“IDENTIFYING TRUE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST”
PART 3 (by J. Farrell Fisher, November 17-19, 2016)
Are “true disciples of Christ” known by what church they attend or does the Holy Word of God express and interpret ‘true discipleship’ in a totally different manner or unveiling and revelation? Are “true disciples of Christ” mentally confused or the visible explanation of “Life IN Christ”, dead to ‘self-realization’ but alive to the purpose, presence, and promises of God? Are “true disciples of Christ” the ‘compromisers’ with ‘flesh’ and ‘the world around them’, OR the “committed” to the Lordship of Christ, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, evidenced by the Spirit’s “fruit” and anointings, and evidenced by God’s gift of “blood-washing”, God’s gift of heavenly declarations of His grace, mercy, and love, to birth you to “new life in Christ” that is pure, spotless, recognizable, no longer recognizable by the old sin-nature but recognizable as “new-born” into the Kingdom rule and reign of the Resurrected Christ?
I’ve often thought that one day I want to search out a “message” or Biblical teaching, on “irresponsible ‘self-impregnation’ of one’s identity as a disciple of Christ, or the “Sovereign-Birthing of the Spirit of God”, because there is a difference between physical birth and Born of the Spirit! There is a vast difference between one’s ‘self-awareness’ of his/her spirituality and one’s “New Life in Christ”, or one’s ‘spontaneous originality’ of his/her spiritual adequacy in himself/herself, or the divine intervention of the Holy Spirit, convicting, convincing, converting, and consecrating a ‘new life’ before the very Throne of Almighty God and King Jesus!
It’s so interesting, encouraging, convicting, and relieving to read of Isaiah’s awesome experience after the death of King Uzziah. He said in Verse one, “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple, and, two seraphim, seeing the Lord, covered their faces, crying to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts’ the whole earth is full of His glory!” Then when Isaiah saw that Holy event of divine presence before him, he said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Having encountered the Holy Presence of the King of kings, been convicted about himself and all fallen humanity before Holy God, God stepped in to say to Isaiah, you, and me, (Isaiah 6:7), “Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.”
But, be assured, God’s Promise only becomes reality in those who know their iniquitous ways, sorrow over it, confess it, and rest in the finished work of the Blood of the Lamb of God! And “true disciples” with Isaiah, then say as they become aware their sin is purged, and having heard the Voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send and who will go for Us (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit)?”, Isaiah said, as every true disciple does, “Here am I! Send me.” And God said: “Go, and tell this people…!” (Are you telling life’s spiritual opportunities of receiving Christ or rejecting Him?).
As the Lord Jesus was instructing His disciples, in John 4:34-38, He said: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then the harvest’? Behold, I SAY TO YOU, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!
And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that Both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”
“True Disciples of Christ”? They understand and are committed to the Master’s mandate and commissioning to “plow, sow, and reap,” to “plow, sow, and reap,” to “plow, sow, and reap”, because true disciples have heard, received, and respond to the Master’s Holy instruction, “Go, and make disciples!” And, of course, we KNOW it’s in every man’s mind, and , when confronted by Christ and His Word and will, as to whether he/she is even interested in obeying or closing their eyes and ears to the eternal beating of His compassionate, merciful heart, they will respond in faith and obedience or ‘walk away’ from God’s heart, mindful only of that which satisfies what they have set their minds and hearts to be or to do! Some respond positively, while others turn and walk away from His callings, gifts, and ministries!
It should excite you greatly and motivate, inspire, and encourage you as a true disciple of Christ to hear Him say to YOU in John 15:11-16, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you DO WHATEVER I COMMAND YOU. No longer do I call you servants, (as Jesus Himself was!), for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”
But there is the “cost of Christ’s choosing you and me”! John 15:19 clearly says, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” [Is it possible that YOU don’t sense ‘the hate of the world’ because there is that in you that says: “I want the ‘best’ of both worlds: ‘flesh’ and Spirit, compromise and convenience the world gives me AND the ‘calling’ with the ‘commissioning’ – why not the “best” (?) of both worlds?”
