Jesus brought the disciples out of their comfort zone

When Jesus walks on water his disciples are horrified. They've seen Jesus break the laws of nature several times over, but this miracle pushes them outside of their level of comfort. Jesus reassures them, and they take comfort in God's sovereignty by seeing that his power has no bounds—he can do literally anything, even walk on water.

Jesus also puts the disciples in situations where danger is imminent. The Jews wanted to stone Jesus because he kept saying that he was God, and the disciples thought it prudent to hunker down and let the mob's anger pass. When Jesus hears of Lazarus' death, the disciples protest going back to Judea in hopes to save their own tails. Jesus responds by telling them that if they are doing good before God, why hide before men? They are putting their safety before the saving of Lazarus' life, and Jesus pushes them through their fear gently—not in a rebuking manner, but in a clear, focused, and resolved manner.

This is a series of reflections on how Jesus made disciples, based on the book of John.

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Jesus used practical object lessons

Jesus didn't pick the smartest, the coolest, or the most likely to succeed to be his disciples--he went straight to the bottom of the barrel and picked the fisherman, and he taught them in very practical ways. He brought them almost everywhere he went and taught them along the way.

Jesus would pick up a loaf of bread and use it as an example of our dependance on God. He would use his signs and miracles as a way of showing that he has power over death and the effects of sin by raising Lazarus and giving sight to the blind man. He uses his own service of washing their feet as a way to show that they must serve, and even feeds five thousand people to show that even though he is one man, his work can feed the many.

We can't use the same type of object lessons that Jesus did because we aren't the Messiah, but we can follow Jesus' example by using metaphor, speaking in plain English, and creating circumstances that allow us to teach our disciples.

This is a series of reflections on how Jesus made disciples, based on the book of John.

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If you are like me, you have probably had a bad small group experience at least once in your life. You know the kind, where some weirdo takes over the discussion, or where the leader allows too much time of awkward silence. There is nothing worse than a bad small group experience. In fact, this is the reason why so many people are reluctant to be a part of a small group. As group leaders, our job is to protect our small groups and make them a safe place where people can share, grow, and learn together. We train our small group leaders to watch out for the following five landmines, which can destroy a good small group.

1. They become a gossip group.

Small groups are not a place to talk about others; rather they should be a safe place that is free from gossip and condemnation. People who attend a small group should feel free to come as they are and share openly and honestly. If we are not careful, small groups can degenerate into a gossip group that will tear down instead of build up.

2. They become a one-man show.

The leader should not do all the talking. Encourage others to participate and share in the group discussions. I have been to some small groups where only one person does all the talking. When this happens no one wants to share, much less attend. An effective small group leader encourages everyone to participate in the times of discussion.

3. They become a place to complain about the church.

Small groups can become a sounding board for disgruntled people to complain about the church. This is not a place to complain and slander the church. If people have a problem with the church, they need to share it with the church’s leadership, which is biblical. Train your leaders to protect the unity of the church by not allowing upset people to use the small group as a place to complain about their problems.

4. They become a place for crazy people to take over.

Small groups can attract crazy people who will hijack the group if you let them. Do not allow people to get off the subject by chasing rabbit trails. Whenever people start getting off track in the discussions, bring them back quickly. This requires a lot of discernment and grace. A good leader can keep people on track and the discussion moving.

5. They become an end in themselves.

Sometimes small groups become merely a meeting place or a social club; rather small groups should reach out to new people in the community. Small groups can also serve the community. Encourage your people to reach out to others. Begin thinking of creative ways that you can serve together as a small group.

This post is adapted from a forthcoming ebook by Winfield Bevins.

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Jesus tested his disciples

It's simply amazing to see the wisdom that Jesus uses when talking to Philip before he multiplies the fish and loaves. Jesus and Philip know that they don't have enough money to buy food for the ocean of people sitting before them, so Jesus puts the ball in Philip's court and asks him what they should do. Philip says "We could give each person a crumb."

Philip's worldview says, "We can buy this much bread and divide it by the number of people, and the quotient will be a crumb for each person." His math is poor in God's arithmetic--Jesus is infinite in his power, and infinity divided by any number is still infinity. Jesus can provide enough bread for everyone, and still have enough left over for lunch the next day. He tested the disciples, and they learned through their failure to believe.

This is a series of reflections on how Jesus made disciples, based on the book of John.

