Introduction
A couple of months ago, our son Nathan sent us a little video filmed on his phone to tell us about something that had happened earlier that day.
Out of
nowhere, his 4 year-old boy, our grandson, Caleb goes up to him and says, “Dad,
what’s a disciple?” So Nathan explains. “A disciple is… well… a disciple is
someone who loves Jesus and decides to do what Jesus wants. And it’s something
that lasts a whole lifetime.”
Caleb nods and looks like he understands that pretty well, after all
he’s nearly 5, so his dad says, “And what about you then Caleb? Do you want to
be a disciple?” And Caleb says, “Yes please daddy.” So right there and then
they pray together a simple prayer.
Then Nathan says, “Well, I think the first thing a disciple should do,
after becoming one, is go and tell someone else. Who do you think you should go
and tell that you’re a new disciple of Jesus?” Caleb looks around and sees his
elder sister Emilie doing some colouring.
So he runs over to
her, tells her what he’s just done and says, “What about you Emilie? Do you
want to be a disciple of Jesus as well?” Emilie says, “Yes please.” And so they
say a little prayer together and Emilie chooses to live as a disciple of Jesus
too.
Discipleship
It’s a cute little story, and I was very happy to hear about it, but it
set me wondering. How would I have
answered Caleb? In words that a child can understand, what is a disciple? What
is it essentially? What does it involve? How to you become one? Are we
all disciples here today? These are really important questions.
Jesus never said, “If anyone wants to be a Christian they’ve just got to
pray a quick prayer and then start going to church.” He actually said, “Whoever
wants to be my disciple must say ‘no’ to themselves and take up
their cross every day and follow me.”
Jesus never said, “What you basically need to do is to stay around,
organise the rotas and keep the church going.” Rather, he said, “go
and make disciples.” So a key aspect of a disciple’s job is to make
other disciples. How do you do that?
By the way, don’t misunderstand me. Praying prayers of commitment, coming
together to worship on Sundays, and having a well-organised and functioning
church are important. But they are just consequences, they are derivatives, of the one essential
thing. The heart of the matter is discipleship. This is what Jesus calls you
and me to.
And so I started to
write down on a piece of scrap paper some thoughts about what discipleship
really is all about. What are the most important components of following Jesus?
And that is what we are going to focus on over the next three months.
I found that
disciples are called to be faithful, to be people of prayer, to be humble and generous,
to know who they are in Christ, and to live fruitful lives. Basically,
discipleship is a lifelong course in becoming Christlike.
I want to begin the series today by looking at the etymology; the
meaning of the word itself. The word we find translated “disciple”
in our Bibles is from the Greek word mathétés. It basically
means a learner; it means that all your Christian life you should consider
yourself as wearing (and needing to wear) spiritual L-plates.
Some Christians I know appear to have stopped growing. They are
coasting. Jesus said “keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.” But
they gave up on all three years ago.
The most effective and attractive Christians I know never stop
being curious. They are always pressing on to discover new things. I think this
is partly why Jesus said we should become like children. Children are naturally
inquisitive and interested in their world.
There’s a story about a teacher who gave her class of 9-year-olds
some homework and it was to talk about an experience they had had in which they
learned a lesson.
So the next day Sophie starts it all off and says, “My dad
breeds chickens. One day, we were taking the eggs to market when we hit a bump
in the road and all the eggs went flying and made a mess all over the car. So the
lesson we learned is to never put all your eggs in one basket.” “Very good,” says the teacher.
Then Jack says, “My mum breeds chickens too. We had a dozen eggs
once but when they hatched there were only 9 live chicks. So the lesson we
learned is to never count your chickens before they’re hatched.” “Thank you, Jack, that’s great”, says the teacher. “Now Lucy,
what about you?”
So Lucy says, “Well, my Aunt Matilda was a fighter pilot in
Desert Storm and her plane was hit. She had to bail out over enemy territory
and all she had was a bottle of whisky, a machine gun and a machete. She drank the whisky on the way down so the bottle wouldn’t
break and landed in the middle of 100 enemy troops. She killed 70 of them with
the machine gun until she ran out of bullets, then she killed 20 more with the
machete till the blade broke, then she killed the last 10 with her bare hands.”
