Costly Obedience and Kingdom Multiplication.

Well, welcome everybody again to this beautiful Sunday morning. Thank you for coming an hour earlier than normal. Normally we don't get to see each other's faces for another like 20 minutes. So welcome.

Today, for those of you that don't know, is a little bit of a different Sunday. As one of the things we get to do as part of our heart to be good neighbors and to be present in our community, we get to help host the Madison Good Neighbor Gathering this morning. We already got a rock wall up and our bounce houses and our tents and our stage and everything so that we can all kind of go over there. And so whether or not you signed up to serve, you are welcome after church. Just go on the bike path. It's like a 10-minute walk. We'll have spaces to throw you in. And if not, and you just want to come, there's going to be food trucks and a bunch of people hanging out. It's going to be a great afternoon. So we're excited to head over there.

But before we do that, we're continuing in our sermon-tember as our final summer month. I know fall is coming. It's some crisp, cool air, but we are finishing up Acts in September. We're going to read Acts chapter 16. If you ever need a Bible, they're always at the welcome table. You can take it while you're here or take it home with you.

Acts chapter 16, we just got five verses we're focusing on today.

He came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewish believer and whose father was a Greek. The brothers of Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. Paul wanted to take him along the journey, so he circumcised him, because the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.

Acts 16:1-5

Let's pray today. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word that is alive and active. We thank you for your Holy Spirit that is present with us. And I just pray that for these next few moments, will you help this text to just come to life? God, would you open our eyes to see you clearly, open our ears to hear from you clearly, and would we receive whatever it is that you are speaking to us? Because we want to grow closer to you. We want to become more like you so that we can continue to glorify your name in everything we do. So we just ask you and we invite you and we just say, Holy Spirit, would you come? In your precious name we pray. Amen.

Kingdom Multiplication Through Costly Decisions

Our so what today is kingdom multiplication. When it says the church, they added to their numbers. They grew and they added to their numbers daily. Again, we see that phrasing all throughout Acts. This multiplication, this kingdom multiplication, is a result of costly decisions, commitment to discipleship, and communal practices. That's what we're talking about today. These costly decisions, this commitment to discipleship, and these communal practices.

So when we look at this passage today, I want to start by mentioning Timothy. Paul shows up here and now we're introduced to this man named Timothy. Timothy has a bit of a complex and kind of a mixed story. It mentions that his mother was Jewish and his father was Greek. So he kind of grew up in this cross-cultural situation where he has one parent raising him in these kind of maybe Greek traditions and then his mother, who's Jewish and also a Christian, a follower of Jesus. The way they refer to themselves at that time is the way, which was Jesus. A follower of Jesus. So he's kind of in this mixed background here.

I think it's interesting for us to point this out because for many people, this might have been something that would have disqualified him. Some people were so religious and zealous that they might have had strong feelings about this background. But it says that the people spoke highly of him. The people were speaking well of Timothy. So he was someone that they knew to be in good standing. It's a reminder that we all have decisions about how we respond to the things that are passed down to us. And Timothy was following in the way of Jesus.

The Costly Decision

I want to talk about this costly decision that Timothy makes. It says here that Paul wanted to take him along the journey. So he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. Okay, so what is happening here in this moment?

A couple weeks ago, we talked about how in Acts chapter 15 there was this council that happened in Jerusalem. It was about whether you had to be circumcised to be saved. So that just happened in Acts chapter 15. Because circumcision is a sign of being consecrated and set apart and devoted to the Lord. They just went through this whole counsel and conversations around circumcision. Then we pick up in 16 and Paul's like, all right, Timothy, you got to be circumcised if you're going to do the Lord's work.

This is a little confusing here, but when you look at it, it's noting that they knew his father was Greek. And so here it's very specific to this situation. Timothy was not necessarily circumcised because he had to be circumcised in order to do the work of the Lord, but he did this as an act of obedience so that more people would be receptive to the way that he preached the gospel.

One of the places that we hear about this is early in Genesis chapter 17. God speaks to Abraham telling him to do this. And so it was at this time a physical marker. But it was never just about physical identity. It was about covenant consecration. So it was a way to mark your body as belonging to the Lord.

And then we see in Deuteronomy 10, verse 16, where we get this next meaning. God is saying, circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked no longer. So there came a point where Abraham was circumcising his body, but they weren't necessarily all living for the Lord. God's got to change your heart. Circumcise your heart. In Jeremiah 4:4, we read another verse about this where it says, circumcise yourselves to the lands of Jerusalem. So this is continuing all throughout the Old Testament that the Jewish people were called to live set apart and fully devoted. To mark not only their bodies, but also to have this inward heart posture of saying, I am set apart and I'm fully devoted.

