The Importance of Following Through

Notes for the Ekklesia Meeting
Sundays @ 10:00 a.m. Info: (651) 283-0568 www.dtminc.org Today’s Date: August 14, 2005

The Importance of Following Through

by Dan Trygg

"And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. …For you have need of perseverance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. …Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us… …It is for discipline (training) that you endure"

Hebrews 6:11,12; 10:36; 12:1,7a

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."

James 1:22-25

"[they] captivate weak women having been weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

II Tim. 3:6,7

Last week we talked about discipline, the training process which God brings upon His children. The Lord desires to grow us up into the image of Christ, to make us like Him in character and in our intimacy with Him. From the get-go, Jesus called His followers to "disciplize" the nations, i.e., to make active followers of all peoples by baptizing new adherents and teaching them to do all that He said (Matt. 28:18-20). In other words, Jesus gave His appointed leaders an agenda to work out in training all who would identify with Him. We are all to be baptized as a sign of consecration to Him, and trained to follow Him in every way, …to do all that He said, not to pick and choose what we like and ignore what is inconvenient or distasteful to us.

Those first leaders took this charge very seriously. Jesus did not spell out precisely how they were to do this, but they had a pretty good idea what to do. They learned from Jesus’ example. They did with their disciples what they had experienced Jesus doing with them. It is not surprising, therefore, that we see that when people responded to the message of the Good News in those early days, they were "all upon the same thing" (Acts 2:44,47 in Greek, usually translated as "together" in most English translations).

What were they all doing?

They were devoting themselves (continuing unremittingly) to learning the doctrines of the apostles, to the sharing with one another, to the taking meals together, and to the prayers.

How often were they doing this?

Daily.

Where were they meeting?

In the back porch of the temple (large group) and in peoples’ homes (small groups). (Therefore, more than one meeting a day!)

What did this produce?

As they were instructed, and spent time together, they began to open their hearts to one another. As they became aware of needs among them, those who had the means began voluntarily to share with those who had needs. They experienced joy, and their hearts were filled with praise to God, and, because of their goodness to others, they found favor with people outside of these gatherings. The result: "the Lord added day by day the ones being saved upon the same thing." In other words, every day other people came to follow Jesus and joined these groups of believers who were seriously applying themselves to grow.

We introduced the Greek word, paideia, last week. It means "discipline" or "training". It usually referred to the instruction process of a father toward his children (Eph. 6:4; cf. Heb. 12:5-13), especially regarding the practical life-lesson training that involved both instruction and correction.

The word for "disciple" (mathetes) is from another word for learning, manthano.

Notice that the word for disciple, mathetes, begins like our English word, "mathematics". The unique flavor of the Greek word root is that it implies a methodical, practical, step-by-step, learn-by-doing approach. In the discipline of mathematics, training starts very basic, and builds upon what has been learned, adding new concepts and practicing them until some level of understanding and mastery is obtained (hopefully), then adding another step, etc.

A disciple is to be someone under discipline in two ways:
First, he or she is under the watchful eye of the heavenly Father, who will instruct through life-lessons and consequences (paideia); and secondly, he or she is an active follower who is methodically, day-by-day working a plan to learn, grow and implement truth into daily life (manthano).

This latter form of training and discipline is what we observe the disciples implementing in the early church at Jerusalem. They had a plan, and everyone was working that plan in order to grow and become trained.

The first form of discipline (paideia) is partially involuntary, in that the Father will bring lessons and consequences into the lives of His children, regardless of whether they are asking for them, or paying attention, or not. He exposes (reproves) sin and foolishness, and disciplines in this manner, because He loves us (Rev. 3:19). He wants to keep us from harm, and move us along toward growth, and so He brings these lessons and consequences upon us to propel us toward His will. There is a voluntary side to this, however. That has to do with our response to the discipline (paideia) of the Lord. If we reject this discipline, the consequences will get bigger, and we will experience more grief and loss. That is why the Scriptures exhort us to respond to the Lord’s discipline, so that "the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint (heavier consequences), but rather be healed" (Heb. 12:13). From the examples in the OT, we can observe that if we persist in rejecting the discipline of the Lord, He will increase the consequences upon our lives (e.g., Lev. 26:14-39; Deut. 28:15-68), …or He will give us what we are pursuing in place of Him, and we will experience spiritual dullness and loss (e.g., Psa. 106:15 – "He gave them their request, but sent leanness unto their soul"; Matt. 13:13-15). If we repent, and humbly return to Him and walk in His ways, He will have compassion and begin to open to us both His heart and His hand of blessing (Lev. 26:40-45; Deut. 30:1-20).

By contrast, the second kind of discipline, that is associated with active followers (mathetes) is strictly voluntary. We must choose to participate in those activities which will develop our spiritual life and character, and which will help us grow in our relationship with God.

These include such activities we see the early disciples doing.

(1.) We must devote ourselves (Strong words!) to learning the apostles’ teachings and understanding the Scriptures (II Tim. 3:16,17) so that we can understand who God is, what He has done and will do for us, and what He expects of us. We can learn and profit from the examples of God’s dealing with other people, recorded for us in the Scriptures (Rom. 15:4; I Cor. 10:11).

