Discipleship
Marks of a Healthy Church • Sermon • Submitted
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· 45 viewsDiscipleship is the labour done in God's power to proclaim Christ and present people mature to Christ.
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Introduction
Introduction
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
Introduction:
Introduction:
We all influence and are influenced. No one is an island. We eventually will begin to reflect those around us and those around us will eventually reflect us.
Remember in high school, walking by a friends locker on my way to class, and he says, “hey lets skip.”
Transition: But as faithful my parents where to Deutonoemy 6 and their job to make disciples in their own home, there’s a clear call on all Christians to make, mature, and multiply Disciples of Jesus Christ. There was someone else who was discipling me. How God used him to stretch me and teach me. It was how God used him to throw me into situation such as teaching my first lesson or preaching my first sermon (as bad as that was) more than 23 years ago.
Transition: We will all be influenced by others. The people around you will influence you, for better or worse. And for better or worse you will influence those around you. Think about it, and absentee father influences his children even in the absence. None of us is an island.
Transition: We will all be influenced by others. The people around you will influence you, for better or worse. And for better or worse you will influence those around you. Think about it, and absentee father influences his children even in the absence. None of us is an island.
This is what Discipleship is. Discipleship is a process of moving people to the right, into a closer walk with Christ. A discipling life is an others0oriented life. It labours in the power of God to proclaim Christ and present other mature in Christ. THat is the pattern we see in the Bible. w
Question: The only question that remains for you is: how will you use your influence.
What is Discipleship?:
What is Discipleship?:
What is a disciple? A forgiven sinner who is learning Christ in repentance and faith.
What Discipleship? Discipleship is a process of moving people to the right, into a closer walk with Christ. A discipling life is an others-oriented life. It labours in the power of God to proclaim Christ and present other mature in Christ. That is the pattern we see in the Bible. We see that discipleship is really about influencing people through teaching, correcting, modelling, and loving them so that they grow in their walk with Christ.
In , Paul says this:
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
Colossians 1:
V 24: Whatever the hardships that Paul had suffered was a joy because of how God had used them to call people to himself. In Paul’s suffering he was able to sympathize with his fellow believers when they suffered. During that time he was able to comfort them because of the comfort he had from God during his suffering.
vs. 27: What is the mystery? “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Ch
Vs. 28: Did you catch that in verse 28?
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
Jesus defines discipleship in what we call the Great Commission in think I grew up understanding this passage as a call for foreign missions, or at lease it was implied that it was. Read it with me starting in , “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Paul’s message was Christ. Paul wants the people to know the hope that Christians have rests in the person of Jesus Christ. The gospel is not a system, hierarchy, or set of regulation. It is the person and work of Jesus, which is, indeed the message.
“Everyone” This teaching is for everyone. There’s no part of Christian teaching that is to be reserved for the spiritual elite. All the truth of God is for all the people of God.
Paul is warning and teaching. He warns people with the intent to change ones attitude and actions, he wants them to grow in holiness and understanding of who God is. He’s calling people to correct a course that they may be on that isn’t right, but he is also teaching. He wants people to know how to grow in Christ. So Paul’s method is both confronting and instructing. He wasn’t to “present everyone mature in Christ. Discipleship involves transmitting the knowledge of God and his Word through every moment of life.
What is discipleship? Discipleship is a process of moving people to the right, into a closer walk with Christ. A discipling life is an others-oriented life. It labours in the power of God to proclaim Christ and present other mature in Christ. That is the pattern we see in the Bible.
Discipling is initiating a relationship where teaching, correcting, modelling, and loving takes place. It takes great humility. And can be very messy.
Happens through 4 ways:
Proclaiming the gospel: This is a public announcement. Not something we wait for, it’s a declaration. Point to Jesus. That Christ died for our sins and rose again.
Correcting. Warning (to advice someone that the road you are going down has consequences. Sometimes you may need to warn someone about the choices they are making.
Admonition involves encouraging, instructing, and prompting, as well as reproving others when necessary. But Paul doesn’t think this is his own task, this is a task that belongs to the entire community. We see that in 3:16
Who of us, with a child, would watch our child reach for the eletric socket without doing something. Or if you saw someone about to jump in the way of a train would not attempt to grab them.
