The Jesus Way of Disciple-Making, Part 1

In the words of theologian J.I. Packer, looking at the Western church, especially in the United States, he said this: "Christianity is 3000 miles wide and a half inch deep."

Dallas Willard, USC, professor, philosopher and Christian speaker on the role of discipleship wrote this: "The greatest issue..." Not facing the church, "The greatest issue facing the world today with its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who are identified as Christians will become disciples” -- students, apprentices, practitioners -- “of Jesus Christ and learn from Him how to live the life of the Kingdom of Heaven into every corner of human existence.”

And finally, perhaps the most authoritative group currently in the world of evangelical believers, the Lausanne Movement and Conference has evaluated the church over the last decade, and says: The number one need in the church of Jesus Christ globally is discipleship. The actual learning and practice of not just understanding what Jesus taught but actually following Him and living out the life that He actually lived.

Well, what I want to do in our time together is talk about how do we experience this life that Jesus promised?

Well, to look at that, let's look at the actual invitation of Jesus. What did He promise? What did He say? What did He offer? And how does it work?

Remember Jesus said, "I came that you might have life and you might have it abundantly," John 10:10. The problem is there are not a lot of followers of Jesus that are experiencing that overflowing, abundant life.

If you've ever watched an NFL game, you know the most famous verse in all of scripture is John 3:16. "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shouldn't perish but have eternal life."

And what I want to do in our time together is talk about what is that eternal life? How does it actually get lived out? Well, Jesus gives us His own definition in John 17, verse 3.

He says, "This is eternal life, that they may know You," speaking of God the Father, "the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." It's an equality of life. It's not just quantity.

I thought for years that eternal life was something you get after you die because you're a Christian, and you've trusted in what Christ did on the cross for you and His resurrection. But that's not what Jesus taught.

Jesus taught that eternal life certainly goes on forever and ever, but eternal life is the actual life of Christ that comes and takes up residence inside of you, and it goes on forever and ever and ever. And God's plan is that we would actually, little by little by little, on this journey of discipleship, we would become more and more and more like Jesus.

Well, how does it work? How do we become those kind of people? Let me invite you to follow along with the very invitation of Jesus. Let's go back to the beginning. I want to get very, very clear on the basics.

So, Jesus said this in Matthew 11:28-30. This is Jesus' invitation to you and to me and to everyone. He says, "Come unto Me, all of you that are weary and heavy-laden," especially heavy-laden with religion. Heavy-laden with the pace of life, weary with trying so hard to be a good person, overwhelmed with all the demands, all the messages that we get.

Here's what qualifies us. If you're heavy-laden and overwhelmed and you need help, here's the invitation. He says, "Come to Me," and then notice the promise, "and I will give you rest."

And then here's the next step that I don't think is being taught or followed. He says, "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me," why? "For I am gentle and humble and heart."

In other words, this isn't signing up for a new job. This is Jesus saying: Come to Me - this eternal life, this new kind of life, this life of power and love and joy and peace. I'm gentle and humble and it's a process, "and we're going to learn in a minute what that yoke is and what it looks like.

And then He goes on to say, "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me. I am gentle and humble in heart," and here's the promise, "and you will find rest for your souls."

And then here's the part that when most Christians read this, including me, you think, Really? "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

I did a little research on this and here's what I can tell you. We must come to Jesus and learn from Him, if we're to experience the life that He promised.

When you look at this passage, look at our responsibilities, they're pretty simple.

The first is to come. To put your faith in Christ, to believe on His work, on the cross, that He died in your place, He paid for your sin, He rose from the dead, and by the grace of God, you have been forgiven and you receive that by faith.

And then notice when we come, the promise is rest and peace and acceptance.

And then He says, "Take my yoke."

Here's what you need to understand. When He says, "Take my yoke," He was saying: I want you to submit to My teaching. I want you to learn it. I want you to embrace it and I want you to follow it. And then I want you to imitate My lifestyle.

