Live Like a Champion – Week 18
The Promise of Being Discipled
Mark 1:17 (NAS95)
In this sermon series, we are learning how to live like a champion by learning how to live according to the victory of the promises of God. Our guiding image for this series is being a member of an NFL team who wins the Superbowl. We live like champions so that others will come to know the One who gave us His Victory—Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and coming again!
“And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’”
You are invited!
Everything pertaining to life and godliness, to wholeness and holiness, comes down to hearing this invitation. Not just a once-upon-a-time invitation commonly called justification or being saved, but the every-day-every-moment invitations which are the call of the Spirit for our sanctification.
Our responsibility is to listen for the call of Jesus to “Follow Me” and then respond with integrity.
The promise of being discipled is a promise that you never again have to do life by yourself. Jesus is inviting you to do life with Him, for eternity, which, oh by the way, includes every day of this life.
You are invited!
The life of a Christian is a lifestyle defined and determined by the response to this invitation—an invitation that is ongoing in the Christian’s life. Salvation is an all-encompassing reality—it may begin with your initial acceptance of this invitation and end with the fulfillment of it, but it also shapes your daily life.
Are you hearing God’s invitations in your everyday life to follow Him and become like Him in everything you do?
“For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”
That is a promise! Salvation is an ongoing work and your part is to respond to the invitation to follow Jesus and trust that He will keep His promises. This is the life of believing God!
“A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.”
You are to learn all that Jesus Christ wants you to learn because we are being transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2)!
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.”
You are to do all that Jesus wants you to do because as a fisher of people you are taking on Jesus’ mission to make disciples of all nations—His ambassador; His witness; His light in the darkness!
The promise of being discipled is the promise of becoming like Jesus Christ in your very character—gentle and humble in heart—and conformed to His Image as God intended you from the beginning. Paul said in Romans 8:29-30, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”
You are to become all Jesus wants you to be! You are a redeemed Image Bearer of God!
The promise of being discipled is the promise of the Holy Spirit producing fruit on your branch and demonstrating to the world that you are His and represent Him. Jesus said in John 15:8-11,
My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
You are the dwelling place of God on this earth—a temple of the Holy Spirit—and a holy priesthood mediating God’s presence. Until He makes all things new, you are His new creation upon this earth.
All of these are the promises of being discipled—the work of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
With all of these promises of God, you only have one calling—one praxis that you are responsible for in this great exchange! We call it living by faith!
“His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence”
Now that you know what God has promised to do with you and in you and for you, let’s now focus on the invitation of this promise: You are invited to trust God by following Jesus!
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
Jesus’ invitations to “Follow Me” and to “Come to Me” are the same call with the same promise of God. The Greek word δεῦτε is a translation of the important Hebrew word הלך (hālakh). For the Jewish people, this Hebrew word took on the meaning of habitually practicing or walking in a certain lifestyle as the way of fulfilling God’s invitation of covenant relationship.
Listen to how this concept is built into the covenant call of Isaiah 2:1-5:
The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths’ [italics added]. For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war. Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord [italics added].
Based on Jesus’ word choice, this invitation to “Follow” or “Come” is not a one-time action, but an ongoing journey of following Jesus through the “habitual practice” of His way of life. This is a word the Jewish rabbis used when inviting students to learn their teaching of Torah and walk in their way of fulfilling the Mosaic Law. Jesus was being very intentional in His invitation; He was essentially saying—I am the way!
This was unmistakable to His original audience, which is why Jesus was so controversial! But such nuances are easily missed by us today: Jesus was directly aligning Himself to the ancient promises of Yahweh’s redeemed rule over all nations and the Messiah’s eternal reign over all of God’s creation.
“All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”
“I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
You are invited! Yes, this is an invitation that each of must decide how we will respond once and for all, but it also an invitation for each and every moment of our everyday lives. This is the way!
In Christ’s mind, the mind of God, your invitation to salvation, “Follow Me,” comes with everything you need for life and godliness, wholeness and holiness. It includes your call to not only becoming like Him, but to also partner with Him in the mission of Jesus Christ. Because there is only one invitation, one calling, and it is for each of us to answer. It is the invitation to faith, trusting that He will do the rest so that you can find rest for your soul.