(2.) We are to devote ourselves to meeting and sharing together with other believers. The word translated as "fellowship" in Acts 2:42 is the Greek word, koinonia. It simply means "sharing", and implies making things that were privately held open and accessible to others. These "privately held" things could refer to either the thoughts and secrets of the heart (Acts 2:46 – lit., "they were taking their meals together in celebration and openness of heart"; cf. Eph. 4:25 – lit., "laying aside phoniness, speak what is real with those near you".) or to one’s possessions (Acts 2:44,45; 4:32-35; II Cor. 8,9). The purpose of church gatherings was originally to be not only a place of instruction, but also a place where we could share our needs, our struggles, our victories and blessings with one another. This was a major part of God’s plan for training His people, utilizing interactive, close-knit groups of support, accountability and service to build up one another. Most of the NT is written to such groups, and if you read the practical sections of Paul’s letters, you will find that most of what He writes addresses relationship issues with one another, because that is where the "rubber meets the road" so to speak. The growth edges of our lives will be revealed and strengthened if we will learn to operate as the Body of Christ together. A natural setting for opening up and getting real with one another was sitting around a table together sharing a meal. Something about table fellowship is different than more formal discussion. We tend to relax, get comfortable, and open up more when we regularly eat together. Acts 2:46 makes the connection between sharing food and sharing our hearts with one another.

(3.) We are to devote ourselves to prayer. We see that this was a significant part of what the early church did together (Acts 1:11-14; 2:42; 4:23-31; 12:5-19; 13:1-3; cf. Rom. 15:30-33; Eph. 6:18-20; Col. 4:2-4).

[One thing that is missing from the NT is the emphasis we have developed on having "worship services". The NT is void of any such concept. Why? Because, biblically, worship is a personal act of submission, reverence and commitment to honor and serve God. This is primarily a personal act, not a group "event". There is no record that the disciples met for "a worship service". When they met, the focus was primarily to build one another up. They sang songs to one another, they ministered by the Spirit to one another, etc., but they did not meet in order to worship God. That notion developed over church history, and comes out of more a sacrificial and liturgical approach to a God who still needs to be approached through sacrifice. Now, that is not to say that worship never happened, or that praising God did not take place (cf. I Cor. 14:25; Acts 2:47). When you study the Scriptures, you find that people bowed low and reverenced God in many different situations and settings. God is not looking for "worship services". He is looking for yielded committed people who will honor Him by their lives and actions, not just by words and songs.]

(4.) True disciples will devote themselves to developing growth and intimacy with God by any number of methods which the Lord may lead them to utilize. Whether it is fasting, giving, serving, solitude, study, or whatever means may be employed, those who are serious about their faith will invest in their spiritual lives to keep themselves stretching, growing and becoming useful to the Lord’s purposes.

In order for disciplines to be effective, they must be done repeatedly and consistently. Any effort is a seed sown toward the things of the Spirit, but we really need to be exercising ourselves to godliness by regular efforts and attendance (Gal. 6:7,8; I Tim. 4:7,8). We need to study the Scripture regularly. We need to be meeting with other believers regularly to share together and minister to one another. They say that 80% of life is showing up. We need (you need) consistency. (It is amazing how easily the enemy will run interference to keep us from showing up for meetings, or to distract us, or make us feel tired or sick, so we don’t follow through on the plan for growth we have been prompted by the Holy Spirit to pursue. These efforts become pretty obvious, when you notice the timing of them. Don’t allow the enemy to get you off track, or stop you from doing what you have sensed that God wanted you to do! Make a commitment and stick to it, "come hell or high water".) We must make the investment of seeking the Lord in prayer on a regular basis, both privately and when we meet together. Whatever plan we have to grow, we need to be working that plan with unremitting continuance. That is, we stay with it, day in and day out, without taking breaks. We keep at it with perseverance, because it is training us and building us.

Just a brief word about the last two references at the top of this study. It is possible to be learning information, and not be growing spiritually. It is possible to be doing religious activities and following spiritual disciplines while still remaining disconnected from practical application and growth. There are two key ideas in these verses.

First of all, we need to be implementing what we are learning. It is a common problem to have a disconnect between our learning and our doing. Some people tend to live in their head, and not make the transfer to their heart. It is a very common defense mechanism. You think and intend to do the right things, but you never actually do them. Just because you learned something, however, does not mean that you have changed anything. Just because you intend to do something different is not the same as actually doing it. The keys to making this transfer from the head to the heart are prayer (God gives the growth, after all – I Cor. 3:6,7) and choosing to put what we are learning into practice. Peter says, "add to your knowledge self-control" (II Pet. 1:6). If you think you may be suffering from this tendency, if you think you are always learning but having little success in making change, then write out a couple things that you really believe God wants you to address. Share that list with someone else who will hold you accountable, and will pray and encourage you through this.

Secondly, we need to deal with past sins and guilt. If not, the pain and denial of not addressing those issues may keep us spinning our wheels, spiritually. The same wall of shame and denial that keeps the pain at bay will keep us from being able to truly allow the grace of God to penetrate and heal our inner wounds. The phrase, "knowledge of the truth" in II Tim. 3:7 refers to a flash-of-insight, grasp-of-reality, breakthrough kind of knowledge (cf. Eph. 1:17; 4:13; Col. 1:9,10; 3:10). The Greek describes these people as "having been weighed down with sins". These can refer to sins having been done to the person, as well as sins they may have committed. Often the scarring of abuse causes us to close off part of our hearts in order to survive. We learn to shut off painful feelings and memories, ...or the messages we received in abusive relationships have distorted our sense of who we are. Unfortunately, those defense mechanisms and internalized shame messages also keep us from really opening up to the revealing work of the Spirit, as He attempts to show us the acceptance, love and grace which God has for us through Christ. God has given the tools and ability to begin to expose and tear down those walls that have been built up inside of us, so the true, healing knowledge of God can be experienced (II Cor. 10:3-5). Often those tools and abilities which God would use to help us are gifts which He has given to others in the Body (I Cor. 12; cf. Eph. 4:15,16), so we need to be open to ask for help. For past victims of abuse, it is often difficult to trust people, but this is one key method that can help us move past the barriers that keep us stuck.