Making Disciples

I've shared with you previously as we've been looking at Acts chapter 14 that there are
many things about the Apostle Paul's life and ministry that I find remarkable and one
of the things that we've talked about in the past is his ability to get back up on his
feet after he's been knocked down. Another thing that really impresses me personally and that's
what we're going to look at this morning is his willingness to retrace his steps to the very
places that have hurt him the most. Listen again to the scripture reading that we listened to a few
moments ago. They, that is Paul and Barnabas, preached a good news in the city of Derby and one a
large number of disciples, then they returned to Listera, Iconium and Antioch. Remember what
happened? Did Listera? They all, they, they left him for dead. They tried to kill him. Remember
what happened in Iconium? They mobbed him out of the town and remember what happened in
Antioch. They chased him out of there as well. And so here he is having finished his ministry in
Derby. He now backtracks to those earlier cities and he does so this time not so much to win
brand new converts and to be publicly exposed to danger once again but rather to fortify and strengthen
the believers. Listen again to how scripture puts it. They returned to Listera, Iconium and
Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. Three words
there that are of particular significance to us this morning. The first word is the word
disciples. Throughout the book of Acts, and I don't know if you realize this, almost not quite
without exception but to a very large degree, believers are called disciples. 28 times if I
counted correctly in the book of Acts, believers are called disciples and they're called that
deliberately because a disciple is a learner. He is a pupil. And the model of course that comes to
mind is the Hebrew model of Arrabi surrounding himself with eager disciples. They spend time with
him. They absorb his what they called a yoke that is the body of teaching the secret to life's
success with a view of embodying that not only in their own lives but then by passing that on
to others. And the classic example of Arrabi with disciples of course is the Lord Jesus in the
gospels where he surrounds himself with the twelve, spends time with them, teaches them the way
of the kingdom and then eventually launches them out into the world to repeat the process of
discipleship making. And that is why his great commission as he left his disciples in Matthew
chapter 28 is worded the way that it is. Go therefore 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
observe everything that I have commanded you and surely I am with you always to the very
end of the age. To be a disciple then is to be a follower of Jesus. It is to spend time with him
with a view of absorbing his teaching and his wisdom so that you can embody it in your own life
so that in turn it can be reproduced in the lives of others. God is never interested in simply
getting people who give an intellectual ascend to a certain body of spiritual truth. He is
interested in disciples, people who embody in their lifestyle the values of God's kingdom.
Why is that important? Because we live in a day and age where in the Western world the
concept of discipleship has become increasingly foreign to us I think. We have so watered down the
gospel that it has become an intellectual understanding of Jesus died for my sins so that one day
when I die hopefully I can go to heaven all of which is true and all of which is important but
which falls short of the totality of the Christian message. It is not enough to simply agree
to a certain set of doctrines. Those doctrines must be life changing and the tragedy of Western
Christianity particularly is that we have made divisions between belief and practice. The result
is that it was millions upon millions of people in this country and in other countries in the
Western world particularly that profess to be followers of Jesus but who fail to do what he has
commanded them to do and who feel little if any guilt about the fact that they're falling short
isn't that true? Give you an example. I read a little piece the other day about Christianmingle.com.
Many of you here familiar with Christianmingle.com if you've been online or watch any television
then you will have seen the recent ads advertising their Christian matchmaking service.
They're now up to 8 million members and one of the recent reports suggested that in filling
in their profiles the people who are part of Christianmingle.com, presumably mostly Christians,
63% stayed unabashedly that they would engage in premarital sexual relationships. Now,
what do you think about that? That's people who stayed up front that they are prepared to walk that
route. That doesn't include the people who under pressure would give into that temptation. That figure
would rise considerably with Jodhan. That's only one example of the split nature of much of Christianity
in the Western world. Paul's not interested in just getting people to buy in a system of beliefs
and doctrines. Paul is interested in making disciples, people who will follow Jesus no matter
how much it costs. Second word that is of significance here then is the word strengthening.
They return to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch strengthening the disciples. Now,
to strengthen means to make strong or to make stronger. The picture that immediately comes to my
mind is that of growing up a baby. Earlier in the service, Roberta showed off her lovely granddaughter
and we all know how to woo and all over the beauty of a new child, put a new child over against an
adult and what are the differences between the two? The child if he or she is healthy has all the
body parts and all that, you know, the mechanisms so to speak of an adult, 10 fingers, 10 toes and
those ears and, you know, all that kind of thing. But in and undeveloped state is an entry.
