The Ministry of Discipleship
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Background
Background
Last week, we talked about justice, mercy, and grace.
I want to go over these definitions again so we can remember where we are.
Justice is getting what you deserve
Mercy is not getting what you deserve
Grace is getting what you don’t deserve
Now, these are very important realities to understand the what is going on in Acts 11. What is taking place here is that the Jewish people are having a hard time accepting the Gentiles as a part of God’s plan of salvation.
Now, who are the Gentiles?
Here is the definition of a Gentile:
Gentile: Non-Jewish (non-Hebrew, non-Israelite) person(s) or peoples
Basically, everyone who is not Jewish is a Gentile.
Now, the Jewish people were identified by a common medical practice today. There were circumcised. This was a sign that they swore their allegiance to the God of Israel. Basically, it was them saying, “by blood, we as a nation have agreed to live a moral life, removing the filth from our posterity”.
They took this covenant from God, swearing that they, and future generations would be totally faithful to Him. It was like a marriage. The Old Testament is full of God comparing Israel to His bride…He calls them His son, and He calls them His people.
Theocracy
You need to understand what life was like for the Jews. They did not live in a democracy, or a monarch…they lived in a theocracy. Their religion was their government, and God was their King. Now, there did come a time when they desired and earthly king…and that was just a mess…God’s original design for Israel was that they serve Him and Him alone.
What does that have to do with Gentiles?
Well, the Gentiles were signified by pagan worship. To the Jew, the Gentile was unclean because they did not practice the rite of circumcision. What happened through time, was that the Jewish people began to equate circumcision of their member with purity, instead of the circumcision of their heart. They kept the law on the outside, but inwardly they were no different than the Gentiles.
Context
Context
This brings us to the rest of Acts 11. Peter, in chapter 10, went to see Cornelius, who was a Gentile and the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles and salvation came to the pagan world. Well, Peter comes back to report to the apostles and to the other disciples what took place, and they met him with sharp criticism.
Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.
And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him,
saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!”
There’s that issue of circumcision and the greater issue of their misunderstanding. What they missed was the point that these Gentiles saw spiritual renewal. What they missed was that circumcision is a sign of spiritual cleansing, but that it doesn’t make you spiritually clean.
In other words, they were holding on to their own biases against the uncircumcised in a way that had nothing to do with spiritual cleansing, and everything to do with their own tradition.
Peter just tells them the story and gets down to these key verses here…
Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?”
To this, these Jews had nothing to say. The only thing they could do was praise God for saving those Gentiles.
This bias, and this lack of understanding begins to unfold and then dissolve as we continue reading.
The title of this morning’s message is The Ministry of Discipleship.
We are going to begin again in v. 19, and then we are going to look at God’s plan for world according to His Great Commission…and we are going to see three important functions of discipleship.
I. Seeking and Saving
I. Seeking and Saving
If you’re around for any time at all, you’ll hear sentences like this come out of the mouth of people who think they’re spiritual. Let’s try some phrases out.
“I am not really someone who disciples, I am more of an evangelist.”
“I am not really an evangelist, I am more of a discipler.”
“I am not really the servant type, I am more of a leader, I am more of a teacher…”
It’s so unfortunate. People that think like this are all talk. They don’t have any understanding of what it means to be like Jesus Christ, they just think they do…it’s called self-righteousness.
Because when I read through the gospels, I see that Jesus was a servant, a discipler, and an evangelist. He was all three…and since our mission is to be like Jesus Christ, then we need to be all three!
Here is what Jesus says after He washes His disciples feet.
You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am.
If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.
If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
What’s He saying? He is saying very plainly, “I am the Lord of the universe. If I serve, then you ought to serve.”
Just remember this truth church:
If you’re too big to serve, then you’re too small to lead
That doesn’t apply just to some, that applies to everyone. Jesus says, “I am your Master, and you aren’t greater than Me. Whatever I do, you should also do.”
Well, what exactly did Jesus do?
for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
So, Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost.
Well, what is the motivator for that salvation?
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
It was the unmerited favor of God that brought us salvation. It was by His grace that He declared in the heavenly places that Jesus would come and redeem us from our sin.
And now, now that His grace has been accomplished through the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God says, “Go into all the world, preaching the good news of My grace.”
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
The point is this, that if we are faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, then we will be proclaiming the gospel to the world…because the main motivator of discipleship is to create more disciples.
Look at our text for today….
Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only.
But some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus.
And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.
Do you see which group God was with?
There are those Jews…and they are only sharing the gospel with other Jews. They still think that because they are circumcised, because they received the law of God that they are superior…and because of their attitude, they are living in open rebellion against God.
Jesus, before He left the earth, gave this command, “preach the gospel to every creature.”
He didn’t say to the Jews…He didn’t say to who you thought might accept Me…He said to every creature…He said to the ends of the earth, preach the gospel.
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
God’s plan is to seek and to save those are lost…which is every creature. Every person is lost and deserves the justice of God’s wrath…but because of what Jesus did on the cross, we have an avenue to receive His mercy and grace instead.
