And salutations.
Okay, all right, well, uh, good morning, church. We are in a series of topical sermons centering around the marks of a healthy church.
And so, um, I know, um, last week I didn't really unpack why this is important. Why is knowing the marks of a healthy church important for us? I can think of three specific reasons for this church today.
The first being, uh, longevity. You know, right now, this church, our church, is coming up on their first hundred years. By God's grace, with knowing these marks of a healthy church, we should be prepared for this church to exist not only for the next five years or ten years, but, Lord willing, and if the Lord doesn't come back, for the next hundred years.
And so, it's important to know the marks of a healthy church for that reason. It's also important to know these marks because they make us effective in our evangelism. A healthy church is better equipped to spread the gospel more than any social program, political party, false prosperity promises, and maybe even a shallow understanding of who Jesus is. A healthy church is effective in sharing the gospel.
And lastly, spiritual growth. This is probably the most common, obvious one, and I'm going to be touching on this topic today. But a healthy church provides a community with sound teaching, opportunities for discipleship, and a community that encourages not only corporate development, meaning together as a church, but also personal development.
So, recognizing these marks of a healthy church is important because it helps us to hear and harmonize with what a church is supposed to be according to Scripture.
Now, um, I use those words hearing and harmonizing because I want to use this illustration. Um, you know, in the fifth grade, I signed up for a violin class, and, uh, it was a short-lived career. It lasted till seventh grade.
But one of my earliest memories of playing the violin was every day that I came into class, my orchestra teacher, without having another instrument playing or another in tune playing, he would be able to tell if my instrument was out of tune. And it's because he had years of experience as an orchestra teacher and as a violin player himself. He knew what, uh, an instrument in tune sounded like.
And so, in a very similar way, these marks of a healthy church help us to hear and harmonize with, again, with what Scripture wants from us. It helps us to reflect a New Testament model for how the church functions.
So, with that being said, um, just to maybe jog your memory, uh, two weeks ago, Pastor Andrew went over the first mark of a healthy church, which is a biblical understanding of what the gospel is. Last week, I went over the topic of sound doctrine and biblical theology, which, in a nutshell, is understanding the Bible in light of who Jesus is and understanding it in its context.
And this week, I have the pleasure and privilege of going over discipleship and conversion. And so, that's my message for today: discipleship and conversion.
Um, and as most of you know, I like to always start off my messages with a one main sentence summary of my whole sermon, and here it is today: a healthy church is one that is characterized by a serious concern for discipleship. Very simply put, a healthy church is one that has a serious concern for discipleship.
And so, a roadmap for where we're heading today is: what is discipleship and why is it important for us? Number two, how does discipleship help us grow? And number three, how do we disciple others?
You'll notice that throughout my sermon, I'm going to get more and more practical, and at the end, I should be basically giving you application for your life and how you should live. And so, I do pray that this sermon helps you to understand the importance of discipleship, and it also inspires you to take action with someone else or even yourself to be discipled.
And so, let me pray before I begin, uh, expositing these points.
Father God, we thank you that in the Lord Jesus, you have adopted us. Uh, Lord, that, um, you have given us eternal life as a free gift. And I pray that, as having a relationship with you, we don't take growth as an optional thing, that growth is necessary for every and all Christians. And we pray by your Holy Spirit that you would help us grow now and help us to take initiative in discipleship in our church. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
So, number one: what is discipleship and why is it important? To understand what discipleship is, you have to first understand what a disciple is. A disciple simply is a follower. Discipleship is the process of learning how to follow.
Now, the thing is, with discipleship or being a disciple, you can be a disciple of anyone. You could be following someone's teaching, an example from afar. And so, someone might say that they're an example, uh, they're a disciple of Gandhi, or they could say they are a disciple of Buddha, or they could say they're a disciple of Benjamin Franklin, or they could say they are a disciple of Karl Marx.
But to be a disciple of Christ means much more than just following Jesus's example and teaching. It's actually to be a disciple of Christ is much deeper than just following rules and his life. To be a follower of Christ, rather, means to be united to him by faith.
This is really basic, but as Christians, we have to understand this: a disciple, a true disciple of Christ, is spiritually united to Christ by faith. So, this means that all of our sin, all of our sin that is ours, has now become his, and that all of his righteousness in the gospel has now become ours.