Part of being a Christ is knowing that we still get deceived by sin sometimes and we need other Christians to help us see the things we can’t see. Join a Church that does that. Did you know, you can lead in a discipling relationship by inviting others to correct you, and making it easy for them to do so?
Teach: At its core, discipling is teaching. We teach all the words that Jesus taught his disciples, and all the words of the Bible. It happens when we sit down and have coffee with someone and ask: “What has God been teaching you about himself?”
Modelling. The Command isn’t just to teach people. Jesus tells us to teach people to obey.
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Ultimately, discipling involves living out the whole Christian life before others. Christ is our example here.
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
We don’t just communicate through our words, but also through our whole lives.
Think about a fashion model. You’re showing off who to live. It’s inviting people to imitate you, making your trust in Christ an example to be followed. It requires you to be willing to be watched and then folding people into your life so that they actually do watch.
How does this look? For Parents, it’s shown in .
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
Deut 6:4
Every part of your live, both what you verbally teach and what you teach through your life is to point them to the greatness of Christ. Even how we handle our weakness, our failures, our successes, influences people for Christ.
The other day I was talking to a person who recently became a Christian. We were joking around about things, but then they made the comment about using a hymnal when they said that they picked up this book and they didn’t know how to use it. It got me thinking, in how many other ways, that are far more important, like in how Jesus commands us to teach all that he has commanded, do we not teach those. How often do we assume that someone knows how to read the Bible, how to study the Bible, a basic understanding of doctrine and theology, so that they can learn all the Jesus has commanded. Notice the command isn’t to the new Christian to learn, although that’s implied, it’s the command of the more established christian to teach.
We have entered into a time that our society doesn’t know anything about who God is.
Becoming a Christian is like a baby in a war zone.
Transition: It is necessary, then, not only to preach the gospel but also, when people have believed the gospel, to “instruct everyone and teach everyone in all wisdom.”
It is necessary, then, not only to preach the gospel but also, when people have believed the gospel, to “instruct everyone and teach everyone in all wisdom.”
Bruce, F. F. (1984). The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians (p. 87). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Outcomes of Discipleship:
Outcomes of Discipleship:
Mutual Love. There is something of a teacher-student relationship. But there will also be a peer-to-peer mutual love that comes.
Think of Mike, Kevin, and Dave. They served, and blessed, and encouraged, me in the faith. Even as I worked to do them spiritual good, they do me spiritual good. They help me better follow Jesus. Toegether we learn what Paul means
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
:
Or what the Bible says in
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Encourages humility: Just as you humbled yourself to be discipled, so you have to humble yourself to disciple. Discipling involves difficult things - saying no, persevering through troubles, knowing when to bear with someone, and doint it. Your invitations might be spurned, your counsel rejected. We don’t just disciple through our strengths, but through our weaknesses. Christ discipling is not so much the work of experts and technocrates; to borrow the old phrase, it’s the work of one begger pointing another bagger to bread. And who is the bread of life? Jesus.
There’s a great article written by Erin Wheeler, and she says this:
I am a mess. I have no idea what I'm doing here. There certainly isn't any"teaching" going on today with my crazy hooligan children and my heart in a bad place towards my husband. I'm the one who needs to discipling! God, what would you have me do?
In discipling these woman I tried constructing questioning, discuss books together, and Watch God use my weakness in fighting for patients when the day have long since worn me thin. It watched me struggle to love my husband after sharing my struggles with competing demands of Ministry.
She continues on:
That is our confidence: not that we have the perfect home and well behaved children, but that in the muck and mire, God’s Spirit is at work. Even in our weakness, God uses our words to warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, comfort the weak, and show patience to everyone, all for his great glory.
Erin was using her influence in the seemingly mundane to point people to Christ.
It aims to present people mature to Christ. The goal is to encourage all Christian to live up to what God expects.
How is it done?
How is it done?
