Embracing Community: Discipleship in the New Israel
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Sermon Clips
"In 2016, I had the privilege of visiting Israel. I was on my sabbatical, and I was thinking what to do. And actually, as I visited Israel, it was actually a very profound spiritual experience for me. Up to that point, I never desired to travel to Israel. But because I was on sabbatical, I was thinking what to do, and this course at Regent popped up, and I started thinking, maybe I should attend this. And after some prayer and thinking through it, it seemed as if God was opening the door for me to do that, and so I registered. And I remember the very first evening, the first day of the course, as we were on Mount Zion, so the course was held at Jerusalem University College, which is just on the mountain here, and it's just on the edge of the old city. And it looks old. It's over the rest of Jerusalem, so I would have been up on that hill looking over and seeing the view, and it would have been the opposite direction, you can kind of imagine. But I remember that evening, as the sun was setting, and the evening winds were blowing in over Mount Zion, I just had this realization." [00:00:06] (76 seconds)
"And, you know, I've been a Christian for almost all my life, and I've thought about these things. I've thought about Scripture, and I've thought about Jesus. I've taught about Jesus. But something clicked for me that day, that evening in my heart that made Jesus a little bit more real for me than he had been previously. There was something in my mind and heart that Jesus was just an idea or just a religion or just something we believe in. But as I visited Israel, something clicked for me that Jesus wasn't just a religion. He wasn't just an idea, just not just a religion, not just something we believe in. But he was a person in history, someone who is real, just like me, just like you." [00:01:40] (50 seconds)
"because we're still talking about it, right? We're talking about Jesus. But my intention with this series is to help us to try to understand with fresh historical understanding, looking at the person of Jesus in his first century context, and perhaps to open our minds and our hearts a little bit to try to understand Jesus as he was in the first century, and hopefully to therefore open our hearts and our lives to him as a real person who was alive, had a will, had a mind, had a heart, had a body, and has an intention for us today, okay?" [00:02:43] (41 seconds)
"So if you know the Old Testament story, God establishes the nation of Israel, and within the nation of Israel are 12 tribes. And that goes back to Jacob and his 12 sons. And they end up in Egypt. That's how the story goes. That's how history goes, is Jacob and his sons end up in Egypt. And there, that's how they start to become a nation, because these 12 families multiply, and they grow, and they eventually become a nation over generations. And then God brings them out of Egypt. He rescues them from slavery, and he brings them into the Promised Land. And they enter this land, and these 12 tribes are allotted 12 different regions, except for the Levites. They don't have any land. They live within the institution of the temple, and off of the generosity of everyone else, as they offer their tithes and offerings to the temple. But these 12 tribes are allotted different specific regions within Palestine, within Israel." [00:05:37] (60 seconds)
"God sends into the land enemies, the Assyrians, first of all. The Assyrians come into the northern kingdoms or the northern kingdom with 10 tribes who had been living in that region and essentially destroy them, destroy their capital city, and the exile take away thousands, thousands of Jewish people. All the leaders, all the prominent figures, that was their policy to weaken their enemies. They exiled them, deported them to Assyria, and they imported. They imported their own people into the land. Eventually what happens, generation after generation, these people mix and they become eventually the Samaritans that we hear of sometimes in the Gospels." [00:07:05] (47 seconds)
"as well as in the intertestamental literature, the literature that we have in the history from that time between the Old Testament and the New Testament, that when God returns, when Messiah comes, one of the things he's going to do is he's going to restore the 12 tribes. Why is that significant? Well, because for us it's significant because as we think about who Jesus was and what he was doing, intentionally he's calling disciples to himself, and then he points, what, 10 people? 11? 13? No, 12! 12 disciples. And this is attested in all of the Gospels, and not just in the Gospels, but outside the Gospels, like in Paul and in Acts, Jesus and the 12. It was a very common way of referring those 12 disciples. Why is that significant?" [00:08:10] (61 seconds)
