What is a Disciple of Jesus? – Part VII – Being on Mission
Jesus was sent on mission into our world. God the Father sent Jesus into this world to “seek and save the lost.”[i] As we are made into the image of Christ we are sent too. From the beginning, Jesus’ desire wasn’t for us to receive his gift of salvation and then be whisked off to heaven. Jesus’ prayer for us as his disciples was clear and simple.
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.[ii]
As Christ followers, we have been blessed with a great gift. Jesus has trusted us to share his good news with those around us. This is a beautiful and simple task, but it isn’t easy. Just as the world was against Jesus, it will be against us. Jesus didn’t send us into the world alone though.
When Jesus told his disciple to love one another in John 13:34-35, he wasn’t telling them to live in loving community for the benefit of each other (although there are benefits to living in loving community). It was for the benefit of those around them. “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”[iii] We are called to share the good news of Jesus through the instrument of community.
There are two areas that can hurt our mission to image Jesus to the world that are found in Jesus’ prayer in John 17:14-18. The first is if we are part of the world. Jesus was not of this world. He lived differently than everyone around him. He handled money differently. He handled relationships differently. He handled work differently. He handled family differently. He handled love differently. Jesus lived a life different from the world around him. We are called to do the same thing. By living differently than the world around us, we bring the focus to Jesus who is the instrument of salvation.
The second area that can hinder our mission is if we separate ourselves from the world. Jesus was different as he was in the world. He didn’t escape the dirt and evil of this world, but instead dived deep into it to shine His light into the darkness. He ate and drank with alcoholics, corrupt city officials, prostitutes, self-righteous religious leaders, disease- infested street dwellers, and blue-collar workers. Who cares if we have the hope of Jesus if it doesn’t make a difference in the world around us? Like Jesus, we are sent into the world and share that hope. We glorify Jesus when we are in the world but not of the world. Spend this week focusing on how you are sent to be a light in this dark and dying world.
[i] Luke 19:10 (ESV)
[ii] John 17:14-18 (ESV)
[iii] John 13:35 (ESV)
What is a Disciple of Jesus? – Part VI – Living in Community
Jesus lived in community. He grew up in a large family. He spent his entire ministry with 12 close-knit friends. He had larger groups of people who followed him during his ministry. He constantly ate meals with people. He healed people. He prayed for people. He preached to multitudes. His life was marked with constant and continuous community. Everything he did was within the context of community.
Jesus’ lifestyle of continuous community didn’t start with his ministry here on earth but was just an extension of his eternal relationship with the Father and Holy Spirit. We are called to live in community because God lives in community with Himself.
God’s tri-Personal reality is intrinsic to his existence as the one God who alone is God. He is a socially related being within himself. In this tri-Personal relationship the three Persons love one another, support one another, assist one another, team with one another, honor one another, communicate with one another, and in everything respect and enjoy one another. They are in need of nothing but each other throughout all eternity. Such is the richness and the fullness and the completion of the social relationship that exists in the Trinity. [i]
In John 13:34-35, Jesus tells us the way that we image him to those around us is by living in loving community. He puts it this way: “A new commandment I give to 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.”[ii] When Jesus says we will have love for one another, he isn’t talking about the typical-everyday-pithy love that we come across. He is talking about a deep, never ending, never failing, all-encompassing kind of love. It is the same kind of love that he showed his disciples by loving them at their best and at their worst. It is the love Jesus is talking about when he said; “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”[iii]
Because of this love, it is in community that we help each other grow. It is in community that we pray for one another. It is in community that we repent. It is in community that we care for one another. It is in community that we spread the gospel (more on this next week). It is in community that we bear the image of God and ultimately bring glory to Jesus and find deep joy in our lives. Spend this week focusing on how you are called to live in loving community with brothers and sisters in Christ.
[i] Bruce A. Ware, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance (Crossway Books, 2005), 25.
[ii] John 13:34-35 (ESV)
[iii] John 15:13 (ESV)
What is a Disciple of Jesus? – Part V – Worshiping Jesus
Jesus continuously worshiped God the Father. Depending on your background, the word worship could have a lot of baggage with it. Some view worship as a meeting time once a week. Some view worship as a music genre. Some view worship as doing a set of prayers/chants/mantras. Some view worship as singing some songs.
