Discipleship Series, Sermon #1 (6-3-03)
There was a man by the name of John Harper who was born into a Christian family on May 29, 1872. He became a Christian 13 years later and had already started preaching by age 17. He received training at the Baptist Pioneer Mission in London, and in 1896 he founded a church, now known as Harper Memorial Church, which began with 25 worshipers but had grown to 500 members by the time he left it 13 years later.
In 1912 Harper was traveling on the Titanic with his 6-year-old daughter. After the ship struck an iceberg and began to sink, he got his child into a lifeboat but made no effort to follow her. Instead, he ran through the ship yelling, "Women, children, and unsaved into the lifeboats!" Survivors report that he then began witnessing to anyone who would listen. He continued preaching even after he had jumped into the water and was clinging to a piece of wreckage.
Harper’s final moments were recounted four years later at a meeting in Hamilton, Ontario, by a man who said:
I am a survivor of the Titanic. When I was drifting alone on a piece of the boat that awful night, the tide brought Mr. Harper near me. "Man," he said, "are you saved?" "No," I said, "I am not." He replied, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." The waves bore him away, but, strange to say, brought him back a little later, and he said, "Are you saved now?" "No," I said, "I cannot honestly say that I am." He said again, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," and shortly thereafter he went down; and there, alone in the night, and with two miles of water under me, I believed. I was John Harper’s last convert.
Folks, my desire for us is to make us as urgent about saving souls as John Harper was. So much so that our last moments are used to win the lost to Christ, no matter what the cost is to us.
Jesus’ last command to us comes in the 28th chapter of Matthew starting at verse 18 when he says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
This statement was made by Jesus to his apostles shortly before he ascended to Heaven. This as you probably know is what is commonly called the great commission. Now I ask you, are you striving to be a learner, a student, a follower, and a leader for Christ? Are you striving to be like Him in every aspect of your life and are you taking opportunities to share his message with others?
I don’t think we can expect to fulfill the "great commission" if we don’t have a clear understanding of what a disciple is and how we can be one? So throughout the next 8 weeks we are going to take a closer look at what it means to be a disciple, how we can be a better one, and how we can make disciples of others.
Jesus’ command to us sounds so simple and it is very straightforward, go and make disciples of all nations. Go make disciples of everyone, not just people we know or people we are comfortable around, but everyone who does not know him! It also doesn’t preface it with, when you have spare time, when it’s convenient for you, or when you decide you’re comfortable to do it, it says GO and make disciples.
I think we as a church body, that includes the Baptists, Lutherans, and Methodists and especially us here at the Wesley Foundation, have gotten so comfortable with where we are at in our walks that we have completely lost site of this command that Jesus left us with. I consider myself to be a pretty giving and unselfish person because I’m willing to give of my time, talents, and money to those that are less fortunate than me. If someone calls me to help them out, I’m wiling to change my schedule to accommodate them. But all of that aside, I am a very selfish person. I’m as selfish as they come because I have become comfortable simply focusing on my walk with God rather then focusing on winning others for Christ. When a friend of mine asked me if I picked this summer’s sermon topics to preach to her, my response was that “this message is as much for myself as it is for anyone else.” I believe that any ordained pastor would tell you that they need to hear this message as much as any one of you. I tell you this just so you know that we are all in this together and we are all called to the same task no matter what your career may be. My hope isn’t to make you feel bad about yourselves, but I hope tonight I’m able to make some of you feel convicted enough to want to refocus your energies on Jesus’ command to go and make disciples!
Now that doesn’t mean that we have to stop worrying about ourselves and our own walks, because I think one of the biggest reasons Christians aren’t making disciples is because we ourselves aren’t living as disciples. And we absolutely cannot make disciples of others if we ourselves aren’t disciples! Now that doesn’t give you an excuse not to go make disciples, it means being and making disciples have to go hand and hand.
Vine’s dictionary of new testament words describes it as "one who follows another’s teachings.” In Matthew 10:24-25 Jesus described what a disciple should look like. “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord.”
A disciple is one who follows Jesus and learns how to duplicate the life, spirit and work that Jesus came to do. We are to become Jesus to the world around us. A disciple is anyone who follows Jesus. It is not about whether you are a laymen or a pastor. It is not about whether you have a formal education. Everyone who claims the name of Jesus, must be a disciple.
I want everyone to break into groups of 4-6 people right now. As a group I want you to discuss this question… “What are the 3 most important qualities of being a disciple?” (IE. A thorough knowledge of the scriptures).
Over the next two months at Vespers we’re going to take a closer look at some qualities and actions we must take to be disciples.
