Discipleship Defined: Exploring the Call to Follow Jesus

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

In this podcast series, we're going to be looking into biblical words that have great significance to our faith.

The name of this series is called the Word of the Week, where once a week we will dive deeper into these words that we are familiar with in scripture.

So come along with me.

Let's study the Word of the week.

Pastor Josh here with another word of the week.

The word of the Week this week is discipleship.

And so for the next few weeks, we're going to be looking at the topic of discipleship.

We're going to be looking at what is discipleship.

We're going to look at what the Bible has to say about it, and we're going to look at how we, as the church can perform discipleship in our midst.

So where do we start with the area of discipleship?

Well, we need to start with the question, what is discipleship?

And it's a question that needs to be asked, and it needs to be answered.

And.

And I think the best place to start is in Matthew, chapter 28.

We're going to look at the end of the chapter.

We're going to look at something called the Great Commission.

What is the Great Commission?

The Great Commission is Jesus giving instruction to his disciples, to his followers, about what it means to make disciples.

And he gives us a.

A goal, he gives us a plan, he gives us a purpose, and that purpose is to make disciples.

And so if it was important to Jesus right before he ascends into heaven to give this instruction to his followers, I believe that it's important for us today within the church to follow the same direction, the same purpose in discipleship.

And so let's look at Matthew, chapter 28, and let's look at verse number 18, and we're going to read down to the end of the chapter.

And I think this will give us a good example of the necessity of discipleship within the church.

It says in Matthew, chapter 28, verse 18, and Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

And so we see that Jesus is explaining his power or his authority to his followers here.

And he says, what I'm about to ask you to do, you can only do in my power.

He says in verse 19, Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.

Or.

Or in the.

The Greek, it literally means make disciples, teach people what it means to be a disciple, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son.

And of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever.

I've commanded you, and lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the world.

And so Jesus gives them his purpose, and that is the purpose of making disciples.

And he says, do it in my power.

And then he says, you will have my presence with you while you do that.

Verse number 20, he says, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.

And so I want us to think about, number one.

In discipleship, we have to rely on the power of God.

Number two, we have to rely in the purpose that we are given, in the fact that, hey, the whole reason that we have this opportunity is to show people what it means to follow Jesus Christ.

So you have the power, the purpose, and then the presence of our Savior in the midst of that.

So what does it mean to, to make disciples?

Well, we, we need to talk about what a disciple is first and foremost.

What is a disciple?

Literally, the word disciple means follower.

It means learner, someone who learns of someone, someone who follows someone.

Think of the situation of an apprentice, maybe someone who is learning how to be a.

Let's say it's a plumber in this case, and the plumber is learning from someone else.

He's an apprentice, and he's learning from a master plumber to become more efficient and more professional when it comes to his work in, in that field.

It's the same idea of discipleship.

It's learning about who Jesus is and growing in him and maturing in our faith.

And so a disciple by definition is a follower, a learner in the context of a Christian disciple, it's a learner of Christ, a follower of Christ, someone who understands Jesus in his message of faith, his message of forgiveness, his message of transformation.

And so, so what would be a characteristic of a disciple?

Well, I would say first and foremost someone who puts Jesus first, someone who is a committed follower of Christ.

And I think that's a good definition of a disciple, someone who's a committed follower of Christ.

In the book of mark, mark chapter 8, verse 34, we see Jesus explaining what it means to follow him.

Verse 34 of Mount Mark 8, it says, and when he had called the people unto him and with his disciples also he said unto them, whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself.

And so one element of being a disciple is to deny ourselves.

And it says here, and take up his cross.

Now, today, the cross is a symbol of beauty.

It's a symbol of fashion.

But back then it was A symbol of death.

So we'll speak more of this when we study this element of discipleship.

But it's essentially Jesus telling his followers, his disciples to deny themselves and to die to their flesh.

And then it says, and follow me.

So there's three steps there.

To deny ourselves, to die to our flesh and to follow him.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it.

