Discipleship Matters - Come and See

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Chapters

• 0:02 New Year And Life Message
• 1:34 The Great Commission Reframed
• 3:27 Story Of Spiritual Offspring
• 5:16 Make Disciples As You Go
• 7:39 Kicked Out Of Comfort Zones
• 9:14 Four Stages Of Development
• 10:00 Come And See: Relationship First
• 12:18 From Crowds To A Few
• 14:35 Internalization And Multiplication
• 17:28 Addition Versus Multiplication
• 18:04 Finding People And The Seven Signs
• 20:27 Why Signs Still Matter
• 23:27 Six Practical Steps To Disciple Making
• 31:34 Pray, Invite, Teach, Multiply
• 32:08 Commission And Closing Prayer

Transcript

Neil Silverberg: 0:02

Here we are in the new year, and I'm welcoming you to the new year, and it's an opportunity to accomplish much for the kingdom of God. And I'm I'm thankful to God for the elders entrusting me with the opening message of this series because this is really, to be honest, one of my life messages has been the whole issue of discipleship. I uh years ago was impacted by a man named Bruce Todd. Shelley remembers Bruce. He was an elder, a full-time elder in our church in Michigan. And I was at that time working a secular job and was not, I never thought I'd go back into ministry because some things had happened. I was burned out. And I got into a relationship with this older man, Bruce Todd. I would get off work and drive to the office and sit before him, no agenda, just listening and talking. And he was the wisest man I've ever known. And it impact me, I don't believe I'd be standing here in ministry today if it wasn't for Bruce's input into my life. So this is a message that is really home for me. And it's important that we uh accept it. Uh let's look at Matthew 11, uh Matthew 28. I'll open this scripture with this scripture that everybody knows by heart, but it's the place we want to start because it's central to our understanding of discipleship. Matthew 28, 16. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and in earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Father, thank you for these words that you gave us regarding discipleship. I thank you for the opportunity, Lord, of a new year to make disciples. Lord, help us to understand what discipleship means. Help us to understand that you not only called us to be disciple makers, but you've given us every provision we could ever need to be disciple makers. So help us, Father, in Jesus' name as we go through this series. We thank you for it in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen and amen. That's he came into the world to make disciples. And uh he's called us to be disciple makers. What does it mean to be a disciple maker? It's un first of all, you have to understand what it means to be a disciple before you can understand what a disciple maker means. And Jesus was a disciple maker. I want to show you something, a chart. Put that chart up, if you would, of my friend Gordon. I had a friend named Gordon, haven't seen him lately, but years ago I made friends with him, and he was one of the most powerful disciple makers I've ever known. He this is a chart of his spiritual offspring, and he told me a story I'll never forget. He told me a story that uh that started with this idea of disciple making. He said he discipled two men and took a couple of years to bring them to Jesus and pour into them. And then those men moved away. They moved out west. And after they moved, he uh hadn't talked to them in a long time. And one of the men called him up and said, We bought you a plane ticket. We want to fly you out and we want to show you something. And he flew out west, and they got they picked him up at the airport and took him directly to a house where there was maybe 50, 60, 70 people, and they said, We want you wanted you to meet your spiritual offspring. See, Gordon had discipled those two. Those two poured into others who poured into others, and now he was meeting his spiritual offspring, and that's what discipleship is all about. We call it the Great Commission, what we read, but really it should be called the Great Omission, because in our zeal to obey it, we haven't bothered to read it. And it's actually a repeat of the original dominion mandate given to Adam and Eve in the garden. Remember, God called Adam and Eve and said, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the world with fruit. That was the commission. And they did. Three, there were three parts to that commission. They had to bear God's image, they had to be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth. This is what the commission is about: people who bear God's image, constantly multiplying disciples until the earth is filled with people that love Jesus and the earth is changed. You know, in the commission it said, go, therefore. And it's important to point out that go is not the imperative verb in that sentence. The emphasis is not on the word go, but on the word make. Because you could express that by saying, Jesus could have been saying, while you are going, make disciples. It presupposes that all of us are going and can make disciples in the process. How many are going to work tomorrow? How many, yes, unfortunately you've been off, now you're going to go back. How many of you are going to school or going shopping? All of us are involved in those aspects of going. And so it's in the normal course of life that we go and make disciples as we go. And this is not just a commission for people to go to the nations, though that's a central part of it, and we're obeying that through uh ministries in this church. It means that we're to make disciples, though, as we go through the normal aspects of life. The simple word go tells us the nature of the mission. As God the Father sent Jesus Christ into the world, so Jesus Christ now sends us into the world. It tells us that the church is an apostolic company. A friend of mine had a message once, and he called it, if you're a disciple, you're out of here. And what he meant was we need to think of discipleship, not only in terms of what God can