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Discipleship 101: (A Few Notes
for Introductory Session)
One of the key passages in the Christian faith that informs the disciples understanding of discipleship is John 15. We will visit and revisit this passage in the course of our time together. We will depend heavily upon the Bible for our instruction manual in this process, but we will also be interactively finding meaningful application in our "GET REAL" sessions. |
Abiding in Christ
A comment on most books written on discipleship: You
will note the ubiquitous use of the word feelings. I feel compelled to note
the fact that in the Bible, Feelings are not the rule of the Christian life,
and experience is always more than a simple reliance on feelings. Experience
involves the mind, will and emotions. So feelings are an important part of
experience, but not sufficient in and of themselves.
Focus on the Facts and Feelings will follow. We must come to a place of balance and
love God as Mark 12:30 says- With all our hearts, souls, minds and strength!
This is the route to a healthy and well balanced approach to life.
Never let your feelings independently drive your view
of reality or how you interpret the facts of a situation. The Word is
propositionally and objectively true in all times and all places. If you
don’t like what it says, that says more about you than the Word!
That being said, neither let human logic alone dictate
what is possible for you to believe about God- God is a reasonable God and
reason and wisdom flow from Him, and the foolishness of God rules over the
wisdom of man!
John 15:1-17 context.
The upper room discourse tells us what Jesus said to
the disciples the night before His death.These are the last things the Master
had to tell His disciples on the verge of Calvary. It provides and answer to :
In the light of who Jesus is, who are we and what we are here for?
This is the last great “I Am” in John; there are seven of them:
Light of the World
The Door
The Resurrection and the Life
The Good Shepherd
The Bread of Life
The Way, The Truth, The Life
The True Vine.
The vine is an ancient symbol of Israel. In Hosea 11
it is mentioned. In Maccabean times the
Jewish coinage had a vine on it. There are over twenty references to
identify the vine with Israel in the Old Testament. It is important to realize
that “Jehovah” or “Yahweh” is the transliteration of
the name of God “I am”. When Jesus applied this to himself, Jewish
leaders heard it as blasphemy!
There are six kinds of fruit the Bible speaks of
1. The character fruits of the spirit:
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Against these there are no law."
Galatians 5: 22,23
2. Soul winning- spiritual offspring (implicit, not
explicit in Romans 1:12)
3. Praise and worship (fruit of lips)
4. Good works
5. Sharing of possessions and ourselves (broken bread
and poured out wine)
6. Personal Holiness/ righteousness
The key to abundant life is fruit bearing. They
key to abiding is obeying.
Strongs' No. <2592> karpophoreo {kar-pof-or-eh'-o} karpoforev- Bring forth Fruit
Pruning vs. cutting off- pruning involves cutting
sucker shoots off so the energies producing them are reappropriated- In the
process we are cut back closer to Jesus our source.
Jesus is your Friend: Fruit comes from a living union
with Christ! We are also connected to others through the vine. You will find
your best friends in places where you serve together- example- men who go to
battle together.
Jesus chose us- while were his enemies He died for us-
for a purpose- to serve -As He was obedient by remaining in the Father, we must
be obedient by remaining In Christ.
There are blessings that flow from a fruitful life:
verse 7. Answered prayer
8. Demonstrated Glory
9-10.
Enriched fellowship
11: Overflowing joy
John 14:21 and 23 If you love Him obey Him
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Luke 9:23: If anyone would come after me, he must
deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me.
The miracles had attested to who Jesus is- he had
asked who men say He is and then Who do YOU say that I am- the recognition by
the Holy Spirit came that You are the Christ the Son of the Living God made it
possible to unfold this next revelation of himself to the disciples. With it
comes the cost of knowing this truth.
This is one of the most watered down passages in
scripture in modern times. As originally intended, it is a hard saying
indeed.As commonly applied it may refer to som bodily diability, (thorn in the
flesh speaks of this, not cross),
some painful or unpleasant experience that gets us out of our comfort
zone, or some relative someone is
stuck with.
But everyone who heard this when it was originally
said would have heard something quite different!
In all three synoptic gospels, these words follow the
account of Peter’s confession
at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus’s first warning about His impending
death- It is as if- Oh so you confess me as Messiah? Do you still wish to
follow me? Even if that means a violent death- are you prepared for that???
The idea of taking up a cross must have been very
familiar to men who grew up in that locality, where had once been an incident
where the Roman government had made an example of two thousand rebels for the rebellion of Judas of
Galilee. He had led a rebellion against Rome by raiding the royal armory at
Sepphoris which was only 4 miles
from Nazareth. The Romans
acted swiftly and burned Sepphoris to the ground. Two thousand were crucified
along the road for all to see as they suffered as a warning to others who might
be tempted to rebel. Such men in that day were commonly made to carry the
crossbeam (patibulum) of his cross as he went to his death. So that is the
picture Jesus’ words would conjure up in the minds of those hearing them.
Many, perhaps most of those hearing this suffered such a fate- Peter. James the
son of Zebedee was beheaded (Acts 12:2). According to tradition all the
apostles but John suffered a martyr’s death.
Luke reports a slightly fuller version of the saying-
take up his cross daily. Paul later
emphasises this aspect-
“I die daily” he says in 1 Corinthians 15:31
longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and
the life which I now live in the flesh I live
by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and
delivered Himself up for me. Galatians 2:20
In 2 Cor
4:10-11 Pauls delves into the
idea of carrying in the body
the dying of Jesus and explains by saying "while we live we are always
being given up to death for Jesus sake, so that the life of Christ may be
manifested in our mortal flesh."
Philippians 3: 8 he speaks of becoming like Christ by
sharing in his sufferings.
Denying oneself has also been hopelessly watered down
today as well. Here the sense is of treating one’s own ambitions, dreams
and loves as if you were dead to them in comparison to Christ. Delight
youself in the Lord and He will
give you the desires of your heart! Dead men don’t have rights!
Not only the disciples who first heard them, but also
the the first who read these word when recorded in Mark’s gospel would
have been incredibly encouraged, because they would have heard them in the
midst of the persecutions of the middle of the first century. It would have
given them assurance that their sufferings were not for nothing, that they had
meaning and merit in the eyes of the Lord they served.
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The Cross Engine
Becoming a disciple of christ entails several DISCIPLINES.
I have illustrated these as holistically interrealted in the Cross Engine.
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Intimacy with God
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Studying and Worshipping God
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Prayer and Meditation
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Fellowship
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Witness
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Ministry
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Experience each as it functions in your life each day
Use them as a standard to remind you of the
commitments required to be a disciple
They will help you follow the leading of the Holy
Spirit as you deal with problems
You will be able to help disciple others