A Disciple is ... those words are the starting point for this series of messages.
What makes the life of Christ-follower different, distinguished in this world from those who have yet to come to know the Beautiful Savior?
• Week one we learned that a disciple is a person with a new heart! We once were wretches, marred by sin and failures, but God gave us what we could not create in ourselves, a new heart, a godly and good heart.
• Week two we learned that a disciple is a person with a new identity, we are children of God, bearing the image and likeness of our Father.
• Week three, I shared that a disciple is a person with a new destination. Heaven is our home. That fact influences, right here and right now, as we start to live in the Kingdom of God, under His reign.
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A Disciple Is... a Warrior!
Some of my happiest memories are of my children playing in the woods behind our home when we lived in Massachusetts. We lived on 7.5 acres that adjoined a pine woods that was a near-perfect playground. The kids next door joined my kids and they disappeared for hours into the trees. There they waged battles against each other and imaginary foes. They built forts from plywood and brush. They adventured and came home happily tired and full of stories of exploits which they related with great animation ‘round our dinner table.
I am convinced that God designed us for adventure, for creativity, and for conquest! We see it in the adventures of our sons, who from the earliest ages, swing sticks like swords, and wrestle and tumble with each other measuring their strength. We see it in the daughter who wants to captivate her Daddy’s heart, who twirls and dances, to gain the admiration of her family.
As we grow, we become a little more sophisticated in our pursuit of adventure, replacing our dreams about becoming like the heroes of ancient tales, with other ways of distinguishing ourselves. We may pursue skill on the playing field, or work to earn degrees, or chase after money as a measure of our success. And, in too many lives, the dreams of adventure and conquest will fade under the withering heat of criticism, admonitions to ‘be real,’ or repeated disappointment in our misplaced efforts to win in battle.
John Eldridge writes of visiting the local zoo where a 500 lb. African lion lived in a cage. The big cat lived behind bars, his food carried to him by keepers, his movements monitored and limited. He did not stand and roar, nor did he look the people he might have had for lunch on an African plain. Instead he just lay there, bored, rolling every now and then from side to side.
“After years of living in a cage, a lion no longer even believes he is a lion... and a man no longer believes he is man. A man is fierce, passionate, and wild at heart...
If he bears the image of the Lion of Judah, how come there are so many lonely women, so many fatherless children, so few men around? How come when men look in their hearts they don’t discover something valiant and dangerous, but instead find anger, lust, and fear?”
Wild At Heart, pg. 40-41
The answer is that God did not give us the desire for adventure and conquest just to be spent on football, bar fights, or becoming corporate titans! He made us to join Him in the battle against sin, suffering, and the works of Satan! He created us to be warriors in the greatest struggle of all, but we often put our strength into the wrong things and end up empty, frustrated, or weary - like Eldridge’s caged lion who had forgotten what he was!
As a disciple, we are called into service, given a commission as warriors in a unique army.
A Disciple Is... a Warrior!If that shocks you or stirs up images that are unpleasant, stick with me. In a few moments I will talk about the kind of warfare we are called to wage and the weapons which God places in our hands. For now, I want to emphasize that the tame, timid, weak, waffly experience that often passes for Christianity is far, far from the Biblical description of what it means to be a Believer!
TEXT - 2 Timothy 2:1-7
2 Timothy 2:1-7 Timothy, my child, Christ Jesus is kind, and you must let him make you strong. You have often heard me teach. Now I want you to tell these same things to followers who can be trusted to tell others.
` As a good soldier of Christ Jesus you must endure your share of suffering. Soldiers on duty don’t work at outside jobs. They try only to please their commanding officer. No one wins an athletic contest without obeying the rules. And farmers who work hard are the first to eat what grows in their field. If you keep in mind what I have told you, the Lord will help you understand completely. CEV
So, does this Word ask of us?
First - “Be Strong!”
The call is to genuine strength, the type of which was revealed in Jesus Christ!
