Whichever discipleship model we choose needs to be supplemented with an eschatology of the coming of the kingdom of Jesus Christ so that we may understand the times in which we are living.
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Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like a pearl, which a man bought after selling all that he had. We often soften this message. If we preached like this, who would follow Jesus? But if you understand who Jesus is and what he has done, you will sell everything. You should weigh things in light of the kingdom of heaven.
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Jesus liberated those who lived their whole lives in fear of death. If you truly understand what he did, it is not that you will not be afraid of death, but rather that death no longer has the final say because we have already died in him. We have been set free.
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You cannot be a disciple all by yourself. If one person is missing, the whole is incomplete. Jesus says the last day will not arrive until the gospel has been preached throughout the whole world. Only when all the elect people have been gathered together will they be fully remade.
But this is not all. The universe will also be restored. Eschatological discipleship is spiritual formation in the kingdom of heaven. The reason we are able to follow Jesus is because the kingdom of heaven has come. Thereafter, we are citizens of it.
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Discipleship concerns restoring the image of God and becoming more and more like the second person of the Godhead in our appearance, behavior, and emotions. Jesus’s call to discipleship is radical and extreme. But at the same time, it is achievable, because he sent the Holy Spirit and created the church.
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We move forward on our knees, traveling upstream; otherwise, we will follow the stream downward, because it is only natural. This vision of the kingdom of the gospel is not something we can accomplish by ourselves. But God has placed this impossible mission into the hands of his redeemed people.
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It is important for us as Christians to discern, in this age and in the context where God has put us, how we could best serve the people around us and live out goodness, justice, and mercy, which I believe is our top priority right now.
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Persecution is suffering, but it is not useless suffering: it is suffering in sacrifice for others. Through the suffering of the persecuted, others are set free to grow in their faith, to “live every moment” for Christ, even to be “ready to die” for Christ. That is the power of Christ’ death and resurrection to so motivate our lives. We partake in that power every time Christians, whether in China, Iran, or elsewhere, are persecuted.
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The church is a place where you can find personal freedom (for we have been set free in the Lord Jesus), but the church is also an intimately connected community. Gospel-centered discipleship put the individual and the collective in their correct places, and bring us back to God’s original will for creation.
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The Holy Spirit will lead the church in the right direction to witness to the Lord Jesus and inspire her to pray continually and earnestly. Without the power of the Holy Spirit, Christians are incapable of bearing witness to Jesus Christ.
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