← Faith of Our Fathers
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:04]
A
Welcome to Faith of Our Fathers. Today we return to the Prof. Howard Hendricks. Here's what Prof. Hendricks said to Dallas morning news in 2003. You're looking at a completely fulfilled human being. If I died today having produced some of the people God has given me the privilege of shaping, it will have been worse showing up on the planet. Today, Howard Hendricks presents a study on why be concerned about discipleship. The following material is copy written by and provided courtesy of the Moody Bible Institute. Peter Marshall, in his characteristically trenchant manner, describes 20th century Christians in these words. They are, he said, like deep sea divers encased in suits designed for many fathoms deep, marching bravely forth to pull plugs out of bathtubs. Our able artists caught a few in the act. We went over to the Last Baptist, or was it St. John's by the gas station, where we discovered a collection of vacant eyed wool gatherers. Now that's a highly motivated group. Imagine being a pastor and looking out on that collection of individuals every Sunday. Do these people come expecting anything? Certainly they expect to get out at 12. I asked a pastor some time ago, how long do you want me to speak? He said, hendrix, you can speak as long as you want, but they leave at 12. Well, we thought that had to be an exception. So we decided to go over to the Church of the Immaculate Perception, where we discovered a collection of cross legged fingernail checkers. Now you'll notice these are very observant individuals. They are usually counting the number of tiles on the ceiling or floor. If you could ever get them observing the text, they're liable to become spiritually brilliant. Well, we thought, let's give it another go. So we went over to Saint Anesthesia, commonly known in the community as the Church of the Sacred Rest, where we saw a collection of sleepy headed elbow leaners. It's a group of people scarcely 10 minutes into the service before they are in the second or third stage of anesthesia. Out like a light. We decided to give it one final try. So we went over to the four square episcobapterian Unigational Synod south of God Covenant Free Reformed Bible Church. And we found a collection of left handed doodlers. Now can you imagine what that would do to a pastor? It's liable to blow his mind. He looks out over the pulpit and. And it appears that somebody's taking notes. But in his post janitorial duties, not exactly in the original job description. He picks up these notes. If it's a female bird, probably next week's shopping list If a male bird, probably a play. This guy has worked out for the Houston Oiler. And let's face it, in light of last year's season, they could use a play. Now, any relation between these birds and the people in your church is purely intentional. The greatest threat to Christianity is not atheism. It's not communism, it's not materialism, and it's not humanism. The greatest threat to Christianity is Christians trying to sneak into heaven incognito without ever sharing their faith, without ever becoming involved in the most significant work that God is doing on planet Earth. I am convinced the church cannot survive in terms of its divine objectives without discipleship. Discipleship is not an option. It is an essential. It's not something nice. It's something absolutely indispensable. Now, for our four sessions in these morning hours, I would like to share with you an overall outline of where we are going. We're going to ask and answer three basic questions. First of all, the question, why? Why be concerned about discipleship? Secondly, we are going to ask and answer the question, what is discipleship? This is a fadistic term, and there are an awful lot of people who are talking about it who are not really doing it. So what is involved in discipleship? Should we be convinced that it is a biblical command? And the third thing we are going to do in the last two sessions we have together is ask and answer the question, how? How do we become involved in discipleship? Someone saying, you know, I'm just a mother, I'm just a layman, I'm a senior citizen, I'm whatever you are. Do you mean I am to be involved in the process of discipleship? If so, how do I pull it off? Now, that'll give you an intellectual hat rack on which to hang our ideas. And besides, if you should fall asleep in the session when you wake up, you at least know where we are. And do me a favor, will you? If you are tempted to fall asleep, don't fight it. Just put your head down on your chest, fold your hands and pick up 5 or 10Z, and when you come back, you'll feel better. Just don't snore. You're liable to wake up some of the other customers. Nothing drives me bonkers as much as watching a student sitting in class fighting it and going. Just drives me up the walls. The question we want to ask and answer today is why be interested in discipleship? Does it have scriptural sanction, or is it just a nice idea that a group of individuals called the navigators Came up with sort of their bag, their thing. But I'm not involved in that parachurch organization