Making Disciples Who Observe all His Commands

Making Disciples Who Observe all His Commands

One of the most significant critiques from the outside world of Christians today is that they are hypocrites. The word hypocrite means “actor,” someone playing the part of being a Christian but not following what they say they believe.

“At the most basic level, a disciple is a student, one who follows the teachings of a master and spreads those same teachings.”

What is the difference between actual and false discipleship?

“If you hold to my teachings, you are really my disciple. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32

FALSE DISCIPLESHIP

1) The reluctant disciple of Christ is the one who follows on an impulse.

Tozer concludes that he is slightly suspicious of the person who is too easily converted. “The person who yields, without counting the cost or sales resistance. He likes the person who means business even though, at first, they may be standing up, looking you right in the eye, saying, “I do not believe it, and I will not submit.” When that person becomes a Christian, you have got something.”

He is a flip-flopper who is easily pushed around and pushed out again.

This kind of person is on one minute and off the next. They quickly walk away without any great concern.

He is a person who was just in the right frame of mind at the time.

This person found themselves in the right frame of mind at the time. Here is a man whose mother died recently. The invitation song may be “Tell Mother I’ll Be There,” and he comes forward weeping. People may think he is repentant but only thinks about his mother. Christianity on impulse is not the answer to discipleship.

2) Personality-enamored disciple

This kind of disciple seemed to be Christian because of a cult following. They have been overwhelmed and charmed by prominent personalities.

3) Those who appear to be half–disciples.

These men and women have brought their lives partially under the Lordship of Christ, but they keep back other areas outside His control.

In his book Discipleship, Tozer says: “I do not want to be cruel, but I must be honest: Jesus Christ wants to be and must be Lord. He must be head of and Lord of all departments of our lives.”

4) Short-term disciples.

These people always leave a way out. They never burn their bridges behind them and leave their old lives entirely behind. They never reach that point of no return. I believe Christians have reached authentic discipleship when they have reached the point of no return.

5) Chameleon disciples.

These people can change color with their environment. Unfortunately, I have even found some preachers like this in their ministry. They can talk the language of the crowd they are with; we should be whatever we are, wherever we are. Christians should always be Christians. We are not genuine Christians if we must wait for the right atmosphere to engage in the practice of our faith.

6) Disciples with multiple loves.

These people have not given up their old loves. They want to take the cross in one hand and the world in the other, walking the tightrope between heaven and hell. They hope, by the grace of God, to make one final leap over the portals from this world to the next when the time comes.

In scripture, Balaam prayed in (Numbers 23:10) and said, “Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his.” But then he went over to the side of the sinners and fought against the righteous in the battle. When he died, what kind of death do you think he died, the death of the righteous or the death of the sinner?

TRUE DISCIPLES

1) A true disciple has not taken an impulsive leap in the dark.

2) A true disciple is a person who has become a Christian after deep thought and proper consideration.

3) A true disciple has let the word of God search their heart.

4) A true disciple has felt the sense of personal sin and the need to be released from it.

5) A true disciple does not consider Christianity a part-time commitment.

6) A true disciple has reached the point in the Christian experience where there is no turning back.

A Call to Costly Grace

Bonhoeffer is one of the leading theologians throughout history who has written on the “confessing church.”

Bonhoeffer’s “Discipleships” arose in contrast to the “German Christians” attempt to Nazify Europe during World War II. They sought to create a Reich church under a Reich bishop sympathetic to the Nazi cause. During the time in which “Discipleship” was written, Bonhoeffer was teaching seminarians in Finkenwald, a confessing church dedicated to training seminary students. At the same time, Bonhoeffer was disturbed by many of the issues arising under Nazism and the consequences for the future of the church. However, his immediate concern was making true disciples of Christ.

What is Cheap Grace?

Cheap Grace According to Bonhoeffer: “Cheap grace means grace sold on the marketplace like cheap jacks, whereas the sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices.”

Cheap grace means the justification of sin but not the sinner.

“Because grace alone does everything, everything can stay in its old way.” The world remains the world, and we remain sinners, “even the best of lives.” In all things, Christians should go the way of the world and not live a different life under grace than they lived under sin.

What is Costly Grace?

“Costly grace, according to Bonhoeffer, is costly because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God his son's life.”

Costly grace is costly because it calls us to discipleship; it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.

Luke 14:26: “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciples.”

Jesus’ call to discipleship makes the disciples into a single individual.

Whether disciples want to or not, they must decide; each must decide alone. It is not their own choice to desire to be single individuals. Instead, Christ makes everyone he calls into an individual; each is called alone. Each must follow alone. Out of fear of aloneness, human beings seek safety in the people and things around them.

As Individuals, they should see nothing except him who called them.

People called by Jesus learn that they had lived an illusion in their relationship to the world.

A Call to Radical Discipleship

A CALL TO DISCIPLESHIP IS A CALL TO NONCONFORMITY

God is calling people out from Himself and calling us to be different from everyone else.

