Discipleship

There is an old saying, “failure to plan is planning to fail.” So, as we bring in a New Year I want to give you our plan for ministry in 2024. It is built around this book.... The Bible and will be aided by this book The D-life Journal. We will spend this year reading through the entire New Testament by simply reading 1 chapter Monday through Friday and writing a short journal entry about what the Holy Spirit illuminates to us and how we can apply it to our life. I will organize my preaching around something we have read that week, we will then come together Sunday evenings and discuss in depth certain verses that we have read in order that we not only have a good understanding of it but that we have good application of it, then on Wednesday nights after we pray we will touch on the chapters that we have not discussed and I will answer any questions that you may have.

Plainly put, we are going back to the basics of Discipleship as Jesus demonstrated in His life, as He walked with His Disciples investing in them and growing them up so that they could pick up where He would leave off after dying for the sins of the world.

Our text this weeks describes Jesus’ calling of His first four disciples, Peter, Andrew, James, and John. The word disciple is the Greek noun mathētēs it is used 262 times in the N.T. and Matthew uses it 72 times. This is an important word in Christianity, it means follower or pupil. It is used to describe those who follow Jesus closely and have such a committed relation with Him that their life reflects His and are moved through love and obedience to continue the mission that Jesus began but also entrusted to with. That is to carry Jesus to the entire lost world so that others will trust and worship Him and join His ranks of making disciples who make disciples.

CPS: There are a few things that we must understand about Disciples.

I. A Disciple Must Know Jesus through faith.

A prerequisite for being a disciple is knowing Jesus, this is not head knowledge or simply knowing of Jesus but a heart knowledge given by God by Grace through faith. Faith means to believe to a complete trust. The call found in our text was not a call to salvation but a call to service. A disciple must first be saved!

A. Their Call to Salvation

1. Peter, Andrew, James and John

s recorded in John 1:19-51 (ie: 35-51)....

2. James

the conversion of James is not recorded but since they all worked together (Luke 5:7) is plausible that they led him to Christ Jesus. His salvation is most plausible because Jesus had been preaching in Capernaum, “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand. (4:17)

B. Our Call to Salvation

Faith and repentance goes together… PREACH! Do you know Jesus on the basis of faith alone? No, will you trust Him today?

II. A Disciple Must Follow Jesus in Obedience!

You must be a believer in order to be a disciple but being a disciple is more than a being believer! It is one who follows Jesus closely in obedience and enters into His mission!

A. The Call of Jesus

Notice the call Jesus says “follow me, and I will make you fishers of man.” Follow is the Greek adverb deute meaning come here.

1. It was a call to live with Him

This isn't simply a call to walk up to Jesus and stand beside Him, it was a call to come live with Him. In John 1:38-39, Andrew and John answered Jesus’ question of “What do you seek?” by replying “Rabbi, where are you staying?” Jesus answered, “Come and you will see.” They stayed with Him that day, now Jesus is calling them to spend their complete life with Jesus! Every moment of every day!

2. It was a call to be trained by Him

I WILL MAKE you fishers of men. Will make is the main verb. It is poieomai which means cause to be. I like how the NLT translates it, “I will show you how to fish for people.” This was a call to a new profession where they got on the job training! VS.23-25, teaching, preaching, and healing. (The miracles were proof that He was the Messiah!) When they wrong they were corrected when right encouraged. for three years they apprenticed under the Master disciple maker!

Notice that Jesus meets us where we are and uses all of our life’s experience to aid in our training. These fishermen knew what it was like to work hard, (P & A) had fished all night (5:5) and were still fishing. (J & J) had fished all night and were getting their nets ready for the next trip. They had learned where to go to catch fish, to endure discomforts and inconvenience, they had mastered their tools and learned how to navigate, all these would be used in their new job as well.

ILL: My experiences, your experiences.

B. The Response of the Disciples

Peter and Andrew, Immediately left their nets and followed Him (20). James and John, Immediately left their boat and their father and followed Him. Followed is the Greek verb akoloutheō meaning to come behind. They obeyed and left everything behind, all they had known, a successful business, a valuable boat, the tools of their trade, and even their mother and father!

ILL: I remember when I received this call, it was a hard decisions to make but I made it and eventually left everything behind and followed Jesus even to the cold isolated mountains of Pineville Kentucky to Bible College as I trained to become a Pastor.

Their call was come and learn and that is ultimately our call too. But what took me years to decided, took them mere moments. Notice they *Immediately* left everything. Immediately is the Greek adjective eutheōs meaning at once. It is obedience that pleases God and I ask how pleased is He with us. We lack obedience but not just obedience but Immediate Obedience! The life of a disciple is one of immediate obedience when Jesus calls we come. One of the greatest problem in Christ’s church is the lack of obedience. Matthew portrays Jesus as the King of the Jews, and when the King calls you don’t hesitate you come Immediately....

III. A Disciple Must Make Disciples of Jesus.

A disciple is a believer who follows Jesus in obedience and makes Disciples of Jesus as Jesus did.

We are not called to simply evangelize the lost but to invest in people so that they will be saved then train them to invest in others! Matthew records the Great Commission, for emphases these are the last words recorded in His Gospel and the Last Words Jesus spoke to His disciples! Last words are important they serve as final instructions, they relate to the Disciple to fulfill his ultimate calling.

Matthew 28:16-20, “Make Disciples” Make followers! For some of us it is a call to leave a job for a new one, preacher or missionary. But for most it is a call to simply leave behind the secular nature of what we are already doing and be about what He is doing. The call is to be a disciple who make disciples wherever you are. Truly,the world needs more preachers and missionaries but what it needs more is faithful men and women who will follow Him in obedience where they all ready are! Christian para-pros, teachers, engineers, scientists, businessmen, politicians, Janitors, and mommies and daddies who will proclaim Jesus as Lord and Savior. Leading people to salvation but more, to follow Jesus in Discipleship so that they too will follow your example and be a disciple that makes disciples.

The Bible gives us plenty of examples of how to do this. For one we can read the Gospels and see Jesus’ example of living and teaching with others sculpting a heart to Love the Lord with the totality of one’s being. There is the example of Paul and Timothy, Paul invested his life into Timothy and told him “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of may witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Tim. 2:2).

ILL: Billy Graham said

There are also Old Testament examples, Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha.... like Jesus and these faithful followers we spend our lives with others so that they can to faith and follow Jesus in obedience and make disciples of Jesus themselves.

Conclusion: Picture a large manufacturing plant here n Enigma that produces shoes. The management has invested great sums of money and many man-hours into the plant to produce the finest shoes possible. Money has been spent on salaries for the employees, machinery for shoe making, and materials from which the shoes are to be made. The plant is now in operation with many workers scurrying to and fro. Machines are running full blast, and activity is at a maximum. One day the president asks the production manager, “How many shoes have we produced so far?” “None,” the manager answers. “None?” the president exclaims. “How long have we been in operation?” “4 1/2 years.” “4 1/2 years? And still no shoes?” “That’s right,” the manager says, “No shoes, but we are really busy. In fact, we have been so busy that we are all nearly tired out. We’ve been very active at our jobs.”

The management would probably be very concerned, fire somebody, try to find out what the problem was.

If we now put a cross on top of that building and transform it into our church, we find much activity going on. Men and women are working hard. The budget is higher this year than ever before. The objective, however, is to produce disciples. Has all that money and man-hour in your church gone into the production of disciples for Jesus Christ?