(A) 13 August

Some weeks back, a sermon was preached on the need to reach out to the lost world and those dying without Christ. One statement caught my attention: we need to hear the cries of “new babies” in the church, meaning spiritual babies, because, for too long, the church is not hearing such cries (paraphrase). I do not disagree with this statement, as it stands.

But I take the liberty to qualify this statement with my limited understanding of other aspects from Scripture which pertain to evangelism, discipleship, mission and the church, in the hope that we can look at this subject more wholesomely, for this would affect the growth of the church and brethren in genuine discipleship, and growth toward Christian maturity.

“Like newborn babies, crave spiritual milk. so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”(1 Peter 2:2-3)

“Therefore, let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death….” Hebrews 6:1a)
“In fact, by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid solid food! Anyone one who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil,” (Heb.5:12-14)

It is ok to hear more cries from ‘new spiritual babies’ in the church; but it is tragic if we hear the same cries from the ‘same babies’, year in and year out – the babies have not grown to maturity; they still need spiritual milk and not spiritual meat. It is sad to admit that the church is full of ‘overgrown babies’, still going back to ‘milk’ and not keen or able to digest ‘spiritual meat’. What is more alarming is to find out that many of these have not been ‘born again’.

But what is worse and more tragic is to send these same babies overseas as missionaries, forgetting that in the ‘Great Commission’, Jesus not only commanded the believers to go and make disciples, but also to teach them all that He has taught them. But how can we expect ‘spiritual babes’ to teach what the Master had taught when they are only familiar with the elementary teachings of the Bible?

We are called to be disciples; the followers are called ‘Christian’ only three times in the New Testament (Acts 11:6; Acts 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16). Both words (Christian and disciple) imply a relationship with Jesus, although ‘disciple’ is the stronger of the two because it inevitably implies the relationship of pupil to teacher.
During the three years of Jesus’ public ministry, the twelve were disciples before they were apostles, and as disciples, they were under the instruction of their teacher and Lord. The Great Commission was given to the apostles and the disciples of Jesus, not to spiritual babes, because obviously the latter were not equipped for the task.

Let me quote from the late John Stott in his last book, “The Radical Disciple”:
“There is no doubt of the phenomenal growth of the church in many parts of the world. The statistics of church growth are amazing…For example, the church in China has grown at least one hundred fold since the middle of the twentieth century, Many Christian believers now worship God every Sunday in China than in all the churches of Western Europe put together.
At the same time we should not indulge in triumphalism, for it is often growth without depth.
There is superficiality of discipleship everywhere, and church leaders bemoan this situation. A leader from South Asia wrote to me that although the church is growing numerically, ‘there is a huge problem with lack of godliness and integrity’. ..And an African leader has written that although he is well aware of the rapid growth of the African church, ‘this growth is largely numerical…the church is without a strong biblical or theological foundation of her own’.

The problem acknowledged by World leaders is “growth without depth”, or statistical growth with no corresponding developing discipleship. The situation is serious because it is displeasing to God. But how can we expect any other result. If the home church in many situations is overgrown with ‘spiritual babes’ who are not interested in ‘spiritual meat’ but are contented to remain as babies and the church desperately tries to correct the situation by coming up with more programmes, activities, training (not irrelevant in themselves) but are basically what they are – programmes, then we end up with those ‘trained’ with the ‘techniques’ of evangelism, leading Bible study, mission, etc but basically we are seeking to do God’s work, not in God’s way and with matured disciples, but with those equipped with what we call “know how” but without the reality and spiritual life in them. As stated by John Stott, the messenger of the gospel does not look like one who has the message in him; in fact he looks like one who is living, in all aspects, as a non-believer, apparently with a biblical message!

