The Calendar of Discipleship

Pastor Bob continues the sermon series on Being a Disciple-Making Church - Discipling the Next Generation

Transcript

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Well, last week we started this series on discipleship. And this morning we're looking at the calendar of discipleship. Our God is a planning God. Our God is a planning God. He does not operate randomly. We try to be planning people, some of us better than others. The problem is we are weak, and we don't know what this afternoon will bring, let alone what next week will bring. But God is a planning God, and He knows. He knows what will happen to us this afternoon, and He knows what will happen this week. And He has a plan for our lives. Verse 22, Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. And we crucified and killed him because of our sin. God has a definite plan, and that plan was planned before the foundation of the world. Before he ever started this creation, before he ever created a human being, God had a plan in place. Because he knew if I go ahead and create these humans, they're going to mess it up. Now I don't want to be disrespectful, but I sometimes just imagine heaven and the conversation that happened before the decision was made to create. Are we all in on this human thing? Because it's going to require a rescue plan. And Jesus the Son, are you willing to die to rescue these creatures? Having been a father and now a grandfather, how much harder, father, are you willing to sacrifice your one and only son to rescue these humans? And before they ever started creating, here's the plan. And we're all in. And we just thank God. I also thank God that the plan is perfectly in place, and Jesus came exactly when God planned it, and that he still hasn't returned to finish the plan. Because I don't know about you, but sometimes I wonder why didn't Jesus not just come when he had the nation of Israel, he had King David on the throne, why not send the Savior then? And then take everybody back up to heaven. But then you wouldn't have life and I wouldn't have life. And so in his perfect plan, he patiently waits until the time when the plan will be finished. And so we thank him for the life that we have. There is nothing random in this universe. There is nothing random in your life. God's plan has been in place since before you were ever created. In fact, since before the first human was ever created, God had a plan for us. The interns and I have been studying the feasts of Israel. We were leading up to Easter, and we studied through God's plan. This was a plan that was put in place before the foundation of the world. But God raised up a man, Abraham, who turned into a family that ended up in slavery, and God called them out of slavery and sent them on a path towards the promised land. And he's done the same to us. If we believe in Jesus Christ, he's called us out of the slavery of sin and set us on a path to the promised land. And this plan is mirrored in this set of feasts that God instituted for the people of Israel to observe. The first three are fulfilled by Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary. The people were told, sacrifice the lamb, because the Spirit of God is coming and he's going to kill the firstborn of everybody in Egypt. Take the blood and put it on the post of your door, so that the judgment of God would pass over you. And while you're at it, prepare unleavened bread. This is bread without leaven, which represents no sin, and put it in something, because tomorrow you are leaving Egypt. You are fleeing slavery. I am leading you out of slavery. Take this unleavened bread with you after you've killed the Passover lamb and flee Egypt. That body, the lamb represented by Jesus Christ, his sinless body laid in a grave. And they headed to the sea, and there was this obstacle of a sea in front of them, and God said to Moses, Raise your staff because you are going to go through the water and out the other side to freedom and life. And that is represented in what happened at Easter that we just celebrated. The feast of first fruits came after the feast of unleavened bread, after the Passover. Jesus, the first fruits of the resurrection to new life. There were seven feasts in all. The last three are going to be fulfilled through the plan of God when he comes again. The next feast was the feast of trumpets, when the trumpet call will sound when Jesus returns. And then the feast of booths. The people of Israel would go out in the desert for a week and build a temporary structure. And it represented that hope that one day there would be a new creation. And that feast will be fulfilled when God reveals his new creation that we will live in for eternity. This plan was put in place before he ever started creating, and the people of Israel celebrated this all through their time before Christ came. That middle one. After the first fruits is called the Feast of Weeks. Seven weeks after the Feast of First Fruits, that is seven times seven, on the 50th day, they would celebrate the Feast of Weeks. And they would take, they would, God led them out through the Red Sea, and they headed towards Mount Sinai, and fifty days later, Moses went up on the mountain, and God gave them the law, his word. And throughout their history, they would celebrate that at the Feast of Weeks, fifty days after leaving Egypt. Today, that is fulfilled at the day of Pentecost. And that is the day that the Spirit of God, promised by God before the foundation of the world, prophesied by David, we read Psalm 16 in our reading today, when I will pour out my spirit. And so we are right now actually in the church calendar between the feast of first fruits when Jesus rises from the dead on Easter Sunday, and the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit is poured out on his believers. We are heading up to Pentecost. And so I just want to put to you the calendar of God is the feast of weeks when he gave us his law, his word, and the feast of Pentecost when he gave us his spirit. If you want to be a child of God and be discipled by him, this is what we need in our lives. We need the Spirit of God to guide us and the word of God to be applied to us. That is the calendar of God. And discipleship can look like many different things. It can be a conversation, it can be a Bible study. It can be your personal time of reading his word. It can be a missions trip, as our youth do every summer, where we go away and we have a plan and we read his word together and we're on mission to get something accomplished. Whatever it is that God is calling you to do, it is the word of God, together with the Spirit of God, for us to get on the plan of God. That is discipleship. God does not leave us