You know, Jesus teaches us actually in John that he is the Good Shepherd that lays his life down for the sheep, that he loved the church and gave himself up for her, that Jesus paid a debt that we didn't owe but that we do owe, and united us to him as his holy people.
And a basic understanding of the gospel helps us to get here, to understand what a disciple is: that, number one, God is good and that he created us in his image. But each one of us, Genesis 3 says, actually that each one of us has turned from God and has sinned. And because we've turned away, we deserve to be punished.
But the good news of Christianity, of the gospel, the reason why we gather every Sunday morning, is to celebrate the fact that Jesus lived the perfect life we should have lived and died the death that we should die. And Jesus offers himself as a sacrifice and a substitute for all of us who would turn away from ourselves in our sin and trust him.
And so, this is where Christian discipleship starts. It starts not from actually what we do, but what Christ did. Um, you know, actually, I was reciting the Apostles' Creed with everyone here, and I realized actually something very unique in the Apostles' Creed is it has nothing, no statement in the Apostles' Creed has to do with what we do. Have you noticed that? Everything has to deal with what God does.
And that's, in a nutshell, what the gospel is: not what we do, but what Christ did. So, if you're here today and, um, you're not a Christian or you don't label yourself as a Christian, this is the greatest news we can hold out for you: is that Christ has come to do what we couldn't do ourselves.
And so, being a disciple of Christ starts here.
You know, part of discipleship is not only submitting to Christ or surrendering our lives to him, but it's also to realize that part of following Jesus is helping others follow Jesus. Another part of discipleship is discipling, which is helping others follow Jesus.
Jesus makes it clear in one, uh, verse actually to his disciples. This is one of the first words to his disciples. He says, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Jesus makes clear in this statement that if we are following him, he will make us fishers of men.
In other words, if we're following Jesus, we will, in turn, help others follow Jesus. Now, for, uh, obviously our non-Christian friends, that means sharing the gospel with them and, uh, evangelism. But with our Christian friends, that means actually discipling them and helping them learn the commandments of Christ and what he has taught and his grace.
And so, um, you know, I know I, uh, in the beginning of my slideshow, you might have seen I put discipleship in parentheses, conversion. And I'm not going to, uh, expound a lot on conversion today, but this is a really important point: a biblical understanding of discipleship always begins with a biblical understanding of conversion.
And I've said this before, but, uh, you know, you can be a Buddhist without trusting Buddha. You can be a Marxist without actually trusting Marx. But you can't be a Christian without trusting Christ. It just won't budge. Jesus is central to who we are and, and, uh, how we follow men.
And so, yeah, so discipleship is following Jesus and also helping others follow Jesus.
Now, I know, um, immediately, uh, what typically happens when I tell people about this is, uh, you know, really, um, maybe if you're a young Christian, is you have this doubt of, "I don't know enough," you know? Um, or "I'm imperfect." You know, I can't answer questions that other people have, like I can't help them follow Christ.
And my word to you is, if you are truly a follower of Christ, what you're obligated to teach and share is what you do know, not what you don't know. And I know that sounds really basic, but you have some knowledge. You have actually some value. You actually, if you're coming here on a regular Sunday basis, you know something that people who don't go to church don't know.
And with a lot of our friends, that means actually sharing the gospel with them. But maybe with fellow church members, that means asking spiritual questions, sharing what you're learning, praying for them. In all these ways, we are actually discipling each other.
Um, I'm reminded my wife, uh, had a, my wife actually works in the kids' ministry here, her name is Brittany, and I'm reminded she was discipling a girl who just became a Christian. And I remember it was like a month in after discipling her, and this girl wanted to turn and actually start discipling her cousins and sharing the gospel with them.
And I think this is a great testimony, is that even after a year or two years of doing that, there is now, from her group of, uh, this woman is, her name is Nilu, um, but in her group of six friends, one of them is being baptized next month, and two of them are trying to join a church.
And so, you know, Nilu did not have all the answers. She did not know a lot. She just basically said, "You know, I have the Bible I can read, and, um, you know, I have a pastor who I can go to if I have questions, but we have the Holy Spirit, and we can read Scripture, and we can come to understand it."
