Elementary Discipleship

I need to mention something: I'm aware that much of what I've been posting about discipleship lately has the feel of someone groping in the half-light and coming to rather unremarkable and even elementary conclusions. Yes, of course, I can sense a reader muttering, I know that disciples pray. Of course, they pray! Of course they believe in Jesus, for crying out loud! Of course they love him and try to abide in him. No kidding! You're serving up milk when what I really want is red meat!

But then I'm not writing with that reader in mind. Red meat is simply not on the menu. I'm writing, in fact, with me in mind. I'm getting down to basics, to fundamental things, core things. I simply need to do that for myself, and this blog is the place I do it.

And here's one of those fundamentals: disciples pray. I notice that Jesus emphasized prayer as a remarkably powerful component of the disciple's way of life after he leaves them, and I wonder, have I been that kind of disciple? I mean, there is no way that I can be considered a prayer-warrior. Often I have been downright reluctant to pray, who knows why? Often in prayer my mind wanders, and I certainly don't want to answer for every thought I have occasionally entertained while praying with others.

But here are the words of Jesus, spoken to his eleven remaining disciples on his last night with them, even as Judas was receiving his 30 pieces from the hands of a cabal of bloodthirsty Pharisees:

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

I wonder, does this passage trouble you just a little? A pastor once explained to me that Jesus was refering here to the church, to the disciples collectively through the centuries. According to this view, it is the church that will do works greater than Jesus did. Not individuals. Are you buying that?

I'm not. Jesus did say "whomever" and the singular pronoun "he" in this statement. And Jesus was speaking to individuals, eleven of them, who could only have understood the Master's words in their plain sense, as a message to each of them.

But notice this: as soon as Jesus speaks of doing greater works than those he had done, a plainly outlandish thought, he quickly connects such doing with prayer. These "greater works" are accomplished, apparently, through prayer. And he says this: we are able to do them because Jesus has gone to the Father.

Just stop and think about that for a moment. Remember, always remember, what "going to the Father" actually meant to Jesus. Jesus knew when he spoke those words that his going to the Father would be by way of the cross. It was a path chosen among the Trinity before time, and by his traveling that path (a path that no one else could travel) we have the access of sons and daughter's to the Father.

Do you get it? We do not pray as servants beseeching an unpredictable master, but as sons and daughters speaking to their loving Father. That is the spirit of sonship (and daughtership, we might as well add). And whatever we ask in the name of Jesus, the Father will do, for by this means he has chosen to demonstrate his glory.

Because Jesus endured the cross, we can pray in confidence for even "greater works" to be done by the Father through our prayers in Jesus' name. Imagine that!

Disciples Ask

So I'm thinking about believing, because Jesus speaks much of it and highly. He says, "Believe in me," and he explains why. He explains who he is. The content of Christian believing is first and foremost a believing in Jesus--in who he is and what he has done. Sometimes I run into a Tug McGraw kind of Christianity (baseball fans over 50 will know what I'm talking about) which is nothing more than positive thinking. This manifests itself in statements that begin, "I'm trusting God for . . ." You fill in the blank.

Okay, I'm not here to condemn such thinking. Perhaps there's something to it. But I can't help but notice that the Bible is pretty darn specific about just what we are to believe. I've been reading Walter Marshall's The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, and his purpose therein is to show that our sanctification, our willingness and power to walk in obedience--to put on Christ--flows from our believing, and it is a believing in certain fundamental things about Jesus and about the Father.

Jesus, in his final talk with his disciples, says:

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

I make no claim here to plumbing the depths of these incredible promises, and I've got to admit that I haven't been a model of such believing. Sometimes I ask little because I expect little. In other words, I have not always trusted this partiuclar "truly, truly" of Jesus.

But all of my recent posts have been after an understanding of discipleship. From Jesus' words I must conclude not only that disciples believe in Jesus, but the natural follow-though of that believing is that disciples pray in his name. Disciples ask.

I don't pretend to have the answers to all the questions about prayer. I only say this. Disciples pray. Disciples ask. Disciples intercede. Judging by the prominence that Jesus gives to this particular characteristic, which he enjoins upon the eleven at least three times on that last night with them, I must conclude that it is one of the central actions of the disciple's faith.

Believing

I want to spend some more time on the words of Jesus to his disciples "on the night he was betrayed." John records them in his Gospel at chapters 14 through 17. I suggested in an earlier post that Jesus gave special prominence in his talk that night to three things: believing, loving, and abiding. I called this "the triad of discipleship." Now, perhaps these are three words for the same thing, three facets of the same diamond, but I want to take them one at a time and look closely at what Jesus says about each one.

