Serve Community [outward discipleship]

simple. • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago • Presented 5 years ago • 31:08

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Looking to the immediate needs of serving our local community is not about jumping onto more projects, it is about mediating the presence of Jesus into the lives of others.

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Today wraps up a three-week series on simple discipleship. I’ve said it the last two weeks; I’m going to repeat it one more time this morning. When we say simple, we don’t necessarily mean easy. Because we have noted that Jesus never said following him would always be easy. So, when we talk about a path of discipleship that is simple, what we mean in clear and understandable. Following Jesus ought to be something that makes sense to everybody; that’s simple discipleship.

Follow along with a quick recap of the last two weeks. Review is good because I think it is so important for us to all have a clear understanding of what it means for us to be disciples of Jesus following God here together at this church.

Discipleship Directions

In this church we talk about our mission using three specific actions: love, grow, and serve. And I talk about that in the framework of three directions: up, in, and out. Our mission as disciples filters into those three categories.

Two weeks ago we talked about upward discipleship with the mission of loving God. The one action point I gave is to regularly read scripture. In order to love God, we need to know God. And in order to know God as he has lovingly revealed himself, we need to be people who are firmly rooted in the Word of God.

Last week we talked about inward discipleship with the mission of growing relationships. The action point there is one of maintaining community among believers. The word there was accountability. It is not just that I have membership and belong to a church, it is not just that I show up. But we are people who make ourselves accountable to others, and we carry this responsibility together so that we can hold one another up. Those are the kinds of relationships we want to grow as part of our mission follow God in discipleship.

Now today we tie it all together by looking at outward discipleship with a mission of serving our community. Let’s crack this one open by considering this parable of Jesus.

Matthew 25:31–46 NIV

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ 46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

A story here from Jesus in Matthew’s gospel. Let me take just a quick moment to set a context around this passage so we understand what we are looking at today. The gospel of Matthew is separated into five separate teaching sections. This parable is the last story in the fifth teaching section in Matthew. The parables immediately before this one are stories that all illustrate the need for God’s people to be ready for his return and the fulfilment of his kingdom. They are stories about readiness. But this final parable about the sheep and the goats takes the theme of readiness one step further. In this story Jesus not only illustrates his return, but also gives a clue as to what kingdom readiness looks like. In other words, Jesus illustrates for us something about the kind of discipleship activity focused on anticipation of God’s kingdom restoration. Do you catch that? Discipleship activity that anticipates the restoration of God’s kingdom. The kind of action that followers of Jesus engage which—even now—presses into the kind of shalom flourishing that God will bring to completion when Christ returns and makes all things new. We see a glimpse of this activity here in this parable today.

There are a few things we can draw from this parable that clarify what it means for us to serve our community as the action of our outward discipleship. First, we see that serving community is an action that involves serving the real-life physical needs of others. Sharing the message of the gospel and sharing words of encouragement always go hand-in-hand with sharing real-life help.

Some of you know how our denomination—the Christian Reformed Church—does this. In the CRC we have two agencies that work together here in this country and around the world. We have Resonate, and we have World Renew. Resonate is our agency that develops and supports missionaries locally and globally. These are opportunities to volunteer in ways that teach people about Jesus. Resonate is an agency that organizes and sends people to share the gospel. World Renew is our agency that seeks to bring relief to people who are struggling. World Renew helps communities in poverty by bringing food and developing sustainable agriculture, by bringing water and digging clean wells. World Renew goes into communities locally and globally that have been hit by disaster, helping people to repair or rebuild their homes. In this way, the ministries of Resonate and World Renew work hand-in-hand to bring the gospel message of Jesus along with serving the real physical needs of communities.

Jesus did this all the time. Jesus taught crowds of people and shared the gospel message of grace, forgiveness, and peace. Jesus gave people hope by opening up the scriptures and ushering in the new covenant. And right along with that, Jesus helped people and provided relief for people in their real-world physical needs. He healed the sick and provided food for the hungry. He demonstrated that serving community was an activity which combined a message of hope along with actions of hope.

Our outward discipleship takes shape in the actions of serving the needs of our community. This is an act of discipleship that begins with intentional awareness towards the needs of those in our local community. It forces us to address what action of serving in ways that avoid pitfalls. What kind of pitfalls am I talking about? Remember the parable that Jesus told about the Good Samaritan. Jesus called out the religious leaders of his day for picking and choosing the recipients of their service, and avoiding service to the one in need.

Sometimes we struggle with that as well. I can check off the box of serving community if I find the people that are most comfortable or convenient for me to serve. But I should begin my act of serving community by identifying the needs of others right in front of me—regardless of comfort or convenience. Or perhaps our lives have gotten so busy that we look right over those in need because we are in too much of a rush to even notice as we speed on by. That’s the first thing we notice about serving community in this parable.

The second thing we notice is this: when we serve the needs of community, we are serving Jesus. Jesus makes it clear in this parable about sheep and goats that when we do, in fact, pay attention to the real-world needs of other people right in front of us, and when we do, in fact, use our blessings and our abilities to do something about serving the needs of our community, that we are, in fact, serving Jesus himself. The way in which Jesus tells the parable, the people who are invited to share the inheritance of the king are genuinely surprised to hear this. They themselves seemed completely unaware that their actions of serving the needs of their community were at the same time received as service to their king.

