If we have not met before, my name is John Whitaker and Tucker
is out of town and so I am going to kick off our summer series
today. We wrapped up First Timothy a
couple weeks ago. Last week we had the pleasure of
hearing from Brent, who is in town from Italy, and we are
kicking off a summer series today from Luke Chapter 6 called
The Way of Jesus. And if any of you've ever been
driving around town and seen a sign like this one, I'm assuming
you know what to do, right? Like, don't go that way.
And now apparently it is possible to miss a sign like
that and end up going the wrong way.
True. When my wife and I were just
dating, I was a freshman in college.
Louise and I just started dating.
I was new to Boise. We were going somewhere.
I don't even remember where it was, but it was night, dark
outside, and we were heading to downtown Boise.
And my wife says, oh, yeah, turn here, turn here, turn here.
So I turn. And as soon as I turned, I
realized we made a terrible mistake because there's
headlights coming at me wrong way, right?
And apparently I'm really good at this because then a few years
later, now we're married, not dating.
We're living in Cincinnati, OH. And I'm somewhere again in
downtown Cincinnati. And I turn left.
But as I turn left, it's one of those streets that's like the
Boulevard streets that's like 3 lanes on each side of a divided
median with like trees down the middle.
I thought the trees were the other side of the, you know, the
sidewalk. No, I turned left and now I'm on
a three lane Rd. heading right towards cars coming directly at
me. What's your reaction in a moment
like that? I know what mine is.
My reaction is, Oh no, like let's, let's flip a you E real
quick. Let's get out of here.
Right? Wrong way.
Now the early Christians were known when you read the book of
Acts as The Way. Why were they called the Way?
Well, they were called the Way because Jesus himself described
himself as one of the more famous verses from Jesus
teaching I am the way. I am the way, the truth and the
life, right? That's what Jesus says, I'm the
way. And as a result of that, the
early Christians began living a certain way.
And we're known, therefore, as the way because they were
convinced that Jesus taught the right way to live and that word
way. I don't know exactly what you
think when you hear that word. Sometimes we think Jesus is the
way and we immediately think of the destination.
He's the way somewhere. He's the way to heaven, right?
Sometimes we immediately think like that.
But that's not quite right. The idea of that word way is
more like a roadway or a a pathway.
If we look at the next picture. And the idea is that you're
walking a certain way of life, you're going down a certain
path, you encounter Jesus, and now you have a choice to make.
Am I going to keep going the way I'm going, or am I going to go a
different way? That's the idea of when Jesus
says I'm the way. When the early Christians were
called the way, the idea is they had a choice to make about the
way. Not just the way to somewhere,
but but how they were going to get there, the path they were
going to take, how were they going to live their lives?
And that's the idea of the sermon series, the way of Jesus.
It has to do with the pathway, the roadway, the way of life,
the way you or I are currently living.
What's the way? Are you going the wrong way, or
are you living the right way? And those of us who are
followers of Jesus are convinced that Jesus himself is the one
who teaches the right way. And other ways of doing life are
they're like turning down the wrong way, missing the sign and
everything starting to get out of control because you're going
the wrong way. Jesus way is the right way.
That's the idea. And so this summer we're going
to walk through Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount,
sometimes called the Sermon on the Plane.
It's Luke's version of that where he passes on to us the way
of Jesus. And the reality is for you and
for me, that Jesus did not come, live, die, rise again simply to
make good church members. He didn't do that.
That wasn't his end goal. Going to church is nice, but
being a good church member is not simply the sum total of the
thing Jesus was after. And here's the thing, you you
could actually be a good church member and not be walking the
way of Jesus. It's just a reality.
Think about a good church member for a second.
What's a good church member like?
Well, they show up on Sundays. Well done, right?
They show up to church on Sundays.
A good church member serves, volunteers in their church.
They help with the greeting, they help with the kids, they
help with worship, right. They serve, they volunteer.
All pastors would tell you, I, I, I love church members who
volunteer and serve because we have lots of needs and, and good
church members give, right? They tie, they give money to the
ministries of the church. And, and having been a pastor
for over 30 years, I can tell you just about every pastor
would be super grateful to have people who show up regularly,
serve regularly and give regularly.
And if you do that, you would be a good church member, but you're
not necessarily walking the way of Jesus.
