MOBILIZED FOR MINISTRY: DISCIPLED

MOBILIZED FOR MINISTRY: DISCIPLED Colossians 1:28 2 Peter 3:1-11 With grateful acknowledgement of these sources of direction and inspiration: the Holy Spirit; the Word of God; David Benner, Desiring God’s Will; Rich Bersett, previous messages, A Discipleship Mentality (2-04-01) and People Serving People (1-06-02); Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together; Robert Coleman, The Master Plan of Evangelism April 3, 2005 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction This morning we begin a brief series on the church. I’m calling it “Mobilized for Ministry” because that is the theme under which we are operating in the month of April. It also describes the goal of the teaching and emphasis we will be dealing with. As we begin I think it fitting to clarify just a couple of things right off. First, when I speak of “the church,” am I talking about the building? Am I talking about the programs? Well, then, what am I talking about when I talk about the church? Exactly right! The church is the people—more precisely, the people of God redeemed and sanctified through the work of Jesus Christ. And when we speak of this church family, this local part of the body of Christ, we are talking about those who identify with, support, serve and love this little corner of God’s kingdom we call Metro-East Christian Fellowship. Though our congregation is a part of the universal church of Jesus Christ worldwide and history-long, we are nevertheless a “church”—fully self-contained, blessed by God, self-governing under the wisdom and guidance of the Scripture, the Word and local elders. That’s the way the New Testament talks about the church—as the corporate body of Christ comprised of all Christians everywhere and in all of the church’s history, but also as the local gathering of believers who meet together for worship, Word, fellowship, prayer and ministry to one another and to others who are not yet part of that church family. Most of our discussion of the church in the coming weeks will center on the local church, and much of it will target our particular church, in terms of illustration, instruction and exhortation. The second item I want us to be clear on as we talk about the ministry of the church is the whole idea of being ministers. Let me ask you a familiar question to see if I can hear a consensus among us. Who are the minister’s in this church, anyway? That’s right, we all are. We are individually and corporately called to be a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you [we] may declare the praises of him who called you [us] out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9) Revelation 5:10 says that Christ has made us "to be a kingdom of priests to serve our God…" Lastly, Ephesians 4:12 teaches with absolute clarity that every member of the body of Christ is a minister, called and appointed by God to serve Him and His church with their unique and divinely-granted gifts. As your pastor I am no more a priest to God than you are. I am not the president of the church, the most important person of the church or the only minister in the church. I am a fellow servant of the true King and Lord of the church, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There is no one any more highly esteemed in the church than the others, except for the Lord, who is exclusively the Lord of the Church and the only true Chairman of the Board. Is that all right with you? Good, now that we have that settled, let’s move on to get a sneak peak at what’s coming. In the coming weeks we will be looking at three important parts of the calling of every member of the Lord’s church, every believer who follows Christ. Each Christian. Biblically speaking, goes through three basic phases: He is discipled, he is devoted and he is deployed. There is a sense in which all of these overlap with one another, and a sense in which they occur simultaneously and continuously in the believer’s life, but they are nevertheless separate and distinct. Today, we begin with a look at the Christian discipled—what a disciple is, what it means to become and remain a disciple of Jesus and what a disciple is to do in his relationship to Jesus Christ as Lord of his life.  Next we will consider the Christian devoted—a study on becoming intimately close to God through Christ and His Spirit. We’ll discover what it means to love Him and to fall more deeply in love with Him so that all our actions rise from the motivation of the love of God working into and through our lives. And finally we will consider the Christian deployed. This will be a look at what the Bible says about Christian commitment and how it is manifest in our lives when we begin to live out our loyalty to the King of kings and Lord of lords. Let’s begin today’s look at the Christian discipled. Each person who comes to faith in Christ is said to be undergoing discipleship. That is s/he is being taught how to follow Christ, learn from Him and live for Him. A disciple is one who is, to one degree or another, learning about Jesus Christ and learning to love and serve Him as Lord. The Continuum of Discipleship I want to introduce a graph to you to help illustrate a truth that I don’t think is usually taught very well. It is a Discipleship chart that graphs the various levels of Christian discipleship. The upward movement on the chart has to do with the maturing of the disciple, and the left-to-right movement is basically the timeline of the disciple’s life, or experience as a disciple.  Notice that one’s experience as a disciple is really on a continuum. It starts very early, even before s/he becomes a Christian. This person who is first considering the claims of Christ is a “disciple,” you know, because s/he is learning about Him. It may be through a personal reading through the Bible, by encountering Bible teaching on the radio or television, by the witnessing of a friend, by being invited to a Life Group and participating in group study of the scripture.  