February 9, 2025 | Disciples Making Disciples
Disciples Making Disciples | Missions Conference 2025
Acts 2:42-47 – Characteristics of the early church (teaching, fellowship, worship, service, and community).
Acts 1:8 – The church’s mission to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Luke 24:46-48 – The mission to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations.
Matthew 5:1-12 (Beatitudes) – Emphasizes the need for God and the blessings of those who seek righteousness.
Philippians 2:3-8 – Jesus’ humility and call for believers to serve others.
2 Corinthians 1:3-7 – Comfort from God is given so that believers can comfort others.
Hebrews 13:15-16 – Offering sacrifices of praise and doing good to others.
1 Corinthians 3:5-9 – Paul describes believers as God’s fellow workers in His mission.
In his sermon, ““Disciples Making Disciples,”” Jed Gillis emphasizes the inseparable connection between individual Christianity, the local church, and missions. Drawing from Acts 2:42-47, he highlights the essential characteristics of a biblical church: teaching, fellowship, worship, service, and community. The church is not meant to be inwardly focused but is called to mission, as seen in Acts 1:8 and Luke 24:46-48, where Jesus commands His followers to proclaim repentance and forgiveness to all nations.
Gillis explains that engaging with the church and missions should not be about self-promotion or self-righteousness, but rather a recognition of personal need and dependence on God (Matthew 5:1-12). A true disciple understands their own thirst for God and seeks to help others find the same satisfaction. The blessings believers receive are not just for them but are meant to be shared, following the example of Christ’s humility in Philippians 2:3-8 and Paul’s teaching in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7—that God’s comfort is given so that it may be extended to others.
Furthermore, a church cannot fulfill its purpose without a commitment to making disciples, both locally and globally. Hebrews 13:15-16 reminds believers that their worship includes doing good and sharing with others, while 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 reinforces that believers are God’s fellow workers in His mission. Gillis challenges listeners to consider how they are personally involved in disciple-making, urging them to recognize their own need for God, share His blessings with others, and look upward to see His ongoing work around the world.
Transcript of Disciples Making Disciples | Missions Conference 2025
This morning, we’re going to begin in Acts chapter 2. As we do that, children, if you’re headed out the back door to Children’s Church, you’re welcome to do that. You’re also always welcome to stay in here with us. We’d love to have you in here as well.
Individual Christianity, the Local Church, and Missions are All Connected
Over these next three weeks during our teaching times, we’re going to have emphasis on missions. On really what God is doing around the world. And each week, we’ll have a little different focus. In the coming weeks, we’ll have more specific conversations about how do I get involved in missions? How can I be mobilized for God’s work?
That could be any number of things. We’ll talk about a lot of different ways, from prayer, to giving, to going to service here, and all kinds of things that you can do. We’ll talk about that in the next two weeks. This week, I want to lay a foundation for talking about that. I want us to think about how missions relates to what we do here.
How the local church and missions and really individual Christianity, how all of those things are connected because really, Christianity, I’ll make a statement and then I’ll go back and explain it. Christianity implies, like individual Christianity implies the local church. And the local church implies missions.
You really can’t and shouldn’t separate those three things. Your individual Christianity, the life of the body that you connect with locally, and missions around the world. You can’t split those things up. It should be unthinkable to us that someone would be a follower of Jesus and not be Connected to a body of believers and not be connected to a local church.
Really, we know this in other areas of life. If you think about the stories, movies or books that you maybe are familiar with and enjoy. If you think about at the end of those stories. I often think this when I read or watch Lord of the Rings. And you get to the end of the story. And Sam, and Mary, and Pippin, and Frodo, the hobbits are all there.
And they’ve been through this 13 month long journey of all kinds of great perils and disasters. And I think, how could you ever go back to normal life? Or you watch the Avengers movies and you think, how do you just like pick up after that?
Because when there’s something so significant that it impacts and shapes your life, and you go through that same thing with somebody else, there’s a bond that’s formed there. And as believers, if we’ve been shaped by the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we have atonement through what we celebrated in the Lord’s Supper, we have forgiveness for our sins, if we’ve been adopted as sons and daughters of God, if that’s happened to me, and it’s happened to somebody else, we have something in common that has so shaped our lives. We aren’t just going to be able to go, well, I’m going to live my separate life over here and never talk to anybody else who has that experience.
