10.27.2013 What is a True Disciple?

10-27-2013 from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

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I got an email from a pastor friend – “Every now and then I run into this question: Is being a disciple optional, or is being a Christian equal to being a disciple? Thinking of the verses – you cannot be My disciple unless you renounce all you have – or hate your mother, sister, brother – or abide in me and I in you - true disciples – you get the idear (He said, idea, but I say idear) – what is your understanding of these passages – will a true Christian exhibit these characteristics, albeit imperfectly, or is being a Christian mean being a sold out disciple of Christ?”
This is not simple – this is a significant commitment – how do these verses relate and apply to us? Are disciples a specific class of Christian?
Lord, thank You for Your word – we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing – You love us, we are Your beloved. Today, may that be an understanding of thought that we carry with us – we are loved by You – and that is all that matters. There are many other things in life, but that has to be our foundation – the foundation of our discipleship, and of how we live as Christian in this world. It becomes our motivation and the controlling influence in our life. You died that we should no longer live for ourselves, but for You.

Technical definition of being a disciple – from Michael Wilkins – "a disciple of Jesus is one who has come to Jesus for eternal life, has claimed him as savior and god and has embarked on the life of following Him... Discipleship and discipling imply the process of becoming like Jesus Christ. To be a disciple of Jesus means living a life in union with Christ and being conformed to His image." (from Following the Master: A Biblical Theology of Discipleship)
First – A disciple is a follower of Jesus.
Second - A disciple is someone whose life is centered around a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Third, a disciple is one who is engaged in the process of being transformed to the likeness or image of Christ – becoming like Jesus.
What does that mean and how does it work out in our lives?
I believe that all believers are disciples – if you have come to Christ and trusted in Him- applied his death for the forgiveness of sins – you are a disciple. We are all to be in the process of discipleship – working out what it means. You are a disciple regardless of whether you believe it or not. The word discipleship is not in the Bible, but is the process of becoming a disciple.
All disciples are at different places in the process – some are here or some are there – the word process is important – or JOURNEY – someone who is going somewhere – If I said, follow me – it means to go somewhere. It is a and process – we never attain to discipleship – the key is not where you are on the journey; when the disciples were called – they were disciples – and they constantly grew.
In Mark, there are only two right decisions that the ‘disciples’ make – following Jesus and believing He rose from the dead – in all other instances they failed!
It is not about where you are – but are you on the journey? Are you in process?
Second – with this definition – there is a difference between ‘the disciples’ and being a disciple – the Twelve had a special calling on their lives – they were with Jesus for three years – being trained for a specific purpose – to be the foundation of the church – none of us has that purpose today – it has happened already!
They were also to be witnesses to the life, death, and resurrection – literally! They had a specific purpose – so we can’t only look at them – to be everything that they were.
We cannot walk with Jesus physically – we are not there in the Garden when He was arrested – but that does not mean that there are not lessons to be learned from their discipleship.
Finally – we also must not confuse leadership development with being a disciple.
There are passages in the New Testament that are focused on leadership development – and we need to learn to differentiate those.
Mark 1:16-17
A disciple is one who follows Jesus. That means that a disciple is not someone who follows someone else.
You are not a follower of a pastor – or a church or a denomination – or a cause. You must be a follower of Jesus – a person – and no one else.
And churches can get into trouble when they begin to follow an important person – the one who is on the radio or TV or writes the books.
We are to follow Jesus – to make disciples – never to have disciples!
In this passage – from a historic perspective – Jesus’ approach to discipleship is a reversal to how it was done. The Greco-Roman leaders HAD disciples. The Jews had disciples. Jesus called disciples to himself. That is not how it happened in the rest of the world.
In their teens – one would petition a great teacher to become his disciple. The disciple is taking the initiative – JESUS called His disciples to Himself – none other did that. He decided who would be his disciples. In the New Testament – everyone who solicits Jesus to become a disciple is either rejected or refused because they are unwilling to pay the price.
Now –
Christian discipleship is different from training programs of the world – we need to be cautious to not apply principles of business, athletic programs, the military or other models – those models may incorporate some aspects of Jesus’ model – but we need to go to the source.
The concept of Jesus calling us into discipleship – it makes being a disciple a gift – it is a work of grace – not something we work ourselves up to. We challenge people in discipleship to work their way up to a certain point – but it is really about God saying – I choose YOU! God’s call on our life is a gift and a work of grace – but too often we see it as an intrusion – a hindrance to our lifestyle. We look at His call in the Bible and we say, I’m not sure I want that gift – the call and the gift comes at great cost. There will be a cost for being a disciple – a great cost – Jesus made that clear. Discipleship comes at great cost – but there is also great reward. These guys left their boats – they are called – they immediately… - it doesn’t mean they just left their boats and came back – they left their careers to be with Jesus – leaving career, and family and home to follow Jesus. We live in a world where we can focus on Jesus without leaving those things because of Jesus giving each of us His Spirit.