and so why should I be concerned? In other words, does it have biblical support? If you have a Bible or a New Testament, I want you to turn in the word which is alive to the Gospel by Matthew, Matthew, chapter 28. I want to direct your attention to what is commonly referred to as the Great Commission. I think more accurately the Great Omission. May I remind you that the Great Commission occurs five times in the New Testament in all four Gospels plus the book of the Acts and all within a 40 day period. It represents the briefing before the battle. You see, last words are lasting words and the last words that Jesus Christ said to his disciples, embrace the Great Commission. Now beginning at verse 16 and going through verse 18 of Matthew 28, the focus is upon a group of men. We don't have time this morning to study this passage as intensely as as would be profitable. But I would suggest a couple things to get you started. Will you notice in verse 16 they are in the appointed place before Christ's crucifixion. He said, after I am risen from the dead, I want you to go before me into Galilee and you will discover that's exactly where they were. Obedience to the command of Jesus Christ. The second thing I want you to notice in verse 17 is the prevailing mood. It's a mixed mood. The text says when they saw him Christ, they worshiped him. But some doubted. Some of them were worshipping, some of them were doubting. Now I think that this may be erroneously interpreted by some. I don't think the text is trying to convey they were doubting Jesus Christ. I think the text is trying to convey they were filled with self doubt and not without reason. You see at the cross they were out to lunch. They faded in the stretch and their leader had shot off his mouth saying, I don't know about the rest of these men, but you can count on me. The little girl said, hey, you were one of them. He said, lady, I don't know what in the world you're talking about. And she kept insisting, this is one of them, this is one of them. And you will remember how he denied the Lord with curse and with oath. Another of them had totally sold him down the river and all of them had fled at the moment of greatest need. So here is a group of individuals who have just come off their biggest bust, their greatest failure. Now they meet the Savior. What would you have done? You see, I thought Jesus Christ would have said to them, now, look, men, if we're going to pull off this task of reaching a world, you're going to have to go about it in better tasks than you did this time. The interesting thing is he never says anything about the failure coming off the greatest bust. He says to them, okay, men, now let's go take the world. And may I remind you, he was talking to a group of men who had never been more than 50 miles from their home. A very ordinary group of individuals who hadn't been to the seminary, who weren't professionals, and who had been spending three and a half years exposed to his life and to his ministry. The reason is found in verse 18, the adequate resources. You see, Jesus said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore you go. You see, they were learning that the Christian life is not difficult. It's impossible. It's a supernatural life. As the Savior had said to them in the upper room, without me, you can do nothing. Oh, the finality of those words I can still remember Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse saying in my presence many years ago, the Christian life is not what you do for God, but what you allow God to. To do through you. That's exactly what the disciples were in the process of learning. No question about the fact we're not going to pull it off. Look at their crucial attempt. Look at their greatest opportunity. And now he says, I want to give you a commission. So the second thing we want to look at is in verses 19 and 20, and that's the mandate. I want you to notice there is only one main verb in this verse. And the main verb is not go, but make disciples. Please note, Jesus Christ says, the one thing I want you to do is to make disciples. Please note, not decision. Decisions are easy. Disciples are difficult. George Gallup conducted one of those surveys for which he is famous, an attempt to assess religious life in America. And the results, superficially considered, are very impressive. For example, the number of people who attend church on a given Sunday, the number of people who believe the Bible is the word of God, who believe in a literal heaven and hell, who believe that it is essential to have a born again experience to go to heaven. Very impressive. But the last statement in that survey says, never before in the history of the United States has the Gospel of Jesus Christ made such inroads, while at the same time making so little difference in how people live, men and women. That ought to drain the blood right out of your spiritual system. That's the most damning indictment I have ever heard. And it's the product of a fascination with numbers, of a fascination with making decisions without making disciples. Jean and I, almost six months ago, became the grandparents of two lovely identical twin