[Most of the thoughts in this sermon come from Dallas Willard’s book The Spirit of the Disciplines.]
Eph 4:12
“…to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.”
Matt 28:19-20
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Conversion is not the end of the road.
• When we become a Christian, it doesn’t mean we have arrived.
• It was never meant to be. We are to grow to be like Christ.
The Bible says the church is here to ‘prepare God’s people’ and to ‘teach them’.
• In order words, there is a training going on and we are all in it.
• We are trainees, whether you know it or not; whether you want it or not.
We tend to ignore this part.
• Dallas Willard says this is the great omission from the great commission.
• We focus on grace so much that being saved by grace through faith is all we care about.
• And so we let go of our guard once we are Christians, or when we feel we are going to church and doing fine.
The Bible says we need to be trained, because we need to grow.
• Not to grow old, but to grow up – to be like Christ.
• Conversion is not the end of the road, it’s just the beginning.
Salvation is a life. It is about the newness of life.
• Not just the forgiveness of our sin.
• Jesus says He has come to give us life and life more abundantly.
• His message was not just about repentance, but a new creation.
Salvation therefore cannot be the mere mental assent to things about Jesus.
• If we are to be light of the world, salt of the earth, then Christianity has to do with life.
• There is an impartation of a new life in Christ – and this affects all aspects of our life.
We need to watch this growth process, to make sure that this ‘light’ still shines and this ‘salt’ keeps its flavour.
• We need to look at the disciplines of our life – the habits, the things we do.
• They can either fuel growth or retard it because of our negligence.
• We are not saved by our efforts, but without any efforts we cannot grow.
• The Bible says we need to be equipped; we need to be taught and trained.
We know the popular bumper sticker: “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.”
• This phrase is flawed. It is not either-or but both.
• We are called to be perfect just as the Father is perfect, the Lord says.
• This phrase nullifies serious effort toward spiritual growth, as if it is not necessary.
Conversion is just part of the story; we are to grow up and be like Christ.
• It is not an optional good-to-have. Salvation is a life, not a conversion experience.
• Jesus saved us to be like Him. This journey has just begun.
Therefore we have to watch our disciplines, our spiritual habits.
Think of someone who idolizes an outstanding sportsman or performer.
• They want to be like them. So what do they do?
• They try to behave exactly as their idol does – the way they move, talk and sing.
• They try anything and everything their idol does, hoping to be like him.
• They buy the type of shoes the star wears, the same racket he uses, adopt the same hairstyle.
Will they succeed in performing like the star? We all know that answer quite well.
• We know that they won’t succeed, if all they do is try to copy him.
• No matter how alike they may look. And we all understand why.
The star performer himself didn’t achieve that standard by trying to behave in a certain way ONLY during the show.
• His behaviour at the show was the result of a long period of learning and practice.
• If we study the regimen of professional sportsmen, we’ll understand.
• The performance is the outflow of a life of preparation - of the mind and body, of countless hours of stressing muscles and tuning his reflexes.
The amazing performance is not the result of the few short hours at the race itself.
• In fact, that one minute race could be the result of one year of running.
• It is the result of a daily regimen over a long period, where no one sees.
• A person is fat. It did not happen because he took a heavy meal yesterday.
• Our DAILY HABITS results in who we are today.
This is important.
• Even if a person is naturally talented, without any training he will soon be defeated by those, who may not be that good, but chose to train hard and discipline themselves in preparation for the race.
What we are saying here is a principle of life.
• It is true of a public speaker, a musician, a sportsman, or a surgeon.
• So is the Christian life.
Following Christ is as big a challenge as playing the violin or running the race.
At the moment of a crisis, what will cause us to stand strong and firm in faith?
• It is not what happen during the crisis, but rather what happen before the crisis.
• It has to do with the ‘training’ that we’ve put in with regard to our relationship with God.
• It has to do with the HABITS that we have developed over our long walk with the Lord.
We know we are saved by grace, and not works.
• But grace does NOT mean that we’ll automatically grow – to be like Christ and to be strong in faith trusting Him.
• Faith in God will not automatically be “infused’ into our being in the moment of need.
Dallas Willard: “A baseball play who expects to excel in the game without adequate exercise of his body is no more ridiculous than the Christian who hopes to be able to act in the manner of Christ when put to the test without the appropriate exercise in godly living.”
Look at Jesus’ life. Being the Son of God did not relieve him of the necessity of growing up and learning skills.
• He grew up in a simple family in Nazareth for 30 years, learning to be a member of the family and carpentry skills.
• After he was baptized by John the Baptist, he spent 40 days in the wilderness – solitude and fasting.
• During the ministry, he was alone much of the time, often spending the entire night in solitude and prayer.
• As a result, Jesus was able to lead a remarkable public life.
His public life was an outflow of his private life! It will be the same for us.
When we say WWJD (what would Jesus do) – we are only looking at Him “on the spot”, in a particular situation.
• But to live as Christ lived is more than that - we are to live as He did ALL his life.
• The way he spent his time, the solitude time with God, the fasting, the pre-dawn prayers… the entire disciplines of his life!
• To ask WWJD is flawed, because we will not be able to do what He would do without the pre-requisites.
Jesus was able to perform well “on the spot”, in public, ‘cos of his disciplined private life.
• What He did ‘on the spot’ was the natural outflow of the life He lived when not on the spot.
• Our mistake is to think that we can simply love our enemies, going the ‘second mile’, turning the other cheek, while living the rest of our lives just as everyone around us does.
• We want to act like a champion athlete in the heat of a game, without any training routines.
Dallas Willard: “The general human failing is to want what is right and important, but at the same time not to commit ourselves to the kind of life that will produce the action we know to be right and the condition we want to enjoy.”
In his book The Road Less Travelled, psychiatrist M. Scott Peck observes:
“They want, and believe it is possible, to skip over the discipline, to find an easy shortcut to sainthood.”
We cannot behave “on the spot” as Jesus did, if in the rest of our time we live as everybody else does.
• We cannot expect our un-Christlike tendencies to be transformed into sudden Christlikeness “on the spot”, even by the grace of God.
• So asking ourselves WWJD is not enough.
• No doubt it will do some good and is better than nothing, but that act alone is NOT SUFFICIENT to see us through a crisis, and we could easily find ourselves driven to despair because we felt so powerless to do the right thing.
We need to learn the disciplines of Christ.
If Jesus needs that, we need it.
Heb 5:8-9 says “8Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”
• Obedience, even for Jesus, was something to be learned.
• It is obvious that we cannot hope to do and act like Jesus without adopting his forms or the disciplines of his life.
John Wesley pointed out this trend in the 18th Century:
“It was a common saying among the Christians of the primitive church, ‘The soul and the body make a man; the Spirit and the discipline make a Christian:’ implying that none could be real Christians without the help of Christian discipline. But if this be so, is it any wonder that we find so few Christians; for where is Christian discipline?”
So what are some of the disciplines –
Areas of abstinence: solitude, silence, fasting, sacrifice.
Areas of engagement:study, worship, celebration (fellowship), prayer
These disciplines free us from the power of sin’s hold on us.
• I am not suggesting any mechanical ‘formula for success’ in the spiritual life.
• It is not a regimental thing. Find your own way of organizing your life, based on your lifestyle, areas of interest… Do it your own way.
• We want to say is that we need them if we want to grow to be like Jesus.
