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session 6 Bruce Patrick Evangelism Alpha

session 3 Neil Adams – Natural Church Development

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Vineyard Conference NCD

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Session 2 Glyn Carpenter – State of the Nation

Session 1 Lloyd Rankin – Vision to Grow

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GROW Session 1

There are central teachings that Jesus gave His followers that move us towards this goal of having Christ fully formed in us and within those teachings, tools that are central to helping that formation. 2 key discipling verses in the New Testament were both a result of Jesus reinterpreting OT passages.

Every Jew from their earliest age would have learnt and recited the “shema.” Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (TNIV) “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
Jesus reminded the expert in the law who asked Him what was the most important command first of this OT command, and then added Lev 19:18 “Love your neighbour as yourself.” And then He goes on and further refines it in John when He says “John 13:34-35 (TNIV)“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Jesus was saying if you do these two things – love God and love others (and of course you must love yourself if you are to love others properly) – then you will look and act and be like children of God and Christ will be fully formed in you.

And Jesus also took a common prayer the Jews prayed – the kaddish (”Magnified and sanctified be his great name in the world He created according to His will. May He establish His Kingdom during your life and during your days, and during the life of all the house of Israel, speedily and in the near future. And say amen. “) and developed it into what we now call the Lords prayer.

Both of these are profound discipling statements and tools. The goal of following Jesus is that Christ is formed in us – in other words we act like Jesus would if he were in our skin. A Kingdom disciple can be described as a person who loves God, loves him/herself and loves others. And they regularly pray a prayer centred around these priorities.

A couple of weeks ago we brought together 120 of our key leaders from around NZ. They, along with others, are spending this year participating in a year long learning experience called GROW2010. We had such an effective two days together focussed on reaching people who don’t know Jesus & helping them become devoted followers of Jesus

We focussed on the key tasks for churches and leaders – “Being disciples and Making disciples.” It is incredible how hard we must work to keep these 2 activities at the top of both our personal agendas and at the top of our church’s agenda. All the other things that are important to us, like being worshippers of God, lovers of people, etc., flow from being a disciple and making disciples. However, the focus of our lives is to become devoted followers of Jesus (disciples) ourselves, and spend our time money and energy on helping others become the same.

It is helpful to think about what a fully devoted follower of Jesus would look like. What would they value? What would they be passionate about? What would they routinely practise?

So let’s look at a few important marks of a Kingdom disciple.

1. They have as their ultimate desire to become people who are like Jesus and are determined to fulfill that desire. Paul had this as his life purpose for people.
Gal. 4:19 “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” (TNIV)
Isn’ t it amazing that we have the incredible privilege/miracle of having Christ formed in us!

2. A disciple has the fruit of the Holy Spirit becoming more and more evident. Gal 5.22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.” Think how fruit is produced – a healthy plant with roots into fertile soil, moisture and free from pests and disease will inevitably produce fruit. You don’t see apple trees struggling and fighting to produce apples – they produce apples because they are living apple trees! In the same way as you stay “rooted and grounded” in Christ you simply WILL produce fruit. You are born of the Spirit and so will product the fruit of the Spirit.

3. A Kingdom disciple arranges their lives around the priorities and practices of the Kingdom of God. They seek to routinely do Kingdom activity – loving people so much that they ask why; listening to God when we are with people to see if God has something for us to give to that person, say to that person, or do for that person. Routinely looking for what God is doing, and then joining Him in His mission through the use of Spiritual gifts.

Let’s think more about this next week – and maybe you have some suggestions of key characteristics of a Kingdom disciple.