Discipleship = people not programmes

This is the last post of three about discipleship.

God provides the church as the framework around which discipleship grows. It’s like the trellis a plant grows up, it provides helpful structure, but just going to church isn’t discipleship. Nor is going to home group, or doing a course on discipleship, or a weekend thinking about it. They may be helpful, provide some helpful shape and structures, they provide programmes which can potentially facilitate discipleship. But discipleship is about people not programmes.

Discipleship is about teaching and applying the truth of the gospel in the context of a commitment to share real life.

It must never replace church. But sits alongside, or rather inside, church. There’s an African proverb 'It takes a village to raise a child'. In the same way it takes a church to makes disciples. We see it in the early church. In Acts 2v42-47we read of the Apostles are discipling a rapidly growing, increasingly transformed community. But notice the context in which it happens. It’s not an hour a week on Sunday. They are devoted to the teaching, one another, remembering Jesus and prayer. They share everything, and meet daily and are in and out of each others homes. They are enjoying the reality of a community created, formed and fed by the gospel day by day. The early church is a gospel greenhouse full of rapidly growing disciples being discipled by rapidly growing disciples in the midst of real life.

This is the disciples taking Jesus great commission to go and make disciples seriously. This is them putting it into practice. How do we set up church so that we maximise opportunities for discipleship? How can we both be discipled and disciple others?

Be there – How committed are you to your church family? How often do you miss them? Are they just an hour event on Sunday or interwoven into the fabric of your life? Do you make the most of every opportunity? How engaged are you when you’re there? Are you fully there or just physically there? I know some of you are introverts and church seems like something to psyche yourself up for and then have therapy to get over. But think people not programmes. Are you really there?

Let me give you a piece of advice. My observation is that phones are killing community. Not just outside the church but inside it. I watch people hide from conversation by using their phone like Captain America uses his shield be that on Sunday morning before or after the service or in people’s homes over meals. Being on your phone screams ‘Don’t get too close, I don’t want contact’.  So here's a radical suggestion, take a deep breath, don’t take your phone to church, or to coin slogan ‘make the glove compartment the phone compartment’. Or here’s a radical discovery I’m trying to help our church to make. There is somewhere on your device a button that if you hold it for long enough will actually turn your phone off, and back on again later when you need it! And after a few minutes of hyperventilation you will, eventually, discover you can breath fine without it on if you persevere.

Parents, there is a danger of using our children to do the same thing. Don’t.

Take Risks – Apathy is cool. That’s not just true of teenagers is it? How often have you settled for talking about the football or work rather than talking to someone about how they are doing spiritually or sharing a problem with them and asking for prayer or sharing an encouragement? Why do we do that? Because we’re afraid of being thought too keen, too spiritual. Or we’re afraid to be vulnerable, maybe you’ve been hurt before, maybe someone has let you down, or gossiped a confidence. Can I gently ask you to risk it again?

Discipleship is deliberate. It’s intentional, it takes risks, it wants to know and be known, to pray and be prayed for, to encourage and be encouraged, to celebrate and mourn with others. It wants to take someone’s hand and run with them to the Father, to be led again to the cross. Maybe some of you need to begin first by putting that into practice in your marriage.

Discipleship and evangelism - But what about evangelism. How do I share the gospel with someone? Here’s the problem. We think about discipleship and evangelism as two totally separate things. But really they are two sides of the same coin. Discipleship is evangelizing Christians, and evangelism is discipling non-Christians. One explains and applies the gospel of Jesus to a life yet to realise his life changing power, the other explains and applies the gospel of Jesus to a life which is Spirit filled so that power produces change.

Evangelism isn’t hit and run. Think about Jesus calling Levi, it’s not a hit and run, Jesus seeks and then eats with him then invites him to follow him for 3 years seeing what he does. Think about Zacchaeus, the woman at the well, the demoniac. Jesus listens to them, learns about them, and in the context of their needs he shows them who he is and calls them to follow him, before teaching them more.

Paul evangelises by sharing his life with people as well as the gospel – lip and hip. Paul disciples by sharing his life with people as well as the gospel. Will we?

Let me end by giving you a few really practical helps:

1. Discipling happens best when the Bible is open – God knows, he speaks powerfully, and it takes the onus off my ability to discern someone’s needs. Why not read the Bible at the start of a meal as a family, or when friends come over? Or asking each other what you’ve been reading this week when you meet up for coffee? Or get to church 10 minutes earlier to do just that. Keep at it, it won’t feel natural the first few times – like any skill it takes time.

