True Disciples

Introduction

If you were here with us last week, Pastor Ray did an incredible job of challenging us to live as disciples of Christ and I was so encouraged to see that so many of you stood up to accept the invitation to live completely for Jesus. This morning I want to build on that teaching as we continue in our series on Core Christianity by looking at the fundamental commitments that every person has to make in order to become a true disciple.

John 8:30–38 ESV

30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him. 31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

John 8:30-

Abides in His Word

Believes in the Truth

Lives in Freedom from Sin

The beginning of this passage often confuses modern Christian because it starts with something that seems positive. After a sermon in which Jesus declares that he is the light of the world, we are told that many believed in Him. This is what the majority of churches in America labor so hard for. We want people to believe what Jesus says about himself in the earlier portions of this chapter.

John 8:24 ESV

24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”

Given what we read, it seems like the people who were listening to Jesus at the time were more than willing to believe what He said. In fact, there are thousands upon thousands of people in our churches who believe up to this very point, that Jesus came from heaven to die for our sins and if you believe this you will be saved. There is usually a finality to this declaration of salvation and we make the assumption that our faith is complete, that we have believed enough to be a Christian. Unfortunately that leaves the job half done, Jesus clearly tells this crowd as well as the crowds in our churches that belief in a teaching or a doctrine is not enough to be a true disciple. A true disciple is not simply just someone who believes, it is someone who has faith. We should remember that we are saved by faith and not by simply by belief. Belief is a precursor to faith but it falls short of faith. There is great illustration that I recently saw that presented the striking difference between belief and faith that comes from the life of Charles Blondin.

Blondin was a circus acrobat in the 1800’s and upon seeing Niagara Falls, he made it his life goal to cross over the ravine on a tightrope. (I’m sure that some of you have seen the old images) Amazingly, Charles Blondin got so good at walking over the 1100 feet gorge that one time he took a stove and ingredients for an omelette and cooked them right in the middle of the walk. Another time, he walked the tightrope blindfolded and yet another time, he carried his manager on his back and successfully crossed. He became an international sensation. In fact, there is still a street named after him in London. Everyone knew what he was capable of doing. Well one day, a large crowd gathered to watch his latest feat. He would cross over with wheel barrow. To get the crowd going, Blondin asked, “How many of you believe that I can walk across Niagara Falls with this wheel barrow?” Everyone in the crowd roared in approval because they all believed that he could walk over those treacherous waters. He had already done so many greater challenges, what is a wheel barrow compared to walking across blindfolded or with a man on his back. Then he asked the all important question to the crowd, “Who is willing to get into this wheel barrow and come cross the Falls with me?” Dead quiet, no one moved a muscle, and then from the crowd, one lone man raised his hand to volunteer. He was willing to entrust his entire life into the hands of another person.

That is the difference between belief and faith. Countless people believe that God exists, that Jesus died for our sins, that He even rose from the dead. We believe wholeheartedly that he successfully crossed over this chasm of death but yet we are not willing to entrust our lives into his hands and to actually live by faith. And maybe without even knowing it, we are stuck on the wrong side of eternal life. I realize that preachers usually end their sermons with an illustration like this and we’ll say something like, who wants to get into wheel barrow with Jesus? And perhaps in the emotions of that moment, there will be some conviction to live for Christ but the decision is so abstract that in time, the commitment wears out. In this passage Jesus is far more practical about the first steps of being His disciple and He lays out three key commitments of true discipleship.