"It's representing that Jesus as Messiah is reinstating Israel. He's reconstituting Israel. He's reestablishing, he's restoring Israel. Are you following? 12 tribes, 12 disciples. In fact, a very interesting thing that happens is the story of acts not judas right the traitor he kills himself so this is after a crucifixion um because of his his his treachery uh he he kills himself so there's only 11 disciples left now in the story of acts at the beginning of the story of acts jesus is is gone now he's not no longer physically with them but what do the 12 disciples do i mean sorry the 11 disciples what do they do now they choose a 12 disciple jesus is gone so he's no longer be going to be like teaching them and training them discipling them but they still have to restore this number 12 because it's significant it's a symbolic way for them to to basically say we are israel we are the people of israel so even when someone leaves at 12 they reestablish it and choose a 12th person now that has real implications for us as jesus's disciples because" [00:09:11] (95 seconds)
"His church, his disciples are the people of God. This is what God has been trying to do all along from the very beginning of this story, establish a people for himself. Does that make sense? Okay. Coming back to my outline now, another verse I want to read out to you, Matthew chapter 19. Jesus says, Truly I say to you, in the new world, in the new age, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. So this is on the way to the cross. He's speaking to his disciples. And this is one of the phrases that the early church has remembered and placed on the lips of Jesus." [00:11:26] (46 seconds)
"what probably will happen? They'll probably pack up the stuff and go down the church, down the street to the church, you know, down the street, right, and become a member there or something. And then life will go on and the community goes on. So there's almost no impact when we think about how we live in terms of our community vis -a -vis New Testament community. So all I'm saying is that part of what I think Jesus wants when he says, I'm appointing 12, the disciples are people of God, the people of God is what God has always been about, trying to manufacture or trying to create is a sense of solidarity, unity, community, fellowship, these things that are hard to come by in our society." [00:17:44] (50 seconds)
"he's just one person so actually it's a brilliant strategy if you think about it he meets with and trains 12 people and within those three people in particular and then he sends them out so it's not just one person now it's three or it's 12 and the multiplication happens more and more it's exponential so it's I think it's actually a brilliant strategy because his influences increased exponentially I think that's partly what Jesus is doing but the way that he did it first of all was just opening himself to 12 people opening his life 2 to 3 people and we think about churches maybe just an hour or an hour and a half on Sundays or maybe in another hour have community groups or something like that. But discipleship for Jesus was, he was with them all the time, or almost all the time, right?" [00:21:50] (68 seconds)
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"And, you know, I've been a Christian for almost all my life, and I've thought about these things. I've thought about Scripture, and I've thought about Jesus. I've taught about Jesus. But something clicked for me that day, that evening in my heart that made Jesus a little bit more real for me than he had been previously. There was something in my mind and heart that Jesus was just an idea or just a religion or just something we believe in. But as I visited Israel, something clicked for me that Jesus wasn't just a religion. He wasn't just an idea, just not just a religion, not just something we believe in. But he was a person in history, someone who is real, just like me, just like you." [00:01:40] (50 seconds)
"because we're still talking about it, right? We're talking about Jesus. But my intention with this series is to help us to try to understand with fresh historical understanding, looking at the person of Jesus in his first century context, and perhaps to open our minds and our hearts a little bit to try to understand Jesus as he was in the first century, and hopefully to therefore open our hearts and our lives to him as a real person who was alive, had a will, had a mind, had a heart, had a body, and has an intention for us today, okay?" [00:02:43] (41 seconds)
"So if you know the Old Testament story, God establishes the nation of Israel, and within the nation of Israel are 12 tribes. And that goes back to Jacob and his 12 sons. And they end up in Egypt. That's how the story goes. That's how history goes, is Jacob and his sons end up in Egypt. And there, that's how they start to become a nation, because these 12 families multiply, and they grow, and they eventually become a nation over generations. And then God brings them out of Egypt. He rescues them from slavery, and he brings them into the Promised Land. And they enter this land, and these 12 tribes are allotted 12 different regions, except for the Levites. They don't have any land. They live within the institution of the temple, and off of the generosity of everyone else, as they offer their tithes and offerings to the temple. But these 12 tribes are allotted different specific regions within Palestine, within Israel." [00:05:37] (60 seconds)
