Discipleship Essentials*
Monday, October 11, 2004
My Prayer Today
Heavenly Father, I truly desire to be mature in Your Son, Jesus, and to grow up into the full stature of Jesus Christ! I pray that You will pour out Your Holy Spirit in my life right now that I may think, speak and act just like Jesus in every interaction in life. I pray that you will bless this time of study with fruitfulness, that I may not only be better informed when I have completed it, but that I will also be closer to You, and more fully equipped to share You with others. This I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
God’s Word Today
Ephesians 4:11-16
11He is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, 13until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.
14Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth. 15Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
Background on the Text – Who Wrote It? Why Was It Written? Who Was the Audience?
Paul’s letters always give us clues into why they were written. Sometimes Paul wrote to encourage believers to continued faithfulness. Sometimes he wrote to challenge believers to come back to their faith in Jesus and to live it out with the same love and passion that held for Jesus at first. Sometimes Paul writes to chastise and correct believers who have fallen into error in the understanding or living out of the Gospel. In the case of the letter to the Ephesians, Watchman Nee, a great Christian evangelist and teacher from China, the Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians to encourage them to “sit, walk and stand.” He reminded the Ephesian believers that we “sit” in the heavenlies with Jesus as a result of the salvation He died to purchase. We are to “walk” in His ways, following His commands and rejecting the worlds distractions and evil. We can only do this by living in the power of the Holy Spirit who fills us and sustains us. Finally, Paul calls the Ephesian Christians to put on the full armor of God and to “stand” against all the tricks of the Devil. While there are certainly other details in the letter. This overarching analysis by Watchman Nee is both accurate and helpful.
Observation – What Does the Text Say?
Interpretation – What Does the Text Mean?
Application – How Can I Respond to the Text’s Insights and Teachings?
Each Week’s Check List.
After reading and studying this text, reflect on the following discipleship growth points:
Growth Point |
How |
Encouraged and strengthened me by |
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Fallen short areas |
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What will I do with these insights? |
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What did God say to me today? |
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Share insights and growth points |
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Changed/transformed how? |
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Thoughts...The Full Stature of Jesus!
One of the great dreams of every believer, according to the Apostle Paul is that one day we will “measure up” to the “full stature” of Jesus! What a dream! What a goal! Jesus was and IS perfect, and while no one else before Him or after Him has ever been perfect, Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount that we are to be perfect, even as our father in heaven is perfect. Paul reminds us in his words to the Ephesian Church that we ARE to grow up to become just like Jesus. Paul’s challenge to grow up is comforting in a way, because it reminds us that becoming like Jesus isn’t something that happens in an instant. It is a growth process. Just as our physical bodies grow slowly over a long period of time, in many ways our growth as followers of Jesus is just as slow and painstaking. It takes a great deal of effort to grow up to be like Jesus, and yet we must remember two central truths about the process—First, Jesus will empower us to grow up into Him through the Holy Spirit and unless He does we will never make it! It is beyond the capacity of human ability. Second, it IS possible to become like Jesus. Otherwise, Jesus and Paul wouldn’t have told us it was. While we fall short regularly, Jesus is always there by the Holy Spirit to pick us up and move us forward. He will never give up on us, so each new day is a new opportunity to become more and more like Jesus!