WBS.206
FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
DISCIPLESHIP 101
Part 3 – The Cannot Be’s
John 15:1 I am the
true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh
away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring
forth more fruit.
3 Now ye are
clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in
me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in
the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5 I am the
vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Making disciples is the objective of the gospel. Making believers is not. Discipleship is not
easy. It costs everything; but then,
Messiah died for all so that they who live would no longer live for themselves;
but for him who died for them. That is
the exchange; and it does not get any easier than that. If you believe the gospel and you are not
DOING what is commanded of you, there are other names for you. Disciple is not one of them. If you are not
bearing fruit, your own life testifies against you that Yahushua Messiah is not
your Master.
Yahushua Messiah was not a fan of casual speech. He didn’t sit around wondering what to talk
about to fill the time of day. His
Father had enough He wanted him to say, that he didn’t need to chit chat to
while away the time. Also, the Torah instructed the Hebrews to discuss the Law
of IAUE when they awoke in the morning, when they sat down to eat, when they
went on their way to accomplish the day’s work; when they returned home and
before they went to bed at night. Obedience to this command would insure that
the mindset of the Hebrews was such that they knew themselves to be the people
of IAUE. His rule over them permeated their thinking.
From the moment they demanded of the prophet Samuel
to anoint someone to be king over them, they began to shift their sense of
obedience away from IAUE to the man that was their king. This was, for the
Hebrew people, like eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil. They ceased being a people of
theocratic rule and became a political people, thinking like the people of
other nations who knew not IAUE, and relating to life from a perspective never
intended for them. This resulted in political factions, a split in the kingdom,
hatred among brothers and sisters, even wars and fighting among themselves. Ultimately, the nations that they had wanted
to be like conquered them, destroyed their homes and their families, and took
them into captivity.
The northern kingdom of Israel never
recovered. The southern kingdom of Judah,
though restored from Babylon to Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity, never
recovered their identity that was lost when they asked for a king. Now, added
to that, was the mindset of the oppressed, the defeated and the slave. It was
during this period of captivity that the Hebrews instigated the synagogue
movement…small gatherings of no less than ten, where the elders could teach the
young the laws of IAUE and the traditions of the Hebrew people, thus
maintaining their heritage in the generations born in captivity that knew not
Jerusalem, and who knew not IAUE.
It was into such a culture that Yahushua Messiah
appeared. His words were powerful, life changing, and upsetting to the
culture. The Jews hated the Romans who
were the governing power over their nation; and yet, Yahushua told them to love
their enemies and to pray for them. He
told them to carry their bags a mile farther than their law required them to
carry them.
Messiah taught the people that adultery began in
the heart. It did not require the act to
be guilty of it. He taught them that if
your right eye offends you to cut it out; and if your right hand offends you to
cut it off. He taught them no longer to swear or to make oaths; but let their
speech stand for itself on its own merits, letting their yes be yes and their
no be no.
Messiah taught the people that the Sabbath was
made for man, not man made for the Sabbath.
He taught them to give secretly so no man knew they were giving. He taught them not to resist evil. If someone struck you on the cheek, to turn
and let him strike the other cheek. He taught them that if someone sued you for
your coat, give him your cloak also. He
taught them that if someone asked you for something, give it to him. If someone asked to borrow something from
you, lend it.
These were mindset-altering commands; and what
was the purpose of such radical teaching?
Matthew 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in
heaven: for he
maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the
just and on the unjust.
Yahushua’s teaching was restorative
instruction, working to eradicate a thousand years of thinking that had been
corrupted by the Hebrews choosing to be like all the other nations of the
world. He introduced his teaching to the
masses first by explaining:
Matthew 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost
his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing,
but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
It is senseless to be “called” the people of
IAUE and not be different from the peoples of the world. If we are like the world, we offer nothing to
them to influence them unto righteousness and to preserve them as the people of
IAUE. Yahushua said that they ARE the
salt of the earth; but that is not how they thought of themselves. Their
thinking had become corrupted. It would
take genuine discipleship to be brought out of that wrong thinking to become
the people of IAUE again.
Messiah’s teaching was disruptive of the culture. It was disruptive of the politics of the
day. It was uncomfortable, and it was
not easy. This was because it was not of human philosophy. It was not the way
the world thinks. It was transformative
back to the time when the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil had not been
violated.
The Master ONLY dealt with disciples. He was totally disinterested in getting
people simply to believe in him. He was
thronged daily by multitudes who were fascinated by his words and who marveled at
his works; but they were not coming out of their worldly mindsets. They still
hated their enemies, preferred themselves over others, were unwilling to make
sacrifices and loved the world. He proved this to them over and over again.
Luke 14:25 And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned,
and said unto them…
I want to pause there to reflect specifically
on this setting for what the Master was about to say. A study was made not long ago of pastors in
the United States of America. They were
asked how they measured the success of their church. This is what they highlighted:
1. Worship service attendance.
2. Number of dollars donated.
3.
Number of programs the church has.
4. Number
of persons on staff at the church.
5.
Square footage of the church’s facilities.
This is the church in the USA. This is its measure of success. It is all
about how big the business is. This is why discipleship does not happen in the
churches. Pastors are not about the
Master’s work; they are about building empires…visible representations that
serve as their credentials of success, measures of their own vanity.
What was Messiah’s attitude about numbers? In
Luke 14, we see “great multitudes” following
him. For any contemporary church, that
would have been an indisputable measure of success. There is no one on the
planet today that has great multitudes following them around every single day,
waiting to listen to their words and to witness their works; and yet the Master
turns and says this to the multitude:
Luke 14:26 If
any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and
children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
This is a word that is almost incomprehensible
to man. Family is everything; and yet,
he does not even pause to explain himself.
He leaves this word out there to stand on its own merits.
Luke 14:27 And
whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple…
[We should note, here, that Yahushua was not “crucified.” He was impaled. The image that is the traditional “cross” was
not in use at this time in human history.
The word used here is “stauros” and
it means “an upright stake.”]
To the Jew, bearing a stake had a singular
distinction to it. It was not a phrase used in common speech like it is, today. Today, we frequently hear people say, “That’s
just a cross I have to bear.” It is something said when we have something or
someone in our life that is inconvenient or a hardship; and we say it almost
tongue-in-cheek like it is humorous. No, to the Jew, death by impaling had a
very special meaning. Anyone who was condemned
to death by impaling was accursed of IAUE.
Now, to great multitudes of Jews following someone they thought just might
possibly be the Messiah; the notion that following him would mean they were
going to be accursed of IAUE was not a great plug for membership in his
church. The donations would surely
deteriorate rapidly at this point.
Luke 14:33 So
likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
Now, this comment was more in keeping with
discipleship to a Master. If one was
going to give himself fully to be the pupil of a Master, he knew he would have
to be prepared to do whatever the Master said, and follow his instructions
without question. They did not, however,
see Yahushua as this kind of Master.
They were not ready to forsake everything to follow him. He didn’t even have a place to sleep at
night. These “cannot be’s” were what we would call, “deal breakers.”
He concluded his remarks to the great
multitude by saying:
Luke 14:34 Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour,
wherewith shall it be seasoned?
35 It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the
dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
This is not the kind of message that would
conclude with a successful altar call; and yet, this is the good news. This is the gospel. It is the call to discipleship. The Master did not expect the masses to
become disciples; but he certainly expected those who became his disciples to
search through the masses and find those whose hearts were “good ground,” and
not devote all their time on those whose hearts were unwilling to be separated
from the world.
Kingdom
heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the
performance of the will of IAUE.
No comments:
Post a Comment