Designing the Church

Text: Matt. 28: 17-20

Proposition: The call of the church is to design disciples by reaching the lost, building them up in Christ, that they would design Christ in others.

Introduction: Charles Eames and his wife were a team that changed the design world. Eames saw design as more than fad or aesthetics… “To whom does design address itself: to the greatest number, to the specialist of an enlightened matter, to a privileged social class? Design addresses itself to the need.” But when design is not followed carefully confusion and cost sky rocket. Check out these simple examples
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So if design is really all about recognizing the need, what is it that God has designed in this organism called the church? What is the world’s greatest need? If the answer is rescue from sin then the design of the church has that as its target. Let me put it this way, what would you say is the main purpose for the church? Is it to reach the lost, to bring people to Christ, to help people get to heaven? What if these are but parts of the main the purpose, parts that make up the actual design? What if our greatest purpose as the church is to make disciples? To make disciples presumes that we will need to reach the lost but it doesn’t stop there. To bring people to Christ is a part of what it means to make disciples but once they know Christ the work of discipleship is to now grow in Christ. Let’s take a closer look at this design that has God etched into the pages of Scripture in Matthew 28:17-20.

I. When It Comes to Designing the Church God Starts With Where You Are. Have a look at verse 17, “And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.” You know the context, it’s after the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus. They have left Jerusalem and are now in the north near Capernaum. They have seen Him, touched Him and shared food with Jesus. Now they come as He directed them to and some are awe struck by the reality of what has happened and they worship Him. And some of them doubt. Matthew doesn’t tell us what they doubt. It could be the reality of what is right before them, it could be their own abilities to follow such a God, it could even be a doubt that just came from a feeling of not being ready enough for what was happening. Strangely enough Jesus doesn’t comment on it, He doesn’t chastise them in any way. But note this, He works with them all as a unit even though each is at a slightly different place. Jesus starts with where you are not with where you ought to be. German theologian Helmut Thielicke put it like this, “The Christian stands, not under the dictatorship of a legalistic 'you ought,' but in the magnetic field of Christian Freedom, under the empowering of the 'You may.” The ability to make disciples is implanted in every Christian through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit even though each is at a different place in the knowledge and maturity in Christ. When it comes to the design of discipleship God starts with where you are not with where you ought to be. As such He removes all the self- disqualifying, He overcomes our self- doubt using you just as you are.                                                                                                        

II. The Design of a Disciple Has Capability, Task and Method Built In.                          

The capability is sourced in verse 18, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” This authority is over everything, a power that’s now sourced in Christ which He uses to create capability in His people. So then comes verse 19, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…”. That’s the task, that’s the church’s main purpose, to make disciples of all the nations or people groups. A disciple is a pupil much like the 12 who followed Jesus were His pupils. It wasn’t enough that they met Jesus or could say that they knew Him or even knew the things that He had said. The thing that made them disciples was that they chose to follow Him, to be His student. Every day they were His disciples, morning, noon and night. Then came the day when Jesus sent them to now do what He had been doing with them, to walk with others, to share their life and to share the life that is only found in Christ. There’s the capability of His power and authority which I’m under and which I exercise. There’s the task of being both student and teacher of Christ which together brings us to method. “…baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you…”. The method involves the first step of reaching them with the gospel and confirming that step with baptism but then it establishes the second step of teaching them to observe all things that Christ has commanded. Modifying both of these steps of baptizing and teaching is the small word ‘Go”, or perhaps more simply, ‘as you go’.                                                                                            

Capability, task and method are all designed into each person who is called a Christian. Jesus died on the cross not to make you a Christian but to make you a disciple. To save you yes, but not just to save you and stop there. His intent is that you would be Christ like. That implies not just being a Christian but being a student, a follower, a disciple so that you would grow in Him. So as you go through every day to day routine watch to see who it is you are able to disciple. Watch to make sure that you are both pupil and teacher.                                                     

A disciple is kind of like a water pipe in the desert, there is water flowing in and through and out. So three questions present themselves:

1. Who are you learning from? Principally it’s from the Holy Spirit who instructs you through the Word of God. It’s the Holy Spirit who is resident in every Christian who is willing to and able to guide you into all truth. The structure of discipleship begins with God but also incorporates people who are also led by the Spirit. Is there someone in your life that you are influenced by to grow as a believer in Christ? If not then consider who that might be in your next steps as a disciple.

2. What are you learning and doing that cleans out the inside of you? Are you familiar with that passage in 2 Peter 1: 2-8, it lists a cascading series of things that will clean out cynicism and lust and unbelief in you. It begins with faith but then to faith it adds virtue, to virtue it adds knowledge, to knowledge it adds self control, to self control it adds perseverance, to perseverance it adds godliness, to godliness it adds brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness it adds love. Here’s the promise: “For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Do you know the Word well enough that it can do this work in you? The Holy Spirit will pour into you, the truth of what He teaches will clean out the rust and mud and then the clean water pours out through you.

3. To whom are you pouring out the water of life? As you go God will set up people for you to disciple. It might be at work, it might be your children or grand- children, it might be someone who looks up to you for whatever reason. It’s as you go with them doing whatever it is that the moment requires that you pour out to them from a clean pipe the living water of life. It will be your faith, virtue, knowledge, self- control, perseverance, godliness, brother or sister like kindness and love that catches their attention. It will open the door to friendship, to truth and if you will trust that all authority in heaven and on earth has indeed been given to Jesus then in Jesus name used in you, you begin to tell them what Jesus has done in you. From this point on God will enable opportunity to pour out to others what He has poured into you. The only catch is that in order to pour out you have to have life poured into you, as you go. Ask Him and He will most certainly do that very thing.                                                                                                                                                      

Perhaps you are one the who worships Christ, perhaps you are the one who doubts, yet both are His disciples. It’s how He has designed the church, a design built upon need, a design that starts with where you are right now, a design that has capability, task and method built into it by the blood of Jesus Christ through the body of Jesus Christ for His church. Mark 2016 as year of the disciple of Jesus, let it be true in you.

 

 

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