Discipleship. What does it take to be a disciple of Jesus? A clean heart. A surrendered spirit. Fellowship with other believers? What does it take to be a disciple of Jesus? We really dumb down this calling to be a disciple. We could start a discipleship program and teach others to be a disciple. We could make a set of rules to follow and set up punishments when we disobey. But that would fall short of discipleship. What does it take to be a faithful disciple of Jesus? Why isn’t it easy enough to follow rules and understand boundaries, make everything all nice and neat?
To be a disciple of Jesus he wants you to give him everything! He wants your time, your energy, your effort, but most of all he wants your heart.
Kierkagaard in "And I looked around and nobody was laughing" says this, "I went into church and sat on the velvet pew. I watched as the sun came shining through the stained glass windows. The minister dressed in a velvet robe opened the golden gilded Bible, marked it with a silk bookmark and said, "If any man will be my disciple, said Jesus, let him deny himself, take up his cross, sell what he has, give it to the poor, and follow me." Kierkagaard
We think of God as all powerful and all knowing. Is there anything God can’t do? I asked a Jr. High group one time, Can God make a rock so big that he couldn’t lift it? Does God have a weakness? Paul says in Corinthians that if God has a weakness, it’s stronger than your strength. I believe God does have a weakness. He can’t refuse a sinner who comes to him with a repentant heart. Discipleship starts with a heart that is completely devoted to Jesus.
I believe we are going to find some keys to discipleship. This is what I want to call “faithful discipleship.”
Turn with me this morning to 1 Peter 3:8-22 (read)
Did you catch what Peter is saying? He never uses the word discipleship in this text, but if you had to put a word with this text, I believe it would be discipleship. Peter doesn’t cover everything that it takes for discipleship, but he does touch some key points. The first movement in this text is that we have to show Love for our Enemies (8-12)
I. Love of Enemies (8-12)
If you re-read verses 8-9 you might think verse 8 doesn’t have anything to do with people we might consider our enemies. What does living in harmony, being sympathetic, Loving as brothers, and being compassionate and humble have to do with loving my enemies?
a. The Church Speaks – even when we don’t know we are speaking
My speech teacher in High School told me that you, “can not, not communicate.” In other words everything you say and do says something about you.
i. When we show unity – live in harmony
ii. When we are sympathetic with the community
iii. When we are compassionate with the community
iv. When we humbly find our place in the community
A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.
M. Luther.
b. Our Relationship with non-Christians (when something is done to us)
i. Don’t retaliate – Only leads to more anger
Old System = Eye for an Eye New System = Non-retaliation
Matt. 5:38-42
38"You have heard that it was said, ’Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[1] 39But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
ii. Jesus says, turn the other cheek
1. This is very hard to do
2. It’s against our natural desires
3. It takes control out of the hands of our enemy and puts it in the hands of God.
iii. Return the evil action with blessing
Matthew 5:45
45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
1. Because it’s the right thing to do.
2. Because you have an understanding of the bigger picture
3. Because we weren’t created for this world
4. Because we speak volumes when we return blessings
5. Because it is our calling as Christians!!!!
6. Peter says that you do this so that you may inherit a blessing.
c. Our relationship with God – I believe in God who is working all the time.
i. He works in our lives
ii. He works in the lives of those who don’t love him
Adam Staples came to the lion’s club this week and he told us that getting out of the building on September 11, 2001 was a miracle. Hundreds and Hundreds of people got out of that building and all can claim the miracle.
iii. He works in the lives of Christians who faithfully obey his word
iv. He uses Christians to increase a blessing to Non-Christians.
1. Remember – Kindness produces repentance
v. Peter says his eyes are on the righteous and he hears our prayers
vi. Peter says the opposite is true with those who do evil
1. Against those who do evil.
a. While he might not strike down people who do evil right then, God promises in the end we will have to make our peace with God.
As C.S. Lewis wrote, "The greatest evil is not done in those sordid ’dens of crime’ that Dickens loved to paint...it is conceived and...moved, seconded, carried, and minuted...in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices." Charles Colson, Against the Night, p. 46.
Peter moves from Talking about the love to speaking about vindication. We use words like “Vindication” sometimes we might not understand what they mean. Allow me to define it for you.
Vindication is -- The defense, such as evidence or argument that serves to justify a claim or deed. Tied up in the next few verses we have this promise of vindication.