And so, I think her testimony should be a witness to all of us that we can start something even at the smallest thing.
Well, I think maybe another objection that people have towards discipleship is, "Well, I'm not a pastor," or "I'm not a preacher," or "You know, I'm not paid like you to do this."
Well, helping others follow Jesus is actually a command that Jesus gives all of his followers, regardless if you're in leadership or not. Um, you know, Jesus commands us—this is why discipleship is important—actually that Jesus commands us in Matthew 28 to make disciples of all nations.
So, this is what Matthew 28 says. These are the last words of Christ before he ascends to the Father. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always to the very end of the age."
Jesus commanded not only his apostles but all of us—that means me and you and every Christian in this room—to make disciples.
And so, pastorally, I just want to say, please do not count yourself out of God's mission. You matter. If you have breath in your lungs and you're coming to this church and you trust Christ, there is a true purpose for you in God's kingdom. And there are ways that you can help other people grow that you may not even know.
You know, as a last illustration, I'll, um, paint even my own personal experience. When I was, um, 22—this is not a long time ago—but when I was 22, I started working at a corporate office in Manhattan. And I remember one of the first two, in the first two weeks of working there, I met another guy who just so happened to be attending a Hillsong conference.
And, um, if you guys know, Hillsong is a very popular Christian band. And when I learned that he was going to this Hillsong concert, I actually asked him if he would be interested in starting to read the Bible on a weekly basis at work, actually on a Zoom call. And, yeah, he said yes.
And so we started reading Scripture on a weekly basis during our lunch break. I wasn't, you know, doing it during company hours. Well, lunch break is sort of company hours, right? But we started reading the Bible, and you know, after a year and after two years, he started to become really a committed Christian.
And the most amazing thing that happened was last year, I actually went to his wedding. He invited me to be a groomsman. And at his wedding, because he lives in Texas, um, at his wedding, I got to meet all of these kids and guys from his church who he was pouring into.
And the most amazing thing was that all of these guys knew me, but I did not know them. And so, I guess, like, he was sharing about my, you know, my influence in his life.
Um, you know, I say that not to boast of myself, but really just the impact we have in pouring into someone. We don't know actually what kind of fruit will happen.
Um, you know, Jesus does give a, uh, a parable one time where a sower goes out to sow seed, and some seed fell on rocky ground, and he says, and another soil, another seed falls on soil where the sun actually scorches it up. But there's a type of seed that actually lands on good soil, Jesus says, and this type of seed produces thirtyfold, sixtyfold, a hundredfold.
And so, my encouragement to you is don't count yourself out. Even the smallest of acts of obedience can have huge impacts in God's kingdom.
And so, that's number one: what is discipleship and why is it important?
Number two is how does discipleship help us grow? How does it help us grow? And very succinctly, it helps us grow in two main ways. Number one is it helps us grow in knowledge of God, and number two is discipleship helps us become more Christ-like.
So, the first one is knowledge of God. This is what Paul actually says in Colossians. He prays this prayer for them: "For this reason, since the day we have heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God."
Peter, as well, in the end of second Peter, ends his letter by saying, "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."
You know, why is knowledge—why is knowledge of God important? Well, first, what knowledge of God helps us actually understand who we are. With knowledge of God, we actually understand more of God's care and his character. With knowledge of God, we begin to understand why God is trustworthy.
You know, with knowledge of God, we begin to see actually the big picture of not only, uh, the Bible but the whole world in history and see how God works through seemingly very hard circumstances.
This is why discipleship is important, because at the core of discipleship is understanding who God is. This is how actually one author puts it in his book on discipleship. He says, "Deep discipleship is more about reveling in the transcendence of God than it is a ministry practice. The source of true discipleship is not better programs, better preaching, or better community. All of those and more are hugely important tools, but the source of discipleship is God himself. Thus, at the heart of everything we do is the desire to grow in our love and knowledge of God."
You know, the reason why this is so important is because when we see God for who he is, we are actually able to face difficulties, that we're able to discern truth from falsehood, and most importantly, we realize that in the gospel, we are fully known and fully loved.