girls. Now, let's suppose that when these twins were born and this obstetrician brought them into the world and got them going so that they were functioning successfully, we were to say, or their parents were to say, or the medical profession were to say, okay, gals, we brought you here. Now you're on your own. But that's exactly what we're doing in our churches. That's exactly what we're doing in the Christian community. We are spiritual obstetricians, but we are not spiritual pediatricians. We are not taking care of the people who are coming to faith, making disciples. Now, what does that involve? Well, it involves two things. First of all, it involves a process. And I want you to see this process. Perhaps if I diagram it for you, it will help you to see it more clearly. Let me take just a moment to review your English grammar. For some of you, this is to go back into ancient history, back before the earth's crust hardened. When you were in an educational experience, you may remember that you learned that a participle was dependent upon the action of the main verb. The main verb in this passage is make disciples. But there are three participles, and those three participles spell out the process. See, Jesus Christ does not say, I want you to make disciples. And somebody says, okay, Lord. Well, what's that involved? You figure it out. No, he becomes very specific to tell you. The first thing it involves is going. We call that evangelism. And please note, it is an essential part of discipleship. It's a fascinating word in the Greek text. It should be translated when you go or having gone. See, I don't think it ever occurred to the early church not to go. What else do you do with good news? Well, we bottle it, we franchise it, we analyze it, pasteurize it. Do everything in the world except share it. And, my friend, I want you to notice that that is a process. You see, sometimes we are given the impression by preachers and those of us who are in the teaching profession that evangelism is a matter of sitting down with a four law booklet or some other instrument. And when you go through the thing and come to the end and say, is there any reason why you. You're not prepared to receive Christ? And the guy looks you straight in the eye and says, yeah, I couldn't care less. He says, oh, now what do we do? See, if the person becomes a project, we lose interest. Now, I don't know where you're coming from, but I've been in this a long time. And you know what I'm discovering? I'm discovering that the people who often take the longest time to. To make an intelligent decision for Jesus Christ are the people who make some of the best disciples. When I was a student at the seminary, I taught a home Bible class. Had a guy in that class, a neurosurgeon. The old guy came for two years in a row. He'd fold his hands like this, look at me with these great big goo goo eyes. Never brought a Bible. Listened to everything that was going on. November of the third year, he walked up after class one day and he said, hendricks, if what you're talking about is true, I'm not on the inside of this. I said, well, Doc, why don't we get together? You got some time? He said, I'll carve out some time. You tell me when you're available. I'll be available. I said, could we have lunch next Wednesday? He said, yeah, but come on down my office. We can get some privacy there. I went down to his office. He called his secretary and said, look, I got the most important decision to make in my life. I don't want to be disturbed for any reason. And I sat down and led that doctor to Jesus Christ. And ladies and gentlemen, I Wish we had 400 more just like him in our community because he is the secret of our reaching the medical community for the Savior. Two plus years in the process of going. Don't lose hope. Don't lose your patience. There are a lot of people who take a long time. My father took 42 years of my praying and the praying of my family before he came to faith. Only four months before he went home. To be with the Savior going is a process. Well, you say, who's supposed to do that? Well, the usual idea is the professionals. And that's our problem. I think I'll scream the next sometime. Somebody calls me up and says, brother Hendricks, I've got somebody over here who needs to know Jesus. Come over and lead him to Christ. My strongest urges. Do you know the Savior? All the hell good you lead them to Christ. That would jar their liver. See, I get on a plane, I sit down next to a guy, everything's going great, tremendous conversation until finally he says, by the way, what do you do? Well, I'm in education. Oh, fascinates me. Where do you teach? Well, I teach you in the Dallas Theological Seminary? The what? Oh, I get it. You're a preacher. The curtain comes down. You see, he thinks I'm paid to do this as a professional. I'm paid to be good. You people are good for nothing. You know who the best evangelist is in the city of Dallas? I'll tell you, he's not a professional. He's not a preacher. He's an eye surgeon, Dr. Jack Cooper. And if you ever get an opportunity to meet him, don't miss it. You'll never recover from the exposure. Dr. Jack was 12 years in the power