Merry Disciplemas!

December, 2005

by: Walt Bertelsen

Jesus is Working in His Body

A shocking truth was revealed at the close of our men’s retreat at the Oaks in October. Our speaker, Scott Ardavanis, had spoken on discipleship. When I asked the men to share something they learned from that weekend, some men mentioned that they had come hesitantly, fearing they would get clobbered for their failures in discipleship. Instead, joyously, they learned some liberating truths from the teaching of the Word. They learned truths that will free them to really do discipleship. Merry Christmas, indeed!

Questions and misunderstandings abound

The first night (Friday), Scott posed the questions: “What is discipleship?” and “What is a disciple?”

He examined several common answers to those questions. Some think that disciples are the committed, super-Christians. And discipleship? Well, that’s spending large amounts of time with disciples, pouring your life into them, teaching them everything they need to know. Right? Not!

Answering the easy questions

It didn’t take long on Saturday morning to dispel those particular misunderstandings from Scripture. Going from the Gospels to Acts, it is very apparent that all Christians are disciples. Disciples are not a class apart from ordinary Christians. Examining the Scripture, we see that they were all called “disciples” when the Church began. (See Acts 6:1,2,7). Later, as Acts 11:26 notes, the disciples were called Christians. But you search in vain for the word “disciple” in the epistles. There, believers refer to themselves as “saints,” “children,” and “brothers.” So disciples are simply Christians.

What then, is “discipleship?”

This question is also easy to answer. Throughout the New Testament, God makes clear His purpose for the believer (disciple): to conform him to the image of His Son—Christlikeness (Rom 8:28,29; Col 1:28,29). If Christlikeness is the purpose of discipleship, what was Jesus doing with the twelve? Jesus was training them to be His Apostles, His special emissaries, His leaders.

Answering the tough question: How should we do discipleship?

The crux of the issue our men faced coming into the retreat was: they expected to be beaten up for their failure, because they were thinking that the New Testament model is to do discipleship “just like Jesus.”

Remember, however: you are not Jesus. You are to imitate Him. But that does not mean to lead people around for three years, etc. He is the Son, the perfect lamb, the wisdom of God—you are not.

The New Testament model for us is very simple. It is seen best in the picture of “the body.” You are “in Christ”, a new creation (Eph 1; 2 Cor 5:17). God did not design you to act as the Lone Ranger (read: “Discipler”). And—the liberating truth--you don’t have to do it all! You function as your part, according to your gifts. As you do that, you (together with the rest) build up the others into Christlikeness.

Don’t ever dismiss this picture of “the body” as just a figure of speech—it is also spiritual reality. The Christ who once walked the earth is now working through you and me together to nurture, heal, and strengthen the other parts, that each part will grow up into Christlikeness. This is why God puts so much emphasis on the “one anothers” in the New Testament. We grow “…into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Eph 4:15,16)

Are you working properly?