What real repentance actually looks like – Advent 2022, Week 2, Part 4

But neither sorrow nor confession is repentance.  Paul writes about this in 2 Corinthians 7:10, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.”

Godly sorrow leads to a whole series of important attitudes and actions.  A longing to make things right. 

Repentance is action that restores, renews, and reconciles.  Repentance is a very relational term.  When we repent, we are doing something different to restore a relationship that is broken. 

So when John preached “Repent,” what were the people expected to do?  They were expected to do the work of repentance, which means they were to turn away from any selfishness, any sinfulness.  They were then to start following God’s ways.  That would mean an active choosing to live a new kind of life.  Repentance is not just a one-time choice.  It is a pattern of choosing.  It is perhaps a thousand choices. Or maybe a million.  Over and over and over again, we choose to follow God’s way. We choose it in the small matters of life, and we choose it in the large ones.  We choose to do the work of reconciling a broken relationship with people in our lives, with God. 

John describes it like this in Matthew 3, verse 8, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”  John is talking about a pattern of life.  Fruit is what a tree produces.  If you’ve been following this blog for the past year or so, it probably won’t surprise you what I’m going to write next. I’m going to ask you to think about the fruit of the Spirit.  In Galatians 5, there are two lists.  One list is the fruit of the sinful nature, “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

The other list is the Fruit of the Spirit.  This list, Paul writes, includes a sampling of attitudes and actions that will be flowing from our lives if we are walking in step with the Holy Spirit.  That’s just another way of saying what John said, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”  This is why I’ve been writing about the Fruit of the Spirit so frequently lately: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” 

Want to know if you are living a repentant life? Look to see if those qualities flowing out of your life. 

It seems to me that you will also be humble and forgiving. We’ll talk about that in the next post.

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The power of the words “I am sorry” – Advent 2022, Week 2, Part 3

In our study of John’s preaching in Matthew 3, so far this week we’ve learned that he called people to repent. We also learned that repentance is often predicated by sorrow. But sorrow is not repentance. Instead, we learned the repentance is an action. What action? As we continue reading in Matthew 3, look at verse 6, where we read that the people, as part of the process of baptism, confessed their sins.  So what is confession?

Confession is when we own up to the wrong we did. Whether out loud, in prayer, in writing.  We actually say the words, “I was wrong. I am sorry.”  Notice that the people baptized by John were publicly confessing their sins. 

We humans are not often fans of confession.  It is very humbling and embarrassing to say, “I was wrong.”  Even harder to do so publicly to the person we wronged. Maybe, we think, we can just confess our sins to God.  Confessing our sins to God is good.  Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Father, forgive us our sins.”  That’s kind of a blanket statement.  It’s probably also very good to get specific with God. We can and should confess to God.

But confession is not just something that should remain in our minds, or as a prayer to God.  If we hold confession inside, we will not and we cannot get to repentance.

If you do a search on the word “confess” or “confession” in the New Testament, you’ll find it most often refers to confessing that a person believes in Jesus.  When the New Testament writers wrote about confession, they did not mean an internal thought.  They understood confession as a verbal, out-loud expression that people can hear.  It was actually risky, bold, to put your belief out there in that day and age.  To admit publicly that you were a Christ-follower could get you imprisoned or killed.  Confession was out loud. 

Interesting, then, isn’t it, that James writes, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”  (James 5:16)  You cannot think your confession of sin to another person.  Unless you have ESP, I guess.   But I doubt you have ESP. Instead, we should verbalize our confession to others.  To fulfill the biblical imperative of confession, we need to actually talk with the person or people we have sinned.

When Michelle and I were dating, I went with her to her church one Sunday, and it was a doozy.  After the service was over the pastor asked everyone to stay, as he had an announcement.  Their elder board had received the resignation of the chairperson of the elder board because the chairperson was found to be having an extramarital affair.  Then the chairperson got up and admitted to it, in front of the whole church, confessing his sin. 

