Jesus’ First Sermon (And Why It Matters)

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Pastor Foley

Part I of our series on Ransoming the Captive

If you like to put bookmarks in your Bible, you may want to stick one at Luke 4:16-21:

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:16–21, ESV)

So there you go: Jesus’ first sermon. His first public speech. The initial announcement of his ministry. And what was front and center in that announcement and in that ministry?

Ransoming Captives.

Given the way Jesus highlights the topic, then, it should be no surprise that for the first eighteen centuries of the church’s existence, the Work of Mercy of ransoming the captive in Jesus’ name was front and center in the church’s practice as well.

And, to be real clear about it (and to telegraph the punch of where we’re going this month):

For the first eighteen centuries of the church’s existence, ransoming the captive in Jesus’ name meant literally ransoming literal captives. 

In other words, the Work of Mercy of ransoming the captives is a whole life Work. It’s spiritual, to be sure, but it doesn’t stop there. Because the human being is more than spirit, and captivity is always more than spiritual. Ransoming is a spirit-soul-body activity, and I think we’ll be surprised to learn how seriously not only Jesus but the whole church took each dimension of that Work.

Ransoming the captive means the expensive day-to-day function of redeeming, or buying back, individuals taken captive by their enemies through war or kidnapping or imprisonment.

In the ancient world, families ransomed captive family members, armies ransomed captive soldiers, and whole nations ransomed their citizens.

And for eighteen centuries, the church ransomed its people, too.  This month we’re going to see how and why, and how it all connects right back to that first sermon that Jesus ever preached, and to Jesus’ ransoming of each of us.

We’ll start that in the next blog post.

In the meantime, answer this: what do you think ransoming the captive looks like for the church today?  What about for you individually?

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Be a Barnabas. Pursue a Paul. Train a Timothy.

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Pastor Foley

Part X of our series on Making Disciples

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

So says Jesus in Matthew 7:24.

This month’s field trip for the Work of Mercy of Making Disciples will take you to three different places to connect with three people who will go on to be very, very important in your life.

In the words of Pastor Paul Martin, “Be a Barnabas; Pursue a Paul; Train a Timothy.”

In other words:

  • Make sure you have a peer disciple who is holding you accountable and who you are holding accountable;
  • Ask one person to disciple you formally;
  • Identify one person for you to disciple.

Commit all three of these requests to prayer today, and pray for each one daily in your family worship time until God fulfills all three—even if it takes six years. If he fulfills the first one but not yet the other two, thank him in prayer for the first one and beseech him for the other two. He’ll give them to you. It’s a request he’ll delight in fulfilling, because it’s in accordance with his word and how he desires to train you.

Utilize your offering to facilitate the process of discipling, being discipled, and being with another disciple. Build up a resource library like D. Michael Henderson talked about so that you can regularly be building up the person God sent you to disciple. Hit the Waffle House weekly—hey, three times a week; one for each relationship!—and let God produce the growth he delights to produce in each of these crucial and transformative relationships.

Just don’t order the chocolate chip waffle with extra bacon every time you go.
Oh, and remember to use an “After Action Review” to help make this a learning experience for you.  Here are the questions I ask myself after doing the word:

  • What was the intent?
  • What happened? Why? What are the implications?
  • What lessons did we learn?
  • Now what?
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Four Elements for Every Discipleship Conversation

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Pastor Foley

Part IX of our series on Making Disciples

We’ve been talking this week about what discipleship is not.

First, we talked about how it is not therapy. As important as it may be to respond to people’s needs, which Jesus often did, he didn’t call that discipleship.  Teaching others to obey everything he commanded is how he defined discipleship.

Which, of course, means it cannot be spontaneous.  Discipleship must follow a plan: not just for what to talk about, but who to talk about it with.  It requires more than just a table by the window at Starbucks.

Today, I want to suggest some elements of such a plan with the help of D. Michael Henderson, an author and discipler whom I’ve quoted and made reference to repeatedly this week.

He suggests a predictable and manageable four-step process for conveying discipleship curriculum.  

This process is designed to keep conversations focused on pouring out and receiving the philanthropy of Christ rather than devolving into relationship chatter or—equally dangerously—endless introspection.  Despite the obviously strong application this process has for things like management and human development, our focus is on how this process characterized Jesus’ relationships with people and how those who are serious about discipleship will follow suit.

Here are four elements that every discipleship conversation should contain:

  1. A clear goal.  You don’t get to just pick one. The overarching goal is “and teach them to obey everything I’ve commanded you.” So the goal of every discipleship conversation needs to be a subset of that.
  2. Shared information which relates to that goal. Discipleship has real content. Teach specific, Scriptural command. Nothing fancy. Nothing cute. Just straight discipleship from the pages of Scripture.
  3. Strengthening of the relationship. Discipleship is more than information. Remember what we learned about Elijah and Elisha? Elisha learned by living with Elijah and following him around. That’s more than a standing weekly at Panera Bread.
  4. Agreement on the next steps toward the goal.  “Go and sin no more” is best understood, not as a platitude, but as a prescription. What’s the plan to do the word that the discipleship just heard you share from Scripture? (“That’s deep—thanks for sharing” is not a plan!)

And Henderson points out that the discipleship continues even when the conversation is over:

“The most effective conversations share information before, during, and after the conversation itself. The people who make the most difference in other people’s lives are constantly sending each other supplementary material: books, articles, quotations, personal notes, tapes, or reports.

People who are good at this follow up their discussion with a note that reaffirms their discussion, perhaps with an enclosure—an article, a photo, or a news clipping. And, just as often, they send some information prior to actually meeting:

‘John, you mentioned your interest in serving the poor in our own community. Here’s an article on Neighborhood Networks that might give you some ideas. We can discuss it when we meet on Tuesday.'”

This requires a level of planning and diligence on the part of the teacher to undertake a curriculum at this level of intentionality, direction, and rigor.

But perhaps you’re questioning whether you have the time to invest in someone’s life that way.  You have responsibilities at work, home, the gym, and your kid’s school.  Not to mention a hobby, church on Sundays, and a small group.

You’re right. You probably don’t have that kind of time. Better go and bury your father first.

Jesus will understand, I’m sure.

Are there elements of a discipleship conversation you would add or take away from this list?

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