All right. Good morning.
Turn, if you will, to Luke, Chapter 10.
That's where we're going to start.
We got lots of passages I'm going to have you turn to this
morning. But Luke, chapter 10 is where
we're going to start. Does anybody need a Bible?
We got some extra Bibles. You on the Bible, Kevin?
Can you get a couple of those Bibles of the green and Brother
Fleming here, if you don't mind. Thank you.
Luke. Chapter 10.
Somebody tell me what we've been talking about here in this
series. What in the Bible?
Not allegories. Metaphors, metaphors.
In the Bible, we've been talking about metaphors.
And today I'm going to skip review just so I can get right
into this. But today we're going to talk
about one that may not seem like it's necessarily a metaphor, but
as we get into it, you'll you'll see we're going to talk about
being a disciple of Christ. Now there's a whole sect, a
whole religion called the disciples of Christ, but we are
called to be disciples of Christ.
And how is how is that a metaphor?
Do you remember what a metaphor is?
What's the? I'll give you the definition
because it's kind of involved. But the definition of a
metaphor, listen to this is a word or phrase applied to an
object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
So are we literally disciples of Christ on this earth?
We can't be right? Because that That's my next
question. What is a disciple?
What is that? It's a follower, or it's the
real definition. Is a learner or a pupil, not
necessarily just a follower. So if we are learners or
students of Christ, we are his disciples.
And so it is a metaphor because we can't actually follow Christ
on this earth. So there were only how many
disciples. It's a double trip.
Question 13. But there's lots there's not.
They were not only 12 or 13. Anybody that followed Christ
while he was on this earth was called a disciple.
And we see that in John chapter 8, verse 31, then said Jesus to
those Jews which believed on him.
If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples?
Indeed. So it wasn't just the 12, even
though we tend to call the 12 the 12 disciples, They were
actually the apostles, but the Bible does refer to them as
disciples. So that's where we get that
from. So like I said it was a trick
question. John chapter 13, verse 35 all
says by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye
have loved one to another, which then that means us.
If we have loved one to another even we can be his disciples.
But it was it was anybody that followed Christ was his
disciple. Which leads to the next
question. We're still in in introduction
here, but how? Well, it's not necessarily a
question. How rhetorical?
How is a disciple of Christ? I think it's probably the most
important of all the metaphors we've looked at so far.
Reason being is why are we trying to be a soldier?
Why are we trying to be a student of God's word?
Why are we trying to be salt and light?
Why are we trying to be a farmer and spread the gospel?
What are we doing that for? To make disciples and to be a
better disciple of Christ. And we'll see that as we go in
to this lesson, because of what a disciple is supposed to do.
So it's very important metaphor. It's a very familiar topic.
But I'm going to, I'm going to get into this here in in a
little bit. And I want to say this too.
We don't necessarily have disciples today like they used
to have back then. Remember Paul?
Anybody know who he was? Who he sat under?
Gamalia. He said I was I was a disciple
of Gamalia. Well, a disciple wasn't just a
student that came to classes for a few hours a day.
They followed this guy around, which is why was not weird for
Jesus to have 12 men following him around everywhere he went.
It was that was normal. John the Baptist said the same
thing. Remember he sent some of his
disciples to Christ to see if this is the Messiah.
So it was not weird at all for these disciples to be following
him around. For the for the 12 apostles.
Gamalio had it and and it was very common.
Now we today we still have that to a degree that we have mentors
and we have pastors, we have professors, but we don't follow
them around like like they would have back then.
So I already said this, but a disciple simply means a learner
or a pupil. So if you are underneath a
teacher, you are a disciple of that teacher.
And it's also important to know you'll see with the disciples
they often questioned Christ. There's nothing wrong with
questioning God to get a better understanding, and that's not
necessarily a a point in our lesson today, but you'll just
you'll see the disciples questioned him often.
What does that mean? That's not bad.
That's a good thing. They were learners.
They were trying to learn and understand, and Christ was
trying to teach them because he knew better than they did.
