Disciples of Jesus

Transcript

Rob McFarlane: 0:58

Today, we're going to be talking about being a disciple of Jesus. Now, a disciple is a follower, a learner, an apprentice, one who learns from a master. And as followers of Jesus, we want to learn from him, we want to be apprenticed by him, we want him to be our example. We want to follow him. And in following him, we need to see what Jesus defines as a true disciple. We'll be spending our time together in the Gospel of John, and in the Gospel of John, we see three marks of a true disciple of Jesus Christ. So, number one, a true disciple of Jesus is growing in freedom by spending time in God's word. Let's look at John chapter 8, verse 31 and 32, and I'm reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. As we look at these two verses, we see three words. Abide in his word, knowing the truth, and the truth setting us free. Can you see that that's progressive? As we spend time in God's Word, we grow in our knowledge of the truth, the truth of who God is, who we are in Christ, and the life that God intends us to live as His followers. And as our knowledge begins to grow, it should translate into freedom or life change in our lives. Any area that you are struggling in, what we need to do is spend time in God's Word, and we need to feed ourselves with the Word of God. We then start to get an understanding or knowledge of the truth, and then the truth will begin to set us free. Now you can't be a follower of Jesus if you don't follow His teaching, if you don't learn about who He is. And Jesus was described as the Word made flesh. So, in other words, you could turn that round and you could say the Word of God is like Jesus in print. Let's spend time in God's Word, let's grow in our knowledge of God's Word, and let's let that set us free. I'd like to give you an example of an area that I struggled with and have struggled with in my life, and that's living to please people. Yeah, I have been a people pleaser. I could say, my name is Rob, I'm a recovering people pleaser. Now the problem with trying to please people is it's very difficult to lead and to take people where they need to go if you're just trying to keep everybody happy. Someone once said they don't really know the formula for success, but they know that failure is trying to keep everybody happy. And I found, like the Bible says, that the fear of man, because that's what it is, living to please people is like the fear of man, a fear of what people may think or may say proves to be a snare. It's a trap and it will hold you back from the best life that God wants you to live. Now, when I gave my life to Jesus, I changed in many ways, but I still struggled with trying to make sure that people thought good things about me. Until one day I discovered a verse in the Bible, and it's Galatians chapter 1 and verse 10, which says, For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I was still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. And I was amazed by that verse, as I have spent time abiding in it, meditating on it, thinking about it, memorizing it, musing over it, my knowledge began to grow, and with my knowledge of the truth, confidence and freedom has also been a fruit of that. Abide in the word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And I've discovered the way to live is to live as a servant of Jesus, to live for the audience of one, to live to please him. And that in essence translates in a way that I want to treat other people with dignity and respect and honor in a way that pleases God. What areas are you struggling with? As a follower of Jesus, I want to encourage you to abide in his word, to let his word start to fill your heart and your mind with truth, and then allow that truth to change the way you relate to others, the way you live your life, and the way you walk out being a disciple of Jesus. Remember that it's important for us to know that we can prove or be truly disciples of Jesus if we abide in his word and we know the truth and we walk in that freedom. So number one, growing in freedom by spending time in God's word is proof of a true disciple. Number two, a true disciple of Jesus has love for others, inspired by Jesus' love for them. Let's look at John chapter 13, verse 34 and 35. Again, reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible. A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. The distinguishing mark of followers of Jesus Christ is their love for one another. As a young teenager, I was exposed to a group of young people who were followers of Jesus. It was the first time I ever heard the gospel, and the gospel message is glorious. But what opened my my ears and my heart to the gospel message was seeing a group of young people relating to one another with the love of God, with deep, meaningful, honoring and and uh wonderful love relationships based on their them being recipients of God's love for them. That opened my heart, and I can tell you that when I when I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ, Jesus has shown me how much he loves me, and that should be the standard of how we love others. Oh, he has loved me so much, and he has shown me his goodness and love in so many different ways, and as a follower of Jesus, I have a responsibility to show that love to others. Now it's important for us to remember that love is not a weak emotion, it wasn't the nails that held Jesus to the cross, it was his