D - Discipleship

Introduction

Well, good morning!

If you have your Bibles, and I hope that you do…keep ‘em open with me to our two passages there in Acts and Deuteronomy…we’ll get to those in just a moment. But before we do that, let’s recite our new memory verse this morning. Remember, it’s Acts chapter 2, verses 42 through 47. I hope you’ve been challenging each other…I hope you’ve been working to put God’s Word on your hearts…remember, we’re learning this passage in sections. And so, we’re taking these first two verses to learn and memorize first. And of course so far, we’ve just been reading it together. We’ll start to do it by memory the first week of February. Fair enough?

Alright, if you’re ready, let’s read it together…verses 42 and 43:

Acts 2:42–43 (ESV)

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

[Prayer]

Alright, if you’re visiting with us…if this is your first time…or you haven’t been here in a while, we’ve been walking through a topical sermon series called This is Church: How Does God Build a Body?…and the purpose of this series its to look at our new church memory verse, here in Acts, and examine what defined this first century church. We wanna see what they devoted themselves to and how God used those things to grow them together. And of course, part of it, it’s to show you how you can do some of the same things here at FBC…And so, what we’ve seen so far in this series…it’s that they devoted themselves to the assembly…to the gathering together…so much so that they did it everyday…as much as they possibly could. We discussed how important it is that we continue to gather, continue to emphasize our assembly here at FBC. And then, a couple of weeks ago, we discussed their devotion to the apostles’ teaching…to the Word of God…they didn’t just gather together for some random reason…they gathered to devote themselves to the truth of Scripture…We discussed the importance of being a student of God’s Word…which of course means we dive into personally and we dive into together, as God’s people…And then last week, we discussed the crucial role community plays in our Christian life…we’re just stronger together, right?…We need Christian community.

And if you’ve been with us…we’ve showed you how our CE Board implemented a discipleship pathway…a pathway that we believe believers can take when they come to FBC, that will help them grow and become who God wants them to become…and if you remember, it’s catchy…its pretty creative, right? It’s the ABCDE Discipleship Pathway…which of course, we believe is rooted in this Acts 2 passage…And so far, we’ve talked about the A, B, C parts of that plan…which leads us into the D, this morning…Discipleship.

Listen, when we talk about discipleship…there’s several ways people like to define that term…and what’s happened because of that, it’s kind of been misdefined and misunderstood in the church. If you ask 10 different people what discipleship is, you’re probably gonna get 10 different answers. They’ll say it involves our growth in our walk with God…They’ll say, it involves us doing life with others…They’ll say it’s the sanctification process that happens in us. But guys, discipleship…as simply as I can put it, it involves us growing in our knowledge of God through His Word…and learning how to apply that knowledge to our life. It does involve us growing in our walk…but we have to understand that there’s two sides of that, right?…There’s God’s part in the process…which is more of the sanctification part…and then there’s our part of the process, which is the discipleship part. The part we control.

And listen, when it comes to discipleship…it really boils down to two things…The Great Commandment (which is love God, love others) and the Great Commission (which is to make disciples - our memory verse from last year)…or another way to put it, discipleship, it involves our knowledge and our motive.

To understand discipleship…you have to answer two questions…Number one, what is a disciple? You can’t disciple someone that’s not a disciple, right? And you can’t disciple someone if you’re not a disciple. You have to understand what a disciple is before you can be apart of discipleship. And then number two, what is a disciple supposed to do? What’s the purpose of being a disciple? Guys, you have to understand those two questions in order to understand our responsibly in discipleship.

In our Acts passage, discipleship’s kind of implied here because of who the text says these believers are and what they do together as a result. And guys, assembling together, devoting ourselves to the Word of God, finding community together (everything we’ve talked about so far)…if it’s done right…it’s gonna lead to discipleship.

And so, to help us really dig into this idea of discipleship, I wanna us to use this Deuteronomy passage. And listen, I believe this passage helps us answer those two questions. And so, there’s two points I have for you this morning…Number one, discipleship involves the right knowledge…and number two, discipleship involves the right motive.

And so, if you’re ready, if you’re there in Deuteronomy with me, let’s look at this first point together.

I. Discipleship Involves the Right Knowledge (vv. 4-6)

Discipleship involves the right knowledge.

