Teaching

Transcription.

“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Ephesians 4:1

What is the calling we received? For Disciples of Jesus, our calling is found in the great commission. We have been commissioned to share the good news of Jesus' kingdom, to make disciples, and to teach those we are called to everything that Jesus commanded (Matt. 28:19). Why is this our commission? Because Jesus lived in human history not so that he could go around Galilee for 33 years, but just to show us he was human, as a big prelude to his death and resurrection. His life is just as important as his death.

In Jesus’ life, we see humanity lived out as originally designed. Jesus was ushering in the good news of God’s kingdom, God’s rule and reign, also known as the gospel (Mark 1:14-15). It is this gospel that Paul refers to throughout all his letters, most famously in Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.”

Gospel is translated as “good news.” What is this news? For something to be good news, it must matter to the people who hear it.  In recent history, “the good news” that is associated with Christianity has been limited by how we have simplified the gospel to Jesus coming to save us from hell by dying for our sins. 

However, this is not the good news Jesus preached in Mark 1:14-15; while it is part of it, it is so much more. 

N.T. Wright puts it this way: “When we say, “Jesus died for our sins” within a message about how to escape this nasty old world and go to heaven, it means one thing. When we say, “Jesus died for our sins” within a message about God the creator rescuing his creation from corruption, decay, and death and rescuing us to be part of that, it means something significantly different.” 

We must preach and share the same good news that Jesus and his disciples carried shared. For Jesus, the good news has to do with conquering evil and death, releasing us from sin's grasp, and partnering with God to proclaim and usher in His kingdom breaking out. To understand the fullness of this good news, we must go through the entire story of the Bible and see how God intended the universe to be. 

The good news is that the world and humanity were created to be good.  Sin and death entered the picture and messed it up. God, being a loving and good God, sent Jesus to conquer sin and reestablish his kingdom. 

Then, through the Holy Spirit, we are empowered to take God’s Kingdom out into every space we find ourselves. One author summarized the gospel as this, “Jesus is God with us, come to show us God’s love, save us from sin, set up God’s kingdom, and shut down religion so we can share in God’s life.”

This is the good news of God’s kingdom. There is new life when God is our king. We get to carry it out with new life. We are His people, and He is our God.

Some of us may believe this good news, and yet, we find ourselves frustrated because we are not experiencing abundant life like Jesus talked about. Well, this is where we must understand that Jesus is our model. It isn’t enough to believe the things about Jesus. We must also see that we are called to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. Central to Jesus’ kingdom vision and model was discipleship.

Jesus, God with us, made his dwelling place among his people (John 1:14). God moved into the neighborhood, living in perfect union with the Father and the Holy Spirit. But Jesus then started gathering disciples: dedicated students or apprentices that followed Jesus’ life. 

These early disciples watched how Jesus woke, how he slept, how he responded to being interrupted, how he responded to grief, how he lived in union with God, how he resisted temptation, etc.

These disciples understood their role wasn’t just to learn truth from Jesus but to learn how to live truth alongside him. The gospel writer John notes this in 1 John 2:6: “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.”

This is not about us losing ourselves and becoming one homogeneous group. But when we live like Jesus, he forms us into becoming who we were intended to be uniquely as we are. True discipleship to Jesus means being with Him, becoming like Him, and doing the things He did. Or a more Trinitarian way of understanding this Be with the Father, become like Jesus, live by the Spirit. When we apprentice ourselves to Jesus, we take his words and his kingdom seriously. So we take sin seriously because Jesus took sin seriously. We take our actions seriously because Jesus took his actions seriously. We take our ethics seriously because Jesus took his ethics seriously. Often, Christians add Jesus to their life as a person to believe, but rarely do we see him as a model for our lives.

The reason is that Jesus’ life and ethics feel impossible. 

• We believe the weak are blessed in God’s kingdom until we are asked to be weak for God.

• Loving our enemies sounds great when Jesus does it, but what about us? 

• Reading about Jesus forgiving the Roman soldiers while on the cross inspires us; it feels impossible when we think about how we would be in that situation.

The question we must ask ourselves is that outside of believing Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Is that do we believe him as our Rabbi? Do we think Jesus as smart, or do we think Jesus was naive to really trust us to become like him? Do we believe that his way and vision is good?

When Jesus talks about love, do we see it as something we can attain for ourselves? When Jesus talks about non-violence as a way to serve those who oppress you, do we see it as a call on our lives as well? When Jesus washes the feet of the one who would betray him, how do you see that for your own life?

The key is that John calls us to live as Jesus did. Not just believe that he is our Lord and savior, but to live as he did. Jesus intentionally taught and expects us to live as He did. Part of the gospel is that this doesn’t come from striving, but now that we are indwelt with the same Spirit that rested in Christ, we now get to do what He did. Reminder: Jesus didn’t do what He did because he was God, but in his humanness, he relied on the Spirit to MODEL for us what a human life is supposed to be. So all of us, empowered by the Spirit, now have no excuse to follow the example of Jesus.

When we understand the gospel as the ushering in of this new life, we are able to understand why Jesus’ own life matters. Jesus was bringing us back towards God’s vision of shalom in the Garden of Eden, where humanity was in perfect relationship with God, one another, and the world and self. Jesus is the carrier of this vision and then sends us out to do the same. 

The original disciples understood their role to be sharing the good news of Jesus and raising disciples. Now authentic disciples will continue to do the same. We see Jesus as our model for our life, and we invite others to be his disciples as well. The invitation and challenge we must consdier as Christians: will we accept the deeper call of discipleship?

How does this impact House Churches?

We live in neighborhoods with neighbors who do not know Jesus, both de-churched and unchurched. God’s rule and reign will only become a reality when we, as disciples, commit our allegiance to Him.

God’s kingdom will not just waltz and show up if we are passive. Jesus made it very clear that his kingdom would happen through discipleship. As House Church Leaders, we must understand the weighty cost of discipleship. First, discipleship requires you to believe EVERYTHING that Jesus said and did to the point where you live it for yourself. Discipleship is not a passive thing. Second, this impacts the way we love and serve those we are around. If we love God and love others well, we will be making disciples. This can happen intentionally by inviting others to follow your life, but it can even happen passively as people watch your intentionality. 

If you live in step with the Spirit, living like Jesus, living in love with the Father. The natural outflow will be wanting others to live the same life.

As disciples of Jesus first, we will be shaped to look more like Him. In community, we will learn how to live in union with God and in love with one another. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can then go out to those who do not know God yet, inviting them into a relationship with God, and raising up real and true disciples that God can partner with to bring Heaven to Earth.

This is the good news of God’s kingdom. When God is our king, there is new life, and we get to carry it out with new life. We are His people, and He is our God.

This sets our foundation for why we choose House Church as an expression of discipleship. The Good News of God’s Kingdom is that Jesus moved into the neighborhood to invite us to experience, know, and participate in God’s love. Then Jesus, when we accept the gospel of the Kingdom, disciples us to go out and carry this love to the rest of the world. House Churches, as we define a family of disciples empowered by the Holy Spirit, loving our neighbors as themselves, are neighborhood expressions of Garden Church. Literally, mirroring God’s pattern of moving closer to people who have rejected Him.

So there is a mantle on your life as leaders. You are to go out and be disciples, that make disciples. Not go out an make people in our image. We are simply to connect those around us to Jesus himself. There is an intentional involvement, but just like any great leader. You need to help people become better disciples than you are. Raise people to be dependent on Jesus, and this will only happen if you are dependent on Jesus.