small groups

Christmas: A Message of Joy and Peace

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Few times throughout the year in NYC evoke a unified theme throughout this great metropolis. Such diversity that exists throughout our city provides a constant flow of variety. But it’s as a result of this rich diversity—certainly something to be celebrated—that the city experiences few events that impact almost everyone in the city. Even when hosting the Superbowl this past January, the city practically continued on like normal. But there are a few holidays and events that supersede much of this diversity. Memorializing 9/11 is certainly a somber example. On the other end of the spectrum, Halloween is basically a city-wide extravaganza—kids to adults of all ages.

One other holiday overtakes this city: Christmas.

Decorations have filled stores since just after Halloween. Midtown is covered in lights, trees, and ornaments. You can find Christmas trees for sale on practically every street corner. Everyone is brought into the cultural fervor around Christmas: Christians and non-Christians alike (although, there are certainly many who are celebrating other holidays this time of year).

As a result, we have a huge opportunity to easily bring the message of the Gospel into everyday conversations. Why?

The message of Christmas, the reason we celebrate, is a message of Joy and Peace.

The angels in Luke 2:8-21 clearly declare this message.

The message of a baby in a manger is one of eternal joy and peace. Sounds crazy, but it’s so true. When Jesus came his mission was to make a way out of the brokenness of this world, a way to reconciliation with our God, and thus, ultimately, a way to joy and satisfaction in God and who he made us to be.

He also came as a King to bring peace. He accomplished peace by the blood of the cross (see Ephesians 2:11-22). He made a way for peace between God and man and among humanity itself. He didn’t establish a political peace, but one day he will provide eternal and complete peace when he returns and makes all things new (Revelation 21).

During Christmas, everyone is talking about the holidays. People are talking about their traditions and asking others about theirs. We have an opportunity to share this message of joy and peace by asking simple questions that can spark conversations.. We can ask why Christmas is such a big deal? We can simply talk about our traditions and how Jesus is involved in those.

Take advantage of this season when people are connected to such a Christian event, and use conversations about Christmas as bridges to the Gospel.

Celebrating Christmas Well – Part II

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Christmas is an incredible time of year. The hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping starting on Black Friday (well, maybe even earlier than that now), the vast arrays of decorations on seemingly every street, the ice skating in Central Park, the temporary Christmas markets set up at Union Square and Columbus circle, all add up to create a magical feel in NYC at this time of year. OK, maybe magical is a bit too much, but I simply LOVE Christmastime in this city. There are so many great traditions, and millions throughout the nation and the world celebrate this great holiday, each culture with their own unique twist to the celebration.

But how do we celebrate Christmas well? Without succumbing to a culture of materialism and covetousness?

The key to doing this lies in allowing this entire season to bring us to meditation upon and celebration of an absolutely crucial aspect of the Gospel: the humanity of Christ. I believe this is often a portion of the Gospel that is tragically under appreciated. And what better time than Christmas to invigorate and renew a passion for this essential truth!

The New Testament is full of references to the humanity of Christ, emphasizing the importance of this to the Gospel. 1 Timothy 3:15b-16 makes this incredibly clear:

which is the church of the living God,
a pillar and buttress of the truth.
Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:

He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated in the Spirit,
seen by angels,
proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world,
taken up in glory.

Paul sets forth a summary of God’s redemptive plan for humanity, i.e. the Gospel. This is the truth that the Church is to uphold, and very prominently at the beginning of this confession, the humanity of Christ is highlighted. But why is this truth so important to the Gospel, and why are we as the church called to protect this truth?

