Missions in Our Community

“Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  Then Jesus came and to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always,
to the very end of the age.’”

Matthew 28:16-20

We can see from this reading that God desires for us to reach out to those in our world and make disciples of Jesus. Where do we start?  We start in our communities.  We start where we are, with the people we know.  Sometimes, when we see this passage, we might be tempted to think one of two things.  Either we’re only called to make disciples abroad; or, we are only called to evangelize to our friends and family.  The truth is, both are important!  And each of us is called to do both.

Understand that.  You are called to make disciples.  A lot of people think that they aren’t ready to make disciples. They have a number of excuses: “I haven’t been a Christian long enough; I don’t have my act together; people won’t listen to me, I don’t know enough.”  But when Jesus called His first disciples, He called them to follow Him, and make disciples.  Being a Christian is a two-fold calling:  we’re called to follow Jesus, and to make disciples.  Christians are called to be people who disciple others.

 

Missions in our Church

“They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to breaking of bread and to prayer.  Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders were being done by the apostles.  All the believers were together and had everything in common.  Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.  They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all people.  And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

Acts 2:42-47

You get the idea that this is a really close group of people, isn’t it.  They devoted themselves together to the teaching, fellowship, breaking bread and prayer.  They met together daily in the temple courts, they helped out anyone in their company that needed help, even selling things they owned to do so, they ate together and worshiped God together.  They loved each other.  And this is an example for us, God designed the church to be a group of people who love each other, just as they are loved by God.

You see, the early church was a place where people unselfishly cared for each other and worked to make a difference in the world.  And this passage tells us exactly what our local churches should look like.  So let’s reflect for a few minutes.  Does our congregation reflect what’s happening in this passage?  If this was God’s plan for the church, what should we be doing differently?  How can we better support each other?  Think about this, let’s start a conversation.

Something else to think about:  There seem to be two focuses in this passage.  They were focused on understanding God’s Word, and on fellowshipping together.  In the early church, people came together daily, and studied the apostles’ teachings. This was the normal life of a new believer. They grew in relationship with God, and they grew in relationship with each other. So as they grew closer to God, they grew closer together as a group. When churches focus on growing closer to Christ, it will help them build stronger bonds with each other.  

You are His Body...

 

The Apostles Four Things

This past week during our Bible Study, a short excerpt came up from Anne Ortland's book, Discipling One Another.  I've often talked about what I call the four pillars of discipleship, those four things that I think every Christian ought to be doing.  Anne has summed them up well...

What kind of life did those first Christians live?  When they were together, they devoted themselves to four things.  John Calvin wrote in his Institutes: “We must endeavor to keep and preserve this order, if we will be judged faithful to the church before God and the angels.”

First, they gave themselves to “the apostles’ teaching.” That was everything the apostles had seen Jesus do and heard him say.  Eventually they got it all written down; now we call it the New Testament.  Our equivalent today of the “apostles’ teaching” would be Bible study.

Second, they devoted themselves to the fellowship.  That was simply being together for the joy of being together.  Why draw your stimuli for life, they must have been thinking, from non-Christians who have nothing to contribute, when you could be absorbing more and more of the life of Christ from within your Christian friends?  This was no deliberate cut-off from worldlings to be exclusive.  Their fellowship was the strong base from which they reached out to others.  But there was far more power for evangelism in this close-knit community than we find today—we, whose spirits are diluted by so much exposure to the world—even though we may say it’s to win them for Christ!

Third, they devoted themselves to breaking bread together.  I’m sure this meant Communion, but I think it meant other meals, too…

Number four ingredient in their new life together: “the prayers.”  That’s right, the Greek has the article the in front of it, and it’s the same word as in Acts 3:1: “One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of the prayers.”  In other words, “the prayers” were the stated times for worship at the temple, and all believers went together…

No doubt a lot of former activities had to go, for the early Christians.  They “eliminated” and they “concentrated” to these four things.

Friends, let’s check our lifestyles.  Have we eliminated a lot of clutter from our lives so that we, and the ones around us who want to go hard after God, can give ourselves to Bible study, to fellowship, to eating together, and to the regular services of the church?

(from Discipling One Another

By Anne Ortland)