not sure who you thought of, maybe Steph Curry if you are a baller, or maybe Bill Gates, or Steve Jobs as a tech entrepreneur. Maybe Martha Stewart if you are a home-maker (except for that little prison matter of course).

Think about it, this is who God is. This is who Jesus is. You won’t be ready for the next points about pointing to Jesus and his kingdom if this isn’t settled, Do you view him as the most intelligent person in the universe…HE IS! Look at this passage from Romans 16:25-27

Romans 16:25–27

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the

mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring

about the obedience of faith—to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.

This passage exudes a feeling of the most ancient wisdom that you could ask for…that’s what the gospel is, this wisdom of God, and it says that God is the only wise God. The only one we should look to for the masterclass on life. It also says something very interesting that helps us as we learn to be servants of God in pointing to his glory….that the gospel of God, produces something Paul calls the “obedience of faith.”

You might say, wait…I thought we are saved by faith…not by obedience. Yes that’s true…but faith apparently leads to learning obedience.

To make this clear, we only need to look at the life of Jesus himself. Jesus was the perfect son of the father. He didn’t do or need to do anything to earn the affection of his father. His father from the time of his baptism, before Jesus did any “ministry” or service, said “this is my beloved son in who I am well pleased. So, there is no earning the Father’s affection for Jesus.

BUT, if we look earlier in the life of Jesus we see something interesting in Luke chapter 2. Let’s look at this account beginning in verse 41:

Luke 2:41–52Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended,

as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they

began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And

all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And

he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

Now this passage as a side note could also be labelled as the biggest parenting fail of all time….Joseph and Mary lost the child who was GOD in the flesh! So take heart parents!

But seriously we see here that in a sense, Jesus was from a young age a disciple….He was a learner. Though he was well and truly God, he was also truly a human…

We must recognize that if we are going to serve the church and the world by being pointers to God’s glory, we will have to learn, and learn through growing obedience to God’s word. We have put the emphasis that all of our discipleship flows from our identities in Christ, by being part of his glorious new people. But those identities will result in this type of learning and effort to learn and obey God’s word. In order to follow Jesus you have to learn from Jesus and to learn from him you have to trust what he says is true.

In light of that, this is where we get into he practice of being disciples that Jesus exampled in the gospel for us.

• Reading scripture - Psalm 1• Memorizing scripture. - Psalm 119:11• Meditating on scripture. - Joshua 1:8• Prayer • Fasting - hunger pointing us to our deepest need• Silence, solitude and sabbath rest

These are all things Jesus did as he grew in wisdom and stature…these were all hallmarks of his life and ministry. Why? So he could prove that he was God’s son? So he could be more holy than others by effort? No, so he could enjoy learning as a human of his Father’s love and glory and constantly only do what he saw the Father doing and say what the Father was saying.

If we want to be pointers to God’s glory, there is no doubt we will have to follow in our master’s footsteps, and take his masterclass through God’s

word. And there is effort of obedience then to put his word in practice and be his disciples indeed - those who remain in his word and practice it. If we trust Christ for salvation, we will trust him to learn from his life and ways….It’s like CS Lewis said:

We will learn imperfectly, we will fail…but increasingly in all of life we should be growing in, learning, obeying what we see in the life of Jesus. We can’t point to his glory without that reality. This is way I’ve encouraged our Life groups to break down further into groups of 3-4 men or women as discipleship or DNA groups. Meeting up from time to time In these groups we can press in a little more and ask what we are learning and how we are seeing who God is and what he has done in the word, and how we are living in light of that. Working in community to get the gospel pushed out into our lives so that we can serve as pointers to God’s glory.

That’s also why we do the Faith academy classes….Not just for the sake of it…but because we all need to learn and grow and revisit the glory of God through his word. Which reminds me that I need to tell you that you

– CS Lewis

To have Faith in Christ means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a

certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.”

can still sign up today for our next session of classes that begin this net week. Wednesday night and Sunday morning.

I’ve been amazed, by the way, at so many of our well seasoned saints that have signed up for classes. They probably know most of what is being taught, but there is always more to learn and definitely more to put into practice….Discipleship is a lifelong learning journey. Perhaps you’ve grown stale and numb and a bit bored…Living as a community and challenging each others where we see we still need to learn or stimulating one another as we take classes together can help us get back to the place that a man called Job in the Bible came to where he said that God’s word was more important to him than his daily food itself. Some of you are new believers, some of you have been around awhile…but for all of us the question is this….

Do you see Jesus as the smartest most respected person in your life? That you want to spend the rest of your life learning from? Is he someone who informs and shapes every area of your life - in your family, etc.? r just someone you listen to on Sundays or when he agrees with you.

