Our rescue by Jesus should result in a life that looks like Jesus and that leads others to Jesus...

This week we have been looking at the eighth statement that comprises our doctrinal statement as a church. This eighth statement addresses what we believe as a church about what is referred to is church mumbo jumbo talk as “Christian living”. This statement summarizes the answer to the question “How are we supposed to live as followers of Jesus? What should drive how we live out our lives as followers of Jesus here on earth?" The eighth statement of our doctrinal statementstates:

We believe that God’s justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed. With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed.

So far, we have discovered that God’s transformational activity in our lives not only rescues us from our rebellion so that we can experience forgiveness and the relationship with God that we were created for. In addition, God’s transformational activity in our lives results in us living lives that increasingly reveal and reflect Jesus.

As followers of Jesus, we are rescued from our selfishness and rebellion not because we brought anything to the table. Instead, we are rescued from our selfishness and rebellion because of God’s transformational intervention and activity in the world through His Son Jesus. Also, while good works do not result in salvation, the good works that flow from God’s transformational activity in our lives provide the proof of salvation. We were rescued by God so that we would live our lives in a way that is engaging in God’s kingdom mission to be the vehicle that He uses to reveal His Son Jesus to others.

In addition, we discovered that, because we were created in God's relational image, we show our love for God by how we love others around us. That is why, for Jesus, what is most important when it comes to obeying God is not an either or proposition; it is a both/and proposition. We show our love for God when we love our neighbor. Conversely, we show a lack of intimacy with God when we are indifferent or hostile toward our neighbor.

You see, when we love God with our total being, In addition, we show and reveal our love for God by how we love and serve others. Our doctrine and theology should be evidenced in how we live our lives in relationship with fellow followers of Jesus and in relationship with those who are far from God. As followers of Jesus, we are called to care, love and serve the poor and marginalized that are in our midst. The church has a responsibility to reflect Christ’s heart for the poor and the marginalized by meeting their pressing needs as well as sharing with them their profound need for Christ.

We also discovered that the letters that make up the Bible reveal for us the reality that there are spiritual forces that are opposed to God, the Kingdom of God and followers of God. In church mumbo jumbo talk, this is often referred to as Spiritual Warfare. Simply put, spiritual warfare is a multidimensional war against selfishness, rebellion and sin that every follower of Jesus experiences. As followers of Jesus, we are constantly in a battle against the world, which are those things in the world around us that are at odds with God and place themselves in opposition to God. In addition, we are constantly in battle with our flesh, which is our old selfish and rebellious nature before we became followers of Jesus, and the devil and his forces.

We achieve victory over these forces that oppose us as followers of Jesus requires allowing the Holy Spirit, through prayer and reading and reflecting upon God’s Word, to expose areas of selfishness and rebellion and the areas of vulnerability to those areas of selfishness and rebellion around us. As God reveals areas of either selfishness or rebellion, or vulnerability to the world, the flesh or the devil, as followers of Jesus, we are to confess that selfishness and rebellion and reject the lies that the world, flesh or devil are trying to sell us.

Then, as followers of Jesus, we are to replace the lie that is being sold to us with the truth of the message and teaching of Jesus. As followers of Jesus, we have been armed with the presence of the Holy Spirit, the truth of the message and teachings of Jesus, and the power of prayer, to win the spiritual battle against the forces of evil that oppose Jesus and His followers.

But not only do we live our lives as followers of Jesus on the defensive against the spiritual forces of evil. In addition, we are to live our lives as followers of Jesus on the offensive in order to advance God’s kingdom mission in the world. This is what is stated in the final sentence of the doctrinal statement that we are looking at, which states “In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed”. We see Christ’s commission to His followers recorded for us just a few chapters later in the gospel of Matthew. Let’s look at that commission together, beginning in Matthew 28:18:

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth."Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Now whether you regularly attend church or whether this is your first Sunday in church; whether or not you regularly read the Bible, you are probably at least somewhat familiar with what Jesus says here. You are probably familiar with Jesus words here because this is one of the two sayings of Jesus that are described with the adjective great. Jesus here is giving His followers a mission; and that mission is to make disciples of all nations.

