What is a Disciple?
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Some of you in here know who my dad is, some of you don’t. If you don’t, let me explain, he’s a gruff, kind, funny, New Zealander with an accent who doesn’t really know a stranger.
School Bus Stop
Cafeteria Line
In line at a movie
I remember growing up, anytime we’d be in a larger city, like Baltimore, or at the airport, or somewhere where there are all different types of people, he’d always keep his eye out for certain people.
In line for a bathroom
At Work
At a Liverpool game (that’s a constant one for me)
New Zealanders, Kiwis.
And if he found one by them either wearing a shirt, or hearing an accent, he’d go up and talk to them.
Okay, so you are there, and all of the sudden, this dude comes up to you and says to you, “Follow me”. Literally meaning, drop everything you do, everything you have, everything you’ve worked for, and follow me.
You should have seen some of their faces - total confusion mixed with a bit of fear
What to dad was just connecting with people who share a common nationality was to some a huge invasion of privacy and personal space. I mean, these people were minding their own business, doing their own thing.
How would you have responded?
Some of us, who hadn’t been taught by our parents “Stranger Danger” would follow, others of us wouldn’t....unless he promised candy....just kidding!
Now, think with me back to the disciples that Jesus first called…Andrew and Peter were fishing, Matthew was a tax collector, James and John were fixing their nets, Nathanael was relaxing underneath a fig tree
These disciples, these 12, had lives just like we have. They had jobs, they had families, they had social lives....
BUT, they dropped everything and didn’t hesitate in following.
Because, they were called by Christ. They couldn’t resist Christ.
Why? Because He is the answer to what we long for. Because He was worth it, they weren’t sure why, they weren’t sure how, but they were sure.
But even in knowing that, nothing could have prepared the disciples for what was going to happen in their lives as they followed Jesus. Everything about Jesus was going to affect every aspect of their lives as they followed Him
This idea of them just dropping everything and following Jesus might seem strange to you, or foreign. But this concept of “being a disciple” was common in this Jewish period.
1. So, let me ask you, how would you define a disciple?
A disciple is simply a “student” or “apprentice”.
Now, this idea of being a disciple wasn’t a brand new concept that Jesus introduced…in fact, if you turn to , we see this idea being practiced in Paul’s life (when he was Saul):
3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.”
This idea of being a disciple of a rabbi was very common in this day. Where a “disciple” would sit under the teaching of a rabbi and follow him wherever he went, learning from the rabbi’s teaching and learning from watching what the rabbi did.
So the disciples understood the context of what Jesus was saying. He was calling them to drop everything else, calling them to let go of all other earthly wants or desires, and follow Him, imitate Him, learn from Him.
Just like we are
But what was the point? Well, Saul, was to become a Rabbi like Gamaliel, so, in essence, become “just like him”.
Saul could not call himself a disciple of Gamaliel (apprentice or student) and live your own life.
And Jesus wasn’t calling the disciples to “follow Him” but not really follow Him. He was calling them to this radical selfless imitation of Himself.
He wasn’t saying, “Hey, go on to your social media, label yourself a Christian, share one of those posts that say you love me, and we’ll be good”
Yet today, somehow, in our Christian culture, we’ve decided that we can call ourselves “Christians” = “Disciples”, and still have our own lives over here.
Example: Biggest Loser
That’s kind of how we view Christianity.
I can say I’m a follower, and I’ll follow on Sundays (or at least pretend)
I can say I’m a follower, and not really follow.
Jesus speaks to this in , “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven.”
Translation: Not everyone who claims to follow Christ are saved, only those who truly follow Him, only those who are truly his disciples
2. This leads us to our next question: “How do we become disciples?”
Turn with me to , verse 17
This is where Jesus began His ministry, and as we’re going to see, His message from the very start never changed:
Read verse 17
This word kingdom literally means an area controlled by a king. So Jesus is saying, God’s kingdom is coming, it’s close, you need to repent
Imagine you were the king/queen of your own city.....for some of you this isn’t a stretch because you literally think you are the king/queen of your own house!
