THE ASSIGNMENT
A.
The Church: Disciples
of Jesus (Matthew 16:24)
1.
Then
Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me.”
B.
Matt 16:24-28 -- 24 Then
Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26 What good
will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or
what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to
come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person
according to what he has done.
C.
The verse before: (DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT SAYS?)
1.
23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling
block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human
concerns.”
II.
WHAT IS A DISCIPLE?
A.
Hebrew context
1.
To understand what a
DISCIPLE is we need to understand the Hebrew educational system which PRODUCED
rabbis and disciples.
2.
This was documented in
the second century in the Jewish Mishnah.
3.
100% -- Age 5. Memorized the Torah (the first 5 books). Until around age 10.
4.
(1 out of 10) -- Age 10.
By 13 also memorized the Prophets and the Writings (the rest of the Hebrew
scriptures).
5.
(1 out of 10) -- Age 14.
Begin studying the wisdom and oral traditions.
6.
(1 out of 10) – Age
17-20, Begin working closely with one rabbi more than others. Most would become the “scribes and teachers
of the law” that we read about in the New Testament. Some of these would ask a rabbi to be allowed
to become that rabbi’s DISCIPLE. A rabbi
allowed only a very few of the best students to become his disciple. The main criteria was, “Can this person
become like me? Think like I think, live like I live? Is he willing to give up his own life and
become what I am?”
7.
(1 out of 100) – Those
with authority. (SchmeeHA) Perhaps a
dozen or in the same century with Jesus.
B.
Jesus’ words were spoken
to 1st century Jews.
1.
Jesus was born, grew up, and spent his ministry
among people who knew Scripture by memory.
Orthodox Jews have not changed their educational system much, if at all,
over the last two thousand years.
a)
RVL signed up for "grad school" in a
Hebrew seminary. "You
can't." "Yes I can. Look at my
transcript, my credentials, my degrees. And besides, that would be
discrimination!" "No, it's not that.
YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING."
WHAT!!! They let me sign up. 29 black-robed orthodox Jews, and 1 gentile
in casual wear. 29 men in the class, if
you quoted a verse anywhere in the OT to them, could immediately quote you back
the verse before and the verse after.
The professor went around the room.
"Which rabbi do you follow? Share his thoughts with us." They would quote chapters and pages from his
writings. "We have one
Gentile. We know which rabbi you follow!
Would you share some of Yeshua's thoughts with us?" I was never so embarrassed in my life. I could not quote even one chapter, in a room
with men who could quote the entire Old Testament from memory.
2.
Jesus used REMEZ over and over again. He expected those listening to understand the
context. REMEZ is the practice of mentioning
part of a scripture to take the hearer’s mind to an adjacent scripture. It is still used today.
a)
Here is one modern
example: Old Jewish professor
retiring from prestigious university.
Fancy dinner. Q&A
afterward. Spent his life teaching that
the Bible is the very Word of God. One
of his students went on to receive PhD and teaches the opposite. Question: What
do you think about so-and-so? Answer: “I raised sons and daughters and I brought
them up.” UTTER SILENCE. As though everyone in the room stopped
breathing.
(1)
What does the next verse say (after the one the
professor quoted)?
(2)
If you don’t know, you can’t play!
(3)
“…but when they were grown they rebelled against
Almighty God!”
(4)
THAT is what the professor wanted to
communicate, but he didn’t SAY it. He
left it to the audience to make the connection.
b)
Jesus used exactly that same teaching method
when the children shouted "Hosanna" to him in the temple and the
chief priests and teachers of the law became indignant
(1)
Matt. 21:15 But when the chief priests and the
teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting
in the temple area, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were
indignant. 16 "Do you hear what these children are saying?" they
asked him. "Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read,
"'From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise'?"
(2)
First, to ask this group of religious leaders
“Have you never read…?” is almost like a slap in the face. Not only had they read it, they had memorized
it.
(3)
The full verse says: Psalm 8:2 From the lips of children and
infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe
and the avenger.
