Sully Notes 5 | Gospel-Centered Discipleship Part 3 of 3

Sully Notes 5: Books in 25 minutes or less

Sully Notes are more than a book review. They are meant to provide you with direct quotes from some books I've read in the last year, so you can get a taste of the overall theme of the book and then begin to chew on what your life might look like if you applied what you read. 

Here are links to the previous Sully Notes books:

• Sully Notes 1 | AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church Part 1 of 3 
• Sully Notes 2 | Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community Part 1 of 3   
• Sully Notes 3 | A Meal with Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community and Mission Around the Table Part 1 of 3
• Sully Notes 4 | Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional Part 1 of 3 

And here are the links to the previous posts in the Sully Notes 5 | Gospel-Centered Discipleship series:

• Sully Notes 5 | Gospel-Centered Discipleship Part 1 of 3
• Sully Notes 5 | Gospel-Centered Discipleship Part 2 of 3

Gospel-Centered Discipleship | Sully Notes 5: Part 3 of 3

Part 3 | Applying the Gospel: Chapter 6 | Communal Discipleship: The Three Conversions

“(A) one-third gospel is hardly the gospel at all. It focuses on Jesus’s death and resurrection as a doctrine to be believed, not on Jesus as a Person to be trusted and obeyed. The gospel has been reduced to a personal ticket to heaven. But the biblical gospel is much more than personal conversion to gain a reservation in heaven. It is conversion to Jesus Christ as Lord. Moreover, the gospel has two more ‘thirds.’ The gospel calls us into community and onto mission.” – pg. 108

“When we are converted to Jesus, we are converted into his church. Jesus did not die on a bloody cross to gather a loose collection of souls bound for heaven, but to create a new community as the proof of his gospel to the world. … When we receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Head (Colossians 2:6), we are immediately knit into his body (Colossians 1:18; 2:2). The body is knit together with the ligaments and sinews of love and truth producing a unified, whole body (Ephesians 4; Colossians 3). Those who have been converted to Jesus are converted to his body. They speak the truth in love to one another (Ephesians 4:15, 25), forgive and forbear with one another (Colossians 3:13), and teach and admonish one another in wisdom (Colossians 3:16). To reject our conversion to the church is to disobey the Head and distort his body. We are not converted to a disembodied Head; we are converted to an embodied Christ, which includes Head and body.” – pg. 109

“A Jesus-centered community is an attractive community – a community that encourages, forgives, serves, loves, and invites non-Christians into its community. The gospel reconciles people to God and to one another, creating a single new community comprised of an array of cultures and languages to make one new humanity (Colossians 2:15). This new humanity reconciles its differences (Colossians 2:14-16) in the commonality of the gospel. It is both local and global. As the body grows, a redeemed, multiethnic, intergenerational, economically, and culturally diverse humanity emerges. When we act as the church toward one another, we display the gracious, redemptive reign of Jesus to the world. ... We grow together. If we do not share life together, we stunt the growth of the church. In order to nurture the field and increase the harvest, we must be involved in one another’s lives. … Disciples should do, say, and try to feel what is best for others, not for themselves. In doing so, they find deeper contentment as they live out their disciples-in-community purpose. To be blunt, disciples of Jesus should regularly sacrifice privacy, convenience, and comfort in order to love and serve others. ... The challenge of loving others as we love ourselves confronts our deep-down idolatries. It exposes our functional worship of individual privacy, convenience, and comfort.” – pgs. 110-112

“One of the ways the harvest grows is by inviting not-yet disciples into steady-state community. The overlap of Christians and non-Christians can happen naturally over meals, at birthday parties, and in service to your city. It is here that people get to witness communal discipleship, and it is here that disciples can witness in community. When you gather like this, be sure to look for opportunities to talk about the deeper things of life, to love people well by listening to their struggles, doubts, and fears. Share how the gospel has helped you in your own struggles, doubts, and fears. Apply the gospel to yourself out loud with non-Christians. Be transparent and authentic with them. Instead of hiding your faith and the deep grace you have found in Jesus, talk about it in natural ways. As you do, be sure to pray to the Lord of the harvest for spiritual fruit, and then watch the harvest grow!” – pg. 113

