 Tonight sermon is in keeping with our essential series and the title is discipleship. So when you hear that word, it's not as common as other words within the faith. Discipleships not reference much in the professing church today, the most commonly used term to describe the people of God in conversion and conversation today is the term Christian. And among the multitudes who use the term Christian, there are a myriad of definitions for that word. The name Christian is familiar, but usually biblically undefined. On the other hand, the term disciple is a very uncommon term used today to describe the people of God. You never meet a person while evangelizing who says they are a disciple of Christ. We hear rarely designate ourselves to others outside the church as disciples. The term disciple is rarely used. Now, if many are biblically unable to define the word Christian, which is familiar, how much less ignorant must they be or we be with the unfamiliar term disciple? This evening, I plan to biblically answer these four questions regarding discipleship. What is a disciple? How are disciples made? What are some examples of disciples? And what does this mean for your discipleship to Christ? If you had to put those in statements, it would be the definition, the commandment to make, examples, and application. So definition, what is a disciple? And what do we mean when we even say that with reference to what? Whether you've looked at that or not, throughout history, the word disciple has had different meanings. It started out, it wasn't a word used to entail following somebody. It meant same thing as we would say, it's like a student. But later, through the Greeks and on into Jewish culture, it became a synonymous with not only learning but following. So I'll give a definition and we'll look at some texts to see what the Bible says about disciples. And the discipleship of Christ is unique, which I hope you'll see. So definition, a disciple is another term for a Christian. Specifically, a disciple is a chosen, believing, learning follower of Jesus Christ as he is revealed in scripture. So a disciple is another term for a Christian. If you would, turn to Acts 11, 22. Then news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart, they should continue with the Lord. For he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith and a great many people were added to the Lord. Then Barnabas departed to Tarsus to seek Saul and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year, they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. So before we were ever called Christians, we were called disciples. And here this is after Christ has ascended and is seated at the right hand of the Father. So a disciple is not necessarily someone who's physically following Christ. It's true of believers in the New Testament, Acts. Also it's not relegated to Jews because there are people from all over here. In fact, in Acts 10, they were surprised that the Gentiles had become believers as with the Jews and they rejoiced that God had granted them repentance as well as the Jews. So disciples make no distinction between race. The people of God are also to think about other terms for the people of God. We just saw that the people of God can be called a Christian or a disciple. The people of God are also called the elect or those who are in Christ or they are called the called, et cetera. When you, so there are many different names for the people of God and like a diamond, when you look at a diamond, you can look at it from different perspectives. So with the people of God, we can look at them from different perspectives and gain understanding of what they are in Christ. And tonight we're looking at disciple. So what specifically does the term disciple denote about believers? So turn with me to Matthew 16, verse 13. When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, who do men say that I, the son of man, am? So they said, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you, my disciples say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. Although many men thought highly of Christ in one way or another, their identification of Jesus was wrong. A disciple must rightly identify and attach himself to Jesus as the Christ of God, the son of the living God. Notice though, this can only come from God's choosing, a person to know him as he is. He says, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. That includes Simon Bar Jonah himself. Turn to John six, 65. And he said, therefore I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my father. From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. Then Jesus said to the 12, do you also want to go away? But Simon Peter answered, Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also, we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus answered them, did I not choose you, the 12? And one of you is a devil. He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray him being one of the 12. Earlier, after feeding the thousands, the many of the crowd followed Jesus to the other side of the lake and they came because they wanted to be filled again and Jesus knew their motives. When they asked him, how did he got over there? He responded to them about what they were really seeking and entails this discussion about him being the bread of life. And then later, when they refused to accept what he's saying, he says, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, and that's a hard saying. So those who were formerly following him followed him no more. And that's when this part that I just read happened. But