(4)
The religious leaders' anger at Jesus can be
better understood when we realize that the next phrase in the Psalm reveals why
children and infants offer praise, because the enemies of God would be
silenced. The Pharisees knew the end of the verse He was quoting – and Jesus
knew it too. He was calling them “enemies!” Is it any wonder they wanted to
crucify him!
c)
I WILL GIVE YOU REST
(1)
Matt 11:28-30 "Come to me, all you who are
weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and
learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for
your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
(2)
Where does he get, I WILL GIVE YOU REST? Does he just make it up on the spot? Does he
mean that when you are tired after a long day’s work that you can find rest in
him? That meaning is likely included,
but that is a minor point. To hear what
he said, we need to know: HE IS QUOTING
HIS BOOK! Where does his book say, “I
WILL GIVE YOU REST”?
(a)
Ex
33:14 The Lord replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you
rest."
(b)
Deut
12:10 But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord your God is
giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies
around you so that you will live in safety.
(3)
No rabbi would EVER say, “I WILL GIVE YOU
REST.” He would say, “It is written,
IWGYR.” Or, “The Lord said, IWGYR.” Or, “Moses wrote such and such.” But Jesus
said: I WILL GIVE YOU REST. What did his audience hear him saying? “I AM GOD.”
It was beyond revolutionary.
(4)
Often we say of Jesus, why didn’t he say more
clearly that he is God? He said it over,
and over, and over again – but most of us do not have the knowledge of the
scriptures to HEAR him saying it!
C.
So we see that a MAJOR
characteristic of a disciple is that he KNOWS scripture. A disciple has memorized scripture. A disciple knows how to apply scripture.
III.
WHAT DOES A DISCIPLE DO?
A.
Note: Not what he BELIEVES, but what he DOES. The proof of a disciple is not what he
BELIEVES, but what he DOES.
“We don't
believe something by merely saying we believe it, or even when we believe that we
believe it. We believe something when we act as if it were true.” ― Dallas Willard
B.
GOES – Matthew 28.18
1.
Not required to come
back.
2.
Not required to ensure
our safety.
C.
MAKES DISCIPLES – Matthew 28.18
1.
Jesus does not say, “Make
converts.” He says, “…make disciples.”
2.
Do you understand what a
disciple is?
3.
Are you a disciple
yourself?
4.
Do you know how to make a
disciple?
D.
FOLLOWS his rabbi,
copies his rabbi, becomes like his rabbi
1.
Have you heard the
phrase, “Be covered with the dust of your rabbi.”?
a)
Origin appears to be
from Hebrew, literally “be powdering yourself with the dust of their feet.”
b)
Either by sitting at
his feet while he taught from a chair, or by following him so closely as he
went about his life that the dust his feet kicked up ended up on you.
(1)
Two references in NT to
being at the feet of a teacher?
(a)
Paul studied “at the feet of Gamaliel”
(b)
Mary “sat at Jesus feet”
(i)
Side-note: This is
fascinating, that in a male-dominated culture we see Mary in the disciple
role. Can you imagine the look on Jesus’
face were someone to tell him, “I don’t think you should be letting Mary do
that; send her away so she can do women’s work!”? Hmmm, we don’t have to imagine his response,
do we, because someone DID tell him that… and Jesus said to leave her alone.
c)
Rabbinic literature has
multiple examples of dedication, with no humor intended, of disciples who
wanted to see how their master relieved himself, or was intimate with his wife,
so they could emulate him in all things.
d)
That provides some
“color” to the story of Jesus walking on the water, when Peter asked Jesus to
bid him come to him. From the Jewish
understanding, what Peter asked was not the astounding thing in the story. After all, what disciple would not want to be
like his rabbi? The astounding thing was
that there were other disciples in the boat who were not fully committed.
IV.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A
BELIEVER AND A DISCIPLE?
A.
A disciple is not
satisfied with easy, non-committal religion that doesn’t cost something.
1.
2 Samuel 24:24 -- I will not
sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing. (Who said this?)
2.
