« The Provocative Church-Evangelistic Community (6 of 6) | Home | The Provocative Church-The Gospel And The Kingdom (4 of 6) »

The Provocative Church-Making Provocative Disciples (5 of 6)

By Charlie Vensel | June 14, 2008

NOTE: This Sermon Series is based on Graham Tomlin’s Book, The Provocative Church, and a sermon series done by Rev. John Holland at New Covenant Anglican Church in Oviedo, FL.

Last week we saw that the gospel is the good news that, “Jesus is Lord.” It is the royal announcement of a story; the story of how Jesus of Nazareth has ushered in the kingdom of God, of how he has become the world’s true king through his life, death, resurrection and ascension. Jesus himself made this announcement both in words and in deeds. His actions and message provoke responses, and they formed a community. And, whenever the good news of his story is told, responses are provoked and communities are formed.

But how…how does the gospel create a provocative church? This morning, in the fifth of our six-week series, we turn our attention to this question.

Let us pray…

A woman is running a few minutes late for the midweek Bible study she attends at her church. When she arrives, she rushes to the room where the study meets and quietly takes a seat. Once she gathers herself and looks around the circle of faces, she notices that everyone is new. How is it that she is the only regular member of her group here tonight?

Within moments, she realizes she has come to church on the wrong night and that instead of a Kay Arthur group, she has happened upon the local chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous. Too embarrassed to leave, she stays and observes the meeting. What she finds astounds her.

In this group there is a level of honesty, an admission of failure, a celebration of success, a shared struggle toward a common goal and a deep passion for change that she has never really seen before. It makes her wish that the church were more like this…that her circle of friends was more like this. Some of these folks’ lives are in a mess. Some of the members of the group have changed their lives completely, but know they have to keep it up. Most are committed to a new vision of their lives and to doing whatever they must to get there.

Alcoholics Anonymous is, in many respects, an excellent example of discipleship and of a community formed around a shared story…freedom from addiction into sobriety. And in fact, the church should be more like AA in a number of ways. We have a story, the story in fact, that changes lives and forms a deeply attractive community…freedom from slavery into dignity; deliverance from sin and death into life. The gospel makes provocative disciples. And it all begins with believing the good news.

I was converted on an Alpha Course in a very traditional, old-gaurd type of church. It was a radical conversion; Alpha is kind of famous for those. Those of us who fancied ourselves evangelicals among the cradle-Episcopalian crowd, loved to share testimonies, the stories of how a person came to faith in Jesus. The best testimonies, of course, were the ones full of sin, a volcanic moment of repentance and faith that left saying, “I’ve never been the same since.”

I think those who didn’t have stories filled with sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, felt a little left out, as their stories just didn’t stack up to the rest. I think, no, I know we were guilty of thinking that to have a valid conversion, you needed a crisis conversion: Paul’s Damascus road (how I’ve often described my own conversion), or Luther’s lightening storm, or Wesley’s “heart strangely warmed.”

The language and stories of the Bible seem to reinforce the notion of the crisis conversion. You’re either dead in your sins or alive to righteousness. You’re either walking in the dark or a child of light. You’ve either been born again or you haven’t. And until you’ve been born again, you haven’t entered the kingdom.

Supposedly, we all need our personal Pentecost, our own Damascus road experience, the Ethiopian eunuch’s desire for baptism. Without a crisis of decision, are you really a Christian yet? To put the question another way, is conversion a crisis, or could it be better understood as a process?

My wife grew up in the Baptist church; First Baptist Church of Montgomery, AL. She was there Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday night, youth events, choir, and prayer meetings. My father-in-law was a deacon; their life centered around church. She can’t remember a time that she didn’t hear about, and in some way, believe in Jesus. She made a profession of faith as an eight year-old, signed a card, and walked the aisle. Like many, things would be wrestled with a bit as she entered college, but the years between and after were filled with longing to know God’s love and trying to figure out if she’d follow Jesus and if so, how. For her, conversion felt a good deal more like a process, than one particular crisis moment.