Which brings us to Pauls next point in verse 29. Paul goes on in verse 29
Which brings us to Pauls next point in verse 29. Paul goes on in verse 29
For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
Vs. 29 He was going to exert himself towards that end. He was going to struggle.
Jesus comes and addresses his disciples and says to them, “It’s your job to make disciples. It was the 11 disciples here who had originally received the commission to call all people to obey what Jesus had taught them. Jesus defines discipleship threefold: to make, mature, and multiply.
Struggling: to strive to do something with great intensity and effort.The word here is talking about how athletes painfully pursued athletic glory.
What is it in your life that you are struggling with with the same effort?
The word here is talking about how athletes painfully pursued athletic glory. BUT. He wasn’t doing this in his own strength, he was doing this in God’s strength.
BUT. He wasn’t doing this in his own strength, he was doing this in God’s strength.
If you or I hope to contribute any good to others, if we hope to influence others for Christ’s sake, it will only happen as God’s Spirit works in us and through us.
Disciples are made by the persevering proclamation of the word of God by the people of God in prayerful dependence on the Spirit of God. For us, we become disciples by hearing and obeying Jesus’ teaching, mediated to us through these specially commissioned apostles. Discipleship simply is repeating what God has taught in his Word over and over again. As a disciple, we are then called to go and make disciples ourselves. We are called go tell people about Jesus, that “Christ died for our sins and rose again”. We show the love of Christ and tell the love of Christ.
Who is called to make disciples?: By the elders/pastors preaching, and teaching, and training and example, we are called to equip every Christian to be a Christ-learner who helps others to learn Christ.All disciples of Jesus, all Christians are called to go and make disciples. We do this by our preaching, training, and example, pastors equip every Christian as says to be a Christ-learner who helps others to learn Christ. All-gospel centred ministries are making disciples. If they are proclaiming the gospel, they are making disciples. Discipleship happens from preaching to the nursery worker, to visitation, as long as the gospel is proclaimed.
Application: Some think or act or talk in such away that it makes it the corporate churches job make disciples. That’s true. But if the individual members that make up the body aren’t making, maturing, and multiplying disciples, the corporate body of believers isn’t. If my pastor didn’t walk along side of me.
We aren’t asked to be perfect. We are asked to go an make disciples, teaching them to obey all that he has commanded. God uses our weaknesses, and tell us that we are to be obedient, not in our strengths or abilities, but it God’s.
Paul wasn’t just concerned with making converts, his aim, his toil, was to make disciple. People that would grow in Christlikeness.
Where does discipleship happen?: It happens in every facet and activity of the transformative learning communities we call churches; and through our churches, it also happens in every corner of this present darkness. The christian cannot survive outside of the local church, the local church is where the maturing of a disciple happens.
Discipleship is the basic activity of the local church. If we aren’t actively making disciples, if that be from the grass roots proclamation of the gospel to our neighbours, co-workers, on the street corner, if we aren’t actively maturing disciples by walking with them in godlinesses and than encouraging them to do the same with others, we have failed at the fundamental call of the church. And I would say, much of the problems we complain about in the church is because of lack of desire to make, mature, and multiple disciples of Jesus Christ.
Discipleship is three things: It making disciples. Proclaiming the Good news of Jesus Christ.. It maturing disciples through teaching. And Mature Christians through correcting.
Therefore churches should exhort their members to both grow in holiness and help others do the same. And the multiplying, to start the cycle again with someone else. If discipleship is a movement of people to the right into a closer walk with Jesus, true discipleship is a making, maturing, and multiplying disciples of Jesus Christ. It’s the local church members evangelizing their neighbours, coworkers, friends, family, and walking with them into a closer walk with Christ.
BI: A discipling life is an others-oriented life. It labours in the power of God to proclaim Christ and present other mature in Christ. That is the pattern we see in the Bible.
There’s more in the Bible on discipleship than just . Peter in says, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” This is a summary of what he says in 1:5-8, “For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The issue is not just whether Christians possess the virtues of vv. 5–7 (all Christians do to some degree) but whether they are continually growing in them. In contrast, spurious Christians, who claim that Christ has cleansed them but have shut their eyes to the truth, lack these virtues. We are to call people to Christ, plead with them to be recognized to a holy God and walk with those God has called to himself into maturity. Growing in maturity, and that happens mostly in the local church as we walk with one another in a movement to the right of a closer walk with Christ.