He was getting ready to leave. So y'all better.
Get everything you can while I'm here because I'm going to leave.
And what did he leave for them to be their guide?
Or who did he leave for them? The Holy Ghost.
And he told them that I'm going to leave the Holy Spirit here,
but it's a little different. He's going to lead you.
He's going to teach you all things and bring all things to
your remembrance, but he's not going to be a teacher like
Christ was to them. And so we're going to look at
that this morning. Let's pray.
And then we're going to get into Luke, chapter 10.
I want to look at a passage there real quick.
Father, I thank you for this day you've given us.
Thank you for the opportunity we have to be followers of you, to
be students of not just your word, but of of yours, God.
And thank you for the Holy Spirit that leads us.
I pray that we would listen and that we would obey, that we
would never grieve or quench your your spirit in our lives.
God, I pray that you would help us to be as as good of followers
of you as we can be as we look at this lesson this morning and
we would understand how best that we can do that.
In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
Luke Chapter 10 if you're familiar.
No, this is the story or there This in here is the story of
Mary and Martha and these were two different types of disciples
of Christ. Remember we didn't just have the
12 disciples. These two were disciples of
Jesus Christ and Luke chapter 10 verse 41.
I don't you to look at this real quick, but Martha well 39 And
she had a sister called Mary. So Martha had a sister called
Mary which also sat at Jesus feet and heard his word.
But Martha was cumbered about much serving and came to him and
said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to
serve alone? Bid her therefore that she
helped me. Verse 41 Jesus answered and said
unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about
many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen
that good part which shall not be taken away from her.
I don't think he was necessarily rebuking Martha here.
Martha was a disciple of Jesus Christ and and what I'm what I'm
looking at here is two different kinds of disciples or two
different ways that we can be disciple.
Martha was busy. She was serving and we're called
to do that. But I think sometimes we get
caught up so much at times in service that we forget to just
sit at Jesus feet and learn. He tells Martha that he says I
weren't careful and troubled. He wasn't saying you're
distracted or you're too busy. He said, you're careful.
You're in trouble, you're you're busy with good things.
But she chose the one thing that's needful.
Mary hath chosen that good part which will not be taken away
from her. She's sitting at Jesus feet and
she's learning. And so we want we want to make
sure that we're doing that. We want to be busy.
But the Bible also still says be still and know that I'm God.
So there's a balance. Me and my wife talk about this
all the time. Everything we do there is a
balance. There's a balance And how busy
you should be at church and I don't think any of us are
hitting that limit. So I'm not not giving you an
excuse, but I think there's a balance.
How busy we, a person, should be at church.
We have our families, we have our our jobs.
But I think there's also there's there's just a balance in life.
And when it comes to being a disciple of Jesus Christ we
should be busy about his work. But we should also take time,
preferably in the morning or whenever your your job schedule
allows you to sit at Jesus feet and learn what he has for us.
So first thing, go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 4.
We're going to get there in just a second.
The first thing I want to talk about is a disciple is called
and I think it's a disciple is not.
It's not that a disciple is called.
This is where. This is where we get into some
Calvinism and you have to be very, very careful with that.
But predestinated, if you look at that passage, it's saying
there these, there were people that are predestinated to what
we'll get there. It's not predestinated to
salvation. And I know that's a really,
really popular thing right now. God knew who would be saved.
I think we can all agree on that.
But he did not predestinate some to be saved and some not to,
because there's so many verses in the Bible that talk about
everyone whosoever. I mean the most common verse in
the Bible, John 316, is whosoever.
That doesn't mean only a select few can be saved, but a disciple
now is called specifically by Jesus Christ to be that Matthew
chapter 4, verse 18. Let's look at that.
Matthew chapter 4, verse 18. And Jesus, walking by the sea of
Galilee, saw two Brethrens, Simon called Peter and Andrew
his brother, casting a net into the sea.
For they were fishers. And he said unto them, Follow
me, and I will make you fishers of men.
And what did they do in verse 20?
