The Church's Mandate - Discipleship

Good morning and welcome to Dishman Baptist Church. Whether you are joining us online or if you are here with us we appreciate you and are thankful that you have chosen to join us as we seek to glorify and worship our sovereign God together. If you have your Bibles please turn in them with me to Deuteronomy 6, Deuteronomy 6.

This morning is going to be a little bit different than our norm here at Dishman. And for that you can blame Kyle Harrison. He did a terrific job last week challenging us to imitate God - interestingly the only time in all of Scripture that we are told to imitate God is in Ephesians 5:1 and as a part of his sermon he discussed a church evaluation that had taken place here in the past. He said that over there on the wall there were several issues or areas of the church that were going to be evaluated and then at the bottom of the sheet there was an evaluation with how the church was doing. One thing that was there and that Kyle mentioned specifically last week was discipleship. And it was found then that we didn’t have a process for discipleship here. The humbling part of that is that I have to ask the question - do we have a process for discipleship here now? On a micro level I would say the answer is yes - on a macro - or church-wide level - I would have to answer no.

Even more convicting this week was a sermon that I listened to from a pastor named Josh Buice in which he related the story of an 88 year old lady from his congregation whose funeral he had the privilege of conducting. As he related the funeral he told his listeners of a question that came to his mind as he eulogized this dear lady - “Did I do every thing I could do to prepare this lady to stand before Jesus?”

Some of you are probably wondering what does this have to do with Ephesians and why is it important enough to stop what we’re doing, to stop the flow of Paul’s letter to examine this now? Well if Ephesians is a book specifically about the church - the fundamental doctrines of the church, the founding of the church, the formation of the church and the function of the church - then the primary function of the church is discipleship. Paul has even told us that in a round about way earlier in our study as we saw him write

Ephesians 4:11–13 CSB

And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.

At its most fundamental sense the practice of discipleship is to equip the body for the work of the ministry. Christ spent three years teaching and equipping his disciples to carry on His work after His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension and so I think now is an apropos time to stop, take a breath and examine this crucial aspect of church ministry. The next few chapters are going to be very practical demonstrations of this principle at work - but I think it is good at this moment to take a look and evaluate where we are as a church not only in our desire to disciple but also in our position of discipleship. I’m reluctant to use the word process because I don’t believe that discipleship can be programmatic.

In fact that is one of the issues we have within the church today when we seek to define discipleship. What exactly is it? It’s why we get various discipleship plans and books like Gospel-centered Discipleship, Action based discipleship, Real life Discipleship, Transformational Discipleship, Emotionally Healthy Discipleship among others. A search on Amazon will reveal more than 20,000 book titles devoted in some way to the concept of Discipleship. Yet determining what discipleship looks like in the modern church is often like nailing jello to the wall. At its core discipleship is the process by which our hearts become more like Christ’s. How do you quantify that? How do you evaluate that? And so we as church leadership and pastors will get together and ask each other what discipleship looks like.

The truth is that discipleship isn’t really that hard - which is also why there’s a book called Discipleship Uncomplicated - the hard part is our commitment to the process. This morning we’re going to look at a couple of Biblical passages that I think detail what discipleship is for us and then ask ourselves where are we at Dishman and how are we doing?

Before we get in to the passage in Deuteronomy I think it is important to define our terms. We all need to be on the same page of what exactly we are talking about when it comes to discipleship. Often when seeking to get on the same page it is helpful to dispel some of the misconceptions before we can have a fruitful discussion of what discipleship is.

What Discipleship Is Not

Discipleship is not fellowship. Many of you know of churches that have this mindset - let’s get some people together who have an affinity for a certain activity and call it ministry. So you will have hiking ministries, fishing ministry, motorcycle ministry, hunting ministry, quilting ministry or others. Or there is ministry surrounding a sport - softball, flag football, frisbee golf. Or there is this opportunity - two believers sit down over a cup of coffee or a meal. All of these activities are well and good and some of you may disagree with me that in some instances these distractions are acceptable - but we shouldn’t call them discipleship. These fellowship activities are a viable and necessary part of experiencing life together and building relationships with one another. But if the only thing that happens when we get together is the peripheral activity and we never discuss spiritual issues, challenges or Christ then we cannot call them discipleship.