Look at verses 4 through 6 with me again. It says, “4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.”

So…just a little context here before we start to dig into this together…Moses, he’s the author of this book. And he wrote this book just before the Israelites entered into the Promised Land. Deuteronomy, it was written to kind of remind the Israelites of what’s important before they took possession of what’s God’s given them. If you know the story, God delivered them from slavery at the hands of the Egyptians and immediately, these Israelites, became a very rebellious people…and as a result, they wandered around in the wilderness for 40 years…and this book, it’s meant to remind them, don’t be those people…follow the Lord…remember what He did for you…remember what He promised and what He expects. And this passage here in Deuteronomy 6, it’s actually called the Shema…and it’s of the most notable verses in the Jewish culture, it’s one of the most important because it defines who they are and what they’re supposed to do…what’s expected of them.

And listen, this passage, it’s most often used in the context of the family…but like we saw when we went through the first parts of Genesis together, it’s that what God prescribed physically in the Old Testament, applies spiritually to us in the New Testament…and so, while this is speaking towards physical parents in the text here, it applies to each of us because as we’ll discuss, we’re all called to be spiritual parents at some point.

And so, remember our two questions when it comes to discipleship…what is a disciple, and what is a disciple supposed to do?

Discipleship, remember it involves the right knowledge…and when we come to these first couple of verses, not only is there rich theology for us here, but we see two very important things that help us answer the first question…what is a disciple?…what is a disciple of Jesus…what defines someone who follows Jesus…Well, there’s a certain knowledge disciples of Jesus must possess and there’s a certain knowledge they have to affirm…If we were to break up just these first three verses…that knowledge would involve our confession and God’s commandment…What is a disciple supposed to confess? And what command is a disciple expected to know?

Well, look at verse 4 again…Moses writes, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” As a disciple of Jesus, this is our confession. There’s no if, ands, or buts…we have to accept that the Lord our God…the Lord is one. It’s an interesting statement here because Moses, either knowingly or unknowingly, is writing about the Trinity of God here. If you were to break down the Hebrew words here, it would read: “Yahweh our Elohim (our plural God), Yahweh is one.” Moses, he’s writing about the plurality of God here and the unity and singularity of God at the same time.

And notice, Moses says, “Hear, O Israel” or “Know, O Israel” “Believe, O Israel”…Meaning, this was a crucial part of their their faith.

And so, how’s this translate over to the New Testament? Well, to be a disciple of Jesus, it says we have to repent and believe. Well, what are we supposed to believe in? We believe that Yahweh, is God…and we believe that Yahweh is a plural God…the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. And we believe that together, they’re one God, right? It’s not enough to simply believe that Jesus died for you…you have to believe that Jesus is a member of the Trinity and a part of the one true God. That’s your confession…that’s your belief…and without that understanding, you can’t follow Him. You’re not a disciple. And so, as disciples…that’s our confession…We confess belief in God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It’s why when we baptize someone, we baptize them in the name of who? The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit! That’s the God we follow.

And so, what is a disciple? It’s someone who affirms that God is expressed in three persons but yet is one God.

But look at verse 5 again. Moses says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” He says, “You shall love Yahweh (our very personal God) your plural God…with every piece of you. That’s what it means to love anything with all your heart, soul, and might…it’s with every piece of you.

Well, if you’re familiar with your Bible, Jesus actually quotes this verse when someone asked him what the greatest commandment of the Law was.

Jesus said in Matthew 22:

Matthew 22:37–40 (ESV)

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

And so, part of our confession, it should involve this commandment. You can’t believe in God and not His commandment. Meaning you can’t choose to be a disciple without coming into a knowledge and affirmation of this commandment. It’s just part of following Jesus. Part your of your confession, it’s that you love God…every part of God.

And according to Jesus, “If you love Him, you’ll obey His commands.” That’s John 14:15. The two, they’re together. You can’t have one without the other. And so, part of discipleship…it involves us learning how to love God…which of course Jesus says stems from learning His Word. And guys, you can’t do that alone.

At first, Jesus, He selected the 12…and He spent 3 and a half years pouring into those guys…and then He charged them in Matthew 28 (our memory verse from last year)…to make disciples of all nations…baptizing them…and teaching them to observe…teaching them to obey all that He’s commanded them. There’s always people involved in this process of learning these commands together…there’s always people involved in the process of discipleship.

