Sermon for CATM - Being and Making Disciples - The Way of Jesus # 6 - February 18, 2024
We have been looking at the Markers of the Way of Jesus
What are the first 5 markers of the way of Jesus that we have been looking at?
I have begun..following Jesus...and am depending on the Spirit of Jesus in my journey.
I am being...sent by Jesus to...bless others and invite them to follow Him.
I am becoming...like Jesus in my...attitudes, behaviours, and character.
I am learning...to love God and love...others.
I am learning the...teachings of Jesus.
And today’s Marker is this: I am helping someone and someone is helping me to be a reproducing follower of Jesus.
Today, the Way of Jesus marker we will look at is: “I am helping someone and someone is helping me to be a reproducing follower of Jesus”.
You might ask, how is this, why is this a part of the Way of Jesus. And you may wonder about the word “reproducing”.
Well, let me explain. Jesus gave the church, which is all believers, the Great Commission:
In Matthew 28, after His crucifixion and His resurrection, Jesus is talking to his disciples and he says: 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.”
We’re called to “go”. We’re called to “make disciples”. What’s a disciple? A student of Jesus, a follower of Jesus.
A Disciple is one who has a desire to learn from His Master.
A Disciple is a committed learner - One that attaches himself to a given teacher.
The original word was used first of those that learned a trade under a master teacher.
If you wanted to become a craftsman in a certain trade in Biblical times you would apprentice yourself under the discipline and instruction of a master craftsman of that trade. You would copy, mimic the actions and attitude of the master.
There can be a difference between being a student and being a disciple.
A student may learn things from his teacher, but not fully believe those teachings. Whereas a disciple fully believes and acts upon those teachings.
The teacher and writer Soren Kierkegaard once said “To become an ‘admirer of Jesus’ is much easier than to become a follower.”
There are many admirers of Jesus. There are many who profess to believe in Jesus. That’s a very good thing. But it is critical for all believers to become actual followers of Jesus.
We are not called to be fans of Jesus we are not called to be People who are in name only Christians. We are called to actually follow Jesus.
A Christian leader told the story of what happened while he was driving in a rural area in Russia. He saw on the road ahead of him two shepherds who came together in the middle of the road with their herds of sheep.
They had 300 sheep between them that all became one group. He had to wait as the shepherds talked.
Finally, he wondered how would they ever separate all those sheep? But as the one shepherd was leaving, in a low voice he bade his sheep come. The two groups separated instantly and went their ways.
And Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. (John 10:27)
In the movie Karate Kid, young Daniel asks Mister Miagi (Mee-A-GEE) to teach him karate.
Miagi agrees under one condition: Daniel must submit totally to his instruction and never question his methods. Daniel shows up the next day eager to learn.
To Daniel’s chagrin, Mister Miagi has him paint a fence. Miagi demonstrates the precise motion for the job: up and down, up and down. Daniel takes days to finish the job.
Next, Miagi has him scrub the deck using a prescribed stroke. Again the job takes days. Daniel wonders, What does this have to do with karate? but he says nothing.
Next, Miagi tells Daniel to wash and wax three weather-beaten cars and again prescribes the motion.
Finally, Daniel reaches his limit: "I thought you were going to teach me karate, but all you have done is have me do your unwanted chores!"
Daniel has broken Miagi’s one condition, and the old man’s face pulses with anger.
"I have been teaching you karate! Defend yourself!" Miagi thrusts his arm at Daniel, who instinctively defends himself with an arm motion exactly like that used in one of his chores.
Miagi unleashes a vicious kick, and again Daniel averts the blow with a motion used in his chores.
After Daniel successfully defends himself from several more blows, Miagi simply walks away, leaving Daniel to discover what the master had known all along: skill comes from repeating the correct but seemingly mundane actions.
It was at this point Daniel ceased being a student and became a disciple of Mr. Miagi.
A disciple eagerly learns all the lessons he needs to know and puts them into practice.
To know something, in fact to know anything, and to not put it into practice, to not utilize and activate that thing you know, is to render whatever knowledge you may have useless.
It’s actually dangerous because you can then think you know it all. But if you can’t apply what you know, your knowledge does not help you
I have taught a great many people to play guitar and bass guitar and piano and saxophone and flute.
