Mid-City Christian: Pastorgraphs: “Discipleship”

Pastorgraphs: “Discipleship”

In preparation for my sermon on discipleship at Exodus Church yesterday (deny self, take up your cross, follow me), I discovered four spiritual pairs that should never be separated. See below.

Many want-to-be disciples are willing to deny-take up-follow as long as it is comfortable, convenient and beneficial. When Jesus told the disciples he was headed to Jerusalem to suffer and die, their commitment was tested. It was as if they said, “Wait a minute. We didn’t sign on for that.”

There are no part-time disciples. It’s all or nothing. Peter, Paul and most of the disciples learned that the hard way. It is only in losing your life that you find it.

The Church itself is partly to blame, for we have divided ourselves into warring camps when we separate things that should stand united. Here are four spiritual pairs God has impressed upon me we should see as one.

Easter and Pentecost. For most Christians these are two separate events. Perhaps we should see them as bookends of the same event. Easter is when life won victory over death. Let’s call that salvation. Pentecost is when the church was born, empowered by the Holy Spirit. When salvation is separated from power, and vice-versa, both become something never intended. Both become ends unto themselves and devoid of the other. That either distorts or destroys the other. But combined, Easter-Pentecost produces Life-Power disciples.

Word and Sacrament. Walk into a liturgical church sanctuary and the first thing you see is the altar, front and center. Walk into the typical evangelical church and the first thing you see is the pulpit, front and center. One places emphasis upon the sacraments, especially Holy Communion. The other places emphasis upon the written and spoken Word. For discipleship, it is never one or the other, but both. The Word and Sacraments validate each other and make for strong disciples.

Evangelism and Social Holiness. I grew up in a religious environment that placed a high premium upon evangelism. So much so, it became a numbers game. I confess the second half of my life and ministry gravitated to the opposite extreme. But Jesus, the disciples, and even old John Wesley had the right balance between feeding souls and feeding bodies. In my old age, I now offer a cup of cold water to quench the physical thirst, but offer a drink from the Well That Never Runs Dry. A person with addiction has both a spiritual and personal problem. To address one without the other produces fragmented discipleship or useless reform.

Ray Bakke said, “Evangelism must be the front line of ministry if it is to have integrity with the poorest and most despised peoples of our planet at all times and in every place!”

Truth and Grace. Christianity has had far too many examples of our own ISIL (the group in Syria and Iraq that is beheading the infidels and heretics). The purists believe they have the truth, and are more than ready to conduct inquisitions to purge the heretics, doing God the favor. History shows those purists were not so pure, nor holders of truth. Over the last couple weeks we witnessed a man beheaded and communities subjected to genocide in the name of religious truth. Jesus, who said “I AM the way, the TRUTH, the life,” also said to the woman about to be stoned for adultery, “Where are your accusers? Neither do I accuse you. But go, and sin no more.” That’s Grace. Truth without grace leads to religious intolerance and character assassination, if not outright murder. Grace apart from truth is simply license to continue in sin. Truth and Grace in balance produce humble, committed disciples, like Mary of Magdala, Peter who denied Christ three times, and Paul, the chief among sinners.

I shared an illustration that has been around for years. A physics professor placed a large glass or bowl on the table and filled it with golf balls. He then asked his students if it was full. Almost everyone raised a hand indicating it was full. Then the professor proceeded to pour sand into the bowl. It filled the spaces between the golf balls. He asked again if it was full. Again the embarrassed students agreed it was now full. Then the professor took a pitcher of water and poured it in the bowl until it overflowed.

This old illustration applies to personal Pentecost. We are “filled with the Spirit” as much as we want and allow ourselves to be. But as John the Baptist said, “I must decrease in order that HE might increase.” Each time you “deny yourself”, you make a little more room for God to grow within.

In Christ’s Service,
Bill Jenkins

From The Quote Garden:

“We should not be surprised that the 120 believers in the upper room knew all the languages spoken at Pentecost; they came from all those places. For the first time, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, all those languages were used in worship in Jerusalem. From then on the church's worship would be multilingual in the heart of a city where one language was official but many others were spoken by the people. Finally the curse of Babel had been broken in the city. The Holy Spirit-led church can reunite peoples fractured by language; it did so in Jerusalem.”

~ Raymond J. Bakke. A Theology as Big as the City

Photo Credit: Fotolia, royalty paid (Credit also Dr. Ray Bakke; Dr. Frank Macchia and Dr. Larry Wood for insights from their discussion, “John Wesley and Pentecostalism”.)