Discipleship 101

“Discipleship 101”

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Discipleship is a word that we use a lot, but I am not sure we really understand what it means.

One of my all-time favorite moves is

“Princess Bride” in the move the little guy is always using the word, “inconceivable” Finally, the hero of the movie says to him; I don’t think that means, what you think it means. That’s the way I feel about the word discipleship; I don’t think that word means what a lot of people think it means.

So what does the word discipleship mean?

Discipleship is a process that helps you become a completely devoted follower of Jesus Christ. It takes places in several ways, it happens as you are a part of a church; watching, fellowshipping, learning from more mature believers. It takes place under the teaching and preaching of the word of God. It takes place in your life as you read, and study your bible. It takes place as you pray, and read devotions books. It takes place in an up-close, personal relationship between a move mature believer, mentor, and a person who wants to grow stronger and deeper in their Christian walk. A mentor is simply a person who is a more mature believer willing to invest time in helping a less mature believer grow spiritually.

The goal of discipleship is spiritual maturity, character development, and spiritual reproduction.

Someone described discipleship as, one life rubbing off on another life in the atmosphere of love and acceptance.

Let me mention a few things that discipleship is not:

· Discipleship is not a short-term process.

We grow slowly, like trees. It takes time for spiritual habits to take root and character to grow.

· Discipleship cannot occur long-distance.

Discipleship occurs in a hands-on personal relationship. This has nothing to do with geography, location or distance, this is about relationship.

· Discipleship is not formal, it’s relational.

There are times when we learn more by setting aside the workbook, and just talking about life.

· Discipleship is not completing a course.

There will never be a time when we get a diploma from discipleship school. There’s never a time when we stop following and learning from Jesus, and more mature believers. There should never be a time when we are not coaching, investing in and helping less-mature believers grow in Christ.

The last thing that Jesus commanded his disciples, was to go and make disciples. As we observe Jesus calling the 12 disciples, we learn 3 key elements involved in discipleship.

Element #1 there is:

1. A Call to Answer.

V:12-16.

At this point in Jesus ministry he has a large number of followers. Some are following Jesus to see his miracles, some to be healed; some out of curiosity. But to fulfill his mission to reach the world, he called a small number of men to be with Him; to be His apostles. These men would carry on His earthly ministry after He had gone back to heaven. These men would be Jesus most trusted friends, the ones he would pour his life and mission into. The ministry of these 12 men was central to God’s plan of reaching the world with the gospel. Jesus strategy to reach the world with the gospel is not a program; it is people. Saved people have always been God’s method of reaching unsaved people with the gospel.

The message of the 12 apostles, was the message of salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; which is the foundation of the church!

Since the 12 apostles were to be the men to preach the gospel, carrying out the ministry of Jesus; it was absolutely essential that Jesus call the right men.

Look at what Jesus does before he calls these 12 men, we learn it is:

a. A prayerful call.

V:12-Read.

Before Jesus chose these 12 men, he prayed, he prayed privately, going up into a mountain alone to pray. He prayed fervently, he spent the whole night in prayer. He prayed dependently, asking God to help him choose the right men. Later Jesus would tell the apostles, -“they were given to him by the father”. Jesus called these men, because they were the men his father guided him to choose. Judas who ended up betraying Jesus is in this list of 12. Jesus choice of Judas was not a mistake; Jesus chose Judas with his eyes wide open. Jesus knew from the very beginning that Judas would betray him. The way that Jesus called the 12 reminds us of the priority of prayer. This is the third time that Luke has mentioned Jesus going off alone to pray. From our Lord’s example we learn our desperate need for prayer. Like Jesus, we need to spend time alone with God in prayer.

We need to pray for God’s wisdom whenever we face decisions, asking for His will to be done.

We also need to pray for the work of the church, as Jesus did. We need to pray as we seek to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. Prayer comes first! Jesus began his mission with prayer, how can we expect to accomplish anything without prayer?

Jesus said, apart from me you can do nothing.

b. A gracious call.

V:13-16.

When you read the names of these 12 men, you see written all over this list the grace of God! The 12 men that Jesus called seem to be the most unlikely candidates for the future ministry of the church.

The list of apostles in the New Testament, always starts with Peter and ends with Judas Iscariot.

All these men except for Judas Iscariot were Galileans, “country boys”, four of them were fishermen, and one was a hated tax collector. None of them were famous or rich are notable or well-connected. Not a one of them was a scribe or a priest or an elder or ruler of the people. The religious authorities called these men unschooled, ordinary men, in . Yet these are the men that Jesus called to carry on His work after he returned to heaven. What qualified these men to serve as apostles? They were called by the grace of God! And answering the call was the secret of their success!

