In the world we have many form of disciples, politicians have disciples who follow a party / Leader go to any lengths to help them. Similarly in office people follow many leaders to emulate what the leaders do and soon become a prodigy / “Gurus” of them and excel even better.
When it comes to followers of Jesus we always are called to be the disciples of christ, but we shed the discipleship from us and off load that for Pastors / full time ministers and we say I am just a christian, there is a misconception that discipleship is only for full time ministry, if I am not a full time minister it does not apply to me. What does the Bible teach about discipleship.we can learn a great deal on this from Luke 9 / 10
We look at two instance of this same command from Jesus but done in different way
Luke 9:1-2 'When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. '
Luke 10:1-3 'After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. '
Does this apply for me ?
So the notion that Discipleship applies only for full time ministers is not correct.
See first Luke 9:1 “Jesus had called the Twelve together”, Luke 10:1 “Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go”
Discipleship is applicable to every one, the moment you are bought into salvation by Christ.
Discipleship is not a one time work, its a life long work irrespective of work / profession we do.
God’s Promise for Disciple
1. Power and authority
Jesus has the Power and authority over everything. Three outstanding characteristics of God, from his sovereignty that makes him great
Omnipotence - is the quality of having unlimited power,
Omnipresence - is the property of being present anywhere and everywhere
Omniscience - is the property of having complete or maximal knowledge. Along with omnipotence and perfect goodness, it is usually taken to be one of the central divine attributes.
Prophet Isaiah says on his power '“This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord , the Maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself, ' Isaiah 44:24, by his power he makes every things with just a stretch of his hands
Prophet Isaiah says on his authority '“.. I am he; I am the first and I am the last. My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they all stand up together. ' Isaiah 48:12-13, by his authority when he calls the heaven and earth stand up together. Its beyond human imagination to think some who can do this kind of things, but thats God’s power.
The promise for the disciples is “he gave them power and authority ”, the same authority in the name of Jesus. How do we use this power and authority, just speak up “in the name of Jesus”, then you get the same Power and authority.
2. To drive out all the demons -
Drive out all the demons, Note this is the first power given to the disciples, Before we understand this power to drive out demons. Lets understand about Demon.
Demons / Satan / Adversary / Devil / Prince of the world / Slanderer / Lucifer / Prince of Kingdom of air, there are many names for Demon, note all are one and the same.
Satan is a spiritual being who led a heavenly revolt against God and was subsequently cast down into the earth (Luke 10:18). His personal name, “Satan,” means “adversary.” This name indicates Satan’s basic nature: he is the enemy of God, of all God does, and of all God loves. ( 2 Thessalonians 2:4 - 'He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. ')
To know more of how he is formed and how he was kicked out heaven , - Read Luke 18:10 / Rev 12:7-9 / Ezekiel 28:12-19
Jesus gave the Power to the disciples
Drive demons out
“he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons “ , This was given as it was the primary forces to repel the good news, it’s given to remove them so that the good news can spread. As the name Jesus -( James 2:19 'You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. ' ) makes the demons shudder when they hear the name as he has all the power and authority
We do not have any authority over demon as he is the “Prince of the world” but Jesus has the power and authority over him. By just saying “In the name of Jesus” God has given the same power to cast a demon away.
Cure Sick
Cure sick is a result of the sickness due to demon - Curing means "eliminating all evidence of disease," that’s caused by Satan
Paul’s example of how he cured the sick in Malta - Acts 28:7-9 'There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and showed us generous hospitality for three days. His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him. When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured. '
3. Proclaim Good News
The Power and authority was given to repel the works of Satan, the sole purpose was given to share the good news as Jesus taught. the word says Luke 9:1 “he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. “
What is this good news or “Kingdom of God” - Good news is about recognising your sin, repentance in Jesus and turning the way to him and walking with him.
Many use the ministry as a pre-context for earning money. That’s not what good news is about, its to bring every person to know the sins they are bonded to and have the salvation of Christ to free them from sin. The work is not of the disciple or minister, its the work of Jesus who delivers them from the sin.
We read the word “and to heal the sick” - healing means "becoming whole.", becoming like Jesus once the good news comes to us, by giving the same Holy Spirit given to disciples to the person who received the good news. This is to have the grace of Lord Jesus to heal as you walk with him, to attain the fruit of spirit Galatian 5:22-24
Qualities for us to keep the Discipleship
As I indicated earlier, the moment we are touched by Jesus we receive salvation, we are new and we are excited to work as a disciple, but the enemy, The devil is a “thief ” (Jn 10:10) “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10 NIV ,
He comes to “steal” our holiness, “kill” our godliness, and “destroy” our righteousness ,he is here to take the soul that is saved by God from the Kingdom of God to the Kingdom of the world. The Kingdom of God is with “holiness”, “godliness” and “righteousness”, Kingdom of the world is filled with Sins.
