Who you are in Christ.#20

In Christ I am a disciple. What is a disciple anyway? A disciple as defined by the dictionary is a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another; follower:

So when you give your life to Jesus and follow Him you become a disciple. In doing so you are committing yourself to a life time of studying, learning, and obeying the teachings of Jesus. If you are not doing this from what I understand of a disciple you are not being a faithful follower.

What does the bible have to say about being a disciple?

Matthew 10:24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.

Keep in the forefront of your mind, we follow Jesus, He doesn’t follow us!

Matthew 10:42 And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”

As a disciple, we take care of others!

Matthew 12:49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!

Our family is other followers not the people of the world.

Matthew 19:23 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.

As a disciple we must not hold on to the things of the world, Jesus is to be our everything!

Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

As a disciple, we are to tell others about Jesus! The we are to disciple them by teaching them the Word of God. 

Mark 8:34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Being a disciple means being disciplined by denying self to follow Jesus the way He desires.

Luke 6:40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.

When we are trained fully, we will be like Jesus is the way we live our lives. Wow! Think on that!

Luke 12:22 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.

As a disciple we do not worry about what the world worries about because we know God is in control and place all things into His hands.

Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Obviously we don’t hate anyone especially our family but our love for Jesus in comparison to our family should be like hate!

Luke 14:33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Is there anything in your life more important that Jesus? If so you can’t be a disciple.

John 8:31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,

A key teaching of Jesus....if you are in His word, not just a lazy glance here and there, then your are a disciple. Think on that one!!!

John 13:35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Hmmmm love for others? Remember this includes our enemies. How many does this disqualify?

John 15:8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

If you want to know the fruit to be bearing look up Galatians 5:22-23. Bear the fruit of Jesus as a disciple!

So we see as a follower/disciple of Jesus we have some responsibilities that prove we are in Christ Jesus. Don’t get that confused, works do not save us, only faith alone in Jesus saves us, but works prove we are saved!

In Christ I am a disciple of His!

Tom