Defining Discipleship
Step Seven: Rest
After the Jesus command to go, the disciples do exactly as he commands them. The Bible tells us that they were very successful
They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
Mark 6: 12-13 (NIV)
The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
Luke 10: 17 (NIV)
Spend time with him
Jesus reaction to their success is very interesting. He doesn't tell them to go and found a megachurch. In Mark's account, he actually takes them away from the crowds
The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
Mark 6: 30-31 (NIV)
His reaction to their success here is not to encourage them to spend more time with the people that they have been ministering to, but to spend time with him.
Rejoice in our own salvation
The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
He replied, “[...] Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven”
Luke 10: 17 & 20 (NIV)
Luke's account has a slightly different emphasis. Don't rejoice in the power that you have been given, or in the fact that the enemy flees from you, but rejoice that you are saved.
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The temptations of leadership
You don't have to be around Christian circles long to hear the stories. Leaders fail. They get caught up in sin or financial mismanagement. They start to think that they are clever, that their success is down to them. They start controlling their followers or abusing them.
Sadly, the vast majority of fallen leaders started well. They set out to follow Jesus, and lead others to him. It is only as they become successful that they lose touch with him. Start to believe their own hype.
Later in Mark's gospel we see this stern warning
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”
Mark 8: 34-36
Our aim is Jesus. Not fame. Not a megachurch or a huge following. Discipleship is a daily returning to him. Resting in him. Listening to him. Accepting his cross, and setting aside our own ambition.
In Isaiah we see a similar theme. A promise and a warning packed into one.
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.”
Isaiah 30: 13 (NIV)
We don't need to big ourselves up, we just need to keep returning to him quietly in repentance.
Take Action
- What are you holding on to that you need to let go of?
- What does taking up your cross daily look like for you?
- Commit yourself again to a life of discipleship. Looking to Jesus everyday and doing everything for his glory not your own
