Do what Jesus Did Part 1
Notes
Transcript
Countdown
Countdown
Something fun (eg. Game, video, etc.). It is not necessary for this to have a tie in to the lesson, but it can.
Hey! Welcome to the Bridgetown Church Student Movement where we are working together to turn the world upside down by turning our lives upside down for other people.
Here in this place we want you to know that you will find community. Purpose. Mission and Truth. The truth is that God wants to have a relationship with. You.
If you have not met me, my name is Eric. I am the student minister here and before we get started, let’s pray.
Imagine your reaction if someone came back from the dead to speak to you.
Would it look something like this?
(Show Zombie this “I really need to tell you something. I told you I liked that movie you like, but I really thought it was boring.” NOOOO!)
I saw this question in a book written by Francis Chan and David Platt called Multiply. A lot of my message today is based off of that book, but that question made me think about Jesus’ disciples.
So seriously, try to imagine that right now. What would you feel if someone went through all that trouble to raise themselves from the dead just to tell you one more thing.
How intensely would you listen? How seriously would you take his or her words?
Now, before they became Jesus’ disciples there were these twelve men just working their everyday jobs. And this mysterious teacher shows up and asks them to follow Him. So they did. As they followed, they saw Him challenge religious leaders, embrace sinners, heal the sick, and even raise the dead. They knew that He was not an ordinary man. At various times and to varying degrees, people saw Him as the Messiah who would bring salvation for God’s people. But He never quite fit anyone’s expectations of what the Messiah would do or say.
He was turning the world upside down, right? And that is what we want to do with the Bridgetown Church Student Movement. But like we said a couple of weeks ago our movement is built on top of a community. And that community is made up of apprentices or followers or disciples of Jesus. So before we can explore what it means to be a movement we need to explore what it means to be a community. And before we get there we need to talk about what apprenticeship.
The last couple of weeks we have said that disciples or apprentices spend time with the teacher and become like the teacher, right? We see that with Jesus’ disciples. They walked beside Jesus through all of this. They watched as the blind were given sight. They heard Jesus forgive the hopelessly unrighteous and restore the lives of the broken. They helped pass out bread and fish as Jesus miraculously fed huge crowds. The disciples seem to have been more aware of Jesus’s true identity at some points than at others, but they followed Him until the end, slowly becoming more and more like Him every day, believing that He was the one who would restore the fortunes of God’s people.
But then He died.
Just like that. It was over.
It seemed that Jesus could do absolutely anything, that He had power over sickness, death, every person, and every thing. By this power, Jesus was bringing the healing and redemption that the world so desperately needed. He was turning things upside down! But the disciples’ hopes of a better world seemed to die with Jesus.
And so the disciples spent three days in confusion and disillusionment. Everything they had hoped for was gone. Perhaps they had wasted their time following this mysterious person for three years.
But then… He came back from the dead! When Jesus reappeared on the third day, all of their hope came rushing back! Now there could be no doubt! Now that Jesus had conquered even sin and death, He would certainly turn this broken world on its head, issue in the Kingdom , put on the crown. Jesus would accomplish what everyone was longing to see. There could be no stopping Him.
And once again, He surprised everyone. Instead of telling them that He would immediately transform the earth, Jesus gave His disciples one final command and bounced. Kind of. He ascended into heaven but he promised to still be here. Which is a bit confusing, but it is something we will have to tackle another day. But what we want to focus in on today is… What was the command?
Finish the job. Jesus says finish what I started. An apprentice spends time with the teacher, becomes like the teacher and DOES what the teacher does.
So Jesus is like, it’s your turn the world upside down. Take this message, the message of Jesus, the truth of the gospel, that God is offering a relationship with him through the death and resurrection of his son to everyone. They were supposed to take that message that Jesus declared and exemplified in and around Jerusalem and turn the world upside down with it.
Some of that is what we call the movement. And we will get there. But we have not even gotten to the community part. Right now we are focusing on what it means to be an apprentice. And look here at what Jesus says.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matt. 28:18–20)
Q1
Stop for a minute. Turn to your neighbor and discuss, what is Jesus telling his apprentices to do here?
So Jesus comes back from the dead and tells his disciples, as you live your life, as you go, make more apprentices. That is what we call the Great Commission. So there is this big mission, to create a movement that turns the world upside down through self sacrifice and love, right? But the only way that movement works is if it is built on a community of apprentices that are spending time with the teacher, becoming like the teacher and, then, eventually doing what the teacher does- taking on more apprentices. So there is like an outside movement that is dependent upon an inside movement. There is the turning the world upside down piece that is big and affects everyone around you and then there is this piece where, internally, the community is building one another up and teaching and leading each other further into the life that Jesus wants for us.
So Jesus teaching large crowds of people, praying for the sick, etc… outside movement. This stuff is important. But that work does not continue after Jesus leaves without the community of apprentices.
