I was privileged to attend a recent baptism, which actually turned out to be two baptisms. Our pastor baptised a young lady and just before he went to dry off asked if there was anyone else who wanted to be baptised. A hand went up and before we knew it, we were celebrating our second baptism of the morning! God is good. Both baptisms featured a testimony and both testimonies focused on the desire to be disciples.
It was not entirely surprising when our pastor chose Matthew 28:16-20 as his text:
“So, the eleven disciples (talmidim) went to the hill in the Galilee (Galil) where Jesus (Yeshua) had told them to go. When they saw him, they prostrated themselves before him; but some hesitated. Yeshua came and talked with them. He said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make people from all nations into disciples (talmidim) immersing them into the reality of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh), and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember! I will be with you always, yes, even until the end of the age.’”
Three things hit me as I read the scripture. First, I was reminded that I have always been taught that the best reading of this passage is ‘in your going make disciples’, with the emphasis being on making disciples. Second that you make disciples once they have been baptised and they have to be taught. Thirdly, that what they are taught is to obey everything that Jesus commanded. As I reflected on those major points, I recalled something that has been bugging me for a while, and it is this. Recently I was working in Microsoft Word and I used ‘disciple’ and ‘discipling’ in their context as verbs. Only the system kept flagging me to say I was using the words incorrectly. The stored vocabulary did not recognise disciple or discipling as verbs. That felt all a bit odd, so I did what we all do when we are puzzled these days. I ‘googled’ it, and this is what you find in the search results:
Verb (used with object): discipled, discipling.
Archaic: To convert into a disciple. Obsolete: To teach, train.
Somehow, we have downgraded ‘disciple’ from a verb to a noun, and if we try to use it as a verb then we are labelled archaic, obsolete even. This feels wrong, but in my experience, it is actually what is happening.
Poor Bible understanding in the Church
The level of Bible understanding among Christians is, in the main, very poor. In my previous church, few members seemed to have enough Bible knowledge to recognise when teaching had been outside of what the Bible said.
I recently caught up with an old friend, after a hiatus of at least ten years. In that time, he had moved continents and done a load of things, including being CEO of a very contemporary church movement. Given his conservative evangelical background I asked him how he had got on with them. His feedback was, “they are lovely, lovely people but they simply do not know their Bible. They are driven by an experience of Jesus’ love, but have chosen to bathe continually in that experience rather than coming to know Him better”. It reminded me of the film ‘Fifty First Dates’. You never move on from that first encounter.
Whenever I speak to church-attending Christians I ask why they are Christians. Their answers are rarely encouraging, they are unable to explain the rationale of their faith and cannot articulate the evidence of their faith. I have had countless conversations particularly around creation, where people end up saying, ‘Oh I wish I had your knowledge’. My response is normally to offer to recommend some good books to read and sermons to listen to. I have to tell you I have rarely, if ever, been bowled over by the response.
It is time for the Church to return to its roots and return to using the word ‘disciple’ as a verb once again.
The Apostle Paul’s discipleship
Now discipleship clearly isn’t only about Bible knowledge and understanding, but it is a vital and necessary part of it.
The Apostle Paul, by Rembrandt, Wikimedia Commons
In the Book of Acts, Luke gives us a snapshot of Christian discipleship in the person of Paul. He tells us to remember that Paul spent three years studying the Scriptures and ‘connecting the dots’ from the Old Testament to Jesus while in the desert of Arabia. He then spent time with Peter and James and didn’t take to the mission field until he confirmed the truth with the eyewitnesses. You can read Galatians 1:13 to 2:10 to see this. Once Paul was properly discipled, he demonstrated the focus of this discipleship process. Paul regularly entered local synagogues to argue for the Deity of Jesus from the Old Testament with people who knew their Scriptures, as described in Acts 17. Paul spent time “explaining” and “proving” Jesus was the Messiah by comparing the Old Testament prophecies with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. He was a masterful apologist to those who grew up in the Jewish faith.
Paul was also prepared to share the truth with non-believers. He and Barnabas encountered many non-Christians in Lystra and Iconium, two indigenous pagan communities – read about it in Acts 14. They preached boldly using signs and wonders as the evidential foundation for their proclamations. In Athens, Paul demonstrated the fullness of his discipleship training, effectively communicating to a pagan community the truth of Christianity using analogies from their own pagan culture. Paul obviously knew what he believed, why he believed it, and how his beliefs measured up against the fallacies of the culture. Paul was well discipled.
The Church today often mistakes ‘discipleship’ for mentoring. Both are important to the life of Christians, but they are two different processes. When we think of mentorship, we typically think of a process of modelling. Those who are mentored take on the shape, attitude and appearance of those who mentor them. Mentors exist as examples for those they mentor. Discipleship may include mentoring, but that process doesn’t necessarily require direct contact with a mentor. Paul spent three years in Arabia and never mentioned a mentor. What was he doing there? He was studying the Scriptures and reflecting on what he was learning. Discipleship can take place without a mentor if you have access to the truth and are willing to take the time to learn. I have been discipled by many great apologetics books, websites and resources, even though I’ve never met their authors personally.
When you read or hear about parts of the world where the Church is growing it is invariably accompanied by a deep and faithful commitment towards discipleship.
When you read or hear about parts of the world where the Church is growing it is invariably accompanied by a deep and faithful commitment towards discipleship. I know that in the Iranian Church, discipleship is viewed as far more significant than belief. Without discipleship it seems to me that what you are left with is an experiential inclination that can be tossed and torn by the winds and seas of life.
The dangers of not being grounded in Scripture
The risk of not discipling ourselves and others in the truths in the Bible is that we risk, as Ephesians 4:14 says, being “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”
Indeed, the Bible warns again and again about false teachers (2 Pet 2:1), different doctrines (1 Tim 6:3), and men speaking twisted things (Acts 20:30). Mark 13:22 says that “false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect.” Over and over, the New Testament warns about “some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ” (Gal 1:6) – basically, heresies. See also, for example, 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, Romans 16:17-18, Colossians 2:81, 1 Timothy 6:20-21, 2 Timothy 4:3-4, 2 Timothy 3:13, Hebrews 13:9, 2 Peter 2:1-3, 1 John 4:1-3, 2 John 1:7-11, and Jude 1:4.
The above is simply a selection from a far wider range of Bible passages and, if frequency of mention is an indication, then here is a huge red light that is both flashing and sounding an alarm. The problem of heresies, or false teaching, is an ancient one and an enduring one.
There are many heresies which were a big problem for the Early Church, and yet are now reappearing once more.
There are many heresies which were a big problem for the Early Church, and yet are now reappearing once more. In the next part of this series, we are going to look at why the Creeds were developed, to help enable Christians to understand the key doctrines of the Church and combat the various heresies. If we want to see brothers and sisters being discipled, then the creeds are a great place to start. These were written in response to the heresies of the time, so that believers would know to recognise them. They were based on the teachings of the apostles, as well as the gospels themselves. We will explore this further, next week, and then look at where these ancient heresies are rearing their ugly heads in the Church today.