(B) 14 August

There are certain characteristics of genuine and wholehearted discipleship; there are different levels of commitment in the Christian community. Jesus himself illustrated this in what happened to the seeds he describes in the Parable of the Sower. The difference between the seeds lay in the kind of soil which received them. One common way of avoiding wholehearted discipleship is to be selective in choosing those areas in which commitment suits us and staying away from those areas in which it will be costly.
If we acknowledge Jesus as Lord, we have no right to pick and choose the areas in which we will submit to his authority. We now consider some neglected characteristics of Christian discipleship which actually need to be seriously assimilated and displayed.

We referred to the superficiality of discipleship among Christians in the previous sharing and one aspect we noted is that Christians need to look like what they are talking about; effective preaching comes from those who embody the things they are saying. If we are talking about Christ, there should be a certain degree of Christlikeness in our lives.
There is one good Christian doctor who is a close friend of mine. When I shared the gospel with him some time back, he told me confidentially that the life of another colleague who was an elder in his church ‘truly put him off’ – just the thought of him as a Christian leader convinced him that Christianity was not for him. This friend of mine was seriously stumbled by the life of one who claimed to be a disciple and follower of Christ, even holding a leadership role in the church.
John Stott quoted two real examples in his book to illustrate the significance of Christlikeness as an indispensable trait of true disciples of Christ. A Hindu professor, identifying one of his students as a Christian, once said, “if you Christians lived like Jesus Christ, India would be at your feet tomorrow.”
Another example is of the Rev. Iskandar Jadeed, a former Arab Muslim, who has said, “If all Christians were Christians, there would be no more Islam today.”
God’s purpose is to make disciples to be like Christ, and God’s way is to fill the disciples with the Holy Spirit.

Of course, we cannot expect ‘spiritual babes’ to display Christlikeness to a significant degree. Physical babies easily cry when they are hurt physically; they yell for milk when they are hungry or sleepy. There is a parallel with spiritual babies: such ones are easily ‘hurt’ by criticism, rebuke, setbacks in life; they think the world ‘revolves’ all around them, and if things are not going ‘right’ in their lives, they just ‘throw tantrums’ or go into ‘tirades’ and ‘give up’. The contrast is seen in the life of Apostle Paul: he was stoned and left for dead, but he just stood up and carried on to the next town to preach the gospel; he was whipped thirty minus one times on three occasions by the Jews, and some were said to have died after one such occasion, but Paul laboured on. There were times when he had much to eat, and times when he went hungry; yet he declared that he had learnt to be content in whatever circumstance he was in, for the sake of Christ. We shared previously how Jesus was publicly humiliated at the cross although he was God incarnate; certainly Paul demonstrated in his life the characteristic of Christlikeness and spiritual maturity. Disciples endure and persevere; spiritual babes just give up, mumbling, complaining, murmuring at every ‘discomfort’ that comes their way. Not appreciating truly what “grace” means, they easily cried out “Unfair” when they think that God has been unfair to them in their difficulties in outworking as believers.

In our church today, the fundamental question that needs to be asked is: “who is Lord? Is the church the lord of Jesus Christ, so that it has liberty to edit and manipulate, accepting what it likes and rejecting what it dislikes? Or is Jesus Christ our Teacher and our Lord, so that we believe and obey his teaching?
He still says to us, “Why do you call me, “Lord, Lord,” and do not do what I say? (Luke 6:46). The other characteristic of disciples is therefore non-conformity to the culture and the world around us; we neither seek to preserve our holiness by escaping from the world nor to sacrifice our holiness by conforming to the world – in this we must ensure that we obey our Lord and Teacher in His teachings and His ways.
A secular trend which Christian disciples have to resist is that of materialism – a preoccupation with material things which can smother our spiritual life. But Jesus told us not to store up treasure on earth and warned us against covetousness. Instead, the Bible urges us to develop a lifestyle of simplicity, generosity and contentment (Philippians 4:11).
Heard about the ‘preacher’ who said that since God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, so His servant is fully justified to live in luxurious homes and enjoy a luxurious lifestyle? What about the ‘preacher’ who claimed that God would open the windows of heaven and bless you richly if you give liberally (albeit it is basically giving to his particular ministry) and the one who shouted, “I do not want to hear the ‘ringing sound’ of coins in the giving, but the ruffling of currency notes”. Surely, this cannot be the characteristic lifestyle of genuine disciples of Christ! These people forget that Jesus was born in a manger; he told those who sought to follow him that he had no way to lay his head; he worked as a carpenter and as Lord of the universe, he was prepared to give up ‘equality’ with the Father to live within the limits of being perfectly human! If we say we are followers and disciples of Christ, are we prepared to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him? Are we prepared to live a simple lifestyle for the sake of the gospel and the Lord?

