Discipleship-Week 1

INTRO STORY - Graeden playing youth game, pretending to be on other team.

QUESTION - Ever had that experience? You thought someone was legit, genuine - then you found out they weren’t?

‘What is a Christian?’

Stand in a garage all day yelling HONK HONK, but does that make you a car?

Don’t mean to be confrontational. Just that - if we are going to talk about what Jesus called us to in terms of a relationship with him, we need to actually understand and define it.

A Christian is a disciple of Christ.

Bonhoeffer quote - ‘Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ’.

John 8:31–32 NIV

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Jesus says this process of becoming a disciple is what shows us the truth that sets us free.

Another place, he says

Luke 9:23–24 NIV

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

Jesus says, the person who wants to be his disciple has a set of expectations - and that person will be the one who saves their life.

What does it mean to be a disciple?

The next few weeks we’re gonna look at this idea of discipleship from the perspectives of our treasures, our time, and our talents.

Being a disciple means obedience

Not ‘knowing Jesus’ answers’ - but actually doing them.

You know what you call someone who ‘knows something is true’ - but doesn’t act on it? An unbeliever.

Being a disciple is rooted in the idea of the covenant with God

Mark 8:34 NIV

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

John 14:15–17 NIV

“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

Being a disciple means looking more like Jesus every day

Not merely knowing what he looks like

It’s impossible to follow Jesus and not turn into him

Luke 6:40 NIV

The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.

Romans 8:29 NIV

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

Being a disciple means making disciples

Jesus didn’t give space for a person to follow who was only a receiver

Matthew 28:18–20 NIV

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

We are all called to this life together

Being a disciple who makes disciples shouldn’t be a singular job. We are all in it together.

Ephesians 2:19–20 NIV

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

He was writing this to the gentiles, who had been isolated by the jews

and he says, hey, not only are you welcome - we’re all part of a family now.

In fact, he says that we’re all being built together to become a house where God lives