It can be very difficult to know when public confession is necessary, and how public it ought to be. It is important to keep many, if not most, situations confidential. Sometimes, however, public sins are best addressed by public confessions. That said, it seems to me that the vast majority of situations can be kept confidential, only involving the affected parties. It also seems to me that the Catholic church has a wonderful practice of the sacrament of confession. Though it is often lampooned, the confessional booth can be a vital place of spiritual renewal. I personally have never been to a priest for confession, but I do meet regularly with my long-time friend and accountability partner to talk about our lives. We met in college and started up a friendship that included asking each other a list of accountability questions. It was most definitely a time of confession. Still is all these years later, though we don’t use a list anymore.

Sorrow should lead to confession. How do you confess your sins?

But neither sorrow nor confession is repentance. It is to repentance that we turn in our next post.

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Repenting is action – Advent 2022, Week 2, Part 2

I’ve been teaching a theology class this fall, and repentance was a topic we covered.  It was interesting how many of the students missed this active dynamic of repentance.  Actually, it seems many of them confused repentance with sorrow and confession.  Those terms are certainly related to repentance, cousins maybe. 

As we learned in the previous post, John the Baptist preached, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is near.”? What does he mean? That we should be sorry for our bad choices? That we should confess our sins? We need to have a clear understanding of the difference between repentance and sorrow and confession, if we want to understand John the Baptist’s preaching correctly. We do want to understand John correctly, because, as we will see, you and I are people who still need to repent.

Repent is the idea of turning.  To repent is to turn away from a selfish life toward a God-honoring life.  Repenting is when we stop requiring that things go our way, and instead pursue God’s way.  So repenting is action.

Sorrow and confession are sometimes prior to repentance.  Not always.  I think there are actually plenty of times when we need to fake it before we make it.  Do the right thing, and the heart will follow, even if we don’t feel sorry about it. 

Really, Joel?  Fake being sorry?  Won’t that lead to the other person accusing us of “You’re not sorry! I can tell! You don’t mean it.”  There are clearly times when faking it can make things worse.  Because of that sometimes people suggest that we should only express sorrow if we really feel sorry. 

The problem is this.  If all we humans ever did was follow the desire of our hearts, I’m afraid that could be very, very bad for humanity and the world.  Thankfully, we don’t only follow our hearts.  We often do, and that can lead to sometimes good outcomes and sometimes not so good outcomes.  What I am suggesting is that we should not wait until we are sorry to pursue God’s way of life.  Being sorry can make it easier, because then our desires are more likely lining up with God’s ways.  When we are sorry, we really do or mostly do want to follow God’s ways.

But we humans know that will not always be the case.  We should attempt to do what God wants even if we don’t want to do what God wants.  Kind of like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane right before he was about to be betrayed, arrested, denied, tried, beaten, crucified and killed.  Who in their right mind would want to go through all that?  No one.  Jesus didn’t want to go through that either.  That’s why he prayed, “Father, if there is any way, please take this from me.” 

What we see in Jesus is competing desire.  He didn’t want to go through pain, but he did want to complete the mission God gave him.  So I think it is most proper to say that we humans are rarely ever 100% pure in our motivations.  Maybe never 100% pure.  We might not feel totally sorry for the wrong we did, but we still might have at little bit of sorrow in there.  What I often pray is “God, help me act on the part of my desire, even if it is a sliver, that wants to do what is in line with your heart.”    

So what is sorrow?  Sorrow is an internal anguish that is usually mixed up with shame and guilt and embarrassment at our choices to behave or think in ways that do not honor God, in ways that are not in line with God’s heart.  This sorrow is very important, especially because we can grow callouses on our hearts.  There are times when we should be sorry, but we are mostly not.  That’s a dangerous place to be.   Because if we are mostly not sorry, we will have a more difficult time with what comes next. 

What comes next is critical, and we’ll learn about it in the next post.

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Air Force 1 and repentance – Advent 2022, Week 2, Part 1

I have a friend who is like John the Baptist. He is a pilot in the US Air Force.  In addition to his primary duty flying planes, my friend has served on the Air Force’s advance team for Air Force One, the specially-fitted jumbo jet that the US President uses to fly all over the world. 

