Mark #8: Discipleship (and communion)
- Date: Sunday, February 12, 2012
- Speaker: Dusty Thompson
- Series: Marks of a Healthy Church
- Scripture: Ephesians 4:11–4:16
- Tags: discipleship, growth
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
We’ll talk more about the idea of Biblical leadership in a couple of weeks. This passage starts off talking about leaders in the church- there is a clear function they all share: to build up the body (12). I am not going to talk about the church’s leaders today, but instead the goal of why God has given Christian leaders in the first place. God is set on every Christian in this room growing. Think of Romans 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son… You were converted (discussed last week) not just to have your Living Social coupon for heaven, but to begin to be conformed to Christ right now- heaven will be the full expression of this reality. A lot of us in this room right now are VERY skeptical that there can be real change and growth in your life. There was a time when you were wide-eyed and idealistic, but then real life happened. Or maybe you are on the outside looking in and this picture is very compelling, but you have doubts that God could/would really change things. So let’s look at this passage to see what maturity looks like.
Growth/Discipleship
Verse 12 told us that we have leaders so that the body of Christ- the church- would be built up. Here are some effects of this sort of growth:
1. Unity of the faith (13). A sign of immaturity is fighting over stupid stuff. This would mean that the vast majority of Christians are immature. Jesus prayed that we would be one as He and the Father are one. This doesn’t rule out conflict- that will be part of it. It does mean that we keep loving and coming back together in our marriages, friendships, and church.
2. Knowledge of the Son of God to maturity (13). As we know Jesus more, we grow in maturity. That is what maturity is! This isn’t an intellectual-only knowledge, but it must start there, right? Truths we see, we savor. The Spirit will guide you into more great things you’ll see and enjoy about Jesus.
3. Grow out of immaturity and fickleness (14). This is the opposite of maturity. Maturity in this text and Psalm 1 are solid, unwavering and non-circumstantial. In other words, our faith doesn’t only work when life is working like we think it should.
4. Through speaking truth in love, we grow into Christ, the head (15). Growth happens alone, but it also happens together. We speak the truth- both kinds that we want to hear and some that we don’t! God has made it where we need to hear truth from each other. This isn’t the spiritual police, but it isn’t a group of cheerleaders, either. Think of it like parenting- we need all of it to mature spiritually.
5. The whole body works properly when each part does its part (16). Again, it is together. We each have a small role to play in helping people grow as disciples. When we aren’t together consistently or are just attending, things don’t work well. Positively, when we all play our small parts, it all works together.
Jesus has to be the goal here- growing in maturity into the head. Community isn’t the goal, it is one of the means of getting to the goal. Mission isn’t the goal, either. It is one of the means of helping people start following Jesus as disciples. Jesus is the goal! God is absolutely committed to use every means to mature you to love and obey Jesus and those around you right now.
What it isn’t
Lots of times we (Christians) only allow for one or two ways of growth- and it almost makes it seem like other things don’t count.
1. Worship Service/Podcast- only. Lots of us are very disinterested in the relational aspect of following Christ. You feel most helped with gifted teachers. That’s good (see 4:11). Instead of yelling at you, this large event or digital approach leaves out a good portion of how God says He will grow you in our passage. And others missed on knowing you and your story. If your life is aligned this way, how are people speaking truth into you (and you to them)? And how are you unified with them? One part of the body is serving you, but your diet is incomplete because you aren’t performing your small role in the whole deal.
2. “Will you disciple me?– only. Let me first state that I, and many others, have taken a good idea and made a law out of it. I have had many people in the past 15 years of ministry here in Lubbock that were attending services regularly, that were in a small group, that had lots of healthy Christian friendships, and were talking about the Bible, their soul, and where they were struggling, come up to me and ask me if they could be “discipled.” To some, none of that counts. REAL discipleship is one on one where you study a book of the Bible or a Christian book, I suppose. While those sort of mentoring relationships are valuable, I see most of discipleship in the NT coming in groups of Christians that are committed to each other and Jesus.
3. Attendance at small groups –only. We’ve talked lately about the temptation to want to know the rule and then we can “do” it and feel good about ourselves. Lots of us feel like you can chalk the discipleship/growth thing off because you are attending a Bible study or GC or whatever. Growth is not the exact same thing as attending one of these. They are vehicles, but it is very possible to come every week and not grow very much. The whole point is to press the God of the Bible into our every day life in a way that is harder in a monologue setting like this. Just attending and throwing in $.02 isn’t super helpful to you or anyone.
