Month: December 2017

A definition is to a description as an outline is to a portrait.  The definition sets the boundaries or creates the framework into which the picture is painted.  Definitions tend to be concise, precise, and unexciting.  A description, however, gives the definition life, color, explanation, and illustration.  The definition is the title on the puzzle box.  The description is the picture on the box.

A disciple of Jesus should be recognizable in every culture and era.  Even the opposition identified the early disciples of Christ:

“Now as they (the religious leaders) observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus” ( Act 4:13).

To build a description of discipleship on the resurrection side of the cross, we need to take the foundation that is laid in the Gospels and develop it with the added implications of the ascension and coronation of Christ.  As we focus on Christ now we need to incorporate the fact that he is currently seated at the right hand of the Father (Heb. 1: 1-3, Heb. 12:2) and the Holy Spirit resides in the lives of each believer.  In the Old Testament the invitation was to “seek Him’.  In the Gospels the invitation is to “be with Him”.  Now the invitation is to “abide in Him” (John 15).

I will be painting a description of discipleship that will be developed in more detail in the future.  However, for now I want to explain what I mean when I use this term.  It is not necessary that you agree totally with my description, but only that you know up front how I use the term in this blog.  I invite you to take what I am presenting and wrestle with it against Scripture to see if it holds up.

Michael Behe in his book Darwin’s Black Box used the term “irreducible complexity” to describe the phenomena in nature in which even a simple organism cannot function without all of its essential parts.  If even one is missing, the organism is not viable.

With that idea in mind here is my (current) best shot at describing the irreducible complexity of discipleship:

• Discipleship is the personal, persistent pursuit
• of knowing, reflecting, and sharing Christ
• by means of critical spiritual disciplines
• in the context of supporting relationships,
• resulting in the distinctive marks of an apprentice of Christ.

The following is a quick fly over of the description to which I will add more in the blogs to come.

• Discipleship is the personal, persistent pursuit…..

Discipleship is an individual concept.  There are no group disciples.  Discipleship is a personal pursuit that must be done by each individual.  Although it contains some elements of passivity, it is primarily an active pursuit that involves intentionality and effort.  It is not something that is happens to us without our cooperation and involvement.  Discipleship, unlike justification, is a pursuit not a birthright.  Discipleship fits into the doctrinal category of sanctification and transformation.

• …of knowing, reflecting and sharing Christ…

Knowing, reflecting and sharing Christ are the coordinates of our journey.  It is our GPS setting.  These three pursuits are like a triad in which each one contributes and is enhanced by the others.

• …By means of critical spiritual disciplines…

Discipleship cannot be separated from the means by which it is expressed or achieved.  These means can be called spiritual disciplines, habits, or practices.  They are the God ordained means by which his grace is experienced.  They are the way we “abide” in Christ so that by his power we bear fruit.  They are, in the words of Dallas Willard, “what we do so God can do what we cannot do”.

There is no comprehensive list of the spiritual practices, but certain ones have been practiced and promoted throughout Christian history.  The most common disciplines in our church culture today involve worship, connecting, and serving.  Although important they are not adequate to produce life transformation.  But there is a set of inner life disciplines that are historically effective for life transformation.   They are not unknown but unfortunately rarely practiced with any skill and consistency.  These inner disciplines involve connecting with Christ (such as prayer) and disconnecting from the world (such as fasting).

• …In the context of supporting relationship…

Discipleship is not accomplished in isolation, it is not a phone booth activity.  In the New Testament, it is modeled and taught as a pursuit of Christ in relationship with others who are on the same journey.  Paul gave the most succinct description of these essential relationships in 2 Timothy 2:2.  He describes for Timothy the relationship of a mentor to a team of apprentices and their mentorees.  When any part of the triad is missing, the process suffers.

• …resulting in the distinctive marks of an apprentice of Christ.

Finally, Christ gave us the defining traits of his disciples in the Gospel narrative.  These traits or marks are what should distinguish his disciples from that of other rabbis or teachers.  There are five primary statements in the gospel narrative where Jesus specifically said if you have this trait, you are my disciple; if you don’t, you are not; He set the standard.

It is against his portrait we need to measure our own discipleship as well as how we mentor others.  We have not been commissioned to make cultural disciples but distinctive disciples that he would recognize.

Questions for reflection

• Using the description given, how comfortable are you in helping someone fit the portrait?
• Which aspect of the description do you need to develop? Who could help you?