You could do all those things and not actually be walking
Jesus's way the rest of the week in your overall life.
You could be still doing your own thing, going your own way.
And how you carry out your business, how you handle your
finances, how you relate to your spouse and raise your kids and
everything else Jesus comes to offer you.
And IA way of doing life that is good for us and better for us,
The way of Jesus. You see, what Jesus actually
bled, suffered and died for was not to make good church members,
but to make good disciples. That's actually the Commission
he gives to his first followers. Go and make disciples.
Now the question is, what's a disciple?
What's a disciple? Often times in a church service,
the preacher's up here and he does all the talking and you do
all the listening. This is the moment where I'm
going to let you talk. What's a disciple?
That's the reason I asked the question, and I want you to
maybe shout out an answer or two is because that's sort of one of
those church words, those religious words that we don't
use most of the other times in our life.
We use it in church context. And so sometimes we have a pause
to think about, well, what is actually a disciple?
So this is your chance to talk in church.
What's a disciple? Shout out an answer, A student,
a follower? Anything else we want to throw
to the mix? An apprentice.
All right, now think about follower, student, apprentice.
When you think of a student, what picture comes to your mind?
Learning, right? And usually in our context,
where do you find students school in a classroom, right?
Sitting in a classroom. They got tables or desks there.
There's a teacher up front and there's a white board behind,
right. And the students have their
their pens out and their paper out or their laptop out if
they're allowed in the classroom.
And what are they doing? They're taking notes.
Why are they taking notes? Because there's going to be an
exam and they want to pass the exam.
Why do they want to pass I? I know because I taught full
time for 19 years. I know how this works.
Is that going to be on the test? I got that question all the
time. Why do they want to know what's
going to be on the test? Why are they writing notes and
why do they want to pass the test?
Because they want to pass the class.
Why do they want to pass the class?
So they can get their degree and they can be done, right?
That's the way students work in our cultural context.
So while while we could we could translate the word disciple as a
student, the picture that comes to our mind is not necessarily
the same picture that Jesus had in mind when he used the word
the You know, like you're sitting in your biology class,
freshman biology class, in high school or college.
How many of you were so enamoured with your biology
teacher that you wanted to someday just be just exactly
like your biology teacher? I can't wait to become like my
biology teacher someday. Guessing for most of you,
probably not, right? Our idea of a student is
somebody who learns the information so they can pass the
course so they can get their degree and be done with school.
That's what we think of as a student, right?
When we think of a follower or an apprentice, well, that moves
us, I think, closer to the idea of the picture that Jesus had in
mind when he said make disciples live as a disciple.
If you're going to walk my way, you're going to be a disciple.
What's a disciple? Well, here's the way Jesus puts
it in Luke chapter 6 verse 40, which is going to be our our
kind of main text. Luke 6 is our main text for the
summer. In Luke chapter 6 verse 40, he
says this. He says no one or a student is
not above the teacher. And the word translated student
there is ma, they taste it's disciple.
It's the same word translated disciple elsewhere in the
Gospels. A disciple is not above the
teacher, but everyone. Every disciple, when he or she
is fully trained, will be, what's the word like, will be
like the teacher. So every disciple, when he's
fully trained, ends up becoming like the teacher that they've
attached themselves to learn from.
That's the image. That's the understanding Jesus
had in mind of what it meant to be a disciple.
It's not just learning what the the teacher knew, right?
It's not just mastering the information that's passed on so
I can pass the test. The goal is to become like the
rabbi, like the teacher. That is simply what it meant to
be a a mathe taste, a Tao need a disciple in Jesus world.
So when Jesus says calls you and I to be disciples or calls us to
go and make disciples, that's the image he said.
I want you to make people who are learning from me how to
become like me. And since Jesus is our teacher,
he's our expert. To be a disciple of Jesus means
the aim, the objective, the outcome we're pursuing is
becoming just like Jesus. And that's why, like the word
apprentice actually maybe fits a little bit better with the idea
of being a disciple than just the word student, because an
apprentice might actually sit in an occasional course, watch some
video lectures, but then The Apprentice immediately goes and
puts it into practice and learns how to do it.
And they may not be very good yet, but they know what the
objective is. They're going to become like
this particular teacher, right? That's the goal.
