Disciple Beyond Mediocrity

By Brian Byrne

Disciple. Beyond Mediocrity addresses the problem of mediocrity found in many churches that are locked into the status quo. In this book Dr. Byrne portrays the life of a disciple in strict accordance with what the scriptures teach and as an essential element in the renewal of our faith before the Lord returns At the heart of Dr. Byrne's examination is the question of mediocrity as it has plagued churches and Christians without number. Dr. Byrne exposes the nature of mediocrity and on that foundation builds his study of a disciple whose life can be beyond mediocrity. Dr. Byrne explores the seven characteristics of being a disciple based on the Lord's own words. Denying oneself, taking up his cross, following the Lord, forsaking attachments to all he has, abiding in His word, bearing much fruit, and loving one another. Central to his study of the life of a disciple are the twin spiritual skills; living by faith and living in the Spirit, with the subject that is central to both; being able to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Dr. Byrne then presents his readers with a step by step instruction on how to live by faith, and includes a memorable parable that reflects his own relationship with the Lord; the Garden of My Heart. The final part of the book takes a leap into the future with Dr. Byrne exploring four events in the life of a disciple in the end of days: being caught up to meet the Lord in the air and being transformed in a brief moment of time into His immortal image; giving account at the judgment seat; the marriage of the bride of Christ with the Lord; and the return of the Lord to the earth, with His transfigured disciples, to reign with Him for a thousand years. The book concludes with an examination of the destiny of the Lord's disciples in the New Jerusalem that descends to the earth at the end of time. There can be no doubt that Dr. Byrne knows what he is writing about. Each chapter bears the distinctive stamp of personal knowledge and experience. This book should be required reading for all Christians, for those who lead churches, and for those who train leaders in colleges and universities round the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098033620

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Disciple Beyond Mediocrity

Dr. Brian Byrne

Copyright © 2020 by Dr. Brian Byrne

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

What Is Mediocrity?

Disciple

Seven Kingdoms

Applications

Like the Teacher

Follow Me

Take Up Your Cross

Deny Yourself

Forsake All that He Has

Abiding in His Word

Bear Much Fruit

Love One Another

Faith and Spirit

The Just Shall Live by Faith

The Certainties of Faith

The Coming of the Spirit

The Fruit of the Spirit

The Work of the Spirit

Gifts of the Spirit

Living in the Spirit

It Is by Faith

Imminent

Caught Up Together

The Judgment Seat

The Glory Beyond

Introduction

The invitation, Follow me. Be My disciple, is not a call that had its beginning when Jesus called the first twelve. Being His disciple spans the centuries since the first couple walked with the Lord. Being His disciple involves a stable relationship where He is Lord, where the inner ears of man are active and listening, and where those in the relationship with the Lord are committed to learn and to put into practice what He is teaching them.

With this three-part definition as my guide, I can conclude that the first disciple was Adam. And he did what all disciples need to do: listen to his Creator’s voice; rejoice in the simple integrity of that first relationship with love as his primary focus; participate in a continuing dialogue with the Lord; and pass on what the Lord was teaching him to others, first to Eve and then to his sons, Cain and Abel.

The second disciple whom the Lord called and who, for better or worse, followed the Lord was Abram, later called Abraham. And the first principle of being the Lord’s disciple was firmly embedded in his life: live by faith. Like Adam he would have passed on the principle—the just shall live by faith—to his sons, Isaac and Jacob.

Moses was another of the Lord’s early disciples, and in his life one of the marks of being His disciple appeared. Like Abraham he would focus his inner attention on the Lord’s spoken word. And from his listening and hearing, flowed his obedience and his trust. And these principles find a later echo in Paul’s words that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the (hrema) of God (Rom. 10:17).

These three—Adam, Abraham, and Moses—are the first in a long line of disciples that the writer to the Hebrews celebrated in the eleventh chapter of his letter. These disciples of the Lord were pilgrims walking an often lonely and persecuted path across the debris of this world, by faith, like Abraham, pilgrims looking for another city. (See Hebrews 11:10 and 30–40.)