And they straightway left their Nets, and followed him.
And going on from thence he saw other two brethren, James, the
son of Zebede, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebede,
their father, mending their Nets.
And he called them. And they immediately left the
ship and their father, and followed him.
He's specifically calling these men to come be his followers, to
be his disciples, to be his students.
And may I ask you this, do you think they had a choice in
following him? Absolutely.
I shook my head to tricky He they absolutely had a choice.
They could have said Nah, because you see, Peter, after
Christ dies, he goes back to fishing.
And what did all the other disciples do we go for?
We're going with you. They all went back to fishing.
Why? They had a choice and whether or
not they were going to follow Christ, but but Jesus called
them to be his disciples, but he didn't force them.
They were not pre. They were not ordained from the
beginning of time that they had to do that.
He gives us a free will and I don't want to get bogged down in
that. But he calls his disciples and
what does he call us to do to be with him?
Look at Romans chapter 8. And we talked a little bit about
this last week, with the Holy Spirit being our guide.
But Romans chapter 8 and verse 9 says this.
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit.
If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of
his verse. 11. But if the Spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up
Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by
his Spirit that dwelleth in you. So we are not necessarily with
Christ any longer, but Christ left the third person of the
Trinity to be with us. So we are followers of the Lord
Jesus Christ and and and this is not.
I'm not trying to confuse you. I hope it's not.
I'm just trying to show you that we are called to be with him.
Think about the disciples when he called them here in Matthew
chapter four, he was calling them to witness some pretty
amazing things. Think about the miracles that
they got to see. Nobody else.
I shouldn't say nobody else. Others got to see it, but very
few. He, he.
They got to see him heal the sick.
They got to see him feed the multis, not just see him feed.
They got to be a part of breaking that bread and passing
it out. They got to see him calm the the
seat. Nobody else saw that except his
disciples. That was one thing nobody else
saw. He saw them restore the dead to
life. Think of Lazarus.
He's they got to see him do these things.
Very few got to see these things.
And if, well, I'll, I'll give you an example and it's
somewhere later in my notes but I'm going to jump to it right
now. When Jesus rose from the dead
and and showed himself back to his disciples, right.
Remember he came through the upper room, literally came
through. It didn't open the door, but he
came into the upper room. Who was not there.
Thomas. Thomas was said he's dead, I'm
gone. And by not being with Christ
where he was supposed to be, he missed out on that first.
That the the first time that the disciples got to see him after
his death and later he got to see Jesus again and and but
think about that one act. We what else did Thomas do in
the Bible there? There's other recorded stories
of Thomas being there. There's things that Thomas did.
But what what do we know him as doubting Thomas And I'm going to
get to that later. But the the actions, the things
that we do as disciples of Christ, it it, it definitely
builds A reputation for us that's going to follow us.
But doubting Thomas, that's all we know about him, or that's the
first thing that comes to mind when we hear his name because of
his lack of being with Jesus. We're called to be with him.
Go to Matthew chapter 26, and we're going to, we're going to
look at this passage for a little while because I think
often we have no problem following Christ.
It's a good thing to do. And I think even the world would
say, yeah, yeah, religion's good.
But what happens when it starts to get tough?
This is what we're going to see in Matthew chapter 26.
We literally had the disciples. We had Peter telling him, I
don't care what happens, I'll follow you to the death.
And as soon as that it came time to prove that Peter Bales, he
was not with Christ, but Matthew Chapter 26.
And let's start in verse 21. I have the chapter 6, verse 21.
And as they did eat, he said, verily, I say unto you, that one
of you shall betray me. And they were exceeding
sorrowful. And began every one of them to
say unto him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, He
that dip his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me,
which is very interesting that Jesus tells them whoever dips
their hand in there with me is going to be the one that betrays
me. Certainly they would have seen
Judas do that, so I don't know why they were still so confused.
But anyways, And then verse 25 Judas, which betrayed him,
answered and said, Master, is it I?
And he said unto him, Thou hast said, And as they were eating,
Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and break it, and and so on.
