Meant to Fly

Date: February 2, 2020

Bible Text: 2 Timothy 3:1-5 | Stephen Weenink

Series: He Is We Are

No audio recording this week.  Here is my script:

He Is, We Are(Mat. 16:24)

This morning we are continuing in our series on discipleship.

Discipleship is the process by which we become more like Jesus by giving our “yes” to Him.

Dallas Willard put it this way, “Discipleship is the process of becoming who Jesus would be if He were you.”

Jesus wants to transform every area of our life so that it looks more and more like His life.  Over the course of this year we’re going to look at what it means to be a disciple of Jesus within the culture that we all exist in.

• Disciples don’t just know some things or believe some things about Jesus.
• Disciples aren’t just moral people who subscribe to a set of cultural values.
• Disciples want to become like Jesus.

There are many people who claim to adhere to the Christian religion that are not disciples of Jesus.  Unless someone wants to become like Christ, they are not disciples, nor are they Christians.

JC Ryle, “There is a common, worldly kind of Christianity in this day, which many have, and think they have enough – a cheap Christianity which offends nobody, and requires no sacrifice – which costs nothing, and is worth nothing.”

Martin Luther, “A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.”

A passage that we’re going to come back to time and time again is Matthew 16:24 in which Jesus says, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.”

Discipleship is the process by which we become more like Jesus by giving up our own way and giving our “yes” to Him…

A Dangerous Compromise (2 Tim. 3:1-5)

The problem is that we don’t become disciples in a vacuum.  We live in a fallen world, filled with lies and liars that are trying to conform us to their own ways.

• Consumerism, materialism, individualism, hedonism, post-modernism and other popular philosophies try to pull us into their orbit.
• These philosophies want to adopt you to their ways.
• They try to convince you that truth and meaning are found in their ways.

We are so immersed in our culture and are so convinced by its way that we begin to believe the lies that it speaks to us:

• We want Jesus, but we also want to fit in, so we compromise.
• We believe that elements of discipleship can mix with worldliness.
• We begin compromising our theology in order to fit into the culture.
• We begin compromising our mission in order to fit into the culture.

The resulting effect is a powerless church and a body of Christians who have no power.  In 2 Timothy 3, the apostle Paul warns his protégé Timothy about what can happen when we begin down this road of compromise,

“You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. ² For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. ³ They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. ⁴ They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. ⁵ They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!”

What is the church in the west but a group of people who “have the appearance of godliness, but reject the power that could make them godly?”

Reggie McNeal, Christian Leadership Specialist for the Leadership Network in the USA says, “Church culture in North America is a vestige of the original Christian movement, an institutional expression of religion that is in part a civil religion and in part a club where religious people can hang out with other people who politics, worldview, and lifestyle match theirs.”

The Skylark and the Worms

We may not think compromise is dangerous, but even the degree it takes us off course can change our destination…  A parable:

One day long ago, over the hot sands of a Middle Eastern country, a white skylark flew in joyous loops about the sky.  As she swooped near the earth, she heard a merchant cry out, “Worms! Worms!  Worms for feathers!  Delicious Worms!” 

The skylark circled about the merchant, hungry at the mention of worms, but puzzled about what the merchant meant.  Little did the skylark know that the merchant was the devil.  And seeing the skylark was interested, the devil motioned her nearer.  “Come here, my little friend.  Come!  See the lovely worms I have!”

Cautiously, the skylark landed and cocked her head to the merchant.  “Come!  Taste the juicy worms!”  The skylark became aware that she was, indeed, quite hungry.  And these worms looked bigger and tastier than any she had ever dug for herself out of the hardscrabble ground of the desert.  The skylark hopped closer and put her beak close to the worm.  “Two worms for a feather, my friend.  Two worms for merely one!” 

The skylark was unable to resist.  And she had, after all, so many feathers.  So, with the swift motion she pulled out a feather – just a small one – from beneath her wing and gave it to the merchant.  “Take your pick, my little friend…any two, your heart’s desire!”  The skylark quickly snatched up two of the plumpest worms and swallowed her meal with delight.  Never before had she tasted such wonderful worms.  With a loud chirp, she leapt into the air and resumed her joyful flight.

Day after day the skylark returned.  And always the merchant had wonderful worms to offer:  black ones and blue ones, red ones and green one, all fat and shiny and iridescent.  But one day, after eating her fill, the skylark leapt again into the air – and to her horror, she fell to the ground with a thud.  She was unable to fly! 

All at once with a shock she realized what had happened.  From eating the delicious worms she had grown fatter and fatter; and she had plucked her feathers one by one, first her body, then her tail, and finally her very wings had grown balder and balder.  Horrified, she remembered how slowly, imperceptibly, day by day, it had been getting harder and harder to fly, and how she had told herself it was no matter.  She could always stop before it was too late.  Now suddenly, here she was, trapped on the ground.  She looked up and saw the merchant looking at her.  Was that a small, sly grin spreading across his face?  He grabbed the now helpless bird, put her in a cage, and walked away laughing. 

