LIFESTYLE OF A CHRIST DISCIPLE
Luke 9:56-62
Introduction:
Some hundred years ago two team leaders adopted the same goal: Both sought to be the first to lead an expedition to the South Pole. Once made the decision presented with them countless choices. Selecting the cloth to wear, food to eat and the mode of transport, etc.,
Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer, gleaned from Inuit methodology the best type of equipment and clothing to use. He chose the dogs to pull the sledges.
Robert Falcon Scott, the naval officer chose to use ponies and modern motorized sledges. He was a brave and daring man but did not prepare like Amundsen.
As they were nearing the Transantarctic Mountains ponies became weak and died, motors stop functioning but dogs kept moving. Amundsen became winner but Roald lost the race and incurred loss of lives and properties because of pride and poor planning.
Our choice of living is going to determine our destinies. “Chose to do what you can do, not what you want to do”.
Role Model:
Lifestyle means a way of life established by a society, culture, group or individual for certain behaviour, communication and relationship. Lifestyle includes quality of food habits, dressing sense, the standard of residence, eye contact, walking style, communications skills and convincing presentations of words and personalities. “Some decisions made as a result of ignorance, rebellion and stubbornness can have lifelong repercussions”. “Successful people generally set goals and objectives; highly successful individuals make evidence-based decisions that move them deliberately toward those goals” (from Celebrations: 7th Day Magazine).
The real role model for the LIFESTYLE OF A DISCIPLE OF CHRIST has to be drawn only from Jesus Christ by close watch and observation. The disciple is the one who denies himself and takes up the cross (Mathew16:24). From 22.11.2019 to 31.12.2019, I was fasting for forty nights to study the personal life of Our Lord Jesus Christ from the Gospels of Mark and Luke. Both contain 40 chapters and I was deeply meditating each chapter on each night. It was very interesting and thought-provoking. For making and multiplying disciples we need the style of Jesus.
I was going through the vision and mission statements of Jesus Christ. Luke 10:19 was his VISION– “Empower the Disciples of Christ” and Luke 19:10 was his MISSION – “seek and save the Lost” (Mathew 18:11).
1. LIVE WITH THE PRESENCE OF GOD
CORAM DEO is a Latin phrase refers ‘in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the honour and to the glory of God’ Living before God in all areas of Life. Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit(Luke 4:1). He was led by the Spirit (Luke 4:1). He fasted for forty days and nights (Luke 4:2, Mark 9:29). He was tempted (Luke 4:2). He acquired his power and strength from the LORD. Jesus Prayed to have intimate commune with God. Isolated intimacy with the Father was his main motivation (Mathew 14:22-23, Mark 1:35). His prayers were with such intensity of focus that at the end of His life He even sweat great drops of blood (Luke 22:44). Coram Deo was his anthem.
Franck DeCensom one of the contributors to the CBN.com says, “Jesus’ prayer life reveals that Jesus was having an advanced intimate relationship with the Father and also having a friendship with God (John 8:16, 16:32, and 8:28-29). His ministry for 24 hours a day, seven days a week did not prevent him to spend time in prayer, he engaged himself in conversation with the Father and with the Spirit (Luke 5:15-16).Gospel of Mark records that Jesus had time to pray very early morning (Mark 1:35), noon, evenings and in the nights(Luke 6:12). Prayer requires wrestling in the Spirit with passion and fervency. More prayer equals more help and more blessings from God. God is looking for a person who can pray and intercede for the nations (Isaiah 59:16). Ceasing to pray for the known people is sin(1 Samuel 12:23).
2. LIVE WITH THE MIND OF CHRIST
Jesus Christ was a man of gentle, humble and meek spirit. He exhibited humility through his servanthood leadership and culminated in Forgiveness.
a. Humility
Christ made himself nothing (Philippians 2:7), he humbled himself (v.8), and made himself of no reputation. The concept of empty is “KENOSIS” in Greek. Jesus has given himself to be subjected as a little, feeble, weak personality in the hands of Mary and Joseph. He accepted the silent period in his life- “kenotita” (Luke 2:7).
