What It Means to Be a Disciple

The question that stumped me the most in our entire 9-month study of "Forgotten God" was number 9 of Session 7, which asked if any of us had ever walked away from a ministry opportunity. Thinking at first in terms of church programs or duties, my written answer was "No," simply because I had never participated in one.

Then, after we discussed it a bit last Wednesday, I had to cross out that answer and change it to a "Yes." I indeed have walked away because the opportunities would take me beyond my natural talents.

That was at a point in our conversation when I suggested that the over-arching ministry to which we all belong is our discipleship to Jesus Christ. To be a decent Christian, one must be a disciple of Jesus. I find that unless I take an active role in pursuing the Spirit and practice dependence upon Him, I fail miserably at this, our first and foremost ministry.

The reason: Discipleship is not possible without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. It, like so many facets of Christian living, is simply not within the natural realm.

So, I believe that practical steps to be a true disciple are, first, to discern what true, active discipleship really should be; then, to seek the Spirit's guidance and help in developing those characteristics. If I can identify what they are, then I know what type of help to ask for, and I know where I need to do my part in putting them into practice.

So, what does it take to be a disciple? What are the characteristics of a true and active disciple of Jesus?

You can find several places in the Bible (Paul, James, John, and Peter give us many characteristics and relay commands from God). But my favorite place is Jesus' own words in John 13-17. If you look closely, this is where our Savior, the greatest of all teachers, spells out what He expects of a disciple, what a disciple can expect in his ministry, and it's the place where Jesus prays to the Father to protect disciples in the practice of their discipleships.

The text is probably the most wonderful prose ever composed. But, if you're like me, you can miss the richness of the clarity of instruction amidst all the wonder until each is separated from the composition and reviewed individually. It's like isolating specific trees from a rich forest to behold their particular strength and nature.

They then become very practical steps to take, as Francis Chan stipulated in his concluding question, "... right now ..."

In John 13, I find these. See if you agree.

• "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me." v8
• "... you ought to wash one another's feet." v14
• "... you should do as I did to you." v15
• "... you are not greater than the one who sends you." v16
• "If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them." v17
• "... he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me." v20
• "... love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." v34
• "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." v35
• "Where I go, you cannot follow me now; you will follow later." v36

In John 14:

• "Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me." v1
• ... that where I am, there you may be also." v3
• "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." v6
• "... he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father." v12
• "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. "v13
• "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it." v14
• "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." v15
• "... but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you." v17
• "After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also." v19
• "In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you." v20
• "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will beloved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." v21
• "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. v23
• "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." v26

In John 15:

• "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you." v3
• "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me". v4
• "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." v5
• "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned." v6
• "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." v7
• "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples." v8
• "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love." v9
• "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." v10
• "These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full." v11
• "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you." v12
• "You are My friends if you do what I command you." v13
• "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you." v15
• "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you." v16
• "This I command you, that you love one another." v17
• "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you." v19
• "Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master ' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also." v20
• "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning." vv26-27

In John 16:

• "These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling." v1
• "They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God." v2
• "These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me." v3
• "But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you." v4
• "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you." v7
• "And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged." vv8-10
• "... you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy." v20
• "Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you." v22
• "In that day you will not question Me about anything Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you." v23
• "Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full." v24
• "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." v33

In John 17:

• "... that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." v3
• "I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are." v11
• "While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled." v12
• "But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves." v13
• "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." v14
• "I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one." v15
• "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." v16
• "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth." v17
• "As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world." v18
• "For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth." v19
• "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me." vv20-21
• "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me." vv22-23
• "Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world." v24
• "O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." vv25-26

Jesus summed it up earlier for each of us in Chapter 8 of John's Gosepl, when He said in verses 31 and 32, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (NKJV)
What better guidelines do we need? Pray, ask, surrender, and the Holy Spirit will empower us to do our part. That's what I have come to know.
IBG / 11.23.10