The Disciple's Fellowship - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, September 28th. If you wonder how you can best serve the Lord in a consistent way, it always starts at the same place. Let's learn about the disciples' fellowship and the wrap-up of the series, Called to Be a Disciple. Now we've talked about the badge of discipleship being love.

We talked about the price of discipleship. We've talked about the detachment of discipleship, the disciple in the world, the disciple in the Word. We talked about many facets of discipleship, the ministry of the disciple, of committing to faithful men those truths that have been committed to us that they in turn might commit the same faithful truths to others. We said that a disciple is one who has accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, yielded to Jesus Christ as Lord, and one through whom Jesus Christ is making himself available and transforming the lives of others out there whose lives we are touching, a reproduction of the life of Christ within us in the life of someone else. Now when you think about discipleship and what's involved in it, as you read the Scriptures, there are so many facets of it that are here that most of us have never discovered. And in reading this third chapter of Mark, there's a little phrase here that is the heart and the core of the effectiveness of any life of discipleship, and it's in verse 14. The Lord Jesus Christ having escaped the throngs because they were about to crush him, wanting to be healed and to be strengthened and so forth, the Scripture says in verse 14, and he ordained 12 that they should be with him and that he might send them forth to preach. Now the key that says something about discipleship that probably you've not thought about, and that is that he ordained 12 that they should be with him.

Now what is he talking about? He's simply referring to his fellowship with those 12 apostles and their fellowship with him, fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ is absolutely essential if discipleship is to be effective. Now the 32nd chapter of Genesis is an account of Jacob alone with the Lord wrestling with him, and I think the promise that God gave to Jacob is the promise he gives to every single one of his children who will believe him and obey him. Genesis chapter 32, you remember in verse 24 that Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man with him all night long to the breaking of the day, and he just refused to let God go until he blessed him.

And notice if you will in verse 28, God said to him, thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince has thou power with God and with men, and you Jacob have prevailed. Now where did he get his power with God? Where did he get his power with men?

He didn't get that running up and down the land. He received that power in quiet, intimate fellowship, wrestling with God all night, having God search his heart, expose his heart, convict him of his sins, show him what his needs were, and then in quiet serenity, just the Lord Jesus Christ giving himself away to Jacob. He says if you're going to have power with God and power with men, that must be true. Now you remember also in Matthew chapter 17, when the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking with his disciples, and turn that just for a moment if you will, let me show you something interesting. You remember that they'd been up on the Mount of Transfiguration, they had come down and the disciples had been serving the Lord, ministering, and a father brought a son to the disciples for him to be healed, and they couldn't heal him. And they had seen hundreds and thousands of people healed. But here was a little lad, and they had approached this kind of problem before. He needed to have demons cast out of him, and the scripture said that they tried and they couldn't do it.

Now watch this. They tried and they couldn't do it. And they were so embarrassed after Jesus had rebuked the devil, that verse 19 says, then came the disciples to Jesus apart, that is private, and said to him, why couldn't we do it?

We've done it before, why couldn't we do it again? Listen to what Jesus said. Jesus said to them, because of your unbelief, but verily I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you, howbeit that is, this kind goeth not out but by fasting and prayer. You know what he was saying to them?

Here's what had happened. They'd been healing and preaching and proclaiming the gospel, and they made the tragic mistake of trusting in yesterday's fellowship for today's power, and they came upon a situation and they couldn't heal him. It was not that God had not given them the power. They had run out of steam, run out of power, run out of authority, run out of energy, and they were trying to do God's work today in yesterday's energy. The disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, who's going to be effective for him, understands that every day he needs a fresh new energizing from God.

He doesn't get that from reading books. He gets it from fellowship, from being quiet, from being alone with him, and Jesus said preparation for ministry, prerequisite to that, part of the preparation is fellowship with him. The second thing I want you to notice is that we have misdirected our priorities.

Not only have we misunderstood that our number one priority is fellowship, we've misdirected our priorities. Now a beautiful example of this is found in Luke chapter 10. You'll remember, beginning in verse 38, you'll remember that Mary and Martha, who loved the Lord Jesus Christ and they were intimate friends, just loved each other, Lazarus, their brother. The scripture says that one day Jesus was coming through Bethany, and this is a beautiful description of us, and it says in verse 38, it came to pass as they went that he entered into a certain village and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house, and she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word, but Martha was cumbered about.

You know what that word means? It means running around in circles, and Martha was cumbered about much serving. She was just running around in circles, getting everything ready, came to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone, bid her therefore that she help me.

Now can't you imagine him saying this, listen. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, Martha, thou art careful, anxious, troubled about many things. One thing, prior to number one, Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken from her.

How often does that describe our life? You see, Martha had the right idea when the Lord Jesus Christ came. She did the natural, normal thing. She wanted to prepare him a delicious lunch or dinner.