The Gospel Coalition’s Statement of faith provides several reasons that the humanity of Christ is essential to include:
“1.Christ as our model of true humanity– We realize from this that we weren’t meant for sin. Humanity is sinful because we have fallen not simply because we are human. Humanity was meant for so much more than this fallen world, and we see the image of God in humanity untainted in the person of Jesus. Christ in his humanity is what we were meant to be like.
2.Christ’s representative obedience– In Romans 5:18-19, Paul compares Adam’s representative sin that caused all of humanity to fall with the representative of Christ which provided all of humanity with the hope of being made righteous through His obedience.
3.Christ as our substitutionary sacrifice– Jesus had to be made like us in order to take our place and bear the wrath of God toward our sins. (Hebrews 2:17)
4.Christ as our mediator– Paul emphasizes Christ’s humanity when he discusses His mediatory role in 1 Timothy 2:5. Christ can stand in the gap between humanity and the Father because he has both a human and divine nature.
5.Christ as our sympathetic high priest– Jesus has experienced the hardships of humanity. (Hebrews 4:15-16)
6.Christ as our true example of holy human conduct– In Christ’s life we see what a truly holy life looks like. (1 Peter 2:21)”

Each of these without the humanity of Christ is lost, thus we must realize not only the great responsibility we have in guarding this truth but also the beauty of this truth.

We see the splendor of this truth lead Paul to worship in the short hymn of Philippians 2:5-11:
Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus,

who existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God
as something to be used for his own advantage.
Instead He emptied himself
by assuming the form of a slave,
taking on the likeness of men.
And when he had come as a man in His external form,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient
 to the point of death—even death on a cross.
 For this reason God also highly exalted Him
 and gave Him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow—
of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth—
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Let us turn our celebrations and affections this Christmas season to this integral and beautiful aspect of the Gospel: the humanity of Christ. And let us, as His Church, defend this doctrine, for apart from this, the Gospel crumbles. If we are to redeem Christmas, we must simply celebrate the Gospel.

This doesn’t mean that we must toss out the cultural traditions, but instead, let us celebrate in such a way that our giving and receiving, family gatherings, and other traditions are expressions of our joy in Christ and in His grace, humility, and love that he showed by becoming human for our sake.

Displaying the Gospel

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Everyone reading this post is viewing it on some sort of computer screen. The millions or billions of images you can see on your computer is pretty amazing. They captivate our attention, and many of them stun us visually. These displays aren’t some magic mirror on the wall, but they are controlled by the computer code feeding into them.

Turn off the display, mask the code. It’s still present within the computer, but it’s effect on the outside world is limited.

Change the code, change the display. It’s that simple.

In a similar way, God has given us a code to be displayed. He has given us the Gospel: the good news that Jesus has lived, died, and rose again for our sake. We are to be displays for this Gospel.

If we do not display the Gospel by the way we live, then the message of the Gospel will be rendered ineffective. God has made us to be the conduits through which his message is spread throughout the world.

This week’s passage, 1 John 4:7-12, makes this perfectly clear.

God made his love known through Jesus’ love, and now we are called to be the displays of that love for the world around us.

In verse 12, John writes: “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”

Though, no one has ever seen God, one of the major ways we know and experience Him is through the love shown by fellow Christians. This can also be extended to the world around us. Those who don’t know the love of God can see and experience who God is when our love for one another is evident in our churches.

A major way the Gospel is communicated is through the love we display in our everyday lives.

In addition to this, as I said before, if you change the code in a computer, you change what is on the display. If we aren’t receiving this Gospel message on a daily basis by spending time in God’s Word, and if we aren’t communing with God regularly, then our lives will look differently. For instance, according to verses 7-8, those who know God will love others. There is a very specific characteristic that our lives will display if we are truly connected to God’s Word: Love.

But if we aren’t connected to God through the Gospel, we will not display the fruit of the Spirit, and so prove ourselves to not know God.

However, if we know God, but fail to dwell upon His great love in the Gospel, our lives will fail to display God’s good news for all of humanity.

So let us be plugged into His Word, and most importantly, let us love others that God’s Gospel might be rightly displayed through our lives.

Shaping & Sharing Your Story

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On Monday, we considered the power of story both in our culture today and in the story of Paul in Acts 26. I encouraged everyone to consider how you would share your own personal story in order to communicate the Gospel. But many of you may be at a loss as to how to share your story in a clear way.

