1. Simplified: Exploring Christianity together

2. Last week, we learned:
about the grace and humility exhibited by Jesus in His extension to us of forgiveness and eternal life.
that though we are not inherently “good”, in an incredible act of grace, God saved us through the death of Jesus.
that “discipleship is the life that springs from grace”.
This morning, we’ll seek to answer two specific questions about following Jesus - first, how are we to follow Jesus? And secondly, to where are we following Jesus?

3. The Christian world is full of multiple definitions of what it means to follow Jesus.
Having grown up in the church, I understood that following Jesus meant being a “good boy”, so that someday, I’d be transported to heaven for eternity.
Following Jesus smelled a whole lot like legalism.
Our eventual destination was also always sold to us as heaven.
Is this really what it meant to be a Christian: 80 years of legalistic obedience to a behavioural checklist, followed by a plodding and tedious eternity?

4. Author NT Wright shares that “to be a Christian is the follow Jesus Christ into the new world, God’s new world, which he has thrown open before us”.
Our destination is God’s new world, His Kingdom come, a restored and perfected creation.
Scripture maintains that we are not somehow transported from earth into heaven, but that God brings heaven to earth, enmeshing the two, so that a new creation is initiated.
In Christ, this enmeshing of heaven and earth is complete in His resurrected body, but for us, the process is yet to be completed.

5. As followers of Jesus then, we live at the intersection of “heaven and earth”.
We live in a world where Christ’s death has initiated some pretty incredible things, but we do not experience these things fully.
The follower of Jesus knows all too well the joy that comes from knowing that “as far as the east is from the west, so far has [Christ] removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12), while at the same time groaning “inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23).

6. For centuries, the people of Israel had viewed Israel – more specifically the temple – as the joining place of heaven and earth.
Jesus himself became the intersecting point between heaven and earth – the place where divinity enmeshed with humanity.
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1 Corinthians 3:16).
In an astounding development, the joining place of heaven and earth is now within the church – we are the “place” where what is joins with what is coming.
When we place our faith in Jesus, we become “new creations” blessed with the experience of “new creation” among God’s people.

7. As much as we get a taste of the experience of new creation, the promise of scripture is that one day we will experience it fully.
We are not transported to heaven, but God, who is making all things new, brings new creation fully into being around us.
Our destination is a renewed, recreated world full of hope and a universe in prime condition for glorified humanity to eternally flourish. The Christian life then is a new way to be human, the intended way of being human.

8. As followers of Jesus, we ought to live like Christ’s Kingdom has already come!
Jesus has set a clear example for us to follow.
Embodying a willingness to surrender to or sacrifice in light of Jesus.
We’ve got to stop thinking we can conjure up a way on our own and, in humility, we must ask God for direction.
Our salvation cost a life – Jesus’ – but our following of Jesus will cost yet another life – ours given in surrender to God.

9. The second orientation that I believe is central in following Jesus is an orientation to serve.
Jesus and Dirty Disciple Feet
Our consistent focus ought not be on being served, but on being of service to someone else.
When we begin to more fully serve others in the way of Christ, we play a role in ushering in Christ’s Kingdom and we begin to experience new creation, starting now.
As this is more fully experienced among God’s people, it begins to spill out into the lives of those not yet a part of the church – to the community more generally.

10. This all begins here with you and I
This all begins here with you and I. It begins with surrendering to Jesus and embodying a commitment to serving others.
Our community will only be changed when we begin more fully being citizens of His kingdom.
When we find a way to get past ourselves and live for each other, we’ll be drawn in to incredible relationship and will embody Christ’s kingdom is amazing ways.