So let me ask you this question again: how will you use your influence.
In , Paul says, “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ…” We are called to speak the Word, the gospel, in love, poring into one another.
We are called to imitate godly people, to seek good examples of godliness in Phillipians 4:9 and . In , older men and older woman are commanded to be example to those behind them. ()
The point is that, according to Scripture, all Christians should grow in Christ, imitate other godly Christians, and encourage others in their growth in Christlikeness.
Discipleship is a movement of people to the right into a closer walk with Christ. Its done by the persevering proclamation of the Word of God by the people of God in prayerful dependence on the Spirit of God. Who are you discipling? and Who is discipling you? And this isn’t because it some sort of good wisdom, as it is really good, and not because it comes from man, but because it comes from God. It’s the job of the local church to be discipling people because it’s been commanded by God and it is the example we see in the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New Testament. You and I aren’t just called to be disciples, we are called to be disciple-makers. It’s the cycle laid out for us in the Word of God. Before we will even do discipleship, there needs to be a desire to do it.
So What? Why is it important?:
So What? Why is it important?:
It’s the job of the church to make, mature, and multiply disciples. The local church is where discipleship is to happen. Just as Jesus commanded the 11 disciples in and the cycle of discipleship was created, we are to carry it on.
The identity and purpose of the church. Paul sketches out his understanding of his commission from God. He is a servant, and his concept of ministry provides a good guide for the identity and purpose of local and national church bodies. God has charged him:
• to present the word of God in its fullness and make known its glorious riches
• to proclaim Christ and admonish and teach in all wisdom so that believers are firm in their faith
• to create believers encouraged in heart, united in love, and full of understanding
• to reach out with good news to those whom some may deem unworthy or excluded.
As Paul served others with dedication and sacrifice, so churches today should take seriously their servant role in the world. Churches are not here to serve themselves or even simply to serve Christ. They are to serve like Christ as instruments of God’s reconciliation.
Promoting biblical discipleship and growth is important because none of us are finished products. Until we die, all Christians will struggle against sin, and we need all the help we can get in this fight.If a church neglects discipleship and growth, or teaches a skewed, unbiblical version of it, it will discourage genuine Christians and wrongly assure false Christians. On the other hand, if a church fosters a culture of Christian discipleship and growth, it will multiply believers’ efforts to grow in holiness.A church that is not growing in the faith will ultimately yield an unhealthy witness to the world.
Discipleship starts with Jesus and who he is. He is the Lord of Heaven and Earth. He has been given all authority as says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” As 1 Corinthian 15 says, “That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.” That as Jesus himself says in , “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father accept through me.” Jesus is the only one who can save me and the world and build his church. Discipleship starts with Jesus and knowing who he is and what he has done for us. It comes from the fact that there is a holy God, that we have sinned and rebelled against the Holy God. That because of our sin, our lives and our world are broken. That our due right punishment because of our sin and rebellion again our Holy God is eternal hell. But God in his great mercy, grace, justice, holiness, steps down from his thrown, and Jesus dies in our place. Taking our place on the cross. Taking our sin, healing our brokenness. So that we can come to the father, so that we may have life. BI: Discipleship comes out of a passion for the gospel.
The Risen King can rinse clean
The most rebellious, I was hell-bound, now I’m spellbound
Word is bond, I’m a bondservant to the Word of life
Call me a sellout, I was bought with a price
We got a hope that won’t fail us when we return to the dust
We will rise up just like the One who justified us
It’s not wishful thinking, when the truth sink in, we are clinging
To the promises of God bringing an everlasting kingdom
Nothing can compare to the worth of what we inherited
Nothing in Heaven and Earth can measure what Christ merited
The skies declare the affairs of His glorious care
The God who is there, who's aware, who delights in our prayer
His purposes are permanent and perfectly proportionate
Everything that orbits around His glory's subordinate
He is the most excellent One, intrinsic, infinite Son
Preeminent, the name Par Excellence,
The sin of sinners that separated and segregated
That severed the relations between man and his Maker
And placed Christ on His costly cross and compensated
His life, death and resurrection, emancipated and gave us
Freedom from it all, freedom from the effects of the Fall
Freedom from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and from the Law
So the saints stand and applaud His grace and glorious cause
With hands raised, praisin' His name, singin' “Glory to God”!
