The Question Every Disciple-Maker Must Answer

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Pastor Foley

Part IV of our series on Making Disciples

Jesus is getting ready to ascend into heaven. After three years, a death, a resurrection, and forty days of appearances he has raised up a tiny but fully discipled band.

Now, in Matthew 28:16-20 Jesus is dispatching them to disciple the entire world. So what are his final words to them? They’re surprisingly unsentimental. He doesn’t talk about faithfulness or perseverance or belief.

Instead, he speaks about discipleship. 

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

“Obey everything” is a really interesting phrase. I like what discipleship specialist Jeremy Pryor writes about that. He says:

“Obey everything I have commanded you” means discipleship must be comprehensive. Most people ignore this line with a sigh and saying to themselves, “See, it’s impossible.” We have an enlightenment definition of comprehensive knowledge but I think both Jesus and the disciples thought this was entirely possible, maybe in a 1–2 year process. Paul says to the Ephesian elders after 2 years, “I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know” (Acts 20:27). So we move on to part 27 in our 49 part series through the book of Luke not considering that we are actually responsible to train each disciple in our care to obey “everything.” This requires an aggressive, comprehensive, systematic plan for discipleship.

That’s the .W model.

And a big part of that model is that we can only pour into others what we are fully aware of having received personally from Christ.

Thus, we are not teaching only information.

We are, instead, pouring out a lifetime of experience—or, more appropriately, personal gifts received from Christ. We can disciple a student to share bread because Christ has shared his bread with us. We can disciple a student to heal and comfort because we have personally experienced the healing and comfort of Christ.

You can see this in the life of the apostle Paul. Christ has emptied himself into Paul, and Paul is deeply aware of this. He writes in Philippians 2 that Christ emptied himself and took on the form of a servant. Now, as the end of Paul’s own life approaches, he draws on the same language of self-emptying, in a personal note to his disciple Timothy. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 4:5-8:

But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

On the last day, the question of the Lord for each teacher will not only be, “Did you teach them to obey everything I commanded?” but rather, “Did you teach them how to receive all the grace that I poured into you?”

How would you answer that question?  What is your strategy for teaching others to receive the same grace God poured into you?

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The Cost of Christian Leadership

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Pastor Foley

Part III of our series on Making Disciples

When it comes to discipleship, what is seldom noted is the amazingly high cost of this philanthropy to the teacher. In the Old Testament model – which Jesus himself embodied as we discovered in our last two posts – it is the students who receive the benefits as the teachers self-empty completely into them.

Paul is quite emphatic about this in his passionate letter to the Corinthian church.

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings—and that without us! How I wish that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you!

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men.

We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!

To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly.

Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world. (1 Corinthians 4:8–13)

It’s very touching when you see the personal cost paid by the teacher in the Work of Mercy of making disciples.

Teachers who grow to fullness in Christ empty themselves fully into their students, and that’s how students come to understand the graciousness of God and the trustworthiness of his love. And students are called to respond by going and doing likewise, at the cost of their own lives, just like Elijah did in passing on the prophet’s mantle to Elisha.

There’s a deep, moving loyalty here. Check out 2 Kings 2:1-14, our story to learn for the week:

Now when the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal.  

And Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me as far as Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.”

So they went down to Bethel.  And the sons of the prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that today the LORD will take away your master from over you?”

And he said, “Yes, I know it; keep quiet.”

Elijah said to him, “Elisha, please stay here, for the LORD has sent me to Jericho.” But he said, “As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.”

So they came to Jericho. The sons of the prophets who were at Jericho drew near to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that today the LORD will take away your master from over you?”

And he answered, “Yes, I know it; keep quiet.”

Then Elijah said to him, “Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me to the Jordan.” But he said, “As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.”

So the two of them went on. Fifty men of the sons of the prophets also went and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. Then Elijah took his cloak and rolled it up and struck the water, and the water was parted to the one side and to the other, till the two of them could go over on dry ground.

When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.”

And Elisha said, “Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me.”

And he said, “You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you, but if you do not see me, it shall not be so.”

And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more.

Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces. And he took up the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water, saying, “Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” And when he had struck the water,(R) the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over.

Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho saw him opposite them, they said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” And they came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.

The disciple becomes the disciple-maker as the LORD, the God of Elijah, becomes to the next generation the LORD, the God of Elisha.

For whom will the LORD be your God?  Are you passing on to others what has been passed on to you?  If so, how are you training them to do the same?

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How to Make Disciples in Three Steps

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Pastor Foley

Part II of our series on Making Disciples

It was just before the Passover Feast.

Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 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.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

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. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. (John 13:1–15)

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you

Imitation is the mother of discipleship. Christians are to imitate their teachers as their teachers imitate the self-emptying of Christ into his students.

Students, in turn, are focused not on their own discipleship but on mirroring the self-emptying of their teachers for the benefit of still other disciples. Paul says it like this in 1 Thessalonians 1:6–7:

You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

You see, the teacher never disciples the student only but is always discipling the student on how to disciple other students. Which Paul says like this in 2 Timothy 2:2:

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.

You can see this three step process (teacher to student to student’s student) in Jesus’ own work.

First there is his practice of the Works of Mercy, in Luke 8:1:

After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.

Then, in Luke 9:1–2, Jesus teaches his closest disciples to practice the Works of Mercy. It says:

When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

Then, in Luke 10:1, the circle widens, with the success of the Twelve as the platform for the expansion of the discipleship mission. Luke writes:

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.

What is the first item of ministry for the expanded circle of discipleship? The expanded circle of disciples themselves undertaking further expansion of the circle, as Jesus urges them to do prayerfully in Luke 10:2:

He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

The apostle Paul mirrors the same strategy:

Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. (Acts 19:8–10)

There is far more to study here, however, than a viral strategy of discipleship. What is seldom noted is the amazingly high cost of this philanthropy to the teacher.  But for more on that you’ll have to…you guessed it…tune into the next post.

For now, share your thoughts: is this teacher to student to student discipleship being well practiced today?  What next step do you or your church need to take to move to this model?

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