Discipleship

Now, when you hear the word discipleship, what image or definition comes to mind for you?  Do you think discipleship is following rules, living a religious life?  Maybe you think that disciples are those who live life strictly by the “do’s” and “don’ts” of the Bible, a mechanical life of religion.  Or disciples are only those who are in full-time ministry.

Yes, the 12 unique men Jesus called to be his closest companions were disciples, but that designation was not unique to these twelve.  As the church grew all who followed Jesus in order to become like Jesus were called disciples of Jesus.  This is what it means to be a disciple. The truth is stated in Luke 6:40, “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.” A disciple of Jesus is nothing less than someone who follows Jesus in order to become like Jesus.

We often fall short of seeing discipleship to Jesus as actually spending time with Jesus in order to become like Jesus.  We too often see it as spending time with rules or principles in order to live a religious system.  But Jesus’ goal is to populate the earth with “little Christs,” that is, with Christians.  Just as it was then, it is today.

We want to live the eternal kind of life and we want to become fully human, but our approach to accomplishing those things is to follow a new set of rules or to try harder at adhering to old rules.  They key to change in our lives, the key to full life, is spending time with Jesus.  Because when we spend time following Jesus, we start to walk through life like Jesus.  Jesus is the picture of what we long to be - fully human living a fully eternal kind of life.  Just as it was then, it is today.

Three points to consider when growing as a disciple to Christ: First, Jesus said just before he was leaving earth, “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.  He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you” (John 16:13-14).  The Spirit of Jesus is with us and in us so that we can know him as his followers did in the first century. We follow the Spirit daily; we walk by the Spirit.

Second, Jesus told the Pharisees, “You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you’ll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These Scriptures are all about me!” (John 5:39).  The Scriptures are all about Jesus.  So, we come to the Scriptures every day not to learn information but to encounter Jesus.

Third, Jesus tells us, “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them” (Matt 18:20).  We walk with Jesus as we walk with one another.

The Spirit, the Scriptures, and the Body of Christ, these three things are how we follow Jesus in this world as his disciple.

The following teachings from our Podcast Library reflect on the role and purpose of discipleship at the Vineyard:

At the Vineyard Church of Knox County, we pursue discipleship through our Small Group ministries, and many other relational ministries sponsored by the church. We seek to encourage one another to deepen our pursuit and relationship with Christ in all aspects of our lives through our worship, fellowship, ministry, and outreach.

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