What is a Disciple

Tonight we are going to start a discussion base on a book by Francis Chan & David Platt called Multiply. If you want to buy the book and follow along you are free to do that, but what we are going to do is take time each week and talk about one of the chapters. The chapters will include a teaching time, but followed by questions to ask yourself about your own relationship with God. We are all at different stages in our relationship with God and we should always be going deeper with him. I think this will challenge and encourage you as we walk this path.

The basis of the book is to do what we were created to do and that is to multiply ourselves to teach people about the Gospel. Now before you ask the question does that mean I am supposed to go up to a complete stranger and tell them you want to disciple them? That is always an option, but this is more of the people that we have a relationship with who God has placed in our lives who might be asking us questions about faith. There might be people in our church who commit their lives to Christ and you take them on a journey of discipleship.

Before we get started when I say the word discipleship what comes to your mind? What are some fears associated with helping someone on the journey of faith?

Not knowing everything.

What happens if they ask me a tough question.

Do I even have the time to disciple someone.

As we have listed some of our fears we need to be careful that our fears don’t get in the way of doing something for God that we should do. We should have several people in our church. We should have people who are Mature in their faith, we should have people who are barley saved, we should have people who are coming to church. We have many people sitting in these chairs and when we all get around and talk to each other life change can happen and we watch as the transforming power of Jesus changes peoples lives. So let’s get started:

What is a Disciple

Let’s look as Jesus was recruiting disciples. He was going around giving them a command, but he was also giving them purpose.

Matthew 4:18:19-20

The Lexham English Bible Chapter 4

Now as he* was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew, throwing a casting net into the sea (for they were fishermen). 19 And he said to them, “⌊Follow me⌋ and I will make you fishers of people.” 20 And immediately they left their nets and* followed him.

This was a promise: Jesus would take His disciples and turn them into disciple makers. And this was a command: He called each of His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey Him. Could you imagine the conversation they had with their parents. Hey Dad I am quitting my job because this guy by the name of Jesus came and offered me something I just can’t refuse. Okay what is that? Well he told me to Follow Him and he will make me a fishers of people. Okay what does that look like? How much money are you going to make?

When we follow after Jesus and do what he calls us to do we do things that sometimes don’t make sense. We give up the Money to follow after God. It doesn’t make sense to people, but it makes sense to us.

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Just like the disciples before Jesus went to heaven he also gave us directions in how we should live and followers of Jesus.

Matthew 28:19-20

The Lexham English Bible Chapter 28

19 Therefore, go* and* make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the age.”

This is the command he has given all of us and it also goes along with the purpose of a healthy church and really to all churches is to create life-long followers of Jesus Christ.

Yet we have subtly and tragically taken this costly command of Christ to go, baptize, and teach all nations and mutated it into a comfortable call for Christians to come, be baptized, and listen in one location.

So

The questions we are asking today is:

What is a Disciple?

The word disciple refers to a student or apprentice.

Chan, Francis. The Francis Chan Collection: Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell, and Multiply (Kindle Location 5517). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.

Disciples in Jesus’s day would follow their rabbi (which means teacher) wherever he went, learning from the rabbi’s teaching and being trained to do as the rabbi did. Basically, a disciple is a follower, but only if we take the term follower literally. Becoming a disciple of Jesus is as simple as obeying His call to follow. When Jesus called His first disciples, they may not have understood where Jesus would take them or the impact it would have on their lives, but they knew what it meant to follow. They took Jesus’s call literally and began going everywhere He went and doing everything He did. Jesus’s call literally and began going everywhere He went and doing everything He did.

It’s impossible to be a disciple or a follower of someone and not end up like that person.

Chan, Francis. The Francis Chan Collection: Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell, and Multiply (Kindle Locations 5521-5522). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.

Chan, Francis. The Francis Chan Collection: Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell, and Multiply (Kindle Locations 5521-5522). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.

The Lexham English Bible Chapter 6

40 A disciple is not superior to his* teacher, but everyone, when he* is fully trained, will be like his teacher.

Yet somehow many have come to believe that a person can be a “Christian” without being like Christ. A “follower” who doesn’t follow. How does that make any sense? Many people in the church have decided to take on the name of Christ and nothing else. This would be like Jesus walking up to those first disciples and saying, “Hey, would you guys mind identifying yourselves with Me in some way? Don’t worry, I don’t actually care if you do anything I do or change your lifestyle at all. I’m just looking for people who are willing to say they believe in Me and call themselves Christians.” Seriously? No one can really believe that this is all it means to be a Christian. But then why do so many people live this way? It appears that we’ve lost sight of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. The concept of being a disciple isn’t difficult to understand, but it affects everything.

Chan, Francis. The Francis Chan Collection: Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell, and Multiply (Kindle Locations 5517-5520). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.

1. Up to this point in your life, would you call yourself a follower of Jesus Christ? Why do you say that? Do you see evidence of your faith as described in ?

Chan, Francis. The Francis Chan Collection: Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell, and Multiply (Kindle Locations 5525-5529). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.

Chan, Francis. The Francis Chan Collection: Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell, and Multiply (Kindle Locations 5524-5525). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.

How Do I Become a Disciple?

Chan, Francis. The Francis Chan Collection: Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell, and Multiply (Kindle Locations 5529-5531). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.

To understand how to become a disciple of Jesus Christ, it makes most sense to start where Jesus started. While it is true that He said to the disciples, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (), the Bible records one message He proclaimed before that. In , Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Try taking this phrase literally. If someone

Chan, Francis. The Francis Chan Collection: Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell, and Multiply (Kindle Locations 5531-5533). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.

The Lexham English Bible Chapter 4

Now as he* was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew, throwing a casting net into the sea (for they were fishermen). 19 And he said to them, “⌊Follow me⌋ and I will make you fishers of people.” 20 And immediately they left their nets and* followed him.

The Lexham English Bible Chapter 4

17 From that time on, Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is near.”

Try taking this phrase literally. If someone warned you to be prepared because a king and his army were coming, what would you do? You would make sure you were ready to face him. If you weren’t prepared to fight this king, then you would do whatever it took to make peace with him.

The word repent means “to turn.”

Chan, Francis. The Francis Chan Collection: Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell, and Multiply (Kindle Location 5536). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.

The word repent means “to turn.” It has the idea of changing directions and heading the opposite way.

It has the idea of changing directions and heading the opposite way. It involves action. In this context, Jesus was telling people to prepare themselves—to change whatever needed to be changed—because God’s kingdom (the kingdom of heaven) was approaching. So how do we prepare to face this heavenly kingdom? How do we make sure we are at peace with this coming King? Jesus says we need to repent. This implies that we all need to turn from the way we are currently thinking and living.

The Lexham English Bible Chapter 3

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Chan, Francis. The Francis Chan Collection: Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell, and Multiply (Kindle Locations 5539-5542). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.

Every person reading this sentence has done things that are evil and offensive to this King. Romans also goes on to say.

The New International Version Chapter 6

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Chan, Francis. The Francis Chan Collection: Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell, and Multiply (Kindle Locations 5538-5539). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.

Chan, Francis. The Francis Chan Collection: Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell, and Multiply (Kindle Location 5543). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.