Walking with the Spirit part 1

The Head, Heart, and Hand of God

We begin a new series this week looking at the topic of discipleship. In the coming weeks, we will look at being a disciple and discipling others through the lens of the Fruit of the Spirit, but for today, let’s take a look at what God is doing as He transforms us from death to life.

Now, for many of us who grew up in church, discipleship has become more of an individual process. We tend to think of our own “personal walk with Christ” rather than seeing our life as part of a community of believers. It should be noted the Bible does not describe faith in this way. While we do see the idea of individual responsibility, the individual is always taught, and matures in faith, in light of his/her community. Israel is treated corporately. Sinners and rebels were to be corrected, punished, or sent out by the community as a whole. Parents taught their children the Law and faith within the context and boundaries of their own practice in the temple. Moving into the New Testament era, Christians may come to faith as individuals, but they are brought into the community of believers who are responsible for, and to, one another.

This pattern of (a lack of) community is why our current understanding of faith and discipleship is so problematic. Our culture has adopted such an individualistic attitude that we have forgotten how to hold each other accountable, and worse even encourage one another. Just consider one of the most controversial things we could do. When was the last time you heard one parent give parental advice, or correction, to another parent? I don’t mean between spouses, I mean someone is in a store, and they see little Johnny throwing a fit. Another parent, someone who has been there and done that, comes along and says, “Oh, I see you might be struggling a bit. Here’s something that worked with my child.” The consequences of such a well-meaning action could end up on social media for the dramatic entertainment.

Just as many parents will scream, “Don’t tell me how to raise my kids,” many Christians maintain a similar attitude of “Don’t tell me how to follow Jesus.” Now, they may not say such a thing, at least out loud, that is the underlying attitude.

As we consider the topic of discipleship, we must be ready to sacrifice this individualistic attitude on the altar in order to understand discipleship as the Bible describes it.

The Bible describes discipleship as a corporate responsibility of the local church to fulfill the Great Commission in teaching one another to obey everything the Lord commanded.

Now, as I said, the Bible has this corporate language throughout its pages, but for the sake of time and this series, I’d like to lay a foundation for discipleship and then skip to the fruit of discipleship, or as Paul calls it, the Fruit of the Spirit. We can know the Holy Spirit is working in our lives, and thus, we are becoming better disciples of Christ, when we see this fruit in our lives. But, even more so, we know we are truly disciples when we see this fruit in one another and collectively together.

Moving From Earthly Living to Heavenly Life

Every Christian, just like every person, is a product of their culture. We inherit belief systems, bias, and all sorts of mannerisms from our culture. For some, they maintain these cultural systems for their whole lives, but for others, they are influenced by other cultures and historical studies that adjust their way of thinking. One aspect of conversion, that is becoming a follower of Jesus, is the idea that we are moving from our inherited earthly culture into the culture of the heavenly kingdom.

Conversion to Christianity includes recognizing both our personal sin and the corruption of sin in this world.

Many centuries ago, Augustine called this recognition the “city of God” and the “city of the earth”. Since the fall of Adam and Eve, two kingdoms have existed and grown in the world—those who follow the Lord (city of God) and those who follow Satan (city of earth). When we convert, we move from one city into another. Within this new city, there is a new language, a new way of relating to one another, and a new system of priorities.

Paul describes it this way in Ephesians.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:1-7

Notice Paul includes this language of lifestyle. We were “dead in our sins…following the prince of the power of the air…carrying out the desires of the body and mind…like the rest of mankind.” But then, we are made “alive together with Christ…raised up with Christ…and seated us with him in the heavenly places.” Now, you may not believe you have reached heaven just yet, but the reality is: if you are saved and following Jesus, your life is already life is already with Christ in heaven. This current state is just waiting for your body to catch up. N.T. Wright has said maturing in our faith is simply making sure heaven isn’t a complete culture shock for when we arrive.

Just like any culture move, it takes time for us to acclimate to our new environment. In Social Science, they call this process assimilation, and so we could say discipleship is a form of assimilation. Many churches even use the term “assimilate” when they refer to helping someone go from visitor to contributing member.

Likewise, discipleship is helping people learn how to navigate their new culture. The word ‘discipleship’ is really just a fancy word for ‘teaching,’ though it involves a bit more than what we have come to understand ‘teaching’ to be. Last week, when we talked about the Great Commission, I mentioned how discipleship involves the head, heart, and hands. This week, as we lay the foundation of discipleship, we can see how God has used his own, head, heart, and hand to offer redemption from this fallen world, salvation for us, and the means to fully assimilate into the Kingdom of God.

God Who Establishes His Name in His Creation

A couple of years ago, we looked at the Goal of Faith that included the story of Creation and our purpose in it. That series is the fuller version of the foundation for discipleship, but for today, let’s look at three points. First:

The Lord planned a holy people who are the physical bodies of his presence in Creation.

If we turn back to Genesis 1, we see 6 days of Creation which can be organized into 2 groups. The first group is the Lord creating three realms of Creation: the heavens, the sky, and the land/seas. The second group is the Lord filling those realms: the sun, moon, and stars for the heavens, birds for the sky, and animals and fish for the land/seas. Then, the Lord takes time to create humans which are described differently.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:26-27

With every other aspect of Creation, the Lord speaks the object into existence. But, here, the Lord confers in Trinity to plan for humans who will be made “in His Image”. Later, in chapter 2, the narrator goes into greater detail for humanity’s creation showing us the Lord gets into the dirt (literally) to create his image. They are given dominion over the earth in order to administrate and cultivate the earth.

