DISCIPLESHIP SERIES 3: THE TRUE DISCIPLE

What makes one a disciple?

What are the pieces of evidence to show that a person is a disciple?

Do we just take people's word for it? If person A says they are disciples, then disciples they are, or are there things we will see in common with these sets of people that qualify them as disciples?

We will be exploring these questions tonight as we provide answers to them.

One thing I have found so far from scripture is that Jesus was an interesting man. I sometimes try to imagine Christ in our world today and what the media paparazzi will be like. This man had random people leaving their businesses, their lives essentially, to follow Him up and down.

Though the Return on Investment for that is priceless, but look deep and you find these guys didn't even really understand the ROI from the beginning.

Jesus was captivating. I think this is the word. A lot of people were always around Jesus. He had the crowd around Him every time.

If I see you with a person more than 10 times, I will automatically assume that you are their follower. But this logic is flawed when it comes to discipleship. You know why?

Even the Pharisees were always present with Jesus. They were always a part of the gathering. But were they disciples? No! Were they following Him in this sense? The answer is No.

For some people, they were captivated by the man Jesus and the way He spoke, though they never understood anything He said. For some, it was the miracles. For some, just curiosity. Nothing more than that. For some others, it could even have been joblessness. Lack of better things to do with their time. And there are people that would have joined the crowd because there was a crowd, “Everybody dey go, so make I join.” There were also people like the Pharisees who were following Him up and down largely because they hated His guts but somehow couldn't ignore Him completely. They had to be there to poke holes in all of His stories. Everyone was present with Jesus, but not everyone was following or were disciples.

While preaching in church on Sunday, the Holy Spirit pointed something out to me about the resurrection of Jesus. The angels had to remind the women who met the tomb empty that Jesus already told them He would rise. But if you go to Matthew 27 from verse 62, you will see that the chief priests and the Pharisees did not forget Jesus saying this.

They remembered clearly. So much so that they met Pilate to guard the tomb heavily. They knew the very words of Jesus but this did not make them disciples. Their reason for knowing was of course wrong.

30 “As he spake these words, many believed on him. 31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8: 30-32 (KJV)

I noticed something here. Jesus was speaking to them about the Father and Himself. And the bible says many believed Him.

Faith!

But then you move to the next verse and you find a shocking revelation;

Their faith/belief in what He had said doesn't translate into them being disciples. Their proof of discipleship was if they abide in His word. It wasn't in believing or accepting His word.

That's a start, a good one, but not the evidence we are looking for.

“If you continually obey my teachings and live in accordance with them”

The first evidence that anyone is a true disciple of Jesus is them abiding in the word. Do you continually obey God's teachings and live in accordance with them? Or you keep telling yourself that Grace covers all?

Your answer to this question helps you to know if you are a true disciple or not. There is also a reason this abiding and obeying is continual.

“From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” John 6:66 NKJV

See what happened before they left Jesus and dropped the discipleship cap? 

“As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.” John 6:57 NKJV

The requirement was they will live by the word. People want to be free, people want to do what they like, they want to lead themselves. But you see disciples? We are led by the word. No buts.

Discipleship is not a once in a while decision of following in the footsteps of Christ, we must continually abide here. We must make that effort. Just as we discussed last week on cross-bearing. Every one of us must give something to follow. You like it or not, you will drop something.

I mentioned as we started that the disciples gave up their very lives to follow Jesus. Discipleship is seen in the sacrifice we make to continuously abide in Christ and in His word. The proof of Faith is continuing in Faith. To continue in Faith is to continue in the word (to continually live by its principles).

So,

1. A true disciple is one who abides in the word

2. A true disciple is one who imitates Jesus and does His will

“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” John 8:44 NKJV

We are marked by what we do and what we desire.

What do you desire?

These are questions I'd like us to pause and ask ourselves.

It is important that we end this series with a huge change and improvement to our lives as believers.

What do you desire?

Jesus told them they were not of the Father because they didn't love Him.

“Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.” John 8:42 NKJV

“If you love Me, keep My commandments.”  John 14:15 NKJV

This brings me to the next piece of evidence of discipleship.