Little by little Christians have compromised their allegiance to the radical way of Jesus and have ended up in a cage made of a thousand little compromises.

A Cage of a Thousand Compromises

Barna Research Group recently concluded a study and published their findings in a book called “Faith for Exiles.”  The book surveyed young people aged 18-29 in different levels of commitment to God on beliefs, philosophy and lifestyle.  Here are some of the results for the typical millennial churchgoer:

32%believe that, “All human beings are essentially broken and flawed because they have rebelled against God.”

56%believe that, “Jesus Christ was crucified and raised from the dead to conquer sin and death.”

43%believe that, “God’s ultimate plan for the world is to set things right and renew all things.”

76% believe in heaven while only 68%believe in hell.

On issues of basic theology, the normal churchgoing Christian in North America is essentially failing. Wrong belief leads to wrong thinking.

49%think that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and contains truth.

41%think that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches.

39%think that the Bible contains everything I need to know and live a meaningful life.

Wrong thinking leads to wrong living:

34% of habitual churchgoersbelieve that they have a personal responsibility to tell others about their beliefs.

42%believe that “lying is morally wrong.”

35% believe that “part of their purpose in life is to serve others.”

46%believe that “sex is designed by God to be between a man & a woman in marriage.”

50% believe that abortion should be legal in all/most cases.

How can we call ourselves Christians, when we don’t believe the very things that Jesus teaches, dismiss the authority of Scripture and miss out on the lifestyle of service and surrender that Jesus calls us to?

Voltaire wrote, “In the beginning God created man in His own image, and man has been trying to repay the favor ever since.”

Radical Discipleship(Acts 4:8-14)

How can we reclaim the radical discipleship modelled by Jesus that transformed 12 lowly, uneducated and despised members of Jewish society into people who rocked the ancient Roman world?

The disciples that Jesus called to follow Him had their lives completely transformed by spending 3 years following Jesus around.  Learning from Him and imitating Him.

Shortly after Jesus had risen from the dead and the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Church, two of these disciples: Peter and John had to stand trial before the Jewish Council for healing a crippled beggar on the Sabbath. These men looked, acted and spoke like Jesus.

Listen to this passage from Acts 4:

⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, ⁹ are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? ¹⁰ Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. ¹¹ For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says,

‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’

¹² There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

¹³ When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. ¹⁴ But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say…

When we compromise our discipleship and our allegiance to the radical way of Jesus, this is what we lose:

• A super-natural life of outcome and impact.

We need to reclaim our faith as something that is unsullied by the influence of the world and follow the radical way of Jesus again.

A Change of Course (Rom. 12:2)

Romans 12:2, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

In order to recapture what Jesus originally intended for a disciple to be, we need to be willing to have 6 areas of our lives transformed in order for our lives to be conformed to Jesus.  These areas will be our guideposts as we go through this series:

1. Transformed Minds – Believing What Jesus Believed

• It’s one thing to believe in Jesus. It’s quite another to believe what Jesus believed.  Thinking and feeling what Jesus does.

2. Transformed Character – Living the Way Jesus Lived

• C.S. Lewis – “Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before... you are turning either into a Heaven creature or into a hellish creature…”

3. Transformed Relationships – Loving as Jesus Loved

• 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give you: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.  Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
• This is not just a “feeling of love” but the action of love…

4. Transformed Habits – Pursuing the Practices of Jesus

• Disciples decide to arrange their lives around the practices of Jesus.
• Imitating Jesus in spiritual disciplines in order for us to heighten our dependency upon God.

5. Transformed Service – Ministering as Jesus Ministered

• To minister means to serve.
• Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
• A life so lost in benefitting others that your personal needs and wants don’t play a big role in your thoughts…

6. Transformed Influence – Leading the Way Jesus Led

• Our influence in and on the world as disciples of Jesus will be established in the same way that Jesus displayed His influence.
• Through humility, submission, obedience, suffering and exaltation.
• God gives His influence to those who need it to benefit those who don’t have it.

Why does Jesus want to transform our lives so that we become more like Him?  Jesus said in John 10:10 “My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”

Take It Home:

1. What areas of your life are you most prone to compromise? Believing the world’s take on reality rather than Jesus’…
2. Has your Christianity felt like a caged existence rather than a free one? Why do you think that is?
3. Knowing that much compromise starts as a result of “wrong belief”, what place does Bible study have in your life?
4. Are you willing to have your life transformed by submitting your mind, your character, your relationships, your habits, your service and your influence to Jesus?
5. What do you need to do in order to begin this process?

Topics: Discipleship