Discipleship Part 1: Pupil and Followers
Scriptures: Matthew 18:3; Luke 14:25-33
Introduction:
This morning I will start a series I’ve titled “Discipleship.” In our adult bible study class, we have been discussing our simple church process. A large part of our discussions have been on what it means to be a disciple of Christ and that looks at our Church. As many of you have been unable to attend some of these sessions, I’ve decided to discuss discipleship with the Church more broadly in this series of messages. Through this series I hope that we will all begin to understand where we are as a Church body as it relates to developing disciples for Christ. This morning we will focus on a basic definition of disciple and through that definition work our way towards the definition of being a follower of Christ. Let’s begin with how Webster’s dictionary defines disciple.
I. Disciple: Pupil and/or Follower
Webster’s dictionary defines disciple as “a pupil or follower of any teacher.” This definition contains two key words that I want us to examine this morning. The two words are pupil and follower. As I shared in bible study two weeks ago, understanding these two words is crucial to our understanding what it means to be a true disciple. The first word that describes a disciple is pupil.
Pupil: Webster’s dictionary defines pupil as “a person taught under the supervision of a teacher.” Everyone in this room at some point has been a pupil. Some of us were better pupils than others, but still we were in fact pupils under the supervision of a teacher. In this situation, the teacher is the one in charge of imparting knowledge to their pupils. To ensure that we are all on the same page, I want to take us back to the 1st grade. I chose the 1st grade because for me that was the grade where I really began to understand restrictions. (I also remember the 1st grade more so than kindergarten.) The reason I am using elementary school instead of junior high/high school is because in elementary school, especially 1st grade, we are still young enough to respect and trust our teachers. There is an innocence with children that seems to disappear as we get older. If an adult maintained the innocence of a child people would say that something was wrong with that person. If we do not develop a distrust of others; a fear of others; a dislike for others; then in our society something is wrong with us. Many times people have referred to someone with these traits as being extremely naïve and/or slow. But listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 18:3: “And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)
A child will often receive direction and follow it without pushing back. Oh they will try and exercise their independence as they get older, but there are some things that a child will believe at face value. If you tell a young child that Jesus loves them, they will believe you. A few weeks ago I read the story of a little girl who went to see the passion play with her parents. The passion play is about the last week of Jesus’ life. When it got to the part where Jesus enters the scene, the little girl began to cry out “there’s Jesus”. She was mesmerized with seeing Him. The people sitting around her smiled at the little girl realizing that she thought the actor was the real Jesus. As the play went on, it came to the part where Jesus was arrested by the soldiers. During the scene where the soldiers were beating Him, the little girl believed it was real and began to cry out. She yelled at the soldiers to stop it. People sitting around her were now watching the little girl closely. With tears in her eyes, she continued to yell at the soldiers to stop it because they were hurting Jesus. At first some of the people thought it was cute, but as the little girl continued to scream, her parents tried to comfort her by telling her it was just a play and that they were not really hurting Jesus. The girl did not believe them and continued to be upset. Realizing what they were witnessing, others around the little girl began to cry themselves. Watching the innocence of this child transported them to the place where they saw what was happening with Jesus with their spirits versus with their minds. When Jesus was buried, the child continued to be upset as she thought the soldiers had killed Jesus. When she saw Jesus come out of the grave, she really began to shout, cry and rejoice. Again, those watching the little girl also cried and rejoiced. When the play was over, the actors were greeting the people as they left. When the little girl saw the soldiers, she cried out “Bad soldiers” because they hurt Jesus. When she saw the actor who played Jesus, she cried out and ran up to him and just grabbed his legs and would not let go. She wanted Jesus to know she loved him. The actor did not realize that this little girl thought he was the real Jesus. This little girl’s response to Jesus in the play is what Jesus was talking about when He said how we should come to Him – as little children. So let’s go back to the 1st grade.
I was in the first grade 44 years ago and my first grade teacher name was Mrs. Spence. As a pupil of Mrs. Spence, I began learning in my first structured environment. I began to learn my ABCs, math, and how to write. All of this information came through Mrs. Spence and was later reinforced by my parents. I will talk more about this later. When I came into Mrs. Spence’s room the first time I learned immediately who was in charge. You see my parents had told me that I had better do what I was told when I started school. Back in those days, if I got a paddling at school I got another one at home. (Some of you have never gone to school when such discipline tactics were used – but let me tell you, they were effective. Time out was when you sat back at your desk after receiving the paddling – but that’s another story.) Those days are long gone as now we blame the teachers for how our kids act, but that too is a message for a later date.
In Mrs. Spence class, I learned where my chair was because she told me where to sit. This changed whenever she felt the need to shake things up. What was constant was my chair was always where she wanted it to be and not where I wanted it to be because she was in charge. Mrs. Spence told me when to talk, walk, eat, play, sleep and when to go home. My house was right across the street from the school and I never once left that school without her permission to go home. If we were on the play ground playing and my mother was in our yard, I did not run across the street to hug my mother because when I was in school, I was a pupil of Mrs. Spence and I went where she told me to go. In that situation she was the ruling head, not my mother. When it came to learning, I had to learn what Mrs. Spence wanted me to learn and I had to learn it her way. You see, if I wanted to get promoted to the next grade, I had to give the answers she wanted on a test and not the ones I wanted to give. I did not have the right to dictate to her what the right answer was – she held that decision right. There was a certain curriculum that she had to follow, but how she taught it and how I learned it was a product of her method. I was a pupil of Mrs. Spence. Mrs. Spence ruled our first grade. When it came to the end of the year, I thought you only got promoted if you were good on the last day of school and the teacher liked you. I knew you could fail because there was someone in the 1str grade with me that had failed the year before and I did not want to be him. I spent several years sweating the night before the last day of school when we found out if we passed or not because I did not understand that it was based on the work I had done all year. It was not about if she liked me, but about what I had done.
