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Are You Children, or Disciples?

March 01, 2015

By John Partridge
Scripture: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Mark 8:31-38
Romans 4:13-25
First there was Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, the boys who would never grow up. Then, much later Toys R Us
gave us a song to that fit the Peter Pan feelings in all of us that said, I dont want to grow up, Im a Toys R Us
kid. When our children are small, we sometimes want them to stay small forever, and when they are older a
part of us wants them to stop growing so that we can keep them at home. But in the end, every good parent
knows that its our job to teach our children how to be responsible, likable, functioning adults. It is the nature
of things.
Children grow.
If they didnt, we would quickly realize that something was wrong and would seek out some sort of medical or
psychological help for them.
But what about Christians?
When people come to faith in Jesus Christ later in life they can sometimes behave in ways that are spiritually
immature, and for that reason we often refer to them as baby Christians. But the thing about babies, at least
healthy babies, is that babies grow. In our physical lives, babies grow into toddlers, then wobblers, then
gobblers, and pretty soon they become adults. But psychologically, that process isnt always as certain. All
sorts of trauma and life experiences can cause people to get stuck psychologically and we all know adults
who, in certain situations, act childishly. Some adults are never able to handle money well and continue to
spend it like kids in a candy store. Others remain focused on themselves like toddlers and never grow the
empathy needed to properly care for children, spouses or the people around them. But just as people can get
stuck psychologically, from the time we are born as baby Christians until the time that we grow into mature,
healthy and functioning disciples of Jesus Christ, we can also get stuck spiritually.
Just as some people appear, physically, to be adults but psychologically behave in ways that seem childish,
there are others who also appear, outwardly, to be mature adults but who behave in ways that are spiritually
immature.

To help us get a grip on this idea, let us return to the story Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16.
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, I am God Almighty; walk before
me faithfully and be blameless. 2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase
your numbers.
3

Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father
of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram [which means, Exalted Father]; your name will be
Abraham [which means, Father of many], for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very
fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an
everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be
your God and the God of your descendants after you.
15

God also said to Abraham, As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be
Sarah.[Note: As far as we can tell, both names mean princess, but the context suggests that the name Sarah,
in some way, more strongly suggested that she was to be the mother of nations and kings] 16 I will bless her
1

and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples
will come from her.
Because of Abrahams faithfulness, as well as Sarahs, he was not only given a child, but God promised them
that their descendants would so numerous that they would fill entire nations. But more than that, they would
not become nations of slaves who were ruled by others, but would be ruled by others from their own family
line.
Originally, everyone understood this to be a story of procreation, or what we would now call a story of
genetics. For thousands of years, everyone believed and understood that Gods promise was strictly a family
promise to the bloodline of Abraham, in other words, a promise to the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac who
were the fathers of the Arabs and the Jews and a few others. But then the whole understanding of Gods
promise changed with the arrival of Jesus. With the coming of the Messiah, the Gentiles, those people who
were not genetically related to Abraham, were invited to become followers of God and followers of Jesus. And
so, particularly in places where the majority of believers were not Jewish, people began to wonder how exactly
these new believers fit into the promises of God. And in answer to that question, Paul, in Romans 4:13-25,
writes these words
13

It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the
world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith
means nothing and the promise is worthless, 15 because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there
is no transgression.
16

Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abrahams
offspringnot only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the
father of us all. 17 As it is written: I have made you a father of many nations. He is our father in the sight of
God, in whom he believedthe God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.
18

