Understanding Discipleship: The Importance of Community in Faith

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

In this podcast series, we're going to be looking into biblical words that have great significance to our faith.

The name of this series is called the Word of the Week, where once a week we will dive deeper into these words that we are familiar with in Scripture.

So come along with me.

Let's study the word of the week.

Pastor Josh here with another word of the week.

The word of the week again is discipleship.

We've been looking at the topic of discipleship here for the last two sessions, and so this will be the third session that we're looking at.

This idea of discipleship, and the Bible tells us is that discipleship is all about understanding what it means to be closer to God.

Literally, disciple means follower, learner, someone who is committed to following someone.

And in the context of Scripture, we're talking about being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

And so we looked at the first week, what the definition of a disciple is and what discipleship is all about.

And then last week, we looked at how that.

How that goes about in the process of passing down the truth of Jesus Christ to other people.

So second Timothy, chapter two, verse two, tells us that we have been taught of the truths of God and we are to teach others so that they can teach others.

And so that's really the process of discipleship.

And the Bible says In Matthew, chapter 28, in what we call the Great Commission to make disciples, though we are not the ones in our strength and in our power, creating those disciples in our own wisdom, we are the vessels in which God uses to create followers of Him.

And so that's really what discipleship is.

And so I wanted to look at another aspect of discipleship here this week, and that is the aspect of.

Of fellowship.

That is the aspect of assembling, the.

The importance of church in the process of discipleship.

So, so what do I mean by that?

Well, basically, when we look at that word church, the Greek word is a word that.

That is.

It's.

It's basically defined as an assembly.

The Greek word is ecclesiastically.

And so that that word ecclesia means assembly, a gathering.

And so in the context of church, the church is not the building, the church is not the program.

The church really would be made up of the people and the gathering of the people, so to speak.

And so In Hebrews chapter 10, we see a few verses that specifically point to the importance of assembling and why assembling is important when regards to the concept of discipleship.

Now remember, in discipleship, it takes an individual who has been taught the truths of God to then pass along the same truths to other people.

And in the process of doing that, there's education.

There's.

There's teaching them about the, the Bible.

There's teaching them the stories of the Old Testament and the New.

There's teaching them the, the concepts of theology and how to apply those concepts of theology.

There's obviously teaching about how to interpret Scripture passages, how to understand context.

So, so there's that element of it.

We, we would call it education.

That's, that's one way that you could put it.

But then on the other side of things, there, there also is a place of encouragement, right?

Some people need to be encouraged in what they already know about the Lord.

There's times of discouragement, there's times of doubt.

And so there is an important element of discipleship when it comes to the area of encouragement.

And then there's also another element of discipleship when it comes to the idea of strengthening each other, and that is edification.

So, so think about it this way.

There's.

There's education.

That's the teaching of the word of God.

There's the, what the Bible says is exhortation or encouragement.

And it's more than just encouraging to the point of telling people what they want to hear.

It's challenging them in the truths of God to stand, stand strong in that.

And then there's the idea of edification, strengthening them in, in the power of God.

So I want you to think about those three principles when it comes to the idea of discipleship.

When we look at this passage here in Hebrews chapter 10.

So if you'd like to follow along with us, we're in Hebrews chapter 10, and we're going to start in verse number 23 says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.

So, so what is this talking about here?

It's talking about holding on to, and having confidence in the hope that God gives us.

And it says there, without wavering, that idea of consistency, not, not bouncing back and forth between doubt and, and confidence or, or fear and strength.

It's, it's the idea that we're going to stand fast in what God has called us to stand fast in.

And that is the confidence in him that, that word hope there.

Anytime you see the word hope in Scripture, we see the idea that it's a confident expectation that God is going to keep his word.

And that's what it says there at the end of verse 23 it says, for he is faithful that promised.

So, so this is speaking of, you know, God has promised us these things, and so we must stay faithful to him because he is so faithful to us.

So he says, let us hold fast, let us hold on to.

Let us have confidence in our faith without wavering.

Why?

Because he that has promised us is faithful.

And then verse 24 it says, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.

And so we are to carefully consider one another to provoke.

Or the, the word that you could use there is to stir up someone to what?

Not, not to anger, not to bitterness, not to wrath, but to love and to good works.

So we're supposed to demonstrate love and good works and then encourage others to do the same.

Now again, that love and good work does not save us.

But this is specifically talking about the context of the church and the fellowship of believers.

So we as believers are supposed to stir up other believers unto love and to good works.

So the way that we live our lives should demonstrate that truth and should challenge others to do the same.

So in, in that comes the education, the exhortation, or the encouraging and the edification.

And then we see here in verse 25, a verse that is, is many times and, and properly taught in the context of, you know, you should attend church, which I agree.

And, and I think a lot of times we equate church attendance with spiritual growth, which you cannot grow properly and completely unless you are around a body of believers.

Okay, Now I will say though, that you can attend church and not grow because you're attending the church for the wrong reasons.

So if I'm attending the church only so that I can have a social outlet and, and the spiritual side of things means nothing to me.

I'm going for the wrong reason, therefore I'm not going to spiritually grow.

Or you could say, well, I go to church because I feel like I'm checking off my box for the week, that I'm doing a good thing.

That's not going to make you spiritual growth spiritually grow.

So, so yes, church attendance is necessary for proper spiritual growth, but church attendance in and of itself will not equate to spiritual growth.