Why not share that mercy and grace with the world?
Church, can you see the nonsense in those statements?
“I am not a discipler, I’m an evangelist; I’m not an evangelist; I’m a discipler; I’m not a servant, I’m a teacher.”
Here’s the reality of Discipleship:
Discipleship is the process of making others more like Jesus Christ
When Jesus called His first disciples…what does He say to them?
Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Interesting…Jesus says, “Follow Me, and I will disciple you to the point where you can make other disciples on your own.”
So, not only is discipleship the process of making others more like Jesus Christ
Discipleship is not complete until the disciple becomes a disciple maker.
What’s a disciple maker?
A disciple maker, a mature believer, is this:
Disciple Maker: An evangelist that disciples new believers to be evangelists.
So, then, how can someone say,
“I am not a discipler, I am an evangelist”? How can someone say, “I am not an evangelist, I am a discipler”? How can someone say, “I am not a servant, I am a teacher”? It just doesn’t work.
Saying any of those things is like saying, “I’m not a parent, I just have kids.”
“Well, I’m not sick, I just have a fever.”
“I’m not broke, I just don’t have any money.”
It’s in the definition.
Let me explain this again, and then we’ll illustrate it with the text.
Here’s discipleship:
Discipleship is teaching others how to evangelize and disciple.
It’s all right there in the definition. If you’re missing any of these three things, then you’re not discipling.
Well, how is it done? How is discipleship accomplished?
It’s not done from the stage. It’s not done from the teacher’s chair.
Discipleship can only happen when we encourage others and teach them by investing in their lives.
So, first, there is seeking and saving the lost, then there is the aspect of encouraging and teaching them
II. Encouragement and Teaching
II. Encouragement and Teaching
Then news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch.
When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.
For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.
Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul.
And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
Now, Barnabas was sent first to confirm their salvation, and then to disciple them…
How does he do it?
Well, first he just simply encourages them. The Bible says that Barnabas encouraged the people to continue in their faith.
Not only did they encourage, but he got down into the mud of life to teach them. The Bible says that he and Saul stayed there for an entire year, just to invest in them.
Enlisting the help of Saul
Enlisting the help of Saul
Now there is a person that we haven’t seen in about 10 years… the time lapse from chapter 9 and Saul’s conversion to this point in chapter 11 is about 10 years long.
What that means is that Saul, spent 10 years studying the Scripture, 10 years serving in the local church, 10 years in submission to his teachers which includes the physical, bodily, Jesus Christ, and now Saul is being assigned by Barnabas to co-teach in this new church, the Church of Antioch.
Why did it take so long for Saul (Paul) to get this assignment?
Because if Saul was going to disciple and teach others, he needed to be discipled first.
So, it’s simple, you cannot become a teacher or a leader unless you are willing to be taught and willing to be led.
Church, it’s true that we need leaders. It’s true that we need people qualified to teach the Scripture…it’s true that we need people, especially men, to submit themselves to God and to be faithful in the church and in their families…
But if you think that this is a quick process, if you think that, as a church, we can allow you to be thrown into leadership, then you don’t understand the mission of God.
The mission of God is first to save people…but then to disciple them and to teach the the ways of Godliness.
Unfortunately, too many people think that teaching and leading is a status to be taken instead of an honor to be given.
Look in the scripture…
Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul.
Did Saul ask for this leadership role? No…
Then how did he get it?
The Scripture says that Barnabas recognized Saul’s calling, that he recognized the fruit in Saul’s life, and that Barnabas observed Saul selflessly serving in the church, preaching the gospel in the community, and gaining understanding of the Scripture by submitting to his teachers, for 10 years.
If we are going to make room in our church, and if we are expecting God to fill the empty spaces, then we need men and women to faithfully and sacrificially serve the church, proclaim the testimony of Jesus, and submit under the leadership that God has established here.
I know what you’re thinking…does it really take 10 years to be trained?
For what Saul was called to do, yes…
But I can’t put a time limit on your life because I don’t know…but what I do know is what the Scripture says.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
If you try to exalt yourself to leadership, it won’t work. If you allow the Lord to do it, you’ll see what the early church saw, “a great many people added to the Lord.”
Because Barnabas and Saul were faithful to submit, they were prepared to spend a year in Antioch discipling the new believers there.
If you want to be a disciple maker then you must be totally committed to Jesus Christ and totally committed to making your life the example or the pattern to follow.
If we want to make room, then we need faithful disciples to faithfully disciple new believers. God is not going to outpace our own willingness to grow in our personal lives.
III. Faithfulness and Fruit
III. Faithfulness and Fruit
And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch.
There are some major things that have taken place in Antioch, and here is the fruit of their faithfulness.
The Lord Recognized Their Maturity
The Lord Recognized Their Maturity
God has looked upon this new church, and He is seeing their fruit, and because He knows their faithfulness, He is giving them the opportunity to invest into the heavenly places.
