Romans 12:1-2: Encouragements in Discipleship

Intro: Discipleship and the Vision of CGBC

The Apostle Paul, at the conclusion of his letter to the church in Rome, which we will see today is full of exhortations, writes

Romans 15:14–15 ESV

I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God

In a similar way, he writes to the church in Thessalonica, encouraging them for what they are doing and exhorting them to “do so more and more.”

Without comparing myself to the Apostle Paul, this is truly, by God’s grace, the posture with which I would like to come to this pulpit this morning: a posture of encouragement and exhortation. I believe this is precisely what Gary did last week with his message of “encouragements in evangelism.” You may recall, if you were with us last week, that Gary rooted evangelism in who we are as Christians and defined evangelism simply as “proclaiming the excellencies of Christ.” I personally found this understanding of evangelism to be particularly encouraging, almost making the act of evangelism feel unburdonsome. This led me to think through the other categories we have of the Christian life and how we may understand them. Specifically, as you may see in your bulletin, the idea of Christian discipleship in the Church. So, much like Gary did last week, I would like to begin by situating our discussion today within our larger understanding of who we are as a church. Thus, let us look again briefly, by way of reminder, at our church’s mission and vision statements.

So, those being fresh on our minds, leave us with a question of how we get someone who has connected to Christ to maturity in Christ. I am convinced this morning that the biblical answer is discipleship. We must have both a culture of evangelism and discipleship if we desire to be a vessel through which God may transform someone from pagan to pastor. Once more, just so I am not misunderstood, I do believe discipleship is taking place at Cedar Grove, but I would love to see it taking place “more and more” and more intentionally. Thus, this morning I would like us together to examine the biblical basis for discipleship and see how discipleship is related to evangelism. Ultimately, this morning I want to make the point that, if evangelism is nothing more than “proclaiming the excellencies of Christ,” discipleship is nothing more than leading others or being led deeper into the excellencies of Christ. This would involve learning more of His excellencies and being transformed by knowledge that we gain.

Summary of Passage:

Last week Gary preached from the text we read earlier, (1Pet 2:9-10) revealing that evangelism is inherently bound up in who we are as God’s people. Evangelism is a response to what God has done for us in Christ. In our text this morning, the Apostle Paul reveals that discipleship too is inherintly bound up in who we are as God’s people. It too is a response to what God has done for us in Christ. This point is contained in a single word that Paul uses at the beginning of the text, therefore. As one of my professors once said, “this word is 9 months pregnant with meaning.” With this one word, Paul brings to his audiences mind all that he has said in Romans 1-11. [summary of 1-11] For 11 chapters, Paul has unpacked the glories of the gospel, revealing what God has given us in Christ. These glories of the gospel, what Paul refers to as “the mercies of God” are clearly the source of Paul’s appeal. We can rightly understand these “mercies of God” to include GOd’s election of His people in eternity, His calling of them, done in time, out of darkness and into light, His justifying of them through faith in Christ and His righteousness, His preserving them through the trials of life, and His glorifying of them on the last day. These are all glorious realities that Paul has presented in the first 11 chapters of Romans. Here, at the beginning of chapter 12, Paul shifts from laying the foundation of salvation in Christ to calling for a proper response to the glories of that salvation. He places Christian living, or the life of discipleship, right beside evangelism as proper response to what God has done for us in Christ.

How does he describe this life of discipleship that he is calling for? It is clear in his appeal. He writes, Rom 12:1-2

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

“present your bodies” - Paul’s exhortation to sacrifice our own selves as living (regenerate) and holy (consecrated) sacrifices that are acceptable to God.

“Spiritual Worship/Reasonable Service” - Dying to ourselves and living for God is the only reasonable and right response to His mercies. This is how we truly live lives that worship Him. we have been given all things in Christ. Thus, we give Him all of ourselves. This, once more, is the source of all Christian living, including evangelism and discipleship. In fact, this is the basis for all out church’s core values.

Conformed/Transformed - Paul reveals that presenting ourselves to God includes being transformed into the image of Christ as opposed to being conformed to the world (this present Adamic age). Look at the words, brothers and sisters, we are all being formed, and often passively, the question is by who and into what image, by the world and its reigning spirits into its image or by the Holy Spirit into the image of Christ.

“the renewal of your mind” - The center of this transformation is the mind. This is because the Spirit’s work begins with the intellect. Matthew Henry writes,”The work of the Holy Spirit first begins in the understanding, and is carried on to the will, affections, and conversation, till there is a change in the whole man into the likeness of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness.” This reveals to us the true place of teaching as a core value. In fact, teaching is probably the thing we think of most when discussing discipleship.