The New Age movement calls us to look inside ourselves, to explore ourselves, for the solution to our problems is within. We do not need a Saviour to come to us from somewhere else, they say; we can be our own saviour. Unfortunately, some of this teaching has permeated the church, with some Christians urging that we must not only love God and our neighbour, but we must love ourselves. Jesus spoke of the two great commandments, but he did not mention a third. Self-love is one of the signs of the last days (2 Tim.3:2). The meaning of agape love is the sacrifice of oneself in the service of others. Sacrificing oneself in the service of oneself is clearly nonsense! Our attitude as genuine disciples of Christ is a combination of self-affirmation and self-denial – affirming everything in us which comes to us from our creation and redemption, and denying everything which can be traced to the fall. We are to be like Christ, ‘conformed to the image of God’s Son (Rom. 8:29).
Nothing is more important for mature Christian discipleship than a fresh, clear, true vision of the authentic Jesus. Maturity in Christ is the goal both for ourselves and for our ministry to others. This clear vision comes from ‘soaking ourselves in the Scriptures’, spending much time with the Lord in prayer, in checking our lives before Him and in fellowship with Him and with the brethren in the community (the church). There is no such thing as an individualistic disciple. We belong to the body of Christ and the Lord Jesus is the head. Are we truly genuine and wholehearted disciples of the Lord Jesus? Like Paul, are we pressing towards the mark of maturity in Christ, or we spending much time fussing and preoccupied with our lives, our ambition, our career, our physical well-being, oblivious to the fact that the world and all it desires is passing away; only those who does the will of God lives for ever.

(C) 14 August

“”Large crowds were travelling with Jesus, and turning to them, he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, even life itself – such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple…….Salt is good,but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure heap; it is thrown out. ‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” (Luke 14:25-27; 34-35)

This is perhaps a passage that may be difficult for many of us to ‘digest’ – for, in this passage, Jesus expresses himself ‘negatively’: instead of saying a disciple must be like this or a disciple must do this – he ends each ‘negative characteristic’ with “cannot be my disciple”.
In order to make himself clear to the crowd, he was saying that three things must mark a true disciple of his:
-They hate father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and their own life
– They renounce all they have
– They bear their cross and come after Jesus
If these three things are absent in the lives of individuals, there can be no doubt about it – these individuals cannot be His disciple.
And if you are not a disciple…you are not a Christian. But if you are a Christian, you must also be a disciple.

It is fairly obvious that Jesus is using hyperbole here, a figure of speech in which one exaggerates for the sake of emphasis; Jesus is shocking us into paying attention! It is helpful to note that in our sharing of ‘Interpretation of Scripture’, hyperbole and other figures of speech need to be noticed when used, in accurate interpretation of the text.

We may ask, why did Jesus focus on family relationships? In an earlier account in Luke 8:19-21, when Jesus was told that his mother and brothers appeared and wanted to speak to him, He responded, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it”. Jesus’ priorities were radically different when it comes to family relationships.
We know that family relationships are meant to be the greatest blessings we have. But for this very reason, these relationships can be the source of greatest spiritual temptation and become the strongest spiritual hindrances – because it is so easy to put them first, instead of the Lord Jesus. A husband can easily make it clear by his attitude, and even by his words, that he expects his wife to put him first – not the Lord Jesus. A wife can put her wishes and interests before any concern she has that Jesus should have first place in her husband’s life. And this applies equally to brothers, sisters, children – we lose sight of the fact that since Christ has given us everything, loyalty to him is our first priority! I have come across Christian leaders who got terribly upset when negative feedback was given on their spouses or children, even though the feedback was accurate; also I have seen Christian leaders arranging for their children to take over their leadership positions even though the children were far from having true Christian leadership and discipleship.