And so, this first question to discipleship…what is a disciple?…Guys, it’s someone who confesses Jesus as Yahweh…who believes that God is a plural God, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit…a disciple’s someone who’s striving to love God more and more by learning the truths of God’s Word. A disciple’s someone who desires to grow in their knowledge of God through His Word all so that they can learn how to apply those truths to their life and live in such a way that pleases and honors Him. It’s someone who affirms the truths of the gospel…because you can’t simply come into knowledge of God without understanding His nature…He’s loving, and kind, and gracious, He’s holy and righteous…it’s understanding who they are in comparison to God…which of course, gives them the ability to truly repent and turn to Christ.

It’s the same reasons Paul says what he says to the Thessalonians in his letter to them.

1 Thessalonians 2:1–3 (ESV)

For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive,

When Paul and his companions came to Thessalonica, they did so with the intentions to make disciples…and their means to that…it was to speak truth…truth about who God is…and truth about the gospel and what God expects. It’s started with the right knowledge.

Guys, a disciple, it’s someone who’s rooted in the truth of the gospel…therefore, discipleship begins right there…with the right knowledge about God and with the right knowledge about His Word…it’s not up to us to interpret it or give it meaning…it’s up to us to affirm it and confess it.

And notice, discipleship, it starts with you as an individual…You can’t love others properly as Jesus states in the Greatest Commandment without first learning how to love God first. Discipleship in the home, discipleship with others in your church family, it begins with you…being a disciple of Jesus. You have to put on your own oxygen mask first…before you can help someone else put there’s on.

And so, that’s the first thing here…discipleship, it involves the right knowledge…which means you confess the right God…and you acknowledge the right commandment.

II. Discipleship Involves the Right Motive (vv. 7-9)

The second point…discipleship involves the right motive.

Look at the next couple of verses with me again. There’s several things that stand out here. Verse 7, Moses writes, “7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

And so, if you’re following along in your Bibles, you might notice that it goes from our individual responsibly to know God and love God…to now, teaching what it is we know to other people, right? This section, it really helps us answer the second question of what is a disciple supposed to do.

And so, once we know God…of course, once we love God by learning how to obey His commands by digging into His Word ourselves, our purpose…the purpose for every disciple of Jesus, it’s to teach others that same knowledge and help them learn how to apply that knowledge to their lives…and so we teach and we model. That’s our mission as believers. Every one of us. That’s what we’ve been commanded to do…that’s the desire that Jesus gives us when we repent and believe. If you’re familiar with Jesus’s earthly ministry, that’s exactly what He told the first people He called to be His disciples, right? Matthew 4:19…Jesus said:

Matthew 4:19 (ESV)

“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

In that one statement alone, He was telling these guys exactly what it would take to be His disciples and what a disciple would be expected to do. He said, “Follow Me!” Be sacrificial…be willing to give everything up for Me…Of course,Jesus gives us a clearer explanation in Luke 14:33 when He says:

Luke 14:33 (ESV)

Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Meaning, those that choose to follow Jesus renounce everything…their possessions, materialistic belongings, family ties, desires, your will…and you do that, to follow Jesus. Becoming a disciple, it’s not just about salvation…it’s not just about you being saved from hell…we turn to Jesus because we recognize that He’s God and He’s good and He’s sovereign and He’s ultimately worthy of following. And so, we renounce all and follow Him.

And as we do that…Jesus says to those first disciples, “I’ll make you”…He says, “I’ll make you…I’ll transform you…you don’t have to do anything…I’m gonna do it all…I’m gonna shape you and mold you…I’m gonna sanctify you.” When we turn to Jesus and when we begin to dig into His Word…as we begin to learn the nature and character of God…we begin to understand His sovereignty and His ability to restore us. I mean that’s one of the reasons we chose to follow Him…because we understand who we are…that we’re sinful…that we’re depraved…that on our own, we’ll continue down this selfish sinful life. We turn to Jesus because we recognize that ultimately there isn’t a thing we can do to restore ourselves…that we need someone else, something more powerful…We turn to Jesus because we recognize He’s the only One that can bridge the gap between us and God. And so, part of being a disciple, it’s recognizing that our growth…any amount of it…all of it…it’s all because of Jesus and His power…it’s all because God’s at work in us. We don’t make ourselves anything…God does all the work and Jesus is the only One that can boast in what He turns us into. Amen? You have to get past whatever decision you made…whatever good works you think you might have done…If you belong to Jesus, it’s because of Him and if you’re different today as a result, it’s because of Him.

