Family Discipleship That Works (eBook)

Guiding Your Child to Know, Love, and Act Like Jesus

Brian Dembowczyk (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024 | 1. Auflage
176 Seiten
IVP (Verlag)
978-1-5140-0997-0 (ISBN)

Infos

Family discipleship is one of the most basic ways God has ordained to build his kingdom-and yet most parents struggle to do it consistently. Amid our busyness, the multitude of different approaches, and our own self-doubts, the deck seems stacked against us. But Brian Dembowczyk isn't here to pile on the guilt or to make us feel like failures. As a parent himself, he knows this struggle firsthand. In Family Discipleship That Works, Dembowczyk says that the goal of discipling our kids isn't just passing along head knowledge. It's teaching them to act like Jesus. The Bible itself is not just a story but a drama in which we ourselves participate, and our kids have roles to play too. Dembowczyk offers practical advice and a wealth of ideas for teaching our kids to imitate the character traits of Jesus himself as we 'act out' the Christian life together. As parents, we are indeed called to disciple our children to know and act like Jesus. By God's grace, that's a task we can do-not out of guilt but with joy and good hope. Family Discipleship That Works . . . - Invites parents into more active family discipleship without judgmentalism, but with grace and understanding - Presents 'imitating Jesus' as a new model for understanding and enacting family discipleship - Includes practical, achievable advice for parents to live out these principles in their homes

Brian Dembowczyk (PhD, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is associate publisher for Thomas Nelson Bibles. He was previously the managing editor of The Gospel Project, a Bible study curriculum used by over 1.6 million adults, teens, and children each week, and he has also been a pastor, discipleship pastor, and family pastor. He lives in Tennessee with his wife and three children.

Textauszug

2

Follow
the Leader

When Tara and I learned we were pregnant for the first time, we went right out and bought a crib. You might have done the same. The act of selecting, purchasing, and assembling a crib is deeply cathartic. It gives you a concrete way to express those joyous emotions. (Well, at least, buying the crib does. The assembly can bring you back down to earth in a hurry.)

Now, imagine you just finished assembling that crib—the bed where your priceless new child will lay his or her hairless head—and you had a part left over. You wouldn’t just shrug your shoulders and think, “Hey! Free part!” You’d figure out where that part was supposed to go, disassemble the crib as much as needed, and build it right, no matter how much angst that might cause. The reason is simple: you know there aren’t any extra parts. Every part has something to do, and if even the smallest part is missing, the crib won’t be able to do what it is designed to do: give your baby a safe place to sleep (or, more aptly, a safe place from which to cry and wake you up).

The same is true of people. We aren’t here on earth just to be thrown into a junk drawer with other random screws, nuts, and washers. We are here to do something—every one of us, including our kids. As we begin thinking about a new path forward for family discipleship, understanding what our kids are here to do—the role God has given them to play—is our first priority. Knowing this purpose will become our destination, our North Star; it will guide and direct everything we do in family discipleship. This isn’t the time to talk about how we’ll disciple. That will come soon enough.

For now, we just need to know where we are going. Without knowing that, we are like travelers setting out on a long journey without knowing where we’re going. Every mile we travel moves us toward a destination—but is it the one we want to reach? Different isn’t always better. In family discipleship, we cannot sacrifice truth and faithfulness on the altar of novelty and creativity. Whatever we do must align with God’s design of family discipleship; indeed, it must align with his design for our existence in the first place. So, let’s see what he says about that.

THE PARABLE OF THE SHEEP AND GOATS

When you read Matthew 25:31-46, it’s difficult not to scratch your head and wonder just a little about Jesus’ theology. Okay, now that you’ve reached chapter two, I think we’ve developed enough of a friendship for me to be more direct than that. When you read Matthew 25:31-46, it’s hard not to think that Jesus’ theology is terrible. Let me explain.

In this passage, Jesus tells a parable of a shepherd who separates sheep from goats. (These animals were often pastured together and would likely need to be separated for purposes such as breeding.) We can see how this connects to the way that believers (sheep) and unbelievers (goats) will be separated at the Last Judgment. The sheep will be placed on the right and the goats on the left. Simple enough.

But what’s fascinating is what Jesus said about how the sheep and goats will be separated. What sets them apart? Is it a profession of faith in Christ? Is it church attendance? Knowing all sixty-six books of the Bible? Quoting John 3:16? Eating at Chick-fil-A? None of that. According to Jesus, here is how the sheep will be identified:

Then the king will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” (Matthew 25:34-36)

Did Jesus really say believers will be recognized by whether they feed, clothe, and visit people? That doesn’t sound like the gospel, does it? It sounds more like works-based salvation or moralism. “Want to go to heaven? Give someone a sandwich!”

