The Way of Discipleship

Transcript

Welcome to this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. We hope this message inspires you, roots you down deep into the Lord, into His Word, and may His Spirit be your guide as you enjoy this teaching. Thanks for joining us. Here’s the message. Our scripture reading this morning comes from Mark chapter 1, 14 through 15. Mark chapter 10, verses 47 through 52, and Mark chapter 10, verses 29 through 30. Mark chapter 1, verses 14 and 15.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.

— Mark 1

(ESV)

Mark chapter 10, verses 47 through 52. When Bartimaeus heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.

The Engine of Discipleship

But he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and said, call him. And they called the blind man, saying to him, take heart, get up, he is calling you. And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, what do you want me to do for you? And the blind man said to him, Rabbi, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, go your way, your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. Mark chapter 10, verses 29 through 30. Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children

and lands with persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life. Brothers and sisters, this is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. So this morning we are actually pulling up again to take an aerial view of the gospel of Mark. And what we want to do is we want to try to sort of see some of the theological threads that run throughout the whole gospel and hold that gospel together, which is why this morning we start out with a big picture question. One that is woven throughout the whole fabric of every word that Mark writes. And that question is this, what is discipleship? And this morning we want to hear Mark’s answer. For Mark, discipleship, you could say, is the engine of his gospel. It’s what’s under the hood, propelling everything that Mark writes. Now to be sure, Mark structures his book around answering one simple yet profound question.

And that question is, who is this Jesus? In Mark 1 through 8, Mark shows us that Jesus is the Messiah. And in chapters 9 through 16, Jesus shows us what it actually means to be the Messiah. He’s saying, I’m not a politician who comes to retake Israel’s throne. And I’m not a warrior, at least not yet, who comes to overtake the captors of Israel. Instead, what Jesus is doing is he’s saying that I am the servant king. I am the one who comes to ransom spiritual captives from their greatest enemy, sin and death, through a sacrificial death of his own on the cross. Now all of this is happening right there in front of us. It’s what, if you will, it’s what’s happening on the windshield of this gospel. But remember, there’s something happening under the hood of Mark’s gospel too. See, the gospel’s engine is discipleship.

That’s because behind Mark’s central question of who is Jesus is the equally important question, what are you going to do about it? This is what Mark’s discipleship focus is. Now that you know that Jesus is the servant king, will you follow him? See, this is a question we don’t really read with our eyes in the book of Mark, but it is a question we feel in our guts and our hearts when we hear his gospel. See, Mark intentionally pushes this question on us. He wants us to not only watch others, the other disciples in the book follow Jesus. He’s calling us to do the same. To do this, Mark consistently hints at three characteristics of true discipleship. First, discipleship is a response. See, we follow the king because we’ve been confronted by that king. Next, discipleship is a renewal. When we follow the king, he reframes, he reforms, he restores our world and us.

Discipleship as Response

And then discipleship is a road. This is how the gospel works. This is how discipleship works. We are called to follow the king wherever he goes because we have faith that where he takes us is exactly where we need to be. So discipleship is a response. It’s a renewal and it’s a road. So to think through, to understand and actually embrace what we should do with this servant king, let’s see what it is to follow him. And let’s start with Mark’s first idea. Discipleship is a response. See, all discipleship begins with a revelation that demands a response. Now, you probably don’t think about this much, but we always use words to cause action. To get others to understand things, to feel things, to question things, to see things and to do things. See, words and actions go hand in hand. So, for example, let me take what appears to be our new state motto, stay home, stay safe.

See, these words demand a response. When we read them or we hear them, we have to do something. We either stay home or we don’t. But either way, we’ve acted upon them. See, words require a response. Now, while this is true of all words, it’s profoundly true of the words of the New Testament. Specifically, the good news of the gospel. You see, the gospel is simply the words or message that explains the good news that Jesus is the servant king. The servant king who comes to usher in his kingdom and his kingdom promises. Now, the gospel message then demands a response. And how we respond is where Christian discipleship begins. When we hear the good news of Christ coming as the king, we are inevitably faced with what we will do with this good news. See, that is what Mark is up to at the very beginning of his gospel.

Mark writes in chapter 1, verses 14 through 15, Jesus is clear, simple, and to the point here. He’s explaining this is who I am. I am the king who brings the kingdom. But notably, Jesus also explains this is how you should respond to that good news. You should repent and believe. And that’s the key of discipleship. Here is the gospel and here is how you should respond. See, we become disciples of the king. Once you turn away from our own way, that’s repentance, and faithfully follow the king. That’s discipleship. Now, what Mark does next is fascinating. See, he jumps straight from Jesus’ call to repent and believe to Jesus’ call of the disciples. In Mark 1, 16 through 20, Mark writes,

And Jesus said to them, follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going a little further, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who were in the boat mending their nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. See, what Mark is doing is he’s guiding us into discipleship here by giving us examples of how we are actually to live into the good news that Jesus has just proclaimed. He’s showing us that repenting and believing in the gospel is inseparable from discipleship. See, this is how we should respond to the gospel. Like the disciples, when we hear the call of the incarnate son of God, we need to lay down our nets. We need to lay down our lives, our livelihood, and follow the king to true life.

