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“LEARNING ABOUT GOD AND LIFE” (Matthew 4:18-22, 5:1-7:29)
It is interesting to study words. In language there are many words that are related to one another. Not only do some of the same letters occur in related words, but the meaning of each similar word draws a flavor from the original root word.
Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about to give you insight into the message from the gospel of Matthew today. Here is a collection of related words: (All from Webster’s Dictionary) o Discipline (This is the root word) o Disciplinable o Disciplinarian o Disciplinary o Disciplined o Discipliner o Disciple Discipline, by definition, is a field of study. It is training that corrects, molds, perfects either mental thinking or moral character. It is a control gained by obedience or order. It is a pattern of behavior. It is a controlled way of doing things.
It used to be that people in American culture made organization, structure and order a value in life. In particular; there was a stringent training in school, home and also in church for earlier generations of Americans. In all of it, discipline was expected. But in the 1960’s much of such discipline went out the window. People were encouraged to “be free spirits”, “to be themselves”, “to not allow anyone to put limits on them”, “to reject authority”.
(As an interesting sidelight) in the 1990’s, American culture bought into the “free spirit” while simultaneously pushing for the need to “be politically correct”. Thus, confusion has become present in every issue that pops up in public debate. Add to this situation the stated observation that the 21st Century AD is characterized by a lack of discipline. At least that’s what the vast majority of sociologists have concluded.
The same trend is exerting itself in Christian circles as well. Christians pray a prayer to receive Jesus as their Savior and believe that is the whole matter of Christian faith. It is only “fire insurance from Hell”. Christians attend church regularly and believe they have done their Christian duty. Believers in Christ toss a bit of greenery in the offering plate on an occasional Sunday and pride themselves on being givers. Pastors attempt to lead congregations without having taken time to do formal study to learn the (dare I say it) disciplines necessary to correctly feed God’s people. In simple terms, American life and Christian life is characterized today as “cutting corners”. Discipline is passe’, old fashioned, out-dated, if you please..
We are studying the Spiritual Journey God places before His people. The Holy Spirit attempts to indwell God’s family and lead them into discipline. To grow in one’s spiritual walk with God requires one to change, to grow, to humbly follow divine instruction thus becoming different in personal character and personal way of life. Instead, many Christians who would love to see positive changes in how they live life, reject the need to endure the discipline that is required to bring such change about.
Welcome to Stage Two of the Spiritual Journey! The Christian life is one of progressing through various stages of growth. At any stage one can get mired in place. When that happens, growth and change are aborted. As we discovered earlier in this sermon series, a Christian who has only prayed a prayer of conversion, while doing nothing further in allowing God to transform their life, is completely naive. They have stymied themselves from “growing in the knowledge of the Lord”!
In Matthew 4: 18-22, Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James and John to leave the discipline of the fish trade and buy into the discipline of the “Kingdom of God” trade! He calls them in chapter four. He then begins training them in chapters 5-7. Christians know this section of Scripture as the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord had to take these independent men, pour Himself into training them for three solid years of 24/7 (ready for this?) discipline so they would be forged into a powerful force to impact the human world. God calls that powerful force “the church”. Cut it any way you’d like, the necessity for spiritual discipline still remains! It even looks the same: hard work!
If Jesus required His disciples to undergo organized training, how in the world did Christians ever begin to think they can be Christians without ongoing training? The second stage of the Christian life, the sanctification process, the spiritual journey, (CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT) is “learning about God”!
§ Here a person finds meaning by belonging to God. § Here a person enters into a training process of discovering God’s design and purpose for life and how to get it done. § Here a person experiences not only a sense of “rightness” concerning what they do in life, but a sense of “oughtness” where they become aware of what they ought to believe and do. § Here those who belong to God actually become committed to “the disciplined life”. § Here the knowledge about God becomes important to a person and they eagerly want to learn how He can be a vital part of life. § Here, the goal is often to gather knowledge about God to satisfy an insatiable thirst to “know all there is to know”.
This is the stage of Christian living where a new believer moves from stage one to actually become aware of a path to right living. It is at this point, on the journey, where church leadership and teachers instruct Christians ü how to live the path, ü how to worship, ü how to study the Bible, ü how to pray, ü how to witness, ü how to work toward social justice. In reality, faith becomes something learned and, at the same time, brought into everyday experience.
The church has called it “discipleship”, “Christian education” and most recently “mentoring”. At this stage on the journey the new Christian becomes a student willingly and eagerly. Scripture is loaded with examples of how God plans such activity for those who become a part of His family.
Moses went through such a stage in Exodus 4. David went through this stage in 1 Samuel 16:14-17:37. Paul went through this stage of the journey in Acts 9:19-31, and Galatians 1:15-24.
As an aside, there is one tendency that can rear its ugly head while undergoing such a period of training. As one learns about the Bible and about God, the one doing the training can present the basics of Christian faith in such a way as to include a very exclusive and private methodology that casts doubt or rejection on those who practice the same beliefs in a different way. The disciples themselves did this in Mark 9:38-41. Listen to this encounter with Jesus and His tattling disciples. “Teacher,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he wasn’t one of us.” “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us! I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.”
The key to training in stage two is for a veteran Christian to teach a disciple basic doctrine and allow the trainee to discover how to apply it in life. Never is Christian training to be done in order to see others in a demeaning way. Judgmental Pharisaism has no more permission to be in the church, today, than when our Lord condemned it in His day. The church has spent way too much time focusing on drawing lines to separate believers based on individual methodology. God’s truths do have diversity in application. Personal convictions drive people to apply the Bible to their lives differently. The New Testament instructs us to see such diversity and accept it. In 1 Corinthians 8 some Christians believed it was wrong to eat meat sacrificed to pagan idols. Others saw the bargain prices and, since they knew the idols were not real gods, they found it okay to eat such meat. Paul says both were legitimate viewpoints.
Interestingly, Paul was a Pharisee before becoming a Christian. God had to pull Paul aside for over 10 years, before he was involved in ministry, to instruct him on how to relate to people correctly while mentoring his students Timothy, Titus, Epaphras, etc.
How are you doing in terms of your Biblical knowledge and understanding of how to walk “by faith” and “not by sight”? Until the Lord calls Christians home to glory there is a constant need to learn more. We will never be too old, too knowledgeable, or too mature to discover additional application of God’s revelation in life! Stage Two doesn’t happen by “osmosis”= effortless work. It happens only through diligent study, thought, prayer, humility, willingness to change and teach-ability. May God give us the desire and commitment to be learners.
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