And the challenge of parenting and the challenge of educators is to help a child grow up, grow up
physically, grow up emotionally, be strengthened spiritually. That's why Sarah and Shelley were up
here earlier casting their vision of doing that collectively as families and as a community
to help our children grow up physically, emotionally, spiritually, but especially in the law.
Now, spiritually, of course, the same kind of thing is true. Whether you're older, whether you're
young, when you give your life to Christ, he comes to live in you. And when he comes to live in you,
he imparts to him and we've talked about that in recent weeks, his resurrection life,
you now have new seed planted inside you. But what's important to understand is that that new seed
needs growing, it needs developing, it needs outworking until the whole being is filled with a life
of Jesus. And so as physically babies need to grow up and need to be strengthened, so spiritually,
believers also need to grow up and be strengthened. And that's why the Apostle Paul writing to the
Corinthians can put it this way. He says, "I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly."
Now, don't the next two words, "Mere infants in Christ." I gave you milk, not solid food,
you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly.
For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting
like mere men? I've often been struck by those two words, mere men, because what does he say it?
As long as you're carrying on like the rest of the human race, you're still very immature,
spiritually. If you're fighting and you're arguing and it's all about you and it's not about
somebody else, then you are not yet mature in Christ. You need to grow up in him because the aim
is to become like Jesus. Jesus said, "When the disciples fully taught, who is he going to be like?"
He's going to be like his master. And Peter, of course, carries on this same theme.
In one Peter 2 verse 2, when he says, like newborn babies, there you have it again. Crave pure
spiritual milk so that by it you may grow up to salvation. Just as we feed our babies beginning
with milk and then more solid foods until eventually, they're grown up enough to be able to
chew adult food. So in Christ, we start with spiritual food. We start with the basics of the
gospel as we absorb and practice the basics of the gospel. We become stronger and our capacity to
understand, our capacity to live the values of the kingdom, the capacity to be what God wants us to
be, become stronger and stronger as time goes on. We need to be strengthened, says the Apostle
Paul, and then he goes on to say a third word and that is the word encouraging. They return to
Lister, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the
faith. So here's the question. What does it mean to remain true to the faith? Well, to remain true
to the faith obviously means to remain true to Jesus. It means to remain true to the conviction
that Jesus is the only one given by God under heaven by which we can be saved from sin and
its terrible consequences, that he is the one to whom our loyalty belongs and we will not sell him
out, compromise or do anything that would in any way dishonor him, come hell or high water.
And therein historically lies the test, does it not? Because it's not hard to say I believe in
Jesus when following Jesus makes you feel good and when it makes everybody like you. But what about
when the road gets rough and your life is at stake? Here's a picture that most of us I think will
have seen in the course of this past week on the news. Remember this one? These are a selection
of the girls that have been kidnapped by Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria. They've been
in the news. There are 256 of these girls still missing. A lot of people have feared that they were
dead or sold into slavery and just this past week keep that picture up for just a moment. These
girls were put on video and posted to demonstrate to the world that these girls at least are still alive.
Now here's what's interesting about this picture and perhaps you've seen the video on the news
because it's been played a lot. Most of these girls are Christian. In fact they have identified
last count I heard 78 of the girls on this picture have been identified by their parents so the
parents have been really relieved to see that they're still alive. But you notice they're all wearing
Islamic dress and if you listen to the video they're all reciting the Qur'an and they all claim to
have become followers of Islam. Now please understand me. I understand the terror that these
girls have been facing because it was either convert or die. And historically that's what many
of God's people have experienced when they have become converts in societies that were anti God
and anti Christ. And part of the challenge of God's people over all the years is what do we do
with people who have denied the Christ? Because historically there'd be seasons of persecution you see
and then in the middle of this persecution there would be the pressure to to deny Christ or lose
your life and a lot of people would yield to the temptation but some would not they would become
martyrs of the faith and then when the persecution eased the people that had denied Christ in many
instances would want to come back into the church and can you imagine the emotions that that's
stirred among those who had lost loved ones who had been faithful to Jesus. And so the early church
had a lot of debates and a lot of fights about can you come back if you have denied Christ and if you
can what is the price did you have to pay in order to come back? You see that's why Paul is encouraging
them in this particular passage to remain true to the faith. Don't know how many of you have
seen this newspaper clipping? This was in in in Friday's paper. Pregnant woman this is the headline
"Settings to death for refusing to renounce Christianity." The story goes on to say that she
lives in the sedan. She is eight months pregnant. She was given four days to renounce Jesus.