“Good heavens!” says the teacher. “Whatever did you learn from
that?” “Don’t mess with Aunt Matilda when she’s been near a bottle of
Scotch...”
Actually, everything that happens to us in life is a learning experience. But what sort of learning is discipleship?
It’s certainly not academic study, cramming your head with facts. There’s nothing wrong with that in itself; it will help you get a place at University and an excellent job – but that is not what discipleship is. Discipleship is closer to apprenticeship, which is about practical training for tasks and skills. But it’s not quite that either.
The type of learning we’re
talking about to become a disciple is mirroring as closely as possible a mentor’s
life, asking questions, imitating them in every conceivable way until you
become a walking copy of them. Becoming a Christian disciple is about growing
to be more like Jesus every day.
The last talk in this series in late August is entitled “Be Christlike”
which sums everything up.
But we’re going to
start today with the fundamental building block of being a disciple; if you’re
ever going to be a learner you’ve got to be teachable.
Learn from Jesus
We’re going to turn to two passages of scripture today and the first is
in Matthew 11.28-30. Maybe it’s not the first Bible reading you would think
about in relation to discipleship, but it is absolutely at the heart of what
it’s all about.
Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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.”
What is this? At first glance it sounds a bit like a self-help article
in a women’s magazine called something like “10 Tips to Beat Stress.” But it’s
not that. Nor is it 5 pillars of submission for a good life like in Islam. And
it’s not 4 noble truths towards enlightenment like in Buddhism.
This is unlike
anything else before or since. Jesus says, not “Come on a programme” or even
“come on a journey” but “Come to me. I am the key to lifting the load of
everything in life that weighs you down.”
The longer we spend in his presence the more
the light shines and highlights our need of grace. The apostle Paul started out
by describing himself as ‘the least of the apostles’ (1 Corinthians 15.9).
Later on, he called himself ‘less than the least of all God's people’
(Ephesians 3.8). Towards the end of his life, he described himself as ‘the
worst of sinners’! (1 Timothy 1.16).
It is not that he got worse; it is simply
that, through the awesome power of God’s presence, he became more and more
aware of the light shining in his heart.
Jesus is looking at people who are stressed, driven, workaholic, worried,
loaded down by life, looking like the world is on their shoulders and he’s
saying, “Do I ever look worn out and world-weary like you?”
We’ve just spent 9 months looking closely at Jesus in Mark’s Gospel.
Not once, until he got the cross, did he ever look drained and depleted. He was
always at the top of his game.
Right in the middle
of our passage, Jesus says, “Learn from me.” In other words, “Be
teachable. Observe closely. Watch how I do it. Copy me. I just go with the
grain of what the Father is already doing - it’s easy that way.”
Jesus said in John’s Gospel how this works; “the Son can do nothing by
himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing… for the Father loves the
Son and shows him all he does.”
I love that in a hectic world, where so many people are ‘ground down
and crushed under the weight of stress, Jesus says this.
Twice Jesus uses
the word “rest”. “Come to me and I will give you rest... You will find rest
for your souls.” Former Bishop of Durham Tom Wright says “rest” is perhaps better
translated “relief.” It doesn’t mean put your feet up and doss about aimlessly.
Homer Simpson once said, “It's not easy to juggle a pregnant wife and a
troubled child, but somehow I manage to fit in eight hours of TV a day.”
It’s not that. It’s not a wasted life of ease and leisure. It means Jesus
relieving you of what’s weighing you down and replacing that with his own yoke.
Jesus would have
made yokes in his carpenter's workshop. A yoke is a kind of wooden frame that joins
two oxen around the neck. It makes pulling a plough or a trailer so much less arduous.
A yoke makes burdens easier to carry.
Jesus is saying here, “If you walk in step with me, I’ll take the
weight; if you live close to me everything is comparatively effortless.”
In 1956, Paul
Anderson won the Olympic gold medal for weight lifting. He only stood 5'9"
tall, but he weighed over 26 stone, or 170 kilos. His massive body allowed him
to lift weights his competitors couldn't even imagine. In the 1970s, was the
strongest man in the world. He’s in the Guinness Book of Records for a back
lift of over 2,840 kilos. It is still listed as the greatest weight ever backlifted
by a human being.
