pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: disciple


by 2 Comments

Calling

Reading: Luke 14: 28-33

Jesus wants us to know that much is required before we commit to becoming a disciple.  It will require difficult decisions that often carry a cost, the courage to stand out from the world, a singular focus to listen to Jesus’ voice above all others, and a commitment to love and serve the least and the lost.  When we think we are up for the task of being a disciple, Jesus is saying, in essence, “Are you sure?  Really sure?”

No one likes to begin something they cannot finish.  To begin something that stalls out due to lack of time, energy, resources, or vision is frustrating and often embarrassing.  So to begin a major or important project, it is essential to make sure we have all it will take to complete the task at hand.

What does it take to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?  First, it takes commitment to love others more than self.  Jesus spelled this out with His answer to what the greatest commandment was.  He said we must first live God with all that we are and we also must love neighbor as He first loved us.  Throughout the Gospels we have the example of what this looks like lived out fully in the life of Jesus himself.  In the remainder of the New Testament we have numerous examples of what it looks like to live as a disciple.  So what it takes is made clear in the Bible.

This is a difficult calling.  It is a decision that requires much consideration.  But when we accept the calling, we know that we do not walk alone.  We have Jesus, our great high priest, who interceded for us before the throne of God.  We have the Holy Spirit, which comes to dwell in us and to lead and guide us.  And we have each other.  Our fellow disciples support, encourage, teach, correct, and pray for us just as we do these things for them.  As we answer the calling and walk this road of discipleship, we do not walk alone.  For Jesus Christ, for the Holy Spirit, and for our fellow disciples we say thanks be to God!


by Leave a comment

Love, Unity, Love

Reading: John 17: 20-26

In the prayer we read for today, Jesus is praying for His disciples and for all disciples who will follow in His footsteps.  He is praying for those who call on Him now and He will be praying for each generation of disciples who follow Him until He returns.  Jesus prays for unity, love, and a connection to God.

Jesus prays that we may be one.  He is praying for a big ‘we’ here.  He prays not only for a disciples connection to Him, but also for a connection to God.  It is through knowing Jesus that one comes to know God.  Jesus then takes this a step further in praying for the unity of all believers with one another.  In the immediate time it was for His disciples as they were about to face losing Jesus and for the new church that would emerge and grow in the midst of persecution and trial.  And Jesus is praying for each disciple who will follow and become a part of building His church now and in the future.  Unity in the body of Christ remains essential to the growth of the kingdom.

Jesus also prays that His disciples be known for love.  It is love alone which brings unity.  It was love alone that guided all that Jesus said and did.  It is love alone that connects disciples past, present, and future into a personal relationship with Jesus and therefore with God.  It is love alone that should guide how the world comes through Jesus as we witness to our faith.  When the church is love, the church shares Jesus in a most powerful way.  When non-believers question why someone is loving them in an unexpected, radical way, Jesus is beginning to work in their hearts.

This day may we find ways to be love.  Maybe it will be as the body in worship and fellowship.  Maybe it will be with a stranger who crosses our path, either in church or later in the day.  May the love of Christ that is within us pour out into all we meet this day.


by Leave a comment

Love as He Loved

Reading: John 13: 31-35

If it is really lived out, Jesus command to love one another as He first loved us is hard.  I imagine as this new command first landed on the disciples’ ears, they recalled good things Jesus did – healings, teachings, even things not recorded in the Bible.  But as they continued to think about this new command, maybe their thoughts drifted back to when Jesus healed ‘that guy’ or when He offered loving words to a lowly Samaritan.  Who knows what their prejudices, hang ups, or inner struggles were – we all have them.

We too can spend time with Jesus by reading and meditating on the Word.  Through time with the Word we come to see and understand what Jesus meant by this new command.  We may not understand the ancient cultural reasons why a Jew and Samaritan did not talk to one another but we can see that Jesus offered Himself to all He encountered.  He did not judge or look down on or condemn anyone.  Even in His confrontations and exchanges with the religious authorities there is a feeling that Jesus is truly sad that they don’t get it.  Each time they return to come at Him again, He tries to continue to teach them, to help them see that He really is the Messiah.