So, here’s a resource from InterVarsity. This tool provides questions to spark your thinking about how to shape and share your story. It hits the same basic plot points that I discussed on Monday: life before Jesus, how you met Jesus, life with Jesus.

Check it out if you need help shaping your story, and pay close attention to their advice at the end: Keep your story short so it’s easy to tell. You can always expand on something when people ask questions.

 30 Minutes to a Shareable Testimony Worksheet

The Power of Stories

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Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime have all fed the binge-watching tv trend. Certainly, ease of access through online streaming has made binge-watching habits drastically higher, but this isn’t the only reason that so many of us devour show after show.

**I’m as guilty of this habit as anybody. My wife and I are about to finish the final season of 24 after having just started earlier this year.**

Another major reason is our culture’s obsession with stories. Postmodernity has led to a breakdown in the expectation for one overarching narrative that explains everything. In light of that, we emphasize and look for the truth we find in smaller, individualized stories. We wrestle with ideas of beauty, evil, truth, and the deepest questions of life through hearing stories from various mediums (TV, theater, music, etc.).

Stories are incredibly powerful, and our society is constantly searching for new stories to either give voice to their thoughts or bring understanding to the complexities of this world.

As Christians, we each have our own powerful story that communicates the greatest truth of all time: the Gospel—a story in itself.

Our personal story of our life before we met Jesus, our encounter with Jesus, and our transformed life after meeting him is one of the most potent tools for sharing the grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness of our God and Savior.

This week’s text—Acts 26—is just one of several examples throughout the book of Acts of Paul sharing the Gospel through his personal experience.

Like any good story, there are several clear plot points: 
     1. His life before Jesus
     2. His encounter with Jesus
     3. His life with Jesus
     4. His call to respond to the story

People are more often than not willing to hear out your personal story rather than a four point Gospel sermon. So take advantage of the power of your own personal story. Think through these points in your own life and shape how you share your story. Then share it with the same boldness and passion that Paul shared his in Acts 26.

Let the truth of the Gospel shine forth through your life to an unbelieving world.

The Living Dead

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We’re turning toward how we are called to sacrificially invest through strategic mission in evangelism—sharing the gospel. And we are beginning by considering just what that Gospel is. So we’re turning to one of the richest passages in Scripture to meditate upon that Gospel message.

The Living Dead (vv.1-3)
Zombies are in. From The Walking Dead to World War Z, we are obsessed with zombies. The idea of the living dead is not new to our society. Zombie movies have been made for decades now, but spiritually, this concept actually reflects a truth that is as old as the Scriptures.
What we find in Ephesians 2:1-10 is that we really are in one sense living dead. In our sin, that is rebellion against God’s good intentions, we are living and breathing and acting in this world, but we are spiritually, relationally, and emotionally broken, more than that, truly dead.

The Disease
It’s not Ebola, nor is it some other virus or biological weapon of most zombie movies, but the disease we are infected with is sin, a rebellion against God and a brokenness in our humanity.
Because of this sin, we don’t flourish as God intends. Instead, we follow the “passions of our flesh.” We are “carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.” Rather than God’s beautiful desires for abundant life, we pursue base, sinful subhuman desires, and we continue in that path as long as we are left on our own.

The Consequences
So, Paul says, we’re children of wrath, which means we have a coming inheritance of wrath from God. As a result of choosing sin and evil, we deserve just punishment from a righteous God. We deserve justice and death.

Again, we’re dead men walking. We are stuck in this pattern apart from intervention. We won’t suddenly snap out of it. We can’t suddenly revive ourselves and avoid the just punishment from our righteous God. We are in desperate need of an outside intervention. And in verse 4, “But God” signifies the beginning of that intervention. The human condition is dire, BUT there is more to the story of the Gospel.

God Gave True Life (vv. 4-9)
Immeasurable Grace
God has intervened because the richness of his mercy and “the great love with which he loved us.” He did not leave us without hope in our horrid condition. Through Jesus, he shows “the immeasurable riches of his grace.” The work of Jesus that this passage refers to is the death he experienced on the cross. He took our disease—our sin—and death—our consequence—upon himself. He made us a way to exchange our inheritance of wrath for his inheritance: abundant, eternal life.