When someone is a follower of Jesus, it should be unthinkable for us that someone will be a follower of Jesus and not be connected to the church. Now, I want to pause there and say, because you might think, well, a lot of places church doesn’t look like it does here. That’s certainly true. And in some places in the world, There’s a convert who’s not connected to a church because they may be the only Christian they know.
So I understand that can exist. But in most cases, it might look like a house church. Group of people meeting in their home. We can think of certain countries where we know that’s common. It might look like a megachurch. There may be 5, 000 people meeting on Sunday morning. Might look something like this. And everything in between.
What Is a Church?
But it should be unthinkable to us that somebody who really has been transformed by the power of Jesus Christ won’t be connected in some way to the community He created. To His church. So, since it can look like all kinds of different things, and this morning, by the way, we’re gonna start in Acts 2, but we’re gonna bounce around to several different passages.
So, hang on tight. And if you have your Bible or if you have your phone app, get ready to switch passages. But as you think about, what is a church? If it could look like a house church and then it can look like a megachurch, well, how do you know what a church is? Let’s read some in Acts 2. When the church really was started, I’ll begin reading in verse 42.
And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved.
Now there’s many things we could say about this passage, but I want to draw your attention to a few characteristics of this community, of the church.
First, it’s a Spirit empowered community. If you know the beginning of Acts chapter 2, this is when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles in a new and unique way. And as that happened, the church was born. So we see all of this context, it’s a group that’s empowered by the Spirit. It’s a teaching community.
So, in verse 42, they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. You say, what’s a church? How do I know if I’m connected to the church? Well, it’s, it’s teaching. That’s one piece of what it is. It’s a fellowshipping community. They connect with each other. They have community and relationships with one another.
Not just Well, we happen to be sitting next to each other kind of relationships. That’s not really what fellowship describes. It describes the idea that you’re united, you’re together for a common purpose, you have shared actions that you do because you love the same things.
If you go to a game in Neyland Stadium, and you watch the volunteers play the Gators, let’s say, Now you sit in your seat, and there’s a guy next to you who’s decked out in volunteer orange.
And the guy on the other side has all of the gator gear he could wear. Now, you’re sitting next to both of them, but you probably have a different level of fellowship.
Right? Fellowship is about, there’s some shared actions. When the Tennessee guy is running towards the end zone, you and the Tennessee fan are getting excited. Maybe you jump up and down. Maybe you yell. This guy’s probably not yelling the same things, at least. Right?
Fellowship is, we have a common purpose. We have a common goal. We’re cheering for the same things. We love the same things. That’s fellowship. This was a fellowshipping community. They were with each other. That included service to one another. And we could talk all day about this passage. But it includes service to one another, caring for each other’s needs.
It’s a community that’s empowered by the Spirit, receiving teaching from God and through each other, fellowshipping with one another, serving one another, caring for one another. It is a worshipping community. Their relationship isn’t just them, it’s them and God. Notice, in verse 43, awe came upon every soul.
There was prayers, that’s an element of worship. They were attending the temple together, in verse 46, day after day after day, and what did they do, verse 47, they praised God. They were worshipping together. It’s a worshipping community. It’s also a community that’s created by the gospel, that last phrase.
Those who were being saved. This wasn’t just about everybody who happened to come and say, Wow, there’s something interesting going on. I think I’ll go try it out. I’m sure there were those people around because if all of a sudden there were 5, 000 people meeting out here somewhere, you might be like, hey, what is going on?
Or more than 5, 000, really. Right? So I’m sure people noticed. But when they’re talking about, here’s who the church was, it was people who were saved. People who had been shaped by the gospel. So we could have this question.
A Church Has a Mission
If we say, here’s what a church is, it’s a teaching community. Fellowshiping community, based on the word, shaped by the gospel, community that worships God.
If that’s what a church is, you could say, well, is that it? Are we going to have any outward focus? Or do we just sit here in our good community and talk to God and be done with it? That’s not all a church is. A church is also, we could call it a missional community. Missional gets used a whole lot these days in church worlds.
I mean it has a mission. It has a purpose. If you went back in Acts chapter 1, I told you you’ll turn back and forth. Acts 1 verse 8, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. The church has a mission to witness.
If we went back, the writer of the book of Acts was Luke. He wrote the gospel of Luke. If we go to the end of his gospel, in Luke chapter 24, The very end, verse 46, Jesus spoke to his disciples and said, It is written that the Christ, the Messiah, should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.
Beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. Church has a mission to proclaim. And to be witnesses. And I want you to notice this morning, That is every bit as much a part of being a church as the other things I listed. Teaching from the Word of God is part of what a church is. So is having a mentality that says, I want to proclaim what God has done to others.
Fellowship is part of what a church is. So is the mindset that says our fellowship isn’t just for us. It’s for others.
So I go back to my other statement at the beginning. You can’t separate individual Christianity from the church. Because God has shaped you and transformed you with an experience that unites you to a community. To this kind of community. And you can’t separate church from missions. Because part of what God intends the church to do is to be a missional, a proclaiming, a witnessing group.
It should be unthinkable for someone to say, I follow Jesus, but I’m not interested in connecting with the church. I mean, you think about it, it’s like the church is called the Bride of Christ. It’s like saying, I love Jesus, but I hate his wife. Not how that’s going to work.
But it should be just as unthinkable. That anyone would say, I’m gonna support missions in any way, but not my local church. Or the other way around. I really love the local church, but I’m not interested in missions. No, this is part of what the church is. You can’t take it out and still have the church. When we have Missions Emphasis Week, what we’re really doing, we’re drawing our attention to the fact that God works more than right here at 29 Prosser Road.
And that others need Him to work in their lives. We’re drawing our attention to say church is not just about us. It’s about God’s work in this world.
What Does "Disciples Making Disciples" Mean?
So if we’re going to embrace that reality, that my Christianity, your Christianity, The church and missions are all closely connected. And we should never separate any of those. Then what I want to do the rest of our time this morning is take our, our theme. Three words. Disciples making disciples. And I want to use that phrase to draw our attention to three ideas that I think guard us from misunderstandings in the way we engage with church and with missions.
We’ll take three ideas. One’s going to be you look inside you, and we’re going to see something. We’re going to look at those around us and see something, and we’re going to look at God. So we’re going to look inward, outward, and upward. And I have three ideas to help us think about how do I engage with the church, and how do I engage with mission.
That’s really a long introduction, so I’d like to take now, I’d like to pray, and ask God for his help. God, we do thank you for your goodness. We thank you for all that you have given us in Jesus. I pray that you would help us as we consider the truths that we will think on from your word today. I pray that you’ll guide us, that you will shape our thoughts. I pray that we, as a body of believers, we’ll have a mindset to proclaim and bear witness to all that you have done. I pray this in your name. Amen.
A Look Inside: How Do I Engage with Missions
When you look inside, when you come and you think about, How do I come to church? Why do I come to church? Or, because church and missions can’t really be separated, How do I engage with missions? When you look inside, Your engagement with the church or missions is not about self promotion or self righteousness, but self need.
I’ll walk through what I mean. You could come to church so that people around you would see, Man, they’re there all the time. They’re pretty great people. You could have that as a goal. It’d be a bad way to go about it, but you could. Self promotion. You could say, I want to be involved in missions so that people know I’m involved in missions.
Would be the wrong motive. It could be about self righteousness. I’m going to come to church so that I feel like I have some significance or worth in my life because I’m serving others or I’m doing something.
It could just be self esteem and you could say, I’m going to come to church, I’m going to engage with missions so I feel better about myself. If that sounds a little bit silly, it’s all over our world. Where people will gladly say, I’m going to go serve in this humanitarian project in some place. And why would they do that?
Some of them have really good motives, I’m not saying everybody has a bad motive. But I’m saying the danger is there for you to say, I feel guilty about some things in my life, but if I go help in this practical way somewhere, I’ll feel better about me. I’m going to suggest none of those are the way you should engage with church or missions.
Instead, you should have self need. I hope you come to church saying, I’m thirsty and I need God. My soul is not satisfied without Him, and this is an opportunity to fellowship and to worship God together. We operate from need. If you were here this morning in our Sunday School panel, you heard eight vocational missionaries describe their experience.
And what you didn’t hear any of them say. You did not hear them say, Well, I had it all together, so I went to help others. No, in fact, you heard the exact opposite. From every one of them. None of them thought, I’m self sufficient, so I’m gonna go do this.
And while I’m sure there were struggles in their hearts at different times, I know those people enough that I think I can safely say, They weren’t doing it just to feel better about themselves. They weren’t trying to promote themselves. They were saying, God, I’m thirsty, and I need you, but if you’ll use me, I would love to be used.