use me to in the house, but how I can have a maximum influence outside these walls. That's what matters most. The difficult problem for most of us is we've gotten comfortable in the church. And we're reluctant to leave the comfort of the church to conform to confront the world with the gospel. You know, years ago, I was reading uh in uh Matthew 9, where Jesus made the great statement, you know, uh, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest. And I never looked up the word sent there because I knew enough about the Greek language to know that most of the time the English word sent was the translation of a Greek word, apostolos, which was to make to be the heart of discipleship. And I never bothered to look it up because I always assumed that send out in Matthew 9 would be the same word as it is in other places. It would be the apostolos word. But one day I looked it up and was shocked because it wasn't uh the word apostolos, it was the word ekbalo, which is a Greek word uh translated by the English word kick, kick out, or compel. It's the word actually used of Jesus when he cast out demons. He kicked them out because how many know they weren't one willing to leave? They had to be kicked out, and so what does that tell us about workers? It tells us a lot, right? Because we need to be kicked out of our comfort zones. Now, Jesus gave four invitations to participate in four different stages of spiritual development. And let me show you this wonderful chart. I had I had this charge, but it was ugly. Timothy made it beautiful. But these stages, I'm going to be talking about stage one, which is introduction to Jesus. It is the invitation to come and see, and I'll talk about that in a minute. Then the second thing is follow me, and we'll be talking about that next week. Follow me. And then third stage is be with me. And fourth, go and make disciples. So Jesus gave these imperatives, commissions to the disciples. Stage one is focusing on Jesus' invitation. He said to two men, come and see. And Jesus was inviting these two disciples to enter a relationship with him. They were the first disciples who were invited to this relationship. By the way, only John in his gospel is the only gospel writer that tells us anything about the first year of Jesus' ministry. The other disciples, the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, start Jesus' story of ministry when uh it's gone about a year. Matthew, Mark, and Luke don't tell us anything about that first year, but only John does. And stage one is where true discipleship starts, by people being invited into a relationship with Jesus Christ. The disciples ask Jesus where he's staying. Remember? And he responds by saying, Come and you will see. So he's inviting them simply to come. And Jesus did what all rabbis did in that day. Rabbis invited would-be disciples to stay with them. So it's important to, this is where all discipleship begins. It begins by inviting someone into a relationship with you, not just into a Bible study. We do invite them to study the Bible, but ultimately we are inviting them into our lives. We make disciples the same way Jesus did by entering the lives of a few in order to have maximum impact. Think about something. As Jesus' earthly ministry grew, Jesus actually withdrew from the crowds and gave himself more to the training of twelve than he did anything else. And I have a question. Why, if Jesus was trying to reach as many people as possible, did he not organize his followers into a masked movement? Why didn't he use his popularity to get what he wanted? What we actually see, if you realize it, is Jesus had a healthy and appropriate skepticism of the masses. Why? I think it's because he knew that the same crowds who would be praising him this day would be yelling the next day, crucify him, crucify him. Jesus did minister to the crowds, but he did so to call people out of the crowds. You weren't a disciple simply because you're the crowd. You're not a disciple because you're here today. I'm not belittling the importance of the corporate gathering, but being a disciple is more than being in the crowd on Sunday. Yet, in spite of Jesus' clear strategy of calling people out of the crowd and focusing on a few, most leaders today continue to rely on preaching and teaching the masses to make disciples. It doesn't work essentially because discipleship is a relational process, first and foremost. Preaching is effective in calling people, pointing people to the need for discipleship, but these same people need to come out of the crowd and be disciples. So you see, for Jesus, discipleship wasn't a program, it was first and foremost a relationship. In the context of that relationship, he shaped the lives of 12 men who subsequently changed the world. I think Jesus did it this way for two reasons: internalization and multiplication. Internalization means he had to have a group that internalized the message. Remember how this worked? He spoke the parable of the sower, and then the the 12 idiots. I mean, disciples later asked him, what in the world did that mean? And he was able to pour into them. Forgive me for that, I shouldn't belittle the disciples, but at times they were pretty, they didn't get it much. Let me say it that way. And he would take them aside and give them deeper input into what he meant in the parable of the sower. When the disciples argued over who was the greatest, he's able to expose their false value system. This was the way he chose to preserve his legacy. He never penned a book or enlisted a scribe, though some of the disciples certainly served as scribes of his rec making a record of his word and works. But F. F. Bruce, this great scholar, Christian scholar, said it best this careful, painstaking education of the disciples secured that the teacher's influence should be permanent, that his kingdom should be formed, founded on deep and indestructible convictions in the minds of a few, not on the shifting sands of superficial impressions in the minds of the many. Wow, what a statement. Also, not only internalization, the other