Anush A. John Podcast
Anush A. John Podcast
A Rabbi's Responsibility - Mentoring and Discipleship
https://www.anushjohn.com/post/a-rabbi-s-responsibility
Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, October 2023
anushjohn.com
Good morning. Good morning, the first person who went to the South Pole was Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, and in order for him to go to the South Pole into such treacherous conditions, he needed some training. So as part of the meticulous planning that he did is that he went to some communities that lived in such extreme circumstances, and one of those communities was the Inuit Indians in Northern Canada. And he went to them and he lived with them and he learned what they did, and from them he learned how to manage sleds and harnessing and about clothing and how to dress in layers and about how to manage building shelters and to manage with less resources. And in 1910, when he set on his journey with his team to the South Pole, he was well prepared to be the first man to reach the South Pole. We are all on a spiritual journey and at every stage of the journey there is somebody in front of us and there is somebody behind us, and we learn from those who are in front of us and we teach those who are behind us.
Speaker 1:This morning, in a sermon entitled A Rabbi's Responsibility, we're going to look at the issue of discipleship and mentoring. Mentoring is the task of making disciples, who make disciples. The concept of disciples is a very common concept in the New Testament. Jesus had disciples, the Jews considered themselves disciples of Moses, john the Baptist had disciples and it was used of Christians in general Loosely, with Jesus being the core. The people outside Jesus were classified into three On the outermost were the crowds, the middle layer were the disciples and the inner layer were the apostles and the 12. So the disciples were anybody that was not a crowd that was following Jesus. And though discipleship is for all church members, mentoring is only for church leaders. It's a leadership function. This morning I want to talk about five aspects of mentoring. I want to use the New Testament examples of Jesus and Paul and how they mentored. In a book called Augustine as Mentor Edward Smither, he talks about these five aspects of mentorship and he says not only did Jesus and Paul use them, but also the early church fathers used them in their mentoring.
Speaker 1:The first point that I want to make about a rabbi's responsibility is that there is a selected group. There is a selected group. It is a group, and of the number of times that the word disciple is used, mostly it is in the plural form. It is in the singular only a few times, and those few times are in the Gospel of John, where John calls himself as a disciple that Jesus loved, and the only named disciple in the Gospel of John is Joseph of Arimathea. Disciples were a plural group and mentoring was a group activity. In the New Testament Even Paul mentored multiple people and was in groups. He had John, mark, he had Luke, he had Silas, he had Timothy, he had Titus.
Speaker 1:A group is good for a few reasons. From the standpoint of the mentor, if you have to say the same thing to two people, you might as well have them in a group and say the same thing at one time. It's easier, it's more efficient use of resources. But for the group itself, a couple reasons why it was good for them at that time to function in a group Because the purpose of the group was for Jesus to establish a church and so they were being trained to work together as a group to learn how to work in a church later. Also, a group fulfills the relational needs of the members. Otherwise it's up to the mentor to provide the relational needs. But if there's a group they can provide relational needs and it's a selected group. Jesus didn't take anybody who came and he didn't choose random people. He selected a few people that he wanted to mentor. And the same thing with Paul. Barnabas went to Paul to mentor him and asked him to teach with him in Antioch some of the Grecian Christians and then Paul went and chose individually. It was a selection that was done.
Speaker 1:A second aspect of mentoring is the mentor-disciple relationship. The mentor-disciple relationship. Now, this relationship is a complicated relationship and is a combination of at least four different relationships. The first one is as a fellow sojourner or a fellow learner, and this relationship modifies the other three relationships that I'm about to talk about. Teaching is not because we are experts and we have reached there. It is because we are slightly ahead. We have to be a disciple in order to be a mentor. We cannot be a mentor without being a disciple constantly. We are more mature, maybe because we've been Christians longer and have had more experiences, but that's not always the case. We can be a younger person, like Timothy was, and have more spiritual experiences.
Speaker 1:Paul was mentored by Barnabas first. So in Philippians, chapter 3, verse 12, he says, not that I've already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on. So he is also pressing on as he is mentoring. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 1, he says Be imitators of me as I am of Christ. We can only be mentors as long as we are disciples. We can only ask people to imitate us only as long as we are imitating Christ, and that's what Paul did.
