Back to the Basics - Discipling
ME
As I sat down at my computer this week with thoughts of Discipling on my mind I could not help but think about my own. My own journey and the discipling of received as I become a Christian and after.
When I was growing up my dad tried to be a good role model for me and my brother. He and we were heavily involved in church. As most of you know the church I was in when I was a child was the Lutheran Church. But we were pretty much there when the doors were open.
My dad was the Sunday school superintendent for all the time I could remember when I was a child. But it wasn’t only at church he brought it home as well. We said grace before every meal and he came to my brother and I’s bedroom every night to say our prayers with us and to teach us how to pray.
He made sure that when I was a little older that I went to my confirmation classes as we went through Luther’s Catechism and finally received my confirmation as a Lutheran and I was able to take my first communion. Honestly aside from my dad’s shortcomings as a husband to my mom and finally divorce, my dad tried to raise me and my brother right.
But I it never took with me. All the time of church, Sunday school, VBS, singing in the choir, helping out with church projects and such were just going through the motions for me. I never really wanted to be there. Matter of fact sometimes my brother and I would try to shut of mom and dad’s alarm clock on Sunday mornings so they would sleep too long and we couldn’t make it to church.
I was doing in life back then like I used to do in the choir when my mom made us sing. I would just stand there and mouth the words without singing a word. I was just going through the motions.
It wasn’t until after my mom and dad got a divorce and my mom remarried that I truly tried to seek a relationship with God. Part of that involved Maria and I searching for a church to attend but nothing fit her Nazarene church background and my Lutheran back ground. And that was really me wanting to find a church because Maria wanted to.
But my real turn to seeking a relationship with God came through my step dad Bob. As screwed up as his history has with women in his life he still did his best to live a good Christian life. And we had a lot of meaningful conversations about God, living for God, raising a family and a lot about baptism.
A lot about baptism because of my Lutheran background. In the Lutheran church I was baptized when I was 8 days old. And then of course confirmed that baptism at age 13. But that didn’t mean anything to me because at 8 days old of course I didn’t have a clue of what was happening to me. And that is what happened. It happened to me, I did not nor I could I make the choice to be a Christian at 8 days old.
And I honestly didn’t know that confirmation classes and confirmation at the time I was going through it was confirming my baptism. I just thought it all was so I could take communion. I didn’t know confirmation was confirming my baptism until my grandpa Engler passed away and the preacher talked about that in the message.
And this was long after all my conversations with my step dad Bob and long after I made the choice on my own to be baptized and give my life to Christ.
So I don’t go on with my own story forever, here is the point. Me being discipled came mostly through my step dad and conversations when we were working together building cabinets, or working in the yard, or around the dinner table. These conversations are what made me want to be a Christian and my step dad was the person who baptized me.
My desire to take it further came firstly through the church and being involved in something more than myself. But it mostly came from my own reading of God’s Word. I still remember the conviction as I read the Word and being amazed at what Jesus did and said in His ministry on earth.
In church I became involved with helping Maria as she taught and then me teaching in the children program, then being involved with the missions team, then teaching youth, then teaching adults and it continued until now and preaching and teach every week.
WE
And here is the thing. Discipling is a process over time that involves many different people, many different settings and situations. And discipling generally begins in small groups and moves to the larger groups. Sometimes as small of groups as two people as it did with me and my step dad.
If you are a person today who has made your faith your own I would bet you didn’t do that by just coming to church. I bet you had or have someone you can talk to one on one or a few you can talk to in a smaller group setting. And I bet you were convicted through the Word of God in your own reading and study of the God’s Word.
Through everything I have been talking about thus far one thing is clear even though I have not said it yet. Discipling does not and can not take place in any persons life without relationships. Discipling requires relationships. And God created us as I talked about last week for fellowship with Him and with others. He created us to have relationships.
And what that means is that if we are not involved in other people’s lives, and not just other Christians life’s, but with non-Christians, discipling is not taking place. Not as we see it in the Bible. I want you to take a look again at Acts 2:42-47
GOD
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.z 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:42-47
What we see here is not so much the discipling process taking place, though more are being saved and added to their number daily, but what we are seeing is the result of Jesus’ work in discipling the apostles. This ragtag group of men who weren’t anything special.
They were fishermen, common laborers, a tax collector, doubters, insecure, and uneducated men. But Jesus still chose them, He sunk His life into them and through that and the Holy Spirit working in their lives they and Jesus created the movement of Christianity that is still strong today.
Without discipling Christianity would not exist today. And Jesus knew this, this is why He sunk His life into these men. This is why it is a basic of the church, because without dedicated men and women discipling others the church / Christianity will not continue to grow and then more people will be lost to sin without Jesus Christ.
We have to continue to the be witnesses and not just through the church as we think of it today. But be witnesses as Jesus told the apostles to be witnesses. You remember that in Acts chapter 1?
Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. Acts 1:6-9
These apostles, even after they had witnessed Jesus alive after death and after spending this time with Him after His death are still concerned about things that don’t matter. They want to know about the kingdom of Israel being restored, but Jesus basically says don’t concern yourselves with that, instead be my witness locally, nationally, and throughout the world.
