“Making Disciples” – Part III –Teaching – Matt. 17:14-21

According to the U.S. News and World Report, in a lifetime the average American will spend:

Six months sitting at stoplights
Eight months opening junk mail
One year looking for misplaced objects
2 years unsuccessfully returning phone calls
4 years doing housework
5 years waiting in line
6 years eating.

Now, I don’t know how they know that or how they go about figuring that but it’s probably pretty close. Do you know what that tells me? It tells me that life takes time. We are only give a certain amount, a finite number of minutes, hours and days so we need to make the most of them because we know that some of them are going to have to be spent opening junk mail and looking for lost stuff whether we want to or not.

I heard that when a young man sits next to a hot stove a minute seems like an hour but when a young woman sits next to that young man, an hour seems like a minute. Some things we enjoy doing and time goes by quickly and some things…not so much.

I remember being a little boy in church on Sunday morning asking my mother, “How much longer?” Which is what some of you are already thinking this morning. But she would always answer, “Not much more.” When I was a little boy, if I wasn’t playing, I was bored.

A few years ago, I got talked into going to Bass Hall for a performance of “The Nutcracker” ballet. What was I thinking? It was going for about 5 minutes and I said to my friends, “Seriously? Nobody even says anything? They just dance around? There’s no action, no karate, nothing blows up?” So, in my opinion, just say no to the Nutcracker. That’s not how I want to spend my time.

Time is precious and because time is precious nothing says, “I love you” like spending time with someone. Here we are, smack in the middle of our emphasis on making disciples and we get to the part that is going to mean some serious time requirements on our part. We talk a lot about loving people around here and this is where you can prove that talk. Do you really love people or is that just more of that hypocrisy that people like to point out about the typical church?

We have been focused for the last few weeks on how Jesus made disciples and what a disciple is and how we, too, can make disciples. We have seen that Jesus would first attract people and then He would model what a disciple is. Today we see how Jesus would teach (write on board) them, what He taught and what we can do to make disciples in the same way.

Have you ever thought about why Jesus only had 12 main disciples? Yes, at any one time, there might have been hundreds or thousands of disciples listening to and learning from Jesus but His focus was only the 12. Some people think it relates to the 12 tribes of Israel but I don’t know. I think He picked 12 because that was about the most that anybody can work with at any one time.

Also, He spent three years with them. Have you ever wondered why it took so long? I mean, this is Jesus. Why didn’t He just impart His knowledge to them with the wave of His hand and go on to the next bunch? Again, I don’t know for sure but I believe He wanted to model (point to board for last week) what making disciples was going to look like for us.

Do you think Jesus got tired? Do you think He got frustrated with His disciples? Do you think He ever wanted to just tell God the Father, “Hey, let’s go on to Plan B because these guys aren’t getting it.”? If you don’t think Jesus ever felt like that, I invite you to turn to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 17. In Matthew 17 we see the incredible story of Jesus taking three of the disciples up the mountain for a literal mountain top experience.

Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a high mountain where Jesus was transfigured, Moses and Elijah met them there and God the Father voiced audibly His approval of His Son Jesus. What an incredible time that must have been! There was so much happening and so much symbolism and needed encouragement for Jesus that it must have been an amazing time!

Then…they come back down the mountain and, as so often happens after a mountain top experience, they come back to chaos and sickness and pain and confusion. Some of you can relate to that situation. So, let’s pick up as Jesus and the 3 disciples step off the mountain in verse 14 of Matthew chapter 17.

When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. ¹⁵ “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. ¹⁶ I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” ¹⁷ “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” ¹⁸ Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment. ¹⁹ Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” ²⁰He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

I have great respect for good teachers; for those who go above and beyond to help students that don’t learn at the same pace as the other students. I can remember a few that helped me but Mrs. Robbins comes quickly to mind. Mrs. Robbins was my 1^stgrade teacher and I remember her making me a custom set of flash cards to help me learn math. She hand wrote a bunch of cards that had 1 plus 1 or 2 plus 2 on the front with the answer on the back. I don’t have the cards anymore so I don’t remember what the number was on the back but you get my point. Mrs. Robbins spent extra time with me so that I would succeed.

