Discipleship and The Seed of the Gospel

Recently, I have been forced to reflect on a number of things in my life: my preaching style, my congregations needs, how to disciple others, worship differences, etc. All of this is beginning to congeal in my mind due in large part to a good friend who meets with meet each week to discuss theology. As we were talking today about the gospel and what it is, we began talking about the parable of the woman who hides leaven in the batch of dough (Matthew 13:33).

Now, I asked, "If the gospel is the leaven, then what is the gospel at the moment it is placed in the dough?" After his response, I followed up with this observation, "After the leaven works throughout the dough, what is the gospel? Is it still the same seed which was planted or is it much more? Is there any way that the initial seed can be extracted?" These observations began to gel in my mind in relation to all of the topics I referenced above. Let me explain.

All of us have received the seed of the gospel (Christ's sinless life, his death in our stead, his resurrection to conquer death, his ascension to heaven in order to reign and his subsequent sending of the Holy Spirit in order to empower us to live the victorious Christian life - all of this is needed in order for an efficacious atonement to have occurred), yet it grows at different rates in each and every one of us. To some, the seed has multiplied many times and come to affect their politics, economics, charitable actions and family life; to others, the climate has been a little cooler, or the time since the seed has planted has been shorter and the seed may not have multiplied at all or only minimally. Yet both are gospel Christians, saved by the grace of God.

So, what happens if the person with the multiplied seed attempts to bring the gospel to bear on all the same areas - political, economic, social, charitable - in the life of another whose seed hasn't grown as much? They will reject it; to them, the gospel has no bearing on these areas yet, the seed hasn't grown for whatever reasons - some may be internal, others external. But if the larger lump of dough continues to force the smaller lump of dough, one will be crushed. It would be like trying to feed a baby of 2 months, the food of a 30 year old on cruise. The baby will choke, spit, cry and possibly die.

Thus it is in life. Each of us has places where the seed of the gospel has grown large, similarly we have places where the seed is still the same size in our life. We all have places where we are 20 or 40 or 80 years old, but other places where we are just a few months old. The solution is not for the older, larger lumps of dough to dish it all out. Quite the contrary, the solution is for the older to use wisdom and discernment to spoon feed little lumps so that the younger areas of our life can be nourished and grown up into the full stature of Christ.

While I have intuitively known this as I disciple folks one on one, my preaching has frequently majored on my strengths and the areas where the gospel has multiplied in my life, but at the expense of recognizing the needs of my congregation. I have tried to feed steak to people on milk; similarly, the congregation has tried to deal with me as one whose relational skills are well developed and whose intuition and feelings are advanced, when in effect I am only a babe. Our strengths and our weaknesses have been pitted against one another.

But thanks be to God for Elders, other pastors and friends who have graciously dialogued with me and helped me to grow and see the situation and to be attentive to God's leading in the parables. So what is the solution? The solution is for each of us to plant the seed of the gospel referenced above into the lives of one another, even into the specific areas of life we see lacking and then to sit back and pray waiting for God to cause it to grow and rise and leaven the whole batch, thereby becoming all the God intends. To God be the glory. ...Read more