A few weeks ago I had the privilege of speaking at a Disciple-Making Church conference in Florida. In addition to making my presentation on Thursday, I had the opportunity to participate in all of the sessions of this four-day conference and I was struck with how little discipleship and disciple-making was discussed. We had presentations on vision casting, spiritual formation, program evaluation, and the like, but next to nothing about the how’s and why’s of disciple-making. It was disappointing to say the least.
As you know, in His final words to the disciples Jesus mandates disciple-making. Indeed, His absolute final words reveal the source of power with which He expects them to carry out that task. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And it’s the “playing-out” of all of this that is in focus this Sunday as we consider the Hope of Our Calling through the transformational power of the Holy Spirit.
I’m not sure of the origin of our notions of disciple-making these days; my guess is that they come from the standard American educational pedagogy of the past two hundred years. Think classroom. Think instructor and student. Think data dump. Think the gathering of facts, theorems, and postulates. Such a view has infiltrated the evangelical world disciple-making is seen in the accumulation of information. Indeed, for many, Jesus’ words, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” have much more to do with “the truth” than “the way” and “the life”.
And yet the model of disciple-making Jesus utilizes is far different. His call to follow was a call to enter His manner of life. In fact, all of the instructions to His disciples, with a few notable exceptions, were exemplified “on the way.” It is to just such disciple-making that Jesus calls each one of us.
Last week our focus was on the Hope of our Healing in Luke 8. There we saw an unnamed woman who became a “daughter.” She is a wonderful example, “a tracing pattern” of every transformed heart for every transformed life is called to go out into the world and touch others with the power of the Holy Spirit found in the completed work of Christ.
This week we look at a great passage that demonstrates the Hope of Our Calling. Like Philip on the Gaza Road, the Holy Spirit empowers every transformed heart to lose our self-importance as a dispenser of information and gain our new identity as guides to Christ.
In preparation for Sunday’s message you may wish to consider the following:
1. What in your opinion is the most difficult musical instrument to play?
2. Where was Philip when the Lord called Him to go to the Gaza Road? What was
he doing there?
3. Who is this Philip? What do we know about him?
4. What characteristics does Philip share with Stephen?
5. What is the meaning of the “textual variant” in verse 26? (Hint: direction
and time of day)
6. What differences exist between Philip and the Ethiopian?
7. What does God make of those differences?
8. Compare the NIV’s rendering of verse 31 and the ESV’s or the KJV’s. What do
you make of the difference in what the eunuch is asking?
9. What is the difference between the Ethiopian’s previous questions and the
one he asks in verse 36?
10. What is the message of verse 39? How does this verse summarize effective
disciple-making and give us hope and freedom in our calling?
See you Sunday.