So, does Jesus have absolute priority in my life – even over those who are closer to me and most loved by me? Indeed, especially over them? Then I am his disciple.

What about “Whoever does not bear his own cross, and come after me cannot be my disciple”. Jesus is not here speaking about “life’s trials” in general. The crowds who listened to him had seen men bearing the cross, on their way to the place of execution being publicly humiliated – as Jesus himself would later be – by being made to carry the instrument of his execution.
Jesus is saying, with graphic visual imagery, that a disciple is someone who is prepared to follow him and ‘die’ to his or her own plans and submit to God’s purposes – whatever they are, wherever they may take us, whatever it will cost.
No one has expressed this in modern times as powerfully as the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was executed by the Nazi just as World War II was coming to an end.
Just read what he said:
“We can only achieve perfect liberty and enjoy fellowship with Jesus when his command, his call to absolute discipleship, is appreciated in its entirety. Only the man who follows the command of Jesus single-mindedly, and unresistingly lets his yoke rest upon him, finds his burden easy, and under its gentle pressure receives the power to persevere in the right way. The command of Jesus is hard, unutterably hard, for those who try to resist it. But for those who willingly submit, the yoke is easy and the burden is light.
The only man who has the right to say he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ. Such a man knows the call to discipleship is a gift of grace, and that the call is inseparable from the grace. But those who try to use this grace as a dispensation from following Christ are simply deceiving themselves”.

The cross is laid on every Christian; the first Christ-suffering which every man or woman experience is the call to abandon the attachment of this world. As Bonhoeffer said, ‘When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die’.

What about ‘renouncing all we have’?
The idea that being a Christian means radical discipleship, putting Christ before and above everything, including ourselves – would that not be seen as ‘perhaps going a little too far’?
Should it surprise us – when a church becomes a ‘Decency Society’ rather than a ‘Disciples of Jesus Community’ – that no one has become a Christian there fo a couple of generations – and the members wonder why the Society is shrinking and feel a vague sense of disappointment that their children do not come so regularly, and their grandchildren – well, they don’t come at all. They have such different lifestyles. It’s all so sad.
But the truth is that it is all very predictable. When people think they are following him but have never thought about the cost of discipleship, this result is inevitable – at least according to Jesus. Some of us may look at such a church and criticise the lack of discipleship in its midst; but what is more tragic and sad is that the very people who criticise and complain about the state of the church are the very same ones who grumble about their trials in life, and do not appreciate or experience what carrying our cross for Jesus means in outworking.

Salvation is free, but it leads to a discipleship that will cost you everything you have! Are we truly disciples of Christ? Are we willing to pay the cost; are we already paying the cost with joy and gratefulness to the Triune God?

(D) 15 August

THE BIBLE (SCRIPTURE) AND DISCIPLESHIP
In the previous sharing, reference was made to “spiritual milk”, “solid food or spiritual meat”) for the process of spiritual growth in discipleship unto maturity.
In our study of the Gospels, we see the authority of Jesus manifested in casting out demons, healing, forgiving sins, and proclaiming that the sabbath is subject to him as the Son of God.