Jesus Christ models tough and tender for us. He was a man who was not afraid to let a woman cry at his feet, who let children crawl onto his lap. He was a man who faced a mob who wanted to kill a woman for adultery, and He didn’t scream and yell at them. He just stood between the accused and the mob until they dispersed. He went to the Cross, horrified by what faced Him, but offering Himself to the will of His Father. What a model of Strength!
Disciples have no business trying to put on a holy swagger, to adopt the ‘tough guy’ mode seem in too many bars, and in the mannerisms of too many men who are still insecure little boys on the inside. When the Word urges us to ‘be strong’ there is nothing of muscles or macho intended. The strength to which we are called is the strength that comes from relationship with an Almighty God! When we experience His grace, we are restored to our place in His family, given a spiritual authority to speak the Truth, and made steady with Hope that is greater than all the stuff that life can throw at us!
There is not enough of such strength among Believers. Often our Christianity is hidden in our hearts, a quiet set of ideals and sentiments that are completely separated from the wider world and experienced only within the safe walls of our church. Many of us spend way too much time whining about how hard life is and waste most of our prayers asking God to relieve our aches and pains and to make life easier for us. In his first letter to Timothy, Paul told him to {1 Timothy 6:12} “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called!”
∙ Where, in your world, Believer, does God need YOU to take a quiet, powerful stand for His cause?
Be strong! But not in your own strength. Stand with God! The God we serve is revealed in the Bible with a Great Name of Power! He is called - YahwehT'sebaoth- the Lord of Hosts. Some modern translations say "Almighty God" but I really love the imagery of The Message which translates that title as "God-of-the-Angel-Armies."
When the Scripture names the Lord, Yahweh T'sebaoth, the intent is to impress us with His power that is beyond challenge so that we will become bold in His service. Believer, do not trivialize God and fool yourself into thinking you are serving Him in strength just by attaching a Christian fish to the bumper of your car or wearing a cross on your lapel, or saying a ritual prayer before you drop off to sleep.
True worship of Yahweh T'sebaoth is expressed in trusting Him implicitly and following His commands without question! The General of Heaven's Armies sends us into the battle in life - be it with temptation, with sickness, with Satan or his demons. When we stand, we show the strength that comes from knowing Yahweh T’sebaoth. In His strength we go with full assurance, and with authority - not of our own making, but from His Name!
Ill.- David, just a teenager, went to do battle with Goliath, the giant champion of the Philistine army that was holding the line against the armies of Israel. Filled with faith and in spite of not knowing exactly how the Lord would provide the victory, the teenage shepherd strode onto the field where the contest would take place. His courage came from knowing he was in the Lord's army. As he approached the skilled warrior, he said, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty (YahwehT'sebaoth), the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me... and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel." (1 Samuel 17:45-46, NIV) And, we know the rest of the story. David defeated the hero in the power of the Lord and God's Name was honored.
The second word to Timothy back in our text is - “Endure!”
We must not misunderstand the intent of this command. When God calls us to endure, He is not simply telling us to resign ourselves to fate! He is asking us to adopt an attitude of hopefulness in His power that steadies us when the going gets rough. Our ability to endure comes from having a high and holy calling and a purpose that is greater than our personal comfort or momentary happiness! Our text illustrates the kind of endurance to which we are called in three ways.
∙ Endure like a soldier who doesn’t get sidetracked into civilian affairs while he is in the army!
∙ Endure like an athlete who wants to be a winner and thus subjects himself to rigorous training!
∙ Endure like a farmer who plants the seed grain that he could have eaten because he hopes for a greater harvest!
Without endurance, we cannot hope to please the Lord who calls us into His service. Eugene Peterson wrote a little book about the Christian life many years which he based around the Psalms of Ascent, which the Jewish pilgrims sang as they climbed to Jerusalem. The title of that book sticks with me to this day - A Long Obedience in the Right Direction. Believer, if you engage in the work of God to make a difference in your own life, your family, your neighborhood, your church, your world - it will be a long, long struggle. Evil hangs on! New battles come at us all the time. We must not tire! Endure, like a soldier, like an athlete, like a farmer!
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So what kind of warriors are we called to be?
