The Cross Dynamic of Discipleship Development
John 15:16-27
(16) ¡§You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. (17) This is my command: Love each other.
(18) ¡§If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. (19) If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. (20) Remember the words I spoke to you: `No servant is greater than his master.¡¦ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. (21) They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. (22) If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. (23) He who hates me hates my Father as well. (24) If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. (25) But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: `They hated me without reason.¡¦
(26) When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. (27) And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.¡¨
INTRODUCTION: For the love of it all.
One of the hottest commercials of the 1990¡¦s has been the one of the guy who tries to bum a free beer from his friend. Perhaps you remember it starts with a bunch of fishing buddies sitting around the campfire ¡§bonding¡¨ over their experience. Suddenly one of the guys grows tearful and confesses. Coming close to one of his friends around the fire, he throws his arms around him and reveals in a tough guy but choky voice, ¡§I love you, man!¡¨ But instead of being touched, his friend sees right through the flood of tears.
¡§That¡¦s great, man,¡¨ his friend agrees, ¡§But you still aren¡¦t getting my Budweiser.¡¨
Love as way to get a free beer -- that seems so Madision Avenue, and so much like us as people, declare our love to accomplish our own objective. How different is God¡¦s love. For the love of it all, for the love of you and me, God sends His Son to die on a cross that we might have life, that we might be His own, and that there would be a dynamic at work in our hearts that will build us as God¡¦s people. Today we want to look at the cross dynamic of discipleship development. The dynamic at work at what God accomplishes at the cross is the dynamic God is at work in our hearts and our lives.
The Cross Dynamic
DYNAMIC 1) The key to the cross is moving from DEATH to LIFE. Jesus says in Mark 8:34,35, ¡§Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ¡¥If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.¡¦¡¨
This Lent, while the supplies lasted, we have invited people to carry a cross in their pocket. Another reminder that churches use is to pass out a nail. The nail reminds us of our great worth to God. His blood paid the price for my sins. His sacrifice makes me precious in God¡¦s eyes.
The nail remind us to take up our own cross daily and to follow him. You see, it wasn¡¦t the nail that held Jesus to the cross. It was His love for you and me.
The first dynamic is to realize the key of the cross is moving from death to life. Christ died that we might live. Christ also calls us to die our own selfish needs, that we might live to Him and to reach out to others, so that they might be touched with the love of God.
DYNAMIC 2) The bridge moving from the suffering side of the cross to the mission side of the cross is the HOLY SPIRIT. Jesus says in,
„h John 16:7, ¡§But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.¡¨
When Mary was about 3 years old and Becky was 2, they loved playing in the blankets and bedspread as their mother changed the sheets. Mary would to her sister, ¡§Jump into the Holy Spirit, Becky! Jump into the Holy Spirit!¡¨
It took their parents weeks to figure out why this 3 year-old child would call the bedspread the Holy Spirit. Finally they remember their own back yard Bible club from early in the summer. The teacher had taught the children about the Holy Spirit, and called Him ¡§the COMFORTER.¡¨
The Holy Spirit is the one who helps us to understand the dynamic of the cross at work in our lives. The Holy Spirit moves us from the suffering side of the Christ, realizing what God has done for me, to the mission side of the cross, what God has done for others that He wants to share through me.
DYNAMIC 3) The mission strategy of the cross is moving from the ONE to the MANY. Jesus put it this way in, John 12:24, ¡§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.¡¨
One man has died for the sake of us all. In the best Star Trek movie, which was Star Trek II, the Wrath of Kahn, Mr. Spock sacrifices his life to save the life of the crew. In Spock¡¦s logical way of thinking, it makes sense for the needs of the many to outweigh the needs and the life of the one.
Jesus made the sacrifice for us, so that we might have life. Jesus also desires to use each one of us to reach out to the many people in this world who do not know Him. This is the mission side of the cross.
We tend to underestimate the difference one individual can make. It¡¦s kind of like this education film I heard of that begins with a room filled with hundreds of set mousetraps. On each mousetrap sits a Ping-Pong ball. One single Ping-Pong ball, no bigger than any of the others is tossed into the room. Its first bounce launches one ball, and each succeeding bounce sets off another ball. The chain reaction multiplies quickly as each bouncing ball triggers another, until in a matter of seconds, the room is alive with balls bouncing everywhere.