2. Sharing isn’t caring - Praying and acting is caring. Don’t be a talking shop get real. Read James and put the gospel into practise. That’s one of the biggest criticisms people from outside the church have of the church, it’s all talk.

3. Learn and apply the one anothers – it’s a God given how to of discipling and is always practical.

4. The church is not Las Vegas - What’s the phrase? What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. What happens in the church shouldn’t stay in the church. It’s not a secret club it is a family entrusted with the gospel. It is something we should talk about. One of the young men in our church got a shock recently. He arrived at church one morning to see one of his colleagues had unexpectedly driven all the way from Hull to come to Grace because he couldn’t stop talking about his church, and she wanted to see if what he said was true. That shouldn’t be unusual.

A friend of ours came to faith in part because the church provided her and her family with meals for two weeks when they adopted their second child. She couldn’t get over how these people who didn’t know her loved her and she was so intrigued she came to church heard the gospel and trusted Jesus. The churches love should spill out and over into the community.

5. Disciple people in the gospel not middle class values with a gospel veneer - You know those tables you buy, that look like wood, but really there’s just a thin covering of wood like material over MDF. Well sometimes our gospel is like that and we mustn’t disciple people in that. It’s seen in the expectation that working class people will naturally become more middle class when they trust Jesus – just stop and think about that for a minute. Are middle class values really gospel values? No. We need to think really hard about a gospel attitude to money. To family. To education and our children. To literacy. To justice. To possessions. To technology. To conscience. To work. We mustn’t be confused about them because if we are we will disciple others in a tepid fusion of the gospel-lite and class values.  When only the true gospel can bring lasting change.

We need a bigger grasp of grace

A bigger grasp of grace - that is foundational to discipling others well.  Turn to 2 Timothy 3v10-11. I want to camp here for a few minutes and see some principles.

“You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings – what kind of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from them all.”

Paul says Timothy “You know…” Timothy you and I have enjoyed a great friendship, an intimate friendship. I’m an open book to you. You know all about me. Timothy knows how Paul lives. He’s been with him watching him, listening to him. He knows what gets Paul out of bed in the morning, what makes him tick, what he loves, what he lives for.

He knows what Paul’s belief in Jesus translates to in terms of action. He knows what Paul treasures, what and why he’s endured, his struggles, his battles, his sufferings. He’s been with him in the trenches of Antioch, Iconium and Lystra. He’s seen him preach the gospel and face rejection, preach the gospel and see conversion, and establish healthy churches in those places.

How many people know you like that? Is there someone you can say that of? Someone who knows what makes you tick? Someone who has been by your side through thick and thin, through good and bad? Who’s been with you in the depths and on the heights?  Be honest, is there?

It’s something we long for but are also terrified of isn’t it? It’s why we do dating like a second hand car salesman sells cars. We want to show the polished side not the just got out of bedside. We show the chirpy upbeat not the grumpy and bad breathed. That’s why the reality of marriage is often such a shock, unless stupidly we try to do the same! We’re too often like that in church too. We approach church like the second hand car salesman. Selling our good points, covering up or glossing over the struggles and brokenness and battles with sin. We long for friendship like this but we’re also terrified of it.

But Paul can be this open because of the gospel. The gospel tells us that God has fully known everything about us, every dirty dark sin that we hide from others. What you do on your laptop in the early hours of the morning, your struggle with porn, your romantic longings after someone who’s married, your chequered sexual past. Your struggle with greed, your past hatred of Christians, your frustrations with your marriage. You’re battle with post-natal depression or with the loss of an unborn baby. Your envy of others who have what you long for be it a spouse, a child, disposable income, the car or job of your dreams. The abuse you’ve caused, the abuse you’ve suffered. God knows it all and at the cross Jesus pays for it all. Paul is well aware of his past, but he knows Jesus has stamped it paid in full.

And that means he can live life openly. He’s neither trying to appear good enough nor wallowing in sin untransformed. He’s pressing on, growing in holiness, resting in God’s grace. And that liberates him to be honest and open with others who know God’s grace. Because if they’ve experienced God’s redeeming grace then they won’t judge him, they’ll love and welcome him just as Jesus does, just as they’ve been welcomed with their failings and struggles. They’ll invest in his growing holiness and transformation into the likeness of Jesus.

I often talk with new leaders or young leaders in our church about cultivating an un-shockable face and an un-judging heart. There should be no sin someone can confess to me that shocks me because when I truly understand the horrors lurking in the corners of my heart I will know that could’ve been, at times has been, me. And my heart should be un-judging because it has drunk deeply of the grace of God when I deserved judgment.