structure of an evangelical church and had never led anybody to Jesus Christ. And a group of college kids came up to him one day and said, hey, Doc, you sharing your faith? He said, no, as a matter of fact, I'm not. He said, well, how come? He said, well, to be honest with you, I don't know how to go about it. They said, great, we've got a training program. You'd like to get into it. He said, count me in. So they taught him just some simple principles, the process of sharing his faith. Took him out to the air terminal, saw somebody trust Christ and said, hey, let me try that. And in a period of time, he had the opportunity of leading a serviceman to Jesus Christ. And he was out of his gourd like a little kid with a fire engine. Came back to his office, began to work and think, now, how can I relate this to my profession? It's obvious looking out that many of you have been to an eye doctor. You know, you go to an eye doctor and he says, read that chart up there on the wall. Usually he points me in the direction. You know, cover one eye, read it. So you know what he does? He puts the four laws up on the eye chart. Guys, God has a wonderful plan for your life. This guy leads people to Christ like it's going out of style. I was way out in the remotest section of India, used this illustration without using his name, figuring who in the world would know him out here. And after I got through, an Indian doctor came up and he said, you were talking about Dr. Jack Cooper, weren't you? So how in the world did you know? Oh, he said, I went to medical school in Dallas. And he said, while I was there, my eyes went out. I said, I got the picture. Jack led him to Christ, and Jack discipled him. And today he is the only licensed neurosurgeon in that great state and has an incredible witness for Jesus Christ, Christ. All the product of a layman who got the picture. See, it was Armour who was asked on one occasion, what's your business? Well, he said, my chief business is to be a witness for Jesus Christ. And I pack meat on the side to make a living. By the way, what do you do on the side to make a living? Going is a part of the process. And ladies and gentlemen, you. You do not have discipleship without evangelism and our evangelical Bible churches particularly need to hear that message. Just because you are an evangelical church does not mean you are an evangelistic church. We took a survey in an evangelical church some time ago and discovered it was eight years prior to that date before they could point to one adult who had come to Christ as a result of the ministry of that church. You know what that church needs? A quiet committal. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust. And that's why evangelism is not taking place. We're suffering from the edifice complex. And we figure if people are going to come to Christ, they got to come to our church and hear some professional present the message. And they're going to hell in droves. Because those of us who are in the marketplace, who are in the reality fields of life, where the lost people are not in your church, are not being confronted by men and women who are living distinctively different, who are involved in the process of going. So we need more farmers, we need more tradesmen, we need more professionals, we need more homemakers. We need people in every sphere of life to become involved in the process of discipleship. Well, there is another participle, and that is baptizing. And I take it that is a crisis. In other words, it is obvious. There is a time when a person is either perfectly saved or perfectly lost. There is a time when an individual comes to faith, when they identify with the body of Christ, when they come out of darkness into God's marvelous light. And that's the whole purpose of evangelism. But. But it doesn't stop. Will you notice the third participle? It says, teaching them. And that, too, is a process. That's a process of education. But please note, it's a particular brand of teaching, and it's not an easy one. You are teaching them to obey. And, my friend, obedience training in the body of Christ is a very difficult assignment. See, we've forgotten that the purpose of education in terms of the teaching of the Word of God is not to make you a smarter sinner. It's to make you more like Jesus Christ. The Bible was not written to satisfy your curiosity. It was written to change your Life. I can still remember one of the first times I came to this conference grounds. I saw a dear lady in the congregation and she was taking notes like crazy every time I. Ahh. She'd write. And finally I met her out here in the campus one day. I said, lady, what are you doing with it? Oh, I take lots of notes. I said, what do you do with these notes? Oh, she said, I take them home and put them in the bureau drawer. I said, lady, that's a fire hazard. And you know what intrigues me is we've got more seminars, more tapes, more books, more everything than we've ever had in the history of the church. And increasingly the level of commitment goes down because we've forgotten that. That the name of the game is not filling your head with a collection of biblical facts so that you can engage in a doctrinal duel with some other brother. The purpose of the Word of God is to make you like Jesus Christ. I hope as you come to this conference or any other exposure to the Word of God that you have an equal obsession not only to learn the Word of God, but also to live it. Now, that's what is involved in the process of disciple making, going, baptizing and teaching. But I want you to see that this process is also linked with a promise. And the promise is, and surely I will be with you always to the very end of the age. You see, that tells me that this is not a carte blanche. Jesus Christ is not saying, I will promise to bless you in anything you do. He is saying, I am promising to bless you if you do what I command you. This is a promise linked with a process. If you keep on going and keep on baptizing and keep on teaching. What an exciting assignment. See, Paul caught that. That's what 2 Timothy 2:2 is all about. The things that you have heard of me, he said to this young man the same. I want you to make a deposit of it in the life of others. And I want you to teach those faithful men in such a way that they will be equipped to teach others also. Ladies and gentlemen, there is only one reason, humanly speaking, why I'm standing before you this morning. And that is because a layman who never went beyond sixth grade in the city of Philadelphia became a disciple maker. Oh, he went to the Sunday school superintendent and he said, hey, I'd like to have a Sunday school class. And they said, wonderful, Walt, but we don't have any class. He said, yeah, I gotta have a class. I said, fine, you go out there Anybody you find out there, they're yours. So Walt came out into my community. I'll never forget my first exposure to Walt. I was playing marbles on the front steps of my home on 7th street in Philadelphia. This tall drink of water came by and he said, hey, son, how'd you like to go to Sunday school? Well, anything that had school in it had to be a bad news item. Nothing I would rather do except have leprosy. Then he said, how would you like to play marbles? Well, that was different. So he got down and we played several games of marbles till he whipped me in every single game. Lost my marbles early in life. And when we got through, I didn't care where that guy was going. That's where I wanted to go. For your information, Walt picked up 13 of us boys in that community in Philadelphia. And I can always remember those classes. We'd sit around and Walt would cross his legs. He Wore A size 14 shoe. You ever see one of those? Never had a discipline problem. You know, we used to think of what that thing would do if it ever got loose. I can't tell you a thing Walt ever said. I can tell you everything about it. He loved me more than my parents did. He loved me, for Christ's sake. Not brilliant. Never been to a seminary. That would have probably ruined him. Not educated beyond his intelligence. Just took what he had and used it. Sixth grade education. I can still remember being in sixth grade and having problems with arithmetic. And old Walt would come over and try to help me. And I can still remember saying, walt, I don't know how to do it. But that ain't it. Just the fact that he cared. How many caring people are there? For your information, right now, while I'm Talking to you, 11 of us are in full time vocational Christian work. And Walt never went beyond sixth grade. Walt couldn't teach in a theological seminary. Two of us are. Walt couldn't go to the mission field. He had a bad heart. And I'm convinced we helped to make it worse. But six of the guys are. Walt couldn't be a pastor. He had neither the training nor the gift. But the rest of the guys are all over America and one in Canada. All the product of a disciple maker. And I kid you not, I don't know if the guy could spell the word. He just did it. And that's what burdens me in terms of, you see, I'm so tired of hearing women saying to me, you know, I'm just a mother. Well, how many children do you have three. Three? Man, that's far more than you'll care to give an account of at the judgment seat of Christ or somebody who says when I say to them, hey, what are you doing at church? I don't do very much. What do you do? Well, I just teach a class. How many kids do you have in your class? Five. Five. What? A parish. Because, you see, that's the excitement of disciple making. That every time you build into the life of another person, you launch a process which ideally will never end. Let's pray, Father. Open our eyes and our hearts and move our wills. We can bring truth to men's ears, but you alone can take it to the heart and weave it into the life. And we pray that today you will begin a process that will affect eternity. Because we become involved in that which moved the Savior's heart. We pray that you will give us a love for the things he loved and a hatred for the things he hated. We want to thank you in advance for what you're going to do because we come with great expectation through Jesus Christ, Christ our Lord. Amen. You've been listening to Howard Hendricks. Listen to Faith of Our Fathers each Saturday and Sunday to hear more great 20th century preachers.