Training Disciples

Fulfilling the Great Commission: Training Disciples

 

Welcome! Today we continue our series on “Fulfilling the Great Commission.” A starting point of our series has been the idea that disciples are people who make disciples. Today’s message is entitled “Training Disciples.” As I have mentioned throughout this series, these messages are based in part on the book “What Jesus Started” by Steve Addison.

Today, I want you to imagine that you are one of the people who lived at the time of Paul and the early church. I am basing this on a real person. This person is male, and I apologize if this makes this exercise somewhat less relatable if you are female. You are Greek, not a Jew, and while a young adult, you come into contact with the gospel, believe, and are saved. You are either taught directly by Paul or in a circle of people that were taught by Paul. Because you are faithful and earnest in the work of sharing the gospel and helping to disciple believers, your reputation leads Paul himself to want to take you along with him and use you as needed to further the work of growing churches. However, there is the question of circumcision. There were leaders of the church in Jerusalem who thought that being an “upper tier” leader required that one be circumcised. In the case of Timothy, Paul had gone along with this, perhaps because Timothy had a Jewish mother. But in your case, not having any Jewish connection at all, Paul feels it is entirely inappropriate. He feels it is important to establish that in Christ, circumcision is nothing and is certainly not meant for any Gentile believers in Christ.

So in the year 49, Paul takes you to Jerusalem to discuss this issue with the Jewish leaders. The result of this council meeting is that they agree with Paul and accept you as someone who can carry on work as Paul directs you. In the following years you work with Paul in whatever way he requests. You are with Paul in Ephesus, helping to build and strengthen the churches there, and in the year 56, Paul sends you from Ephesus to Corinth, a city where the churches are having a lot of serious problems. Timothy had been sent there previously, carrying a letter we now call I Corinthians, and Paul had also been there in what he called his “painful visit”. But now, you are sending another letter from Paul, one that is later called the “severe letter”. After delivering this letter, after it is read throughout the churches in Corinth, real repentance and reform begins to occur. You help by teaching and encouraging and equipping the believers there, and then, as Paul has directed you, you leave and go north to meet Paul in Macedonia.

Here, after learning from you about all the good things happening in Corinth, Paul writes another letter, the letter we now call II Corinthians, and you and a group of believers go from Macedonia back to Corinth with this letter, where, upon arriving, you continue to help the churches there.

Some time later, Paul directs you to organize collections of gifts for the church in Jerusalem, which is undergoing major persecution and has great needs for even the necessities of life. This requires a lot of contacting and organizing others and also travel.

At some point, the gospel began to spread into the mountainous Greek island of Crete. It is possible that Paul himself instigated this spread of the gospel on a visit to the island. In any case, Paul sends you there. He also sends a letter to you instructing you what to do while you are there.

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, you are Titus. I want today to read Paul’s letter to you in its entirety, with the context of looking at what “training disciples” really looks like.

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness—in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, and which now at His appointed season He has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior, to Titus, my true son in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. – Titus 1:1-4

The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. – Titus 1:5-9

Let’s stop here for a moment. Titus’ role was to go throughout Crete and appoint elders in every town, every little community, every local church. These churches had sprung up throughout Crete because the people there were sharing their faith. They were eager to spread the good news to their extended families and friends, and the gospel was spreading rapidly. In each assembly of believers, as is true in every assembly of believers today, there were some who were further along in their journey of growing to maturity, of having a sound understanding of the message of both the Old Testament scriptures and the message of Christ, and of living lives that were in harmony with that message. These people were, like Paul, and like Titus, servants of God in the deepest sense, people who yielded their lives to the Holy Spirit and who were being transformed by God in every area of their lives. Paul directed Titus to recognize these people, to appoint them officially as elders.

Was there to be one elder per local church? No. From what we see in Acts, there were often many elders in a location. Ideally, everyone would aspire to live lives fully yielded to God, so that elders would be everywhere. As the church grew, and a local group could no longer fit in a home, groups would split into two, with elders being a part of each group.

When you look at the list of qualifications in this passage, it is intuitively obvious that these are universally good qualities; even unbelievers would agree that these are signs of a person who is doing all the right things. Someone who is not arrogantly domineering, not quick to blow up on people, who doesn’t get drunk on Saturday nights, who never gets into fights, who isn’t a part of some money scam. Someone who treats people graciously, who rejoices in good news, in good reports, who just loves goodness. Someone who controls his feelings, who does what is right and what is good, who obeys God’s commands, who sets a high standard for himself and meets that standard. And someone who knows God’s Word and can explain it to others, someone who can identify where people stray from the message of God and is not afraid to point it out. My point here is that none of these things here are things that are “only” for elders to do; they are things that all people should desire to do and be if they really love God and wish to serve Him. These are things that everyone can do. Yes, the passage talks about being married and having children, but I think these things were so ubiquitous in that culture that pretty much everyone did them. The point was that, in these things, an elder should do what is right, just as he should do what is right in work and in every other area of life.