But before doing so I want to insert this routine disclaimer: I am the least methodical of bloggers. As I have said many times, I blog by the seat of my pants. These are not the refined thoughts of one who has meditated long and understands well, but the earnest musings of one who wishes to understand Jesus and follow him. It helps me to write these things down, and this blog is the place I do that.

When you read the Scriptures, always keep the context in mind. What is going on around the particular text at hand. In this case, remember this: this is Jesus’ last evening with his disciples before his arrest, peremptory trial, and brutal execution. The fear and horror of the next 24 hours is going to be acute for them all, but especially of course for Jesus himself. He knows full well what he is facing, and he knows also that it is what he came to do. Though the sheer agony of what lay ahead must already have been roiling in him, his tone now is calm and reassuring. All of his concern at this moment is for his disciples. He needs to tell them that what is about to happen is not an end, but a beginning. He needs to stay their hearts against fear and despair. He needs to prepare them not only for the next 24 hours, but for their lives as missionary Gospelizers thereafter.

So Jesus' first words that night were about his going. He wanted them to see it in the proper perspective. He tells them that he is going away (what horror and what glory is contained in those two words!), but nevertheless that they should not be troubled, because though he and they will be separated for a time, he is going to prepare a place for them. In other words, he is insuring their eternal destiny with him.

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Notice Jesus' emphasis on believing, and on the content of their believing. If they don’t believe him in this matter, they’re going to be "troubled" indeed. If they don’t believe him now, then there will be no way for them to comprehend what is about to happen to him and to them. All the violence, all the blood, will only confirm them in utter despair.

What Jesus is about to endure is the work he was sent to do. And in doing it, he brings many sons to glory. That is the joy he sees beyond the agony, and for which he endured the agony (Heb. 12:2). That was the reason for his coming, and it is the ground of hope for all his disciples. Jesus has insured our eternal destiny, and he is coming again to take us there. If we don’t believe this, the horror and confusion of this world, and the apparent victories of evil that happen all around us, are going to bring us to despair. "Troubled hearts" only scratches the surface of what we would be feeling.

So what do I conclude? Believing in Jesus is a matter of first importance for the disciple, and it has fundamentally to do with believing what Jesus has accomplished and where he is now. And this stays and steadies the troubled heart.

The Curse of Soft Legalism

Well, a couple of days ago I listed about 16 characteristics of the lives of disciples of Jesus, as culled from chapters 14 to 16 of the Gospel of John. As I gathered that list together, trying to figure out what Jesus had in mind for the disciples after he was gone, I noticed that three of these characteristics stood out, and in fact all the others followed from these three. Those three, you may recall, were 1) believe in Jesus, 2) love Jesus, and 3) Abide (or remain) in Jesus.

So the list of 16 got whittled down to three, but here's the point I want to strongly make: this is not a spiritual to-do list, and I am not here to urge all Christians to believe, love, and abide with all their hearts and souls. Why not? Because it wouldn't do any good. Urging people to climb spiritual mountains is a decidedly unfruitful activity, did you ever notice that?

"C'mon, dude, you just gotta believe more. I mean, really believe! And you gotta love Jesus with everything you've got, man. Full-stop, whole hog, pedal to the metal, etc. And, dude, I don't think you're abiding enough. You really need to abide. Abide, man! It'll change your life!"

Nope. I'm not talking about that kind of thing. And if you read through John 14-16 again, you'll see that Jesus doesn't talk in any sort of importuning tone at all.

Now, I think a lot of modern Christians might be prone to ask, but isn't that what preaching is all about? I mean, doesn't the preacher just get up there and urge us onward toward and upward, toward more faith and more doing and more whole-heartedness? Toward everything we're supposed to be and do!

But wait a minute . . . let's think about fruit again. That's the metaphor Jesus used. You can water a tomato vine, and pull up the weeds around it, and take care of it in other ways, but importuning the tomato vine will not cause it to produce fruit. And I'll tell you something else: urging people to, say, love God more, or love God better, or love God more whole-heartedly . . . is only soft legalism (Jared Wilson calls it Optimistic Legalism) and it produces no more fruit than did the old hard legalism of the sin-obsessed Bible-thumpers. Soft legalism is the curse of the modern church.

So what then does it mean to believe, and love, and abide in Jesus? If these are not a to-do list, what are they? I'll try to get to that in my next post.