While all of these are forms of worship, they all fall short of a full understanding of what worship is. Worship at its core is giving value to something or someone. In his book Unceasing Worship, Harold M. Best defines worship better by saying that, “worship is the continuous outpouring of all that I am, all that I do and all that I can ever become in light of a chosen or choosing god.”[i]
Human beings are worshipers. Everything we do, says, think, or feel is an act of worship. At the heart of everything we do is giving value to someone or something. We are born worshiping and we never stop. The only thing that changes is what we worship. God is the only one worthy of worship. God’s original design was for us to continuously worship Him, but sin entered the world and we started worshiping lesser things. We started to worship created things (ourselves generally being at the top of the list). We started to worship idols.[ii]
The reality is that at the heart of all sin is an issue with worship. Romans 1:24-25 puts it this way, “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”[iii] Because of sin, instead of continuously worshiping God, we continuously worship created things. Because of sin, we have had no desire to ever give glory to God.
Now that we are being made into the image of Christ, we are able to glorify God with our lives once again. Jesus used everything in his life to worship God. He is the only person to perfectly worship God, and through the power of the Holy Spirit we can do the same. Instead of worshiping money, we can use money to worship God. Instead of worshiping our jobs, we can use our jobs to worship God. Instead worshiping our families, we can use our families to worship God. Instead of worshiping all of our stuff, we can use our stuff to worship God. In Jesus, we have been freed to worship God. Spend this week focusing on how you are called to worship God with all your life.
[i] Harold M. Best, Unceasing Worship: Biblical Perspectives on Worship and the Arts (InterVarsity Press, 2003), 18.
[ii] An idol is anything that we worship that isn’t God.
[iii] (ESV)
What is a Disciple of Jesus? – Part IV – Imaging Jesus
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. – Ephesians 5:1-2
In the beginning, God created us in His image. Like a mirror, we were created to reflect God’s glory to the world around us. Unfortunately, sin entered the world and our reflection became distorted. Our mirrors became bent and broken.
The story doesn’t stop there though. Jesus entered our world and imaged the Father perfectly. He reflected God’s glory to the world perfectly. Everything he did showed us a perfect image of who the Father is. Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”[i] Jesus imaged the Father.
We are called to image Jesus in the same way that Jesus imaged God the Father. As disciples we are being conformed into the image of Jesus.[ii] Bruce Ware describes our imaging this way:
Created and finite representations (images of God) of God’s own nature, that in relationship with Him and each other, they might be His representatives (imaging God) in carrying out responsibilities He was given to them. In this sense, we are images of God in order to image God and His purposes in the ordering of our lives and carrying out of our God-given responsibilities.[iii]
In the next three weeks we will focus on three distinct areas in our lives in which we are called to image God. We are called to worship Jesus with all of our lives, live in gospel-centered community, and be on mission in the world around us. For now we will simply focus on the thought of imaging God.
Now that our identity is in Jesus, our lives are called to be a reflection of Jesus. Our mirrors are being repaired so we can image Jesus in everything we do, think, feel, and say. This is only possible because of the relationship that we now have with Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit as we are continually purified into the image of Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus, it is our goal that every aspect of our life would reflect God’s glory. Our families should reflect God’s glory. Our finances should reflect God’s glory. Our relationships should reflect God’s glory. Our jobs should reflect God’s glory. Spend this week focusing on how you are called to be an image-bearer of God.
[i] John 14:9 (ESV)
[ii] Romans 8:29
[iii] Wayne Grudem, Biblical Foundations for Manhood and Womanhood (Crossway Books, 2002), 79.
What is a Disciple of Jesus? – Part III – Finding Your Identity in Jesus
So where does our journey begin? Jesus. It all starts with Jesus. He is the creator of all things. He is ruler over everything. He holds everything together by His power. He came to earth; humbly born of a teenage virgin girl in a dirty barn in the Middle East over 2,000 years ago. He lived a perfect life by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was betrayed by one of His closest pupils. He was beaten to a bloody pulp and died a brutal death on a wooden cross for our sins.