Being an elder was more than just an identification, though; it was also an appointment, an assignment of responsibility before God. Perhaps for this reason elders were to be male, similar to how God has assigned males and females have different responsibilities in a marriage relationship. But I would argue that the essence of the character qualities Paul lists for Titus were things that every believer should have pursued, male or female.

For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” This saying is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good. – Titus 1:10-16

Put this paragraph in the context of the previous one, and you will understand why it was so important to appoint elders. There were other people, perhaps not even believers at all, primarily but not exclusively Jewish, who were used to being admired by others and occupying positions of honor and leadership, who, as more and more of the people were coming to Christ, saw that, to retain their positions, they needed to become a part of this growing group and assume leadership. In this way, they could also steer the Christian’s beliefs to ensure that their honor and power was maintained.

How did they maintain their power? How did they grow in power among the Christians? By teaching and training disciples. Paul had Titus appoint elders in every town so that these elders could teach and train the new believers what was actually true and good, and so that they could ensure that the teaching and training of others in each body was also true and good. It’s not that they were to be the only teachers, but that they could have the authority to silence those who were leading new believers astray.

So there are two lessons here: One is that it is necessary that people step up to train disciples – not just formally recognized elders, but everyone as they grow in faith and wisdom and become obedient to the teachings of Jesus. Second, it is important that everyone be selective in who they get training from – because we have the Scriptures, we need to be sure that what who listen to teach is consistent with the teachings of the Word of God.

Let me also mention a point about teaching. We mentioned last week that although only some people have the spiritual gift of evangelism, all should be able to share their faith and explore opportunities to do so. In the same way, only some people have the gift of teaching, but all of us should be looking for opportunities to teach one another in the way this chapter describes.

So Paul has addressed to Titus who should teach, and who people should listen to. The next questions are how should they teach and what should they teach? Let’s read the entire second chapter of Titus to get some answers.

You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. – Titus 2:1-3

Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us. – Titus 2:4-8

Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. – Titus 2:9-10

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you. – Titus 2:11-15

So doctrine is mentioned here at the beginning of the chapter, but the emphasis is on what I would call the application of doctrine. This is about how we live day by day. 

What should be taught? Character. Here is a condensed list of what to teach to the various groups, not in order of the groups, but in order of how many times the instruction is repeated: be temperate, worthy of respect, faith-filled, persevering, reverent, non-slandering, non-addicted, teachers of good, pure, not idle, pleasing, not talking back, not stealing, avoiding worldly passions, upright, subject to those over you (twice), loving (twice), avoiding ungodliness (twice), and self-controlled (four times). As you all well know, when someone becomes a believer, they don’t automatically become perfect. It takes time for their relationship with Christ to change their outward behaviors. Some changes occur right away, but others take longer. Some we may battle our entire lives.

  

Why is this such a big emphasis? Isn’t having right doctrine enough? No. We are to grow in faith, and we must understand that growing in faith always includes growing in obedience to Christ.

The author of the book this series is based on mentions seven specific commands of Christ:

1. Repent and believe the good news. (Mark 1:15)
2. Be baptized. (Matt. 28:19)
3. Love one another. (John 13:34)
4. Regularly partake in the bread and cup in remembrance of Jesus (Luke 22:19-20)
5. Pray. (Luke 18:1)
6. Give. (Luke 6:38)
7. Go and make disciples. (Matt. 28:19)

 It is true that we should do all seven of these things, and new believers should be instructed in all of them. But it is interesting to me how Paul’s emphasis is quite different. It’s not that Paul wouldn’t agree with these seven, and there is some overlap, particularly with regards to #3, but Paul is focusing on bringing the believers to point of such maturity that the world sees that these people are unlike any other. Why? For the sake of the gospel. For the sake of seeing disciples make disciples. So that more and more people come to Christ.

The word translated as “teach” in this chapter is most often laleo, which means to speak. It is a common word, but it implies everyday talk as opposed to formal speech giving. It is even used to describe the chatter of birds. I think this is important. This chapter is not talking about going to a once-a-year training conference – not that you cannot learn lots of great things and grow significantly in such an event, you absolutely can! – but this chapter is talking instead about everyday instruction, similar to how parents who are appropriately involved with their children are instructing them, guiding them, showing them when their behavior is appropriate or inappropriate, and so on, all the time. Training disciples should be like this.

Another good analogy I have for the thrust of this chapter is that of being an apprentice to someone. Formal apprenticeships were once a requirement for almost any kind of career; today, there are only a few careers left that are like this. But on-the-job training is still necessary in most careers. What is this like? It often can be working side-by-side with someone more skilled, receiving constant correction. This is true from working in the construction industry to working in medicine. Again, this is the essence of what Paul is instructing Titus to equip the believers to do with one another.

Is this type of instruction specific to the book of Titus? No, it is found in almost all of the New Testament letters. Out of gratitude to Christ for what He has done for us, we should want to live for Him. And He wants us to live as people who bring honor to His Name. If we love Him, we should want to do the same.