If you trust in Him, you will learn from him and in doing so be able to point to God’s glory.

BUT, there is more…We learn, but we are also shaped to point to God’s glory….

2. Shaped as Pointers to God’s Glory

2. Shaped as a Pointer to God’s Glory

What Do I mean by this?

Well, here’s the problem…If it were merely learning, we wold all be the greatest dislikes that every lived here I the USA. We have books upon books, bible studies upon bible studies……In fact I like to say that since coming back to here to my home town that Bible studies are like Christian entertainment….But that doesn’t mean we immediately point to God’s glory as we learn…And in fact Jesus understood this. He understood that we have more than a learning problem blocking us from being his disciples. We have a worship problem. And what we worship we serve….and what we serve we point to.

So when Jesus began his earthly ministry, he began it by saying:

Jesus came to bring the kingdom of haven to bear on our lives…And the kingdom of heaven is not always what we want it to be…

Matthew 4:17

…“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

In our daily lives, if we are honest, there are many areas we don’t want the kingdom of heaven to bear in our lives. And that’s because the kingdom of heaven operates under a different principle than the basic principle of this world and the kingdoms we build for ourselves.

You only have to look at the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 to see this. For example…. If we are hurt then we want to see things made right in retribution. But if we are in Christ, and know God has been patient with us, and turned the other cheek towards us, then we will see that changes us - even when we don’t want the same grace extended to us, extended to others.

We don’t like the pain that the kingdom of heaven says we need to bear in order to point to God’s glory, plain and simple. But that is where we have gone wrong. In fact I think it’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the Christin life as disciples. And I personally have been extremely helped

recently through Paul Miller’s book J-curve as it explains this reality.

Boasting in

ourselve

s

Two Ways to be shaped (From Paul Miller’s “J-curve”)

My Glory

Many of us take our discipleship to be a progression or growth….But under the surface it becomes an insidious way that we end up doing what the kingdoms of this world always do - boasting in their own glory…

I could for example find ways to take all that I learn in God’s word about any topic and twist them to point to my own glory:

• Spiritual disciplines (reading, praying, etc)• Serving my Family • Being a hard worker• Serving in church• Being a good citizen• Serving in my community• Having a high paying job from working hard• Having a family pedigree• Going to a good school, or home school, or public school

That’s what Paul the apostle did - He said he was a completely “right” and “good” person according to God’s law. And we can think…Look I am learning and I am obeying and look I am good! Maybe we wouldn’t say this out loud, but it’s in there. And so we get ahead in life and look down on those who don’t have our accomplishments, pedigree, liturgy, theology, politics, you name it. Our worldly culture so lifts up “success” and competes for it that we call people “losers" and all that matters is “winning.” We view “Servanthood” as a low thing that speaks of oppression and low dignity. We view service jobs like the plumber who came out to my house the other night to fix my sump pump as a dirty low job…..But oh, am I thankful; for that plumber!

So we try to get ahead and we try to get glory and we try to be shaped in this always upward motion that means we are “doing good” - and yes this happens in church too. Just think about your struggles right now and if you are willing to share them in community or if you think it makes you less of a person that you don’t have it all together.

So we work and work to get higher on the arrow….And this can work for a while…but the problem is that it doesn’t ultimately work in our broken fallen world. And God graciously allows for things to go wrong. In order to shape us. This is why the Bible writers tell us over and over again to rejoice at our suffering. WHY? HOW? Because whatever GOD BRINGS INTO OUR LIVES, he will use it to form Christ in us…God uses our lives to shape us in his cruciform image to point to his king Jesus and his kingdom. Like this:

Jesus came and as the perfect son of the Father, the most wise and just teacher, and the king of heaven. But he came and humbled himself to the form a servant - as Phil. 2 tells us - and he died a humiliating death on the cross to serve us and free us from our sins…And that is the shape of his image that will make us pointers to him and his kingdom. As Phil. 3 says…that we would know him in the fellowship of his sufferings and in the power of his resurrection.

The fellowship his suffering shapes us into the image of Jesus and also makes us point others to the ultimate reality of the resurrection and shows that we are living for the kingdom of heaven and not our own kingdoms we could boast in. And this works down to the little details of life in our families. For example:

Dying with ChristRi

sing w

ith C

hrist

Two Ways to be shaped (From Paul Miller’s “J-curve”)

God’s Glory

When my kids were very little they loved LEGO!!! And I sort of did too, though I didn’t love stepping on them or getting frustrated with being an adult who couldn’t even figure out a simple boxed project with instructions at times. So we proceeded to buy as much Lego as our meager budget would allow for a few years at Christmas. And they had quite a collection…A whole city built in their room. And I had trained them to build it nice, and keep it orderly.