When you look inside yourself, you don’t come to church and engage with church because you have it figured out. You don’t go to missions and involve yourself with missions because you’ve got everything all figured out in yourself. You say, I need you, God. And if you’ll use me, I want to be used.
And that might seem like a weird place to start, but here’s why I say it first.
It can be easy for us to hear a call to be involved in service in some way. And for us to want to do that because it’s going to make me feel better about myself. And now what I do is instead of taking people, a God who can satisfy all of their needs. I take people five steps to a better life. I think I’ve got it figured out.
If we’re going to do church well, service in church well, missions outside in Knoxville or around the world well, we have to be people who say, I need God desperately. And He’s the only one who can satisfy my soul. There’s a famous quote, many of you, I could start it, you’d probably finish it. I looked online and I don’t know who said it because it’s attributed to a lot of people.
We talked about Christianity and specifically missions. Is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread? You have to start with the fact that I’m a beggar and I need God. Otherwise, your engagement with church and missions will be built on all the wrong foundations.
So first, we come with need. I won’t turn there. But This theme is all over scripture, if you think about the Beatitudes. Matthew 5, blessed are the, and he has all these lists, right? Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Those who come saying, I have need, and God, you’re the only one who can satisfy it. That’s the first four.
And then the next four are, blessed are the merciful, the pure, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted, those who are going and doing things. He puts it in that order for a reason. The foundation is, I have a desperate need for God. Now based on my desperate need for God, as I am satisfied in Him, how do I minister to others in that?
Our, our theme is disciples making disciples. It really starts with the first word, a disciple. It’s not, Super Christians helping less super Christians. It’s not mature Christians helping immature Christians, although there may include some of that. But it’s first of all, who are you? A disciple. One who says, I’m not the master, I need Jesus.
Think about Jesus disciples in the New Testament. Did they always have it figured out? No. Were they confused a lot? Mm hmm. Were they inadequate? Did they feel their inadequacy? Jesus, how on earth are we going to feed all these people? And then after they’d walked with Jesus for a long time and they’re still going, Can I sit on the right hand? Can I be the highest in your kingdom? They missed the point.
When we say disciples making disciples, we’re not saying, Achieve some status, then help other people to achieve the same status. We’re saying, you need to follow your master, and you need what Jesus gives you, step by step. And operating out of that need, just like his disciples in the New Testament, operating out of that need, you help others to find him as well.
Since missions in the church can’t really be separated. Then we have to also say, if you engage with missions, you do so out of need and thirst. You say, God, I need you. I can’t do this on my own. I’m not sufficient to do this on my own. But I want to take that sense of thirst and hunger and I’m willing to go anywhere on this planet to serve you and worship you, knowing you will satisfy me.
When you look in, if it’s your engagement with church, if it’s your engagement with missions, if you look inside, it has to start from your deep need and thirst for God. That’s one reason, by the way, that we need to lift up our missionaries in prayer. Because every missionary you’ve ever heard of needs God.
None of them have got it figured out. We have a wall out there of missionaries on the wall as you walk past. Pray for one of them as you walk past. That’s why it’s there, to remind us. But every one of them You know how you feel thirsty and hungry for God sometimes? And you say, I’m inadequate, I’m insufficient. I don’t have my life all figured out by myself. I need you God. Every missionary on the field has the same thing.
It’s one reason we pray for them. Yes, we pray for, God, would you provide financially in this way. Yes, we pray for, God, would you bring healing and health and protection. We pray for all those things. But we pray for them spiritually. Because it’s hard. Because they have the same needs and inadequacies and struggles that you feel.
So when you look inward. You say, how am I going to engage with the church? How am I going to engage with missions? I’m operating from need. Not from, well, I’m in good shape, I’m a super Christian who’s got it figured out, I can serve others.
A Look Outward: Practically Loving Others
So the second thing, when you look outward, the blessings you have are not just for you. You know, God, every blessing God gives you is not just for you.
Yes, when you come to your father in heaven, you come and say, God, satisfy my soul because I’m needy. But when God does satisfy you, when he responds to that prayer, he doesn’t do it just so you can be satisfied and sit in a corner somewhere. He does it so you can help others. Back to the quote, when you’re a beggar who knows how to find food and your friend next to you is hungry. You say, let me tell you where to find bread.
We see this Hebrews 13 verse 15 and 16 says through Jesus. Then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips that acknowledges name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
We come and we say, God, you are wonderful. And we offer our praise to him. And then we practically love others. And help them to praise Him. Because when God satisfies your soul and helps you see how great He is, it’s not just for you.