I want you to get the whole picture of what Jesus was doing with His disciples. In Matthew chapter 10 we see that Jesus had given His disciples (the 12 main ones) the authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal diseases. He set them up for success. (Write on board.) He had shown them what to do. He gave them the authority to do it and He set them up to succeed at it.

We see that 1) He attracted them then 2) He modeled how to do it and 3) here we see Jesus really teaching them how to be His disciples; literally how to be more like Jesus.

But did you notice what He has done after He did all of that. He left them alone just long enough so they could fail. He allowed them to fail as part of the teaching process. Why would He do that? Did He not care about them? Were they getting on His nerves and He needed some time away? No, it’s just that there is no better teacher than failure.

In which scenario is more learned, in the games you win or the games you lose?  In which locker room is found the real men of character; the winners’ locker room or the losers’?  In Philippians 4 Paul says, “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. ¹² I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. ¹³ I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”ESV

The great old commentator Matthew Henry said that Christ permitted His disciples to fail to keep them humble, and to show their dependence upon Him, that without Him they could do nothing.  Don’t you know that Christ still wants to teach us that without Him we can do nothing but with Him, all things are possible?  Proverbs 24:16 says that even though a righteous man falls seven times he gets back up again.

Jesus then tops all of this off with a beautiful and powerful illustration (write on board) about faith moving mountains.  Jesus often taught them with stories and parables and illustrations to help them learn and here in verse 20 He uses something that would seem to be over-the-top impossible and says if you just have faith you can move that mountain from here to there.

Now, we all know that Jesus was exaggerating here a little bit, right?  He didn’t really mean mountains would move if we believed hard enough did He?  Do you really believe that the impossible is made possible with God?  Oh, yes!  Amen!  That’s what we are all supposed to say, isn’t it?  We, as good church members, nod and shout, “That’s right, pastor!  Preach that!”  But in the back of our minds we all have our doubts.

Admit it!  You want to believe but you are, like this boy’s father who says in other accounts, “Lord, I believe but help my unbelief.”  You have never seen mountains move.  You’ve never heard of mountains moving so is it just a farce?  Is it a pipe dream to believe it could happen?  Are we fooling ourselves as we play church every Sunday?

Well, for some of you that very well may be true but let me tell you where you will see mountains moved.  I could spend some time telling you the amazing true story I heard a while back about the church that was at the base of a mountain and needed more room to grow but they couldn’t because the mountain was in the way.  So they prayed and the next day a company contacted them and offered to pay them $100,000 if the church would allow the company to move the dirt from the mountain over to where they needed the dirt to be.

Yes, there really are true stories about literal mountains being moved but let me tell you about how you will more than likely see your mountain moved.  I’m not saying that God won’t move a literal mountain for you but how many of us really need it to happen?  But how many of us need miracles just as big in our lives?  Do you know where you are going to see miracles like that happen?  When you (write on board) find your ministry in or out of the church; when you go on missions with the church and when you take responsibility for some aspect of the church.

Hopefully at this point in the disciple-making process we have been modeling faith to other disciples.  They see that we believe that mountains can move but it’s probably not until we are actively doing what God has called us individually to do that we really start to see miracles.  Yes, I said the “M” word: miracle.  No, I have never seen a mountain move but I have seen addicts and alcoholics quit cold turkey because of someone’s ministry to them.  How many from Unchained would say “amen” to that? Do you want to see a mountain move or do you want to see that?

I was preaching years ago on the street in Mexico one night on a mission trip with Jody Kennedy when 3 drunken Mariachi singers came up and interrupted the service and when they finally were quiet they heard the Gospel translated and all 3 accepted Jesus right there.  Do you want to see a pile of dirt move or do you want to see that?