The call of these 12 men to be apostles is unique in the New Testament. They and they alone were called to represent Jesus Christ as his official messengers. The calling of these 12 men, was God establishing the men whose ministry the church would rest on. -“We are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets”.

Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone of the church, and the ministry of the apostles is the foundation of the church. The apostle’s doctrine is the writing of the New Testament. The church has only one foundation that is Jesus and the writing of the New Testament through the apostles. The foundation is laid, and his non-repeatable; there are no more apostles, and there are no more scriptures being written. An apostle was one who witnessed the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So there are no apostles today! But like the apostles, we have been called to faith in Jesus Christ. We have been called by name to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is a call of grace! If you will answer the call to be Jesus disciple, he will give you everything you need to represent him in this world. God in his grace can use the common and ordinary that the world rejects. Gideon, Moses, David, and these 12 apostles.

And God in his grace can use you if you will answer his call? Will you answer His call this morning? A call to Answer.

Element #2 there is:

2. A Person to Follow.

V:17-19.

After Jesus chose these 12 men, we are told,

V:17-“That he came down with them and stood in the plain…After you answer the call you become a disciple of Jesus.

A disciple of Jesus is someone who follows Jesus, learns from Jesus, spends time with Jesus, and stays close to Jesus. The two key words in this verse are the words, “with them”, Jesus was “with them”, and they were with him. The essence of discipleship is being with Jesus; following Jesus, staying close to Jesus, learning from Jesus!

-“And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach”.

Their school would be the road Jesus travel; their classroom was his campfire; their guide and teacher was Jesus himself. They would be His disciples, learners. But learning from Jesus was only the beginning, his goal was to send them out, to carry on his ministry. From a human perspective there’s nothing special about these men.

Yet from the perspective of one who sees the heart, they had the right stuff.

· They were teachable.

Jesus chose these men, who were unlearned according to the world standards; because they were teachable. Jesus bypassed the Pharisees, scribes, because they were not teachable.

Jesus saw these men, not for what they were, but for what he could make out of them. At times they were impulsive, temperamental, and easily offended. But these men had big hearts; and a great desire for God in their lives. They were fed up with the hypocrisy of the religious leaders; some of them had already joined the revival movement of John the Baptist. And they were looking for the Messiah to come; they were pliable, teachable men in the hands of Jesus Christ the Potter. Jesus primary training program for these men was to spend his life with them. They learn from Jesus, because they spent time with Jesus, they watched him, they listen to him, and they spent time with him. They learned how to do ministry by watching Jesus do ministry.

Today we have the word of God that reveals to us the teaching, and ministry of Jesus. Notice what the disciples learned as they stayed close to Jesus.

V:17, There is a great multitude of people from all over that have come to hear Jesus preach and to be healed of their diseases, and to have demons cast out. These 12 disciples have a front row seat to learn the ministry of Jesus; He was to be their example.

You could call this the ultimate internship; as they began to be mentored by Jesus himself.

They learned that teaching the word of God was Jesus primary. They learned that Jesus cared about people’s physical needs.

They learned that Jesus care about people’s spiritual needs. Jesus demonstrates His love and compassion for people. He heals the sick, cast our demons, and teaches the scripture.

Jesus was giving his disciples a lesson on how to serve God by serving others.

The 12 were now publicly identified as being with Jesus. They were now no longer watching Jesus from a distance; they now stood beside him as he did his ministry. They learned how to minister by watching Jesus minister.

Jesus would later send them out to preach the gospel, heal and casting out demons.

Jesus strategy to reach the world with the gospel started with preparing a band of 12 men.

What Jesus did with these men is still the best pattern to follow in both preparing people for Christian life, and for service.

Watch, learn and practice…

Jesus ministered to the multitudes, but He primarily devoted himself to a few men. And these few men would go out and reach the world.

But it all started with these men following Jesus, learning from him, and imitating him.

Jesus showed his disciples how to live!

-“I have given you an example that you should do as I have done… ”

· They observed Jesus pray all night.

The disciples observed Jesus prayer life up close and personal. They saw the strength it gave Him; they knew it was the power for his ministry. They finally asked Jesus to teach them how to pray!

And Jesus did, he gave them the model prayer, and then he emphasized the necessity of prayer over and over again. The life of a disciple, is the life of prayer; and unless we learn to pray, not much is going to happen in our lives spiritually.

· They constantly heard Jesus teach the word.

Jesus made the teaching and preaching of the Scripture the priority of His ministry. Jesus used more than 60 references to the Old Testament in his conversation with his disciples.

And more than 90 allusions to it in his conversation with others. What do we learn from this? As disciples we need to know the Scriptures, and use them in our lives.

· They saw Jesus winning souls.

