Sermon – Disciples!
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Faith Temple Church – Sioux Falls
Pastor Jeff Hayes
Title: Disciples!
Scriptures: Matthew 28:16-20, Plus other Scriptures!
Introduction: 1. This Scripture Often Called “The Great Commission”
2. I Have Been Greatly Concerned With Christian Leaders Being More Interested In Attracting People To Come To Their Churches Or Events For Numbers Sake, Than To Come To Jesus And Be His Disciple!
3. Recent Studies... 80% of Church Goers In America Go To Church To Be Comfortable!
4. Thankful For People At Faith Temple... Not Just Here To Be Waited On But To Serve Jesus!
5. I’m Not Here To Make You Comfortable!
6. My Experience...Those who want to be Comfortable Will Continually Call For someone To Provide For Their Comfort and It Never Ends.
7. It’s Time For Christians To Grow Up And Be Disciples Of Jesus!
8. 2.5% of Members In American Churches Are Diligent About Being Disciples Of Christ!
9. WE ARE RESPONSIBLE TO PREACH THE GOSPEL
AND TO SHARE CHRIST WITH THE WORLD IF ITS POPULAR OR NOT!
10. I DON’T CARE IF I’M POPULAR OR NOT!
11. DON’T CARE IF I WIN A PASTOR’S CONTEST BECAUSE I’M POPULAR!
12. IF PEOPLE LIKE ME OR IF THEY DON’T!
13. 2 TIMOTHY 4:1-2 – “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom. I GIVE YOU THIS CHARGE: vs. 2 PREACH THE WORD; BE PREPARED IN SEASON AND OUT OF SEASON; CORRECT, REBUKE AND ENCOURAGE – WITH GREAT PATIENCE AND CAREFUL INSTRUCTION.”
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Title: Disciples
A Little Extra Good Stuff:
The Attributes of Being A Disciple Of Jesus!
1. The True Disciple Of Jesus Says... “I Will Follow Him No Matter What! And No Matter What The Cost!”
2. Martin Luther said, “A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.”
3. The world has been a difficult and trying place for those who are serious about following Christ. Listen to the following statistics from the World Evangelical Encyclopedia:
a. • Since the death of Jesus Christ, 2000 years ago, 43 million Christians have become martyrs for their faith.
b. Over 50% of these 43 Million Martyrs were in the last century alone
c. More than 200 million Christians face persecution each day, 60% of whom are children
d. Every day over 300 people are killed for their faith in Jesus Christ.
e. What does it mean to be a follower of Christ? Is there a difference between a believer and a disciple? Are we becoming ‘fully devoted followers of Christ’?
f. The simplest definition of a disciple is ‘student, or one who learns’. But it really means much more than that. A disciple is someone who follows a Master. It is someone whose life is shaped by the teaching of the Master. It is someone who becomes like the Master in every way, adopting the values, attitudes, actions, and principles of the Master teacher. In short, a disciple is molded and shaped into the Master’s image.
g. Who Is Your Master?
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Disciples:
#1 Disciples Follow Jesus Not The Audience!
Scripture: Matthew 28:16 Then the eleven DISCIPLES went to Galilee, to the mountain where JESUS HAD TOLD THEM TO GO.
A. Disciples Follow Jesus They Don’t Follow The Audience!
B. It has been nearly twenty years since George Barna published Marketing the Church. In that book, he proposed this then-revolutionary notion: "The audience, not the message, is sovereign." That is the basic idea that underlies every Fad-Driven® church. And it's a notion that thousands of pastors and church leaders have uncritically imbibed—and it has been parroted in virtually every major book on church leadership. The audience is sovereign. Their "felt needs" should shape the preacher's message. Opinion polls and listener response become barometers that tell the preacher what to preach. That's what Barna was calling for back in 1988. He wrote,
If [we are] going to stop people in the midst of hectic schedules and cause them to think about what we as Church leaders are saying, our message has to be adapted to the needs of the audience. When we produce advertising that is based on the take-it-or-leave-it proposition, rather than on a sensitivity and response to people's needs, people will invariably reject our message.