We have to keep the gospel front and centre in our thinking as we engage with brokenness aware of our brokenness and the gospels lavish grace.

Making disciples that last begins with us grasping the staggering depths of our sin and the amazing magnitude of God’s grace which knows and covers every sin. A grace so deep that it frees me to be open with others about my sins and failures and be a safe pair of hands and lips when they open up about theirs. Pointing one another to the cross and grace again and again and again. Discipleship begins with me having a continually bigger grasp of grace.

The Silver Bullet of discipleship

How have you been discipled? What was good, bad, and ugly about it?  It's not a rhetorical question, actually stop reading right now and answer the question.  Maybe even get a pen or pencil out and write it down.

You still haven't done it have you?  You're just skipping that question, don't, do it now.

Are you ready for the silver bullet of discipling others? Get your pens out… There... isn’t one. Discipling others is a life long joy-filled, heart breaking, encouraging, discouraging journey. It’s messy and complex. It’s often circular rather than linear. But it is ultimately worth it. Paul writes to the Thessalonians “For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.” (2v19)

The joy of discipling others is seeing them turn from idols to Christ, go on and grow and persevere until they reach the finish. Paul looks forward to, and longs for, the day when he stands before his Saviour and is filled with joy at seeing those he’s preached the gospel to and discipled there with him.  Knowing, seeing that they completed the race. Discipling others is long term. It’s a life long investment. It’s not like teaching a class for a year, or 5 years and seeing them graduate. Some discipling will be for a season, but in our communication era most will continue even then at a distance and in a less intense way. But most discipling is life-long and involves ups and downs, highs and lows, laughs and losses.

I had the privilege of discipling a young guy in our church from the age of about 15. When he chose as his email address ‘nofearindeath’ I was a bit surprised. But I remember not 10 years later doing the marriage prep for him and his fiancé when they discovered he had cancer. I then spoke of his faith at his funeral not many years after preaching at his wedding. Heart breaking? Yes. But he ran the race. He finished the race and there was joy with the grief.

The real heart-break of discipling comes when someone turns their back on their faith. Paul writes of Demas “Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.”(2 Tim 4v9-10) Sometimes those we disciple drift or are lured away; growing cold, attending irregularly, and then falling in love with something or someone else. This shouldn’t surprise us in some ways, just think about the parable of the sower, but it should hurt us, just as it did Paul.

Discipleship isn’t about programmes it’s about people, it’s about faith lived out in real relationships. And that means progress isn’t linear, it’s messy and complex, it’s stop start, it’s progress and regress. It’s hard and yet it’s what Jesus calls us to.

Francis Chan writes“Why is it we see so little disciple making taking place in the church today? Do we really believe that Jesus told His early followers to make disciples but wants the 21st century church to do something different? None of us would claim to believe this, but somehow we have created a culture where the paid ministers do the ministry and the rest of us show up, put some money in the plate and leave feeling inspired or “fed”. We have moved so far away from Jesus’s command that many Christians don’t have a frame of reference for what making disciples looks like.”

So how do we disciple one another?  That's what I want to think briefly about in the next couple of posts.  But if you didn't answer that question at the start, can I encourage you to do it now: How have you been discipled? What was good, bad, and ugly about it?

God, is there life after death and if so what's it like?

In the New York Times Magazine during the beltway sniper attacks Ann Patchett wrote:  “The fact is, staving off death is one of our favourite national pastimes. Whether it’s exercise, checking our cholesterol or having a mammogram, we are always hedging against mortality. Find out what the profile is, and identify the ways in which you do not fit it. But a sniper taking a single clean shot, not into a crowd but through the sight, reminds us horribly of death itself. Despite our best intentions, it is still for the most part, random. And it is absolutely coming.”

We have a fascinating relationship with death don’t we? We know it’s coming, we know 1:1 die, yet we live as if it’ll never happen to us. We don’t talk about it, or if we do are never sure we’re saying the right thing. But it’s still there. A friend’s church did a survey and asked ‘What hurts the most?’ The number 1 answer was death. J K Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books wrote this: “My books are largely about death… we are all frightened of it.”

Part of our fear about death is; not knowing. Is there life after death and if so what does it look like, or is there nothingness?

When the early explorers set out to discover the world, to see what was beyond the horizon, they had all sorts of ideas; the world was flat, there were no other people like them, there were lands totally different from any yet discovered and so on. They only had speculation and guesswork. But as explorers came back from their voyages further and further afield a clear idea of what was out there took shape, because someone had been there and come back people could know what the world was like.