notice that many ceased walking with Jesus after that day. They were not true disciples. So when we're talking tonight about what is a disciple of Christ, we're talking about those who are true disciples. There are many who attach themselves to Jesus Christ and will even intellectually agree and consent to that he is the Christ, the son of the living God, and yet they do not walk with him. So we're not trying to define false disciples. We're trying to define what is a true disciple. Also, they were not true disciples. Likewise, Judas was not a true disciple because Jesus calls him an unbeliever in verse 64 and a devil in verse 70. However, again, see how a disciple properly identifies Jesus as being the Christ, the son of the living God. To repeat the definition, a disciple was another term for a Christian. Specifically, a disciple is a chosen, believing, learning follower of Jesus Christ as he is revealed in scripture. And I say that that way revealed for us in scripture. For them, New Testament age, the Bible, the New Testament wasn't written, but what Jesus had revealed, the father had revealed through Jesus at that time, they came to know he was the Christ, the son of the living God, because they had special revelation. And they identified and believed in him based on who they knew he was. So that's where you see that in those texts. The Greek word that's used in these texts for the word disciple is mathetes. Mathetes has carried many nuanced connotations throughout its use in Greek and Jewish literature. Even when Jesus was on earth, the word disciple was being used in different contexts. For example, in John 9.29, the Pharisees described themselves as Moses' disciples. In Mark 2.18, scripture speaks of the disciples of John the Baptist. In all its uses in the New Testament, it carries the dual connotation of learning and following. The word mathetes means more than a learner. It is an adherent who accepts the instruction given to him and makes it his rule of conduct, says one dictionary. Now, the Greek definition of a learning follower captures the basic idea of the term disciple used in many ways. However, when it comes to Jesus Christ, the God, the Son, the term disciple takes a unique weight and meaning precisely because of who Jesus Christ is. Turn with me to Mark 8. We're still looking at specifically what is a disciple? Because discipleship is the practice of being a disciple. So Mark 8.34 and 35, I'm just gonna read those two verses. When he had called the people to himself with his disciples also, he said to them, whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospels will save it. I wanna focus on 34. And you don't really see the word disciple except when it says in the context or the setting that there are the people and his disciples there. But the whoever applies to all so that you are clear that this is talking about discipleship of Christ. Turn with me real quick just to glance at Luke 14. We're gonna come back to Mark 9. Luke 14, verse 27 and verse 25, you see this is great multitudes, but what does he say to them? And who look at 27, whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. So when he's talking about bearing his cross and following him over here in Mark and in the other places in the Gospels, he's speaking of discipleship. It's not discipleship is not some second stage Christianity, second blessing or higher life movement. It's not you become a Christian and later become a disciple. Either you become a Christian slash disciple or you do not. If you are not a disciple, you are not a Christian. So in back in Mark 8, when he had called the people to himself with his disciples also, he said to them. So what he's about to say to them, we know from seeing it, him use the word disciple and Luke, that what he's speaking to them is about discipleship. We know it's about salvation because he says whoever desires to save his life will lose it. Look in verse 36, what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? So to become a disciple was talking about a saved believer. You can't say you're saved and not be a disciple. And he says whoever, so whoever has an interest or a desire to come after Christ, let him deny himself. And that let him is a third person imperative. You could translate it, he must deny himself. That's more authoritatively sounding in our language instead of a let that sounds permissive. It's he must deny himself. Not deny his belongings, not deny his wife or his family, deny himself. The word deny in the B-dags is, which is giving the Greek definition of that word to the best of their ability to act in a wholly selfless manner, in other dictionaries, Zod Heights, to disown and renounce self and to subjugate all works, interests and enjoyments. In our English usage of the word, which overlaps with those Greek definitions, deny means to refuse to acknowledge as one's own, to disown or repudiate. I heard one pastor say a repudiation of self. Whoever desires to come after Christ, he says, you must repudiate yourself. And repudiate is to refuse to have anything to do with, disown, cast off publicly. So I thought that I heard Pastor Albert Martin give this illustration. If you go to Matthew 26, all is helpful because the same Greek word and its practice is in Peter when he denies the Lord. So what does it look like when he denies the Lord? So that we can see how that parallels with our denial of ourself, Matthew 26, 69. Now Peter sat outside in the courtyard and a servant girl came to him saying, you also were with Jesus of Galilee, but he denied it before them all. Saying, I do not know what you were