DISCIPLESHIP
TR INING
GOSPEL
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COMMUNITY
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MISSION
10 WEEK DISCIPLESHIP TRAINING
10 WEEK DISCIPLESHIP TRAINING GOSPEL | COMMUNITY | MISSION
OVERVIEW WEEK 1 | INTRODUCTION & CONTENT Purpose & Overview Commitment CONVERSATION The Story of God What is Your Story? GOSPEL WEEK 2 | THE GOSPEL IS GOD’S STORY Knowing Our Core Principle Content: The Story of God is the Gospel WEEK 3 | THE GOSPEL & MY STORY Being Our Core Identity Content: The Gospel is Personal WEEK 4 | THE GOSPEL & OUR STORY Doing Our Core Practice Content: Discipleship COMMUNITY WEEK 5 | COMMUNITY IS GOD’S STORY Knowing Our Core Principle Content: The Story of God is About Community WEEK 6 | COMMUNITY & MY STORY Being Our Core Identity Content: A Renewed Identity WEEK 7 | COMMUNITY & OUR STORY Doing Our Core Practice Content: A Renewed Responsibility MISSION WEEK 8 | MISSION IS GOD’S STORY Knowing Our Core Principle Content: The Story of God is His Mission WEEK 9 | MISSION & MY STORY Being Our Core Identity Content: Servants & Witnesses WEEK 10 | MISSION IS OUR STORY Doing Our Core Practice Content: Good News & Good Deeds
INTRO&
CONTENT WEEK 1
WEEK 1 | INTRODUCTION & CONTENT PURPOSE & OVERVIEW Thank you for joining in this 10-Week Discipleship process. The intent of theses 10 weeks is not to be the answer to discipleship but to be a tool for discipleship. Discipleship is the act of walking together and the art of imitation (1 Cor 4:16; 11:1; Eph 5:1; Phil 3:17; 1 Thess 1:6; 2:14; 2 Tim 3:10; Heb 6:12). You’ll be involved in good and thoughtful study of the Bible along with open and honest sharing of life. The old adage, ‘better caught than taught’ is at the heart of real discipleship. So, use this time to encourage each other and set honest and open examples for each other. The truth is, the three of you will be discipled by Jesus over these next 10 weeks. The 10-Week Discipleship content covers TrinityWS’s Core Vision: The Whole Church (Community), Taking the Whole Gospel (Gospel), to All of Life (Mission). Gospel, Community and Mission will each have a 3-week segment. And each 3-week section will unpack our Core Principle (knowing), our Core Identity (being) and our Core Practices (doing). You’ll see how God’s Story informs our Core Principles, which then defines our Core Identity with the result of empowering our Core Practices. Each week also has a repeating pattern of, Content, Conversation Quotations, Questions and Assignment. Content –The biblical foundation for that week (read together these scripture, as time allows) Conversation Quotes –Other voices speaking into yourconversation Questions –These will help focus discussion as you draw things to a conclusion Assignment –Homework, a practical application based on the content of that week
At the start of each week’s gathering, allow some time to talk about the previous week’s Assignment and any additional thoughts about the previous week’s content. Commitment Please clarify and confirm the commitment that each of you upon completion of these 10 weeks will invite 2 men to join you as you walk with them through the material.
CONVERSATION The Story of God This is just a preliminary ‘walk through’ the Story of God. It’s an opportunity to gage if you’re just slightly aware of it, familiar with it or even confident with knowing it. This conversation will help guide the discussions in the weeks ahead, since the Story of God is visited in each of the 3 sections. What is Your Story? You should spend most of your time here. Each of you should share how you came to the Lord, how you came to TWS and how you have the career you have.
ASSIGNMENT Pray for one another during the week. Use this as a starting point and hopefully an encouragement to begin to engage in one another’s lives.
SECTION 1 | GOSPEL
WEEK 2
KNOWING OUR CORE PRINCIPLE The Gospel is both the proclamation of the Word and the Person who is the Word. God speaks creation into existence. He speaks His plan, His judgement, His promise, His Law and His redemption. And then, at the right time, His Word becomes flesh and dwells with man. God’s Word informs us who He is and who we are. It is His Word (Gospel) by which we ‘know’ our Core Principles.’ The Gospel is King Jesus. And the Word of God displays the preeminence of King Jesus on every page (Luke 24:27).
