The 21st Century Disciple pages
" From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”" (Matthew 16:21-28, NIV)
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1. Jesus was the master discipler.
All that it really means is to be a “learner”. We never earn the title until we have served long enough as a learner.
2. The farther away from the original we get the less like it we are.
The closer we are to Christ the more like him we become – the reason is that we realize fully how unlike him that we are. Also the closer we get to Christ, the closer we get to one another.
THE DISCIPLE
He that hath a gospel,
To loose upon mankind,
Though he serve it utterly---
Body, soul and mind---
Though he go to Calvary
Daily for it's gain---
It is his disciple
Shall make his labor vain.
He that hath a Gospel,
For all earth to own---
Though he etch it on the steel,
Or carve it on the stone---
Not to be misdoubted
Through the after-days---
It is His Disciple
Shall read it many ways.
It is His Disciple
(Ere those bones are dust)
Who shall change the Charter
Who split the trust---
Amplify distinctions,
Rationalise the Claim,
Preaching that the Master
Would have done the same.
It is His Disciple
Who shall tell us how
Much the Master would have scrapped
Had he lived till now---
What he would have modified
Of what he said before---
It is His Disciple
Shall do this and more ......
He that hath a Gospel
Whereby heaven is won
(Carpenter or Cameleer,
Or Maya's dreaming son),
Many swords shall pierce Him,
Mingling blood with gall;
But His Own Disciple
Shall wound Him worst of all!
Thoreau
3. Over the years we have lost a high degree of likeness both to Christ and those that he personally discipled.
All of the apostles were insulted by the enemies of their Master. They were called to seal their doctrines with their blood and nobly did they bear the trial.
Ø Matthew suffered martyrdom by being slain with a sword at a distant city of Ethiopia.
Ø Mark expired at Alexandria, after being cruelly dragged through the streets of that city.
Ø Luke was hanged upon an olive tree in the classic land of Greece.
Ø John was put in a caldron of boiling oil, but escaped death in a miraculous manner, and was afterward banished to Patmos.
Ø Peter was crucified at Rome with his head downward.
Ø James, the Greater, was beheaded at Jerusalem,
Ø James, the Less, was thrown from a lofty pinnacle of the temple, and then beaten to death with a fuller’s club.
Ø Bartholomew was flayed alive.
Ø ndrew was bound to a cross, whence he preached to his persecutors until he died.
Ø Thomas was run through the body with a lance at Coromandel in the East Indies.
Ø Jude was shot to death with arrows.
Ø Matthias was first stoned and then beheaded.
Ø Barnabas of the Gentiles was stoned to death at Salonica.
Ø Paul, after various tortures and persecutions, was at length beheaded at Rome by the Emperor Nero.
Such was the fate of the apostles, according to traditional statements.
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4. What have we become?
We are so far away from the original model that we bear often little resemblance to the prototype that Jesus gave us. C.T. Studd wrote about ”The Chocolate Soldier” It is in the spirit of this tract that I preach today and I am asking you to take an honest look at your life today to ask yourself how much resemblance you bear to the master discipler. Would he recognize you as one of his own – his handiwork or just another costumed Christian?
William Barclay writes:
It's possible to be a follower of Jesus without being a disciple; to be a camp-follower without being a soldier of the king; to be a hanger-on in some great work without pulling one's weight. Once someone was talking to a great scholar about a younger man. He said, "So and so tells me that he was one of your students." The teacher answered devastatingly, "He may have attended my lectures, but he was not one of my students." There is a world of difference between attending lectures and being a student. It is one of the supreme handicaps of the Church that in the Church there are so many distant followers of Jesus and so few real disciples.
q Grumpy – the grace Grinch
"It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs." (1 Corinthians 13:5, NIV)
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"Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared." (Proverbs 22:24-25, NIV)
How come Christians are so cranky lately? You know Christians prone to grumble, gripe, and complain about just about everything from church music or the length of the sermon to the carpet in the nursery. Not everybody, of course, but many evangelical pastors believe cranky Christians are on the increase and Christian civility is in decline. I wonder why? Do any of these prevailing theories explain it?
1. Our spit-in-your-face culture.
The truth is, we live in a spit-in-the-umpire's-face culture and we're seeing the disappearance of civility. Christians today will say or do to their pastor things that even the ungodly wouldn't have ten years ago. The culture is rougher. So are Christians. That's one theory.
2. Our customer orientation.
Here's a second theory: It's no secret that evangelicals have had a romance with the notion of 'customer orientation.' We've accepted that to be successful we must 'find a need and fill it.' 'Do your research' and 'find what they want' before designing our services to meet their need. In fact, many evangelical churches do not just have services, they are services. So once we started treating the attendees and prospects as 'customers' they started acting like it -- and, not finding the complaint department, they tell the pastor. This is an interesting theory too. But look at the next one.
3. The Freudian Hydraulic.
This theory says that Christians today are harried and beleaguered -- under extraordinary pressure at work and home. All this stress pressurizes them like a shook-up Coke. So, when your committee discusses the comparative merits of praise choruses and hymns one evening, you pop their pull-tab and they spray all over you. Hmmmm... I've seen a few Cokes explode in my day.
