Establishing a Firm Foundation
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Testimony about becoming a new Christian in 2006.
Chaplain Clark took an interest in my discipleship
He didn’t let me drift by, but he put me to work.
He started by having me read books on spiritual disciplines and systematic theology.
He spoke to me as a mature Christian and expected that I would rise to the same level as him.
Context
Context
As we begin to look at this next stage in the life of the believer, we should take a moment and consider how a person moves from chair one to chair two.
There are important theological implications of conversion on the new Christian.
Its a radical transformation
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
We’ve been raised to new spiritual life.
We’ve been transferred from darkness to light.
13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
So there is a sense that the believer is living a new spiritual life
Further we receive imputed righteousness (right standing before God):
17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
The new believer is nothing less than a new creation
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
This is an event that should be celebrated.
This is one of the reasons why we celebrate baptism as a first step of obedience for a new believer.
It marks the beginning of new life for a new believer.
It’s an important and crucial time.
New ways of living are established.
New spiritual disciplines begin to be practiced.
It’s very much like the new believer is a baby.
That’s why I chose this baby chair.
Spiritual infants need critical care to survive.
And so, like little children, we need to tend to them carefully.
Just as urgent as the need for the preaching of the gospel is the need to disciple new believers to establish themselves in the pattern of new life.
So, we will begin addressing this need by following the same pattern for ministering to the unbeliever.
We will look to Jesus as our model for serving new believers.
Jesus’s Model For New Believers
Jesus’s Model For New Believers
Jesus demonstrated full Dependence on the Holy Spirit
Jesus demonstrated full Dependence on the Holy Spirit
Jesus, though He was God, humbled Himself by living a life of dependence upon the Holy Spirit to do ministry.
Every part of his life was saturated with the Holy Spirit in a way that was meant to be emulated by His disciples.
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit
35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
He was anointed by the spirit
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
He was sealed by the Holy Spirit.
John 6:27b (ESV)
For on him God the Father has set his seal.”
He was led by the Holy Spirit
1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness
He rejoiced in the Spirit
21 In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
He was resurrected by the Spirit.
11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
There is not a single area of His earthly life that wasn’t touched by and rooted in the Holy Spirit.
This is why Jesus calls him the Paraklete, the Helper.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
Jesus demonstrated the centrality of prayer in life and ministry
Jesus demonstrated the centrality of prayer in life and ministry
Jesus was a strong proponent of prayer as a critical part of a healthy spiritual life:
31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.
He began his ministry in prayer:
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened,
He ended his earthly ministry with his dying prayer:
46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.
And he repeatedly demonstrated prayer as a regular part of His life:
16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
The gospels references 45 instances of Jesus praying.
Jesus demonstrated the importance of obedience to the Father’s will
Jesus demonstrated the importance of obedience to the Father’s will
The only thing that motivated Jesus was what the Father wanted for him.
30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
Even though obedience meant suffering for Him, he endured for the sake of obedience to His Father.
18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
It has been said that the Father’s love language is obedience. It was certain true for Jesus.
Jesus demonstrated the centrality of God’s Word in life and ministry
Jesus demonstrated the centrality of God’s Word in life and ministry
Jesus knew God’s Word and He used it.
Over 80 times in the New Testament Jesus quoted the Old Testament, and from over 70 different chapters.
When He was tempted three times by Satan, three times He answered by quoting God’s Word.
He criticized the Scribes and Pharisees because of their lack of knowledge about the meaning of the Scriptures, indicating how important He considered them”
3 And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:
24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?
Further, He understood where He stood with regard to what the Scripture said about Him.
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”
Jesus demonstrated exaltation of the Father in every area of life
Jesus demonstrated exaltation of the Father in every area of life
Jesus lived his life in such a way that everything He did pointed upward to the Father.
28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.
We learn clearly from Jesus how to give God the glory in all that we do.
Jesus demonstrated intentional relationships of love and integrity
Jesus demonstrated intentional relationships of love and integrity
His intentionality has no greater example than in the very fact of Jesus’s incarnation.
But He went further and demonstrated through his life how dedicated he was to showing love to everyone He met, especially His disciples.
He made this so clear that, after He washed their feet, he only need to point to His example to give the disciples instructions on how to set themselves apart from the rest of the world.
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
So, what does Jesus’s model teach us about what New Believers need from their Christian brothers and sisters.
Needs of New Believers
Needs of New Believers
New believers must learn their identity in Christ.
New believers must learn their identity in Christ.
The first thing that young children learn as they grow is who they belong to.
They begin to recognize their parents first and begin to learn what it means to belong to a family.
New Christians need to understand what it means that they are now in Christ.
So many things, here’s a sort list: chosen, adopted, forgiven, redeemed, included, sealed, made alive, seated with Him in the heavenly places, and on and on…
It’s essential that new Christians know who they are now, and whose they are now.