When the Lord came to this earth, He called twelve who would be His disciples. At first their relationship with the Lord was strictly human, for as yet the Spirit had not been given. But when the Spirit came, their relationship with Him as His disciples changed gear, changed direction, changed focus. No longer outer ears and eyes, but the inner ears always intent on the voice of His Spirit and what He would reveal to their spirits and which would be registered in their minds.

This is the living tradition that has captured the attention of all those who would give their lives to Him in this world as His disciples. Unfortunately for so many, the truths of being the Lord’s disciples have gone missing, slid away into the bottomless abyss of mediocrity. Savage words? Indeed! But look anywhere around the world, in the multitude of churches that claim a measure of faith, and call out those who truly live by faith and know intimately the presence, life, and voice of the Spirit in their lives. How many will respond to your invitation? Perhaps very few. And once I was one of them, and I will tell that story later in this volume.

Let me introduce you to my own personal search. In part 1, I will examine our backgrounds, the meanings of words, the natures of the seven kingdoms depicted in the scriptures and their application to me as one of the Lord’s disciples. In part 2, the seven marks of a disciple, as they apply to all of us, will be explored. Part 3 will include a careful examination of what it means for me to live by faith and to live in the Spirit. And in part 4, I will explore what lays ahead for all His disciples, the glory yet to come and which is also beyond imagining.

This book, Disciple Beyond Mediocrity, provides part of the account of my own journey of exploration. Join me if you will, but that invitation comes with a caution. It may cost you a great deal. But that is what has always been expected of those who would walk with the Lord as His disciples.

What therefore do I conclude? Simply this: in every age the Lord calls men and women who will seek to walk with Him, close beside Him, always within the sound of His voice, listening intently for what He will say to them and obedient to all His commands until He comes to call us all home. And these are the men and women the Lord seeks to be His disciples.

Prologue: The Missing

The Missing

It is almost twenty centuries since He died and, through His death by crucifixion and then by resurrection, the Lord brought the power of Satan to an end. Twenty centuries during which the church that began in glory and in the power of the Spirit has slid ignominiously into the arms of the world. Twenty centuries in which the dynamic way of life of the Lord’s disciples has gone missing and been replaced by mediocrity.

In this mediocre state, definitions of many treasured Greek words have acquired superficial non-meanings that fail to challenge the status quo. The word salvation, for example, has been relegated to the moment one begins to believe and excludes such demanding requirements as being saved daily from the power of sin and being conformed to the image of our Lord.

One of those words with a diminished meaning is the word Jesus used in His last instruction to those who stood with Him: Go therefore and make disciples of all people groups (Matt. 28:19, literal translation). The Lord gave the full and complete meaning to this Greek word mathetes (Both e’s are long, as in fete) when He identified seven characteristics of those who would be His disciple.

Or to put it another way, Jesus identified seven requirements for those who would be His disciples. Demanding? Most certainly. And missing from the common dialogue of believers? Exactly so. But these are not optional extras. These seven requirements are at the heart of the identity of being a disciple. And in part 2 of this volume I will examine those seven marks of being His disciple.

In addition there are four elements in the way of life of a disciple that have largely been ignored, buried in the paraphernalia of church going, or mislaid in preaching and teaching. They have also gone missing. They are the following: living by faith, living in the Spirit, being conformed to the image of Christ, and searching for the Lord our God. Let me explain each of the missing.

Paul was most emphatic in his letters to the churches in Rome and Galatia: The just shall live by faith (Rom. 1:17 and Gal. 3:11). And like the parent word, disciple, the meaning of this element in the life of a disciple has also been diminished. It has come to be equated with other religions: Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism. Our faith is just one among many and, in so many respects, no different from them.

Faith, this essential element in the life of all disciples, has become merely a religious word, instead of being the essential dynamic element in a living relationship with the Lord our God.

