Embodying Christ's Mission Through Relational Discipleship
Devotional
Sermon Summary
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"After spending some time in Antioch, Paul, Paul, of course, one of the key leaders of the early church. Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus, he was a learned man with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. That might feel like an obscure sort of reference, but this was a significant issue in the early church. This conversation about the baptism of John, John the Baptist, the baptism of Jesus and the Spirit could be a stumbling block for different people." [00:01:17] (55 seconds)
"And they explained to him the way of God more adequately. So again, last Sunday, we kicked off our vision conversation. We started with Jesus because we always want to begin with Jesus, right? Our Christology shapes our missiology, which informs our ecclesiology. Now, that's a bunch of big, fancy words. All I'm saying here is this. Jesus gives us a mission and then organizes us into churches to accomplish that mission. So it goes, Jesus, mission, church. A lot of times we get that out of order, and it creates all sorts of issues. We begin with Jesus. We looked at this scene from Luke chapter 5 where Jesus goes and he sees and he invites. And in particular, he invites this guy named Levi to be his disciple. Levi was a tax collector, which meant he was a trader, a social outcast." [00:02:22] (60 seconds)
"Now, if Jesus is our leader, if we begin with him, this is the pattern that must be internalized. Go and see and invite, right? We go. We go out into our everyday lives, work, school, neighborhood, the different places God has us. We go out into our everyday lives paying attention, right? With our eyes open. And as we're paying attention, we see who is there, who is not there. What is God up to? Where do we sense the Spirit is moving? We go and we see and then we invite. Now, when we say the word invite, we're not just saying, oh, I'm going to go and I'm going to go and I'm going to go. A lot of times there's this, like, I've got to invite people to church." [00:03:22] (45 seconds)
"dig in here explore that oh you want to go to that territory you're going to need some hiking boots what if we saw our role not to just give answers and tell people where to go but as guides helping them navigate this map of these huge questions this map of spirituality this is part two of our vision if part one is we want to reach if we want to passionately reach spiritual explorers part two is we need to develop good guides take the things that you have heard me say in front of many other witnesses and pass them on to faithful people who are also capable of teaching others take the things that you have heard me say in front of many other witnesses and pass them on to faithful people who are capable of teaching others i've used this picture before but i want this this image to be a part of our vision of how we can develop good knowledge to be kind of front of mind seared into our brains as we continue on you are a stream not a pond you are a stream not a pond kids you also in your clipboards there you have a picture of a pond a river a stream you guys can start coloring that kind of thinking about what that means for you jesus uses the imagery of living water often to describe himself and his kingdom and so if we think about our mission as sharing living water with people we need to imagine this process far more dynamically like a stream or a river not statically like a pond a lot of discipleship training in church is built around the assumption that people are ponds right you're basically just this like sort of big empty pit that just needs to get filled up with water and so you come to church on sunday and you get filled up and then you go out into the into the scary world during the week and there's some entropy in the system right like some water gets evaporated and other water seeps into the mud or i don't know how it works but something like that right and so then you need to come back to church where you can get like more water dumped into it friends we are not ponds" [00:10:25] (124 seconds)
"We are streams. We are rivers. We are tapped into living water. We have access to this living water all the time, everywhere we go. God's mission is accomplished by his living water moving through us from one person to the next. We pass along, like the writer Paul said in that verse, we pass along what we've seen and heard and experienced. You are creators, not consumers. You are missionaries, not monuments. You are streams, not ponds. This is a dynamic living process. Now, what's cool is that when streams and rivers begin to connect, you get what is called a confluence, which is an awesome word. I like that word, confluence. This is where all of us are. All these waters start to kind of come together into this big, like, rushing thing. All this powerful water moving in the same direction. What if the church looked like that? Felt like that? Sounded like that? Confluence. This is what happens when we own the truth that we are streams and we start sharing with each other what we have seen and what we have heard and what we have experienced." [00:12:29] (97 seconds)
"learn some things together. These are streams connecting to streams, connecting to rivers, starting to produce a confluence. They welcome him in, and the text says they explained the way of God. The Greek word for explained is ectothemi, which is very similar to the word that we use a lot these days, unpack. Some of you, the word unpack maybe has like sort of a corporate like kind of reaction, but it's actually a really great word, and it's very similar to this word ectothemi. It's this idea of taking stuff out and examining it, and in this context, it's like it's taking it out together. Together, we're going to look at this. This is not just we're going to tell you what to do. This is we're going to take it out. We're going to examine it. We're going to look at it together. You're going to ask questions. We're going to ask questions. We're going to figure this out together. This is a guiding word. What they do with Apollos, what Priscilla and Aquila do with Apollos is they guide him." [00:16:39] (62 seconds)