Discipleship is not gift driven. No where in all of the lists of spiritual gifts is the gift of discipling ever mentioned. Nor is it a role reserved for the “professionals”. This is a misconception in the modern church that discipleship is the role of the pastoral staff because we are the trained professionals. This couldn’t be further from the truth and it couldn’t be further from the Biblical picture that we’re going to get to in just a few moments. In an article entitled “The Biblical View of Discipleship” James G. Samra closes with these words “All Christians are disciples and are called to participate in the discipleship process, both by receiving instruction and living our their faith for others to see and imitate. Those who are mature in the faith have the responsibility on the one hand to participate in educating and modeling other believers, and on the other hand to ensure that their Christlike character is being passed on to a select few individuals whom God has entrusted to them.”

This is not discipleship. The Sunday service is a critical factor in the life of a believer and a church but this is not discipleship. In a sermon on Discipleship Dr. Josh Buice, who I’ve already quoted, said “You can attend church week after week and not be discipled.” You can come here week after week and not really be engaged in Life Group. You can come here week after week and not really be engaged in the singing of great theologically rich songs of worship to our King. You can come here week after week and not really be engaged in the sermons. You may hear them but as the great theologian Sidney Deane from the movie “White Men Can’t Jump” said “Look man, you can listen to Jimi but you can't hear him. There's a difference man. Just because you're listening to him doesn't mean you're hearing him.” Just because you show up every Sunday and you may even be listening to the sermon but are you really hearing it? If you come here for an hour or two every Sunday but leave and go through the rest of your week in a different frame of mind then you are not being discipled.

Discipleship is not going through the motions. When I was in the Navy there was this hated inspection that came up at least twice a year called Division in the Spotlight. During this inspection the different program managers of your command would look through your programs to see how you were doing. There was safety and maintenance. Education and training. How were your Sailors personnel records. And there was the mentorship program. Every sailor was supposed to have a mentor identified and to regularly meet with that mentor to talk about their career and aspirations. In reality this program became nothing more than a paper drill as about a week before the inspection came up sailors would be scurrying all about the ship trying to meet with their mentors so that the program would look good. Productivity was overlooked in the interest of checking the box. Sometimes discipleship can take that same feel within the church - we know that it is supposed to happen and so we default to calling everything discipleship. When I was a kid in the church tradition I grew up in we were supposed to go door to door ministry or visitations. The running joke every time we pulled into a driveway for a U-turn was to chock it up as a visitation. Discipleship cannot be treated this way.

Discipleship is not inherently behavior modification. While behavior will change as discipleship takes place, the core goal of discipleship is not to get a person to act in a certain way. The core goal is to have a spiritual or heart transformation that brings the person closer to Christ - as Paul told the Galatians that his desire was to see Christ formed in them.

Finally discipleship is not formulaic. There is a great temptation - especially for those in church leadership - to say that what worked in one place can work in mine. We look at churches like Grace Community Church or Parkside Church or St. Andrew’s Chapel and think that as long as we do things the way they do them, as long as our small groups and our discipleship program is modeled after what they do then we’ll succeed. Or more locally we could look at New Hope Bible Church, Faith Bible Church or Valley Bible Church and think that if we could just be more like them we would be successful. But their dynamic is not our dynamic and we must find a way to disciple the people that God has given us here in this church.

But what is discipleship? The interesting thing is that discipleship is not really a key term used after Christ’s ascension into Heaven. We are challenged by Christ in Matthew 28 to disciple

Matthew 28:19–20 CSB

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

but after this the language of disciple changes from discipleship to imitation. So are we now back to simply what Kyle taught last week - to imitate God? Well yes and no. The Dictionary of Biblical Themes defines discipleship as “The process of becoming a committed follower of Jesus Christ, with all the spiritual discipline and benefits which this brings.” The goal of discipleship is to become like the Master - and our goal as Christians is to be discipled into the image of Christ. So where does this leave us? If discipleship is not formulaic and it is not all of the things I mentioned above what is it?

I’m glad you asked - look with me at Deuteronomy 6 for the first thing that discipleship is - discipleship is intentional.

