SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello everyone. I see it was a joyful bunch. And I I I I saw the the games were rigged so that the young ones won. That's very gracious of you guys who plan the game. You know, I'm gonna begin by telling a story. There was this abbot who runs a Benedictine monastery. He was old and he was ill and was about to die. But his disciples came around him to care for him. Near the end stage of his life, he found it difficult even to eat, even to drink. And so they were troubled and were trying their very best to feed him because he needed food for energy. So one of the monks, one of his disciples, decided to get milk, fresh milk, freshly squeezed from the cow. There was only one cow in the monastery that supplies milk. Squeezed the milk, and he went to the kitchen and added a secret ingredient. He added some brandy. Yeah, brandy. You know, the Benedictines they are famous for making wine, right? In all their monasteries. Added brandy. And then they gave it to the abbot. The abbot took a sip, and he took more, and he took more, and he took more, and wow, it energized him. And he came alive. And they were the disciples were all so happy. And then later on, he began to wane, and again he began to drift off, and they thought he's about to die. He's about to pass on to glory. So they draw earnestly closer to him. I said, Abbott, what are your last words? Give us your last pearls of wisdom. He gestured and they lifted him up and he pointed his finger and he said, Don't kill the cow. You lost a good chance to laugh. The disciples of Jesus were different. When Jesus died on the cross, they were lost. They were weeping. They were discouraged. They were confused and puzzled. What's happening here? The song that you sang here is such a beautiful song. But at that point in time, they never knew that Jesus had to die to redeem them. But the training that they had the past three years brought them through that crisis. Discipleship is so vital. This evening, as an introduction, I want to talk about discipleship then and now. What was discipleship like in Jesus' time and what is it like today? And I want to begin by talking about what it's like today. Let me begin by giving you a quote by a famous evangelical writer and theologian. His name is J.I. Packer. He wrote a few books, and one of them is A Quest for Godliness. A much traveled leader, he was writing about this Native American guy who spoke to him. A much traveled leader, a Native American, be it said, has declared that he finds North American Protestantism man-centered, manipulative, success-oriented, self-indulgent, and sentimental as it blatantly is, to be 3,000 miles wide and half an inch deep. A North American Red Indian came to him and he said, my analysis of the North American Evangelical Church is da da da da da, and he used this image that it is big, it is large, it is wide, it's 3,000 miles wide, but only half an inch deep. The Christianity of North American Protestantism is shallow. This hyperbole, this is of course an exaggerated image, to point out that the church in America is superficial. It's like a tree with artificial leaves. Nowadays they make artificial trees so realistic from far away, from a distance, when you look at it, it's like so real, so fresh, so vibrant. But as you get closer and closer and closer, you realize it's all artificial, all plastic. You go to the Jurong Lake. I live in Jurong East. So if you go to the Jurong Lake, there is a tree without leaves. Have you seen that tree? That iron tree. You thought it's just a dead tree, but you go near, it's actually made of iron. It's an iron tree. This morning as I was walking through the airport, there were trees. And I thought they were artificial trees. But my wife went near and touched it. The real trees, right? Right in the air conditioned hall. And she looked below, there were four trapdoors to open up to look at the root system. What is the Singapore church like? What is the state of the Singapore church? What is the state of discipleship in the Singapore churches? They have done surveys over the past, looking at the past decade from 2015 to 2025. Leaders came together, they did surveys, and they looked at discipleship and spiritual growth in the Singapore Church, and they found that it was marked by at least four big challenges. Number one, Plato Christian growth. There's only been a very slight increase from 18.3% to 18.9%. For the last 10 years of census from 2010 to 2020. And not only that, leaders were also concerned about the spiritual depth and health. In particular after COVID-19. How many years are we past that? 2020 COVID-19. Now 2023 and that now it's two years. And Christians are still worshipping at home in their pyjamas. That's how shallow Christianity is. And over the COVID period, I've heard anecdotes from pastors that some members have sort of fade away. You know someone like that? And you're concerned for them and praying for them? Six. Half an inch deep. Program-centered approaches is the second challenge that church leaders have observed. Traditional activities like Bible studies, sermons, worship service, equipping courses, cell groups, they found that getting involved in all these things does not automatically produce fruitful Christians. Thirdly, youth retention issues. The proportion of young people ages 15 to 24 with no religious affiliation increased from 21% to 24%. In other words, in the general population, there are more and more people who do not have any religious affiliation. They have no religion at all. That's a challenge because the new generation of the church will be infected by the same environment that has affected all these people who have stopped believing in any religion. Agnostic, atheist. And the church also noticed that the challenges remain of retaining and keeping