10250 North Freeway @ West Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
10250 North Freeway @ West Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
Basic Discipleship
Written by Dr. Lester Hutson
This material is copyrighted c2002 and may not be copied or reproduced without the express written permission of the Berean Baptist Church.
To order a copy of Basic
Discipleship,
please visit our Publications section.
PHASE
2 INITIAL
GROWTH
SESSION
11
One third of every believer’s three great, primary spiritual resources are introduced in this exercise. Your disciple has been acquainted with the Bible and with the Holy Spirit. Here he will meet the church.
The church is grossly misunderstood by multitudes of people with
sincerity and good intentions. They
do not know what a church is. This
exercise, therefore, begins with the Biblical definition of church, and then
proceeds to present a general overview, from its origin to its importance.
As always, the emphasis is on disciple involvement. It is not wise to simply tell him too much.
He needs to discover as much as possible for himself.
With that in mind, these exercises are designed to force the disciple
into God’s word in order to find answers.
Discipler, your job is to monitor and make sure he doesn’t get off
track.
Do not forget your long-term goal of making this disciple into a discipler. Your task and goal is to make a discipler, like you, out of him or her. You should urge, encourage and motivate, but not do for him what he should do for himself. Actually, by this point, you should be gradually backing off more and more. Perhaps more can be done over the phone with fewer and shorter face-to-face meetings. Admittedly, the timing on this will vary from disciple to disciple depending on aptitude.
Your disciple needs to view each of his three great resources as a resource designed by God for his spiritual welfare. Help him see that and do your best to make him skillful in the use of each one. Many of God’s children languish and limp through life because they fail to use the resources which God has made available to them. Doubtless, in many cases this results from ignorance and/or incompetence, regarding the resources. It is probable that assistance from a discipler such as you could have changed this scenario. Do not take your work with your disciple passively nor regard it as unimportant. To some degree, his welfare is in your hands. You, by strong leadership, can help equip him for a much more productive and stable Christian life than he would know if left to himself. You can make a difference.
Pray and be a good example to your disciple in every way. See that your disciple receives the next exercise.
God has three primary resources to help you spiritually on a day-by-day basis. What are the two, which you’ve already discovered?
1. The Bible.
2. The Holy Spirit.
What is a resource ?_____________________________________
On an average, how much time are you giving daily to your Bible? _________.
Name a specific way the Holy Spirit has been a resource to you during the passed seven days______________________________.
The church is God’s third great spiritual resource for your welfare. This exercise is designed to help you understand it better. Like any other resource, the better one understands and learns to use it, the more beneficial it becomes to him. Learn your spiritual resources. Make them truly yours. They will serve you faithfully and keep you from untold trouble and heartache until the Lord promotes you to heaven, but only as you avail yourself of them.
DEFINING WHAT THE CHURCH IS
“Church” is translated in your Bible from the Greek word ekklesia, pronounced ek-klay-seé-ah. It literally means a called out assembly. Two other terms in your Bible are sometimes used interchangeably with the word church. Read Colossians 1:18, 24 and I Timothy 3:15, then list these terms, which occasionally used synonymously with church.
1. “Body
2.
“House of God.”
The word church always refers either to some specific assembly or
to the idea of a church in an abstract sense.
Just as the terms body and house always denote a specific
body or house, except when used in the general or abstract sense, church always
refers to a specific congregation or assembly, except when used in the general
or abstract sense. In abstract
usage, common understanding of language makes it clear that the concept of the
house, the body or the church is under consideration.
One readily knows that no one giant, encompassing house or body exists
and that to assume a reference to the body or the house means some
big, giant, all-encompassing
body or house would be foolish indeed. “Church”
is a noun, as is body and house. Nouns
used in the concrete sense always refer to specific persons, places or things.
In spite of this fact, many persons commonly misunderstand the noun “church”
to refer to something bigger or more than one specific assembly or group
which can get together at one place at one time. Read I Corinthians 14:23 which speaks of “the whole
church be come together into one place.” Do not misunderstand the word “church” to mean
something bigger than one particular assembly; and bear in mind that if a group
cannot assemble (every Sunday), it cannot be a church, for by definition a
church is an assembly. When the
Bible refers to all of the saved, it calls them “the whole family
(of God) in heaven and earth...” (Ephesians 3:15). Do not confuse
the family of God, which consists of all believers, with the church of God,
which consists of baptized believers who constitute individual congregations.
