Ezra 7:10 (ESV) “For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.”
I like when things can be simplified. Why make things more complicated than they need to be? As a result, when I read this verse, I noticed a three step pattern for discipleship.
- Learn
- Do
- Teach
The Church (all believers) is commissioned to make disciples. As a result, I have seen churches embark on discipleship programs involving one-on-one meetings and workbooks. These things are not wrong in themselves, but it seems to me that discipleship is a natural result when leaders do what Ezra did.
Ezra studied the law of the Lord, learned to live out that law in his life and taught others to do the same. It doesn’t have to be complicated or programmed. Discipleship should be a natural outworking of living out the good news of Jesus Christ.
Meetings and workbooks might be used as tools in this process, but I have seen programs fail because the meetings and workbooks became the end rather than the means.
Discipleship is not a program, it is a lifestyle.
AlohaGlory says
November 16, 2014 at 12:24 AMDiscipleship Jesus said was true when U abide in the Word (Jesus the Living Word) and The Word Abided in You/ Jn 8:31 annnnd the vs 32 the True will set you free. Mat 7: 24-25 msg, ““These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.” Mahalo Mark (Ezra too) living out life in abundance thru the Good News.
Ekim says
June 4, 2011 at 9:25 AMMark, What about the following:
(Mat. 28:28-30) And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The following are the “all that I have commanded you” what I would call the terms of discipleship or the commands of Jesus to anyone desiring to follow Him:
1- Loving Jesus more than self or others. Mat. 10:37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
Luke 14:26 If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
2- Denial of self. Mat. 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
3-Taking up your cross. Mark 8:34-38 When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
Luke 9:23-26 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son
of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.”
4-Love for all who belong to Christ. John 12:35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
5-Abiding in His Word. John 8:31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.”
6-Forsaking all to follow Him. Luke 14:33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
The gospel we are called to walk worthy of and contend for, once delivered to faithful men, is lived out in taking up our cross and denying ourselves. The invitation is to come and die. Everything else is better understood in this light. Romans, the Gospel of God, is more easily understood as we obediently bear our cross. Paul asks in chapter 6:2-11, (NKJV) “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Death is understood from our experience of taking up our cross. If the Christian experience/life starts with blood washing away our sin and placing us in right standing before God, then the cross is for our deliverance from sin. 1 Cor. 1: 17-18, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Many Christians struggle with sin, sinning and asking forgiveness, over and over never really overcoming the practice of sin. Yes, I realize we still sin and need to ask for forgiveness, but the cross delivers us from its bondage and we are set free from its slavery through death. Paul’s letter to the Galatians chpt.2:20 now becomes the cry of my heart, ‘I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” And Gal. 6:14 “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
Finally in regards to discipleship, I reference 1John 2:3-6, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.”
In Christ,
Mike
Mark McIntyre says
June 4, 2011 at 9:45 AMMike,
Thanks for taking the time to write this thoughtful comment. I agree that all these are important aspects of discipleship and should be taught clearly.