True-Hearted Disciple II: Where Authentic Discipleship Begins

True-Hearted Discipleship Preview and Study Introduction

Welcome to the Whole Council Podcast. I'm Jon Snider and this week we have something special for you. Last week we introduced you to Ian Hamilton. We had an interview with Ian and he is the author of a new study that we're publishing called The Nature and Practice of True-Hearted Discipleship.

And this is one of our smaller studies so it comes with a workbook and with the DVD or streaming code that allows you to, whether as a family or a small group or as an individual, to listen to what he says and to go back to Scripture with the workbook and to work through some key elements that were in that lesson.

We thought it would be nice to let you hear the first session from that study and so that's what we have this week. The book should be in our hands Friday but we hope that we'll be shipping those at the end of the week.

And I think it's really a worthwhile study. Ian, if you listen to last week's episode, Ian is such a gracious guy. I was talking with the pastor just this week who had heard that interview and he said, you know, that's the kind of believer I desire to be.

You know, I aim at to be gracious, you know, deep in his theology, firm. Ian is a very firm, clear-thinking pastor and educator but so gracious, so like Christ. So we hope that you find that beneficial.

The New Birth and the Kingdom of God

It's my great privilege to explore with you over these next sessions what the Word of God has to teach us about the nature and practice of true-hearted discipleship. Turn with me in your Bibles to the second chapter of John's Gospel towards the end of the chapter, verse 23, and we read these words.

Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about him for he himself knew what was in man.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God for no one can do the signs that you do unless God is with him.

Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen but you do not receive our testimony.

If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

The most common word in the four Gospels for a follower of Jesus is the word disciple. And in the ancient world, a disciple was someone who first of all attached themselves to a master, a leader, and who then followed that master or leader all their days.

They were committed to learn from him. And in these next studies, we will explore together what it means to be a true-hearted disciple of Jesus Christ. And I do emphasize true-hearted because as we will see in this context and really throughout the four Gospels as a whole, there were false-hearted disciples.

There were men and no doubt women as well who seemed on the outside to be followers of Jesus, who gave every indication for a time of believing in him, but who ultimately were unmasked, exposed, almost always by Jesus himself as being false-hearted disciples.

False Disciples and the Warning of Matthew 7

Now the question what is a disciple is not a purely academic one. Towards the end of our Lord's teaching in Matthew 7, the Sermon on the Mount, he said many will come to him on the very last day, the day of God's ultimate judgment, and say to him, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, do many mighty works in your name?

And Jesus will say to them, depart from me, I never knew you. Many will come, said Jesus. And that's a very sobering thought, is it not? That on the last day, many who gave every indication of belonging to Jesus, of even participating in the ministry of Jesus, will be unmasked and exposed as never having savingly been united to Jesus.

And so the question what is a disciple is very much not a purely academic one. Now it's often said that the best place to begin something is at the beginning. So to understand where true-hearted biblical discipleship begins, I think we can do no better than to consider Jesus' encounter with Nicodemus, who is described in verse 10 by Jesus himself as the teacher of Israel.

And what I'd like to do is to walk you through this encounter that the Son of God has with this deeply, profoundly religious man, this Pharisee, this ruler of the Jews, this eminent teacher of Israel, the Reverend Dr. Professor Nicodemus.

I want to walk with you through this encounter. And in so doing, my hope is that together we will discover, if we have never discovered before, just what it means to be a true-hearted disciple of Jesus Christ.

Nicodemus, Covenant Privilege, and Spiritual Blindness

Notice with me in the first place, the closing words of John chapter 2 and the opening words of chapter 3. Jesus knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

Now, John writes, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. And John is impressing on us that this man who comes to Jesus under the cloak of darkness, this deeply religious man, is actually not a stranger to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus knew this man. That is to say, he knew his heart. He knew what was in him. He knew what made him tick beneath the surface of his life. And John tells us later on in verse 10 that Nicodemus was the teacher of Israel, Hododaskalos to Yisrael, the most eminent teacher of Israel.

It's quite probable that Nicodemus had memorised what we call the Old Testament. That was not an uncommon thing for well-taught, educated rabbis to do. They had memorised the whole of what we call the Old Testament.

And because he was a Jew, Nicodemus belonged to the old covenant people of God, to whom God had come in grace and in mercy and in love, and blessed them with privilege after privilege. Paul writes about those privileges in Romans chapter 9.

He says,.

To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs. And from their race according to the flesh is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever.

Amen. Now these are remarkable privileges, are they not? But not one of them, not all of them together, made any man or woman right with God. And the reason for that is simply this, that by nature we are all children of God's wrath.

We are born into this world infected, tainted with the sin of Adam, our first head, and subsequently by our own sin. We read in Jeremiah 17 that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

There is something profoundly amiss in the very core of our being. If Nicodemus was ever to be right with God, he needed to understand that sin was not like a fungus that could be scraped off his body.

