This Changes Everything [PART 5] | Mike de Vetter | Sunday 19th April

[00:00:03] Well, this morning I just want to take the last few moments just to open up again in John. We've been going through the Book of John. This changes everything. Last week we heard from Mark and he spoke about how John said, I am not the Messiah. I'm not the one, I'm not the one you follow. [00:00:21] You know, and the challenge that we have when we long to make disciples and we want to lead and we want to serve people, is that we think it's about us. And so the challenge that we always face is making sure that the focus, the main focus is Jesus. So we're going to continue on from that passage that Mark preached on, and we enter the phase of disciple making where Jesus began to choose those he would walk with. So if you've got your Bibles, we're going to read From John. Chapter 1, verse 35. [00:00:53] It says, the following day, John was again standing with two of his disciples. As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, look, there is the Lamb of God. When John's two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus. Jesus looked around and saw the following. [00:01:10] What do you want? He asked them. They replied, rabbi, which means teacher. Where are you staying? [00:01:17] Come and see. He said it was about 4 o' clock in the afternoon when they went with him to the place where he was staying, and they remained with him the rest of the day. Let me pray this morning, Father. Thank you, Lord, for your word that transforms us. Thank you for your word that leads and guides and directs us. Father, as we hear about how you chose your disciples and as you began that journey of disciple making, Father, I pray you would stir our hearts to respond that we would be obedient to what you were saying. Lord, each of us walk a different journey, but the call is still the same to make disciples of the nations. So, Lord, speak to us today. Amen. [00:01:58] When we hear the word discipleship, and I've talked about this before, sometimes it causes a little bit of panic on the inside, that little bit of fear, that little bit of apprehension. [00:02:07] For some, it feels like a responsibility that's too great for me to handle or for. For someone else to handle. Sometimes it can feel like I need to know more, I need to have a greater understanding. I need to be more of the spiritually elite, you know, for some it can even bring guilt, saying, I don't feel like I'm doing enough. I think I should be doing more. But at the heart of it is one question that I think after two years being here and dozens and dozens of conversations, is the question that many of us are asking, how do I disciple someone? [00:02:43] How do I do it? I know I've been commanded to do it by Jesus, but how do I disciple someone? [00:02:51] What we see in this passage in John 1 is that Jesus didn't create a complicated system. [00:02:58] He didn't create a hierarchy. He didn't create a really difficult discipleship pathway for us to navigate or try and understand. [00:03:09] See, discipleship, it wasn't a new idea. Discipleship was understood. John had disciples, people who he had seen, and they had come and said, I want to follow you. A disciple is someone who follows, is devoted to the teaching of a teacher. And so these disciples had come to John and said, we want to be like you. We want to learn how to disciple people. [00:03:35] And so they followed John. [00:03:40] So when they ask Jesus, rabbi, where are you staying? [00:03:45] It's an interesting question. [00:03:48] What they're really asking is, can we be with you? Because disciples, they spent time with the person that was discipling them. It was a relationship that they were entering into. [00:03:59] And what Jesus does next is completely different to the way the culture was. [00:04:05] Often they would go and they would choose a disciple maker. They would choose someone who would disciple them. And they say, I want to be like you. Jesus kind of flips it on its head and he extends grace and he says, actually, I'm going to choose you. [00:04:20] I'm going to choose you. [00:04:22] Simon, I'm going to choose you. [00:04:25] Andrew, I'm going to extend grace to you. [00:04:28] I'm going to extend to Matthew. [00:04:31] Yes, you've been. There's been fraud, there's been deception. You've been ripping the Jewish people off with the tax collecting, but I'm going to choose you. [00:04:41] Grace extended to somebody saying, I choose you. [00:04:49] There are moments in scripture that can look small but actually carry the DNA of a movement. And I think this is one of the passages that does