Developing a Passion for Becoming
Like Christ
Various Scriptures
January 30, 2005
Introduction
We’ve been talking these last few weeks about developing a passion for the things of God. Two weeks ago we talked about developing a passion for honoring God. Last week we talked about developing a passion for the family of God - treating each other as we would in our biological families and inviting others to become members of the family.
Today we’re going to look at developing a passion for becoming like Christ. The book of Romans says that one of God’s purposes in life is to make us more like Jesus - to be conformed to his image.
God uses lots of ways to do this. He uses his word, the Bible. He uses people in our lives. He uses church. He uses prayer. He uses circumstances, both good and bad.
It’s a process, and it’s a life-long one. The process of becoming "Christ-like" is called discipleship.
Before I go on to the definition of a disciple, let me clear up a possible misunderstanding about what a disciple is.
Many people consider the 12 friends of Jesus to be "the disciples." But it’s more accurate to describe them as "apostles," which means "sent out." In Matthew 9 Jesus called these twelve men out of all the followers of Jesus, and appointed them to carry on his ministry.
So while they were disciples, they were not the only ones. The gospels mention many other disciples. The twelve apostles were what many consider the twelve disciples. And of course the danger in that is that people then think that there are no longer disciples of Jesus, which is not true at all.
What is a "disciple?"
Definition - (Vine’s): "mathetes" - literally, a learner - indicating thought accompanied by endeavor. A disciple was not only a pupil but an adherent; hence they are spoken of as imitators of their teacher.
Let give you what I think is a distinction between a believer and a disciple:
A believer has placed their faith in Christ, but hasn’t gone much farther than that initial decision to believe in Him, either because the resources weren’t offered or available, or because they are not interested. A disciple is not satisfied with just being a believer - they want to go to another level in their relationship with God.
So let me give you my definition of a Biblical disciple of Jesus:
A follower of Christ who lives in daily submission to Christ, with the goal of becoming an accurate reflection of Christ.
You see, a disciple says I want more - more of God, more of His service, more of His kingdom.
My hope today is that you will want more. That if you could not characterize yourself as a disciple, then you’ll want to do something about it. And that if you could characterize yourself as a disciple, that you also would want more of Jesus.
Let’s look first at...
What characterizes a disciple?
Three characteristics of a disciple: First, a disciple...
1. Finds his or her identity in Christ.
In John chapter 9 we find the episode where Jesus heals a man blind from birth. The religious leaders interrogate him to no end.
They kept badgering him about Jesus, and all he could do was say, "Look, all I know is that I was blind, now I see, and that Jesus guy did it. Why do you keep asking me about him - do you want to be his disciple?"
Well, they just freak out and they respond as we see in verse 28:
Then they hurled insults at him and said, "You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses!"
This man was already identified with Christ, and all he had done was receive what Jesus had for him.
In the book of Acts, Peter and Paul dared to heal someone in the name of Jesus. They were arrested, and we find in 4:13 -
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
Did you catch that? How were they described? As guys who had been with Jesus.
Think about how others probably talk about you when you’re not around. Do they talk positively? What do you think they say?
One of the things I hope people would say about me is that if nothing else, he loves Jesus. That even with his imperfections, at least we can say that his love for Christ is what drives him, and it affects everything he does.
What about you? Is your reputation more about you what you have accomplished for good or bad, or is your reputation based at least in part on your love for Jesus?
Can people look at you and identify you as a follower of Jesus? I hope so, because that’s one of the marks of a disciple.
Not that you go throwing your faith in everybody’s face. Just that people see that everything about you is affected by your relationship with Jesus.
The second mark of a disciple I want to discuss is that a disciple...
2. Finds his or her priorities in Christ.
Luke 14:26 -
26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple."
Luke 14:33 -
"In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."
This speaks to where your allegiances lie. Are you more concerned with your comfort or the kingdom of God?
Does Jesus mean more to you than life itself? It does for the disciple.
These words of Jesus are hard - they really are. But we can’t sit back and say, "Well, it’s just not practical in this day and age in America."
Well let me just remind you that it was no picnic back then, either. Being a disciple of Jesus meant the possibility of losing your life! It would soon be illegal to be a Christian, and Jesus took that into consideration when he discussed the persecution his followers would encounter.
Many times it’s inconvenient because it gets in the way of our priorities, rather than Jesus’ priorities.