saying. And when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, this fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth. But again, he denied with an oath, with an oath. I do not know the man. A little later, those who stood by came up and said to Peter, surely you are also one of them for your speech betrays you. Then he began to curse and swear, saying, I do not know the man. He denied him three times. So what was it that Peter did when he practiced this word, deny? He actually physically didn't do in this example, anything. What he did was verbal. And when it came to acting upon the desires of his heart and the thoughts of his mind, he spoke to people who were around and he repudiated Jesus Christ. He disowned him publicly and says, I have no attachment and association with that man. I am not part of him. You need to detach me from him. And then he oaths, swore with an oath and then cursed. So he did it with such vehemence that he tried with all his effort to separate and detach himself from Christ. And that's an example of denying yourself. Well, when Jesus says back in Mark eight, let him, he must deny himself, what is he speaking of? What should we disown of ourselves? And already it's like flying in the face of a lot of false teaching on self-esteem that God's design of salvation is that you feel good about yourself. And it's not that a Christian isn't grateful or joyful but this flies in the face of that kind of thinking. Well, if there's something in us that we don't want to let go of, that we must let go of if we're going to be a follower of Christ, we see it as a commodity. And preeminently, it is the vile sin of idolatry of self. Selfish idolatry, it flies across all humanity and says you are all selfish idolaters. And if any of you will become saved, become a disciple of Jesus Christ, become a Christian, you must deny that, we must deny that. He says also that you must take up his cross that his I believe is referencing the person, not the Lord's cross, though they're connected, distinct. Take up his cross is to lift up and carry. It's in association with being a follower of the Messiah, of being a follower of Jesus Christ, a learning, saved, Christian, believing follower. And what does it mean to take up one's cross? Well, I think if you just, we better understand what it means when he says that cryptic figure of speech cross will better understand what it means to take it up. And I define it this way and I want to give some exposition as to why it's a willing commitment when he says he must take up his cross. It's a willing commitment to bear any trial, suffering, rejection, or persecution which results from attaching yourself to and following Christ in faith. The cross for Jesus and the people meant suffering, rejection, and death. So when Jesus was speaking to the multitudes and his disciples, what would they have thought? Not us, what would they have thought? Have not the cross not having yet happened but what would they have thought? To them that was a set aside gruesome, torturous way that the Romans executed people and only certain types of people that were considered the most degenerate. People were, they died slowly and the most shameful way possible and when they would go to where they were going to be executed outside the camp or the city, they would have to carry their own cross to the place that they would be crucified. And they would do it before the people. It was a public shame. When you were undergoing that kind of execution, you were as far away from the people as you could be. You were like considered the off scouring of the world and cut off from the land of the living. And when he says, take up your cross, they would unmistakably know that he's speaking of something where it's utter shame, suffering, death, rejection. For Jesus, it meant more than that, which I don't think the disciples came to better understand until after his resurrection but he knew all along he was going to be crucified. He says in John three that even so the son of man must be lifted up. He told them previous to this, he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and chief priests and be killed and three days ride to rise again. He knew. So I don't think that what Jesus, the author of what was being spoken excluded himself and his cross. I think that was the point and probably would not be fully understood till after. And for Jesus, what did it mean to take up his cross? It meant to deny himself. There's no greater glory that one can have but the son of God and the bosom of the father to leave heaven and humble himself in the likeness of man and become obedient even to the point of death, even a cross. So, and he was shamefully treated, despised and rejected by the world. He was counted the off scouring of the world. Why is he called Jesus of Nazareth? It's because can anything good come from Nazareth? Men look their own God in the eyes flesh to flesh and saw nothing of beauty in him. And when he says if anyone will come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross. I understand that to mean what Jesus would have thought when he's taking up his cross. It means as a follower of Christ, you will be rejected. You will suffer. You will be counted as worthless. And if you aren't willing, if you don't have a willing commitment to bear any trial, suffering, rejection or persecution which results from attaching yourself to and following Christ in faith, you cannot be his disciple. Look at Hebrews 13 and we'll move. Hebrews 13, 12. Therefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to him outside the camp bearing