Now, all of this, all of this still applies to us this morning. You see, when Mark teaches us that discipleship is a response, he’s showing us that discipleship leads to a confronted life, to a confronted life. Like the disciples, every time we hear the gospel, God is confronting us with a provocative beauty, something bigger and grander than anything we could have ever made up on our own. See, as my oldest son tells me consistently, the gospel seems too good to be true. See, God became a man to serve sinners like you and me. God came to die the death we deserve because of our sin so that we can once again draw near to him eternally. See, neither you nor I can write that kind of story. It’s beyond us because this kind of story confronts us with a love deeper and more comprehensive than any we’ve ever experienced on our own and any we can even imagine.

So when God confronts us with the gospel, we have to respond to this. Now, of course, we can reject the good news of the king. We can mock the king, and many do, as we’ll see. But the one thing we can’t do is ignore this king. Instead, we all face the same decision that Simon, Andrew, James, and John faced. Will we follow him? But God doesn’t just confront us at the beginning of discipleship. All of discipleship, in many ways, is about God confronting us. See, that’s because discipleship is about the king ruling over every area of our lives. Even in a life marked by faith and repentance, it takes time for everything to be changed. It’s like ink in a glass of water. It’s there, but it takes time to diffuse throughout the whole glass. So discipleship takes time and many good and healthy confrontations where the king’s rule is diffused into every part of our lives through his confrontations with us.

Discipleship as Renewal

Now, while discipleship is a response, discipleship is also a renewal. See, the king comes not only to confront us, but to make us who we were made to be. As one biographer chronicles, J.R.R. Tolkien hit a wall in the book The Fellowship of the Rings. Tolkien had introduced a mysterious man named Strider, but he had no idea who Strider was or could even be. Nor did he know where his own epic was heading. Tolkien stood dejected. See, just a few chapters in and he was already going nowhere. That is, until Tolkien had a revelation and turned Strider into the character Tolkien now knew he was always supposed to be. Strider wasn’t just a wanderer from the north. He was the once forgotten king of Gondor. He is Aragorn, whose story of retaking the throne of men along with the destruction of the enemy’s rings forms the central drama of the Lord of the Rings saga.

See, like Tolkien with Strider, God uses discipleship to help transform us into exactly who God made us out to be. Discipleship moves us from sinners to saints. It moves us from wanderers to sons and daughters of the king. See, discipleship very simply renews us. It makes us who we are always supposed to be. See, this renewal project, I think, is behind all of Jesus’s actions, but you see it especially clearly in his healings. In chapter 2, verses 2 through 12, Mark writes, And he was preaching, that is, Jesus was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him. And when they made an opening, they let him down on the bed in which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven.

Now, some of the scribes are sitting there questioning in their hearts, why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, Why do you question these things in your heart? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise, take up your bed and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home. And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all. Now, there’s a lot going on here. But notice what Jesus is after in this encounter. He’s renewing every aspect of one’s humanity. He’s renewing this man’s mind.

I mean, why are all the people at the Capernaum home? Because he was preaching the word to them. See, discipleship is about renewing the mind. I mean, discipleship translates roughly into learner. Jesus wants everyone to know and to understand what the scriptures say and what the scriptures specifically say about him. Next, Jesus renews the body. This story begins with a paralyzed man lying on a mat. And it ends with that same paralyzed man standing up, rolling up that mat, and walking away. See, Jesus comes to renew everything, even the body. In this world, for this man here. But as the resurrection shows us, he renews all of our bodies in and for the world to come. So Jesus instructs the mind and heals the body. But the real shocker in this verse is that he also renews the soul. See, before Jesus deals with the man’s outward crisis, he heals his inward one.

He forgives the man’s sins. Now, the scribes weren’t happy about this. Forgiving sin was something only God could do. But the man? The man was happy. The man rejoices. Jesus, God the Son incarnate, had just renewed every aspect of this man’s humanity inside and out. See, Jesus isn’t just doing some parlor tricks. He’s showing us in supernatural ways who he is and why we should follow him. See, he is the one who instructs. He’s the one who heals. He is the one who forgives his disciples. He renews and he remakes all of who we are in many ways now and perfectly and fully in the world to come. Now, this too has far-reaching implications for us today. When Mark teaches that discipleship leads to renewal, he’s showing us that being a disciple means living a counterintuitive life. A counterintuitive life. See, when Jesus renews us, we can’t help but live differently than the rest of the world.

