Discipleship Ii — Stephen Kaung

Take us, bless us, break us, and distribute us, that it may be unto the praise of Thy glory. Lord, may Thy Holy Spirit breathe upon Thy Word, make it living, Thou art the living Word, and it is Thou Thyself that we are, opening our hearts to You, O feeler of glory.

Glorify Thy name among Thy people, be merciful to us, take away all the resistance that is in us, the hidden spot, Lord, make us wholly yielded, completely abandoned unto Thyself. Teach us how to rest in Thee, Thou art our resting place, Thy will be done in us, and it is in heaven.

Once again, Lord, show for Thyself to us, that we may see Thee and none else. Lord, if we see Thee, we cannot hold back, Thou art worthy, and we worship Thee in Thy precious name. Just to start with, I'd like to read a passage from Matthew, Matthew chapter 28, from verse 16 through verse 20.

The Great Commission and the Call to Make Disciples

Matthew chapter 28, verse 16. But the eleven disciples went into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they did homage to him, but some doubted. And Jesus coming up spoke to them, saying, All power has been given me in heaven and upon earth.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them to the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have enjoined you.

And behold, I am with you all the days until the completion of the age. We mentioned last night that when our Lord Jesus was on earth, one thing he did, he called people to himself, to be his disciples.

This was not only what our Lord Jesus did when he was on earth. After he had accomplished the work of redemption, after he was raised from the dead, before he ascended to the Father, he gave a great commission to his disciples, those who had already become his disciples while he was on earth.

And the great commission that he gave to his disciples is simply this. Go ye and make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have enjoined you.

In other words, even when he was ascending to heaven, his last word to his own disciples was, go and make disciples of the nations. And of course, when his disciples went out to make disciples of the nations, they do not make disciples of the nations to themselves.

They were sent forth to make disciples of the nations to Christ throughout the ages. This is what the Church ought to do, and is doing, to make disciples of the nations. The Lord is not just contented with us to be believers.

Believers and Disciples

There is a difference so far as the fact is concerned. We mentioned last night, so far as truth is concerned, there is no difference between a believer and a disciple. A believer is a disciple, and a disciple must be a believer, because otherwise no one can follow the Lord.

And yet, as a matter of fact, we find there is a difference between a believer and a disciple. To be a believer is to believe in the Lord Jesus, to receive him as our personal Saviour, and to enjoy the salvation that he has provided for us.

That is a believer. We get much from him. But what can he get from us? It is out of the pasture. But to be a disciple is to hand our lives over to him, is to yield ourselves to him, is to surrender our will to him, to put ourselves in his hands, and let him do anything he likes with us, to be trained, to be molded, to be fashioned according to his will.

And that is to be—the Lord is not able to fulfill his full purpose with us if we do not respond to his call as disciples. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, some disciples were of John the Baptist. We know that John the Baptist was thanked by God as a forerunner of Christ.

He was a voice in the wilderness, calling the nation of Israel to repent, for the kingdom of the heavens is at hand. And many received the baptism of John. And those who received the baptism of John were called disciples of John.

But it was not John's intention to retain these disciples. You remember when two disciples of John were with him? Probably these were the two best disciples of John. And when John saw the Lord Jesus passing by, he said, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of this world.

And his two disciples left him and followed the Lord. Was John the Baptist jealous because of this? Not at all. When his disciples came to him and said, People are going to the one whom you testify. People are going away from you and going away to him.

What about that? And you remember John said, Because I'm just a friend of the bridegroom. It is the bridegroom who takes the bride. He must increase, I must. One day some Jews came to the Lord and said, We are disciples of Moses.

But the Lord said, Moses testifies of me. The Lord is calling for disciples. But remember, to be a disciple is to have a personal relationship with the Master. To be a disciple is more than just a matter of sitting in a class, listening to a lecture, gathering some information, learning some skills.

To be a disciple is to have a personal relationship with the Master. You are a disciple of the Master. You are to be one with the Master. You are to be so identified with the Master then that when the discipleship is fully realized, you are a reproduction.

Not that you are able to transform yourself. But the Master has transformed. To be a disciple is not to be attached to a core. It is not to be related to a skill. It is not to be related even to a work.

