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In the 13th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew Jesus shifts gears
in His teaching style. He begins teaching by the use of short stories
with a point. They are called parables.
He made this shift after the major rejection of Him and His
message by the religious leadership. Jesus was riding high for a while.
Those who were following Him believed their "candidate" for King and His
Kingdom were going to win out. Now, they were hoping His Kingdom was
going to put an end to the Roman domination. With this massive rejection
of Jesus, His followers were concerned about the momentum of the Jesus
movement being stifled. So, they were asking the question, "What will
happen to the Kingdom now, with this rejection?"
By the use of 8 parables Jesus answers this question and
gives them some sense of what the Kingdom is going to look like from now
on. The heart of these parables that describe the Kingdom are the sower
and the soils, the mustard seed and the leaven.
The sower and the soils demonstrate the primary activity of
the Kingdom and that is the sowing of the seed. Jesus defines four
different soil samples and gives a great visual to how the seed either
becomes fruitful or not.
With the mustard seed, the smallest of seeds, Jesus
expresses how a small seed is able to grow into a large and strong bush.
This will be the nature of the Kingdom's incredible, almost invisible
growth. He explains how a woman can introduce a little bit of yeast or
leaven into a large lump of dough and the entire lump is permeated. With
this visual Jesus is showing how irreversible the growth of the Kingdom
is.
Out of all 8 of the parables in this teaching of Jesus about
the Kingdom, there really is only one activity. That activity is the
sowing of the seed. So, what is the seed and who is doing the sowing?
In the 8th chapter of the Gospel of Luke Jesus says, "The
seed is the word of God." In the Matthew 13 passage Jesus says, "Listen
then to what the parable of the sower means: When people hear the
message about the Kingdom." So far, Jesus is saying that the seed is the
word of God and that word is equal to the message about the Kingdom.
In the 4th chapter of the Gospel of Mark Jesus speaks about
the sowing of the seed on the four soil samples: "The word is sown
beside the road. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the
word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places,
hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no
root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes
because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed
sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the
deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and
choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good
soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop-some thirty, some
sixty, some a hundred times what was sown." This passage reinforces the
sowing of the word of God as the seed.
Now check out later in Matthew 13: Then he left the crowd
and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to
us the parable of the weeds in the field." He answered, "The one who
sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the
good seed stands for the people of the kingdom." Now note what Jesus
does here. Jesus, the Son of Man, is the sower of the seed. AND, the
seed stands for the people of the Kingdom-those who are the Kingdom
kids-the followers of the King-the followers of Jesus!
Here's what I want to stress! The four ways of being and
making disciples we have articulated over the last two sessions is all
part of the sowing of the seed in the world. Jesus is the sower and the
word of God-the message of the Kingdom-the people of the
Kingdom-represent the seed that He is sowing into the world.
So, embracing the Jesus lifestyle, loving one another,
meeting the needs of the needy and disenfranchised, and loving God and
loving your neighbor as yourself all are part of the sowing activity in
the Kingdom today.
The takeaway for me is this: DON'T SHARE OR EXPLAIN THE
GOSPEL. JESUS IS THE GOSPEL! Jesus says that you are the salt of the
earth-the light of the world! And now Jesus is saying that you are the
Good News He is sowing into this world. This is all part of the plan of
you being in Jesus and Jesus being in you.
So, as you go and make
disciples of all nations, be the Gospel wherever you go! Be Jesus as you
touch the world around you! Can you think of anything more thrilling or
meaningful than to be united with Jesus, the best Good News there is in
such a bad news world?
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To continue our thoughts contrasting and comparing evangelism
and discipleship, I want to remind you that Jesus is not pushing for us
to evangelize or proselytize anyone. Jesus makes it very clear that He
only wants us to make disciples or make the people of all nations to
become followers of Him.
Jesus gives us how to best be a disciple-maker. Jesus first
wants you to be a disciple-a follower of Him. Then, your lifestyle of
being a follower can be observed and shared most credibly. Within the
teachings of Jesus there are four specific ways He shares for all of His
followers to do so. These four ways not only grow those who have
committed to following Jesus; they also most effectively show Jesus off
to the nations of the world.
Let me summarize the first three we examined last session.