But whosoever shall lose his life.

And this is so interesting here because it's, it's.

It's contrasting what the world teaches us.

The world teaches us.

It's all about us.

When Jesus says, hey, it's about losing your life.

So.

So he says in verse 35, for whosoever will save his life shall lose it.

But whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, and the Gospels, the same shall save it.

For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

And I think that's an important question to ask when it comes to the area of discipleship.

He says, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Whosoever, therefore, shall be ashamed of me and my words and this adulterous and sinful generation of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father and with the holy angels.

And so the Bible clearly teaches that, you know, we can believe in Jesus, we can believe in his existence, we can even believe of his work on the cross, but yet not be committed in our dedication to him.

And so it's number one.

To be a Christian is the.

Is the first important thing we have to do.

We have to believe in Christ and faith.

But the Bible speaks of that discipleship process, that.

That process of committing ourselves to him more and more.

And so I think the first step of becoming a disciple, obviously, is salvation.

But the second step would be putting Jesus first in everything, in all elements of our life.

Jesus spoke many times in the New Testament about commitment, putting things behind us, not living for ourselves.

And so to be a disciple means I need to follow him.

I need to deny myself another element of discipleship.

The other.

The other element, I would say, that's at the top of the list would be obeying Jesus, following his teachings.

In John, chapter 8, verse 31, it says, Jesus said to those Jews which believed on him, so we see that they already believe.

But he's speaking about something more, about the element of growth, the element of being a disciple.

He says, if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

So part of putting Jesus first in our life is putting His Word as a priority to obey.

James, chapter one, verse 22, speaks of not just hearing, but also doing be doers of the Word and not hearers, only deceiving your own selves.

And so someone who hears the word of God but does not allow that word to change them, that is a person who is, it says here, is deceiving themselves.

So there are a lot of people that probably believe that they are disciples of Christ, but yet don't obey His Word.

So the Bible says, well, that is deception.

You're deceiving others and you're deceiving yourself.

And so the.

The reality of it is, is that we're not going to deceive God.

So for us to be a disciple of Christ, for us to be a committed follower of Christ, it means that we need to put Jesus first in all things, and we need to obey His Word.

We need to follow His Word.

And so the reason why we're talking about the definition of being a disciple in the.

In the topic of discipleship is this.

We cannot make disciples in our churches unless we ourselves are disciples.

That's something that I've been trying to emphasize within our church here at Middletown Baptist Church, is that if we are not disciples ourselves, if we are not putting Christ first, if we are not obeying His Word, if we are not committed to following him, there is no way that we can make disciples within our midst.

I cannot demonstrate to someone what it means to be a disciple if I am putting myself first, if I'm disregarding the word of God.

And so in this topic of discipleship, the church must find it important to be disciples themselves so that we can make disciples.

So going back to the Great Commission, what has Jesus called us to do to make disciples?

And so this first lesson I'd like us to think about here today would be to be a disciple maker.

I must be a disciple myself.

And so my challenge for you today is, as, as you were listening to this podcast, is to inspect your own life.

Is.

Is.

Is my life aligned with the definition of Jesus in, in the area of discipleship?

Have I put him first?

Have I, the Bible says, have I.

Have I put my.

My hands to the plow?

Am I looking back?

Am I loving others more than I love the word of God?

Am I loving myself more than I love the way of God?

And there's other passages of scripture that, that Jesus speaks to, and he.

He even speaks to this understanding that, you know, in comparison to my love for God, my love for my family should look like hate.

Now, that's a hard pill for many of us to swallow.

But the idea is, is that we should be so committed to Christ that other elements of our life should, should not even hold a candle to the importance of following Him.

And so I, I, I think that the first challenge that we need to have when it comes to this area of discipleship, because we're going to see later on in this study that God has called us to lead people to him and to teach people what it means to follow Him.

But the first step is inspecting our own lives.

Am I a disciple?

Have I committed my life to Christ?

Am I obeying him to the best of my ability?

