Discipleship is a practical "follow me as I follow Christ" approach to teaching new converts and other people who don't have a firm biblical foundation about Christ by living by example.
The call to Disciple others is the last command Jesus Christ gave the disciples he had called unto himself and by the extension of faith, we his latter-day disciples, before his departure from the earth.
To disciple others, a discipler must be a active follower of Christ. He must constantly seek God's guidance about his own affairs and that of his disciples while practically teaching them about living a Christ-like Abundant life.
In Luke 9:23-26, Jesus Christ cautioned his disciples concerning the daily sacrifice they had to make in following him saying:
23. ....“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
24. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.
25. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?
26. Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
The 4 major things that Jesus Christ expects of those who are serious about following him, on a daily basis are:
1. Denying Oneself.
Denying oneself refers to mortifying the cravings and desires of one's own flesh while feeding one's spirit with the Word of God, so that the Spirit of Christ will be in full control, thereby empowering and allowing one to do Christ's bidding alone.
2 Taking up one's cross.
Before Jesus Christ died he carried a cross on the behalf of all mankind, by this he carried the sins and burdens of all men so that the devil could lose his hold on creation and all men would be free to choose to be reconciled to God.
We too as his disciples, that is, his followers, also in our own way need to carry the burdens of others so they can focus on Christ.
Some of the burdens we are expected to carry on behalf of others can be found in Isaiah 58:6-7 & 9-10.
3. Be prepared to lose one's life to follow Christ and for the sake of lost souls so that one can save it for eternity.
Loss of one's life in this context may not outrightly mean by death, although it might come to that for some people, but that one will have to make some sacrifices in life, like Christ and his disciples did to win souls.
To be true disciples of Christ (as in verse 25) there is a lifestyle choice in the form of daily sacrifices that we must make in choosing to lose what we would have gained in enjoying the trappings this vain world has to offer, so that at the end we do not lose what really matters in this life, and then the life hereafter forfeit one's soul to hell for eternity.
The loss we may have to experience in life, that is the sacrifice we must undergo to be latter-day disciples of Christ can be appreciated if we can understand the word of God as stated in Psalm 126:6 which confirms that:
"Those who go out weeping,
carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
carrying sheaves with them."
4. As disciples of Christ we must always be proud to identify with Christ and all he represents.
One cannot be embarrassed or ashamed of Christ and his words, and expect to be a disciple of Jesus.
Many people find it easy to identify with Christ as their Saviour knowing he has delivered them from one issue or the other they faced in life and that they'll need him to continue to do so but having him as Lord of their lives, having to take instructions from him about how he would have them live their lives on his own term and not on theirs is unfortunately the reason some find it difficult to effectively follow, as they want to be in full control.
Finally as disciples of Jesus we must follow the pattern Christ's disciples of old did as seen below.
Shalom
The Discipleship Triangle:
No comments:
Post a Comment