But they Jesus says you're going to betray me.
All of them are saying it's not going to be me.
There's no way it can't be me. And I don't think at this time
even Judas was going, it's going to be me.
I don't think his heart was there at this time because he
even asks Jesus, is it is it me? Which is interesting that they
were all asking him that I think they had at this time.
Maybe still some doubt as to whether they were capable of
what Jesus was asking them to do or capable of of of following
him to the to the full extent. But anyways, so Jesus goes to
the garden of Yosemite, he has his three disciples with him
there verse let's see 37 And he took with him Peter and the two
sons of Zebity and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
Then saith he unto them, my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto
death. Terry, he Terry hee here and
watch with me. And he went a little further and
fell on his face and prayed, saying, Oh my father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will,
but as thou wilt. Verse 40 He comes to the
disciples and finds them asleep, and say it then to Peter, What
could you not watch with me? One hour, Jesus, I believe right
here is testing their faith. Just seeing.
I don't think they understood what was, what was getting ready
to happen. Which is why Peter was so
surprised when the when the soldiers show up and he whips
his sword out and and goes to swinging.
But all he was asking them to do is pray with me.
And I read this this little quote that I don't know who it's
from so I can't give credit, but it says a faith that cannot be
tested cannot be trusted. It's not a faith that isn't
tested, can't be trusted, even though I think that's kind of
kind of accurate as well. We do that with tools at work.
They'll they'll pilot them for months and months and months to
make sure that this tool that they are wanting to bring into
the to the workforce is going to be what we need before they buy
a hundred of them, you know. But I think that's what God does
for us. Jesus Christ does this for us.
He tests our faith and tests our faith and tests our faith
because if we don't pass these tests he cannot put the big
things on us that he that he needs us to do.
A faith that can't be tested, can't be trusted.
And in the in the disciples lives here this test was about
to come. I mean think about what the
disciples had been through at this point.
Not a whole lot. I mean they had, they had, they
had some pushback on on spreading the gospel, but they
really hadn't been through a whole lot.
I mean they're with Jesus. Jesus is performing miracles.
The people love him for the most part.
He's feeding 5000 men with their wives and children.
The people love that. Nobody's complaining about that
except the Pharisees, but everybody else loves it.
So the disciples, at this point, I don't think they did
understand when Jesus is saying that I'm going to die, they're
going, I'm going to be crucified and raised three days later.
I they didn't understand that because how can that happen to
somebody who's so popular? But their test, their faith, is
about to be tested so that when Christ was gone, they could be
entrusted with the church that was going to need to be built.
And so we see that in verse 41 you couldn't even watch and pray
with me three times. That happens.
But then in verse 56, Look at verse 56.
But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might
be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook
him and fled. And we're still under the point
to be with him, right? A disciple is called to be with
Christ. This, this was probably the the
most trying hour so far in Christ's ministry.
Well, I should say probably it was.
He's about to be crucified, and he knows that He's in the garden
begging his Father to let this cup pass from him.
This is where he sweats drops of blood.
He's in such distress and in in such heavy prayer He needs his
disciples to be with him, and they all forsook him and fled.
And they that had laid hold on Jesus let him away to Caiaphas
the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were
assembled. What's Peter do?
Verse 58. Peter followed him far off onto
the high priest palace and went in and sat with the servants to
see the end. He doesn't just call us to be to
be following him, God Jesus calls us to be with him and and
I think that if Peter had stayed with Christ they they probably
it's very likely they would have killed him or at least thrown
him in prison or something else. But he follows a far off of
verse 58 to see what the end of Christ is going to be anyways.
And then in verse 69 of Matthew, chapter 26, Peter follows at a
safe distance. And this is, this is my point.
I think a lot of Christians are fine with following Christ as
long as everything's going good. But as soon as it gets tough and
this is what pastor talks about persecution is good for the
church because we get to see. And it's not just, oh, he was
fake. It's a we get to see who is
actually a follower of Christ and who is not.
