A disciple of Christ is a
person who accepts Jesus as their Lord and is a follower and learner of Jesus.
Matthew 9:9, “As Jesus was walking
along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow
me and be my disciple,”
Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.” Follow is a verb and
means to come after move or travel. To go after someone, follow behind them and
observe and monitor. A disciple is called to deny themself and put on the
characteristics of Christ. Mark 8:34, “Then he called the crowd to him along
with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his
cross and follow me.” Galatians 3:26-27, “For
you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And
all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like
putting on new clothes.” A disciple of Christ gives their life to the
Lord and they are reborn spiritually which is a miracle. Because of Jesus death
for our sins, those who accept this truth are filled with the Holy Spirit and
their relationship with the Lord is restored as if they have never sinned. Ephesians 1:4, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in
Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.” I like a quote from Henry
Blackaby, “Truth is a person” Jesus Christ. When you receive the Holy Spirit He
leads you to all truth a relationship with the Lord and eternal life. 2
Corinthians 1:21-22, “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He
anointed us, set his seal of ownership on
us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to
come.” The Holy Spirit placed in us gives us the power and desire to follow
Jesus, study the word of God and learn to apply these truths to our lives to
become like Christ. God can teach us in many different ways also through
experiences. When I was a boy my dad used to hunt raccoons and he was very good
at this. I would go with him sometimes all through the night. He was well known
for how he trained his dogs. The dog was trained to never track another scent
only the raccoon and to always stay on the trail faithfully until the raccoon
was caught or went up a tree. Sometimes they would track for hours and miles
even end up in another county what ever it took and would fight to the death.
Thank God for the Holy Spirit who is God. Even though we are weak and frail
human beings the Holy Spirit trains and teaches us and gives us the desire to
want to pursue this relationship we have with Jesus and learn to become more
like Him. Or maybe it should be like this, Jesus pursues us and gives us the
ability to follow Him and sometimes He even has to carry us. Philippians 2:13 “For God is working in you, giving you
the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”
A
disciple of Christ in God’s word was called a ‘Christian’ Acts 11:26, or ‘the
followers of the way’ Acts 9:2, or ‘church’. Church is an assembly of people or called ekklesia which in Greek means to be
called out or set apart. 1 Peter 2:9-10, “But you are not like that, for you are a
chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s
very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for
he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. “Once you had no
identity as a people; now you are God’s people.” Once you received no mercy;
now you have received God’s mercy.”
A disciple
of Christ is a son of God and every truth in God’s word becomes part of their
life. They become one with Christ and receive a new identity in Christ, they
become a new creation. 1 Corinthians 5:17, “This means that
anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a
new life has begun!” Romans 6:3-4, “Or have you forgotten that when we were
joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and
were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.” A
disciple is also baptized into the body of Christ which Christ is the head of
all who believe in Him. The body of Christ is compared to a body of a person in
God’s word. Ephesians
4:4-6, “There is one body and one
Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one
faith, one baptism; one God and Father
of all, who is above all, and
through all, and in you all.”
1 Corinthians 12:12 “The human body
has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the
body of Christ.” The body of Christ is an amazing powerful creation of God. A
holy, sacred temple for the Lord. A body is defined as a living organism. An
organism is defined as an individual form of life or living thing. So the body
of Christ is not an organization, structure, building, business, corporation, or
to be compared to a worldly structure. Jesus didn’t come and die on the cross
to start a worldly system or government. It is a group of individuals that
believe in Christ that form one body that Jesus is the head of and lives
through. It is a body of believers unified and filled with God’s love and the
power of the Holy Spirit to glorify God. A holy, living temple of God. I Corinthians 3:16-17, “Don’t
you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit
of God lives in you? God
will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you
are that temple.” Ephesians 2:19-21 “A Temple for the Lord. So, now you Gentiles are no longer strangers
and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are
members of God’s family. Together, we are
his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the
cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.
We are carefully joined together in him,
becoming a holy temple for the Lord.”
I like to think of it this way, every
member is connected together and Jesus the Head our master is called living water in God’s word. Jesus living
water lives and flows through and from each members heart and into each other.
Jesus set us free to be yoked to and clothed in Him worshiping the creator not
things man has created. Living water from Jesus and the Holy Spirit flows and
brings healing, cleansing, restores, revives, refreshes, renews and transforms.
A pond is stagnant and produces leaven. John 4:14, “But those who drink the
water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring
within them, giving them eternal life.” John 7:38, “Anyone who believes in me
may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow
from his heart.” Ephesians 4:16, “For because of Him the
whole body (the church, in all its various parts), closely joined and firmly
knit together by the joints and ligaments with which it is supplied,
when each part [with power adapted to its need] is working properly [in all its
functions], grows to full maturity, building itself up in love.”
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