The kind of people who came to mind for the disciples and the religious authorities that always came at Jesus are like the people who make it hard for us to love all as Jesus loved.  Yet hard is not impossible.  We have an excellent example to follow in He who gave the command.  We will at times fail.  But the key is to realize our failure, to repent, and to resume the journey.  When we seek to love all as Jesus first loved us, our love will grow and we come to love one we just couldn’t love just the other day.  May our love grow and grow as we come to be more and more and more like Jesus.


by Leave a comment

Go and Do Likewise

Reading: John 12: 1-11

Our Holy Week readings begin with Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with perfume.  It is something she bought and has kept for just this occasion.  Mary anoints His feet as a beginning step of preparation for His burial.  While this surface fact is true, we must look deeper as well because Mary is a study in faith, a great example to all who call on the name of Jesus.

This story is not our first or last encounter with Mary.  In Luke 10 we see Mary as obedient follower.  As sister Martha works to make all the preparations, Mary simply sits at Jesus’ feet, listening to Him.  Jesus indicates that Mary has chosen wisely.  Unspoken is the warning not to allow business to get in the way of following.  The lesson here from Mary is to place His Word as supreme in our lives.

We also encounter Mary in the story of the resurrection of her brother Lazarus.  In John 10 it was Mary who first sent for Jesus because her brother was sick.  As  news of Jesus approaching their town comes to the grieving home, Mary does not rush out to meet Jesus.  She waits until He calls for her.  Then she goes without delay and confesses her faith in Jesus’ power, even over death.  This is a confession we too must make if we are to surrender our lives to His will.

Lastly, the anointing.  There is of course the sacrifice of the expensive perfume.  But for many of us, like Mary we too can ‘afford’ to give of our resources.  But to go beyond is the challenge for many of us.  To allow the Spirit to lead and to be willing to see God’s vision of what lies just ahead can be difficult.  Here Mary does both.  She goes the extra step and uses her hair to wash His feet.  She allows the Spirit to lead her into this act of service.  In the next chapter we see Jesus washing the disciples’ feet.  He instructs them to follow His (and Mary’s) example, to be willing to serve one another.  Led by the same Spirit, may we be willing to go and do likewise.


by Leave a comment

The Journey

God’s promises to Zion are promises to us too.  In the broad sense, Zion is the place where God and mankind connect.  People of all walks of life, from a wide variety of circumstances and situations, and from all over the world come and connect to God.  Each of us are such people.  We are drawn by the promises of freedom from sin and death, of abundant life in the here and now, and of eternal life in the time to come.  God’s promises bring love, hope, joy, and peace.

In order to live in and enjoy all of God’s promises, we must go on and be on a journey.  Our journey begins with another’s faith.  We come to know God through our parents or through a friend as we see faith in them.  Our desire to “have” what they have leads us into our own personal relationship as we choose to declare Jesus our Lord and Savior.  Through our own servanthood and discipleship we begin to live into God’s promises.  We see the world from a new perspective.  As we continue to walk in this new relationship we experience the constant renewal of our mind and heart as we grow closer and closer to Him.

We cannot stop walking though.  Some do.  Some say they have accepted Christ and act as if that is the end point.  It is not.  Our journey of faith continues until the day we die.  Every day we are  called to know Him more and to fall deeper and deeper in love with Him.  Our role also expands.  We add witness to servant and disciple.  It is the “go” part of the great commission.  We all need to become His light and love in the world so that others might see our life in Christ and say as we once said: I want some of that.  May our light and love draw others to His light and love.

Scripture reference: Isaiah 62: 1-5


by Leave a comment

Disciple: Love

The crowds wanted Jesus to be an earthly King.  The disciples thought they wanted Jesus to be an earthly King.  Those in authority feared Jesus would become an earthly King.  Sometimes I wish Jesus were an earthly King.  But He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

Maybe a better way to look at it is His kingdom is IN the world but not OF this world.  The new command He gave was to love one another.  He went on to explain that people would identify His disciples, those in His ‘army’, by the way they radically loved others.  We are commanded to love one another in this world.  But the love is not earthly love.  It is a love that come from Jesus.  He first loved us and calls us to go out and share His love with others.

Jesus’ kingdom is based on His love with a good dose of forgiveness and reconciliation thrown in.  Jesus knew the normal world operated on violence, coercion, force, power, might.  So in living in this world, He knew His disciples would have to back that love up with forgiveness and reconciliation.  A Christian’s mode of operation and response to the world is based on love.  Love can overcome all things, including violence, coercion, …

God invites us to live from His kingdom’s view.  He commands us to love one another.  And as a ‘reward’ He says the world will know we are Christians by our love.  It is an identifier.  It is a choice that makes some wonder what we’ve got, what makes us so different from the world.  May we make many curious today!

