In my last blog, I said that I would talk about 3 things every person must experience as a disciple of Jesus Christ. This is the teaching that I had prepared for last Saturday night.
From the gospels, we see that being a disciple of Christ is so much more than just knowing "correct" theology. Discipleship is a life-long learning expedition. It starts with a desire to be like Jesus...not just know about Him.
Dallas Willard says this in his book "The Divine Conspiracy":
"...the disciple, or apprentice of Jesus, as recognized in the New Testament, is one who has firmly decided to learn from him how to lead his or her life, whatever that may be, as Jesus himself would do it."
Its not just about giving Jesus the "church" or "religious" part of our lives. Its about making the decision to re-orient every part of our life around the character of Jesus. As this happens, we are living our everyday life in the same way that Jesus himself would live it if he were walking in our shoes.
Before this happens, though, we need to experience 3 things on a very personal level.
First, we need to EXPERIENCE GOD'S LOVE.
Read 1 John 4: 7-12
We must understand that God IS love – He doesn’t just have a bigger and more effective capacity to love than we do. His very essence is love. He is love personified. Therefore, God’s love is available for everyone…equally.
It might be hard for us to swallow that God loves everyone equally. Hitler and Mother Teresa. Billy Graham and Osama bin Laden. The vilest criminal and the most sanctified saint. Yet 2 Peter 3:9 tells us that God is patient and desires everyone to come to repentance. But, because we are creatures of free will, we have the option to reject that love. And many have.
Jerusalem rejected Jesus’ love when he walked among them. In Matthew 23:37, Jesus says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”
You might say, ‘well, that was the Pharisees'. True, but I know many people, believers included, who never experience God’s love because they don’t believe they are worthy of it.
Their thought is, “if I could only get my act together, do more good things, know more Scripture, get rid of my bad habits, THEN God would be able to love me.” I’ve got a newsflash for you: God will never love you any more than He does at this very moment and He will never love you any less than He always has. He can’t help it – He IS love!
Once we understand this, God’s love is able to work THROUGH us to others. Many people spend their lives doing good things trying to earn God’s love. Their motive for service is to gain His favor. When we understand that we already have God’s love because of HIS grace, (Romans 5:2), our service to others comes out of a grateful heart. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:14, Christ’s love compels us. We’re no longer trying to work to gain something, we can “live and move and have our being in Christ” (Acts 17:28)
We also need to EXPERIENCE GOD'S FORGIVENESS
Read Hebrews 9:11-14
Jesus Christ has already obtained all the forgiveness you will ever need. And we experience this forgiveness as we live by faith in Christ Jesus. (Romans 5:1) Does this mean we never sin again…we never mess up? Absolutely not. Paul understood this. In Romans 7 he laments about this battle that is constantly raging in him between the flesh and the spirit. But let’s read what he says in Romans 8:
Read Romans 8:1-5
This is another area where many people struggle. We’ve all done things that we regret…things contrary to God. Some of us have done terrible things. I’ve heard people say, “you don’t realize what I’ve done, God could never forgive me.” Wrong. All of the forgiveness any of else will ever need is found in Christ sacrifice on the cross. There is nothing that you’ve done that can’t be forgiven.
The only sin that Jesus said could never be forgiven is the rejection of the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:29). If we try to earn our own forgiveness by doing good deeds…cleaning ourselves up…what are we ultimately doing? Rejecting the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. We can’t do it on our own.
There’s another angle to experience forgiveness – offering it to others. The Christian life is about living a lifestyle of forgiveness. Let’s face it, in this world, we are going to be hurt, offended, mistreated, even abused. To hold unforgiveness in our hearts toward those who do wrong toward us is to disqualify us from receiving God’s forgiveness. (Matthew 6:14-15)
We may think this is harsh or somehow puts conditions on God’s love for us. But, this is one of those issues where we can’t have one foot in each world – God’s way or the world’s way. The world would have you hold unforgiveness toward those who hurt you. God would have you forgive them. Which will it be?
Many people won’t forgive because they think the perpetrator must pay. SOMEBODY’S got to pay. The truth of Scripture is that somebody has already paid – Jesus. 1 John 2:2 says, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours BUT ALSO for the sins of the whole world.” Forgiving someone means that you let them off YOUR hook. It doesn’t mean that act didn’t matter – it did. God was there and God saw the injustice. But justice is HIS to dispense, not ours. To forgive opens us up to receive forgiveness from God
Unfortunately, the “gospel” has been reduced to just having my sins forgiven and just hanging around until that big church service in the sky. But that’s not how God sees it. He also wants you to…
3. EXPERIENCE GOD'S RESTORATION
Because we were born into a fallen world, none of us are fully living up to who God created us to be. But our sin is not the deepest part of us. Our sin should not define us. Our identity as disciples is to be found in who God says we are. And to understand that, you need to understand who the Bible says we are.
(See “Who I Am in Christ” in The River teachings download section)
Walking in this identity doesn’t happen automatically – even after we make the conscious decision to walk with Christ. This is an identity that we have to “put on” every day. There are plenty of other voices and influences that we allow into our lives that will send us messages that are completely opposite. We must MAKE THE CHOICE to believe we are who GOD says we are.
Here are some of the ways the Bible tells us to do that:
- offer your bodies as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1)
- be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2)
- be made new in the attitude of your minds (Ephesians 4:23)
- put on the new self (Ephesians 4:24)
- put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature (Colossians 3:5)
Our forgiveness was secured on the cross but the possibility of our restoration was secured when he walked out of the grave and eventually ascended into heaven.