WEEK 2 | THE GOSPEL IS GOD’S STORY CONTENT /
The Story of God is the Gospel The content this week is to help the men begin to capture the breadth and depth of God’s Word from Creation to Revelation. God creates so that mankind can enter into the fellowship (community) of the Godhead. The Fall breaks that possibility, yet God pursues His plan for restoration (mankind and all of creation) which ends in God accomplishing His original intention (Gen. 1, 2) which is to dwell with His people in a place of His (re)creation (Rev. 21, 22). Creation The Creation is the result of The Word “Let there be...” light (Genesis 1:1-3) The Fall The Fall is the result of rejecting the Word “did God really say...” rule (Genesis 3:1, 4) Redemption The Promise Redemption is the result of a Promise (a Word)...blessed to be a blessing to the whole world... (Genesis 12:1-3) The People; God declares a people for His own possession... (Exodus 19:6 & 1 Peter 2:9-10) The Redemption comes as the Word...(John 1:1, 14 & Luke 4:18-19) Restoration The New Creation comes because of the Word... (Revelation 19:13; 20:4)
CONVERSATION QUOTATIONS Use these Quotations to help further your discussion about this week’s Content. (The Story of God)...tells the biblical story of redemption as a unified, coherent narrative of God’s ongoing work
within His kingdom. After God created the world and human rebellion marred it, God set out to restore what He had made: “God did not turn his back on a world bent on destruction; he turned his face toward it in love. He set out on the long road of redemption to restore the lost as his people and the world as his kingdom”. – The Drama of Scripture Preface pp 11, 12 God...is infinitely the greatest and best of beings. All thins else, with regard to worthiness, importance, and excellence, are perfectly as nothing in comparison to him...The ultimate [goal] of God’s works is…the glory of God. – Jonathan Edwards Imagine that the distance from the earth to the sun –92 million miles– was the thickness of one sheet of paper. Then the distance from the earth to the nearest star alone would be a stack of paper 70 feet high. The diameter of just our galaxy would be a stack of paper 310 miles high. And our galaxy is only a single speck –one of an infinite number of galaxies just in the part of the universe that we can see. If, as the Bible says, Jesus Christ holds all that together with just a word of His power (Heb 1:3) –is that the kind of person you ask into your life to be your assistant? Or your consultant? Of course not. If you are to relate to such a Person, he will be either the absolute Lord of your life or nothing at all. – Barbara Boyd “Lordship” Talk from the Bible & Life Training Course for Inter-Varsity Staff The Father...Son...and Holy Spirit glorify each other... Self-giving love is the dynamic currency of the Trinitarian life of God. The persons within God exalt, commune with, and defer to one another... Each harbors the others at the center of his being. In constant movement of overture and acceptance each person envelopes and encircles the others.
[So] Creation is neither a necessity nor an accident. Instead, given God’s interior life that overflows with regard for others, we might say creation is an act that was fitting for God...In creation God graciously made room in the universe for other kinds of beings. God’s splendor [glory] becomes clearer whenever the Son of God powerfully spends himself in order to cause others to flourish...Jesus Christ’s pattern of life in the world reproduces the inner life of God. – Cornelius Plantinga
QUESTIONS
ASSIGNMENT
Use this time to address any questions the above information has raised. These questions are meant to guide your conversation but don’t feel obligated to rush to them or through them if your time is profitable without them.
Familiarize yourself with the Story of God and read the material (Content) several times this week.
1 | How does God’s covenant with Abraham relate to his purposes for his whole creation?
2 | If Jesus is our King, what about the rest of creation?
3 | If this is God’s world, what went wrong with it? Why did he lose control over it?
4 | How does the church fit in to God’s kingdom purposes for his whole creation?
