Discipleship

Journey Through John, #10, John 1.35-43

March 31, 2020 0 Comments

Hi Friend,

If you are a follower of Jesus, you are a part of the movement Jesus started. If you are new to this movement  you may have heard church people talk about discipleship. 

A disciple is literally a student-follower. When we talk about discipleship we are not talking about life in a classroom. Rather we are talking about a life in relationship with Jesus — in real time and in real life.

The text for today is John 1:35-43  — Pause now and read it.

35The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”37When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”39  “Come,”he replied, “and you will see.”So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon

.40Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which when translated is Peter).


This passage has all kinds of discipleship moves:
John has disciples; but he keeps pointing to Jesus: “Look, the Lamb of God!”
The two disciples then leave John and follow Jesus.
Jesus turns around and sees them following and asks, “What do you want?”
The two disciples call him Rabbi and ask, “Where are you staying?”
Jesus says, “Come and you will see.”
Jesus spends the day with them.
One of the disciples, Andrew goes to find his brother, Simon.
Andrew announces the possibility that Jesus is the Messiah they have been expecting.
Andrew brings Simon to see Jesus.
Jesus looks at Simon and says, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated is Peter).

So many discipleship moves here. For the Church in the world we keep pointing to Jesus. We are not looking for disciples for ourselves. We are actually discipling people to Jesus. Jesus is The Disciple-Maker. I believe Jesus is still doing what he does in this text and we get to be a part of it.

Three Discipleship Moves we make with Jesus


Jesus keeps asking: “What do you want?”  — This is the first direct word we have from Jesus in the Gospel of John. A question: What do you want? Every disciple of Jesus must answer this question. Do I really want to be with Jesus. What are the desires and affections of my heart?

Jesus keeps spending time with people:  He invites those who wonder about Him and what He is up to in the world, to “Come and see.” — Every disciple of Jesus must settle into being with Jesus and being where Jesus is taking them in the world.

Jesus keeps changing lives: Every disciple of Jesus must be in relationship with the One who can change their character from shifting sand (this is what the name “Simon” portrays) to being a person with a rock-solid and well defined core (this is what the name “Cephas” or “Peter” portrays). 

As friends of Jesus we keep pointing people to him. Sometimes they must “leave us” to follow Jesus for themselves. We may experience some grief in that. But, we can rejoice because we are together in the Fellowship of the Lamb. That’s what its like to really be the church. We must always anticipate and rejoice in the allegiance of each disciple to Jesus. It’s this freedom in discipleship that calls the church back from being cultish, controlling and toxic. It’s this movement in discipleship that spreads the Gospel around the world and in each generation.


Let’s Pray

Heavenly Father, We come to the fellowship of Jesus the Lamb by your invitation. Thank you for this grace. Transform our lives and make us solid people who are able to join you in the life-changing movement of redemption and love. We want to be with you! Grant us the courage and the capacity that John the Baptist had to treat people as friends who belong to Jesus.

In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.

Take time now to write your own prayer and response to God from this text.

Our next reading will be from John 1:43-51.

Change, Discipleship, Journey Through John's Gospel

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Joy and The Race Marked Out for You

August 28, 2019 0 Comments

The little exercise I run through sometimes creates more disequilibrium than I intended. I start with the space I can see. Then I recall that I live in Vancouver, in Canada, in North America, on planet Earth, in this solar system, in this galaxy, and then… Well you can work it out too. The ever expanding universe. I’m in it. I’m in it with you.

Does God really have plans and purposes in which we can reside and understand ourselves in this cosmos and in our community? Do these plans even in spaces of enormous injustice and struggle include joy in this life? The Gospel of Jesus says, “Yes!” Hebrews 12:1-2 suggests that Jesus lived with joy as a reality He knew He could enter.