First, Jesus wants you to embrace His lifestyle for yourself by
developing the habit of walking with Jesus every day. Second, Jesus
wants you to love one another-primarily other disciples-by developing
the habit of walking with a few others who are following Jesus every
day. And third, Jesus wants you to follow Him and pay special attention
to where the heart of Jesus is-the needy and the disenfranchised-by
developing the habit of waiting on Jesus to lead out with orders and
opportunities. Remember, this is not evangelism as we have come to
define it or proselyting in any way. This is discipleship the Jesus way!
The fourth foundational teaching of Jesus on how to be a
disciple and make disciples may be the most important of the four I'm
sharing with you. I've shared it before and you've certainly heard it
before. My prayer is that this time around you might see it as a
lifestyle you can embrace more diligently than ever!
Here's the problem. This teaching can't just be taught; it must be caught!
Jesus repeatedly taught what He had come to believe was the
greatest commandment of all. Even when He was asked the question, "What
is the greatest commandment?", Jesus answered this question very
uniquely. He couldn't give just one commandment, but felt the need to
share two-a kind of two in one!
On three occasions Jesus shared this same "greatest" commandment. Let's take a look at each one.
The first is in the 12th chapter of the Gospel of Mark: One
of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that
Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the
commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one,"
answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is
one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is
this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. 'There is no commandment
greater than these." "Well said, teacher," the man replied.
"You are
right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love
him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your
strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than
all burnt offerings and sacrifices." When Jesus saw that he had answered
wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
The second is in the 10th chapter of the Gospel of Luke: On
one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he
asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "What is written in the
Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: "'Love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as
yourself.'" "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
The third is in the 22nd chapter of Matthew: Hearing that
Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of
them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher,
which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the
second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Here's how I see this teaching. Anyone anywhere can do this!
I was haunted throughout my youth whether I could ever please God and
do His will. If these teachings of Jesus had been reframed for me so
that I could embrace them as a lifestyle, I think I would have bought
into them. The will of God was always a mystery to me. In fact, as I
began to work and speak at youth conferences, the most frequent question
thrown at me was, "How can I know the will of God for my life?"
Jesus makes it so simple. Love God and love your neighbor and you'll be doing the will of God with great assurance!
In John's first letter, he wrote something very profound. He
said, "God is love." Now, if God is love then when you love, you are
acting like God-you are acting God out!
Do you want to show Jesus off? Do you want the God of gods
to shine through your life? Make it your ultimate and daily purpose to
practice two things: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and
strength and love your neighbor as yourself! A disciple of Jesus doesn't
just talk about love. Jesus' disciples are lovers!
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It was in graduate seminary that I had the privilege of working
out so many Biblical issues. It wasn't in the classroom, but in the
coffee shop that the real gems emerged. There was a group of 5 or 6 men
who gathered nearly every day at the IHOP about two blocks away from
school. Sometimes our discussions became so heated and interesting that
we skipped chapel to continue "changing the world."
One of the early and frequent topics was to compare and
contrast evangelism and discipleship. We viewed evangelism as the open
door of converting a person and discipleship was the follow-up work
after a person was converted. From time to time we swerved into the
sub-topics of social evangelism versus friendship or aggressive
evangelism. Social evangelism was basically doing good works for
people-meeting their social needs, yet not expressly bringing Jesus into
the interaction. We all were pretty much opposed to social evangelism.
What we settled on was either aggressive evangelism-initiating a
straight up conversation about salvation-or friendship evangelism, which
meant building a relationship with the person first and then sharing
the Gospel with him.
I spent much of my spiritual life grappling with the issue
of evangelism. For quite some time, I was filled with guilt over not
sharing the Gospel enough or not having many results to my evangelistic
efforts.
It was not until many years later that I discovered that
Jesus never commanded His disciples to evangelize anyone. The two
primary commands of Jesus that are relevant here are "make disciples of
all nations" and "bear witness of me" or "you shall be witnesses of me"
in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria and to the remotest part of the
world.
Because we have misunderstood this, we have come to embrace
evangelism as a prominent teaching and practice that is expected of all
followers of Jesus. And, the misunderstanding of evangelism goes further
into wrong thinking.
Evangelism has come to mean to proselytize, which
means to convert a person to another faith or religion. Jesus taught
none of this! We are not to proselytize or attempt to convert anyone
away from their culture or religious persuasion and into our culture or
religious persuasion. Not only did Jesus NOT teach this; there is no way
any one of us has the ability and power to truly convert a person's
heart to follow after God.
