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2026-10-02 22:21:17

Church

COPLEY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

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26.5

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COPLEY_UNITED_METHODIST_CHURCH-9_27_26_From_Fans_to_a_Movement_Zillman5yzvh

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Jesus Christ, Follower Jesus

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https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/fcr9b8vhrg8ade3i/9_27_26_From_Fans_to_a_Movement_Zillman5yzvh.mp3

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We're continuing today, and today's our last Sunday. There's a few more of these in the bookstore, so if anyone would like to purchase a book, there's a few more available. But this book, it's been a good series. It's reminded us at a core, the very important questions, are we someone that admires Jesus, or are we someone that seeks to be a follower, someone whose life is transformed, and we We desire for that transformation to continue on a daily basis, and that's our good, our good Methodist theology. We believe that we focus on Jesus in our life, we say yes to Jesus, and that's not the end of our relationship, that's really the beginning. And then every day we are called to grow in that grace, to grow in that love, to grow in that mercy, to grow in that forgiveness, to grow in that relationship with Jesus Christ in our lives. lives. And we've been doing it, like I said, this book, not a fan by Kyle Eidelman was the inspiration for this series. I have to tell you, every time over the last six weeks that I have watched college football on Saturdays, and if you know our house, there's a lot of college football being watched, at least in the Zilman household, on Saturdays. When I'm watching those games and I think about fans, I'm also subconsciously thinking about fan and follower. It's amazing how focusing on something for six weeks gets us thinking not just on a Sunday morning about the sermon but as we're watching fans and stands cheering hopefully it's also a reminder to us not just simply about rooting for something or admiring something but it's about also the relationship that we have with Jesus in our lives. So on our final Sunday we've talked about quite a few things over these five weeks we've had examples of individuals like Zacchaeus, who was an outcast, who was a tax collector, not only a tax collector, but the chief tax collector. No one wanted to be around Zacchaeus. But Jesus made a point to look at Zacchaeus, not only to look at Zacchaeus, but to call him down and to say, I'm gonna have a meal with you. A very intimate thing to say in the first century. And when Jesus Jesus encountered Zacchaeus when he gave him that invitation and Zacchaeus said, yes, you come to my house, that changed everything in Zacchaeus' life. We've also talked about in this series how this gift of grace, being a follower of Jesus Christ, is not based on us trying to do things better. It's so easy in the world we live in to think, well, I've got to be a better follower of Jesus. And to do that, I've got to do all of these things. things and then I'll turn my life over to Jesus. You know, tomorrow I'll do it because today I'm not quite there yet but tomorrow I'll do it. And as we know with a lot of things in our lives, we have these things called New Year's Resolutions at the beginning of the year. For a lot of us it seems like tomorrow never comes because we have these good intentions but we keep doing the things that we do on a regular basis. The premise of this book is is and has been through this sermon series, that the creator of the universe loves us, the creator of the universe entered this world for us. The creator of the universe, God, our creator redeemed us through Jesus Christ and desires for us to live empowered by the Holy Spirit. And we do that not simply admiring Jesus and saying Jesus was a good man. But we do that when we say we desire for Jesus to be Lord of our life. When we desire not just to hear the teachings of Jesus and say those were nice 2,000 years ago, but when we hear the teachings of Jesus for us to say, I desire to reflect the light and love of Jesus Christ in my life, in the life of those that I love, and in the light and love of those that God places in my life. So today our scripture texts, the theme of this last Sunday, if you will, is going going from a fan of Jesus, that beginning point, that admiring of Jesus, to how we become a movement. And the beautiful thing is we have one of the greatest texts in scripture where Jesus is about to ascend into heaven. And Jesus leaves his disciples with words. These are not Marcus's words. These are not First United Methodist Church's words. These are the last words that that Jesus gave to his earthly disciples. After they had experienced the passion, the crucifixion, the resurrection, even with their doubts and uncertainties, these are the words that Jesus gave to his followers as he was leaving these last words of encouragement, if you will, and it's in Matthew chapter 28. And I'm gonna read out loud this morning, verses 16 to 20, here are these words. Now the 11 disciples, remember we had 12, but we had Judas, so we're not gonna get into that today. If you don't know about Judas, call the office and I'll be happy to have coffee with you and tell you all about Judas. Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him. Now look at what this says also, but they doubted, some doubted, and Jesus came and said to them, them. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey, teaching them to observe everything that I've commanded you. And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age. The Word of God God for us this morning, thanks be to God. Will you pray with me? Oh God, in the moments to come may the words of my mouth and the meditation of each and every one of our hearts be acceptable and I say to O Lord our strength, our redeemer, and our friend, amen. I was trying to think this week what would be something that would be memorable as we come to a conclusion on this sermon series and my hope is that we will take with us four words today. I'm going to share these words with you right now, but you'll notice on the screen these words are going to build, but I just want you to hear these four words. These words are connect, go, baptize, and teach. And these are not necessarily even my words. They are words that come from this, the scripture text that we just read, the Great Commission, where Jesus spoke these words to his disciples. We've talked about how being a follower of Jesus means that we desire for Jesus to