[00:00:01] Welcome to the River Church podcast. We're all about bringing the life, hope and love of Jesus to everyone around us. For more information, check out our
[email protected] and the Gospels.
[00:00:13] So what do we see with Jesus in the Gospels? Four things.
[00:00:20] We see Jesus being alone with the Father.
[00:00:25] So Jesus, he said frequently, he went up to the mountain, where's your mountain? But you know, went up to the mountain to pray with God, spent time with God alone. The second one is that Jesus had three of his disciples that he was especially close to. Peter, James and John.
[00:00:47] He spent time with them at a level, revealing his power, showing them also his weakness as a human being, and also revealing his identity in a way that he didn't.
[00:01:04] So we see them, they come up to the transfiguration. If you've heard that where Jesus reveals his power, the Father reveals Jesus glory before them and they're overcome with it. We see them being drawn into a place at the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was at his, you know, showing his humanity when he was feeling very weak at that point. And we also see them at the time when Jesus raised up Jairus daughter, He raised her from the dead, revealing his identity as being the Son of God. So we have those that, that point there, there's a Jesus, and the three is a particular point. And then we see Jesus and the twelve, the twelve disciples, they were his people who he gave his most teaching to.
[00:01:57] He spent more time with them, teaching about who he was, about what God was about what the church was about what God was doing.
[00:02:05] And so sometimes when Jesus would preach to a big thing, you'd find them. Then he was later with the twelve apostles, twelve disciples, and teaching them. He taught them more and more about it, but then he also involved them in his ministry.
[00:02:23] So we hear him sending them out, go out.
[00:02:28] But then we get to the 70 or the 72, depending on where you're at with that number. I'm going to call it 72 because that's in most of our Bibles.
[00:02:39] And this number is only referenced once.
[00:02:42] But it's an indication Jesus had a larger group of disciples, right? We had men, he had women in that group. He had people from a diverse range of backgrounds. And they were people who would follow him around different stages of his ministry. Not only that, received some of his teaching, but we see that the 72 were also sent out, they took part in Jesus ministry.
[00:03:10] And so those are kind of different contexts about how Jesus spent time with people and how we saw discipleship Take place.
[00:03:23] So in River Church, what are we going to do?
[00:03:27] We are going to look at the church as a whole and that's what I'm going to be talking about today. Very briefly, we, we are going to be talking about community.
[00:03:39] This is a group of maybe 10 to 20 people that would meet on a regular basis. And we're going to talk about core because obviously it has to reiterate, doesn't it? Helps us remember core, A group, maybe two, three, four people.
[00:03:57] And we're going to talk about that after Catalyst Festival in three weeks time.
[00:04:02] Now there also is this other discipleship thing that calls me and Jesus, right?
[00:04:08] And that's a kind of personal walk with God. So we're not going to include that here, but know that that exists and I'm really great. Those responded in a survey that that's something people are engaged in.
[00:04:22] So this morning with a few minutes left, I want to talk about church.
[00:04:29] What do I mean by church? Now I don't mean all of what church is because obviously everything else is church. We, as Gary said, we are church.
[00:04:39] But what I want to talk about is how does church gatherings contribute to our discipleship following Jesus better do you know? And by church gatherings, I mean Sunday mornings like this, but also things gatherings across the church. So prayer meetings, things like serving teams, things like mission events, things where we get together across the whole church. So question for you. Turn to someone next to you and ask the question quick. 30 seconds. How do you think church gatherings like this contribute or help you in your walk with Jesus?
[00:05:24] Simple enough. Hopefully you've thought of something and hopefully there's some things in there that you go, hey, that actually helps us.
[00:05:35] I want to debunk a myth because I've heard it said many, I've said it heard times before, hey, discipleship doesn't happen in church. It happens in groups. It happens in one on ones and happens outside of church. But actually church gatherings are fundamental to our discipleship.