Paul uses the word Morphe instead of the schema. Morphe is “an essential form it never altars, expression of the reality”. Schema is an outward, temporary, changes from time to time, circumstance to circumstance, person to person and situation to situation.
Jesus never gave place for violence, grasping, exploiting but completely existed with MORPHE. Christ became Jesus not an avatar but an incarnation. It’s not temporary but permanent form. Empty yourself is the core, means completely neglected and forgotten. His form cannot be changed once for all he became flesh.
C.S Lewis “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.” Marvin Vincent says ‘the self-denying zeal of Christ was for the salvation of others’ and not for his personal gains. EM Bounds an attorney turned Methodist Clergy, spent many years in prison for his conviction and ministry, he wrote many books. In his book titled “Essentials of Prayer”. He defines the Humility: “Humility is not an abstraction from self, nor does it ignore thought about self. It is a many-phased principle. Humility is born by looking at God, and His holiness, and then looking at self and man’s unholiness. Humility loves obscurity (insignificance) and silence, dreads applause, esteems the virtues of others, excuses their faults with mildness, easily pardons injuries, fears contempt less and less, and sees baseness and falsehood in pride”.
Pope Francis “The world tells us to seek success, power and money; God tells us to seek humility, service and love.”. Rabindranath Tagore “We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.” Mother Theresa: “If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.”
b. Forgiveness
The teaching on forgiveness is recorded in the NT in Mathew 5.38-42. Jesus refers to the Lex talionis means a law of tit for tat which was very much existed among the Jews and gentiles. This law is recorded in Exodus 21:23-25, Leviticus 24:19-20, Deuteronomy 19:21 which are talking about this law. This is not savage (violent or ferocious) law but a law of mercy. This Law leads to the limitation of vengeance.
Otherwise, the tribes would have killed each other just for a loss of one tooth of their community man. So this retaliation was not to be done on individual capacity but at a Jury level. The judge will try the case and pronounce the punishment (Deuteronomy 19:18). The punishment was never in the form of physical punishment but in the form of compensation of money: For injury, for pain, for healing, for loss of time, for indignity suffered. These were the rules laid in Lex Talionis. So no more vengeance but compassion and abundant mercy (Leviticus 19:18, Proverbs 25:21, 24:29, Lamentation 3:30) to the man who committed this act.
Jesus taught a great lesson on forgiveness, he said that prayer moves the mountains, faith leads to prayer but forgiveness is a prerequisite for the prayers to be heard (Mark 11:22-26). Jesus knew the betrayal and denial but gently moved with them (Mark 14:18, 30, 66-72). Jesus was the first person to forgive the enemies even without their regrets and repentance (Luke 23:34). St. Stephen followed his master by praying “Lord do not hold this sin against them” in Acts 7:60.
c. Meek
Mathew 5:5. Meek(Greek. praus) is an ethical word. Meek understood by Aristotle as ‘praotes’(character between orgilotes(excessive anger) and ‘aorgesia’ (excessive anger less). So clear understanding must be: Blessed is the man who is always angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time. Jesus said at no account you retaliate or resent. No more rights concepts but responsibilities. Liberty takes the back seat and the duties, service to others take the front row of life.
Right anger comes during others are treated with injustice at the same time never gets angry for injustice done to the self. Also, it means God controlled life as that of a tamed animal-like, lion, tiger, and an elephant under their masters. You are trained and controlled by God to obey and be meek. Be trained to be self-controlled of every instinct, every impulse and every passion of yours. You become a man of lofty heartedness. That’s why the LORD said, “Moses was very meek” (Numbers 12:3). Our moral learned response makes us into the Image of God. We grow stronger by taming our wild infantile urges. Our urges which are against the Holy Spirit must be tamed, controlled, disciplined and directed by our morally educated will to do well.
d. Servanthood
Jesus exercised servant leadership. Jesus taught his disciples to last of all and be a servant of all (Mark 9:35). God the Father gives everything to People, exaltation comes from the Lord and our desires may not come true (Mark 10:40, Luke 1:52). Jesus came not to be served but to serve (Mark 10:45).