Really, that’s what Jesus did. We looked a few weeks ago in Philippians chapter 2. Jesus didn’t think it was, He was not going to cling glory and keep His glory. Instead, He poured Himself out in service to others. And we reflect that when we pour ourselves out in service to others. Right before that, Paul says, Let each one of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
If you look at 2 Corinthians chapter 1, A couple of our Bible studies were going through this recently. And it’s clear the way Paul thinks about the blessings God gives him. Verse 3, Paul says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction.
Why? So that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s suffering, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.
You see, Paul recognizes, if I receive blessings from God, it’s not just for me. Now he goes a step further, and says, and when I have difficulties, that’s also for the good of others. But he recognizes anything God does in his spiritual life isn’t meant to just sit with him. It’s meant to be used for others as well.
This past week. Has there been something that encouraged you from God? Has there been thought from His Word? Has there been peace in a situation, maybe that was difficult? Has there been comfort?
Has your soul been satisfied with God at any point this week? If it has, it’s not just for you.
And many of you do this well. I want to encourage us to do it all the more. When God works in your life individually, He wants that to be more than just for you. He fills your thirst so that you can help quench the thirst of others as well. That’s true of you individually, but it’s also true of the organization, or maybe I should say organism, something alive, of Berean Bible Church.
What God has given us is not just for us. When God blesses Berean Bible Church on this campus, it’s not just for us. It’s for others. Our theme is disciples making disciples. So the first thing is we are disciples and we need to follow our master. The second part is we are making disciples. This is what we do, what we should be doing in a thousand ways.
Everything we do, as Paul says to Timothy, he says, You need to teach people who will teach people, who will teach people, who will teach people, who will teach people. I added a couple, but they were, that’s the idea. Train more and more and more disciples, who will keep making more and more and more disciples.
At Berean Bible Church, every opportunity we have to make more disciples. I don’t mean to see people come to faith in Jesus for the first time. That’s one step of discipleship. That’s not everything. When we had children’s Sunday school class this morning, that’s part of our work, our mission as discipleship people.
When we have conversations that I know happened, I didn’t personally see any this morning, I just know our body, I know they did happen. When we have breakfast out there and people are talking, there are moments of discipleship happening. There are people saying, let me share with you what God’s been teaching me.
There are people saying, that’s difficult, let me pray with you, and how can I help? There are people helping one another to follow Jesus. We do that when we sing, when you sing, next to somebody else. We don’t think about this as discipleship, okay? But, it is.
When you wholeheartedly say, High King of Heaven, I praise you. There’s people next to you who hear that. And maybe they’re just as wholeheartedly saying, Hi, King of Heaven. And you’re just encouraging them to keep going. That’s a step of discipleship. Maybe, they’re not sure how much they believe Jesus is the High King of Heaven. And they hear your voice. And it’s encouraging to them to say, He is. He is the King.
We have Children’s Church going on right now. There’s discipleship. There’s People making disciples. We have small groups. There’s discipleship. We have Youth Abide, or Awana, and now I’m going to get in trouble because I will forget some groups. But you get the point. Everything we do at Berean Bible Church is not just about you individually. It’s about how can I be satisfied in God and then make disciples in the people who are right around me.
But it doesn’t stop there because God’s not just making disciples here in Knoxville, Tennessee. That’s why we keep looking and say, now, what about everywhere else? When we teach children and disciple children, are we doing that just for Berean Bible Church?
No. We’re doing that because some of those kids may well be here at Berean Bible Church in 25, 30, 40 years. Praise God. Some of them are going to be halfway around the world. Everything we do is not just about here. It’s not just about how do we help Berean Bible Church. When we raise up leaders in whatever form, and we say we want to train Sunday school teachers, or Bible study leaders, or small group leaders, or elders, or deacons, or women’s ministry leaders, all these different leadership roles.
Why do we do that? Is it just because we need to have like more and more organization? No, it’s because we want to raise disciples. We want to make more disciples, and some of that is going to be here, and some of that is going to be In Southeast Asia, and in India, and Turkey, and England, up the road in camp ministry, in New Mexico, in Arizona, all over the world.
What we do is not just for here. When we are building disciples, we’re trying to train people for things we don’t know what God will have them do.
A few years back I saw an interview with an African pastor, meaning he pastors in Africa actually. And somebody asked him, what do you want to tell the American church? I thought it was really interesting. I’ll paraphrase it and then I’ll go back and clarify something. But he said, stop sending us unqualified people.
