TLP 173: Disciple-Making Parents

Salvation as the First Step in Discipleship

Sometimes we get the idea that God wants everyone to just be saved, but that shows a huge and dangerous misunderstanding of salvation. Salvation is just the first step in discipleship. Discipleship is the whole picture.

Welcome to Truth. Love. Parent. Where we use God's Word to become intentional premeditated parents. Here's your host A .M. Brewster. I hope our introduction to.

Season 7 last time was a huge encouragement to you. Everything we do at TLP is to help set your family free from sin and to equip you to glorify God on all you do. That's why today we're discussing the ins and outs of being a disciple-making parent.

But we'll get to that in a minute. If you've been listening for any period of time and have not yet invested the couple minutes it will take to leave us a review on iTunes, will you please plan a moment to do so?

I was recently considering purchasing a product, but before I did I read the customer reviews. You know what? I didn't purchase it. When dads and moms scan through the many podcasts dedicated to Christian parents it's really helpful to read the reviews.

They're gonna potentially invest a lot of time with any one podcast and they'd like to know before they start whether or not it'll be worth their time. When you share your thoughts about TLP you're helping them make a more informed decision and your reviews are also a huge blessing to me and Team TLP.

So again, please do that if you have not yet done so. I also want to take a brief moment to thank Mark and Carol for sending us a generous one-time monetary gift. Truth. Love. Parent is a listener supported ministry and there are five different ways you can support us.

If you click on the five ways to support TLP link in the description you can see that number one, you can pray for TLP. Two, you can tell your friends about TLP. That includes sharing our episodes on your favorite social media channels.

Three, you can sponsor an episode. This can be done by individuals or businesses. Four, you can make a one-time donation like Mark and Carol did recently. And five, you can become a patron. Patrons are individuals who have committed to monthly support.

That might mean that they're giving only a dollar a month or it can mean they're giving much more. The point is there are many ways to support our mission to glorify God by equipping parents all over the world to be intentional, premeditated, disciple-making parents.

And we'd love for you to be part of that mission. And speaking of being disciple-making parents, let's talk about that right now. First let me say that there is so much that could be said about this topic.

Books and books have been written about the biblical concept of discipleship. But I don't want to overload any of you today. I want to encourage and equip you to understand what discipleship is and see that the very first few steps are well within your grasp.

After that, you will hopefully spend the rest of your life learning to be a better discipler, but at least you'll be on the way. So let's begin by laying out our goals. Today we want to, number one, figure out what a disciple really is.

Two, understand why disciples are so important to God. And three, learn how to make them. So let's dive right in. Number one, what is a disciple? Well, when you search the scriptures for disciples or disciple, you'll find over 280 occurrences, and the vast majority of those are nouns.

But the whole concept of disciples seems to have been an easy concept for first-century Christians because nowhere in the Bible does it really define what a disciple specifically is. So of course, we could look at all the occurrences in order to build a definition.

For example, in Matthew 10, Jesus gives this information,. And the servant like his master. He says a similar thing in Luke 6,. And in Luke 14, Jesus says,. So we could definitely proceed that way and learn a lot in the process, and perhaps we'll have to do that sometime.

But for now, I want to focus in on only four passages. These passages are interesting because they contain the Greek verb that means to make disciples, as opposed to the nouns we were referring to earlier.

Let me read them for you. In Matthew 13, 52, Jesus said to them,. In Matthew 27, 57, we read,. Of course, we need to include Matthew 28, 19,. And finally, we have Acts 14, 21. Now, before we go back through each verse to mine the significance for today's study, let's talk about why I chose to focus on the verb instead of looking at the noun.

Intransitively, this verb means that the subject is becoming a pupil. Transitively, it means that someone is enrolling another as a student. Now, in the King James Version, the word is translated, twice, instruct once, and be disciple once.

Acts 14, 21 refers simply to making many disciples. In the Great Commission, Jesus commands us to make disciples. And in Matthew 27, 57, we learn that Joseph from Arimathea was a disciple of Jesus. This verse might be better translated, Joseph, who was also discipled by Jesus.

And then we have Matthew 13, 52, which doesn't use the word disciple at all. Instead, it refers to a scribe having been trained. As we figure out what a disciple is, it's important to understand that this Greek verb refers to someone entering into training.

I highly, highly, highly, highly encourage you to listen to episode 94, Train Your Children to Stay with God. If we do not understand the biblical concept of training, we will continue to fail as parents.

Training requires at least two people actively participating. It's not an active endeavor for the teacher and a passive process for the student. Both parties must be investing if it can be considered training.

A disciple is not merely a student. As we saw last time, if we abide in God's Word and become His disciple, our lives are going to be changed, but not because of a passive process. And that leads us to our second big idea of the day.

Discipleship as God's Highest Goal

Number two, why are disciples so important to God? Well, I would argue that beside His own glory, discipleship is God's highest goal. Sometimes we get the idea that God wants everyone to just be saved, but that shows a huge and dangerous misunderstanding of Salvation is the first step in discipleship.

Discipleship is the whole picture. It includes justification, sanctification, and glorification. Discipleship is the gospel. There is nothing more important to God here on this earth. It's true that God takes us as we are, but He will never leave us as we are.

If we or our spouses or children are exactly the same person we were when we professed Christ, then we are not disciples. We are not His followers, and we're not born again. As an ambassador parent, you have no higher calling than to disciple your kids.

Now, I could continue to wax passionate about this, but let's transition into the practical. Number three, how do we make disciples? Let's start with the Acts 14 -21 passage. When they had preached the gospel to that city that had made many disciples, they were turned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch.