WEEK 3 | THE GOSPEL & MY STORY BEING OUR CORE IDENTITY God invites us into His story, not the other way around. His calling of us into His story is so radical and transformational that with His call He gives us new identity. We are a new creation. We are in Christ, adopted as sons and are now part of His family. We are in the Kingdom of God and His Gospel is restoring everything. In this current world system, we are aliens but God promises to restore us, His people, as well as His creation.
CONTENT /
The Gospel is Personal (Romans 10:9; Acts 16:31; Romans 5:9; Ephesians 2:8; 1 Timothy 2:3; Titus 3:5) The glory of our salvation cannot be understated. It’s a marvel. The truth is that Christ came to live the life we could not live and die the death we deserved. It is on the cross at Calvary that He took our sins (in total) and exchanged them for His righteousness. The Gospel is Pervasive (Romans 8:18-23; Psalm 48:1,2; Isaiah 6:3; Rom. 9:17; 1 Peter 2:9-10; Revelation 21:1-4) As Pastor David Fairchild says, “In light of God’s redemption, our personal salvation is true, it just isn’t true enough.” The Gospel is more than personal salvation. It is God’s eternal plan to have a people for His own possession. God’s redemption is intended for all of His kingdom. Ultimately, all of His creation will be redeemed and restored. A redeemed people in a redeemed place where He might dwell with them, forever.
CONVERSATION QUOTATIONS Use these Quotations to help further your discussion about this week’s Content.
Sin sets up strains in the structure of life, which only ends in breakdown. – Derek Kidner Sin is the disruption or disturbance of what God has designed...Sin tends to disintegrate both its victims and it perpetrators. – Cornelius Plantinga In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that –and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison –you do not know God at all. He wants you to be delightedly humble, feeling the infinite relief of having to once got rid of all the silly nonsense about your own dignity which has made you unhappy and restless all your life. Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel we are good –above all, that we are better than someone else –I think we may be sure that we are being acted on not by God but by the devil...If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed. – C.S. Lewis Modern Christians, especially evangelicals, see the Christian faith primarily, if not exclusively, as the gospel of ‘Jesus and me.’ Christianity is simply a personal relationship with Jesus...this is true as far as it goes, but it falls woefully short. Although we are justified through our faith, Christianity is much more than just a private transaction with Jesus. – Chuck Colson “The Body” Pg. 65 The webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight is what the Hebrew Prophets’ call ‘shalom.’ In the bible, shalom means ‘universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight’ –a rich state of affairs...Human communities would present their racial and regional specialties to other
communities in the name of God, in glad recognition that God, too, is a radiant and hospitable community of three persons. In turn, each human being would reflect and color the light of God’s presence out of the inimitable resources of his or her own character and essence. Shalom, in other words, is the way things out to be...We may safely describe evil as any spoiling of shalom, whether physically, morally, spiritually, or otherwise. – Cornelius Plantinga
QUESTIONS
From “Total Church” by Steve Timmis Pg. 35 Use this time to address any questions the above information has raised. These questions are meant to guide your conversation but don’t feel obligated to rush to them or through them if your time is profitable without them. 1 | We ask, ‘Where does God fit into the story of my life?’ when the real question is ‘where does my little life fit into this great story of God’s mission?’
2 | We talk about ‘applying the Bible to our lives.’ What would it mean to apply our lives to the Bible instead, assuming the Bible to be the reality –the real story– to which we are called to conform ourselves?
3 | We wrestle with ‘making the gospel relevant to the world.’ But in this story, is God about the business of transforming the world to fit the shape of the gospel?
ASSIGNMENT
Write out your story
WEEK 4 | THE GOSPEL & OUR STORY DOING OUR CORE PRACTICE Jesus calls us and says ‘follow Me.’ A disciple is a learner and a follower. We are to be learners of the word of God and followers of Word who is God. The doing of the Gospel is discipleship. This week we want to look at our Core Practice regarding the Gospel as not only that of a learner but also a disciple(r).