The Triad of Discipleship: Believe in Jesus, Love Jesus, Abide in Jesus

Jesus in his last hours with his disciples taught them how to follow him even though he would no longer be with them in the flesh. He taught them by the use of rich and striking metaphors ("I am the way," "I am the the vine, you are the branches") that allowed the disciples to understand that they were being commissioned for lives that were entirely within the plan of God. That, in fact, what was about to happen was not an interruption of God's plan, but its crowning glory. That Jesus, by his going and in the manner of his going, would "lead many sons to glory," as the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews would later put it. And that Jesus, despite all this talk about going away, would in fact be with them always.

This must have all seemed somewhat difficult to understand at the time. Jesus' words to his disciples there in the upper room (after the departure of Judas) begin with an announcement that he is going away, and that where he is going they cannot come (John 13:33), and end with a prayer to the Father that he, Jesus, would always remain "in them" (John 17:26). In the space between, Jesus unpacks for the disciples just what it will mean to be a Jesus-follower after he is gone. He explains to them the essence of their mission, the resources available, the nature of the resistance they will meet, and the end result of it all.

I've been stewing on these chapters for a while now, and I have come to the conclusion that we need more often to talk to one another (and "preach" to one another) in the manner that Jesus talked that night. That is, as disciples and followers of "the way," rather than simply as spiritual and emotional invalids desperately seeking happiness and peace. As carriers of Christ to the world, not simply receivers of his comfort.

What can we assume about the life of discipleship based on what Jesus said that night? If we were simply to scan this passage for a catalog of the activities and attitudes that Jesus enjoins the disciples to follow, it would look something like this (in no particular order):

1. Disciples believe in Jesus.
2. Disciples do the works of Jesus.
3. Disciples ask the Father for whatever they wish.
4. Disciples love one another.
5. Disciples bear fruit.
6. Disciples abide in Jesus.
7. Disciples keep the commandments.
8. Disciples have the joy of the Lord in them.
9. Disciples have the Holy Spirit in them.
10. Disciples love Jesus.
11. Disciples have peace.
12. Disciples have the Word abiding in them.
13. Disciples are friends of Jesus.
14. Disciples know the Father.
15. Disciples bear witness.

This is not a list of tasks, but a catalog of descriptors applied to the lives of the disciples. These are things we can assume to be true about ourselves, or at least available to us. But if the list seems nonetheless daunting, it can really be boiled down, I think, to three items. Or, in other words, all these descriptors hang upon or follow from three in particular. Those three are:

Believe in Jesus.
Love Jesus.
Abide in Jesus.

By a way of example, if we believe in Jesus, we will do the works of Jesus (John 14:12). If we love Jesus, we will have the Helper dwelling within us forever, helping us to keep the commandments (John 14:15,16). And if we abide in Jesus (and only if we abide in Jesus), we will bear much fruit (John 15:5). In actual fact, everything that Jesus says about the future life his disciples after his going away can be seen to follow from these three things. Believe in him, love him, and abide in him.

That's all for now. Have an abide-ful day!

John 17

For a while now I've focused each morning on Jesus' prayer for his disciples on his last night with them ("the night he was betrayed"), found in John 17. I have to admit that however many times I've read this prayer in the past, it never reached me. It never opened my eyes or stirred my heart. I think that probably by the time I reached this chapter I was racing ahead to the events of the crucifixion and resurrection. In any case, I raced past these words, as if they were somehow not meant for me, or of little importance.

Well, that's changed, thank God. This prayer is both inspiring me and convicting me. And amazing me! Really, I've been meditating on it and journaling my thoughts almost verse by verse for some time now, and I can't seem to get past it. Look at our Lord's vision for his disciples, for the lives they would lead after he left them. Check out what he prays for on their behalf, because in praying for his disciples he is praying for you and me (if you, like me, count yourself a disciple of Jesus Christ).

Paul says Christ is interceding for us even now (Rom 8:34). Maybe John 17 gives us some insight into the kind of prayer he is praying on our behalf. I would say more, but I am more or less overwhelmed! (Imagine that, me, at a loss for words!) I will give you just one example of how utterly mind-blowing Jesus is here. He says of his disciples (and by inference of all disciples for all time, including you and me):

They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. [John 17:16]

I'll say no more. If that doesn't mess with your head, nothing will.

Preacher, Preach Jesus

I griped the last couple of days about what I call "therapeutic preaching." And how I don't like it. Pretty negative of me, sure, and definitely not "building up." So I thought I'd mention something about an alternative. A better way to preach. In my opinion.

Here it is:

Preach Jesus.