Living in the Spirit is the second great missing element in the life of those who would be His disciples. And at the heart of this relationship is a command, Be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18). It is written in the Greek imperative and is therefore a command that applies to all of us. Ignore this command at your peril, and judgment will certainly follow. (See 2 Corinthians 5:10.) And much of the disciple’s relationship with the Spirit will fall by the wayside. Being filled with the Spirit is at the heart of five other elements in the relationship of the disciple with his or her Lord. And I can add all of them to my list of the missing: receiving the fruit of the Spirit, living in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, being led by the Spirit, and walking in lockstep with the Spirit.

The third missing element in the required life of a disciple is being conformed to the image of Christ. This is not another option, for it registers at the very top of God’s priorities. Paul wrote, For whom [God] foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29). I have to read this as the Spirit intended it to be read. Every element in the life of our Lord sets the standard against which my transformation has to be measured and for which I am accountable.

In my understanding, the most devastating of all the missing is an element that is at the heart of my relationship with the Lord our God. The scriptures express this missing element in the two words search and seek. Jeremiah connected the principle of search for Him with the outcome of that search. In words addressed to His own people, the Jews, Jeremiah described this connection: And you will seek Me, and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. The command, Seek me, is inevitably followed by the promise, I will be found by you (Jer. 29:13–14a). It hardly needs stating that the activity of search is the condition for the Lord being found by the those who search for Him and therefore rewarded for their search.

Jesus Himself picked up and reinforced this essential element in the life of a disciple: Ask and it shall be given you; seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you (Matt. 7:7). The Lord used a Greek form of the verb that literally says, Ask and go on asking. Seek and go on seeking. Knock and go on knocking. These three elements—ask, seek, knock—need to become permanent parts of our lives as His disciples.

In the apathy generated by being spectators in church, the need to search has gone missing and has been replaced by a stultifying belief in the status quo. Not only acceptance of the status quo, but a deliberate and often belligerent defence of the status quo. This is how it is. This is how we like it. This is how we want our church to be.

The writer to the Hebrews reinforced the instruction to seek the Lord God: But without faith (one of the great missings), it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6).

Putting it all together, we live in an age when our relationship with the Lord and with His Spirit has slid backward and been embraced by religion. The Greek has two words that sum up this detail in the lives of disciples. One is eusebeia, which is translated godliness and refers to the inner, real, dynamic, and vital relationship a disciple has with the Lord who lives within (Gal. 2:20).

Eusebeia, godliness, ought to apply to all those who claim the name of our Lord; but eusebeia for so many has been replaced by threskeia, translated religion. Threskeia refers to the outward observance of ritual and custom, the performance of ceremonies, following a predetermined order in worship. Religion fails to obey the Lord’s words: God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24).

I believe that we are now in the countdown to that time when Paul’s words to the church in Thessalonika will be fulfilled: For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:16–17).

I believe that we are now in the time of preparation for that extraordinary event and that we need to put the Lord’s seven conditions about being His disciples to work in our lives. Now is also the time to reclaim the missing: living by faith, living in the Spirit, being conformed to the image of Christ, and searching for the Lord our God.

Part 1

Backgrounds

Preface to Part 1

The record of the Lord God’s dealings with the people He has created began long ago in a once-upon-a-time place called the Garden in Eden. There His relationship with those who would be His disciples began. And in that unique place, the elements of the Lord God’s relationship with individuals were defined.

Love was expressed in the lives of Adam and Eve, who were the Lord’s first disciples. They were provided with instructions intended to guide their lives and relationships. Obedience was required, and their creativity was given free reign.

Nothing has changed, for all these things still apply to the Lord’s disciples across the ages and around the world and to me, also as one of those Jesus has called to walk with Him and to learn of Him as His disciple. Then sin intruded into those perfect relationships. Sin entered the world, and death followed close behind. The sinful human nature made its first appearance. And the earth was cursed.

That is the past out of which I have been called as one of His disciples. The past defines the requirements the Lord placed in His first disciples: love, life’s instructions, obedience, and creativity. After they sinned, one more element was added to their lives as His disciples: how to deal with sin and the old nature that made its first appearance in those shaded retreats.