his reproach. Picking up your cross is doing the opposite of what Peter did. Peter did not pick up his cross. But had he picked up his cross, he would have suffered the reproach with Christ and been willing to endure whatever it meant for that time and that place. He forego, forwent his commitment. He says later you must follow me or the next phrase back in Mark eight. This is a willing submission to not only the practices of Christ but his teachings. Not only his teachings but his precepts, his practices. It is not enough for you to say I follow Christ in what he teaches and teach others the same and then yet you live like the devil. That is not a disciple. So a disciple is another term for a Christian specifically a disciple is a chosen believing learning follower of Jesus Christ as he is revealed in scripture. If you wanna see how disciples are made which is our in part responsibility is to make disciples. You go to Matthew 28 and we're not gonna look at that but there's three main things as the body of Christ that we are to do when we make disciples. We are to go and evangelize them. If we don't speak words, the words of God and the gospel to people who are lost and in their sin we are not being faithful to make disciples. We can't just do actions. Should we do actions? Should we serve? Yes. Did Jesus serve? Yes. But we must speak for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. After they believe we are to baptize them. So the responsibility to evangelize the world is the means by which God translates true disciples into the kingdom of his beloved son. Once a disciple is incorporated into the invisible body of Christ the church is commanded to incorporate them into the visible body through baptism and local church membership. And after they are then incorporated into the visible body of a local church we are to teach each other to obey. That's how disciples are made. What are some examples? In Matthew four there was Peter and Andrew and when Jesus said come follow me previous to that he was saying repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. It's you should not see when he calls them to follow me as that being the first time they'd ever seen or heard him. They already were aware of him from John the Baptist but when he did come and say follow me they delayed not. Immediately they left their nets and physically followed him and attached themselves to Jesus Christ. In Acts 14 21 through 23 there was disciples that were strengthened and they were told that through many trials they must enter the kingdom of God which is what we talked about with taking up your cross. And also in Acts 16 and then second Timothy one we see Timothy was a young disciple that was commended to Paul and he went with Paul and later at the end of Paul's life what is Paul telling him as a disciple of Christ? He's telling him to be faithful and sound and doctrine and in practice. Being a disciple involves you learning and following Jesus Christ as a learner and a follower. So what does this mean for your discipleship? We must not entertain alternate masters and idols. Remember the call as you sit there a believer now remember the call that Christ made because there are many people brothers and sisters that he will tell them I never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness. He's not talking about a works based salvation. He's talking about discipleship for those who have a new heart the seed of God will practice righteousness. It's part of the new covenant promise and we're responsible ways that you can discipleship is not just one to one in our church where you disciple one person in one thing. Is that a way to disciple someone? Yes. Discipleship within the body and organically involves all of what we are doing in the means of grace. The pastor preaching to us on Sundays and us coming to worship God singing and making melody in our hearts to one another to God hearing the sermon and implementing what we are learning that's a form of discipleship because the discipleship is the discipleship of Christ. It's not the discipleship of one man here. We're not disciples of one man we're disciples of the man. So imitation one to one imitation one to one teaching is good that is a form of the way in which Christ disciples his people and in a way that they can learn to follow Christ. Small group the Bible commands us to exhort one another today while it is still called today and to love one another and in that means we practice speaking the word of God together learning of each other's interests and needs and serving one another as God has given us time, gifts and grace. Sunday school Sunday school was a means by which we learned the word of God same with small group evangelism when we go out and evangelize and we practice that we are fulfilling the commandment to go and preach the gospel to every creature and we are being disciples of Christ. As we take others with us we're able to teach them the way to evangelize. Also serving needs and administering gifts. Everybody has gifts even in our age there's everyone has gifts and ought to serve in accordance with the grace that's been given to them looking for needs and whether they be sickly or spiritually. Let's pray and we'll close. Father in heaven, we praise you for this teaching and preaching on discipleship we see that the call to follow Christ involves a denial of ourself and taking up the cross and following him and we are insufficient but willing by your grace and we pray that you would help and cause us to be faithful disciples of Christ and to be faithful to make disciples as your people here. Amen.