"Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:16-20
I am examining what it means to be a disciple and what it takes to be one.
In my lost post I wrote that it takes faith to be a disciple - faith in Who Jesus is. The evidence of faith is faithfulness.
Today I want to touch on another aspect of discipleship. In addition to faith, discipleship requires following. These eleven men followed Jesus and they followed Him fully. What do I mean by that? Following Him fully means following Him only. It means throwing all the weight of your hopes for the future and all the weight of your trust in Him.
They stopped following their families and started following Him. Is it wrong to love your family? Of course not! God commands that! Is it wrong to be devoted to your family? No way! Your family is a sacred trust from God! But, disciples follow Christ and are more devoted to Him than to their marriage or to their family. That is following fully. When discipleship is done properly, you will become a spouse, parent, child, or grandparent because you are fully devoted to Christ. When you follow Christ you will lead your family.
They stopped pursuing their fortunes and started following Him. They left their boats on the shore and walked away from their nets, when they began following Christ. Everyone of the disciples left their jobs and cast their fortunes with Jesus. That is following fully.
Yes, but, Brad, they didn't have 401K's and profit-sharing and health insurance that they had to walk away from! No, and neither do you. You just need to trust Jesus more than you trust all those things. Fully devoted followers make Him their security and trust Him for their future.
They gave up their future dreams and personal agendas to follow Him. Everyone of these original disciples were busy carving out their futures when Jesus called them. These were not idle people. They were not deadbeats. They had things to do and schedules to keep and futures to build. But when Jesus called, they left it all. They followed fully.
I fear that today's version of discipleship has morphed into how we can shape Jesus around our future and our agenda rather than how we can fully follow Him. Fully following Him means that we shape our future and our fortunes around His agenda, His values, and His mandate.
A disciple is a fully devoted follower of Christ. Are you fully devoted to Him? Have you fully thrown all of your hopes and dreams and trust on Him?
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