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Jesus pointed to the heart

When Jesus is teaching his disciples, he points them straight to their heart to show them where the real problem lies. Sin is not some force that floats around like the Eastern Qi or the dark side of the force; sin is in the hearts of people, and people's lives are the vehicles for sin and destruction.

The disciples keep turning to what they can do versus what they are to believe—our intuition is that doing gets results and belief is a luxury that makes us feel good about what we do. Jesus points to the heart and says, there's the problem, right there. Believe in God, rely on me, trust God, and let him deal with the sin problem. You'll grow good fruit if you have a good heart and bad fruit if you have a sinful heart. It's the heart.

This is a series of reflections on how Jesus made disciples, based on the book of John.

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Fight Clubs Series: Click | View Series
Read the free eBook here.

Our spiritual war is a war against the flesh, that lingering vestige of our pre-Christian lives that must be beaten to death so that we can live in the fullness of life given to us in Jesus. The apostle Paul says, "Fight the good fight of faith" (1 Tim 6:12). We are to beat the flesh in the power of the Spirit: "For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live" (Rom 8:13). These texts call us to "fight" and "put to death" the deeds of the body, our sinful patterns of anxiety, self-pity, anger, fear of man, vanity, pride, lust, greed, and so on. Upon becoming a Christian, we are inducted into a Fight Club—the Fight Club of faith.

The Three Rules of Fight Club

Fight Clubs are small, simple groups of 2-3 who meet regularly to help one another beat the flesh and believe in the promises of God. Men meet with men, and women meet with women, in order to effectively address general and gender-specific issues head-on. We have three rules:

1) Know Your Sin.

The first rule of Fight Club is "Know your sin." If we don't know our opponent, how will we beat him? We must become well-acquainted with the areas in our lives where the flesh gets the best of us, where we are prone to sin.

2) Fight Your Sin.

The second rule of Fight Club is "Fight your sin." Once we know our sin, we know where to strike. The challenge then is to actually strike, to beat up our flesh.

3) Trust Your Savior.

The third rule of Fight Club is "Trust Your Savior." How do we fight? We fight, not in our own strength but with the strength of the Spirit.

One day the fight will be over. Faith will become sight. Our image will be perfectly aligned with Christ's image. We will no longer know our sin, fight our sin, or struggle to trust our Savior. But until then, may God grant us his sovereign grace to fight the good fight of faith, for our joy and his eternal glory.

(Adapted from Fight Clubs, Chapter 5: A Spiritual War)

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Real faith is fighting faith. This faith fights not for perfection but for belief. We fight to believe that Jesus is more precious, satisfying, and thrilling than anything else his world has to offer. We fight every day of our lives. We fight from salvation, not for salvation. This is the faith that works through love (Gal 5:6). It is faith that works, not faith in works. It is faith in the gospel—the grand announcement that Jesus has defeated sin, death, and evil, and is making all things new—which includes us. Our faith is a faith that fights.

Repentance and Faith

In order to receive the redemptive benefits of the gospel, we must repent from trusting in false gods and exercise faith in the one true God. We must fight. Repentance and faith are the two sides to the coin of the gospel. They are not a one-time act to get us into heaven, but an entire way of life to maintain Christian joy. Repentance is not a work we tack onto our faith; it is an expression of faith.

Fighting with God's Promises

Repentance can be described as giving up our sinful behaviors and turning our affections away from false gods. God wants our hearts, not just our morality. Repentance is a stepping-stone to true joy. Faith, then, is trust in the one, good, true, dying, and rising-from-the-dead God. It is relying on the person of Jesus through the power of the Spirit by the promises of God. It is not blind faith but perceptive faith. Biblical faith sees the truth, goodness, and reliability of God's promises and chooses to trust them over the fleeting, false, and bad promises of the world.

The Christian life is a constant repenting from belief in false promises and an increasing belief in the true, good promises of God.

Repentance, then, is letting go of false gods and promises, both with our affections and actions. Faith is grabbing onto the one true God and his promises with our affections and actions. Faith is not merely belief in the facts of the gospel message; it is trusting and treasuring the gospel medium—Jesus Christ our Lord.

Repentance and faith form the bridge that leads us away from union with false gods and promises and into the promise of joyful union with the one true God. This is a gospel that motivates, that animates the life of a disciple of Jesus!