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 CSB

“Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.

This passage is known as the Shema - it is the Jewish prayer and it is a great testimony to the unique nature of God. It is also pointed to by Christ as encompassing the greatest commandment. When challenged by a Jewish teacher regarding the greatest commandment this is the passage that Christ points to - that we should Love the Lord your God with all you heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

The key to intentional discipleship comes in the ensuing verses. Moses writes that these words that I’m giving you today are to be in your heart. The first principle of discipleship that this passage teaches is that you can’t teach what you don’t know. You can’t teach what you don’t know. We can’t teach the word of God or the character of Christ if it has not been found in our hearts or been grown within us. The old adage from George Bernard Shaw that “Those who can do, those who can’t teach” doesn’t apply to Christianity. In the life of the Christian you must not only know the truth but you must live the truth out daily in order to be able to share it those you are charged with discipling.

And one of the key realms in which this is made clear is in the example that Moses gives next. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. In an agrarian culture such as ancient Israel had there were many opportunities to spend quality time with family. Moses is charging the fathers of Israel to make sure that their children know these truths and that they live by them. Walking to and from the well for water, to and from the fields where the sheep were grazing, to and from town with crops would have been a great opportunity to teach and talk with their children.

The priority of family worship is still a mandate that we should abide by today. It can be challenging - believe me I know what it is to have the family spread out in activities that are often well and good but we must not allow the over-scheduling of our lives to the point that we shirk the duty of family worship. We never get to excuse ourselves in saying we don’t have time for this. In answer to this consider what Puritan Samuel Davies said “What? Were you formed for this world only? There would be some force in this objection. But how strange does such and objection sound coming form an heir of eternity. Pray what has your time been given to you for? Is it not principally that you and your children might be prepared for eternity? Have you no time for the greatest business of your life?” This doesn’t mean parents that you are to sit your children down sing three hymns deliver a 30-40 minute exposition of Scripture and then close. It means though that you are to put the Word of God before their eyes daily.

And for those who think “I’m glad I’m not a parent - I get a pass” think again. In our modern world we may not spend as much time as we once did walking to and from the fields with our children or to and from the well. But we are with someone most days. And we should be seeking opportunities to disciple those brothers and sisters in Christ that are around us. And if we aren’t around brothers and sisters in Christ then we should seek to be so. As a pastor I have a great challenge in the area of evangelism because generally the people that I’m around most are Christians. So it is often a challenge to find opportunities for effective evangelism. For many you it is the opposite. You have no problem finding the lost to evangelize - your challenge is finding the saved to disciple. If we are to be effective in talking about these things when we sit in our house and when we walk along the road, when we lie down and when we get up then we must be intentional about getting with another believer for the opportunity.

A great way to do this is through the little device that you have in your pocket - if you can’t sit in the same room with someone can you text them at least? Our leadership development group called Ironworks has a text stream that goes amongst the men and frequently a sermon will be sent or a challenge will be posed to the men of the thread. It is just one way that we can be in contact with one another and spurring one another on to greater growth.

Moses closes by saying that they should be bound as a sign on our hands and a symbol on our forehead - this can’t be hidden from the world around us. Even if they are not saved those we come into contact with should know that we are. We must not be merely satisfied with being alive - we must be intentionally growing in our life. Charles Spurgeon illustrates it this way -

300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon (Do Not Be Satisfied with Being Merely Alive (John 15:9))

Sometimes a man is washed up on a rock, and you put your hand to his bosom to see if there is any heat left in him, and hold a mirror to see if he has any breath. You look for signs and evidences, and at last you say, “Yes, he is alive.”And this is just like a great many of you. You have to look for signs and evidences to know if you are alive. You are just washed up on the rock, and that is all. But look at many of us: We do not need signs and evidences; we are alive, and we know that we are. We can talk and laugh, and eat and drink, and engage in business; we are perfectly sure that we are alive, because we are in good health.And so it is with Christians when they get to be in good sound spiritual health, and are enabled by divine grace to do much for their Master. I would not be satisfied with being merely alive; if I were lying stretched on the bed, and someone should say to me, “Well, you know you are alive,” I would tell him that I was not satisfied merely with that. I wanted to be healthy and well. God grant that we may not only know Christ’s love but that we may get into the soul of it, into the marrow and fatness of it, until we live in it. And then may God’s grace help us to continue in it!

