This Sunday, we will begin a new sermon series, “The Way of the Rabbi”. In it, we will be considering some of the specific spiritual practices of Jesus. The bigger theme is a consideration of what it means to follow Jesus. To whet your appetite, here are a few thoughts that might be provocative or discomfiting.

In the New Testament, the word “Christian” is used only three times and it is mainly on the lips of opponents to mock followers of Jesus.  

The word “disciple” (or “apprentice”) is used 269 times.

Jesus never used the label “Christian” or “Christianity”.

63 percent of Americans self-identify as Christians.

4 percent of Americans are following Jesus in the actual way He lived and set forth in His teachings.

The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who…are identified as “Christians” will become disciples - students, apprentices, practitioners - of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence. - Dallas Willard

Saints, I am praying that the Holy Spirit will be at work in us and through us in the upcoming weeks and months. Prepare to be encouraged as well as challenged. And where you sense resistance in yourself to what you are hearing, ask God to help you to use those moments as an opportunity for transformation, that we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, might be transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).