the younger generations. We lose our men when during national service. Why are we losing men during national service? Is it because they have insufficient roots and depth so that when they went through the national service, the challenge was just too big for them? The second area is where people return from studying overseas. They study for three years, sometimes for four years. They return, they just cannot feed back into the church. Sometimes, of course, they move to other church, which, though not ideal, at least they are in the faith, but sometimes they just fall out. Youth retention is another challenge. Fourthly, parental involvement. Studies highlight that many parents feel ill-equipped. They don't feel they are they are equipped enough to bring up their children spiritually. Or they are just too busy and occupied with work because nowadays most young families are dual-income families, both working. And often youth leaders find that they need help to partner with parents because sometimes the responsibility of bringing up children in the Lord is just thrown at the lap of these youth leaders and youth pastors. It's too heavy a responsibility for them. It has to be a partnership between the youth ministry and parents. In fact, parents hold the primary responsibility, but they feel they're ill-equipped. So there are many challenges that this the level of discipleship, when we examine the level of discipleship in Singapore churches, there are many challenges in front of us. So when things go wrong, where do we turn to? We turn to the Bible. We go back to the Bible to look for solutions, to look for answers. And what better way to look at than the times where Jesus lived in? How was discipleship done in his time? And how did Jesus himself do it? So I'm going to bring you through to give you an idea of what a Jewish boy would go through during Jesus' time. Now, after the temple was destroyed, the Babylonians came, the temple was destroyed, the people of God were scattered to different parts of the ancient Near East, different parts of the Middle East. They had no temple to go to. They started what you call synagogues. Places of worship where scriptures are read, no sacrifices are offered. Scriptures are read and studied. And the children grew up learning the scriptures. At the lowest level, Beth Sifa, house of book, that means house of the book. From age 5 to 10. Now that is the equivalent of nursery one, nursery two, oh K1, K22, primary four, right? In Singapore. They would study the Torah and memorize big portions of the Torah. Their main study would be memorizing and knowing what is said from Genesis to Deuteronomy. That's the Torah, the law. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They study, they recite, they memorize. Primary school. Then they go to the Bet Talmud, the house of learning, from age 10 to 14. That means from about primary four to about secondary two. This time it's no longer memorization that's emphasized, but more intensive study of the rest of the Old Testament scriptures. How do I off this? Sorry. How do I off this? Where was I? Where was I? House House of Learning, okay? Okay, more intensive study of the rest of the scriptures. That means the prophets and the writings. Focusing on interpretation, asking questions, debating scriptures. Debating, asking questions about the scriptures, answering, looking at interpretations. At that age, you notice what Jesus was doing in the temple at the age of twelve? He was doing this. Asking questions, sharing interpretations, debating which interpretation is correct. Very often after that, they just continue to stay with their fathers and learn the trait of their fathers. But the brighter ones, the more eager ones, will continue from the age of 13 to 15, that is from secondary two to let's say secondary three, the house of study, bad midrash. Only the best students would move to this level. They begin studying the oral tradition, what was said by the rabbis of old. All the various interpretations of the scriptures, of the controversial scriptures. They will study that, they will do deeper theology. So it's like the Muslim religious schools, you know, right from the young to old, they are studying scripture, interpreting scripture, debating scripture, going deeper into scripture. And in this at this level, only the brighter ones will go. But only the top students, the eager ones, will become Talmud. Talmud is disciples. They will go and search for a rabbi. They'll search for a teacher. Preferably a well-known one. And beg and ask that teacher to adopt them as their disciple. That's where this word disciple comes from. The rabbi would interview them, look at the potential of this guy, and finally choose to accept or reject that person. But when that person is accepted, he'll have to say goodbye to his family. He'll have to say goodbye to his trade, whether he's a farmer or a fisherman or whatever it is, he has to say goodbye to it. He has to say goodbye to village life. He'll go and live and follow the rabbi everywhere he goes. It's a live-in apprenticeship. It's a live-in discipleship. They eat with the rabbi, they travel, they study, they serve the rabbi constantly. They would memorize the interpretations that the rabbi gives, the answers he give to problems about the law. They will even observe his mannerism and the way he speaks and the teaching methods he used, and they will imitate him. They will memorize it. They will copy, they will adopt whatever he says. So learning was experiential. It was not just theory, it was not going to books alone, it was observing a life and imitating a way of life, a lifestyle, adopting his values, following everything closely as possible. And the rabbi will stretch them with challenging questions. He'll stretch them and assign them tasks to do. And this is called. The yoke. The