this. [00:04:57] Three men in a conversation, John and his disciples. [00:05:02] John makes a declaration about Jesus. [00:05:05] That's the Lamb of God. He is the Lamb of God. [00:05:09] And John's disciples are no longer John's disciples. They are now Jesus disciples. [00:05:15] How's that for the ego? [00:05:18] Try that one. Come on. These are the guys that were following me. All of a sudden, they're now following Jesus. [00:05:25] I love John. [00:05:27] I love John's heart. Don't you. [00:05:30] You know what he could have said? [00:05:33] No, no, they're mine. [00:05:35] They're my disciples. [00:05:38] But John 1 shows us the DNA of how disciples make disciples. [00:05:43] Before there were sermon structures, systems put in place in this passage, we see six things. Don't worry, I'm not doing all six this morning. [00:05:52] That's okay. [00:05:53] I'm going to pick up the next three next week as well. But to make it memorable and hopefully something that we won't forget, I'm going to use the acrostic Christ C H R I S T And hopefully this will stick with us as we go through the journey of making disciples. As we read through this passage and we'll split into two over these next two weeks. But the first thing this morning is a disciple maker is Christ centered. [00:06:18] I could also say in there, disciple maker chooses someone. [00:06:22] So you can put both of them in there if you'd like. A disciple maker is Christ centered. John 1:36, 37. As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, look, there is the Lamb of God. When John's two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus. [00:06:37] John the Baptist. [00:06:39] He models the first responsibility of a disciple maker. [00:06:44] A disciple maker doesn't gather people around themselves. [00:06:48] A disciple maker continually points people to Jesus. [00:06:53] So if we are making disciples, the goal is that they would know Jesus more today than they did before we met together. [00:07:02] John doesn't say, listen to my teaching, didn't say, follow my example. Though Paul later says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. Follow me as I follow Christ. [00:07:11] Yes, that is a part of the role of a disciple is to be like Jesus and say, come and do what I do. [00:07:17] We've got to follow Jesus together. [00:07:19] But he says, look at him. [00:07:22] A disciple maker points people to Jesus and it answers an important question in our hearts. [00:07:30] We don't disciple people by being impressive, by being talented, by being amazing. [00:07:38] We disciple people by being clear about who Jesus is because we want people to follow Jesus. And disciple making always begins with a revelation of who Jesus is and when we can point people to Jesus, when we can introduce people to Jesus and understand who he is and how he behaved and how he loved people, we are getting disciple making, right? [00:08:06] So how do I disciple someone? We start by helping people see Jesus more clearly. Christ centered discipleship. The second thought this morning is disciple makers disciple holistically. [00:08:19] The whole person is discipled. When the two disciples follow Jesus, he asks the surprising question, what do you want? [00:08:28] That's a big loaded question. [00:08:30] I'm thinking more money. [00:08:32] Maybe you want a promotion. [00:08:34] Maybe you want a relationship. [00:08:37] Maybe you want fame and fortune. What do you want? [00:08:40] Come on, what do you want? [00:08:43] What is it you're longing for? [00:08:46] What is it your heart's crying out for? What are the desires of your heart? What do you want? [00:08:51] Jesus was asking an important question. [00:08:55] What is it that your heart desires? [00:08:59] Their answer, where are you staying? [00:09:02] Interesting response, right? [00:09:05] In other words, they were saying, can we please be with you? [00:09:10] Can we sit a while? Can we talk? Can we hear? Can we ask some questions? And Jesus replies with three words that shape everything, that change everything. [00:09:21] Come and see. [00:09:23] Come and see. This is disciple making language. Jesus doesn't give them a lecture. He gives them access to him. [00:09:32] He says, come and see. Come and be with me. Come and spend time together. [00:09:37] Disciple making happens in a shared life, not just with scheduled content. [00:09:43] So how do I disciple someone? I invite them into my rhythm. [00:09:47] I invite them into my day. If I'm traveling somewhere, if I ever go and minister someone somewhere, I'm going to bring someone with me. We're going to drive together, we're going to talk