Sermon Tone Analysis

Running head: DISCIPLESHIP PLAN

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! Discipleship Plan: Implementing Lessons Learned in CMN 8263

Eric Meyer

John Brown University

 

 

 

 

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CMN 8263: Discipleship & Evangelism

Professor Lanker

6~/17~/2008

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Discipleship Plan: Implementing Lessons Learned in CMN 8263

    To achieve a goal, one needs to start with a plan.

Enjoying life is a basic goal to which most people aspire, and like all other goals, a plan needs to be in place in order to achieve that goal.

Jesus teaches that He intends that we don’t just struggle through life, but that we, “May have life, and have it abundantly.”

(John 10:10, 2002, p. 1390)  Having life abundantly in Jesus is a gift, but one that must be earned.

22 times it was recorded in the NASB Gospels that Jesus told His audience to, “Follow Me.”

However, Jesus did not expect us to follow Him blindly.

He spent 3 years teaching His first disciples a plan.

It is the responsibility of current disciples to learn that plan and to teach others what Jesus meant when He told Simon and Andrew to, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 5:19, 2002, p. 1247) 

Discipleship is a word that has tremendous meaning.

It is a personal relationship with Jesus, the cost of entry to the Kingdom of God, and requires constant attention and practice.

It is a process that will last the entire life of the disciple.

Discipleship means recognizing that one’s whole life belongs to Jesus.

He tells potential disciples that following Him will require a cost, and that cost must be considered before making the decision to follow.

Jesus bluntly stated a cost when He said, “So then, none of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.”

(Luke 14:33, 2002, p. 1352)  Jesus defined another cost when He said, “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”

(Matthew 10:39, 2002, p. 1257)    The key point to understand is that Jesus wants to build a relationship with people.

He has created a magnificent plan, and fulfilled His part of that plan.

He wants His followers to understand the endless depth of His love for them, and they can only do that by participating in His plan.

Discipleship is a process of moving from being self centered to being Christ centered.

“The vision Jesus set into motion meant finding and training more people like the Eleven, a lifelong experience where imperfect people would be shaped into his likeness-marked by progress, not perfection.”

(Hull, 2006, p. 33)  Jesus created us with the gift of a free will.

A person can freely choose to love Jesus by following His commands, or live a life without Jesus that is dominated by self interest.

Oswald Chambers describes this process by using the example of how Jesus liked to give His disciples nicknames.

This is a beautiful insight into the kind of relationship Jesus wants to have with His disciples.

A nickname indicates an intimate level of friendship.

“Thou art Simon, thou shalt be called Cephas.”  “God writes the new name on those places only in our lives where He has erased the pride and self-sufficiency and self interest.

The disciple is one who has the new name written all over him; self-interest and pride and self-sufficiency have been completely erased.”

(Chambers, 1963, p. June 12) 

 Jesus wants an intensely personal relationship with His disciples.

He wants more than just followers; He wants every part of a disciple’s life to be lived with His Spirit.

To reach this level of intimacy, Jesus says to never stop seeking Him.

Jesus teaches that people will find what they seek, “For everyone who asks receives, and He who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

(Matthew 7:8, 2002, p. 1251)   One who seeks evil will find it, but Jesus promises that if He is sought, He will be found.

However, He wants His disciples to do more than just seek, but to abide in His love.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

(John 15:7, 2002, p. 1399)  To understand these words though, the disciple needs to continue reading the chapter.

Jesus defines what it means to abide in Him, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” (John 15:10, 2002, p. 1399)  Another aspect of abiding with Jesus, of developing that intense personal relationship is the practice of the spiritual disciplines.

Bill Hull notes that, “The key to inner transformation is to make spiritual disciplines habits.

Being trained is a product of practice.”

(Hull, 2006, p. 206)  A deep and rewarding friendship takes effort from both parties.

God has done His part.

A disciple must actively participate to reap the rewards.

The key to life with Jesus as a disciple is the word “obey.”

It is a word with negative connotations for many, but in a life with Jesus it is a word that brings peace, love, joy, and comfort.

In order to begin this life with Jesus, a person simply needs to obey.

Belief is not a prerequisite for following Jesus.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer states, “Only those who believe obey …and only those who obey believe.”