yoke. Remember where the word yoke is used in the Bible? Jesus said, take my yoke upon you. The yoke is a well-known word among the rabbis. It represents his authority and his interpretation. It represents the life that he lived, a specific way of interpreting scripture. So when Jesus said, all you who are troubled and heavy laden, come to me, and I'll give you peace. But you need to take my yoke upon you. It has that meaning of you have to follow me. You have to observe my lifestyle. Follow my teaching. Be like the disciples of those times. And you shall find rest for your soul. So Jesus is an interesting guy. He's kind of radical, right? He's not an official rabbi. He never sat under a rabbi. But yet people call him a rabbi. But he took on some of the whole apprenticeship thing. He took it on. But he infused it with the spirit. Mark chapter 3, verse 13 to 15, which is the bedrock verses that this camp team is based upon. Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted. And they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. Called to him those he wanted. Look at the tweaks that Jesus made, the changes he made. Instead of people coming to him and applying to be his disciple, he chose them. He chose them. Luke's gospel tells us that he prayed the whole night about these disciples that he was acquainted with, asking the Father, which one should I take on as my disciple? And he chose the twelve. He called ordinary men, not the top students, not the brightest, the cream de la cream. Ordinary men, fishermen, tax collectors, not the elite, not the top potentials. Even his larger circle of disciples consists of women. In those days, women never followed a rabbi. All men. But Jesus in the larger circle had women following him. Even sinners and outsiders breaking all the cultural and educational norms of that time. And he taught and emphasized upside-down values, kingdom values that are totally different from what other rabbis may think, may teach. He emphasized servanthood over status. Transformation over tradition. Grace over legalism. Servanthood. He emphasized radical love over hatred and unforgiveness. And he spoke with authority, unlike the rabbis who love to quote other rabbis. He preferred to say, truly, truly, I say to you, this is the truth. This is what God says. As you follow Jesus and observed him in the gospels, you realize that he followed the essence of the apprenticeship model of that time. Be with him. If you're a disciple, you need to stay with him and be with him. Observe him. Become like him and continue the work that he does. Just like those disciples that followed the rabbi, their ultimate call, their ultimate goal was to follow their rabbi and go around and reproduce themselves with other disciples. What does this tell us, friends? If you are a disciple, your life should be wrapped around these three goals. To be with Jesus, to become like him, and to continue his mission. So think about it. Is this what your life is wrapped around? I want to spend time with the Lord. I want to know him more and more, more intimately, more deeply, and I want to follow him and imitate his life. His lifestyle, his values, his ways. It's not more Bible study, it's not getting a knowledge, it's practicing a way, it's adopting a lifestyle based on the values of the kingdom. So you and I, we really need to ask ourselves some serious questions. Am I really a disciple? What is my life wrapped around? What are my choices wrapped around? What am I thinking about? What do I love to do? That was what discipleship is meant to be. But today, what are Christians' life centered on in Singapore? Are the Christians any different from the people of the world? Are they any different from the Buddhists? Is your lifestyle any different from the people of the world? What are the goals of your life? What are the goals of my life? I can see a number of you are just like me. You are my age. You are in your sixties. If the women don't dye their hair, I'll see more white hair and gray hair. If every day in the week is ten years, we are now in Saturday. Sixty years. Some of us are already in Sunday. Just as COVID uh ended and they they begin to allow people to play. Five persons play outdoors. I started, you know, it's pickleball. A racket which they call a pedal looks like a table tennis. The ball smaller than a tennis ball, rubber with holes, made of plastic with holes. You play in a badminton court, but the net is tennis level. The past few months, quite a few men have had stents. One collapsed while playing pickleball, went to the hospital, two stands. Another man, 75, still playing pickleball over many years. He was feeling breathless. Went to the nearby hospital, two stands. I'm not discouraging you from playing. A close friend of mine, a neighbor of mine, he was feeling breathless after just a simple game. And he said, something is wrong. I better check. One stand. What am I saying? Play pickleball and then you will discover early. Don't have a sudden heart attack and you're gone. After you retired, like me, what does your life revolve around? What do you do every day? What would a disciple be doing? Even if you are on a Saturday or a Sunday or your past Sunday and you're living by the grace of God every single day, a disciple would have his life wrapped around these treples. Be with Jesus. I want to know him more and more. I want to become like him. The more I know him, the more I love him, the more I want to follow him and be like him. Because, like the song says, Oh, he's such an awesome, beautiful, wonderful, gracious God. And not only that, I want to continue in his mission. 60, 70 is not a time to fade away. They say age gracefully, don't age gracefully. Age powerfully. Age and finished well. Why are the young people saying amen? All the sixty and above are just keeping quiet.