together, we're going to walk together. [00:09:58] We've got a moment when we move down into Signal House, where it's going to look different. Our location here, right? [00:10:06] It's very easy for our students to have access to here in Northern Hay. When we move to Signal House, it's very different. [00:10:14] It's a location that's not easily walkable, certainly not during the winter months. [00:10:21] But what if we could be sure that every student that comes into this place has the ability to get to church, to be connected, to be on a journey with somebody else? [00:10:34] Over the next 12 weeks, we're going to be working really hard, really intentionally, and making sure that we are ready to receive the next group of families that come in and students that come in, that we wouldn't have anybody journeying on their own. [00:10:51] I know our world kind of dictates now that through convenience, I'll travel in a car with myself. But what would it look like if we began to travel together with others? That when I come into church, I'm not just driving myself in. Who am I picking up along the way to come and be a part of this journey together? [00:11:11] While a curriculum is helpful and we're working at the moment on building an app where we can encourage people with the tools of discipleship so they can have something in their hand, in their pocket to be able to walk with somebody and make disciples, while that's good and helpful, that's not what it's about. It's about saying, would you come with me? Come and see. Let's find Jesus together. [00:11:37] And we see this in the way that Jesus discipled his disciples. He goes deeper than just behavior. When somebody asked Him, Rabbi, which of the commandments are the most important? Which one should I be focusing on? [00:11:50] Of the 613 laws in the Torah, he says, Deuteronomy 6. 5. He goes back to the prayer, the prayer of Shema, which says, the Lord your God is one, that holistic thought, that we're to love the Lord our God with our heart, soul, mind and our strength. [00:12:11] When we do that, the natural spillover is we will love our neighbour as ourselves. [00:12:17] So Jesus was saying, I want you to love God with every part. What do you want? What's your desires? What are the things that you carry in your heart? I want to disciple all of that. [00:12:30] Mark 12:30. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. [00:12:35] Later on, he gives the mission. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And I will be with you always, even to the end of the age. [00:12:50] Jesus is saying, I want you to teach them everything I've commanded you. [00:12:56] But he also condensed everything he commanded into one thought. Love the Lord your God with your heart, soul, mind and strength. So the Great commandment is who we are becoming. [00:13:10] The Great Commission is what we are called to do. [00:13:14] So holistic discipleship, what does it mean to disciple someone holistically? It's to help them with their heart, soul, mind and strength. See, my heart is what I love. [00:13:26] It's the passions, it's the desires that come alive in me, good or bad, right? [00:13:32] My soul is my identity. It's who I am, who I'm becoming. [00:13:37] My mind is what I think and what I believe. How many people feel like their thinking could have a little bit of discipling? [00:13:47] I've got someone I'm discipling at the moment. And they were talking about some stuff that I could see. The thoughts, the lies that they had believed to become a stronghold. I said, can I disciple your mind for a moment? Can I speak into this? And we applied scripture and we said, the way you're thinking compared to what the scripture says, which one is out of alignment? [00:14:09] It's like my thinking. Come on, let's align ourselves with scripture again. What is it that I believe? Love the Lord your God with your heart, your passions, your desires, your soul, your identity, who you're becoming, your mind, what you think and what you believe, and your strength. What are the things that I do? [00:14:26] What are the things God has called me to do? [00:14:31] When we can disciple somebody's Heart, soul, mind and strength every time we hear a sermon. How did the sermon impact what I love, my heart? [00:14:39] How did the sermon impact my soul? Who I'm becoming? [00:14:44] How did the sermon impact how I think and what I think and what I believe? How did the sermon impact what I do? My calling, my mission? [00:14:54] We can disciple holistically, the heart, soul, mind and strength. We can't separate formation of human beings from the mission. [00:15:04] When we love God