Discipling a Disciple
Notes
Transcript
After spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.
Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.
We’re taking a break this week from hearing primarily about Paul, but that doesn’t mean we’re taking a break from our Acts series. In these verses, Luke records Paul kicking off missionary journey three, but then turns the focus back to Aquila and Priscilla. They’re the husband and wife team Paul met in Corinth and left in Ephesus at the end of missionary journey two. We know they were tentmakers by trade, but obviously they cared deeply for the ministry of the gospel.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, one of the most fun but also rewarding and enriching things a Christian can do is disciple someone, to disciple another person and especially to see fruit or growth or maturity. We’re jumping right into my points this morning, so that we’re on the same page, what is discipleship and what are disciples? Maybe we use different terms. Instead of discipling, some call it mentoring or walking alongside someone or partnering for the faith. What I’m talking about, and the practice we find in our passage, is relationships and actions that develop between 2 or more people for a period of time for the purpose of deepening faith. Discipleship isn’t just friendship between Christians. It’s not Christians of the same or different age groups hanging out together. It’s intentionally going to God and his word to find truth and learn together.
Maybe that sounds just like a Bible study, which is a form of discipleship, but that’s not all discipleship is. A discipleship relationship means encouragement and honesty in various situations of life, whether that’s giving direction or offering guidance in times of trouble or temptation as well as when good opportunities arise. It means praying for one another, interceding that God would begin and continue and complete his good work in this person or group of people. Discipleship takes listening—not just for the disciple to listen and be shaped, but also the one in the discipler role. Traditionally, we’ve thought about these roles in terms of being Sunday School teachers; or Calvinettes, GEMS, or Cadet counselors; parents, family, and friends in the home. Because of the time in our lives when we expect people to be in those things, discipleship is often associated with and maybe for some they think it only applies to children and youth.
As a pastor, I have the privilege of discipling as a close part of my work. People don’t always seek out their pastor, but over my years in congregational ministry, I’ve had people come to me, not just because I’m Dan and what that means, but because I serve in this role. Sometimes that’s formally, whether in programs or Profession of Faith or premarital counseling. Sometimes people desire to meet just one-on-one, though.
Through one-on-one opportunities, I’ve been able to disciple disciples. Usually it’s young men, within five years or so of my age, who want to grow in their faith, who want to go deeper, to know God’s word, to work through difficulties or doubts, to talk application of things they’ve read or believed or heard. These men have usually been in the church for a while, even all their life. They really haven’t doubted the existence of God. They believe Jesus died for them, but they want to get more serious. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it often comes when they’re dating a young woman who’s passionate about God, who has a devotional and prayer routine and he doesn’t. It happens when she knows more of the Bible, and he desires to share that.
We heard in Nicole’s video how she’s connecting with people in Paris who are usually new to the Christian faith and to a lot of what feels normal to many of us. They are new to having God and the Bible be the lenses through which they see their lives and community—being part of the body of believers. There is a growing need in our context, in our country and communities for that kind of discipleship—discipling those who may not yet believe or who have just become believers.
That’s important, but the focus of this message is what I’m calling discipling disciples. I don’t want to talk much about Paul, but we read in verse 23 how he went around “strengthening all the disciples.” He went back to the churches in the areas we heard about at the end of missionary journey one and the beginning of journey two. He discipled the disciples. Then we see in verse 26, Priscilla and Aquila took Apollos, a Christian and a bold speaker, into their home to teach him “the way of God more adequately.” Disciples already believe; their salvation is not in question. To continue discipling, though, is to recognize that just as we mature over time in mind and body, so we can in our faith. We don’t try to teach trigonometry to kindergartners. We don’t expect a beginner piano student, who has never practiced or even touched piano keys, to understand and have the ability to start playing the greatest concertos ever written.
