Part 3- Missional Discipleship
“Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who has called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires (2 Peter 1:2-4)”.
Discipleship is vital in every aspect of the mission. There are various "goodwill" organizations and ministries which are characterized by doing good works and not so much as being or becoming disciples of Jesus Christ. Good works are demonstrated through a Christian’s life but not everyone who does good works is on mission for Jesus Christ or as the above verse illustrates; participating in the divine nature. In this blog I would like to explain proper discipleship because it is the disciples who are the arms and legs of the body of Christ and living out the incarnation (which we explained in part 2) and through that exact mission- disciples are born.
"The Church is nothing but a section of humanity in which Christ has really taken form"- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Understanding the Biblical story we know that the history of mankind is explained through the fall of Adam- man had chosen his own will over the will of God and has suffered in his fallen nature ever since. Christianity is the offer to restore what was lost in Adam (the image of God, the presence of God, the access to the tree of life, etc.) which is done by dying to ourselves and becoming alive in Christ (Ephesians chapter 2; Galatians 2:20). As was said in the book, Untamed by Alan Hirsch :
"At the very beginning of following Jesus, we are all called to be un-dragoned by repenting, dying to our fallen selves, and surrendering our identities and purposes to the Lordship of Jesus..".
Soren Kierkegaard coined the term contemporaneousness which meant that within the mind and life of a Christian, Jesus Christ must be a "living reality, seen through the eyes of faith, and contemporaneous with each generation. His reality must be such that it transcends both time and space". As it was further spoken that this is done through a conscious and responsible effort to reach beyond church tradition, inherited presuppositions, and encounter Jesus for who he was to the eyewitnesses...and "in that painful tension of the dilemma; make his own choice as to whether Jesus is the God-man who has absolute claim to his life or a madman who should be avoided at all costs".
The prevailing problem today is that most who call themselves are not acting a disciples of Christ, dare I even say they act as half-hearted converts. Most of this is done through a seemingly dumbing-down process which creates a zeal without knowledge. Consider how many so-called Christians cannot clearly explain the gospel (as is the narrative of the Scriptures, not the emotional. How is this so? This zeal without knowledge is what has taking a stronghold over popular Christianity and therefore disables true disciples of Christ engaged in a reality of Him which would be true missional living. As it has been clearly stated "...ignorance of Jesus by those who claim His name is toxic to both the believer as well as those around him or her".
"If you conception of God is radically false, then the more devout you are, the worse it will be for you. You are opening your soul to be molded by something else. You had better be an atheist"- William Temple
As I have grown in the knowledge of God, which has been quite the journey, I have struggled with what exactly being a disciple of Christ means today in modern society. Should we sell everything and follow Him as the disciples did, should we seek to be persecuted, WHAT SHOULD WE DO? Studying history of Christianity, along with experimenting with monasticism, homelessness, and various other concepts I have realized the truth of the following statement:
“To be a follower of Christ does not mean to imitate literally but to express him through the medium of one's own life. A Christian is no unnatural reproduction of Christ...The task of the Christian consists of transposing Christ into the stuff of his own daily life"- Romano Guardini
Unfortunately, today the prevailing thought of living a Christian life seems like a holiness exercise. Think about it, every Bible study, every discussion, somehow, someone brings up sin. I thought sin was defeated? (Romans chapters 3, 5 & 6; Hebrews 2; John 1:12; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 2:1-2; Revelation 1:5-6). Ever since (and before) I became a Christian I have had discussions, debates, and confrontations with those in Christ and those outside Christ regarding sin- it seems everyone is just “stuck on stupid” when it comes to grace and the righteousness of Christ. It took a while for me to figure this out, but through study, observation, and constant prayers with God I realized- the Christian communities emphasis on sin is actually a cop-out of our larger responsibility to be set on fire to live and do the will of God. It has always been easier to doubt, fear, hate, and ostracize people and other aspects of life rather than to believe, have faith, and show love.
Recently, I went to an event called Man up. The conference called men to begin living Biblically by becoming more like Jesus Christ. I started to think about a conversation my girlfriend Quanti and I had with a fellow Christian concerning his preoccupation with sin. Quanti strictly told him “it’s about doing the things He did, not doing the things He didn’t do”. Our religious spirit clings to the concept of sin and makes us look at others in a way of judgment and keeps us personally from doing what we should because all we can think about is how we keep doing the things we should. Sadly, we treat the sacrifice of Christ with contempt and make it of no effect in the matters of sin.