Then notice finally this idea of learning. When we learn something, A) it's a process; 2) it takes time; and 3) - are you ready for this? - it takes practice.

Coming to Jesus is an event and a lifelong process of learning to follow His example and His teaching.

The event is salvation, okay? Yes, you trust in Christ at a certain day, at a certain time. I recognize, you recognize you fall short of the glory of God and we turn from our sin and in the empty hands of faith, we receive Christ, right?

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ." Romans 5:1. That's the event.

And then there's a process, and the process is discipleship.

Once people heard the message to come, then Jesus said, "Follow Me. Follow Me." That means: Do what I do, follow in My footsteps. “… and you will become fishers of men."

And He didn't mean they would just become evangelists. What He meant was, "I'm the rabbi, you become My apprentice. You follow in My steps. And then the day will come when you will have others follow in your steps. You will be a fisher of men, like a good rabbi is, who has an academy of disciples that submit to his teaching and want to be with him and emulate his lifestyle."

And finally, there's a path. There's a way to get there. And Jesus said: Here's the path, or the way, or the road to get there. John 14:6: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except by Me."

Jesus' life is the path. Jesus is the path Himself. That little word where He says, "I'm the way," in Greek, it's the word “hodos.” It's translated path. It's translated a road.

In all the wisdom literature, if you read Proverbs or often many of the Psalms, you'll hear about, there's a way that seems right to a man, but it ends in death. But there's the way of the righteous. There's the way of the wicked.

There is a path, or a pattern if you will, that followers of God have followed that bring life and righteousness and life change. And there are paths of selfishness and self-righteousness and wickedness and lying that take us down paths that lead to death.
And so, it wasn't just Jesus’ teaching, but there was this path or His practice.

Listen carefully. If you want to experience the life that God offers, here's the key. We need to not just listen and believe what Jesus taught. We need to practice what He practiced.

Jesus practiced two things throughout His life. He practiced dependency on the Spirit of God and submission to the Father's will.

As you study His life, you will find that He did three very essential practices.

He came before God regularly.

The longest day of His whole ministry was Mark 1:35. He's healed deep into the night. He's cast out demons. He's been rejected. He's had all these things happen. It was early morning, late night, and it says the very next day, a great while before dawn, He arose and went to a lonely place. And there He spent time with His Father recalibrating.

He was always depending on the Father, He was fully God, but He lived as a perfect human being dependent. He did all of His work by the power of the Holy Spirit. You read the book of Luke. I actually jotted them down. In Luke chapter 5, verse 16; chapter 9, verse 18, verse 28; chapter 11, multiple, multiple times.

And as he tells the story of Jesus, he says, and Jesus slips away to get by Himself and pray; or, when Jesus taught His disciples how to pray - and He shocked them - "Our Father."

Jesus' practice was to come before God daily. To live before the face of God. He not only met with Him privately and spent time with Him, but He was living out the presence of God, keeping His eye, in the midst of all the things He's doing in His life. He's keeping this sense of the presence and the power of the Father. Am I pleasing Him? Am I doing His will? Am I listening to what He wants me to do?

The second thing Jesus did is He did life in community.

He comes out of the baptism water, and John the Baptist says, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. A couple of His disciples said, "Wow."

And so, they go up to Jesus. "Jesus, where are you staying?" Jesus says, "Come see."

And they spend the day together and He just hung out with them and He said, "I'm going to go to a wedding. Would you guys like to come?"

And He hung out with them and He spent time in relationship. And then, later on, when He began to see the ministry as moving forward, and He'd done miracles and established His credentials by the miracles and the power, He prayed all night and He chose 12... Are you ready for this? ... That they might be with Him? He did life in community. He wanted them to understand that this is the practice.

And then, the very last night He takes a towel, takes off His outer garment, He washes their feet and He says to them, "I, being your Lord and master, have served you. Blessed are you if you love one another in the same way." Jesus lived in community. He says to them, "I have longed for this hour that I could share it with you."