I’ve had a lot of students over the years. My son, who is professional musician and music educator has taught many more than me.
I have had students who would show up at lessons, seemingly pay attention, but then never actually practice at all.
So then the next lesson they would have made no progress and I would have to repeat the same lesson.
I have limited time, so if a student would not practice, when they had the time and ability to practice, I would stop teaching them.
Or more likely I would ask them to really consider all that’s involved in learning an instrument, determine if and when they really have time to dedicate to learning the instrument, and when they’re ready to put in the work, come back to me.
I now have a rule that if a student has not been able to practice between lessons, I will not teach the second lesson until the first lesson has been worked on. This saves me a lot of wasted time and energy.
When I find a student who is eager and who generally puts in the work, and has passion and interest and a certain amount of either natural ability or a great willingness to work very hard, it is an absolute joy.
Then for myself and the student, all the time spent teaching is very worthwhile. And it’s worthwhile because it is fruitful.
May God keep us from coming to church and then going home and not putting into practice what we learn.
The Apostle James says this in chapter 1: 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
A Disciple is one who has surrendered all to follow his Master.
Discipleship goes beyond accepting Christ as Savior.
Discipleship means giving all to move our personal, intimate relationship with God into an ever deeper Christian maturity.
A disciple is someone who lives in day-by-day submission to the loving leadership of Jesus by His grace and for His glory.
No one has ever done this perfectly, least of all me, but the intent and desire and passion and commitment to do this is characteristic of a disciple.
And there is massive joy in being a disciple of Jesus, being a follower of Jesus.
There is great fulfilment in following our Lord, both here and now as we live, and then of course in glory.
There is nothing better than being a disciple of Jesus, but there is nothing easy about being a disciple of Jesus.
But you and I are called to follow Jesus, we are called to look to him as our Lord, our master, and our teacher, our Rabbi, to use the language of Jesus disciples.
And then, we are not only called to be disciples. We’re called to “go”. We’re called to “make disciples”. We’re called to “go!”
Who is called to “go!”? Look to your right. Look to your left. It’s us. We are called to go.
The person to your left and the person to your right has this calling. The person in between the person on your left and the person on your right has this calling, if you have received Jesus as your Lord and Saviour.
When I first read the passage about the Great Commission in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 28 many years ago as a young Christian, it didn’t dawn on me that it applied to me.
I thought, or maybe I hoped that this applied either to just the disciples who first heard Jesus say these words, or just to some who were ‘special’, or maybe just to pastors, or perhaps every other Christian but me.
But then as I reflected on this passage and listened to messages on it, it struck me that not only did this apply to me as an average, everyday Christ-follower, it is intended to be a vital part of my personal spiritual growth.
How, you may ask?
Well, at the same time I was hoping this didn’t apply to me, I was feeling some frustration about my own walk with God.
Private prayer, private Scripture reading, attending public worship services were all great in themselves, but I began to feel that there has to be more.
What was I missing? My personal walk with Christ was sincere, it was happening...it was also quite uneven at times when I would get in my head and become depressed or when I would struggle with sin. (Pause)
What was I missing? I was missing obeying and applying this teaching of Jesus in my life to go and make disciples.
When you think about it, there is a reason for the fact that you are here, participating in a worship service, for the fact that you are a Christian.
If you are a Christ-follower, which is another name for a Christian, then most likely SOMEONE had an influence.
SOMEONE encouraged you to consider Jesus, or someone behaved in a way that you found very appealing and you discovered that the “WHY” was that they followed Jesus.
Or perhaps you were raised in the church and a family member had an influence on your decision to stick with Jesus, to continue to follow Him.
But what is it that makes us disciples? How does it begin? It begins with trusting in Jesus for our salvation.
Trusting that his suffering on the cross was for us; trusting Him and receiving Him as our Lord and Saviour.
I am Helping Someone to be a Reproducing Follower of Jesus
This marker, to which we return in the Way of Jesus platform on a regular basis, is a challenge.
It’s a challenge to remember that what we need to be about, if we’re to live in obedience to Jesus teaching in the Great Commission and if we’re to keep growing in our faith;
what we need to be about is helping another person to become a follower of Jesus.
