Disciple: Signs of His Follower
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An Undying Love for Jesus Christ (37)
An Undying Love for Jesus Christ (37)
Matthew 10:
“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
An Undying Love for Jesus Christ (37)
An Undying Love for Jesus Christ (37)
Love as a primary theme of the Bible.
Errors we see today.
A Directionless Love: Love with no object.
A Misdirected Love: An idolatrous love.
A Diminished love: I love ice cream, etc.
Our love is to be devoted toward One: Jesus Christ. Compare to verses 34-36. Jesus is not telling us to love others less. He is telling us to love Him more. Our problem is not too much love for others. It is too little love for Him. All other loves flow from our love of Him.
Some years ago I had a father who had come to me heartbroken. His young adult son had begun going to a very rigid church. Salvation—in their view—was very legalistic. It was earned rather than given.
This father had said that when the pastor of his son’s church had preached on this text, the pastor encouraged the people of the church to contact their loved ones and tell them that they could no longer be around them if they did not accept the rigidness of what his church was teaching.
This father had said that when the pastor of his son’s church had preached on this text, the pastor encouraged the people of the church to contact their loved ones and tell them that they could no longer be around them if they did not accept the rigidness of what his church was teaching.
The father had received a letter from his son stating just that. In effect the letter said,
The father had received a letter from his son stating just that. In effect the letter said,
“Dad, I know that you have considered yourself a Christian. But it has become apparent to me that you are not truly living what you have professed to believe. Until you show signs of repentance, I can no longer come to your house nor allow you into mine. I am praying for you.”
“Dad, I know that you have considered yourself a Christian. But it has become apparent to me that you are not truly living what you have professed to believe. Until you show signs of repentance, I can no longer come to your house nor allow you into mine. I am praying for you.”
‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;
and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary.
‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
The church at Ephesus had
Done righteous deeds.
Persevered in extreme opposition
Tested the teaching by the Word of God
And yet Jesus rebuked them for their loss of love for Him.
Oh how much more enjoyable and influential would our faith be if we rediscovered our Love for Jesus Christ!
All other loves flow from that.
Jesus is not telling us to love others less. He is telling us to love Him more.
An Unceasing Devotion to Jesus Christ (38)
An Unceasing Devotion to Jesus Christ (38)
For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.
Hebrews
Illus: Sitting in boat fishing when we are slowly carried away.
Many of you have served the Lord for years. You may be growing weary. You can lift and bend and walk and serve the way that you used to serve. But if you are here, God is not finished with you. There is not one person in this sanctuary today that God does not want to use. You can pray. You can encourage. You can write notes. You can make phone calls.
I have met enough embittered people over the years that one of my most constant prayers is “Oh God! Keep me from bitterness! Keep me from grouchiness! Keep me from a complaining heart! Let me not grow weary in well-doing!”
JI Packer wrote a little book called Guidance for the Aging. He was 86 years old and still serving the Lord faithfully, so he can speak to this more ably than I:
By becoming Christians you walked into a war, Satan’s war against the triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And that meant that whatever you set yourselves to do by way of service to your Lord, satanic forces would try, usually by indirect rather than direct means, to thwart or spoil. So your Christian life has been a long-drawn fight against the world, the flesh, and the Devil, and such it still is. Packer, J. I. Finishing Our Course with Joy: Guidance from God for Engaging with Our Aging. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014.
Packer, J. I. Finishing Our Course with Joy: Guidance from God for Engaging with Our Aging. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014.
When your devotion to serving Jesus Christ is unceasing, you cannot overestimate the impact that you are having on those who are coming after you. Let them see you serve until your dying day! I want to be able to say with the Apostle Paul:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.
An Unselfish Life for Jesus Christ (39)
An Unselfish Life for Jesus Christ (39)
To become a Christian one must acknowledge that there is something greater than themselves that they are living for. In the Bible, you cannot be a Christian without giving up your own rights. The rich man was told to sell all of his possessions and follow Jesus. The man whose father was aging was told that he had to let the dead bury their own dead. Jesus said that once you put your hand to the plow, you cannot look back. To follow Christ is to be willing to walk away from that which you cherish most.
Jesus did not say these hard things because He was teaching a “works based salvation.” Jesus said these hard things because He knows exactly what is in our heart. And He knew that we could confess one thing with our mouth while seeking to hide what we cherish most behind our back… hoping that He won’t notice.
To become a follower of Jesus is a commitment to walk away from those things that our hearts would cherish most.
“He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.
Jesus tells us that in verse 30: He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has
The consistent call of Scripture is for believers to give their lives away for the sake of the Gospel.
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ
As believers, we are called to give up everything so that others might know Christ. Let me ask you a question: What are you unwilling to give up for the sake of Jesus and His gospel? Where will you draw the line?
I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!
Conclusion
A zealous man in religion is pre-eminently a man of one thing. It is not enough to say that he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising, thorough-going, whole-hearted, fervent in spirit. He only sees one thing, he cares for one thing, he lives for one thing; and that one thing is to please God. Whether he lives, or whether he dies—whether he has health, or whether he has sickness—whether he is rich, or whether he is poor—whether he pleases man, or whether he gives offense—whether he is thought wise, or whether he is thought foolish—whether he gets blame, or whether he gets praise—whether he gets honour, or whether he gets shame—for all this the zealous man cares nothing at all. He burns for one thing; and that one thing is to please God, and advance God’s glory. If he is consumed in the very burning, he cares not for it—he is content. He feels that, like a lamp, he is made to burn; and if consumed in burning, he has but done the work for which God appointed him. Such a one will always find a sphere for his zeal. If he cannot preach, work, and give money, he will cry, and sigh, and pray. If he cannot fight in the valley with Joshua, he will do the work of Moses, Aaron, and Hur, on the hill (). (Practical Religion [Cambridge, UK: James Clarke, 1959], 130)
J. I. Packer, Finishing Our Course with Joy: Guidance from God for Engaging with Our Aging (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 75–76.
J. I. Packer, Finishing Our Course with Joy: Guidance from God for Engaging with Our Aging (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 75–76.
Invitation
The signs of a disciple are that we bear in our lives a Christlikeness. The power of the Gospel—that Jesus has died in our place—has had such a profound impact on our lives that it is evident that something has changed.
“Signs” leads to the idea of “significance.” The most significant events in your life are obvious. They have changed you.
The most significant event in your life is that God has given you a new heart. Is it evident? If it’s not—then its not significant. If it’s not significant, perhaps it’s not genuine.