When the time when it gets tough and they start saying, OK, who's
a Christian because you're going to prison or whatever else.
And we'll see that in in verse 69.
Oh no, no, no, no, no. I mean I went to church, but
I'm, I don't, I don't identify with Christ, I don't follow him.
That's what Peter does here, verse 69.
Now Peter sat without in the palace, and a damsel came unto
him, saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee.
But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou
says. When he was going out into the
porch, another maid saw him, and said unto them that were with
him. This fellow was also with Jesus
of Nazareth, And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the
man. For 73 And after a while came
unto him, They that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou
are also art one of them, For thy speech bereath or betrayeth
thee. Then began he took curse, and to
swear, saying, I know not the man, and immediately the cock
crew. And we know what that means.
But think about what Peter does not just as follow it up at a
distance. Now he curses to prove, oh, my
speech betrays me that I've been with Christ.
Then I'm going to curse to show I I I'm not with Christ.
But I think the lesson here is when Peter Peter's denial of
Christ did not, did not happen. Just starting in verse 69
Peter's denial of Christ happened when he's he backed up
and started following a far off. He was not with Christ.
And I think the the I I don't think we understand or we are
aware of how low we can go when we start to backslide tons and
tons and tons of examples of of people that I know or whatever
else. I won't even, I won't even give
any examples. But when we backslide from being
with Christ, when we backslide from spending time in His word
and in prayer to him and with him and that fellowship, there's
no telling how far back we can go.
And you know, people in your life that how could they, how
could they have done that? They stopped following Christ.
They, they got away from him and started looking at a distance to
see what's the end going to be like for for that church man.
They took a stand. I'm going to back up a little
bit and see what happens. And sometimes God blesses that
and with growth and then those people come back.
Well, I'm going to jump in now. But when they when we back up
and just see what's it going to be like, that's when we start to
backslide. So we're called to be with him,
but we're also called to be like him.
Moving on very quickly, we're called to be like him.
First Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 49.
As we have borne the image of the earthy.
And if you look at this passage, it's several verses long.
But this is this is the point. As we have borne the image of
the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
What is that talking about? It's it's literally talking
about we have fathers that we were born to, and we bear the
image of those earthly fathers. This is very this is not
something we have to explain. We know that you can see a
father and his son standing next to each other, especially once
they get a little bit older and go man, they're related.
We're called to be like Christ as his disciples.
Does somebody see you standing there and go, they got to be a
Christian because they resemble their Heavenly Father so well.
They're they're the image of the Heavenly Father.
That's all I'm going to say about that, except there is a
hymn that we sing oh, to be like the blessed Redeemer.
This is my constant longing and prayer to be like the.
Not just to be a follower. To be like the This is my
constant longing and prayer. Gladly I'll forfeit all of her
treasures. Treasures.
Jesus, thy perfect likeness to wear.
Is that a prayer that we have? I'll forfeit everything I have
to be like thee, oh, to be like thee.
Oh, to be like thee. Blessed Redeemer, pure as thou
art. Come in thy sweetness, come in
thy fullness. And the last line says stamp
thine own image. Deep on my heart, we're called
to be like Christ. And that's there's so much more
to that than just claiming the name of Christian.
Be a disciple, be like him. Second thing is a disciple is
criticized. And so we're called and we're
also we're criticized. And Christ was criticized
constantly by the Pharisees. Every time he turned around, he
was getting attacked by the Pharisees, and he always had an
answer for them, but they never stopped criticizing him.
So it shouldn't be a surprise to us that even religious people
will criticize us. But disciples of Christ are are
criticized often corporately. I'll give you an example of that
corporately meaning as a group right.
We get a name. Oh he's a fundamentalist right.
And pastor did a whole lesson on this fundamental is just
somebody who follows the fundamentals, the basics of what
the Bible tells us to do. But have you.
And I'm not saying there never has been, but it's very popular
for somebody running for office to say there are what, I'm a
Christian? Yeah, I'm a Christian.
Yeah, My faith is very important to me, you know.