[00:05:54] They are fundamental. They shape us in ways in which without them, the co work that goes on in smaller groups and one on one and things like that, they wouldn't happen. They need each other.
[00:06:13] And actually when we look at the smaller groups, what happens? And when we get down to the lower levels, smaller groups, smaller, smaller groups, what happens is discipleship focuses on the individual. It really zeroes in. So you start asking questions, okay, what is going on in my life? What is happening here?
[00:06:32] But the church, as we get bigger like this, it really raises our eyes to what's going on what's the big picture? What happens when we are all together? What's our connection with the world around us?
[00:06:48] And that's what it does. So I'm going to talk briefly, I'm going to say briefly about four aspects, four things that I thought about how church gatherings like this shape us and contribute to our formation.
[00:07:03] It does work.
[00:07:05] Four things. Preaching, song, worship, serving and mission.
[00:07:09] Preaching, obviously, because I'm a preacher, so obviously I'm going to say that it means something.
[00:07:13] But hopefully I'm going to say, who would say that they can remember a key preach that they listened to, that had that you remembered that impacted your life?
[00:07:29] Who could say that they remember something like that?
[00:07:32] Good, good, I'm glad.
[00:07:35] Most preachers, I'm going to say, are like, you know, Monday, food, right? We all need it, but no one actually remembers what they had for dinner, you know, on the 23rd of January.
[00:07:49] Okay, someone might do. But anyway, you know, you mostly remember the big meals. Do you know, the Christmases, the birthdays, the things like that. That's what you remember.
[00:08:01] And hopefully there are some times which there was something that really impacted you, but it's the day, you know, week by week, preaching. I've been in this church.
[00:08:13] Come on, atelier, help me out.
[00:08:16] 35 years. 35 years.
[00:08:20] So 35 times, about 50 would equal.
[00:08:24] Yeah, quite a lot of preachers. Maybe a thousand, they say A thousand.
[00:08:28] Yeah, over a thousand preachers I've probably listened to. I can't remember.
[00:08:34] The number I would remember in my mind would be very small.
[00:08:37] However, I've been shaped by that.
[00:08:40] Do you know Al, who's still one of our elders here?
[00:08:44] You know, I've received his teaching so many hundreds of times, and it's the day by day, week by week, that it's impacted me and shaped me and changed me to understand the Bible, understand culture, understand how we relate to one another. And one of the particular ways I'm going to say about preaching here in a church context versus listening to someone online or in a group is that is an opportunity to receive eldership oversights.
[00:09:14] We as elders are here to serve you.
[00:09:19] We are guardians against false doctrine.
[00:09:23] And so we shout that out when that happens. We are watchmen as a biblical imagery. We are watchmen on the walls. We're looking out to culture around, and we are pastor shepherds. We're looking out for also moral, ethical ways. And so we aim to bring that sort of thing, especially when we come to preach on a Sunday. And it's an opportunity for that, for Us to pastor you and hopefully help you in your walk with Jesus.
[00:09:58] So that's one preaching, song worship.
[00:10:02] Have you ever thought about how song worship forms you? Who's ever got to Monday and be singing a song that you sung in church on a Sunday?
[00:10:13] Like, there's more hands raised there than the one about preaching. Okay, so I do it as well. Do you know Christ is my.
[00:10:27] Yeah, yeah, yeah. I could go, you know, we could go on, you know, on many. Because these words form us, we repeat them, we sing them, we remember them more because they're true music than we do just lines of scripture. They're easier to bring to memory than just a plain line of scripture. And so song worship is so important.
[00:10:51] That's why we are really keen on songs that repeat biblical truth.
[00:11:00] They don't all do in the same measure.
[00:11:02] Right.
[00:11:03] Like, you know, we go through, if you take the book of Psalms and look at some of the psalms, some are long, some are short, some are very dense with theology, some aren't.