Jesus said in the Great Commission, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Mt. 28:18-20
For this to be the background of discipling, how could anyone say it is not a basic of the church. We look at the things that we have already looked at, worship and fellowship and what we will look at still with prayer and taking the Lord’s Supper and every Christian does those things. But not every Christian disciples other people. Why is this?
ILLUS: Dr. Robert Coleman who wrote the book The Master Plan of Evangelism wrote this in the forward of Jim Putman’s book Disciplshift this…
“Something is missing in the life of the church today. Today’s institution has a polite form of religion, but it seems to lack power, the power to radically change the wayward course of society. This is not to say the nothing worthwhile is happening. In fact, all kinds of things are going on, and if success is measured by big meetings, big buildings, and budgets, then the church appears to be doing quite well.
But the real question has to be asked: is all this business actually fulfilling the mandate of Christ to make disciples and teaching them, in turn, to do the same? That’s the mission of the church. Yes, we want churches to grow, but it is becoming painfully evident that getting more people on the rolls has not resulting in a corresponding increase in transformed lives.
Where do you find the contagious sacrifice and all-out commitment to the Great Commission? In our obsession with bigger numbers of converts, far too little attention has been given to the nurture of believer in how to live their faith. This neglect has created a crisis in the contemporary church. How we deal with it, I believe, represent the most important issue we face today.
We don’t need crowds to reach the world. True, our Lord did on occasion speak to multitudes, but most of his time was spent with a few learners. Being with him day after day was the essence of their training.
Ministry was seen not as a specialized clerical calling but as an everyday lifestyle of obedience to Christ. Replicating this pattern of living becomes the goal of the priesthood of all believers.” — Dr. Robert E. Coleman
Mr. Coleman is right, what we need to do as a church is replicate the pattern of Jesus’ life. Teaching and spending time with other people — Christians and non-Christians alike. Discipling to the point that those we are discipling are now discipling others.
But there are so many church leaders in the world today who are just interested more people. And honestly many church leaders are businesses men whose goal in business to make more money and that ideology infiltrates the church.
I have heard it said before that the church is about money and in order to get more money the church has to get more people, but that could not be more wrong. The church is about people and bringing lost people to reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. And if the church, the priesthood of all believers would focus this, God will see to the churches growth.
I recently saw in the notes of a meeting, “This meeting is a waste of time.” I wasn’t at that meeting, but this is my assumption as to why that was written. Because we have a tendency to major in the minors and talk about scenarios and hypotheticals rather than realities and major in the majors.
I want to let you know this morning that when it comes to the basics of the church discipling is major. And in some classes, like I had this past year in personal evangelism we talked about scenarios and hypotheticals when it comes to discipling others, but we have to take it out of the classroom and to the reality of the real world.
Jim Putman in his book Discipleshift writes, “When it comes to the local church in North America today, something is not working. Simply as yourself, is the church producing results? Is it doing its job in the best way possible?”
It’s true that throughout North America today, though numbers are declining, there are still many people coming to church, and some are busy with ministry-related activities. There are ministries to the poor. Building are being built. Programs are running full tilt. Money is being given.
But attendance, busyness, construction, finances, and programs are not real indications of success. The core question of effectiveness — the question that ultimately matters — is whether people who are getting saved are being conformed to the likeness of Christ. Are we making mature disciples of Jesus who are not only able to withstand the culture but are also making disciples of Jesus themselves?”
YOU
This is where I leave it to you with week. Are you a Christian, a disciple, who is being conformed to the likeness of Christ? Is your Christianity reflected in your everyday life. Do your co-workers or co-students know you are a Christian and do your co-workers or co-students know what a true Christian is? What I mean by that is are you showing them how a true Christian lives and are you witnessing to them in word and deed. Do they see Christ in you?
Disciples of Jesus Christ witnesses of Jesus Christ. Also, how are you handling the pressures of our culture and society? Let me tell some don’t handle it very well at all and instead of transforming culture and society they have given into culture and society. Some of them by saying that God is still evolving.
ILLUS: I heard that just the other day from a homosexual pastor, that God is still evolving. But that is something totally new to me because I reading the Bible that God/Jesus is the Alpha and Omega and that He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Heb. 13:8
But you see when culture and society get the best of us that is when we come up with nonsense like God is evolving. Are you a strong enough disciple that culture isn’t getting the best of you? And are you a disciple who is making more disciples of Jesus?
Because, you see that is the mission and purpose of the church. To bring the lost to reconciliation to God through Jesus Christ and that is done through making disciples who will make more disciples. And without this basic of basic process happening, the church is simply not the church as God intended.
WE
This week I want to challenge you to a very basic thing. I want to challenge you to prayer. To pray, if you don’t have this already, for someone to disciple. That God also will prepare you for that someone and for that someone to be a person with like interest as you have so you will have something to do outside of the church and study environment.
My experience with my step dad was practically a perfect situation because we had things in common and as we did those things we found ourselves without even trying or thinking about it, him discipling me and us feeding off each other to make both us better men.
Yes, discipling is a basic of basic of the church and we as the body of Christ need to make it as common as us coming together for worship, for fellowship, for prayer, and for the breaking of bread.
