Trinity Disciples

Scripture: Matthew 28.16-20


Jesus met them on a mountain, which is a great place from which to launch a mission. It says here that they worshiped Jesus; but some doubted. Which tells us that we are always at various stages of faith and readiness and doubt. And really maybe we don’t need to concern ourselves so much with that as long as we are there on the mountain at Jesus’ feet ready to do what he commands.

What does he command them? Since all authority has been given me, I give it to you to go and make disciples. That’s the “therefore” in the text – for the reason and by the power I have done these things, you too will do them. In another place in the Gospel Jesus says to his disciples, “Greater works than these will you do.”


So what is a Disciple and what does a Disciple do?

John Ortberg tells of an old blessing among first- century Jews that went like this: May you always be covered by the dust of your Rabbi.” It was blessing that said in effect, as a disciple may you follow so closely and imitate so devotedly that you literally are right behind your rabbi at every moment of every day – the dust he stirs up on the road will cover you.

This past week I was out of town for a few days. I’m happy to say my family missed me. My youngest son spent the next day following me wherever I went. He was, as we way, attached to my hip. As I went about routine chores in the yard, Michael was right there with me - he wanted to be doing what I was doing. One of his favorite activities involves the water hose, and when he saw me getting that out, he was like . . .a boy to water. “Daddy, I wanna do it. . .can I do it?” He was the disciple and I was the master, the Master Hoser. The disciple wasn’t covered in my dust, though in a reversal of relationship, the Master was occasionally covered by the disciples spraying.

I have a cousin who is an electrician. He didn’t get to be an electrician by simply filling out an application and then getting hired. “James Morris, you’re interested in our electrician’s position. Have you ever worked with live electricity before?” Well no, but I filled out your application. Oh well, then you’re hired – wire our business. No. It doesn’t work that way. My cousin got schooling to learn the trade, and more importantly he became an apprentice to a bona fide electrician to learn first-hand, on the job, exactly how an electrician works. An apprentice soaks up everything they can from the master. They imitate the master in every way, from the smallest things to the biggest. So much so that an electrician’s apprentice will later go out on their own and people will look at their work and possibly even say, “Oh, you apprenticed with so-and-so, I can tell just by how you do things.”

A disciple is an apprentice who imitates the master. The Apostle Paul wrote the Corinthians (1 Cor. 11.1)
“Imitate me, as I imitate Christ.” Be like me, as I am like Christ. There are things about Paul, apparently, that he didn’t want others to emulate; but that which was like Jesus, he said, be this,, do this.

I have mentioned on several occasions some folks that I have imitated – teachers, mentors. I probably wouldn’t be a Christian today without Bruce Brossman, my Sunday School teacher and little league coach. He was such an encourager. On our baseball team he started this thing called Mr. Hustle. At practices and at games he was looking for the kid each week who displayed extraordinary energy, passion, hustle in everything they did. I remember the first week he named a Mr. Hustle on our team. He showed us this brand new baseball cap. It was bright yellow with blue lettering “MH” on the front. He said, “Each week someone will get to wear this hat because they’ve been hustling in practice, showing the rest of us how to play this game. The first Mr. Hustle is Mr. Richard Morris. And Coach Brossman and the rest of the team cheered. Now, I wasn’t the best player on that team, not by a long shot, but I hustled the rest of that year. And if Bruce Brossman had said, “Richard, that baseball went in the creek, go swim out and get it, I would have.” Bruce led by example and not coincidentally, as a Sunday School teacher and Bible Study leader, opened the Word of God up to me for the first time.

I am a little like Bruce Brossman as Bruce is like Christ. I also have a little C.S. Lewis in me. I have a little of my mom and dad in me, as they were like Christ.

Another writer/mentor of mine, Fred Buechner, once wrote that he began to believe in God for the first time as a young adult because “I began to suspect that there was a plot to my life. And if there was a plot, maybe there was an author.” He’s right. These seemingly unconnected events and stories of our lives do have a plot. It is God’s purpose. It is God writing our story. And He wants us to tell His story through our unique story to others. That’s what a disciple does.

“Go. . . teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”

A disciple teaches others how to follow the Master. A disciple teaches others the substance of the faith. We don’t just say, hey, become like me, Rich Morris. We’re not trying to reproduce little Rich Morris’s or Bruce Brossman’s or C.S. Lewises for that matter. We want to “see Christ formed in you” and in the words of Paul. We are called to live and model “the faith once delivered to the saints.” We are not called to reproduce our personal opinions, or prejudices or our politics. Certainly we are not called to make more Republicans or more Democrats. We are called to make Christians. The little C.S. Lewis in me says, “We are concerned with Mere Christianity.” Or Orthodoxy. The Orthodox faith is “that which has been believed everywhere, always, by all.”

The way this mere Christianity, this orthodox faith is delivered is by teaching and it is by living.

A little girl once asked her father questions about God. “Is God bigger than this whole world?” Yes, honey, that’s right, her father answered. “Does God live inside of me?” Yes, that’s right. “If God is so big then, shouldn’t God be sticking out of me?”

A Disciple is one who has God sticking out and spilling all over in their living. A Disciple is one who not only teaches about Jesus but lives and models the divine presence of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in all they do. When we are baptized into this faith we receive the Holy Spirit, who is the Living Presence. We are walking around as God-bearers to others who would follow the Master. We are apprentices who would show others how to be an apprentice too.

Philip Yancey spoke at a convention I attended this week. He told us about a trip to South Africa he had taken, and specifically about a prison called Pulsmoore Prision that he had visited. Pulsmore prison was a notoriously violent place. But the reason Yancey went there was a woman named Joanna who worked there as a chaplain. When Joanna first went to Pulsmore, she had a a lot going against her. In South Africa there are blacks, whites, and people of mixed race known as coloreds. Joanna was colored and therefore was somewhat looked down upon by blacks and whites. Joanna was a woman going into a very violent prison. But amazingly after one year at the prision the rate of violence reduced dramatically – from 279 acts of violence the previous year to zero the following year. It was so miraculous that the BBC did a documentary on Joanna’s work in Pulsmore. Yancey tells of watching the documentary and not really understanding how Joanna did what she did. What Yancey saw was her playing youth group type trust games with the prisoners, simple stuff. Yancey met witih Joanna later over lunch at the prison and said, “Joanna, I don’t get it. I don’t get how you brought God to this prison.”
Joanna put down her fork in mid-bite and said, “But Philip, don’t you know, God was already here at Pulsmore Prison, I just had to make him visible.”

Trinity Disiples, through their stories and the whisperings of their lives, know that God is all around them, and they are called to make Him visible to the whole world. “I am with you always!” Jesus tells us, his disciples. That is good news!

How are you apprenticed to the Master today? Are you learning by listening and learning by doing? Are you filling up with His presence so that the presence sticks out of you and spills over into others lives?

What must you do differently so that you and people who know you become true disciples?