love for humanity. Jesus is love personified, and Jesus operated in a tough love with his disciples to call out the very best in them. For example, in Matthew chapter 14, when Jesus told Peter to come and walk towards him on the water, Peter started to walk on the water to Jesus, but when he took his eyes off of Jesus and looked at the wind and the waves, he began to sink. And Jesus in love said to him, Where was your faith? Why did you doubt? I believe that this was not an act of judgment, but it was a love relationship that Jesus had with Peter. One-on-one, he said to him, Peter, you could have made it. I see the potential in you. And our love for others should call them up to live the best possible life they can. We all need people who will love us enough to tell us the truth in a way that is honoring, that is God-fearing, that's pleasing to God, and will walk with us to try and bring out the very best in us. Remember, the Bible says that faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. You need people around you who love you enough to call you to step up and live the best life that you can. And I think that's what a local church is there for. Where we come to church and we are encouraged and we're challenged, we're inspired and we are spurred on to be all that God has called us to be. So we've seen in my second thought that a disciple of Jesus Christ is one who loves others inspired by the love that Jesus Christ has for them. Number three, a true disciple of Jesus has a fruitful life fueled by a vital relationship with God. Let's look at John chapter 15 and verse 8. In the English Standard Version it says, By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. God wants us to live fruitful lives. He wants our lives to be fruitful and productive. Now, when we read the New Testament, we see that fruit represents two things. It represents character, like the fruit of the Holy Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, guidance, goodness, meekness, and self-control. Or the fruit of righteousness, a right relationship with God. That's a peace and joy and uh and walking in righteousness towards others. That's character fruit. And a follower of Jesus needs to bear that kind of fruit in their lives. But there's also the second way that fruit is defined in the New Testament, where Paul would say to churches, My ministry among you has been fruitful, or God has opened an opportunity for fruitful ministry among you. And fruitfulness in this context is productivity or effectiveness or results. And I believe as followers of Jesus Christ that you and I need to live fruitful lives. There needs to be lots of the fruit of the Spirit, but there also needs to be results and productivity. We need to be contributors, we need to be those who make a difference wherever God has placed us. We should be saying, Lord, how can I be used by you to bring hope, faith, and love to a world that so desperately needs those virtues. So how do we bear this fruit? Well, it's so important for us to be engaged with God in a vital relationship. Remember, it's a fruitful life fueled by a vital relationship with God. Let's go down in John chapter 15 to verse 4 and 5. Jesus said, Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. God wants us to be vitally connected in relationship with him, and that will produce fruit of character and results in our lives. A good example I could give you is an appliance. Any sort of appliance only can do what it's designed to do when it's plugged into the power source. It can have all the potential. It can produce light, it can produce sound, it can it can do all sorts of things, but unless it's plugged into a power source, it never reaches its full potential. That's exactly the same with you and I. God has placed within us gifts, talents, and abilities. He's given us dreams for the future. But we'll only see those gifts, talents, and abilities, and our dreams come to pass and produce results when we are connected to the power source. We need to plug into the power source, and the power source is God Himself. As Christians, we should live lives connected to Him. So we saw point number three a disciple of Jesus Christ lives a fruitful life fueled by a vital relationship with God. We've seen today that a true disciple of Jesus is or has. Number one, they're growing in freedom by spending time in God's Word. Number two, they have a love for others inspired by Jesus' love for them. And number three, they live a fruitful life fueled by a vital relationship with God. Let's pray together. And as we pray, I invite you to ask the Holy Spirit to highlight for you what He wants you to do as a result of what you've heard in today's sermon. Let's pray. Father God, thank you that you have a wonderful plan for each of our lives. We know that you want us to live in freedom by spending time in your word. Thank you that we can be inspired by your love for us, and because of your great love for us, we can love others. Help us to love others that you have entrusted to us, to be giving and forgiving. Thank you that you've called us to live a fruitful life and prove our discipleship by the fruit of character, Christian character in our lives, and by the fruit of results of effective ministry to others. We ask you, Holy Spirit, to speak to us now and show us what you would like us to do as a result of what we've heard in today's message. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.