Following Jesus: What is a Disciple?

I mentioned earlier that we are a Church about Jesus, a Church that teaches the Word of God, and a Church that makes disciples.  And the reason we are a Church like this is because the gospel of grace is central to all we do.  It is the gospel of Jesus Christ that makes us a people who are blessed to be a blessing. That’s our mission.  People are the mission. You are the mission. We are people helping people become friends, family and followers of Jesus. So part of our vision is about Seeing Every Person Following Jesus With Others. It’s about being disciples who are making disciples, who make disciples.  And there really should be no doubt as to what we are about.  But sometimes I think we get a little fuzzy as to who or what a disciple really is.  What’s our definition of a disciple?  What’s your definition of a follower of Jesus?  After all, if there is one thing we should be clear about, it is this.

Here are some definitions of a disciple: “A disciple of Jesus is one who is living his or her life as Jesus would if He were us.” Dallas Willard

“A disciple of Jesus is a person who so looks at Jesus that he or she actually begins to reflect his beauty in everyday life.” Jonathan Dodson, Pastor

“A disciple is one who thinks, feels and acts like Jesus Christ.” Rick Warren, Pastor

“Being a disciple is not knowing more information about Jesus, but knowing Jesus and being transformed into His image through the constant exposure of the Gospel of grace in the context of a local church. His life becomes ours. His mission becomes ours.”  Derwin Gray, Church Planter

These are all good definitions.  But for the sake of clarity, we take our definition, our identity as a disciples from Jesus’ words of invitation to his first disciples found in Mark 1:17 “Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”  Mark 1:17  From Jesus’ invitation, we’ve broken down our definition into three characteristics of a disciple:

1. A disciple is a follower of Jesus
2. A disciple is being changed by Jesus
3. A disciple is living on mission with Jesus

So this morning, we will begin unpacking these characteristics.  For if we don’t know who we are as disciples of Jesus, we’ll have a hard time making disciples of Jesus.  So lets dive in and unpack this first characteristic:

A disciple is a follower of Jesus  This is our fundamental identity.  When we put our faith in Jesus we put ourselves under His authority as our Lord and Teacher.  As a result we begin living a new life as apprentices of Jesus.  We follow HIM.  Which means we no longer follow our hearts, follow our whims, follow our fleshly desires, follow our selfish ambitions, or follow the prevailing spirit of the age.  We follow the One who is the Son of God, who came and died for us, who forgave us, and who gave us a new life with Him in the kingdom of God.

This is now our core identity:  We are Christ followers.  Anyone who has put their faith in Jesus has become a follower of Jesus. Your core identity has changed.  Your core identity is no longer that of an American.  You are still an American, but that’s not your core identity, you are now a citizen of heaven here and now and forever.  That means you’re “core identity” is not that of a Democrat or Republican; not that of a Husband or Wife; a Father or Mother, Grandfather, Grandmother, a sister or brother.  Your core identity is also not wrapped up in what you do or have done.   You’re core identity is no longer that of an entrepreneur or artist, an educator or businessman, a divorcee or a drunkard… No, your core identity is now that of a child of God, the beloved. You are the beloved of God. You’re core identity has changed.  You are now known by God and you know God and that relationship makes you different.  So here’s how you are different:

1. A follower is willing to go with Jesus, trusting that Jesus is the way the truth and the life  In other words, a follower trusts in Jesus, not just for salvation but for all of life.  A follower follows Jesus, believing He is worth following.  A follower walks with Jesus, believing He is faithful and good. And a follower wants to be with Jesus, because Jesus has the words of life, shows us a new way of life, and is the life our hearts have been longing for.

We will not follow someone we don’t trust.  But look at those first disciples:  They left everything and followed Jesus.  There was something so compelling about being with Jesus, that the stuff of this world couldn’t hold them.  They didn’t know everything about Jesus at their point of following.  They didn’t know He was the Son of God or even the Savior of the world, but they trusted him enough to follow Him.  And He gave them an invitation to a journey with Him – to be with Him.  So they went with Him because they believed He was worth following.