She has refused to renounce Jesus and now she stares a death sentence in the face. How many of us
here would be here this morning? If we knew it was going to cost us our job, our security let alone
our finances. Thank God we don't yet find ourselves in that place but I'll have more to say about that
in a few moments because we're moving in that direction much faster than most of us are aware.
So in the middle of a hostile environment Paul does what he can to encourage these believers
to remain faithful and the word for encouragement is the Greek word paracoluntus. We get the word
paraclete from the same word and the word paraclete is used by Jesus in John's gospel when he says
it's good for you to go away because when I'm going away I'm going to send you the
comforter, the encourager and the image here the reference there is to the Holy Spirit who's going
to come and help the church to live out their life in a hostile world but the picture is that
of a runner who is running the race and he is getting or she they're getting tired and weary
they don't know if they can make it to the end and a paracoluntus is one who comes alongside and says
put your arm over my shoulder I know you can't do it on your own but I am going to help you walk
it out and as we've seen previously that's one of the functions of Christian community you know
don't neglect to gather together as is the habit of some we looked at that earlier from he raised
but encourage one another all the more so as you see the day drawn here because at the end of
the day and I've often said this and it doesn't matter if you're on 10 yards or 50 yards or two
miles what counts is do you make it to the end in the parable of the sower it doesn't matter
if the if if if if your life is that of the hard path that doesn't absorb the seed if it's the
soil that is is rocky in the seed sprouts but then perishes or if it's the soil that is full of
weeds and it is overcome what matters is are you a good soil that bears fruit for the glory of God
Hebrews puts it this way and it is a tough verse for us to swallow but important for us to
understand for we share in Christ if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end so do you
see this morning why it is that Paul back tracks he's not just interested in bringing children
in the world and then letting them fend for themselves he's interested in making disciples people
who will remain faithful and loyal to Jesus come hell or high water because they will be his joy
and they will be his crown on that final day when God comes to collect his own so here's the
question now how does he go about this process of making disciples well the rest of the text that
we have read together gives us three clues we won't have time to touch on all three allow me to talk
at least about one because it is relevant to the situation where we find ourselves today
he begins and this is really interesting I think he begins by giving them a very realistic picture
of the Christian life because notice what he says to them next we must go through many hardships
to enter the kingdom of God we must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God now
it's kind of counterintuitive isn't it he's talking to people who are believers aren't they already
in the kingdom of God why does he say we must enter into the kingdom of God through many hardships
well I suggest to you it has to do with the nature of the kingdom of God the kingdom of God
has gone at the center it means that God rules overall it stands in total contrast
to life in the world life as we have seen previously that is often characterized by idolatry the
idols of our day and age power relationships money pleasure knowledge phony spirituality
the kind of exercise that says I can live forever if I eat right and do everything right and it's
all about the here and now as opposed to the future for Lord help me to communicate this in a way
that grabs your hearts because we're so inoculated against the reality of the truth for the kingdom
of God to come in its fullness everything else has to give way to the authority of God
isn't it it means the places where you and I see in it can enter into the kingdom
it means the places where you and I want to be the idols of our own lives and our own hearts
it's got a yield to the authority of Jesus it means that we end up spending eternity doing
the things that sometimes even as Christians we complain about the most in life which is to
worship God and serve him and place him first isn't it true I'm only trying to be realistic
so this transition both individually and on the level of the whole world this transition
from this age which is characterized by all these phony and wrong values that are often even part
of your life in my life they all have to give way to the kingdom reign of God why do you think
that crucified Jesus except that he was critical of everything the world stood for and if we're
going to follow Jesus we've got to make that transition and more often than not that transition
can involve many hardships in fact in the time that remains let me give you three reasons
why there are hardships involved in making this transition here is the first there is a gate
into the kingdom and it is both narrow and small listen to these classic words of Jesus you've
heard them many times enter he says this is from the sermon on the mount enter through the narrow
gate for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through
it but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it
so here you have two roads which describe two different ways of life
those of you that have been in my home study and I know some of you have this picture too
will have seen this particular picture called the broad and the narrow way how many of you here have
ever seen quite a number of you it's a very old piece of art I've been trying to find out who
designed it I cannot find it it's over 130 years old but it's a graphic picture of the broad road
and the narrow road that Jesus is talking about here in this particular passage and so here is
the broad road that leads to destruction as we'll see in a moment here is the narrow road can you
make it out that goes all the way up to the celestial city the New Jerusalem now notice that both
of them start with the gate I'll enlarge that picture so that you can see that better here is