Bob Dylan became a Christian in the late 1970s, and he entitled his first album after his conversion Slow Train Coming. That title suits her story well. In fact it fits for lots of folks. In the Anglican Communion, the 1990s were the decade of evangelism. During those years, the Church of England did a survey in Great Britain which found that 69% of new Christians said their conversion was a “gradual process” rather than a “sudden moment.”

If we had time to take a closer look at some of the classic conversion stories, such as St. Paul, the Ethiopian eunuch, Augustine, Luther or Wesley, we’d find that their crisis was preceded by a process too. The eunuch had been to Jerusalem to worship at a festival and was studying Isaiah. Augustine heard a voice telling him to “take up and read” Romans after months of listening to Bishop Ambrose preach in Milan.

Though I would point to the second week of the Alpha Course in September of 1998 as the defnining moment when, “I would never be the same,” I cannot discount the prayers over the years of friends and family, especially my wife. I cannot discount a profession of faith that I made at a seventh-grade youth group event with a friend, no matter how little it seemed to affect me then. I cannot discount the Lord’s providence in breaking me as a prideful, arrogant, stubborn, addictive-oriented man who needed no one but himself as a 30 year-old, failing salesman.

I cannot forget my friend Brad who greeted me on the steps of school one morning to say, “Charlie, you could use some churching up.” I cannot discount the years of frustrated “seeking” in illegitimate places (New Age Mysticism, Gurus, channels, mediums, and psychics). I cannot discount that I had been reading the Scriptures and praying (to what seemed like nothing, to make himself real) for a few months before I went on the Alpha Course. My conversion happened in the context of a lifetime of defining moments, and in the midst of some serious Christian investigation. With some time behind me, I too would say my conversion was more of a process than a defining moment.

But the best image of a process may be the one Jesus gave us in John 3. Our Lord told Nicodemus, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” (John 3:3 NIV) Although the Pharisee misunderstood the question, the analogy makes an essential point. Jesus used a word play, “born again” can also mean “born from above.” “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” (John 3:5 NIV)

It is surely right to see the Spirit’s work as maternal here (and I’m not saying God is a goddess or that the Holy Spirit is the mother of Christ-just that we see a maternal function here; this is analogy that I am using). Consider that birth is preceded by a nine month process of preparation for a mother and nine months of slow development for the baby. Of course there is the crisis of labor, but after the delivery is the gradual process of growth from infancy into adulthood. To see the kingdom of God, you must be born of the water and the Spirit.

For most people, especially in our post-Christian culture, it is best to see conversion (believing the gospel, coming into repentance, and exercising saving faith) as a process which includes critical moments that open up a life-long journey. Understanding conversion as a process deeply affects the way we see evangelism. The goal of our evangelistic work is not forcing someone into a decision, like a wrestler making the winning pin. Rather, the goal of evangelism is a conversation and invitation to belong that gives a person the opportunity to see the gospel at work.

When evangelism is a process, the goal is honest friendship, not manipulation. Not only is our goal different, but also our methods are different when evangelism is a slow train coming. We’re not like cell phone salesmen at the Southwest Plaza Mall kiosks, accosting innocent and unknown walkers with unwanted questions. In that world, “If you died tonight, do you know where’d spend eternity?” sounds an awful lot like, “Why are you not part of our nation wide network?” If you try to evangelize out of obligation, or to check off your holy score card, or for any other reason other than sincere and honest love for God, his kingdom vision, and with genuine love for your neighbor, they will see right through it and deem you a “cell-phone salesperson.” God has never called us to be salespeople. He called us to be holy as he is holy; to love as he loves.

Rather, evangelism is more like gardening. We till the soil. We fertilize. We water. We let the sun do its work. We wait for rain. We wait for growth. We trust what only God can do. So, how do you feel about friendship? Do you like honest conversation? Do you like well tilled earth and life giving water? Do you mind a little patience? If you answer those questions in the affirmative, then you’re the kind of person who will help others see the kingdom of God. If there is one gift that stands out above all others in this church, it is hospitality/fellowship. The kinds of relationships I’m talking about developing should come very natural and easily for us. In a sense, I’m not asking us to do anything we are not only capable of, but exceedingly well equiped to do by the gifting of the Holy Spirit.