with our heart, soul, mind and strength holistically, the natural spillover and flow over is that actually I want to see somebody else experience the growth that I've seen in my own life. [00:15:17] The third thing, and I bring it to a close. A disciple maker is relational. [00:15:23] C H R so far. I'll give you the other three next week. [00:15:28] John 1:39. Come and see. He said it was about 4 o' clock in the afternoon when they went with him to the place where he was staying and they remained with him the rest of the day. [00:15:40] Jesus is pretty busy. He's got a lot going on in his life. But he says, yeah, come, let's hang out. I reckon they probably ate together. [00:15:49] I think they probably talked a little bit right till the sun went down. [00:15:54] Come and see. [00:15:56] There was an invitation relationally, come and be a part of our conversation. [00:16:03] I don't see them just stopping in and out for a sermon and a go. [00:16:08] There was time given, time extended time where they spent together, spent the day. They listened. They would have asked questions, shared stories. Look at the way Jesus modeled discipleship with his. With his own disciples. [00:16:25] They'd walk along the road, and as they walked, they talked. [00:16:30] I don't know if any of you have watched some of the episodes of the Chosen now, whether all of it is theologically true or correct. I love the heart of the Chosen because it shows Jesus as the relational Son of God who walked alongside people. [00:16:48] He just loved being with them. I think Jesus would have been so much fun to be around, so amazing. And he would be witty and sharp and funny and kind and compassionate, and then also pull somebody aside and say, come on, really? [00:17:05] Is that how you're going to behave? [00:17:08] I love the relational aspect of Jesus. [00:17:12] Let's be honest, it seems pretty inefficient. His method, certainly, if you're a church leader and growth and numbers are the most important thing. [00:17:21] Discipleship doesn't make sense. [00:17:25] Let's have an event, let's invite the whole city and anyone who can come will come. And we have hundreds and thousands of people. Jesus says, I'm going to choose you. I'm going to choose you. [00:17:36] Come follow me. Come follow me. And we're going to go on a journey of growth together. [00:17:42] Do you know how many times Jesus would have got frustrated with his disciples? [00:17:48] They stumbled and they fell. We even hear them say, how long will I have to put up with you? [00:17:53] This is Jesus. [00:17:57] But he didn't quit on them. [00:17:59] Come on. Any perfect people. Could you just fly around the room just for a minute? [00:18:04] None of us have got it all together, and that's okay. [00:18:08] You think that you have to be perfect to be a disciple maker? You do not. [00:18:13] You just have to be loving God with your heart, soul, mind and strength and growing, and then invite somebody into that journey with you. [00:18:21] A conversation, a coffee, a drive in a car, a dinner, a conversation, a walk. [00:18:30] It's a posture of staying. [00:18:32] What a disciple maker creates is a safe space, a place where relationship can go deeper. [00:18:40] I know in the relationships that I've been building, just even the last few months when we started talking, it was kind of shallow. [00:18:48] We just kind of little toes in the water and talking about a lot of different things, but not really going deeper. And then as trust is building, all of a sudden I find myself being able to ask a question that's going deeper into the stuff that gets us stuck. [00:19:06] Because I think if we asked every single one of us, there's probably something that just keeps us stuck. [00:19:11] Yeah, a stronghold, a bad way of thinking. [00:19:17] Something in our past that we can't quite get past. [00:19:22] But as we give space and time and relationally, that person knows that you love them, there's space for God to work and do what he does very best, and that's transform lives. [00:19:36] How do I disciple someone? [00:19:39] I decide that people matter more than productivity. [00:19:45] I was chatting with another friend from New Zealand. We were online maybe six or seven months ago. [00:19:50] He was asking me about church and everything that was happening. [00:19:54] And he asked me about discipleship. He said, who are you kind of speaking into and who's in your world? And I said, to be honest, I'm too busy to disciple. And I went, oh, that doesn't sound so good coming out of my mouth. [00:20:09] And we'll talk about that next week. [00:20:12] Because if discipleship