When Jesus commanded His disciples to make disciples (Jesus
followers) of all nations, He meant exactly what He said-nothing less,
nothing more. When Jesus commanded His disciples to "bear witness of
Him" to the world (John 15) and to "be witnesses of Him", starting with
Jerusalem and proceed to do this throughout the entire world (Acts 1),
He was not urging any kind of conversion tactics. Instead, Jesus was
urging them to introduce and encourage people from all nations to become
followers of Jesus. You see, when a person is introduced to Jesus, then
that person has the opportunity to be converted in his heart by the
Spirit of Jesus-the only one in the conversion business!
So, if Jesus is not pushing for us to evangelize or
proselytize, but only to make disciples or make followers of Jesus in
all nations, how does this get done? Within the teachings of Jesus there
are four specific ways He shares for all of His followers to do. We'll
check out three of them today and then the fourth one we'll examine in
our next session together.
The first is to be found in Jesus' early teaching in Matthew
5:13-16. He says: "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses
its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for
anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the
light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people
light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand,
and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your
light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify
your Father in heaven."
Here Jesus says by embracing the lifestyle of Jesus-talking,
walking, thinking and loving like Jesus, you will naturally attract the
attention of the watching world and turn them toward a positive
response to God. Your Jesus lifestyle will show up in a big and
effective way!
The second way Jesus teaches that you can show Jesus off is
found in John 13:34-35, where Jesus says, "A new command I give you:
Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By
this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one
another." Here Jesus is saying that your love for one another will make
it crystal clear that you know and are being energized by Jesus.
The third way Jesus teaches that you can show Jesus off is
found in Matthew 25:31-46. He says, "Then the King will say to those on
his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your
inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the
world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty
and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me
in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after
me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'"
"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see
you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?
When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and
clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the
least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did to me.'"
Jesus makes it clear here that when you meet the needs of
people around you, you are actually ministering and connecting with
Jesus personally! Now that is powerful!
Jesus wants you to be a disciple-a follower of Him. More
than anything else Jesus wants you to embrace His lifestyle for
yourself, love others who are following Him and pay special attention to
where the heart of Jesus is-the needy and the disenfranchised. By the
way, this amounts to practicing the 3 habits we talk about so much: Walk
with Jesus. Walk with others. Wait on Jesus to lead out with orders and
opportunities. That's not evangelism; that's discipleship the Jesus
way!
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Matthew 5:13-16
Now that Jesus has described what it means
to be a happy, blessed and fulfilled
follower, He uses two dynamic terms to
position us in this world-salt and light.
You are the salt of the earth. But if the
salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made
salty again? It is no longer good for
anything, except to be thrown out and
trampled underfoot.
NOTE Jesus says, "You ARE the salt of the
earth!" It's not that you might be or you
could be, but you ARE. Salt was used as a
preservative to counteract the decay in meat.
In order for the salt to be effective it
must be out of the salt-shaker and applied to
the meat. Salt is the invisible presence of
God. It must be sensed! You're the salt in
the world around you-the invisible presence
of God among those you touch. Just by your
presence there ought to be a preserving of
purity, honesty and fairness.
NOTE that salt represents the inner quality-the being of the
equation. Therefore, salt is the best tag to place on the first four
beatitudes-poor in spirit, mourning, meekness and hungering and
thirsting for righteousness. These snapshots are all about being, not
doing. They
describe your relationship with the Lord.
A saltless disciple is good for nothing
except to be thrown out
and trampled under foot. Jesus uses the term
tasteless. The original Greek word is
MORAINO, which means to be foolish, to
play the fool, insipid, dull, flat or
deficient-literally to be a MORON.
In Rabbinic literature salt is associated with wisdom-a
foolish disciple has no impact on his world. In a sense salt is a
warning against being good for nothing. Also, salt adds flavor to
things. Jesus is to life what salt is to
food. Jesus and the Kingdom lend flavor to life to be a
difference-maker. The world is changed by flavoring it with your
salt-like presence. It's like a thermostat; you set the temperature.
It was Saint Francis who said, "Preach the
gospel at all times and when necessary use
words." This is precisely what it means to
be salt. You are the salt of the earth.
Now for the second image-light. You are the light of the
world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp
and put it under a bowl. Instead
they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see
your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
NOTE again Jesus says, "You ARE the light
of the world!" Salt has a powerful invisible
nature to it; light has more of the visible
presence of God. Salt must be sensed-light
must be seen! Light counteracts the
darkness.
