INTRODUCTION TO Discipleship

January 2014

"Am I still growing as a Christian?”

CONVERSION

S A N C T I F I C A T I O N

Old Worldview

TransformingWorldview

What is A disciple?• ‘Discipleship means

learning from and following a teacher’.

• ‘A disciple is a reborn follower of Jesus’.

What is A disciple?‘A disciple is someone who submits to at least one other person in a healthy

and appropriate way as a means of support and accountability to

develop fully as a follower of Jesus’.

‘Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ’.

D. Bonheoffer

A CHALLENGING THOUGHT

‘Most of us want to reap a harvest of discipline while living the life of relative sloth’ Bill Hull.

‘Churches around the world are filled with people who’ve learned basic information about being a follower of Jesus, but who no longer study the Bible, memorise Scripture, or pray as daily disciplines’.

WHAT DISCIPLESHIP ISN’T

‘The cause of Christ has paid a terrible

price because of the mistaken concept that discipleship is only for

beginners’.

LUKE 9: 23 - 2623Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants

to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow

me. 24For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25What good is it for you to

gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit your very self? 26If any of you are

ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he

comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

LUKE 9: 57 - 6257As they were walking along the road, a man said to

him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”58Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his

head.”59He said to another man, “Follow me.”

But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

60Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

61Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.”

62Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of

God.”

THREE MEN!• The first man volunteered to go until he

heard the cost.• Jesus called the second man but he was

rejected because he would not take up the cross and die to self.

• The third man volunteered, but he could not follow Christ because he was looking back instead of ahead.

CONCLUSION

Are you still

growing?