Discipleship makes our lives counterintuitive to the broken and damaged world we live in. Discipleship then is to the world as 3D glasses are to a 3D movie. See, when we finally put on the glasses, we realize that the blurry images that we’ve been watching on the screen aren’t the way the director wants us to experience the movie. And once we enter into discipleship, once we follow the king, we finally realize that the world isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. And there is a better vision, a better vision that this king offers to us. So we see the world differently now. Which means our lives are counterintuitive to our lives before discipleship, to the way everyone else in the world sees the world. In short, discipleship changes our perspective on everything. Take the disciples’ fearful experience of the storm in Mark 4 verses 40 through 41.

See, right after Jesus has calmed the winds and the waves that threatened to capsize their boat, Jesus says to them, Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? Now it’s hard to see, but there’s a quiet but monumental change taking place in the disciples here. See, Jesus’ rebuke actually renews their perspective. It gives them a counterintuitive vision of the world. By the end of this encounter, the disciples who once feared death from the winds and the waves now find that their fears reside squarely on where they should have been from the very beginning. Now they fear not the winds and the waves, but the incarnate Son of God, who simultaneously sleeps in their boat and somehow rules over the sea.

For a brief moment, the disciples get it here. Jesus is bigger than the waves. He’s bigger than the sea. He’s bigger than even the threat of death because he is the Lord over all. And as Mark will show us, Jesus is the one who faces and finally does away with not just the storm, but the threat of death that drives the fear behind every storm we face. You see, discipleship counterintuitively turns fear into the beginnings of faith. Because through discipleship, Jesus renews every life event, every experience, and every circumstance into an event, experience, and circumstance that brings us closer to him. See, a disciple’s life is counterintuitive because the disciple’s king is counterintuitive. See, everyone has expectations for Jesus. Israel wanted a war general and a politician. But Jesus did something better by doing what sinners didn’t expect, but by doing what sinners needed. See, Jesus becomes the king who comes to serve.

In Christ, God became man. In Christ, God died for sinners. In Christ, God came to serve by giving his life as a ransom for many. So when the chief priests and scribes mock Jesus on the cross for not being the king they wanted, saying he saved others, he cannot save himself. The disciples see that Jesus’ counterintuitive actions are what actually save us. See, as Mark leaves for us to read between the lines, Jesus’ death silently whispers an implied answer. I am the king you need because it is by my not saving myself that I am able to save others, others just like you. And of course, following the counterintuitive king makes us counterintuitive too. While the world’s intuition teaches us to follow our hearts, to follow our dreams or follow our desires, discipleship says, follow the servant king. Which is why Jesus calls us to look less like the world and more like him.

Discipleship as Road

That’s why Jesus says things like, for whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. See, this selfless servant-heartedness cuts across the grain of every other vision of the world. That is why discipleship means living right side up in an upside down world. And this leads us to Mark’s third characteristic of discipleship. While discipleship is a response and a renewal, discipleship is also a road. See, discipleship isn’t a book to be read or a movie to watch or a game to play. It’s a road to follow as we walk right behind the servant king. This means that Christian disciples are going somewhere. Remember how the gospel of Mark starts. John the Baptist is heralding the arrival of King Jesus, announcing through the prophet’s words, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

You see, from the very first words of the gospel, Jesus has been on the road. He has been on his way to fulfill his mission. So when he calls his disciples, he calls them into this way. See, Mark uses the story of Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, to help us clearly see this road of discipleship. Mark tells us in chapter 10, verses 47 through 52, when Bartimaeus heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and said, call him. And they called the blind man, saying to him, take heart, get up. He is calling you. And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, what do you want me to do for you?

And the blind man said to him, rabbi, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, go your way. Your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. Notice what Mark has just done in this account. He’s pulled together all the elements of discipleship into one place. First, there is the response. Bartimaeus knows who Jesus is. He is the son of David, the king God promised long ago, who would sit on David’s throne forever. The beggar is the best theologian and disciple of the bunch. Unlike the Pharisees and some of the twelve, he knows Jesus is Israel’s long-awaited king. But he responds to that knowledge too, doesn’t he? He responds by passionately pleading for the son of David to have mercy on him. Which leads to the renewal. When Jesus says he will hear him,

the blind man excitedly takes off in a full sprint to come face to face with the Jesus he couldn’t even see. Again, we see that the broken and the needy most often make the best disciples and the best theologians. See, Bartimaeus knows he can find renewal in Jesus. And the king does just that. Jesus restores the beggar’s physical sight in order to match his spiritual sight. As Jesus himself explains, it’s the beggar’s faith, it’s your faith that has made you well. But now there is the road. Interestingly, right before healing him, Jesus commands Bartimaeus to go his own way, to take his own road to go back where he belonged. But what does a beggar do when he can finally see again? As Mark emphasizes, Bartimaeus followed him. Bartimaeus followed his healer, followed his Messiah, followed his king, followed him on the king’s way. And Jesus doesn’t correct him.

