At that same time, my reaction was how people whose understanding of the scripture is so shallow, who are twisting the scripture out of context resulting in oppression, who have only one way of thinking for past fifty years, who are burnout behind those plastic smiles be so proud of their bible studies as to call anything outside of their organization as cult or even evil?

Thank God I “learned” before getting completely “burned”! Not to forget, ubf bible study saved me and many others, but that is just the beginning. We are not to remain infant forever after being born again, we need to grow up and become mature. I see unbf leaders’ attempt to remain where they were fifty years before, in terms of their understanding of the scripture and ministry practices, as very childish and refusal to grow up and mature.

I have watched some youtube videos by NT Wright and read one book by him. I will definitely explore the link you mentioned. Once again thank you.

When asked what it means to “take up your cross,” perhaps the most common answer or response is “take up your cross of mission.” “Cross” has become synonymous with “mission,” or responsibility. It is such an unfortunate and inadequate answer that has perhaps become the primary accepted correct unquestioned answer in UBF.

Hopefully, someday there will be public correctives to address texts taken out of context which has become pretexts for a proof text.

+1 !

When Jesus first introduces the teaching of the cross, denying yourself, taking up your cross and following him, it comes at a very interesting time in the narrative of the gospels. He had just begun to teach them of his death and resurrection. We know that even after he died and rose from the dead they didn’t yet understand it from Scripture. It didn’t sink in right away for them.

UBF Bible studies on “the cross” for this section always left me unsatisfied. Sadly, “taking up your cross” was reduced to “taking up responsibilities.” Everything that’s a responsibility was labeled as a “cross,” such as children, your job, serving a particular task such as a message, being a disciples maker and so on (although Jesus doesn’t ever append making disciples to all people and to what it is to be a Christian, and neither do the apostles). Such teachings don’t take into consideration the flow and context of the narratives. For example, how hearing such words to take up your cross would be understood by Jewish people in Jesus’ days. A criminal who “took up his cross” was shamed and he would not be putting that cross down and returning to a normal life–that was it.

I’ve come to the same conclusion on the new standard of love (not sacrifices and demands) as you wrote. To live in unity with Jesus and others, to obey what he has commanded and to live as he did, it comes down to love for one another. And this has been one of the major motivation factors that I began to consider how UBF has/is treating people and speak up.

You wrote: “The gospel that Jesus preached was not the gospel of forgiveness deciding heaven or hell, but the gospel of the kingdom.” – See more at: http://www.ubfriends.org/2015/03/24/follow-me-means-repent-deny-yourself-lose-your-life-and-make-disciples/#sthash.R6jizS6j.dpuf

I think it’s great that you will your lessons will start here. I agree with you that to understand what it is to be a Christian it is very beneficial and of great import to orient oneself in the context of the kingdom that Jesus preached. My own studies on the kingdom over the past couple of years were truly transformational. My thinking in terms of relating to God and others completely changed.

One resource that helped me greatly was N.T. Wright’s lectures on Jesus and the kingdom he preached. There were two series in particular: “How God Became King,” and “Jesus and the Kingdom.” You can listen to them as podcasts here: N.T. Wright Podcasts.

As a first step, it was important just to begin thinking about the kingdom and how God, Jesus and believers fit into that context. Honestly, it was not something I was familiar with. Actually, it was a problem that I didn’t know how to express or understand until listening to these to Wright’s lectures. It just wasn’t taught properly in UBF. Although UBF uses the word “kingdom” all the time, I don’t think it is done in the right way and with the same biblical meaning. This is why people do not even understand the prayer topic to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, yet it has become the staple of the ministry’s theology (as BrianK would put it, the KOPAHN theology). When I got to passages such as Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem or the pouring of the perfume on Jesus’ feet, the UBF teachings, I felt, always fell short and were unsatisfying. There was something missing, but I did’t know before that it was the teaching of the kingdom. Instead, the passages became about you or me sacrificing something to serve God’s mission. I began to do serious re-thinking and reading when having to preach through Samuel and Luke. The ideas of the kingdom and Jesus as the Messiah were more foreign than I had expected. Reading the Kings was also eye opening that there was something much bigger at work, a greater context of living as a people of God because of the Messiah.

Anyway, I pray for God’s blessings on your lessons and if you happen to listen to those lectures (if you haven’t done so already) that they may be as beneficial to you as they were to me.

“The kingdom of God, unlike any other kingdom, is the only kingdom where there are no “subjects”. It is a kingdom of members of the royal family. We all are kings and Jesus is the King of kings.” – See more at: http://www.ubfriends.org/2015/03/24/follow-me-means-repent-deny-yourself-lose-your-life-and-make-disciples/#comment-17291

This is so very well and excellently and wonderfully stated. It emphasizes the utmost importance of loving, trusting, respectful and deferential relationships among Christians as brothers and sisters in a family. This is clearly preferable to some kind of pecking order being communicated as “shepherd/sheep,” or “leader/member,” or “senior/junior,” or “missionary/native.” These distinctions somehow communicates that there is some kind of “power ranking” among Christians, which may more easily lead to abuse, bias, prejudices, unfairness and injustice.