 Through faith not works
Paul makes it really clear that this life we receive has no connection to our works. It’s totally a gift by the work of Jesus. We simply receive this immeasurable grace and life by trusting (having faith) in God and his ability to bring new life.

We’re Alive for a Purpose (v. 10)
Glorifying God by Doing Good
The good news of the Gospel doesn’t just end once we are rescued from death by God’s immeasurable love and grace. In fact, it leads us and empowers us to live truly human lives. God saves us glorify Him by doing good works. This is what we were created for, and now we are freed from the disease of sin to actually live our God intended purpose: experiencing and spreading true abundant life.

Have you trusted in God for true, abundant life, or are you still trusting in yourself and settling for a life far from God’s beautiful intention? Trust Him today. (If you have questions, feel free to message me about any of this.)

Have you been trusting in Him but not enjoying the full riches of this new life because you’ve missed that God saved you for a purpose? Consider how God is calling you to use your freedom and life in Christ to glorifying Him by doing good in the world.

Implementing Intentional Discipleship

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Gospel-centered discipleship has been the theme for the past several weeks. We’ve seen how much of our discipleship is off balanced.

But now, we’ve got to ask, “How do we actually do this discipleship thing?”

Intentionality is key in consistent growth as disciples, and without some tangible, practical handles for implementing discipleship, we will never get around to consistent growth and maturity in our faith. And we as a church have committed to sacrificially invest through intentional discipleship for the fame of Jesus.

In the final chapter of Jonathan Dodson’s Fight Clubs, he provides a few simple, practical tools for intentional discipleship. His model is Biblical, effective, and easily reproducible, which is why we have adopted this as the basic structure of how we are going to pursue intentional discipleship.

So what are these basics?

1. Three Objectives: “Know Your Sin, Fight Your Sin, and Trust Your Savior.”

First, we must work to know our sin, our struggles. We’ve got to examine our hearts and allow others to examine our hearts. What are our sins? What are the circumstances and triggers for our sin? What lies are we believing?

Second, we must be committed to fighting our sin. We do this in the power of the Spirit and by the grace of God, but we must fight.

Third, we must turn from the lies we’ve identified and the sins we are committing as a result, and we must trust our Savior. Identify the promises that Jesus gives us in the Scriptures to counter the lies we are believing. An example of this from Fight Clubs:

“Instead of sexual lust, choose purity of heart: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.’ God is eternally satisfying; lust is fleeting.”

Fighting sinful lies with the promises of God is the kind of fight we are called to in discipleship.

2. Two People: A discipleship group consists of at least two people, but no more than three, who meet together regularly for the sake of intentional times of discipleship.

*Discipleship is not limited to the meeting times and is, in fact, enhanced by living life together in general. But without these regular meetings, intentionality will be lost.

3. One Process: “Text-Theology-Life”

Let Scripture guide your time together, for it’s the one source of truth and life that we can count on. Begin with the text. Study the same Scripture passage and discuss it when you get together. Begin with this to avoid spending all your time catching up. Share how God has been teaching you through this passage.

Next, discuss theology. All this means is talk about what this passage teaches about God and his promises. Dodson suggests asking this question: “How does the person and work of Jesus inform this text?”

Finally, connect this to Life: How do these truths help you to “know your sin, fight your sin, and trust your savior.” Dig into each other’s lives, struggles, and victories. Apply the truths of Scripture to your lives.

**These basics are a summary of chapter five of Jonathan Dodson’s Fight Clubs**

Imagine what God would do through us if we pursue sacrificial investment through intentional discipleship like this. Imagine the fruit he would produce within us as we grow in the grace of the gospel. 

Imagine how God could then multiply these groups if we pour into a couple of men or women for a season and then call them to go and do the same.