the gate that leads into the way of the world see it's broad and easy and here is the gate that
leads into the kingdom of God and this is an easy road to interobviously and there are a
mold there's a multitude of people that walk on this road but to get into this road is much more
difficult because you have to come through Jesus this sign says life and salvation this is dead
and damnation this is the way of salvation here is the evangelist who is preaching here is the
pilgrim who is sitting on the mourner's bench because he is weighed down with his sin here is a guy
who is heavily laden by his sin and here is the pilgrim who is drinking from the water of life that
comes from the cross so why are two these two gates so very different because to get on the road
to destruction all you need to do is be born into the present world and you live with your own
lusts your own desires and with your own passions that kind of life anybody can live
but to get into the kingdom you've got to get through the narrow gate the narrow gate is Jesus
who says I am the door and to come to Jesus means that you realize your human limitations it
means you recognize your sin it means you recognize you need God it means that you're
tired of living the way that you've been living and you know that as a helpless sinner you need
the salvation that only God can get now understand that that is incredibly good news to those who know
they haven't got it isn't that true I mean how many of us here haven't come to that kind of place
that said I can ever be what God wants me to be I have seen the standard of God I can possibly
ever leave up to it I'm living under a cloud of condemnation I'm afraid of death I'm afraid of
judgment I'm afraid of God and then we met up with Jesus the load was lifted and we knew that the
righteousness of Christ was imparted to us by faith and the joy of the Lord became our strength
is not yet but that same gospel is terrible news if you think you got it and you don't want to
give it up and so if you don't want to bend your knee and if you want to pride yourself in your
heritage if you want to pride yourself in your ability if you want to pride yourself in your
accomplishment you're standing in the world to get brought load to the point where you're no
better than the sinner before God and you need the righteousness of Christ just like anybody else
does that is so offensive that it causes a lot of people to turn away from Jesus because it
represents the scandal of the cross I wonder if we understand that the word of the cross is foolishness
to those who are perishing but it's the power of God under salvation so to get through the
narrow door to get into the kingdom there has to be a time and a place where we bend the knee
and where we say okay Lord Jesus I need you and it is your righteousness that I claim
and it is your salvation that I need and it's only at that point that we experience the power
of forgiveness the power of redemption and I think I would be a miss this morning if I
just stood here and took it for granted that all of us have been through the narrow gate I'm
hoping that we have but I've been in this business for long enough to know that you can go to church
all your life and you can believe all the right things and yet have never truly bent the knee
before Jesus and experience forgiveness and experience the righteousness that comes from God
because you know what happens when you truly meet up with Jesus there's a change there's a transformation
that takes place on the inside that finds a joy in what you're used to hate if we can go back for
a moment to the full picture of those two broad ways back one more you'll never be able to
read it from where you are but over here you have you know what back then qualified as worldly
entertainment this is the royal theater one of these is the bank interestingly enough
undoubtedly had to do with lending add money at inflated rates of interest over here is what we
would call a gambling casino today over here you have what was known as the Sunday train
so you know there must have been huge controversy back in those years about about whether trains
were going to run on Sunday just like you know the last 10 or 20 years we've had discussions about
should the stores be open on Sunday and so this whole thing is cast of course in in the spirit of
its own age but the point is that lifestyles are characterized by the lust of the eye the lust of
the flesh and the pride of life and that may vary from age to age in fact I noticed that somebody
has come up with a revised version of this in modern day terms which I found rather fascinating
because it really brings it home but here's the point and I'm going to have to stop here because
we're running out of time there's a lot more than I want to say about this but please understand
this ask yourself the question so I've got a church out of my life maybe I'm new to church as
some of you are have I been through the narrow gate have I come to a place where I have said to
Jesus I cannot do this and if I live till I'm a hundred I will never be good enough to make it
into your eternal kingdom I understand Lord Jesus you paid the price for me you died in
you rose and by faith in you I can be righteous and I can be put on the right path if you've never
done that do it now if you don't know if you've ever done that and I've told you my story how I was
I was a student at school studying for the ministry when when one of my classmates or one of
my dorm advisors actually challenged me whether I had ever given my life to Christ and I remember
kneeling by the side of my bed and saying Lord I think I've done this before I don't know for sure
if I have and this is too important to miss out on so Lord I am bowing before you confessing my
sin receiving Jesus Christ as my Savior the bells didn't ring thunder didn't clap but I'll
tell you from that day to this I know my life changed because Jesus became real in a way
he had not been real before and you want to know something live in the Christian life is a miserable
business if you don't have the life of Jesus to make it happen for you because he keeps making you do
things that you don't want to do by nature so you need a new nature you need Jesus who died in
who rose to make us a new creation