Discipleship sometimes has a bad name. Or a no name.
It’s ignored or disliked.
Why?
Here are some reasons I’ve heard:-
- ‘Too much hard work.’
- ‘It’s unfruitful in the short term’
- ‘There have been some very bad models.’
- ‘There’s no joy in it.’
But …
Jesus was the best discipler. And he told us all ‘go and make
disciples’ (Mat 28:19) And he discipled with joy. And it was fruitful.
And his disciples changed the world. …All 11 of them!
Luke 10 is a key discipleship chapter of the Bible. Jesus trained his
disciples, and then sent them to heal the sick and tell the people
that God is near! (Lk 10:9).
They came back with joy. Overwhelming joy! People were healed and set
free from life-controlling conditions. People wanted to hear that God
was near.
Jesus, on hearing this report in (Lk 10:21) was:-
‘full of joy through the Holy Spirit’ NIV)
‘rejoiced and gloried in the Holy Spirit’ (AMPL)
‘Jesus rejoived, exuberant in the Holy Spirit’ (Message)
‘Jesus himself was inspired with joy’ (JB Phillips)
Why was he full of joy?
- Discipleship is fun
- Discipleship is fruitful.
- Discipleship is a team game.
- Discipleship is multiplying the team and the results.
- Discipleship is for anyone who wants to be discipled.
- Discipleship is simple.
- Discipleship is NOT for the religious and those who love ‘deep teaching’.
- Discipleship is God’s way of building His Church!
Discipleship principle:
Discipleship brings overwhelming joy both to our hearts and to Jesus.
Comments 3
Love this! I have been sharing our experience at JLH everywhere I’ve gone. Keep inspiring us and changing the world.
I think it’s important to stress (as you have) how much impact discipleship can have with a large number of people. People naturally think of impact in terms of how many people they’ve evangelised. Maybe they’ve reached tens of people, hundreds of people or even thousands and tens of thousands of people. But by pouring into just two lifegroups worth of people (12 people) you will change the church and even the world.