But imagine you knew a kingdom was coming towards you, what are the two choices you have:
1. Fight them
2. You’ll try to make peace with them
Now, what would be the determining factor in your decision....?
If you could win
But, because we have this book (the Bible), we know the ending
Jesus taught that we needed to repent, which means “to turn”
So to become a disciple of Jesus, we need to confess and turn from our sin.
I think one of our biggest issues as a youth group (myself included), is sometimes we forget what our sin really is? We don’t view it how God views it. And until we do, we won’t understand our need for Christ, and we won’t have a desire to Follow Him.
Charles Spurgeon, “This day, my God, I hate sin not because it damns me, but because it has done Thee wrong. To have grieved my God is the worst grief to me.”
We are broken because of our sin. It’s not just that we did something wrong. We broke our relationship with God. We’ve lost our hope, we’ve lost our joy.
Maybe you’re here tonight and you’re still completely broken, I’ve got some good news. Jesus saves.
And when we repent, when we do that, we are foregoing our way (our lifestyle) and we are turning towards Him, making Him Lord.
We can only do that because of what Jesus has done on the cross:
, , , explains this to us.
So basically, the king of the coming kingdom let His son take our place.
THIS IS HUGE
But, simply, that’s how we become disciples. We understand the gift of salvation that Jesus brings, we confess and repent of our sin, and we choose to follow Him with our lives, no longer saying “I’ll do it my way”, but saying, “I’ll follow Him”
This is grace people.
tells us that by grace we have been saved through the faith we put in Jesus Christ.
We can’t earn it, we can’t win it, we can’t hope hard enough to get it.
Grace is a gift, and in opening it, we are saying we believe in who Jesus says that He is, believing that He is Lord of our lives
Now, what does Lord mean that we looked at in ?
Lord means: master, owner, or person in authority
Pretty much, Jesus being Lord means He gets to call the shots.
And this is where we struggle, because we start to view Christianity as a list of things to do.
Am I right? You guys have always heard, “Don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t drink, don’t steal, and on and on and on.”
And yes, these things are true.
But Follow Christ is about so much more than a to-do list.
When we stop viewing our salvation as a “To-Do” moment, and start viewing it as Christ’s “Ta-Da” moment, everything changes.
It goes from us saying, I have to do this to stay right with God to He’s already done what we need to be right with God
It goes from us thinking we need to earn salvation, to realizing He’s already paid the cost.
And when we can wrap our mind around that, we suddenly realize who Christ is in our lives —> Savior and Lord, and we live for Him out of the joy that He brings, not out of have to
Paul tells us in 1 Cor. to glorify God in our bodies, since He bought us with a price.
But again, in common American Christianity, we seem to think we can call Him Lord, let live our lives however we choose to.
3. It all comes down to love
What is the greatest commandment?
Yep, to love God
And when we really love God, then we naturally will listen to Him.
And I know what you’re thinking, well, it was easy for the first disciples, they actually saw Jesus. It was easy for them to follow Him.
Well, says, “8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory”
Peter tells us that we can still have the joy that the love of God offers in our lives today, but it takes belief.
We don’t have joy from following rules, we have joy from our faith in God.
BUT, Jesus also tells us if we love Him we will keep His commandments.
Example: Think of someone that you really love. You don’t have to let me know, just think of someone. Now, if you really love them, what’s often said is this, “I would do anything for them”, or, “What
I would die for Riley
Because of our great love for someone, we’re willing to put aside ourselves and do anything for them.
Why can’t/Why don’t we do this for Jesus?
4. Count the Cost
We’ve seen what a disciple is, we’ve seen what it takes to be a disciple, and we’ve seen what a disciples life should look like.
Let’s close with this before breakout groups, turn with me to
, “ 25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”
Wednesday Breakout Groups
Kieran: Will: Madi: Gracee:
Riley Trent Angel Hattie
Brianna Colby Morgan Megan
Bethany Emma Elijah Ethan
Sadie Kyleigh Emily Halie
Brady Ashley Caden Canaan
Abbie Lori
Derek Hayley Chris Savannah
John Tammy Megan