Thus, Paul exhorts his audience to commit to a life of discipleship because of the glorious mercies of God they have experienced in Christ. He calls them to a life of following Christ and being transformed into his image. The New Living Translation really nails the essence of this text:

“And so, dear brothers and sisters,[a] I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.[b] 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” (New Living Translation)

“Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way that you think.” That, in essence, is a great summation of discipleship. Let us all be transformed by God by His changing our thinking. Thus, teaching is at the center of what discipleship is. Yet, what are we teaching? We are transformed by God’s changing the way that we think about what exactly? Well, one could provide multiple answers. God wants to change the way that we think about the world, Himself, morality, other people, ourselves, etc. However, all of these can be summed up in one. See God ultimately wants to transform our thinking about Christ. All other things are included in that: In Christ we see a good God and a broken world. In Christ God chiefly reveals Himself to man. In Christ we see true morality, true righteousness, a sinless man. In Christ we see that God loves sinners and sufferers, and we see ourselves in that crowd. Thus, as our thinking about Christ is transformed so is out thinking about everything else! He is the center. Thus we return to where we started. What is the relationship between evangelism and discipleship? How are the two related and how do we get from connecting to Christ for the first time to mature in Christ?

The Practicalities of Discipleship:

Much like evangelism, discipleship is something most all Christians admit is necessary but seldom accomplish well. Why is this?

Gary said “the main reason we fail at sharing our faith is because we misunderstand what we are called to do.” I think a similar paralysis exists in the field of discipleship. What exactly are we supposed to do and how are we supposed to do it?

If “evangelism is simply proclaiming the excellencies of Christ” discipleship surely cannot be much more difficult than that. Once more, if evangelism is nothing more than “proclaiming the excellencies of Christ,” discipleship is nothing more than leading others or being led deeper into the excellencies of Christ. This would involve learning more of His excellencies and being transformed by knowledge that we gain. Moreover, if we must leave the results of evangelism up to the Holy Spirit, surely the results of discipleship belong to Him as well. I believe that is truly the case. It is the Spirit of God that brings salvation, just as it is the Spirit of God that brings maturity! This reality ought to both relieve us of unnecessary pressure and drive to our knees in dependance on God. Thus, discipleship is going deeper into the excellencies of Christ that we may proclaim them all the more, in a richer, more beautiful, more accurate way, flowing from an experience of life with Him.

That is what we see in Scripture. Let us look briefly at two passages that illustrate this for us this morning. First, turn with me to the eighteenth chapter of Acts and the story of Apollos.

Acts 18:24–28 ESV

Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.

This is a beautiful picture of the relationship between evangelism and discipleship. Apollos was faithfully proclaiming the excellencies of Christ, accurately and boldy. Hearing him, Priscilla and Aquila take him in and “explain the way of God more accurately.” They disciple him, lead him deeper into the excellencies of Christ that he was proclaiming. He is then sent to the saints in Achaia where he once again proclaims the excellencies of Christ in a more accurate way and greatly helps other believers there. We begin to see the way that discipleship is supposed to work!

Another illustration of the relationship between evangelism and discipleship comes from Jesus’ calling the first disciples in Matthew 4. Please turn there with me.

Matthew 4:18–22 ESV

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

We have here an interesting and marvelous example of evangelism and discipleship. Much like the second set of brothers, discipleship is an effort in making sure our lives and understandings of the excellencies of Christ are as sound as possible!

These two passages clearly show that discipleship is nothing more than going deeper into the excellencies of Christ. A life that seeks to follow Jesus, learn His ways, imitate Him, and be transformed by our experience of life with Him. We see it here in the Scriptures, but we also know this to be the case in our own lives. Is this not the experience we have in other human relationships?

[My own experience with Kelsie]

Thus, even here, in this fallen world, we know that living life with someone means learning more of them, experiencing them, and being transformed by that experience. Discipleship is nothing more than that same process in our walk with the Lord.

So where does this leave us today? We ought to be responding to God’s work in us with a commitment to be discipled and disciple. That’s how God designed the Church to work. That is the continuous role of us all. You never graduate from evangelism, or the gospel, you just go deeper. You also never graduate from discipleship. If you are not growing in your walk with the Lord, you are dying. There is no stagnation in discipleship. Martin Luther comments on this text writing, “The Christian life does not mean to stand still, but to move from that which is good to that which is better. St. Brenard of Clairvaux rightly says ‘As soon as you do not desire to become better, then you have ceased being good.’” The excellencies of our Lord are infinite and eternal. We can never reach the bottom, so we must keep digging, going deeper, and helping each other along as we do.

practical applications: we must individually seek to go deeper into the excellencies of Christ and corporately commit to helping one another do so intentionally.

The next step in church revitalization at CGBC involves fostering a culture of evangelism and discipleship whereby we, as a corporate people, have a fire for growing in Christ and proclaiming His excellencies. Let us pray to God, the words of Paul’s prayer to the Ephesian church.

“Grant us, O God, to be strengthened with power through your Spirit in our inner being so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith - that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that we may be filled with the fulness of you, O God. To you, the one able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to you be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”