If you are not a disciple of Jesus Christ, will you go to heaven? We’ve been talking about discipleship and some of the more important points to consider about what Jesus said about discipleship.

What We’ve Examined About Discipleship So Far

We’ve looked at the Great Commission (see Matthew 28:19-20), where Jesus said, “Go make disciples,” and He helps to define disciples by saying, “teach them to obey all that I commanded you, after you baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit”.

We looked at John 8 where He told a bunch of believers, “if you are truly My disciples you’ll abide in My word and you’ll progressively be set free from sin.”

Then we looked at Luke 14 where Jesus laid down three requirements to be His disciple. One of which is we have to hate our loved ones. We talked about that. Another one is that we have to be willing to embrace hardship and suffering for His sake, take up our cross. And thirdly, have to give up all our possessions.

And you see that with the people in the Book of Acts, again, there’s no dichotomy of believers and disciples. No, it just talks about the disciples and all those who believed were disciples. And it affected what they did with their money. They began caring for widows. And people who had a lot started liquidating their assets to meet pressing needs of those within the body of Christ.

And so, these are things to be thinking about as we consider, am I a disciple?

If You’re Not a Disciple of Jesus Christ, Will You Go To Heaven?

Now the question that I posed at the beginning of this episode is, “If you’re not a disciple of Christ, will you go to Heaven”? Because some people think, “Well, I’m not a disciple of Christ, I’m a believer in Jesus.”

I think we’ve pretty well proven that disciples and believers are one in the same. If you’re not a disciple, you’re not really a believer. So to answer the question that I posed at the beginning of this episode, the answer is “no”.

If you’re not a disciple of Christ, you’re not on the road to heaven. You’re a goat who thinks that he or she is a sheep.

“ If you’re not a disciple of Christ, you’re not on the road to Heaven. —DAVID SERVANT

A Lesson From Salt

So, let’s look at the last thing that Jesus said in Luke 14. After He lists these three requirements to be His disciple, He finishes out what He says with these two very significant verses that maybe are a little bit difficult for us to grasp, but I think we can grasp them.

Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. – Luke 14:34-35

“Therefore, salt is good.” Well, okay I agree with that. Do you agree with that? Salt is good. Now, we’re used to salt pretty much as a seasoning; sprinkle that salt on the steak!

But in Jesus’ day, salt wasn’t so much of a seasoning as it was a preservative. You rub salt on the meat and that keeps it from rotting, because you don’t have refrigeration. So this is the best they could do at that time.

So salt is good. You better believe it’s good! It’s preserving a lot of things, although making those things taste pretty salty.

The Impossibility of Salt Not Being Salty

Then Jesus says, “but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned?”

Now you could say “Well, wait a second David, he’s talking about seasoning here.” Well yes, because you can tell salt is salt by its taste. It has a seasoned flavor, right? Sure.

So if you put your finger in a little pile of salt there and stick a little on your tongue, if it doesn’t taste salty, there’s a pretty good chance it’s not salt. Right? That’s the conclusion you’d come to.

And I’ve never heard of salt being “unsalty”. And maybe there’s an explanation for something like that in Jesus’ day. Maybe that was some kind of a seasoning that had salt in it and they just called it salt, and on occasion salt wasn’t mixed with the other stuff and so the seasoning became or was “unsalty”. I don’t know. It doesn’t really make a lot of difference for the sake of our understanding of what He’s saying here.

But, because salt itself cannot become tasteless, if it doesn’t have the salty taste, it’s not salt. And maybe that is the point. The impossibility of salt not being salty.

If You’re a Believer in Christ, There Will Be Evidence

Because if you’re a believer, if you’re a disciple of Jesus Christ, there’s going to be absolute evidence for it. You’re going to fit what Jesus listed as what characterizes a disciple.

This is a person that loves Jesus supremely, even more than their loved ones. This is a person who’s willing to embrace suffering and does sacrifice for His sake. This is a person whose check book reflects that they are a disciple of Christ. If you don’t have that, the salt isn’t salty. It really isn’t salt, it’s pseudo-salt.

If We’re Not Disciples, We’re Good for Nothing

“If even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile.”

And I don’t understand why you’d be putting salt in either soil or a manure pile, but there must have been some reason in Jesus’ day. But, again, we don’t have to understand that. (And if you do understand that, please write to me and tell me. I’d love to learn that myself.)

It’s useless for these purposes, it’s not good for anything. It’s even these purposes it’s useless for. It’s thrown out. It’s good for nothing, it has no value whatsoever. It’s worthless.

Can you understand what Jesus is saying here? That if we are not His disciples, we’re good for nothing. “Throw it out.” It serves no use to God.

Something Even the Devil Believes

So you can see the huge danger there is when folks buy into the lie that you can be a believer in Jesus and not be His disciple. Oh my goodness, this is so sobering.

And you have those people whom Jesus warned about in the future judgment of the sheep and the goats (see Matthew 25:31-46) who say, “Lord, Lord when did we see You hungry or thirsty and not feed You or give You drink? When did we see You naked and not clothe You? When did we see You sick and in prison, and didn’t visit You? Because if we had seen you Lord, we’d have done it. We care about You.”