How do we do that? What if our response to this whole thing is to feel like we have absolutely no clue how to proceed. What if it scares us? Makes us want to crawl into a hole in the ground?
How Do We Do This?
Well, here’s a place to start: start by asking yourself a question. How was Jesus formed in you? Was it by being invited and included in someone’s life? Was it in your own family?
Think about your own story. How was Jesus formed in you?
Think of how you came to Jesus. Think of how Christ was and is being formed in you.
That will help you to understand how to be a part of another person coming to Jesus so that Jesus can be formed in them.
Jesus, The Centre of Everything.
Here is an insight for how to do this. Make Jesus the centre of everything in your life.
If you want an abundant life, if you want a joyful life, if you want a life free of bondages, if you want true freedom in your life, if you want a life full of purpose, then make Jesus the centre of everything in your life.
If you need to, doubt long and hard enough that you start to doubt your doubts. Then let God put to death your doubts. That’s exactly what I did.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18- 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces behold the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
As we behold Jesus, as we contemplate and worship God and simply behold His goodness and beauty, we are being made like Him.
We spend a lot of time each Sunday worshipping God in song, in prayer, in repentance, in hearing the Word.
Ever wonder why? It’s because as we worship Jesus, as we behold Him in worship, we are transformed.
And the more time we spend alone with Jesus during the week doing these same things in private, the more we are transformed to be like Him.
This is what we choose to do ourselves to more dearly love and adore the living God. As we do this, we become more like Jesus.
It all begins with loving God making Jesus the centre of everything in our lives. Jesus isn’t a ‘value-added’ part of life.
He isn’t a way to improve the landscape of our lives. He is Everything.
He is God and as God is worthy of all of our worship, praise, adoration, service, focus, attention.
The Person of Peace
We might ask, how can I know who I am suppose to be discipling? How can can I possibly figure out who among everyone I know I am suppose to lead to Jesus and disciple?
Here’s something else that’s very important: Look for the person of peace:
Luke 10:5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you.
Who is the person of peace? The person of peace is the person who will welcome you, who will see who you are, who is open to you.
Open to what you have to say about Jesus, open to the life that you live because you love Jesus.
So the first question is: who are your people of peace? Who is in your life who is a person of peace? If there's nobody, that's a sign perhaps you need to get out more.
But ask God to reveal to you who the person or the people of peace are in your life.
As God reveals that, then being a disciple becomes about being connected to the lives of these people of peace. It might be brief moments with some, more in depth with others.
And then we pray. Put up your hand if you can pray for another person? That’s not that hard, is it?
It might seem simple, because we don’t have to step outside of our comfort zone to pray, but we ABSOLUTELY need to pray for that person, or those people.
Pray that the eyes of their hearts might become open to the gospel.
Pray for opportunities to encourage them, for the chance to share your story of how God is active in your life.
Pray that your life will be a loving and bold witness to the grace and mercy you’ve received at the hand of Jesus.
Someone is Helping Me To Be a Reproducing Follower of Jesus
Being a disciple-maker, being a reproducing follower of Jesus isn't a level that you arrive at. It isn’t a state of being.
The truth is, Christ is still being formed in me. As He is in you.
Ephesians 4:14 says that Christ gives leaders to the church to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
So who is sowing into your life right now that is helping you to be a reproducing follower of Jesus. I have many people in my life who help me in this area.
You must have at least one person who is helping you.
Today’s marker, that we look at regularly as we contemplate the Way of Jesus, is a reminder that your life has a great purpose that includes honouring Jesus as the Everything in your life, and it includes discipleship.
And that reminder includes the fact that nothing happens on your own in isolation from others.
You are helping some to be a disciple and one who disciples.
You are being helped by someone else as well to be a disciple and one who disciples.
May each of us embrace our calling to be disciple-makers.
May each of us behold the beauty of Jesus in ever increasing depth and so be inspired to reflect His great love and to connect with others who Jesus loves, so that they too may have the joy of coming to know Jesus,
to follow Him as the Everything in their lives, and to then become a person who makes disciples, who leads others to become followers of Jesus, our Redeemer, Saviour and King. Amen.