But this orderly and perfectly good existence is corrupted by sin. In Genesis 3, the humans fall victim to the serpent who leads them to sin which destroys their communion with God. The unfolding story of Genesis is the Lord preparing a nation for himself from the family of Abraham. This nation is eventually enslaved in Egypt, and Exodus tells the story of their freedom. The rest of the Old Testament is about the Lord’s work in building a nation for himself. But there is a key verse that helps illustrate the why behind this work. As David is readying himself to build a temple for the Lord (though he will not be the one to build it), he says:

Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. Therefore you are great, O LORD God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O LORD, became their God.

2 Samuel 7:21-24

The Lord desires to “make a Name for Himself” which means he desires for people to know him, not just in reputation, though. David says God wants to redeem his nation to be his people, and to do awesome and mighty things for them. Now, in this part of the story David only knows Israel to be the one nation redeemed, but the promise to Abraham was for all nations. The redemption of humanity from the enslavement of sin and death will extend to all the nations through Jesus.

Just as humans were created set apart from the wider Creation in order to fulfill their God-given design, Israel is set apart from the rest of the nations. They are made holy in the world. But when they failed to live out their holiness, they were sent into exile to live among the unholy nations. God brings them back from exile in order to bring about the Messiah, Jesus, who then brings salvation to all the nations and establishes a holy people within the world.

God Who Redeems His Creation

Now, something we tend to take for granted is the fact that God could just as easily abandoned his corrupted work on earth and go make a new world with more obedient children. In the 21st century we can marvel at the vastness of Space and the myriad of planets in just our one galaxy. Every one of those planets is a spot where God could have said, “I think I’ll try again here, and let the earthlings perish.” But instead:

The heart of God is to redeem and restore his people and Creation.

The very heart of God is described in a verse many of us who grew up in the church memorized first.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

John 3:16-17

It is for the love of God that we are saved. Remember in Ephesians 2, Paul says God “being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,” he saves us through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Additionally, John writes in 1 John 3:8,

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

1 John 3:8

John, like Paul, connects our salvation to our lifestyle, not just a bit of head knowledge. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil. In other words, those who continue in their sinful lifestyles continue to be enslaved by the devil’s schemes. They are still living in the fallen earthly city. But Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. And this destruction is ongoing. As we learn to live in our heavenly dwelling, we are aided by Christ who indwells us. John goes on to explain:

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

1 John 3:9-10

Christ has already accomplished victory over the devil through his death and resurrection. Now, he continues to destroy the devil’s work by helping us live righteously and loving one another.

Salvation is ridding ourselves of sin and death and living actively in the power and presence of God.

Unfortunately, in our current Christian culture, many Christians believe salvation is simply saying a prayer, and they are good to go. And while we must pray for forgiveness and confess Jesus is Lord, that is merely the first step! Just as immigrating from one country to another requires a series of steps and assimilation, moving from death to life is a lifelong process.

But praise God, He gives us His own Spirit to help us!

God Who Indwells His People

As we have surveyed this walk through God’s work for our salvation, have you noticed the pattern?

God’s plan (the head) is for a holy people who administrate and cultivate Creation.

God’s heart is to redeem and restore the people that He planned for his Creation.

And now we can discuss the hands of God. Now, some may say “Well, wasn’t Jesus the hands and feet of God? He is God incarnated, after all.” That is absolutely correct, and yet, the Lord did not choose to remain bodily with his people, but rather he ascended leaving the disciples the promise of the Holy Spirit who did come at Pentecost. And now, every time someone surrenders to Christ and is saved, they also receive the Holy Spirit, who is God.

Paul describes it this way:

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:12-13

The people of God are the body of Christ—the physical presence of the Lord.

The Spirit indwells believers in order to continue the work of Christ and the redemption of this world. The Lord planned for His people to be the ones who administrate and cultivate this world. That plan has not changed. Jesus came to show us how it is done and to accomplish our redemption, but it is up to the people of God to continue his mission. We are not left alone—we have the Holy Spirit—but we are still, nonetheless, the ones who continue the work.

And so, as we conclude today, I leave you with our key verse for this series.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Galatians 5:16-17

For too long, Christians have relegated their salvation and faith to simple head knowledge. As long as they know the right answer, they’re fine…right? And yet, faith is about desires. When we looked at the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was very clear the problem of sin is a problem of the heart. John says those who continue practicing sin are still of the devil. We cannot relegate discipleship to simple trivia if we are to remain faithful to Scripture.

Scripture describes salvation and discipleship as a combination of putting our head, heart, and hands to work for the Lord.

As we consider this truth for the next several weeks, I have a challenge for you. Consider the corruption of sin and how it has affected, not just you, but the very culture of the church. When we survey the news and status of churches, the picture can grow bleak. Pastors and church leaders who fall into moral failure. Congregants whose lives are no different than the lost who refuse to darken the doorstep of a church. The fact of so many church members who never returned to church after Covid simply because they got out of the habit and feel no compulsion to return. And, before we blame everything on Covid, or whatever else, consider that for many decades now, churches have seen children grow up attending the church only to quit when they start working or they graduate high school.

The problems we face as a church are symptoms of a breakdown in discipleship. We are not truly discipling. We are simply teaching facts. But this is not a new problem. The lack of discipleship has been growing for many, many decades now. And while it would be impossible to point the exact beginning of the problem for the American church, we must understand discipleship is the responsibility of each generation to the next. And while our parents may have missed the mark in some ways, we can do better.

The same Lord who created this world and raised Jesus to life is the same Lord who indwells every believer. He can, and will, restore us to be the people he created us to be, but we must accept our responsibility to lay our head, heart, and hands on the altar.