Go Series

Good morning. Today, we are continuing our series on discipleship. And as we continue to emphasize that discipleship is ordinary people learning to live everyday life like Jesus. By now, you should know that to become a disciple here at Bellevue Christian Church is quite simple. You simply have to gather, train, and go. For the last six weeks, we have been keying on these concepts of gathering and training. As important as those two concepts are really they are not an end in themselves. In other words, they are simply just a means to the end. The end being to take the good news of Jesus Christ and to go into the world and make new disciples. It is about carrying out what we collectively refer to as the Great Commission, which is spelled out in Matthew 28:18-20 where it says “Then Jesus came 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.’” This little command go is probably one of the clearest commands in the gospel from Jesus. It is a command that has over the past 2,000 years or so has mobilized Christians to go out into the world and really to go out to all four corners of the world and to begin to share the good news about Jesus Christ and his kingdom. What we want to do over the next three weeks starting today is to begin to focus on this concept of going and really look at why we go and how we go in very real and practical ways.

Today, what I would like to do before diving into that is to just go briefly back over where we have been and specifically the biblical basis for these three concepts of gathering, training, and go. You may recall when I introduced this series I introduced it with a passage out of the gospel of Mark that says “After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilea preaching the message of God. ‘Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the message.’” This translation is from The Message translation, which is a paraphrase of the original passage. I think it gets to the point. You may recall that when I spoke about the kingdom I reminded us that the kingdom was not believed to be a truly physical kingdom but was a spiritual kingdom. The kingdom of God that really speaks of God’s effective will and reign in the world. When we say the Lord’s Prayer, we say “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done” what we are really doing is equating kingdom and God’s will. It is God’s effective will coming into the world. It is his will and his desire. Basically says what he wants done will be done. When Jesus says in this particular passage “Time’s up! The kingdom of God is here” he is not suggesting that the kingdom is some far off kingdom in some distant galaxy in some future time and space. He is suggesting that by his incarnation and his miracles, especially the casting out of demons, he is suggesting that the kingdom of God is happening right now. In other words, the kingdom of God is beginning to expand, and the kingdom of Satan is beginning to shrink. This was the proclamation of Jesus. It wasn’t only just a proclamation. It was an invitation. As you can tell from this passage, it was an invitation to a changed life. For people to rethink how they are living and consider following Jesus into this kingdom that is rapidly unfolding.

Now as we know from the gospels, people did follow Jesus. Ordinary people began to follow him, including the 12 disciples. People who left their fishing business, their tax collecting business, and all sorts of other businesses and really attached themselves to Jesus. What some suggest is they were like his apprentices or what we would call the disciples and attached on to him so they could learn how to live their everyday life in the kingdom of God. Consistent with what I have been saying is that when he first met them he began to gather them together in a variety of settings. We don’t have time to go through the gospel settings there, but even a cursory review of the gospels reveals all sorts of places where he gathered with the disciples, starting with a wedding in the city of Cana. He gathered together at a wedding feast. We also see him gather together at the side of a mountain near the sea of Galilea. We see him gather on the sea of Galilea in a boat with the disciples. Of course, we have seen him gather in the home of Zacchaeus or the home of Martha and Mary. Now those gatherings, although they were meant to strengthen relationship with is followers, they really weren’t just meant for that. They were meant to be opportunities for training to occur. Training that would come in a variety of ways. Jesus was into asking good questions or experiential type learning. He was trying to teach them about the Father. Really teach them about his kingdom ways. Teach them about his will. He was trying to demonstrate the things that they have inside of them that need to be worked on, their character flaws so to speak. He would teach them his pattern of living, what we refer to as the spiritual disciplines. All again really to prepare them to live in the kingdom of God that is rapidly expanding.