The mission side of the cross reminds us that each one of us is called to reach out to the many. Who knows when we reach out with our faith what the chain reaction will be in sharing that faith with others?
What then are the implications of the cross dynamic in discipleship development? I believe there are at least 4 we need to consider..
The Cross Dynamic of Discipleship Development
IMPLICATION 1. Discipleship happens by DIVINE CHOICE. As Jesus says in John, ¡§You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit.¡¨ Paul picks up the same idea in, Acts 13:17, ¡§The God of the people of Israel chose our fathers; he made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt, with mighty power he led them out of that country.¡¨
Both verses remind us that discipleship happens by divine choice. We are saved by God¡¦s grace, His gracious action towards us.
As Frederick Buechner puts it, ¡§The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn¡¦t have been complete without you.¡¨
Grace reminds us that we are saved by God¡¦s divine choice. Our development as dynamic disciples for Christ happens by the divine choice and initiative of God.
IMPLICATION 2. God¡¦s goal for your life is to become more like CHRIST. That folks is the goal for developing dynamic disciples -- to be like Christ. I don¡¦t mean to shock anybody or goal is not to become more Lutheran, unless you mean to be more Lutheran is to be more like Christ. God is more concerned about how we are becoming like Christ than anything in our lives or in our church. Notice what Paul says in,
„h Galatians 6:12-14, ¡§Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.¡¨
When any tradition or any innovation comes between us becoming like Christ, we have made an assembly error in discipleship development. It¡¦s like a guy who buys a swing set for his kids. This swing set has swings, rings, a see saw, and a slide. So he brings home the box with the swing on the inside and on the outside of the box are the three most dreaded words in the English language, ¡§Some assembly required.¡¨ Since he saw the swing set assembled in the store, he think he knows how it needs to go together.
After a couple hours of work, the dad stops to make an assessment of how the assembly process is going. And he realizes the swing set he is building didn¡¦t look like the one on the box. There were even a few parts left over. The see wasn¡¦t going to saw, the swing swang, and the slide slid off to the side.
One of his children asks, ¡§Is it supposed to look like that?¡¨
So Jim walks over to the discarded carton, inside was a small yellow card with one sentence in bold print that read, ¡§When all else fails ... read the instructions.¡¨
In Galatians 6, Paul is arguing against those Jews who have become Christians and want to bring the old traditions in like circumcision, to make the new Gentile converts ¡§better¡¨ Christians. Paul says what matters is that we become better Christians, and that is found not in the tradition of circumcision, but in the cross of Christ. Jesus in John 15 says his goal is to bear fruit. So folks to be really be Lutheran is to want to really be more like Christ, that is why we are Christ Lutheran Church. Christlikeness comes first!
3. Discipleship is membership in an ORGANISM, not an ORGANIZATION. As Paul says in,1 Corinthians 12:27, ¡§Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.¡¨
The church is a body, an organism, much more than it is an organization. We have a connectedness with each other. I am told that in a forest, all the trees may be linked together. If one tree has access to water, another to nutrients, and a third to sunlight, the trees have the means to share with one another. Like trees in a forest, Christians in the church, the body of Christ, need and support one another.
4. Discipleship is ACTIVE, not PASSIVE in daily living. Our role together as pastor and people is described by Paul in, Ephesians 4:11-13, ¡§It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God¡¦s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.¡¨
Discipleship to a certain extent is like the Nike motto, ¡§Just do it.¡¨ Yet Paul reminds us in Ephesians as Jesus does in John, that the call to do is also a call to grow. Such growth is enhanced as we become active in discipleship. The cross is not a call to passive acceptance, it is a call to salvation as a gift and faithful obedience in loving response.
CONCLUSION: The Grand Essentials of Life.
Some wise philosopher noted that the grand essentials of life involve 3 pulls of happiness: 1) something to do, 2) something to love, and 3) something to hope for. Folks, this is what the cross dynamic of discipleship development is all about. Something to do -- to reach out with God¡¦s love to all people. Something to love -- Jesus Christ the one who first loved us. Something to hope for -- to become more like Christ. Could anything be more exciting? Amen.