He makes us into what He desires…which of course, is fishers of men. What’s a disciple supposed to do? They’re supposed to become fishers of men. That’s the objective…that’s the result for every one of us…Jesus takes the Great Commandment and transitions it to the Great Commission. When we’ve learned what a disciple is…we become fishers of men…people concerned with making disciples.

And this is where our responsibility in discipleship continues. It’s not enough for us to grow in our knowledge of Jesus…as you grow, it means you begin to understand Jesus’s heart…and you become conformed to that heart. And so, if you belong to Him but yet lack the desire to pour into others, it means either one you’re not as mature as you think you are, and you got some learning to do…or, it means you’re not His…because listen to that statement He made, “Follow Me and I will make you into fishers of men”…It’s not a maybe I’ll make you…or an if this happens I’ll make you…it’s a definite…He will make you…which of course is why in Jesus’s last command He told His disciples, “Go, make disciples of all nations…baptize them…and teach them to observe all that I’ve commanded.”

And so, knowing what a disciple’s supposed to do? What’s Moses say about discipleship? How do we pour into those around us?

Well, look at verse 7 again. First he says, “You shall teach them diligently to your children.” That phrase here, what Moses is telling these Israelites, its to impress the words of God’s covenant faith into the thinking of their children…and they were to do that by inscribing it with precision and with sharpness. The image or the metaphor he’s giving here, its that of the engraver of a monument who takes a hammer and chisel by hand and with painstaking care, etches a text into the face of a solid slab of granite. That’s the metaphor that Moses is giving here…that’s the picture he’s showing when it comes to teaching God’s Words to their children…I mean just the sheer labor in such a task, its daunting…but listen, once the work’s done, the message, its there to stay, right? It’s been chiseled. That’s what Moses means when he tells them to diligently teach these words to their children.

And then, if you pay attention, Moses tells them how to chisel it…how they’re supposed to teach it…it’s through constant repetition. He says, “[You] shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” You teach it constantly…every opportunity you get.

You know, oftentimes, when it comes to discipleship…especially discipleship in the home, with our families…we over complicate it, thinking we got to have this planned out Bible study or lesson…but listen to Moses here, we teach, we discipleship at all points in the day…when we wake up, we look for opportunities to teach God’s Word…when we lie down…when we walk by the way. It’s simple…but it takes commitment…Discipleship, it’s all about doing life with someone else. You can’t do these things repetitively if you’re not doing life with someone, letting them in so to speak.

It’s why Paul says what he says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2:

1 Thessalonians 2:7–8 (ESV)

But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

Listen to that…they were ready to share with these Thessalonians, not only the gospel…not only God’s Word…but their own selves…their life. That’s what discipleship takes…that’s what discipleship’s all about…you can’t teach God’s commands…God’s Words…without doing life with others…because ultimately it takes repetition…That’s what Moses is showing us. And listen, this is why you need more than just Sunday morning…it’s why you need to be involved in a knot group…its why you need to be doing life with other Christians…because this is how discipleship happens…you learn God’s Word and you learn how to apply it by modeling others.

That’s why Moses continues in verse 8. He says, “8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

He’s saying that we teach by modeling God’s Word to others. We write them as a sign on our hands…we put them between our frontlets where everyone’s looking…we write them on our doorposts for the world to see…and ultimately, those we’re discipling, they see us model God’s command. Verse 8 and 9, it’s a metaphor, we can’t physically bind God’s words to our hands or put them between our eyes…he’s telling us to model God’s words all for the purpose of teaching it to others.

And so, that second question…what’s a disciple supposed to do?…They’re supposed to teach and model what they come into knowledge of through God’s Word. That’s how we make disciples…that’s how we’re obedient to the Great Commission. We have to remember, our goal in that Command…it’s not to make converts for Jesus…its to make disciples. And disciples are those that learn to love Jesus by following His commands…His Words…and the only way they’ll learn it, it’s through us. That’s discipleship. Now do we wanna convert people? Persuade them that the gospel’s true? Absolutely! We’re gonna talk about that next week…but the aim, it’s to grow those converts into disciples of Christ. Disciples that follow Jesus by growing in His Word!

