For The Believers

I. EXORDIUM:

Are you content just to be a believer?

II. AUDIENCE PROFILE:

Believers

III. OBJECTIVES:

To show that we need to work hard to become a disciple.

IV. TEXT:

John 8:31-32 (Amplified Bible)

So Jesus said to those Jews who had believed in Him, If you abide in My word [hold fast to My teachings and live in accordance with them], you are truly My disciples.

And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.

V. THESIS:

We need to work hard to become a disciple.

VI. TITLE:

For the believers

VII. EXPLICATION:

A. Author: Apostle John

B. Date written: uncertain. probably late in the first century

C. Purpose: to inspire faith in JESUS CHRIST as the SON of GOD

D. To whom written: seekers of the truth

E. Main theme: encounter with JESUS CHRIST demands a response

F. Keyword: believe

G. Key verse:

John 20:31 (Amplified Bible)

But these are written (recorded) in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ (the Anointed One), the Son of God, and that through believing and cleaving to and trusting and relying upon Him you may have life through (in) His name [through Who He is].

VIII. MAIN BODY:

A. Be a disciple, hold on to JESUS's teaching

"So Jesus said to those Jews who had believed in Him, If you abide in My word [hold fast to My teachings and live in accordance with them], you are truly My disciples."

Requirements for a disciple: self-denial, conform to CHRIST's sufferings and His death and follow CHRIST.

Matthew 16:24 (Amplified Bible)

Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself [disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying, also].

Luke 14:33 (Amplified Bible)

So then, any of you who does not forsake (renounce, surrender claim to, give up, say good-bye to) all that he has cannot be My disciple.

Greater love for the LORD JESUS CHRIST than yourself and your family.

Luke 14:26 (Amplified Bible)

If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his [own] father and mother [in the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God] and [likewise] his wife and children and brothers and sisters—[yes] and even his own life also—he cannot be My disciple.

We need to abide in CHRIST as a true disciple.

John 15:4-7 (Amplified Bible)

Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me.

I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.

If a person does not dwell in Me, he is thrown out like a [broken-off] branch, and withers; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and they are burned.

If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.

1 John 2:6 (Amplified Bible)

Whoever says he abides in Him ought [as a personal debt] to walk and conduct himself in the same way in which He walked and conducted Himself.

1 John 3:6 (Amplified Bible)

No one who abides in Him [who lives and remains in communion with and in obedience to Him—deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] commits (practices) sin. No one who [habitually] sins has either seen or known Him [recognized, perceived, or understood Him, or has had an experiential acquaintance with Him].

2 John 1:9 (Amplified Bible)

Anyone who runs on ahead [of God] and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ [who is not content with what He taught] does not have God; but he who continues to live in the doctrine (teaching) of Christ [does have God], he has both the Father and the Son.

B. Be free by the truth you know

"And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free."

If you don't know that truth, how can you be free?

Hosea 4:6 (Amplified Bible)

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you [the priestly nation] have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you that you shall be no priest to Me; seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.

Isaiah 61:1 (Amplified Bible)