It was a deadly disease that required life-saving, life-transforming surgery. And then notice secondly that in response to Nicodemus' opening statement, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

John intriguingly says Jesus answered him, but Nicodemus hadn't asked Jesus a question, had he? Now it could be that Jesus is simply responding to Nicodemus, but I think it's more probable that Jesus is actually answering Nicodemus' unexpressed question.

Remember Jesus knew what was in a man, and Jesus discerns that what Nicodemus is really asking is this, Jesus, who are you? Who are you? Who are you really? Jesus' response to Nicodemus is blunt, even confrontational.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again or born from above, John loves doublet entendres, double meanings, there are about a hundred double meanings, this intentional literary device, and here is one of them, unless you are born again, born from above, you cannot see the kingdom of God.

And what is being highlighted here is that the Lord Jesus Christ is completely unimpressed with Nicodemus' religious pedigree. His first words to this seeker, for that's what Nicodemus really was, he was a seeker after truth, and his first words essentially are these, Nicodemus, you are all wrong with all your privileges, with all the blessings that God has bestowed upon you as a Jew, as a member of the covenant people of God, you are all wrong.

Your problem is not that you need a refresher course in religion, your problem is not that there are some areas in your life that need readjusting, refined or corrected, your problem is deeper and profounder.

You must be born again. This is true seeker sensitive religion. Jesus is saying to this well-educated, deeply religious man that as he is with all his God-given privileges, he can neither see nor enter the kingdom of God.

As you are, Nicodemus, you are outside the kingdom of God. Though that must have sounded like a thunderbolt to Nicodemus, he surely would have assumed that as a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, the teacher of Israel, that if anyone had an inside track into the kingdom of God that would come at the end of the age, it would be him.

And now this man, Jesus, who has intrigued Nicodemus, is saying to him, as you are with all your privileges, you are outside the reign and the rule of God's saving grace and saving love. I'm actually not sure if the Lord Jesus Christ would win many friends in today's church with his readiness to confront men and women boldly with their spiritual condition.

Jesus was never brusque, he was never cold, but he never indulged in pious pleasantries. Nicodemus, you must be born again. And then thirdly, Jesus proceeds to highlight Nicodemus' spiritual blindness.

Nicodemus, in response, asked Jesus, how can a man be born when he is old? His question betrays his utter ignorance of the Bible, the very word that he, as a rabbi and as a teacher of Israel, would have been deeply schooled in.

He fails completely to understand the spiritual truth embedded in Jesus' words. What was Jesus saying to this man? He's saying, Nicodemus, true religion begins with God giving you a new beginning, a new heart.

Now, Jesus wasn't saying anything novel. He wasn't introducing Nicodemus to esoteric truth. The new birth is a truth that is witnessed to and testified to and taught throughout the length and breadth of the Old Testament Scriptures.

Twice in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 10, verse 16, and again in chapter 30, verse 6, God, through Moses, says to this deeply privileged, covenantally blessed people, do you not know that your heart needs to be circumcised?

Don't rest your confidence before me in the sign, the outward sacramental sign of belonging. That was to picture something profounder and deeper. Your hearts need to be circumcised. You need me to take away the heart of stone and to give you a heart of flesh.

The tragedy of Nicodemus is that with all his schooling and learning in the things of God, he was completely ignorant of the basic truths of biblical religion. And he's a warning to us that true religion begins with God taking away the heart of stone and giving us a heart of flesh.

We can be schooled deeply, even profoundly, in the truth of God and yet be ignorant personally, experientially, existentially with that truth embedding itself deeply, savingly, transformingly within us.

The New Birth, the Spirit, and Human Inability

And then Jesus goes on, you'll notice, to confront Nicodemus with the ABC of biblical religion. He says to him, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. What is Jesus saying? He's saying to this man, no matter how hard anyone tries, all we can do, all you can do, Nicodemus, is produce more of the same.

All religion can do is produce more religion. Devoted religion, maybe. Precise religion, perhaps. Even evangelical religion. But only religion. Jesus has told Nicodemus he needs a new heart and that's what the imagery of water and spirit signified.

Unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. And the imagery drawn from Ezekiel chapter 36 is saying to Nicodemus, you need inward purification and renovation by the ministry of the Spirit of God.

The words in Ezekiel 36 would no doubt be known notionally, even theologically to Nicodemus. I will give you a new heart, says God, and the new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, give you a heart of flesh.

I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my judgments. Could anything be clearer? That true religion is inward. It begins in God renovating our inmost being, renewing us within, coming by his spirit to cleanse us and then renew us by his grace.