CONTENT / Discipleship
A Willingness to Disciple & Be Discipled John 1:1-5; Luke 4:16-19; Mark 4:13-20; Heb. 4:12-13, Psalm 19:7-14; James 1:19-27; Jude 17-23; Matthew 10:24-39; Matthew 28:16-20 Discipleship is both a hard calling and a high calling. Some have characterized it as the Great Commission not the Great Suggestion. Dallas Willard calls it the Great Omission. Discipleship is about lives rubbing up against one another in the deliberate purpose of mutual encouragement, admonishment, and transformation. It’s the means by which our Lord planned for His kingdom to come and His will to be done.
CONVERSATION QUOTATIONS
least jealous of loves. Two friends delight to be joined by a third, and three by a fourth...we possess each friend not less but more as the number of those with whom we share him increases. In this, Friendship exhibits a glorious ‘nearness by resemblance’ to Heaven...for every soul, seeing Him in her own way, communicates that unique vision of all the rest. That, says an old author, is why the Seraphim in Isaiah’s vision are crying, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy,’ to one and other (Isaiah 6:3). The more we share the Heavenly bread between us, the more we shall all have. – C.S. Lewis When the Bible speaks of following Jesus, it is proclaiming a discipleship, which will liberate mankind from all man-made dogmas, form every burden and oppression, from every anxiety and torture which afflicts the conscience. If they follow Jesus, men escape from the hard yoke of their own laws, and submit to the kindly yoke of Jesus Christ (Matthew 11:29, 30)... And if we answer the call to discipleship, where will it lead us? What decisions and partings will it demand? To answer this question we shall have to go to Him, for only He knows the answer. Only Jesus Christ, who bids us follow Him, knows the journey’s end. But we do know that it will be a road of boundless mercy. Discipleship means joy.
Use these Quotations to help further your discussion about this week’s Content.
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer “The Cost of Discipleship” Pg. 40,41
In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself, I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets. Now that Charles is dead, I shall never again see Ronald’s reaction to a specifically Charles joke. Far from having more of Ronald ‘to myself’ now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald. Hence, true friendship is the
And how do we lose our lives for Him? By investing all that we are and have for Him and His gospel. By saying to Him, “Here is my home, my checkbook, my talents and gifts, my brain, my heart, my hands, my feet, my mouth. Here –it’s all Yours. Use it all to the glorify yourself and further Your purpose (kingdom) on earth.” – Darrell Johnson
QUESTIONS Use this time to address questions any of the above information has raised. These questions are meant to guide your conversation but don’t feel obligated to rush to them or through them if your time is profitable without them. 1 | How does Jesus’ mission in this world affect our practices?
2 | What things mentioned in ‘denying yourself’ impacted you?
3 | What is meant by ‘take up your cross’?
4 | Discuss the ‘why’ of Jesus’ call to “Go and make disciples.”
ASSIGNMENT
Listen to someone’s story
SECTION 2 | COMMUNITY
SECTION2
COMMUNITY WEEK 5
KNOWING OUR CORE PRINCIPLE Community is a Core Principle because it is the very nature of our God. God is Triune, living in perfect community and communion with one another (John 1:2; 10:30; 14:10; 16:15; 17:21). It is out the sacred Community of God that He creates and invites His creation to join into His community. The plan of Community has always been central, from creation, through redemption into restoration. He has always sought a people for His own possession. God will dwell with men.
WEEK 5 | COMMUNITY IS GOD’S STORY CONTENT / Creation To Fully Express the Image of God, Community is Needed. Example: Male & Female, Family (Genesis 1:26-27; 2:18) Fall Community is broken, marriage, family, society and ourselves (Genesis 4:8, 19; 11:4). Redemption Abraham | God begins to build His new Community (Genesis 15:2-7). Israel | Created to be a Nation who blesses the nations (Genesis 22:18; Exodus 6:6-7). Exile | The people of God refuse to be his people (2 Kings 25:26). After years of freedom and nationhood they end up back in Egypt. Prophets | Proclaiming and reclaiming. God will have a community for Himself (Jeremiah 31:31). Jesus | God Himself has come to seek, save and ‘be with’ His people (Matthew 1:23 & John 1:14). The Church | The Body of Christ, The Bride of Christ, The New Community (Ephesians 2:11-22). Restoration | The New Creation. Every people, nation, tongue, dwell with God (Revelation 21:3).