And, um, you know, I could keep going on with this, but, um, I guess, like, as a practical note, I'm really grateful that, um, my wife, you know, she, um, she's a Christian. And I think something that, uh, happens to me on a maybe frequent basis is there are often false lies that I will tell myself, and my wife catches it because I talk to myself out loud.
Um, you know, I don't know whether it's like a conversation with something. I'm like, "I messed up there," and I'm getting into a self-pity, and my wife is able to help me discern truth from falsehood. And this is so important in discipleship because it helps us to understand who God is.
You know, I could go on with more examples, but in basic note, it's just understanding good discipleship helps us understand who God is more.
But secondly, it helps us become more Christ-like. Discipleship also helps us to become more Christ-like. Uh, actually, Peter would say this in his letter, 1 Peter 2:12. He says, "Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us."
Peter is actually only echoing the words of Jesus when Jesus, actually on the Sermon of the Mount, says in Matthew 5, "In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."
In discipleship, we not only grow in knowledge, but we also grow in our character, in our Christ-likeness, in our holiness. And the beautiful thing about this is that discipleship helps us stay accountable.
You know, um, how often do we go throughout life, uh, feeling like we're going through this thing alone? Um, you know, Greg, forgive me, I'm giving you a shout-out, but Greg does a meeting here at the church on a regular basis, and I know that with friends who have dealt with alcoholism in the past, oftentimes you can get in a rut or a sin pattern and think that you are the only one who's dealing with this thing, that you are the only one.
Okay, and news flash: you're not the only one dealing with this thing. There are so many people, you know, even, you know, I know church people from the outside can seem perfect and pristine, but inside, we actually know—all true Christians know that we have sinned against a holy God.
And so, um, I'll talk a little bit more about that later, but this is what actually Peter would say in 2 Peter: "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness, and to goodness knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control perseverance, and to perseverance godliness, and to godliness mutual affection, and to mutual affection love."
Then Peter says, "For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
So, Peter tells us actually if we're growing in these things, it's helping us to combat ineffectiveness and unproductiveness. And so, discipleship helps us in this way. It helps us to become more Christ-like.
Okay, and now I bring brings me to my final point: practically, how do we disciple others? And this is going to get really concrete and practical for you. How do we help others follow Jesus? And I just have here seven quick ways we can disciple others.
Number one is choose someone. It's so funny because, uh, yeah, one of my friends was asking me how do I read the Bible, and I said, "Well, the first step is to get a Bible. Second step is open it, and number three is you start to read it."
But discipleship is very similar in that way, is that we just have to choose someone. Uh, Second Timothy 2, Paul actually is speaking to Timothy, and he says, "What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will also be able to teach others."
In other words, be deliberate. Commit to how often you will meet with someone or a group of people and for how long. And perhaps I might add this is like a good rule of thumb is, um, that, you know, Scripture actually does, uh, encourage that older women should disciple younger women and that older men should disciple younger men.
Now, that doesn't mean men and women can't disciple each other, but I do think that, uh, you know, in order to avoid any kind of ethical failure or temptation, that that's actually a good rule of thumb.
But with that being said, just choose someone. Be deliberate. You have mornings, you have lunches, you have dinners, and, um, use them. Use them wisely.
Number two is to pray for or with someone. I mentioned this before, but prayer is actually one way we disciple each other. And so, um, you know, when we're downstairs and Pastor Andrew, when Pastor Andrew is praying over the meal, he's actually discipling us because he's actually teaching us what we should pray when we have a meal.
Or when, at the end of the day, when you're with your children, when you're praying with them at night, you're actually praying for the things that you're praying for. You're actually teaching your children to value.
Um, Colossians, uh, Paul says this in Colossians chapter one: "And so from the day we have heard, we have not ceased to pray for you." And so he teaches us that discipleship is prayer.
So that's number two.
Number three is to teach. To teach. Colossians, same chapter, verse 28, it says this: "Jesus is the one we proclaim," Paul says, "admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ."
I know this sounds maybe obvious, but discipleship is teaching someone. And so that could look like studying Bible passages, reading a book to discuss together, memorizing large portions of Scripture or small portions of Scripture. Any and every one of those things is how we teach other people.
And anyone who can do that here—we don't need to have a seminary degree to do that.
