If Jesus is the answer, are you a fan or disciple?

So today we’re going to ask a hard question. Are you a fan or a disciple?

We’ve looked at Jesus mission, his ministry plan, what he meant to accomplish and to begin…and I think those are two different things...

He died to defeat the power of sin and death. Accomplished.

He then rose to show that the Kingdom of Life, the Kingdom of God…Kingdom of Heaven was here and beginning to move.

We then looked kind of, in a way, what his plan is for all of this…for us personally.

In the beginning, through sin, we lost that image/that glory, of God that was placed in us.

We now, more or less, operate in our image…early in Genesis it says that we were created in God’s image…and then very subtly, after the account of Cain killing Able, it says that their next was born…Seth…in his (Adam’s)own image…in his own likeness. Can two things be true here? yes…

Meanings: Adam/Eve were created in God’s likeness. Seth was created in Adam/Eve’s likeness…but what is left out…God’s likeness… The absence here is notable.

And so then we looked through many passages in the new testament and we find the idea is that Jesus is bringing us back to having his image in us again. And that can begin now on this side of eternity on this planet…but then perfectly when He recreates everything.

And Paul wrote it so clearly in that passage we rear last week, when he wrote to the Corinthian church, ...

2 Corinthians 3:18 CSB

We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

This is what we lost…and are now gaining back…as followers…with the Holy Spirit in us literally changing us as we let go of more and more of who we are so we can become what He wants us to be.

In essence you’ll look more and more like Him.

So we use a lot of words when it comes to belief don’t we? We use words like

believer

follower

Christian (was a word used by outsiders) means Christ-like

disciple

And we might use words or phrases that describe us as so...

attender

church volunteer

baptized

We might go a bit further and describe ourselves...

we go to church

we’re in a church directory

our family all attended church

repeated a prayer

went to vbs as a kid

our ringtone is a worship song

listen to Christian radio

social media says “Christ follower”

Descriptions - those are not bad things…those are descriptions we use to describe us or things we’ve done or do. Maybe to help us feel good about our belief. Kind of offer evidence of belief. And that makes sense. I think we all get that.

But let’s make a distinction…are those things truly who we are?

But was does Jesus want? What, when it all comes down to one thing, and it does…what does Jesus want of us and maybe for us? I know without a doubt from what we’ve been reading that he wants to change us back into what we were meant to be. That’s without a doubt.

What we see though when we really think about it is this…Jesus wants to give us a heart transplant. Our’s out…the one affected by sin and death. And one that perfectly reflects His.

In the movie The Princess Bride there’s a line that’s become almost a classic. Inigo Montoya is responding to one of his coohorts who always says “inconceivable!” He responds one time by saying...

“You always say that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.”

It’s like this … we might say follower, but we might be unsure what that really means. We might even say disciple…but do we really know…understand what that means?

So here’s the question? Are you a follower…a disciple?

I’m going to read through a passage in the book of John. It’s when Jesus did the miraculous feeding of the 5000.

John 6 (CSB)

After this, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias).

A huge crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was performing by healing the sick.

Jesus went up a mountain and sat down there with his disciples.

Now the Passover, a Jewish festival, was near.

So when Jesus looked up and noticed a huge crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where will we buy bread so that these people can eat?”

He asked this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.

Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread wouldn’t be enough for each of them to have a little.”

One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him,

“There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish—but what are they for so many?”

Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place; so they sat down. The men numbered about five thousand.

Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks he distributed them to those who were seated—so also with the fish, as much as they wanted.

When they were full, he told his disciples, “Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted.”

So they collected them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves that were left over by those who had eaten.

When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

Therefore, when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea,

got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. Darkness had already set in, but Jesus had not yet come to them.

A high wind arose, and the sea began to churn.

After they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea. He was coming near the boat, and they were afraid.

But he said to them, “It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Then they were willing to take him on board, and at once the boat was at the shore where they were heading.

The next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw there had been only one boat. They also saw that Jesus had not boarded the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone off alone.

Some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.

Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.”

“What can we do to perform the works of God?” they asked.

Jesus replied, “This is the work of God—that you believe in the one he has sent.”

“What sign, then, are you going to do so that we may see and believe you?” they asked. “What are you going to perform?

Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Then they said, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

“I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.

But as I told you, you’ve seen me, and yet you do not believe.

Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out.

For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day.

For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Therefore the Jews started grumbling about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”

They were saying, “Isn’t this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves.

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.

It is written in the Prophets: And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has listened to and learned from the Father comes to me—

not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father.

“Truly I tell you, anyone who believes has eternal life.

I am the bread of life.

Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that anyone may eat of it and not die.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

At that, the Jews argued among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

So Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves.

The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day,

because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.

Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.

This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the manna your ancestors ate—and they died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”

He said these things while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Therefore, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?”

Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, asked them, “Does this offend you?

Then what if you were to observe the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

Here we have a very hard passage of scripture.

Many in this crowd…wanted a show. They wanted a good feeling. They wanted their fill. It was all about things of this life…and not necessarily what Jesus wanted. They were stuck in the patterns of this world (conformed). Jesus wanted to show them transformation…they were just interested in being fans of Jesus. Not changed…all in....

Jesus is very succinctly saying…it’s not about being a fan. This is about being someone who gives everything up for me. I am the bread of life. The only way you obtain the life I am offering…is to fully take me in.

Just like you might need bread for this life that you’re now in, to live the life I want to give you, you need me...

You need me for life eternal. Nothing less will do. It’s me, nothing else. Nothing else you do will help you…the flesh is worth nothing for the Kingdom.

Many left that day. None of the 12 left, but many in the crowd did.

There’s a very tough passage that Matthew records for us in his account of Jesus.

Matthew 7:21–23 CSB

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’

Fan or follower…fan or a disciple?

The distinction here is important isn’t it? This is a really important question. Are you a follower, a disciple of Jesus?

Hint for where we’re going next week.

Imitate, mimic.... professional imitators (presidents, famous people).

Are you a follower, a disciple of Jesus…one who wants to become so much like Him…that people will see less and less of you, and more and more of Him.

John the baptist said that…I must decrease…he must increase.

Remember, the process of being/becoming a disciple is not going to be a one off thing…its a process. Yes, saved…but then step by step changed...

Jesus doesn’t want fans. He wants disciples.