II. The promise of Vindication (13-17)
a. We have hope
i. Our suffering is temporary
ii. Our suffering will lead to blessing
iii. We don’t fear what our accusers fear
iv. We have hope not because of what we do, but because of who he is
b. We have peace
i. The world is without peace this morning.
ii. We can pass treaty after treaty and still not have peace in the world.
iii. The world needs Jesus – and then you give them peace.
iv. A person who has peace is one who has Jesus and is walking daily in his presence.
We have hope and we have peace because of Jesus. I believe the world is full of people who need hope. I believe our town is full of hurting people who want to know someone cares. I know it’s our responsibility to show them that we care, not because we are self-righteous, or better than they are, but because Jesus lives within us and he cares for them. This isn’t about us, this is about Jesus.
c. We have the Answer
i. Set apart Christ as Lord (originally Christ and lord aren’t separated) What happens when I set apart Christ?
1. My knowledge of personal sin increases
2. My knowledge of the hurting world increases
3. My Desire to do something about my personal sin increases
4. My Desire to do something about the hurting world increases.
a. Maybe it’s your time
b. Maybe it’s your energy
c. Maybe it’s your effort
d. Maybe it’s your giving -- But something does change.
ii. Be prepared to give an answer
If our vindication is Jesus standing before God and saying, I paid for this one, then our vindication towards each other is the ability to answer, when questioned.
1. Questions about What you believe
2. Questions about Why you believe
3. Questions about the things taken on faith
4. Questions about the many facts that support Christianity
5. Questions about your beliefs
6. Questions about your hope
Romans 8:24-25
24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
a. Because they don’t have the hope you do
b. Because they don’t understand the hope
c. Because they want the hope that you have
i. And then you share it with them
Christianity is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.
iii. The method of telling about the hope
1. Gentleness --
2. Respect –
iv. Reason for this method
1. To bring people around
1 Timothy 2:2-4
2for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3This is good, and pleases God our Savior; 4who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
2. To make them aware of their sin
3. To show them you care
4. To show them Jesus cares
Romans 5:8
8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
5. To show them that our actions matter
1 Timothy 4:16
16Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
6. To give them hope.
Peter makes another transition to speaking about the journey that we are on. You and I are on this journey to heaven. Many have made the journey before us, and many will make this journey after us, but right now we are on this journey. I am still new to this preaching thing. We are walking our way through this book. I chose not to preach about the beginning of this Chapter, but I will get to it sometime. But there is another section that I skipped too. If you read in Chapter 2:11 “Dear Friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires.”
This is the truth and if you get nothing else this morning get this: Everything was created for something. Corvettes were made to race, Airplanes were made to fly, Dogs were made to love and protect us…We were created for heaven. We were created to be with him in heaven. We weren’t an afterthought, we weren’t a mistake, we are God’s creation.
III. The Journey to Heaven (18-22)
a. An everlasting trade
Most of the time when you trade something, you get something of equal value. Sometimes you are forced into the trade, and sometimes you foolishly get mixed up in a trade. There is a Steakhouse in Oklahoma City that was traded on a role of the dice. We trade things all the time. Duane trades business cards for haircuts and pumpkins.
i. God made a Trade
1. Jesus (the righteous)
2. For you (the unrighteous)
b. Reason for the trade
i. To bring you to God
1. Sin had to be dealt with
2. Death and the devil had to be defeated
3. One time only sacrifice needed for the removal of sins
4. The timing was right.
c. The greatest sacrifice
i. Jesus put to death on the cross
ii. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends..” John 15:13
d. Grace
i. Seems to be better than anything we could imagine
ii. Seems to be some sense where Jesus witnessed to people while he was in the grave.
iii. The word Prison should be “refuge”
iv. But they were lost either way
e. Baptism
i. We receive the gift of the holy spirit
ii. But Peter does something strange
1. He talks about the Old Testament
2. Speaks about baptism
3. Speaks about heaven
Making ourselves clean before God isn’t enough. I would even say, baptism is only a step in that direction. We can do many things in devotion to God, with a desire to know him, but without a heart devoted to his will, we will never truly know him. When we go throughout our lives to we maintain communication with Jesus? We are not going to stop short of making this church a growing praying church, but it starts with you, and it starts with me. Discipleship starts with a heart devoted to GOD