If just five of us commit to do that, then ten others would be intentionally discipled. Then, after a semester or year, they begin to pour into others intentionally in the same way. Suddenly there are 45 people in intentional discipleship relationships. Do that one more time, and you have 135 people pointing each other to the gospel on a regular basis. Imagine what God could do with an entire church committed to this!

Let us be a people that sacrificially invest through intentional discipleship so that God would multiply it for His fame and our good.

The Missing Connection: Discipleship & Church Membership

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Most people see little, if any, connection between discipleship and church membership. Yet as we are reading through Fight Clubs, Jonathan Dodson brings the essential nature of the church to bear upon discipleship. Unfortunately, as Dodson points out, “The gospel has been reduced to a personal ticket to glory. But the biblical gospel is much more than personal conversion or a heavenly reservation. The Gospel has two more ‘thirds.’ The Gospel calls us into community and onto mission in Jesus” (39). Thus growing in the gospel, i.e. discipleship, must be connected to growing in one’s relationship to the church. Dodson declares, “As the church, we are called to live, grow, and fight together for belief in the gospel and obedience to Christ” (41). Connecting and living life with a specific local church is essential to experience the totality of this reality. Thus church membership is vital for discipleship.

But maybe that is too quick of a jump for some. Maybe you object that church membership isn’t necessary as long as you’re connected to a community of believers. However, I would seriously disagree. Church membership isn’t simply getting your name on a role, and certainly, one’s salvation isn’t contingent upon it. Additionally, when Christ saves a person, he or she is already made part of the universal church, the people of God, throughout history. But church membership is about a commitment with a specific group of Christians. This commitment is a covenant modeled off God’s gracious, unending covenant with us. It’s a covenant to “live, grow, and fight together for belief in the gospel and obedience to Christ,” and to not give up on one another when the going gets tough. Church membership is a commitment to live out the “one another’s” of the New Testament toward specific people—even when that may not be returned.

The One Another’s

These “one another’s” refer to 50+ passages that define how the church is to “live, grow, and fight” with one another. Here’s a compiled list:

“Love one another: John 13:34-35; 15:12, 17; Romans 12:10; 13:8; 14:13; 1 Thessalonians 3:12; 4:9; 2 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:11, 3:22; 4:8; 23; 4:7, 11-12; 2 John 1: 5
Serve one another: Galatians 5:13; 21; Philippians 2:3; 1 Peter 4:9; 5:5
Accept one another: Romans 15:7, 14
Strengthen one another: Romans 14:19
Help one another: Hebrews 3:13; 10:24
Encourage one another: Romans 14:19; 15:14; Colossians 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 3:13; 10:24-25
Care for one another: Galatians 6:2
Forgive one another: Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13
Submit to one another: Ephesians 5:21; 1 Peter 5:5
Commit to one another: 1 John 3:16
Build trust with one another: 1 John 1:7
Be devoted to one another: Romans 12:10
Be patient with one another: Ephesians 4:2; Colossians 3:13
Be interested in one another: Philippians 2:4
Be accountable to one another: Ephesians 5:21
Confess to one another: James 5:16
Live in harmony with one another: Romans 12:16
Do not be conceited to one another: Romans 13:8
Do not pass judgment to one another: Romans 14:13; 15:7
Do not slander one another: James 4:11
Instruct one another: Romans 16:16
Greet one another: Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 1:10; 2 Corinthians 13:12
Admonish one another: Romans 5:14; Colossians 3:16
Spur one another on toward love and good deeds:  Hebrews 10:24
Meet with one another: Hebrews 10:25
Agree with one another: 1 Corinthians 16:20
Be concerned for one another: Hebrews 10:24
Be humble to one another in love: Ephesians 4:2
Be compassionate to one another: Ephesians 4:32
Do not be consumed by one another Galatians 5:14-15
Do not anger one another: Galatians 5:26
Do not lie to one another: Colossians 3:9
Do not grumble to one another: James 5:9
Give preference to one another: Romans 12:10
Be at peace with one another: Romans 12:18
Sing to one another: Ephesians 5:19
Be of the same mind to one another: Romans 12:16; 15:5
Comfort one another: 1 Thessalonians 4:18; 5:11
Be kind to one another: Ephesians 4:32
Live in peace with one another: 1 Thessalonians 5:13
Carry one another’s burdens: Galatians 6:2”
– Into Thy Word Ministries, http://www.intothyword.org

Many of these are impossible to live out in loose, general connection with other Christians but must be lived out through the covenant of church membership.