Eternal life doesn’t start when you die. Eternal life starts the minute you put your trust in Jesus. The life abundant that Jesus talks about in John 10:10 is the life that He has for you now. Not someday when you die. But that life only happens when we choose to let go of our own ideas of life and experience his love, experience his forgiveness and experience his restoration.
Only then does a true experience of discipleship begin.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Some Thoughts on Discipleship
We've been discussing discipleship for the last several weeks in our community, The River. I have the privilege of intersecting with believers from all different parts of the world, from all different denominational backgrounds and one topic inevitably comes up in our conversations: the lack of discipleship in the church.
Dallas Willard writes the following in his book "The Divine Conspiracy":
"Nondiscipleship is the elephant in the church. It is not the much discussed moral failures, financial abuses, or the amazing general similarity between Christians and non-Christians, these are only effects of the underlying problem. The fundamental negative reality among Christian believers now is their failure to be constantly learning how to live their lives in The Kingdom Among Us. And it is an accepted reality. The division of professing Christians into those for whom it is a matter of whole-life devotion to God and those who maintain a consumer, or client, relationship to the church has now been an accepted reality for over fifteen hundred years.
And at present - in the distant outworkings of the Protestant Reformation, with its truly great and good message of salvation by faith alone - that long-accepted division has worked its way into the very heart of the gospel message. It is now understood to be a part of the "good news" that one does not have to be a life student of Jesus in order to be a Christian and receive forgiveness of sins. This gives a precise meaning to the phrase "cheap grace," though it would be better described as "costly faithlessness."
This raises the question: Can one be a believer in Jesus Christ without being his disciple? I suppose one can. After all, James 2:19 tells us that "even the demons believe - and shudder." But how much of God's abundant life through Jesus Christ are we missing out on if we simply believe with our heads without allowing him to disciple our hearts?
From my study of the gospels, the following is what God laid on my heart as a model of discipleship for our community:
Our Discipleship Model:
S ervice
E ducation
E xperience
K inetic Relationships
As you can see by the model above, I believe discipleship consists of more than just a series of classes one can take to learn about their particular church or demonination. I also believe discipleship to be more than just another program in a church complete with "fill-in-the-blank" workbooks to ensure one gets the "right" answers. That may be education but, without transformation, its just information.
Let's face it, most of us are educated beyond our obedience already.
When I look at the example of Jesus in the gospels, his model for discipleship is one that engaged the whole person. His was a model of apprenticeship where he not only taught his disciples, he lived life with them. He served them. He let them "get their hands dirty". He challenged their belief systems and biases. He loved them. He called them friends. The essence of real discipleship is a deep and honest relationship between the one being discipled and the mentor.
I believe we've seen a decline in true discipleship simply because relationships are hard - they cost something. Fill-in-the-blank workbooks for one hour a week are so much easier than answering the phone in the middle of the night to help a friend.
Real relationships require commitment.
Workbooks don't require anything but the time it takes to fill them out.
Real relationships require risk (synonym for faith).
Program-based discipleship just requires you to show up.
I think you get the idea.
Before anyone can offer discipleship to another, though, I believe there are three things that each of us must experience personally before we become restorative agents in this world.
More on that in my next installment...
Dallas Willard writes the following in his book "The Divine Conspiracy":
"Nondiscipleship is the elephant in the church. It is not the much discussed moral failures, financial abuses, or the amazing general similarity between Christians and non-Christians, these are only effects of the underlying problem. The fundamental negative reality among Christian believers now is their failure to be constantly learning how to live their lives in The Kingdom Among Us. And it is an accepted reality. The division of professing Christians into those for whom it is a matter of whole-life devotion to God and those who maintain a consumer, or client, relationship to the church has now been an accepted reality for over fifteen hundred years.
And at present - in the distant outworkings of the Protestant Reformation, with its truly great and good message of salvation by faith alone - that long-accepted division has worked its way into the very heart of the gospel message. It is now understood to be a part of the "good news" that one does not have to be a life student of Jesus in order to be a Christian and receive forgiveness of sins. This gives a precise meaning to the phrase "cheap grace," though it would be better described as "costly faithlessness."
This raises the question: Can one be a believer in Jesus Christ without being his disciple? I suppose one can. After all, James 2:19 tells us that "even the demons believe - and shudder." But how much of God's abundant life through Jesus Christ are we missing out on if we simply believe with our heads without allowing him to disciple our hearts?
From my study of the gospels, the following is what God laid on my heart as a model of discipleship for our community:
Our Discipleship Model:
S ervice
E ducation
E xperience
K inetic Relationships
As you can see by the model above, I believe discipleship consists of more than just a series of classes one can take to learn about their particular church or demonination. I also believe discipleship to be more than just another program in a church complete with "fill-in-the-blank" workbooks to ensure one gets the "right" answers. That may be education but, without transformation, its just information.
Let's face it, most of us are educated beyond our obedience already.
When I look at the example of Jesus in the gospels, his model for discipleship is one that engaged the whole person. His was a model of apprenticeship where he not only taught his disciples, he lived life with them. He served them. He let them "get their hands dirty". He challenged their belief systems and biases. He loved them. He called them friends. The essence of real discipleship is a deep and honest relationship between the one being discipled and the mentor.
I believe we've seen a decline in true discipleship simply because relationships are hard - they cost something. Fill-in-the-blank workbooks for one hour a week are so much easier than answering the phone in the middle of the night to help a friend.
Real relationships require commitment.
Workbooks don't require anything but the time it takes to fill them out.
Real relationships require risk (synonym for faith).
Program-based discipleship just requires you to show up.
I think you get the idea.
Before anyone can offer discipleship to another, though, I believe there are three things that each of us must experience personally before we become restorative agents in this world.
More on that in my next installment...
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