First, again, discipleship starts at conversion. The good news must first be preached and accepted. Second, let's consider Matthew 27 -57. When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who was discipled by Jesus.

God does not want your children to be disciples of you. He wants them to be His disciple. You must be His ambassador, His first follower in your home. You should be training your children to be His disciple.

This is why Luke 14 says, If the idea of being a first follower is new to you, please further this study by listening to episode 7, which is called Stop Being the Leader. So, we need to start with the gospel and then remember whose disciple our children must be.

The Parables of Matthew 13 and the Shape of a Disciple

Third, we need to look at Matthew 13 -52. In this chapter, Jesus has spoken a number of parables. It starts with the parable of the soils, which we talked about in great detail on our Four Children series.

This parable opens up explaining how people will respond to Christ's words. Then it talks about a man who sows good seed, but someone else comes in and sows weeds. Jesus wants everyone to know that there will be people who think they're on the good side when in actuality they've been put there by the enemy.

And in the end, the burned. He then talks about how the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed and leaven, which both permeate the space in which they exist. Then Jesus tells the parable of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great value.

These parables talk about the value of the kingdom of God and how a man of God is going to be willing to invest everything he has to gain it. Then there's the parable of the net, which is very similar to the one about the weeds.

Fishermen collect all the fish, keep the good, and destroy the bad. And then we come to the parable of the new and old treasures. After telling all the other parables, Jesus states in verse 51 that,. After all of that talk about how people respond to truth and how there will be deceivers and the deceived and how the good will be separated from the bad, Jesus points out that someone who is a disciple knows what valuable living looks like.

He's the master of his house, his behavior, and he only brings out the treasures, whether new or old. I went through all of that because it was Jesus' natural conclusion to all of those parables that we realize that a true, soft-hearted person who receives the truth, who is a good plant, not a weed, who allows the kingdom of heaven to fill him like a mustard plant or leaven, who is willing to give all to gain the immeasurable treasure of the gospel, and who will be counted as one of the good fish, that person lives a life categorized by good treasure.

Like Matthew 12, 35 says,. So we see that discipleship starts with salvation, requires submission to Christ and only Christ, and exhibits itself in a changed life that is acceptable and valuable to God.

The Great Commission and Teaching Obedience

And lastly, we're going to look at Matthew 28 to learn more about this process. In verse 19, we read,. In Mark 16, 14, Jesus says,. Again, discipleship is the gospel. Salvation is the beginning of discipleship.

This is why baptism is part of making disciples. And then in verse 20, we read,. Here we have one more reminder that the disciples we make must be disciples of God, not us. Teach them to observe all that God has commanded you.

And then the passage ends with the wonderful promise that what God expects, He empowers. Jesus promised,. Now before we recap this, let me remind you that all of this will be laid out nice and neat on our free episode notes at our blog, Taking Back the Family.

Okay, so disciples are people who are born again and are actively learning about God and obeying the truth they learn. It's what every person is called to do. You're either a growing disciple or you're not a Christian.

Do you remember Matthew 10 and Luke 6? Jesus said,. The moment we're saved, we're justified in Christ. Then for the rest of our earthly lives, we're participating in the growing process that is sanctification.

We're not yet like our Teacher, but we're becoming like Him. It won't be until we see Christ that we'll finally be glorified. That means we'll be like Him and that we will no longer sin. It'll be that point when we can say that we are fully trained because we will be like our Teacher.

Second, the whole process of discipleship is God's highest calling and His highest goal for all mankind. That's why it's so important for us and our kids. And third, in order to help our children be Christ-honoring disciples of God, we must do the following four things.

Number one, evangelize our kids. We have a number of episodes about evangelism parenting. Two, train our children to follow Christ. They should only follow us as we're following Christ. That's co-discipleship.

They're not following you so much as you're following Christ and they're following Christ right behind you. Number three, this process will result in children who are growing. Their life is daily being conformed to God's will and being transformed into the image of Christ.

And four, lastly, we have God's promise that He will be with us through the whole process. Now, I say you're not supposed to add any new information to your conclusion, but there's one more thing I want to share with you before we're done.

Christ's Discipleship Model and Parenting

But first, don't forget to share this episode on Facebook. Every Christian parent needs to be a disciple-making parent. And join us next time as we discuss the sufficiency of Scripture in parenting. I'm really looking forward to this one because it builds on the words of Christ when He commanded that we make disciples, that we do so by teaching them to observe all that He's commanded us.

Now, the last thing I do in every show is to give you hope for the day and decisions and parenting struggles ahead. Let me end today with an anecdote designed to give you hope. At my last ministry, I counseled families across the desk.

Generally, my counsel was preemptive. This is what you're going to need later today. However, once I moved to Victory, I love the fact that my counseling is in the moment, in the kitchen, in the bedroom, at the dining room table.

It's present and it meets the need of the hour. As I reflected on Christ's discipleship model, I realized that the parent-child dynamic is the closest thing to Christ's discipleship model that we have.

Unless you're planning on moving in with and experiencing life with a bunch of complete strangers for the process of discipling, then parenting is it. And that's exciting! Family life was designed by God to facilitate discipleship.

Discipling our children, therefore, should be easier than really discipling anyone else. And if we do it the right way and follow Christ's example, we truly can be intentional, premeditated, disciple-making parents.

To that end, I'll see you next time.

Truth. Love. Parents is part of the Evermind Ministries family and is dedicated to helping you become an intentional, premeditated parent. Join us next time as we search God's word for the truth your family needs today.