Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

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.