As I illustrated above, seemingly living “holy” lives centered on not sinning and not doing what the “bad people” do makes it easier for us to pass off our apathy and lack of passion. As Soren Kierkegaard once said:
"...there is a demand by "the crowd", the mass of people, to live an ordinary unexamined and passionate life in which God is essentially irrelevant, and yet they want this life to be regarded as Christian"
The fact of the matter is that Christians should not be concerned with the do not's but rather the do's, face it you are a sinner and your righteousness will never account for worthiness in the eyes of God (Isaiah 64:6; 1 John 1:8; Romans 3:23; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 1:30). Mark Batterson said it best, "It seems to me that the modern church has become fixated on sins of commission. Don’t do this. Don’t do that. And you’re alright. But the problem with that is this: you can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right! Think of it as holiness by subtraction. So holiness becomes the byproduct of subtracting something from our lives that shouldn’t be there instead of maximizing our God-given potential. Don’t get me wrong. Holiness certainly involves subtraction. But I think God is far more concerned about sins of omission—those things we could have and should have done. Maybe holiness has as much or more to do with seizing opportunities as it does resisting temptation? Those who simply run away from sin are half-Christians. Our calling is much higher than simply running away from what’s wrong"And again he illustrated the point in his book, Primal:
"Too often we try to stop sinning by not sinning. But that is a losing battle. It's what psychologists call a double bind...of course; you can try to stop sinning by not sinning. And when that doesn't work, you can try even harder to stop sinning by not sinning. But what you need is a vision from God that captures your imagination and consumes your energy. Vision is the cure for sin". –Mark Batterson
Let’s get scriptural. Check out Mark chapter 5 verses 15 through 33.
The first story we come across is Jesus casting demons out of a man and He sends them into the pigs, after this the man wanted to go with Jesus but what did Jesus say? “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you” (Mark 5:15-20). Then Jesus once again goes on mission across the lake and is asked to heal a man asked Jesus to heal his child. As this is happening, a woman hoping to be healed touches Jesus’ clothing and Jesus realizes. Jesus turns to the woman and tells her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering” (Mark 5:21-33). How dare we go about making Jesus Christ into some holiness preacher so worried about our sins. As it was once said about Jesus Christ, that he had:
"...radical, redemptive holiness that went way beyond mere morality".
The holiness of Christ led to personal liberation and societal transformation. Jesus Christ heals these people and tells them to go. Legalism (which was the issue of the Pharisee, those who killed Christ) holds us to a “touch not, taste not” mentality. Many times throughout the Gospels the religious people were confused and insulted by what Jesus Christ did in order to show grace and understanding for the lost. Remember what Christ said:
“It is not the healthy who needs a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Mark 2:17)
Jesus Christ came set those under the Law free which enabled them to be missional (Check out my blog titled: I am free to love).
The first step that the eternal seed must pass through was death (see, 1 Corinthians 15:36). It was not man's will which brought about this death; and by this I do not mean the death of the body, which is unimportant. It was God's will which brought about the death so that the fullness of His nature would be produced in the seed He planted. – Brother Paul Richard Jr. Curran
We must die to ourselves, our way of doing things, and even our righteousness so that the glory of God (Christ in and through us) may be revealed! It is when we do this that we are enabled to know God.
Death to self. Dying to everything about ourselves, our selfish ambition and goals, is the only way to truly worship God!
"Worship turns out to be the dangerous act of waking up to God and to the purposes of God in the world, and then living lives that actually show it"- Mark Labberton, Dangerous Act of Worship
WAKE UP! That is discipleship!
Jn 12:24 (NIV) "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."
So now what?
I have always been fascinated with the concept of “prophetic imagination”, which is how the prophets acted when they were called to tell the message to the people(). I have written blogs about this concept which basically is defined as being creative, risky, and bold in our efforts to display the message of Christ to the world. Truly a zeal empowered by knowledge of all that God has done.
As we grow in Christ everything in our lives becomes a part of the mission. The social set theory is the efforts to explain social atmospheres and the two main types are centered set versus bounded set. Dare I pose that popular Christianity has become a bounded set theory in which there are people inside and outside but no real way to cross boundaries. Does this sound like what Jesus did?
Instead, Christianity must focus on living through the center set theory which is the characterized by a clear vision and ideology at the center but no real boundaries to cross in order to join. The Greek Orthodox Church has a concept called theosis- which demonstrates the growth in the knowledge of God which draws you closer and closer to God. (2 Peter chapter 1).
As we come to Christ and grow in the knowledge of God we become alive. As we become alive it is only natural to seek to express and share the life that is in and through us (Galatians 2:20 type of stuff). The mission is not a program it is simple a natural response to the knowledge of God. Brothers and sisters, seek to know the will of God and therefore become a disciple of Christ. As you grow you will become a disciple who makes disciples!
"Of all the works of creation, it is passion which is very good, without which man cannot serve God, or truly live" Martin Buber