The visible presence of God consists of
the energy of salt and the expression of
light-IT MUST BE ATTRACTIVE AND AUTHENTIC!
The core of this light can be found in loving
your neighbor as yourself.
We are beyond the point where mere talk-no
matter how sound-can make an impression.
Demonstration is required. We must live what
we talk, even in places where we cannot talk
what we live. We stand again at Mt. Carmel
(I K 18:20-40). THE TEST IS
REALITY-AUTHENTICITY-THE GENUINE!
Whereas salt was a warning against being good for nothing,
light is used to show us how to be good for something. It is the outer
or doing side of these two images used by Jesus. Light is the best tag
to be placed on the second four snapshots-merciful, pure in heart,
peacemaker and rejoicing in persecution.
You ARE the salt of the earth and the
light of the world; you are the invisible and
visible presence of God on planet earth.
Don't become tasteless as salt and don't dim
out or cover up your light! Allow Jesus to
be sensed and seen in you.
More than twenty years ago E. Stanley Jones, the great
Methodist writer and missionary to India, was asked to name the
number-one problem in the church. His quick reply was `Irrelevance.' Not
that the church
was inherently irrelevant, but that followers of Jesus were failing to
show in concrete ways and to tell in cogent understandable terms how the
Jesus is relevant to all of life in the twentieth century.
So, how can this be done? Salt and Light.
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A disciple-a learner and follower of Jesus-must make it his or
her single-minded focus to be like Jesus as best he can. Simply put, see
and hear what Jesus does and do it! In order to be a true follower or
disciple of
Jesus-to be like Jesus, it's important to understand the leadership
style of Jesus. Once you understand this, you can follow Him more
effectively.
There are three basic dimensions to the
leadership style of Jesus that are vital to
embrace. FIRST-It's personal and powerful!
Jesus was God in the flesh-the incarnational
dimension of His leadership style. In the
same way Jesus fleshed out the invisible God
we are to flesh out or incarnate Jesus. We
are essentially to be Jesus in all that we
do. We do this by seeking to know Him better
in all we do-including Jesus in every
decision, every meeting and every
relationship. We do this by practicing the
presence of Jesus every day-walking, talking,
thinking, loving and bleeding like Jesus. We
miss the power in knowing Jesus, when we
ignore His presence and avoid His pain.
Remember Paul's words: "That I may know
Him and the power of His resurrection and the
fellowship of His sufferings."
SECOND-The leadership style of Jesus is
relational and relevant! Jesus made it clear
that there is no genuine relationship with
Him without being in relationship with
others. This is the leadership dimension of
interdependence, connection and compassion.
He demonstrated this relational dimension
when He chose the first three disciples to be
with Him-just to be with Him in
relationship-in community. When you isolate
yourself, you short-change yourself and
others in the family of Jesus. When you
embrace interdependence with Jesus and
others, you exchange your life to know the
power of God. You can actually experience His
power in this community.
THIRD-The leadership style of Jesus is also
underground and invisible! This is the secret
dimension of Jesus' leadership style you are
to follow that will generate real impact,
accomplishment and creativity in the world
around you. His ways are just not the normal
ways of man. His own disciples in much of
what He tried to do opposed him. They tried
to push aside the woman who had a bleeding
problem. They resisted the team of men who
were lowering the lame man through the roof.
They wanted to send the 5000 away for them to
fend for themselves rather than feed them.
They viewed the man born blind with a certain
disregard. They had given up on any
possibility of Jesus doing anything helpful
for His friend Lazarus.
We resist Jesus as well, mostly by ignoring
Him. We tend toward creating and producing
the visible things; Jesus was and is totally
into the invisible, under the radar, approach
to serving others. This is real impact-really
making a difference in the world around you.
To walk, talk, think, love and bleed like
Jesus is the focus and goal of the disciple.
Living your life in this way means that you
will be a radical. "Radical" means getting to
the root or operating from the basic
fundamentals of life; it's following the
principles that make life work best.
The key to being a disciple is learning and practicing how
to be Jesus in everything you do and wherever you are. You see, Jesus
doesn't want you to demonstrate for Him (that's the easy thing to do);
He wants you to demonstrate Him as you walk like He
walked, talk like He talked, think as He thought, love as He loved and
even give yourself to sacrificially bleed as Jesus bled for the world.