I, I had a friend who when he was around 50, you know, early
50s, fifty something years old, decided he, it was time in his
life to to pick a new career. He was going to become an
electrician at 50 something years old.
He wasn't particularly handy with anything in life.
I don't know why he thought this would be a good option for him,
but that was going to be the choice he made.
And so, you know, first week on the job, what's he doing?
Is he stringing wiring and and putting in outlets?
Not quite yet. He's early in his apprenticeship
and he really doesn't know anything about outlets or wiring
anyhow, because that's just not how he thought.
And so his first job you're going to dig trench and you're
going to big a bend pipe. So he's 50 something years old
with a shovel, digging trench and bending pipe conduit so they
could run the wires through. He did not last very long as an
apprentice electrician. His back was hurting, his knees
were hurting, it just wasn't working for him. 50 plus and he
quickly realized I have made a bad choice right?
I shouldn't be an apprentice electrician.
On the other hand had another friend who on this particular
occasion I walk out into my garage and I smell something
funny and our lights were flickering.
Like this is not a good combination.
So I text this other friend of mine who I knew had been an
apprentice electrician for a while and I text him and said
hey Anthony I smell something funny and my lights are
flickering. I think maybe I need someone to
check it out and Anthony is like as soon as I'm off work I will
come over. Anthony shows up at my house and
he doesn't have his journeyman's license yet.
He's still an apprentice. He shows up at my house, but
he's been an apprentice for long enough that he actually can do
some electrical stuff now. And and he quickly diagnosed a
unique experience that had happened in my circuit breaker
box the the entire bus for the circuit Breakers in my boss.
It cracked in half and it was arcing inside my circuit panel.
Anthony was so amazed by this that he actually called his
boss, the journeyman he was apprenticing to, and said, I've
never seen this, have you? And his boss was like, I've
never seen that either. So he had to drive over just to
witness the phenomenon of my arcing circuit panel.
And then when all was said and done, his boss said to Anthony,
do you need me to stick around and help you?
Or do you got this? And Anthony said, no, I got
this, I got this. Why?
Because an apprentice goal is to become like the journeyman, like
his teacher. And so Anthony did a complete
changeover in my circuit panel on me as an apprentice
electrician because he had been trained enough that he was
becoming like his teacher. And that's the idea of what it
means to be a disciple. Every disciple, when he's fully
trained, will be like his teacher.
And So what does that mean for you and for me as disciples of
Jesus? We're not electricians, we're
not plumbers, we're not cabinet makers.
We're disciples of Jesus who knows the way of life, who knows
the proper way for us to live, who knows what leads to human
flourishing. So we're going to become
disciples of Jesus. Here's what that means.
Simple definition of a disciple is a disciple arranges their
life to be with Jesus in order to become like Jesus.
Both parts of that are important.
They arrange their life, they rearrange what they're how they
spend their time, what they how they approach the activities of
their day. They rearrange their whole life
with the expressed intent, the express objective of becoming
like Jesus because they're a disciple of his and that's the
goal. They want to become like Jesus
and not just like him externally.
They don't want to hang, you know, Christmas ornaments on a
that's going to be dead in three weeks and you're going to throw
away. They want to become good trees.
So they're going to become like Jesus from the inside out.
They're going to have his life flowing in them and out of them,
and they're going to become like him from the inside out.
That's what a disciple is. A disciple is somebody who
arranges their life to be with Jesus in order to become like
Jesus in the character of their life and in the mission of their
life. Their life will be like him in
their character. They'll love the things Jesus
loves. They'll want the thing Jesus
wants so that they'll routinely and naturally and by second
nature do the things Jesus would do.
And they're going to actually pursue the the same sort of aims
and objectives Jesus would pursue in his life.
Both in their character and in the ambitions of their life,
they will be like Jesus. That's what it means to be a
disciple. And I hope you can see the
difference between being a good church member and being a
disciple. You could be a good church
member, you could show up on Sundays, you you could serve
regularly, you could tithe and by most metrics be a good church
member. But in the inner character of
your inner being, you're not being transformed into Christ
likeness. And sadly, that's why you hear
reports of people who were maybe even leadership in the church.
They were known as good volunteers.
They were known as good church members.
But then all of a sudden it comes out they were living a
double life all along. They weren't really becoming
like Jesus from the inside. It was all a show on the
outside. But that's not who we are.