This question must be answered clearly and Scripturally! In recent years, Christians particularly here in these United States, have adopted a confrontational stance with the culture that has actually hurt the cause of Christ rather than served to advance it. I do not intend to imply that we should not stand against sin and the sickness in our nation and our world.
In fact, there is much in our nation that should be deeply troubling to us.
∙ The fact that over a million unborn children perish in clinics in abortions of convenience should stir us.
∙ The fact that over 2 million Americans languish in prisons and that a large percentage will offend again when they are released, should concern us greatly.
∙ The fact that almost 75% of Believers still support the death penalty despite calling themselves ‘pro-life’ and in spite of the demonstrated failures of our justice system should trouble us.
∙ The facts of growing violence, materialism, and raw sexuality in our culture ought to motivate us to seek renewal of our culture.
∙ The fact that marriage is increasingly regarded as nothing more than a legal contract that can be broken with little consequence is cause for great alarm among us.
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BUT, too often we are content to make a lot of noise about changing the law, while doing next to nothing about getting really involved with being part of solutions and answers!
God commissions us serve in His army in His name but it is not an army of violence or force! We are an army of servants, equipped with towels and basins, washing the feet of the sinful, the sick, the broken - giving our lives and letting the Spirit flow through us. Such an army is unstoppable!
But, we have largely failed to understand the nature of our warrior calling, seeking power, condemning select sins, and letting other do what we are called to accomplish. The result is scorn for our message!
Barna Research, a reputable firm, reports that 38 percent of young Americans (16-29) have a negative impression of present day Christianity.
Evangelical Christians are perceived
∙ as unintelligent and out of touch with the world,
∙ as judgmental and quick to find fault,
∙ as people who do not live what they teach, and
∙ as those who are too willing to readily and uncritically adopt the political views of the right wing.
Gabe Lyons, author of unChristian: What a New Generation thinks of Christianity (Baker, 2008) writes of Believers:
"we've almost forgotten what it means to be human, or to suffer with other people, or to admit to our brokenness, or to connect with people in areas where we don't have it all figured out. We've tried to portray an image that we have it all together, that our life is best now, that in a lot of ways we have conquered major issues. And we all know that is not reality." 'Christianity In Crisis,' Willow Journal, Winter, 2008)
God calls us to be bold servant warriors, armed not with swords, guns, bullets, or political might but rather equipped us with love that makes us take up the cause of those who are oppressed, addicted, self-absorbed, hopeless, helpless, afraid, and alone!
The Scripture says - {2 Corinthians 10:4}
We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.
(Ephesians 1:17-19, NIV)
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
Yes, Believer, a disciple is a warrior, but nothing like the jihadists that blow up buildings and commit murder in God’s name. We are warriors who bear life and light in a dying and dark world.
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Are you empty, frustrated, and feeling like the adventure of life has been stolen from you?
Are you like the tired, old caged lion from my opening story, having forgotten that God designed you for more than shuffling papers, keeping your bills paid, and your lawn neat while you wait to die?
Mark Batterson wrote a book inspired by a verse from the Old Testament that describes an obscure act of bravery.
2 Samuel 23:20-21
Benaiah son of Jehoiada was a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, who performed great exploits. He struck down two of Moab’s best men. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear.
Batterson writes -
“Our calling is much higher than simply running away from what’s wrong. We’re called to chase lions – to look for opportunities in our problems and obstacles, and to take risks to reach for God’s best.”
There is plenty of challenge in the world for you and me, Believer. There are plenty of lions to chase down, plenty of risks to be taken, plenty of kingdom work just waiting for a few brave men who will answer God’s call, live courageously, risking comfort and safety and security, in the Name of God.
Don’t choose to die while you’re still alive by constructing a cage that shuts you away from the world around you. Instead, pray - “Lord, here I am! Send me!”
Then listen and look for opportunities to love, to serve, to speak, to stand - and to make a difference as a disciple who knows that he is a warrior - tender, loving, and power!
Amen
Jerry D Scott copyright 2008
all rights reserved