A 30-year-old wrote a
book about this, and said:
a)
But then you start to
think there must be more to Christianity, more than just laying your life and
sins at the foot of the cross. I came to realize that preachers were telling me
to lay my life at the foot of the cross and weren’t giving me anything to pick
up. A lot of us were hearing “don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t sleep around” and
naturally started asking, “Okay, well, that was pretty much my life, so what do
I do now?” Where were the do’s? And nobody seemed to have much to offer us.
Handing out tracts at the mall just didn’t seem like the fullness of Christian
discipleship… I was just another believer. I believed all the right stuff—that
Jesus is the Son of God, died and rose again. I had become a “believer,” but I
had no idea what it meant to be a follower. People had taught me what
Christians believe, but no one had told me how Christians live.
3.
A disciple EXPECTS a
demand to be placed on his life.
B.
A believer BELIEVES what
the master says. A disciple DOES what
the master says.
(loose paraphrase of a different version of
the audio) It’s so weird how in the
church we change everything. In the church follow Jesus has become a different
game. Where in following Jesus you don’t actually have to do what he does, you
just have to study it. Jesus says is completely different than Simon says. If
Jesus says something you just have to memorize it or study it. What about
making disciples? What about actually becoming like Jesus? I have got four kids
and what if I told my oldest daughter, hey Rachel go clean your room. And what
if she comes back to me an hour later and goes, “Dad, I memorized what you
said, I can quote it verbatim, in fact I can say it in the greek now”. She
knows I’m not going to go, “oh that’s awesome baby!” Or if she said, “Hey dad,
I had a bunch of friends over and we did a little study on what it would look
like if I cleaned my room, here’s all the notes, it’s going to be a 5 week
study”. You guys, she knows that’s doesn’t fly with me. You guys, why were
these commands given? Was it for us to memorize and study and on and on and on
and just study them to death and then at the end of our lives Gods going to
say, wait, I asked you to makes disciples. I asked you to baptize. How many
people have you led to the Lord? How many people did you teach to obey
everything…
2.
Ray Vander Laan -- The
difference between believing and doing is what makes a church of 1200 believers
struggle to affect their community, while a group of 11 fully-committed
disciples changed the world.
V.
WHAT DID JESUS SAY
ABOUT DISCIPLES?
A.
Matthew
28:18 -- Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and
on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and
teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
1.
We’ve already discussed,
but what are you to do when you GO?
a)
Do you make disciples?
2.
Jesus expects his
disciples to obey everything he has commanded.
a)
Do you obey everything
Jesus commanded?
B.
Luke
6:40 -- Jesus said, “Every
disciple, after he has been fully trained, will be like his
Teacher.”
1.
Have you been fully
trained?
2.
Are you like your rabbi?
C.
Luke
14.26 -- “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother,
his wife and children, his brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and
follow me cannot be my
disciple.
1.
The value of a learned
rabbi in Israel is not well understood by Westerners. The Talmud contains discussions about
priorities with regard to ransoming captives.
If a person had to choose whether to ransom his rabbi or his father, his
rabbi would have priority. A rabbi would
even take priority over a king of Israel, since a king can be replaced by
anyone, but it might be impossible to find as learned a scholar.
2.
Do you CARRY YOUR CROSS?
a)
In 1st
century Israel, when you saw someone carrying a cross, where was he going?
b)
Many sermons about
carrying your cross. I’ll just say
this: Think about the cross the same way
you would think about an electric chair.
Its only purpose is to kill. Have
you died?
(1)
Complete Jewish Bible –
“…carry his execution stake.”
c)
A. W. Tozer -- "In
every Christian's heart there is a cross and a throne, and the Christian is on
the throne till he puts himself on the cross; if he refuses the cross, he
remains on the throne. Perhaps this is at the bottom of the backsliding and
worldliness among gospel believers today. We want to be saved, but we insist
that Christ do all the dying. No cross for us, no dethronement, no dying. We
remain king within the little kingdom of Man's soul and wear our tinsel crown
with all the pride of a Caesar; but we doom ourselves to shadows and weakness
and spiritual sterility.”
