#114. Disciple
So, what do you call someone who follows Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour? It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it’s not! I guess our main label is “Christian”. We say “so & so has become a Christian.” Or, “I am a Christian”. And this is the generally accepted term, and we all know it means. And the Bible uses it three times (3x)
But did you know that 72x in Matthew, 58x in Mark, 44x in Luke, 61x in John and 23x in Acts the followers of Jesus are called “disciples”. Disciples are different from Apostles; strictly speaking there were only 12 apostles of Jesus, but there were thousands of disciples.
The term disciple means ‘learner’ or ‘pupil’. I like to think of followers of Jesus in this way and I tend to call people disciples more than I call them Christians. I try to think of myself as a disciple of Jesus – someone who is learning, always learning, from the Master.
And there are three main areas we need to learn from Jesus. His Belief; His Behaviour; His Attitude.
A disciple is someone who is learning to believe what Jesus believed. And Jesus believed some wonderful and mind-stretching and heart-ravishing things about God, Life, death and everything. None of us believes as we should, and so we are developing believers.
A disciple is someone who is learning to behave as Jesus behaved. Oh dear. And I hear you saying “oh dear” too. Jesus behaved perfectly in self-control and in relationships. Read his life and be amazed at his behaviour; it’s delightful. Not one of us behaves as Jesus did, and so we are learning to behave.
A disciple is someone who is learning to have the attitude of Jesus. His attitude to life, to people, to possessions, to money, to work, to relationships was so heavenly. A disciple is someone who is learning to have this heavenly attitude.
It’s easy to despair isn’t it? We have so much to learn, no matter how long we have been disciples. But don’t forget that the moment you repented of your sin and received Jesus as your Saviour, at that moment God gave you His Holy Spirit to live in you and to work the belief, behaviour and attitude of Jesus into your life. And so we continue to work out our salvation for God is at work in us! We are not on our own, nor do we rely on our own strength, ability or power. We rely on God.
Oh, and being a disciple shows that we haven’t arrived at what we should be yet… we are learning, we are on a journey of faith in the school of discipleship with the most gentle, generous, understanding, patient, loving Teacher we could ever dream of. His Name is Jesus.
Love from Paul