A. One day many years ago, a boy walked down the beach, and as he did, he spotted a woman sitting under a beach umbrella.
1. The boy walked up to her and asked, “Are you a Christian?” “Yes,” she replied.
2. Then the boy asked, “Do you read your Bible every day?” She nodded her head, “Yes.”
3. “Do you pray often?” the boy asked next, and again she answered, “Yes.”
4. Liking those answers, he asked his final question: “Will you hold my quarter while I go swimming?”
5. That boy concluded that if a Christian reads their Bible every day and prays often, then they can be trusted, and I think he’s right.
6. Disciples of Jesus who are committed to prayer and Scripture should be trustworthy and good.
B. Today, as we continue our series on discipleship, I want us to continue exploring some essentials for disciples of Jesus.
1. In the last two sermons, we have concluded that it is essential for disciples of Jesus to be characterized by love, and for disciples of Jesus to be devoted to Jesus.
2. It is easy to see why those are two essentials for disciples, right?
a. Loving God and loving others are the most important commands of the Bible.
b. And Jesus is our everything – He is God in the flesh, our Messiah, Savior and Lord – His Gospel is the good news of salvation for everyone by God’s grace through faith.
3. Today, I want us to focus on why the Bible is the essential guide for disciples of Jesus.
C. Over the years, I have heard people say that the Bible is God’s “love letter” to us, and I like to think of the Bible that way.
1. All of us love to get personal mail, and yet because of the changes in technology, we get less and less handwritten letters and cards that used to be common place.
2. As a matter of fact, there was a day when people had pen pals, and even courtships took place completely through the mail.
3. Through the Bible, God’s “love letter” to us, we come to know God and develop a relationship with Him.
D. The practice of studying, reading and meditating on God’s Word is fundamental to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.
1. A disciple will not know who God is or what God wants without knowing God’s Word.
2. God created the Bible as His inspired and authoritative Word, and knowing, trusting in, and obeying God’s Word is the primary means we develop and maintain a relationship with God.
E. Last week, we focused on the importance of Jesus in the life of a disciple, and the Bible clearly unveils the identity and greatness of Jesus.
1. Every book of the Bible points to the grand story of God carried out in the person of Jesus, and that’s why the Bible is the key source for making and maturing disciples of Jesus.
2. In discipleship, we commit ourselves to learning how to live as Jesus would live if He were in our place – do you remember the WWJD movement? – what would Jesus do?
3. A common mistake is to think of discipleship as mastering the content of the Bible – which equates discipleship with education.
4. While learning facts and content is important and helpful, it is not the goal – the goal of discipleship is to know Jesus and follow Him, putting into practice His teachings and will in our everyday lives.
F. Some people mistakenly think that the Bible is optional for Christians.
1. They might be intimidated by the idea of reading, studying and memorizing Scripture, and so they try to distance themselves from those spiritual disciplines.
2. But it is not possible for us to be faithful disciples who make disciples without the Bible playing a proper role in our lives.
3. Discipleship requires a commitment to learning about Jesus and His ways and His teachings.
4. The lordship if Jesus is exercised when we carefully follow the teachings of the Bible, and we can’t follow what we don’t know.
G. In 2 Corinthians 10:5, the apostle Paul described a key aspect of discipleship when he wrote about “taking our thoughts captive in obedience to Christ.”
1. If obedience to Jesus is our goal, then it will require a certain way of thinking – a way of thinking that is in line with God’s thoughts and commands.
2. In Romans 12:2, Paul said it this way: Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
3. Paul says that our transformation is grounded in the “renewing of our minds” and that renewing takes place as we allow God’s Word to shape our thinking.
4. So while knowledge is not the end goal of discipleship, it is vitally important, because how we think will determine how we live.
H. Discipleship requires a manual, and that manual for learning to be a follower of Jesus is the Bible.
1. In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Paul describes the role Scripture should play in the life of a disciple: 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2. Paul declares that all Scripture comes from God who inspires it or literally “breaths it” into existence.
3. God inspires it and breaths it into human authors who spoke it and wrote it down for our use.
4. And Paul specifies how the Word of God is useful or profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training.
5. As disciples of Jesus we must allow the Word to teach, rebuke, correct and train us, and we have to allow those leading and mentoring us to use the Word in our lives for these purposes.
6. Each of us need to listen carefully to God’s Word and personally apply it to our lives, allowing it to judge and convict our hearts, and to guide our actions so that we can grow up in Christ.
I. In the verses that follow the ones we just looked at in 2 Timothy 3, Paul goes on to warn us about the importance of knowing and adhering to the Bible’s teachings.
1. Paul wrote: 1 I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of his appearing and his kingdom: 2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching. 3 For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. 4 They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths (2 Tim. 4:1-4).
2. From those verses we see how important it is for disciples to stick with God’s Word and to be sure we are teaching those we are mentoring to follow the Bible.
3. The Word of God is our ultimate and final authority – this is true when we feel like it, and when we don’t; and, when what the Bible says suits us, and when it doesn’t.
4. In a recent discipleship.org forum, Francis Chan gave these powerful insights: “Discipleship in this day is a lot of people getting together and sharing their feelings and thoughts. So as leaders we have to teach people to be able to teach others that ‘your thoughts really don’t matter that much, and you can’t believe everything you think and feel.’ And we come under the authority of Scripture. We have to be honest and say, ‘Look, there’s things in this book that I don’t agree with, I don’t think, I don’t feel, but I surrender to it, and when I disagree with this book, I assume God is right and I am wrong.’ We have to teach them that and show them that. And the greatest thing that any of the guys who discipled me taught me was how to read this book for myself.”
