Calvary Vision Sunday
2nd February 2025

Our lives and focus can drift, so we must continually realign with those things that matter to the heart of God.

Calvary’s vision:
We see a growing church, meeting in many locations around the world, helping people to know Jesus, find community and make a difference.

In every Calvary location we have three key purposes:

•We help people to know Jesus – this matters because many people are distant from God.

•We help people to find community – this matters because many people are disconnected from the family of God.

•We help people to make a difference – this matters because many people are disengaged from the purpose of God.

2025 marks 101 years since Calvary’s founding in 1924. Given this is the first year of a new century, it’s timely to ask “Are we doing what Jesus has asked us to do?”

Colossians 1:18
He is the head of the body…

Jesus’ purpose for the Church is not a mystery. His last command makes it clear.

Matthew 28:19–20
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Five things that happen when we go make disciples.

1. When we go make disciples – our own faith is focused and strengthened

When we are busy making disciples, it keeps us in the way of Jesus.

In the same way that the responsibility of parenthood has a maturing effect on adults, so too the responsibility of discipling others has a maturing effect on our own faith.

1 Corinthians 11:1
Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.

2. When we go make disciples – we’re delivered from consumer Christianity

Because of the broader culture in which we live and work, we can tend to bring a consumer mindset with us to church. Inadvertently, our faith experience becomes about our own needs and preferences.

When we go make disciples, our focus moves of ourselves and onto others.

Matthew 28:19
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

3. When we go make disciples – the impact of our lives multiplies and is lasting

Acts 9:10–12
Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.”

Ananias was an ordinary man who simply followed the Lord’s prompting to disciple a new convert called Saul. He’d have never imagined the lasting impact that came about because of investment into Saul (who later became the Apostle Paul).

1 John 2:17
The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

4. When we go make disciples – Jesus builds His Church

Matthew 16:18
… I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

Jesus promised to build His Church, and He told us to make disciples.
Disciples become the ‘living stones’ that God sets in place to build the Church.

5. When we go make disciples – we can be confident of His presence

Matthew 28:20
“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus promises His presence to those who go make disciples. The surest way to attract the presence of Jesus is to devote ourselves to helping people know Jesus and follow Him.

Mark 16:20
Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.