Take a moment and think about the ministry of Jesus, did he ever meet someone and not ask them to change or grow? I thought through many of the encounters Jesus had with people and I have to tell you that I could not think of one meeting where Jesus didn’t call someone to live a new life. Jesus was constantly calling people to change their hearts, live different lives, grow in their faith and learn how to really trust in God. Let’s look a couple of these encounters.
John 8:1-11. Maybe more than any other story about Jesus, this one shows us these two truths at work. While everyone else was ready to stone this woman because of her sin, Jesus loved her just the way she was. He didn’t tell her to go change your ways and then I’ll forgive you. He didn’t make her confess and repent before he offered her grace – he loved her just the way she was and that love was seen by Jesus not passing judgment on her in front of the crowds and treating her with respect and a measure of dignity, but Jesus didn’t leave her where she was – he called her to live a new life. Go and leave your life of sin is a call to change and live a more faithful, God honoring life. Jesus wants more for her and so invites her to grow in her life and faith.
Luke 19:1-10. Again, we see here the unconditional love of Jesus. Zacchaeus is considered a sinner. He is a tax collector and because he is a wealthy tax collector, we can assume that he cheated many of his fellow Jews. He is hated by the people around him and yet when Jesus sees him he doesn’t tell him to give up his job or clean up his heart or confess his crimes before they eat together – he simply says I am going to your house today. Jesus loves him just the way he is, but then notice that after lunch – Zacchaeus is a changed man. Jesus has obviously said something to him to make him change his heart and that call to live a new life is not only heard, it is embraced by Zacchaeus. Jesus loves him just the way he was, but he doesn’t leave him in that state – he calls him to something better – no pun intended here but he calls Zacchaeus (a short man) to grow – not in height but in heart.
And now look at Luke 5:3-11. While we don’t often hear this version of Jesus calling the disciples, it is one of my favorites because I think I would have responded much like Peter who believes that he is just too sinful to be in the presence of Jesus let alone to be a disciple, and yet look at Jesus response. Jesus doesn’t say to Peter, yeah, you’re right – you are too sinful so I’m going to go find someone else. Jesus stays right there and in love continues to call him to be a disciple. Jesus loves Peter for who he is in that moment – but again calls him to a new life.
Over and over again we see that Jesus loves people for who they are in all their sinfulness and brokenness and with all of their pain and problems – but then he calls them to grow - to change their hearts and their lives by growing in their faith and learning to trust God. Now this is not a new work of God started in Jesus, God has been doing this from the very beginning. God has always called people to grow in their faith and go deeper in their relationship with Him. The 10 Commandments and all of the law and the teaching of the prophets were given to help the people learn to trust God more and walk with God more faithfully. Abraham and Moses were called by God just as they were, but then God called them to grow in their relationship with Him and learn to trust him more, so a core value of God’s kingdom has always been to grow and strengthen our faith and we need to keep this call to grow at the core of who we are and who we are as a church.
Now 2 ways that we can grow in our faith are to return to the first 2 core values we have already consider and make sure that we are connected and serving. Our faith will grow when we connect to God and to one another – it will just happen – that’s what Jesus tells us in John 15:5. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches and if we make sure that we are connected to God then we will bear fruit – or we will grow. Think about it, the only way grapes can grow and mature and ripen is if the branches that the fruit grows on stays connected to the vine. The only we will grow is if we stay connected to Jesus and so we need to commit ourselves to that core value of being connected to God through worship, prayer and study.
30 years ago this month I was a freshman at MSU and started attending IVCF. I didn’t get connected to God right away, but I did get connected to the people of God. I joined a Bible study and during the next 6 months as I studied the bible with a group of guys and I grew more in my faith than at any other time in my life before or since and it all happened because I got connected to the people of God and then to God. I got connected to the Body of Christ (a small group Bible study) and then I got connected to God through his Word and because of that connection - I grew. Growth happens when we get connected, but it also happens when we serve.
Fast forward a few months and in the spring semester of my freshman year our little Bible study group had grown to over 20 people and we were losing some of the power that comes when everyone has the chance to share so I suggested that maybe we needed to break into 2 groups. Everyone liked the idea but no one wanted to lead the other group so they asked me. Now you have to understand that at this point in my life I believed in God and I was learning to understood who Jesus was, but I had not surrendered my life to Christ and I had never led a Bible study before, but a friend said he would help me so I stepped out and was willing to serve and during the next few months I continued to grow in my faith and trust in God. In fact, I think it was that time of service which eventually led me to surrender my life to Jesus and then late on hear the call of God to serve him full time in the life of the church.
We will grow when we step out to serve and the reason is because when we step out to serve we are usually stepping outside of our comfort zones and so have to trust God more. As long as we only do those things we know we have the strength, power and ability to do, we will never really learn what it means to become dependent upon God and therefore we will never grow, but when we step out in faith and attempt to do those things that we know will only be accomplished through the power of God, when we become dependent upon God – really dependent upon God – we will grow.