These are this person’s first engagement with Christ. To the degree the person continues to be exposed to the Word and the witness about Jesus, the person is being discipled. Understand, now, the person may be a committed atheist still, but is at least considering what is being taught about the Christian faith. A person who accepts the invitation of a friend and begins to attend the Alpha Course studies can be said to be undergoing discipleship. S/he may never accept Christ, but what is happening is nonetheless discipleship. The Great Commission that Jesus gave us did not say “Go and make converts,” though we certainly hope that our efforts eventuate in people we teach coming to Christ. He said, “Go and make disciples…” [webmasters note: Matthew 28:18-20] That means, go and tell people what it means to know and serve the Son of God. Is it our responsibility to convince people to accept Christ as their Savior? Of course not, only the Spirit of God can and should bring such conviction. Our job is to share the gospel faithfully with people, as clearly and compellingly as we can. The second part of our commission is to, when any of our audience to the gospel decide to give their lives to Christ, baptize them. That is, to bear witness to their faith and repentance and to see them through the initiatory rite of conversion—baptism. Some of our disciples will come to this point of faith, and others will not. Thirdly, Jesus, commissioned us to go on teaching the converted disciples everything we have learned from Him concerning the life of faith and obedience. In a sense, then, our job is never really finished. As we grow to maturity, we are to constantly be bringing others along with us by teaching the truth of scripture to them. In the meantime, of course, we ourselves are being taught more fully the way of maturity in Christ by those who are serving and teaching us. Look again at the Discipleship Chart. See how the levels of a disciple’s maturity are charted, from the very beginning, when a Christian begins witnessing to him, through his conversion when the church baptizes him into Christ, and then on into his career as a Christian disciple. Our church’s Mission and Vision Statement reflects the importance and pre-occupation the church is to have with helping people come to faith and grow into a mature faith through the ministry of discipleship: “We seek to challenge every believer to press on in Christian maturity, posturing themselves to give and receive the ministry of discipleship… We are aggressive concerning our Colossians 1:28 calling… We are convinced that change and growth in the lives of believers  should be normal and expected..” Growing and maturing in our faith simply was never intended to be an option. Nor was helping others to grow and mature. So discipleship—the giving and receiving of instruction by the Word, gifts of the Spirit, example as well as exhortation, admonition and even correction—is part of the normal Christian life. Discipleship is flexible and serves the needs of disciples at every point on the continuum of their maturity experience, from spiritual incubation through the new birth and on to places of great maturity. You might say that a disciple is first a curious learner—a person whose heart is first being softened toward the gospel and is beginning to give consideration to what it might mean to him.  Next, the disciple comes to the point where we might call him a captivated follower of Christ. This is what the disciples were from the very point that Jesus challenged them to come and follow Him, all the way through their involvement with Jesus prior to His resurrection. They certainly weren’t bold and confident believers, were they? It might help you to think of Saul at this stage from the time he was knocked off his donkey and first encountered the living Christ to the point where Ananias baptized him. Every disciple goes through this nebulous time of tentative faith, still pursuing a relationship with Christ, but not yet at the point of real commitment.  In fact, I might suggest that many church members are still at that point, maybe even some of you here this morning. Your time of making a real commitment to Him as Lord of your life has stalled out because of your hesitancy or maybe your experience in churches has not brought you the discipling you’ve needed. The third stage is moving from the point of salvation to the levels of sanctification and maturity. You’ve probably figured out by now that the only way you really graduate from the school of discipleship is to meet Christ face to face after you die, or when he comes again, if you’re still around. Let me pause here to say two quick things about your discipleship. 1. You need to receive discipleship—I don’t care where you are on the chart, you need to grow. And to grow you will need a steady diet of Word, Christian example and give-and-take fellowship with other believers. If you think you’re past needing to receive discipleship, you’re on dangerous ground. There are a host of opportunities for your personal discipleship, from the small group experience of Life Groups to the challenge of private mentoring to the instruction and stretching of Design for Discipleship studies. There are additional opportunities for the hungry disciple through Precepts Ministries and other inter-denominational studies, and even Bible College or Seminary courses.  2. You need to minister discipleship to others. To be healthy in Christ as a growing disciple, you have to be involved in giving away what you know. We become whole and fulfilled disciples when we share with others what Christ has given to us. If you don’t, you can get spiritually sick. Some of the worst cases of maturity disruption in disciples of Christ are caused by this sort of spiritual constipation. Symptoms are a loss of Christian joy, a pervasive sense of purposelessness, and a negative and judgmental attitude.  Growth as the Essence of Discipleship I want to take a look at 2 Peter 1:3-11 with you for a couple of minutes. Here, as well as anyplace else in the New Testament, we can hear the heart of Jesus concerning us and our growth in Him. Your calling as a follower of Christ is to grow into His image and likeness. In fact, you are predestined to that according to Romans 8:29 and 2 Corinthians 3:17-18. 