Let us not forget that for Christians today especially, the authority of Christ involves subjection to the authority of Scripture. Anything short of unconditional submission to Scripture, therefore, is a kind of impenitence; any view that subjects the written Word of God to the opinion and pronouncements of men involves unbelief and disloyalty toward Christ. Realise the seriousness of this in the eyes of God; it is not just a matter of distortion of God’s teachings and commandments – it is unbelief and a questioning of God’s wisdom and authority. Even though the men who taught the Scriptures are ‘well respected’ and are ‘charismatic’ in their appearance and demeanour, the believers are to check the accuracy of the teachings from the Scripture (remember the Berean Christians).
We must not allow our “adoration” of such men to ‘blind’ our accurate understanding of the teachings of Scripture, and conclude that they could do no wrong, and whatever they communicate from the Bible is the gospel truth (be reminded that Satan can also quote Scriptures).

Types of Christianity which regard as authoritative either tradition or reason are perversions of the faith, for they locate the seat of authority not in the Word of God but in the words of men. True and pure Christianity acknowledge, in all things, the supremacy of Scriptures.

Certainly, the closer and more thorough one’s acquaintance with the Bible as a whole, the more clearly and fully will one discern its wisdom for living the whole of one’s life. But God is gracious and good; he meets people where they are, and often showers beginner Christians with insights for their personal guidance as they take their first hesitant steps in forming the habit of daily BIble reading (just as physical babies learn to walk by small hesitant steps). Scripture contains God’s commands which establish parameters and set limits for all our behaviour. As God’s promises give direction to all our hopes, so God’s commands direct us in establishing attitudes and policies with regard to every aspect and department of our life activities.

We emphasised previously that the Spirit illumines the Scripture to our understanding; but this does not mean that all humans with intelligence can understand the work of the Spirit – if this is so, then it reduces the illumination of the Spirit to the ability of humans to reason, and it still does not explain what the Spirit provides for the believer that he does not provide for the unbeliever.

Perhaps an illustration at this juncture may be helpful to explain the role of the Spirit in biblical interpretation:
At a certain annual lectureship on biblical studies at the Interpretation School of Theology, a Professor of Wissenheim University delivered an address entitled “Paul’s Doctrine of Justification by Faith.” In this one hour lecture the Professor described more clearly than anyone else has ever done before, what Paul meant by his doctrine of justification by faith. He also carefully and brilliantly described the implications of this doctrine in the life of the Christian church both past and present. If the Apostle Paul had been present, he might even have said, “Thank you, Professor – no one has ever explained what I meant as clearly and as well.”
And the Professor was warmly applauded. However, after that, the Professor added, “But you know, of course, that this is all nonsense!”
After the address someone happened to see the wife of the Professor, who is a committed Christian, and asked her, “What do you think Paul meant by his doctrine of Justification by faith?” To this she replied, “You must understand that my training is not in theology but in chemistry, but I guess” – and at that point tears began to form in her eyes – “I guess, Paul meant that God has done everything for us!”
Who understands Paul’s teaching better? The Professor or his wife? The issue of course depends upon what is meant by “understands.” If it means a correct mental grasp of Paul’s meaning, it is clear that the Professor “understands” Paul better. On the other hand, the wife of the Professor appreciates the meaning willed by the apostle. But it is foolishness to the Professor because he has not been convicted/convinced by the Spirit of its truth. He cannot appreciate it, because such conviction comes from the Spirit. But as for the wife, she understands what Paul meant, through the Spirit, she accepts this as the wisdom of God.

(E) 18 August

GROWING IN GRACE AND KNOWLEDGE OF OUR LORD

We have been considering implications of being disciples of Christ. We noted that in many situations where there is growth in number of conversions, there is also the noticeable superficiality in discipleship – leaders bemoan that there is numerical growth in numbers, but there is also the lack of godliness and integrity; there is the the observation that there is a lack of strong biblical or theological foundation in many such churches.

When Peter writes, “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18), and when Paul speaks of growing into Christ (Ephesian 4:15) and rejoices that the Thessalonians’ faith is growing (2 Thessalonians 1:3), what they have in view is a progress into smallness that allows the greatness of Christ’s grace to appear. The paradox of growing into maturity and in discipleship is that the believers increasingly feel and say that in themselves