Discipleship - And Now...The "Rest" of the Story

Thank you music team. Well done this morning.

Well, good morning Church!

Introduction

Well we are in the midst of a series we are simply calling “Disciple” where we are looking into just exactly what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and how to engage in the disciple making process. We think this is important because it is the last command Jesus gave before leaving His earthly ministry.

In Matthew 28 we read:

Mat 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."

And in Acts chapter 1 we get more information from that same meeting with Jesus and his closest disciples, the Apostles...

Act 1:6-9 NLT - 6 So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, "Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?" 7 He replied, "The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere--in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." 9 After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him.

This morning I want to make a few observations concerning Jesus marching orders to His followers, His apprentices, that perhaps you’ve not considered before. These are not any new revelations but simply my attempt to bring the act of being a disciple and making other disciples within the reach of every person in the room this morning.

Because I happen to believe that with all of our programs and Bible studies and methodologies being taught about discipleship, the church has made this whole thing way more complicated than it actually is.

I will leave it to you to draw your own conclusions when we are done today.

“God's aim in human history is the creation of an inclusive community of loving persons with himself included as its primary sustainer and most glorious inhabitant” - Dallas Willard -

First let me say, and I have mentioned this before, being an apprentice of Jesus and making other apprentices of Jesus does not require you to travel to some foreign land.

Should the church engage in foreign missions? Absolutely we should. But it is not a requirement for being a disciple, or engaging in disciple making.

When many people read Acts 1:8, or preach the section on Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth, they will often use some version of the following:

Jerusalem = your city

Judea = your state

Samaria = your region or the regions in proximity

The Ends of the Earth = everywhere else

Now the presumption is that Jesus instructions here were geographical.

What I want to submit to you this morning is that instead, Jesus meant something like this:

Jerusalem = my family/my people

Judea = my neighbors

Samaria = my enemies (and we know how Jesus expects us to treat our enemies)

The Ends of the Earth = everyone else

When we understand the first-century Jewish/Samaritan relationship, we see just how shocking the mention of Samaria would have been to Jesus’ followers. I happen to believe this is intentional. The Samaritans were the enemies of the Jews and Jesus is continuing to emphasize that His Gospel is for ALL people. So that is important. No one is beyond the salvation that Jesus brings.

What I am suggesting is that Jesus command here has people in mind not geographic locations. Why would I suggest that? Well, people are always the point for Jesus … He wants people to experience forgiveness and eternal life. And many of those people Jesus cares about are people we might identify as our enemies. Especially in the day and age in which we live. It may surprise you to know that Jesus wants those "enemies" as His disciples.

That’s right. Jesus wants both democrats AND Republicans as His Disciples. To any Trump fans in the room this morning. Jesus wants Biden fans to be His disciples. To any Biden fans in the room this morning. Jesus wants Trump fans to be His disciples.

What does that mean to those of us that He has called to be and make disciples? It means we MUST set all that political posturing aside and reach out in love to those who oppose us and those we are opposed to! End of.

So the great commission directs us to ALL people.

The second thing I would say, and I have mentioned this before as well. The discipleship process noted in Matt. 28 is not necessarily going to be quick. It is a long game. Now that is not an excuse to put it off or wait until the last minute. Quite the contrary. We are called to weave being a disciple, and making disciples, into the very fabric of our Christian lives.

So why is that not the case for so many of us? Well one could argue that there are MANY reasons and depending on who you ask you will get a different list of reasons. I think part of the problem is we define Christianity around certain activities, behaviors, vocabulary, and denominational traditions, rather than simply being disciples of Jesus. As I have continued to look into this, I have discovered some pretty surprising things that quite frankly I have been wrongheaded about for a long time.

And I must say that I believe that the church at large, and more specifically and more pertinent, THIS church is on the brink of a time where we are going to be able to make some decisions.

That may sound odd to you but I think the church in general has gone through a pretty rough patch in our history. And like the ancient nation Israel, we have gone though some very long periods of our history where no significant decisions have been made.

I try not to criticize the church too much because I really do know who is in charge of it. But I think it is very important that we be aware of where we have come from and where we are going.

