North Anderson Baptist Church
All the years that I have walked with the Lord there has never been someone to step up and offer to disciple me. Oh, I wished that there had been someone who would have taken me under their wing and shared with me the steps of being a true disciple of Jesus Christ. I had many who lived before me the Christian life and I learned a great deal from them but there were none who stepped up to say, “Bill, let me help you become the Christian that God wants you to be.” or, something like that.
Discipleship is the process of teaching someone to be like Christ; helping a person become a follower of the Lord, fully committed and loyal to Christ in all things. Discipleship happens in relationships. Our Savior spent three years with His disciples and they would grow but not until the Holy Spirit came upon them did they fully understand what Jesus taught. So, never think that becoming a disciple or discipleship happens because of you or someone else. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in and through you being the discipler or the one being discipled. Also, let’s make this clear, you don’t have to be a super-Christian to be a person who disciples another. God uses ordinary people, just like the disciples and their early converts to Christ, people just like you and me, to help others to grow in Christ. Again, when it comes to the work of the Lord, nothing is done without the work and the power of the Holy Spirit. Using the concept of the Great Commision we are to teach others to obey all that Jesus taught. That is discipleship. John Barnett said, “Discipleship is all about following our Master Jesus Christ and learning to live by the wisdom of His Word.”
We see in the Great Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ that He called for His disciples to lead others to Christ and have them become disciples and then have them baptized and then to disciple them in the way of the Lord through teaching them to observe all that Jesus had commanded them. That is true discipleship! Leading people to Jesus and discipling them in Christ.
Have you come to know Christ personally as your Savior and Lord?
Have you become the disciple that Jesus calls us to be?
Do you need to have someone come alongside you to help you and disciple you in Jesus?
Fortunately, the scripture we have today shares where someone is in need of discipleship and there are two people who step up to help. In the book of Acts, two of Paul’s disciples, Pricilla and Aquila, sees a young man of God that needs their help and they proceed to help him become the disciple that God desires. We see these events in Acts 18:24-28.
Acts 18:24-26 NIV
1. Apollos: A man who knew God - 24-26a
We have all the facts about Apollos that helps us know who he was. Having been a “learned man with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures,” he was well versed in the information that was in the Old Testament. He was from Alexandria which was the intellectual center of Egypt, housing the great library of Alexandria. Apollos, being educated in his home town where the Old Testament was translated from the Hebrew into the Greek, called the Septuagint, gave him some advantage in the study of the works of the Lord, beside all of the other books, classes and teachers allowed him an opportunity to grow and become mature as a follower of God. Being a teachable student of the Old Testament, having the ability to focus and being determined to learn, as well as his devotion, discipline and effort put forth, gave him the background to become a great spokesman and orator for God and His Word. Luke says that he spoke so well and taught about Jesus accurately, that is the part that he knew of the Savior. Apollos “taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John,” which was somewhat incomplete. Apollos’ preaching came short because he had not the full understanding of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The one thing that caught the ear of Pricilla and Aquila was that he only knew the baptism of John. Although he was able to hold his own in the synagogue, he still lacked that part of the Lord Jesus’ story that made him truly effective for Christ and the Gospel. He needed help, some scholars believed he needed to be saved.
When Billy Sunday was converted and joined the church, a Christian man put his arm on the young man’s shoulder and said, “William, there are three simple rules I can give to you, and if you will hold to them you will never write “backslider” after your name.
“Take 15 minutes each day to listen to God talking to you;
take 15 minutes each day to talk to God;
take 15 minutes each day to talk to others about God.”
Billy Sunday was deeply impressed and determined to make these the rules of his life. From that day on throughout his life he made it a rule to spend the first moments of his day alone with God and His Word. Before he read a letter, looked at a paper or even read a telegram, he went first to the Bible so that the first impression of the day might be what he got directly from God.
Priscilla and Aquila were determined to help Apollos become the follower of Christ that would make a great difference in the lives of others.
Acts 18:26 NIV
2. Priscilla and Aquila: Willing followers of Jesus who disciple Apollos - v. 26b
"The most significant contribution we make in life, is the passing of our faith to the next generation."—Unknown
This couple saw what God had done in the life of this young man and the gifts he had to preach and to stand for the Lord in the midst of opposition and they wanted to help him become more of what God knew He could be. Taking an interest in someone is the first step of discipleship. Caring for someone whom you know needs more instruction of the Lord makes the difference in a person’s life as they seek to live for Jesus. This is one of the steps of discipleship. Of course, you could do this through distance learning but it is so much more effective when you can personally invite them into your life and physically help them through their time of learning.
Aquila and Pricilla saw the gift in Apollos and knew that if they decided to help him to understand the truth more fully he could become a great spokesman for the Gospel of Christ. They were the hope for Apollos to become the disciple of Christ that God had planned. God uses people to help others who want to learn the way of the Lord more adequately. They became the discipler and he became their disciple. To do this it takes time, effort and selflessness.