"First and foremost, guides look like servants. Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Priscilla and Aquila serve Apollos. They don't make the process about themselves. They are there for him. They are more roadies than rock stars. I got these all day, guys. I can just keep going. I love that one, though. They're more roadies than rock stars. Here at Discovery, we call this hero -making. This idea of investing in other people, taking what we have seen and learned and heard and experienced and sharing that with other people, inviting people in to our circle of friends so they can see our lives and so that we can talk with them, work with them, dialogue with them, even argue with them. As we do this kind of mutual guiding together, servants sacrifice for others. They champion others. They give of themselves to raise others up. That's what a guide looks like." [00:18:03] (82 seconds)
"Again, you know, boundaries and accountability are really, really good things, but there's the, again, the energy behind this, I think, is about limiting mercy, making grace merit -based, and putting conditions on love. Friends, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of Jesus Christ is unlimited mercy, unmerited grace, and unconditional love. you know hopefully we're clapping for the concept right okay good and so again I just it breaks my heart when this conversation comes up because this is who we are called to be as followers of Jesus right rivers these conduits of unlimited mercy and unmerited grace and unconditional love be very be very wary of religious people who want to put conditions on those things guides are empathetic they are curious they want to know you and hear your story they want to help you take the next step on your journey navigating this map together Priscilla and Aquila demonstrate a deep empathy for Apollos they love his passion and his zeal I just want to help channel that in the right direction in no way though do you get it the sense that they crush him by making him earn it so guides look like servants guides are empathetic and then lastly guides love which might sound again like one of those obvious things but let's really think about this for a moment we're nothing without love" [00:22:14] (119 seconds)
"if I speak in the tongues of men or of angels but do not have love I am a resounding god and the Lord is the chief God and the Holy Spirit we need to be one who's in the tent you know have you ever been in a conversation with someone and they like say a lot of like a lot of things that sound good but kind of somewhere like deep in your gut it felt like bonger Right, like you said a lot of things that sound, but I didn't feel good. Right, that lacking in love. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, if I'm the best Bible study leader in the world, if I give great sermons every Sunday and I have a faith that can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. if I do a bunch of really great things in the world, if I give all that I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but I do not have love, I gain nothing. Whew. We read that at weddings, right? But this is about guides. That letter is written to a church that was struggling in a lot of ways. If I do not have love, I gain nothing. Priscilla and Aquila love Apollos well. One of the ways that we know that, I think, is what happens to Apollos after this, is he goes on to lead and pastor a church in another place called Achaia." [00:24:11] (87 seconds)
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"And they explained to him the way of God more adequately. So again, last Sunday, we kicked off our vision conversation. We started with Jesus because we always want to begin with Jesus, right? Our Christology shapes our missiology, which informs our ecclesiology. Now, that's a bunch of big, fancy words. All I'm saying here is this. Jesus gives us a mission and then organizes us into churches to accomplish that mission. So it goes, Jesus, mission, church. A lot of times we get that out of order, and it creates all sorts of issues. We begin with Jesus. We looked at this scene from Luke chapter 5 where Jesus goes and he sees and he invites. And in particular, he invites this guy named Levi to be his disciple. Levi was a tax collector, which meant he was a trader, a social outcast." [00:02:22] (60 seconds)
"Now, if Jesus is our leader, if we begin with him, this is the pattern that must be internalized. Go and see and invite, right? We go. We go out into our everyday lives, work, school, neighborhood, the different places God has us. We go out into our everyday lives paying attention, right? With our eyes open. And as we're paying attention, we see who is there, who is not there. What is God up to? Where do we sense the Spirit is moving? We go and we see and then we invite. Now, when we say the word invite, we're not just saying, oh, I'm going to go and I'm going to go and I'm going to go. A lot of times there's this, like, I've got to invite people to church." [00:03:22] (45 seconds)
"dig in here explore that oh you want to go to that territory you're going to need some hiking boots what if we saw our role not to just give answers and tell people where to go but as guides helping them navigate this map of these huge questions this map of spirituality this is part two of our vision if part one is we want to reach if we want to passionately reach spiritual explorers part two is we need to develop good guides take the things that you have heard me say in front of many other witnesses and pass them on to faithful people who are also capable of teaching others take the things that you have heard me say in front of many other witnesses and pass them on to faithful people who are capable of teaching others i've used this picture before but i want this this image to be a part of our vision of how we can develop good knowledge to be kind of front of mind seared into our brains as we continue on you are a stream not a pond you are a stream not a pond kids you also in your clipboards there you have a picture of a pond a river a stream you guys can start coloring that kind of thinking about what that means for you jesus uses the imagery of living water often to describe himself and his kingdom and so if we think about our mission as sharing living water with people we need to imagine this process far more dynamically like a stream or a river not statically like a pond a lot of discipleship training in church is built around the assumption that people are ponds right you're basically just this like sort of big empty pit that just needs to get filled up with water and so you come to church on sunday and you get filled up and then you go out into the into the scary world during the week and there's some entropy in the system right like some water gets evaporated and other water seeps into the mud or i don't know how it works but something like that right and so then you need to come back to church where you can get like more water dumped into it friends we are not ponds" [00:10:25] (124 seconds)