Here’s how my friend described his role.  “As Presidential Advance Agents, our job was to travel out a week or two ahead of Air Force One to make sure the airport was capable of handling the airplane’s arrival. We worked with airport authorities, host nation military units, and local law enforcement to ensure parking, fuel, aircraft servicing, aircrew transportation and lodging, and security was adequate and ready for the President’s visit. We also had the pleasure of directing the airplane into its parking spot when it arrived.” 

That is very similar to what John did for Jesus.  Hear me clearly.  I am not saying that any president or world leader is like Jesus, or that Jesus is like any world leader.  Not at all.  I’m just using an analogy to help us understand that John’s role was to help people get ready to receive Jesus.  That’s what the Season of Advent is all about, getting ready to celebrate Jesus’ birth, and thus becoming more ready for his return.  How did John help the people get ready?

Turn to Matthew 3.  Last week we began our Advent series talking about getting ready by having hope in the Kingdom. You can read those posts, starting here.  We return to what John the Baptist preached in Matthew 3, but this week looking at another element of John’s preaching.  What did John preach? 

“In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.’ This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: ‘A voice of one calling in the desert, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.”’”

In John the Baptist’s role as forerunner, he helps the people get ready by preaching, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” 

Repent?  How in the world was John so popular, with crowds flocking to him, when his message was “Repent!”? 

Normally, when I think of a preacher using the words “Repent!”, I think of someone who is shouting angrily at crowds of people in some busy place like the city square or outside a sporting event as all the people are trying to get inside and get away from that fire and brimstone preaching.  Those preachers can sound so harsh.  “Turn or burn!” they say, which is a shortened form of “Repent or go to hell!” 

Is that what John means when he says, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is near.”?

No. When John preached repentance, he had something much more beautiful in mind.

Check back to the next post, as we’ll begin to learn John’s vision of repentance.

We can’t be Jesus’ disciples without helping others also become his disciples – Becoming Disciplemakers, Part 5

When Jesus commissioned his disciples to make disciples, they did so. Their disciples continued the mission, making more disciples. 2 Timothy 2:2 is a wonderful vision of this cycle, as Paul tells Timothy to teach people who will be able to teach more people. That’s four generations of disciples in just one verse! We Christians in 2022 are the benefactors of this never-ending cycle that began two millenia ago. How does the disciple-making cycle work?

It starts when a person begins a relationship with Jesus begins by believing, by trusting in him. But that relationship must move beyond the initial believing. A relationship with Jesus will not be a relationship very long if the trusting and believing is not followed by following Jesus.

Trust and obey, we teach our children, for there’s no other way.  Or as James says in James 2, “Faith without works is dead.”  “Even Satan and the demons have faith,” James says.  They know Jesus is the truth.  But of course they do not obey him.  That’s where a true disciple is different, they give their lives over to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him.

We all need to ask ourselves the serious question “Have I crossed the Matthew 7 line?”  What’s the Matthew 7 line? See this post. Once we have crossed the Matthew 7 line, then we help others cross the Matthew 7 line.  It involves spending time with people.  Lots of time. Intentional time. 

But what do we do with that time?  Or to put it another way, what is time well spent so that we are helping people grow in their discipleship to Jesus?  The easy answer is to go through a Bible study workbook together.  That is not a wrong answer.  There are plenty of Bible studies. Good Bible studies that can lead to good discussions.

But did Jesus lead his disciples in Bible studies?  Sometimes, yes.  We see that from time to time he discussed Scripture with them and others.  More often he told parables, stories to get them thinking.  But are there others ways that we see Jesus actually investing in his disciples?

He led by example. He demonstrated graciousness, forgiveness, boldness, kindness, and love. He spent time alone with his Father. He asked questions. Lots of questions. He gave the disciples responsibilities. First, he asked them to baptize people. Then he sent the 12 on a mission trip. Then he sent 70 or 72 on a trip. Gradually, through patient investment in their lives, he molded them to the place where they were ready to take over for him.