isn't in my diary, then it doesn't really matter enough to me. [00:20:17] But if Jesus said, go and make disciples. [00:20:22] Come on. So you know what? Discipleship's back in my diary again. [00:20:27] Can I tell you, I'm on this journey with you. [00:20:30] I'm not so far ahead of you. [00:20:32] We've Got to go on this one together because there are people walking into our church. There are going to be students who turn up in about 8 to 10 weeks time coming from all the nations of the world, coming into Exeter, wondering where they fit, wondering whether there's a home for them, wondering whether there's somebody that would walk alongside them. And I would ask each of us to prayerfully consider God. [00:20:58] Would you give me the joy of making a disciple in 2026 and 2027? [00:21:04] What would that look like if when students come in in eight to 10, 12 weeks time, we could have 20, 30, 40 people who would say, come on, we've got a real connection. You've got that passion, that interest with sport. Come on, let's walk together, let's spend a year together. Let's study the Word together. [00:21:25] Let's follow Jesus, let's become like Jesus. Let's have Jesus Christ centered. Let's have Christ centered discipleship. [00:21:32] Let's look into holistic discipleship which says that I'm going to love God with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength as I'm trying to do it. I'm going to invite you to come on that journey as well and something that is relational. [00:21:44] And then we'll pick up the other three next week. [00:21:52] I didn't realize about 20 years ago that I was kind of discipling a bunch of boys. [00:21:58] I didn't kind of realize it until I kind of look back now. I didn't have a method or a way or a program or anything to follow, but we just grabbed a bunch of young guys and Amy grabbed a bunch of young girls and said, come on, would you be a part of our leadership team? When we started in kids ministry and we met every morning on a Tuesday morning I'd go pick them up. We had a church van and a lot of them were at the Christian school that we had the church at. And Tuesday morning I'd be picking these 13, 14 year old boys up from their houses at 7 in the morning, which is, that's a challenge for a 14 year old boy, right? Most of them are going, what is that even a time in the day? [00:22:39] And I don't know whether it was right or not, but I put a fine system in place. So if anyone was late for pickup, it cost them a dollar, it's New Zealand dollar. So it's fine with the pound compared to the pound, but it cost them a dollar. If they didn't bring their journal, their bible, it cost them a dollar. If I found out they got A detention. It cost them $5. [00:23:00] Yeah, you're right. [00:23:01] And it all went into a kiddie. We had a sheriff and we also had an accountant. And so they would collect the money and then we would go out for a meal at the end of the term. And whatever was in the kitty would be spent on breakfasts. [00:23:16] Right? [00:23:17] There's one boy that he paid for, I think three breakfasts in the first term. [00:23:23] Can I tell you, by the end of three years after I was walking that journey with those boys, I could hardly get a dollar out of them. [00:23:31] They were starting to follow Jesus. Now, I'm not advising this, okay? Just so you're aware, this isn't the model that I'm suggesting, but can I tell you, we did life together. Most weeks we were meeting together. [00:23:43] When we left to go and pastor another church three weeks after. And I've shared this story before, I got a phone call from one of my guys. He was the head boy of the school. [00:23:51] The school had gone on all the year. Thirteen students had gone on a trip, and the trip went bad. [00:24:01] There was a outdoor pursuits camp. They went into a canyon. They didn't read the weather report, right. And water flowed into the canyon. And a number of students were caught with a teacher in the canyon. They tried to get out. [00:24:20] A number of them went to the left, a couple of them went to the right. The two that went to the right survived. The seven that went to the left all lost their lives. [00:24:27] Two of them were my boys. My boys that I've been walking the journey with. [00:24:34] And we just started a new church, just been down there. And I just said, I'm sorry, I gotta go. [00:24:44] I just dropped everything and I went back and I had to be with my boys. I had to be with my family. [00:24:51] And I was there at the funerals. I was there in their homes, standing over their bodies. [00:24:59] And God, thank you, God, for those few years we had together. [00:25:02] We