Now it might seem that Jesus is actually engaging in a council of despair to Nicodemus. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. It might seem that Jesus is saying, Nicodemus, as you are, there's nothing you can do to change what you are.

Is Jesus simply saying to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, you may as well just go home and wait for God and his sovereign good pleasure to grant you a new heart? Well, clearly not. Jesus is not engaging in a council of despair but actually in a spiritual strategy.

He is seeking to make Nicodemus feel his helplessness before God. He is driving Nicodemus into a corner. He's pressing on him his utter spiritual inability before God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.

You need to be made new, Nicodemus, but you can't make yourself new. You see, until you know your helplessness before God, until you know that left to yourself you are without hope and without God, the good news of God will never seem sweet to you.

So Jesus here is not being callous. He's not being cold-hearted to this seeker after truth. Actually, on the contrary, he's being full of grace. He knows that the only hope Nicodemus has is to be brought to an end of himself and to recognise before God that all the religion in the world, precise religion, devoted religion, evangelical religion, all the religion in the world, can do nothing to make him acceptable to God and bring him into the reign and rule, the saving reign and rule of God.

And it's only then that Jesus holds out, as it were, hope to this hopefully increasingly distressed teacher of Israel. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do you see what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing to this man?

He's saying, Nicodemus, you cannot give yourself a new heart, but I want to tell you something that I trust will cheer you and help you. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. What you cannot do, God can do.

You see, none of us is born with faith. We're not born with the spiritual grace to believe the gospel, to embrace Jesus Christ as he is freely and openly offered to us in the gospel. Faith is the result of regeneration, of the spirit of God renewing us, of sovereignly invading our lives, of uniting us to Jesus Christ, thereby enabling us, by God's grace, to believe the gospel.

It is by grace that you are saved, wrote Paul to the Ephesians. Through faith indeed, but it is grace, the undeserved, ill-deserved kindness of God to judgment-deserving sinners, through faith that we are brought to believe in the gospel.

So what is Jesus actually saying to this man? He's saying, Nicodemus, cast yourself on God. Cast yourself on the grace and mercy of God, who takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their evil ways.

Why will you die, O house of Israel, God says through Ezekiel. And Jesus uses a very simple but vivid illustration to impress his teaching on Nicodemus. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.

The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound. You do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone. It is with everyone who is born of the spirit. And Jesus is making two simple but foundational points to Nicodemus.

He's saying, Nicodemus, you need the spirit of God, wind and spirit. In Greek pneuma, same word. He's saying, Nicodemus, do you understand your great need is the sovereign, gracious, mighty work of the spirit.

And secondly, he impresses on him that the life ministry of the spirit is sovereign and mysterious. You can't predict the work of God. You can't see God at work, but you can see the effects of his work.

You see, when the spirit of God does come and take away from us the heart of stone, as the Bible puts it, and gives us a heart of flesh, he does so transformingly. The new birth evidences itself in new life.

Where there is no new life, there has been no new birth. Just like a physical birth, a spiritual new birth cannot be hidden. No one is saved by their works, absolutely not. By the works of the law shall no one be justified before God.

But we are created in Christ Jesus for good works. And when we are united to Jesus Christ, it is inevitable, absolutely inevitable, that that union will evidence itself in new life. Let me bring this to a conclusion.

Jesus' teaching on the absolute necessity of the new birth rests on two truths. The first is this. There is a city bright, closed are its gates to sin. Nothing that defiles, nothing that defiles can ever enter in.

God is a holy God. His heaven is a holy heaven. And if we are to enter that holy heaven, we need to be changed, made new. Our lives need to be inwardly renovated. And that inward renovation manifests itself in outward transformation.

If anyone is in Christ, says Paul, new creation. There is a new coming of the Spirit of God in transforming power, bringing us into union with Jesus Christ so that his life becomes our life. And the true hearted disciple of Christ is known by the new life that the Spirit works within us.

And the second truth is this. Jesus' teaching on the new birth rests on the fact of our complete inability to give ourselves the new birth that we need. We must be made new, but we are helpless to make ourselves new.

That's why the message of Jesus Christ is gospel. It's good news. What we cannot do, God can. So what is a true hearted disciple of Jesus Christ? He or she is someone who has experienced a new birth, a birth from above, a sovereign in-breaking of the Spirit of God.

It may be quiet. It may be dramatic. That matters not. What matters is that it issues a new life, a new life that gives to God all praise and glory. And because the new birth inevitably issues a new life, the Christian disciple shows that he truly is a disciple by a new life, a new centre of gravity, a new goal, the glory of God, a new longing to see Jesus Christ enthroned in every life, in every place throughout this world.

Where there is no new life, there has been no new birth. Has the new birth produced new life in you? If there is no new life, you need to go to God and cry to him to give to you what only he can give to you, that birth from above that will bring you into the kingdom of God.

Amen.