Disciple: What is a Disciple

Intro

What is a disciple?

“Discipleship is the process of devoting oneself to a teacher to learn from and become more like them.”

Matt Chandler shares on being a true disciple.

“There seems to be a misunderstanding and a creation of a new category in which you can believe in Jesus but not follow him. Right? What we have in 2017 evangelicalism is a lot of people are able to say, “I believe in Jesus.” What they’re saying is they believe in some historic facts. They believe in Jesus like you would believe in Abraham Lincoln. “I know he was a man. It seems like he did some good things. I kind of like what he has brought about.”

But to believe in Jesus is not like believing in Abraham Lincoln. To believe in Jesus requires we follow Jesus, or we do not believe. To say you believe in Jesus but do not follow him empties belief of its meaning. You cannot say, “Jesus is the only begotten Son of God who has come to take away the sins of the world and to reconcile us to the Father and to redeem and reconcile all that’s gone broken in the world, but I have no intention of surrendering to or following him. I just believe he was.”

Your declaration or your malintent in following him reveals you actually don’t believe he is who he says he is. Your lack of following him reveals your lack of belief. To be a disciple of Jesus Christ means not that we believe some things intellectually but that we’ve surrendered our lives over to his lordship, and we are following after him. Anything less than that is not biblical Christianity; it is something of your imagination.”

As your pastor, God has given me a vision for epiphany, not the church activities or programs, but for the people that are the church. We have to be disciples of Jesus, followers of Him, now I’m not saying that you are not, I am so proud to look out and see the people that I do, I am proud of you guys, I am blessed to have you guys, I love each and every one of you and it is such a blessing to know each of you.

My desire and intent of this sermon series is that we continue to grow in what The Lord has already started in us, to give vision and a process in which we can grow, to give us “somewhere to go” if you would. I have failed as a pastor in that part of this process, and for that I apologize. Sometimes it is easy to look as a church and be absolutely overwhelmed at everything that is going on, everything that needs to go on, and the things that are not going on, but I want to give you a clear, concise purpose for what we do at epiphany.

Our purpose as a church is to give God glory is every area of our lives, and this means following after Him with everything that we have.

This is our purpose:

Our purpose as a church is to give God glory is every area of our lives, and this means following after Him with everything that we have.

As Disciples at Epiphany, We exist to glorify God through God-focused, passionate worship, in developing deep relationships with one another through Christ-centered community, in being sacrificial servants to God and to one another, and to reach our neighbors through our witness in Christ.

Being a disciple of Jesus breaks down into four areas that we are going to discuss over these next few weeks, but I want to give a bit on each area this morning.

Passionate Worshippers

John 4:23–24 ESV

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

To follow Jesus means to worship him exclusively. This is at the heart of Jesus’s ministry on earth. As he told the woman at the well, the Father is seeking true worshipers — not faux worshipers, but true worshipers — those who worship him in spirit and truth ().

This is the fundamental perspective of a disciple because it is more ultimate than anything else we are or do, and most distinctive in our context. As far as ultimate, worshiping Jesus — gladly reflecting back to him the radiance of his worth — is the greatest act for any creature. As far as context, nothing will irritate our pluralistic society more than being an exclusive worshiper of Jesus. Lots of people are cool with Jesus (at least their notion of him), and even following the “ways” of Jesus, when it leaves out the exclusivity part. Jesus the Moral Teacher, the Nice Guy, the Judge-Not-Lest-You-Be-Judged Motivational Speaker — that Jesus is everybody’s homeboy. But that is not the real Jesus. That’s a manmade figure — a far cry from the portrait Jesus gives of himself.

To follow Jesus, to be his disciple It means, mainly, first and central, to worship him — with joy at the heart.

Connected in Community

Acts 2:42–47 ESV

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

The God we worship is a God Who has eternally existed in community. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have dwelled in perfect unity, love and joy before and throughout time. This triune God created humanity as the chief of His creations for the display of this relationship.

In the beginning it was written that “it is not good for man to be alone” ().

We read in the Gospels that among Jesus’ final words before the cross was a prayer for the unity of His people, a unity expressive of the unity found within the godhead ().

We know from the testimony of the early church that community was the natural result of the Spirit’s influence upon the Church ().

It is apparent that community is not some secondary Christian teaching but is central to the outworking of God’s purpose in the world. God is glorified when He is properly reflected; by dwelling in unity, we rightly image our communal Maker.

Our relating with one another, reflects God to the world. If we are in turmoil, we are incorrectly representing God. If we live in unity, love, and harmony, then we represent to the World what it means to be a Christian Community.

The purpose of community goes far beyond just “hanging out” together, the purpose of community is to battle for deep and abiding relationships with each other, to truly live life together.

Sacrificial Service

John 13:1–17 ESV

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.” When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

John shows another picture of the Jesus we’re to worship, and this time he is kneeling before his disciples to wash their feet (). I know, it doesn’t sound right, especially when we think of him as the object of our exclusive praise. It didn’t sound right to Peter either, until Jesus said, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me” (). But Jesus is a servant. He came to earth not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as the rescue for sinners ().

John shows another picture of the Jesus we’re to worship, and this time he is kneeling before his disciples to wash their feet (). I know, it doesn’t sound right, especially when we think of him as the object of our exclusive praise. It didn’t sound right to Peter either, until Jesus said, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me” (). But Jesus is a servant. He came to earth not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as the rescue for sinners ().

And as a servant, Jesus says of his disciples, to his disciples, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you” (). In one sense, the posture of servant should characterize Jesus’s disciples on all fronts. But in another sense, being a servant like Jesus has a particular focus on disciples serving disciples. It’s a family thing. “Let us do good to everyone,” Paul said, “and especially to those who are of the household of faith” ().

The definition is to be a follower of a teacher to be more like them, Jesus gives us what it means to be like Him, to be a servant. If we are too prideful to serve our brothers and our sisters, then are we a follower of Jesus at all?

This one-another angle is where Jesus takes us in giving “a new commandment,” just after he washed the Twelve’s feet: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (; see also ). In fact, it is this love that disciples have for one another that identifies us as disciples of Jesus to a watching world (), and even assures us of saving faith ().

To be a disciple of Jesus means to serve like him. It means to serve, primarily, by looking at your brothers and sisters and humbling ourselves in acts of love, even when it’s an inconvenience to yourself, even when it flip-flops the world’s social order and expectations. Making disciples of Jesus means making servants who love one another.

Motivated Multiplication

John gives us another helpful picture of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. This time it comes in the commission of Jesus, when he says of his disciples, to his disciples, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (; see also ). This means that Jesus’s disciples are on a mission. It means, in the broadest sense, that they are missionaries, that they are envisioned and empowered to step into this world (not of it, but sent into it) as his witnesses ().

Jesus was sent for a purpose — to reveal God and redeem sinners (, ) — and he set his face like flint to see it accomplished (; ). We too, as his disciples, filled by his Spirit, are sent for a purpose — to tell his good news ().

To be a disciple of Jesus means to point people to him. It means to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love so that others would know him and worship him. It means, in other words, that we gladly seek more worshipers-servants-missionaries. Which is to say, a disciple of Jesus makes disciples of Jesus, as Jesus tells us to ().

And, of course, when Jesus speaks we listen.

This is what God has laid on my heart for us as a church moving forward, these areas, if evident in the church, then we are fulfilling what God has called us to do as disciples.