It is in the work of Jesus on the cross that our relationship with God the Father is reconciled. Because of the sin of our father Adam, we were separated from God. In our sin, we ran as far away from God as possible. Before Jesus, we were viewed as sick-wicked-evil-despicable-depraved-sinful people. God the Father was ready to pour His wrath out on us.
But God, in His grace, came after us. He pulled us out of our sin and placed us in Christ Jesus. For those whom God has called to Himself we are now viewed “in Christ.” We are now “holy and blameless and above reproach before him.”[i] God the Father no longer sees us. Instead he sees his Son Jesus Christ.
This happens in what Martin Luther called the great exchange. On the cross, Jesus took our sin upon himself, and in exchange he gave us his righteousness. The Apostle Paul puts it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”[ii] In Jesus, our sin has been exchanged for His righteousness.
But it’s not just about the removal of our sins; everything we do as Christians is “in Christ.” We are sanctified in Christ.[iii] We serve in Christ.[iv] We are redeemed in Christ.[v] We are made alive in Christ.[vi] We are no longer condemned in Christ.[vii] We are one body of believers in Christ.[viii] We are a new creation in Christ.[ix] We are reconciled to God in Christ.[x] We have freedom in Christ.[xi] We are spiritually blessed in Christ.[xii] We are created for good works in Christ.[xiii] We are encouraged in Christ.[xiv] We become mature in Christ.[xv] We are strengthened by grace in Christ.[xvi] Even our physical death is in Christ[xvii] (and this is just the short list).
If you have put your faith in Him, you are now in Christ. We no longer have our old sinful identity. We have His! We have received His righteousness as our own. We now have a loving relationship with God the Father by the blood of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Spend this week focusing on your new identity in Christ Jesus.
[i] Colossians 1:22
[ii] (ESV)
[iii] 1 Corinthians 1:2
[iv] Romans 16:3, 9
[v] Romans 3:24
[vi] Romans 6:11, 1 Corinthians 15:22
[vii] Romans 8:11
[viii] Romans 12:5
[ix] 2 Corinthians 5:17
[x] 2 Corinthians 5:19
[xi] Galatians 2:4
[xii] Ephesians 1:3
[xiii] Ephesians 2:10
[xiv] Philippians 2:1
[xv] Colossians 1:28
[xvi] 2 Timothy 2:1
[xvii] 1 Corinthians 15:18, 1 Thessalonians 4:16
What is a Disciple of Jesus? – Part II
We ended yesterday with the following definition to answer the questions, “What is a Disciple of Jesus?”
A disciple is someone who is on the path to becoming like Jesus by the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. As the disciple becomes more like Jesus, they find their identity in Jesus and image Him by worshiping God with all their lives, living in gospel community with other disciples, and going on mission to make more disciples of Jesus.
Let me break down this definition a little bit more. As the lead singer of Aerosmith, Steven Tyler, sings in his song Amazing, “Life’s a journey, not a destination.”[i] Being a disciple of Jesus has no ultimate connotation that you have arrived in any way. You see in the Apostle John’s gospel that those who were called disciples were simply on the path to being made into the image of Jesus. Some only took a few steps, whereas some followed Jesus to their death. The reality is that being a disciple of Jesus means that you are on the path, following Jesus.
Now like most journeys, there are going to be points of interest along the way (salvation, joining a church, special callings in your life, etc.), but these aren’t the ultimate focus. The ultimate focus of a disciple is Jesus himself. A disciple isn’t marked by their experience, knowledge, actions, or expertise. A disciple is marked by whom they are following. For a Christian, that is Jesus himself. Our ultimate goal is to be transformed into the image of Christ.