So circumcision wasn't about being saved. Although Timothy did not have to be circumcised. This is a painful moment to remove a barrier so that others could hear the good news of Jesus. And this is a reminder for us today that often when following Jesus, it's going to require sometimes some costly decisions.

Some just have to do that to follow Jesus. But it's not about giving in and starting to live like people that are not following Jesus. It's about recognizing sometimes like Timothy in this moment, if I am not circumcised, the people are not going to receive the message in the same type of way because they know about my Greek background. And if I were to do this thing, although other people might look at me like, well, you don't really have to, that this is going to make a huge difference in how the gospel moves forward.

So he endures this pain, not because he has to, but out of worship and obedience to the Lord. In Luke 9, 23, Jesus says, whoever wants to be my disciple, you must deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me. This is the way of living into the kingdom. Daily denying ourselves. Daily taking up our cross. Now, I always think it's a lot easier if it was just like, be crucified once like Jesus. But it's like, daily do this. This is painful. This can be hard sometimes. This is removing things from our lives daily to make way for people to follow Jesus.

When I think about this and Timothy and his life, it's a reminder as well that all of us are here today because of other people that have counted the cost. Other people that have made costly decisions. Each and every one of our stories, when we're born into this world, we are born into legacy and history and family and culture and other people's stories, some that we may know and some that we may not.

But at some point, people make costly decisions so that we could be here today and experiencing the love of Christ. Paul was one of those people that made costly decisions. We have the New Testament that we have today. Timothy made these costly decisions. So what does it look like for us today? To think about the way that we live our life and to maybe say, it might not be sinful if I do this, but is this something that marks me as set apart and fully devoted?

When we're asking ourselves the question of is this a sin or not, that's the wrong question. The questions we should be asking about our daily decisions are, is this a decision that marks me as set apart and fully devoted? That is living into the way of Jesus. It would not have been inherently wrong if Timothy wasn't circumcised. But the beautiful thing is that he was willing to give up his comfort and his personal preferences in order to help others know Christ. He knew that this sign was going to be important to them, and so he did it.

So what does that look like for us today? To live in that type of way.

Commitment to Discipleship

The next thing I want to talk about after the costly decisions is the commitment to discipleship. It says, as they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and the elders. Again, in Acts chapter 15, they had this council, they're making all these decisions, and now they're here delivering it.

And what I love is that Paul took Timothy along with him in the journey. This shows us that discipleship can look like so many different ways. But discipleship is this lived formative process. Discipleship is the process of someone becoming like their teacher. We are all in the process of becoming like Jesus. Being formed into his likeness.

Paul, in the same way that God didn't just send us the Bible and say, follow it. He sent us Jesus to walk with us. Jesus left his Holy Spirit to continue to empower us and walk with us. Paul took Timothy and he said, come walk with me. He said, come follow me. Watch me as I do this. Preach the gospel with me. Deliver these messages with me. He wanted to live life with him alongside him. That was this discipleship process.

And that's why for us at New Culture, we follow something that's called the rule of life. You can find it all on our website. We have these set of shared practices that give us steps of how as a church, we want to walk together in the likeness of Jesus. Because we realized it could be really easy for us to just say, we want to be disciples of Jesus, and like show up here and try to learn something every Sunday and then just go about our day-to-day life. But rather we want to center everything that we do around these shared practices. These shared things that we can walk out together. Like reading our reading plans. We're going to start one in a few weeks as we head into Colossians together.

Today, when we go out and serve our city, this is a part of our rule of life. Our shared practices of saying we want to seek the renewal of our city. We want to love our neighbors. We want to be generous and contribute to the people around us what God has given us. This is all part of that, of saying we don't want to just read things and say okay we're going to try. We don't want to just read a book and learn it all. But we want to live it out. We want to practice it. The way that Jesus did that with his disciples and Paul is doing that here with Timothy.

But what I love even more is the different people that are named. Even Timothy's legacy. You see today we all get to live into the legacy of lives that were lived before us by saying the churches were strengthened in faith and grew daily. Into discipleship.

Timothy's Spiritual Inheritance

I want to go back before we continue to Timothy's mother that's mentioned. It says here his mother was Jewish. There's a couple other places in scripture that we can learn more about her. This is just a side tangent, but the fun part about scripture is that especially in the New Testament books, in Acts, we read about the starting of all these churches and then we go on to read the letters that were written to those churches. So you can kind of go through them. It like this treasure hunt. You wait, this is mentioned here. And then now we read about the church later and this is happening. And that's all that fun stuff.

Later we learn more in the book of Timothy. Second Timothy 1:5 says, I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother, Lois, and in your mother, Eunice. And I am persuaded now lives in you also. Paul is now writing to Timothy and saying, I am reminded of not only your sincere faith, but I'm reminded of your grandmother, Lois. I'm reminded of your mother, Eunice. And now I'm seeing that that is alive in you.

We see this legacy of faith that Timothy is living in. Timothy's spiritual foundation came from both his mother and his grandmother. Both were Jewish women who came to believe in Jesus as their Messiah and were saved.

In 2 Timothy 3:14-15, he says, continue in this, which you have learned and have become convinced of because you know you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. He's saying, continue in this. This is an encouragement for all the parents as well. As you continue to invest in your children and your families, know that you are giving them this spiritual inheritance. At some point in their lives, they're going to remember. They're going to come back to it. They're going to continue to walk in the inheritance that you're giving them as you pray for them, as you read scripture with them.

So Eunice was Jewish. His mother was Jewish. Which means that she likely then raised Timothy into that culture and those customs. Teaching him the scripture, discipling him, being faithful, letting him walk alongside her as she served. This was probably one of the reasons he wasn't actually circumcised, because his father was Greek. But then she continued to disciple him in the ways of Jesus.

So this faithful mom, we see passing down the scriptures. She models not only good spiritual parenting, but I think also just this level of risk that may have taken. In a cultural context where things were so divided, that she was still willing. Even though she may have been looked down upon because she was married to someone that had a different faith from hers, that didn't stop her from continuing to walk in those ways. And she continued to do that. She counted the cost. She devoted herself to her son knowing Jesus. She wanted him to know Jesus. So she passed down her faith in a way that we're all still receiving from today as we now have the scriptures that we have.

We read about the churches that Timothy was a part of planting. Like we are a part of this legacy of these women and what happened there. For the gospel to continue, we need to receive it. And to receive it, we need people that are willing to pass it down. It goes both ways.

The Practice of Receiving and Giving

I'm going to grab these balls. I'm going to throw this ball to someone. Okay, now whose fault was it? Was it mine for the way I threw it or was it the receiver's fault in the way that they received it? But you can't always be responsible for if they're going to receive it. But you can be responsible for throwing it. You can also practice to throw a little better. But when you're receiving it, you can't receive unless somebody throws it to you.

We need to not only receive the things that have been passed down to us, but we need to pass it on to others. We need to give what has been given and continue that kingdom multiplication. We see this generational thing happening where this grandmother pours into her daughter and the daughter receives it and pours into her son. So then when Paul comes along, it's not like Timothy knows nothing. But he's like, I'm ready to go. Like I got this spiritual inheritance. I got this legacy that I was born into and I'm ready to go and pass it.

He had practiced. So I bet you if he would have thrown that ball today, like it would have landed right in the receiver's hands. Like he would have gotten it because he had practiced. He had walked with his mom. He had walked with his grandmother. So when it was time for kingdom multiplication, he's like, I'm ready to receive more and I'm going to pass it and I'm going to keep going and I'm going to keep going.

Timothy is so important in this story as we continue throughout Acts and as we think about this implication for our lives today. Because Timothy was something that he was willing to lay aside. His rights. His privileges. He removed barriers. And it sounds just so small in these five verses that you could just read past that and be like, oh, he met Paul. And Paul's like, hey, before you start, you got to be circumcised, and da-da-da-da-da. You keep going. But what we see is so special here is that he was willing to take a moment and to be consecrated before the Lord before he went into that. Not because he had to, but because it was a way for him to worship and to pour out his love in a different type of way.

And just as Timothy's costly, obedient strength in the church, Jesus' costly obedience creates the church. Like it was Jesus that gave us access to even do this and live on mission with him. It was through his death and resurrection that we're reconciled. That we're forgiven. That we have grace. That we have a gospel that we can receive so that we can pass on.

And so Timothy isn't like the ultimate example of what it looks like to receive and to give of yourself for the sake of the gospel. But it is Jesus himself. He is the good news. He is the gospel. And I love this because today, like we live in this reality that we don't have to. It's not our sacrifices that are going to carry our lives. We can give to multiplying this already made. The price that he already paid on the cross.

And so the beauty is that God's faithfulness, his goodness, his gospel message is moving forward. And we get the honor of partnering with God and receiving that and passing it on. That is the beauty of following Jesus. Is that we get to come alongside people. And not only do we get to receive his love, his mercy, his kindness, his forgiveness, his reconciliation, but we get to help other people encounter that.

This is the gift that we have. So we see Eunice passed down. Timothy received. Paul passed down. Timothy received. Jesus removed all barriers so that we can all receive the good news. That he's paid the greater cost.

And so now we can live consecrated lives. We can forego all the pleasures of this world because we know this isn't our home. So we don't have to try and say like, I have got to have comfort. Because this is temporary. And so when we live in that reality that there is so much more than what we're feeling in this present moment, that changes how we live.

Because we can walk in faith of saying right now, like I just need to acknowledge like I'm feeling anxious, overwhelmed, stressed. I'm struggling with whatever that may be. And we can know, like, I can look to Jesus. And I can receive his peace. I can receive his comfort. And I can walk in that, and I can keep passing that on to others.

Costly decisions, commitment to discipleship, and these communal practices lead us to this kingdom multiplication. These were people that spent time in scripture, prayer. They sacrificed. They gave of their lives to strengthen the body because they knew that their life was so much more than just trying to create a comfortable little bubble for themselves. But they knew that they wanted to go out. Like his mom and his grandmother. To go out and be like, I'm going to go strengthen the church. I'm going to strengthen the church. I'm going to strengthen the church.

And so here's what I want to do today. I want to invite you to stand as we get ready to close. And I just want to lead us in a moment of prayer as we look at this scripture.

I want to invite you to take a moment. It could be closing your eyes. It could just be pausing. And just to ask, like, what has been passed down for you? Just take a moment and to even think of, like, who are those people? And thank the Lord for the people that have passed things down to you. And then if you're here today, and you're like, I am feeling like I need to receive the good news of Jesus. Like I need to receive his love. I need to receive his peace. I need to receive his grace. Just name and invite God. Say, if you're here and you're like, God, like today I just need joy. Would you ask him? Would you say, God, would you give me joy? If you need peace, would you say, God, would you give me peace? Like, would you receive from God what you need to receive? Because Jesus, his death and resurrection, he didn't just die on the cross and come back to life and say, like, I can't wait to see you in heaven. But he left with us his Holy Spirit so we could continue to receive and encounter him every single day.

The next thing I want to invite you into is to just think, like, where might God be asking you to make a costly decision? In the same way that Timothy's witness was just expanded because they saw that he was willing to be circumcised and he was willing to be consecrated and set apart. Would you like be brave today and say, God, is there something that outside looking in others may look at and be like, well, that's not like sinful. It's not bad. But you know that you know that there is a way that God is asking you to be consecrated. To live set apart and fully devoted.

Would you just invite the Holy Spirit to show you. So Holy Spirit, we do that. Would you show us any costly decisions of worship to you. And then the final thing is ways to walk in that commitment to discipleship. What are ways that God is asking you to be formed into his likeness? To say yes to these communal practices? Is it showing up to Alpha? Is it showing up and signing up for communities? Is it starting to read your scriptures daily or to pray? What are things that the Lord is inviting you into to say in this new season as the weather changes, it's a reminder that we are always changing, that we can change.

And so God, we just ask, would you show us? Would you put things on our hearts throughout our days throughout our weeks and ways that we can commit more to discipleship to becoming like our teacher like you Jesus. And so God, I just thank you so much for this beautiful Sunday. I thank you that as we walk from this space today that we get to go and we get to be present in our communities and in our neighborhood today. I thank you for every single person that's here for the ways that you're speaking and you're moving. I thank you for your word that continues to just be so alive and active in our lives. That even five verses we can receive from you just changed.

And so, Lord, I pray, would you empower us to receive from you? Would you empower us and equip us to make these costly decisions and to walk committed in discipleship to you, Jesus, so that we can see kingdom multiplication? Because we know that every place that our feet go is a place that you are present and you want us to partner with you to see your kingdom come.

And so would you empower us today as we go to the Good Neighbor Gathering? As we serve? As we volunteer? As we just hang out with people in our neighborhoods? Would you help us to be just a presence of peace and hope and life and joy? And if we need that today as well, would you continue to just help us receive it? So we love you, Lord. And we ask all this in your name. Amen.

Well, thank you guys again for coming today. And just a reminder, in like probably like 10-ish minutes, we have Good Neighbor Gathering happening in Brittingham Park. A bunch of people already there setting up. So if you want to come hang out, food trucks, music, performers till 4 p.m., or if you want to volunteer, see Kayla at the welcome tent and she'll hook you up. But it's going to be a really fun Sunday. And then we'll be back here next Sunday at 11 a.m.

Normal service times. Again, we're going to be normal now for like a long time. So no more weird. We're not meeting in the building anymore. We're done. But for real, if you're a college student, make sure you get ready for New Culture College happening Wednesday night. Sign up for community groups if you have not yet done that. Our fall small groups. And we will see you next Sunday.