At that time we started making friends with some people who weren’t part of our church and whose kids were, shall we say, less than orderly. And so as a family we welcomed them in our home often and were living life with them. But I’ll tell you what, though we tried to have boundaries, those kids absolutely destroyed my kids lego city of dreams. And to be honest, I was not pleased. But we talked as a family and we said - look, we are very sad and very sorry that our things have been broken. But, we are on a mission to point to the glory of God, and Jesus was a servant and people took advantage of him and people broke him, so can we suffer this way in order to take the low position of serving and point to the patient love and grace of Jesus and his kingdom that is better than our LEGO kingdom?

Obviously it made me sad, but I am thankful that my kids were shaped in the cruciform way of Jesus…though I am still not sure if they have every forgiven me for leading them this way!

This is learning his way and character and learning how its not like ours. We often bring our grid to God and say this is my view of my life….But God doesn’t allow that, he says let me show you what life is about. Let me re-shape your view of me.

So, let me ask you….How would your view of present circumstance change if you knew that Jesus was using it to form himself in you, and help you live for his kingdom as his servant?

How would your view of others change if you viewed what was happening in their life as God forming Jesus in them? How would you look to be involved and how would you look to encourage them instead of looking down on them?

Finally, this leads us to the reality of everyday discipleship as glory pointers:

3. Living as Servants to Point to God’s Glory (Glory Pointers)

I don’t want to say too much here, but just point us back to the words of Jesus from Matthew 25 that were read at the beginning of this time:

3. Living as Servants to Point to God’s Glory

Matthew 25:31–40“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was

a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when

did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as

you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

The reality is that if the kingdom of heaven has taken hold of our lives, then we will live out of that identity as Jesus servants…

As we serve others we are serving Jesus. That changes everything!

Let me say this….As we look at this passage I want to make something clear that should change it for you.

• You and I are those who were hungry and Jesus gave us himself the bread of life

• You and were thirsting for something real in life and Jesus gave us his Spirit

• You and I were strangers to God and foreigners but he made us accepted and part of his kingdom

• You and I are naked before him in our works and he clothed us in his righteousness by living as the perfect disciple on our behalf

• You and I were sick with our sin and he healed us through Christ’s blood washing us from our sickness

• You and I were prisoners enslaved to our sin and he came and freed us

If that’s true, then we will take up our identities as pointers to his glory as his servants - in everyday life….

We can see the brokenness in those around us and we can enter into joyful service of Jesus as his disciples. It’s a beautiful cycle that goes something like this:

See Needs &Brokenness

Serve & Bless

Beautify & Restore

Celebrate & Party

Servanthood Pointing to God’s Kingdom

An example:

I had a friend Craig who started a software company…It went really well and grew..Then just this past month, he did something amazing. He as a servant leader resigned form his CEO position and gave the company away to the employees. I’ve never heard of such a thing…but what a wonderful example fo bringing “freedom” to prisoners…Of making his employees stakeholders just like Christ has made us co-heris in his kingdom.

Now, we may not be the prime minister of Ethiopia able to serve a nation and make disciples that way…And we may not own a company to be able to give it away to show God’s servant nature and the value of his kingdom….But we can:

• Be a mother who places priority not on perfection of home, but of showing love and service to kids who don’t appreciate you always

• Be an employee who serves our boss by working hard and respecting and encouraging them even when they are not worthy of respecting encouragement

• Be Christians who show hospitality in the true sense of the word. As one pastor said:

“Loving strangers, treating fellows believer, widows, orphans, unbelievers, poor, needy, missionaries, foreigners, refugees, and even your own enemies as if they are your family. To walk alongside of people for an extended period of time so that the glory of Christ might be seen and embraced by them,…A long suffering sharing of our lives…

When Christians do this, none of the labels the secular world want to put on us have a chance of sticking…”

And listen…if you don’t yet call Jesus your king, I want you to see that he served you…He is the best king with the best kingdom…that all that you hunger and thirst for…that the ongoing you feel to be accepted, that shame and nakedness you feel for not being good enough, that the way you feel sick about the things you do and the slavery you feel to not being

able to change….All that can change if you turn to Jesus, trust him as the one who in his perfect wisdom and service died and rose again on your behalf to raise you up with him. Is there a king with a kingdom like Jesus - NO there is not….trust in him today.

And now we prepare for communion…We prepare for the way that Jesus instituted to point us back to God’s glory. To point us back to the fact we have been well served by our king… to take the bread and the cup that point to Jesus body broken for us and blood spilled for us…Let’s pray that as we remember his pointing us to God’s glory, we will become pointers to Him through being his servants together.

Let’s pray….