That's not what we're about. We're about learning the way of
Jesus because we're disciples of Jesus.
That's what Jesus wants for us, and that's what Jesus calls us
into. So this summer we're going to
walk through this passage in Luke chapter 6 exploring, all
right, at least, what are some of the things if we are living
as a disciple and learning to become like Jesus, what are some
of the things we're going to do differently?
What are the some of the things we're going to believe in
differently? What are some of the things
we're going to want differently if we're learning the way of
Jesus? Handful years ago, I was
preaching on some of these same themes at a different church.
I actually put on the screen a little pathway for disciples
that kind of marked out a course towards becoming like Jesus.
And after service, I was standing out in the lobby at
this particular church and visiting with people, you know,
and talking with people. And it was clear there was
someone who wanted to talk to me, but he wanted to wait till
there was less people around in the lobby was, you know, a
little more empty. And so it was in between 1st and
2nd service. And finally the lobby emptied
out. And this guy approaches me and
he says, hey, hey, John, can I, can I ask you something?
I said, yeah, sure. And he, he's like, well, you
know, when you put that what a disciple is, that there's
someone becoming like Jesus. And you put that path on the
screen about how to how to live like Jesus, to become like
Jesus. I said, yeah.
He said, well, I've been a Christian for over 10 years.
And I think I would put myself clear back at the beginning of
that path, like way back in, like the new disciple stage,
clear back at the beginning, even after 10 years.
And I asked him, why is that? This was his answer.
His answer was because no one actually told me where to go and
how to get there. Going to church for 10 years,
never even knew he was supposed to be pursuing Christ likeness.
I said, what did they tell you? And he said, well they told me I
should go to church, I should serve and I should give.
That's exactly what he said. And he said I've been doing all
those things for over a decade and I haven't really become like
Jesus from the inside out yet. We were making good church
members, not good disciples. But Jesus's aim for you and for
me is not just for you to be a good church member.
His aim is for you to become a good disciple who loves like
Jesus loves and lives like Jesus lives and does the kinds of
things that Jesus wants you to do.
And that's where passages like Luke chapter 6 come into play.
They help us understand what it looks like to be and to live as
a good disciple of Jesus. And So what I want to do is I
want to read you just a handful of verses that make up Luke's
account of Jesus Sermon on the Mount.
It may be the same sermon just boiled down a little bit more
from Matthew 5-6 and seven. It may be that you just preached
it on a different occasion because as a traveling preacher,
you might preach the same sort of content in slightly different
ways at different times, right? I just want to read it to you so
you can hear it and listen to it.
And then this summer, what we're going to do here as a church is
we're going to walk through this chunk of Scripture kind of line
by line, verse by verse, and think about what does it look
like to live as good disciples learning the way of Jesus.
So listen to what Jesus teaches us in Luke chapter 6.
He raised his eyes towards his disciples.
That's that's us, right? He raised his eyes towards his
disciples and began saying, blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the Kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry
right now, for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you or
insult you or scorn. Your name is evil on account of
the Son of man, that's Jesus himself.
Rejoice on that day. Jump for joy, for behold, your
reward is great in heaven. For their fathers used to treat
the prophets the same way. But woe to you who are rich for
your receiving your comfort in full.
Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laughed now, for you will mourn and weep.
Woe to you when all the people speak well of you, because their
fathers used to treat the false prophets that way.
And I say to you, who here love your enemies, and do good to
those who hate you, Bless those who curse you.
Pray for those who speak abusively about you.
Whoever hits you on one cheek, offer him the other.
And whoever takes away your cloak, don't withhold your tunic
from him either. Give to everyone who asks from
you, and whoever takes away what's yours, don't demand it
back. Treat people the same way you
want them to treat you. If you love those who love you,
what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love
them. If you do good to those who do
good things for you, what credit is that to you?
For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom
you expect to receive back, what credit is that to you?
Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same
amount. But love your enemies and do
good, and lend without expecting anything in return.
And your reward will be great with your Father in heaven, and
you will be sons of the Most High, for he himself is kind to
the ungrateful and evil people. So be merciful, just as your
Father is merciful. Don't judge and you won't be
judged. Don't condemn, you won't be
condemned. Pardon, forgive, and you will be
pardoned. Give, it'll be given to you.