So she got in the kitchen and she got to wrestling pots and pans or earthenware, whatever they had then, and she was getting everything just right and kneading the dough and preparing the drink, everything. She was just busy, busy, busy. Now listen, her motive was as pure as pure gold. Nothing wrong with her motive and he never questioned her motive. It wasn't a matter of her preferring that over Jesus. It was not a matter that Mary loved Jesus more than Martha did. They loved him probably equally as well. But you see, it was a matter of misdirected priorities. He didn't come through there too often.

Probably every once in a while he'd drop through. And to have the Lord Jesus Christ in their home and to be able to listen to him and have the throngs aside, the disciples aside, and just to have him all by yourself. Can you imagine that?

Just to have him all by yourself and just sit down and just listen to him talk. And here's Martha, wonderful homemaker, everything just right, house clean as a pen, here comes Jesus and she can't do enough to get it all just right. Wasn't anything wrong with her dinner. I'm sure Jesus enjoyed every bit of it. But it was where she placed the priorities.

That was not to be first. First was fellowship with him, not service to him. You see, Mary loved him and Martha loved him. Mary knew that the most important thing in her life was to get him by herself and just listen to him.

Let him speak to her heart and feel the warmth and the intimacy and the power and the love and the mercy and the grace and the kindness of the holy God expressed through him. Martha wanted the same thing. It's just that she let her priorities get out of place. And while she was busying herself, watch this, Mom, she got so busy doing the thing that she thought was necessary, then you know what she did? She got a little irritated because she not only wanted to get the dinner prepared, but she didn't quite like it that Mary was in there getting all the blessing while she was in the kitchen getting her hands dirty.

Now I want to tell you something. When you don't put fellowship first, I guarantee in the service of God, you'll get irritated. And you don't want to blame somebody. And you begin to look around and say, why doesn't he do so and so? Why doesn't she do thus and so?

You see, when our priorities get out of place, we get critical, we get discouraged, we get down in the mouth, then we'll look for somebody to blame. Mary chose, he said, the better part. Now eating dinner was great, but that's secondary. First is fellowship with Jesus Christ. And my friend, unless it is first in your life, you're going to find irritations, you're going to find frustrations that quiet, warm, intimate, wonderful fellowship with him can soothe beautifully. But when you get so active and you don't have time for him, after a while, what happens? Your old nervous system begins to react, your self-image goes down, criticize others, look around you to criticize your circumstances and your environment, nothing is right.

And the problem is not your circumstance, but your attitude, your priorities are all confused. All right, now get your pencil out, listen. The power of that fellowship, and I want to list nine things that I believe, nine things that I believe are true in the life of the believer who has learned to get alone with God and the fellowship with him.

And I'll just list them and just comment on them briefly because we could take all day on just this one. The power of fellowship in the life of the disciple. First of all, the first thing that happens when you get alone with the Lord and you're quiet and you're listening to him, the first thing that'll happen is, and they all begin with the E, so you won't forget them, enlightenment.

That is, God is able to teach you things about himself when you get alone with him. My friend, you will never get any other place, no place, enlightenment. Second thing I want you to notice is encouragement. I mean the world may have dropped out from under you, the tops caved in, the sides are squeezing you like a vice, you don't know what to do or where to turn. If you will get alone with God, open his word and let him speak to your heart and listen to him.

Listen, you'll come out of that place able to whip the world. God never leaves one of his children discouraged. The third thing is energy. If you will begin the day and end the day, my friend, he'll give you supernatural energy. Everybody stays busy. Don't you get tired?

Once in a while I do, but I've discovered something absolutely wonderful. And that is this, that the energy can be refueled in a matter of moments. All you've got to do is get by yourself, get on your knees and tell God, Lord, I have had an energy drain, I need to be refilled right now. And be quiet.

Don't say anything, don't do anything, just be quiet. Everybody needs a refueling of energy. You say, well, I thought you had to go to sleep.

Not necessarily. There's something supernatural about closing out the world, getting alone with God and being quiet. I guarantee you that physically, spiritually, mentally, morally, every facet of your life will be energized in quiet fellowship with him. Fourth thing I want you to notice is effectiveness. Our service for the Lord Jesus Christ is far more effective. When we've spent some time from him, listen, getting his viewpoint on how we ought to do his business. Reading books may help, but that's not the ultimate. The ultimate of effectiveness is getting God's viewpoint on how to get it done.

The next thing is efficiency. The greatest thing in the world about fellowship with him is the time you save. He'll show you how to take shortcuts to get it done. Just being alone with him somehow seems to cut out the fog and all the unnecessary things that we usually have to face.