Paul Anderson was a devoted Christian who put
on shows to support orphanages he ran in Georgia. He did things like lift a
table holding 20 of the biggest people from the audience. He also drove nails
through two boards with only a handkerchief protecting his palm.
Then he would say: "If I, the strongest
man in the world, can't get through one day without Jesus Christ? What about
you?"
I was asking Kathie
this week “what it is about unteachable people?” And we both thought instantly
of a couple we knew in Paris who rocked up one day in the church plant we were
involved in.
They both had a kind of detached arrogance. They seemed above it all. “You
can’t tell me anything.”
We lived with a permanent expectation; “as soon as I challenge either
or both of them on any particular issue they’ll be off and we’ll never see them
again.”
Like the story of the man who gets
shipwrecked on a desert island. Ten years later they find him. And they are
amazed to find that he has constructed three fantastic buildings. So they ask
him about them. “What are these wonderful buildings you’ve put up?”
So he says, “Well, this one is my home. This is
where I live. It’s got a great view and it’s very comfortable.” He shows them
the next building and says, “And this one is my church. It’s the most beautiful
chapel I’ve ever been in.” And to be fair, itis spectacularly pretty. And they
say, “So what’s this third building?” and the guy says, “Oh, that’s the church
I used to go to…”
So how teachable
are you? Are you able to walk in step with him in life, give him your burdens,
take his yoke, cast your cares on him? When someone says, “Can I pray for you?”
do you say, “Thanks, that’d be great” or do you say “Oh, I’ll be all right.”
Live
Your Lives in Him
When we come to our second reading, Colossians 2.1-8, the
heart of it is in v6 which underlines exactly what I’ve been trying to say this
morning: “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live
your lives in him.”
That’s what being a teachable disciple is all about.
It’s another way of saying “Come to Jesus, you who are burdened and heavy-laden
and learn from him.” But he puts a bit more flesh on the bone. Paul talks
about his goal for this church. What does he really want for them?
Put negatively, he wants Christians to get to a point
where no one deceives them by fine-sounding arguments and no one takes them
captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy.
Social psychologist Oliver James wrote a book a few years ago called
Affluenza. And in it he commented on some research that said that 50% of people
with incomes over £35,000 feel they can’t afford to buy everything they need. And in fact the evidence of this research shows that whatever your
income and however much is in your bank account you will always think that you
need about a third more income to live the way you think you should. Mammon always says, “You haven’t got enough to give to the poor. You’re poor. Keep it all. Horde it. You
worked for it. You deserve it.”
That’s a fine-sounding argument. But it’s a hollow and deceptive
philosophy and it’s not the way of Christ.
Oxford church leader Simon Ponsonby wrote recently, “When I was a young curate,
I heard one interfaith adviser recommending to clergy that in our discussions
with Muslims we avoid the “J word”. He was not referring to politically
incendiary words like jihad or Jerusalem. No, this church-employed interfaith
worker was warning us not to use the word Jesus.”
That’s a fine-sounding argument. It’s a hollow and deceptive philosophy. There are others in every age where disciples of Jesus have to be
counter-cultural and nonconformist and alternative.
Put positively, he wants Christians to have “the full riches of complete understanding.” He wants us to
“know the mystery of God, namely,
Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” He urges us to be rooted and
built up in him, strengthened in the faith as
they were taught.”
If you’re unteachable you’ll never be strengthened in the faith.
Ending
As I draw to an end, I have in my hand a glass
of water. Question; how heavy is it? Any suggestions...?
…If I put it on the weighing scales it would
register 500g (about 17oz). But the absolute weight doesn't matter. It actually
depends how long I hold it for. If I hold this for a few seconds, it's not a
problem.
If I hold it for five minutes, my arm will
start to ache. If I have to hold it for an hour, it will feel like it weighs a ton. The absolute weight of the glass is
still 500g, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.
The worries and anxieties in your life and
mine are like that glass of water. If you think about what stresses you for just
a little while – it’s manageable. If you think about them longer they begin to weigh
you down. And if you think about them
constantly, they will paralyze you. You will be incapable of doing anything
else.
The Bible says, “Cast your cares on him, for he cares for you.” This is
at the heart of discipleship - learning how to live like Jesus.
Let’s stand to pray…
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 3 June 2018
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