How To Disciple Someone - Part 1 Series

How to disciple someone

As you get older in life you develop enough life experience to look back upon the friendships you once had. You begin to think about the people who once were so promising and kind of crashed in life. They got divorced, became bitter or something. Then there are others who quietly become a success in life. They are solid Christians and seem to go from strength to strength.

It leads to the question, how do we build into people a faith that can withstand the difficult times of life? How do we give them a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? A faith that is not dependant on a church programme or church pastor but is dependent on Jesus Christ. Something personal not found in a church service or bible study but is found in the heart. That can survive the news of sickness, death of a loved one and failure at university.

Our church exists ‘to inspire people to wholeheartedly follow Jesus Christ’. Ironically following Jesus Christ is not found in a programme. The art of daily devotions, personal prayer and personal bible reading can only be taught from one person to the next.

Today I would like to talk about how to disciple someone.

Luke 6:43-6:49

How to disciple someone.

1) To disciple others we need to stop being hypocrites

2) To disciple others we need decisive action

3) To disciple others look at the house on the rock

And it is these three thoughts to which I want to draw your attention. Firstly, then, in verse 46 we see ...

1. To disciple others we need to stop being hypocrites

Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practiced at spare moments; it is a whole-time job.

W. Somerset Maugham

1874-1965, British Novelist, Playwright

"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46)

This passage corresponds with MATTHEW 7:21-23. Matthew records Jesus’ words this way ...

21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers! Matthew 7:21-23

Jesus has just finished delivering the greatest sermon in history - His famous “Sermon on the Mount”. He’s talked to the great crowd before Him about the Kingdom of God and how to inherit it; about the weightiest matters of time and eternity; the profoundest truths, yet always in the simplest of words and ideas. But He is acutely aware of those in His audience who are “onlookers” - “observers”. Oh, they nodded their heads in agreement, they even said “Amen!” in appropriate places - if you asked them what they believed they would most likely answer “We follow the great Rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth”.

But the Sermon on the Mount failed to penetrate their hearts and get them to change the way they live their lives. A life of daily prayer, bible reading and teaching others failed to materialise.

It is like those advertisements on TV that promise a lean body if you buy their fitness products. We all know people buy them, put them under the bed and never use them. Then they wonder why they have not got a trim body.

For anyone here that has tried to lose weight, you will know looking at the mirror and saying ‘I’m fat’ achieves nothing. It is hypocritical to say I am not happy with my body while still eating large servings of dessert.

It is hypocritical to say we love Jesus, we love South Perth Baptist Church, but we have no desire to disciple someone. No desire to give them a strong faith.

And so, as Jesus ends His great sermon, He closes with “the appeal” ... “(W)hy do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, and do not do the things which I say?”

If Jesus IS Lord of our lives, there must be obedience to what He has to say! We must be wanting to teach people to pray and read the bible in a one-on-one setting.

Three things immediately strike me about these poor people Jesus is teaching:

a) They know the right words to say

b) There will be quite a few who do not make it into heaven

c) They will claim to be great Christians

a) They know the right words to say

They cry ‘Lord, Lord’. These are obviously ones who thought they were alright. They know the “lingo”. They’ve called themselves His followers. This is also seen in Matthew 25