So, so it says here that we should not forsake or forget about the assembling of ourselves together.

So that's that idea of church.

We're doing church.

Now, that can look different in different scenarios.

I mean, there, there can be church as, as the worship service context that most people are thinking about.

There could be the church when it comes to ideas of fellowship, fellowships that are happening on different days of the week.

This could talk about small groups, this could talk about outreach, this could talk about service.

This could talk about just basically Christians getting together for the purpose of encouraging each other, worshiping Christ, teaching one another, challenging one another, keeping each other accountable.

So it says, don't forget to assemble.

And then it says here, as the manner of some is, meaning there were already people at this time neglecting or forgetting about assembling together or not seeing the importance of that fellowship.

And so if you don't see the importance of something, you're not going to do it.

And I think that's important to understand as a believer, is that we need to know the why behind our assembling.

We need to know the why behind our fellowship.

We need to know the why behind our teaching.

And so in this case, he says, hey, you know, some of you have lost your why, Some of you have forgotten.

Some of you have drifted away from the assembling together.

And we could say the same about people in our society today.

There are many people that say, you know, when I'm a believer, but I don't need to assemble with other believers.

And though that doesn't equate salvation being with other Christians, obviously salvation is.

Is a relationship between God and man, trusting in Jesus Christ.

But what I would say is that there is an importance to obedience and there's an importance to learning, and there's an importance to growth when it comes to getting together with other believers.

And so it says here, but exhorting, that's that word exhortation, or what we would say is encouragement or challenging in a good way, but exhorting one another.

So the whole goal is to get together.

He says, don't forget about getting together.

And when you get together, remember that the point of getting together is exhorting one another, exhorting one another.

And he says, and do this and so much more as you see the day approaching, talking about as you see the end coming, right?

And again, we don't know when the end is coming, but we know that we're one day closer.

And so the Bible does teach us to redeem the time because the days are evil.

And so we're to use up the time that we have to redeem the time to buy back the time that God has given us to be faithful to the fellowship, to be faithful to assembly, to be faithful to discipleship.

And so in the context of the church, discipleship is happening when individuals or Groups of individuals are getting together and for a purpose.

And that purpose is to encourage, to exhort.

Now, again, when we go back to that understanding of discipleship, there are many facets to that, but the one that I would like us to focus on here in this passage is the exhorting.

And of course, we can't have discipleship without the teaching of the truth.

And you can't have discipleship without the edification, the strengthening of one another together.

But certainly we need the exhortation as well, because, I mean, me getting up and preaching a message at my church is, is hopefully pointing people to the truth.

But that isn't necessarily in and of itself discipleship.

It's one aspect of discipleship.

But without the exhortation, without the accountability, without the fellowship, without the prayer, praying together and the encouragement and the sacrifice and the service, it's not complete discipleship.

And so the point of this study here today would be to encourage individuals who are on the path of discipleship to recognize the importance of the Christian community, whatever your context would be.

So for some, that is the local church.

For most, that should be the local church.

I believe that God has ordained the local church as the vessel for discipleship.

But discipleship can happen outside of the church.

And, and so again, this isn't a message to say that the only place that you can find discipleship is inside a church.

You can find discipleship in, in a home.

You can find discipleship in, in a relationship of, of two individuals that go to different churches.

But I.

I would say that the church should see it as a ministry of, of the call to present an opportunity for discipleship.

But it's made up of individuals.

And so the point would be that every believer should find a Christian community to be a part of.

Every believer should find a church to in some way be associated with, whether it be in the area of attendance, service.

I would.

I would encourage people to get involved.

I would encourage people to find that community within the local body of believers and ecclesia, the assembly, the body of the church.

And so again, growth does happen in other places, right?

I can read my Bible at home.

I can watch a sermon from home.

But there is an element that is necessity, I believe, when it comes to spending time with other Christians and not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together.

And so that's one aspect of discipleship that I wanted to emphasize here and in, in this study here is find a place of fellowship, find a place of community, find a place of where you can learn, educate yourself in the truths of God, find a place where you can be edified and strengthened in the truth of God.

And these are all aspects of discipleship.

So as we continue on the study of discipleship, I, I, I want to point out different elements of discipleship and really see if, number one, we are on that path and number two, are we doing a good job at looking for other people to join in with us in that path of discipleship?

Well, again, thank you so much for listening to this series.

I know that it is something that has helped me formulate in my mind what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

And I hope that it is helping you as well.

And so we will come back next time continuing our study in the topic of discipleship.

And so if you want a passage of scripture to reference when it comes to what we've talked about today, I would encourage you to read through Hebrews chapter 10, specifically looking at those verses there, verses 23, 24 and 25.

Well, God bless you.

We're looking forward to talking to you again next week.

And I pray that you can find that that Christian community that God has you in as his as his child.

So we will come back next time.

Thank you so much.

Share this with someone if you feel led to and make sure that you are proclaiming the truth of God no matter where you are.

Have a wonderful week.

We will talk to you again.

God bless.

Hey, I really appreciate that you listen to the Word of the Week podcast.

If you have any questions about the podcast or about our church, Middletown Baptist Church, you can find more information about us on Facebook or YouTube or you can find the podcast on NBCPodcast.org you can contact me directly at Josh Massaro at middletownbaptistchurch.org stay tuned for future Word of the Week episodes where we dive deeper into words that impact our life according to scripture.

Thank you so much.

God bless.

We'll talk to you soon.