And we should want not only ourselves to live this way, but all who have believed. And to see this happen, this type of teaching, or training, is something in which we should all find ways to participate. Not only the results of the training, but the training itself, can draw people to Christ. If you have ever watched godly parents lovingly correcting their children in public, you understand what I mean. Godly living and loving is never a substitute for the message of the gospel, but without it, the gospel will become tainted by the actions of those who claim to be its followers.

I believe this is one reason the gospel tends to spread even more rapidly when believers face severe persecution. In the face of persecution, believers have an opportunity to demonstrate the radical love and grace of God, doing such things as forgiving their persecutors, dying in one another’s place, and so on. The unbelievers who see these actions are astounded and the message of the gospel becomes ever more convincing. 

I want to mention that training in righteousness should not just be about correction. It should be at least as much about positive reinforcement. Praise goodness! Praising one another is an essential part of training, and doing it also trains others to do the same. Praise should be a natural expression of loving one another with the love of Christ. Remember Christ’s parable of the talents in which the master says, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” We all long to hear this at the end of our race. But we should also be hearing it from one another along the way.

I want to point out a few things about how Jesus trained. He didn’t just sit and teach them. He gave them assignments that were often on the face of things difficult, if not impossible, like feeding thousands of people with minimal food, crossing a stormy lake, and so on. He did this to build their faith. We should encourage one another in faith-building ways as well, growing our own faith along the way. There are few things more faith-building in my opinion than going with someone to try to share your faith.

And in Jesus’ faith-building assignments, He also taught them. Parenting books often talk about “teaching moments,” significant moments when something happens that causes you to pay close attention to what the parent says next. Jesus used teaching moments. When the disciples argued about who was the greatest, Jesus used the moment to teach them about true humility and servant leadership.   A moment of hunger became an opportunity to teach about God’s provision and how Jesus was the true life-giving bread. I encourage you as you read through any of the gospels to look for Jesus’ teaching moments. They are everywhere! It is transformative to be with a group of Christians (even your own children) and see a complete breakdown in behavior as an opportunity, a teaching moment to help them grow in faith, love, and obedience to Christ!

Let’s look at the final chapter of Titus, a few verses at a time:

Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone. – Titus 3:1-2

Paul is, yet again, emphasizing the same message. I feel like this message about being peaceable, considerate, and gentle towards everyone, even (especially?) those you disagree with, was written for 2019. Our culture is becoming ever more slanderous, ever more hostile, ever more inconsiderate, and gentleness is seen as a weakness in character, not a strength.

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. – Titus 3:3-7 

You have probably heard of virtue signaling. Oxford defines it as “the action or practice of publicly expressing opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one's good character or the moral correctness of one's position on a particular issue.” Paul here emphasizes the opposite of virtue signaling. He is emphasizing how messed up we all were, and then, rather than saying, but now we have overcome these things, he says, no, Jesus saved us not because of our righteousness, but in spite of our utter lack of it. This is always the message of the gospel. He saved us, and now, as best as we can, we are trying to live for Him. Fortunately, He helps us in this as well, because if He didn’t, we wouldn’t get anywhere. The Christian should say that “Every good thing we do is not because we are better than you, but because Jesus empowers us, and He can empower you too if you repent as we have.”

We work on character, on becoming better disciples, not so that people will be impressed with us, or so that we can succeed in the world, but so that our actions do not impede the glorious gospel. 

This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned. – Titus 3:8-11

Our world loves controversies and arguments and quarrels, if not about the law, then about everything else. But if you look, you can find plenty of arguments are quarrels within Christianity as well. Some issues are important, but they may not be important or even relevant to us, certainly not in our day-to-day living. We should not waste our time on these things. This was true nearly 2000 years ago on the island of Crete, and it is true today in Clemson, South Carolina. Let us focus on training one another in righteousness, in obedience, in service to Christ.

Paul concludes his letter with this:

As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they have everything they need. Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives. Everyone with me sends you greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. – Titus 3:12-15

I find this especially hard-hitting in 2019. Do we live unproductive lives? I feel like this is another way to ask the question we looked at in the beginning of this series: Are we sleepy? There are so many things we can do during the week to train one another as disciples.

Here are just a few practical suggestions: Call or email a believer. Meet up with a believer. Have coffee or a meal with them. Invite someone over for dinner. Help someone with an issue with their house, or their car, or even go on a shopping excursion with someone. Yes, you can shop for Christ! Just make sure that on the car trip, and while shopping, somewhere in there you are talking about spiritual things, about living out your faith in Christ. Be open about your struggles. Pray together. Build one another up. Do this with believers in the church and with believers you are friends with outside the church. Be productive with your life! Before you know it, it will be over and you will be standing before God.

Go back to viewing yourself as Titus, the recipient of this letter. Paul is explaining to you that your time in Crete is limited. You now know that you will need to work quickly. The task seems overwhelming – so much to do! And the goal is lofty! How can you help not just one person, but many to be transformed into those who train one another as disciples, who emphasize not just head knowledge, but day-to-day living-it-out character? This is something (like everything) that can only be done by God’s grace, through His power. Let us pray.