God-Centered Discipleship in a Man-Centered World
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Last week we looked at God-Centered Discipleship. We took a big sweep at why God must be central to our work of discipleship and by extension our life as the church.
I want to recognize some difficulties and challenges in achieving that ideal of a God-centered discipleship.
Self-improvement
Apathy
We’ll look at just two passages in the larger context of two passages we’ve already looked at.
Last week:
John 14-16
Colossians 1
This week:
Matthew 16 - Jesus addresses self-improvement or a self-defined kingdom
Colossians 2 - Paul addresses some temptations that face the Colossians church.
Q: What’s the key to success? What are college students being told these days?
There’s a whole genre of books called ‘self-help’.
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Self-help is very consistent with an earthly kingdom and often has some good wisdom, but self-help and self-improvement is inconsistent with a heavenly kingdom.
Discipleship in a world of self-improvement
Discipleship in a world of self-improvement
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
As Jesus is preparing his disciples for the cross ahead for Christ and the cross ahead for them in their life of discipleship he comes back to the root of it all. Who am I?
It’s clear some don’t know who Christ is. They’re confused.
But Peter knows! Peter knows the right answer. Are we set to go? Is Peter ready for a life of faithful discipleship?
What’s missing if we have only knowledge?
Knowing who Christ is is absolutely essential, yet remaining devoted to self-improvement and self-actualization is still possible.
Jesus addresses more than the foundation of the Christian faith and discipleship, he’s going to address the other foundations we try to build on in addition to Christ.
What are these other foundations we may be tempted to build on that would ultimately undermine our discipleship?
17 And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. 19 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”
There’s a lot to be said about the keys of the kingdom of heaven, but let’s begin by asking, how does Peter come to the knowledge of who Christ is?
The revelation of God!
Right off the bat Jesus addresses flesh and blood, mankind and ourselves. There’s this other foundation that we like to build on, a foundation of self-improvement and Jesus wants to eliminate that altogether. Peter you didn’t come to this realization on your own!
Peter has come to a real spiritual understanding of who Jesus is, but not alone.
Isn’t understanding just a product of study? The self-improvement of our minds. Why is God necessary?
“The work of the Spirit in imparting this [spiritual] knowledge is called “illumination,” or enlightening. It is not a giving of new revelation, but a work within us that enables us to grasp and to love the revelation that is there before us in the biblical text as heard and read, and as explained by teachers and writers.” - J.I. Packer
A posture of self-improvement can further our knowledge, but it doesn’t further spiritual understanding or an understanding that leads to faith. Only by the work of God through the Spirit can we come to true spiritual understanding.
9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
Even the church doesn’t move beyond the need of God to acquire this spiritual wisdom and understanding. Paul prays that God would continue to work in this way to open our eyes to the truths which He has revealed in Christ.
Illustration: Advance the fence of knowledge so that illumination of that knowledge can lead to spiritual understanding.
This goes against self-improvement. Study can only further knowledge.
2. This goes against mystic understanding. Things which only I have come to know by mystical means.
So when we do discipleship. Discipleship is a task of teaching and learning, but at the end of the day we’re dependent on the LORD to grant us spiritual understanding by the Holy Spirit.
Questions or comments on this section?
Jesus goes on from this with Peter however. How is the church built?
18 “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Jesus doesn’t remove himself from the work to be done. We as the church are involved, we are instrumental, we’ll talk about that some in the sermon this morning, but Christ takes responsibility for the building of the church.
Again, Jesus puts the burden in his own hands, in the hands of God to build and establish the church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. God has called his disciples to play a role, to be apostles, to go and make disciples, but that doesn’t mean they get to be the church builders.
I’m afraid the spirit of self-improvement works itself out in such a way that pastors end up telling themselves, “I will build my church.” Jesus removes that idea entirely, no pastor owns his church. It’s the church of Christ!
OK ok,
“I will build Christ’s church.” Nope not even that. Jesus is looking at the most influential men in the entirety of church history surely he could say, “You will build my church.” Not even the apostles. Christ will build his church.
18 For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, 19 in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.
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Paul recognizes in all his work, the churches that have been planted, the miracles that have occurred, that the obedience of the gentiles and the building up of the church is all because of Christ has accomplished through him.
Coming back to discipleship, the best discipleship model known to man cannot build the church. There may be wisdom in a lot of discipleship models, but at the end of the day we plant and water and God causes the growth because He builds the church.
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Jesus addresses another matter that undermines self-improvement. Where does authority come from?
Just these few verses are packed with a lot of content, and I’m only skimming the surface. Any questions before we talk about authority?
The granting of authority.
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven..
The authority given to the church is given from Christ.
He begins the Great Commission with a similar statement: All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me.
When it comes to defining the gospel, we don’t have the authority to do that. We do have the authority to defend it!
As a church we can say, we’re not going to baptize that person because they don’t profess the gospel.
As the church we have the authority of discipline, but that authority isn’t based on what we want. “I don’t like that guy, let’s kick him out.” That’s a self-made authority. We steward the authority of Christ, exercising discipline against those who have abandoned the faith and the gospel.
How might someone devoted to self-improvement view the use of authority?