5. Teaching God’s Word requires great patience and careful instruction.
6. But we have to start with the understanding that God and His Word are always right and that the human tendency is always going to be to want to make the Word say and mean what we want it to say and mean.
7. Some of the best safeguards against mishandling and misinterpreting God’s Word are: (1) while studying the Bible let the Bible interpret itself, (2) to study the Bible with other sincere believers, and (3) to depend on the Holy Spirit to help guide us and interpret the Bible for us.
J. So on a practical level, how do disciples allow the Bible to play its essential role in our lives and how do we instill the same in those we disciple and mentor?
1. First, I want to encourage us to make a commitment to study the Bible with other disciples in Bible classes and small groups.
a. Here at Wetzel Road, we try to offer many group study experiences.
b. Right now during the pandemic, we are limited to some degree, but we are still offering virtual classes, and hopefully very soon we will be able to resume in-person classes.
c. But let me ask you, have you in the past been a part of our Bible classes, or are you presently involved in the Bible studies we offer?
d. If not, then why not? Why not take advantage of as many Bible study opportunities as you can? What could be more important than growing in the wisdom of God and God’s ways?
2. Second, I want to encourage us to make a commitment to spend some time in the Word of God on a daily or regular basis.
a. The Bible provides the spiritual nourishment we need.
b. Francis Cosgrove wrote: “Our spiritual growth is directly dependent on our consistent intake of the Word of God as our spiritual food” (Cosgrove, pg. 85).
c. The apostle Peter wrote: Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow up into your salvation (1 Peter. 2:2).
d. But it isn’t just new Christians who need the Word, Spurgeon said, “Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years.”
e. George Mueller said, “The vigor of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts.”
K. Francis Cosgrove, in his book Essentials of Discipleship, suggested that there are five ways we can “get into” the Scriptures so that the Scriptures can “get into” us (Cosgrove pgs. 91-103):
1. Hearing the Bible – “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17).
a. Most computer websites and cellphone apps will read the Bible to you so a person can hear it, or if you have a copy of the Bible on CD, then you could listen in your car while driving or at home while getting ready for the day or while cooking.
b. It is interesting how that you notice things in the Bible while listening that you might not notice while reading.
c. I am an auditory learner, so listening is always a good way for me to learn the Bible.
2. Reading the Bible – “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep what is written in it, because the time is near” (Rev. 1:3).
a. Paul told Timothy, his son in the faith: “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching” (1 Timothy 4:13 ESV).
b. Every year I encourage the congregation to follow a Bible reading schedule – sometimes it is a reading of the whole Bible, and sometimes it is the NT, Psalms and Proverbs.
c. How many of you are presently following a Bible reading schedule?
d. Regular reading is so important to help us cover the message of the whole Bible rather than scattered verses or parts of the Bible.
3. Studying the Bible – The Bereans are held up as a good example in Scripture because of their Bible study: The people here were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, since they received the word with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so (Acts 17:11).
a. Paul challenged Timothy with these words: Be diligent to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15) – some translations say, “study to show yourself approved.”
b. When we study the Word, we don’t just listen or read, we dissect and investigate to better understand.
c. As we study, we might ask ourselves these questions about the passages we are reading:
1. Is there an example for me to follow?
2. Is there a command for me to obey?
3. Is there any error for me to avoid?
4. Is there any sin for me to renounce?
5. Is there any promise for me to claim?
6. What does this text teach me about God?
7. And the most important question in Bible study is: “Lord, what do You want me to apply to my life from this portion that I am studying?”
d. James reminds us to be “be doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22)
4. Memorizing the Bible – “I have hidden [“stored” ESV, “treasured” CSB] your word in my heart, so that I might not sin against You.” (Psalm 119:11).
a. The more Scripture we have fixed in our mind through memorization, the more easily the Holy Spirit can bring it to our minds to use for spiritual warfare and ministry.
b. Remember how Jesus quoted Scripture to counter the temptations of Satan? It works!
5. Meditating on the Bible – “Meditation is simply reflecting on what you have on your mind” (Cosgrove, pg. 102).
a. My favorite verse on the power of meditating on Scripture is Psalm 1:1-3: 1 How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers! 2 Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
b. How’s that for an amazing and wonderful promise?!
K. In summary, a disciple of Jesus should commit himself or herself to taking in the Word of God on a regular basis: hearing, reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating on it.
1. And we should always remember, anytime we open God’s Word, we are on holy ground.
2. A man named J. Wilbur Chapman offered this simple plan to follow as we handle God’s Word:
a. Study it through – seek to investigate some of God’s Word every day.
b. Pray it in – ask God to help you to understand and apply the Word.
c. Write it down – make a note about what you learn in the margin of your Bible or in your notebook.
d. Work it out – live the truth by putting it into practice.
3. It’s impossible to overemphasize the importance of the Bible in the life of every disciple for their personal spiritual growth and for their use in disciple-making.
4. Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path (Psalm 119:105).
L. How are you doing as a disciple with regard to God’s Word?
1. Are you putting in enough effort to learn it? To obey it? And to share it?
2. If you aren’t yet a believer or follower of Jesus, then reading the Bible is a good place to start.
a. Reading and studying the Bible has brought many people to faith and to a decision to follow Jesus.
b. Please reach out to us if we can help you with your faith and your understanding of God’s Word.
c. We would love to help everyone confess their faith in Jesus and repent and be baptized into Christ.
Resources:
The Disciple Maker’s Handbook, Bobby Harrington and Josh Patrick, Zondervan, 2017.
Being Disciple of Jesus – Morning Watch, Sermon by David Sargent.
