Pastor’s Post #14: “FORMING YOUNG DISCIPLES” (03/18’17)

Our topic today is Forming Young Disciples.

Now immediately we think about this topic in a particular way. And there’s a big lesson in that.

We immediately think of a person – usually an older person – who has a crisis experience. The man or woman (or boy or girl) has a dramatic change from one lifestyle to another. Perhaps the person has responded to a call to come forward at the conclusion of an emotional religious service. The person has “prayed the sinner’s prayer” and “accepted Christ as Savior and Lord”. Or perhaps the person has made this commitment during a Christian camp or a “retreat”. The person is regarded as suddenly born again. He or she publicly professes faith in Christ, and, perhaps at that time, is baptized as a sign of his or her “commitment to follow the Lord”. People are thrilled. And perhaps the person is subsequently discipled in the things of the Christian faith. This conversion model is the beginning of the formation of a young disciple of Jesus Christ.

And there’s no doubt that our God who is about the work of saving people from sin and death often works in that way.

The problem is that this model is then imposed on everyone. In one way or the other, this is to be the model for the formation of every young Christian disciple.

But what about the way the children of Christian parents are to be formed as “young disciples”? Frankly, I don’t see this conversion model used anywhere in the Bible for those who are brought up in a family in which there’s a serious commitment to believe, obey, and serve the Lord in that family unit.

After the fall of humankind into sin, the Bible’s message of grace unfolds in a series of covenants – a bond that God makes with people whom He calls to Himself. And all of these covenants are with families. Noah and his family are saved from the ravages of a Flood that engulfed the world. Abraham and his family were called to follow the Lord – and, in that covenant, Abraham was to form his children as disciples of that Lord. I have known Abraham – I have loved and chosen him – not only that he might be a follower of the Lord – but also that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord…so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him, the Word of God says in Genesis 18. And God’s covenant with Moses – the covenant by which Israel was formed as a nation – included whole families in which parents were solemnly warned and charged to teach their children to love the Lord their God with all of their hearts, souls, and strength. Israel’s God was their God, and they were to live accordingly.

Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of what the Bible calls the “New Covenant.” And Jesus repeatedly blesses the little children of those who came to him, saying: “of such is the Kingdom of Heaven”. He even calls these “little ones” disciples in Matthew 10:42. In fact, it’s not “adult faith”, but “the faith of a little child” that Jesus uses as a model for all believers. Even more, “conversion” is to become as a little child: Truly I say to you, unless you turn – unless you are converted – and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of God. It seems we’ve gotten things backwards when it comes to the meaning of faith!

And as we continue reading in the New Testament, we’re struck with the fact that the principle – the covenant principle – of God’s dealing with whole families is hardly done away with in this age of the Good News. On the day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter declares that the promise of the Holy Spirit is to you and to your children, and to as many you and your children as the Lord shall call to Himself. Even as the male children of believing Israelites were circumcised, so whole households were baptized – the household of Lydia, the household of the Philippian jailer, the household of Stephanas. While older individuals who came to faith in Christ were baptized – marking them out as God’s people – there are at least as many references to household baptisms – with no specific mention that, at the time of the baptism, each household member was – at that time – a believer in the Lord.

And it’s most interesting, I think, that – in both the Bible books of Ephesians and Colossians – the apostle Paul speaks generally to the saints of these churches (and saints were those marked out by baptism) in the first part of each book; then he begins to speak specifically to husbands, wives, children, parents, servants, and masters. Why does he speak to these groups? Because husbands, wives, children, and servants were the normal units of a household in the first century – when these books were written. Whole households were the basic unit of the early Christian Church! That’s rich with significance for our church life today!

But how does all of this bear on the subject of forming young disciples? The answer is found in the 6th chapter of the book of Ephesians. The apostle Paul writes to children, telling them to “obey their parents in the Lord” – that is, obey your parents as those regarded as “in the Lord”. Apparently, those children were taught – from the youngest years – to believe in the Lord and to live as those in union with Him by grace through faith. Then – and here’s the heart of forming children as young disciples of Christ – Paul tells parents (led by the fathers): “Don’t provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up (and that’s the key word here) in the child training and admonition of the Lord.” Christian parents: This is amazing! You are God’s instruments to provide an environment of (or, if you’d prefer) a steady diet of the Lord’s own child training (which is, basically, child training by corrective discipline), and admonition (that is, to speak to the ear and mind in a way that – by God’s grace – forms the heart). Instead of a conversion model, we can call this a consecration model. It’s not a non-believer to faith model, but a nurturing faith model.

That’s a lot to unpack; but we’re going to start unpacking that today. What’s God’s model for forming children as young disciples of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?

My guest today is Pastor Ben Miller, pastor of Trinity Church – a congregation of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church that meets in Syosset, here on Long Island in New York. Pastor Ben and his wife, Sarah, are in the process of forming their four children as young disciples – so this is hardly a theoretical issue for them. He’s worked through a lot of these issues as a pastor, and I know his insights will be both rich and helpful for you. What’s the biblical model for forming your children as “young disciples of Jesus.”

Pastor Ben, welcome to A Visit to the Pastor’s Study…

Yours in the King of Kings,
Pastor Bill