As you can see there are many qualities to a good disciple but this summer we are going to look at a few specific ones. First, A disciple puts Christ first in all areas of his life. A disciple is committed to a life of purity and is taking steps to separate from sin, he has a daily devotional time and is developing in his prayer life, he demonstrates faithfulness and a desire to learn and apply the word of God through personal study and meditation, he has a servant heart by helping others in practical ways, and he has a heart for witnessing by sharing his own testimony clearly and by sharing the good news that the gospel tells us. Yes, the dreaded word, evangelism. It is a key component in being a disciple and that’s something we will spend 2 weeks discussing late in July. Obviously there are many other qualities to being a disciple but these are the ones we will take a closer look at as the summer goes on.
Now I don’t know much about cars, as a few of you can attest to, but I do know that everything has to be working in order for the car to run at an optimal level. The sparkplugs have to be working, the belts need to be in working order, you need gasoline and oil to make it run, and brakes and steering to survive. If there is no gasoline the car isn’t going to run and if there are no brakes, you aren’t going to make it very far without crashing and burning. This isn’t a great analogy, but it works well enough to make my point that as disciples we must possess all of the traits we’ve discussed to be effective disciples for Christ.
If we aren’t submissive to God and we don’t make him first in all aspects of our lives, we will never be able to surrender to his will and accomplish his goals for us in our lives. If we aren’t living a life of purity in speech, thought, and action, our witness will be destroyed. If we aren’t committed to the study and application of the scriptures, we will be unequipped to do the work of God. If we are lacking in our prayer and devotional time, we will be lacking direction and instructions from God. If we fail to be servants to others, we will never be able to share our message with those that desperately need to hear it. And finally if we aren’t witnessing and being evangelists for Christ, all of our other actions will be for nothing.
Ok now in your groups I want you to look at John 17:20-23. It says, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” After looking at the scripture as a group I want you all to decide what you think Jesus’ priority for us is according to this scripture. You must sum it up in one sentence or less.
There are several important aspects to this scripture such as unity amongst one another and unity with Christ. But to me I think our priority is found in verse 23, when he says, “to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” I think this verse is basically the lesser known great commission according to John as opposed to Matthew. Jesus tells us that we must let the world know that God sent Jesus and that he loves everyone as much as he loves his own son.
This call to discipleship is not a passive following. His call for us to follow was not a call for us to be “Jesus groupies.” It was not His intention for us to just follow Him around to just sit at His feet and eat from His hand. His call for us to follow Him was so we could learn how to be what He was, and more important to do what He did. Jesus knew that He had a limited time on this earth. If the good news was to be perpetuated from generation to generation and to grow in magnitude, He had to pass on who He was and His purpose on this earth and send each of His disciples to the “ends of the earth” to do the same.
In order to fulfill our commitment to be disciples and share Christ we need an APPEALING URGENCY. Often we are too passive about sharing our faith. There’s a level of aggressiveness that repels people but I don’t think that is our problem. We have such a casual nonchalant spirit about sharing Christ that people don’t even know we are Christians. A recent church study revealed that 95% of evangelical Christians admitted that they had never led anyone to the Lord. I think that statistic shows that we are too passive about lost people.
God wants us to be disciples with a sense of urgency, like John Harper showed as the titanic was going down. One of the greatest disciples you will read about in the bible who shows this sense of urgency is Paul. If you read the last 8 or 9 chapters of Acts you get a great glimpse of the kind of man that Paul was. Upon Paul’s arrival in Jerusalem he immediately began sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and he relentlessly pursued all of the Jews who did not have a personal relationship with Christ. He wasn’t pushy and he didn’t force it upon them, but he did it with an urgency that showed he truly cared about their salvation. Shortly after his arrival in Jerusalem, Paul had been arrested for sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with the Jews in and around Jerusalem. Paul was chained up and thrown in jail all while many people were plotting to kill him. Over the next week Paul was transferred to Caesarea and had a trial before Governor Felix but Felix left him in jail for the next two years until he was succeeded in office by Governor Festus. Festus immediately summoned Paul to hear his case but then appealed to King Agrippa.
We see part of his trial with Agrippa in Acts chapter 26:27-29, Paul responds by saying, “King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do.” King Agrippa replied to Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” Paul replied, “Short time or long, I pray god that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.”
In Paul’s response to Agrippa, we see the compassion and sense of duty he has to all of these people. Here he is bound in chains and surrounded by people that want him killed, but instead he is more concerned about their own salvation then he is for the removal of his own chains.
How many of you have a burning desire to see others come to Christ? A desire so strong that it overshadows even your own problems?
Before we really dig into our study of biblical principals and actions of a disciple in the coming weeks, I want everyone in here to spend time this week praying that God will make it the desire of your heart to be his disciple and to win others for Christ. I encourage you to take time to think about the important task God has given us to go and make disciples.
I want our study this summer to be more then a time that is simply enlightening; I want it to be a time of transformation. No matter where you are at in your walk with God, I know that there is room for God to transform you. As we continue in our time of worship tonight, I urge you to ask God to reveal to you how you can become a better disciple for him and one that truly desires salvation for everyone you come in contact with just as Paul desired for the Jews in the early church.