And so, what’s this mean for us? It means we should constantly be discipled by others…there should be those that’s pouring their lives into us…and it means we should be pouring our lives into others…all for the purpose of growing in the right knowledge…and learning how to apply that knowledge in a way that honors Jesus. The only way we accomplish that, it’s together…holding each other accountable.

And let me show you this before we close as well…parents, pay attention to Moses’ writing here…there’s a pattern here…you have to first take care of your own walk first…learning to love Jesus yourself. Meaning, you’re being discipled by someone else. And then from there, you disciple those in your home…your spouse, your kids…and then from there, you all take it out together to others. You can’t disciple people in this church if you’ve not been discipled yourself…or if you’re neglecting your family at home. It’s starts inwardly…and then it pours out of you…there’s actually a great resource that talks about this for parents…a book called Family Worship by Don Whitney…I encourage you to pick it up, read it, apply it. I’m also hoping to develop a family discipleship guide this year to help you apply some of this stuff at home. And listen, I need help in this area too. I’m not just pointing the finger.

But listen, it doesn’t stop in the home…I’m just saying if we can’t do it in the home, we’re never gonna accomplish this in the church…we need to be discipling each other. Men, you need to be discipling other men…and women, you need to be discipling other women…Like I mentioned last week, in a couple of weeks we’ll have a knot group workshop so you that can learn how to do that more effectively.

Closing

And so, as we close…how are you being discipled and how are you discipling others?

Would you bow your head and close your eyes with me?

Listen, if you’re here this morning and you’re a disciple of Jesus…you’ve made the decision to “Follow Him.” Guys, that means you love God with all your heart, soul, and mind…and you’re doing that by learning His Word and learning how to apply that to your life. Are you devoting yourself to the Word like we talked about a couple weeks ago? Are you meeting with others so that they can help grow you? And listen, are you intentionally pouring yourself into others all for the purpose of teaching them God’s Word? How to follow it?

Maybe that means you need to start at home, with your spouse and kids…maybe that means you need to pull a man or woman aside this morning and ask them to start meeting with you…Would you just reflect where you’re at this morning and evaluate this area of your life. What’s your part in the discipleship process here at FBC…because this is what it means to be a disciple, we’re all called to discipleship…we’re all called to be fishers of men.

But listen, maybe you’re here and maybe you realize, “I’m not a disciple of Jesus. I’m not following Him. I’ve not gave Him everything…and so, He’s not made me into everything different because I haven’t truly repented and believed” Guys, if that’s you…what’s holding you back? You don’t need me to tell you about your sin. You know you’re separated from God. You’ve felt the guilt and shame in some the decisions you’ve made. You’ve felt that separation. And guys, the Bible says, that sin, our sinful nature, it’s impacted all of creation. It’s why we have sickness and disease…it’s why we have death and all these awful things happen. And guys, it’s not God’s fault, it’s ours. Genesis shows us that God created us in the beginning perfectly…it was all good…there wasn’t any of this bad stuff. We brought that on ourselves. And if we continue to rebel, if we choose to reject the goodness of God, we’ll get what we deserve which is death and separation.

But guys, God loves us…and He desires us…and He’s a gracious and merciful God…which is why He sent Jesus…His Son, God Himself, to become like us…to live a perfect life…to go the cross…to die our death…He rose three days after dying, showing us that He had conquered death and sin. He did all of that, He took all of that on, so that we’d have a way out. And the Bible says, all we have to do is repent and believe…renounce ourselves…ask for forgiveness…and believe that He’s God…that He died for us…that He offers salvation…and when we do that…when we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths…He will save us.

And so, maybe that’s what you need to do this morning. You can do that right where you’re at. You don’t have to do anything special. Just talk to Jesus. He’s faithful and He will hear you.

And so listen, whatever it is this morning…whatever the Spirit’s placing on your heart right now…would you just be obedient? Would you submit yourself to Him and let Him lead you? Take some time to respond…and we’ll close in just a moment…If you need me, I’ll be right down front.

[Prayer]