STUDY THEME: THE CHURCH; GOD’S COMMUNITY OF GRACE. 06-08-03.

"GROWING DISCIPLES." TITUS 2:12; LUKE 9:23-25; EPH. 4:29-5:10.

TITUS 2:11-12; LUKE 9:23-25; EPHESIANS 4:29-31, 32-5:2, 5: 3-4, 5-7, 8-10.

We learned last Sunday that one of the functions of a church is to tell the good news. The church must proclaim the good news from the pulpit and bear witness to it in Sunday School Classes. Christians must witness for Christ to people outside the church. We must send and go as missionaries to people who have never heard. To be effective witnesses, Christians must live consistent Christian lives and must put the good news into words.

Dr. Luther Dorr said, "I heard or read of a little boy who came to S.S. for the first time. He listened attentively to his teacher. But the next several Sundays he didn’t return. When the teacher visited him the boy said, "That Sunday morning I learned so many things God wants me to do. I have been trying to put all of them into practice before I came back and learned some more" The boy assumed learning also involved putting into practice what one learns.

Today’s lesson addresses the Life Question: How can I be an example of mature discipleship in my church? We will explore the Biblical Truth: The church shows itself to be a community of grace by helping members grow as disciples, living for Christ in all areas of life. The desired Life Impact of this lesson is to help each of us grow as a disciple, setting an example for others of living for Christ in all areas of life."

The word disciple implies the acceptance in mind and life of the views and practices of the teacher. The Christian life is not a static state as a disciple of Christ; either you are growing in it, or you are shriveling up in it. This does not mean the latter is a loss of redemption. It does mean you fail to achieve your potential in Christian living and service. The Central Truth in today’s lesson is that the Christian life calls for our continual growth in understanding the truth of the gospel and applying it to our lives.

Throughout Christian history, Jesus’ followers have learned that it is not always popular to follow Him. He prepared His followers to be ready to pay the supreme price. Sometimes, naturally speaking, following Him does not make good sense. Yet it is the way to life. The church is strong when Jesus’ followers take their calling seriously. True disciples give serious attention to their commitment to live, as God would have them live.

PLEASE LISTEN TO WHAT TITUS HAS TO SAY ABOUT THIS.

TEACHER READ TITUS 2:11-12.

PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO LUKE 9.

On the road from Caesarea Philippi Jesus asked the question, "Who do people say that I am." After several replies, Jesus "But who do you say I am." Peter replied, "Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God." After Peter’s confession as recorded in Luke 9:20 and John 6:68-69 Jesus announced his coming death and resurrection. Jesus then proceeded in these verses in Luke to set forth the cost of Christian Discipleship.

The very first requirement named in Vs. 23 would turn away the curious. We have been taught in America that to be an American citizen means we do not deny ourselves. We must, in our pursuit of happiness, pamper our every desire. Usually we treat ourselves as if our self was far and away the most important thing in the world. If we are to follow Jesus we must obliterate self and forget that self exists. To take up our cross is to be ready to endure the worst that man can do to us for the sake of being true to God. A man must spend his life, not hoard it. Jesus was teaching the lesson of self- sacrifice.

To take up one’s cross is what Jesus did when He carried the horizontal beam to the place of His crucifixion. A disciple’s cross includes not just ordinary hardships but also things willingly suffered to be able to serve Christ. Self-denial occurs daily and involves day-to-day decisions. Following Jesus includes a commitment to Him as teacher, growing in the understanding of His will and then doing it.

The questions are not, "How much can I get?" But, "How much can I give." Not, "What is the safe thing to do?" But, "What is the right thing to do." Loyalty to Jesus will have its reward; and disloyalty its punishment. If we are true to Him in time, He will be true to us in eternity. If we seek to follow Him in this world, in the next he will point to us as one of His people. Will a man gain anything if he wins the whole world but is himself lost or defeated? Of course not!

How wonderful it is to know that the same grace, the same loving kindness of God, which sent His Son to the cross and bought our salvation, also disciples and perfects that life which is born of God. The discipline of grace is not for the unsaved. Eph. 2: 1 says, "They are dead in trespasses and sins", and cannot be taught how to live until they have been spiritually born.

Having been with His disciples some three years, and now on His way to Jerusalem to be crucified, Jesus challenges His disciples to deny themselves or renounce selfish ambition and die to their old way of life, and follow Him. When we examine the great commission, in Matt. 28: 18-20, we find that the emphasis in on the task of making disciples, for that is the primary verb in that commission.

Mark’s gospel focuses on the message, "Go." And Go one must for the Gospel must be presented in order to make disciples. In our lesson today Jesus is emphasizing discipling those with whom He will so soon be leaving the responsibility of the ministry.

PLEASE TURN IN YOUR BIBLE TO EPHESIANS 4.

Paul now introduces us to the new man in Ephesians 4:17. To him he says, "you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk." From Eph. 4:25 to 5;5 Paul outlines six concrete ways that Christians "put off" their old lives and "put on" life in Christ. Now they must turn from lying to telling the truth; from uncontrolled anger to self-control; from stealing to useful labor; from harmful to helpful speech; from bitterness to love; and from unrestrained sexual desires to a thankful acknowledgment of God’s good gifts. In each case, Paul offers a reason for the change from the old to the new.

