The Disciplines of
Christ - Part 9
The Art of DiscipleSHIP
(making disciples)
Intro: Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT) - 18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in
heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have
given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the
age.”
The art of discipleSHIP is
really Evangelism part 2 (see lesson #8). Jesus didn’t call us to create converts. He said, go and make disciples. The
goal of evangelism is to introduce the gospel in hopes that the person will
accept Christ and become a disciple. That’s the measure of successful
evangelism—was a disciple made? It’s not how many are attending church, how
many have said a prayer to confess Christ, or how many were Baptized? Christ-like
evangelism creates disciples. What’s the difference, you ask? Well, worldly
evangelism creates fans instead of followers, church attendees instead of servants
of Christ, and “Christians” instead of Disciples of Christ. That may sound
harsh because you consider yourself a Christian. But please remember the
context of the word Christian in our culture.
It’s been said that an upward of 80% of Americans consider themselves a
Christian. So when I look at what the Bible describes as a “Christian” and what
I see in our culture that 80% figure doesn’t jive. Simply put, Christian by
name doesn’t equate to a disciple of Christ (follower of Christ). Christian by
name doesn’t equate to a saving faith. Jesus and his apostles laid out a simple
gospel message of repentance. Repentance means to change our thinking and therefore
change the direction that our lives are heading. That’s why Jesus said “follow
me” when he called his first disciples. To accept the invitation to give your
life to Jesus and follow him is accepting an invitation to become his disciple.
Now, once you have accepted an invitation to become a disciple of
Christ, then you also have the responsibility to help make other disciples. You
might think your exempt from that responsibility, but you’re not— reread the
text above, it says, “Jesus said to his disciples,…go and make more disciples”.
Now don’t panic, if you’re a part of a church and you’re practicing your
spiritual gifts God has given you by serving in the church, your already
helping make disciples. However, the art
of discipleship that we will look at in this lesson will show you how your
role in the making of disciples has to surpass the cooperate relationship to
the church and must journey into investing in personal, one on one
relationships with other brothers and sisters in Christ.
The Discipline
– Discipleship for the purpose of
Godliness.
The
Art of the Discipleship
Unlike mass evangelism (presenting
the gospel to large numbers, discipleship is usually done in groups of 2 to 4.
Even our Adventure small groups of 5-15 people are too big to be considered a
discipleship group. However, this is primarily where a lot of Adventure
discipleship happens because within these groups you can naturally find close
relationships between 2 or 3 group members that essential function as
discipleship partners.
The fundamentals of discipleship are
threefold: teaching, transparency, and transformation.
1) Why Teaching: Jesus
said make disciples by teaching them to obey what he taught.
2) Why Transparency: Honest relationships where we share our success and failures in obeying
Christ cultivate a loving community where transformation can happen.
3) Why Transformation: Discipleship groups are loving
and can be trusted. In addition, mutual
accountability can help each group member hold to the teaching of Christ.
We will look at the how
of discipleship at the end of this lesson, but first let’s look at what must
take place in the heart of a disciple maker before one can truly make disciples
like Jesus did.
The Story – Jesus Calls Matthew (Mt. 9:9-13)
9 As Jesus was walking along, he
saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me
and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him. 10 Later,
Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along
with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. 11 But
when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher
eat with such scum?” 12 When Jesus
heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” 13 Then
he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this
Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to
call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are
sinners.”
Questions to consider:
The story of
the calling of Matthew and the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector from last
week are similar. How are they similar and how are they different {hint: is
Zacchaeus mentioned anywhere else in the Bible}? If you watched the video provided,
you can tell they took a little liberty in this depiction of the story. So even
though they didn’t stick to the script, did they keep to the spirit/theme of
the story? What does Jesus mean when he says, “ I want you to show mercy, not
offer sacrifices”? How does this relate to true discipleship?
Personal
Commentary: The portrayal
of Matthew in this week’s video kind of gets you, doesn’t it? It’s not just the
tears. It’s the sorrow in his eyes. I
have seen those eyes of sorrow several times staring at me over a cup of
coffee, in my living room, or even a parking lot. Those eyes say it all, God
help me, I’m a sinner. Have you seen those eyes before? Not the tears, we’ve
all seen the crocodile tears. No, I’m talking about the brokenness. You can
hear it in their voice? The shameful trimmer in their tone that says, “Lord,
I’m a sinner. I don’t deserve your grace”. So have you heard it? Have you seen
it? If not, there is a perfectly good explanation. You’ve had to felt it
yourself to see it. You’ve had to cry those tears to recognize those eyes of
sorrow. If you haven’t seen it or you haven’t seen it in awhile then maybe you’re
more like the Pharisee in this story. He was so blinded by his own
self-righteousness that he had no compassion on the “tax collector”. I say this
because you can’t disciple others if you have the heart of a Pharisee. You see,
if you think discipleship is only
about helping those you think are worthy or only those who are like you, your
intentions are not to make disciples of Jesus, your intentions are to make
disciples of yourself. Sorry, God won’t bless that. In fact, he’ll do just the
opposite.