You do understand that there are even ‘unbelievers’ who are ‘pious’ unbelievers who hold, at least, a ‘dutiful spirit of reverence for God’, but not to the point of repentance or recognizing their sinful nature, their religious ‘feelings’ only about God, or their, sometimes, ‘religious indulgences’, as they continue in ‘pious deception’ about themselves and their need of God’s “saving grace” through Christ! BUT, TRUE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST?
FIRTST, TRUE DISCIPLES BEGAN OR NOW BEGIN THEIR JOURNEY OF FAITH WHEN CONVICTED, CONVINCED, CONVERTED, AND CONSECRATED BY AND THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT’S MINISTRY! In Romans 8: 12-17 we read of God’s gracious promise of the Holy Spirit’s ‘overseeing ministry’ of the lives of the true disciples of Christ! It says: “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh (your old sin nature and trying your ‘best’ by it!). For IF YOU LIVE ACCORDING TO THE FLESH YOU WILL DIE; BUT IF BY THE SPIRIT YOU PUT TO DEATH THE DEEDS OF THE BODY, YOU WILL LIVE (Victorious, overcoming , and conquering!).
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these ARE sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, BUT YOU received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit BEARS WITNESS with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and JOINT HEIRS WITH CHRIST, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”
‘Flesh’ never has, never will, never can bear witness that we’re ‘children of God, children of faith, children of the royal family of God’, but Christ Jesus was so very clear when He said to Nicodemus in John 3:5-6, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water (the water of the Word of God) and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
There is another interesting, convicting, and life-identifying word from Jesus in Luke 13:22-27 that certainly, initially, related to the ‘religious, Jewish community’ who were not a part of the True Remnant of repentant and ‘faith-trusting’ Jews, but only religious, traditional ‘back-slappers’! It says:
And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said to Him, “Lord are there few who are saved?” Jesus said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able…
When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, “I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know you, where you are from. DEPART FROM ME, all you workers of iniquity.’”
Did John say, “…that which is born (or birthed by) of the Spirit is spirit,” with Paul the Apostle affirming also in Romans 8:13-14, “For if you live ACCORDING TO THE FLESH you will die; BUT if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” And what an awesome, identifying unveiling of “true disciples”!
The Holy Spirit of God, living IN the life of every true born-again believer, is there to initially bear witness to our “Blood-bought redemption”, then assuming, as one allows Him, to guide and direct their every step toward maturity, from birth to childhood, from childhood to youthfulness, from youthfulness to young adults, from young adults to adults, and from young adults to ‘senior’ adults IN SPIRITUAL MATURITY TO THE FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST! Oswald Chambers said, in “My Utmost For His Highest” (p.219), not witnessing ‘to our reason,’ but “the Spirit witnesses (in us) only to His own nature, and to the work of Redemption, never to our reason.”
The ministry of the Holy Spirit in YOU? CONTINUING THE UNVEILING OF THE REALITY OF YOUR OLD MAN CRUCIFIXION WITH CHRIST ON THE CROSS, UNVEILING MORE AND MORE YOUR AWARENESS OF YOUR “NEW CREATION” STATUS, AND NOT ALLOWING THE “OLD MAN” TO CAPTURE YOUR INTEREST AGAIN, BUT MAGNIFYING THE UNENDING BLESSINGS OF YOUR ONENESS IN CHRIST! We’re not, under the Holy Spirit’s leadership, defined as simply a “refined order”, but a “new-born” son or daughter God’s Holy Family! And because of the Word AND the Holy Spirit, we can truly say with Paul, (2 Corinthians 2:14), “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place (stage of life or circumstances!)” – and THAT by the Spirit, with Jesus telling us, in John 16:13, “When the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth…Verse 14, He will glorify Me…(that’s the Lord Jesus)! And the Spirit “glorifies” Jesus in that faithful ministry THROUGH YOUR LIFE AND MINE, BORN AGAIN BY THE GRACE AND MERCY OF GOD AND INDWELT IN US BY HIS HOLY SPIRIT! And the Spirit’s continuing ministry in us and through us?
