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9 & 10 November 2024 (Pastoral Page) THE ESSENTIALS OF DISCIPLESHIP

By Elder Lynette Shek


The Mission of The Bible Church is to glorify God by being disciples in a disciple-making community of Jesus Christ. Discipleship is a word that is mentioned very often in our church and in Christian circles. In fact, the church leadership has made disciple-making one of the core focus areas of Vision 2028 (see the whole vision here). It will come into greater focus in 2025 when, as a church, we highlight the areas of community and disciple-making.

 

But what exactly does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? How do we become a disciple? What do we focus on among the many things Christians are called to do? And what is the reward? As I think about these questions, I can think of no better answer then the subtitle of John Mark Comer’s book, “Practicing the Way” – Be with Jesus, Become Like Him, Do as He did.

 

Be with Jesus – Being a disciple of Jesus means that we are His students, that we apprentice under Him. Jesus invites us time and time again to do just that (Matthew 11:28; Luke 10:41-42; John 12:26; John 15:5). Many of us want to know and do God’s will, we want to have a living relationship with Jesus where He speaks to us regularly. How will we be able to do that unless we spend time at His feet listening to Him? For some, this may be difficult for different reasons. Some of us may not have been taught how to do daily devotions. Some of us are too busy. Some of us try but it is dry. May I encourage you to find someone to help you if you need guidance, and for the rest of us, to just keep showing up with expectation. God will meet you if your desire is to be with Him.

 

Become like Him – Slowly but surely, and usually imperceptibly, we will become like Jesus when we spend time with Him. This was seen in Peter and John when they faced the Sanhedrin as recounted in Acts 4:13 – “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus”. I myself have a long way to go in my journey of transformation, but I know that God is working in me. Recently, my response to an issue was very unlike the old impatient and ungracious me. The Lord very graciously told me that I cannot manufacture it the next time, but that as I spend time with Him, I will continue to be transformed.

 

Do as He does – When we spend time with Jesus and become more and more like Him, we will find that we do not serve out of our carnal self, without love and joy. Instead, we will be relaxed and unhurried as we look to our Lord and follow Him. I cannot say it better than Thomas Kelly – “By inner persuasions He draws us to a few very definite tasks, our tasks…..our share in the joyous burdens of love.”

 

I will end by quoting Pastor Comer, who shares the following in an interview. At some point of his spiritual journey, “The rubric for following Jesus that I had grown up with inside of evangelicalism had reached the end of its efficacy for my spiritual formation. The standard go to church, study the Bible and have morning devotions (all good things and still all a part of my life) were no longer effective…..It was difficult personally because I was running into brokenness that I could not fix by what evangelicals were telling me to do: learning more of the Bible, reading more books, doing more Christian things.

 

There was also a crisis in me pastorally. I realized that our church was full of people like me: People who had a lot of growth in the first few stages of the spiritual journey and then hit a plateau, or worse, a wall…...I didn’t feel like I was becoming more loving, more joyful, more peaceful or patient.…The way the gospel is presented in the West, and in particular in evangelicalism…..often comes with no call to apprentice under Jesus. There is no silver bullet for discipleship. But I do think that there is what Jesus called the Way…. Jesus said, “Come and follow me.” If we do that, it will lead us to transformation.”

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