To be a disciple is to be related to a person. And that person can be none other but our Lord in the Holy Testament. There is only one place. There is a possibility. But there are variations in the original manuscript from the disciples.

If you go through the New Testament you'll find aside from people who were disciples of John, because that was only a preparation, they became disciples of John not on a permanent basis, but on a temporal basis.

John will introduce them to Christ so that the disciples of John may become the disciples of Christ. In the Old Testament times there were disciples of Moses. But to remain as disciples of Moses will become.

In the whole New Testament you'll find we are called to be disciples. But disciples of whom? There is only one. The Lord. As I say in the book of Acts, there is one place. That is in Acts chapter 9 verse 25.

But the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall, lowering him in a basket. Now in some Bible translations it is a matter of manuscripts they use. In certain Greek manuscripts it is said but the disciples of his took him by night and let him down through the wall.

In other words they were disciples of Paul. I wonder if this is a correct translation. Because you remember Paul at that time was a new Christian. He was very young in the Lord. I wonder if he had already collected disciples to himself.

It is true. Later on we find Paul says imitate me. Be imitators of me as I imitate Christ. But he is on a bridge trying to point people to Christ. Dear brothers and sisters, do not be disciples of man but be disciples of Christ.

There is only one master whom we serve. No one can serve two masters. You will either despise the one and respect the other. You cannot serve two masters on earth. And how true it is in our spiritual walk with the Lord that it is the Lord Jesus who is calling us to be his disciples.

Baptism as Identification with Christ

How are we to be his disciples? In Matthew chapter 28 you find something very special. Make disciples of the nation. How? Baptizing them into the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

What has baptism to do with discipleship? Why must a believer be baptized? We often say, well, if we are saved, why should we be baptized at all? But here you'll find the Bible says make disciples of the nation baptizing them.

As it were, baptism is initiating into you. If you know the meaning of baptism. Baptism is to be identified with Christ. We are baptized unto Christ. That is, baptized unto his death. We are to be identified with his death, with his burial, and with his resurrection.

We are to be identified to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. We are to be completely yielded to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. We are, by baptism, to belong to the Father, belong to the Son, and belong to the Holy Spirit completely.

Not just a few spirit beings on your head. But the whole being is immersed. That is to say, we belong to the Lord absolutely, completely, and permanently. That is, we are baptized unto his death. The call of discipleship is the call to die.

The call to be a believer is the call to live. Sinners, you don't need to die. You can live. If you only repent and believe in the Lord Jesus. God has no pleasure, no delight, in the death of the wicked.

But after we have come to him and lived, then the Lord says, Come, follow me. Come after me. Go to the cross and die. The way of discipleship is the way of the cross. It is a call to be identified with him in his death.

What he died for, we die. What he was buried to, we bury. And then, thank God, we are being raised together with him from the dead. So now we are completely in his name. By baptism we belong. We are his.

We are initiated into discipleship. From hereafter, it is no longer we who live. It is he who lives. It is no longer our own will, our own way. We are in his hands as a clay in the pot to be molded according to him.

The Cost and Impossibility of Following Christ

So dear brothers and sisters, what is discipleship? We are called. We are called to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and follow him. We are called to the way of the cross because the way of the cross is the way to abundant life.

The way of the cross is the way to resurrection. And it is only in resurrection that we may be conformed. We mentioned last night, unless you know the Lord, you are not able to follow him. A scribe came to the Lord and said, Teacher, know this.

He didn't say Lord. He didn't know Jesus as Lord. He only considered Jesus as just a great teacher. Teacher, I admire your teaching. I want to learn from you. I want to follow you wherever you go. And you remember the Lord said, The foxes have holed, the birds have nested, but the son of man has nowhere.

You want to follow me? It is not a matter of going to a class and learn something mentally. It is a way of life. And the way of life is the way of the cross. It is even lower than the birds. It is even poorer than the foxes.

Are you able to go that way? But to another, the Lord said, Come. That was his disciple. And he said, Oh, I have to bury my father first. Before I can come. The Lord said, Your priority is here. Let the dead bury the dead.

Come. Can we respond to the call of discipleship? It is an important thing. Do not think that to respond to the call of discipleship is easy. It is humanly impossible. It is only when you see it is impossible, then God can make it possible.