(Adapted from Fight Clubs, Chapter 3: Faith and Repentance)

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A free eBook by Jonathan Dodson

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If you’ve struggled to follow Jesus by veering away from the gospel into duty-bound legalism or moralistic indifference, then this book is for you! Fight Clubs is a radical call to fight the fight of faith in the strength of the gospel. Jonathan Dodson calls us to join the fight against sin, legalism, and license by looking to Christ and His gospel. Fight Clubs equips us to fight the fight of faith by exposing the fleeting promises of sin and drawing us into the grace-saturated promises of God. Displacing defective forms of discipleship, Dodson keeps the gospel central by tapping into various layers of biblical motivations that promote joyful obedience to Christ. The book also provides a strategy to fight sin as the church---small fighting communities called Fight Clubs. Read this book; form a fight club; and start fighting in the strength of the gospel.

Fight Clubs Series: Click | View Series

This series has been adapted from Jonathan Dodson's forthcoming booklet Fight Clubs: Gospel-Centered Discipleship. The eBook download will release here at The Resurgence on Saturday, August 1st.

Discipleship does not place the professional at the top of the stairs peering down at his novice disciple. It is not about a vertical relationship, professional instructing the novice. It's not good advice over good coffee. Discipleship is much messier and weightier. It is radically horizontal. It is about a shared struggle in the gospel to live a life of repentance and faith in Jesus through the power of the Spirit. This struggle is constant. Every day, not just every week, every minute, not just every hour. In this struggle, we desperately need one another to fight the good fight with us. We need Fight Clubs.

Fight Clubs

Fight Clubs are about promoting gospel-centered discipleship, groups of two to three men or women fighting the fight of faith. We make disciples of one another in the gospel and in community. We are peers in Jesus, not professionals or novices. Fight Clubs promote a radical peer-to-peer discipleship.

Gospel-Centered Discipleship

This kind of discipleship is, in the end, not about how I perform but who I am—an imperfect person, clinging to a perfect Christ, being perfected by grace. And in this I am not alone. I am one disciple among many. I no longer stand at the top of the stairs but sit in the living room, where we share our faith and our un-faith, our obedience and our disobedience, our successes and our failures.

But we don't stay there. We don't linger in imperfection, unbelief, disobedience, and failure. We fight. We fight the good fight of faith. We struggle to believe the promises of God over the fleeting promises of the world, the flesh, and the devil. We press on to Christ-imitating obedience and victory over sin.

(Adapted from the Introduction: The Gospel is for Disciples Not just Sinners)

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Dual Fidelity

Evangelicals are called to a dual fidelity: faithfulness to the gospel word and faithfulness to the gospel community. The gospel word creates the gospel community; the gospel community displays and declares the gospel word.

In the contemporary scene, people and movements tend towards polarization on this issue. It's often those who are solid on the gospel word who are flabby on gospel community. Likewise, those who elevate community tend to downplay the word.

But there are dangers facing those of us who want to be true to that dual fidelity. As we move towards the nurture and development of vibrant and attractive gospel communities, we must avoid certain pitfalls to prevent us from damaging a truly good thing.

In a series of short blogs, I'll highlight some of these pitfalls. The aim is not to scare us away from gospel community, but to make it even sweeter when we get into it.

Pitfall #1

The Gospel Saves... Not Community

In the first chapter of Romans, Paul gives a summary of the gospel (Rom. 1:3-4), which he then later (Rom. 1:16) describes as the power of God for the salvation of those who believe. The gospel that saves is the proclamation that Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, is the risen Lord of the world. It is a summons to the whole world to submit to him.

Every time Paul preached Christ crucified and risen, he did so confidently and expectantly because he knew that was the means by which God saved his people.

If the gospel saves because it is God's ordained method of rescuing the lost, then:

• You and I don't
• Methods and personalities don't
• Structures and systems don't

Inquiring Minds...

Our danger comes not through actively rejecting the gospel, but in terms of our assumptions being demonstrated by our practice. What we can't do is let our focus on community (as important as that is) lull us into thinking that all we need to do is expose people to it, and hey presto, they're with us.

That might happen of course, but it won't mean they're Christians. According to Peter, it is our corporate life that invites people to ask for the reason for the hope that we have (1 Pe.3:15). There has to be something inexplicable about our gospel community that causes people to inquire. We then have the opportunity to speak the gospel word, for it is through that, and that alone, that God saves.

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