Throughout the gospel accounts we read about a couple of different groups of people interacting with Jesus. Sometimes it talks about those in the crowd and other times it talks about Jesus’ disciples. When you think disciples what are you first thoughts? Do you think of someone with a circle of light around their head and Saint as a prefix to their names. You know Saint Peter, Saint John and Saint Andrew. I’ve always wondered: do you get one of those circle things when you become a disciple? Is a disciple a special type of Christian? Or is it a term that should be applied to all Christians. If you are a Christ Follower does that by default make you a disciple of Christ? Enquiring minds want to know.
Everybody here today actually falls into one of three categories of people who have heard the gospel message. There are those who haven’t responded. They have heard the claims of Christ but have never asked for his forgiveness and have never invited him to manage their life. And the Bible is very clear that those who fall into that category are destined for hell, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars. I could probably name some of you, there are others that I might think have responded to those claims but have me fooled. And you know who you are, and you know you might have the Pastor fooled and you might have the church fooled you could even have your spouse or parents fooled. But you don’t have God fooled and in the final analyst that is what matters. And you know who you are, even now you are admitting yourself into that category and your immediate need isn’t the rest of the this message it is simply to get right with God right now. Nothing, nothing, nothing is more critical to your eternity right now then you getting right with God and you might have to spend the rest of this message talking to God and getting things straight and that’s fine.
But maybe you are a Christ Follower in which case you might fall into one of two categories there. You might be what some spiritual folks would refer to as a “carnal” Christian. But really let’s be honest here. You are not simply a “Carnal” Christian you are a disobedient Christian and you will have to answer to God for that disobedience. And your greatest need right now is to turn everything over to Christ. It is not enough to accept the salvation that Christ offers without accepting his Lordship over your life.
Our goal at Cornerstone is not simply to see people embrace Jesus as Saviour. That is simply the first step in the plan that God has for your life and over the next few weeks we are going to be helping guide you along in that journey.
You see the category that includes most of us, is that we are struggling along doing the best that we can and wondering if that is good enough. And hopefully we will discover over the next few weeks that our primary objective as Christ Followers is to Follow Christ and that is evidenced by our obedience to Christ. Because we can’t actually say that we follow Jesus if we don’t go where he leads us.
I have a GPS in my car, just because I’m a sucker for stuff like that. And the purpose is for it to lead me to where I am trying to go, but there are times that I don’t go the way it wants me to go because I think I know a better way and at that point when I go my own way there is no way I could say that I was following my GPS. It is still in the car, might even still be turned on but I have made a conscious decision to ignore it’s directions. Which really isn’t a problem in Halifax after having lived here for 14 years, but this winter when we go to Miami for the first time it could be an issue. And if there comes a time that the GPS says go straight and I turn off and get lost in the weeds I shouldn’t try and blame the GPS.
And there are times that we do that with God, He is still in our lives, He is still giving us directions and we deliberately and consciously chose to ignore him and then when we get in the deep weeds we cry out “Oh God how could you let this happen.” And I’m sure at that point he wants to look down and say “Don’t blame me fool, you are paddling your own canoe.”
And so my objective with my next few messages is to reveal that our primary purpose as Christians is to be obedient to Christ. And to quote the apostle John from the letter he wrote 1 John 1:7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
So our prayer needs to be “Lord don’t let me stand still and stagnate, but keep me growing.” I hope that each of us as believers will be aware of the direction the light is moving and that our wish and desire will be to stay right in the centre of that beam of light, living in the light.
But ultimately the end result will depend on you. We are all responsible for the choices we make and the choices we don’t make. Over the next little while some of you will decide to follow Christ, and others will decide to take your chances on your own. Some of you will decide to walk deeper with god and others will decide that you will want to keep your relationship with God about an inch deep.