But when it comes down to attending church regularly,
reading your Bible regularly, praying and not being, not being
ashamed of that tithing, doing the, the actual practices that
the Bible commands us to do, is that happening?
No, I'm going to, I'm going to claim that Christian because
it's popular. But when it comes down to
actually following Christ, Christians are are corporately
criticized. We're actually, you know, we're
called fanatics and crazy and everything else when we actually
adhere to what the Bible says, perfect example, abortion.
You have people in office claiming to be Christian.
I'm a Christian, but I'm for abortion because that's popular
too. What does the Bible say?
You're a friend of the world. You're an enemy of God.
But I got some examples of this. I I remember knocking on doors
when I was in Indiana and when you said, hey, my name is Brian.
I'm from Fair Haven. Nope.
No thanks. It was nothing I did.
I didn't do anything. But corporately our church was
criticized and and that's common.
Don't be discouraged by that. I think.
I think I I because I am. I'm discouraged by that.
You say the name of your church and they shut the door in your
face. I I get mad why you can't even
stand there and talk to me. Plan on that, on that criticism,
on that, just because of who you associate with.
But we also get individual criticism.
Second Timothy, Chapter 3, verse 12.
Yay. And all that will live godly in
Christ shall suffer persecution. We're going to be individually
persecuted, criticized. And I think it's important that
we to not try to blend in with the world.
And and I won't say any names, but I have, there's a couple
guys at work that I mean, they they find out you go to church.
Oh, man, I go to church. Yeah.
I'm a Christian too. Yeah, that's great.
Yeah. And then you hear them talking.
I thought you were a Christian. It's to blend in because I don't
want the criticism of being a Christian what I want to claim
to be a Christian. We cannot be like the world to
avoid that criticism all. What does the Second Timothy
say? All that will live godly in
Christ shall suffer persecution. Plan on it coming If you're
living godly and then moving on to our last point, disciple is
called, a disciple is criticized, but a disciple is
commissioned. And we know this.
They probably know where I'm going with this, but not We're
not just commissioned to tell others.
We're commissioned to learn. Go to Mark chapter 4.
You shouldn't be too far from there.
Mark chapter 4, verse 33. And this is where the disciples
had a huge advantage, man. They were with Christ and Christ
is speaking in parables and and all the rest and and he did it
on purpose. The Bible says so that the
Pharisees wouldn't understand what he was trying to say.
You remember that he the disciples asked him why you
always speaking parables. And he said so that they can't
understand what I'm trying to say because the lost sheep they
will. But these guys are are too, I
don't know deep or too full of themselves.
They're not going to understand. But Mark chapter 33, four, verse
33 says, And with many such parables spake he the word unto
them as they were able to hear it.
But without a parable spake he not unto them.
So you're talking about the 12 disciples.
He spoke everything in parables to them.
In verse 34 it says without a parable spake he not unto them.
And when they were alone he expounded all things to his
disciples. The disciples wanted to learn.
They craved it. If you remember who was it that
asked who was it? I was talking to Jesus right
before we have the model prayer. He was talking to his disciples.
They said, can you teach us to pray?
They wanted to learn and mark Chapter 9, verse 31 and 32 says,
For he taught his disciples and said unto them them, the Son of
man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him,
and after that he is killed he shall arise the third day.
But they understood not that saying.
And the last phrase says, And they were afraid to ask him, I
don't know. I don't think they were afraid
because he would be mad. I think they were afraid to ask.
He'll be delivered into the hands of men and they shall
kill, kill him. I don't even want to know what
that means. But the disciples for the most
part were eager to learn, and I hope that we are that.
We already talked about that when we talked about the
metaphor of the student. But I hope we're lifelong
learners of not just the Bible but but what God has for us in
our lives. Because you can learn the Bible
and be less spiritual than than the children in in a Sunday
school. You really can't.
Think about the Pharisees. They knew the law back and forth
and they were lost because they didn't want to learn what Jesus
had for them. So we're commissioned to learn.
