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Sunday, 20 April 2008 - Discipleship.

This morning (as you've seen on the notice sheet) we're going to be thinking about ‘discipleship'. But the first question has to be, "What is discipleship?" And I thought it might be a good idea if you came up with an answer to that question - and then some of you share what you think with the rest of us! So - what I'd like you to do is get into some small groups near where you're sitting for about four or five minutes and discuss what you think discipleship is. If you need some paper and a writing tool to aid the process - there's both on the edge of the platform and on the table at the back with Sheila. So - if you could please quickly get into some small groups and chatter away - and I'll give you the customary ‘minute to go' warning when the time's nearly up.

OK - if you'd like to get untangled and back to facing me - and let's see what you've come up with. And as you talk, Phil's going to be typing away like mad putting them up on the screen. So please could you speak, loudly, slowly and clearly to help him!

Well, it's only fair I suppose tell you what I came up with. I thought of one of just a couple of words - "obedient lifestyle". If you want it unpacked a little more - how about, "Living the way God wants us to live." But as I thought a little more about this - I see a slight problem with that definition.

Don't get me wrong. It's not so much an incorrect statement, as being less than the complete answer. You see - if you'd ever been able to ask a Pharisee the same question - he might well of given you the same answer.

Think about it. Think about the ‘rich young man' who raced up to Jesus and asked him what he needed to do to be saved. (It's in Mark ch.10 if you want to look it up.) First - Jesus asks him about the way he lived? His reply was - in essence - I've lived by the Mosaic law all my life. Mark 10:21 then says - "Jesus looked at him, and loved him". Here was a man with a lifestyle geared up to obeying God's Law. But then Jesus says to him - get rid of all your own security - and instead - come and enjoy My security". OK - the Bible hasn't got the words ‘get rid of your own security' - but when Jesus told him to sell all his possessions - that's exactly what Jesus was telling him. And Jesus didn't actually say ‘come into my security' either. What Jesus did says was - "Come and follow Me".

So maybe a better definition of Discipleship is "Followership" - which is cheating bit - because I don't think ‘followership' is a proper word! But it's sort of what the word ‘discipleship' means! The word disciple comes to us via a Latin word that meant ‘a learner' or ‘a scholar' - and it correctly reflects both Hebrew and Greek for -"taught or trained one".

Now today if you think of someone as a learner, it's natural to picture them in a classroom studying - and I don't just mean kids. Gas fitters to nurses start out the same these days. But when I started work - the old-fashioned ‘apprenticeship' was still around. It was long - and it involved putting ‘the learner' with a mature, skilled craftsman - and had them learning their trade ‘on the job' as the lived it day by day. Which is why I think the idea of each of us - those that is who've accepted Jesus as our Saviour - being in a "lifelong apprenticeship to Jesus" - isn't far off of what discipleship is all about.
In Jesus’ day, a way adult learning would have happened was to follow your teacher around. And let me remind you - we were called ‘followers of the Way' (i.e. of Jesus) before we were ever called Christians.

I hope - having said that - that I don't have to labour the fact that subjects we've been looking at recently under a general heading of ‘Discipleship' - Bible reading - prayer - fasting - giving - are not in themselves ‘discipleship'. They are only a means to an end in our developing relationship with Jesus. The first three are in fact communication tools in our toolbox of life. They are not - repeat - not - an end in themselves - but help us towards a goal.

I'm sure you're not going to be surprised to know that - when I'm asked to speak on something - I do a little bit of reading around on the subject. So the other day I popped into the library of the London School of Theology up in Northwood, and looked on the shelves marked ‘discipleship' - and then wondered where to start! But as I stood looking at the array of books in front of me - I thought - I could start with the titles - because the array of titles themselves reflected something about what discipleship is about.

Of course - there had to be a "How to.." book didn't there! So there was "How to walk with God". Actually - there were several books with a journey theme - such as "Walk On" - "The Road to Day Break" - "Journeying into Faith" - and my favourite - as far as titles go anyway - "A Long Obedience in the same Direction". That title has an interesting history. The book's written by Eugene Peterson who wrote The Message paraphrase of the Bible - but the title comes from a quote by - of all people - Friedrich Nietzsche - who wrote, "The essential thing ‘in heaven and earth' is... that there should
be a long obedience in the same direction; thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living". Peterson's own sub-title for his book is "Discipleship in an Instant Society". Which says a lot in itself! Then there were the books about practical subjects - handling the problems associated with power - sex - and money - as well as books like - "Ordering your Private World". And not surprisingly - at least one book with the title "Spiritual Warfare".