wondering what to do. Verse 28 of Acts chapter 2, you have made known to me the paths of life. Ephesians 2.10 says, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Your name is on God's calendar for this week, with tasks assigned to you since before the creation of the world. Isn't that amazing? Your name on God's calendar for this week with something he's prepared for you to do, what you need is his word and his spirit to get it done. What is God asking you to do this week? What conversation does he want you to have? How does he want you to grow in your relationship with him? What discipleship plan do you have that brings the Word of God and us listening to the Spirit of God? The second point is our God is a powerful God. God raised up, God raised him up, Jesus, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh seek corruption. This Jesus, God raised up, and of that we are witnesses. Our God is a powerful God. He has the power over death. But I think one of the most miraculous things that God can do is He can transform a human heart. If I struggle with bitterness, God's power is able to overcome that. If I struggle with anger, if I struggle with addiction, if I struggle with fear or anxiety, the miraculous thing is that God's Spirit, with His word, can transform that heart. That is the miracle of miracles in human existence. God can transform a human heart to be more like Jesus. Yes, he can raise the dead. That's easy. He raised Lazarus from the dead, and it's interesting when you think of the plan of God, he did it strategically weeks before he was about to die. The people marveled that Jesus was able to do this. But he left Lazarus in the grave for four days. Strategically, that was the plan, so that there was no question he was beginning to stink. He was dead for four days. But Jesus came along and raised that body back to life. That's not hard for God to do. But when we get on his plan and we know what's on his calendar, and we take his word and listen to his spirit, he can transform my heart with whatever struggle I might have. Our God is also a present God. With his presence, he has shown me the path of life. David said concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. I don't know what God has called you to walk through this week. It was on his calendar. It's not a surprise to him. He is also with us as we walk through this week. He does not abandon us ever. And I just boast for a minute. My mom turns 90 this week. And uh my dad is still alive, 93. They were called by God to go to Africa. They prepared, they studied, they listened, and their plan was they're going to this country called Angola. And then a civil war breaks out while they're on the way. They didn't know. Ended up in a totally different country. Was it easy? No. But they listened to the Spirit of God and applied the word of God and they went. And it was often difficult. Just a funny story. We they would go out into the bush and uh have conferences and preach and church plant, and us kid, I didn't know what was going on. I didn't see danger anywhere. We would want to go swimming in the river. There's crocodiles in the river. I had a picture of my mom. Us kids swimming in the river, and she's got a stick. As I got old now, I'm like, mom, what did you think you were gonna do? It's not easy. Danger is always around. I don't know what God has in your calendar this week, but it's been there since before God created the world. This week, Monday morning, his calendar. We can run around and live by our own calendar. We can ignore the Spirit of God, not read his word, but if we do that, we're gonna miss the plan. Finally, I'm just gonna invite the youth band to come up to get ready. Our God is a promising God. God gave those feasts to Israel to commemorate what he had done, how he had led them out of slavery, his future plan of a new creation. But as the people moved through the desert, they ended up in their new home, the Promised Land. They had new neighbors. They had new challenges, they had new unknowns, they had new tasks that God wanted them to give. And they started ignoring the plan. They started turning to false gods. They were tasked with it was a very agricultural society. They had to grow food. The Middle East isn't always easy. There's often drought. And they would turn to their neighbor and say, Well, what do you do to make sure the rain comes? Or how do you get your crops to grow? And the neighbor would just say, Oh, we just offer a sacrifice here, or we worship this God here. Don't, you don't have to give up on your one God. You can still believe in him, but why don't you just try this little offering here? And they started listening to their neighbors that, oh, maybe this is the hope for recovery. Maybe the answer is over here with this plan. Why spend so much time reading that dusty old book? You actually believe that God speaks to you? I often say to our young people, especially in university, do you dare stand there and say, I speak to God every day? People think you're crazy. People literally think you are crazy. And yet that is what God's tasked us to do. His calendar is the word of God delivered at Mount Sinai with the Spirit of God delivered at Pentecost. And he says, if you want to get on my calendar, tune out this world system. Stop listening to your neighbors. Get on my calendar. Finally, verse 38 and 39. And Peter said to the people that heard this message, the first sermon preached in the church included Psalm 16. And he said, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus, for the forgiveness of your sins. If we want to get on God's calendar, we have to deal with our sin. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off. Praise the Lord. We who are afar off still get that message to. Who is God asking you to deliver that message to this week? Who on his calendar is your job to give the witness of who Jesus Christ is this week? And they were cut to the heart when they heard the message. Pastor Tyler mentioned in Quebec there were 70 some odd baptisms last year. Peter's first sermon? 3,000. 3,000? Let's just pray for one. Let's pray for 3,000. But as the spirit was poured out on those people, I think the disciples were actually in the temple. It talks about them being in a house, but that could include the temple of God. And the spirit was poured out on them as they were worshiping God, and people from all over the world heard the gospel in their message, in their tongue. And 3,000 people believed. Let's get on board the calendar of God. Let's get our lives on the calendar of discipleship. And let's finish the service praising God, singing this song Washed. We are washed in the blood of Jesus, and that's the message we want to give to the world this week.