In order to know that there is life after death and what it’s like we need to hear from someone who has been there and come back. Not in a vague I saw a light, near death experience, but from someone who actually died and came back to tell us what it’s like. The bible uniquely claims it gives us that. That Jesus lived, died and rose again and therefore can help us as we confront our fear of death.

Jesus proves there is life after death
Some words matter because they change everything. When you ask the question ‘will you marry me?’ the question and the answer changes your world. Whether the answer is ‘get lost’ or ‘yes’ matters, it changes your reality. Or the words “I’m pregnant” and then “It’s a boy”. Other words change life detrimentally, but they still change life.

We had read to us Luke’s account of Jesus’ resurrection, and it contains in it three words that you might have missed but which change everything forever, not just for one couple, not just for an extended family, community or nation but for the whole of the universe for the whole of time. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say these are the most important three words ever uttered in the whole of human history. (6)“he has risen”. Don’t rush past those words, let’s just think for a minute about what they’re saying. Life has always ended in death. Even those people that Jesus miraculously raised to life, were only temporarily raised, they each died again. But the words “he has risen” change everything because Jesus was really dead, rose again and didn’t die again. Jesus ascended into heaven, there’s no tomb Christians visit because he never died again.

And those three words change more than that. Death is the result of man’s rebellion against God. It’s described elsewhere as the wages of sin. But not for Jesus. Something amazing has happened which means death can’t hold him. And in those three words is the promise that everything is now different. The rule of sin and death is finished, Jesus has won. Because Jesus is risen there is hope for us, death is not the end.

But, let’s be honest it is an impossible claim isn’t it? That Jesus died and rose again. Resurrection just doesn’t happen does it? I’ve spoken at a few funerals and been to even more and no-one has risen again, in fact no-one there has even expected that to happen a few days later. So how can we believe this?

Luke the writer of this gospel was a doctor. He knows that dead people don’t come to life again. He writes a carefully studied and pieced together account because he is convinced having looked at the evidence that Jesus rose again. That, amazing as it is, it is the most likely explanation of the facts.

Just look at the details he includes. Jesus is definitely dead the Romans were expert torturers, Pilate is asked for the body, it is buried in a tomb. The soldier a the cross, Joseph, Pilate, those who handled the body all witnesses to Jesus death. The women go to the tomb expecting a dead body not a resurrection, they go with spices to anoint a dead body, not streamers and balloons to celebrate life. And the first witnesses are women, in the 1st century a woman’s evidence wasn’t admissible, so if this was all planned or even fabricated you wouldn’t have women as the first witnesses. And notice too the reactions of the women and the disciples, they are filled with wonder and (11)the disciples don’t believe them. They’re as incredulous about this as we are. But after they see Jesus they too testify that he has risen, in fact even people who didn’t believe Jesus was the Messiah before he died testify that he is after they see him resurrected.

Luke writes for someone struggling with faith and includes facts, details, evidence that means he reaches the conclusion Jesus rose from the dead. But that’s just impossible to believe you might think. Ok, if we don’t believe Jesus came back to life again what are the alternatives?

a. He didn’t die, just swooned, then walked out of the tomb and fooled the disciples. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a major operation, but afterwards even getting out of bed and walking is an effort, let alone appearing well enough to convince everyone you’re back from the dead. We tend to look more like death warmed up than risen to new life. Jesus is flogged to within an inch of his life, he’s so drained physically he can’t carry his cross up the hill where he’s to be crucified. Then he’s crucified – John tells us they check he’s dead by shoving a spear in his side and out flows blood and serum because his heart has stopped. Then he’s taken down, wrapped in burial clothes and put in a tomb, behind a sealed stone which the ladies know they have no hope of moving.

Is it possible that Roman expert executioners mistake serious illness for death? No. Is it possible that despite the blood loss, broken bones from flogging, excruciating agony on the cross, asphyxiation, the spear thrust, that he then revives without any medical treatment, takes off the clothes, rolls back the heavy stone, eludes the guards, and is then well enough to convince his disciples he isn’t just recovering, but resurrected having conquered death? No.

b. The disciples went to the wrong tomb. Luke tells us the ladies saw where they laid him, it wasn’t any old grave it was Joseph of Arimathea’s grave, they knew where it was. I don’t know about you but I remember where the graves are of those I’ve buried, I don’t forget. And if they had gone to the wrong tomb the Roman and Jewish authorities would just produce the body proving the lie of resurrection. But that never happens because they didn’t go to the wrong tomb.

c. The disciples stole the body. Do con men die for the lies they pedal? No. The disciples all fled when Jesus was arrested. So it would take something miraculous to make them stand before the same accusers and testify to Jesus not just as Messiah, but as risen Messiah. Paul tells us Jesus appears to over 500 people, some who hadn’t believed before but do after the resurrection. Those disciples die for their belief in Jesus’ resurrection because it’s true, you don’t die for a lie you know is a lie.