“This is My commandment: that you love one another [just] as I have loved you.” John 15:12 AMPC

Our third evidence of discipleship is:

3. Loving, Just as Christ loves

This is the benchmark. We are not true disciples yet if we do not know how to love like Christ. Not based on what people do to us but loving exactly as Christ loves.

Nothing like love your neighbor as yourselves. No! Love your neighbor as Christ loves you!

Our lifestyle of love stands as a witness to our discipleship call. No one will say He is a follower of Jesus and refuses to love as Christ does.

How exactly then has Christ loved us? Find a previous teaching that answers this question HERE

The proofs that you are a true disciple are:

1. You abide in the word

2. You imitate Jesus and do His will

3. You love others just as Christ loves you

Based on these, sit and ask yourself today, Am I a true disciple of Jesus...?

To be continued…

EVANGELISM

We already started the conversation on Evangelism last month and some of us already started doing this physically.

First of all...:What is Evangelism?

Samson: Evangelism is the act of telling people about Jesus, the Good News, using every media available.

Ally: Evangelism, I think, is letting people know about Christ's sacrifice. Drawing men to accept Christ and serve God. Can be through speech, music, dance, etc etc

Chelsea: I think it is preaching the Gospel of Christ to people

Evangelism is simply sharing the gospel.

What is the Gospel? Good news

Let’s look at News stations for example. Imagine that they are hoarding news. Imagine they are shy to share news. Imagine Arise TV expects people to know the truth of what is happening by just looking at their body language.

It sounds odd, funny and stupid at the same time right? That’s because news is meant to be shared. It’s meant to be amplified. Everyone should know about it. If nobody shared the news, we’d live in ignorance about so many things and we will pay for it.

Imagine there is a curfew at 9pm today and the news houses refused to broadcast it. People will go out at that time and be arrested, because someone failed to do their job.

As believers, we’ve been called to broadcast. You are a broadcaster in this kingdom. Our duty is to share the gospel. It is the commission Jesus gave to everyone of us

So go and make followers of all people in the world. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything that I have told you to do. You can be sure that I will be with you always. I will continue with you until the end of time.” Matthew 28:19‭-‬20 ERV

We’ve talked about following before here. Followership/discipleship is such a strong word

“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” Romans‬ ‭10:14‬ ‭NKJV

People do not become followers to who they don’t believe in. There is no way they can also believe in a person they’ve not heard about. The only way people get to know about Jesus is when we open our mouth to preach.

Jesus was very strategic in His time here on earth. He definitely could not reach everyone directly in His life time, so what did He do? He trained some directly with the commission to tell this good news and raise followers of Him (Christ). And these men in turn raised other men. And those ones, more men.

Somebody told somebody that told somebody that told another person till it got to us. If people had broken the chain, the gospel might probably have gone extinct today. We can’t afford to break the chain

Here’s the thing: A lot of us believers know that the gospel should be shared. We understand the importance of it. But we are sometimes still reluctant to share. Some of us are also looking for “perfect moments” Or people that will reach out to us like Nicodemus in John 3 to know about the gospel. We will most likely sleep here. It is our duty to reach out to unsaved people

Jesus said: Go ye into the world

Some of us are also trying to be politically correct. We do not want to come off offensive. So we only talk about Jesus to people that talk about Him with us. If we do it with outsiders, we are very diplomatic

We don’t want to offend anybody

Flash news: The gospel itself is offensive (to those on the path of destruction)

To everyone that is unsaved, this good news doesn’t first sound to them as good. In fact, they do not think on the good in the news at first but how it strips them. “How dare you come and tell me I’ve been on the wrong path all my life with my 2 PhDs”

I remember Maraji (Maraji is a Nigerian comedian) posting on IG that Jesus is the only way

Not Buddha 

Not Allah

Not Sango

Just Jesus

And guess what? Even Christians got offended. Their excuse? She said it on a Muslim festive day

“So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.” 1 Corinthians‬ ‭1:20-21‬ ‭NLT