unknown 35:25

Amen, amen.

SPEAKER_00 35:26

Yes. A disciple-making alliance in Singapore was formed in 2024 because they were all worried about the they were all concerned about the challenges in the church. They came up with this slogan, moving forward. And in this, they came together and they described the parameters of discipleship, what discipleship should look like. If we continue the way it is, we are going to have a lot of prodigal sons and elder sons in the church for the next generation. We need to shift discipleship to these four things. It has to be formational. It has to focus on forming people's character, values, and lives. It has to be intentional. That means you have to be deliberate, you have to plan it, you have to aim at it and actually do it. It has to be relational, not just program-based, but relationship-based. Relationship with God, relationship with one another. And lastly, it has to be missional. It's just not giving you a lot of Bible information and you feel good about it. What are you going to do about the command to go into all the world? It has to be missional. If we shift discipleship from what it is today to F-I-R-M, then we are creating hope for the next generation and for our generation as well. What was discipleship like for me? I was born, I was a product of a revival, the charismatic revival of the 1970s. In 1972, how many of you are familiar with the charismatic revival of 1972? Clock tower revival? You heard of the how many of you know the ACS clock tower? There's a clock tower and buckle road. Christians from ACS students gathered there to pray. The Holy Spirit fell on them. Along the same road, Bukitima Road, another school which you never heard of, Danian Secondary Technical School. People, students were praying behind the science lab. Recess after recess before school. They were praying, they were reading scriptures. Holy Spirit filled them. I was a product of that revival among the students. And our church was formed out of that Danian secondary technical revival. Follow-up, I never had much follow-up. I had someone come, befriend me, make sure I go to church every Sunday, and there I experience God. Nothing systematic, nothing intentional. Just like, you know, I'm bringing a friend to church, so he makes sure I go to church. And then because I read a lot, I love reading, I learn a lot of good things as well as wrong things from my reading. And you know, theology is so huge. You can get lost in the forest, in the jungle, you know. So I survived by reading, attending conferences in those days. And then in those days, in the 1980s, I think 70s, 80s, navigators were really at their peak. You heard of the navigators? Campus Crusade, they were really at their peak. Discipleship training. I learned about memorizing verses, started buying memory packs and memorizing verses. Going through all the discipleship training. And then after that, the church growth movement came. And then it is cell groups, home sales, fasting and prayer. What discipleship is very ad hoc, very ad hoc. Just moving from one thing to another, one program to another. I never knew these three goals: to be with Jesus. He chose some to be with him, to become like him, like the rabbi would train others so that they would, he could send them out to do the work he did, to have authority, to preach the gospel, to heal the sick. And then later I find two other pastors, one Anglican, one Anglican, one evangelical free, and we met once a month. What you call a tree, two, one. You heard of a tree, two, one spiritual friendship? Three persons sharing for their lives and praying for each other two hours once a month. And we did that for 18 years. We took turns to share our woes, you know. I was going through a difficult time, so most of the time they were listening to me. After that, the Anglican pastor was going through a difficult time and he was sharing most of the time, and then finally the evangelical free church pastor was going through a difficult time or sharing most of the time. After that, it's the end. What was your discipleship like? What was it like for you? Did anybody intentionally help you? Or were you like me just trying to survive, trying to make sense of what's going on in your life without any goals? I want to challenge you during this church camp to look at these three goals to be with Jesus, to become like Jesus, and to continue his mission and be a missional Christian. I want to challenge your heart. Next slide. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, oh God, we will not despise. Psalms 51. We need to humble ourselves before God. Starting tonight, you know, we put our pride aside. I've been a Christian thirty years, I've been a pastor forty years. Ah, why is forty years if it's not the right kind of experience? Put the pride aside and say, Lord, this is in the Bible. Now I'm seeing it. Is it too late for me? I'm in my 60s, I'm in my 70s. No, it's not too late. Is it too early for me? I don't waste my life. You are not wasting your life. If you are wasting your life if you continue the way you are, if your life is not that of a disciple seeking to follow Jesus, I tell you, you are wasting your life. Don't waste your life. With all the money you have, you cannot buy back time. Time comes and it goes. You cannot buy back time. So we humble ourselves and we say, Lord, I have to keep myself open to what the messages we're gonna share. And if I need to repent, I'll repent. Repentance is just changing the way you look at things to follow God's way. Is he stirring something in you? I hope he is. I hope it's a holy dissatisfaction that says I want more. I want the real stuff. I want to go deeper. I want to mean business with God.