Discipleship | Essential Christianity | Pastor Johnny Mitcham
Essential Christianity
Discipleship
Soul Tattoo: Being a disciple is becoming more like Jesus in every area of my life and relentlessly loving and serving others.
Goals of a Disciple:
Imitate the teacher’s life
Inculcate (Instill) the teacher’s values
Reproduce the teachers teaching
Know / Grow / Go Discipleship
KNOW – Discipleship is a call to a personal commitment to Jesus
a. The call: to be with Him and know Him
Mark 3:14 He appointed twelve (whom he named apostles), so that they might be *with* him and that he could [then] send them to preach.
1 Corinthians 1:9 God who has *called us into fellowship with his Son* Jesus Christ our Lord is faithful.
Philippians 3:10-11 My aim is to know him*, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
b. The goal: To enjoy Him and become like Him
1 Corinthians 1:9 God who has *called you into fellowship* with Christ Jesus our Lord is faithful.
Luke 6:40 A disciple is not greater than his teacher, but everyone when fully trained will be like his teacher*.
John 13:14-17* 13:14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you too ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example you should do just as I have done for you. 16 I tell you the solemn truth, the slave is not greater than his master, nor is the one who is sent as a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you understand these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
1 Corinthians 11:1 Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.
GROW – Discipleship is a call to follow Jesus
a. The demand
Luke 9:23-24 23 Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
Luke 14:26-27 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.*
Mark 10:42-45* 2 Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions use their authority over them. 43 But it is not this way among you. Instead whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, 44 and *whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of all. 45 For* even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
b. The grace
Matthew 11:28-30* 28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.”
John 15:5-8 5“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me—and I in him—bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and burned up. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples.”
c. The promise
Mark 10:28-31 Peter began to speak to him, “Look, we have left everything to follow you!” 29 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, there is no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the gospel 30 who will not receive in this age a hundred times as much—homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, fields, all with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
GO – Discipleship as a call to make disciples
Matthew 28:18-20** Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Soul Tattoo: Being a disciple is becoming more like Jesus in every area of my life and relentlessly loving and serving others.
Jesus’ Way vs Satan’s Way
Love God vs Hate God
Love people vs Hate people
Get in the game (GO) vs Stay in the stands (COMPLAIN/JUDGE)
Discipleship involves Discipline
Hebrews 12:11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Where focus goes, energy flows
Philippians 3:13-14 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.