Right now, Major League Baseball is running a campaign in which baseball fans appear in a commercial with the line, "I live for this!" They are holding tryouts for the commercials in each of the cities hosting teams.
I wondered if I could get into one of the commercials, but then had to stop and think that if my life were defined by my love for baseball, it would be a sad life, indeed. So I’ve decided not to go to Minneapolis to try out.
Besides, I’m not sure they’d capture my good side on camera...
Can people examine your life and find the priorities of Jesus? I hope so, because a disciple finds priority in him.
The third mark of disciple is that he or she...
3. Carries on the mission of Christ.
Matthew 4:19 -
"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."
Jesus didn’t call the disciples just because he was lonesome and wanted company. He called disciples with the intention of training them to carry on the work after he was gone.
The two main parts of Jesus’ mission were to bring glory to the Father, and bring people into heaven.
Is this your mission? I hope so. Because disciples carry on the mission of Christ.
Let’s turn our attention now to the question of...
What are the challenges of a disciple?
To help us with that, I would like to look at Luke 9:23, which is printed in your note-taking guides.
Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
This verse lists four challenges to those would call themselves followers of Christ:
* Listening to Christ.
Then he said to them all...
First we need to listen to what Jesus has to say. And of course, we get that from the Bible.
But just having a Bible isn’t enough. It needs to be read and applied.
Jesus calls for people to be separated to him, following him, living for him, and even dying for him.
He lays down very clear and explicit teachings that he expects to be pondered and obeyed.
Discipleship, becoming like Christ, starts with listening to him.
The second challenge of being a disciple is that of...
* Denying yourself.
"...he must deny himself..."
Again, this is living for Jesus instead of yourself. It’s putting aside your priorities, your agenda, your preferences, your goals, and your conveniences for those of Jesus.
And what are his main priorities? Glorifying the Father and bringing people into heaven.
You know, it’s not always easy to live for Jesus, is it? He makes some pretty tough demands of his followers.
But he tells us it’s worth it. And I’ll talk more about that in a little bit.
Folks, you’ve got to understand that you cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve yourself and Christ at the same time. And the one who died to bring you to heaven deserves your service, does he not?
Live for him by denying yourself. Easy? No. Worth it, absolutely.
Here’s the third challenge for those who would call themselves followers of Christ, or disciples:
* Embracing the challenges to living for Christ.
"...take up his cross daily..."
I just mentioned the fact that living for Jesus won’t always be easy. And I think we do people a disservice when we tell people that just receiving Christ will make their troubles go away.
Jesus never said that. In fact, he said people would hate us and misunderstand us because of our love for Jesus.
If you are serious about living for Jesus, then certain conflicts will arise. Maybe it’ll be with family members or friends. Maybe it’ll be at work, where maybe you’re asked to do something that you know would violate Scripture.
I don’t know what it will be for you. For me, it was both of those areas and then some.
Jesus says we need to embrace the challenges. They will come. But disciples are willing to embrace them.
The last challenge to being a disciple is in...
* Following Christ in every area of your life.
"...and follow me."
I hope it’s pretty obvious by now that I think following Jesus in every area of your life is not even a question if you call yourself a disciple.
What I want to stress briefly here is that we need to move from the academic to the practical.
It’s easy to talk about being a disciple, it’s another thing entirely to actually do what it takes, and to do it in a way that actually makes a difference in your life.
I’m going to give you some rather general principles in just a moment, but I’m hoping that you’ll take these principles and turn them into something concrete - something measurable in terms of effort and results.
But let close out this section by just reminding you that Jesus wants all of you. Not just your church attendance, not just your ministry involvement, not just your quiet time or devotional time.
He wants all of you, all the time, all over the place. He bought you with his blood. Let him act as the owner, okay?
How does a person become a disciple?
It does not happen by default. You must make a conscious decision. I’ve talked about that all morning, so I don’t want to belabor the point.
But you have to understand that no one accidentally becomes a disciple.
It won’t be that one day you’re coming home from church and you all of a sudden realize, "Oh no! I’m a disciple! How did that happen!"
It takes effort, it takes time, it takes intentionality. It takes the conscious desire to follow Christ.
You know, it’s interesting, but Jesus never said, "Be my disciple." He always said, "Follow me."
And he didn’t mean to follow him like some great Pied Piper. He meant to become a person who listens and lives what the master teaches. So how do we follow Christ? Let me offer just three small "starter" suggestions:
First, we follow Christ by...
* submitting to his leadership.