Now I am going to make a statement here that has the potential of getting me into trouble. Big surprise. But please hear me out before you jump to any conclusions about what I may be getting at.

I think we are coming into a time where the church needs to make a decision to set aside all of the denominational doctrines, all the methodologies, and programs and studies and courses (hold on)and recognize that Christ has called us to one thing and one thing only. Discipleship and transformation. Wait Hutch. I thought you said one thing. That was two things. No it was not two things, It was one thing. Discipleship and transformation are the same thing. And it is time that we wake up and acknowledge that Christ has called us to that and only that. The Christian life is all about Discipleship and transformation into Christlikeness.

If you have read your Bible, both Old Testament and New Testament then you may have already come to that conclusion. It is hard to avoid.

Now listen. I did NOT say all those other things are not important. But we have made them MOST important and THAT is where we have gotten off track. And we have been off track for a LONG long time.

Again, the Christian life is all about Discipleship and transformation into Christlikeness. But life’s circumstances and history have a way of getting hold of us and not letting us see what is actually happening. And I think the church, THIS church has been through a time where the dominant theology and focus had nothing to do with discipleship. Even though it is part of our mission statement, our primary focus has shifted away from that to making sure we hold a proper belief and how on the basis of that belief, God would see to it that we don’t end up going to the bad place, but that we get into the good place.

But what ended up happening is that it turned out that you could have the worst character ever and still get into the good place if you just believe the right thing.

Now, this is not going to be a message on the security of the believer. Which I believe in by the way. What I am talking about is our focus, and quite frankly it has been on the wrong things. And that wrong focus has become so burdensome on the church itself until we have gotten to the point where it is becoming increasingly more difficult to see a clear difference between a Christian and those who aren’t. And I believe a lack of discipleship focus is behind it.

The world around us has been thoroughly saturated with all of our doctrines and so-called beliefs to the point that they are using our own stick to beat us with, and in some cases they are not wrong.

True discipleship would change that. If we all took our apprenticeship to Jesus seriously, the world around us would have no stick to beat us with at all.

Gal 5:22-23 ESV - 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

I for one am ready for a change and I think our focus on discipleship and transformation is precisely the change that is needed.

If you read the great commission passage and you think it is about church planting, you’ve missed it. As important as that is, the great commission is not about church planting. If you read it and you think it is about evangelization then again, you have missed it. Jesus command to us to make disciples is about Revolution. It is about World Revolution that began with the promise to Abraham, came to life in Jesus and is living on IN His people up to today.

Folks, I don’t know about you but that is what my heart yearns for. My heart aches for a living and constant knowing of Jesus. And as I continue to look into God’s Word regarding what is expected of His people, I am seeing many ways in which I have approached it wrongly.

Everything else aside, knowledge of Him is the beginning of transformation. We often talk about faith but sometimes I think we have made too much of faith. Certainly you could say that faith in Him is the beginning, but it is just the beginning. But even our initial placing of trust and faith in Him requires some knowledge about Him. But after faith, what must come next, and what is the bigger thing, is more knowledge of Him. Think about it. Can you become a disciple of Jesus simply by placing your faith in Him? If you think that, then you will never become a disciple, let alone lead others to be disciples.

Also, how can you possibly teach others all that Jesus taught if you have no knowledge of what He taught?

If we take Christ and His teachings and we place them into the category of faith, then we deprive faith of its power. Faith is never meant to exist apart from knowledge where knowledge is possible and available. And what is possible through the scriptures and the actions of God in history is knowledge. Knowledge of God. Knowledge of human life. And we have to restore that knowledge to its rightful place.

We have allowed society to divorce the teachings of Jesus and His people from the domain of human knowledge until now we have this weird thing called secular knowledge. What exactly is that? Is reality secular?

If reality is not secular knowledge, then secular knowledge falls miserably short of what human beings need. Knowledge is what disciples of Jesus Christ bring to the world. We are the ones God has given that assignment to.

Without the knowledge that WE bring as disciples of Christ, the world has no structure. It is all up for grabs and there are a lot of people grabbing.