Not what I thought would be the first thing out of his mouth. And he didn’t mean, you gotta be a super Christian to come serve. What he meant is, some of the people coming haven’t really grown in discipleship and, and their character is not godly. Don’t send that person to try to help my church, was his comment.
That’s why I had to start where I did, when I said we’ve got to start from need and thirst. The person who goes, Well, I’m not perfect, so I can’t serve. That’s not what this guy is saying. The person who says, I’ve got it all figured out. I’m going to come tell you what to do. That’s not what they need. They need people who come and say, I’m thirsty for God.
I’m growing the best I can. I’m learning. I’m making disciples where I am.
Somebody who’s not growing as a disciple, and not making disciples here, I don’t really know a great place for you to be useful in missions. Somebody who’s growing as a disciple and making disciples here, there are billions of places. All kinds of opportunities.
I think sometimes the American church has been guilty of this. Sometimes we’ve taken people who are young, inexperienced, Not ready to go. We haven’t really discipled them because they’re willing and eager to go. So we kind of push them out the door. And they get over there and now they’re supposed to be church leaders.
I want to encourage you. If we’re going to raise people up, which we should and I want us to. If we’re going to raise people up from Berean Bible Church who go serve God in other places. I want to make sure we’re helping them grow to be godly disciples now. To make sure that they are growing to be disciples, making disciples.
Everything we do as a church is not just for us. Everything we do is about the task of being disciples who make disciples who worship our worthy God. That affects the way you view everything. When we interact here on our campus and we have a school. Which is about making disciples part of the purpose of bringing Christian school.
We have a school that’s about making disciples, so we say, Well, how do we best support that purpose? It affects the way you view classroom space. Everything we do is not just for you, so that affects the way we sing music together. I’m going to guess we’ve probably never had a service that only had your favorite song.
But it’s not all about me or you, it’s about how do we make disciples, how do we lift worship to God and encourage one another. Sometimes relationships are hard. And you say, I don’t want to lean into making a disciple, I’d like to sit back and be comfortable and just not have that difficult conversation.
But when we remember the task is, we’re disciples making disciples. God’s work in my life isn’t just about me. It’s about me being able to help others as well. It shapes the way we think about relationships and conversations. All of these things.
As you think about church and as you think about missions, when you look inside, I need God. I’m thirsty. I’m not sufficient in myself. To do either of those things, to engage well with church or to engage in missions. I’m not sufficient. I need my Savior. When you look outward, you say, Every good gift that comes to me isn’t just for me. Every piece of discipleship isn’t just for Berean Bible Church. Every good gift is so God would use it for His purposes. In our neighborhood, in our children’s ministries, in our Bible studies. In India, in China, wherever the master says to go, that’s where disciples go.
A Look Upward: God is Working Everywhere
But last, when you look upward. You look in, you look out, when you look up, you see a worthy God who is working.
Somebody mentioned it in the panel this morning. God is working everywhere. God is at work, and it’s, it’s not stated in our theme Disciples Making Disciples, but it’s implied. Because if you have a disciple, you have to have a teacher. There has to be someone you’re following. If you’re a learner, if you’re an apprentice, there has to be somebody you’re working with.
There’s a leader. And really, our mission’s emphasis time. This week, the next couple weeks.
It’s not that we’re suddenly talking about God working in ways that we don’t talk about the rest of the year. We do that. It’s not that we’re suddenly talking about discipleship. Everything we do better be discipleship. It’s not that we’re suddenly talking about evangelism as if we’re going to do that for three weeks and the rest of the year we’re not.
Really, when we have a missions emphasis, what we’re saying is it’s so easy to walk around and only see God working right here. And a missions emphasis for these three weeks is a reminder that God is not just working in your individual life. He’s working in others within the body, and He wants to use you to be part of it.
That’s disciple making. He’s working in others in Knoxville. I’m so grateful for the number of people here who are involved in different opportunities in Knoxville, different ministries and opportunities to build disciples, to reach out, to do what Vicki Cannington described when she was in the Philippines this morning in Sunday School. She described, somebody asked why she was there, she said, because I want people to know Jesus loves them.
When we have missions emphasis, we’re reminding ourselves that we don’t just come and gather in this room and do our little church club thing and then go about our life. That’s not even really fully church. Because you can’t separate church and missions. The church is a missional community. It has a purpose to display something.
