2. CHURCH - We are uncompromised disciples of Jesus

CHURCH, the ESSENTIALS (2 of 7)

I am pretty much of a slob when it comes to cooking. Looking at a recipe is like reading a foreign language to me. But I’ve lived alongside enough people with the skills to know that it is possible for that boring looking list to become a masterpiece of culinary delight - and I’m definitely skilled enough in the eating and enjoying department. It seems that when you gather the right ingredients and put them together with the right skill, you can create memorable gourmet events. I think the same thing is true when it comes to church. The first ever church, described to us in the first chapters of Acts was a set of supernatural ingredients enabled by human cooperation. The result was the formation of a church that we, two thousand years later, need to reproduce. If we carry the metaphor a little further, we need to remember that the church is designed to become food for non-members, not members. We are designed to be a transformational force in our communities, not a historical museum.

 Luke describes the ingredients that contributed to the very first expression of church in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles:

 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. (Acts 1:1-4)

 The first church was produced by the Holy Spirit coming to a group of people who had already made decisions about discipleship. They had decided to follow Jesus.  No, I don’t mean they turned up at a church service 1.6 times per month (the average for committed Australian church members).  Their ongoing commitment was based on a conviction that Jesus was the Messiah.  They didn’t always get it nor were they free from the pressures of culture and society.  But they did keep on following Jesus.

 As I have previously noted, Jesus spent a lot of time investing in the twelve apostles, and in the others who followed him. His invitation to them was conditional. Here is a sample of the covenant of discipleship:

“Then he said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.’ “ (Luke 9:23,24).  

There are many more such references as you would be aware. They followed Jesus on that basis. They watched in awe as the power of God healed hundreds of sick people. They were doubtless challenged by his intentional disregard for some of the cultural traditions (fasting, Sabbath etc). They stayed the course when a large number deserted him because of what he was teaching (John 6). They fled when he was arrested but still went to the tomb on the third morning. They were still together when he began a series of appearances following his resurrection.

 We have just experienced a very different quality of discipleship when, after worship meetings were shut down because of the pandemic, up to 30% of the members of congregations in developed nations like Australia never returned. Some of that was based on fear but the greater percentage on the persuasive self-centred perversity of contemporary culture. I have been a leader in the church for nearly fifty years. Unlike Jesus, who continually challenged his disciples by placing them in situations where their faith or lack of it was uncovered, the Australian church to which I belong has not inspired nor demanded this kind of discipleship. We have witnessed successive generations watering down the idea of following Jesus. We have worked hard to produce disciples who deny themselves very little, avoid any form of ‘cross-bearing’ like the plague and follow Jesus when it suits.

 The disciples whom Jesus appeared to after the resurrection had made their own decisions to be where they were. One of the challenges facing us is to start investing in those who are willing to be disciples like these first-generation disciples of Jesus rather than spending time an effort in managing a club for members who don’t want to be disciples. It is important to realise that this challenge will be at a time when it is going to be harder to be that kind of disciple than ever. Instead of connecting people to a leader or an institution, we need to enable people to experience the same connection with Jesus these first disciples had.

 In this regard I need to refer you to some of the stories from the gospels that contain specific reference to what we could call the "discipleship covenant.” Here is a sample, by no means exhaustive: Matthew 5:10-12; 16:13-28; Mark 1:16-20; Luke 5:1-11; Luke 9:18-22; 14:25-35; John 16:1-15.

 From the outset, people have chosen to follow Jesus even when it has invited hardship, suffering, oppression, persecution, imprisonment, and death. I have been in too many prayer meetings where Christians in countries like mine (Australia) take time to thank God for the fact that they are able to serve him without facing such trials. To me, that idea is like soldiers in an army thanking God that they never have to fight in the front line. It can also presume that non-suffering discipleship is the norm and suffering discipleship is the exception. Again, it can also be a sign that we have avoided experiences of suffering because of compromise.

 It’s time we embraced the call of Jesus in full measure. When Jesus connected following with hardship, he wasn’t being extreme nor alarmist. When people followed Jesus and experienced suffering, they weren’t modelling exceptional circumstances. Jesus is worthy of being followed and following Jesus is the only way we will ever get a shot at understanding our identity and destiny, suffering aside. The best thing for me and everyone around me, is for me to set aside the “me” that has been fashioned by perverse western culture (or any culture) and set aside that version of “me” for the version that is produced by following Jesus. It is about who I was created to be and what I have been called to do.

 This is precisely what the first disciples experienced as they followed Jesus. As Jesus appeared to them after the resurrection, they were convinced that there was no alternative for them, but to follow Jesus by embracing his every instruction. Their day-by-day decision to do that qualified them to be in a room together after an unceasing ten-day prayer meeting and that, in turn, qualified them to experience Holy Spirit power. We must give ourselves to this quality of discipleship. Our brothers and sisters in places like North Korea, China and Iran are contemporary models. They risk everything daily because they value this covenant as a gift and an opportunity rather than as a price to be paid. It is a leadership matter first and foremost. Too many Christian leaders have vacated the discipleship space based on the assumption that their status has earned them the soft options. We need to live what we believe more than ever. The church needs our testimony, not just our understanding of New Testament Greek. They need to see God’s message by the way we live, not just hear about it through the entertaining sermons we preach. When we live it and teach others based on our testimony, we will have a chance at a church that is built on discipleship rather than membership.

 NEXT: The second feature of the ministry of Jesus with the disciples had to do with the coming of the kingdom of God. Like discipleship, this core distinctive for the church has been so ruefully generalised, it has been robbed of its primary expression. If you look around at what God is doing in these days, you will see that the church is re-discovering its primary role: to offer tangible evidence to the advance of the kingdom; heaven coming to the earth or in Eldon Ladd’s famous phrase: the future happening in the present.