3.
Do you FOLLOW HIM?
D.
Luke
14.33 -- In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you
have cannot be my
disciples.
1.
When the world looks at
you, does it say, “That person has given up everything?” Or does the world say, “You really don’t
appear to be that much different from me!”?
2.
Or think about it this
way: What HAVE you given up? Make a list.
Does it look like the list of what Jesus gave up?
E.
John
8.31 -- To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my
teaching, you are really
my disciples.
1.
Do you hold to His
teaching?
2.
John
13.5 -- After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his
disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on
his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for
you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for
that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet,
you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you
should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is
greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
a)
Is this a Teaching of
Jesus, or just an Example? Is there any
difference for disciples whose only desire is to be like their rabbi?
b)
Remember Luke 6.40…
Every disciple will be like his Teacher.
c)
Have you ever heard
someone say, “Well, Jesus DID that, sure, but he didn’t command us to do it
too!”? That is the statement of a
student, maybe even a believer – but not a disciple. A disciple wants to live his life just like
his rabbi.
F.
John
15:5 -- “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I
in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do
not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such
branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me
and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my
disciples.
1.
Disciples don’t “bear
fruit.” They bear MUCH fruit.
2.
How much fruit have you
produced?
VI.
Discipleship Assessment
A.
4x6 Card:
1. How many chapters of the Bible have you memorized?
2. I know more scripture this year than last year (Yes/No)
3. How many times have you done something in order to follow Jesus more
closely, and had many of your Christian friends tell you that you were taking
the words of Jesus too literally?
4. How many jobs have you given up, or lost, in order to remain true to
Jesus' demands on your life?
5. What percent of your financial security have you liquidated in order
to follow more closely after Jesus?
6. Have you identified your Isaac?
7. How many disciples did you make in 2016?
VII.
HOW CAN WE POSSIBLY
MEET THE LORD’S EXPECTATIONS?
Philippians
3:10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and
participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so,
somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.12 Not that I have already
obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take
hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I
do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do:
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on
toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in
Christ Jesus.
Brothers
and Sisters, we are not perfect. I am
not perfect. We are broken and we fail
in our attempts to be like our Teacher.
We need each other’s help. We
need each other’s encouragement to persevere.
But even more than that, we will never be what we can be without God’s
help. We can’t do this on our own. Let
each one of us admit that only by the grace offered by the blood of Christ will
we eternally live with the Lord.
God is
still looking for men and women who will shake their world, men and women who
will be His disciples. I urge you to make that step. If you do, our world will
never be the same again. English evangelist John Wesley once said, "Give
me a hundred people who love God with all of their hearts and fear nothing but
sin, and I will move the world."
God did it once. He can do it again.
If you
would like to make your commitment to discipleship public to this group of Christians,
to encourage us and ask for our commitment to you, we invite you to come
forward as we sing this next song. Like many of the songs we sing, this one is
part prayer and part teaching. My prayer
is that the time we spent considering discipleship tonight will change all of
our lives.
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Just as I am,
without one plea
But that Thy blood
was shed for me
And that Thou
bidst me come to Thee
O Lamb of God, I
come, I come
Just as I am, and
waiting not
To rid my soul of
one dark blot
To Thee whose blood
can cleanse
each spot
O Lamb of God, I
come, I come
I come broken to
be mended
I come wounded to
be healed
I come desperate
to be rescued
I come empty to be
filled
I come guilty to
be pardoned
By the blood of
Christ the Lamb
And I'm welcomed
with open arms
Praise God, just as I am
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Just as I am, I
would be lost
But mercy and
grace my freedom bought
And now to glory
in Your cross
Oh Lamb of God I
come, I come
I come broken to
be mended
I come wounded to
be healed
I come desperate
to be rescued
I come empty to be
filled
I come guilty to
be pardoned
By the blood of
Christ the Lamb
And I'm welcomed
with open arms
Praise God, just
as I am
And I'm welcomed
with open arms
Praise God, just as I am
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