Discipling: Chapter 3 (The Work of Discipling) — Transcript

So for this evening, uh, we are going to be in chapter three of this little book discipling. And uh, if you haven't been able to be with us for all the different uh, weeks leading up to this, if you haven't been here for the introduction, the first two chapters, those are all available on our website, those are all available on YouTube. Um, but you can catch up with those. And these are really short chapters, most of them three and four pages long, so, uh, you can work through the book and then go check out those, those messages that have already been done. This evening, we're in chapter three, the work of discipling. And and going through the introduction and going through this first few chapters, we've talked about the the power of influence and the idea that all of us are inevitably inevitably influencing others. That whether we recognize it, whether we want it or not, we all are influencing others in some way. Nobody's an island. And and Paul when he writes to the the church at Corinth, he says, no one lives to themselves, no one dies to himself.

Everybody is carrying influence. It's just a matter of how we're wielding it. And then last week, we looked at the the uh, discipling being others-oriented. And in particular, we really considered that discipleship is labor. It it's work, it's toil. And in particular, we went to Colossians 1:29 and and saw how this is labor that's not restricted to a program. It's not something that's without that's without striving. It it's something that is done in the power of the Lord. It's something that we can't just fall into. You you'll hear around here every now and then things like nobody stumbles into maturity. But the the same is true that nobody stumbles into discipling normally.

You might stumble into your influence, but if you're going to wield that well, that's going to take place intentionally. And so this evening, we're we're really looking at how do we do that work? How is it that we go about doing the work of being a discipler? And in this chapter this evening, I think sets out the task and the the work of discipling really, really well. And so we're going to use it as sort of a springboard. So if you haven't read the chapter, don't worry, we're going to kind of refer to it once or twice, but you don't have to have read it to to be keeping up this evening. And this evening, we're going to look at four marks of discipleship. And they're really laid out on page 36 of the book, if you've got it with you. Four marks of discipling. That's teaching, correcting, modeling, and loving. Teaching, correcting, modeling, and loving.

So, first of all, just to start with the idea of teaching. Essential to the work of discipling. Is this work of teaching. And we've said, just to kind of back up for a second, make sure that we're all on the same page. We've said that discipling is life on life with Jesus at the center. And that of necessity involves teaching. It it means bringing someone from a state of not knowing something to now they know about it. And it's foundational to discipling. There's got to be some communication of information. If that's not taking place, discipling is not happening. There's got to be discipling. In fact, if we go to what is probably one of the key texts in scripture on discipling, Matthew 28, 19 and 20, the Great Commission. We're going to get there in a couple years in our study in Matthew.

I'm not joking. But when we get there, when we get there, those last verses of Matthew, Jesus's command of go, make disciples of all the nations. How are they supposed to do that? He starts out baptizing them. But in verse 20, he's he he continues or expands on that idea of saying, teaching them. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. So if we're going to be obedient to that command, if we're going to be to to kind of borrow an overused phrase, Great Commission Christians. If we're going to be doing the work of discipling, we have to be teaching. We have to be teaching. And think about just in the Gospel of Matthew, how much is taken up with teaching. Each one of the four Gospels has a different emphasis. Each one of the four Gospels has its own its own particular thrust of what it's doing.

Usually that's stated in those Gospels. Matthew in particular is taken up with Jesus's teaching. You you've got it in the Sermon on the Mount, three chapters concentrated of Jesus's teaching. Now, if you look through the other Gospels, what you'll find is constant references to him teaching. Or you'll have condensed versions of that teaching. Luke has a condensed version of what you find in the Sermon on the Mount. You go into other passages in Matthew, you have the parables, there's repeated in Matthew and in Mark. You have later on in Matthew, some of the chapters that we're getting ready to get into. What what's known as the Olivet Discourse, Jesus teaching the disciples. You have some of the stuff that we're getting ready to get to a a little bit sooner than that. Where Jesus is uh uh repeating these woes to the Pharisees. In all of that, Jesus is teaching. But if you look at some of Jesus's own purpose statements, when he is beginning his ministry, he says, I'm here to announce the good news. I I've been sent to proclaim the coming of the kingdom. John the Baptist says, I'm I'm here to make way for Jesus. I'm here to prepare the way. I'm announcing this is who the Messiah is and we need to be prepared for him to come. And then when John is in prison, Jesus's ministry takes on a whole other dynamic where he's essentially taking up that mantle. He's taking that spot and he's proclaiming the Gospel.

Central to what Jesus was doing throughout his ministry on the way to the cross was teaching and preaching. Paul speaks about this relationship. In in in uh meeting with the leaders of the churches in Ephesus, if you've got your Bible, go ahead and turn to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. This is towards the end of the story in the book of Acts. This is towards the end of what we know of biblically Paul's ministry. And here he's had already his great missionary journeys in chapter 13 and 14 of Acts. He's had the first missionary journey, then he's had the second missionary journey in chapters 15 through um all the way through chapter 17. And then you have now he's on his way to Jerusalem. He knows that he's going to be imprisoned. He knows that this is going to go badly. He he's even had that revealed to him. And he's gathering leaders of churches that he has started or that he's been instrumental in starting. And as he gathered these gathered these elders in together and tells them, listen, this is going to be the one of the last times we see each other and we have face-to-face communication. He gathers these elders in in verse 17 of Acts chapter 20. And he says, beginning in verse 18, you yourselves know from the first day that I set foot in Asia, in this province, how I was with you the whole time. Serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews. How, verse 20, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable. And teaching you publicly and from house to house. Solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul essentially is saying, remember, remember what I did when I was among you? In characteristically, he's saying, I was teaching you. Publicly and in various houses. You go all the way back to the book of the beginning of the book of Acts. What were they doing? They were observing the apostles' doctrine. They were daily with one another and in every house. What were they doing? Well, what have you said discipleship is? Life on life. It's teaching. And and that takes place not just in the public arenas, and we'll get more to this later. But also in the life on life scenarios of in your house. We see even somehow this plays out in some of the earlier chapters. Turn back just a little bit with me to Acts chapter 19. Acts chapter 19, Paul is here preaching in Ephesus. Verse 8, we'll begin there. He entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the way before the people. In other words, when they were no longer receptive, and and just to kind of pause from this, if you'll remember, if you were here last week, if you weren't, this will be the, you know, you don't have to remember, it'll be the first time you're hearing it. In these discipling relationships, it it's the people who are receptive. It it's it's the people, there's a there's a wonderful statement made early on in this on on the top of page 36 of the of the book discipling. It'll say right underneath initiating, it says, discipling necessarily involves initiating. It's not passive. And this that can feel awkward. You cannot disciple everybody. So you have to pick this person and not that one.