Discipleship: I Thessalonians 1.

The Story
When Paul arrived at Thessalonica, he did what he always did: went to the Jewish meeting place, the synagogue, and presented the arguments to prove that Jesus rose from the dead and is the Messiah. (Acts 17. 1-3)  For three weeks he was there, taking every opportunity to share the Good News of Jesus.  There were signs too of God's power as 1 Thess 1. 5 says. Maybe some people got healed. Maybe some people had a deep sense of God's presence and couldn't stand up in his presence (as happened in the revivals under the ministry of George Whitefield and in places like Lewis in the 1950's) or maybe there were prophetic words that made people say "God is really in the midst here" (1 Cor 14. 25) and certainly there was a supernatural sense of authority in Paul's preaching. People believed and accepted Jesus. (Act 17. 4)   Then the trouble had started, and the weren't wanted in the Synagogue. It was not long before some of the local leaders were arrested and the believers decided to smuggle Paul out of the city. (Acts 17. 5-10) And through the struggles (pretty soon there was persecution in Thessalonica) as well as the successes, they saw the realities of Paul's character.  (1 Thess 1.5b: "You saw what sort of guys we were.")

As a result of what they saw and heard, a group of people in Thessalonica had become followers of Jesus. When Paul wrote to them, a little later, he sums up their conversion: see vv 9-10.  Three things marked the Thessalonians' reception of the Gospel: repentance, service, and expectancy.    And they became "imitators of Paul".  They liked what they saw and wanted to be like what they liked. As a result the word was spread what kind of people the Thessalonian Christians were.  They had doctrine: they had hope; they understood why Jesus suffered, and believed that Jesus had risen from the dead; they knew that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah (Acts 17. 3); they were waiting for Jesus to return. They had faith, hope and love, the three things that last (1 Cor 13. 13)  

But James that the only kind of faith that doesn't produce works is a dead one!  (James 2.26) And Paul would agree with.  Hel gives thanks for the Thessalonians' "Work that springs from faith".    And he gives thanks for their sacrificial "labour of love."  Not doing wee jobs with no hope of reward, but a costly and maybe painful effort, that expresses real selfless concern for others.  And he mentions patience in hope.  That is the willingness to put up with unpleasant stuff, because we have a rock-solid certainty of God's Kingdom future lying before us.  .  The Thessalonians had Faith, love, and hope- expressed in good deeds, real effort and longsuffering.

They had an experience of the power of he Spirit.  They had the basics of doctrine. They had faith that worked, love that produced real effort, and hope that meant they were on their feet ready for the Master to come back.  But they didn't have everything.  Paul had to leave town in a hurry, so there were truths this church had yet to grasp. He wasn't frustrated with the godless behaviour as he as when he wrote to Corinth or with seriously wrong doctrine as he was in Galatia.  He just wants to fill in some of the gaps. So he sat down to write what may have been his first ever letter...


So what does this show?   
Paul - who never uses the word "disciple" in his letters - was heavily into making disciples. He was concerned with helping people grow; he was concerned with truth; he was concerned with practical living; and he was able to do that because he was a disciple himself.  You can only make disciples if you are a disciple.

The Jesus model was this:

• I do it; you watch.  
• You do it; I watch.  
• You do it. 

Paul had exactly the same model.  It is about apprenticeship not distance learning. He says, "imitate me" in the same way your journeyman would do when you were an apprentice. Discipleship is practical.  

We are all meant to be disciples; we are all meant to be making disciples.  Discipleship is essential.

 We could define Discipleship in these ways:

• Discipleship is the unfinished process of learning to live the Christian life.
• Discipleship is the unfinished process of learning how to be like Jesus.
• Discipleship is learning how to be a son to the Father.  
• Discipleship is unfinished process of learning to show the Father's love. 

Whichever you choose, it is by definition: lifelong; practical, spiritual and relational.

The Problem: 
Some of us struggle with any learning at all.  We find it difficult to handle facts and ideas. Others love theory but are not good at learning skills. But we use the word "learn" in two ways: "learning about..." and "learning how to..."   Discipleship has to be about "learning how to..." It is never enough to accumulate knowledge.  Learning involves the development of three things: Knowledge, skills, character...  leading to confidence, competence, credibility and influence.

In order to learn we need:

• The Holy Spirit at work in our lives.  His task is to reveal Jesus and to make us realise we are God's sons. He gives gifts that help us towards that. And he uses
• The Word of God, written, or spoken or sung; preached, shared among us
• Doing the stuff. We learn through "reflection on practise."  Not just through practise. You can do something wrong dozens of times and never learn from it. You just keep repeating the same mistake. You can do something right and not know how you managed it (or maybe not even not realise you did it right!)  
• Fellowship. The fact that learning involves reflection on practise, suggests one reason why we need fellowship; we need to be accompanied on a learning journey.

And it is interesting that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians as friends. The letter begins with the "normal" sort of introduction, which suggests it's a real letter, which in turn suggests a relationship-based approach, an expression of friendship.  And Paul models the importance of teamwork by writing as a member of a team - indeed there is no reason to suppose that Silas and Timothy did not have some genuine input into the letter.

The Difference
I believe that Discipleship is a key to effective mission. If we can get the Discipleship thing sorted out, if we can really do the "Learning" in "learning to show the father's love" then the rest will follow; we will show the Father's love and people will be drawn to him.

When Paul came to Thessalonica, being a disciple and making disciples, those who didn't like the message of Jesus described Paul and his team as, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also... saying that there is another king, Jesus." (Acts 17. 6f) It is living the kingdom as well as proclaiming the King that is at the essence of Discipleship that turns the world upside down.

© Gilmour Lilly October 2011