Over the years I have tried to pass on age appropriate wisdom to our children such as:

•  In elementary school:  Never tie your shoes in a revolving door
•  In high school:  It is not illegal to be stupid but it is expensive
•  In college:  Truth flies like an arrow but fruit flies like a banana
•  In marriage:  Words are stupid things, it’s meaning that counts

A friend of mine was explaining to his five year old son Charlie that in the summer the family was going to take a road trip to California, stopping along the way to see the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.

“Do you know what a dam does?” he asked Charlie.

“Sure dad”, he replied, “it holds back water!”

“That’s right but did you know that a dam also makes electricity?”

Without hesitation Charlie responded, “Then praise God for beavers!”

Same word, different mental pictures.  We have the same confusion when it comes to the concept of discipleship.  The question we need to answer is, when Jesus used the word “disciple”, is the concept (picture) in His mind the same that is in ours?

For a moment I want to invite you to take the mental picture of discipleship that hangs in the gallery of your cognitive unconscious mind and bring it into the workshop of your conscious mind.  Now examine it in light of the following explanation.

Disciple is a word/concept that is uncommon in our current culture.  To understand it we usually go back to the Greek word (MATHTES) which means student, pupil, or learner.  The problem is that, although our New Testament was written in Greek, it came from a Hebrew or Aramaic speaking people.  Eventually it was translated into English.  The result is the word has not only passed through three different languages but a myriad of cultures as well.  If we are to understand the picture of discipleship that Jesus had in His mind, we need to go back to His culture and see how it was used.

“Disciple” is not an insignificant word in the New Testament.  It is used 264 times in the four Gospels and Acts. However, it is never used in the Epistles.  It is safe to assume that since it was a word/concept critical to Jesus ministry and commission, the concept would carry on even if the word drops from the biblical vocabulary.

 The Hebrew word for disciple is talmid (pronounced:  tal-meed).  In first century Palestine, the word disciple was used primarily for the relationship between a rabbi and his followers.  A rabbi was different from a teacher of the law (scribe).  A teacher of the law could interpret the books of the Law (first 5 books in our Old Testament), but a rabbi could interpret the entire Hebrew Scripture.

A disciple of a rabbi was not only committed to learn what the rabbi knew but to emulate his life in every way possible.  Rabbinical disciples followed their master 24/7 in order to learn how to live life as he lived it.  That is why Jesus said in Luke 6:40, “A pupil (disciple) is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.”  From this statement we see that in the culture of Jesus’ day, a disciple was trained (not simply taught) and that it was a holistic approach, affecting every area of life.

The term apprentice creates a word picture that can help us capture the meaning of Jesus’s discipleship.    Even though it is not as commonly used as it was in past European days, it still carries the idea of learning skills or a trade.

In the Middle Ages commerce was done primarily through the family business.  As population and travel increased, a shoemaker and his family, for example, often found they could not meet the demand for shoes.  This led to hiring an apprentice to join him and learn the family business.  The apprentice learned not only about leather, dyes, and feet, but he was actually trained and equipped to make the shoes and run the family business.

There are several elements of historical apprenticeship that fit the New Testament concept of disciple:

• It required information and skills
• It required a skilled practitioner (model, coach, teacher)
• It involved a demonstration of acquired skills
• The training was over an extended period of time
• The training or equipping was done by on the job training

Our culturally academic view of discipleship is based more on the Greek model rather than the Hebrew one.  Jesus’ “family business” was doing the will of His Father.  He recruited disciples/apprentices to take on not only His character but His kingdom mission.  This is what He meant by “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19).

In view of the historical context of first century discipleship, consider the following definition.

 A Disciple is an intentional apprentice of Jesus and His kingdom (Luke 6:40; Matt 6:33).

Shifting from a cultural picture of discipleship to a New Testament one requires we move from discipleship as:

• A destination to a direction
• Programs to a lifelong process
• Passive to active (pursuit)
• Informational to transformational
• “What’s in it for me?” to “How do I live for His kingdom?”

I suspect that as we gain a clearer picture of the discipleship Jesus had in mind, we will find it looks surprisingly more like Hoover Dam than a beaver dam.

*In the next blog I will explore a description of discipleship on the resurrection side of the cross that can help us both be and make His disciples.

**See Blogs 1-4 for additional discussion on the term “disciple”.

Questions for reflection

• How do you respond to the statement: “NT discipleship is more like a verb than a noun”
• What skills are needed to apprentice the King and carry out our Father’s business?