And the decisions you make will affect all areas of your life, because you cannot continue to be disobedient to the will of God in your life and expect to be full of joy, instead you will leave a frustrated unfulfilled life. You will fall in the category described by Peter Marshall when he wrote “We are too Christian really to enjoy sinning, and too fond of sinning really to enjoy Christianity. Most of us know perfectly well what we ought to do; our trouble is that we do not want to do it.”
But understand the bottom line is this: whatever decision you choose to make it will be your decision. Nobody else can make it for you and nobody else will be responsible for the decision you make. But the consequences of your actions will not be limited to you and your life. How you live as a Christian, the example you set in your life will have an impact on those who know you and who look to you as an example. And the scary thing is you may never know who those people are.
It is in Acts 11:26 we read It was at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians. And we don’t see or hear the term disciple much after that. But Christian or Disciple, Disciple or Christian are they same? Are the words interchangeable? It’s interesting in the original language the word used was Χριστιανός or Christianŏs and William Barclay tells us that it was originally a nick name that was applied to Christ followers in Antioch and it literally meant
"These Christ-folk". Don’t think it was originally a compliment as a matter of fact some suggest that originally it was a bit of a slur. That particular Greek word is only used three times in the Bible. In the passage that we just read, secondly it was used in Acts 26:28 Agrippa interrupted him. “Do you think you can persuade me to become a Christian so quickly?” And if it was indeed a slur then that passage takes on a different tone completely. And finally Simon Peter uses it in his first letter 1 Peter 4:16 But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name!
Of the thirty nine books in the Old Testament and twenty seven books in the New Testament this word Christianŏs is only used in two of them. The Greek word μαθητής or mathētēs (math-a-tees) literally means “A learner or pupil” and we translate that word as disciple and that word is used 269 times in the first five books of the New Testament. And after the book of Acts it literally disappears from use.
If you were asked to describe your relationship with God many of you would claim to be Christians or “Christ Folk” but how many of us would actually claim to be a disciple, a student or pupil of Christ?
Are the two terms inclusive or exclusive? Is it possible to be a Christian without being a disciple? Or am I simply reading things into scripture that ought’n be there? Is there any significance to the fact that the word Christian has replaced the earlier concept of disciple?
Is one word something we are being? It is active, we are learning. While the other word is something we simply are. We are “Christ folk”.
Perhaps every disciple or pupil of Christ is also a follower of Christ and every follower of Christ is also a disciple or pupil of Christ. Or are they? What have you learned from Christ lately? Have you studied his word and teachings? Are there certain characteristics that differentiate the two.
Personally I think that there was nothing sinister in the word “Christian” usurping the word “Disciple” It came to mean Christ Follower or one who follows Christ and it just was easier then saying “I am a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth the one we call the Christ.” “I’m a Christian”
And so over the next couple of weeks we are looking at seven Characteristics of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. And you will have to decide if that designation fits you or not.
Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.” 1) A Disciple Knows About God It is so vitally important for us to know about the God we worship. To have a grasp of what we believe about God and why we believe it. Now some of you are sitting there thinking “Preacher that sounds like Theology and I’m just not into Theology.” While you should be, because Theology just means the study of God and if you are going to stake you eternity on something or someone you ought to know a little bit about the subject. You wouldn’t buy a car or a computer without doing some research and this is a much bigger issue than that.
Every Christian ought to know about the God they worship. They ought to know that when we say in our statement of faith “We believe in one God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit (The Trinity), and the Saviour of all people who put their faith in Him alone for eternal life.” What that means and that when we say we believe in one God that doesn’t mean that we believe our God is the best God it means that we believe there is only one God. It doesn’t mean that our God is a better choice than Allah or Buddha or the plethora of God’s the Hindus worship it means that we believe that there is only one God.
Peter told early believers in 1 Peter 3:15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. How does that fit in with you? Are you always ready with an answer? A disciple should know about God and that we believe that Jesus Christ is God, a part of the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, and how these three share the same attributes and in effect these three persons are one God. We need to know that Jesus Christ wasn’t part God and part man, instead he was one hundred percent God and one hundred percent man at the same time. And if we are going to learn about God we will do it through his word. Christians as a group have a high regard for the bible but a serious lack of knowledge about it.