(Bonhoeffer, 1959, p. 68)  Jesus told His disciples that they would have work to do in following Him.

He never tried to hide the fact that following His commandments would be difficult.

However, He made this beautiful promise to those who obeyed, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

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.

For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”

(Matthew 11:28, 2002, p. 1258)

The last recorded words of Jesus while He walked on earth were, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the age.”

(Matthew 28:19, 2002, p. 1290)  If disciples must obey, then a key part of their job is to teach others.

While the word is not used specifically in the Bible, today the teaching of Jesus’ commands is called evangelism.

Evangelism must be done with care.

Jesus’ plan requires His disciples to teach others as he taught, and that teaching was done with love as the most important consideration.

Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you love one another.”

(John 14:34, 2002, p. 1397)  Becoming a disciple means significant change from a life dominated by sin.

The evangelist needs to lovingly consider how He presents the Gospel.

It is a process, and the evangelist is not to force God’s words on people without understand the person to whom they are speaking, “If you want people to change, you must first accept them as they are.

Jesus did exactly that; he accepted sinners and challenged them to change.”

(Maricle, 2007, p. 40) 

A key point to remember is that the evangelist is only the messenger; God does all of the work.

The point is not to try to convert someone to Christianity on the spot, but to introduce them to the word of God.  Mike Breen give a great example when he says, “Checking the corn every day to see if it’s gotten taller does not bring the harvest time any sooner.

Jesus says the harvest is plentiful.

There is always an opportunity to see people come to Christ when it is the right time for those people.”

(Breen, 2005, p. 212)  Being a disciple is a life long process, and introducing the word of God to someone is a similar process.

The evangelist needs to rely on God because, “He gives us his message of truth, he indwells us with his presence so we may mediate his divine love to our neighbor, and he fills and renews us with his Holy Spirit.

Evangelism is something that God does in people’s lives; we are only the instruments he uses.”

(Pippert, 1999, p. 137) 

In order to receive the Holy Spirit, people need to hear the word of God.

Jesus gave His disciples a wonderful tool to use in that introduction; He gave them the Gospel.

Immediately after Pentecost, Peter used the story of Jesus, the words of God, to exhort the audience to save themselves from their life of sin, and it is recorded, “So then, those who had received his words were baptized…” (Acts 2:41, 2002, p. 1413)  The words that the early Apostles were preaching were more than just the verbatim sentences spoken by Jesus.

They were teaching what they had learned by living with Jesus throughout His ministry.

Robert Coleman states that it was not just the words Jesus used, but how He lived that convinced the first disciples that He was God, “But what we sometimes fail to realize is that the revelation of that life in Christ includes the way He lived and taught others to live.

We must remember that the witnesses who wrote the books not only saw the truth; they were changed by it” (Coleman, 2007, p. 16)

The Gospel is the story of Jesus’ life.

It has been spoken, is meant to be lived, and is the living word of Jesus Himself.

It has a rich history, and was not always written.

The first disciples were preaching the Gospel very early after Jesus’ resurrection.

Paul indicates that the Gospel is something one tries to live; to work at ahieving.

He says, “And we sent Timothy, and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ.”

(1 Thessalonians 3:2, 2002, p. 1532)  This story was lived and spoken for many years before it was written down.

Paul Barnett gives this description of the activities of the early disciples, “Furthermore, they were engaged in missionary activity from before the time of the first Easter up to and beyond the writing of the earliest Gospel.

No glass wall separated the oral from the written Gospel…The Gospel the eyewitness Peter preached, assisted by his amanuensis Mark, seamlessly became the Gospel Mark wrote.”

(Barnett, 2005, p. 181)  The Gospel, the story of Jesus’ life and teachings has the power to change the life of any who hear it because it is more than just words.

It is the living story of Jesus filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

It is, “The joyous proclamation of God’s redemptive activity in Christ Jesus on Behalf of humans enslaved to sin.” (Elwell, 2001, p. 513)

Jesus’ plan is orchestrated so that everyone has a chance to enter the Kingdom of God.

His first words as a teacher as recorded in Mark are, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom is at hand; repent and believe the gospel.”

(Mark 1:15, 2002, p. 1291)  Jesus clearly defined the Kingdom as available to men at this very moment, yet the pain of the world today would indicate that we are far from living in the utopia of God’s Kingdom.