Think about Peter again. Jesus said that he was going to be a fisher of men and women, but let’s face it; Peter didn’t have the strength or ability to do that. He wasn’t a public speaker – he was a fisherman, and Peter usually failed to grasp what Jesus was saying and at one point when he was asked if he knew who Jesus was – he said he no. Trusting in his own ability Peter wasn’t going to get anywhere, but somewhere along the line Peter surrenders himself to God and becomes dependent upon the Holy Spirit and when he steps out in faith to preach, his first sermon catches 3,000 men and women. He was doing the impossible because he wasn’t trusting in himself. Growth happens when we stop trusting in ourselves and step out to serve God. Growth happens when we connect and serve and when we connect and serve - we grow. While they are all interconnected, we have to be willing to commit ourselves to all three and while it seems easy to commit ourselves to connecting to God and the church and serving those around us, are we willing to commit ourselves to growth. Are we hungry for growth? Do we want more of Jesus?
I have recently finished a book called Radical and the author David Platt shares several stories about the persecuted church around the world. In one story the author is asked to speak at a Bible study in an Asian country where it is illegal to study the Bible. They tell him to hide him in the back seat of a car as they drive all over the city and finally out into the country. When they get out of the car they tell him to pull the hood over his head, keep his head down and just follow the feet of the person in front of him. They walk quite a distance to get to a house where a group of believers are eagerly waiting him to come and teach. When he arrives he teaches for an hour – but they want more. So he goes for two hours and then three and then four and they still want more. He teaches them for 8 hours and then they make plans to study the next day because they wanted to know more of God. After 9 days they had finished the Old Testament and David only had one day left so he was going to just teach them about some random subject when one of the men came up to him and said, “we have a problem. You have taught us the entire Old Testament, but you have not taught us the New Testament.” David thought the man was joking, but he was serious, and so for 12 hours that last day David taught this group the entire New Testament.
When I read that I have to say that I was both excited and humbled. Excited that the Holy Spirit still moves like this today and humbled and almost ashamed because I’m not sure it is moving in me this way. Would I be willing to give a whole day to reading God’s word? Would we be willing to give up the comforts of our church to gather in secret and under the threat of danger for 10 days straight to learn more about God and how he wants us to live? Are we that hungry and committed to growing in our faith? Is growth a core value of our lives and of our church?
If we aren’t hungry and if this kind of growth just seems foreign to us, then maybe the place we need to start is to ask God to make us hungry to grow? Can we ask God to ignite a flame within us that will cause us to hunger for God’s word and presence and power? It’s a dangerous prayer, but it might be the prayer that we need to pray today and it might the prayer our church and the church around the world needs right now as well.
Now as we talk about growth as a core value I want us to go back to the story of Peter because there is another side of growth that we need to consider, look at Luke 5:10.
Jesus wasn’t just calling Peter to grow in his faith – he was calling Peter to help grow this movement and spread the news of Jesus. God wants everyone to be saved. 1 Timothy 2:4 says that God desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. God wants everyone to know the life saving message of Jesus which means that God wants the church to grow. The great commission, one of Jesus’ final instructions to us is to go and make disciples of all nations – all people - and to baptize them, which means we bring them into the community of faith, the church. We need to be committed to not only growing our faith but growing the church as well.
Now many times when we hear about this kind of growth we begin to get uncomfortable because we think that it means we have to go out and knock on doors or stand on the street corners and talk about Jesus, but that is not the model for church growth given to us by Jesus. If we want to grow the church then what we need to do is commit ourselves to growing our faith. Let me say it again, the best way to grow the church is to simply grow our own faith because as we grow in our faith and as we live out our faith step by step, day be day, God will grow the church – it will simply happen.
Look at Acts 2:42-47a. What we see here is a picture of the early followers of Jesus growing in their faith. They are connecting themselves to God and to one another through prayer and teaching and worship and they are serving one another as they make sure no one has any needs, and so what we see is that they have committed themselves to growing their faith. Now look at the result of their commitment to these core values, Acts 4:27b. Growth of the church! The church grew. It just happened and this is the best model for growing the church we have. When we get serious about growing our own faith - God will get serious and send the power of his Holy Spirit which will bring people into the life of the church.
Committing ourselves to growing the church and growing our own faith will require change and sacrifice and while growth often involves pain, but it also brings the joy of knowing the power of God and a more abundant life. If you want to take a step forward and commit to this core value of growth, there are several suggested next steps you can take today.
• Connect with others in a Small Group or Sunday School class
• For the next month give God 5 hours a week
• Try the 90 day experiment
• Go big and commit to reading the Bible in the next 365 days.
• Tithe and learn to become dependent financially upon God.
And if we aren’t hungry or passionate for any of this – then I want to invite you to pray. Ask God for a hunger to grow and allow God to ignite that passion within. God wants us to grow, God loves us just the way we are – but he doesn’t want to leave us where and how he finds us; he wants us to grow so that we will experience the fullness of life and the power and love of His kingdom and he wants us to grow so that others will be saved.