In part 1 of this volume, Disciple: Beyond Mediocrity, I will explore the present and define what words mean. Then I will journey through the ages when the world of God was made up of seven kingdoms: one lost and stolen, five present, and one yet to come. And each of these kingdoms has something to say to me about being one of the Lord’s disciples. And all these things are part of the constructs of excellence in the Spirit kingdom.

On the other hand, one of the marks of mediocre Christianity is a reluctance to go outside the carefully constructed boundaries of church and denomination. Stay where it is safe. Don’t challenge the status quo. Remain content with the experience of the church in which I have found a comfortable home.

But there is a standard of excellence as disciples to which we are all called and to which, as His disciples, it is possible to aspire. And those standards take their characteristics from the kingdom to which we all belong. In part 1 I will explore these elements of our background as disciples of the Lord our God and as members of the kingdom of Spirit in which the Lord our God rules.

Chapter 1

What Is Mediocrity?

To [the saints] God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory

of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

—Colossians 1:27

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,

whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

—1 Corinthians 6:19

Having a form of godliness, but denying its power.

—2 Timothy 3:5

So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot,

I will vomit you out of My mouth.

—Revelation 3:16

Two Worlds, Two Kingdoms, Two Realities

From our first conscious moments we are aware of the world into which we have been born: knowledge and information, sensory perceptions, people, purposes and dreams, a multitude of places and people, and the principles on which our world operates. I continued to live in this world and to absorb elements in this level of reality until I was eighteen. Then on the twenty-sixth day of April 1952, I encountered a quite different world. For it was on that day that I experienced a second and quite different kind of birth. I had been born of the Spirit into the ethereal realm Jesus called the kingdom of God. (See John 3:5.)

In His words with Pilate, the Lord affirmed the separate existence of these two worlds. My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here (John 18:36). His kingdom. One King. One Spirit, who is the life and power of His kingdom. One kind of knowledge and wisdom. And one language to discuss the affairs of the kingdom into which I had been born a second time.

Now I am aware of two worlds, two kingdoms and two realities. And I had been born into both. The world into which I was born the first time is filled with physical and human realities. The world into which I was born the second time is utterly different. It has the same quality as the God of this eternal world. The Lord told the woman at the well, God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24).

And now I have two sets of eyes. One to see and understand this present world. The other to see and understand the spirit world into which I have now been born. And I can’t use my human eyes to see into the world of Spirit. Paul put it this way: The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14.) The Greek words, spiritually discerned, refer to discernment that requires the activity of the Spirit as it is linked to the mind.

The life of this eternal world that includes the church is provided by the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). And just as He is the Spirit of life in the kingdom of God, so He is also the Spirit Person who provides life in the believer and also in the church.

The lazy part of me would be content to apply all that I have learned from the human world in an attempt to describe and explain the second world into which I have been born again. But that won’t do. Just as they are different worlds, so they have different kinds of wisdom and knowledge. Paul explains, For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God (1 Cor. 3:19). He also made a distinction between the knowledge and wisdom of this world and the wisdom and knowledge of God. And this distinction was affirmed by Paul: Has not God made foolish, the wisdom of this world? For in the wisdom of God, the world through [its] wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe (1 Cor. 1:20b–21). Two worlds and separate kinds of knowledge and wisdom.

Everyone knows that we depend on human knowledge and wisdom to describe and explain everything about our human world. In the same parallel way, we need the knowledge and wisdom of God to describe and explain everything about the kingdom of God. And that is only possible when the Lord’s disciples agree that there are two worlds, two kingdoms, two kinds of wisdom and knowledge, and separate meanings to be attributed to the affairs and principles of each.

First, the mental assent that there are two worlds, two kingdoms, and two kinds of reality, then for me the search to describe these worlds using the words that the scriptures provide. In this activity I make great use of the Greek text that more accurately reveals the truth about these two worlds. For one English word, such as love, may in the Greek have two meanings, one for the human world and one for the Spirit world. And it is important for me to know the difference and to use these meanings when I write of everything that applies in the world of Spirit. The Greek words translated preach the gospel have a quite different meaning from the preaching that issues from the pulpit, and there are many other examples of Greek words whose meanings have been lost or altered.

With these things in mind, I come to an examination of the