Till We Are Home

Our church has been going through discipleship in Sunday School over the past couple of months. I’ve had the privilege of teaching a couple of these and thought I’d share some of these teachings with you through a series of posts. Firstly, let’s talk about some general principles.  

Discipleship is not really a term found in the Bible and is somewhat ambiguous as it can mean several things altogether. Mark Dever in his 9 Marks book titled Discipling said the following, “discipling is deliberately doing spiritual good to someone so that he or she will be more like Christ.” Simply put, discipleship is “helping others to follow Jesus.”

In order to help others follow Jesus, we need to first belong to and follow Christ ourselves. As Jesus said in Mark 8:34, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” So, discipleship is simply following in the footsteps of another…the discipler takes and leads in their steps while the disciple follows. Or to put it another way, the discipler leads as he/she is led by Christ, while the disciple follows.

As to who is involved in discipleship, fundamentally, Christians are disciples who are being discipled and are called to participate in discipleship and to disciple others. If you are in Christ…if you have been born again…if you trust and obey Jesus in your life, then you are a disciple because you follow Jesus and He will have you follow others. To disciple others, though, Christians should be doing the very thing I just said they will do as a disciple…Christians are to ensure they are following Christ and being discipled. 

How do we do this? We engage in the spiritual disciplines that will help us to grow in Christ: read the Bible, pray, gather with the saints, fast, worship, serve, and others. Then, be on the lookout for someone to disciple. That can be through so many ways, but when we’re talking about one-on-one discipleship, Mark Dever is again helpful by providing 9 things to look for in a potential disciple: a family member, evaluate the spiritual state of the person (they should be a Christian), you should primarily be looking around you at church to see if any fellow members could be discipled, stick with someone of the same gender (this does not apply to husbands discipling their wives or daughters, or mothers to their sons), make sure they are younger in age, typically, look to see if there are any differences from you – age, stage, and others, they have to be teachable, then faithful to teach others, and practically speaking they should have a physically close proximity to you (i.e. live near you, work near your office, etc.) and have a similar schedule (you both work nights, have children with similar patterns, etc.). 

Now, why do we do discipleship? We can probably think of a myriad of reasons as to why we disciple, but let’s boil them down to 2 essential reasons: 1. We disciple because we’ve been commissioned to, and 2. We disciple out of love. 

In the Great Commission from Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus commissioned His followers to go out to the nations to evangelize and make disciples. The authors of The Trellis and the Vine said, “It’s a commission that makes disciple-making the normal agenda and priority of every church and every Christian disciple.” So, we disciple because we’ve been commissioned to, and as the authors of The Trellis and the Vine point out, all Christians should be involved for they are either being discipled and they should be discipling others.

However, our commission to disciple should not be our only motive. Love for our Lord and love for our brother and sister in Christ should motivate us as well. Love seeks after the highest good for others, and it does so by being of the kind and quality we hear in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. Someone’s highest good is clearly Jesus Christ. So, love should compel us to want the highest good – Jesus – for us and them. If you have any shred of maturity in Christ in you because of what He’s done for you, then love should prompt you to want to share the same with those around you here. 

Let’s get into the nuts-and-bolts of discipleship. In some form or fashion, we’re all being discipled. Our discipleship could be by the world which exerts its influence in a variety of ways. However, my hope for Christians is we are more influenced, more discipled by those in our church rather than the world. In our churches, we disciple by various means and through various ministries such as the preaching of the Word to teaching and other ministries that may be available such as men’s or women’s Bible studies, home or community small groups, and others. 

In addition to these “group” discipleship scenarios, we also see in the Bible one-to-one discipleship. In 1 Kings 19:19-21, the prophet Elijah passed by Elisha who was in the field plowing and cast his cloak upon Elisha. In doing so, we understand the meaning of Elijah doing this from Elisha’s response: Elisha was to follow Elijah. Elijah was going to raise Elisha up, to disciple him to be his successor. (Thankfully, Elisha followed Elijah and became his successor, otherwise, we wouldn’t have one of the best scenes in all of Scripture involving 42 youths and 2 she-bears.)

This is a picture of discipleship as it happens in a one-to-one setting. Remember, discipleship is simply following in the footsteps of another more mature believer, watching and listening and receiving what is modeled by another. Elisha followed in the footsteps of Elijah. Yet it was Elijah who approached Elisha to place his cloak on, or mantle as the KJV puts it. I love this imagery as it should prompt us who are mature in the faith to be diligently seeking out those younger in the faith to raise up and invite into a time of following us…into discipleship. 

Discipleship not only brings rewards but also comes with costs. Discipleship is not easy. Deitrich Bonhoeffer in his book, The Cost of Discipleship, said, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Following Christ and loving your neighbor, loving your brothers and sisters in Christ will come at a cost of dying to yourself. If you are to love them truly by bringing them their highest good, you’re going to miss out on some football games, you won’t finish that book on time, you’re going to have to go outside and change out of your comfy jammies and go and serve others. Bonhoeffer meant a whole lot more than just these silly illustrations, but these are not excluded either. It takes a lot to love others well and bring them help to know Christ more.

Yet, think about how you want to spend your life. If you are afforded the opportunity to be on your deathbed and take a look back on your life, how do you want it to have looked? You may have some wonderfully high aspirations: MLB Rookie of the Year, employee of the month, finding breakthroughs in science, become a Caldecott award winner, etc. Those are fine and good, but as Christians we should simply desire to be faithful in what the Lord sets before us, especially the “small” things like our day-to-day lives as spouses, parents, friends, church members, etc. 

Remember, we are to love God and others. On our deathbeds looking back, or even in our beds at home as we awake with the dawn every morning, we should look to love the Lord first and foremost, making much of Him in our days. Then, we also should be looking to love others and do good to them. 

In doing so, the Lord has granted that though we face cost in discipleship, even so, oh the reward that comes!! Helping someone love their Savior more and bring him greater glory and praise is so worth any sacrifice we make. Christ receiving more praise and glory is simply worth it alone…for He is worthy of that! But, also, helping someone see Him more clearly and love Him more is an amazing blessing because He truly is their highest good.

The Lord has not left us alone to figure this life out all by ourselves. He gives Himself through His Spirit, and He gives us the church, each other, to help us grow in our faith. Life is hard enough and the Christian life living against our sinful, fleshly desires and the world makes things a bit more challenging. So, instead of giving in or resolving to lay low and not put ourselves “out there”, may we instead look to the blessing the Lord has given us to find a community of like-minded believers, to engage with one another for our highest good in Christ, and make disciples for our mutual benefit and the glory of God…

Till we are home…