So God’s at work in others within the body and He wants to use you to do it. God’s at work in Knoxville and He wants to use you to do that too. God’s at work all over the world. And He definitely wants to use us to do that. And He might specifically want to use you to do pieces of that.
There is some way, probably many ways, but at least some way, that God wants you to join with Him in His work.
1 Corinthians. In chapter 3, there’s an interesting passage, because if you’re going to fellowship with God, there’s a kind of fellowship with God you can’t have unless you work where He is working. Notice the way Paul talks about this. Really, he’s addressing divisions in the church. He’s talking about how they tend to say, Oh, I, I, I’m with Paul.
I’m with Apollos. And they have all these factions about leaders they like, and all these arguments that are going on. But he gets to verse 5. And he says, What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants, through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, I planted, Apollos watered, But God gave the growth.
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. Notice his phrase, for we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. He speaks of the leaders and he says, we are working with God.
But as you go throughout what he tells all of God’s people, he says, and you should be working with God.
God’s blessings aren’t just for you. God doesn’t just work here. God doesn’t just work here. God’s at work all over our world. And since He is, where and how will you be God’s fellow worker?
How is He calling you to make disciples where you are? How is He calling you to support others, the efforts of others to make disciples?
In the next couple weeks, we’re gonna talk more about ways you can support that, or ways you can be involved in disciple making. We’ll talk more about specifics. This week, I want you to sit with those questions. How is God calling me to be part of what He’s doing? How is He calling me to be a disciple who makes another disciple?
And if God uses you to do that, I know you will rejoice because you’re following your savior.
Questions to Ask Yourself about Missions and Discipleship
To conclude, I want to give you three questions.
The first, does your view of disciple making or missions allow you to actually please God?
I ask it that way for this reason. Sometimes we hear this and say, Oh, there’s such a huge need. God’s working all over the world. I can’t do all of that. So, I’m going to try to do everything. I’m going to do this. I’m going to do this. I’m going to do this. I’m going to do this. And you feel like you’re always falling short, like, well, I just can’t do enough.
Your Father knows you.
He’s not asking you to go do all of His work. He is asking you to work with Him.
You can look at five people around you and say, I can’t possibly do all the discipleship that those people could need. And you’re right. But that doesn’t mean God’s not pleased by you saying, but I want to follow my Savior and I want to be involved in whatever way He calls me.
When we talk about involvement in missions, nobody should feel like, well, I guess I’m just guilty and I have to. That will not motivate you enough to really survive missions.
But you should feel like, God is at work, how can I do this? How can I help? One of the things I love is walking alongside my kids working on different projects. And you know how that works, right? When kids come up and sometimes they’re helpful and sometimes they’re not so helpful, depending on how old and what the project is.
But when the child comes up and goes, Hey, can I help you? As a mom or dad, even if you know it’s harder, most of the time you’re like, Yeah, absolutely. Come on. And you’re happy about it, right? Our Father is working powerfully all over the world. And the best I can do is say, Daddy, can I come alongside you and help?
And He smiles and picks us up on His lap and says, Yes, how about do this? That’s what it should be like when we think about missions.
Another question. Does your view of disciple making combat complacency? If the first question said, You don’t have to do everything, but how should you walk alongside God? This question says, You can’t do nothing.
We’re all called to make disciples. If you’re a believer in Jesus, you’re called to be a disciple, making disciples, following our Master.
So in these few weeks, pray and ask God to show you how He wants you to join in His work.
And the last question, does your view of disciple making, by which I mean church, And missions. Can’t really separate them. Does your view of disciple making fight against self righteousness? In other words, do you come and say, God, it’s not that I’ve got it all figured out. It’s not that I am at a super Christian level.
It’s not that I have this incredible character. It’s that I am thirsty and needy. And I’m satisfied in you and I want to help others. As you pray, as you think for these three weeks. Especially. God, I don’t have to do everything, but show me what I should do. I can’t do nothing. And whatever I do isn’t about me.
It’s only your grace that you have satisfied my soul. And you have saved me. As Christians, when we think about church, when we think about missions, we need to look inside, see our need. We need to look outward. See, the opportunity that we can serve and love others. And we need to look upward and see a worthy God who’s at work all over this world.
I think those things will drive us, they will motivate us to join our God in His work. I’ll invite you just to close your eyes and respond to God however He’s directed you this morning. And then we’ll close.