I preached on Sunday on the topic “A loving mentoring relationship: Paul and Timothy” but brought the focus more on making disciples.
Good morning.
The topic before me this morning is “A Loving Mentor Relationship, Paul & Timothy” and I will be making use of Paul’s second letter to Timothy. But before I go into that aspect of the sermon, let me put together a biblical framework for it.
The charge to make disciples
In Matthew 28:19-20 it is recorded for us that Jesus said to his disciples,
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
This verse is usually seen as a clarion call to evangelism but clearly it is a call to make disciples. When we factor in the instruction to baptise and teach, my personal conviction is that it is primarily a call to the church.
In other words, the mission of the church is to make disciples.
When we are called to make something the assumption is that it cannot happen unless we do so. It could well be that by divine will and intervention a disciple was made but when we are called to make disciples we must assume that God does not intend to circumvent us and do it himself.
Secondly, it is a strange interpretation of “make disciples” to think that our task is to bring Christians together and teach them the bible. It is like bringing together the ingredients for a cake and hoping it will actually happen.
Making disciples is intentional.
Finally, from what Jesus said, the disciple is one who is baptised in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and who obeys the teaching of Jesus and that includes this command to make disciples. Jesus invited Peter and his fisherman friends to follow him and he will make them fishers of men. At the end of his time with them he gives them this charge: Go and make disciples.
We are to make disciples who make disciples.
In the 1930s the Navigator ministry was started by a young California lumberyard worker who caught a vision. After seeing the benefits of basic principles of discipleship in his own life, Dawson Trotman wanted to teach them to others, echoing the call of 2 Timothy 2:2:
“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”
Dawson began teaching high school students and local Sunday school classes these principles. In 1933, he and his friends extended their work to sailors in the U.S. Navy. There, Dawson taught sailor Les Spencer the foundations of Christian growth. They spent many hours together praying, studying the Bible, and memorizing Scripture. When one of Spencer’s shipmates asked him the secret of his changed life, Spencer brought the man to Trotman: “Teach him what you taught me,” he said.
“You teach him!” Trotman responded. And the 2 Timothy 2:2 vision was strengthened.
The Navigators focuses on one-on-one discipleship training, pairing a trained senior Christian with an untrained junior Christian with the goal that the junior Christian will grow to be able to train another in due course.
What is the shape of a disciple?
In his charge to the disciples, Jesus sketches out the shape of a disciple:
- Baptising them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Baptism has 2 core connotations: Firstly it describes your identity; You bear the name of God. In being baptised in God’s name, you declare your allegiance and your loyalty to him. To be baptised in the name of God is to turn away from the world and turn to God.
Secondly, baptism is also a means to enter into God’s family, specifically the church. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul tells us that we are baptised by the Spirit into the body of Christ.
So, the disciple is one who turns away from the world and swears loyalty and fealty to God. They join a local church community and learn to function as a full member, contributing to the life and ministry of the community.
- “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”
The disciple learns to walk in obedience to Jesus. This means that he must know Scripture and know how to learn from it, have the attitude to want to obey what he learns from Scripture so that Scripture is able to shape his discipleship.
- “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The disciple must develop a personal relationship with Jesus and learn to draw strength, encouragement, forgiveness, direction, and guidance from him. The quiet time is the modern practice to develop this personal relationship and it must go beyond merely going through the motions to having a vibrant conversation and relationship with God.
Many of us have been Christians for many, many years. How are you doing as a disciple in these 3 aspects: your loyalty to God and your contribution to the life and ministry of the church; your ability to learn from Scripture and apply what you learned; and your relationship and walk with Jesus? Rate yourself from 1-10. If you are above 5 then you are in a position to help another to grow. If you are below 5 then you should seek someone to help you grow.
How do you make disciples?
The biblical model for making disciples can be seen in Jesus and his disciples as well as Paul and Timothy as described in Paul’s second letter to Timothy.