As we go through this passage, we’ll look at three key characteristics of a true disciple of Jesus. A genuine follower of Christ:

Abide in His Word

Know the Truth

Live in Freedom from Sin

The first and fundamental commitment of a genuine of follower of Christ is to abide in His word. The primary definition of a disciple in the time of Jesus was to be a student under a master teacher, to be an apprentice and a learner. In fact, if you deviated from the teaching of your rabbi, if you no longer followed the example of your teacher, you could not be considered to be his disciple. It certainly makes a lot of sense why Jesus would make this statement, if you don’t have any intention of learning and living out what Jesus taught then by its very definition you are not a disciple. (It’s not mean or insensitive, it’s the truth). When you become a Christian and if you consider yourself to be a Christian, you have chosen to walk in this type of relationship. I understand that maybe this was never spelled out for you or it was done so in a confusing way but if you never intended to learn from Christ and to abide in His words, then you are not his disciple. The idea of abiding means to remain, rest, to persevere, and to persist in knowing and living out the teaching of Christ. From the Greek, it literally means to make His words our dwelling place and to make our home in it. The best explanation for what Jesus meant by abiding in his word can be found in the Old Testament.

Deuteronomy 11:18-

Deuteronomy 11:18–20 ESV

18 “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 20 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,

This goes so much further than just wearing a WWJD bracelet. The teaching of Christ should impact everything that we put our hands to, the actions that we take. It should also be the the way we filter all the information that comes into our minds. It should shape the way we look at the world. It should inform the way we raise and educate our children. Even the way we structure our home and how we decorate our house should be influenced by the word of Christ. This goes far beyond just putting up a placard with a Bible verse in the bathroom. (I’m not thinking about life’s great mysteries when I’m going number 2). What this passage is telling us is the simple fact that we need to interweave the teaching of God into the daily fabric of our lives. When you rise and when you life down.

Generally, this is where people zone out because we think we have heard this message thousand times, read your bible more, read your bible more, and we are tired of feeling guilty for not reading more. The internal conversation in our minds is I’ve tried reading the Bible but I get nothing out of it. I still remember the first time I was forced to read large sections of the Bible, it was at the church where I got saved. We would have Bible reading weekends where we would read the whole New Testament out loud. It was a little cultic but effective. I would leave that retreat feeling like I got enough Bible for the year. As a new believer I would wonder if that did anything especially when my life would go back to the same old routine but over the years I’ve come to appreciate what was accomplished during those long weekends. And though it didn’t happen over night, I learned the first steps on how to abide in the words of Christ and eventually I experienced the benefit of taking the time to abide in His word. The priceless reward for abiding in the Scriptures is that you come to know the Truth. Against the tides of this age, as Christians, we can be certain of the truth.

At this point, we can go down a long rabbit hole on the subject of truth and philosophically how we have changed in our views on truth. We have gone from rationalism, man is a thinking being to empiricism, man is a skeptical being, and more recently existentialism, man is a feeling being. If you want to talk about these things, we can take this offline or better yet, you can just go listen to Ravi Zaccharaeus or Tim Keller, they are much smarter than I am. What I do know is that in our post-modern and post-Christian society, the argument for truth as a principle leads to a dead end. But this is actually nothing new, we seem have such chronological bias that makes us think that we have actually invented the wheel. Lest we forget that over 2000 years ago, when Jesus said, “I have come to bear witness to the truth and everyone on the side of truth listens to me, Pontius Pilate famously replied, “What is truth?” Either Pontius Pilate is a genius born well before his time, which I strongly doubt, or our modern progressive ideas are not as modern or progressive as we think.

You’ll notice that Jesus did not come to debate about truth as a concept, he came to declare himself as the Truth. When Jesus says, “If you abide in my words, you’ll come to know the Truth”, he is not saying, you’ll get to know more principles, you’ll get more life hacks, you’ll learn more facts about the Bible. No, He is saying, “You’ll come to know me because I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The purpose of abiding in the word of God is that you would come to know the person of Christ, personally, intimately, and concretely. When that happens, he becomes the source of all truth in your life. In a sea of uncertainty, Jesus has to become that anchor of truth or you will be thrown by every wind and wave.

John 18:37–38 ESV

37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.