And then secondly, and and probably knew this was coming,
we're commissioned to tell others Luke Chapter 9, and I
want to read this passage. So Luke, Chapter 9 versus one
through 6, And we're almost done.
But it says this. Then he called his 12 disciples
together, and gave them power and authority over all the
devils to and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the
Kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.
And he said unto them, Take nothing up for your journey,
neither staves nor script, neither bread, neither money,
neither to have two coats apiece whatsoever house you enter in
there, abide and thence depart, and whosoever will not receive
you when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust
from your feet for a testimony against them.
And they departed and went through the towns preaching the
gospel and healing everywhere. They were commissioned to go
tell and that's what they did. And and that is that is our job.
And we see that in Matthew chapter 28.
We see that in the Mark chapter 16 verse 15.
We're we are commissioned to go and tell others.
And this in case you misunderstand that was only for
the 12 disciples. It wasn't because we see in John
chapter 4, the woman at the Well, what did Jesus tell her to
do? He tells her everything about
herself, right? And then he says, Yep, go tell
him, go tell the go tell them all what I told you and what I
did for you. The maniac of Gudara Mark
chapter 5, what did Jesus tell him to do?
There were times when Jesus told people don't say anything but
but for the most part the maniac of Gudara wanted to follow
Jesus. He said, Can I come with you?
And what did Jesus tell him? So stay here and you tell
everybody you know what I did for you.
The men on the road to Emmaus or the disciples on the road to
Emmaus. Luke chapter 24.
He told them to go tell people what I did for you.
Tell them that you saw me. Tell them I'm alive.
So we're commissioned to tell the word confess.
Matthew chapter 10. Whosoever therefore shall
confess me before men. This is a very interesting verse
if you want to write this passage down.
Matthew chapter 10, verse 32 and 33 Whosoever therefore shall
confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father
which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me
before men, him will I deny before my Father which is in
heaven. Confess means to declare openly.
That's what the Greek word means.
And it Jesus tells us, if we are willing to confess, to declare
openly before men, he will declare openly us before his
Father in heaven. Pretty interesting passage but
we're going to bring this to a close.
Never. There's never a time where
Jesus, Jesus never turned people away.
Think about think about it And and naturally.
But the disciples did in in March, chapter 10, verse 13 and
they brought the young children to him that he should touch
them. And the disciples rebuke those
that brought them take them away.
We we got too much going on. Take the take these kids away.
It's too much. And what did Jesus say?
He told no, no, no, no, no stuff for the little children to come
to me and he brought them to him.
But there should never be. And I know sometimes different
circumstances we get into. We just don't have time to run
certain ministries and things like that.
But we should never view people as an inconvenience to our
church. We are bringing people to
Christ. We are telling them about
Christ. That is our job as disciples.
So review. We're called, we're criticized,
and we're commissioned. But the Bible tells us that if
we're disciple of Christ, it brings much rejoicing, it brings
much fruit to our account. So I I hope that as disciples,
we're not. Just.
That does not just mean study or claim the name of Christ.
It means to no matter how tough it gets think about Peter
following a far off man. These guys they're going to kill
him following a far off be with him and and sit at his feet like
like Mary did. That's what he calls us to do.
So disciples of Christ that's that's the metaphor for this
morning. But it's very very applicable
not it's not just a oh that's a neat story.
We are to be disciples. God calls us to be disciples of
his. Let's pray and we'll get ready
for the next service. Father, I thank you for the stay
you've given us, and I thank you for your word, God, I pray that
everything that we learn here in in this Sunday School class, in
this series, God, I pray that we would take it to heart.
There's so much here that we can go back and look on for
ourselves and study out. But God, I pray that we would
just make sure that we're doing everything we can to sit and to
learn and to understand what you have for us to do in our lives.
And God, That we'd be as useful as as we can be for you.
That we would be busy about your work, but always ready to sit
and listen to what you have for us.
Pray that you'll be with this next hour, that you'd feed us,
give us exactly what we need. In Jesus name, I pray.
Amen.