The Gospel pulls my head out of the clouds. The Gospel of Jesus offers a grounded view of the meeting of heaven and earth and reveals our participation in a great cosmic struggle in which the glory of God will prevail. We are all living some form of life. But it may not be the real life that God intended for us. Jesus extends an invitation to real life now — knowing God and following Him. Fatalism is a joy-killer. Fatalism robs of us agency. Suggests that we cannot change. Fatalism says, “You are stuck and hopeless.” It sets us in this generation without meaning beyond the desires of our bodies. Fatalism tells we have no choice. Who would want that? Yet, fatalism can be very persuasive.

How can fatalism can be set aside? Such meaninglessness and its despair must give way to the glory of being loved by the Creator of it all who is revealing Himself in it all, just as the night gives way to the morning.

As we read the life and relationships of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we must take note of the many times Jesus comes to intersections in which His “steps,” His “way,” His “participation” in the Father’s work and life is tested, challenged, and flat out opposed. These challenges did not end with the “temptations” we famously attend to in Matthew 4 and Luke 4.

Jesus’s temptations were legion! Through it all Jesus did not depart from His Father’s work and way. He confesses (John 5:16-23, 30 NIV):

16So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”18For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.19Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.20For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.21For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.22Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,23that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him… 30By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

Jesus’ joy in relationship motivated Him and centred Him even as He parked Himself just inside the gates of Hell. The relationship to the Father and Jesus’ union with the Father is the source of His joy. And Jesus invites us into His life of joy (John 15:9-13, NIV):

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.10If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.13Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

So here’s why this matters to me so much. When I need a way to get my foggy head out of the clouds and the disequilibrium of the cosmos it comes down to this: Because I have been befriended and loved by Jesus, I now have neighbours and Jesus who are I am to treat as friends. I am to love them. Through the power of the crucified One raised from the dead, through the power of His Holy Spirit, I am to love.

The race marked out for me is in this space, with these people, and in the communion of God. The race marked out for me and for you, though they are different in so many is ways are similar in this way: it is meant to be full of love and punctuated with joy.

To be loved by Jesus is to enter into His new creation.
To pray is to love and to enter into His communion.
To love even in a struggle of life and death is to enter into the promise of His joy.
And His joy is real.

Discipleship, Jesus, Relationships

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Meditation on Joy

August 26, 2019 0 Comments

God is doing a good work in you. He provides us with many reasons to rejoice through the good times and the challenging times of our lives. Joy has become a topic of philosophical and self help discussion. Our joy in Christ comes from the overflow of our relationship with Him, even as the Holy Spirit pours the love of God into our lives.

In the last few years Miroslav Volf, professor at Yale University, has been working on a theology of joy. He was asked the question, “Why isn’t happiness enough?” “Happiness,” he says, “generally is today understood as a kind of pleasurable feeling… Joy has something specific about it. We rejoice when we are united with the object of our love, with things that we love.”

Jesus often speaks of God’s joy.  Read Luke 15:1-7, NIV.

1Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

3Then Jesus told them this parable: 4“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’

7I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Notice the joy in Jesus’ parable. In this parable and in the next two we see Jesus confronting the “joy-killers” with the Father’s joy.

The Joy of finding–God feels it.
The Joy shared–God invites it.
The Joy multiplied–Lots of joy in Heaven when we repent.
Lots of Joy and delight–When we turn to God.
Lots of Joy–when we return to Him.
Lots of Joy–When we take a step of faith.
Lots of Joy–When we respond to His love.
Lots of Joy–When we abide in His love.

Let us enter into His joy by listening to the Holy Spirit, returning to God, agreeing with God, and changing our lives in response to His grace in Christ Jesus. He embraces us joyfully.

God has a specific joy in being united with you, the “object” of His love.
Do I have joy in being united with Him?
If not, what would Jesus have me know?

The promise of joy fortified Jesus for the suffering of the Cross. The author of Hebrews writes:  (Hebrews 12:1-2, NIV)

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.


Jesus is my specific source of joy. I am included in Jesus’ specific sources of joy. Possible?

Yes! This is the real — The joy of your salvation!
Oh God, grant me this mercy that like Jesus I shall not lose heart!
I receive and abide in your joy.


Read more of Volf’s interview published by RNS.