reason he discipled is multiplication. The other reason he focused on entering the lives of twelve men was that he might multiply a process whereby they could multiply themselves and others. Was the fact that Jesus focused on the 12 evidence that he wasn't concerned with the multitudes? No, not at all. Jesus didn't think our way. We think that in order to reach the multitudes, you have to have public events and invite crowds. And there's a place for that, of course. But Jesus had a different vision. He had a big enough vision to think small. And it was because of his vision for the multitudes and his compassion for them that he gave himself to the twelve. Are you following me? Eugene Peterson, the author of the message version of Scripture, said it best. I love this quote. He said, Jesus, it must be remembered, restricted nine-tenths of his ministry to twelve Jews because it was the only way to redeem all Americans. Well said. The irony is that by focusing on the multitudes, we have failed to train people who the masses couldn't emulate. We often perpetuate superficiality by casting a wider net. It's wide without going deep. Jesus' vision was to impact the lives of twelve so they would multiply themselves and others. Consider the multiplication versus addition process. Multiplication and addition if you can. Multiplication. Consider an evangelist who leads one person a day to the Lord. And he prays with them to get saved, never sees them again. Whereas another person wins two people to the Lord and walks with them for the entire year, teaching them how to walk with Jesus. At the end of the year, the evangelist who's brought one person to the Lord every day, got them to pray the prayer, has 365 people. He says he's led to the Lord, while the other person has only two, but those two are disciples. After a second year, the evangelist has led over 730 people to the Lord, while the two who were discipled have multiplied and now are four disciples. By the time we reach 13 years or so, you would have four far more disciples than if you just kept winning one person to the Lord each day and moving on. So let's go to the heart of this first invitation that Jesus gives when he says to the disciples, Come and see. He invites them into a relationship. And notice as I read this text how many times the word found appears in these verses. John chapter 1. The two disciples heard him say, John 1.35. The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them, and following them, said to them, What are you seeking? And they said, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying? He said to them, Come and you will see. So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which means Christ, and brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which means Peter. The next day Jesus decided to go to Val Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, Follow me. Jesus, Philip was from Bethseda, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael. It's a lot of finding going on, did you notice? And said, We have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph. Nathanael said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. No matter how you push it, put it, discipleship is about one thing essentially, finding people. The two disciples found where Jesus was staying. And they stayed with him. One of the two, Andrew, was a disciple of John the Baptist. He found his own brother Simon and said to him, We found the Messiah. Let's read it again. The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. Do you see how each one went out and found others? And where does Jesus bring them to? He brings them to observe his signs. The first thing he does is bring those he called and entered relationship with to a wedding in Cana of Galilee that had a crisis. They ran out of grape juice. I'm sorry. They ran out of wine. They ran out of wine. And Jesus performed his first miracle. When Jesus invited men and women to come and see, he was inviting them to behold his signs that clearly demonstrated he was the Messiah. In John's gospel, his mighty deeds are not called miracles, they're called signs. John is centered around seven signs that Jesus did. Did you know the whole gospel of John centers around seven signs? That's all. Jesus did thousands of miracles, but John selects seven signs and invites the disciple. And what is a sign? A sign is something that points away from itself to something else, someone else. You know, if you're driving to Nashville and you see a sign that says Nashville, a hundred miles, you don't get out and hang at the sign and say, We're there. No, the sign points away from itself, telling how this is going to be a deep message today, so everybody stay with it. It's really deep. The sign points away from itself, telling how far you have to go. Jesus' signs point to the significance of his person. That's why God still still does signs and wonders today. And that's why we need to be asking God to do signs and wonders. It's part of the commission. Remember Jesus' final words at the end of Mark's gospel? These signs shall follow those who believe. These signs shall follow. We should be concerned if there's no signs accompanying the word. That's why it's important to recognize that God still wants to perform signs today to demonstrate he is the Christ. And the first one Jesus does is turning the water into wine. And John's gospel says, John said, this, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana and Galilee and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. We're going to ask God at the end of the message to stretch forth his hand, and signs and wonders would begin to occur. Now, let me give you six practical steps to disciple making. Number one, dare to be a disciple yourself. You can't give what you don't have. So you start there. Let's be clear on what that means. Doesn't mean you have to be perfect. It means, as was said previously, a disciple isn't a perfect man or woman. They're an honest man. A disciple is a learner, someone who is passionate about learning to follow and walk