We see Jesus spending time with his disciples over and over again in the gospel. That is the internal movement. This stuff is vital.
Are you following me? Jesus, our teacher did both and we, as his apprentices, need to do what Jesus did.
Sitting with the kid that no one sits with at lunch… outside movement.
Working through a difficult Bible verse with another student here at church… internal movement.
I just wanted to mention the difference there and we will talk about the outside movement more when we get to that. But today we are focused on that smaller internal movement of making more apprentices. Jesus tells us that we are supposed to graduate at some point from being just an apprentice to being a sort of hybrid apprentice/teacher.
And when I say we, I am including you in that word. It is not we, the professional ministers and missionaries of the world. I mean you.
As we read the rest of the New Testament, we see God’s people working together in obedience to Jesus’s command to turn the world upside down. They reached out to the people around them, calling them to obediently follow Jesus. The disciples went about making disciples, teaching them to obey everything that Jesus had commanded and baptizing them. Some of them even moved to different areas or traveled around so that they could tell more people. They took Jesus’s words seriously—and literally. That is the normal community of apprentices. Not just the Bible nerds like me.
So when we read through the New Testament, we see Jesus’s followers are focused on making disciples, new apprentices—which totally makes sense in light of Jesus’s ministry and this Great Commission. The surprise comes when we look at our churches today in light of Jesus’s command to make disciples.
Many people in the church want other people to know about Jesus. But when it comes to helping those other people take steps towards becoming an apprentice, teaching them how to spend time with Jesus, become like Jesus and replicate themselves, they stop. Why is that? It might be because many in the church were never apprenticed under someone who took this command seriously enough. It might be because it is easy to convince someone that Jesus is good. It is harder to ask them to slowly make their entire life revolve around Jesus. And so we just don’t disciple other people.
Do we really believe that Jesus told His early followers to make disciples but wants the twenty-first-century church to do something different? No, but somehow we have created a church culture where the paid ministers do the “ministry,” and the rest of us show up, eat a snack , sing some songs, and leave feeling inspired or “fed.” We have moved so far away from Jesus’s command that many Christians don’t have a frame of reference for what apprentice making looks like.
Q2
Turn to another neighbor and explain the process for how someone grows in their apprenticeship or discipleship to Jesus.
If you are finding it hard to nail down, don’t worry, you are not alone.
So what does apprentice making look like? That is kind of a hard question to answer. For some of us, our church experience has been so focused on programs, like this program that you are in right now, that we immediately think about Jesus’s command to make disciples in programmatic terms. We expect our church leaders to create some sort of disciple-maker campaign where we sign up, commit to participating for a few months, and then get to cross the Great Commission off our list. But making apprentices is far more than a program. It is the mission of our lives. It defines us. An apprentice does what the teacher does… makes more apprentices.
So what does this look like? The Great Commission uses three phrases to describe what disciple making entails: go, baptize people, and teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded. Easy, right?
Well, maybe it is not easy but it is simple. It doesn’t require a diploma or a certification process or you don’t have to be knighted in a special ceremony or something. It’s as simple as meeting people where they are at, encouraging them to commit to the community of Jesus apprentices (this is what baptism is all about), and then helping them get to the point ehere they can begin doing what Jesus did… which in this case is making more disciples. The concept itself is not very difficult.
But the simplest things to understand are often the most difficult to put into practice. Let’s start with baptism. Baptism is an unmistakable act that marked a person as an apprentice. This is the way you declare that you are a part of the community. As Jesus died and was buried in the earth, so a Christian is plunged beneath the surface of the water. As Jesus emerged from the tomb in a resurrected body, so a Christian comes out of the waters of baptism as a new creation.
When first-century Christians took this step of identifying themselves with the death and resurrection of Jesus, they were publicly declaring their allegiance to Christ. For many Christians this immediately marked them for martyrdom or execution—all of the hostility that the world felt toward Jesus would now be directed at them. Baptism was a declaration that a person’s life, identity, and priorities were centered on Jesus and His mission. Depending on where you live in the world, you may not see the same reaction to your choice to be baptized, but that act of identifying with Christ is essential, no matter where you live.
Q3
Talk to another person around you. Have you identified yourself with the community of Jesus apprentices through baptism? If so, why do you think this was an important step for you to take? If not, what is holding you back from being baptized?
Just as baptism is more significant than we might have thought, teaching people to obey Jesus’s commands is an enormous task. It is not like a subject in school where there is the Final Test or the last day of class or something. Realistically, learning to become like Jesus and do the things he did is a lifelong pursuits. It will require a lifetime of devotion to studying the Scriptures and investing in the people around us. Neither of these things is easy, nor can they be checked off of a list. We are never really “done.” We continually devote ourselves to studying the Scriptures so that we can learn with ever-greater depth and clarity what God wants us to know, practice, and pass on. We continually invest in the people around us, teaching them and walking with them through life’s joys and trials.