Are we merely glad to be alive or are we working to be more healthy and well? The next principle of discipleship is that it must be ongoing or multi-generational. Turn with me to Titus 2 we’ll be looking at verses 1-8.

Titus 2:1–8 CSB

But you are to proclaim things consistent with sound teaching. Older men are to be self-controlled, worthy of respect, sensible, and sound in faith, love, and endurance. In the same way, older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not slaves to excessive drinking. They are to teach what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and to love their children, to be self-controlled, pure, workers at home, kind, and in submission to their husbands, so that God’s word will not be slandered. In the same way, encourage the young men to be self-controlled in everything. Make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching. Your message is to be sound beyond reproach, so that any opponent will be ashamed, because he doesn’t have anything bad to say about us.

One of the challenges that I’ve faced in the men’s ministry here at Dishman is that it is broken up demographically by age. And that is a legitimate critique because the only ministry we have for men right now is set up that way because that ministry has a purpose - to train young men theologically so that they are ready to step in to leadership roles within this church when all the rest of us pass away or depart to other callings. But this passage is convicting in that it spells out the process of discipleship - and that it is meant to be multi-generational. I’ve told the story of a church that upon closing its doors for Covid took the opportunity to tell it’s older generation that they should find somewhere else to worship when they reopened. How do you practice these verses when you do that?

We do need to find a way to integrate all of us into growth opportunities together, across generational lines. The one interesting point here is that the only group charged with teaching is the older women. They are charged with having a ministry to the younger women to teach them how to love their husbands and their children, to be self-controlled, pure, workers at home, kind and in submission to their husbands. Now I’m not going to get to deeply into that last statement as we’ll be looking at that in a few weeks - but what a ministry that is.

And you older men - you aren’t off the hook. Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2

2 Timothy 2:2 CSB

What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

We are to have a teaching ministry to the younger men in the church as well. And this is the most critical ministry in the church today. Not only are youth leaving the church in droves but men are either leaving the church or simply just don’t show up. We must work to bring these men in - and we must do so with depth. There is enough superficial Christianity going on these days - and not just in our day it has been happening for the last two hundred years. Consider these words from Spurgeon

300 Quotations for Preachers from the Modern Church (Breadth Verses Depth)

Much has been done of late to promote the production of dwarfish Christians. The endeavor has been to increase breadth at the expense of depth. What would you think of those who should break the dams of our reservoirs to let the water spread over the country?… If, in order to spread our sea, we make it very shallow, and it breathes miasma and death over the plain, it will be a sorry exchange for life eternal. Oh, to have a church built up with the deep godliness of men who know the Lord in their very hearts, and will seek to follow the Lamb wherever he goes!CHARLES SPURGEON

The final principle that we must see to understand discipleship is that it is never ending. Turn to Philippians 3 with me

Philippians 3:13–15 CSB

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you.

After all that he had accomplished for the Kingdom, the Apostle Paul writes that he forgets what is behind, he reaches forward to what is ahead and pursues the goal of the prize promised. Many of us know what it is like to pursue something - it is active. There is no passivity to this. It takes work. The work of discipleship is never done. Even after all of his years of service, Paul could say that he still had room to grow and so do we.

Discipleship is hard work but it is worthy work. But because it is hard work is one of the reasons it is left un-pursued. G.K. Chesterton said this

300 Quotations for Preachers (“The Christian Ideal Has Not Been Tried”)

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.G. K. CHESTERTON

So how are we doing here at Dishman? We’ve been talking about “Who’s your 2” for two years now and how many of you have one person identified within this church that you are actively helping grow in their faith? What are we waiting for? The last thing we must recognize is that evangelism and discipleship are not the two tracks that the church runs on - it is a monorail that starts at sin and ends at Heaven. What I mean is that evangelism and discipleship cannot be separated but rather must be seen as one continuous process.

Our desire here is to see every one of you presented mature in Christ on the day that you stand before Him. And we need to be busy about that work.