And if I do fall short, am I willing to admit that, confess that, come back to him in restoration, and continue to grow in my spiritual walk?

And so to make disciples.

And we know that that's important why?

Because Jesus gives us that in the Great Commission.

Our marching orders, so to speak, when it comes to being in the army of God, would be to make disciples.

So making disciples is important.

We know that because Jesus said it was important.

So if making disciples is important, how do I do that?

Well, number one, I need to be a disciple.

And I need to show others around me what it means to be a disciple.

Second Timothy, chapter two, verse two says, and the things that thou has heard of me.

This is Paul speaking to Timothy, the things that thou has heard of me.

Among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.

And so the picture here is this.

Someone has taught you what it means to be a follower of Christ.

Okay, Someone has pointed you to the Word.

Someone has demonstrated to you faithfulness.

And then what we do is we learn and we grow, and then we pass that on to others so that they can pass it on to others.

And so that 50 years, 100 years from now, that that cycle has continued on just as it has for centuries here, as, as God has worked his will out with the church?

And so I would encourage you to inspect your own life, to say, am I that committed follower of Christ?

Am I that one who is a putting him first?

Am I that one who is being a doer and applying the truths of God in my life?

And it.

Again, there's so much more that we could add to this.

But I think the first step of talking about discipleship is, number one, defining what a disciple is, and then number two, seeing where we stand in that comparison, and then knowing now how to apply that to teaching and demonstrating to others.

And so what we're going to look at next week would be the step of, okay, I have now committed myself to Christ, okay?

So I have, I have a declaration.

I declare Christ, okay?

So the next step for me would be, I, I need to train, I need to demonstrate.

I need to demonstrate to others what it means to be a follower of Christ.

If that means teaching, if that means exhortation, if that means edification, if that means challenging, you know, whatever the case might be, I need to show other people what it means to follow Christ.

And I ultimately need to put him to Christ, into his Word.

And so in that, in that discussion, we will take the.

We'll have the.

The analysis of how we take that next step from being a disciple to being a disciple maker.

And I think that's the natural or we call supernatural progression that happens in the Christian's life.

And so Christian maturity is understanding that life is not about us.

Life is not about our particular needs only, but it's also about the ultimate goal of God and the purpose of the Great Commission to make disciples for the cause of the gospel, the cause of the kingdom.

So the disciple is a committed follower of Christ, and disciple is someone who obeys the the Word and puts Christ first in their life.

And next week, we'll look at what it means to disciple others around us.

And so if you have not been someone who has been a beneficiary of discipleship, I would encourage you to find someone that you can look to as, as someone who can point you to the truths of Scripture, who can walk you through different elements of God's plan for your life when it comes to the different passages of scripture that, that apply to those things.

And so I would encourage you to think about that, pray about that here this week.

And we are going to learn together what it means to be disciple makers.

And so I hope that you have a wonderful week.

I hope that you'll tune back into this podcast when we look at what it means to be a disciple and what it means to be in the process of discipleship.

I think for a Christian, the discipleship process never ends.

We're always learning, we're always growing.

We should always be pointing other people to that same process.

So, again, thank you so much for listening to this podcast.

Share it with someone that you love if you feel led to do that.

And I hope to have you back here next week when we talk about this discipleship process.

Well, thank the Lord for His goodness.

Thank the Lord for His resurrection.

Thank the Lord for His victory over death.

As we celebrated this past weekend and we are going to continue to push forward and the cause of the Gospel.

Take care.

Have a wonderful week.

We will talk to you soon.

Hey, I really appreciate that you listen to the Word of the Week podcast.

If you have any questions about the podcast or about our church, Middletown Baptist Church, you can find more information about us on Facebook or YouTube.

Or you can find the podcast on NBC podcast.org you can contact me directly at Josh Mess sorrow@middletownbaptistchurch.org Stay tuned for future Word of the Week episodes where we dive deeper into words that impact our life according to Scripture.

Thank you so much.

God Bless.

We'll talk to you soon.