Jesus says - If you want to be my disciple do the following Luke 9:23-26 'Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. '
1. Deny themselves
Jesus said ““Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me”, What is this denying themself ? do not depend on your own self strength, rather depend on Jesus as you do every thing in the world
The self in us always wants to sin. If you depend on your self only Sinful nature will manifest out from you, if its Sinful then you will not proclaim the Good news.
This command “deny themselves” is a path for us to take to the holiness of God. Leviticus 11:45 NIV - “I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.”, because he is holy he expects us also to be holy, his holiness does not have any attraction to sin, when we deny and say I surrender you, Sanctify me Lord, he washes the Sins and clothes us with his holiness to manifest the same Power / authority that we saw earlier.
2. Take up the cross daily
Jesus said “take up their cross daily “, as we read earlier in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;” there is a constant struggle to between our fleshly desires to fall in the trap of sin
How do we get trapped to this Sin.? 1 John 2:15-17 NIV “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”
Warning - Don’t love the world or anything in the world - God is our source and provider, he created the world, he knows what you need from the world, do not run after that, God will give the needs of the world to you. The word says Matthew 6:33 NIV “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Troubles
... lust of the flesh (our self desires, satan - spirit of lies )
... lust of the eyes (attraction to the beauty of the world, satan - spirit of deception )
... pride of life (once you achieve you take credit to boast on that, satan - spirit of proudness to take your work the credit )
Cross signifies the death and how Jesus conquered the death for us from sins, Thru the cross we receive the eternal inheritance of Christ daily Hebrews 9:20, 15
As we walk in the world we will trip and fall to sin (Lust of flesh / lush of eyes / Pride of Life), but by his grace we are protected from his wrath
Take up the cross Daily - come to Christ and lay the sins of yours to say father I committed this sin or this mistake forgive me and ask for repentance, humble yourself to cleanse from the Sin so that you are righteous in God’s eyes, its like how we bath daily, the dirt falls, we wash then once again it comes, its a life long thing we need to do till end of this world till we become holy .. holy..
If you are filled with sin ,the Power and Authority to Drive demons and heal the Sick will not be there. Say you come and pray for a bother who is filled with Evil spirit - Spirit of adultery - if you Sin in that way and say in the name of Jesus, Satan will talk back to you and expose your sins like how it happened in Acts 19:15-16 'One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. '
3. Follow me
Jesus said “take up their cross daily and follow me” - You follow one person by looking at them and not paying attn. to anything else, Same way , follow me tells us to have our eyes on Jesus, his words that talk to us daily, if we keep our eyes on the worldly things and as well as on Jesus
We will not be able to do things what he has planned in our life or ministry.
Following him sheds lights to us on our sins and cleanse us to bring to repentance
It’s a process is reverse. follow me (showing the sin) —> take up the cross (repentance of sin) —> deny the self ( keeping away from sin)
4. Losers life
Jesus Says in Luke 9:24 “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” , We may say if we live like that we will miss the pleasures of the world, that’s a lie that Satan gives us to trick to sin.
There are many things in the world without alcohol, sex and drugs that God made us to enjoy. Some how we are made to believe that the cool life is ,to have party life / rich and extravagant life.
What Jesus is saying “who ever looses life for me will save” - by living a life which is sin less we prepare for his eternal living that’s what “save” means
Who ever wants to save the life will loose it - saving the life with the worldly living will fall to the trap of sin and loose it in the day of judgment and fall to abyss / hell.
Following Jesus will have life of struggles -
Struggle are meant to teach you to be dependent on God and how he works his wonders to solve the same, it’s also to mould you to his character
Christian life will be full of struggles, it’s no exception to anyone
5. Don’t be Ashamed of
Jesus Says Luke 9:26 “Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. “
Don’t be ashamed to telling Jesus is the Lord. Witness how his works has changed your life and transformed and how it can change the other persons life as well.
Jesus called us to be witness of him as he does the good works in you.
Discipleship comes being a witness to Jesus - proclaim his name with boldness and not with shame
He conquered the shame for us in cross, only the acts of devil should be ashamed
If you are brought into salvation you are a disciple as well, step back and think which areas of your life that has made you loose the power and authority of Jesus, get back to him he is ready to revive you again..
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