[00:11:14] And so, you know, our songs reflect that, but our songs should reflect. The Bible, should reflect what it's like to be a Christian, because these are songs from us.
[00:11:26] You know, we sing them not just to ourselves, but the Bible encourages us to sing them over one another.
[00:11:34] That doesn't mean you have to phone someone up and sing it down the phone to them, Right?
[00:11:39] But we literally sing it over one another. When we're here, we encourage one another by our singing. The Reformers, if you don't know who they are, in the 17th century, when the Reformers reformed the church, we started Protestant church. They viewed singing as a real fundamental practice to this spiritual transformation of Christians. And so they wrote many, many hymns.
[00:12:08] Even those that weren't very talented wrote very many hymns to teach it.
[00:12:13] The great preacher, teacher Isaac Watts, I read he was in the 17th century. He used to compose a hymn every week so the church could sing in response to his sermon.
[00:12:27] I wonder how many they remember.
[00:12:30] But singing forms us, and that's an essential part of us coming together. Thirdly, serving one of the metaphors, images of the church is the body.
[00:12:43] Do you know we are a body? Paul says he writes to the Corinthians, we are a body, and we need one another.
[00:12:53] We need one another not just to be there, but we need one another to work out what God has put in us.
[00:13:01] Okay, I can't walk properly without two feet.
[00:13:07] You know, if someone took away one of my knees, I'd be in trouble.
[00:13:11] Do you know. Have you thought about how to raise your arm without a shoulder.
[00:13:17] Do you know? Every part is important.
[00:13:21] Every part is needed for a healthy body.
[00:13:25] We all know when we've had an injury and how debilitating it is. If you try to do up a button on a shirt or something with only one hand, it's really hard.
[00:13:35] We know the importance of a healthy body. And Paul says that we as a church are a body.
[00:13:43] And we are invited in to use what God has given us individually to build one another up. Not just because we need to help one another, but because it transforms us, it shapes us.
[00:13:58] Jesus said, I came to not to be served, but to serve.
[00:14:05] We see that in his ministry.
[00:14:07] And so if we want to follow Jesus, we need to do as he said, didn't we? We need to do as he did.
[00:14:15] We need to follow him by serving one another and in it, believing in it, that we are transformed, we are changed in doing it.
[00:14:28] Hey, if you want to practice humility and think of others greater than yourself, set some chairs up, make some tea and coffee, get with a production team who are here and the worship team who are here at 8am and set up everything.
[00:14:49] And then also you'll notice they're tearing down everything and packing it all away afterwards. What would church be like without them?
[00:14:58] And, you know, we're so grateful then for our kids, workers who are out there.
[00:15:03] When they've gone out halfway through worship and you think, and you know, they say, oh, it's really hard to go out and to miss half of worship because they enjoy, many of them, many, all of them enjoy singing together.
[00:15:19] Serving changes us and transforms us and so be involved. That transforms, lastly, mission.
[00:15:28] And one of the things said about being together as church is it raises our eyes to what is going on around it raises our eyes as we encourage each other to think what is out there, where's the world outside of this church?
[00:15:46] And it is essential, I think, for both encouraging us, building our appetite for mission and also giving us opportunities to practice in mission.
[00:15:59] Now, I think, I don't know, I've never heard someone to say mission is easy, right? I've never heard to say, oh, that's really natural to me. And I don't have any problems with it.
[00:16:12] I think most people, I'm going to say 100% people in this room go, hey, I find some kind of mission or evangelism hard. Right? You with me with that? Yes. Okay. And so some people don't have the opportunity, they struggle to actually have the opportunity to tell other people about Jesus. Some don't know what to say.
[00:16:34] Are you in that camp? Hey, when something comes up, I really know what the right words to say and I think that we all kind of fear the reaction, you know, If I say something, am I going to look weird? Yes.
[00:16:49] Just don't worry about it. Everyone looks weird at some point in time, but because of those things, we miss the necessity of it. Right. We go, that's really hard.