1. The first thing this passage teaches you about your growth is YOU ARE ABLE. "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." There is nothing you need to grow that you don’t already have from Him: through His Word, His Spirit and His Church. During Super bowl XXXVII, FedEx ran a commercial that spoofed the movie Castaway, in which Tom Hanks played a FedEx worker whose company plane went down, stranding him on a desert island for years. Looking like the bedraggled Hanks in the movie, the FedEx employee in the commercial goes up to the door of a suburban home, package in hand.  When the lady comes to the door, he explains that he survived five years on a deserted island, and during that whole time he kept this package in order to deliver it to her. She gives a simple, "Thank you."  But he is curious about what is in the package that he has been protecting for years. He says, "If I may ask, what was in that package after all?"  She opens it and shows him the contents, saying, "Oh, nothing really. Just a satellite telephone, a global positioning device, a compass, a water purifier, and some seeds." Like the contents in this package, the resources for growth and strength are available for every Christian who will take advantage of them. 2. God even provides your motivation—YOU ARE MOTIVATED according to verse 4: "Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." Just knowing and remembering what God has already given us by His grace is motivation enough to help us to move on to maturity. In fact, in a few verses, Peter says that "if anyone does not have [evidences of maturity], he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins." Basically, he says, to not be motivated to grow to higher levels of maturity is to be a myopic ingrate—to have forgotten all the blessings the Lord has given you. Now it looks to me that as we disciples face the challenge of growing in our faith, we have two choices: we can either be growing and vibrant disciples with great joy and a sense of fulfillment, or we can be thankless, willfully blind and morose. It’s been well said that Christians are as close to God as we want to be. 3. The heart of the passage, verses 5-8, lists the ingredients of a life of growth. Here we literally have direction in how to grow. Peter tells us not only that these are available to us, but that we are commanded to work at adding them to our discipleship resume. "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." I hope you caught that—he promises guaranteed success in your life as a disciple of Christ, if you do one thing: keep growing in these qualities by cooperating with the Holy Spirit’s power in your life. Please don’t miss the “continuative” nature of our growth: "if you possess these qualities in increasing measure…" You don’t have to be perfect at them, just growing in them! 4. Verses 10-11 speak to all of us disciples about our GOAL AND ORIENTATION as followers of Jesus. Get ready—this is great stuff! "Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. [There’s a picture of us providing evidence that we are among the people of God in Christ] For if you do these things, you will never fall [there’s that guarantee again!], and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Wow! Look at that! We not only get to go to heaven, but the Lord will work something special out for those who have diligently applied themselves to this growth process. They will get a “rich welcome”! What does that mean?! I don’t know—but I want it! As a deaf child, former NFL star Kenny Walker felt like an outsider. As Kenny matured, however, he compensated for his deafness with great physical prowess. His larger-than-normal frame, extensive knowledge of football, and intense focus attracted the attention of his high school football coaches and, later on, many powerhouse college coaches.  When Kenny's high school coach asked him where he wanted to play college football, he signed "N" for Nebraska, a team he had always dreamed of playing for. Nebraska's coaches immediately signed him and made arrangements to have an interpreter present at every practice and game.  Kenny was so successful at Nebraska that he made All-American and was named Big Eight Conference "Defensive Player of the Year." But the crowning moment of his college football career came during his final home game.  Traditionally, senior players were introduced alphabetically and ran onto the field, welcomed by a cheering crowd. But because Kenny was deaf, the university and local community plotted a unique way to praise Kenny. In a special article, the Omaha World Herald showed the fans how they could sign an ovation: they could stand, hold their hands above their heads, fingers spread, and then wave both hands from side to side. When Kenny stood in the stadium tunnel, he felt the vibration of the cheering crowd as each senior ran out on the field. But when he ran out on the field, he felt no vibrations. Puzzled, he stopped and looked around the stadium to see over 75,000 fans standing for him, waving their hands in a way that only a deaf person would recognize as an applause. Second Peter 1:11 says: "For in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior will abundantly be supplied to you." Commitment as the Key to Discipleship The apostle Paul was deeply committed to the Lord’s will in the area of discipleship. He gave his life—his every waking moment to trying to bring others further along the path of Christian maturity. Look at Colossians 1:28-29, his signature mission statement: "We proclaim him admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me." The whole idea of being a growing disciple comes down to this: will I be committed to Christ and His Lordship in my life? That is, for the one who died in my place that I could have heaven instead of hell, am I willing to be obedient? For the one who has by grace given me everything I need to live life at its very best, am I willing to stay the course he has given me? For the One who loved me while I was still a sinner and was willing to become sin for me, am I willing to commit to this one?  