Mark 10: 28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!” 29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.
What Jesus is saying – when you choose the cost – coming to the point of getting out of the boat – not being the center of your dreams and purposes – but every aspect of my life – my family – my work, my recreation, my private and public life – centered around Jesus – there are things we must leave – but Jesus says that He will reward us – not just eternally – but here on earth as well. It is an earthly reward, but not materialistic. It is not a new kind of consumerism.
Sometimes when we follow Jesus – it affects our family – or we have to move from the place we know and love – but He is saying – I will supply those needs for us – those connections – as we go along – like we could never imagine. Along with persecution. It is not going to be easy – but we will be rewarded in this life, but more importantly – in the life to come. That is the primary reward. I don’t think we look enough at the life to come – we tend to focus so much here.
What we should do – we should go and read the last two chapters of the Bible – what it will be like for all eternity – we should really try to understand that because that is where we will spend most of our time – live that today – begin living that today.
That is what He meant – what will you be like in heaven? What type of person will you be in heaven? Be that type of person here.
Jesus calls ordinary people.
When you look at the disciples – they are a mixed group – they have struggles – and there is tremendous variety that He throws together. That is what we are. Great variety.
Qualifications? Believers who have a heart to surrender their lives and to leave whatever boats God calls us to leave.
Second – center our lives around a relationship with Jesus.
Mark 3: 13 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. 14 He appointed twelve[a] that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach
What we see – He calls the twelve to be WITH HIM. SO that that they would have an ongoing relationship with Him.
Transformation takes place in the context of relationships.
Jesus understood – more is caught than taught.
We have a grandchild – and we love to get up in their face and they mimic us – you don’t teach them to say ‘Dada’ – by moving their mouths.
It is a shared life with Christ where we become disciples.
And – for them – it meant being together for 3 years – our shared life with Jesus is together – it is not a discipleship where we get alone and never see someone else – not just us and Jesus. Discipleship takes place in a community – in the church – as we share life together. That is why church and community are so important. You cannot get enough of it on your own – He has created us to live with others.
Luke 10:38-39 38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.
We cannot read too much into this – seated at the Lord’s feet – a phrase that was used to describe a disciple. He sat at the Rabbi’s feet – meant – he became a disciple of the Rabbi.
What Mary is doing – taking the posture of a disciple. When she sits at Jesus’ feet – she is centering her life around Jesus – surrendering her life to Him – being attentive to His teaching and His word – it is a heart of obedience, a commitment to follow fully.
A true disciple is the one who chooses God’s presence. The one who chooses relationship with Jesus over anxious activity in the world. Because a disciple has centered his life around a relationship with God – and that is what He is calling us to.
There is an issue of space here – female space and male space. A female could only enter a male’s space to serve and to leave. Mary has done something different – sitting down with the great Rabbi. For them – it was only for men – and Jesus is saying nope, discipleship is for all – Women and men are disciples in His Kingdom.
We follow Jesus
We are centered on Jesus
We become like our teacher.
Luke 6: 40 The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.
It is through this transformation that we become like Jesus – you will never get there, but it is a constant process.
What does it mean to be like Jesus? What do you think of? Our tendency is to think this – regarding the characteristics of a disciple – pragmatically – quiet times, stewardship, attends church, goes to Sunday school – does evangelism – but all those are lower level characteristics. The higher level characteristics – focus on the quality of being like Jesus. Being comes before doing in the Christian world – we are to be like Jesus in characteristics of who He was - lives characterized by love, faith hope, compassion, justice, mission, purpose.
WWJD?
No, WWJL! What Was Jesus Like? What kind of person was He? We need to focus on that.
WWJD? WDJD! No – what DID Jesus do?
Okay – if this is what He is like, and this is what He did – THEN – what do I do to get to that point?
One thing Jesus did? Prayer and solitude
Luke 5: 16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Mark 1: 35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
Jesus had a regular pattern of slipping away to be with the Father. We must develop a consistent and regular pattern of spending time alone with Him. To be a disciple means to be centered on a relationship with Jesus to be transformed into His image – and that can’t happen if we don’t spend time alone with Him. If Jesus needed to do it, as the Son of God, then we must need it all the more! We need desperately to have regular time alone – and that is my challenge – to be a disciple, a follower of Jesus – we have got to figure out how to place that in our lives.
Let’s pray – Lord, we ask You to help us to follow You – to turn our eyes on You and follow – to make that choice. You are calling us – help us to respond as true disciples – that whatever boat we are being called out of – to step out on a journey and mission with You.