Everyone Disciple One
The Vision
Being
Jesus called His disciples to Him that they might be with Him (Mark 3 v13)
He is with you.
Yes the Lord is more interested in being with you than your best efforts at connecting with Him. Earlier in Marks gospel the crowds go looking for Jesus, but Jesus calls his disciples to be with Him.
He is the only known god in history that goes after people to be with Him.
Presence is everything in life. It says far more than words. When we reciprocate His love and attention it is never a waste. We connect with His presence primarily through worship, prayer and the bible.
So if you are celebrating today, He is with you. If you are struggling He can be with you, If you are feeling spiritually disconnected or disheartened, His commitment to being with you is far greater than yours to Him. And if you suffer, He suffers with you.
He called them to be with Him first - why? When we spend time with Jesus He breathes life into our spiritual lungs. We come alive. We see and think differently. His supernatural love forms and fills us and flows to lives around us.
Holy spirit always breathes life. It happens in spiritual connection. Equally the idols and demons of this age kill that life. When we turn our backs on God to the idols of this world, we gradually and slowly expire that life.
When we choose to be with Jesus; we make a wise choice -we choose life.
Follow Me
34 Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. 36 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?[e] (Mark 8 v34 and 35)
The point of following Jesus is Jesus himself, nothing more or less.
Eternity is not about the length of time or the physical place, or indeed avoiding hell, it’s about friendship with the Father through Jesus.
More than believing in Him or loving Him He repeated this resounding invitation: “Follow me”.
To the demonised prostitute; the ruling man of power; the intelligent priest and the one who was in the process of betraying Him, the call was still the same: Follow me.
When we follow (really follow – that means on His terms not mine) – we become a disciple
Discipleship - What comes to mind?
Ditching the unhelpful
“This is how you will know you are my disciples by the way in which you love one another” – John 13 v35.
If you have been around church life you may be very familiar with the word “disciple”.
For some it is a verb ie something we do to someone else; for others it has been reduced to a noun ie a course or a programme. A book you read or an appointment with a mentor over a coffee.
It is far more than all of the above.
To be a disciple is a whole Identity. You are or you are not.
It is never a programme for you and someone else is never a project for you.
When we are with Jesus we become like him; formed by this powerful, sometimes supernatural and sometimes suffering love. The power is His love. It transforms your life and through you the lives of those around you.
We live our ordinary, every day lives but with this unique identity:
We are a disciple of the great master of the universe.
Place Your Life Before God
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognise what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12 v 1 -2 The Message).
The cross is far more than a transaction; it’s transformational – if we choose to play our part and participate. In other words if we really trust Jesus that His ways are the very best for my life and surrender to a life interrupted within His carefully crafted timeless boundaries of blessing.
Being with Him leads us to others
Be One; Raise One
If we follow Jesus He will lead us to people because that’s where Jesus chooses to be. He likes to be found amongst people. And sometimes these people are not our natural friends or the people who think like us.
Discipleship to Jesus is never about simply being happy and guilt free with a decluttered mind. So much of therapy and wellness celebrated by the Western world has reduced wholenss to this: living a stress free life. Discipleship to Jesus is never individualistic.
If we follow Jesus (really follow Him) – it will cost us. It will sometimes be supernatural; sometimes suffering and sometimes ordinary sacrifice.
It is a life poured out. But the very best kind of life.
And best discipleship tools are never formulas, programmes or courses (although some are very helpful if embraced and lived from the place of being with Jesus).
The tools of Everyone Disciple One are simply His Word (the bible) and Holy Spirit.
It is a commitment to a lifestyle. (and in the lifestyle we find true life).
It is the intentional commitment to read the bible and pray with people far away from God and the step back and allow the power of His supernatural love to call them by name and through this process they too discover their identity as a disciple of Jesus