Discipleship starts with Jesus and who he is. He is supreme. Glory to God. He is the only one who can save me and the world and build his church. So how can I be a disciple and not be committed to making other disciples. It’s not consistent with our profession of faith not to have a desire and action to go and make and mature and multiply disciples of Jesus. So what is it important? First, because Jesus told you too. Because if he has called you to himself, you are now a disciple. You have the Holy Spirit within you regenerating you, sanctifying you. He has called you not only to himself, but into a church, that will walk with you and disciple you, and you are entire to do what someone did to you, go and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. To walk with people to the right into a closer walk with Christ. BI: Discipleship comes out of a passion for the gospel.
Promoting biblical discipleship and growth is important because none of us are finished products. Until we die, all Christians will struggle against sin, and we need all the help we can get in this fight.If a church neglects discipleship and growth, or teaches a skewed, unbiblical version of it, it will discourage genuine Christians and wrongly assure false Christians. On the other hand, if a church fosters a culture of Christian discipleship and growth, it will multiply believers’ efforts to grow in holiness.A church that is not growing in the faith will ultimately yield an unhealthy witness to the world.
Why do we make disciples?: because God’s goal for the whole world and the whole of human history is to glorify his beloved Son in the midst of the people he has rescued and transformed. We make disciples because we are passionate for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we know it is the power of salvation to everyone who believes. BI: Discipleship comes out of a passion for the gospel. God is now putting this plan into effect, by rescuing people out of “this present darkness” into the kingdom of his Son by his death and resurrection - people who are being transformed to be like Jesus, and who now have a sure and certain place around Christ’s throne in a new creation where evil and death are no more. Discipleship is about moving people from a domain of darkness to the kingdom of the Son as they gather as a redeemed people around the risen Christ. Why do we make disciples? Why is it important, because it shows we have a passion for the Gospel. We have a desire to see people grow in maturity in there walk with Christ, so that they may be more holy, so that we can send them out so God can use them more to call people out of this domain of Darkness and into the kingdom of God.
What concerns me is that there is clear evidence of a lack of discipleship within the local church. If there is a lack of discipleship in the local church, it shows a lack of passion for the Gopsle. Because you want be proclaiming the Gospel if you don’t truly grasp how God has called you from darkness and into his kingdom. Because you want want to invest in others and point them to Christ if you yourself aren’t growing in christliness. Because you aren’t going to call people to go proclaim the gospel if you yourself aren’t doing it.
We will all be influenced by others. The people around you will influence you, for better or worse. And for better or worse you will influence those around you. Think about it, and absentee father influences his children even in the absence. None of us is an island.
BI: A discipling life is an others-oriented life. It labours in the power of God to proclaim Christ and present other mature in Christ. That is the pattern we see in the Bible.
Conclusion: What should we do?
Conclusion: What should we do?
Discipleship is the persevering proclamation of the word of God by the people of God in prayerful dependence on the Spirit of God. The making of disciples is God’s work, achieved his word and Spirit work through the activity of Christian disciples and in the hearts of those they speak to. Every Christian ministry is seeking to h help each person, wherever they happen to be, to take one step to right to Christlikeness. We do this because of our passion for the Gospel. Because God’s goal for the whole world and the whole of human history is to glorify his beloved Son in the midst of the people he has rescued and transformed. God is rescuing people out of “this present darkness” into the kingdom of his son by his death and resurrection - people who are being transformed to be like Jesus, and who now have a sure and certain place around Christ’s thrown in a new creation where evil and death are no more. We make disciples of Jesus Christ because of our passion for the gospel. BI: Discipleship comes out of a passion for the gospel.
Question: The only question that remains for you is: how will you use your influence.