What best fits the evidence? That Jesus died and rose again. Sir Edward Clarke was a great barrister, here’s what he wrote having looked at Jesus resurrection:  "As a lawyer I have made a prolonged study of the evidences for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. To me the evidence is conclusive, and over and over again in the High Court I have secured the verdict on evidence not nearly so compelling...The Gospel evidence for the resurrection...I accept unreservedly as the testimony of truthful people to facts they were able to substantiate."

Who do you say Jesus is? Jesus rose again therefore we can know that there is life after death.

What will it be like?
I wonder how you think of life after death? It’s often portrayed as ghostly, a bit dull, all harps, clouds and choirs. But not in the Bible, in the Bible the stress is on the joy and relationships that mark life after death.

Jesus is the first fruit of the resurrection. It’s spring, soon the first fruit will appear on the trees. What does the first apple promise? That there’ll be more apples just like it. It shows what the rest will be like. You don’t see the first apple, then expect an orange, a kiwi and a mango to follow. The first fruit shows what’s following.

Jesus is the first fruit, a prototype of life after death. Firstly he tells us there’s definitely life after death. Secondly that it is physical. The promise Jesus makes is that he will raise the dead to new life and when he comes again give us physical bodied just like his. Here’s how one early Christian described it:

“The body that is sown [buried] is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”

When Jesus returns those who trust him will be given a real, physical body, life will be physical. There will be a new heaven and earth that is physical, like this but where there’s no death, insecurity, illness, poverty, crying or pain.

And the greatest thing about life after death is that we’ll be with God, that’s the biggest promise Jesus makes. In the new creation Father, Son and Spirit will be there with us. And God’s presence guarantees its goodness, and its permanence. In the new creation we’ll be what we were made to be, what we long to be, with no discontent or searching. But enjoying the relationship with God we were made to know.

That’s the promise Jesus resurrection gives us.

What does that mean for now?
Have you ever looked at a holiday brochure and seen a sky so blue, a beach so perfect and a sea so inviting that you have to get there? I’ll save and save until I can go.

That’s the big question we’re left with as we think about life after death. A world with God, perfect relationship is the world we long for, how can I get there?

Jesus once visits the grieving sister of a dear, dear friend and promises: “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”

Jesus proves it by raising Lazarus from the dead, then some weeks later rising himself from the dead. If we want eternal life we have to trust in Jesus. That he dies for us in our place paying a price we never could, and wins for us eternal life with God and he gives it to us when we put our faith in him. Have you? Will you trust in him?

It also transforms life for us when we’ve trusted him. It means what I do now matters. It affects the way we view the physical. If eternity is physical then life now matters. It isn’t that the spiritual is good and the physical is bad, but God is concerned with the physical. It transforms us so that we live now in light of eternity.

It also means that we can be content in our circumstances now. Just think about it for a minute; if this life is all there is then I’d better spend it collecting as much as possible – as many tastes and smells as possible, seeing as many of the worlds wonders as possible, learning as much as I can about everything, because the clock is ticking. If I’ve only got this lifetime I better make it count.

But do you see how faith in Jesus brings rest and contentment. I don’t need to see everything now because one day I’ll enjoy an even better version. I don’t need to cram as many tastes, textures, experiences and so on in now because in eternity we’ll enjoy all the best God can give us without end.

Think of it like this. When you go on holiday and stay in a hotel you don’t redecorate the hotel room do you? You don’t go buy new curtains, strip the wallpaper, redecorate and buy new furniture for your week do you? But you do do that for your home. The hotel is a temporary dwelling, home is permanent. Knowing that through Jesus we have eternal life makes this life the hotel room and eternity with God our home, it changes what we are living for and therefore how we live.

Is there life after death? Yes. What’s it like? Physical, relational, joyful and secure, because we will be what we were made to be and be in the relationship with God we were made to live in. It’s ours for trusting in Jesus who can give us eternal life, and it transforms life now.