Sermon: Healthy Family – The Aims of Discipleship

Talk by Christoph Lindner at our 10.30am service on Sunday, 9th February 2020.

This sermon is based on Matthew 3. 1-6, 4.12-17

Here are the notes from the front page of our news sheet:

Healthy Family: The Aims of Discipleship

“If you aim at nothing, you are bound to hit it!”

 “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.” (Jesus)

What are the aims of Christian Discipleship?

• Participating in the Kingdom mission of Jesus. “Your kingdom come … on earth as it is in heaven.” “The Kingdom of God … is the reign of God over all the forces of death, the triumph of love over all the forces of hatred, the triumph of peace over all the forces of violence and warfare.” (Professor John Hull)
• Transformation: personally (conversion and discipleship) and of our society and world (social justice). This larger transformation happens one person at a time as we become more like Jesus. “What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.” (Mother Teresa). We can only do this through the power of the Holy Spirit and because through all our failures, God forgives us and gives us another chance (and another!).
• Disciples in the whole of our lives. “Our primary calling is to make a difference where we find ourselves most of the time.” (The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC) – licc.org.uk)
• A vibrant, full life. Not just ‘whole-life disciples’, but ‘full-life disciples. “I have come that they may have abundant life.” (Jesus in John 10.10). No one is attracted to Jesus by a dull and joyless Christian!
• Gathering people into community. Community with Jesus and one another, that will model heaven on earth, “resident aliens” (Stanley Hauerwas). The more communities of disciples there are, the more transformation we will see!
• A heavenly calling. “We may be confident that the crowning wonder of our experience will be in the heavenly realm with endless exploration of that unutterable beauty, majesty, love, holiness, power, joy and grace which is God himself.” (Bruce Milne)