Opportunities are Recieved
Opportunities are Recieved
But I want you to notice the nature of this opportunity…it says, “prophets came to Antioch”.
So many times in our lives, we go out and seek opportunities that God never wanted us to have. I can tell you that the best things in life, the greatest blessings from God, almost always come without you going out to find it.
When I got called to pastor here, I was so unsure…but God led me down a series of events that led me to apply at Providence, led the committee to call me, and led the church to vote for me. Neither one of us knew each other existed, it was literally a match made in heaven.
Where churches, and where people get in trouble, is that they want to speak for God. They want to say what God’s will is, and then they expect God to do it for them. In the Greek that translates into the phrase, “blab it and grab it.”
Well, you can’t blab it and grab it…it’s just like anything else in the Kingdom of God, an opportunity from the Lord is presented and then you have to receive it.
Maturity Leads to Discernment
Maturity Leads to Discernment
What about when there is an opportunity presented thats not the best option? That’s where spiritual maturity comes in.
There is something that God will give to you called spiritual discernment
Spiritual Discernment is the ability to see truth from heaven’s perspective
This is a particular wisdom that cannot come from education, it can’t come from conventional knowledge, it can only come from God.
Let me give you an example of how this is applied in real time
All the time ministry opportunities come across my desk. If you’ve ever approached me about an opportunity and I haven’t been warm to the idea…I’m sorry. The truth is that we can’t meet every need and we can’t be involved in every good thing. What I have to have, what we have to have as a church, is spiritual discernment.
We have to be in connection with God in such a way that His plan and purpose for us is revealed and confirmed by Him.
It’s not that some opportunities to do good are wrong…it’s just that it may not be our assignment, and we have to discern those things.
It works the same way in your life…it may be that door that is opened isn’t the right door.
There is a pastor I know, and he began to share with me all the doors that were opened in his life, and how he was going to be so prosperous, and how he was going to be able to live what he thought was his dream ministerial life…
There was nothing wrong with the decisions he was making, until God changed his course and said, “you aren’t going to go there, you’re going to go here instead.”
The problem was that where God was leading him was for less pay and more work.
There might be some of you faced with a decision in your life right now, and what you have to do is throw your conventional wisdom out the window, and focus in our your relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s possible that He calls you to do something that raises some eyebrows, but that’s how Godliness works.
The Bible says that the things of God are foolishness to the world…because the things of God have nothing to do with conventional wisdom and everything to do with seeing the truth from heaven’s perspective.
Henry Blackaby talks a great deal about this discernment process and this is what he says the first step is. He says,
If you ask the wrong question, you will get the wrong answer. People ask, “what is God’s will for my life”, but that is not the right question. The right question is “what is God’s will?” Once you know God’s will, then you can adjust your life to Him.
Not every opportunity is God’s will, and not every setback is God’s punishment. We have to learn to focus on our relationship with Jesus Christ, to become mature in Him, and to develop that spiritual discernment so we can know if we are living in God’s will or in our will.
So, it is then, that the Lord recognized their maturity, and then sent them an opportunity…let’s see how that opportunity was confirmed.
The Lord Confirms Opportunities
The Lord Confirms Opportunities
Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar.
Do you see what the confirmation was? It was confirmation by the Holy Spirit.
Now, again, this is what spiritual discernment is.
Spiritual Discernment is the ability to see truth from heaven’s perspective
Let me share this scripture with you..
For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
Now look, the reason that you cannot have spiritual discernment without a relationship with Jesus Christ is because only by the Holy Spirit can we know the things of God.
If spiritual discernment means to understand truth from heaven’s perspective, then we need a heavenly person to show us heavenly truth.
Do you remember the process we discussed a few weeks ago?
The Father speaks it, the Son completes it, and the Spirit teaches it.
So, whatever is happening in the heavenly places, will only be delivered to us by the Holy Spirit and His confirmation.
But, very quickly, I want to say that we don’t have prophets in our day…what we have is greater, we have the completed Word of God.
But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
This verse is saying that we cannot determine heavenly things on our own, we need the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. It’s also saying that the Holy Spirit as He speaks to you will never contradict the Scripture.
Knowing all this, what exactly is taking place?
God has recognized their maturity, and He has sent them an opportunity to complete the will of God, the will of God was confirmed by the Holy Spirit, and now look what happens.
The People Obeyed God
The People Obeyed God
Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea.
This they also did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.
They gathered a collection for missions giving confirmed to them by the Holy Spirit, and they sent it by the hands of trustworthy and faithful men…Barnabas and Saul.
Conclusion
Conclusion
True disciples of Jesus Christ will be leading people to the Lord, and then teaching others to lead people to the Lord.
Discipleship is a long process that comes by encouraging others and by making a personal investment in their lives.
Finally, when discipleship is done faithfully and intentionally, you will see the fruit of the Spirit in the lives of those you are discipling.
Church, here’s the truth, discipleship is a messy process that involves failure, dedication, humility, and a complete surrender to the will of God. Anything less than that will not produce the fruit of faithfulness in the life of immature believers.