I have seen people who can’t teach or preach or hardly string 2 sentences together but who can sing or watch children or take out the trash so that somebody else can not be distracted and hear the life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Then it might not be that day or the next but then some day some person lays down their booze, their needle or gun or whatever it is and takes up the Bible and starts to make disciples of Jesus just like they have been taught and I would rather see that than watch the Teton Mountain range dance a jig!

But here is the really cool part because I know what you’re thinking.  You are thinking you can’t do that.  You can’t teach.  You can’t preach.  You can’t go on a mission trip because you can’t afford it, you don’t have time, that’s not your gift, somebody is already doing it, blah, blah, blah…and you are absolutely right.  You can’t do it.  I would encourage you to think, in fact make a list of all the reasons why you can’t do some ministry; why you can’t go on a mission trip or why you can’t take some responsibility around here for the sake of the Kingdom.

Then you take that list to God in prayer and you start to tell Him about it and you watch how He says, “I got this” to every single one.  When you say you can’t speak well He will bring to mind someone like Moses in Exodus 4:10.  When you say you can’t afford it, well, get ready because there are too many in the Bible to mention who were dirt poor but did what God called them to do, including Jesus Himself.

When you think you don’t have the talent or ability or tools, just look up Shamgar in Judges 3:31 who saved all of Israel with the oxgoad he happened to have in his hand.  See, none of your reasons or excuses or protestations are going to hold water if God has called you to do something because if you could do it on your own, it wouldn’t be faith (point to board) and you wouldn’t need God.

As your church family, we are going to do our best to set you up for success.  We will do anything we can to facilitate your ministry, help you go on mission or help with your responsibility but do you know what is probably going to happen?  You’re going to fail.  I’m going to fail.  All of us fail.  But God isn’t calling you to be the perfect teacher of disciples.  Jesus did that job.  All we are supposed to do is learn from Jesus and then share and encourage with others what we have learned.

A stay-at-home or even stay-at-church Christian is not making disciples.  Just showing up here for an hour or two a week isn’t going to cut it when Jesus asks you if you did what He told you to do in the Great Commission.  What are you going to say?  “I sat nice and quiet in the pew during worship on Sunday morning.”

Look at verse 17 again there in Matthew chapter 17.  Jesus says, “You unbelieving and perverse generation.”  He’s not speaking to His disciples here.  He is talking to the others gathered around and I would dare say He is speaking to us as well.  Cody just happened to be within reach this week when I looked up what that word “perverse” means.  If you’re not careful I will pull you into my study time if you’re around here when I’m working on my sermon.

I didn’t look in the dictionary.  I looked in my big concordance because I wanted to see how Jesus meant it.  It originally means to twist something.  To pervert something is to twist it.  You don’t change it completely.  It’s just twisted a little and that’s what we do so often with things to make them suit us.

We pervert love into just sex and we pervert time into just money and we pervert worship into just church and we do that because it’s easier and it saves us time.  Just going to church isn’t being a disciple-maker.  Making disciples takes time.  There is no way around that.  What is God calling you to do today?  Is there a ministry you need to be a part of or even start?  Is there a mission that you need to go on around the community or around the world?  Is there a responsibility you need to take on for the glory of the Kingdom?

It takes time and you may even fail but that is all part of making disciples and that is what we are all called to do.  You know, there is really only one requirement to being a disciple; only one thing you have to do or be before you can really start learning from Jesus and then sharing and encouraging others with what you have learned.

Jesus simply said, “Follow Me.” “Believe in Me.”  It means to put your faith and trust in Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life; to agree with Him that there is no way to Heaven except through Him so you simply approach the Creator of the universe in repentance and ask for your sins to be forgiven.  We know that He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Then we leave our sins with Him to forgive and we trade Him our sins for His righteousness and His peace and His joy in this life and life with Him for eternity.

Have you done that?  Today is the day of salvation.  Don’t wait another day because you may not have the time.