Notice that the sheep in the parable seem just as surprised. In the next three verses, they ask when they did these things, repeating the list verbatim. The king replies that when the sheep did these things to serve others, they were serving him.

It’s all turned around for the goats. When they hear that they did not feed, visit, or care for the king, they, too, ask when they saw him in such need. The king responds as he did for the sheep—when they didn’t do these things to serve the least of people, they didn’t serve him.

This list of feeding, clothing, and visiting stands out, doesn’t it? After all, we read it four times in these sixteen verses. It’s almost tedious to read. I think it’s supposed to be. Jesus wants this list to jump out at us and surprise us. He wants this unusual detail of the parable to be unforgettable.

We know the gospel is about the grace God gives to us. It’s about what Jesus has done in his sinless life, sacrificial death, and supernatural resurrection, not what we do. Let’s be clear: people are not saved from eternal damnation by feeding others. Nor are they saved by clothing or visiting people. People are saved one way: by trusting in Christ. There is no other way. Jesus, of course, knows this, far better than we do. Jesus certainly isn’t a terrible theologian. So, what’s going on here?

To understand this parable, let’s get a running start by backing up to the beginning of Matthew 25. This chapter records a series of three parables: the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), and the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46). In the first parable, Jesus describes ten women waiting for a delayed wedding to begin. Five prepared by bringing the oil they needed, but the other five didn’t. When the wedding finally begins, the five foolish women who had failed to prepare rush out to buy oil and miss the wedding.

Then, in the parable of the talents, Jesus tells of a master going out of town and entrusting three of his servants with some of his wealth. When the master returns and asks for his money back, the first two return him double what he had given them. They are recognized for their faithfulness. But the third servant gives the master only the money that had been entrusted to him. This servant isn’t praised for increasing his master’s wealth, of course. He didn’t. But he isn’t even thanked for preserving it. Instead, the master calls him evil and casts him into darkness.

What is it that connects these three parables and explains why Matthew grouped them here? Each parable is about the foolishness of failing to act. The women at the wedding should have brought enough oil to the wedding, but they didn’t. (Weddings in Jesus’ time could have lasted for days.) These women should have known that, planned accordingly, and acted properly. The servant, meanwhile, should have invested his master’s wealth, but he didn’t. He even admitted that he knew it was what the master expected. But instead of at least investing the money in a bank and drawing meager interest, he did absolutely nothing. Then, in the last parable, the goats should have fed, clothed, and visited people, but they didn’t. They saw people in need but didn’t act to meet those needs.

Jesus’ point in this triad of parables is this: If you are going to be one of his disciples, you need to act. You need to do something. It’s foolishness not to.

Big Idea: What we do matters just as much as what we believe.

There’s one more thing we need to notice. Feeding, clothing, and visiting people didn’t make the sheep sheep. Doing these things identified the sheep as sheep. The sheep were already sheep, and the goats were already goats, at the beginning of the parable. Jesus didn’t imply that feeding, clothing, and visiting saves anyone. His point is that these actions reveal a true disciple, just as elsewhere he talked about how we can know a tree by its fruit (Matthew 7:15-20). I’m not much of a botanist, but I can identify an apple tree if it has apples on it. Likewise, it shouldn’t be hard to identify followers of Jesus. His disciples will act like disciples. They have to; that’s at the core of what it means to be a disciple. The notion of one of his followers not following in his ways is foreign to Jesus. It should be to us too.

What we believe saves us. What we do identifies us.

THE GOAL OF DOING

If Jesus’ point in this parable is that, as believers, we will be recognized by our characteristic actions, then this is the best place for us to start finding our goal of family discipleship. Our goal should be to disciple our kids so that God recognizes them as sheep because they act like sheep. Or, put more simply, our goal is for our kids to live out their faith day by day. That’s what they’re here to do.

Now, I realize what I’m saying here might feel off to you. It might sound like I’m after behavior modification or moralism—the belief we can earn God’s acceptance by what we do. And that might make you cringe. I’m glad. We need to be discerning about moralism. But that’s not what I’m saying. Behavior modification and moralism are contrary to the gospel.

I’m all about gospel centrality. I...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 8.10.2024
• Verlagsort: Lisle
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte
• Themenwelt: Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Moraltheologie / Sozialethik
• Schlagworte: achievable • Biblical • Character • children • chrildren's ministry • Christ • Christian • christian discipleship • Christian family life • Christian parenting • christian parents • Contemporary • Discipleship • Discipleship for children • faithful • family discipleship • Formation • Grace • grandparent • grow • growth • Identity • imitating • Jesus • new model • parenting • parenting advice • Pastor • Practical • Principles • raising • raising a Christian family • resource • small group • Student Ministry
• ISBN-10: 1-5140-0997-8 / 1514009978
• ISBN-13: 978-1-5140-0997-0 / 9781514009970