Who are you investing in? Who are you helping mold into disciples of Jesus?

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How to change – Becoming Disciplemakers, Part 4

How do people change?

How do people who are following Jesus become more like Jesus?

An extremely important way to begin is to humbly and teachably read his word and ask the Spirit of God to convict you of any sin in your life that needs to be changed. 

The next step is to share this with people who will speak honestly with you.  Invite people who are also disciples of Jesus to speak the truth in love to you.  To hold you accountable with you. 

And continue in this until you are making changes that God wants you to make. 

A disciple is learning from Jesus how to live.  One aspect of being Jesus’ disciple, therefore, is putting off the old selfish way, and putting on the new way of Jesus.  The apostle Paul used that image in Romans 13:14 when he wrote, “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”

It is like clothing.  When I go out to mow the grass, do yard work or split and stack wood, I get very sweaty and dirty.  Those dirty sweaty clothes represent the old way of life, the selfish way, where certain sins reside in our lives.

I come inside, cool off, get a shower, put on new clean clothes.  Those clean clothes, Paul says, represent the new way of Jesus.  His way is the way of a transformed heart.  Paul calls it the Fruit of the Spirit, where the good things of Jesus are growing inside us, and those good things naturally come out.

Turn back to Matthew 7, but a few verses earlier. This is what Jesus says in verses 15-20, “By their fruit you will know them.”  I look at my berry bushes and I know what kind they are.  The ones on the left have black berries and the ones on the right have red berries.  Then there are also plants that look similar that grow up in the middle of the berries.  But those plants, though they look similar, they have no berries.  They are weeds. 

You know a person by his or her fruit too.  If you find or if others tell you that you are regularly grumpy, complaining, angry, upset, selfish, hiding away, escaping to fantasy, manipulative, lying, hurting feelings, rough, harsh, talking too much, having to be the center of attention, then those are the fruits that are coming out of your life. 

Here’s the thing though, so often those negative fruits are coming out of our lives, but we are more than willing to let ourselves off the hook and say “Well, I’m not so bad.”  Or “Tough, that’s just me.”  “Deal with it, that’s how God made me.”  If you ever hear words like those coming out of your mouth, or even if you just think thoughts like that, you should be very concerned about yourself.  You need people to confront you, to tell you the true story of who you are, and you need to listen to them. 

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The failure of the American church’s educational model of discipleship – Becoming Disciplemakers, Part 3

We’ve been talking about what Jesus meant in Matthew 7, verse 21, when he says that the only ones who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven are those who do the will of the father in heaven.

What is his will? 

Jump ahead to Matthew 16:24-28.  Jesus says it clear as day: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”

That’s a disciple:  Deny yourself.  Take up your cross.  Follow him. 

Do you see how different that is than street corner evangelism?

Do you see how different that is than showing up for church services and maybe greeting people on a Sunday morning?

We’re talking about something different than what has typically been taught as discipleship.  Even if you have been in church all your life for 80+ years, I am saying that it is very possible that you have been taught an incorrect description of what a disciple is. I am saying that you might think you are a disciple, but you actually are not. 

I’m saying that you might not have crossed the Matthew 7 line, and yet you think you have, just like those people in Jesus’ parable in Matthew 7:21-23 who said “Lord, Lord.”  I do not want you to be deceived into thinking that you are a disciple when you actually are not.

So it is extremely important that we look at the Christian church has approached disciplemaking.  When we say that we want to become disciplemakers, does that mean we haven’t been a disciplemakers in the past?  Yes, I think it is very possible.

We have had a lot of hopes.  In particular, we have based a lot of our hopes on an educational model.  We have not used the disciple-making approach of Jesus.  We have used teachers, classrooms, lectures, studies, workbooks…all educational model activities.  These are not bad or sinful activities.  They actually have good intentions.  But notice what the educational model does.  It focuses on the communication of knowledge, on people gaining knowledge. 

But that’s not what Jesus did when he made disciples out of those followers.