As a pupil in the first grade, my life existed around doing what I was told to do, the way I was told to do it and then I could progress to the next level. I had to go the way it was laid out before me otherwise I would remain in the 1st grade. Well, spiritually it is very similar. As a pupil we had teachers giving us information during the day and when we got home our parents reinforced that information. As Christians, Jesus is the teacher and the church leaders are supposed to function in the role of the parent, reinforcing what Christ has already laid out before us. The problem that we have is that Christ gives it one way and then we reinforce it a different way. To be a disciple, we must first be a pupil and learn from the teacher and then we can become a follower.
Follower: The second word in the definition is follower. A follower by definition is one who follows the teachings of someone else. The difference between a pupil and a follower although there are some similarities, is that the pupil must learn certain things in a certain way in order to get from one grade to the next. For example, I had to learn that 1+1=2. There were no negotiations about this truth. Forty-five years later, 1+1 still equals 2 and I choose to operate with this truth, especially if I want to be able to hold on to my money and not get ripped off when I am out shopping. A pupil has few choices as to what they learn while they are in school and when they graduate they may or may not choose to remember any of it. The follower, however, chooses to follow the teachings of another voluntarily. When I was in school we learned how to write with good penmanship but if you read anything that I write manually you’d think I was asleep during those classes. But there are other things that I learned and choose to follow those teachings to this day. A follower chooses to follow the teachings of another and in that choice they begin to seek out what those teachings are and begin to live by them. When we choose to become a disciple of Christ, we become a pupil first and then a follower. In the beginning of our relationship with Christ we operate primarily as pupils because we begin to learn about Him and what He did for us. As we get further along in our relationship, we come to a point when we must choose whether or not we will shift from being a pupil to a follower. We become followers by choice. As a pupil we learn the information and when we become a follower we remember and live by the information (teachings) that we learned. This is the most critical decision that we will make, choosing to move from being a pupil and just learning information about Christ to being a follower where we put that information into our hearts and begin to live by it. Jesus described our decision like this in the 14th chapter of Luke.
II. Making The Decision – Counting The Cost
I have shared with you in previous messages that it cost something to be a follower of Christ. That decision to become a follower should not be taken lightly. Listen to this example that Jesus gave in Luke 14:25-33. “Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them He said: ‘If anyone comes to Me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be My disciples.” (Luke 14:25-33)
In these verses Jesus states that it cost something to follow Him and we must understand what those costs are. To be a follower of Christ will require some sacrifices. He used the example of someone building a house without counting the cost up front to see if they will have enough money to finish it. He said that the person who does not count the cost up front and later finds out they do not have enough money after they began the building process will be ridiculed. He used a second example about a king going to war and estimating if he has the resources to win or not. If he believes that he cannot win he chooses to send a delegation to negotiate peace versus sacrificing his kingdom in a losing battle.
In these examples Jesus was letting us know that we must understand what it means to be His disciples because it will be a sacrifice and it will cost us something. If we do not understand this up front we might begin to walk with Him only to decide that the road is too hard and then stop. Today this is why we have many people who believe in Christ but not all are followers of Him. Jesus said “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:14-14) This let’s us know that there are some confinements that we will experience to walk with Christ. We will not be able to walk as others walk; we will need to make difficult decisions to be a follower of Christ. We need to count the cost of this relationship.
When we decided to purchase this Church, as we were negotiating with the owners, there were many things we had to consider. We had to count the costs. We had to decide if we could make the payment and more importantly if we had the funds to make the renovations that the building needed. As the leadership team discussed the costs, I remember Nikki, Valerie and Cynthia saying we needed to overestimate what the costs would be because there would be things that would come up. I am glad we listened to them because sure enough we have had many things come up from the very beginning that we did not anticipate and had we not planned accordingly, we might have been in a situation where we would not have been able to complete this process. They considered the “what if” factor. We need to consider the “what if” factors when we decide to be a follower (disciple) of Christ. What if we have to walk away from family and friends to walk with Christ? What if we have to give up some habits to walk with Christ? What if we have to stop going to some places or doing some things we really enjoy doing? These are the things we need to consider if we are going to be a disciple of Christ because we must follow His rules, not our own. We must consider if we can handle being His disciple. We must count the cost. We should not start the journey and then decide that it is too hard and turn back. It would be better for us if we’d had never started to walk with Him and experience the Holy Spirit than to start and then turn back. Paul writes “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.” (Hebrews 6:4-6)
As we begin to focus on making disciples here at New Light we must ensure we and others count the cost. That is the very first step. Are we willing to be disciples without knowing everything? Two weeks ago in bible study we were defining a disciple of Christ and Justin, one of our teenagers, made the following statement: “A disciple is someone who is willing to die blind.” When he made this statement he floored us because he truly captured the essence of what it means to be a disciple – meaning that we do not need to know everything or have all of the answers in order to walk with Christ. We are willing to die for Him without having all of the answers because we know that the few answers that we do have make it worth it. These words came from a sixteen year old. To be a disciple of Christ we should be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to follow Him.
This is the first message on discipleship. For the next couple of weeks we will continue examining what it means to be a disciple of Christ.
May God bless and keep you is my prayer.