All right, number four is model. Model. Second Timothy, this is what Paul says in Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 10: "You, however, Timothy, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and suffering that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and Lystra, which persecutions I endured. Yet from all of them, the Lord rescued me."
Paul here in this passage is actually telling Timothy and reminding him, "Timothy, you remember how I lived? You remembered my conduct, how I acted, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love for the church."
And in all these ways, I want you to mimic me. And, you know, in a basic sense, Paul is telling Timothy, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ."
And so, a great way to disciple others is to model it for someone else. And so, um, you know, one thing that Pastor Andrew, uh, has done with me in the past is, uh, he's invited me to, uh, grocery store runs. And, uh, you know, he obviously has a chore to do. His wife, Karen, has probably given him some kind of, like, thing to get from Trader Joe's.
But Pastor Andrew will text me and say, "Hey, let you know, um, let's go to the store together." And in that time, he's very intentional about asking me how I'm doing, how my spiritual life is going, what kind of ministry difficulties I'm having, where am I discouraged, where do I need to be encouraged.
And in the same way, my wife, uh, will take some of the women that she's discipling and bring them to laundry sessions. Um, because I won't go with her. No, I'm just kidding. No, I will do the laundry once in a while too.
But the point is, um, we have to fit discipleship sometimes in the margins of our life, and those margins of time can be important, and actually you can get to know someone.
And so, um, model. For number four is model.
Number five is encourage. Encourage. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5, he says, "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up."
I can guarantee you that there is not one single person in this room that is not suffering from a lack of encouragement. Everyone here, I will say this again, is suffering from a lack of encouragement. We all need it.
And so, encouraging one another is a great way of discipling someone else. Uh, it's also way better than correcting someone. I will tell you that.
Is, uh, you know, actually my next point is correcting. So let's go to there. I would say encourage over correct, but don't forget we do need correction too, actually.
Um, so Job says this: "Blessed is the one whom God corrects, so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty." As believers, we should be open to correction because we know the deceitfulness of sin. We even know the wickedness of our own heart.
And while nobody likes to be told they're wrong, we have to speak the truth in love to one another. And that means pointing out sins that need to be pointed out sometimes. You know, sometimes I'm blind to these things, and I need my wife to tell me that was wrong, you know?
Um, that's part of discipleship.
And lastly, point number seven is to do all these things with humility. With humility. James 4:6 says, "God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble."
Opposes the proud and shows favor to the humble. Part of discipling means we lead the way in displaying our weakness among gospel believers. And where appropriate, we should be humbled to admit when we're wrong.
And when we confess our sin, we are demonstrating what it looks like to not trust in ourselves, not to find our own justification of ourselves. We're actually learning that our true justification, that is being made right with God, is with Jesus.
When we commit, when we, um, you know, you know, my dad, um, I just have some earliest memories of, you know, my dad yelling at me as a kid. And at night, he would come by my bedside, and he would tell me I was wrong for, you know, doing this one thing.
Now, most of the time he was yelling, it was for the right thing. But, you know, I just remember how quickly my dad would repent.
And so, in discipleship, we should do, uh, we should do it with humility, and we do it by displaying our weakness in confessing our sin.
So, yeah, that's what discipleship is, why it's important. Um, second point was, um, sorry, I'm trying to think, uh, you know, how discipleship helps us grow.
And number three is how do we disciple others? And so, um, as we venture into the rest of the series, I pray that we would understand that discipleship is kind of like the pipeline that runs through all of these things, that it's crucial and that a healthy church is characterized as one that is seriously concerned with their growth in following the Lord Jesus.
You know, more than getting more numbers into our church, more than getting a bigger budget, we should be concerned about the depth of our spiritual lives, each individually, and helping us grow one another in Christ.
And so, um, I pray that we would be a church that would follow Jesus in this way, that we would grow in knowledge of our Lord and Savior.
So let me pray for us.
Lord Jesus, we thank you that in your person and work, we have a person who not only comes to us as a teacher but who comes to us as the living Lord, as the risen Savior who died on the cross and rose again.
We thank you that you are our substitute. And, Lord, as we follow you and as we obey your commands to obey all that you've taught, we pray that you would help us through your Holy Spirit aid us now through discipling each other in our church and in our community.
And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
on Feb 28, 2024