Here’s another point of confusion.  Jesus made disciples and he asked his disciples to make more disciples.  He said “Make disciples.”  Jesus did not say “I want you to make believers.” 

What he said is that he wants us to disciple people in such a way that they, too, deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him.  We do not want make believers.  We want make disciples.  When people get connected to a church, we do not want them to just be Sunday morning worshipers and fellowshippers, we want them to be people of whom it can be said, “They are denying themselves, taking up their cross and following him.”

Therefore, if you say “Well, I believe in Jesus,” you should not be assured that you are a disciple.  If you say “Well, I believe in Jesus,” and you look at your life and you see that your relationship with Jesus is focused on attending Sunday morning worship services and other church fellowship gatherings, you should not be assured that you are actually a disciple. 

Jesus taught that discipleship was a life of learning from him.  To be his apprentice.  To learn from him how to live.  Gradually he molded his disciples into the men and women who could take over the mission of God’s Kingdom for him.

His central teaching was that to be his disciple, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him, and then help others do the same.

So what is taking up your cross?  How do we do that in our world?

First, let me ask “What is NOT taking up your cross?”  We hear the phrase “That’s my cross to bear”.  Is that what Jesus is talking about?  Not necessarily.

“Well, I have to take care of my elderly parents.  It’s my cross to bear.”  Usually we say that as a “poor me”. 

Or “My boss is a jerk.  It’s my cross to bear.”

All kinds of stuff can be our cross to bear.  But that’s not what Jesus meant.

Instead a disciple carries his cross daily and follows Jesus.  Jesus meant that his way, his life, becomes our focus.  We learn to do what he did.  Even if it is difficult.  Even if it is putting your life at risk for Jesus and the advancement of his Kingdom.  Even if it means you don’t get to experience the pleasures of this world, though you see your friends and neighbors and co-workers doing. 

Jesus described it perfectly when he said that taking up your cross starts with denying yourself.

Taking up your cross is a figurative picture of giving up everything to follow Jesus. It is saying to Jesus, “I give you permission to do what you want with me.  I give you permission to have control of every area of my life.”  Then we actually change whatever areas of your lives he wants to change.

But how do you do that? Check back in to the next post and we’ll try to answer that question.

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The time Jesus told people “Depart from me!” – Becoming Disciplemakers, Part 2

What is discipleship?

It is crossing The Matthew 7 line.

Our Faith Church logo has four squares, with a vertical line in the middle.  We call that the Matthew 7 line.  Let me explain.

In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus teaches one of his most important, I think, and revealing parables.  What he says there, I call the Matthew 7 line. 

In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus introduces us to people who want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  That should resonate because I suspect just about everyone reading this blog wants to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And yet, what Jesus says is very disappointing, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” 

Imagine that. People there at the gates of heaven, thinking they are getting in.  Thinking they have a close enough relationship to Jesus.  They even call him “Lord, Lord,” as if he actually is their Lord. 

Jesus looks at them and says, “Wait a minute, there is a different criteria for getting into the Kingdom of heaven.”  See the end of verse 21.  Jesus says that the only people who can enter the Kingdom of Heaven are those who do the will of his father in heaven. 

Well, right away, these people think, “Good, I have done God’s will!”  Those people are happy, believing they have it made because they did God’s will.  In fact they can prove it.  They can look at their lives and present the evidence of how they did God’s will.  So they start telling Jesus all about it, “Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name.  We drove out demons in your name, and we even performed miracles.”

They’re not lying.  That would be ridiculous.  Jesus could say, “Uh, no you didn’t.”  So these people truly did some pretty amazing things, and they did so in his name.  You and I, if we came across people doing miracles and exorcisms, we would think “Woah…the Holy Spirit is at work in that person’s life! They are definitely making it into the Kingdom of Heaven.” 

You can see why these people thought they were good to go.  You can see why they thought that the evidence of these miracles guaranteed that they were getting in the Kingdom of heaven.   

What Jesus says in response to them is shocking, “I got some news for you.  I never knew you.  Depart from me you evildoers.”