“According to John Scott, the Church appears to have a double responsibility about the world around us. On the one hand, we are to live, serve, and witness in the world. On the other hand, we are to avoid being contaminated by the world.”

ENEMIES OF NONCONFORMITY

1. The enemy of Pluralism affirms that every “ism” has its independent validity and an equal right to our respect.

Note: It, therefore, rejects Christian claims to finite and uniqueness, condemning our arrogance and our attempt to convert anybody and everybody to what it sees as mere opinion.

2. The enemy of Materialism is a preoccupation with material things that can smother our spiritual lives.

3. The enemy of Ethical Relativism is confused about whether absolutes are left.

Note: Relativism has permeated culture and even seeped into the church. There is no realm in which relativism is more evident than in that of sexual ethics and the sexual revolution that has taken place since the 1960s.

A CALL TO RADICAL DISCIPLESHIP IS A CALL TO CHRISTLIKENESS

The Biblical Basis of Christlikeness

Romans 8:29: “Predestined to be conformed to the image of His son.”

Conformity to the image of God means to be like Jesus, and Christlikeness is the eternal predestined purpose of God.

2 Corinthians 3:18: “We all with unveiled faces contemplate [or reflect] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed [or changed] into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord which is the spirit.”

The perspective has now changed from the past to the present: from God's past predestination to his present transformation.

1 John 3:2: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

We do not know precisely what this will be like, but we do know that we will be like Christ. And there is no need for us to know anymore. We are content that we will be with Christ and like Christ.

We are called to be Christlike in His incarnation.

Note: the incarnation was an altogether unique event never to be repeated. However, we are all called to follow the example of His great humility as Paul writes in Philippians 2:5-8 “having the same attitude and mind that Christ had …”

We are called to be Christlike in His service.

Note: just as Jesus washed the disciples’ feet at the last supper, a job typically relegated to a slave. So, we in our culture must relegate no task too menial or degrading to undertake. (John 13:14-15)

We are called to be Christlike in His love.

Note: (Ephesians 5:2) “to live a life of love” is a command that all our behavior should be characterized by love, but “gave himself” for us is an apparent reference to the cross. So, Paul calls us to live like Christ in his death and love with a Calvary love.

We are called to be Christlike in His Service

Note: (1 Peter 2:18) “We have been called to this, because Christ also suffered, leaving us an example so that we may follow His steps.” This call to count the cost to follow Christ in suffering unjustly becomes increasingly significant as we see persecution played out in culture today.

We are to be like Christ in His mission.

Note: “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18); and in commissioning, he said, “As the father has sent me, I am sending you.” (John 20:21). The instruction given is that their mission in the world was to resemble Christ’s. In what respect? The key words are “sent into the world.” That is, as Christ had to enter our world, we are called to enter other people's world.

A CALL TO RADICAL CHRISTLIKENESS IS A CALL TO MATURITY

According to Scott, the church in China has grown at least one hundred-fold since the middle of the twentieth century. “More Christians now worship God every Sunday in China than all churches in Western Europe combined.”

However, at the same time, according to church leadership, it is not growing in depth. A leader in South Africa affirms considerable numerical growth in the church. However, the church is without strong biblical or theological grounding.

We are called to present everyone mature in Christ.

Paul found his very calling on this earth to present people mature in Christ. This should be our purpose and goal for the new kind of apologist.

What does it mean to be mature in Christ?

To be mature is to have a mature relationship with Christ in which we worship, trust, love, and obey him.

How do Christians become mature?

Consider the basic skeleton in vs. 28: “We proclaim Christ … so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” Logically, if Christian maturity is our maturity in our relationship with Christ, the more precise our vision of Christ, the more convinced we become that he is worthy of our complete commitment.

A Call to the Visible Church

From our perspective, the visible church consists of all those worldwide who profess Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of their lives. But Jesus warned, “Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 7:21)

Not everyone visibly appearing to be grafted into the church belongs to God’s redeemed people.

As the apostle Paul says, we should examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. (2 Cor. 13:5-7.

This distinction is important because it forces us to think carefully about how the church does ministry.

Our aim is that the visible church would increasingly reflect the invisible church.

What should the church do to protect its purity and see false professors transformed?

1) Preach Christ

If the gospel is necessary for the believer, how much more necessary is it for the unbeliever?

2) Administer discipline.

The reality that the visible church is a mix of believers and unbelievers underscores the necessity for church discipline to reclaim the wondering brothers and sisters and purge the leaven that might infect the lump.

3) Anticipate glory.

While the presence of sin among God’s people is discouraging, this distinction injects hope by affirming that there is more to the church than meets the eye.

It has been said that the church on earth is like a grand building whose beauty is obscured by scaffolding. “While the scaffolding mars the view of the structure, it does so only temporarily and for a great purpose: renovation. By the indwelling Holy Spirit, the visible church has within her all the elements necessary for a splendid restoration soon to be revealed (Rom. 8:23). Therefore, we have every reason to press on in ministry and to do so with hopeful confidence that no amount of sin or setback can defeat God’s people.”[10]