When He's going to the cross, He asks three of His closest disciples, "I need you. I want to be with you." He's not doing it on His own. "Will you pray with Me?"

Jesus had three major practices. He came before God daily. He did life and community. And He was on mission 24/7.

When He went to that lonely place to pray, I believe what He was doing is recalibrating.

All the disciples came and said, "Lord, Lord, I mean the massive crowds and the miracles and all the people that got healed, the crowds, they all want you. They want you, they want you."

And in Mark 1, right after verse 35, He says... It's a very interesting phrase in the Greek New Testament, He says, "I must..." It's what's called a “dei” of necessity. He says, "I must go to other villages for that is why I came."

He was tempted to get pulled into the crowd, into the popularity. But Jesus says this: "My mission is to seek and to save that which is lost. For the Son of Man did not come into the world to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom for many."

Jesus constantly had three practices along with His teaching, and what He did is He said, "Gentlemen, this is the way I live," and then He taught them to follow the way. And it's when we absorb His teaching, and then submit to His lifestyle, that's when we begin to experience the very eternal life that He talked about.

In fact, don't take my word for it. Jesus clearly taught His disciples what was required to continually experience the supernatural life He gave to them. He says to them, "You must come before God."

His very last night, right? Very last night. What's He going to say to them? He gives them hope in John 14, right? "I'm preparing a place for you." And then they go out and He knows that within hours He's going to be crucified. And He takes them to a vineyard, and He's at this vineyard and He begins to say to them... Read John chapter 15, the first 11 verses. And what's He do?

"The father's a vine dresser. I am the true vine." And then He talks about, "Here's the deal, just stay connected to me. You've been around me physically, you've seen me, but my very life is going to come and dwell in you."

He promised in chapter 14 He was going to send the Spirit. In chapter 16, He gives them the details, and then He says to them, "If you abide in my Word and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish."

He says, "By this, my father is pleased that you bear much fruit." What's the fruit? That you become like Jesus, that you care like Jesus, that you love like Jesus.

He talked to them the first 11 verses about coming before God and staying connected through God's Word and prayer and their connection to one another, and then He says, "The only way to do this is in community with one another. Greater love has no one than this," verses 12, 13, 14 in John 15, "that one laid down his life for his friends."

He's saying to the disciples, you can't do this alone. You need deep, authentic community relationship with one another, where you really share your hurts and your struggles, where you hold each other accountable, where you're willing to literally lay down your lives for one another.

And after that He said, "You did not choose me, but I choose you. No longer do I call you slaves, but I've called you friends. For all things the Father's revealed to me, I've made known unto you." And then He says to them, again, "Love one another."

As you go through the whole chapter, John 15, He talks about "the Spirit will bear witness of me," and then He says, "and you all disciples will bear witness of me."

When you look at the final thing that He says, He tells them in order to be a follower and this eternal life experienced, He modeled it, number one, and then He taught them all through the gospels, and especially in John 15, to experience the life of Jesus, you need to come before God daily. You need to do life. The apostles would later say weekly because they would have a love feast and they would eat together and they would share the Lord's Supper and they would meet from house to house.

Finally, you need to be on mission 24/7. "I came to seek and to say that which was lost."

He's saying, "You are going to be little Christ-like ones and the mission that I had, now I give to you. All power and Heaven and earth has been given to Me."

Those were His final and last words. "Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations," all ethnic groups, literally, "baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them not to just listen or learn, teaching them to obey all the things that I taught you."

And then here's the promise, "You'll never be alone. I will be with you always, even to the ends of the earth."

What I want you to see is that Jesus' life, His actual practice, His yoke, His way, His steps, what He actually did had three essential practices.

He did it. He taught the disciples to do it - He expected them to do it. They did it. And as they did it, what happened? They turned the world upside down.