Jesus took the disciples on many evangelistic trips. They witnessed Jesus love and compassion for people. Jesus told the disciples, I must go through Samaria… There was an empty, spiritually thirsty woman there that Jesus would save and give spiritual water to.

Jesus was always on the move seeking to win people to himself. Watching Jesus they learned how to witness to all kinds of people.

As a disciple of Jesus; we follow Jesus and we learn that we must spend time in the word of God, spend time in prayer, and seek to share the gospel with others. Also we learn from Jesus how to be a servant, the need for fellowship with believers, and the necessity of giving ourselves and our money to God’s work in this world.

This is what the disciples witnessed Jesus do firsthand; and they were to go and do the same thing. And as followers of Jesus today, these are the things that we are to do.

As mature believers we are to teach, mentor, and show others how to do the same. In other words show them how to live the Christian life.

Discipleship is a mature believer, bringing a less mature believer into their life and showing them by example how to live the Christian life.

This is the best way to teach your children how to live the Christian life; is by modeling it in front of them.

Witnessing in a restaurant-Praying for the waiter.

How you handle stress, money, traffic, disappointment.

The elements of discipleship, there is:

1. A call to answer.

2. A person to follow.

Element #3, there is:

3. A Price to Pay.

V:20-26.

There is some question whether this is the same sermon that Jesus preached in , commonly called the Sermon on the Mount. Some think its Luke’s condensed version of that sermon; others think it is a different sermon with much of the same content. There are several differences between the two sermons. Matthew says that Jesus, went up on the mountain. Luke tells us that Jesus came down from the mountain.

Then the content in the two sermons are very different. It is most likely that Jesus preached the same sermon but in a slightly different way each time, as preachers sometimes do. In both sermons, the theme is those who follow Jesus live under a different set of values than the world.

And those who seek to live like Jesus will suffer persecution. To be a disciple of Christ, means there will be a price to pay.

In these verses Jesus gives his disciples four blessings, followed by four woes.

They speak of the two different ways to live your life. Jesus tells us about the blessings that come to those who seek to live godly, and the woes that come to those who live for the world. If you follow Jesus, you will be living different from the world. The kingdom of God, and the kingdom of this world are in direct opposition. Make no mistake about it, to follow Jesus, puts you at odds with this world.

Jesus pronounces “blessed” happy, joyful are the people who live under His set of values.

· First blessed:

The spiritually poor.

V:20-“Blessed be you poor: for yours is the kingdom of God” This has nothing to do with financial concerns, poverty itself is not a blessing.

Matthew’s Gospel sheds light on this:

-“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”.

The blessed are those who understand their spiritual poverty and the bankrupt condition of their soul, no matter how much money they have. They acknowledge that they are bankrupt in righteousness and have absolutely no spiritual resources with which to obtain God’s favor.

To receive the blessings of the kingdom, we must admit our spiritual poverty and come to God for grace.

If you choose to follow Jesus, and seek the true riches found in Jesus alone; you will inherit the kingdom of God one day. But not only is there a future kingdom to inherit; there is the kingdom of Christ rule and reign in your heart today.

-“The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”. True happiness, joy, fulfillment comes only as King Jesus rules in your heart.

· Second blessed:

V:21-“blessed are you that hunger now: for you shall be filled”.

This hunger is not a physical hunger; is a hunger and thirst for righteousness, .

Happiness comes to that person who hungers for righteousness! The person who hungers for the truth of God’s word; has a craving, longing for Jesus and eternity.

Only God can satisfy the human heart, and Jesus promises that those who hunger and thirst after him will be filled, satisfied.

· Third blessed:

V:21-“blessed are you that weep now: for you shall laugh”.

Disciples that weep over their sins, repenting of their sins, will have joy. Those who weep for the sins of our society, and the brokenness of our world. Those who weep for the lost, praying that God will rescue them. Will one day rejoice around the throne of God! One day God will take away our sinful nature, and we will never sin again. One day He will right every wrong and gather his people to heaven. One day all sufferings and sorrows will come to an end. One day Jesus will wipe away every tear; and there will be rejoicing, and joy, and laughter ringing throughout the city of heaven!

-“Weeping may last for the night, but joy cometh in the morning”.

Please understand that Jesus is not saying that we should never laugh on this earth, and there is no joy down here.

The Christian life is not a life of depression and sadness; yes our hearts weep over the condition of this sinful world. But there’s joy, laughter and freedom in Jesus Christ!

-“A cheerful heart is good medicine”.

Oswald Sanders said, “A church is in a bad way when it banishes laughter from the sanctuary and leaves it to the nightclub”.

The laughter Jesus condemns is superficial, shallow, worldly, ungodly laughter, laughing at all the wrong things.

· Fourth blessed:

V:22-23-Read.