don't know how long we've got. [00:25:05] But you know what I love is that we left and are following Jesus. [00:25:13] I didn't leave and they left. [00:25:15] A number of them are still in the band that play every year at conference when the national movement comes together. Some of these guys are still working, worship, leading and leading the movement, the investment that we can have in somebody. Jesus spent these three years with his disciples, and then he says, I'm going to go back and you guys are going to change the world. [00:25:37] And they did this ragtag bunch of young people that frustrated Jesus for the first year and a half. Jesus did very little ministry. [00:25:49] Then he went, they did some ministry and then he sent the disciples out and he says, now you're gonna do it and when you come back, we're gonna reevaluate and we're gonna see what God was doing. And then we're gonna move into the next phase, which is where I leave, I'm gonna leave now and you're gonna carry on the work. [00:26:09] See, when discipleship was Christ centered, it's not about me, it's not about anyone else. [00:26:15] It's about Jesus and our eyes. And we help people fix their eyes on Jesus. When it's holistic, when it's my heart, my soul, my mind and my strength becoming more and more like Jesus. [00:26:26] And when we have it as a relational heart, then we will walk that journey. We'll go through the highs and the lows together. [00:26:35] And I'll keep you in suspense for the next three, because that'll be next week. [00:26:41] Lets pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for the gift of your word. [00:26:49] Thank you. We live in an era where the Word is available to us. And as we've seen today, your heart for discipleship is that people would come to know you. [00:27:02] Lord, forgive us if it's ever become about ourselves or we've thought that we weren't good enough or we didn't have what it takes. [00:27:11] Father, I pray for courage upon every single person in this place. [00:27:15] A desire to be more like you, to love you with heart, soul, mind and strength. [00:27:22] And Lord, I pray for the privilege for every single one of us that in the next 12, 18 months of our lives, Lord, that we would find somebody, that we could disciple, somebody that we could help find you, that we would be a part of that revelation that says, I know who Jesus is and I choose to follow him. [00:27:45] So Father, would you lead us and guide us even right now? [00:27:49] Father, we pray for those people of peace. In Luke 10, you said, Go into homes and find a person of peace. Lord, those people you're already working on, that we have relationship with. Father, I pray that you would show us who those people are, that we would say, come on, would you follow Jesus with me? Let's learn together. Let's make disciples who make disciples in Jesus name. [00:28:14] Amen. Amen. [00:28:18] I want to encourage you if you are on your journey trying to find out who Jesus is, trying to understand who he is, and you haven't yet made that decision to follow him. Can I point out some very amazing people at the back? Our first steps team, can you give us a wave? Actually, anyone in a purple shirt there. [00:28:36] I would love you at the close of the service to go and have a conversation with one of them and say, I've got lots of questions about Jesus. I'm starting my journey. [00:28:46] I'm going on this journey of discovery. I want to know what it means to be a disciple or a follower of Jesus. [00:28:53] I want to pray a prayer for you, especially today, that as you are on that journey and maybe you are at that point where you're saying, I want to give my life fully to God. That as you pray this prayer, this is an acknowledgement of you saying, I want to follow Jesus. I want to live my life for him. I want to honor him with my life. [00:29:11] Can we pray that together? [00:29:13] Dear Jesus, thank you that you died on the cross for my sins so they would not be held against me. [00:29:23] Today I choose to follow you. [00:29:26] I turn from my old way of living. [00:29:29] I repent of my sin and I ask you to forgive me. [00:29:35] Please lead me. [00:29:37] I choose to follow you. [00:29:39] Thank you for your grace and your mercy. [00:29:43] In Jesus name, Amen. Amen. If you pray that prayer or you've got questions that you would like answered, we would love for you to go and see one of our team in purple or come and see me one of the team. [00:29:58] God bless you. Thank you for being here. And my prayer for you, for all of us is that this week we would catch God's heart to be disciple makers for Jesus.