Speaker 1:So then the question comes how do we have the time to be mentored while we are mentoring? The task in ministry is so busy, we have so many different roles, and if we are mentoring a group of people, where do we have the time to be mentored by somebody else? One of my instructors in my doctor ministry program was a man by the name of Leith Anderson, and he had a 20,000, I think 20,000 member church in Minneapolis, st Louis, and after that he became the head of the Evangelical Association of America, something that that oversees 80,000 churches. One of the things that he said to address this problem of how can we have mentors when we are so busy with stuff, he said you can choose a mentor from anybody. It doesn't need to be a physical relationship that you meet once in so many days. You can read a person's books, you can watch his sermons and you can be mentored by that person. That person doesn't even need to be in the same city, doesn't even need to speak your language, doesn't need to be even in the same generation. We can read material from previous generations and be mentored, and thereby get mentored and be discipled by someone else.
Speaker 1:The second relationship is that of a parent, just like a parent is a mentor to children. It's a personal and caring relationship. Paul called Timothy, my child, and Jesus was known as the good shepherd. He was a good shepherd to his disciples and, as a mentor, we need to show grace and patience with our disciples, and that's what Jesus did. He showed grace and patience to his disciples. Many times when you start mentoring, it's like you take one step forward and five steps back, and then, after several months, it's one step forward and four steps back, and then it takes forever before. It's one step forward and one step back and you still never moved forward at all. When the disciples were with Jesus just before the Last Supper, they were having a discussion of who was the greatest. That was three and a half years into this and within a few weeks they were going to be handed the entire responsibility of the Christian movement, and here they were discussing with each other who was going to be the greatest, but Jesus had tremendous patience with the disciples and he waited and waited for them to slowly come to the point where it was one step forward, or two steps forward and one step back. Take a look at this video of Jason Alexander. He was talking in terms of developing his own skills and his expertise, but that is true with anybody that we mentor. We have got to wait, and sometimes it just takes forever.
Speaker 1:A third relationship is that of a teacher. This involves disciplined training. The training that the disciples got under Jesus was a rigorous training. There were times when they wanted to sleep but they couldn't sleep. There were times that they wanted to eat but they couldn't eat, even when they took a break. There were people that came and they had to minister to 5,000 plus people and they needed to be fed and they needed to be cleaned up, and they had this rigorous training. This training that Jesus gave to his disciples to deal with people was probably because later they were going to deal with people and he had promised them you are dealing with fish, but we are going to stop that, and now you are going to deal with people. And so he was training them how to deal with people. I'm not suggesting that we need to have a rigorous curriculum with those that we mentor, but it's a good idea to have some kind of path as opposed to just being reactive to different circumstances. Having a path through which you are taking disciples is better to be proactive In this age when everybody thinks that they know everything.
Speaker 1:One of the tasks of a teacher mentor is in the art of gentle correction. If somebody did something wrong in your group, how do we correct them? How do we correct them? Back when I was still in India, my dad was a pastor of a church in the local language and after my stint as a Sunday school teacher, all the kids grew up. I was glad for that. I grew up as well. We started the English service of that church and I led the English service of that church. So all these kids that I taught Sunday school for all these years they became members of the English church and we are other members as well. I was probably in my early 20s, 19, 20, 21.
Speaker 1:When we did this, there was one kid that he was a teenager and he would come some days and not come some other days, and he was very erratic. So I decided to confront him and so I went to his house, knocked on the door and he was there and his siblings were there. His mother was there. His dad wasn't there at that time. So I went in and I talked to him. I said this is not right. We need to come, we need to grow.
Speaker 1:I gave the nice talk. Honestly. I felt good about myself. I felt like I did a good job. I explained everything well. I scored good points with the mother who was standing there Check. I scored good points with the siblings that were standing there. I said you need to be a good example for your siblings and I checked all the boxes. I felt good and I left.
Speaker 1:That kid never came back, not one more time. What should I have done? I should have taken him out to have chai and masala dosa and asked him why, why aren't you coming? But I thought I knew the problem and here is the solution and let's fix it. That wasn't the way to correct. So the way we correct people is huge. Obviously, it depends on our temperament. If we have a confrontational temperament, then we need to tone it down a little bit. If we have a non-confrontational temperament, then we need to ramp it up a little bit, but we need to work with our temperament, work with the temperament of the people that we are leading, and I feel like it's better to have a plan already what you would do if the situation arose with your temperament, so you know how we would tackle something like that.
Speaker 1:A fourth relationship is that of a spiritual leader, and this includes a friendly respect. You need a friendly respect. Jesus was their rabbi, but he called them friends. Paul called his co-workers as brothers, so there was a friendly respect. A mentor needs to earn the right to be respected. Jesus obviously didn't have to earn it. He had the right to be respected and so he was respected. How did Paul earn the right to be respected as a spiritual leader? Because he started with negative respect when he was persecuting the church. How did he come all the way across to the other side to be respected as a spiritual leader? In 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, he writes this in verse 23 following, he boasts a little bit about himself and before he boasts he has about six, seven verses where he's super apologetic and he calls himself a fool for doing this. But he has to do this because he is being considered as an inferior apostle. And so this is what he says. Are they servants of Christ? I am more.