This isn’t by any merit of our own. The fact that we are disciples of Jesus is strictly by the grace of God. It is through the blood of Christ that we are called to be His disciples. You see this over and over again in the gospels when Jesus called his disciples: they were not called base on merit. There was simply Jesus’ call into their lives to “follow me.”[ii]
Our growth and progress as we follow Jesus is also nothing for us to boast in either. Sanctification doesn’t happen because of our own will, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Peter encourages some exiles of gospel in 1 Peter 1:1-2 by telling them:
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you.[iii]
We are called by the grace of God and sanctified by the Holy Spirit to become more and more like the Son of God…Jesus. This is what it means to be a disciple.
My definition of a disciple ends with the sentence, “As the disciple becomes more like Jesus, they find their identity in Jesus and image Him by worshiping God with all their lives, living in gospel community with other disciples, and going on mission to make more disciples of Jesus.”
As a disciple is being transformed into the image of Christ, there are some clear areas in the life that will be transformed. Disciples will begin to find their identity in Jesus, worship Jesus with all their life, live in community, and be on mission to make more disciples of Jesus. That is the out powering from who the disciple is. These are the actions of a disciple. Over the next few weeks we’ll focus on each one of these more. Until then, I pray that you grow in your walk with Jesus.
[i] Aerosmith, Amazing (Geffen, 2001).
[ii] Matthew 4:19, Matthew 8:22, Mark 1:17, Mark 2:14, Luke 1:3, Luke 5:27, John 1:43
[iii] (ESV)
What is a Disciple of Jesus? – Part I
My week at Re:Train for the Spiritual Formations class truly helped me to solidify what my concept of a disciple is. Before then, I had only given minimal thought and study towards the question, “What is a disciple of Jesus?” Let me clarify my definition of a disciple before I move forward with the implications this has on my ministry.
Before we can understand what a disciple is, we first have to take a look at what a disciple isn’t. While each of the following is an aspect of a disciple, none of them by themselves give us a full picture of what a disciple is.
First, a disciple isn’t a mystic. A mystic’s whole life’s goal is to seek to be in the presence of Jesus. While this is a noble task and one that we should all seek to some degree, it is not a disciple.
Some would say that a disciple is a student. A student’s goal is to gain knowledge from a teacher. While we need to grow in our understanding of Jesus and the gospel everyday, a student and a disciple are two different things.
Third, some think of a disciple as a practitioner, focused on actions. They want to do what Jesus did. They love seeking out the methods of Jesus and seek to do the same thing as He did. While we need to learn to do what Jesus did, this isn’t a disciple.
Lastly, some people think of a disciple as a professional. In his or her mind, a disciple is someone who has finally arrived. They have read several books, taken classes, and probably hold some kind of title in the church.
So if a disciple isn’t a mystic, student, practitioner, or professional, what is a disciple? To begin, we need to take a look at what it would have culturally meant to be a disciple during the time Jesus was on earth. Ray Vander Laan talks about the education system and the relationship between a rabbi and disciples.
A few (very few) of the most outstanding Beth Midrash students sought permission to study with a famous rabbi often leaving home to travel with him for a lengthy period of time. These students were called talmidim (talmid, s.) in Hebrew, which is translated disciple. There is much more to a talmid than what we call student. A student wants to know what the teacher knows for the grade, to complete the class or the degree or even out of respect for the teacher. A talmid wants to be like the teacher, that is to become what the teacher is. That meant that students were passionately devoted to their rabbi and noted everything he did or said. This meant the rabbi/talmid relationship was a very intense and personal system of education. As the rabbi lived and taught his understanding of the Scripture his students (talmidim) listened and watched and imitated so as to become like him.[i]
A disciple doesn’t want to know what the rabbi knows or do what the rabbi does or simply be in the presence of the rabbi; he wants to do all these things to become who the rabbi is. The disciple’s sole focus is to become who the rabbi is. So this shapes my definition of a disciple:
A disciple is someone who is on the path to becoming like Jesus by the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. As the disciple becomes more like Jesus, they find their identity in Jesus and image Him by worshiping God with all their lives, living in gospel community with other disciples, and going on mission to make more disciples of Jesus.
Tomorrow we’ll break down this definition a little more…
[i] Ray Vander Laan, “Rabbi and Talmidim,” Follow the Rabbi, http://www.followtherabbi.com/Brix?pageID=2753.
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