You can’t be a Christian without being a
“Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“True discipleship is not moreJesus, but more Jesus.”
On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. —Luke 5:1–11
Discipleship is a life of
and
for a purpose.
“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.” —Dostoyevsky
The question we must address today is, what does a disciple surrender and sacrifice? The text gives us the answers we’re looking for.
1. A disciple
You cannot and will not experience the miracle of
You cannot and will not experience the ongoing power of
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. —Matthew 16:24–25
As a believer, you grow up when you give up anything and everything that keeps you from being like Jesus.
2. A disciple
Sacrifice only makes sense if we get God instead of
You will not sacrifice all for Jesus until you are completely surrendered to Jesus.
We have the best picture available so that we can see clearly what this looks like as it’s lived out because this is what Jesus did. Jesus surrendered to the will of the Father and became the final sacrifice offered for sin.
Through Jesus, all who believe have life and we follow Him to become more like Him so that others can have life through Him.
Here is the purpose of discipleship - “from now on, you will be catching men.”
“The Christian faith says that the good life starts and ends with God. It starts and ends with the idea that nothing is better than God and that He has given Himself to us in Christ and in the gospel.” —J.T. English
Therefore, Christian discipleship literally involves Jesus capturing someone
Discipleship is a life of surrender and sacrifice for a purpose.
Jesus said, “follow me” and following Jesus is the key to avoiding a Christianity