Do you know what you believe and why you believe it? I’ll give you a hint that might make life a little easier for you here. You won’t always understand what you believe and that is alright. I’ve said it before if I could understand everything about God he wouldn’t be much of a God, I don’t understand women but that doesn’t mean I can’t believe in them.
The concept of the Trinity can be daunting, but that doesn’t make it any less real. Most of us can’t understand let alone explain Einstein’s “Quantum Theory of Light” But this eventually led to his Theory of Relativity you know as summed up as: E=MC2 and I don’t understand that either.
But if a nuclear device exploded just outside the window my lack of understanding would not make it any less real.
A true disciple will take time, and it will take time and effort to learn about their God. You can’t simply rely on what others tell you, you can’t be spoon fed for ever. God has blessed you with an intellect and his word. And it’s up to you to put that combination to use.
Psalm 43:5-6 I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!
Over 600 times in the Bible the word God is prefaced by either “your” or “my” making it very personal.
2) A Disciple Knows God And you are thinking “Preacher you are slipping point one and point two are the same.” Nope, there is a world of difference between knowing about someone and knowing someone. Let me illustrate. In one of the other churches I pastored Angela and I had a very good friend who in all outward appearances was normal. Whatever normal is. But underneath she wasn’t. You see Kim was an Elvis fan. Now if you are like Kim let me clue in on something very important. Ok, this could come as a shock so hang onto your seats. You ready? Elvis is dead. D E A D, dead. But he will always live on in the hearts of people like Kim.
Now Kim wasn’t even of the Elvis generation, she is a little younger then me which means she was only 16 when the King kicked the bucket. But she knew all abut Elvis. She knew about his childhood, his parents and his rise to stardom. She could tell you about the Colonel and Priscilla, she knew about his problems and she could sing all of his songs. She knew all about Elvis but she never knew Elvis.
Jesus told his disciples in John 15:15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You don’t simply know about a friend you know a friend. There are a lot of people in this world who know about Denn Guptill, I have spoken in more than fifty churches in five different countries on three continents. I have served on countless community and denominational committees and if you Google my name you will get dozens of hits. A lot of people know about me. And some of them know I’m too heavy and have a lisp, some of them know I have a tendency to be a little sarcastic, ok maybe more than a little. Some know I have blue eyes, other’s might know that I spent three years as a child in Germany as an army brat. Many people think they know me but they only know about me. There are only a handful of people out there who really know me. Who know how I think, why I think and if I even think. They know what I like and what I don’t like. And they know why I do the things I do. Only a few people actually know Denn Guptill and what makes him tick. That’s fine because your eternity will not be determined by how well you know Denn Guptill
But history is strewn with the remains of those who mastered theology, but failed to have a personal relationship with God. They knew all about him but they didn’t know him. And you eternity will be determined by how well you know God.
Our relationship with God is a Knowledge that moves beyond truth and into a friendship with God. But how does that come about? In the third chapter of John Jesus tells a man, by the name of Nicodemus, about a second birth experience. John 3:3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” The new birth is the beginning of that relationship with God. But exactly is the new birth? The very term “Born Again” has gained a negative connotation. And sometimes you hear someone described as a “Born again Christian” or a “Born again Preacher.” Almost as if to differentiate them from a “Non Born Again Christian.”
However from my limited understanding it would appear from Christ’s words that the term “Born Again Christian” is actually redundant. In other words if you are “Born again” you are by definition a Christian and if you are a Christian, A Christ Follower then you are by necessity “Born Again”
Paul wrote this to the early Church: 2 Corinthians 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
And so beginning that relationship with God entails a brand new start to your life. Are you a new creation, has the old life gone, has a new life begun? Today, January 11th 2009 do you know about God, but the more important question is: Do you know God.
PowerPoint may be available for this message, email me at denn@cornerstonewesleyan.ca