[00:17:01] I'm going to try, I'm going to avoid it.
[00:17:04] And left for my own without anyone encouraging me. I wouldn't do it.
[00:17:10] Practically speaking, I wouldn't do it. I'd find other things to do. We all do. And so when we get together as church, this is a big part of it, that church drives us to mission, it fuels us, it motivates us and hopefully it equips us, but it gives us the opportunities as well. We've got Dartford big day out. I hope that you've heard an update at some point over the last few months where we've talked about it. We've got Dartford big day out. It's in your emails. There's information where we're going to be down in the town in July.
[00:17:46] Yes, July.
[00:17:48] And just giving out leaflets, talking about people. If you've never done it before, do have a look and think about signing up just for a little period of time, couple of hours over the weekends to see how it goes.
[00:18:02] You can be weird with a group of other weirdos. Right, okay.
[00:18:07] That's all good. You don't have to do it by yourself.
[00:18:11] So I think these ways are ways in which we are being formed more like Jesus, as we get together as church. And I haven't done a deep dive into all the little bits, but hopefully you can see that, that these ways are essential to us and, you know, there's other ways and we're going to get onto other ways in the coming weeks, about smaller groups, about tens, twenties and also into threes and fours, how they contribute to us, their other really essential parts.
[00:18:48] Because the thing is, when we come together as church, one of the things that we can get into is the.
[00:18:55] It's, for me, it's about me.
[00:18:58] We can come into.
[00:19:00] I'm coming here to be entertained in some way, to feel better about myself in some way. We can come into a consumer culture and that's what outside is all about, right? That's what. Wherever you go, people are there to serve you.
[00:19:18] Staff, whether it's a coffee shop or wherever you go, entertainment or restaurant or whatever. We go to Feel good about ourselves.
[00:19:31] And we can get that into that, into church. It's something to be entertained. But God hasn't created church for that.
[00:19:39] God's created something better.
[00:19:44] And in Galatians, Galatians is really challenging.
[00:19:48] He says, no, I've gone too far. There we go. He says he writes to them, says, don't be deceived. God cannot be mocked. He says, a man reaps what he sows.
[00:20:01] Whoever sows to please their flesh from the flesh will reap destruction. Whoever sows to please the spirit from the spirit will reap eternal life. Life. And he follows this on. Let us not become weary in doing good.
[00:20:20] Are you sowing?
[00:20:23] Well, actually, the thing is, it's not, are you sowing? Because we're all sowing somewhere.
[00:20:29] But where are you sowing? How are you sowing?
[00:20:32] Where are you putting your efforts and your time?
[00:20:36] Because I want to encourage you.
[00:20:39] It's about sowing into the church in both our gatherings here and other groups. And we're going to, I think, ask harder questions.
[00:20:49] I think it's probably the easier thing to be on Church on Sunday. Although we've got competing things for our time.
[00:20:58] As we go through the series, it's going to get harder.
[00:21:01] But the question is, are you sowing to reap what the Spirit wants to do in you?
[00:21:08] God is an amazing father who has good gifts stored up.
[00:21:15] He's got good things, amazing things that he's planned for you to do.
[00:21:21] Are you sowing into that?
[00:21:24] Are you sowing into that?
[00:21:26] Are you thinking about our time together as something that is changing you and building you up and making you more like Him?
[00:21:36] So in just a couple of minutes that we've got left, I think it'll be great not just to walk away and get tea, coffee, but just to pause and take a moment to say, am I sewing?
[00:21:50] What could I do?
[00:21:52] So why don't you just follow up the conversation we had earlier.
[00:21:56] Yeah. With each other. We said before about how you thought church was encouraging you and changing you. What about now? Is there something that you think, hey, I've got to. I want to think about this more. I want to invest in this.
[00:22:11] Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah. Good. So why don't you turn to the person next to you and just have a follow up on that conversation?