This is what makes us different.  We believe Jesus is worth following.  Every disciple starts here.  It starts with trusting Jesus.  Christianity rises and falls on Jesus.  Christianity is not about Church attendance, not about being good enough. It’s not about praying a prayer.  It’s not about believing the right doctrine.  It’s about hitching your hopes to a person.  And that person is Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God.  A follower attaches himself or herself to Jesus, and follows Him.  That’s what makes us different.  That’s why Christianity is not a religious activity – it’s a relationship with one we trust.  That’s what makes us different.  Here’s another way followers are different:

2. A follower is a student of Jesus, wanting to learn from Jesus how to live and love like Jesus Now, in its simplest form, the term “disciple” means student or apprentice.  So to be an apprentice of Jesus meant you had to BE WITH Jesus.  And there’s never been another teacher like Jesus. He never wrote a book.  He didn’t hold seminars.  He didn’t offer classes in discipleship!He simply invited men and women to come and BE WITH HIM and to LEARN from HIM. So the disciples went with Jesus wherever He went. They went with Jesus to weddings and feasts.  They hung out with sinners and tax-collectors.  They went with Jesus to the local watering hole. They rubbed shoulders with the poor.  They worshiped with the religious and traveled to all sorts of towns and villages.  And as they did, they witnessed Jesus’ compassion for harassed and helpless, saw his love for the lost, and marveled at His mercy on the sinful. What they witnessed was Jesus living out the good news of the kingdom.  And as they did, Jesus revealed to them a whole new way of life – an alternative way to live – the life of the kingdom of God.  A way of life he summarized for them in the upper room after he washing their feet and saying: “Do youunderstand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lordand Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. John 13:12-15

What did Jesus do?   Jesus showed his disciples how to live and love like him – as servants – putting the needs of others ahead of our own needs.  That’s what made Jesus different – and that’s what makes a follower of Jesus stand out in our world.  For when we learn to follow Him, we learn to live and love like him – as servants.  And that’s what makes us different.

But there is another aspect of living as Jesus’ apprentices that makes us different, its that we also get to hear His teaching. In fact, whenever Jesus finished teaching he would say, “he who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  What Jesus was saying is this:  Are you teachable? If you are, then you will put into practice what you hear from me.

This is one of the great benefits of following Jesus with others. And why Jesus wants us to follow Him together. In our Journey Groups, you are asked read one chapter from a gospel each week and ask two questions: What is Jesus saying to me?  And“What does he want me to do aboutit?”  The purpose is two-fold:

First, by ASKING these questions you are posturing yourself to be a hearer and a doer of the Word.  James says, Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. James 1:22.  So followers of Jesus have teachable hearts. They want to hear Jesus’ Word, so they can put His word into practice.  They want to be Jesus people, not just on Sunday, but everyday.  They have ears to hear…

Secondly, by gathering with other followers and SHARING what Jesus is saying to you, you allow others who are listening – to HEAR what the Spirit of God wants to say to them.  For example, your Journey Group is reading Matthew 9.  In that chapter there are six different Jesus encounters: the healing and forgiveness of a paralyzed man; the calling of Matthew; Jesus is questioned about His disciples fasting; Jesus heals a woman and raises a dead girl to life; He heals the blind and mute; and he expresses his compassion on the harassed and helpless, and then tells His disciples to pray. So there are six to seven potential applications Jesus communicates to here.… So then, when one person shares, say about Jesus’ compassion for the harassed and helpless and his call to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest field, he shares:  “I believe Jesus wants me to start praying like this. I’ve never prayed this way, but now I am starting ask God to send workers into His harvest field.”  Then the next person says, that’s how Jesus spoke to me.  And a third says, “I got the same thing.” And soon everyone is looking at each other and going, “Maybe God is trying to tell us something! Maybe we should stop and pray right now.” So that’s what the group does.

This is what makes Christ followers so distinctly different from the world.  We follow Jesus so he can teach us, so we will do what He wants to be done.  And He wants us to do this together.  And that leads to the next thing that makes us as followers so unique:

3. A follower loves Jesus, and reveals his love by obeying His commands I love what Jesus said to His disciples in the upper room: “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and disclose myself to them.” John 14:21

Look at Jesus’ promise. He says, “The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and disclose myself to them.”  You want to sense the love of God?  You want to know Jesus more than facts on a page?  You want to grow in your relationship with Jesus?  Obey His commands.  Those who obey His commands are the ones who love Jesus.  Singing songs of worship is not evidence of your love.  Just saying you love God is not proof of your love.  Love acts.  Love does. Love obeys!

