We are starting a new teaching series in October called Follow Jesus all about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Discipleship is something that is often talked about, but can be confusing about what it actually means and what is involved. I suspect we all have different perspectives of what discipleship is and what it looks like, and so our hope is that this series will provide a Biblical perspective on what discipleship is combined with some practical steps on how each of us can grow as disciples of Jesus.
One of the ways that I’ve found helpful to think about discipleship is this:
Be with Jesus
Become like Jesus
Do what Jesus did
We see that kind of progression in the people that Jesus gathered in the gospels. Take Peter for example. Peter was fishing with his brother Andrew, when Jesus calls out to them in Matthew 4, “Follow me! And I will make you fishers of men.” And from that moment, Peter was with Jesus. In the gospels we see the ups and down of Peter’s life of following Jesus, from the stepping out of the boat to meet Jesus on the water, exclaiming that Jesus is in fact the Christ and then the denial of Jesus three times before his crucifixion. And yet, in spite of all of that, having been with Jesus, the Spirit of God was at work in Peter’s life, and Peter would go on to be a key builder of the church and even wrote two books of the Bible!
Of course, everyone’s experience of following Jesus is different and our journey of faith will lead us into all sorts of different directions. One thing is for certain, discipleship does mean taking steps. To follow something or someone requires movement and the reality is that we all find ourselves following a variety of different things whether it’s the pursuit of security, significance, career, a spouse, entertainment and so on. In many ways we are discipled by so much that the world throws at us. In fact if you follow that basic discipleship model that I laid out above, it can throw up so pretty concerning results:
Be with...social media/bad influences/
Become like….
Do what…
You get the gist. And so in our western culture that is fighting for our attention in all manner of ways, it is even more important to consider how we become disciples of Jesus first and foremost.
As this teaching series progresses, we are also aiming to provide easy opportunities for people to take a next step in their discipleship to Jesus, whether that is being part of a Connect Group, participating in regular prayer, giving financially as part of our worship to God and to support the work of the church, serving in a team and many other ways that enable people to be with Jesus, become like Him and do what He did.
My prayer is that as a church we would all take steps to follow Jesus, and that as we do, those who don’t know Jesus would begin to ask questions of us and explore Jesus for themselves.