If I was one of those miracle workers, I would be totally surprised by this.  I’m thinking, “No way, Jesus, this cannot be.” 

You know what you and I can learn from this parable?  That there are people who will think they are absolutely positively going to heaven, and they will be shocked to learn that they are wrong. 

That freaks me out.  Let’s be frank.  This passage should give all of us cause to hit the pause button on life and ask ourselves about our relationship with God.  This is why I think this teaching is one of the most important in all of Jesus’ teachings. 

I want every reader of this blog to hear the Lord say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into your rest.”  But I am concerned that if all we are is worshipers and fellowshipers, we will hear “Depart from me, I never knew you.”

We need to cross the Matthew 7 line.  We need to do what Jesus says here in Matthew 7:21.  If we want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, what we need to do, he says, in verse 23 is to know him.  But what does that mean, “to know him”?  Those people sure seemed to know him. They even did miracles and cast demons out of people.  How can Jesus say that they didn’t know him?

In verse 21 he gives us a pretty bold clue as to what it means to know him.   He does not say “believe in your heart.”  He does not say “do religious stuff”.  That’s what the people in verse 22 think qualifies them to make it in the Kingdom.  Jesus says “Nope. There is something else.”  Look again at verse 21.  He says that the only ones who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven are those who do the will of the father in heaven.

And what is his will? 

We’ll talk about that in the next post.

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What discipleship is and isn’t – Becoming Disciplemakers, Part 1

In our study through the Gospel of John, we have seen Jesus interact with his disciples. Their relationship began in chapter 1 when Jesus showed up to be baptized by John.  Then the disciples watch him at the wedding in Cana in chapter 2.  They’re with him when he clears out the temple.  In chapters 3 and 4 Jesus begins a baptism ministry in Judea, and he has his disciples do the baptizing. 

But just as ministry is going great, to avoid the watchful gaze of the Pharisees, they pack up and head north to their home area of Galilee, but not before a pit stop in Samaria.  Jesus’ decision to talk with a Samaritan woman surprises his disciples, because in their culture a Rabbi would rarely talk with a woman in public, and especially not a Samaritan.  This gives Jesus an opportunity to discuss ministry and mission with his disciples.  As we continue studying John, we’re going to observe even more about Jesus in his role as disciplemaker. 

That is what I want to talk about further this week.  Next week begins Advent. So we’ll return to the Gospel of John series in the new year.  As we’re watching Jesus, absorbing how he interacted with his disciples, let’s try to apply his discipleship choices to our lives. 

That begs the questions, though Jesus made disciples, are you and I called to make disciples?  We’re certainly not in the same league as Jesus, right? Well, turn to Matthew 28:16-20.

In this passage, Jesus is just about to leave the disciples and return to his father in heaven.  These are his final instructions for them.  What does he say? 

“Make disciples, teaching them to obey everything I taught you.” 

He had made them into his disciples, and now he wants them to do what he did.  And that’s exactly what they did. 

Another time Jesus hints at this is John 20:19-23,

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Christians are people who are sent by Jesus, just like Jesus was sent by his Father.  God sent Jesus to the earth to die, yes. But that’s not all Jesus was sent to do.  If all he was supposed to do was die, then he could have been born one minute and die the next.  No, his mission was larger.  God sent him to make disciples, to start a movement of disciplemaking.

This is why Jesus needed time.  As we saw in John 4, though he had a thriving ministry in Judea, Jesus packs it up, and along with his disciples, he heads north, away from the headquarters of the Pharisees.  He wants time with his disciples.  He wants to invest in their lives, to teach them the way of the Kingdom.  Jesus was a disciplemaker. 

But here’s the problem, there is much confusion in our day about what disciples are and what discipleship is.  What is discipleship?  What exactly are we talking about when we use the word “discipleship”?  What do you think it is?  Take a moment and write down the words or pictures that come to mind when you think of discipleship.