Speaker 1:I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the 40 lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was pelted with stones. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and I've often gone without sleep. I have known hunger and thirst and I've often gone without food. I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.
Speaker 1:How does a person gain respect as a leader, as a spiritual leader? You cannot not respect a person that works harder than you. If your leader comes to work earlier than you and leaves after you leave, how can you not respect that person? Another way that Paul got respect is because his words matched his deeds. Follow me as I follow Christ. Nothing can kill respect in the spiritual field when we say one thing and do something else. It's a struggle to keep the perfect balance. Are we going to be more friendly or gain respect or be disciplinary when we have kids? We want to be friends with the kids, but then if you're too friendly with the kids, they don't respect you. So then we back off a little bit and then we are a little more strict and then they are not friends anymore, and so we go back and forth and that's how it's going to be with the mentor. It's just this complicated relationship that we have to somehow find ways to balance.
Speaker 1:A third aspect of mentoring involves sound teaching. Sound teaching, studying and teaching the scriptures are essential. If, instead of sound teaching, the Bible said if you want to be a mentor or a disciple, you need to learn the guitar, okay, let's say that's what the command said you need to learn the guitar. What would we do? We know what to do. We would buy a guitar. We would either do the long road where we learn to figure it out by ourselves or, if you wanna speed up the process, you find somebody to teach you how to play the guitar. You will learn the fretboard and the strings cold. You'll find some books to read to learn to improve. You may watch other people that are experts in the guitar and learn from them. Then you'll play some songs before you're finally ready to play in public. But it's the Bible and we need to do the same thing. We need to invest time in learning the Bible. Jesus was called in terms that showed his teaching role 190 times. He was called either a teacher or rabbi, which showed his teaching role.
Speaker 1:Now I want to read three verses, if you can turn your Bibles. The three verses. The first one is in 1 Timothy, chapter six, verse three, and this shows what unsound teaching is. So if we ask the question, what is sound teaching, this is unsound teaching. So don't teach like this. 1 Timothy, chapter six, verse three teach and urge these things. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, it is unsound teaching. As we know, both Paul and Jesus use the Old Testament, so they consider the Old Testament as scripture.
Speaker 1:Okay, now I'm going to ask you not to turn to the next verse. Okay, I'm going to read the next verse, because if you turn to it you will see the footnote and you will answer the question that I'm about to ask you. So don't turn to it. Let me read the verse. Okay, and then I'll ask you two questions. 1 Timothy, chapter five, verse 18, for the scripture says you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain and the laborer deserves his wages. Okay, so that's the verse. There are two quotes in it. Let me read the two quotes. The first quote you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain and the laborer deserves his wages. Now here's my first question. I'll give you three chances to guess where that first quote came from. Guess the book. Obviously, we didn't memorize every quote from the Old Testament to the new. I get that. But three chances to guess where that first quote came from. Deuteron, I think.
Speaker 1:Deuteron all right, deuteron in your first guess, that's great. How about the second one? The laborer deserves his wages. Three chances again. Proverbs, proverbs, okay, no One. Two more. Deuteron me no one more.
Speaker 1:Leviticus no, it's not from the Old Testament. It's not from the Old Testament. Where did Paul get that from? It was one of the sayings that Jesus said. In that one verse he made equal all the writings of the Old Testament on all the writings of the New Testament, made it both scripture.
Speaker 1:Let's read another verse where Peter talks about Paul, and this time you can turn your bibles 2 Peter, chapter three, verses 15 and 16. 2 Peter, chapter three, verses 15 and 16. Peter is talking about Paul, and this is what he says, and count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures, and you see how Peter elevated the writing of Paul to the word scripture. Everything in the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New Testament is all scripture for us and a mentor has to be proficient in handling the Bible.
Speaker 1:Earlier this year in my church I was asked to speak on the topic of the Bible, so I spoke about it, but I didn't wanna just say okay, everybody needs to read their Bible. So what I did was I had a follow-up three week course on how to study the Bible and we looked at different kinds of Bible readings. We looked at some principles of hermeneurics, the historical grammatical method of interpretation. I simplified it to about five simple steps. I also had a homework assignment. They all had to follow these five simple steps. We all picked the passage and they came back the next week and we all discussed it. They also talked about Bible translations, the differences between the translation and why the translations are different and all that stuff, because I fear that most believers think that anybody can read the Bible and it's like a novel and you can get anything out of it. Yes, you can.