The world around us is asking, “What can we make with what we have”, instead of, “How can we come to terms with the realities of God and His nature and His purpose in creation, and His sending of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world. All of THAT knowledge has been given to US and it is up to us to pass it on.

As disciples of Christ, we are people who have knowledge that no one else has. That is why disciples of Christ are the most important people in society because they bring knowledge of what time and eternity are all about. They bring knowledge upon which people can base their lives.

But you and i will not gain that knowledge and be able to articulate it with authority if we are nominal or something less than nominal disciples. How we transfer that knowledge I think is where we have missed what we learn from Jesus. And that has happened because we have failed to spend time with Him, learn to live like Him and do what He did.

Instead, we have focused on lesser things that continue to fail us in bringing revolution.

Too many men in pulpits today think the way you move people is to make them feel. To play on their emotions. But what really needs to happen from the pulpit is simply and clearly provide those willing to listen with knowledge that can help them make informed decisions about how they will live. And there has been a cultural conspiracy that goes to the highest institutional levels of our society that is designed to take knowledge away from the people of Christ.

So all of this, making too much of faith, coupled with all of our efforts to establish “correct” doctrines and attempts at systematic theology, and failing to be responsabel disciples so we can gain and pass on the Knoweledge people most desperately need, we have made Christianity complicated and difficult.

I myself have said it many times. “The Christian life is the most difficult thing you will ever do” Well this morning, I stand before you and officially denounce that statement. And here is why.

Mat 11:28-30 NLT - 28 Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is (hard) to bear, and the burden I give you is (Heavy)."

Did I get that wrong? What did He say?

30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.

Who said that? Jesus. Then who am I to say otherwise? And if we believe Jesus words here to be true, but our real life experience is otherwise, who do YOU suppose messed this up?

I reckon we did.

You know pastors and elders and church staff and leadership are often living under immense pressure. Pressure to perform and get results. But it is self inflicted pressure at best and at worst, pressure put on them by the congregation. But guess what? It was never supposed to be that way. In fact, when I read the qualifications for an Elder, there is not a single mention of keeping the congregation happy and satisfied. There is no mention of high pressure performance expectations. All of the qualifications for an Elder are based on His Character and what? Knowledge of God and his Word!

Many of you place tremendous pressure and burdens on yourselves that have more to do with behavior than they have to do with getting to know Jesus and learning to be like Him.

Jesus said, the yoke is easy. It is easy because He is in it with you. If it is hard, then you are in it alone.

Let me tell you what I am learning.

You and I need to lay aside our projects which can be crushing. We need to stop carrying the outcome of things we put our hand to. Do your best of course, but never carry the outcome. Just do it. Leave the outcome to the Father. That was the way of Jesus. He just did what the father asked and left the outcome to His Father. The great temptation you and I face is to make it happen.

It is okay and even admirable to have dreams and aspirations. But if you think for one minute you control the outcome you are mistaken.

Do you aspire to be a writer? Then write! But then turn it loose. Do your best but never trust your best. If you do, you will just work harder and that is never the solution.

That is hard for someone of my generation to accept because we were taught from an early age that working harder always guarantees success. That simply is not always true. Don’t misunderstand. Hard work is good for you. But there is no guaranteed outcome.

We live in a time where we have pushed this idea of equality of outcomes. This is the lie that we can somehow make every outcome equal and equitable for all. That is a fantasy. There are too many variables, too many decisions made by others and too many outside circumstances that can affect the outcome of our efforts. The old saying “no guarantees in life” is more true than not.

So, what I have been trying to convey this morning is that discipleship is all that matters and it is not as hard as we have made it, We simply need to look to Jesus,

Jesus was a man of truth, not a man of correct doctrine.

There is a passage of scripture I did not put on the slide but is gives us a clear picture of where many of us stand as so-called disciples of Jesus.

Matthew 15 is all about character and what really matters.

And before we read it I want you to hear this statement.

Your tongue follows correctness. Your heart follows truth.

Jesus put this another way in Matthew

Mat 15:8 NLT - 8 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

The context of this is Jesus was quoting Isaiah when He was having a bit of back and forth with the spiritual leaders of His day, the good ole Pharisees and teachers of the law. Let’s read the exchange...