Firstly it is a modelling relationship
Jesus told his potential disciples,
“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Essentially it means, follow me and I will make you a disciple who makes disciples.
In John 14, we read of this exchange between Jesus and his disciples:
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
In other words, Jesus told his disciples, if you know me you will know the Father.
Paul has the same idea when he wrote to the Corinthians:
For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. (1 Corinthians 4)
And then,
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. (1 Corinthians 11).
Paul’s relationship with Timothy can be seen in 2 Timothy 3:
You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. (2 Timothy 3:10-11)
You know all about me.
You know all about my relationship with the Lord.
Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and told them, do likewise. Paul shared about his ministry and told Timothy, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.
Disciples make disciples. Making disciples is not about getting Christians to attend some workshops, or putting some books in the hands of a young Christian even though they are useful. It is someone who has gone further ahead and tells the younger Christian, follow me, join me, imitate me.
Secondly, it is an engaging relationship.
Jesus told the two disciples on the road to Emmaus,
“How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!”
On many occasions he told his disciples,
“Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
He sends them out on mission trips, he taught them to pray, he explains his parables to them, he challenges to feed five thousand people, he challenges their preconceived notions, telling them
“whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Paul told Timothy,
“fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline”
“No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops”
“I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”
The reason this is something we need to be mindful of is that there is a tendency for us to mind our own business. You have your idea of what it means to be a Christian, you have your idea of what it means to be involved in church, you have your idea of what it means to obey Christ, you have your idea of the place of quiet time in your life: I mind my own business.
The model of making disciples in most churches that I have encountered is basically “DIY” or Do-It-Yourself. The church provides the environment and some resources and tells the members, “help yourself”. This is not how I understand Jesus’ command to make disciples.
Making disciples is not about making them comfortable and soothing their fears because the life that Jesus won for us, what Paul calls “the good deposit” is not something cheap and inconsequential. Following Christ is not a “chinchai” or “anything also can” matter. Real discipleship involves sacrifice. Do we challenge ourselves to do better so that we can challenge those around us to do better? Minding our own business does not make disciples. We should be having conversations with one another about aspiring to be a disciple of the highest quality, encouraging those who are losing their passion, deepening each other’s notion of what it means to follow Jesus.
Finally it is a nurturing relationship
Jesus was a man of prayer and in John 17 we read of him praying for his disciples. On one occasion he told Peter that Satan wants to test him but he has prayed for him that his faith will not fail. We even read of Jesus asking his disciples to take a break because life was getting chaotic. And when Peter got excited and wanted to jump into the water to follow Jesus, Jesus just said, “Come!”
Paul tells Timothy:
“I constantly remember you in my prayers. Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.”
He expresses his love for Timothy in his prayers, in his regard for him and encourages him by affirming his faith and genuineness. At one point he even tells Timothy to drink some wine to alleviate his stomach problems.
Making disciples is not about pressurising them or making them feel guilty. It is to love them and help them have the faith, the desire and the courage to move forward.
Mentoring is usually seen as a one-on-one relationship but in the context of making disciples what is more important is that it is not a “teacher-student” relationship in a classroom context but a “master-apprentice” relationship in the context of life and the church. Jesus chose to interact with 12 and that structure would be more like the cell group that allows group dynamics to create more opportunities for teaching situations.
It can be a formal relationship such as between Jesus and his disciples or it can be a more informal one that we can see between Paul and Timothy. It can be an aspect of your parenting, out of your concern that your children grow up as mature and passionate followers of Jesus, or your ministry to help the members of your cell group grow in Christ, or you reaching out to the younger people in church to teach and guide them.
However we may understand mentoring, what is more important is the work that Jesus gave to us all—to make disciples—and in this regard I would like to pose these 3 questions as I end:
Are you a disciple that others can follow?
Do you talk with one another about discipleship, seeking to share your own experiences and also to encourage one another to grow further and deeper?
Do you care about each other’s spiritual health and growth to pray for one another?