The covenant of church membership is a grace of God for reminding us of how essential and serious our commitment to one another in a local church is. When times are good, it’s easy to love others and live these out, but our covenant spurs us to do so even when it’s not reciprocated (modeling God’s one-way love for us).

Discipleship—growing in the gospel—is tightly connected with the covenant of church membership, for we will only grow in the fullness of the gospel has we experience the totality of Gospel-centered community life in a local church.

Avoiding License in Discipleship

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Many of us have come for moralistic/legalistic backgrounds. Sunday school lessons were often focused upon the rules we’re meant to obey rather than the grace we’re meant to rely upon. As a result, many of us have swung toward the other end of the spectrum in order to avoid the strict self-righteousness that characterizes the legalism we grew up around. The problem is the other end of the spectrum is license, another deadly peril.

The glorious news of the Gospel is that Jesus has made us righteous and holy based upon grace rather than upon anything we can do. Yet, just because we’ve been saved by grace and we cannot earn God’s favor on our own, we aren’t to continue in sin. But the temptation toward license is the idea that we are free to live as we please since grace will always cover us.

The attitude of license completely undermines discipleship.

Paul directly battled this attitude in Romans 6:1-4.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

We are to embrace grace and allow that to joyfully lead us to the pursuit of holiness both toward God and man. We’ve been freed not to lazily pursue whatever desires our flesh produces because grace covers those sins, but we’ve been freed from sin and the flesh to pursue holiness for the glory of God (Romans 6:19).

Avoid both legalism and license. And pursue holiness for the glory of God and the good of man by trusting in grace and not yourself.

A Pattern of Prayer

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Prayer is not a practice that comes naturally. It didn’t for Jesus’ disciples, so why should we expect it to be so for us?

I’ve only been married for a little over a year, but one thing I’ve learned is that communication is going to be a lifelong learning process. I wasn’t born an expert at it and neither was my wife. We are constantly learning more about how to express ourselves fully to one another. One helpful tool for developing relational intimacy in marriage is learning to ask good questions in all areas of life. We did some of this when we went through premarital counseling, and it’s helpful to come back to those questions to make sure we are continuing to get to know each other more and more all the time. These questions don’t dry up our relationship, but instead, they breathe life into often ignored or forgotten areas of our relationship.

The same holds true for our conversations with God i.e. prayer. Reminders and guides aren’t meant to make our prayers rote, but instead, they have the potential to expand our knowledge of and relationship with God. And this expansion won’t happen naturally. We must learn and cultivate it.

This is why Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them to pray, and as a result, Jesus provided us with the ultimate pattern for prayer and growing our conversations with God:

Father, hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.

-Luke 11:2-4

Jesus isn’t simply giving us the exact words we should pray over and over again. Rather, Jesus is giving us a pattern. He is providing a guide to remind us to address every aspect of our relationship with God in prayer. He points to at least three different aspects of prayer in this passage:

  1. Adoration – “Father, hallowed be your name.” This phrase is an acknowledgement and praise of God’s holiness.
  2. Confession – “Forgive us our sins.” This phrase is a moment of authenticity before God and a turning toward Him.
  3. Reliance & Request – “Give us each day our daily bread… And lead us not into temptation.” These two phrases highlight our deep reliance upon God and the humble requests for physical and spiritual provision from him.

Don’t expect to grow in your relationship with God apart from developing a holistic rhythm of communication with God. Commit to involving at least these three aspects in your prayer on a daily basis.

Let’s devote ourselves to prayer by modeling our communication on Jesus’ guide for prayer.