Mat 15:1-5, 7-20 NLT - 1 Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They asked him, 2 "Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat." 3 Jesus replied, "And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God? 4 For instance, God says, 'Honor your father and mother,' and 'Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.' 5 But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, 'Sorry, I can't help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.' ... 7 You hypocrites!

Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, 8 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9 Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.'" 10 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. "Listen," he said, "and try to understand. 11 It's not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth." 12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, "Do you realize you offended the Pharisees by what you just said?" 13 Jesus replied, "Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be uprooted, 14 so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch."

15 Then Peter said to Jesus, "Explain to us the parable that says people aren't defiled by what they eat." 16 "Don't you understand yet?" Jesus asked. 17 "Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer. 18 But the words you speak come from the heart--that's what defiles you. 19 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. 20 These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you."

So from this it is clear that the fault of the Pharisees was a focus on correct doctrine and adherence to the Law and traditions at the exclusion of the Knowledge of Christ.

Remember what Jesus said in ...

Mat 4:17 NLT - 17 From then on Jesus began to preach, "Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near."

The Kingdom of Heaven is near. These people, they honor me with their words but their hearts are far from me.

God’s Word gives us clear direction about what really matters....

Jhn 17:3 NLT - 3 And this is the way to have eternal life--to know you, the only true God, and (to know, to have the knowledge he gives)Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.

THE ONLY thing you and I should be focused on is discipleship and spiritual formation, both for ourselves and for those around us. And the WAY that happens is when you and l to get to know His Word, then put those words into practice and find them to be true.

It really is not hard. I think sometimes we get this idea that if God is not mean then He cannot do a very good job of managing the world. We need to learn that God is Good. He is not mean and neither should we be mean. Loving God is a gift but you and I have to make the move. And the move is to become disciples of Jesus by simply spending time with him and seeking to learn how to do what he says. Don’t try to do it all at once.

Start here.

Let your yes be yes and your no be no. And leave it at that. Anything more than that comes from the evil in your heart. No need for the endless song and dance that usually follows our yes or no trying to convince people we really mean it! Simply say Yes I will or no I won’t and leave it. No explanation beyond that is required.

Listen. it is okay to not be a disciple every minute of every day. Again, we must seek to LEARN how to do what Christ calls us to do. But nothing else you do or don’t do matters more that being a disciple.

And really, being a disciple, relating to people the way Jesus related to people is not only not hard, but it can even be enjoyable most of the time.

What if disciple-making wasn’t removed from ‘real life” and included your family, your neighbors and your close friends, AND it was a pleasure to engage in? Does that sound too good to be true?

What did Jesus say?

Mat 11:28-30 NLT - 28 Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light."

This is what I think. When discipleship is woven into the very fabric of the life you are already living, your normal life, you will soon see that knowledge, faith and practice are all three totally connected. The best part, as we have been saying, the Kingdom of God becomes tangible- here and now!

This is exactly how Jesus made disciples,

We will open that up next week and start to take a deep dive into what that might look like and I think, like me, you will see that discipleship and the disciple-making that Jesus has called each of us to is absolutely within the reach of every person here this morning. But here is what I know. It won’t happen by sitting in rows once a week and listening to a 45 minute message. Sure we can talk about some things and that is beneficial, but we really can’t engage in every area of peoples lives if we are not seeing and spending time with them outside of Sunday morning.

If you are not excited by that you should be! More on that next week.

Beloved...The true test of religious life is not doctrinal correctness, its actually life itself. Jesus is most interested in our lives, not our correct doctrinal positions.

That should light you up! It certainly has me lit up.

So over the next weeks we will be looking at the disciplines we need to establish in our own lives that position us to learn from Jesus and do what He did, and then engage others in community with the knowledge we have gained from Him.

LORDS SUPPER - GOTO BIBLE

Lets pray. Father once again I ask that you will bless these words and use the ones that are good to bless where a need is present. Give us a compelling sense of the reality of your life in us.

And Father, if there are any in the room today who have not yest decided to follow Jesus, then may this be the day as the power of your spirit leads. And we ask this in the very strong name of jesus Christ, Amen.