You know - I hadn't realised until I started thinking about today's service, exactly what a comprehensive discipleship manual Paul's letter to the Ephesians is - although perhaps I should have done - because a Chinese Christian of a previous generation - Watchman Nee - wrote a book about this letter entitled "Sit, Walk, Stand" wrapped around the theme.

So you get Paul saying in Ephesians 4:1 "As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." - with chapters 4 through 6 giving detail about doing just that. Chapter 5 starts - "Be imitators of God therefore" (again, apprenticeship) "as dearly loved Children - and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God" Chapter 5 rolls into chapter 6 with practical instruction on relationships in the home and the workplace. And then Paul says in 6:11 & 12 "Put on the whole armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm". And this goes for all of us - not just a selected few. God's not got an SAS regiment of elite disciples specialising in spiritual warfare so the rest of us can ignore it - if only because Satan won't allow it. If you take discipleship seriously, you walk into his line of fire.

You see - another description of discipleship (how-be-it again not a complete one) could be "living a life of right choices". Which in a way, brings us back to why Phil took a Sunday morning service a while ago on reading the Bible. How do you know how God wants you to live? Well - His general instruction on lifestyle are found in the pages of the Bible. So if you want to know God's view of homosexuality (for example) look at what He's said about it. But whereas homosexuality isn't an everyday confrontation for most of us - lying, cheating, stealing, lust, and flying of the handle, could be. And the Bible has a lot to say about these things too.

But someone once said, "It isn't the things in the Bible I don't understand that give me problems. It's the things that I do understand!" We might know, for instance, God says to forgiven someone. Doing it is a whole lot more difficult. One thing I do, is thank God regularly that nothing extremely terrible has happen to me to make saying in the Lord's Prayer - "as I forgive those who sin against me" - very hard to mean. But for those who do have problems with forgiveness, let me just say - forgiveness isn't a one of event. It's a repeatable process - but one in which we seek to make progress.

Also - faithful discipleship to Jesus isn't something that we can successfully progress in on our own. Which is why Jesus said He was leaving us God the Holy Spirit as a Helper when He returned to the Father - someone to come to live with us to instruct and empower us. But He won't do it for us! Just as parents know they can assist a child as it learns to walk - but they can't do the walking for it - so God says to us - I will hold you up - I will help you learn - I will even give you nourishment and strength - but I won't do it for you. "Following me" - living My way - is your choice. Which is why I saw books like"By way of the Heart" on the shelf in LST. We have got to want change from the heart. Someone's said of us all, "You'll end up doing what you want to do". It's true. So check out what you want to do.

But since we're fallen humanity, with a bigger bias to not go straight than a bowling ball - we need a whole new change of heart. We need to want to be ‘holy'. That's a word that describes the aim of discipleship. Literally it means ‘distinctly different'. Both the OT and NT has this clear instruction from God, "Be Holy because I am Holy". So I found a book with the title "Renovation of the Heart" on the shelves. Although - I prefer the words of David's prayer in Psalm 51 when he saw his own soul in the mirror of God's revelation, and prayed - "Create in me a pure heart O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me". It's not a 60 minute make-over we need. It's a complete new work done in us by God the Holy Spirit. Amen!

And one thing we do need to be as we face our long journey in discipleship (which older generations used to call pilgrimage) - is honest - particularly with ourselves. So I also found a book there with the title - "When Christians Doubt". There's a big problem with Western Christianity. It's developed over the years as an individual exercise of personal faith. It is that! And you yourself have to commit yourself to God - and no-one else can do it for you. But it's more than just a personal belief system. It's also a process of travelling the road together with other pilgrims. And we suffer as individuals - with doubts - and with a raft of temptations and hang-ups - because we've lost the corporate nature of our faith. We've bought too much into our surrounding culture. The statement in the Book of Acts - "See how these Christians love one another"- wasn't talking about a warn cosy feeling - nor just about buying someone a diner sometime. It was worked out in gutsy expressions of care and support in a 1st Century church under persecution. The question is - how do you translate that expression into practical action in a 21st Century church in this country?

So the next time you hear of a Christian you know drifting away in their faith - or going under in some other way - ask yourself - "Did I contribute to that? And what could I do differently in the future?".
A line of poem by John Donne comes to mind; "Never send to ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee."

