The Prophet Isaiah 8:11-18 [NLTse]

¹¹ The Lord has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does. He said,

¹² “Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do, and don’t live in dread of what frightens them. ¹³ Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life. He is the One you should fear. He is the One Who should make you tremble. ¹⁴ He will keep you safe. But to Israel and Judah He will be a stone that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem He will be a trap and a snare. ¹⁵ Many will stumble and fall, never to rise again. They will be snared and captured.”

¹⁶ Preserve the teaching of God; entrust His instructions to those who follow me. ¹⁷ I will wait for the Lord, Who has turned away from the descendants of Jacob. I will put my hope in Him.

¹⁸ I and the children the Lord has given me serve as signs and warnings to Israel from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies Who dwells in His Temple on Mount Zion.

The Gospel According to Matthew 7:21-23 [NLTse]

²¹ “Not everyone who calls out to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of My Father in Heaven will enter. ²² On judgment day many will say to Me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in Your name and cast out demons in Your name and performed many miracles in Your name.’ ²³ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from Me, you who break God’s laws.’

The Letter from James 1:19-25 [NLTse]

¹⁹ Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. ²⁰ Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. ²¹ So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls. ²² But don’t just listen to God’s Word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. ²³ For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. ²⁴ You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. ²⁵ But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

I was looking up the word “disciple” recently. It’s become so equated with Christianity that the first three definitions I found on Dictionary.com defined it in that sense. But definition “4” is what I’d like us to think about together today:

A disciple is “a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another; follower: a disciple of Freud.” A “pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another”; so a disciple is a student: One who studies the teachings of someone. And as Christians that means we study the teachings of God, the good news of Jesus Christ: We study Him; we follow Him; we live Him.

And yet, how? We’re all so different, and our personalities and temperaments can lead us to express the life of Jesus is so many different ways! We see friends and mentors or others we look up to living Jesus’ life around us, and we’re inspired, but their “way” just doesn’t work for us. And so we become discouraged, thinking, “There’s something wrong with me”, or “I should’ve known God wouldn’t want a screw-up like me”, or something similar. But the truer truth may simply be that our friend’s “way” of living Jesus’ life just isn’t our way of living Jesus’ life.

If you look at Jesus’ life across the Word of God there seem to be different, distinct areas of His life with God: We see Christ at prayer, and we listen to His teaching on the life of intimacy with the Father; we see Jesus doing battle with temptation, and we listen to His teaching on the importance of virtue and purity of heart; we see Him doing His ministry empowered by the Holy Spirit, and we listen to His teaching on the comfort, wisdom, strength, and power that come from the indwelling of the Spirit of God; we see our Savior caring for the sick and the needy, and listen to His teaching on the importance of caring for our neighbor; and, we see Him reading from the Scriptures, focused on the lost, and we listen to His teaching on the importance of hearing His Word and doing it. We see each of these distinct-but-overlapping areas of the Lord Jesus’ life being lived out across the history of the Church, as well.

In the fourth century men and women fled the life of the city to found cloisters and monasteries, emphasizing the importance of solitude, meditation, and prayer. St. Augustine was one of these. This renewal of intimacy with God strengthened the Church in that day. We’ve come to speak of that as the contemplative movement.

In the late twelfth century a man named Francis of Assisi abandoned his former life and went about the countryside of Italy caring for the sick, the poor, and the lame. Countless men and women followed Francis’ lead, and the Church’s impact on disease and poverty was remarkable. We’ve called similar crusades across history social justice movements.

In the fifteenth century the Church witnessed a renaissance recognizing the importance of the Bible and preaching. Martin Luther and others provided believers with access to the Bible that had previously been unavailable to them. This resulted in a reawakening of the role of the laity in expressing the life of Christ to the world. The Protestant emphasis upon personal witness and evangelism naturally followed, and we speak of such times as evangelical movements.

In the seventeenth century the Church witnessed a new outbreak of the Holy Spirit in the lives of men and women who were called “Quakers,” led by the ministry of George Fox. The active presence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers became the empowering principle behind scores of conversions. The active role of the Spirit was at the center of their worship, and it propelled them into evangelism, missions, and addressing social concerns. An example of charismatic movements.

In the early eighteenth century the Anglican priest John Wesley and his friends (who were nicknamed “the Holy Club”) began focusing on moral laxity and the need for the removal of sinful habits in the life of Christian men and women. Because of the effectiveness of their “method”, the Church once again took sin seriously, and the results were dramatic. This is an example of a holiness movement.

And there have been other, similar movements before and after, the sovereign Lord-of-all stirring up His people to

more intimate devotion;

increased virtue in our thoughts, words, and actions;

a more earnest seeking of the Spirit’s empowerment for ministry;

deeper compassion toward all people; and,

more widespread evangelism to the lost.

The heart of God fully expressed in the Son of God to be fully expressed by the sons and daughters of God.

And so while our friends or mentors may be more drawn to the evangelical life of Christ, we may be more drawn to the holiness life. Where this or that Christian leader may be so boldly living out the charismatic life of Christ, we may recognize the Savior directing us to address His social justice concerns. One Body, one Spirit, one glorious hope for the future; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father Who is over us all and in us all and living through us all, but many ways to live out His fullness here in the world.

And each are important because contemplatives can forget the needs of the world, and moralists focusing on sin can neglect compassion, and charismatics seeking the gifts can neglect the Giver, and social activists can forget to listen to God, and Bible-Study enthusiasts can feel no need for the Holy Spirit…

There’s a special Insert in our Worship Bulletins this morning. It lists some different exercises we can do to strengthen the different aspects of Jesus’ life with God in our lives with Him.

For instance, there’s the contemplative practice of spending time in silence or praying using Scripture; there’s the holiness practice of fasting and of spending an entire day without saying anything negative; there’s the charismatic practices of intentionally yielding to the work of God’s Spirit and finding out our spiritual gifts; the social justice practices of seeking out injustices and of guarding the reputation of others; and, the evangelical practices of memorizing Scripture and telling someone about your faith.

Last week we celebrated in a focused way the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Let’s “turn up” our life of faith a few notches. He is risen! And He has so much more life for us to be living!