transform our life. How we desire for our lives not to be simply what we desire but we desire them to be more. We desire them to be the lives that God created for us. We've talked all all five weeks up to this day about how a fan is someone that admires Jesus. A fan is someone who cheers for Jesus. A fan is someone who follows the teachings of Jesus when they're convenient or when they make sense. But a follower of Jesus says, I am not God. A follower of Jesus says, I desire to follow you. I desire to surrender who I am to you. I desire to live live into this love and grace that you desire to give me through your Holy Spirit. So we say, how then do we become followers? We become followers through, as we've talked about, through surrendering through sharing the gifts and graces that God has given us. But I think this morning there are four things that help us to live into this follower. You notice this great commission says we are called to go and make disciples. Another way to say that is go and follow. So there's four things in this text that I just want to bring to our attention this morning that will hopefully resonate with us as we think about what it means to connect, to go, to baptize and to teach. The first part of the text out of Matthew 28 talks about how Jesus and his disciples disciples went to a mountain, they went outside to a place where they were together. And the scripture says they went to a place where they were together but some doubted. Now hopefully that's a reality check for all of us. These disciples, the first followers of Jesus are a lot more like us than probably we sometimes acknowledge. These disciples had fear, these disciples had doubt, these disciples had anxiety, these disciples questioned a lot of things and Jesus never looked at the disciples and said you've got to get everything right before I share you the truth so the kingdom you've got to get everything right before you follow you've got to get everything right before you become a a follower and go he said no he said just come with me and follow come with me as you are surrender who you are to me and I will transform you into the person you were created to be. So the disciples connected as a group, they walked the three years or so with Jesus, they connected with Jesus, they connected with each other. So the first part of being a follower of Jesus means that we connect. Connection happens in a lot of way, but connection is something that we were each created for. We connect when we're in groups together, we connect when we serve together, we connect when we worship together, we connect when we eat together. Pastor Ivan and I had the joyful experience this week of going over to to Winter Garden and we visited with our oldest member of this church. Her name is visited with her, we brought greetings and she wanted us to share greetings from her to the church that she loves. But as I was thinking about connecting this week, I was keeping my eye out for things this week. And I noticed whenever we talked about the church with her, a smile came on her face. She remembered how she connected in her Sunday school class. She remembered how she connected in worship. She remembered how her husband, who since has gone to be with the Lord himself, she remembered how they came and they were counters of the ties and offerings that came in on a weekly basis. She had such amazing memories of her time here, and unfortunately had to move over to Winter Garden to be closer to family. But she still watches online most weeks. In fact, she said, I loved what you talked about was Zacchaeus, and I didn't have to prompt her. So she is definitely one of those numbers that you see on the back of the bulletin. But that's what connection is all about. Connection means something matters to us. And the hope is in the church, what matters is not buildings or programs, but in a church what matters is people, the people that God created as imperfect as we are, we matter matter to God, and that connects us with one another. I was reminded that again last night, I had the joy of being at the Sondero Sunday School class. They had a dinner last night, a covered dish dinner, and it was a group of about 30 people. They studied together after they worshiped on Sundays during the Sunday School Hour. Some of them have been in that class for decades. And last night, one was preparing to move up north, and it was beautiful to watch her talk, but also the rest of the class talk about what this church and more importantly, what this group meant to them over the years, how this group prayed together and studied together and laughed together and cried together, how this group was with each other during hard medical diagnosis and how this community was essential in the life of the church. So I think the first thing that we seek is a follower of Jesus is what Jesus did with his first disciples. Jesus could have walked the earth alone and Jesus could have died alone and Jesus could have risen from the dead and Jesus could have ascended to heaven but Jesus surrounded himself with a community, a community that could come together and love and grow together. So the first thing I think as a follower of Jesus is essential for us is to be part of a community. That's why I jokingly invite people to Wednesday night dinners at the end of the service. It's so that if we're not connected in some way outside of worship that we can find a way to do that, because connection is essential. Relationships Matthew chapter 26 is how Jesus says go and make disciples. So the second word is go. And go has all kinds of connotations. We think at the end of a worship service, we go out into the world. But I want us to think in a little different way this morning, go and make disciples of all nations. Sometimes we think in order to live this out, we have to go to Africa or we have to go to Cuba or we have to go on a mission trip somewhere. somewhere. What I want us to think about going and making disciples is about something that we do on a daily basis. When we wake up in the morning, who do we see that day? How have we shared God's love and God's mercy and God's forgiveness with them? An author that I mentioned my second week here, Reggie McNeil, talks a lot about the Kingdom of God and one of my favorite images that he uses. And he says, we need to look at each day as if we are going on a daily mission trip. You know, we plan for mission trips, we go to Tennessee or Appalachia, we go to Africa, we go somewhere international. But what McNeil says is making disciples of Jesus Christ isn't just about those big trips trips that we take, but it's looking at our everyday life.

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