B. Compare that with the words of the apostle Paul, who said, "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. BUT YOU keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:3-5).
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#1 Disciples Follow Jesus Not The Audience!
#2 Disciples See Jesus And They See The Cross!
Scripture: Matthew 28:17 – “When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.”
#2 Disciples See Jesus And They See The Cross!
A. “When They Saw Him, They worshipped Him” even though some doubted!
B. Some Churches Have Come Into An Age Where Their Church Leaders Believe That Jesus And The Whole Subject Of The Cross Are Offensive To The World!
C. I Want To Tell You, For Some Jesus And The Cross Are Offensive And Foolishness!
D. The Cross is a loved and hated but also a neglected symbol of Christianity in the emerging church of today. Sermons and worship songs seldom mention the Cross of Christ. Messages center around the improvement of man rather than the redemption of man . . . how to find the better life, happiness and success.
The argument is that if today’s Church is to have any impact upon people and win them to the Church and to Christ, then we must of necessity talk about things in which people are interested. Well, there is nothing new about that. You see that is exactly what they were saying nearly 2,000 years ago when the Apostle Paul preached in Corinth. There, Paul made a solemn decision:
Corinthians 2:1-2 “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. Vs. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
I Corinthians 1;18 – “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
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#3 Disciples Know, Authority Is Given To Jesus!
Scripture: Matthew 28:18 – “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
A. An Authority To State The Facts... There Is Sin And Sinners!
B. Romans 3:23 – “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...”
C. Romans 3:10 – “There is no one righteous, not even one;”
D. An Authority To State The Fact... It’s Life Or Death!
E. Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death, BUT the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
F. An Authority To Provide Salvation!
G. Revelation 7:10 – “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
H. An Authority – Disciples Will Do Greater Things Than Jesus!
I. John 14:12 – “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”
#4 Disciple And Baptize In The Father, Son And Holy Spirit!
Scripture: Matthew 28:19 – “Therefore go and MAKE DISCIPLES of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”
A. Go... outside the walls of this church!
B. Go... outside the walls of your inhibitions and reservations!
C. Make Disciples Of All Nations... They are coming to us from all nations!
D. What Do We Do With People Of Other Nationalities?
E. Church Growth Movement Says If you want your church to grow, Have The Same Types Of People! Homogeneity
F. "We are living in the last days of the idolatry of success, in which Christians bow before the false god of homogeneous church growth instead of throwing the church doors wide open to all God's children." CAN ANYONE COME & BE WELCOMED???
G. “MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS!”
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H. BAPTIZING THEM IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER , SON AND HOLY SPIRIT!
I. BOOK OF THE MARTYRS – BRANDON UKRAINIANS
#5 – Disciples Teach Them To Obey!
Scripture: Matthew 28:20a – “and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you...”
A. Some think...We’ll Offend them if we Command Them To Obey!
B. The Best Thing For A Christian Is To Obey The Word Of God!
C. Have In Mind The Things Of God And Not Man!
D. Peter Rebukes Jesus Because He tells them He is going to the cross!
E. Matthew 16:23 – “Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Out of my sight, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.’”
F. “Have In Mind The Things Of God!” Line Up With His Thinking?
G. “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you...”
H. “Have In Mind What He Expects Of Us!”
I. John 14:15 – “If you love me, you will obey what I command.
J. Is it an imposition to figure out what He has commanded???
K. He Wants Us To Obey Because He Loves Us And Knows What’s Best For Us!!
L. Psalm 119:11 – “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”
#6 Disciples Know Jesus Is With Us!
Scripture: Matthew 28:20b – “And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.”
A. The Promise to the believer...
B. Hebrews 13:5 – “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
C. Here is Something Offensive I can tell You But It Is The Truth!
D. Disciples of Jesus Also Know Some Are In Danger Of Hell!
E. Matthew 12:4-5 “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. Vs. 5 But I will show you whom, you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell.”