COG 50: Easter | Discipling

What does real-world discipleship look like on Easter Sunday? Today AMBrewster strips down discipleship to its most basic elements and gives practical examples of how to do it on Easter.

The Year Long Celebration of God is a family resource from Truth.Love.Parent., a ministry dedicated to rooting families in God and maturing families for God so they can harvest blessings from God.

Discover the following episodes by clicking the titles or navigating to the episode in your app:
COG 48: Easter | Preparing for Your First Time
COG 49: Easter | Celebrating God
COG 26: Discipleship Requires Conversation

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Episode Notes

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Transcript

Introduction

Check it out, everyone! Today we post our 50th episode. 

I’m so thankful we’re still working through The Year Long Celebration of God with you and your fellow disciplees.

I created The Year Long Celebration of God and its podcast as a parenting tool for all my awesome dads and moms who follow Truth.Love.Parent. That podcast is getting close to 450 episodes, and I praise God for the way He’s using them to equip men and women to disciple children and teens.

Whether you have kids or not, if you work with children and families, I encourage you to check out Truth.Love.Parent. so you can learn what the Bible has to say about being an intentional, premeditated, disciple-making Ambassador for God.

And — obviously — The Celebration of God will be a big part of that.

And so today, just a couple days before Easter, we’re going to have a short episode to prepare us to disciple our friends and family on Easter Sunday.

As always, I encourage you to visit CelebrationOfGod.com to get your free episode notes, transcripts, and Easter resources including our Easter Bible Reading and Easter Anticipations.

So, what does discipleship practically look like on Easter?

Topic

The last thing I want to do is beat a dead horse or a broken drum. Actually, the last thing I want to do is eat a beat, but I defiantly don’t want to hit a horse with one either.

However, I do believe it’s important to be reminded of biblical truths that we so often forget . . . or just ignore.

In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus commands His disciples (and that includes all of born again believers) to “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”

First, no Christian has a legitimate excuse to not be discipling someone. It may be a student or peer or friend or family member or fellow church member, but you absolutely must be involved in a discipleship relationship, or you are disobeying the Great Commission. 

Second, notice what discipleship entails. First, the individual has to be a believer. Discipleship is not evangelism; evangelism is evangelism. Discipleship can only be done with someone who has already put their trust in Jesus Christ and chosen to follow Him.

That’s why the first thing on the list is to baptize them. Baptism has been called by many, “The first step of obedience for a Christian” because there’s nothing keeping new believers from being baptized earlier rather than later, and . . . only a Christian can be truly baptized.

I know, I just lost all the Presbyterians out there.

Hang with me. It’ll be okay.

The point is, the prerequisite to having disciples is to lead them into a saving relationship with Christ.

And the second element of discipleship is to teach them to obey everything that Christ has commanded us. 

Now, there are two really big implications here.

The first unfortunate reality is that people like to think they’re discipling by evangelism, and they like to think they’ve discipled even though it didn’t involve teaching people what Jesus said and teaching them how to observe those commands.

In both of those scenarios, they’re not really discipling.

And the second implication of this truth is that discipling requires five things:

1. A discipler,
2. A disciplee,
3. God’s Word, 
4. Conversation, and . . .
5. Practice

Let’s work through that list.

The first two points are obvious, but let me sit on them for a second while I toss this beat at a dead horse.

1. Are you really a discipler?

My friends, it’s a nonnegotiable command. And even if someone wanted to do some theological gymnastics and argue that the great commission only applied to the 11 disciples, then they’re also going to have to ignore the vast majority of the New Testament that commands and illustrates what God’s expectations are for discipleship in the church.

Ephesians 4:14-16 is a beautiful synopsis of how discipleship works. Instead of being capricious children deceived by unbiblical lies, Christians are to be equipped by their pastors to speak the Truth in love so that the entire church can be fitted together and built up in love so that we grow up into Christ.

So, again, are you discipling someone?

Well, the answer to that question is really easy if you can answer the second question.

2. Do you have a disciplee?

If you don’t then you’re not a discipler. If you do, then you are. They require each other. You’re not a discipler waiting for a disciplee, you’re not doing your job.

And the really cool thing about discipleship relationships is that they don’t require a master and pupil dynamic. I know Christ commands us to teach each other, but that can and should be a reciprocal relationship.

I can speak the Truth in love that you need to be built up in the area, and you can speak the Truth in love I need to be built up in another.

But did you know you can be a discipler with a disciplee and still not be discipling for Christ?

3. Is the Bible the foundation of your discipling?

By our every fleshly word and deed we invite people to be our own disciples, but it takes intentionality to disciple someone to follow Christ. That intentionality will require the Scriptures. That’s where we discover the Truth and love to be spoken into other’s lives.

And speaking of speaking . . .

4. Do you and your fellow disciple talk about God?

I know . . . it’s crazy . . . but having two disciples of Christ in the same room who both believe the Bible and who are both talking with each other DOES NOT MEAN THAT CHRIST-HONORING DISCIPLESHIP IS HAPPENING.

Yes, I can model what it looks like to live a Christ-honoring life, but if that’s all I ever do, and I never speak about what I believe and how it affects my life, I’m not discipling for Christ.

Episode 26 is entitled “Discipleship Requires Conversation” because it does. 

When was the last time you preached, taught, encouraged, challenged, rebuked, edified, admonished, corrected, or trained another believer with the Word of God?

But we’re not simply to teach others what God said, we’re to teach them how to actually observe it. So . . .

5. Are you teaching others how to actually obey God’s commands?

That’s what it takes to be a discipler.

That means that we have our marching orders for Easter Sunday.

This Easter we need to plan to engage with at least one other believer with the purpose of talking about God and His Word in a way that helps you both better understand it and obey it.

Let me say that again.

This Easter we need to plan to engage with at least one other believer with the purpose of talking about God and His Word in a way that helps you both better understand it and obey it.

And that can happen at a sunrise service, at home, at lunch, during dinner, right before bed, and any point in between.

It’s complicated. In fact — for some of you — it’s probably easier than decorating your Celebration Wall.

But here are some really practical ways to start these types of conversations if you’re not already used to doing it.

1. Assuming you’ve been studying the Bible, share with another believer what God has been teaching you, reminding you, or challenging you.

This may be your regular Bible reading or your Easter Bible reading. It doesn’t matter.

2. During this season of life you can talk about how God saved you.

3. Ask the other person about what God has been teaching them from their Bible reading, the church services they’ve attended, or other Bible-related interactions they’ve had.

4. Ask your fellow disciple about when they became a disciple of Christ.

5. Easter is the prefect time to talk about the amazing sacrifice and resurrection of the Lord and how it impacts our now as well as our eternity.

And then enjoy the conversation and let it flow.

Of course, discipleship isn’t always encouraging. Sometimes it involves admonishment and rebuke. That’s okay. God commands those as well, and — if you’re a parent — you’re probably going to have to do that on Sunday as well.

God will provide you so many opportunities to talk of Him this Easter. Take them. Take that conversation and sharpen a fellow believer.

Encourage someone.

Edify someone.

Challenge someone.

And welcome those Christians to do the same for you.

Conclusion

Easter is the best holiday of the year, so I wish you a happy Easter and proclaim “He is risen! He is risen indeed!”

And, guess what? The Easter celebration is not over on Monday. It’s just beginning. So, don’t forget to join us next Friday as we talk about the celebrations of Eastertide.