We never “finish” the discipleship process. It’s much like raising a child: though there comes a day when he or she is ready to be on her own, but the relationship doesn’t end. The friendship continues, and there will always be times when guidance and encouragement are still needed. In addition to that, God continually brings new people into our path, giving us fresh opportunities to start the discipleship process all over again.
Following Jesus by making apprentices isn’t difficult to understand, but it can be very difficult and very costly to do. Jesus’s teachings are often hard. By sharing His teachings, we can face rejection. Jesus said:
If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. (John 15:18–20)
It’s simple enough, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Q4
Find a new person to answer this question with. What would need to happen in your life for you to commit yourself to studying the Scriptures and investing in the people around you?
Unfortunately, in many churches and many youth ministries disciple making has become the exclusive domain of pastors (and missionaries). Salesmen sell, insurance agents insure, and ministers minister. At least, that’s the way it works in most of our churches.
But we are trying to do something different here in the Student Movement that we are building. It is not about me standing up here and ministering to you. It is about you moving. It is about you turning the world upside down in the ways that only you can.
I can do some things. But I do not have access to the kids in your school that you have. I cannot tell your mom about the gospel of Jesus like you can. I simply won’t be able to tell your co workers about the amazing things that God is doing in your life like you can.
I cannot turn your world upside down for you. It is going to take you turning your own life upside down for other people to make that happen.
While it’s true that the pastors, elders, and apostles in the New Testament made disciples, we can’t overlook the fact that discipleship was everyone’s job. The members of the early church took their responsibility to make disciples very seriously. To them, the church wasn’t a corporation run by a CEO. Rather, they compared the church to a body that functions properly only when every member is doing its part.
Paul explained the function of the church in Ephesians 4:11–16:
He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ ... we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Paul saw the church as a community of apprentices in which each person is actively involved in doing the work of ministry. I am not the minister—at least not in the way we typically think of a minister. I am an equipper a facilitator a helper, and every member of this community should be doing what Jesus did: making more apprentices.
The implications here are huge and we are not done exploring them. We are spending the next full year thinking about, processing and building this movement together. This is not just about what we believe about God. The goal is to see yourself in this passage. Paul said that your job is to do the work of ministry! Jesus commanded you to make apprentices!
Most Christians can give a number of reasons why they cannot or should not disciple other people: “I don’t feel called to minister.” “I just have too much on my plate right now; I don’t have time to invest in other people.” “I don’t know enough.” “I have too many issues of my own. I’ll start once I get my life in order.”
As convincing as these excuses may seem to us, Jesus’s commands don’t come with exception clauses. He doesn’t tell us to follow unless we’re busy. He doesn’t call us to love our neighbors unless we don’t feel prepared. But check out what response Jesus has for these people who gave some reasons they could not do the work jesus called them to.
Luke 9:57–62 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
God made you the way you are; He has provided and will continue to provide you with everything you need to accomplish the task. Jesus commands you to look at the people around you and start making them into disciples or a[pprentices. Will you make some mistakes in the process, yes. That is part of it. Will everyone automatically climb on board the Jesus train? Obviously, only God can change people’s hearts and make them want to become followers. We just have to be obedient in making the effort to teach them, even when we still have plenty to learn ourselves.
Q5
Get in groups of three or four people. Discuss…What excuses tend to keep you from following Jesus’s command to make disciples? What do you need to do in order to move past these excuses?
Being a disciple maker means that you will begin to look at the people in your life differently. Every person in your life is created in the image of God, and Jesus commands every one of them to follow Him. God has placed these people in your life so that you will do everything you can to influence them. Part of following is teaching other people to follow Jesus.
So we are going to play a song here on the screen and while this song plays I want you to take some time to consider your first step toward disciple making. Whom has God placed in your life that you can teach to follow Jesus? Maybe God is laying someone on your heart you don’t know very well. Your first step could be building a relationship with that person. Maybe it’s someone you’ve known for years. God has placed you where you are, and the people around you are not there by accident. Keep in mind that the Great Commission calls us to every type of person, to those inside of the church as well as to those outside, to those who are like us and those who are very different. Everyone needs to understand who Jesus is and what it means to follow Him. So settle in your mind one step you can take this week towards encouraging another person towards apprenticeship to Jesus.
But maybe the person who needs to be apprenticed is you. Maybe you have not joined this community, declared your allegiance to Jesus through baptism. Maybe you need a teacher to follow for awhile. If that is you, let us know. We can help pair you up with someone who can help.
But, feel free during the song to move and grab communion. We eat a piece of bread and drink some grape juice to help us remember the cost of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. He died on the cross to give us access to that relationship with Him. If you want to just sit still during the song and listen to the lyrics or pray, you can do that as well.