Why Disciple?

Weekly Update – November 11th, 2021

Over the last several weeks, we have been looking at why we do what we do as a church.  As we have said, in our Covid/Post-Covid climate, it is easy to become complacent or even confused about what the church’s purpose is and why the church does what it does.  Specifically, for us at First Baptist Church, we have asked many questions over the last several weeks such as:  Why Gather? Why Preach?  Why Pray?  Why Sing?  Why Membership?  Why Evangelize? and Why Disciple?  The goal is to answer each one of these questions and then set the application of it within the context of the church.  What I mean is, when we talked about prayer, we talked about the reasons and the benefits of praying together.  That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pray by yourself, but I wanted to highlight why prayer is important for us as a church together.  The same is true with preaching.  Preaching is important and necessary to the church, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen to preaching on the radio. 

Last Sunday we addressed the question, Why Disciple?  Just like the previous topics, I wanted to set the answer to this question within the context of the church.  We said that discipleship is valuable to us at First Baptist Church, because it promotes unity and holiness within us as the people of God. When it comes to unity, we as the church are looking towards “mature manhood.” The way that we seek that is through “unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God (Eph. 4:13).  What that means is that we are seeking to grow in belief and in truth when it comes to our faith, and then we are looking to grow in community and experience when it comes to understanding Jesus Christ.  In other words, we want doctrine and life to be apart of our discipleship, so that together, we can grow into a body that builds itself up in love (Eph. 4:16). 

When it comes to holiness, discipleship within the church is a call to no longer walk as the unbelieving world does in the futility of their minds.  The unbelieving world is darkened in their understanding of faith and separated from experiencing life with God. (Eph. 4:17-18).  In other words, living a life of unbelief is filled with the misunderstanding of truth and a lack of community with God and his people.  Therefore, we want to move each other away from unbelief and into the light of holiness before God.  We are striving to see each other grow in the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:24). 

How do we do this?  We do this through the change process.  This change process is outlined in Ephesians 4:22-24.  We are called to put off the old self, be renewed in our minds, and to put on the new self, in the likeness of God.  That is ultimately what the discipleship process is about.  We are helping others follow Jesus by calling them to “put away falsehood” and “speak the truth” (Eph. 4:25).  We are calling each other to “no longer steal” but to do “honest work” (Eph. 4:26).  There are many more of these calls in Ephesians 4, but the point is, the process of putting off sin and putting on a new character and life, is empowered by the Holy Spirit and worked out within the context of the church. 

Now, as application, I talked about what structures in the church were in place to aid this discipleship process.  Structures such as the main service, Bible Study/Sunday School and home groups.  But, as necessary as those are, what I didn’t mention was the one-on-one, life on life relationships that form within the body of the church to also aid in helping us follow Jesus together. This is where the older teach the younger (Titus 2:2-8), where all of life is lived in such a way (Deut. 6:6-7), to pass the faith down others (2 Tim. 2:2).  It may not even be older with younger though.  It can also be two friends meeting together to bear one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2) and spur one another on to love and good works (Heb. 10:24).  Either way, it is each member caring for the other, as we together seek to help each other follow Jesus.

As a church, let us be intentional about how we follow Jesus.  Let us commit to growing together within the structure of the church, but let us personally invest in each other too.  Let us build each other up in truth and in life, so that we might be continually changed as we pursue unity and holiness together.    

Serving Him with You,
Pastor Michael Nelson