“Depart from Me, I never knew you. You didn’t do it to the least of these, it shows you didn’t care about me. You’re good for nothing.”

Jesus wants disciples. And I would say that’s the major problem in the body of Christ today. We’ve got a lot of people who have head knowledge, and they think it’s saving faith. Or they acknowledge some truth, some theological truth, like Jesus died for everyone’s sins. But the Devil believes that! That’s not it. It’s Jesus. I believe Jesus is Lord. And so I’ve repented and every day I take up my cross and I try to follow Him.

Okay, thanks so much for joining me on this little lesson. God bless you.

The post If You Are Not a Disciple of Jesus Christ, Will You Go to Heaven? appeared first on David Servant.

What do disciples of Jesus do with their money? For the past few episodes, we’ve been talking about the very important subject of discipleship, what it means to be a disciple.

Hopefully, you’re in full agreement with me that there are no two categories of Christians, believers and disciples. That, in fact, all true believers in Jesus are disciples. Because if you believe in Jesus, you’re going to follow and obey Him and be willing to pay whatever price that you have to in order to successfully follow Him.

Counting the Cost of Being a Disciple of Jesus Christ

Although His commands are not burdensome (see 1 John 5:3) and His yoke is easy and His burden is light (see Matthew 11:30), that’s primarily because He’s given us the Holy Spirit to help us bear the burden.

And fitting that in with the rest of the Scripture, sometimes, there’s a huge price to pay for following Jesus. There have been millions of people who have suffered the ultimate for following Christ. They gave their lives.

But those of us who haven’t necessarily had to give our lives, it’s cost us friendships, it’s cost us family members because we love Jesus the most. And if our family doesn’t like Jesus, they’re not going to like us anymore either.

Some of us, it’s cost us our job because we were unwilling to do something unethical that was required of us in order to be employed at a certain place.

What About Our Money?

It certainly has cost every disciple money, and why do I say that? Well, I say that because that’s one of the requirements to be a disciple. Everything comes under Christ’s Lordship, including all money and all possessions.

We’ve been reading in Luke 14, Jesus’ three requirements to become His disciple. One is you’ve got to hate your loved ones. The second one is that you’ve got to carry your cross. I believe that’s symbolic for being willing to embrace suffering.

“ Everything comes under Christ’s Lordship, including all money and all possessions. —DAVID SERVANT

What Jesus Taught About True Discipleship

Jesus continues in Luke 14 about the whole idea of counting the cost,

For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. – vv. 28-32

The whole point of those two illustrations that Jesus gave were simply, don’t start unless you’re willing to see it through to the end. Don’t get into the battle if you don’t think that you can win. Count the cost.

When evangelists call people to make quickie decisions for Jesus and pray a little sinner’s prayer, they’re really doing them a great disservice. They ought to be telling them to consider, “If you decide to follow Christ, here are what could be the consequences. Because here’s what Jesus said that it takes to be His disciple.”

The Financial Cost of Following Christ

Now, let’s continue. Because I don’t want to forget what we were talking about, the whole idea of our money. In verse 33, Jesus says,

So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

We have to love Jesus more than our loved ones, more than our own life, more than our comfort and convenience. And now, last, we have to love Jesus more than our possessions. As obedient disciples, everything that we thought we owned, now He owns. And we have to listen to Him as to what to do with it.

Well, we know, of course, that Jesus has things for us to do with our money. And one of those, of course, is to care for the “least of these”.

Caring for the “Least of These”

Remember in Matthew 25 where Jesus talked about the future judgment of the sheep and the goats? The very thing that determined whether or not people were saved and were welcomed into the Kingdom or unsaved and cast into hell was, did they sacrifice their time and their resources for the least of these, Whom Jesus defined as those who were suffering within His body. People who didn’t have food or clothing or water, people who were sick, people who were imprisoned, and so forth.

There’s no escaping this. No, no escaping this. Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ? Well, you can answer that question by answering this question: does my checkbook reflect that I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Because nobody can say to you, God requires this percentage and no more or no less. I mean, some people try to focus in on the tithe, but Jesus said, “Don’t lay up treasures on this earth” (see Matthew 6:19-20). A true disciple is trying to lay up little on this earth and a lot in Heaven because that’s what Jesus taught. That’s what He commanded. Don’t lay up treasures on earth. Lay them up in Heaven.

Wrestling With Jesus’ Teachings on Money and Possessions Individually

Everybody has to wrestle with this individually. I know that, and so I’m not going to set any rules or regulations or percentages or tell you what kind of a car you can or cannot drive. Or how big of a house or that type of thing.

But if this is not a part of your Christianity, that is, stewardship…

Which I want to submit to you, honesty, it’s not part of a lot of people’s Christianity. They don’t ever care. They never talk about caring for the poor within the body of Christ. And their checkbook doesn’t reflect that they care.

Jesus said, “When you do it to the least of these, my brethren, you’ll do it unto me.” And to the goats, He said, “You didn’t do it for me, and you didn’t do it for the least of these, so you didn’t do it for me.”

This is our opportunity to show our love for Jesus by loving the “least of these” in whom He is dwelling. