Transcription
[Music] With a message from God's word, here's Charles Stanley.
Would you turn, please, to Luke, chapter 14, and I want us to begin with verse 25. Now, I'm probably going to use this passage of scripture a number of times because I want to begin a series this morning on discipleship. And I want to begin with this passage today, and then I'm sure I'll come back to it many, many times because of what our Lord is saying in this 14th chapter of Luke.
Beginning in verse 25, he says, "And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest happily, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassador, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."
Discipleship is one of those scriptural words that we talk about, have heard about, have repeated many times, have read in scripture and in books all of our life, and have little or no understanding of its true meaning. If I should ask you this morning, "What is a disciple?" more than likely most people would begin to name Peter, James, John, Judas, Levi, or one of the other 12 apostles. Our concept of discipleship is more than an idea or way of life. We have embodied the concept in the idea of a person. So we think of discipleship as Peter the Apostle, or as James, or John. That is their idea of a disciple. And somehow, because we have embodied that concept in a person, we've been able to escape what God intended for us to understand when he spoke of discipleship.
All the way through the New Testament, you'll find that word. You'll find the word "disciple" and "discipleship." When you come to the Great Commission, you and I read it in the King James version that says this: "Go ye therefore for and teach all nations." We can just quote that off just like that. We learned that in the first grade, or while we were beginners, we could quote that in Sunday school. But it would be better had we learned that the way Jesus said it in the original, which says, "Going therefore, make disciples of all nations." But you see, we have read it as it has been translated, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations." And so we've sort of relegated that to missionaries and preachers and and teachers and all kinds of church workers. But somehow not understood what Jesus meant. He said, "As you go, as you go where? As you go everywhere you go. As you, who? Apostles, preachers? No, every disciple. As ye go therefore, make disciples of all nations."
Now, isn't it strange how we can go to church for 30, 40, 50, or 60 years, and the very thing that becomes the pivotal point of the Christian life, somehow we are either able to gloss over, go around, or somehow always miss the point? When I think of how long it took me to understand what it meant to walk in the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit, to be anointed with the Spirit of God, and how many sermons I heard before I understood that. And how many times I heard people talk about God, and yet somehow nobody ever set me down and told me that here is the key that unlocks everything that God will do in your life as a believer. And then when I think of how many times I've read that word "disciple" in the New Testament and have to scratch my head to think, "God, how did it take me so long? Why did it take me so long to understand that what you're saying in that word is what you're trying to convey to the entire Christian world and have been since the early New Testament church?" How is it we can read and be so dense? How is it we can live so long and not learn? And yet, it is true, probably because our minds are so filled with other things.
When I read the New Testament, what God is saying concerning discipleship, I realize today why the church is collapsing all about us. While it is growing in areas, it is absolutely collapsing in other areas. While there are some that are on the cutting edge and the fire and the power of God is so evident, there are those that are drying up and withering like dead stalks, withering. How can the power of God wither? How can the presence of God, in the presence of people, how can they wither spiritually? But it's happening everywhere. And I believe there's a principle I've discovered as I read that book of Acts over and over and over again, and that is, without discipleship, it is disaster for the church of God. If the concept of discipleship is not preached and taught and lived, it means ultimate disaster for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we look about us to see what's happening and we wonder why. And I believe the reason is evident in the word of God.
Now, let's just look at some of you, for example. Some of you have been a Christian 20 years, some of you have been a Christian 30 years, 40 years, 50 years. And if I should ask you this morning, "Are you a genuine New Testament disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ?" Many of you would scratch your head and say, "Well, tell me first of all, what do you mean by that?" Now, the pastors primarily have to take the responsibility for the ignorance of the people of God. That's where the blunt of responsibility belongs. And then the rest of it moves into the lives of the people who've been reading and studying and so forth all these years and somehow have never understood what that meant.
Now, I want you to listen very carefully because I'm going to begin with as simple a way as I know how to define what a disciple is. Now, listen carefully. Some of you are just sitting on ready, and you're going to get it, and you're going to say, "God, that's exactly what I want. That's what I want you to do in my life. That's what I've been hungering and thirsting for." Any hungry believer will take what God has to offer. But do you know the group of people here this morning who will have the most difficulty with the concept of true discipleship? It is all of us who have been a Christian for 20, 30, 40, and 50 years. We will have the greatest difficulty with accepting and absorbing and, listen, applying the concept of New Testament discipleship. We will have the most difficult time.
Now, watch this. Because we have grown up in churches where you go to church, you give your heart to Jesus, you just do some mechanical things like give, and you go to Sunday school class, and you read the Bible, and you pray, and and you serve on a committee, you serve as a deacon, you teach a Sunday school class. And we have a generation after the generation after the generation of the product of breeding and growing and producing churchmen who know everything about the facilities of a church, everything about how a church operates, all about programs, all about the system, but little or nothing about Jesus Christ. And almost zero when it comes to what he meant about discipleship. Amen.
Now, that is the condition of the church. We have churchmen by the millions. We have few disciples. And I go right back again to the pulpit. I believe the responsibility primarily rests upon the pulpit. It is not all there, but primarily that's where it rests. I want us to talk about this matter of discipleship, and this is just a beginning this morning of what it's all about. Now, listen, listen carefully. It will be very, very easy for you to say to me, or in your own mind, watch this, the devil will do everything in his power to keep this from your mind. It will be easy for you to say, "Well, I've heard that definition before. Well, I've been knowing that's what a disciple is all of my life." Now, watch this. The devil, if he can get you to think just for a moment, "Well, I know what a disciple is," he'll have you exactly where he wants you, because you'll miss the whole point of the message.
I want you to listen as if you had never known what a disciple is, because more than likely, I doubt if many people here really do. All I ask you to do is to give me your heart for a little while and ask God to speak to you and help you get in your heart, in your mind, so you can apply what I'm going to say. First thing I'm going to do is to define what a disciple is. Now, the word "disciple" in the Greek is *mathētēs*, which simply means a learner. That is, a disciple, according to the New Testament, is a person, first of all, who learns the doctrine of his teacher, and secondly, equally important, who makes application of that doctrine in his life, whereby the doctrine of the teacher becomes a way of life for the one who's listening. And did you get that? A disciple is one who is a learner, who learns the doctrine of the one who is teaching, and who makes application of that doctrine in his daily life. That is a disciple definition according to the New Testament. But there's something more to it that I'm going to get to later, but I just want you to remember those two things. First, that is one who is learning the doctrine of his teacher, and secondly, one who is applying that doctrine in his life.
Now, in the New Testament, when you come to that word "disciple," Jesus called all of his followers disciples. He didn't call them church members. He didn't call them anything but disciples. These were men and women who followed him, men and women who were learning from him, men and women to whom he was challenging, offering the challenge of making application of what he was saying in their daily life, whereby one who genuinely followed Jesus would not follow along without a tremendous, evident difference in his life. Therefore, a disciple is one who is learning from his teacher, making application of in his life, and thereby whose life is continuously growing and growing and growing.
Now, which says it is a contradiction in terms to talk about being a disciple and being spiritually stagnated or backsliding in your spiritual life. A disciple is one who is continuously learning, continuously making application. A disciple is one who is hungry and thirsty after the things of God. I simply ask you, do you have a hunger for God? Do you have a thirst for Him? Do you want Him to carry you as deeply as He intends to carry you?
Now, discipleship, listen. A genuine New Testament disciple, let me give you a simple definition of it. That's the word in the New Testament. That's the implication there. But a New Testament disciple is one who's accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, who has yielded to Jesus Christ as Lord, and who, listen, accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, you've done that. Yielded to Jesus Christ as Lord, I certainly hope you've done that. And through whom Jesus Christ is reproducing His life in the life of another. A New Testament disciple is one who has accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, you've done that. Yielded to Him as Lord, He is King in your life. And through whom He is reproducing Himself in the life of another. That's the key, and this is where we have fallen short and hit zero in our score. He said, "As you go to work, as you go home, as you go in your community, as you go to church, we are those who have accepted Christ as Savior, yielded to Him as Lord, and through us, He is reproducing His life through us in the life of someone else." That is the simple way Jesus intended to evangelize the whole known world. You know how we can do that? Simply putting into practice the definition I just gave you. Having accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, having yielded to Him as my Lord, I will allow Him to reproduce His life through me in the life of someone else. And when that someone else understands what it means to be saved, to have Him as Lord, and that reproduction of another believer is His command from Jesus, that's how Jesus intended that the gospel reach the world.
Now, isn't that simple? It is just that simple. Having accepted Him as my Savior, having yielded to Him as my Lord, and allowing Him to reproduce through me His life in the life of someone else. That is the God-given command to every single believer, period. There is no exception to that. And when I think of how far short we've fallen from that, I could weep on the inside. Last night, just refreshing my own mind and heart of what the Lord was wed to say through me today, I spent most of the evening up until 1:00 this morning, God working in my own heart, speaking to my own L. And I had to confess to Him, "Dear God, how could I have been so blind so long?" When I began to realize the the the sudden picture of this thing, I have known it for a long time, but all of a sudden it hit me just like a ton of steel. This is the way He intends to evangelize the world in a simple formula available to every believer. And there's not a soul in this place this morning who is saved who cannot do what I'm talking about. Amen. Not a one of us. Every single one of us can do it.
Now, that's what a disciple is. But now let's talk about this matter of the drift of the New Testament church for a moment. That's the definition. What about the drift? All the way back in the New Testament day, when Jesus talked about discipleship, he talked to a group of people who followed him. Now, he was not nearly as interested in people's response in some way as often times we are. Because when he talked about discipleship, he didn't have the same response that we do when we talk about other things. Now, watch this. Today we talk about membership, we talk about salvation, we talk about all kinds of things. When Jesus got through, the scripture says, "Therefore I said unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father." From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. And I believe that in many churches in America, before they'll ever grow and get fired up for God, there's got to be a purging and a pruning and a cleansing. And the doctrine of obedience to God, that is the heart and the core of discipleship. When they saw what he was saying, having healed, having fed them, and all the rest, when he got down to obeying him, the scripture says that the vast majority of them turned and walked away. And he said to his apostles, "Will you also turn and walk away?" Discipleship is more than believing in Jesus Christ. So that Jesus, with his disciples, he taught them in order to reproduce his life through them to others.
Then you come to the early New Testament church, and if you'll turn that to Acts, chapter 11, for a moment, I want you to notice something. The scripture says that Antioch was a great center of the Christian faith. And verse 25 says, "Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Paul: And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." Now, listen. Those who had believed in Jesus Christ were called disciples. That's how they knew each other. They were disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the pagans in Antioch, as they watched the influence and the witness and the testimony and the weight of life of these who were disciples, they are the ones, the scripture says, who tagged them "Christian," that is, followers of Jesus. Those whom they saw who were attempting to interpret the life of Christ.
Now, a disciple is one who has received Jesus Christ as Savior, yielded to Him as Lord, and is available for the Holy Spirit to reproduce the life of Christ through him in the life of someone else. Discipleship is not optional; it is mandatory upon every believer. And I suppose you could place discipleship in three stages: that is, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, first of all, learning of Him, and then having His life reproduced through your life and the life of someone else. But that New Testament church, discipleship to them was very, very simple. They knew exactly what was involved.
When I turn to the uh fifth and sixth chapters of Acts, the last verse, the 42nd verse of the fifth chapter of Acts says, "And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." In chapter 6, verse 1 says, "And in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied." Verse 7 says, "And the word of God increased and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly." What were they doing? Here's what they were doing: They had accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, they had yielded to Him as the resurrected Lord, and they were preaching in the church house, and they were going from house to house, and they were doing what? They were allowing Jesus Christ to reproduce Himself in the lives of people all over Jerusalem. And the Bible says that disciples were being multiplied everywhere. Why? They understood the true meaning of discipleship. That when you give your heart to Jesus, you are saved to lordship for reproduction. It is not optional; it is mandatory. The reproducing through us of the life of Jesus Christ in the life of someone else. And that is not only sharing my faith with them, but building that person up in the faith, instructing them how to do the same thing for someone else.
What have we done? We've said, "Come forward, sign a card, be baptized." And my friend, the churches today that are dying are the churches that are doing nothing but getting members. And listen, that is a disaster. To tell a man, "Come, give your heart to Jesus," and sit and listen to me preach, that is disastrous because Jesus saved that man to reproduce Himself through him. And what I'm asking you today is this: When, and how, and to whom, and in whom has Christ been able to reproduce His life because of the life you've lived? That's what it's all about. He says, "Make disciples of all nations." Not optional command, make mandatory upon every single believer. But the church today has watered it down. And what do we have? We have a watered-down church that's lost its power. It is no longer exercising and experiencing the supernatural work of God. And there are bright flames here and there all over the world, but for the most part, the church has lost the understanding of discipleship. And because it has, we have scores of millions of people in Christendom who are ignorant of the word of God. And that's why they're willing to do anything and choose any kind of liberal theology because they're not disciples; they're just believers.
Then I want us to look for the third thing: this matter of the doctrinal enemy of discipleship. Now, I want you to listen carefully. The doctrinal enemy of discipleship. I was preaching one Sunday night in the First Baptist Church in Miami, where I used to pastor. And when I finished, there three students came to me, and I mean they attacked me vigorously. And I just stood there and listened to them. They said, "Well, uh," this young man spoke up, he said, "First of all," he said, "I've been saved, and there's nothing in the Bible demands a change. There's been no change in my life." I said, "Wait a minute. I said, sit down here a minute, dear brother, because 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, 'Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.'" What did he say? He said, "Believe me, and what follows me, and follow me is wrapped up in one word, and that is obedience." To believe Him is going to result, if I mean business, in obeying God. Having believed, having made Him Lord of life, as you go, you let Him reproduce His life in you, in your schoolroom, on your campus, in your home, at your job, at the church, wherever you may be. Do. He says the believer is to be reproducing His life in their life and the lives of others. That's what this thing's all about. You want to know why I get excited? That's the reason I get excited. It is an exciting Christ. And when He changed Peter, I believe Jesus got excited. And when God begins to move and work in men's hearts and change their attitudes, and and we see Him being reproduced in their lives, brother, that's something to get excited about. And that's discipleship.
Now, discipleship implies number one: devotion to Jesus Christ. I don't mean coming to church, brother. I mean love Him. I mean love Him. I mean giving yourself to Him. Loving Him. Giving Him time. Reading His word. Saturating your heart with His word. Talking to Him because you love Him. Fellowshipping with Him. He's first in your life. Devoted to Jesus. Loyal to Him. Not conforming to the world, and not compromising what you know is right. Number two: it implies detachment from the world. Listen, young people, listen very carefully. Detachment from the world does not mean that you live out of the world. We're all in it, but we have the privilege of walking six inches above where everybody else walks. We don't have to put our feet where men who are living in sin put their feet. We can walk a little bit higher than the rest. He says the disciple is detached. You read this passage, detached. That is, there is an inner detachment. Why? While he has to own an automobile to drive, has to own a house in which to live, while he does have a secular job and all these other things that are necessities of life, inwardly he is detached. Those things hold no grip on him. While they are a part of his life, he is inwardly and spiritually detached from that, from his desire and his lust for those things. The third thing: discipleship implies discipline. Discipline of the life. That is, he in control of what he thinks, in control of what he does, because the lordship of Jesus Christ is being exercised in his life every day, and Jesus Christ is in complete control. He's living a disciplined life. You cannot be a disciple and lack discipline. It will not happen. And the difficulty is, we are not willing to pay the price for Him to govern and to boss our life. We want to run our own show. And without discipline, there is no discipleship. And then the fourth thing, and that is, it implies a dedication to disciple others. Discipleship implies a dedication to disciple others.