Is discipleship what an outdoor evangelist does? Think about people who have a bold outward style of evangelism.  They are out on the streets, on college campuses, at major sporting events, holding signs hoping to attract attention of passersby and engage them in conversation.  Many people have thought of that as discipleship.  Many have wondered, “If I have go out on the street corner and tell the crowds about Jesus, then I don’t think I can do that.” 

But what outdoor evangelists do is only one of many options for proclaiming the content of the Gospel. Furthermore, proclaiming content is different from discipleship.  It is part of discipleship, but it does not encompass all of discipleship. 

When you hear Jesus instruct his disciples to “make disciples” he is not referring to what outdoor evangelists does. Proclaiming the content story of Good News is not discipleship.

This brings us back to the question: What is discipleship?

Discipleship is crossing the Matthew 7 line. Do you know the Matthew 7 line? No? We’ll find out about it in the next post.

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Why believing is just the beginning – Becoming Disciplemakers: Preview

How do we help people who are not currently followers of Jesus become followers of Jesus?  I ask that question admittedly making the assumption that being a follower of Jesus is the best possible way of life, holding hope for both abundant life now and eternal life in the future. I recognize that many people disagree with those assumptions. But I start with that disclaimer because in what follows, I run the risk of sounding like religion that treats people as projects, and I do not agree with that. Instead, my hope is that more people will become followers of Jesus because I genuinely believe it is in everyone’s best interest.

My guess is that there are a lot of people in our communities who are not followers of Jesus.  People that you and I know and interact with every day.  Think about your neighbors.  In your minds imagine their homes, located around your home.  Who are your neighbors?  Do they follow Jesus?  Now think about your family and close friends?  List their names in your mind.  Take a pause from reading this article. Write down their names.  Do each of them follow Jesus?  How about your co-workers?  Are they followers of Jesus?

So far in this post, I’ve only asked you to consider the people you probably know fairly well. My guess is that there are also many other people you know as acquaintances. Friends of friends.  Parents of your kids’ friends.  Other parents on your kids’ or grandkids’ sports teams.  The wait staff at the restaurant you frequent.  Your plumber.  There are plenty of people you have a connection with.  Are they followers of Jesus?

I ask you to think about these names and faces because my guess is that there are at least a few people in each of our lives who are not followers of Jesus.  What will it take for us to invite them to become followers of Jesus?  In our study of the Gospel of John, we’ve been watching as Jesus interacts with his disciples and some other people, like the Samaritan woman at the well.  They all become his followers.  How did he do it

There is a starting point in their followership.  There is a moment in which they make the decision to begin following him.  It is the moment of belief, no matter how immature that belief is.  They place a small enough measure of trust in Jesus, and off they go, following him.  Does that mean Jesus’ work is done?  Right after they first starting following him, are the disciples ready to take over for Jesus?  Now that he followers, can he complete God’s mission for him by giving up his life, dying, rising again and ascending back to the Father?  Not a chance!  Why not?

Because though they are now his new disciples, this discipleship relationship has only just begun.  They are only infants in their journey of learning how to follow Jesus.  Jesus knows he must invest a lot more time in their lives.  What will it take for the disciples and other friends of Jesus to grow to maturity so that they can take over for him?

It will take time, and lots of it.  This is why Jesus packed up his thriving ministry in Judea (see John 4:1-3) and headed north to Galilee to restart ministry there, farther away from HQ and watchful eye of the Pharisees who were not thrilled about no-name preachers rising up and wooing the crowds away from the Pharisees.  Jesus needed a lot more time with his friends.  So he made that time, because he wanted to help the disciples become men and women who could carry on the mission when he left.

Because of this important discipleship dynamic, this coming week we’re about discipleship, and how you and I can be disciples who make disciples in 2022 and beyond.  We’re not going to be single, itinerant preachers like Jesus.  At least not many of us we will be.  Most of us have families, jobs, bills, and are living in one place.  And that’s okay; that’s normal.  Though we live very different lives than Jesus’ life, he still calls us to be his disciples who make more disciples.  That’s a calling for all of us.  Not just the professional ministers.  But how do we make disciples?  Join us on the blog next week, and we’ll talk about it further.

Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash