Resources for Discussion Class Hour on October 17, 2018

Sermon Title: Why We’re Here: Becoming Disciples

Text: Acts 2:42-47  (ESV)

Resources:

• Click here to listen to or watch the sermon
• Download tonight’s printable study guide

Brief summary (what’s the point of this text/sermon?)

It’s important for churches to ask themselves the question in the sermon title: Why are we here?

And it’s important for members of churches to ask themselves a similar question: Why am I a member of this church? What is God doing through this church and through me for us to experience a mutual blessing?

Luke’s description of the earliest Christians is exhilarating: these men and women had found what they had been searching for their whole lives–the promised Messiah, the descendant of David who would bless the nations. In our text Luke describes what these early Christians emphasized, and Sunday we focused on one verse initially, and then one phrase within that verse. The followers of Jesus “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (v. 42).

The first of those phrases is the “apostles’ teaching,” and it points to the importance of their being learners, or disciples. They needed to learn so much about who Jesus was and how they should follow him.

This text helps us think about a couple of things: One, we in the church are to be in the disciple-making business. We’re not here to fill pews or balance budgets . . . we’re here to help people become what they were created to be: fully invested, sacrificial, totally devoted followers of the resurrected Christ. When we get too busy with the minutiae of “doing church,” we can forget about this calling.

Two, every member of the Hoover church should be committed to being a disciple, a learner. Becoming a Christian isn’t like joining a club; it’s a complete change in how we think, live, believe, and act. Church members also commit themselves to makingdisciples—being used by God to bless other believers by helping them in their Christian walk.

Here are the four questions we concluded with Sunday morning:

1. Who are the disciples in a church community, and who are called to make disciples?
2. When does it happen?
3. Where and how does it happen?
4. What does it mean for you to be a part of the Hoover Church of Christ?

How do I live out the implications of this passage? (Discussion starters to help with applying the sermon to our lives)

1. What did Luke mean when he wrote that the early Christians “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching”? What does that mean for us today?
2. The Great Commission is for us to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). What is a “disciple”? How do we make disciples?
3. Discuss the four questions from the end of the sermon:
   1. Who are the disciples in a church community, and who are called to make disciples?
   2. When does it happen?
   3. Where and how does it happen?
   4. What does it mean for you to be a part of the Hoover Church of Christ?
4. Becoming a Christian ought to turn a person’s world upside down (or right side up), because it’s a completely different perspective on the way things are (and ought to be)—a total paradigm shift. Discuss the importance of intensive, long-term biblical teaching in order to ground people in a biblical worldview.