Change, Discipleship, Jesus

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The Morning After

June 13, 2019 0 Comments

A Witness to Our Lives

The morning after a friend became a follower of Jesus he started walking. He walked all through the city of Vancouver. He said he walked all day and that it was one of the most difficult days of his life.

As he walked the Spirit of God began to walk him through the memories of his life. He said it was as if “Jesus turned on all the lights.” All these things that he had forgotten came flooding back from childhood and his years in a gang. He said, “I began to remember one act of deceit and violence after another.” He began to give a full account to Jesus. And with every violent remembrance laid at the feet of Jesus, my friend received forgiveness and freedom.

Jesus was cleansing his life. When the day of his baptism came it was a glorious celebration!

My friend began the journey with Jesus and continued living in it the way he began: Having trusted Jesus for the forgiveness of sins the Holy Spirit activated repentance and belief. This is the way for all of us who name the name of Jesus as Lord.

Repentance and Belief

Our Heavenly Father, no matter our family story, our education or our nationality desires that repentance and belief be the reflexive responses to Jesus and His Word prompted by the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul reminded the elders of Ephesus,

“You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.” Acts 20:20-21, NIV

Repentance is a response to grace and truth in which we change our mind about God, ourselves, people, and the stuff of earth. John declared that Jesus had come full of grace and truth and has shown us the glory of God. So if you have a collision with Jesus you have choices to make.

Godly Sorrow verses Worldly Sorrow

The Holy Spirit can bring about a godly sorrow but the enemy prefers worldly sorrow (See 2 Corinthians 7:10-11). Worldly sorrow will sink us deep into deathly shame and will mobilize us to play blame and denial games. But under the influence of godly sorrow we will receive the prompting of guilt (the truth about our attitudes, actions, and beliefs) and will turn away again from that which is opposed to Jesus.

Then, we are learning the ways of grace and keeping in step with the Spirit. Hopefully you will have some company in this. James says,

“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each others so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” James 5:13-16, NIV

Set Free to Love

The goal of all this is love. We cannot love if we are bound up by shame. We cannot love freely if we are bound up by oppressive spirits. The deliverance of God is available to us. My friend started a great journey with Jesus that night. And the next day he started to walk with Jesus. He had to keep on listening to the Holy Spirit and discern, “What is God saying to me?” and “What am I saying to God?” That’s repentance and belief. For all of us, the morning after receiving Jesus is just the beginning of life that is meant to be abundant, it is meant to be progressively more free as we live in The Truth.

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Jesus
Matthew 7:13-14, NIV

Racism: Willful Participation and/or Stupid Complicity

Racism presents one of the big challenges of repentance for the followers of Jesus: to realize both our willful participation in that which is wrong and/or our complicit participation in that which is wrong. Repentance of attitudes and actions and faulty beliefs about people is necessary. To walk with Jesus and His church means that we enter into repentance and belief with him most definitely even when it concerns our complicity with oppression.

Paul knew the Holy Spirit’s movement of repentance and belief personally so he is able to write,

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:26-29

But Paul, he not only had the words, he had the relationships and actions born out of repentance and belief. Do we?

Change, Discipleship, Jesus, Relationships

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Holy Days Tip #3

December 23, 2018 0 Comments

To my UBC family: gather with

To gather with 
friends and family
is easy for some
but for others of us 
it is the most difficult 
calling of holidays.

Reconnecting is 
pregnant with 
surprises.
While apart from 
one another 
we have all been
changing.

But our minds 
and hearts 
trick us
and usually 
we have frozen
each other,

entombing the other 
in the expectations,
beliefs,
habits,
and patterns
of old.

To gather with
is to come
face to face 
with conflict
and to face our 
own desperate
desire to be
understood
and cherished.

To gather with
is to allow
for the possibility 
of change
and the possibility
of not that much
change.

To gather with
in Holy Days
is to rely 
on His love
to cast out our fear.

Oh Jesus you came
and gathered with us
full of truth and grace.
Help us 
gather 
with.

John 1:14, NIV
 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

1 John 4:13-21, NIV
13This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 

17This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

19We love because he first loved us. 20Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

Change, Discipleship, Prayer

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