“When we are not gospel centered, we will veer off into comfortable individualism and abandon the mission. However, if our primary conversion is to Jesus Christ as Lord (Colossians 2:6), we will grow in loving others as ourselves and grow into the full stature of Christ. … Both church and mission will fail you, and you will fail in your church and mission. The good news is that Jesus never fails. Dietrich Bonhoeffer helpfully points out that every Christian must have their ideal community shattered before entering into true community. He writes: ‘He who loves his dream of community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter.’ The same can be said of mission. He who loves his dream of mission more than he loves Jesus will become a destroyer of mission. Community and mission are second to Jesus’s glory, but Jesus pursues his glory through community and mission. … We get to struggle with and for one another to believe that Jesus is better, richer, sweeter, and deeper than anything else in this world. As we do, we share our struggles and our Savior with others. That is what disciples do.” – pgs. 116-117

Chapter 7 | Practical Discipleship: Putting the Gospel into Practice

“Knowing our sin requires familiarity with our particular temptations, areas where we are prone to sin. These temptations and sins may be visible or invisible, as obvious as anger or as subtle as self-pity. Begin by prayerfully reflecting on your life. Remember, you are God’s child, not his project. He knows you and loves you enough to show you your sin. Talk to him about your struggles; ask him to reveal your sins and convict you of them (Psalm 139:23-24; John 16:8) … we may sin because we desire worth, companionship, peace, confidence, or convenience. These longings are not inherently bad; however, when they are associated with a lie they become deadly.” – pgs. 122-124

“Knowing our sin involves knowing the what (sin), the when (circumstance), and the why (motive). … Before we address fighting sin, it is worthwhile to point out that victory over sin has already been won in Christ. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus has defeated sin, death, and evil through his own death and resurrection and is making all things new, even us.” – pg. 125

“Perhaps (a) lackadaisical approach to sin is because we value Jesus’s atonement for our guilt and the penalty of sin, but at a heart level we fail to value and understand how his atonement has also freed us from the power of sin? Or perhaps our indifference to fighting sin springs from a false belief that God accepts us just as we are, not as who we will be? ... However, if we are accepted not as we are but as we are in Christ, we have every reason to fight – from our new identity. The truth is, persistent, unrepentant sin can disqualify us from the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 5:5; Hebrews 3:7-13). God does not accept us as we are. He accepts as we are in Christ. In him, we are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15), and new creatures live transformed (not perfect) lives.” – pg. 127

“(John Owen) writes: ‘Be killing sin lest it be killing you.’ Paul issues similar injunctions: (1) ‘Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming’ (Colossians 3:5-6). (2) ‘For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live’ (Romans 8:13). ‘Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin’ (Hebrews 3:12-13).” – pg. 128

“It is about the gospel, not good works. We don’t fight for acceptance; we fight from acceptance. We don’t contend against sin to forge an identity but because we have received a new identity in Christ. Perfection is not the goal; persevering faith is. As my former seminary professor Scott Hafemann used to say: ‘It’s not perfection overnight but perseverance over a lifetime.’” – pg. 129

“We depersonalize the gospel by removing Jesus and replacing him with our own efforts. When the Spirit is a forgotten god, trusting Jesus becomes a fading proposition. He is present in name only. Jesus becomes an idea we believe, not a person we trust. Consequently, religious affection and the power of the Spirit leak out. Doubt and cynicism roll in. Discipleship devolves into dutiful performance. Instead of trusting Jesus’s finished work, we begin to rely on our own work to overcome sin. Eventually, frustration, despair, and anger set in. Before we know it, we will swing to the religious right or the rebellious left, trusting our own performance or the deceptive rush of spiritual license. Everyone trusts something or someone; the gospel reminds us that only one person is worthy of our trust.” – pgs. 130-131

“What if, whenever we read the Bible and felt as though we got nothing out of it, we paused to ask the Spirit for insight into God’s promises, to ask him, ‘Lord, you have been given to us so that we can understand all things freely given to us by God. Will you give me insight into God’s Word right now?’ Have you ever gained an insight in Scripture but not known how to respond? What if, instead of trying to figure out application on our own, we asked the Spirit to give us an experience of our need? Pause to ask him: ‘Lord, who knows the heart of man like the Spirit of God, will you help me to experience my specific need for God right now?’ Perhaps the Spirit will lead you to respond by rejoicing, repenting, or obeying. Finally, have you ever read with insight, known your need, but felt no desire to respond to God? Don’t move on or assume you will have the proper response. Pause and ask the Spirit: ‘ Lord, forgive me for my lack of desire, and create fresh, new desire in me to respond to Jesus.’ Ask the Spirit to give you insight into his promises, an experience of your need, and a desire to respond. Approach God’s Word with God’s Spirit. … ask the Spirit for (1) insight into his promises, (2) experience of our need and (3) creation of desire.” – pg. 133

“Develop a practice of identifying the practices of sin against the promises of Christ. For example:

Sexual Lust: The Fight for True Intimacy
Instead of trusting sexual lust for intimacy, trust God for true intimacy: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’ (Matthew 5:8).