CONVERSATION Quotations Use these Quotations to help further your discussion about this week’s Content.
It is customary to characterize the church on earth as ‘one’ (in Christ Eph. 4:3-6), ‘holy’ (consecrated to God Eph. 2:21), ‘catholic’ (worldwide...seeks to hold the fullness of faith) and ‘apostolic’ (founded on apostolic teaching Eph. 2:20). All four are qualities may be illustrated from Eph 2:19-22. – JI Packer “...the church lies at the very center of the eternal purpose of God. It is not a divine afterthought. It is not an accident of history. On the contrary, the church is God’s new community. For His purpose, conceived in a past eternity, being worked out in history, and to be perfected in a future eternity, is not just to save isolated individuals and so perpetuate our loneliness, but rather to build His church, that is, to call out of the world a people for His own glory...So then, the reason we are committed to the church is that God is so committed.” – John Stott The temple is the place where the gracious presence of God condescends to dwell among men, and also the place where God receives his people. Both aspects of the temple are fulfilled only in the Incarnation. Here is the real presence of God in bodily form, as well as the new humanity, for Christ has taken that humanity upon himself in his own body. From this it follows that the Body of Christ is the place of acceptance, the place of atonement and peace between God and man. God finds man in the Body of Christ, and man finds himself accepted by God in that same body... The temple of God is the holy people in Jesus Christ. The body of Christ is the living temple of God and of the new humanity. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer “The Cost of Discipleship” Pg. 276
QUESTIONS Use this time to address any questions the above information has raised. These questions are meant to guide your conversation but don’t feel obligated to rush to them or through them if your time is profitable without them. 1 | How does God’s triune nature make community a Core Principle?
2 | How has God used community to accomplish His redemptive plan?
3 | How do the bookends (Gen 1,2 & Rev 21,22) define the middle (Gen 3 – Rev 20)?
ASSIGNMENT Read the Story of God material (Content) several times this week
WEEK 6 | COMMUNITY & MY STORY
BEING OUR CORE IDENTITY Community not only describes who we are, it also defines who we are. I can personally describe myself as a son, husband, neighbor, grandfather and friend. Each of these describes me and defines me. It is living in Community that defines who I am. Each of these, son, husband, father, grandfather and neighbor, gives shape for me, to know me and for others to know me. This is also true of us as adopted sons of God. This week we look at our Core Identity as described and defined by Community. We can’t know who we are apart from our relationship with one another and God.
CONTENT /
A Renewed Identity We Are Family ‘We all belong to each other.’ NLT (Romans 12:3-5; 1 Cor. 12:14-31; Eph. 4:25; 5:30)
CONVERSATION QUOTATIONS Use these Quotations to help further your discussion about this week’s Content. The New Testament has much to say about this status of ‘sonship’ (Ephesians 2:5-8), its rich privileges and responsibilities...(privilege) For God’s children enjoy a free access to their heavenly Father and confidence before Him is due to the knowledge that they have been redeemed and forgiven...(responsibility). For the heavenly Father does not spoil His children. On the contrary, ‘he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness’(Hebrews 12:10)...It is inconceivable that we should enjoy a relationship with
God as his children without accepting the obligation to intimate our Father and cultivate the family likeness. – JRW Stott Pg. 39, 40 ...we who ae ‘in Christ’, organically united to him by faith, have ourselves shared in these great evets. We have been raised from spiritual death, exalted to heaven and seated with him there. We have also been reconciled to God and to each other. As a result, through Christ and in Christ, we are nothing less than God’s new society, the single new humanity which he is creating and which includes Jews and Gentiles on equal terms. We are the family of God the Father, the body of Jesus Christ his Son and the temple or dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. – John Stott By becoming a Christian, I belong to God and I belong to my brothers and sisters. It is not that I belong to God and then make a decision to join a local church. My being in Christ means being in Christ with those others who are in Christ. This is my identity. This is our identity...The loyalties of the new community supersede even the loyalties of biology. If the church is the body of Christ, then we should not live as disembodied Christians. – Steve Timmis
QUESTIONS Use this time to address any questions the above information has raised.
