Discipleship as Teaching and Learning

Teaching is the essential ongoing work of discipleship that communicates the Word of Christ by the power of the Spirit

Review:

Discipleship is God-centered, All of discipleship begins with God and is for the glory of God.

We actively work against the man-centeredness of our world in the pursuit of discipleship because discipleship is God-centered.

Discipleship occurs primarily in the church. Growth in discipleship comes primarily from the church and results in the advancement of the church.

As much as there’s a lot of good that can be done among the universal church, discipleship primarily happens in the local church, the body of Christ.

From God and for God

From the church and for the church.

Last week we were looking at the nature and character of the church and asked how? How is the purpose of the church in mission and Christlikeness made possible? The Holy Spirit!

This week I want to ask, “How?” and begin talking about methods. Practically speaking, what methods do we implement in order to accomplish the work of discipleship?

What methods does Scripture give us to accomplish the work of discipleship?

Matthew 28:19–20 NASB95

19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Making disciples has an initial action and a continuing action.

Baptism

Teaching

You might say there are two questions churches ask today with regards to making disciples.

How do we get people into the kingdom?

How do we get people into the church?

It’s a good question!

How do we do evangelism?

How do we do outreach in our communities?

We should talk about baptism and church membership around disciple making.

These are crucial, but

there’s an equally important question!

How do we mature them in the church?

There needs to be a concern for both kinds of growth! Growth in numbers, yes - by the right means. We hope that more people are being saved through the work of evangelism!

But also a concern for deep growth. Growth in maturity, fruitfulness, and the likeness of Christ. It’s less measurable but just as important!

If we’re looking for the ongoing fruit of deep growth we need deep discipleship and the ongoing work of teaching.

We’ll talk about teaching as a means of growth in a moment, but let’s just talking about teaching generally for a second.

Let’s say we have a recipe for teaching. We’re cooking up some teaching for dinner.

What are the ingredients necessary to successfully put some teaching on the table?

What are the ingredients of teaching?

A teacher

A learner

Content

Communication

If I stand at this lectern on Monday, nobodies here and teach a lesson am I teaching? No

There’s no learner, there’s no learning happening.

If we all decide to read the same book independent of each other are we teaching?

There isn’t a teacher or even communication so we don’t have a complete teaching recipe.

Suppose we all gather together for fellowship are we teaching?

Maybe?

Discipleship and teaching occurs in the context of the church so it would hopefully be occurring in the context of fellowship, but fellowship doesn’t always accomplish the communication of content.

If the ongoing act of discipleship is teaching then we need to seek out spaces that have

teachers

learners (we can’t be isolated, 2 people are required)

content

communication

So far we’ve really established the basics of teaching. This is generally true in every secular context.

Let’s make sure we are talking about Christian teaching.

What is the unique goal of Christian teaching?

(Christian discipleship) that distinguishes what we do here in this very moment from a literature class at Wright State?

Romans 12:2 NASB95

2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

—-

Christian discipleship and by extension Christian teaching has the unique purpose of transforming people, heart, mind and body.

The mind and what it knows and what it believes is a fundamental aspect of our transformation.

Our very salvation is through faith, through the use of our minds in believing the truth of the gospel.

Even evangelism in pursuit of the salvation of sinners is a form of teaching. We proclaim/ communicate the content of the gospel to hearers (our learner) in the hope that they will respond in faith by the work of the Spirit.

Furthermore our sanctification is not mindless.

Ephesians 4:17 NASB95

17 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,

Ephesians 4:20–24 NASB95

20 But you did not learn Christ in this way, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

—-

Paul is talking to Christians who have become Christians by learning Christ and having been taught in Christ because the content the truth is in Jesus. (Discipleship accomplished??? no there’s an ongoing call. He calls them to be renewed in the spirt of their minds, in contrast to the futility of mind that characterizes the old self and the lusts the world pursues. This renewal of mind allows us to put on the new self created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Paul connects the dots a little more simply in his letter to the Colossians.

Colossians 1:28 NASB95

28 We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.

What is the goal of Christian teaching?

Learning the Word for the transformation of believers by the Spirit into the character of Christ

How then should we redefine the ingredients of Christian teaching?

teacher (Who is the Christian teacher?)

learner (Who is the Christian learner?)

content (What is the Christian content?)

communication (What is the Christian communication?)

The Holy Spirit

Matthew 28:20 NASB95

20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

—-

When we start asking, “How” it’s easy to leave the Holy Spirit behind. We can analyze how Peter preached at Pentecost and see everything that the church was doing afterward and try to reverse engineer an effective discipleship ministry, and unfortunately when those things don’t bear the fruit we’re looking for some people will go try different things and different methods. If we go all the way back to the beginning of Pentecost Jesus called His disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit. I think there’s wisdom in that. We can be doing everything we’re supposed to be doing and still need to wait upon the Lord. We’re not waiting for the next Pentecost, but we are reliant upon the Holy Spirit to prosper our discipleship to prosper our teaching.

Acts 1:4–8 (NASB95)

4Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me;

5for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

6So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”

7He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;

8but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

The ongoing work of discipleship is teaching in the power of the Holy Spirit.

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