If you think it is possible with you, you will discover it is impossible. He will make it so hard, you will drop out before you drop in. But with God, all things are possible. What a young rich ruler could not do.

Zacchaeus, the great sinner. Voluntarily. So brothers and sisters, it takes grace to answer the call. And I do believe that the grace of God will heal you. With every one of you. With the most timid one.

He is the one. His grace is perfect. If you only go to the Lord and say, Lord, I do want to follow you. I do want to commit myself to you completely. I do want you to take me in my hands and do anything you like with me.

I don't know what will happen to me. Just like Abraham, when he was called, he didn't know where he was going, but he knew one thing. He was in the Lord's hands. Lord, but you do the work. You take me.

And after you take me, don't be patient. This evening we would like to go on. After we have come. After we have committed ourselves to him. And by faith we know he had accepted. Does it mean that we have now completed?

We have now arrived. You are just initiated. To be initiated is very different to be matriculated. Now you have committed yourself to the Lord. Now by faith you have identified yourself with his death, burial and resurrection.

The Process of Discipleship

What will he do with you now? In that great commission in Matthew, you find baptizing them into the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Now you have been baptized. You belong to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

You have committed yourself to him. You are one with him now. Then what? The second thing is and to observe all the things that I have enjoined, then I will be with you until the completion. To be baptized is the initiation.

But to be taught in all the things that Christ has given to us and to observe them, that is the process. So shall we say the process of discipleship or the progress of discipleship. After we have committed ourselves to the Lord, then the Lord will begin to teach us.

You remember in chapter 4 that we read last night? The Lord was passing by the Sea of Galilee and he saw the two brothers there, Peter and Andrew. And the Lord said, Come after me. I will make you fishers of men.

And they left everything and followed the Lord. And a distance later you'll find the Lord saw the two sons of David and he did the same thing. He called them and they left everything and followed him.

So here you'll find the Lord began to have disciples. But he had not only disciples. He had a great crowd too. Among the crowds there were some disciples. But most of the people followed him because they had seen wonders.

They had seen signs. They were attracted. So a great multitude came to him. And you know what the Lord did? He did some mountain climbing. When he saw that great crowd gather around him, he began to climb the mountain.

Our Lord must be a good climber because he was there first. As he climbed the mountain, you'll find all the great multitude began to climb too. But it so happened that his disciples followed him very closely.

The Sermon on the Mount and the Nature of Discipleship

So after the Lord had gone to the mountain and he found a place where he could sit, well he sat down and the Bible says his disciples came and he opened his mouth. Now that is the so-called Sermon on the Mount.

I don't know if you're familiar with the Sermon on the Mount. Are you sure? Matthew chapter 5, chapter 6 and chapter 7. The so-called Sermon on the Mount. To whom was the Sermon on the Mount given? Not to the multitude.

When he saw the multitude came, he climbed the mountain. His disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth to teach his disciples. The great multitude that's standing by, they overheard what the Lord had told the disciples.

But remember, it was to these disciples that our Lord was addressing. After you have committed yourself to the Lord, then the Lord will begin. What's the use of teaching a person if he is not committed?

And the teaching becomes a little bit hard. You will say, who cares? You drop out. Do you sometimes wonder why the Lord does not teach you? Because He knows if He teaches you, it will be a waste. You haven't committed your life to Him yet.

If you have committed your life to the Lord, He will teach you. He will teach you by words. He will speak to you. Just like you find in Matthew chapters 5, 6. You know, Matthew 5, 6 and 7. Sometimes people say this is Christian ethics.

All the highest ethics in the whole world. If people cannot keep the law of Moses, if you find the Ten Commandments too difficult to keep, who can keep the Sermon on the Mount? Impossible. But this is what it is.

Because it is impossible, it is possible. It is impossible with man, but it is possible with God. If you are His disciples, if you are in His hands, He will make it possible. Don't try to do it yourself.

You won't be able to. But just leave yourself in His hands, and you'll find it is done. It shall be done. In Matthew chapter 5, the Lord began to show us the spiritual nature of man. If you want to be His disciples, if you are His disciples, what kind of inward character, what kind of inward nature you will have.