4. Individual disciplines- only. Some of us feel like this is the only part of our Christian life that matters. When we ask, “how are you doing, spiritually?” this is code for “are you having a daily devotional?” Surely there are more parts of the Christian life than waking up in the morning and reading and praying, right?
5. Having Christian friendships (at Redeemer and with other church members)- only. Some feel like programs and sermons don’t count as means of growth. Only coffee meetings (yes, coffee must happen for it to “count”) are real community and authentic discipleship happens only there.
Notice, that I said “only” after each of these. I think that all of these are valuable parts, but not mutually exclusive. My guess is that lots of us would have none of these 5 as regular parts of your diet. Others will have one or two. The point isn’t a checklist, but you’ve already got one of those. Checklists are rarely life giving- especially if that checklist is incomplete. You already have chosen the things that you think will help yourself the most. Have you been hasty? Is your approach too self-absorbed? Are you growing? Are you helping others grow? Just consider it.
Instead, what if we made growth as a disciple of Jesus our highest priority- through all means possible? In fact, the discipling ministry of the church is just a replication of this reality in us. We replicate in others what the Spirit is accomplishing in us- which, by the way, was replicated in us by the Spirit’s work in others. We all have a part to play. It’s a lot more like football than it is tennis. A QB can’t throw to an open receiver if the guard misses an assignment or if the WR on the back side of the play runs his guy into the play!
The Picture: Communion
If you look at 1 Cor 11, you’ll see that the church is given some instructions on taking an ordinance that symbolizes their union with Christ and with one another. This is communion or the Lord’s Supper. Baptism is the sign associated with conversion- we talked about it last week. Communion is the sign associated with our ongoing growth in Christ connected with other Christians that we belong to.
The context of 1 Corinthians 11 is that people were taking this symbolic meal and were mistreating those with lesser social clout with little or no food and drink and making them eat after. This sort of inequality and lack of love- that’s what it was in its essence- undercuts the nature of the Lord’s Supper. Some of them even died because of their hateful treatment of others. A couple of points here:
1. It is for Christians- how can a non-believer take from a sign that indicates their union with Christ and other Christians? There are no special powers in taking these elements like some groups have thought. You don’t become a Christian by simply taking. You don’t stay secure in salvation by taking it. It is an expression that is a growing, maturing grace to you and an encouragement to you and others for sure.
2. It is for Christians willing to obey Jesus and love each other. Paul forbids those are unwilling to follow Jesus- which includes loving each other (see “discerning the body”) from taking from the Lord’s table. It is a functional denial of the grace your saying you believe. On the one hand, strugglers must come. That is all of us. If you have failed to love Jesus and people around you, grace is here! But if your heart is hard and you have a conflict with someone and you have dug your heels in and are unwilling to reconcile, don’t pretend. If you have zero intention of obeying the thing you’ve heard on a given day, don’t take. If you have no connection with Christians and don’t intend on doing anything about that, you are in willful disobedience and you shouldn’t take. This is co-mmunion. You are in union with Christ and each other by extension. If you’ve failed, grace is here, that is what this symbol means. If you’ve failed and you don’t care, that is a different story.
Discipleship and Communion- together
So, when we read Ephesians 4 today, you may have realized your growth is stunted. Maybe you have isolated yourself. Maybe you aren’t helping others grow. But you want to…come, believe, repent, and take. On the other hand, you see it and know in your heart that you don’t care if you grow or help others, don’t.
Here’s where discipleship and growth and communion all come together. We take the elements here every week as a response for Christians. Be encouraged as you sing and respond. All of these people are getting up and saying that they are a sinner- still- and need the grace of Jesus to grow and mature and that they are recommitting their life to His purposes and knowing Him and they are recommitting to love you. Ultimately, communion is a symbol of what we talked about in Ephesians 4- growth together in Christ. That’s pretty cool. If you feel like you are the only one trying to follow him, be encouraged. It is a symbol of grace and togetherness with Jesus and each other that we can taste.
I also hope that if you haven’t followed Jesus yet, taking this on a weekly basis will help you understand that you don’t know Him and that you would desire Him. Believe in Him and then, let’s be baptized as a sign of your conversion. Then as a sign of your ongoing growth in Jesus, take the Lord’s Supper with us regularly. As you take today, consider that Jesus is more committed to your growth, change, and maturity than you are. Follow Him!