Scripture reference: John 18: 33-37


by Leave a comment

Following Along

In John 12 Jesus parallels our faith with that of a seed.  If a single seed remains sitting on the counter or in the package, then that is all it is.  In a similar way, if we just believe in God then that is all our faith is: just belief.

When the seed is placed in the soil though, it can produce much more.  But in order to produce a crop, the seed itself must die and grow into a plant.  The old is gone and the new goes on to produce a crop.  In a similar way, our old self must be given up so that our new self can grow to live our life for Christ instead of for self.

If we are willing to set aside self and to live for and with Christ, we too can bear much ‘fruit.’  And here too Jesus gives insight.  He tells the disciples and us that whoever serves Him, must follow Him.  Whoever follows must go where He goes.

Here Jesus is calling us past belief.  He is calling us to action: follow, serve, go.  In order to bear fruit in our lives, it requires us to put God and others ahead of ourselves.  This means we cannot ask “Go where?” or “Now?” or “With whom?”  Jesus ministered to anyone, anywhere, anytime.  If we are to follow, we must do the same.

Scripture reference: John 12: 20-26


by Leave a comment

Come and See

Our world is full of good people, good places, good institutions and organizations.  We all know many of each of these.  But if someone says there is a good new restaurant in town, we only partially believe it.  If they describe their wonderful experience and the food, then our belief increases some.  Yet it is only after we have gone there ourselves that we really believe what we were told in the first place.

All people, places, … want to have a good reputation.  This includes churches.  When a church says they love God and neighbor, preaches from the Bible, and so on it must be found to be true when one visits the church.  If a church says they love their neighbor, then there must be evidence of that.  In many ways, we need proof to believe something.

When Jesus called Philip, he simply said, “Follow me.”  Something inside Philip knew to go and follow this man.  He sensed it.  sometimes we have the same prod of the Holy Spirit – we just know to act.  But when Philip tried to get his brother Nathanael to folow Jesus, he was skeptical.  Philip’s repsonse was simply, “Come and see.”  The long version is: come and spend time with Jesus and you will see that He is the Messiah.  As Jesus says to each of us today “Come and see”, how will you do just that?  Blessings on you rjourney!

Scripture reference: John 1: 43-46


by Leave a comment

All the Difference

When Jesus asks the disciples who people say He is, do you think He really wants to know?  Or is He just leading up to the second question?  I think He really wants to know who the disciples think He is.  I think this because it is the disciples who will change the world.  It is the ones who know him best that will have the greatest impact.

This begs the question of us: do we know Jesus?  Do we know him well enough that we could finish a sentence He started?  Does He know us well enough that He could do the same?  Jesus wants to go beyond prophet, priest, and king to be or best friend. He wants us to be absolutely in love with Him.

2000 years later, the same question is ours: “who do you say that I am”?  And 2000 years later, our role is the same as the original disciples was: to go out and change the world, to go out and build the kingdom here on earth.  How we respond to the question and how we act upon that answer will make all the difference in the world.

Scripture reference: Matthew 16: 13-20


by Leave a comment

With Us Always

In Matthew 28, Jesus gives his last instructions: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”.  Jesus goes on to promise that He will be with us always, to the end of the age.

We are invited to baptize in order to bring all aspects of God into the new believer’s life.  God empowers, Jesus redeems, and the Holy Spirit sustains.  Just as a new believer needs all three, we too need all three to do our ‘work’ in the world.  No one can do it alone.  And we must not forget the last part of Jesus’ command: teach them to obey all of Jesus’ commands.  We are not called to simply bring people to Christ, but to also teach them about being like Christ in their world.  We too often forget the second half of Jesus’s great commission.

To make disciples and to teach them we must allow ourselves to be vessels of God’s redeeming love.  But if all we do is give, soon our well will run dry.  We too must allow ourselves to be poured into and filled by God’s love.  Once we ourselves are filled them we can go forth to disciple and teach.  Jesus promises to be with is always, to the end of the age.  This promise gives us the confidence to go forth in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  May all three fill us up and send us out!!