Sooner or later, the notion of commitment has to leave the theoretical and come down to real living, and make a practical difference in our lives. Let me share with you a couple of statistics that are of current interest and concern to me. In this relatively small church about one-third of our active households gives monetarily to the work of the Lord in levels roughly approximating a tithe. Actually that’s pretty good by most church standards (unfortunately). I believe the Lord would be pleased if we as a church grew in the grace of giving. The sadder statistic is this- that a third of our church family’s households give less than $20 per week to the Lord’s work.  I’d like to see a few more disciples of Jesus Christ step up to a new level of commitment and say, “It’s all His anyway—I’m done with being selfish. It’s time my giving reflected my faith and my love for Him.” I am praying for a 50% rise in the number of Christian households who give at least a tenth of their net income. Don’t you think increasing that one-third to one half would honor the Lord? We want to make an already generous church an outstandingly generous one. In this small church, we do pretty well in the area of involvement in ministries through the church. Fully 90% of the adults who attend with any regularity at all are involved in some sort of ministry through MECF. Several are very involved outside the church in significant ministries—and for these we are very grateful. Again, by most church’s standards, that is pretty good. But I think we can do better. I hope through the course of this month’s emphasis you will find some key role of ministry you can engage in through MECF, using your gifts, talents and abilities. Let’s get everyone involved in mutually serving in the church family so that everyone is involved in gift-based ministry, no one has two jobs until everyone has one, and every need is met. Let’s make a sterling record of service to Christ even better! Additionally, there is a very small percentage of members of this congregation that are actively sharing their faith with unbelievers and/or inviting others to worship or Life Group with them. That simply must change. We cannot be receivers of His grace without being sharers of His grace. Will you commit to pray with me for workers who will boldly share their faith in the marketplace and the schools and the stores and neighborhoods? This would honor our Lord Jesus Christ. Resolve to change your anemic record of witnessing to your faith into a bolder, more self-denying lifestyle of sharing your faith with those who are going to hell without Christ.  Let’s make a good church into a great church – a church where every member is a servant to others, where visitors actually get greeted by everyone with warmth and the love of Christ, instead of just a few – a church where no need goes unmet and where each disciple is demonstrating love and compassion toward the others – a church where the members exercise courtesy and park away from the doors so single parents, elderly and newcomers can park up close, where if there’s trash in the yard believers are racing to see who can pick it up first – a church where when someone brings a friend they are witnessing to, everyone is there to offer fellowship and Christian love – a church where everyone, not just some, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep – a church where each one knows they are loved and prayed for and cared for. Have you ever noticed that world-class runners have a "kick?" A kick is a technical runner's term that means when they get to that last one hundred yards or so, the runner can still sprint. No matter how much he's run before, he can sprint that last leg to the finish line and win that race. God wants you to have a kick. No matter what your circumstance, God wants you to finish strong. And do you know what? It doesn’t even matter if you’ve done a lousy job on your personal maturity project up till now. You can begin right now! In Marie Chapian's book Of Whom the World Was Not Worthy there is this true story from the days when the Yugoslavian Christian church suffered under a corrupt church hierarchy: One day an evangelist by the name of Jakov arrived in a certain village. He commiserated with an elderly man named Cimmerman on the tragedies he had experienced and talked to him of the love of Christ. Cimmerman abruptly interrupted Jakov and told him that he wished to have nothing to do with Christianity. He reminded Jakov of the dreadful history of the church in his town, a history replete with plundering, exploiting, and indeed with killing innocent people. "My own nephew was killed by them," he said and angrily rebuffed any effort on Jakov's part to talk about Christ. "They wear those elaborate coats and crosses," he said, "signifying a heavenly commission, but their evil designs and lives I cannot ignore." Jakov, looking for an occasion to get Cimmerman to change his line of thinking, said, "Cimmerman, can I ask you a question? Suppose I were to steal your coat, put it on, and break into a bank. Suppose further that the police sighted me running in the distance but could not catch up with me. One clue, however, put them onto your track: they recognize your coat. What would you say to them if they came to your house and accused you of breaking into the bank?" "I would deny it, " said Cimmerman. "'Ah, but we saw your coat,' they would say," retorted Jakov. This analogy quite annoyed Cimmerman, who ordered Jakov to leave his home. Jakov continued to return to the village periodically just to befriend Cimmerman, encourage him, and share the love of Christ with him. Finally one day Cimmerman asked, "How does one become a Christian?" Jakov taught him the simple steps of repentance for sin and of trust in the work of Jesus Christ and gently pointed him to the Shepherd of his soul. Cimmerman bent his knee on the soil with his head bowed and surrendered his life to Christ. As he rose to his feet, wiping his tears, he embraced Jakov and said, "Thank you for being in my life." And then he pointed to the heavens and whispered, "You wear His coat very well." Citation: Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God? (Word, 1994);  That’s what I want to do—I want to wear His coat well. Don’t you?   [Back to Top]