4. Sleep deprivation.
Some even hypothesize that today's Christians just aren't sleeping enough and that's why they're cranky. In 1910 before the invention of the modern light bulb, we slept about 9 hours; today it's about 7 1/2. Now, consistently losing an hour and a half's sleep every night of your life probably does make a fellow crabby. At least it's a nice excuse, like apologizing for your baby's crankiness with, 'Oh, sorry he's so cranky, he's teething, you know.' We can always say, 'Oh, sorry for that outburst, he doesn't mean it -- he's missed 90 minutes of sleep every night since he was born." This could explain a lot of outbursts. But there's still another theory.
5. The moral-majority-boomerang.
This explanation proposes that evangelicals trained their people for twenty years on how to coerce the power structures to get their way -- write letters, complain, boycott, march, circulate petitions. So (this hypothesis goes) today these same Christians have turned these same methods on their own church leadership. They write letters to ecclesiastical hierarchy, circulate petitions, and withhold their tithe. Hmmmmm... Is there truth to this theory? Maybe, but here's one more:
6. Spiritual poverty.
Are some cranky Christians simply carnal. The remedy is spiritual, not just a better night's sleep?
q Dopey – the spiritually dull disciple
"Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’” Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.” “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.’”" (Matthew 15:10-20, NIV)
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"He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ”‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ " (Matthew 13:11-15, NIV)
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Eugene O. Peterson wrote a book entitled Run With the Horses, that I dare you to read sometime. In the book he makes this statement:
The puzzle is why so many people live so badly. Not so wickedly, but so inanely. Not so cruelly, but so stupidly. There's little to admire and less to imitate in the people who are prominent in our culture. We have celebrities, but not saints. Famous entertainers amuse a nation of bored insomniacs. Infamous criminals act out the aggressions of timid conformists. Petulant and spoiled athletes play games vicariously for lazy and apathetic spectators. People aimless and bored amuse themselves with trivia and trash. Neither the adventure of goodness nor the pursuit of righteousness get headlines.
q Sneezy – The fair-weather friend of God .
To the Chocolate Soldier the very thought of war brings a violent attack of ague (feverish chills), while the call to battle always finds him with the palsy. "I really cannot move," he says. "I only wish I could, but I can sing, and here are some of my favorite lines:
"I must be carried to the skies
On a flowery bed of ease,
Let others fight to win the prize,
Or sail thro' bloody seas.
Mark time, Christian heroes,
Never go to war;
Stop and mind the babies
Playing on the floor.
Wash and dress and feed them
Forty times a week.
Till they're roly poly-
Puddings so to speak.
Chorus:
Round and round the nursery
Let us ambulate
Sugar and spice and all that's nice
Must be on our slate.
"Thank the good Lord," said a very fragile, white-haired lady, "God never meant me to be a jellyfish!" She wasn't! GOD NEVER WAS A CHOCOLATE MANUFACTURER, AND NEVER WILL BE. God's men are always heroes. In Scripture you can trace their giant foot-tracks down the sands of time.
q Bashful – The “that’s just-the-way-I-am” disciple. The person who hides behind his/her own nature or who stays in a lifelong comfort zone. They think that people who step forward boldly find it always in their nature to do so and therefore excuse themselves because they are different in disposition.
We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power the Twentieth Century does not reckon with. But we are "harmless," and therefore unharmed. We are spiritual pacifists, non-militants, conscientious objectors in this battle-to-the-death with principalities and powers in high places. Meekness must be had for contact with men, but brass, outspoken boldness is required to take part in the comradeship of the Cross. We are "sideliners" -- coaching and criticizing the real wrestlers while content to sit by and leave the enemies of God unchallenged. The world cannot hate us, we are too much like its own. Oh that God would make us dangerous!
... Jim Eliot (1927-1956)
q Doc – The “fix-everyone-else” physician. The one who always has a prescription for someone else’s ailments. This person desperately wants God to revive the church – they are keenly aware of the need and yet cannot speak in the first person relative to that need – they are always pushing it away as though the answer lies with someone else “becoming” different.
q Happy – The “take-care-of-#1” philosopher. He is absolutely consumed with his/her own agenda to the exclusion of anyone else. Jesus said that they were like children playing their silly childish games in the marketplace.
"“To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: ”‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.’" (Luke 7:31-32, NIV)
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q Sleepy – The passion-less person.
"But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is." (Ephesians 5:13-17, NIV)
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Christ Has No Hands
Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today
He has no feet but our feet to lead men in the way
He has no tongue but our tongue to tell men how He died
He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.
We are the only Bible the careless world will read,
We are the sinner’s gospel; we are the scoffer’s creed;
We are the Lord’s last message, given in word and deed;
What if the type is crooked? What if the print is blurred?
What if our hands are busy with other work than His?
What if our feet are walking where sin’s allurement is?
What if our tongue is speaking of things His lips would spurn?
How can we hope to help Him or welcome His return?
—Annie Johnston Flint
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[1] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[2]Tan, P. L. (1979; Published in electronic form by Logos Research Systems, 1997). Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations : [a treasury of illustrations, anecdotes, facts and quotations for pastors, teachers and Christian workers] (electronic ed.). Garland TX: Bible Communications.
[3] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[4] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[5] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[6] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[7] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[8]Tan, P. L. (1979; Published in electronic form by Logos Research Systems, 1997). Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations : [a treasury of illustrations, anecdotes, facts and quotations for pastors, teachers and Christian workers] (electronic ed.). Garland TX: Bible Communications.