I remember the first time that abiding in the word turned into an encounter with the Truth. I was reading the story of Abraham and Isaac where God tells Abraham go and sacrifice your only begotten son, the son that I have promised you all these years. And to the credit of Abraham and the reason why He is called the father of our faith, Abraham prepares to obey God and he takes Isaac up to Mount Horeb to sacrifice him. Just as he is about to thrust the knife through his son’s heart, an angel of God comes right on time to stop Abraham. And if you only read that on the surface level, it makes God seem so severe that He would test his servants like that or it makes God seem so insecure that he would have to put Abraham’s loyalty to the test. That is so far from the truth and the key to truly understanding that story is what happens afterwards.

Genesis 22:13–14 ESV

13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

Does the ram caught in a thicket by its horns remind you of anyone? How about Christ with a crown of thorns around his head, trapped on the cross? God took on himself the severity that was owed to us and he displayed his undying loyalty by sending His son to die for us. And on the mount of Calvary, everything we need for this life as well as the life after, was completely provided.

I was close to 10 years into my walk with God, had even gone through seminary, but I never saw the Scriptures in that way. As my eyes were opened, I felt Jesus coming into that room and he started pointing all the places where He could be found. I’m here in the burning bush, in the sacrificial system that you read in Leviticus, I am the wisdom of God that you see in Proverbs.

John 5:39 ESV

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,

“The Scriptures will give Christ to you in an intimacy so close that he would be less visible to you if he stood before your very eyes.” Erasmus, Renaissance Christian

In the first chapters of Genesis, we read that truth began in the person of God and that the nature of original sin is simply mankind usurping that knowledge from Him. It seems so innocuous, so harmless, eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We get to be like God and decide for ourselves what is truth, we get to determine what is good versus what is evil. There certainly can’t be any harm in that way. In some ways, this is why the account of the Fall reads like a nursery rhyme, harmless. One of my favorite episodes of Seinfeld is when Jerry is trying to beat a lie detector and he is at the diner with George and getting advice and the scene ends with George telling, “Remember it is not a lie, if you believe it.” It’s funny as a social commentary and if we don’t read too much into it but eventually we all have to read the Bible with the minds of adults. It is not a nursery rhyme, it is not a sitcom because that simple exchange of who gets to dictate truth has led to so much death, destruction, and pain.

In the first chapters of Genesis, truth began in the person of God

Eventually we all have to read the Bible with the minds of adults. It is not a nursery rhyme, that simple exchange of who gets to dictate truth has led to so much death, destruction, and pain.

Arguably the darkest period in Israel’s history (the time of the judges) is succinctly summarized by the last verse of the book.

Judges 21:25 ESV

25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Arguably the darkest periods in modern history also have been ushered in by moral relativism. Nazi Germany under the power of Adolf Hitler who was influenced by the teaching of Frederick Nietzche, Russia under Joseph Stalin, and Cambodia under Pol Pot who used his French education to justify his regime of terror. The real danger of making mankind the final arbiter of truth is found in Isaiah.

Isaiah 5:20–21 ESV

20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!

Isaiah 5:20 ESV

20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

Woe is the word that Jesus uses in the New Testament, when there is a whole lot of trouble coming our way. But through Christ, God is restoring what was lost in the Garden. For those of us who believe, the knowledge of good and evil doesn’t belong to us, it belongs to Christ and what He teaches and what He says is the final word on all matters of faith and life. But as we relinquish that right Jesus doesn’t constrict our freedom, he actually liberates us to live in true freedom, namely freedom from sin and all its effects on us.