They in fact, will pour into your lap a good measure, pressed
down, shaken together, running over, For by your standard of
measure, it will be measured to you in return.
Jesus also spoke a parable to them.
A person who is blind cannot guide another person who is
blind, can he? Won't they both fall into a pit?
The obvious answer of that is yes, indeed, they won't know
where they're going since they're both blind.
Then he says the line that we focused on today, a student is
not above the teacher, but everyone when he's fully trained
will be like his teacher. So why do you look at the speck
that's in your brother's eye but don't notice the log that's in
your own eye? How can you say to your brother,
brother, let me take that speck that's out of your eye when you
don't even see the log that's in your own eye?
Hypocrite. First take the log out of your
own eye. Then you'll see clearly to take
the speck that is in your brother's eye.
For there's no good tree that bears bad fruit, and on the
other hand, there's no bad tree that actually bears good fruit.
Each tree is known by its own fruit.
For people don't gather figs from thorns, now do they pick
grapes from a briar Bush. The good person out of the good
treasure of his heart, the good character, the Christ like
character in his heart, the good person out of the good character
or the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good.
And the evil person out of the evil treasure brings forth what
is evil. For the mouth speaks from that
which fills the heart. And why do you call me Lord?
Lord, don't do what I say. Everyone who comes to me and
hears my words and puts them into practice acts on them.
I will show you what he's like. He's like a person building a
house who dug deep, laid the foundation on a rock, and when
there was a flood, the river burst against that house, and
yet it couldn't shake it. Why?
Because it had been well built. But the person who hears these
words of mine, listens to sermons and teachings and Bible
studies, but doesn't put them into practice, doesn't act on
them, is like a person who built his house simply on the ground
without a foundation. The river burst against that
house, and that house immediately collapsed, and the
ruin of that house was great. That's the way of Jesus in Luke
chapter 6. That's the passage we're going
to explore in detail step by step this summer as we walk
through it together as a church family.
The reality is this. Here's the here's the point of
all of that. If you are living as a disciple
of Jesus, that means you're seeking to learn the way of
Jesus. If you're living as a disciple
of Jesus, you're going to be putting into practice the things
that Jesus taught, the things that Jesus did.
You're learning the way of Jesus.
Why? Because every disciple, when
he's fully trained, will be like his teacher.
That's what it means to live as a disciple.
So if you've been living as a good church member, but not
actually becoming like Jesus from the inside out, that's the
challenge, that's the invitation, that's the call from
Jesus. He has a way of life, a way of
life. It's not the wrong way, it's the
right way. It's good for you and it'll help
you become the kind of human being you were made to be.
If you're like just curious about Jesus and you're here
today, like I'm not even sure I believe in Jesus yet, and I'm
not even sure what I think about church and all of that.
I just want you to know that what Jesus is offering you is a
way of life. And I believe it's a good, wise,
healthy, right kind of way. And, and if you've been living
as a disciple of Jesus, don't stop.
Don't stop when you're discouraged and you're tired and
you still find within yourself things that are less than
Christ. Like keep living attached to
Jesus. Arrange your life to be with
him, attach yourself to him. And Jesus will not only teach
you his way, he'll give you the grace and the strength and the
power of his own Spirit to help you live that kind of way.
See, this isn't like pull yourselves up by your own moral
bootstraps. It's not like, just try harder
to be like Jesus. No, the reality is Jesus came,
lived, taught, and then laid down his life, rose again,
ascended to the right hand of the Father, poured out the
Spirit so that he could help you live this kind of life.
That's why you have to arrange your life to be with Him,
because it's by His strength, it's by His presence, it's by
His grace that we actually become like Him.
We don't just try harder on our own.
Jesus has come to us in the person of the Spirit, and He
gives us the strength and the grace day by day to actually be
changed from the inside out. And so we rearrange our life to
live in deep connection with Him, deep partnership with Him,
and in doing so, by His Spirit now walking with us, we are
changed bit by bit, little by little, and tell the things we
love, the things we want, the things we value, actually look a
whole lot more like Jesus so that someday, someday we look
back on who we used to be and who we are now.
We realize by the grace of God, I have learned a new way of
life. That's what it means to live as
a disciple of Jesus. Thanks for joining us today.
If you would like to watch the full service, check out the link
in the description. For next steps and to learn
more, visit calvaryboise.com.