I know of someone who has done what Priscilla and Aquila did for Apollos. They have spent many hours taking their “students or disciples” through Scriptures and helping them become the disciple God desires them to be. Those who have been helped by this person have grown in the Lord immensely. I have seen others take their time and effort to reach out to someone who needed further instruction in the Lord so that they might become a mature child of God. That is true discipleship.
In Acts 15:36-39,
Acts 15:36-39 NIV
we see an event in the life of Paul and Barnabas that sometimes is really misunderstood. It is about the separation of Paul and Barnabas when the second missionary journey of Paul was about to begin. Paul was ready to go and Barnabas suggested that they take John Mark with them again. Paul would not agree because he deserted them on the first journey. The disagreement was so strong that Paul went off with Silas and Barnabas took Mark with him. I see in this a special experience that God used to have Barnabas begin to personally disciple Mark. Mark spends valuable time with the great Christian Barnabas, which more than likely changed the life of Mark, the Gospel writer.
Earlier on in the life of Paul there was a man named Barnabas who took Paul under his wing when no one in Jerusalem would trust him. Through this event in the life of Paul and Barnabas, Paul began to learn from this new friend. Then when Barnabas went to get Paul in Tarsus, he again sought for Paul to help out and become strengthened in his faith through this adventure in helping the new church at Antioch. Barnabas was Paul’s discipler.
Acts 18:27-28 NIV
3.The proof is in the preaching - vv. 27-28
After the time Apollos had spent with Pricilla and Aquila, he became more mature in his understanding and ability to share the Gospel completely. They had invested in Apollos and it paid off. He was able to go about debating in public the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah and now he had the truth to support all he said. Remember the Jews constantly came against the Gospel because they were against Paul and all the Christians that presented the alternative to the Jewish faith. But God had another truth teller in Apollos who, like Paul, could stand toe to toe with those who spoke against Christ and the Gospel.
We also see that the process of discipling Apollos paid off when we read in 1 Corinthians 3:5-6 and 9,
1 Corinthians 3:5-6, 9 NIV
From these Scriptures we can see that Apollos continued to minister to others and even with Paul. In writing to the Corinthians, Paul said Apollos watered the seed of the Gospel that Paul had sown as a co-worker in the service of God.
When people become discipled in Christ they have a better chance to understand the Scriptures and how Christ desires for people to be saved and how to explain it in a more clear and understandable way. It is so hard and it takes so long to try to learn it all by yourself. Yes, it is possible to learn on your own but the time frame is so much longer. It helps to have someone by you to encourage you, to rebuke you, to challenge you, to reproof you and to instruct you in the truth of the Gospel of Christ and how to live the life of a believer.
Conclusion
To become the disciple you need to be someone who wants to learn. Using the Scriptures, a person can begin to see the need to have someone help them to understand and also to implement the Biblical truths into one's life. Besides learning, someone who wants to be a disciple of Christ needs to be teachable, like Apollos was. A person needs not puff up with pride that they don’t need someone to help them, but a person needs to be humble and realize that they don’t know it all and need someone else's help. God can use a life like that and He can teach a heart of a person that shows that kind of willingness to be like Christ.
Two questions?
1.Will you, having all the years of experience as a Christ-follower, and learning through personal Bible study and teaching in the church, be willing to be the “discipler” God needs to help those who are ready to be discipled?
2. Are you ready to go to the next step in your Christian life and become the disciple God desires but you know you can’t do it alone and you would like someone to disciple you?
I suggest that today is a great day to answer those questions with a big YES! If your answer is yes, then I ask you to make it public and begin to make relationships that will change your life and the lives of others by learning from another or by helping another person to become the disciple Jesus desires.
For those who are seeing these services for the first time, we are in a series called Who’s Your One? We have challenged everyone to find someone who does not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior or someone who has wandered away from the church and the Lord. I ask that if you know of someone in one of those situations pray and seek to reach them with your love. Now for those who have a ONE...Have you thought about your ONE?
If they do not have a personal relationship with Jesus, they need to hear the Gospel. Are you ready to share your faith with them? To simply share what Jesus means to you? You would be the one who is the logical choice to do that.
If the person you are praying for does know Jesus as Savior, would you take the time and effort to ask them if you could disciple them in Christ - to help them grow in their relationship with Him?
Approaching the person you have prayed for, you could ask if they would be willing to meet with you for Bible study and then, step by step, begin to slowly determine if they NEED Jesus, or if they KNOW Jesus. Once you know where they stand in their relationship with Him, you may have the privilege of leading them to the Lord or discipling them in a growing relationship with Him.
Let’s pray for you, and those for whom you are praying. Pray that you will be willing to follow the leadership of God’s Holy Spirit, and they will respond to your invitation.