The reason for this is because we will all be tested.
If Jesus wasn’t spared from this, then neither will we.
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
The believer must understand that, in Christ, there is victory:
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
New Believers must lean to walk on their own.
New Believers must lean to walk on their own.
Young children are driven to walk by watching others around them and desiring the same freedom.
In the same way, young Christians watch us as they learn to take their first steps in faith.
They will adopted the patterns of walking that they see most clearly demonstrated for them.
How they read.
How they pray.
We must take this seriously, because there are a great many bad examples out there that new believers might stumble upon if left to their own devices.
New believers must learn to talk.
New believers must learn to talk.
Young children learn to talk by copying the things they hear.
This is why the show, “Kids Say the Darndest Things” was so popular.
I remember putting on a kettle to make tea one evening after the kids were put to bed. As usual, Ryan came out almost immediately to “get a drink of water.” After a moment, I realized that Ryan had not left the room. I asked him, “what are you doing, buddy?” He responded, looking at my kettle, “I’m waiting for the telltale sound.
New believers must learn how to communicate their knowledge of God and His work in their lives.
They should be able to communicate the essentials of the gospel and how the gospel intersects with their lives.
As they learn to communicate the work of God, new meaning will become apparent and they will have a greater clarity of God’s agenda for their lives.
New believers must learn to feed themselves.
New believers must learn to feed themselves.
I can’t tell you how freeing it was the day that our kids finally learned how to make their own breakfast. We learned just how much more time there was in the morning.
These new skills demonstrate an increased ability to care for themselves.
In the same way, its so important that new believers begin to established spiritual disciplines so that they can begin to spiritually care for themselves.
This involves cultivating good patterns of living.
Church attendance
Bible reading
Seeking deeper knowledge for themselves (spiritual hunger)
Finally,
New believers must learn how to live a cleansed life.
New believers must learn how to live a cleansed life.
Another major milestone in child development is hygiene. Keeping themselves clean and cleaning up after themselves.
New believers, like all of us, will occasionally make a mess.
We all struggle against sin.
Sin can be devastating to new faith and become a cause for a lot of doubt.
New Believers must learn how to live as Christians.
Sin isn’t the end of our salvation.
Its an opportunity for redemption.
When we sin, we deal with it by confessing it, receiving forgiveness, and recommitting to personal holiness.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
What can we do to effectively minister to new believers?
For the parents in this room, this very well may include your children.
Principles for Ministering to New Believers
Principles for Ministering to New Believers
Urgency and immediacy is required
Urgency and immediacy is required
Without immediate nurture, new believers will struggle and in many cases, they won’t survive.
The may become like the seed scattered in rocky soil Matthew 13:5-6
5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil,
6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.
They need investment and encouragement above all, and they need it right now.
The enemy will want to quench this new found faith and will bring attacks immediately.
We must give personalized attention to the basics of Christian living.
We must give personalized attention to the basics of Christian living.
We need to stick close to them as they grow through those initial stages.
Celebrating the victories and showing care and compassion through the stumbles.
Take an interest in bringing them along for the ride and teaching them by example.
Invite them to a Bible Study or small group.
Pray with them and for them regularly.
Bring them to church and help them get involved in the church community.
Everyone’s different.
Different struggles.
Different strengths.
Different weaknesses.
C.S. Lewis’s great and terrifying work The Screwtape Letters speaks presciently about the dangers faced by new believers.
In it, a demon named Screwtape supervises his nephew Wormwood as he tempts his target.
Lewis uses this medium to comment upon the trials of a new believer, and Screwtape advises the use of distraction as the surest way for the target to be kept from making further strides in his walk.
Distraction and disinterest will hamstring young Christians, and intentionality on the part of mature brothers and sisters will be the cure.
We must not forget the importance of our identity.
We must not forget the importance of our identity.
We never outgrow the gospel.
The minute we begin to forget that we belong to Christ is the minute we begin falling away.
30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
These truths will protect us against a great many lies.
Spiritual children need a family.
Spiritual children need a family.
Church membership is not optional by God’s design.
The church is the family of God.
Family is where values are taught.
Family is where we experience unconditional love
In the church, we have spiritual fathers and mothers.
We also have uncles and aunts, big brothers and big sisters, and grandfathers and grand mothers.
Everyone has a role to play.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Paul provides two excellent encouragements to his disciples, Timothy and Titus, which will serve as exhortation for us about how to build up each other in the faith.
1 Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers,
2 older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.
2 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.
3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,
4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children,
5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
6 Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.
7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity,
8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.
We are all a part of God’s work in demonstrating his righteousness in the world.
By building up the young believers among us, we contribute to God’s victory over the enemy.
Let us take up this responsibility with the sure hope that we will all grow into the fullness of God’s grace towards us in Jesus Christ.
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,
15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