Note the definition of church illustrated in the following references.
1. Read Revelation 2:1,8,12,18 and Revelation 3:1,7,14. Name the individual mentioned. (1) Ephesus, (2) Smyrna, (3) Pergamos, (4) Thyatira, (5) Sardis, (6) Philadelphia, (7) Laodicea.
2. Read Ephesians 5:23. In what sense, abstract or concrete, are the nouns “husband” and “church” used in this verse? Concrete. Why do you suppose some people understand the usage of the word “husband” in this text as a reference to the husband in each case where there is a husband-wife relationship, while understanding the word “church” to refer to all saved people instead of to each individual congregation where a church relationship exists? Do you think it is consistent and right to understand one of these nouns in one sense while using the other in a totally different sense?
Yes ___. No ___. Why? ________________________
3. Matthew 16:18. What possessive pronoun did Jesus use when speaking of the church? “My.” Can the noun phrase “my church” be rightfully used to refer to each assembly, which has sprung from the specific assembly that Jesus personally established in Jerusalem, Israel? Yes . X
No ___. Can the noun phrase “my church” be rightfully
used in any broader sense than in reference to those individual assemblies which
have originated from the assembly Jesus personally established in Jerusalem,
Israel? Yes____ No X
ACQUAINT
YOURSELF WITH THE CHURCH
Read Matthew 28:18-20. Name the three-fold commission (The Great Commission), which Jesus personally gave to His church.
1.
Win converts to Christ.
2
Identify converts by baptism.
3.
Teach converts the teachings of Jesus Christ.
What is the promise of Jesus Christ to those churches that obey His Great
Commission?
His
presence in each such church until His personal return.
In terms of authority and power, locate Jesus Christ on the following scale.
None 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total
Match the following verses with the appropriate ideas.
1. Matthew 16:18 (6) Purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ.
2. Ephesians 3:21 (3) Believers to routinely assemble with it.
3. Hebrews 10:25 (5) Jesus Christ is its head.
4. I Corinthians 12:13 (7) Has mortal leadership to instruct in the word of God and attend its needs.
5. Ephesians 5:23 (2) God expects glory to come to Him from it.
6. Acts 20:28 (8) Its main function is to propagate the message of Jesus Christ.
7.
I Timothy 5:17 & Hebrews 13:17
(1) Personally founded by Jesus Christ
during His earthly ministry and rests upon
Him as its foundation.
8. Mark 16:15 (4) A believer becomes a member of it when he is scripturally baptized.
9. Romans 12:5 (9) A church is made up of many people.
In view of the teachings in this matching exercise, meditate on the following thoughts.
1. A church is made up of saved and baptized people; not buildings and material property.
2. If Jesus personally established His church during His earthly ministry, then it did not originate at some point thereafter such as on the day of Pentecost.
3. If Christ is the head of His church, what about those churches who have man as their head?
4. If Christ established one church in Jerusalem, Israel, then that church and its legitimate offspring can be called His. What about those churches, which He did not found and which are not direct offspring from the one He founded?
5. How long did Jesus promise His church (through its offspring) would continue?
6. How committed is Jesus Christ to His church?
7. How committed should you be to His church?
8. How important is your presence in church services?
Read Acts 2:41-47, then match the following concepts.
1. Apostles’ Doctrine (3) Observance of The Lord’s Supper.
2. Fellowship (4) Talking to God.
3. Breaking of Bread (1) Teaching the truths of God which were revealed by God to the Apostles, who set them forth in the Bible
4. Prayer
(2) Deep and harmonious involvement in the
lives of other members of the church.
In view of these Biblical church activities, meditate on the following considerations.
1. What should be the source of the preaching and teaching in your church?
2. Is there a need in your life for corporate church prayer as well as private prayer?
3. What is
the message of the Lord’s Supper?
4. What could you initiate that would help you to better know and understand other members of your church?
"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"