He doesn’t tell him to go back. Which appears to be the point. See, when we become disciples, when we really respond to the king, when we really find our renewal in the king, his way becomes our way. We can’t go back, because the only place disciples belong is in the crowd following Jesus. Now, Bartimaeus isn’t the only one seeking Jesus in Mark 10. There is another man, a man the world would have respected and known by name because of his wealth and status. Yet to Jesus, he has no name. To the king of the cosmos, he was simply the rich young ruler. Whereas the lowly beggar, the one the world tried to lock away in anonymity, his name Jesus knows. Because Bartimaeus followed Jesus, followed him on the way, while the rich young ruler didn’t. Now, Jesus invites the rich young ruler to follow him.

Mark tells us in chapter 10, verses 21 through 24, that Jesus looked at him, that Jesus loved him, and that Jesus said to him, you lack one thing. Go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Come, follow me. Disheartened by this saying, he went away. That is, the rich young ruler went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. So, do you see the call to discipleship? Jesus says, come and follow me. And what is his response? He went away sorrowful. The rich young ruler returned to his own way, to his own road, and remained unknown by his king, because he could not forsake his own identity, and he could not give up his own kingdom of possessions. Now, what does this mean for us today? Simply put, the road of discipleship cuts across our own kingdom,

and always leads to a cruciform life, to a cruciform life. You see, the road of discipleship is taking us somewhere, but where is it taking us? Jesus is very clear about where the road is taking him. You see, later in Mark 10, verses 33 through 34, Jesus points to the road ahead. We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priest and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him over to the Gentiles, and they will mock him, and spit on him, and flog him, and kill him. Jesus’ road was always heading to the cross, which means this road takes his disciples there too. Discipleship leads to the foot of the cross, because that is where the gospel leads. That’s what’s good about the good news. The perfect Son of God became a man,

died on a cross, not to pay the penalty for his own sins, for he had no sins, but to pay the penalty for the sins of his followers, the sins of his disciples. But discipleship not only takes us to the cross, discipleship means that the cross shapes our lives as well. Our lives, simply put, become cruciform. To follow the king is to become like the king. As Jesus tells his disciples in Mark 8, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Become like your king. And while the road of discipleship leads to the cross and to a cruciform life, discipleship doesn’t end there. You see, Jesus himself doesn’t stay on the cross. He doesn’t even stay in the grave. As Jesus foretells, the Son of Man, yes, must suffer many things and be rejected and be killed.

But hear this, and after three days, rise again. Jesus is resurrected. So death cannot hold Jesus, because Jesus defeated death. And he defeated it for those who follow him. Nor can death hold his disciples, who follow him to the cross, and then in faith, through the empty tomb, into the eternal promises of his kingdom. See, again, Jesus uses the rich young ruler to show us where the road of discipleship ultimately leads. While wealth and possessions kept the rich young ruler from discipleship, Peter, the disciple, brashly makes sure Jesus knows that he and the other disciples are nothing like this guy. He declares, see, we have left everything and followed you. And in Jesus’ kind grace, the king leverages Peter’s brashness to help us see how following the king leads to a new vision of the kingdom life. See, in Mark 10, verses 29 through 30,

Jesus answers, truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sister or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now and this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and land with persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life. See, Jesus is saying that the road of discipleship eventually leads to kingdom promises now and forever. Following the king changes everything. It changes how we understand wealth. It changes how we understand possessions now. It’s not found centrally in our 401ks. It’s not found just in our property value, but it’s in deep relationships with the king and with his people. See, following the king changes everything. Yes, in this world, but also in the world to come. When we follow the king, we finally find our lives in the kingdom.

We finally find lives worth living and living eternally. See, through discipleship, through following the king, we find forever lives marked by unhindered response to the king’s call, forever lives fully renewed by the king’s grace and forever lives of following our king on the roads of the new Jerusalem. This is what we are called to. This is what discipleship is, and this is what we hope in. Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you that you have given us your word in the gospel of Mark, and you have given us your word in the servant king. We ask now that you would change us, that you would help us respond rightfully to the call to follow you, that you would help us see that our renewal, both now and forever, is found only in this servant king and following the servant king, and that you would help us step out onto the road of discipleship

that leads to good things, that faces us with persecutions in this world too, but leads to eternal promises of perfect fulfillment in the world to come. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen. Thanks for joining us for this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. If you’d like to learn more about us, you can visit our website at www.trinityportland.com.