Authority is not given to us to be used absolutely for our own self-advancement. It’s a stewardship of Christ’s greater authority.
This is particularly true of pastors! Peter himself years later exhorts elders with these words.
1 Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, 2 shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; 3 nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
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The neat part about discipleship is that you never graduate. There’s no point where you’re so mature or so influential that we’re self-sustaining and exercising a supreme authority. We’re always growing and always dependent. We’re always exercising an authority that’s given from God, because He is the Chief Shepherd.
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One final and perhaps most important aspect Christ addresses here which undermines self-improvement.
Would someone like to read?
20 Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ. 21 From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.
This work of Christ is counterintuitive to the normal worldly understanding of self-improvement. How are we going to accomplish anything with the death of our leader??
How many modern movements political or otherwise rely upon popularity and prominence for success? “Let’s get our leader or our people in the spotlight doing great things, taking charge, in order to gain popularity.”
The path of Christ isn’t exactly the makings of a successful political campaign is it? There are plenty of people probably interested in feeding the 5000, but calling people to repentance? Making enemies of all the most influential religious leaders? Knowingly going to a cross?
This has implications for discipleship:
The pattern of discipleship is consistent with self-denial, service, and even death. Self-improvement is consistent with self-advancement, personal growth, and preserving our lives. The two couldn’t be more opposite.
Death is the summary of everything we’ve talked about so far.
Death to self gives way to the illumination of the Spirit
Death to self gives way to faith in the work of Christ
Death to self gives way to the stewardship of authority not the abuse of it.
Death to self is the path of Christ which we follow, and at this point Peter isn’t about it!
22 Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.”
Peter’s more than willing to recognize that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God, yet not willing to adhere to this idea of death. Why?
23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”
Jesus sums up the heart of Peter and his devotion to self-improvement, establishing his own kingdom: He’s set his mind on the interests of man. If you put it that way it sound pretty harmless, but Jesus literally calls Peter Satan for his commitment to self.
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
We talked about this last Sunday with respect to what Israel was pursuing. Israel is continually oriented toward themselves and not the glory of God, the means of God, or the kingdom of God. All they want is to die in comfort in slavery.
If Christ is our example and the one we follow in discipleship we must look to the work and character of Christ which accomplished our salvation. As he goes to the cross he says to the Father, not my will but yours be done.
What are Peter’s words to Jesus? Not your will but mine, effectively. (vs.22)
God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.”
Self-improvement is a certain challenge to discipleship, but if we’re committed to Christ’s example of humility, self-denial, and death to self we can focus on God and make sure he’s at the center of our discipleship.
What does that look like?
Very simple point of application that I see every week in this church.
Prayer before prescription.
When we pray before we give advice or look for solutions we put God at the center. Paul’s been praying before ever sending his letter to the church at Colossae. God is able to do far more than we ever ask or think. When we do discipleship we’re committed to prayer because we see God is the primary actor in giving us understanding, growing his church, guarding the gospel, and bringing in new disciples.
Questions or comments before moving on to apathy?
2. Discipleship in a world of apathy
2. Discipleship in a world of apathy
If you were to provide a definition of apathy, what would it be?
There’s visible apathy evident in laziness. Doing nothing. But there’s also apathy towards someone or something.
Example: Suppose I don’t want to mow the lawn, so I decide to go to the grocery store instead, am I being apathetic?
Just because I’m busy doesn’t mean I’m not being apathetic towards something or someone.
As Paul is writing to the church at Colossae he’s not addressing them because they’ve become lazy, but more so to make sure they have their priorities straight. Colossians 1 is this glorious treatise on who Christ is in all His majesty, but then he addresses the lesser things which are grabbing their attention and may be distracting them from Christ.
15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. 16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.
Where is the delight? What are the other commitments we see here?
Why would anyone delight in self-abasement? How is that satisfying?
What’s wrong with that? I thought we were supposed be committed to self-denial. Shouldn’t this be praiseworthy?
There’s a certain kind of self-denial that’s still pursuing glory isn’t there? It’s just a different kind of self-improvement and self-advancement.
What might verse 18 look like in our modern context?
At the heart of it is they’ve grown apathetic towards Christ! The reason we pick up our cross isn’t because it’s a means of improvement or glory, it’s because that’s what Christ, who we love and adore has done.
Same visual as knowledge and illumination.
Our love and adoration for Christ enables our following. The moment we grow apathetic towards Christ, our following become selfish and twisted and we become devoted to Sabbath days, angels, visions.
We must hold fast to the head if we are to grow in discipleship. We can’t afford to become apathetic towards Christ. He’s the source of all of our growth as a body.
20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, 21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” 22 (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? 23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.
Dying with Christ means we no longer live according the wisdom of the world.
We are committed to holiness which we cannot attain by worldly means. Self-discipline and self-abasement might look holy, but if there’s an apathy towards Christ, it’s just a worldly pursuit.
Why is self-abasement attractive? Why would anyone pursue that over Christ?
1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
When we seek Christ above all we can know real growth. We avoid the ditch of self-improvement and the other ditch of mere self-abasement.
Quote: Don’t be so heavenly minded you’re of no earthly good. Agree or Disagree?