If you truly
want to follow Christ and carry on the torch of discipleship, you’ll discover that you often don’t get to
choose who you help disciple. God will put that broken person in your life that
needs your love, support, and guidance. And your job is to come along side them
and help them with their walk with Jesus. The cool thing you’ll find along the
way is that God put them in your life because you needed them just as much as
they needed you. You see, that’s what discipleship is about. It’s a partnership to walk with Jesus together.
You’re not the leader. Jesus is. You’re
not the example. Jesus is. You’re not
higher class than them, but Jesus is. Jesus is so high… “he is exalted
to the place of highest honor in heaven, at God’s right hand Acts
2:23.” And therefore remember,
Jesus said, “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who
humble themselves will be exalted Luke
18:14.”
The point is this if you haven’t
gotten it already, you can’t disciple others if you think you’re
better than they are or if you think it’s beneath you. God puts who he puts in
your life for a purpose. And if you ignore the responsibility you have to the
people that God puts in your life, then you’ve got to ask yourself this
question…what purpose does
your life really have?
Further Reading: Corinthians 4:16; 1 Thessalonians 1:6
The Application Questions:
1) Think about who God may be leading
you to disciple or become a
discipleship partner with? Think about the people you hang out with,
are they just people like you, are they only people you are comfortable with?
If so, be honest with yourself—are you trying to make disciples of yourself or
disciples of Jesus?
2) Relationships are essential to
Discipleship, so ask yourself. What meaningful Godly relationship do you have
in your life where the three T’s of discipleship are present (Teaching Truth,
Transparency, and Transformation)? If you’re in a small group, who in your
group could you approach about a discipleship partnership? If you’re not in a
small group, get in one!!! J
3)
GROUP DISCUSSION: Discipleship isn’t easy.
Discuss among the group your fears and concerns about this type of relationship
with another Christian. If you have members in the group who have participated
in a discipleship (whether formal or informal) have them talk about their
experience.
Catch the Vision: Discipleship making seems slow and
unproductive in its beginning stages, but take a look below at the long-range
view. The results will blow you away. Let’s say a talented pastor/evangelist
can reach one person a day for 15 years. That would add up to an impressive 5,475
congregants. However, what if one person decided to disciple just one person a
year with the intentions that person being discipled would turn around do the
same thing. What do you suppose the results would be in the same 15 year time
period. Take a look for yourself…
Year Evangelist Discipler
1 365 2
2 730 4
3 1095 8
4 1460 16
5 1825
32
6 2190 64
7 2555 128
8 2920 256
9 3285 512
10 3650 1024
11 4015 2048
12 4380 4096
13 4745 8192
14 5110 16,384
15 5475 32,768
Strengthening your discipline of Evangelism:
1) Start close to home: If you’re a parent, discipleship
of your kids in your first priority. Remember the tenants of discipleship. (1)Teaching/learning
God’s truth. The church does not replace your responsibility to teach your kids
about the Bible and God, but they are to function as your partner. Ask yourself,
are you committed to the Biblical education of your child. (2) Transparency,
you need to cultivate an honest and trustworthy relationship with your kids. If
you have not done this, begin with yourself and admitting your failure to do
this. Then seek to restore the relationship. Once that’s done begin the discipleship
relationship with your child. (note: this will most likely be a informal discipleship
relationship) Finally, (3) Transformation. You must hold your children
accountable to live by God’s truth.
2) Decide what type
of discipleship partnership you are ready for. For example: There are partnerships
of just two. This type of partnership is always with someone of the same sex.
And can either consist of two people at a similar spiritual maturity (this is an iron sharpening
iron partnership) or it can consist of a partnership where one is obviously
more mature than the other spiritually and the goal is to function as more of a
spiritual mentor type relationship. Other
possible discipleship opportunities come in groups of 3 or 4 where the group.
In this type of group you usually have someone who facilitates the meetings and
the schedules, but this group functions mostly by the group members learning
from and teaching one another. You can have larger groups than 3 or 4. However,
they are a lot harder to keep everyone involved. Remember Jesus had twelve
disciples, but he also had his inner circle of Peter, James, and John.
3) SO WHAT ARE
YOU READY FOR, maybe you are not where you want to be spiritually. If that’s
so, then seek out someone you respect that could help mentor you. Or perhaps,
you have been coasting along in your spiritual life just fine, but you haven’t
really invested in others personally. If that’s the case, seek out someone you
could help disciple..or seek at 2 or 3 others to start a group.
4) Finally,
these discipleship partnership can meet anywhere from weekly to monthly to
quarterly. If you’re interested contact Pastor Jason for discipleship material
for your group. There are resources out there that can help walk you through
it.
Praying through today’s discipline: Spend some time in prayer and ask
God to search your heart. Ask yourself, honestly…where are you spiritually and
what are the next steps is God leading you take? Ask God’s spirit to lead you
to who you need to invest in spiritually.
Blessings,
Jason
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