In this passage, Jesus tells us that the truth will set you free and then just a few verses later, He states that “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

John 8:32 ESV

32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:

John 8:36 ESV

36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

We assume that true freedom is the freedom to do both good and evil as we wish. Jesus would reject that claim outright because anyone who sins is a slave to it, you only think that you’re free. Back in the sixties, San Francisco was the epicenter of both the sexual revolution and experiments with new drugs like LSD as well as old ones like heroin. Now sexual addiction is a real problem, sex trafficking is at crisis levels, and the degradation of women happens non-stop on the internet. Our streets are littered with addicts, their minds robbed by the drugs that have enslaved them. It is not, and it has never been the goodness of God that constricts our freedom, it is always the evil of sin that keeps us bound up in fear, anxiety, and confusion. True freedom is the freedom to do what is good, right, just, and holy. When we think of Jesus, he is the example of the only man who has ever been completely free. Nothing could hold him down, not the opinions of man, not the betrayal of his closest friends, not the temptation of sin, and not even death itself. If you truly want to be free, Jesus can teach you the way, you just have to follow Him.

How does the Son set you free? How can you live in freedom from sin? (Share my experience at Elijah House)

Reject the Condemnation of Sin

Renounce the Curse of Sin

Rely on the Cross

(Share my experience at Elijah House)

When I was reunited with my mom, she said something that was significant but I didn’t how significant. She said, “I knew you would come back when you were old enough to forgive me?” My first reaction to that was, I don’t have any resentment or anger because in a sense she was virtually a stranger, I hadn’t seen her in over 40 years since I was 5. And in my heart I didn’t know what sin I needed to forgive her of. Well after I came back to the States, I knew I needed some help processing everything that had happened not just over the summer but at this mid-point of my life. This is good time to do a thorough spiritual checkup so I signed for prayer ministry at a place called Elijah House in Idaho.

We were tackling the various issues that I have in my life and we came to one that has been bothering me for some time. At times I have difficulty asserting myself because I don’t feel like I have the right to do so. I don’t like to get refunds, I don’t complain when I get bad food at restaurants. It’s partly laziness but it’s also I don’t feel like I have the right to do so. Those are small things that only bother my wife but where it became a bigger issue was when I didn’t feel like I had the right to lead, the right to confront the sin in people’s lives, the right to demand commitment. And a large part of my reasoning was who am I with all my flaws, and weaknesses, and my sin to do such things. Seems so humble and godly.

But one of the prayer ministers called me out and told me, it sounds like you still operate under the curse of illegitimacy. In my mind I was thinking what do you mean, this sounds like some crazy charismatic church thing. Then she referenced an obscure passage from Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 23:2 ESV

2 “No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord.

When she read it I knew this applied to me because I was conceived out of wedlock, my dad was a graduate student and got my mom was 10 years younger than him pregnant. Whether I knew this cognitively or not, in my spirit I have been walking under this curse. This explained why I felt like didn’t feel like I belonged at church even as a young child when my grandmother would take me on Sundays. Most kids love church, I didn’t like it because I didn’t feel like I belonged. As children, even in the womb, our spirit picks up the good and the evil around us. Remember, John the Baptist leapt for joy in his mother’s womb when he came in contact with the virgin Mary who was pregnant with our Savior.

The prayer counselor then asked me, “Is it possible that as a child, your spirit understood the curse of the law, that you didn’t have a right to enter into the assembly of God?” I don’t like all this inner child psycho mumbo jumbo but I had to confess that if John the Baptist could leap for joy in the womb, I could equally be downtrodden with feelings of condemnation in the same womb. Then she asked the magic question, “Is there something you need to forgive your parents for and is there something you need to ask the Lord for forgiveness?”

Psalm 51:5 ESV

5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

With tears streaming down my face, I forgave my mom and received the forgiveness of God for our family. Afterwards I felt like the weight of all that sin had been lifted off of me. I sensed that the curse of was null and void.

How can Jesus free us from sin and its consequence:

Respond to the Conviction of Sin (forgive or repent)

Reject the Condemnation of Sin (evoke negative emotions)

Renounce the Curse of Sin (mind and spirit have to work in conjunction)

Rely on the Cross (Jesus took upon himself the curse of the law and bore them on the tree)

Is this a perfect formula, no! But when you’re spirit is in doubt and when you can’t muster the faith, remember whom the Son has set free, you will be free indeed.