Speaker 1:It's good to read the Bible cover to cover a few times, but at some point we gotta go deeper, beneath the layers and know how to find the jewels that are hidden beneath those layers. We need to know the truth and be constantly handling the truth so that when falsehood comes, we can pick it up immediately. We don't need to learn every falsehood that there is, we just need to know the truth. Once we know the truth and all of the truth, then anytime falsehood appears, we can know exactly what it is. Stephen Curry is one of the best players in the NBA. Watch this video of him dribbling a ball. I think it's in his home court. He knows how the ball feels on the court. He knows exactly how the ball should feel. So the one time it didn't feel right, he knew something was off. And he tested it and it was true. Right there at that spot, something was off. That's how it should be with our handling of truth and falsehood. We know truth so much that anytime falsehood shows up, we know instantly. No, that doesn't sound right.
Speaker 1:There are lots of things that Christians think are there in the Bible, but it's not there in the Bible, and I've heard this so many times. An easy example is oh, my brother died last night, or my brother died last week and heaven has gained an angel. If we didn't know, we'd say yes, I'm sorry for your loss, there is an angel, extra angel, in heaven. No, we're not becoming angels in heaven. The Bible never says that there's lots of stuff like that in our churches. That is just cultural. It came from movies, it came from books and just filtered down and it's now scripture, unless we debunk it.
Speaker 1:The fourth aspect of mentoring is the is ministry, apprenticeship Ministry. Apprenticeship Ministry can start as soon as a person becomes a believer, and there are three aspects to it. The first one is opportunities to observe. The twelve observed Jesus, how he interacted with people, how he told stories, how he tried to take rest, how he talked to the Jewish leaders, how he argued with those who tried to trap him. They learned by observation. So at home I let my kids see whatever they can see in the house. So if we have to set the TV up, so I show them how to set the TV up. I want them to see every task in the house that they possibly is, so that when they become adults and they're like, oh yeah, I remember watching my dad one time dismantle the dryer and put it back together, I want them to remember that. What's that? Did you?
Speaker 1:actually do that. I did that. Yeah, a dryer wasn't working so I pulled up some YouTube videos, pulled out the back of it and found the wires and did something. It was an old dryer. It failed again after a few months but it survived for a few months. But your son will remember yeah, my son will remember it.
Speaker 1:This was in Kansas City, this was the Kansas City house. They were younger that time. So we need to give them different opportunities or let them see different opportunities as available. They can come with you on ministry trips just to see. They don't need to do anything, just see for the first time. And then they have opportunities to minister and they start with small tasks. So the disciples started with small tasks clean up after the feeding, help with the feeding, go get the cult, do a little preaching, do some baptizing and then do some exorcisms. They were given little tasks. Same thing with Paul. He learned from Barnabas. So Barnabas invited Paul as his disciple. They went to Antioch and they taught the whole year among the Grecian Christians that were there. You always start with small tasks.
Speaker 1:I remember when I was back in training in Kansas City doing a surgical training the interns the first year interns they do all the dirty work and the smallest thing that we do in the surgery is what is called retraction. So once somebody cuts the skin and opens it, you stand there with retractors holding the tissue apart while the surgeon does the work. So as an intern, I would do that. So they would cut and then I would open, stand there Some cases go from an hour to 12 hours and you're standing there until you get spasm in your hands. You're just standing there and then the other task you do is you suction. So as they're working, you suck, suck, suck, because the field needs to be clear, the surgical field needs to be clear. So when I became a chief and I had interns, I would do the same thing. They would have to retract the tissues. Let's say that I was removing a tumor or whatever salivary gland, whatever. I cut the neck open and the interns would be standing there holding the suction and the retractor and they would start with that small job and if they didn't screw up they could get better tasks. And the usual better task that we gave interns was to close up after everything was done. So after I took out, let's say, the salivary gland, I tested the nerve to the tongue and nerve, to the two nerves of the tongue and so on, and then I would let the interns close up. And closing up is not simple because if you screw it up you can get fistulas that come out and the skin will be all distorted. So we close the muscle first and then we close the subcutaneous fascia and then we close the skin on top of it. But if it's not done properly the skin will be in all different shapes. So we let the interns start to sew the muscle up and if they do that properly, they do the next layer up and soon they do the entire closing. So we do the surgery, they do the closing, and as you come up the ranks you do bigger and bigger surgeries until finally you are doing the entire case by yourself, from start to finish. And that's how it was with the disciples In mentoring.
