CONTENTS
1. Introduction to our vision at CCP
2. Come to Jesus Daily devotional
- MONDAY – “COME TO ME”…WHO IS JESUS THAT I SHOULD COME?
- TUESDAY – “COME TO ME” … WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO FOLLOW HIM?
- WEDNESDAY – “COME TO ME”… HE WILL TEACH YOU PT.1
- THURSDAY – “COME TO ME” … HE WILL TEACH YOU PT.2
- FRIDAY – “COME TO ME” … HE WILL TEACH YOU PT.3
3. Community Group/Family Study
For links to the message go to our website,
1. VISION SERIES INTRODUCTION
Whilst praying about this vision series I felt led to the gospel of Matthew. Matthew wrote because he wanted to bring people to Jesus - the promised Saviour. Matthew wrote,
‘She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).’ (Matthew 1:21-23)
God’s wants us to know that in Jesus, forgiveness and His presence are available to you, me, to anyone! This gospel ends with Jesus’ direction to take this Good News to the whole world,
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt. 28:19-20)
Jesus invites you, and through you, He wants to invite your friends to, “Come to me”.
LET’S OWN THIS VISION TOGETHER
Vision is something that we need to ‘own’ together. Therefore, I encourage you to commit to three things:
- Make Sunday special by coming to church each week.
- Get along to a Community Group so as to learn with others.
- Use the ‘Come to Jesus Daily’ devotionals each day.
May we, like Matthew, respond to Jesus’ call to “follow me”,
‘As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.’ (Matthew 9:9)
Let’s whole-heartedly respond to Jesus’ invitation to “come to me”.
Matt Beaney September 2019
VISION AND GOALS AT CCP
Our vision at CCP is, Bringing people to Jesus - Myself, One-another, Non-believers. Two key texts have shaped this,
John 7:37-38 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
Matt.11:28-30“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Bringing people to Jesus is to share in God’s greatest ambition. This is a vision with eternal worth that invites us to give our lives for the worlds’ greatest need.
HOW DO WE BRING PEOPLE TO JESUS?
Bringing people to Jesus involves three different relationships:
1. MYSELF
Goal to help me to bring myself to Jesus: I 'come to Jesus daily' by setting aside quality time daily in prayer and worship out of the bible (20 minutes, using the ‘coming to Jesus daily’ blog is a good start)
2. ONE-ANOTHER
Goal to help bring one-another to Jesus: Every member is in an amazing Community Group.
3. NON-BELIEVERS
Goal to help us to bring our non-believing friends to Jesus: Hospitality Week – on the first week of each month, we ‘invest and invite’ through 'Hospitality Week'.
2. COME TO JESUS DAILY DEVOTIONAL
One of our goals as a church is to 'come to Jesus daily' by setting aside quality time daily in prayer and worship out of the bible (20 minutes, using the ‘coming to Jesus daily’ blog is a good start)
Jesus promises rest for the weary and burdened (Matt. 11:28-30) and ‘living water’ (John 7:37-38) if we will come to Him. During our devotionals in this vision series, we will seek to learn from the Gospel of Matthew how, what it means, and what happens to those who will respond to His invitation.
MONDAY – “COME TO ME”…WHO IS JESUS THAT I SHOULD COME?
Matthew 1:21-22 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
Read also Matt. 11:28-30 and John 7:37-38
Jesus asks us to “come to me”, but who is Jesus, what is so unique about Him that anyone who comes finds rest and satisfaction? In the first chapter of Matthew, we read this astonishing prophecy that says so much about Jesus.
Firstly, He was to be named ‘Jesus’ this means ‘God (Yahweh) saves’. So when we come to Jesus we are coming to God’s way of salvation.
Secondly, it says that He will ‘save His people from their sins’. This promise has massive implications for ‘His people’ - those who will come to Him. He saves us from the guilt of sin, the power, and, ultimately, will restore all of creation from the curse of sin. His people will live in a new creation.
Thirdly, We are coming to the Son of God - God in the flesh. He was conceived,by the Spirit, in the Virgin Mary. Jesus is both fully God and fully man. Therefore, He empathises with us in our sufferings, and, as God was without sin, and, as man, was able to die for the sin of mankind.
Fourthly, He is God - ‘Immanuel which means God with us’. Jesus was God coming into the world, leaving heaven to enter creation and, ultimately, to die on the cross to deal with our sin. But, He not only was with us, He is with us right now by the Spirit!
RESPONSE
Jesus calls us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-29)
This promise has great power to give rest of soul to the weary and burdened. He frees us from all guilt and regret as He, through the cross, has ‘saved you from your sins’.
He provides hope if we are struggling with temptation - those who come to Him will grow in freedom.