Lying must be banished from the Christian’s life. This includes every kind of deception and is one of the chief characteristics of the old man. We see on every hand, dishonesty in personal relations, unscrupulous practices in business, and corruption and deception on every hand.

The suppression of foul-mouthed talk or worthless speech is not enough. Conscious effort is to be made to use language that will edify and benefit the hearers.

The point of Vs. 30 is that lying, resentment, stealing, and especially the use of filthy, unedifying language by Christians grieve the indwelling Holy Spirit. The list of sins in Vs. 31 all have to do with bad temper. Certainly it should have no place in a believer’s life.

These verses state the opposite of Vs. 31. The vacuum created when these vices are ejected from the heart is filled by the lovely virtues of kindness, tender-heartedness, forgiveness, and love.Vs.32 point out that the supreme example as well as the sacred incentive for this new attitude is what God has done for us.

Kindness is a combination of courtesy and caring. "Compassionate" expresses the emotion in Christian love. The word "forgiving" stresses the grace of God in forgiveness of sins. The motivation and power for forgiving others grows out of experiencing the forgiveness of our own sins by God. The work of the triune God is the motivation and power for Christian living.

Christians are to be imitators of God. In the O.T., the basis for morality is the character of God. The emphasis in Eph. 5:1 is our imitating the love of God. Believers are dear children of God. Because God loves others and us, we ought to also to love those who the Lord loves. This love begins with loving fellow believers. This means to walk in love, showing Christ’s love for us by loving one another.

The NIV translates Vs. 3-4 "But among you there shall not be even a hint of sexual immorality or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s people." In Vs. 4 Paul seems to have been speaking about filthy language and coarse jokes. Dr. Hobbs said his wife told him how upset her father was when he heard what most people today consider a mild slang word used in the movie "Gone With The Wind." Dr. Hobbs went on to say, "Imagine what this good man would say if he were alive today and heard what is common on T.V. and in the movies.

These kinds of words are out of place and not suitable for Christians. A voice used to give thanks to God should not be used to dishonor God and others. In Matt. 5:27-28 Jesus taught that inward sexual lust is sin. These sexual sins begin in the heart and mind, are expressed in words, and often become outward acts.

"All uncleanness" and "covetousness" go together, the "or" that joins them indicating that though they are different sins they belong to the same class. "Uncleanness" is nearly always used in the N.T. in a moral sense. "All uncleanness is to be understood in the sense of every kind of sexual immorality. "Covetousness," which is considered very lightly by many people today, is unsparingly condemned in the N.T. and is several times classed by Paul with the grossest kinds of immorality. So diluted has our thinking become that one sometimes hears it said of a person, "He is a good Christian. His only fault is covetousness." In light of this present Scripture passage it might be just a proper to describe a woman as both a virtuous lady and an infamous prostitute.

Those who are so described show a character wholly incompatible with that divine kingdom into which only the regenerate may enter. Their lives bear witness to the fact that they are strangers to grace and are still held in "the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of inequity."

Paul warned that none guilty of pagan practices, will have any part in the inheritance of the kingdom of Christ and of God. Of course, they can be saved through repentance and faith in Jesus as their Savior. When this happens, these sins are erased as never having been committed. All believers are sinners saved by God’s grace. Such should not continue in pagan practices.

Note that all who practice these things are idolaters. Anything that comes between you and God is your idol. So Christians should not be led astray by empty words. Persons who disobey God become the objects of His wrath. "Wrath" denotes God’s abiding, universal opposition against evil. In a sense, the Kingdom of God creates the church and the church is the instrument for extending the kingdom. It is here called "The kingdom of Christ" because God has committed the administration of the church into Christ’s hands.

In Vs. 6 another reason for avoiding sins of uncleanness is the fact of God’s wrath. Apparently there were not wanting in Paul’s day (and surely not in our day) those persons who by specious arguments would excuse and condone the sins under discussion. Paul may have had in mind those who were influenced by Gnosticism, to believe that sins of the body could not affect the soul and therefore had no bearing on the spiritual life. Or, he may allude to those who felt that freedom from law meant license to sin.

Paul’s readers are urgently enjoined not to become partners in sin with those upon whom the wrath of God must inevitably fall. If they recoil from partnership in their punishment; let them also recoil in horror from partnership in their sins.

Although the day of reckoning may be denied with empty words, God’s judgment will make a final separation between " the sons if disobedience" and God’s beloved children.

How can children of light be recognized? They bear the fruit of the Spirit or light. Paul’s list of the fruit of the Spirit is found in Galatians 5: 22-23. He mentioned only three in Eph. 5:9: goodness, and righteousness, and truth. This shows that there was no one all-inclusive list of the fruit of Christian living. The one thing all such list have in common; is that these were qualities of Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry,

Paul wrote that those who bear such fruit are proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. In this passage, the point is that when Christians walk in the light and bear the fruit of light, they are doing the will of God and thus pleasing Him.

NEXT SUNDAY FROM ROMANS, EPHESIANS AND 1 PETER WE SEEK THE ANSWER TO "HOW CAN I HELP MY CHURCH MINISTER MORE EFFECTIVELY TO PEOPLE’S NEEDS?" A. V. DAUGHERTY 6-08-03.