This is perhaps the hardest blessed to understand; from the human perspective this doesn’t seem to be a blessing. The Lord Jesus says that if you follow him, you will be hated, you will experience social rejection, verbal attack, be considered evil, bigoted, and narrow-minded. That is a blessing?

Jesus was preparing His disciples then, and His disciples today for the treatment that we will receive for His namesake. V:22-“for the Son of Man’s sake” Don’t miss that last part, for Jesus sake, for his name, his gospel, for His word we suffer rejection and persecution. Some Christians, suffer persecution and rejection, for stupidity sake, not the Savior sake; there is a difference.

Jesus says when we are persecuted, rejected because of our relationship with him, V:23-Read. Rejoice, and leap for joy… That literally means to spring about. When people talk about you, make fun of you, reject you because of your relationship with Jesus; you should leap up and down as if you won a

1 billion dollars in a sweepstake! Your reward is great in heaven!

This world is an upside down place for disciples of Jesus, a place in which good things are called bad, and evil things are called good: is a privilege to be rejected by an ungodly society, don’t be sad, be glad! Most of the apostles who Jesus first said these words to died horrible deaths at the hands of their enemies. They were hated for Jesus sake, they were rejected, excluded, and persecuted; and in a way that was the proof of their discipleship.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said “suffering is the badge of true discipleship. The disciple is not above his master… Suffering is one of the marks of the true church. Discipleship means allegiance to the suffering Christ, therefore it is not at all surprising that Christian should be called upon to suffer. In fact, it is a joy and a token of His grace”.

The disciples remembered these words, and believed them; because we read in the book of acts chapter 5 when they were beaten by the Sanhedrin, Peter and John left rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for Jesus name!

What are you suffering for Jesus? If we live for Jesus is this society we will experience rejection from people, maybe even family members, co-workers, neighbors, teachers, coaches, government, but whatever we suffer if it’s because of our faith in Jesus Christ, then we can rejoice in the hope of a great reward.

Jesus says, “Blessed” is the person who lives by these values.

Then Jesus says, woe to the person who lives by the world’s values. These “woes” are in direct contrast to the previous “blessed”.

· First Woe.

Jesus says I pity you if:

You seek happiness only in material things, V:24.

Money is a temporary blessing at best, it does not last forever. It’s much better to recognize our true spiritual poverty, and seek satisfaction in Jesus alone.

· Second woe.

Jesus says I pity you if:

You’re full of this world, and not hungry for spiritual things, V:25.

The person who no longer has an appetite, hunger for the things of God is to be pitied! Watch out when you become spiritually complacent and no longer have an appetite for God.

When you no longer crave fellowship with Jesus in prayer and Bible study. If you start gorging yourself on the things of this world, you will lose your appetite for the things of God.

· Third woe.

Jesus says I pity you if:

You never get serious about spiritual things, V:25.

Jesus warns those who live only for the shallow, superficial, silly things of life and never take Him, or His word serious. The person who laughs and jokes about spiritual things is to be pitied.

The person that mocks God, scorns His word and ridicules his followers; will one day weep for eternity, for they will go to a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

· Fourth woe.

Jesus says I pity you if:

You only care about being popular, than identifying with me. V:26.

Is not wrong for people to speak well of you; but there are certain people in this world, that you don’t want to speak well of you.

If we love Jesus, and follow Jesus, and his word; we will not be popular in this world. Everyone who lives godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

The values of this world are not our values; therefore this world will hate you and reject you.

In pronouncing these blessings and woes, Jesus presented the two ways to live your life.

You can be His disciple, and follow Him, and be blessed; or you can follow the way of the world, and experience woe in the end.

I heard about a man and his wife who married at age 20. They had been married for 30 years. They came to their wedding anniversary at the age of 50. He decided he would do something a little different so he got a bottle with a genie in it. They opened up the bottle; the genie came out and said to the wife, "You can have anything you want. Just tell me what you want." She said, "I've been living with this skinflint for 30 years, I'd like to go on a cruise." Poof! All of a sudden her hands were filled with cruise tickets. The genie said to the man, "What would you like to have?"

He said, "I've been married to her for 30 years and I would like to be married to a woman who is 30 years younger than I." Poof! He was 80 years old.

You think if you got what you wanted you’d be happy, but what you want may not turn out like you think! If you think you are going to find happiness in prosperity and in pleasure, parties, and popularity you are in for serious disappointment.

There are only two ways to live your life. You can live life your way and you'll end up being miserable-Woe. Or you can live your life according to Jesus, and experience true happiness-Blessed.

Will you answer Jesus call today, become His disciple and begin to follow Jesus?

Will you pay the price to be a disciple, live for Jesus, and not this world? Will you today begin to disciple someone else, teaching them what you know, and helping them grow in their Christian life.