Speaker 1:You start with small tasks. You give them a little bit. See how they do. In fact, many times even new believers will find out what their ministry calling is. When we give them small tasks, they'll find man, I love to do this kind of stuff. Sure, maybe that's your ministry calling.
Speaker 1:When I was in Kansas City and finishing up, I was a small group leader for the longest time there and then, when we were winding down, I stopped being a small group leader because we were winding down and we gave opportunities to different people to lead. One of them was a lawyer that was in our group and so, after he led, I went to him I said, brother, I think you have a gift, you should pursue spiritual leadership and work. And so I don't know how it turned out, because we left after that. I think he ended up being a leader of some sort in the church, but I'm not sure. Give ministry opportunities to people where they exhibit faithfulness. All right.
Speaker 1:The third aspect of ministry apprenticeship is debriefing, very critical. You talk about what went right, what went wrong, what could be done better, how we could have answered something better. You have a conversation with a person don't have his mother and his siblings there. Take him outside. A debriefing session. A debriefing session. And this happened with the disciples right, the seventy went out and did ministry. They came back and they had a debriefing session with Jesus. The twelve disciples did ministry, came back, had a debriefing session.
Speaker 1:In Matthew, chapter 17, it talks about how, on the Mount of Transfiguration, after the transfiguration, they were coming down and the nine disciples down there. They tried to heal a boy with seizures but it didn't work. So Jesus came, he chided them a little bit, healed the boy and then it says in verse 19,. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said why couldn't we cast it out? That is a debriefing session.
Speaker 1:And fifth and finally, releasing to ministry with support. Releasing to the ministry with support. This is a natural next step. Once you've given small task and bigger task and then they are released for the ministry. Are they ever fully ready? Never. Nobody is ever fully ready. If you had asked the disciples, after Jesus rose up and stayed only 40 days, were they ready to handle this huge great commission? They would have said no. They would have preferred if Jesus stayed for a couple more years just to show them how to handle this. But they were given the task and they were set free.
Speaker 1:Timothy traveled with Paul during his second missionary journey. He learned, he observed, he had opportunities and then after that Paul sent Timothy in place of him. He went to some places on journeys in place of Paul and then finally he became the pastor of the Ephesian church. So it's a progression and releasing to ministry is with support. What did Jesus do in terms of support? He sent the Holy Spirit. What did Paul do in terms of support? He wrote letters that addressed issues. So we have 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus, where he addressed issues and encouraged them. Some of the lessons that disciples learn from mentors are the unsaid ones, the unplanned ones, the spontaneous ones, more the reactions than the actions sometimes. Can you give us a little bit of?
Speaker 1:that If somebody opposed you, how you reacted to that is a big deal and that is something that is unplanned and that is a temperamental thing. I went back to India after I came to the US, after doing part of my demon studies I was studying evangelism I went to India and I spoke at a Bible school in India and I told fresh of what I learned about evangelism. I told them about the different systems of evangelism. So I spoke in this Bible school and one of the kids stood up and just said oh, I don't think that works. I live in, I do ministry in a village. I don't think the system works. I was completely unprepared. My response was worse than the other correction situation I did. It was bad. It was not good. I can't even tell you. It's so embarrassing I wish I could take it back. I said something like oh. Then it became an ego thing at that point. I know what I'm saying. You don't know. Come back in five years you'll see your role. I don't know what I said. Some nonsense. Yeah, some of the reactions right, they teach more than the planned actions. Yeah, at the end of the day, mentors are essential because we need disciples that make disciples. It's a role that requires a lot of investment, a lot of resources, but very rewarding.
Speaker 1:Ian Wright is a British footballer that played for Arsenal and for the national team. He scored, I think, the second most number of goals for Arsenal. His dad was non-existent when he grew up and he had a very abusive stepdad and he called his teacher, sidney Bigdon, as the first positive male figure in his life. This is Ian Wright meeting his mentor after a very long time, and we will end with this. Let's pray.
Speaker 1:Heavenly Father, we thank you that you were the ultimate mentor. Thank you for the ways in which you perfectly mentored the disciples and gave them this huge task that they faithfully did. Thank you for the mentors you have put in our lives that corrected us with discipline and with care and taught us. Thank you that we are where we are because of many people that have invested in our lives. We pray for the people that are under our care. Help us to be mentors like you were, lord Jesus. Help us that our character would match up with our teaching. Help us to balance the different roles, the different relationships it's so hard to do. And help us to honor you as we disciple our people. In Jesus name, I pray Amen.