3. LIVE WITH INTEGRITY AND HOLINESS
Jesus told his disciples to come and see (John 1:37-39). He was not afraid of his personal life exposed to the Disciples. He always had his disciples with him while he offered prayer, during healing ministry, when he had food and when he was preaching. He was training them in day out and day in – this was the lifestyle of Jesus. Even St. Paul urges Timothy to live as an exemplary person (1 Timothy 4:12-16).
Integrity
Bible uses the words integrity and blameless interchangeably. Noah was blameless (Gen. 6:9). Caleb was a man of integrity because of the Spirit of God (Numbers 14:24, 32:11, Deuteronomy1:36, Joshua14:8). The just man walks in his integrity and his children are blessed after him (Proverbs 20:7).
When there is accordance between theory and practice in life, transparency and trustworthiness that should characterise our every action. When there is a difference between what we say and what we do. We demonstrate a lack of integrity. Integrity denies room for hypocrisy. At one time or another everyone has failed to meet the standard of full integrity. But Jesus requires only contrition.
God testified the integrity of Abimelech (Genesis 20:6). God remembered the integrity of David (1 Samuel 15:28, 1 Kings 9:4, Psalm 7:8, 26:1, 26:11, 78:72). Bible character Job was holding fast his integrity though he met the loss due to no reason of himself (Job 2:3, 2:9, 27:5 and 31:6). King Asha was a man of integrity (2 Chronicles 15:17). He who walks with integrity walks securely (Proverbs 10:9).
Holiness
Jesus was testified by the mass, followers, disciples and even the devils that he was a “Holy One”.
“Holiness demands outward and inward life. We must be an Open book in front of our own family members – wife, husband, children, grandchildren, siblings, relatives and friends. No secrecy in Holiness. We must be more vigilant and watchful about what we utter, what we do, how we react in private and in public.”(ABN)
Mark 5:27 & 30 declares that even the garment of Jesus was so powerful to heal the people because of his holiness. Jesus was aware of the touch of the people. He knew the holy touch, faith touch, playful touch and even the evil touch. He shared the power with his disciples (Mark 3:15). Bible calls all acts and deeds of men against the will of God are sins. Missing the mark, missing the aim, target, the purpose is a sin. Sin is unbridled evil intentions and desires. ‘The impurity of lust transforms one into a slave of the devil’(Henry Edward Manning, Cardinal and Archbishop). Sin is normally categorised as ancestral sin and acquainted sin or Committed sin.
a. Original Sin or ancestral guilt refers to Sin inherited through birth.
b. Committed Sin or acquainted sins are called seven deadly sins by early church fathers, namely, ‘pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth’.
In fact, It was developed by Monk Evagrius Ponticus (4th C) based on eight evil thoughts of the Greek world. These "evil thoughts" were categorized into three types:
• LUSTFUL APPETITE (gluttony, fornication, and avarice)
• IRASCIBILITY (wrath)
• MIND CORRUPTION (vainglory, sorrow, pride, and discouragement)
These were listed by Pope Gregory (AD 590) which were accepted by all denominations and retained them as part of their theological understanding on Sin.
Guilt is nothing but realisation that they have compromised their own standards of conduct or have violated universal moral standards. The moral is an intended decision and proper approved action. Immoral is an intended decision for an improper unapproved action. The problem of our generation is denying the power of Sin and the power of godliness.
The Modesto Manifesto 24.10.1948: Billy Graham, Cliff Barrows, George Beverly Shea and Grady Wilson decided that they would follow certain principles in their ministries, such as Integrity in Money handling, the danger of Sexual immorality, working in cooperation with the local Church and integrity in Publicity and promotional works.
Conclusion:
Disciples of Christ must have these qualities of life:
Live in the presence of Lord
Live with the mind of Christ
Live with Integrity and Holiness