Now, if you'll turn quickly to uh 2 Timothy, and I think here is the most beautiful description of it. This is discipleship, my friend. You can be a believer, but if you're not doing what 2 Timothy 2:2 says, my friend, you're not a disciple of Jesus. That is not optional; it is mandatory. It is a command. "Follow me, be my disciple." Listen to what he says. 2 Timothy, chapter 2. Let's begin in verse 1. "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." That is the production of Jesus Christ's life. Let's read that together, verse 2. Let's read it together: "And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." That is discipleship. Accepting Jesus Christ as Savior, yielding to Jesus Christ as Lord, and allowing Him to reproduce His life through Us in the life of someone else.
Now, notice what he said: "The things which you've heard of me among many witnesses." What you've heard this morning among the witnesses of those who sit around you. "The same commit, lay before, commit the same to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." You know what I'm doing this morning? I'm simply obeying that. What God has teaching me, I am teaching to faithful men, whom I believe, men and women who are able to convey to others the same truths, in order that Christ's life may be reproduced in your life. And did you know that all the coming to church in the world is no substitute for that? All the worship in the world is no substitute for that. There is no substitute for reproducing the life of Christ in the life of someone else.
Now, listen. Jesus offers men a way of life that is, that a man's walk, the way he walks, where he goes, what he says, that his walk is a way of life that is characterized by the reproduction of the life of Jesus. Now, friend, He is saying that a disciple is one whose way of life is characterized by reproduction of the life of Jesus in the life of the man to whom he speaks. And I want to ask you this morning, do you want to be a disciple, or do you just want to sit and take it easy and miss the best God's got? I don't believe you do. Because I prayed and I've prayed and I've prayed, "God, you tell me when our folks are ready to confront them with the demands, the truth of discipleship." And I believe He says, "They're ready. Do it now." And I believe there are enough people who mean business for God who will take what has been said today, ponder it, think over it, look at what they've said, they are what they know they are, what they ought to be doing, what they've chosen as options, what they know now to be mandatory in their life, and that there is no substitute. And I believe God will do something in your life, my friend, if you will allow Him the privilege of reproduction of His Spirit through you.
Now, my invitation is not for you to come forward and say, "I want to be a disciple." That's not it. Invitation to you who are believers is to go home, ponder carefully, talk to your wife about it, talk to your husband about it, talk to your children. You know, the time to make disciples is when they're 12, not when they're 52. When they're 10, not when they're 60. That a child grow up understanding that to be a disciple means that at the age of childhood, he is attempting to reproduce the life of Jesus in the life of his buddy. That's when it ought to be done.
Now, I want to tell you, the devil's going to fight you. He's going to fight you. He's going to do everything in his power to tell you, first, "You cannot do it." Secondly, "You don't know how to do it." Third, "You're afraid to do it." Fourth, "He's talking everybody but you." But I want to tell you what God has said this morning. He said to you. He first said it to me. He said it to you: Discipleship, having Him as my Savior, yielding to Him as my Lord, and allowing Him to reproduce His life through me, is not optional; it's mandatory. And the question comes back again to one word: "I will obey Him and give Him His rightful place as Lord in my life, or I will not."
Would you stand quietly now? Father, first of all, I want to ask You to seal this with heavenly glue. Just screw it down so tight it can't ever be pulled out. Just hammer at it until it's down so deep it can't be picked out, can't be forgotten, can't be stolen, can't be pushed out, but it sticks. God, let it stick. And prick, if necessary, but stick deep. And let the roots begin to sprout quickly. But Father, I'm asking of You what I believe You've challenged me to ask You for: disciples, men and women and young people who are willing to accept the New Testament challenge of being a disciple of Christ, having accepted You as Savior, yielded to You as Lord, and now available for You to reproduce Your life through us, one by one, to somebody else. Oh, dear God, please, please, please do whatever is necessary to seal that so tight that we can't get away from it. That some may have to wrestle and fret and fume and get upset and get mad before they get glad. Do anything You want to do, but don't let us escape the truth. God, You're not interested in just us coming here, meeting on Sunday. You've got something far greater in mind than that. And I want to thank You that You've just let all of us be a part of it. We want You to be uppermost. We want You to be central, Jesus. We want You to be everything.