These questions are meant to guide your conversation but don’t feel obligated to rush to them or through them if your time is profitable without them. 1 | What are your thoughts about John Stott’s comments on our “sonship” regarding ‘privileges’ and ‘responsibilities?’
2 | What is your reaction to Paul’s statement in Rom. 12:5 ‘we all belong to each other.’ NLT
3 | How have your ‘loyalties’ (per Steve Timmis) changed since you first started follow Christ?
ASSIGNMENT
Write about your family of origin
WEEK 7 | COMMUNITY & OUR STORY DOING OUR CORE PRACTICE In Community, our Core Practice is the practice of being ‘family.’ God calls us His children and we can only understand ourselves in relation to God and each other.
CONTENT /
Renewed Responsibility We are family (Ref: BBB: Community Part II; Sermon Series 11.1.15). God has made us family in Christ. Community is not something you achieve –it’s something Christ achieved through the cross. It’s not something you create –it’s something the Holy Spirit creates. We’re the fellowship, or the community, of the Holy Spirit. A Devoted Community Acts 2:42,43 A Generous Community Acts 2:44,45 A Familial Community Acts 2:46 A Witnessing Community Acts 2:47 As an optional exercise, read and discuss: One Another Passages (see attached document).
CONVERSATION QUOTATIONS Use these Quotations to help further your discussion about this week’s Content.
What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything else of that sort. Christians come together... because...they have all been loved by Jesus himself... They are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’ sake. – D.A. Carson Where Christians live together the time must inevitably come when in some crisis one person will have to declare God’s Word to another. It is unchristian consciously to deprive another of the one decisive service we can render to him...We admonish one another to go the way that Christ bids us to go. We are gentle and severe...“confess your faults to one another” (James 5:16). He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone. The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everyone must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship, living in lies and hypocrisy. But it is the grace of the Gospel, which is so hard for the pious to understand, that says: “You’re a sinner, a real desperate sinner. Now come as the sinner that you are, to the God who loves you”...A man who confesses his sins in the presence of a brother knows that he is no longer alone with himself; he experiences the presence of God in the reality of the other person. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer We are not to enter into community-building simply to make ourselves feel needed and connected...it is very possible to exploit others in...community...by making ourselves so indispensable to others that we become dependent on others’ dependence on us...In Christ, we should not be so proud that we don’t need community nor so empty and needy that we exploit others in the community. – Tim Keller
QUESTIONS Use this time to address any questions the above information has raised. These questions are meant to guide your conversation but don’t feel obligated to rush to them or through them if your time is profitable without them. 1 | What would need to change in order to devote ourselves to the four descriptions of community stated above?
2 | What decisions are you currently facing which this group could assist in giving wisdom, prayer and suggestions?
3 | Who has God sovereignly connected you with (friends, co-workers, family, neighbors, and acquaintances) that we as a group can be praying for and how can we build friendships with them?
ASSIGNMENT
Community Group Assignment 1 | If you haven’t, join one 2 | Tell your CG what you’re doing with this 10-Week Discipleship Training 3 | Talk to guys in your CG about doing the 10-Week Discipleship training.
SECTION 3 | MISSION
SECTION3
MISSION WEEK 8
KNOWING OUR CORE PRINCIPLE Mission is a Core Principle because it is the very nature of our God. God created (Genesis 1&2) because of mission. His wants and will have a People for Himself. He gave Adam and Eve a mission (Genesis 1:28). When mankind was lost and without hope, God the Son set aside His propagativeas God and went on mission (John 3:16; Phil. 2:5-11). As Christ followers being made in the image of God, we also have been called on mission. We are missionaries by our new nature (Matt. 28:19; Romans 10:14-15; Isaiah 40:9; 61:1; 2 Timothy 4:1-3; Phil. 1:14).