Becky asks me to do things for her all the time that I don’t naturally want to do. But what do I do?  I do what she asks. I obey.  Why?  Because I love Becky.  What if I never did anything she asked of me, but instead, I just sang songs to her once a week and told her I love her?  That would get old pretty fast.  But when I take out the garbage, clean up my messes, scratch her back, rub her neck, help her with the Internet, protect her and provide for her unique needs, she experiences my love.  In much the same way, Jesus gave us one way to show him our love: By obeying his commands.  And the one command he gave us to obey over and over is this: love one another.  For when we love one another as Jesus loved us, not only will others experience the love of Christ – but Jesus himself promises to become more real to us – He will make himself known to us.  That’s what makes us so different:  we obey out of love – we don’t obey to gain God’s favor.  We already have it. So a follower reveals one’s love for Jesus by living this life of loving obedience.  That’s what makes us different. And now there’s one more thing that makes us different, and that is this:

4. A follower is dependent on Jesus, recognizing he/she can do nothing apart from Jesus A follower of Jesus Christ not only walks with Jesus, learns from Jesus, and obeys Jesus, but a follower understands that apart from Jesus he or she really can’t do anything.  That’s what Jesus taught His disciples in the upper room:  “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5

So as followers we draws close to Jesus, keep our eyes on Jesus, constantly feed ourselves on Jesus’ Word and obeys His Word, we will remain in Jesus.  Because we know that apart from Jesus we’ll blow it. So we live lives surrendered to Jesus. We no longer pride ourselves in being self-made people.  We depend on Jesus to make us like him – humble, serving, compassionate, gracious, peaceful and kind.  And this posture of dependence is counter-cultural to the world.  This posture of dependence on Jesus is often used against us to tell us we are weak.  But I say, there is no stronger posture a follower of Jesus can ever make, then to be surrendered to Him.  For when we are weak, then He can work – and He will.

What I love about our mission to Ocean Beach last week is that all of us acknowledged our weaknesses and fears in going out to meet dirty, broken, sin-scarred street people.  But we prayed, and I love hearing what Bob said after we were done.  “There wasn’t any fear.”  This is what makes a follower so different.  When we surrender, when we depend on Jesus – He is strong enough to work through us.  And when He does, lives are changed.  And that’s the point isn’t it? For when we follow Jesus in these ways, not only will we be different, but we will make a difference with the love of Christ flowing through us.

And that is why our vision is to see everyone following Jesus together.  For that’s what Jesus wants.  And when we do what Jesus wants, His kingdom will come, and people will want what we have – they will want Jesus, and they’ll want to trust Him, be with Him, learn from Him, obey Him and be changed by Him.

Perhaps this being a disciple of Jesus thing hasn’t been all that clear to you. In fact, this morning, you may have noticed that I didn’t make it through the other marks of a disciple: that a disciple is someone who is being changed by Jesus and lives on mission with Jesus.   And that’s ok, because Jesus really wants us to be crystal clear about this first characteristic; because this first characteristic is all about being invited into the greatest relationship you will ever know. Jesus has come, not simply to die in your place, but to invite you into a relationship with Him – to come and follow Him with others who are learning to live and love like Him.

So my guess is, that God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit is speaking to you right now; that in the deepest part of you, you are saying, “I want to experience a life like this!”  “I want to walk with Jesus, learn from Jesus, obey Jesus and be used by Jesus to make a difference with my life.”  And if that’s what God is saying to you, then you do have ears to hear, and what Jesus is saying to you today is this:  “Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”

So I am going to ask you to respondin one of two ways this morning.  First, if you want to follow Jesus with others, then commit to coming to the Journey Group Trainingon the morning of November 6^th.  The information is at the bottom of your notes.  Just fill out your connect card, put it on your calendar and make it a priority to come. Come and get connected with others who want to follow Jesus.

Second, if you are hearing Jesus’ invitation to come to Him, to follow Him, whether that be for the first time, or you’ve gone astray and want to come back, then come forward – come to the altar – come surrender to Jesus, come tell him you love him, come tell Him you trust him and you want to obey Him.  That’s it.  Jesus says: “Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”  So come.  Don’t let your pride hold you back. Don’t worry about what others might think.  Come to Jesus.

For it is Jesus who says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  Matthew 11:29-30  Come, follow Jesus.