If we go back to the Greek word often translated “disciples”—the word mathetes—it means, “One who engages in learning through instruction from another, pupil [or] apprentice.” An alternative definition is, “One who is rather constantly associated with someone who has a pedagogical reputation or a particular set of views, disciple [or] adherent.” Both parts of that definition are needed to form a proper understanding of a Christian disciple, a disciple of Jesus. We should want to be constantly associated with the particular reputation and beliefs in the one true God, and we want to be learning from someone. Our goal should be to grow throughout our whole lives—not just being disciples, but we need people willing to disciple other disciples.
That takes us to our second point today, willing disciples and disciplers. Back in my freshman year of college, I started out in Dordt’s Pre-Seminary program. I never really figured out what that meant, because after about a month I determined there was no way I was going to go to school for more than those four years in Sioux Center. I had been in school for 14 years of my life, by 2011 it’d be 18—no way would I do another 3 or 4. Obviously God changed my mind.
I remember thinking while in college as well as seminary how I wanted to be done with the classroom. I had the mindset that I had learned enough. “Let’s get out into the real world, I can keep learning out there, if I have to.” My brain had reached its limit, right? There was no need to learn anything else. Some of you grew up in a time when you only had to complete 8-10 years of schooling at most. Eighth grade was it. Yet just because you weren’t sitting behind a desk in a classroom didn’t mean your education stopped. You apprenticed in a trade or you learned as you worked, sometimes having to mistakes and figure things out on the fly. You had enough foundational knowledge, but you didn’t stop there, ignoring what else was to be picked up. There are things you wouldn’t have or maybe couldn’t learn in school. You realized long ago, like I have, that we spend our whole lives learning and growing.
Apollos recognized that. Obviously, in Luke’s eyes, he knew plenty. Verses 24 and 25 told us, “He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately…” Yet there was more to be gained. “He only knew the baptism of John.” So, he could be taught more adequately. He could be taught that not just is repentance necessary unto the forgiveness of sins and entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven—that’s what John the Baptist understood and proclaimed. What Priscilla and Aquila had picked up in their faith, and maybe from their time with Paul, was that Jesus not only was the Savior, the Messiah, but he also promised his Spirit to all who believed. We are baptized in the promised work of the Holy Spirit, that he justifies and sanctifies, he gives spiritual gifts and blessings, he continually builds up our faith.
In order for Apollos to learn that, though, to learn the truth that benefits believers, to know more fully, he had to be humble enough to willingly be discipled. That’s not always easy. When we’ve reached a point of responsibility or adulthood, we like that we don’t have to be told anymore. If we have a certain role, sometimes we have that sense of “Goody, I get to tell people what to do now.” We can also think that we’re at the summit; we’ve reached the peak—and really we’re just on a plateau saying, “I’ve come far enough. What’s ahead isn’t worth my time, my effort, my benefit. I don’t want any more; I don’t need any more.”
A lot of Christians have done that. We’ve gotten out of our parents’ house or through the all but required years of church education. We’ve made profession of faith or confirmation; we’re good now. We check off that part of our lives. We’ve been discipled enough.
There’s always room to grow. I’m not saying you must read pages and pages of commentaries, devotions, and theological treatises every minute of your day. There is not a summit or end of the line on being a disciple, though. Our World Belongs to God paragraph 39 declares, “The church is a gathering of forgiven sinners called to be holy. Saved by the patient grace of God, we deal patiently with others and together confess our need for grace and forgiveness. Restored in Christ’s presence, shaped by his life, this new community lives out the ongoing story of God’s reconciling love, announces the new creation, and works for a world of justice and peace.”
We are “a gathering…We deal patiently with others and together...” Each of us are an essential part of a “new community.” That means we don’t get to, or at least we shouldn’t feel right removing ourselves from one another or from the maturing of our faith in discipleship. That also means, and I’m keeping this really brief, we need mature people, faithful or full of faith people, to be willing to disciple—to encourage that gathering, that dealing patiently together, that being a community. We need disciplers—teachers, leaders. We need Aquilas and Priscillas. We need people and couples who open their homes and lives, offering to help others grow.