Remember what I said about serving two masters? Ain’t gonna happen if you’re a disciple!
A disciple says, "You’re the master, and I will submit to you in all things."
Second, we follow Christ by...
* Spending time with him.
Back in June I gave a message based on Matthew 4, when Jesus called the first disciples and I talked quite a bit about the S’mikah rabbis, those special teachers who somehow had something special about them - more than just an ability to quote and expound on Scripture.
And I talked about how people would just gather around them as they walked the dusty roads of Israel.
One of the biggest privileges a person could have would be to be so close to the rabbi that they would get covered with the dust that the rabbi kicked up as he walked.
And whatever the rabbi walked on (or in!) would sometimes end up on the robes of his closest followers.
This was a sign of prestige. A dusty follower was recognized as a close follower - a good disciple of the rabbi.
But you don’t get dusty by staying at home off the dusty street where the rabbi is. You gotta go there - you gotta be with the rabbi.
That means spending time with him. We do that by reading his word, praying, and spending time with other believers in worship and study.
Thirdly, to follow Christ means...
* Obedience to his words and example.
I’ve already mentioned obedience, but let me hit on the example thing for a moment.
Go back to the definition of a disciple from Vine’s dictionary for a moment, and I especially want to point out the phrase:
they are spoken of as imitators of their teacher.
Circle the word, "imitators." Are you an imitator of Jesus? Are you trying to live by his example?
Remember the goal of discipleship - ChristLIKENESS!!!
Many of you have probably read the book, "In His Steps," by Charles Sheldon.
This book though it’s well over 100 years old, was the origination of the phrase, "What would Jesus do?"
Long before it became a Christian fad, it was a serious question asked by people who were serious about being a sold out, healthy, authentic, follower of Jesus.
It’s about a congregation whose members took a pledge to do nothing for an entire year without first asking, "What would Jesus do?"
I am re-reading it for about the 6th time. And as each time before, I found areas of conviction that I need to work on.
Areas where I am not walking as Jesus would. And I don’t like it. But you know what? If I’m going to do more than just talk about it, I need to do it.
The more I learn of Jesus from the Scriptures, the more I have to apply to my own life.
Why? Because that’s what a disciple does.
Let me encourage you to take the next few days and honestly ask the question, "What would Jesus do if he were in my position?" "What would Jesus do if he were me?"
Obviously, you can only find that out through your own study of the Scriptures.
But let me give you a friendly warning. Don’t ask that question unless you’re serious about doing what you think Jesus would do, regardless of the outcome.
And if you are serious, get ready for some radical change in your life. Change for the better!
What’s in it for me?
The call to discipleship is extremely important. And it’s not always easy to be a disciple, yet that’s what Jesus wants.
But is there anything in it for me, or should I just plan on spending my life gutting it out for Jesus while I await my reward in heaven?
Well, let me assure you that there is a reward in heaven. But I believe that there is also reward on earth for living for Jesus.
John 10:10 -
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
I am absolutely convinced that only those who are sold out for Jesus as disciples will experience the full and abundant life Jesus has for his followers.
I think the casual Christian may have glimpses of this, but will never experience it to any lasting or life-changing degree.
So here’s the invitation: if you want to live life to its fullest, the way Jesus intends, then step into the adventure of discipleship. Decide to get "dusty" with Jesus.
No, it’s not always easy. But it’s worth it. Believe me. And don’t just take my word for it. Talk to someone here who you know has a fruitful walk with God.
If you want suggestions of who to talk to, come see me. I’ll be glad to give you some names.
Conclusion
Why am I getting so worked up about this? Because the job of the church is to make disciples.
What do you mean, PB? Listen to the words of Jesus, just before he ascended into heaven to be with the Father, from Matthew 28:19-20 -
"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, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."
If the church is not making disciples, we are failing.
We begin by helping people find forgiveness of sins and a home in heaven, then we help them live for Jesus, helping them develop in Christ-likeness.
And you know what else? Discipleship enhances all the other purposes for which God made you and the church.
Disciples are better able to worship God in spirit and in truth. Disciples are better able experience and enhance fellowship with other believers. Disciples are better able to meet the needs of others in the family of God in ministry. And disciples are most effective in reaching others for Jesus through evangelism.
If you want to move to the next level of following Christ, being his disciple, then please contact me - either today or another time, over the phone, a note in the mail, an e-mail, or whatever.
Believe me, I want to do all I can to help you.
Let’s pray.