But, I digress. Since conversion is the spiritual birthing process by which people enter the kingdom of God, by which they come under Jesus’ lordship, climaxing in repentance, faith and baptism, that means that evangelism and discipleship are organically related and essentially the same thing. Just as a new-born baby keeps right on growing, so the newly born from above Christian keeps right on growing. Evangelism leads to discipleship. Both have to do with the kingdom of God. Evangelism is calling people through action and word into the kingdom of God under Jesus’ lordship. And discipleship is learning to live in the kingdom of God under Jesus’ lordship. It is an expanding loop…the action of evangelism begs discipleship, discipleship then leads to the action of evangelism.

As one grows, so does the other each time it comes around. Having recently visited the Mexican Rodeo at the Denver Stock Show, I saw a chorro, a very gifted horseman skilled in all kinds of ranching tasks. I watched one of the chorros dazzle the crowd with his rope skills. He started, standing on his horse, with his lasso very tightly drawn and then the loop got larger and larger, such that he could raise it down to the ground around his horse, and then as high up into the air as his rope would allow, then broader and broader such that his wife and son could ride into the loop with him on their horses.

Evangelism and discipleship are like that loop. Think of the two as points opposite each other on the loop. As one point goes by, the next one follows. With each pass, the loop grows; one feeds the other, one always proceeds, then one follows, then the original point comes around again, only larger and stronger.

You’ll remember that last week we looked at two pictures from American military history, the D-day invasion and the Vietnam evacuation, as two very different images for the gospel. One of the problems with the evacuation model is the disconnect that can happen between evangelism and discipleship. When the good news is that Jesus wants to rescue us out of this world, then salvation is little more than life insurance and Christian life is little more than an addition we make to our lives. We build a small extra room onto our homes, a pretty little room where we have a quiet time and pray and gather once a week with others, but life in the rest of the house goes on as before. In that model, discipleship can be reduced to little more than telling others to acquire the life insurance policy.

But when we understand that Jesus came to lead an invasion, then it makes sense that the way we entered the kingdom is how we keep going. Evangelism is beginning a life under Jesus’ lordship; discipleship is learning to bring every single area of life under Jesus’ lordship. Individual Christians, and more powerfully the church, collectively model life under God’s rule, however imperfectly we do so. We pattern ourselves after Jesus, the man who gave himself wholly to God’s rule. We become like him; more human and godlier; the lasso loop gets larger and faster here too.

The early church fathers and councils insisted upon Jesus’ full divinity and full humanity. Defenders of the Creed, such as Athanasius, held to Jesus’ incarnation so tenaciously because they understood that to be fully human is to be godlike. To become more like God is to become more human; to live up to the image God created us in; to be all that we were meant to be. As we read in Genesis 1 this morning, humans are made in the image of God. We fell into sin and so degraded our humanity to the point of loosing it altogether in death. We cannot save ourselves; only God can restore our humanity. So God united himself to humanity in order to raise humanity back to the divine image.

As Peter expressed it in the epistle reading, we, “participate in the divine nature…” (2Peter 1:4 NIV) We add to our faith virtue, to our virtue knowledge, to our knowledge self-control, to our self-control endurance, to our endurance godliness, to our godliness family affection, to our family affection love. Being a Christian should make us more human and more like God. Think of the best people you know; they most likely are also the people you know most like God in their character, their hospitality, their work, their play and laughter, their lives. The church is the arena in which we learn to be human again, to be like Jesus and so be like God again.

So how are you doing? Are you more like Jesus? Are there areas that need to be submitted to his lordship? Like the folks in the AA group, are you being restored to sanity and the sobriety of Truth? Are you truly changing?

Holy Spirit, speak to your people and grant them the grace, the power to live the divine-human life of Jesus.