The phrase “go and make disciples of all nations” in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally reads “as you are going, make disciples of all nations”. God is not commanding us to go. God is commanding us to make disciples as we go. In other words, as followers of Jesus, we are to strive to make disciples, or followers of Jesus, as we are living our day to day lives in the spheres of influence that we have been given.

Now a natural question that arises here is “well how are we supposed to make disciples? And how do we know that we are actually being successful in making disciples?” First, we are to make disciples by going to those who are far from God. Whether at home, at school, at work, or in our relationships; in whatever sphere of influence we have; we are commanded to live our lives as missionaries that are engaging, investing, and inviting those who are far from God to become followers of Jesus. We do not need to go to a foreign country to be a missionary. As followers of Jesus, we are called to be missionaries wherever we are. And in your day to day life, God has already positioned you in areas of influence where you can be a missionary to those who are far from God.

Second, we are to make disciples by baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Baptism, as we will discover later in this series, is an outward act that serves to publicly identify one as being a follower of Jesus.  So a major part of discipleship is to be used by God to bring those who are far from God to a place where they place their confident trust in God’s transformational activity and publicly identify themselves through baptism with Jesus as a follower of Jesus and with the kingdom mission that He has given us as His followers.

Third, Jesus explains that we are to make disciples by “teaching them to observe all that I commanded you”. Now the word observe, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to persist in obedience. In other words, a disciple of Jesus will naturally grow in their faithfulness and obedience to Jesus over time. While there may be occasions where a follower of Jesus commits sin, a follower of Jesus, over time, will live a life that is becoming more like Jesus in character and conduct.

And as followers of Jesus and as a church, we are called to create environments where people are able to understand and embrace the message and teachings of Jesus in a way that results in their spiritual growth and spiritual good. That is why we are such huge proponents of community groups here at City Bible Church. That is why we create environments such as the Adult Bible Fellowship and Kids Konnection on Sunday mornings. That is why we create environments such as AWANA and Fusion student ministries. We desire to create environments where followers of Jesus can explore faith, grow in their faith, and experience and become a part of a genuine and authentic community of followers of Jesus.

At the church where I serve, we summarize how we engage in God’s kingdom mission to make disciples this way: “City Bible Church is a city within a city that is striving to reveal and reflect Christ as we love and serve the city”.  We are a community of believers that desires to reveal and reflect Jesus in word and deed. We are a community of believers that has been strategically placed here by God to engage our community with the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel in a way that reflects Jesus. We are a community of believers that has been given a kingdom mission to love and serve our community in a way that reveals and reflects Jesus in real and practical ways to our community.

We desire to be a church that creates environments where we can love and serve our community in real and practical ways that provide an opportunity to share the love of Jesus and the message of the gospel. And we desire to be a church of missionaries that are genuinely and authentically following the message and teachings of Jesus in our spheres of influence in a way that is investing and inviting those who are far from God to come to experience the forgiveness of sin and the relationship with God that they were created for by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader.

Now this leads us back to the question that will run throughout this series, which is “Dave does what we believe about the how we live our lives as followers of Jesus really matter?” And the answer to that question leads us to a timeless truth about why it really matters. And that timeless truth is this: What we believe about how we are to live our lives as followers of Jesus really matters because our rescue by Jesus should result in a life that looks like Jesus and that leads others to Jesus.

You see, what we believe about how we live our lives as followers of Jesus really matters because we have been rescued by Jesus so that we can live in a relationship with Jesus that reveals and reflects Jesus in our character and conduct. What we believe about how we live our lives as followers of Jesus matters because we are to live our lives in a way that loves God with our total being and that shows our love for God by how we love and serve those among us.

What we believe about how we live our lives as followers of Jesus matters because we are to live our lives as the hands and feet of Jesus that meets the pressing and practical needs of those around us so as to expose their profound need for Jesus as they see Jesus in us. What we believe about how we live our lives as followers of Jesus matters because we are to live our lives in a way rejects the lies, temptations and desires of those things that oppose Jesus so that we can reveal Jesus by our response to those lies, temptations, and desires.

And what we believe about how we live our lives as followers of Jesus matters because we are to live our lives in a way that leads others to follow Jesus and experience a growing relationship with Jesus that comes as a result of experiencing forgiveness of sin and the relationship with God that they were created for through Jesus.

So here is a question to consider: How are you living your life as a follower of Jesus? And do you think that how you are living your life as a follower of Jesus matters?