"God sends into the land enemies, the Assyrians, first of all. The Assyrians come into the northern kingdoms or the northern kingdom with 10 tribes who had been living in that region and essentially destroy them, destroy their capital city, and the exile take away thousands, thousands of Jewish people. All the leaders, all the prominent figures, that was their policy to weaken their enemies. They exiled them, deported them to Assyria, and they imported. They imported their own people into the land. Eventually what happens, generation after generation, these people mix and they become eventually the Samaritans that we hear of sometimes in the Gospels." [00:07:05] (47 seconds)
"as well as in the intertestamental literature, the literature that we have in the history from that time between the Old Testament and the New Testament, that when God returns, when Messiah comes, one of the things he's going to do is he's going to restore the 12 tribes. Why is that significant? Well, because for us it's significant because as we think about who Jesus was and what he was doing, intentionally he's calling disciples to himself, and then he points, what, 10 people? 11? 13? No, 12! 12 disciples. And this is attested in all of the Gospels, and not just in the Gospels, but outside the Gospels, like in Paul and in Acts, Jesus and the 12. It was a very common way of referring those 12 disciples. Why is that significant?" [00:08:10] (61 seconds)
"It's representing that Jesus as Messiah is reinstating Israel. He's reconstituting Israel. He's reestablishing, he's restoring Israel. Are you following? 12 tribes, 12 disciples. In fact, a very interesting thing that happens is the story of acts not judas right the traitor he kills himself so this is after a crucifixion um because of his his his treachery uh he he kills himself so there's only 11 disciples left now in the story of acts at the beginning of the story of acts jesus is is gone now he's not no longer physically with them but what do the 12 disciples do i mean sorry the 11 disciples what do they do now they choose a 12 disciple jesus is gone so he's no longer be going to be like teaching them and training them discipling them but they still have to restore this number 12 because it's significant it's a symbolic way for them to to basically say we are israel we are the people of israel so even when someone leaves at 12 they reestablish it and choose a 12th person now that has real implications for us as jesus's disciples because" [00:09:11] (95 seconds)
"His church, his disciples are the people of God. This is what God has been trying to do all along from the very beginning of this story, establish a people for himself. Does that make sense? Okay. Coming back to my outline now, another verse I want to read out to you, Matthew chapter 19. Jesus says, Truly I say to you, in the new world, in the new age, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. So this is on the way to the cross. He's speaking to his disciples. And this is one of the phrases that the early church has remembered and placed on the lips of Jesus." [00:11:26] (46 seconds)
"what probably will happen? They'll probably pack up the stuff and go down the church, down the street to the church, you know, down the street, right, and become a member there or something. And then life will go on and the community goes on. So there's almost no impact when we think about how we live in terms of our community vis -a -vis New Testament community. So all I'm saying is that part of what I think Jesus wants when he says, I'm appointing 12, the disciples are people of God, the people of God is what God has always been about, trying to manufacture or trying to create is a sense of solidarity, unity, community, fellowship, these things that are hard to come by in our society." [00:17:44] (50 seconds)
"he's just one person so actually it's a brilliant strategy if you think about it he meets with and trains 12 people and within those three people in particular and then he sends them out so it's not just one person now it's three or it's 12 and the multiplication happens more and more it's exponential so it's I think it's actually a brilliant strategy because his influences increased exponentially I think that's partly what Jesus is doing but the way that he did it first of all was just opening himself to 12 people opening his life 2 to 3 people and we think about churches maybe just an hour or an hour and a half on Sundays or maybe in another hour have community groups or something like that. But discipleship for Jesus was, he was with them all the time, or almost all the time, right?" [00:21:50] (68 seconds)
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