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been
said to him, So shall your offspring be. 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was
as good as deadsince he was about a hundred years oldand that Sarahs womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did
not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to
God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why it was credited
to him as righteousness. 23 The words it was credited to him were written not for him alone, 24 but also for
us, to whom God will credit righteousnessfor us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the
dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Paul sees the genetic question as being a question of law. Jews that obeyed the law were considered to be
members of the family, but those who had fallen away or who otherwise did not follow the law, even if they
were legally or genetically related, were considered to be outsiders. But Paul points out that Abraham did not
gain Gods favor because of the law. The laws of Moses were written nearly a thousand years after the death of
Abraham and so the promise of God came to Abraham and Sarah not through the law, but through faith. It was
faith and trust in God that made Abraham and Sarah special. For that reason, Paul argues, the people who
depend on the law, on legality, or genetics for their salvation, Gods promise is worthless. The purpose of the
law was to point out those who were doing wrong, not those who did right. You can know that people are
criminals because they broke the law, but you cannot know that people are good simply because they are not
criminals.
The promise of God is not something that you inherit legally, or genetically, but, like Abraham and Sarah,
something that comes to you because of your faith and trust in God. Paul says that those who have the faith of
Abraham are in fact, the children of Abraham. Even Gentiles, like us, who have no legal or genetic ties to
Abraham, are included as members of his family because of our faith in God and our faith in Jesus Christ.
2

Abraham was fully persuaded that God had the power to do as he had promised. Being fully persuaded is
a description of Abrahams faith and so, because of his faith, it was credited to him as righteousness. We
know that none of us is perfect. We are not, we cannot be, completely righteous. But because of our faith,
because we too are fully persuaded that God has the power to keep his promises, our faith has been credited
to us as righteousness. In Gods system of accounting, God counts our faith as, or in place of, our full measure
of righteousness.
And so, for all these reasons, we are, in the eyes of God, children of Abraham and heirs of Gods promise.
If we have faith, we are counted among Gods children.
But is that all we are ever supposed to be?
The moment we have faith we become a child of God, but where do we go from there? Do we remain a child
forever or are we supposed to grow spiritually in the same way that we grow physically and mentally?
We can find at least a part of our answer from Jesus in Mark 8:31-38.
31

He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the
chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke
plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33

But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. Get behind me, Satan! he said. You
do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.
34

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: Whoever wants to be my disciple must
deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but
whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole
world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of
me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he
comes in his Fathers glory with the holy angels.
Jesus is in the middle of teaching that he must suffer, be rejected by the elders, be killed, and then, after three
days, rise from the dead when Peter takes him aside and tells Jesus to knock it off. Seriously, Peter scolds
Jesus for saying these sorts of things and Jesus responds by telling Peter to stop being the voice of Satan and
tempting him to do what is not in Gods best interests.
After Jesus knocks Peter down a peg, he calls the crowd in closer so that everyone could hear, and what he
says is this: Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
and then later, If anyone is ashamed of me and my words the Son of Man will be ashamed of them.
There is no question that everyone listening to Jesus is a child of God. The vast majority of them, if not all of
them, are indeed Jewish and therefore, genetically, descendants of Abraham. Whats more, they are all
followers of God. They are either priests, or rabbis, or people who were interested enough in following God
that they had come out to listen to Jesus. Everyone there had faith in God. Everyone there was a Child of
God.
But Jesus says that there is more to it than that.
Jesus says, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and follow me.
As spiritual beings, there is more to our lives than just being Children of Abraham or even followers of Jesus.
Just as grown-up humans become physically adult, and mentally mature, grown-up Christians are intended to
become disciples.
And the distinctive hallmark of being a disciple is that we are willing to put aside our own desires in favor of
the things that God desires. For Jesus, that meant picking up a cross but for each of us it will be different. For
us, taking up our cross will probably not mean a real literal cross, but it might mean giving up a career, or a
friend, or money, or something else that we wanted so that instead, we can accomplish the things that God
wants.
3

Make no mistake, Jesus wanted to live. He spent an entire night praying that God would find a way for him
not to die. But in the end, Jesus was willing to set aside the life that he wanted, so that God could accomplish
the things that God wanted.
But just like some people get stuck emotionally, there are plenty of Christians who get stuck spiritually. It
is as if they are forever stuck in Neverland singing that they dont want to grow up.
Stuck as baby Christians.
Children of Abraham, but never growing into adulthood as Disciples of Jesus.
And so we must ask ourselves what we are.
Are we Children?
Or Disciples?
You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.
Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever
wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What
good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange
for their soul?

You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first
page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry heights in Massillon, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part
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