I can't help but thinking that Jesus is in fact the solid foundation on which all our happiness now and in eternity is based. Therefore, Jesus is the best therapy. Preacher, preach Jesus.

I've been reading the Gospel of John lately. Reading, re-reading, passage by passage, and journaling about it in my Moleskine. I'm going slowly, spending a lot of time with the text, going back over it, trying to find and identify the themes, the common threads. I'm into chapter 10 now, and here's what I've discovered. Unlike the other Gospel writers, John does not include any ethical teaching of Jesus. Everything he records of Jesus' words has to do with one simple question: Who was he?

Yup. You'll find that addressed in numerous ways. Jesus confronts people with . . . himself. Who do you say that I am?

The message of Jesus is Jesus. Amazing. It is not essentially an ethical teaching. It is certainly not a political program. It is all about identity. His. Ours.

John was the last of the Gospel writers, authoring his work a considerable time after the others. The Way was by this time, despite many difficulties, well established. And what John felt compelled to do here (compelled by the Spirit, of course), was shine the spotlight on this one question: who was Jesus?

So here's what I say: we ought to do this too. The working hypothesis of all this, in light of my ranting against therapeutic preaching, is that what we think about Jesus provides the ground for our lasting joy (even when times are very tough). Or, in other words, that Jesus saves. It is not Biblical advice that saves. It is not OT promises to ancient Israel that save. It is not vaguely Scriptural positive-thinking that saves. It is not credal affirmations, as valuable as these are in their place, that save. It is not prayer, or the laying on of hands, or speaking in tongues, that save. All I'm saying is,

Jesus saves.

Preachers, why don't you just preach Jesus?

Booksnip (3)

Here's another passage from James Montgomery Boice's expositional commentary on the Gospel of John:

It is true that no man can see God and live, as God said to Moses; but it is also true that in Christ God came to men in a way that enabled men to know him. In Jesus Christ the character of God may be known. There is no true knowledge of God apart from him. Do you want to believe that God is loving? Good! But do not base your belief on some fantasy of your imagination. What could be less reliable than that? Instead, base it on the revelation of God's love in Christ at Calvary. Do you want to believe that God is powerful, able to bring a transformation in your life? If so, do not depend on your own wishful thinking. Look to Jesus Christ. He will reveal it; because the same one who died for your sin also rose again in power and now lives to apply that same death-conquering power to the lives of those who follow him. Are you searching for wisdom? Look to the One who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, "our righteousness, holiness, and redemption." (1 Cor 1.30)

From The Gospel of John, Volume 1, by James Montgomery Boice, p. 101.

Booksnip (2)

James Boice, in his discussion of John 1:13, says this:

The Biblical doctrine of rebirth takes everything away from man and gives everything to God. It is the principle of the "seesaw" in theology. It is the principle that you cannot have both ends of the seesaw--God and man--up at the same time.... If you exalt man in your thinking so that he is able to take care of himself spiritually and eventually inch his way into heaven, then God will be down and there will not be much need for him. But if man is down where he should be and where the Bible places him, dead in trespasses and sin, with a depraved will and utterly without any genuine spiritual potential, the God will be up where he belongs. He will be great and mighty and altogether lovely, as he is. And the Christian, when he comes to see these things, will look up from the dung heap of this world, still covered with much of the world's refuse, and say, "Oh, my God, how could you love me?" And when he gets to that point the love of Christ will begin to constrain him, and he will begin to learn that God has set things up this way so that it will be with the bonds of love and not the whip of the law that we are drawn to holiness through the Lord Jesus Christ.

From The Gospel of John, Volume 1, by James Montgomery Boice, p. 83.

Books, Books, Books!

Back in the 80s the late James Montgomery Boice wrote an "expositional commentary" called The Gospel of John (in 5 volumes). I just purchased volume one, which covers the first four chapters of John's gospel. I think I'm really going to like it, too. Boice is a lucid expositor of the Scriptures. He simply shines a light on the Scriptures, always focusing on the main things, the important things. No flighty applications, no "prophetic" tangents. Good stuff here.

Speaking of books, have you seen top 50 books that have shaped Evangelicals? Interesting list. Many excellent books on this list, and some that I wish had not been quite so influential. Good to see A Wrinkle in Time at #20, And Elisabeth Elliot's wonderful Through Gates of Splendor at #9, far above (in the estimation of the compilers of this list, anyway) Left Behind (#36) and PDL (#42).

Anyway, I have to admit I was surprised by the choice for #1: Rosalind Rinker's Prayer: Conversing with God. This book has been collecting dust in my bookcase for some time. Perhaps I should read it, no?