Some significant shifts have taken place over the last century, even over the last just three or four decades. When I was growing up, Christian conferences were a big deal as were books in helping disciple people. Are you a man of faith? Go to this conference. A woman? Go to that one. A young person? We’ve got a weekend with tens of thousands of other teens. We had Christian bookstores with shelves arranged by topics. Obviously, those things are still around to different degrees, but now we have the internet, too. YouTube, podcasts, blogs, and video resources. Those conferences and books aren’t the only helpers, but people have dedicated themselves to discipleship at a distance. They don‘t have to personally interact with anyone; they can feel like they’re under the teaching of whoever they want to be. I’m not saying all these are bad; I watch certain pastors and conferences; I read blogs and write for others to read. But we need face-to-face connected discipleship. We need personal interaction in which people know us, know what we’re dealing with, and can challenge and encourage directly what they see us going through.
We’ve heard the purpose of discipleship. We’ve heard a challenge to be ongoing disciples and to disciple one another. We come to this final point: What impact does being a disciple have on us? Hopefully we’ve understood it’s not just about increasing knowledge, merely learning facts and verses. Going back to what I said at the beginning, it’s also not just about being able to know what your girlfriend or boyfriend is talking about or matching the way they live their faith to impress them. Discipleship guides us in the relationships God created us to be in. Through discipleship we’re enabled to live more fully inward, outward, and upward.
First of all, the inward relationship—the relationship we have with ourselves. When Apollos went home after meeting with Priscilla and Aquila, you have to imagine that he was thankful for what they had shared with him. It was taking him deeper into the faith, closer to the gospel truth that he was to believe. Every now and then, maybe even every week, there’s something in my sermons or another message that you’re listening to that hits home and enables you to piece something together that you hadn’t before. It’s like learning how to do something for the first few times. You didn’t know what a job or task required of you, but you learned and now it makes sense—you can do it over and over again. Growing in our discipleship allows us to be more passionate about our need for salvation and who alone we can look to for that. Maturing in our faith allows us to do that instead of trying to satisfy ourselves with inadequate things. By not growing as disciples, people claiming to be associated with God, with Christ, with what he has to offer, we shouldn’t expect to look like him or understand him or his ways. By developing our faith, we won’t have all the answers, but we’ll know where and who to look to.
Second, we grow in outward relationships, those with other people. Discipleship should move us to love, to serve, to be increasingly selfless, to give to those in need. Verses 27 and 28, we heard, “The brothers encouraged [Apollos] and wrote to the disciples [in Achaia] to welcome him. On arriving, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.” His growth in the truth of Jesus Christ, in the promise of the Holy Spirit, caused him to want to share that with others. It seems he enjoyed teaching and was good at it. But now that he had grown even more, he had more to share about the grace of Jesus. You and I, if we’re growing as disciples, it can be contagious. We want others to catch what we’ve got, to share in our joy as their joy, to share in our hope as their hope. We can serve others outside of ourselves with action, but also in discipling.
The third relationship discipleship grows us in is maybe the most obvious—the upward relationship—our being led to a greater worship of God. For us to understand the incredible detail that the sovereignty of God goes into, to be gripped by God’s grace and have it become real to us—that there is no sin that hides from God which he does not know and forgive. To grow with an understanding of how every single part of God’s actions throughout history are part of his plan, and that he can use us and bring us around to his plan should fill us with awe for him. Being a disciple, learning more, committing more, wanting more of him in our lives and resting in him can’t help but bring us to worship, to trust, to glorify him.
Brothers and sisters, I encourage you to take some time today as you’re at home, a bit unexpectedly, and consider the ways that you’re being discipled and who you might disciple. Who has God placed in your life whether that’s a peer in age or maybe you’re farther along in your walk with the Lord and believe you can share him with? Who do you feel comfortable talking about spiritual matters with? About life issues? About struggles that you have? How can you go on not just feeling anxious or feeling alone, but willing to reach out to and say I’d like some help? Who can you offer to be an Aquila or a Priscilla to and begin to disciple a disciple—to lead them and yourself closer to God? Amen.