"Upon this rock I will build My church."
Matthew 16:18
IT HAPPENS IN CHURCH
Read It: Ephesians 5:23-27
Reading today's text, you might think I got mixed up and slipped in .something from the marriage and family series. Actually, when you read Ephesians 5, you realize that these verses are among the strongest statements of Jesus' love for the Church in all of the New Testament. Why is that so important for the subject of discipleship? Being a Christian disciple means following and imitating Jesus, right? That includes loving what He loves and hating what He hates. Now if you're a disciple and your teacher says to you, "This is so important that I'm going to die for it," you'd sit up straight and pay close attention. That's how much Jesus values the Church. And that's why today discipleship cipleship occurs in the context of the local church. That's the second part of the definition of discipleship I gave you at the beginning of last week. The first principle is that discipleship is a process of spiritual development. ment. We looked at that pretty thoroughly last week. Later this week we'll consider the other two elements of that definition before spending our final two weeks looking at some very interesting New Testament disciples. Let me add two words that explain what I mean by the context of the Church: accountable relationships. You can be born by yourself, but you can't grow by yourself. You cannot become a fully mature disciple by yourself. So when you hear people talking about, "Well, you don't have to go to church. You can worship God in your heart," what those people are trying to do is give you a theological-sounding excuse for their spiritual itual laziness.
But you cannot grow apart from dynamic involvement in the body of Christ. If He can die for the Church, it won't kill you and me to show up at the church! Did you know the word disciple only appears in the Gospels and Acts? After that it isn't used. Why? Because once Jesus went back to heaven and established His Church, He turned over to the Church what had been His personal ministry of making disciples. So if you're not dynamically involved in the church, you're missing the action! Think About It We're to hold each other accountable for our growth as disciples. You won't find anybody who will do that for you except at church.
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