WEEK 8 | MISSION IS GOD’S STORY CONTENT /
A Renewed Responsibility We are family (Ref: BBB: Community Part II; Sermon Series 11.1.15). God has made us family in Christ. Community is not something you achieve –it’s something Christ achieved through the cross. It’s not something you create –it’s something the Holy Spirit creates. We’re the fellowship, or the community, of the Holy Spirit. A Devoted Community Acts 2:42, 43 A Generous Community Acts 2:44, 45 A Familial Community Acts 2:46 A Witnessing Community Acts 2:47 As an optional exercise, read and discuss: One Another Passages (see attached document) Creation Mission to produce, create, cultivate, explore, glorify God. (Genesis 1, 2) Fall Rebellion against God (living our own mission) resulting in slavery not freedom (Genesis 11:4) Redemption Abraham: God’s plan, He chooses one family, the family of Abraham (Gen. 12:3). God focuses on one person, one family, one nation. But he does so for the sake of the nations. Israel: to be a light to the nations. (Deut. 4:5-8). They’re to be a holy nation –a nation that
reveals the holy character of God. Exile: But instead of drawing the nations to the ways of God, Israel was drawn to the ways of the nations. That’s why it ended up on exile. Prophets: But God is still committed to His mission (Isaiah 2:2-5). Jesus: Jesus says: ‘I am the light of the world’ (John 8:12; Isaiah 42:6; John 1:4-9; 3:19-21; 9:5; 12:46; Acts 13:47). Jesus is the One who makes God known to the nations. Jesus is the One who walks in God’s ways and so commends God to the world. The Church: Matthew 5:14-16; 28:16. Restoration: The New Creation (Rev. 21:24; 22:3).
CONVERSATION QUOTATIONS Use these Quotations to help further your discussion about this week’s Content. The church is God’s mission strategy. At the heart of God’s plan to bless the nations are the people of God. The church is formed by mission and for mission. By the word she proclaims and the corporate life she lives...the gospel word and the gospel community are both indispensable to mission because that has always been God’s strategy...We need to see the church as something beautiful, dynamic, and capable of reaching the nations with the gospel word. That is how God sees her, and that is his purpose for her. – Steve Timmis Pg. 103, 104 The church… exists in, through, and because of Jesus Christ. Thus it is a distinctive New Testament reality. Yet at the same time a continuation, through a new phase of redemptive history, of Israel, the seed of Abraham, God’s covenant people of Old Testament times...
The New Covenant under which the church lives is a new form of the relationship whereby God says to a chosen community “I will be your God; you shall be my people” (Ex. 6:7; Jer. 31:33)...The New Testament defines the church in terms of the fulfillment of Old Testament hopes and patterns through a relationship to all three Persons of the Godhead, brought about by the mediatorial ministry of Jesus Christ. The church is seen as the family and flock of God (Eph. 2:18; John 10:16; 1Peter 5:2-4), his Israel (Gal. 6:16); the body of bride of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23; Rev. 19:7); and the temple of the Holy Spirit (1Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:19-22). Those in the church are called the ‘elect’ (chosen), the ‘saints’ (consecrated ones, set apart for God), and ‘brothers’ (adopted children of God). – JI Packer
QUESTIONS
ASSIGNMENT
Use this time to address any questions the above information has raised. These questions are meant to guide your conversation but don’t feel obligated to rush to them or through them if your time is profitable without them.
Read the Story of God material (Content) several times this week
1 | How does Jesus present Himself as ‘exclusively’ ‘inclusive’? (John 6:44, 50; 14:6; Matt. 11:28; John 7:37)
2 | What has been God’s on going ‘mission’ which started in eternity past?
3 | Identify and discuss the missional events within The Story of God.
WEEK 9 | MISSION & MY STORY BEING OUR CORE IDENTITY As adopted prodigal sons (Luke 15:11-32), the Father bestows on us the ring of His authority, the Robe of His righteous responsibility and sandals for our mission as a witnessing ambassadors to our King and His kingdom. Our Core Identity is as servants of our King and witnesses of His kingdom. (Acts 1:8). Mission is not merely an activity we engage in but is our Identity. It is the heart of the Father to invite any and all into His gracious banquet feast (Luke 14:16-24).