with Jesus. He or she is learning to practice the things that Jesus practiced. A disciple is a person who has a deep desire that God use them to powerfully affect the lives of others. And because of their love for Jesus, they want Jesus to use them to draw others to him. We call it evangelism. But it begins with a burden in the heart, not just a sense of obligation. I would sum up a disciple this way: number one, it's a person who desires to be like Jesus. That's number one. I want to be like the Lamb of God. Because again, you can't give what you don't have. Number two, it's a person willing to practice the things that Jesus practiced. Jesus had definite practices that he did regularly, and he's calling us to follow him in those practices. And then thirdly, a person who desires to be used by Jesus to draw others to him. Number two, step number two, take stock of your present relationships. Do an assessment of the people who are in your life right now. Remember, you don't need to go anywhere else to be a disciple maker. You just need to enter the lives of the people already in your uh immediate orbit, especially unbelievers. There's a number of people in your life right now who are potential disciples who you don't yet know the Lord, but they have the opportunity to because you're in their life. People in your school, your workplace, your neighborhood. There are people the Father has ordained for you to reach and for me to reach. That you alone can do because you have access to them. And this also includes new believers who are just learning to walk with Jesus. That they need someone to walk with them. And you can be that someone if you're in proximity to them. Step three, pray about who Father might want you to disciple. Start praying about the people in your life. And don't just invite somebody into your life lightly, because it's a huge commitment of time to take the time to pour into others. So take time to pray about it. You know what Luke tells us? Luke tells us that Jesus, before he chose the 12, spent the entire night in prayer to God before he chose the disciples, because he knew that the commitment needed to be, was radical, and he had to be willing to have the, he needed the right people. And it's a huge commitment of time. You might be naturally drawn to someone, but God might have someone else for you to not that you're not immediately drawn to. I've had men in my life that I've walked with that I thought were were going to be, it's going to be a good relationship, but it didn't turn out that way. So make sure and ask the Father to make it very clear to you who he wants you to pour into. Amen. Step four, invite someone into your life. Again, it's not so much you're inviting people to study the Bible or a church service, but into your life. We do study the Bible, we do attend church, we do the things that we're called to do, but we're doing it because we've invited them into our lives. And that's where the power is of transformation is. The end result is the size of a ministry base is substantially the same as it was before the program was started. What is missing from this approach? The priority of relationship. Curriculum is good, but for transformation to occur, it can only happen in the context of relationship. Jesus says, come into a relationship with me, and I'll empower you to fulfill what I've called you to do. And this same appeal has to be at the heart of our disciple-making strategy. How does church, this church, this approach differ from church programs? Again, we're not inviting people into a program or a curriculum where they study material, take exams, and turn it in. Instead, we're inviting them into accountable relationships of trust, love, and transparency. Step five, teach them how to follow Jesus. Discipleship is not taught, it's caught. Teach them how to follow. It's in the concept of context of loving relationships, of accountability, that we make disciples. We certainly can use material, but the way a person learns is through relationship. Discipleship, again, is caught, not taught. When you disciple someone, it's not just you teaching them, but both of you learning through relationship. One of the things God uses in discipling relationship, honesty, is honesty in the lives of the two people in the relationship or more. God uses the honesty of the discipler as much as he does the discipleship program we're using. And one of the reasons discipleship is so powerful is that God uses models to help us live the Christian life. We get to observe in flesh and blood. You know, I've had people in my life that I've learned what it means to be a husband by because they were stellar, they had stellar marriages. You learn to walk with someone through the various phases of their Christian life. And then step six, teach them to multiply. It doesn't work if it ends with you. You have to teach them to multiply and make disciples. Give them a mandate. Go and make disciples. And your chart, your chart, what will what does it look like presently? You saw Gordon's chart. What does your chart look like? Who is are you spending time pouring into? You know, anybody that's a little bit more advanced than another person is really able to disciple because they have learned something that you have yet to learn. I'm gonna ask you to stand. I want to pray that this message will be powerfully built in our lives. Father, thank you, Father, for the call to make disciples. We pray for Trinity Community Church. Thank you, Lord, for the call that the elders heard the call to disciple, Father. And we thank you, Lord God, that you're gonna allow us to flesh it out. Thank you for allowing us to flesh it out and to walk with people. Lord, show everybody in this church who they should be discipling or who they should be receiving discipleship from. We pray in Jesus' name for a clarity that people seek God about this, that there would be clarity and there would be, Lord God, no uh level of frustration as they seek you. Teach them to multiply disciples. We ask this in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.