Lust says: ‘Long for what you cannot have and you will be happy.’
The gospel says: ‘Rejoice in what you do have, in Jesus, and you will be truly happy.’

Vanity: The Fight for True Worth
Instead of relying on vanity for worth, consider the beauty of God: ‘What we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is’ (1 John 3:2).

Vanity says: ‘Perform beautifully and you will have worth.’
The gospel says: ‘Jesus performed beautifully for you; therefore you have never ending worth.’

Pride: The Fight for True Confidence

Instead of trusting in compliments for confidence, believe that your sufficiency comes from God: ‘Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient’ (2 Corinthians 3:4-6).

Pride says: ‘Find and cherish compliments and then you will be confident.’
The gospel says: ‘Your confidence comes, not from your sufficiency, but from God who has made you sufficient in Jesus.’

Anger: The Fight for God’s Way
Instead of getting angry to get your way (protesting not getting your way), put your trust in the Lord’s way: ‘Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the LORD’ (Ps. 4:4-5).

Anger says: ‘If I control my circumstances (and I have a right to) then I will get the best outcome. If I can’t control my circumstances, then I have the right to get mad.’
The gospel says: ‘Because Jesus is Lord, he has the right to control my circumstances. Therefore, I will get the best outcome by trusting him. Put your trust in the Lord, not in controlling your circumstances.’

Get in the habit of comparing the promises of sin to the promises of the gospel. … The greatest weapon against sin and temptation is Spirit-empowered faith in the promises of God, which have been guaranteed by the death of Christ.” – pgs. 134-136

“The gospel is always in context. When your sinful doubts, fears, and desires are surfaced by the text, discern your ungodly motivations and redress them with gospel motivations present in the passage. Identify your belief in false promises, repent, and turn to trust in God’s good and true promises. Strive to be Christ centered, not application centered. The goal is not to ‘apply’ the text but to be awestruck with Jesus, not to ’do’ but to delight in him. Then, from our delight in Christ and our belief in his promises, we can apply the gospel to everyday temptations and trials. Make Jesus central. For every look at sin look ten times at Christ!” – pg. 138

“…I realized that wisdom isn’t becoming an old guy with just the right thing to say, but instead, becoming a person who pleads with God to change me into the image of his Son, whatever the circumstances of life (James 1:2-8; 3:13-18).” – pg. 139

“We obey Jesus as Lord and repent to Jesus as Christ. This is not a one-and-done. It is a way to apply an everyday gospel to everyday challenges within the community God has given us.” – pg. 142

Chapter 8 | Gospel-Centered Culture: Maturing and Multiplying Disciples

“If your church or ministry doesn’t emphasize the centrality of the gospel in everyday life, then your disciples will make other things central such as community, mission, convenience, comfort, and legalism.” – pg. 144

“(Accountability groups) are selective relationships of trust gathered around Jesus that should endure. This does not mean that they will be free from difficulty, pain, and mess. I have watched groups try to split up over personality or sin issues. Jesus calls us to do precisely the opposite (Matthew 18), to go to one another and be reconciled. Tension in relationships is God’s appointed grace for our gospel change. To leave a group without addressing the conflict or underlying issue is to depart from God’s grace.” – pg. 148

“We have been converted not only to Christ but also to one another. The lordship of Christ is most visible in his interdependent body, not a loose collection of disciples. This community of disciples is intended to encourage faith in Jesus and joyfully embrace the call to gospel holiness. These disciples band together to know their sin, fight their sin, and trust their Savior by repenting from faith in false promises and returning to faith in true promises we obey Jesus as Lord and repent to him as Christ. When we do this, we put Jesus at the center of our lives, drawing attention to his grace and glory. Praying for not-yet Christians and sharing with them how the gospel has changed our lives makes our discipleship missional. We become disciples who not only believe the gospel but also spread it.” – pg. 150

– Sully
 
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