So many times we are trying to package the gospel in such a way that is not offensive so much that we water down the message itself. We want to translate the gospel in a way that our hearers will like. Feel good messages. There is no feel good way to tell someone that they are on a destructive path and are subjected to the wrath of God. Even when we show them what Christ has done for them

Have you noticed that usually when people accept Christ/meet Him, their first reaction borders tears and soberness? Anyone noticed this? That a new convert is most likely not jumping around at the time of conversion

Samson: Yes

It is because people do not accept to be made right unless first they acknowledge they’ve been wrong. You cannot tell someone to come and join path to life if they believe that is where they are already

The Gospel is truly good news. The acceptance of this news means stripping of self. Some people would rather die than be emptied in such a way.

So what we are doing with these people is pat them on the back and really deceive them that they are on the right path. That is wickedness. You see that first confrontation that brings people’s defense up? We cannot avoid it. This doesn’t mean you should go and be confronting people and be harsh on them in the name of preaching o.

The Gospel will do its work in its own. Ours is to just share it. It’s a loving news so share it lovingly. There’s a difference between sharing in love and patronizing people to avoid backlash. 

One thing God has been hammering to me is the aggressiveness we should apply to evangelism in this season. It’s not a once in a while thing. We evangelize like our lives depend on it

God cares for souls. God cares for men. And He is really counting on us to just tell them about Jesus.

Some of us, it is shame that stops us from preaching the gospel “So people don’t look at us as if we are too spiricoco”. We don’t want to look like uncool kids. 

Hell fire is not cool one bit. Please, preach the gospel to men. 

“So I am eager to come to you in Rome, too, to preach the Good News. For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.” Romans‬ ‭1:15-16‬ ‭NLT

How many believers look forward to evangelism? Paul looked forward to it. He was eager

By identifying strongly with this gospel, people will leave you. 

You are dating cool Christians? They will walk out on you  “How can my girlfriend be preaching and constituting a nuisance in public transport”. The person is a Christian too 😁

But will we stop?

No! You see that salvation for everyone who believes ehn, is our motivation. And truly, people will believe. I already explained the success part of evangelism to us before now

A strong evangelism key is prayer. Paul longed to preach the gospel in Rome but long before then he was praying for them

“God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the Good News about his Son.” Romans‬ ‭1:9‬ ‭NLT

Pray for people. Don’t stop. Don’t be weary

Prayer opens the doors to soul winning. Prayer also gives you discernment and helps you with the right words in presenting the Gospel. Cos we can’t go to people reciting the same 4 lines (60s) pastor taught you. Jesus approached the Samaritan woman with discussion on water and introduced Himself as the living water.

Another thing is Love for people. When you love people, you automatically carry the burden to preach

Note that you can’t love people if you don’t love God. And your love for God is seen in how you love people. 

How best do you love he unsaved? Show them the father’s love. This is a prayer point for us all

That God should help the church love people truly so much that our hearts yearn for their salvation. There was a bad habit the Holy Spirit called my attention to

If I’m in a ride ehn (Uber or taxi) and I’m not in the mood or led to preach the gospel, I will fix my earpiece in. I don’t want to hear a word from the driver.

Don’t talk to me abeg

But you see, when I want to preach, I’m all smiles and ready. What if the driver wants to be silent?

What if he doesn’t want small talks like me too?

Another thing was, I used to set out with mindset to evangelize. So it’s like I’m looking for fish to catch with my net 😂😂

We want the Uber driver to listen by force but we don’t want to listen to them

God listens to people. God has an agenda for men o. But He listens to men 

He allows us express.

Genuinely listen and connect.

Also don’t listen to fish out what is wrong in what they are saying 

A lot of us believers do this (even with other believers ). It’s not good. Don’t wait for such perfect moments.

Be led by the spirit: If you are inviting anyone into a life of the spirit, then you yourself must be led by the spirit

Be very sensitive in evangelizing

Good news if not delivered rightly will sound bad

Who determines mode of delivery? The spirit! Allow Him lead you

I’m going to share the remaining part of the messages I got at the  spiritual pool on Feb 20