"We are streams. We are rivers. We are tapped into living water. We have access to this living water all the time, everywhere we go. God's mission is accomplished by his living water moving through us from one person to the next. We pass along, like the writer Paul said in that verse, we pass along what we've seen and heard and experienced. You are creators, not consumers. You are missionaries, not monuments. You are streams, not ponds. This is a dynamic living process. Now, what's cool is that when streams and rivers begin to connect, you get what is called a confluence, which is an awesome word. I like that word, confluence. This is where all of us are. All these waters start to kind of come together into this big, like, rushing thing. All this powerful water moving in the same direction. What if the church looked like that? Felt like that? Sounded like that? Confluence. This is what happens when we own the truth that we are streams and we start sharing with each other what we have seen and what we have heard and what we have experienced." [00:12:29] (97 seconds)
"learn some things together. These are streams connecting to streams, connecting to rivers, starting to produce a confluence. They welcome him in, and the text says they explained the way of God. The Greek word for explained is ectothemi, which is very similar to the word that we use a lot these days, unpack. Some of you, the word unpack maybe has like sort of a corporate like kind of reaction, but it's actually a really great word, and it's very similar to this word ectothemi. It's this idea of taking stuff out and examining it, and in this context, it's like it's taking it out together. Together, we're going to look at this. This is not just we're going to tell you what to do. This is we're going to take it out. We're going to examine it. We're going to look at it together. You're going to ask questions. We're going to ask questions. We're going to figure this out together. This is a guiding word. What they do with Apollos, what Priscilla and Aquila do with Apollos is they guide him." [00:16:39] (62 seconds)
"First and foremost, guides look like servants. Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Priscilla and Aquila serve Apollos. They don't make the process about themselves. They are there for him. They are more roadies than rock stars. I got these all day, guys. I can just keep going. I love that one, though. They're more roadies than rock stars. Here at Discovery, we call this hero -making. This idea of investing in other people, taking what we have seen and learned and heard and experienced and sharing that with other people, inviting people in to our circle of friends so they can see our lives and so that we can talk with them, work with them, dialogue with them, even argue with them. As we do this kind of mutual guiding together, servants sacrifice for others. They champion others. They give of themselves to raise others up. That's what a guide looks like." [00:18:03] (82 seconds)
"Again, you know, boundaries and accountability are really, really good things, but there's the, again, the energy behind this, I think, is about limiting mercy, making grace merit -based, and putting conditions on love. Friends, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of Jesus Christ is unlimited mercy, unmerited grace, and unconditional love. you know hopefully we're clapping for the concept right okay good and so again I just it breaks my heart when this conversation comes up because this is who we are called to be as followers of Jesus right rivers these conduits of unlimited mercy and unmerited grace and unconditional love be very be very wary of religious people who want to put conditions on those things guides are empathetic they are curious they want to know you and hear your story they want to help you take the next step on your journey navigating this map together Priscilla and Aquila demonstrate a deep empathy for Apollos they love his passion and his zeal I just want to help channel that in the right direction in no way though do you get it the sense that they crush him by making him earn it so guides look like servants guides are empathetic and then lastly guides love which might sound again like one of those obvious things but let's really think about this for a moment we're nothing without love" [00:22:14] (119 seconds)
"if I speak in the tongues of men or of angels but do not have love I am a resounding god and the Lord is the chief God and the Holy Spirit we need to be one who's in the tent you know have you ever been in a conversation with someone and they like say a lot of like a lot of things that sound good but kind of somewhere like deep in your gut it felt like bonger Right, like you said a lot of things that sound, but I didn't feel good. Right, that lacking in love. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, if I'm the best Bible study leader in the world, if I give great sermons every Sunday and I have a faith that can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. if I do a bunch of really great things in the world, if I give all that I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but I do not have love, I gain nothing. Whew. We read that at weddings, right? But this is about guides. That letter is written to a church that was struggling in a lot of ways. If I do not have love, I gain nothing. Priscilla and Aquila love Apollos well. One of the ways that we know that, I think, is what happens to Apollos after this, is he goes on to lead and pastor a church in another place called Achaia." [00:24:11] (87 seconds)
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