The next thing is enrichment. And that is when you're alone with him, what is he doing? He's just building up his spiritual life and enriching your relationship to him and deepening that and sweetening that and making it more and more meaningful.

And the next one is eagerness. Listen, when you spend time alone with him, you are eager to serve God. When I meet somebody that says, oh, I can't witness, I can't teach, I can't usher, I can't do this, I can't do that, you know what you're saying? I interpret that, dear brother, to say somewhere in your life you've missed that which creates eagerness and desire to serve God and that is created alone with him. You may be motivated by others, but there's something about the inner motivation and eagerness that develops in the life of a believer when he's alone with God for which there's no substitute. The next thing is expectation, listen. You just get along with yourself and with the Lord Jesus Christ and you bring some problem to him and tell him how big it is or how small it is or how expensive it is, listen, if you'll just be quiet and listen to him and focus your attention upon him and trust him, he will create faith, expectation in your life like you've never dreamed of because, you see, it is his will that you and I be excited about his work and you can add that one, excitement about the Lord Jesus Christ's work, eager to get it done, excited and thrilled about what the Lord's gonna do in your life. And then the last thing is expression, listen, do you remember in Acts chapter 4 when Peter and John were before the council and they were beginning to be tried and the scripture says that the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin looked upon them and they saw that they were unlearned and ignorant men, but listen, and they looked upon them and took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus, listen, are you listening carefully? There is nothing, there is nothing that will so lift the veil and the shade from your countenance and allow people to see something of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life like being alone with him.

You know why? The more you look at him, the more of his life is gonna be reflected in your countenance. If you let sin and hurry and busyness, just cut the light out of your face, what do you have?

A shadow. And it may be that most of us are walking with a shadow because we've not looked at him long enough to have any radiance of our countenance like unto him. The last thing I want you to notice is this, and that is the plan for fellowship with him.

Four little simple words, write them all down, four little simple words of how to develop that fellowship with him. The first one is to hide away. Just hide away.

It may be your bedroom, your living room, your bathroom, wherever you can get by yourself, but find your place where you can just get away. Hide away. Secondly, hold before you the Lord Jesus Christ. Just look to him. You say, well, suppose it's dark.

That's all right. You just visualize the Lord Jesus Christ, and you can hold him before you, not only in the vision of your mind, but also in the truth of his word. As you look upon the word, as you read of his works and his ministry among men, what happens?

Here's what happens. God just takes those printed words off the page. He puts them in your eye, into your mind. They become a part of your life, and what are you doing? As you hold him and who he is before you, the reflection of the Lord Jesus Christ just increases in your life.

Hide away, first of all. Hold him before you, and then hear what he says. Listen, you have to be quiet if you're going to fellowship with God. You can't do all the talking. If you do all the talking, that's a monologue.

That's not a fellowship, but a fellowship is two people being able to give themselves away, each to the other. And my friend, he will give himself to you, unfold himself to you, be intimate in your life like you've never dreamed of. Hide away, hold him before you, hear what he says, and the last thing is to heed what he says. And that is, I mean by that simply to obey what he tells you.

Hide away and just get along with him. That's what he did. He held the father before him because that's where his conversations and his listening was directed. And then he heard what the father said, and he obeyed the father's will. And if you'll remember those four things and determine in your life that because you want to be effective for God as a disciple, you're going to put him where he belongs. Fellowship with him first, and my friend, something will happen in your life.

You see, he didn't explain it. He just said prior to number one is quiet, intimate fellowship with him. That's prior to number one. And when that priority is right, everything else in your life is going to begin to fall into its proper perspective, and your life is going to be fruitful. There's going to be fulfillment. There's going to be happiness and joy. The strain's going to be gone.

You're going to be able to work longer hours. You're going to be able to enjoy what God wants you to do. Everything begins to fall in its proper place when, my friend, fellowship with him is first.

There is no way to describe almost as if it were an osmosis what happens when you get alone with him, and you are able to shut out the world and concentrate on him. And the world's all shut out, and it's just you and the Lord Jesus Christ, and you give him yourself, and there's no sin between you. There's no guilt in your life. Everything is heavenly pure between you and God. There is an intimacy, a warmth, an energizing, an empowering, an effectiveness, a fulfillment, a satisfaction, a joy, a peace that passeth all understanding. And everything I've mentioned is what everybody in here is looking for. And I just told you where to get it and how to get it. You know, the wonderful thing about it is that you don't have to have anybody else. You don't have to read any books. You don't have to get anybody else to agree. All you've got to do is to get along with him and tell the Lord, Lord, I just want to be your friend.

That's all. I just want you to do with me whatever you want to do, and I just want you to speak to my heart. Whatever you want to say to me, I'm willing to listen to it.

Listen. Fellowship is essential to effective discipleship. Thank you for listening to The Disciples Fellowship. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.