Outward Discipleship

Let’s put this into something practical for an action of outward discipleship. Doing nice and kind favors to serve the needs of others is a great start. But how is that discipleship? How are actions of serving the needs of others part of following God? Because all kinds of people out in our world do nice things to serve the needs of local community—and not all of those people are Christians. So, how is our act of serving others different?

Here is where the triangle of discipleship directions starts to come together. Jesus illustrates in this parable that when we serve the needs of others, we are at the same time serving him. There is a connection, then, between serving Jesus and serving community. This is a connection that runs in both directions. Because when we—as disciples—share our love with others by serving the needs of community around us, it is also a sharing of God’s love—through us—for other people. Catch this: our service to the needs of our local community is an extension of God’s grace into the lives of others.

So how do we, as disciples of Jesus, maximize this service to others as an action of outward discipleship? How is our service to others more than just an attempt to provide social justice? Maybe it’s helpful to frame the question this way. How does our act of outward discipleship intertwine with our acts of upward discipleship and our acts of inward discipleship?

Pick one household

Let me give a roadmap for a place to begin. This is a framework for outward discipleship that opens the way for including upward and inward discipleship. It is an opening to serving others which also pulls in loving God and growing relationships. The church has historically had a name for this kind of outward discipleship. We call it evangelism. That’s a word that might be scary to some people. Maybe the thought of evangelism is a bit overwhelming because you think only those who have been professionally trained can do it well. Or maybe you think only certain personalities of high energy outgoing people can do evangelism. We can be pretty quick to find excuses for why evangelism just isn’t for me. But it is. Outward discipleship is an essential direction along with upward and inward, and it cannot be ignored. And here’s the best part, anyone can do it. Let me give you a place to begin.

It starts here. Pick one household. I use the term household because I want you to possibly think beyond just one person. This might be a coworker, it might be another student in class, maybe someone on my rec league sports team, maybe someone I see regularly at the gym, maybe someone who lives on my block or down the hall in my apartment building. Just pick one household of someone disconnected from a church and where you see a need that can be served. Don’t wait passively for someone else’s need to drop into your lap, make an intentional decision right now to pick one household of someone you know of who is disconnected from a church. It starts there.

Pray for opportunity

Next step. Pray for opportunity. Start regularly bringing the person (or people) of this one household before God in prayer. Particularly, be praying for an opportunity to surface in which you can serve the needs of this household. You’re not knocking on doors telling people about Jesus (yet). You’re just praying for an opening to get into this person’s life in a way that can help. That’s all.

When I did this in Denver with a household on my block, it was a prayer that had to be regularly repeated for more than a year. You pray for an opportunity, but it might not happen overnight. But don’t let that discourage you. Be persistent and keep praying.

Pursue relationship

Third step. Pursue relationship. However God answers that prayer for an opportunity to serve the needs of someone else in my community, take that as an onramp for a relationship. I’ve said this before about serving others; nobody wants to be treated as a project, they want to be acknowledged as a person. So look for ways to bridge your actions of service into moments of relationship. Pursuing relationship communicates something. It tells someone else that they matter to you. In pursuing a relationship, I open the door for sharing to someone else that God loves them and that they matter to God, and because I love God, they matter to me too.

It all starts by picking one household and praying for opportunity. Anyone can do that. Everyone here can do that. But it starts here. It starts by pushing through the tendency you might have to take a pass and leave outward discipleship for someone else. But here’s the thing, when we do that, we short-circuit the other discipleship directions; upward and inward.

1 + 1 + 1 = disciple

I know I’ve talked about this before when preaching the series on loving our neighbors. But it’s good to review and remember this. We don’t do any favors when we convince ourselves that two out of three is good enough. Upward discipleship all by itself is nothing more than intellectual spiritualism. Inward discipleship all by itself is nothing more than a social club, a clique of closed circles. And outward discipleship all by itself is nothing more than an attempt at social justice.

None of these things by themselves are discipleship. Any combination of two out of three is still not discipleship. Only a balance of all three makes a spiritually healthy follower of Jesus. God has provided for us all that we need to follow him. He has freed us from the guilt of our sin and brokenness so that we can be free to live as his disciples, as those who follow Jesus in gratitude.

God himself has provided all we need to follow him. He has revealed himself to us through his Word so that we can know God and love God. He has established his church as the place in which we grow relationships of accountability to hold one another up in faith. And he has placed before us opportunities to meet the needs of those in our local community so that we can share God’s love and grace with those who may be disconnected from fully living a new life in him.

Let God put it all together in your path of discipleship here in this place. If you have never done so already in your life, accept the free gift of grace and forgiveness provided by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. And after that, if you have not done so already, be a disciple who loves God by firmly rooting yourself in the Word of God; be a disciple who grows in relationships by finding accountability with others in his Church to hold one another up in faith, and be a disciple who serves community by picking one household, praying for opportunity, and pursuing relationship. Let God do those things through you.

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