That is being a disciple of Jesus-doing the toughest thing you'll ever
do
in your life-to follow the teachings and principles of the irresistible
and attractive Jesus.
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Jesus made it clear what He expected His
early followers to do. At the very end of
Matthew's Gospel Jesus says: "All
authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to me. Therefore go and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything
I have commanded you. And surely I am with
you always, to the very end of the age."
(Matthew 28:18-20)
Whatever else can be taught from this
passage, it is important that you see what
was on Jesus' heart in these last words for
His followers. Jesus presents one command
here; it's not an option. Jesus is making it
clear that He wants His followers to make
disciples of all nations. Make disciples of
all nations!
A disciple is literally a learner-one who
listens and follows a teacher and his
teachings. Jesus commands His disciples to go
make disciples of all nations.
"Nations" is best understood as cultures.
We're realizing that no matter what culture
is introduced to Jesus, the response is
amazingly positive and transformational. And
just as Jesus gave this command to His first
disciples, it's clear that Jesus wants all of
His disciples everywhere to continue to
multiply more disciples.
Now, the term "disciple" is only used in the
Gospels; it cannot be found in the rest of
the New Testament. It's like the Gospels are
filled with urging all to become disciples
and the letters to the many fellowships of
Jesus in the New Testament are filled with
practicing what it means to be a disciple.
To me, a disciple is simply a follower of
Jesus-one who hears His teachings and seeks
to practice them. We are doing our best to be
faithful disciples of Jesus and to obey Jesus
by making disciples of Jesus everywhere we
go. We see ourselves as followers of Jesus,
not Christians or believers or Church
members.
We say it this way among our
friends: "We're trying to do the most
difficult thing we have ever done in our
lives. We're trying to follow the teachings
and principles of Jesus." This is
discipleship-to know Jesus and to make Him known.
Over the next few weeks I want to open up
what discipleship is all about. In order to
get us started I want to make 8 observations
on the elements of being a disciple.
FIRST-Being a disciple is to have a teachable
spirit and a heart for God. If you are a
disciple, you will work hard on being a
learner. You don't already have it all
figured out. You are coming to Jesus as a
little child.
SECOND-Being a disciple is to be holy-set
apart unto God for His mission. When you are
set apart in this way, you will be going
against the grain-a contrarian, but you will
be walking hand in hand with Jesus and that's
the only way to get through the piles of life
anyway.
THIRD-Being a disciple means to enhance your
self-esteem. Knowing whose you are will
determine who you are. When you understand
clearly how centering and empowering it is to
follow Jesus, He becomes the key to your
self-esteem.
FOURTH-Being a disciple means to confirm your
calling-your purpose in life. When you follow
Jesus, you will know the reason why you are
here on planet earth and have a great
opportunity to act it out.
FIFTH-Being a disciple means to manage your
conflicts. When following Jesus, your
conflicts become opportunities for making a
difference and learning more about yourself.
SIXTH-Being a disciple means to be able to
express your personal faith. One of the great
problems believers have is to be able to
share their faith. All kinds of training
materials and methodologies have been
produced over the years, but there is nothing
more effective in communicating your faith
than being a follower of Jesus plus nothing.
It's contagious!
SEVENTH-Being a disciple means to make
disciples. If you are a disciple, then you
will multiply yourself. You will make other
disciples of Jesus as you live your life. You
won't be able to stop it! Jesus will shine
through!
EIGHTH-Being a disciple means to know Jesus
better. Being a disciple is all about knowing
Jesus. In fact, I'm convinced that this may
be the only real goal for anything we ever
do-in your home, in your vocation, on your
vacation, as you parent your children and
when you come together as a group of people
in the name of Jesus.
Paul, who was apprehended by Jesus on the
road to Damascus, expresses how important
knowing Jesus better really is: "I
consider everything a loss because of the
surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my
Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.
I consider them garbage that I may gain
Christ and be found in him, not having a
righteousness of my own that comes from the
law, but that which is through faith in
Christ-the righteousness that comes from God
on the basis of faith. I want to know
Christ-yes, to know the power of his
resurrection and participation in his
sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
and so, somehow, attaining to the
resurrection from the dead." (Philippians
3:8-11)
How can I know Jesus better? That's what I
want to know! In the days ahead I want to
encourage you to know Jesus better. Begin by
being His disciple.