The Beatitudes and Poverty of Spirit

For theirs is the kingdom. How different this is from the world. The teaching of the world is happy are those who are rich in earthly things. For they shall inherit the world. But the teaching of the Lord is just the opposite.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Spirit doesn't mean that you really have nothing in your spirit. It means there is a spirit. Even though you may have a lot, and yet you know you have nothing. Blessed are the poor in spirit.

For theirs is the kingdom. One thing that characterizes our Lord is His deep humility. Even though He was equal with God, He emptied and taped upon Himself the form of man. And after He has become a man, He humbled Himself.

To die, dear brothers and sisters, to be a disciple of the Lord, is to manifest the same inward characteristics. You know, even in human history. When you know a little, you are very proud of what you know.

When you know a little more, you think you know everything. But if you begin to know much more, you begin to realize you know nothing. How much more this is true in the kingdom. Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Our Lord Jesus is willing to empty Himself, to humble Himself. The Lord gave grace to them, but He rejected them. In Matthew chapter 10, chapter 5, you find the Lord is trying to teach the disciples what kind of a spirit, what kind of inward conditions or states are disciples.

We do not have time to go through the whole three chapters. You know, we can spend a long time together going through chapters 5, 6 and 7. But I think we would just say this much. After you have committed to Him, then He will begin to teach.

And you will find He is telling you what kind of an inward, just like this. It is not a matter of outward appearance. It is not a superficial thing. It is something of the heart. It is something that He is trying to mold.

Righteousness Beyond the Scribes and Pharisees

And the Lord says, unless your righteousness surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you cannot enter into the kingdom. The Lord does not say, unless your righteousness surpasses the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees, your righteousness surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.

Do the scribes and Pharisees have a kind of righteousness? They do. Even though most of the scribes and Pharisees were hypocrites. But there are some who are real. For instance, Nicodemus, soul of Tarsus.

They say, I'm a Pharisee. So far as the righteousness according to the law is concerned, I am perfect. Not being hypocritic. According to the letter of the law, he was perfect. King Ruler said, I have kept all these from my childhood.

That's the righteousness of the scribes. Dear brothers and sisters, sometimes we do not even have that right. Do not look down upon the scribes and the Pharisees. They have a righteousness. That the world does not have.

They have a righteousness even we cannot match with them. And yet the law said, unless your righteousness surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.

The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, it is righteousness. Though it is superficial. According to letter. And the Lord demands that His disciples be righteous according to the law. Thou shalt not kill.

And a Pharisee said, I do not kill. But the law said, if you get angry with your brother without reason, if you call your brother a fool, you shall be judged. It is your right. The teaching of our Lord Jesus is spirit.

It reaches into our spirit. It is not just on the surface. In chapter 6, trying to tell us that His words, His teaching is heavenly. It is not only spiritual, but it is heavenly. It is a heavenly relationship with the Father.

You are given alms, which the Pharisees often do, you know, in the temple, in the court of the women. I don't know why they put the offering boxes in the court of the women. I don't know. Probably women offer more than men.

I don't know. But, you know, there in the temple of Jerusalem, they put several boxes in the court of the women. And people will come in and offer. You know. They will stand in line. They will raise their hand higher and let in.

What is your name?

I am John. I don't know. Do not let your hair. Only the Father will seal it.

And you are fasting. Do not put on. Let your hair all uncombed. Because I am fasting. Look, huh? The Lord said, comb your hair.

Do it. Between you and the kingdom of God.

Lay your judge in the box.

You will stand. Build a house. You will hear my word. And do it. Just on the rock. And the wind will blow. The wind will blow. And the house will stand.

That is to say, you hear the word and don't do it.

Teaching in your mind. It has to be very, very good.

The Lord teaches us by before his word. I feel with you. The Ten Commandments was given. They are coming. We are like that. Everything that the Lord says, we will do. We will do. Sign of Lent. Lord, you can see.

Your faith which is teaching. Many years already.

You are disciples. But even John taught us. Give away once. And I am your disciple. I come to you. For a period. Lord, we come. But the Lord. You cannot do it.

You just tell him, Lord. Do what you want. And you know. How to do it? Can you? Your conscience will condemn you. The word of God. Oh, how should we? Dear brothers. Amen.