Finally, He gives hope to the world; He is coming again to restore all of creation, freeing it from the ravages of sin.
TUESDAY – “COME TO ME” … WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO FOLLOW HIM?
Matthew 4:18-20 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.
Read also Matt. 11:28-30 and John 7:37-38
Like His first disciples, Jesus asks us to ‘come to me’. What does it mean to follow Jesus?
Firstly, to follow Jesus means to learn from Him. He was inviting these men to be His disciples - those who learn from Him. He was inviting them to be apprentices. Too many are far too influenced by psychology, popular beliefs, non-Christian teachers. If we are following Jesus, His word forms the basis of our lives.
Secondly, following or coming to Him means that He is now our authority. He is calling us to obey Him and refuse things that He dislikes (sin).
Thirdly, it means that we no longer live and work just for our own good, we now ‘fish for people’. To fish for people means to live our lives in such a way that we ‘bring people to Jesus’. We live His teachings, we speak His message so as to make Jesus attractive.
Fourthly, We are called to follow Jesus with others. Matthew 4 continues, ‘…Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him’ (Matt. 4:21-22). If we are going to ‘come to Jesus’, if we are to ‘follow Him’ it will always be, and enhanced by, following Him with others - we need one-another.
RESPONSE
Jesus calls you to ‘come to me…learn from me’ (Matt. 11:29). He asks us to “Come, follow me,” Have you made a radical decision to follow completely? You cannot follow two masters! These first disciples ‘left their nets and followed him.’ This does not mean that all of us need to stop our current work, school etc. and give ourselves, full-time, to some sort of Christian work. No, but this is a challenge to offer all that we are and do to Jesus - we are all to live ‘full-time’ for Jesus, excluding everything that is not in keeping with Jesus’ will; following Jesus is costly and requires full-hearted response.
Secondly, are you devoted to a church community and are you in a small group? Jesus calls us to follow Him with others.
WEDNESDAY – “COME TO ME”… HE WILL TEACH YOU PT.1
Matthew 5:1-2 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.
Read also Matt. 11:28-30 and John 7:37-38
The first disciples were called to follow and learn from Jesus. He taught in a variety of ways: through example, through giving opportunity to have a go, through didactic teaching as we have here in the Sermon on the Mount. John Stott has written on this section of Jesus’ teaching,
‘For the standards of the Sermon are neither readily attainable by every man, nor totally unattainable by any man. To put them beyond anybody’s reach is to ignore the purpose of Christ’s Sermon; to put them within everybody’s is to ignore the reality of man’s sin. They are attainable all right, but only by those who have experienced the new birth which Jesus told Nicodemus was the indispensable condition of seeing and entering God’s kingdom. For the righteousness he described in the Sermon is an inner righteousness. Although it manifests itself outwardly and visibly in words, deeds and relationships, yet it remains essentially a righteousness of the heart.’
This narrative is designed to remind us of Moses receiving and giving the law at Mount Sinai. So now, Jesus, is giving the teaching that is to characterise the church.
Too many of us, for various reasons, are not learning from Jesus as a life-style. We may go to church (we may not!) and pick up some crumbs of teaching, but, the school of Jesus is open every day!
RESPONSE
Jesus said to His disciples at the Last Supper,
“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” (John 13:12-15)
Jesus is a teacher. He continues this teaching ministry through the Holy Spirit (John 16: 12-13) and through teachers in the local church (1 Tim. 3:2; Heb. 13:7). Is Jesus your teacher? Are you learning from Him? Jesus calls you to ‘the mountain’, He calls, “come to me…learn from me…” (Matthew 11:29). This is very important! It is only those will come to Jesus as a teacher and as learners who will obtain the promise of ‘rest for your soul’ that we read of in John 16:12-13.
THURSDAY – “COME TO ME” … HE WILL TEACH YOU PT.2
Read Matt. 5::1-12; 11:28-30 and John 7:37-38
Yesterday, we began to consider the idea that when Jesus asks Christians to, “Come to me”, this involves coming and learning from Him; Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened…learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28-30). Yesterday, we began to look at this teaching section in Matthew that is often called ‘The Sermon on the Mount’. It is the greatest discipleship course in existence.
Today we are going to look at the first half of this famous section that is often referred to as The Beatitudes.
1. He said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…” (5:3)
Jesus says that you are ‘blessed’ (you are rich) when you know that you are bankrupt and can in no way contribute to your righteous standing before God? Such people are rich in Christ? (Read Ephesians 1:3-10)
Are you ‘poor in spirit’, relying, Completely on the death of Jesus, in your place for salvation?
‘Blessed’ is not so much about how we feel (happy) but about how God feels - He loves to see such attributes in us. To have, or seek to have, each of these attributes is to know that one is pleasing to God.
2. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. ( 5:4)
To mourn is to grieve for your sin, the state of the world, the failings of others. It is the condition, caused by suffering, a condition that causes one to reach out to God for strength and comfort.
Has anything caused you to grieve in recent years? Have you come to God to receive healing?
Do you grieve for your sin, the state of the world, the failings of others…? As you come to God in honest prayer he gives great encouragement.
3. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (5:5)
Biblical ‘meekness’ (gentleness) is gentleness - it’s Strength under control. Ultimately it is defined by Jesus who said,
'Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.’ (Matt. 11:29)
To be meek requires faith in God. The meek are those, like Christ, who trust God rather than lashing out or seeking to make things happen by force. Fear and pride are enemies to meekness, when we stop trusting God, we become pushy and harsh. Paul writes,
'Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’ (Philippians 4:5-7)
Are you seeking to be gentle with people that annoy you?
Is your soul at peace? Trusting God, this is the road to meekness.
4. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. (5:6)
It is a great thing in God’s sight when one desires, above all else, to live a life that is pleasing in God’s sight. Of course, this is not about earning our salvation which is a free gift, rather it is, whilst embracing the gift of righteousness which is our in Christ, it is doing what the author to the Hebrews urges us to do,
‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.’ (Romans 12:1)
Are you still hungering and thirsting to live a more righteous life?
Are you still seeking a deeper relationship with Jesus?
Have you given ground to sin or stopped fighting for purity?
FRIDAY – “COME TO ME” … HE WILL TEACH YOU PT.3
Read Matt. 5::1-12; 11:28-30 and John 7:37-38
Anyone who comes to Jesus, will find that this involves learning from Him. Paul writes,
‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.’ (Romans 12:2)
Jesus wants to transform our thinking so that we can know and live in ‘his good, pleasing and perfect will’. To this end, today we will finish looking at the last four attributes in this section of teaching often called The Beatitudes.
5. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. (5:7)
God loves to see us expressing mercy. Mercy is a great summary of the gospel - Jesus died for those who deserve death; showing mercy is a sign that one has received the gospel.
Are you allowing God’s mercy toward you to shape your mercy toward others?
Are you holding on to bitterness toward anyone?
6. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. (5:8)
The pure in heart are those who are seeking have a heart that’s fully devoted to God. This is well summarised by Jesus when He commands us to,
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38)
Are you fighting for a pure heart - to trust and please God above all other things?
7. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (5:9)
God sent His son to reinstate peace between God and man (Rom. 5:1); Jesus came into the world to bring reconciliation with God and between people. If we are God’s children (which Christian’s are) we will take on the ‘family likeness’ of being a peacemaker. God loves to see us seeking to edify and bring health to relationships.
Are you a peacemaker? We all have a bucket of water and petrol that we carry around with us. We can pour water or petrol on troubled waters - what do you do?
8. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (5:10)
Jesus says of us “You are the salt of the earth.” (5:13) and “You are the light of the world.” (5:14) and “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (5:16) - these are all related to our living a righteous life that can sometimes bring us into conflict with this world.
Are you swayed by peer pressure, or are you a light in this dark world through your righteous life?
3. COMMUNITY GROUP/FAMILY STUDY
COME TO ME…FIND REST FOR YOUR SOUL
Let’s begin by reminding ourselves of our vision - The kind of church that we are building together. Our vision is of
BRINGING PEOPLE TO JESUS
Bringing people to Jesus is to share in God’s greatest ambition. This is a vision with eternal worth that invites us to give our lives for the worlds’ greatest need. We do this in three different relationships:
- Myself – Goal to help me to bring myself to Jesus: I 'come to Jesus daily' by setting aside quality time each day in prayer and worship out of the bible, asking to be filled with the Holy Spirit (20 minutes, using the ‘coming to Jesus daily’ blog is a good start)
- One-another – Goal to help bring one another to Jesus: Every member is devoted to building an amazing Community Group. (Meeting weekly is a good start)
- Non-believers – Goal to help us to bring our non-believing friends to Jesus: We invest and invite in those around us (Using our monthly 'Hospitality Week' is a good start)
The texts that we will briefly look at in this study form the basis of our vision. Read Matthew 11:27-30 and John 7:37-38.
This study is focussed on ‘bringing myself to Jesus’ - the vital place of having a daily, living relationship with Jesus through the Spirit.
Discuss together
- Jesus asks us to “Come to me”. How do we do this?
- From John 7 and Matt 11, who are invited to come?
- Jesus tells us to take His yoke, what does this mean?
- Jesus tells us to ‘learn from me’ what does this mean?
- What is the promise for those who will come, yoke and learn?
- Pray and plan: Our next hospitality week is coming up. What are you planning to do?