Then there's a book I didn't see on the shelves - "The Cost of Discipleship" - although I'm sure it must have been there. You'll be glad to know that there is no ‘small print' in Christian discipleship. There may be some in the way we as ‘church' have gone about talking about it over the years. But it's all open and above board in the original message. So hear it from Jesus - as retold by Matthew chapter 10. "..anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and who ever loses his life for my sake will find it".

I recall hearing a taped message by Billy Graham made in 1957. He spoke about what Jesus said here. And in the way that only he could - he said - "If Jesus was here now - He'd say - take up your electric chair - take up your guillotine - take up your gallows - and follow me". OK - so we've done away with the death penalty in this country - but Jesus hasn't done away with His demand for the total commitment envisaged by saying "Take up your cross"

The Cost of Discipleship - the book I've just referred to - was written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor in Germany during the time when the Nazis were in power. He once wrote - "Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ". He died (I think, along with a couple of other pastors) on 9th April 1945 just before the end of the second world war. He was hung on a piano wire for opposing Hitler. For him - Jesus call in Matthew ch.10 literally came true. But it also came true for three schoolgirl beheaded about a couple years ago in Indonesia - just
because they were Christians. >I would say that we - well, me anyway - don't begin to understand the cost of committed discipleship. So let me repeat that statement by Bonhoeffer. "Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ". Which logically - isn't Christianity at all.

Of course - the most important thing in anything we do is motivation. Why bother with the hard road of discipleship when a broad and appealing road of self-satisfaction is so much more inviting? The answer to that is that discipleship isn't a matter of ticking boxes - the things I should do - the things I shouldn't do. What we do is only a reflection of something bigger. It's all about relationship. Back to that apprenticeship to Jesus - and to His instruction - "Follow me" - but also to the promise He made to His first disciples (make that promises) that He'd never leave them to go it alone - and they'd be His friends - not his servants. Must be really nice to have a boss who's your best friend. Only - you've still got to remember He's the Boss! So - how do you develop a relationship with this Boss?

Well I saw a book on the LST shelves entitled "A Passion for God's Story". When I've had a close relationship with someone in the past I've immediately wanted to know as much as I could about them. Get to know their history. Get to know their likes and dislikes. Carry their picture.

So why should having a relationship with God be any different? Back then to reading the Bible - through which He can talk to you about Himself. And also in prayer - knowing His presence and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

But getting to know about someone isn't a patch on getting to know them personally. So the book "Desiring God" has a lot going for it - at least in it's title. And I suppose - like any relationship - the more time you spend with someone - the more you get to know them - and the easier it should be to understanding their likes and dislikes and the more you should be able enjoy their company. But you've got to want to be in their company. That's not to say that there aren't difficult periods in any relationship. The same goes for our Christian walk with God - even if the only reason is that the Prince of Darkness is rather miffed at losing our undivided attention!

These difficulties are (unfortunately) part of living in a fallen world. But our desire to live a God loyal life is down to us to express to Him.

In the front of one of my Bibles I have written in something that I sometimes used as a prayer. It's by an Archbishop of Canterbury. Not the current one - not even his immediate predecessor - but an 11th Century holder of that post named Anselm. This is what he wrote:

Yield room for some little time to God;
and rest for a little time in Him.
Enter the inner chamber of your mind.
Shut out all thoughts except those of God,
and such as can help you in seeking Him:
close your door and seek Him.

Speak now my whole heart!
Speak now to God saying,
I seek your face;
your face, Lord, will I seek.

And come now, Lord my God,
teach my heart where and how it may seek you,
where and how it might find you.

I think that man desired God - don't you? But how about you? Well - why not use Anselm's words for yourself this morning. I'm sure he won't mind. Use them to tell God your serious about this discipleship thing. And I'll give us a few moments quite to do that.

A relationship is a two way thing. But God made the first move. He said - in the words of John 3:16 - that He so loved us that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. The cost was Jesus choosing to be obedient to His Father's will - and going to the cross for us. He became our substitute - dying in our place - bearing our punishment. The Bible talks about Him becoming a curse for us. Isaiah Ch.53 says that He was pieced for our transgressions
and crushed for our iniquities. Isaiah 53 goes on to say that each of us had turned to our own way - and the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And it's to remember this act of God provision for us as sinners - this act of His love towards us - His only way of restoring an ongoing relationship with us - that the church world-wide shares in a simple meal of bread and wine. We'll do that again ourselves in a minute.

Granville Richards