One aspect of the kingdom that I’m trying to understand is fidelity, that is establishing and sustaining relationships based on love (grace and truth), justice (or right motives and actions) and commitment. Relationship building is probably one of the greatest struggles that I have. One thing that greatly helps me in this is Jesus’ humility upon the cross. When I meditate upon this event and identify with him in that moment, I find that I can begin to let go of my own ego and understanding in order to understand the other’s perspective. Often time this marks a significant transformation in my own humanity and strengthens my connection with the other. I feel as though I am undergoing a practical resurrection in this way. I know that many times, my wife has practiced this toward me and, by God’s grace and goodness, we have grown significantly in our mutual understanding and appreciation of one another over the years. For me, I believe that the cross is in many ways the entry point to the kingdom of heaven which paradoxically must be visited again and again.

Lastly, I will say that the cross was foundational in helping me to realize that I needed to break away from a spiritual environment which sought to impose so many external, man-made standards upon me. Jesus said of such systems, ‘It is finished’. We are to never again bear up under these kinds of yokes. Rather, when we are in him, the new standard is love which he helps us to fulfill by way of being united with him in death and resurrection.

2) Jesus did not define what it means to be a Christian because he never intended to start a new religion. He rather elaborated much about what it means to be a citizen of his kingdom through Sermon on the mount and other passages. The need for overcoming anger, immorality, greed and worry etc following the Beatitudes are a call for repentance in the context of the kingdom citizenship.

3) Much to my surprise in the gospel narrations, it is mostly the disciples themselves who addressed/assumed the title of “disciples” but Jesus preferred to call them as “guests of the bridegroom , family members, friends etc. In my understanding therefore, discipleship has little to do with “doing” and much to do with “becoming.” They could not have been fishers of men by doing things for Jesus but primarily by becoming members of the royal family.

4) Yes, Jesus talked about the great cost of denying ourselves and give ourselves entirely to Jesus. But every time teachers and preachers quote Lk 9:23 or even Mt 16:24, they simply skip the context in the verses immediately followed by those verses. Again the context is Jesus’ kingship and the coming kingdom. But the kingship of Jesus and kingdom reality are too fantastic to believe so instead of talking about becoming good citizens we talk about doing stuff for him. So the golden rule is not “seek first God’s kingdom” but “seek first God’s mission.” Language and words change the message greatly.

5) In my opinion, we are so fixated with the cross that we have very little understanding and content to talk about the kingdom. In fact Jesus did not talk about the cross only until Peter confessed him as the Christ (and the context is clear that he meant the King). Sometime I feel by overemphasizing the cross are we pointing people to a dead savior, instead of the living God and King.

6) I don’t want to write too many points but one final thought on Mt 28:19. Jesus never termed this as “Great Commission,” the translators did especially that of NIV. However in our present day Christianity we pay little attention to what Jesus himself termed as the Greatest Commandments.

In the end, we seriously need to rethink whether we can make much progress by reducing the gospel of citizenship of the kingdom to membership of religion; and the focus on becoming royal family members into workers and multipliers. To me, majoring on minor is one of the greatest obstacles in preparing disciples unto maturity. Would love to hear what ubfriends think.

It’s much more important to teach spiritual formation, trusting in Christ, loving God, repenting of sin, and learning to love others and build Godly relationships. That takes a while. In my mind, around then, *some* people begin to think they can teach others — at that time, it becomes important to learn “deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus” because they need to know what it really means to follow him.

In my opinion, “deny myself” starts with repentance of sin, but it is the extension of repentance . . . continuing in repentance (like not being a jerk while you serve God). It also means laying down our privelege to follow God’s calling.

On that note, laying down our privelege, it doesn’t mean we should intentionally go into a life of folly, becoming hopelessly financially and emotionally dependent because we are living against the world. It means, if God calls us, we need to stop thinking about ourselves, our rights, our anything that stands against God. If we don’t understand that right, we begin to expect many things from the world because we gave up so much (yet niether God nor anyone else asked us to . . .)

But obedience that stems from the gospel of God’s grace and love (Jn 14:15, 21, 23), or “the obedience of faith” (Rom 1:5c; 16:26) is appealing and draws others to the love of God by the work of the Holy Spirit.

“The principle behind discipleship does involve one person influencing another, which does result in a change in heart and mind. The success of discipleship doesn’t depend on soldiering forward in a mechanical strategy of reproduction and multiplication. And discipleship doesn’t involve developing a well-trained, elite sales force. Rather discipleship occurs when a transformed person radiates Christ to those around her. It happens when people so experience God’s love that they can do nothing other than affect those around them.

The heart of being a disciple involves living in intimate union and daily contact with Christ. Discipleship – the effort both to be a disciple and to make other disciples – is about the immense value of God at work in one individual’s life and the resulting impact on other lives.”
– See more at: http://www.ubfriends.org/2011/06/29/the-myth-of-multiplication-part-1/#sthash.kShLiAdm.dpuf

“He [i.e., God] had taught me how a thing can be revered not for what it can do to us but for what it is in itself. That is why, though it was a terror, it was no surprise to learn that God is to be obeyed because of what He is in Himself… To know God is to know that our obedience is due to Him. In his nature His sovereignty de jure [by right] is revealed.” Cs Lewis

Of course, I’m kidding (perhaps we need a sarcasm font for ubfriends). It’s hard for me to listen to people like Platt these days because of over-simplified messages like this for something that is innately complex. God bless his heart, but I need something more robust when it comes to understanding what does it actually means to follow Jesus; it’s just not as simple as some would make it out to be. And the formulaic approach is somewhat akin to franchising or commercializing discipleship, which is very off-putting and inorganic to me. Anywho, Joe, Sharon and I talked about this a while back and Joe directed me to an insightful series that he did on how the church grows: http://www.ubfriends.org/2011/06/29/the-myth-of-multiplication-part-1/