CONTENT /
Servants & Witnesses of the King & the Kingdom Servants John 15:5; 18:36; 1 Cor. 3:5, 9, 16; 4:1; 2 Cor. 3:6; 6:4; Gal. 3:26-29; Eph. 2:9; James 4:14; Rev. 6:11 Witnesses Matt 5:13-16; 28:16-20; John 15:19; Acts 1:8; Gal. 3:26-29; Eph 5:7-10; 1 Thess 5:4-8; 1 Tim. 6:12; 2 Tim. 2:2; Heb 12:1; 1 Peter 2:9-10; Rev. 17:6
CONVERSATION QUOTATIONS Use these Quotations to help further your discussion about this week’s Content. Sometimes Christians think of mission as an event: a guest service, an evangelistic course, a youth program. And there’s nothing wrong with any of these things. But they can make us think of evangelism as an activity, something we stop doing when the event is over. But mission is an identity and therefore a lifestyle.
It’s about living ordinary life with gospel intentionality –thinking about how we can model the good news of Jesus and talk about the good news. – Crowded House Document on Mission Jesus Christ has entrusted to His followers the message of the gospel, which contains the power of God unto salvation. The authority to share the good news comes through the Holy Spirit, who makes us witnesses. A witness is one who declares on the basis of personal experience what he or she know to be true about Christ. – Greg Ogden
QUESTIONS Use this time to address any questions the above information has raised. These questions are meant to guide your conversation but don’t feel obligated to rush to them or through them if your time is profitable without them. 1 | Describe evidences in your life of your missional identity.
2 | Who in your circle of acquaintances would you say lives missionally?
3 | Jesus describes His followers as ‘salt’ and ‘light’. How does that manifest in your daily lives?
ASSIGNMENT
Trace and write about your spiritual heritage
WEEK 10 | MISSION IS OUR STORY DOING OUR CORE PRACTICE Mission is both word and deed. Mission is good news and good deeds. Mission is not an event we participate in but it is everything we say and everything we do. Because, in all we do or say, we are either speaking about the Kingdom of Heaven or the domain of darkness (Col. 1:13). So, our Core Practice of Mission is that we are missionaries, engaged in the kingdom works of Good News and Good Deeds.
CONTENT /
Good News & Good Deeds Good News Isa. 61:1; 2; Matthew 28:16; Mark 1:14, 15; John 13:35; 17:18, 23; 2 Cor. 5:20 Good Deeds Matthew 5:16; Phil. 2:14-17; 1 Tim. 2:1; Titus 2:6-8,11-14; 3:8,14; Heb. 10:23-25; 1 Peter 2:12
CONVERSATION QUOTATIONS
Every Christian must look on himself as a link between two generations. – William Barclay Paul was not concerned to pass on structure, organization or program. The test of his ministry was whether disciples were being produced for future generations. Paul identifies his motivating passion when he says, “We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.” (Col. 1:28, 29). – Greg Ogden We have seen that (1) both work and deed are equally commanded and necessary for the church because, (2) word and deed exist as interdependent ministries, both as means to the end of spreading God’s kingdom. Nevertheless, (3) the ministry of the word is the more radical and basic of the two ministries, in that it goes to the root or the fount from which all human brokenness flows. – Tim Keller Ministries of Mercy pp 115, 116
Use these Quotations to help further your discussion about this week’s Content. Christianity is distinctive as a religious faith in that I understand itself to be living as a continuing community through the living Christ...Its uniqueness lies in its particular relationship with its founder...It is the resurrected presence of the living Lord that continues to be the sole basis of the present reality of the church. Jesus is not merely the one who founded the community and left it, but rather the one who is present to the community now an in each historical period as the vital essence of the church.
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, tor the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:18-20).
– Thomas Oden Agenda for Theology pp 117-118
Use this time to address any questions the above information has raised. These questions are meant
QUESTIONS
to guide your conversation but don’t feel obligated to rush to them or through them if your time is profitable without them. 1 | Paul says in 1 Cor. 4:16, “I urge you to imitate me”. Can you see yourself saying and living that?
2 | How have these past 10 weeks impacted you?
ASSIGNMENT
Go make disciples, ask two guys and report back.
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