What is a disciple? (Luke 6:40; 47)

Short teachings from Hillcrest Church further exploring Sunday's teachings.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, hope you're doing well. Tim here, and we are diving deep into the topic of living sent. So I wanted to just continue to talk about this theme of what does it mean to be a disciple? What do when we're when we're calling people to be disciples? What does that mean? And I wanted to look at a few things Jesus says about discipleship from Luke chapter 6, because I I found them to be some helpful statements about discipleship. So this is uh sometimes it's called the Sermon on the Plain. In Matthew chapter 5 through 7, there's a section where it's called the Sermon on the Mount, and Luke has a very similar set of teachings in there in Luke chapter, where does it start? It's basically just chapter 6. So it's a little less content than Matthew does, but there's a few lines in there that point directly to how Jesus thought about discipleship that I wanted to touch on. So Jesus uh says in Luke 6, verse 40, he says, the student, and you could also translate that uh disciple or um, you know, the Hebrew word is Talmud or apprentice. So the apprentice or disciple is not above the teacher or the master or the rabbi. Um so the the master the the the apprentice is not above the master, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their master, their teacher, their rabbi. And so it's very very short. Uh the student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher. It's this simple understanding that the goal of a Talmud following a rabbi is to become like their rabbi. The goal of an apprentice following a master is to become like the master. Um and this is what you know what when we say, like, what is a what is a disciple? A lifelong apprentice to Jesus, learning to be like Jesus. Um and you know, that came up when we took a look at the Great Commission in the last episode. Um we, you know, Jesus said uh to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them uh in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you know, this entry into the life of discipleship, and then teaching them to obey everything I have taught you, that their life would be transformed to follow the way of Jesus. Uh and so, and that you know, you get this very similar idea, Luke 6.40, and then the same chunk of teaching in Luke 6 verse 47, um, I think you this idea continues. So in Luke 6.47, uh Jesus says, As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they're like. And he goes on, he says, they're like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid the foundation on a rock. When the flood came, the torrent struck the house, uh the house torrent struck that house, but could not shake it because it was well built. And so it's this image, this kind of classic image of a house built on rock, not on sand, um, is the image Jesus using. But if you back up, um, what is that building on the rock? How does he describe it? He says there's three things. Um, he says it's people who come to him, who hear his words, and put them into practice. Um, and so these kind of three, uh, these three elements. There's this relational uh nearness, come draw near to Jesus. Um, a disciple draws near to Jesus, a disciple listens, hears his words, a disciple listens to Jesus, and I think you could include watches Jesus, watches his life through the gospels, listens to learns his teachings in the gospels, and then puts them into practice. Um disciple um actually does what the rabbi teaches them to do, um follows the way of the rabbi. And so um this this image of discipleship um is uh you know someone who draws near to the rabbi, um, listens to their teaching, and then and then and then walks in the way of the rabbi. And so this is what it means to be a lifelong, a lifelong apprentice. Jesus, this is what we're called to be, and this is what um we're calling people to be as well. Now, um I do want to add, and this is here's Tim uh nerd theological Tim maybe, um, that I I th you know I think to be uh like sophisticated to think in a sophisticated theological manner uh about this, I would want to add this, and so this is really, you know, kind of trying to open up my the my kind of theology brain. Um that this is a it's a helpful picture or metaphor for discipleship, but I don't think it is the only language we should use around discipleship simply because, like everything I just said, it is good and true and right. We are called to come draw near to Jesus, listen to his teaching, put what he says into practice. 100% true. But um that uh language, we also need to incorporate all the stuff, all the teaching of faith that happens after the cross and resurrection, right? Because everything I just said about like a Talmud learning to be like the rabbi, um it is not again, it's not counter to, it doesn't stand against a lot of other kind of the ways that we talk about uh about Christian spiritual formation. And so we also need to remember that when we come to Jesus, we come through the cross. Um, because we come on the other side of the cross. We come through the cross, so we need forgiveness. Um, we also need to know that when we come to Jesus, he puts us in relationship with his Abba Father, and that he places his spirit in us, and that we'll never be able to hear his voice and walk with him if we don't have his spirit. We also need to remember uh that when we come to Jesus that uh we come, uh we don't come alone, that he places us in a family, a spiritual family called the church, um, and that this is meant to be done uh with others. Um and so there's a lot of uh just you know like critical Christian theology that gets unpacked later in the New Testament, um kind of uh maybe unpacking the nuts and bolts of spiritually how this discipleship works. And I think, and this is just in my kind of my pastor brain, the metaphor, the image of the apprentice following the master is a very helpful picture of what it means to be a disciple. But I would just want you to know it isn't kind of in in contradiction to some of the other language you may have heard of walking by the spirit, of putting to death um the misdeeds of the body, you know, those those sinful compulsions in our lives, of being incorporated into a Christian community, a church family. These things um they're not against one another. Um, and in some ways, they're just they're different language, different ways of describing the same reality. And each one is helpful in different ways. Um, I think the discipleship, the kind of uh the Talmud following the rabbi, uh the disciple following the master, um, is really helpful in terms of its intentionality. And it's just like it's really practical, right? It's like, okay, I need to listen to the words of Jesus and follow him. Um but uh it's also like we can't talk about what it means to follow Jesus without the cross and the resurrection. We can't talk about the power to practice what he puts into what he we can't talk about the power to practice what he teaches us without the power of the Spirit. And so um, yeah, I don't know if that's helpful to you, but I these are the things that I think about uh when I'm teaching, when I'm trying to lead people into uh Christian formation, I'm trying to give them images and metaphors that they can hold on to, and I'm trying to also ground them in the full theological reality of what God is doing in and through them. And so the the takeaway is um the big takeaway is uh we do want to be uh apprentices of Jesus. Uh we want to draw near to him, we want to listen to his words, we want to put what he says into practice, we want to become like him. And that is when we think about what we are trying to do towards others, um, we want to lead others in that way of life as well. And thankfully, we have the entire New Testament scriptures that um that lead us in the full orb picture. And I would include the Hebrew scriptures as well in a different way, that lead us in in a full orb picture of all that it means um to draw near, um, to listen well, to walk faithfully, and to invite others into that life as well. All right. Grace and peace.