Such a life is, of course, profoundly and provocatively evangelistic, just as Jesus’ life was. Discipleship leads to evangelism. The more like Jesus we become, the more like true selves we become, the more attractive and provocative our lives become to those who don’t know our king. So…

• Are our hearts inflamed with love for the father as his?
• When you go to the office, is it as if Jesus showed up to do your job: his integrity, his work ethic, his humor with co-workers, his kindness to a person in need, and his generosity to a client?
• When you’re in the home, is it as if Jesus were the parent or the spouse; his affection, his laughter, his discipline, his thoughtfulness, his honesty, and his forgiveness?
• When you’re alone, is it as if Jesus were in solitude; his thoughts, his purity, his prayers, his viewing, and his imagination?
• When you’re in public, is it as if Jesus were there; his words, his dress, his schedule and calendar, his spending, his smile, his hands, his understanding, and his answers?

You see, friends, there is no disconnect between showing the gospel, sharing the gospel, and growing in the gospel. Evangelism, justice, mercy, holiness, discipleship, mission are all the same work, because being a Christian is all about life in God’s kingdom; life under Jesus’ lordship.

So if your life is not evangelistic, the problem lies in your discipleship. If you’re not demonstrating and declaring the gospel, if you’re not confessing Jesus is Lord in your actions and words, then the failure has to do with your humanity. Maybe you need healing from a church or a denomination that guilted, coerced, or manipulated you into a truncated approach to evangelism. Maybe you need to pray for the strengthening of your will to begin living a public, Christian life. Maybe you need to meditate on the loving heart of God that rescues the lost and enslaved. Maybe his love needs to come spilling out of you.

And in the end, it doesn’t depend on you alone. It depends on us as a community.

• What kind of community are we? A church? Or, the Church with a capital “C”?
• What is our church doing to form us into Christlikeness? Do you even know? Will you participae? Will you serve? Will you lead?
• Are we more human for belonging here, or less? Do we look more like the image of God and his design for humanity, or do we look more like a group of people rallying around a common cause with an obligatory weekly meeting?
• Is our church worth going to? Is a Sunday service enough to satisfy those consumed by the love of God, his vision, and his mission? Is it alone enough to sustain you in discipleship? Is it making your lasso loop larger?
• Is it worth asking others to come to? There are lots of church buildings and worship services, but there are not many places that can rightly be called the Church with a capital “C”. Which are we?
• However imperfectly, does this church sight the kingdom of God? Do our feet follow what we profess with our lips? When we say the Creed, does it stir up vision and passion, or conviction?
• Are we making the time, talent, and energy available towards becoming the Church, or are we offering up to God the crumbs of what is left of us from a very hectic, mundane, secular pattern of life? Have we justed added God to our lives on Sunday?
• Is there enough evidence here for what God has done in Jesus and will do in the future that the lost will find it irresistible?
• Will they find…do we find, a better way to be human here?

Folks, if we are to survive as a church, we must be willing to give a lot more energy to the work of the kingdom; in practical terms that means, service, participation, discipleship and study, community, evangelism, generosity, fellowship, hospitality, prayer and much, much more. And, we must remember also, God never called us to just survive, he called us to be the Church with a capital “C”; we serve a warrior God, and we are his soldiers. He never called me to be a private chaplain, but a priest in his kingdom. He never called you to be a church member, but a Christian soldier.

So, are you ready to storm the gates of hell? Are you ready to commit your way to the Lord so that he will act? Are you ready for a life of radical obedience and singleness of purpose? Are you ready to be all the Lord would have you be? Are you willing to do it in community? Are you ready to be a disciple?

If the Lord is speaking to you over these things, I encourage you to receive prayer in the back of the church during communion. Do not leave here today without settling something with God. Do not turn from conviction, but enter into repentance, seek the face of God, and recommit yourself now.

May God work in us a level of honesty, an admission of failure, a celebration of success, a shared struggle toward a common goal and a deep passion for change that many have never seen before, and for having seen it in us, may they see and enter the kingdom of God.

Let us pray…

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Topics: Uncategorized |

Comments