SECOND, TRUE DISCIPLES ARE IDENTIFIED AS THEY REFLECT, REST IN, RELY UPON, AND RESPOND TO THE WILL OF FATHER-GOD IN THEIR LIVES AS JESUS DID IN HIS! In Matthew 20:20-28 there is, for the young disciples before Christ, the eternal truth of ‘greatness’ in being the servant unto others. Jesus said: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among YOU, let him be your slave – JUST AS the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Superiority is NOT the calling of Christ for His disciples but the servant-spirit as He told His initial disciples in Luke 22:24-27 after His chosen disciples began to argue “as to which of them should be considered the greatest”, Jesus responded, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors’. (That’s, according to The Random House Collegiate Dictionary, “one who confers a benefit, a kindly helper”). But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves.”
Certainly the Apostle Paul clearly understood the spirit, nature, and character of Christ in himself after his conversion and transformation from a Jewish ‘Rabbi” to a ‘servant’ that Christ Jesus exemplified! He wrote, in 2 Corinthians 12:15, “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.”
“Very gladly spend and be spent for your souls”? Is that not the spirit of Christ, our Lord, our servant, our example? “The Son of Man did not come to sit on a throne to be served and to be ministered to but to lay down His life in caring for others!”
But as one reads passionately Paul’s writing in the Letter to the Romans, especially in Romans 9 and Romans 10, you see Israel rejecting Christ, rejecting God’s purpose for them, even as we witness those today who turn deaf ears and blind eyes to the call of Christ to “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” In Romans 9:6-8 we read, “But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called.’ That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.”
But as you continue into Romans 10:1-4, you see unfolded before you, not only Israel’s need of the Redeeming, Reigning Savior and Lord, but all of fallen mankind, void ‘in the heart’ as well as the mind, even “the religious” who are “ignorant of God’s righteousness”! Paul wrote, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved (re-born, regenerated, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God). For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to).”
Paul went on to say in Verse 8 that ‘redeeming faith’ is “the word of faith which we preach” Verse 9, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” How needful is that message for today?
THIRD, TRUE DISCIPLES ARE IDENTIFIED AS THEY HAVE THEIR EARS OPENED TO HEAR GOD AS JESUS OPENED HIS EARS, YES, TO HEAR, RECEIVE, AND WALK IN THE REVEALED WISDOM OF GOD! Wasn’t it Stephen, in Acts 7:51, speaking of, yes, ‘unbelieving Israelites’ saying, “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did so do you.”
In Romans 10:8, as the judgment of God came upon ‘the unbelieving’, Paul said: Just as it is written: ‘God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.’
Yet, over and over, in the Four Gospels, Jesus said often, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!!” Paul, in Acts 28, encountered resistant Israelites who didn’t believe what they heard from the Apostle, but also, Verse 24, reveals: “And some were persuaded by the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved.”
If you open your Bible to 2 Thessalonians 2:9-16, you’ll see the “unbelievers” and the true disciples of Christ! It says: “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, AND with ALL UNRIGHTEOUS DECEPTION among those who perish, BECAUSE they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you to our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught by word or our epistle.
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.” Are YOU established, gifted, standing in, firmly rooted in Christ Jesus and His resurrection life, power, and hope?
FOURTH AND LAST, FOR THIS CHAPTER, ARE YOU A TRUE FAITHFUL DISCIPLE OF CHRIST WITH A HEART, MIND, AND SPIRIT TURNED TO DO AS JESUS DID IN “PLEASING FATHER-GOD”? In Mark 1:9-11 we read, It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
So, is this not why Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:9, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead…”? The sentence of death in ourselves? Yes! Because it is so easy to pretend, to imitate, to do as best as we know how to ‘in the flesh’ – and as a result to miss the anointing and indwelling of the very Spirit and Life and Anointed Presence of the Resurrected Christ and the fullness of the Holy Spirit! Be through with yourself – Jesus crucified it – and promised the fullness of the Holy Spirit! Holy God has no desire to see you professing Christ, then trying your “best” as an “illuminated, imitation version”! God wants Christ, in and through His Spirit, indwelling, infilling, overflowing with Resurrection Life and Resurrection Hope! AMEN?
The Christ-like walk of discipleship is not a “sand-box life” of playing, but devotion to His Presence, His Lordship, His will! Didn’t Jesus say in John 15:4, “Abide [or remain] in Me, and I in you. As the Branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” Have YOU resolutely determined to abide or remain IN CHRIST?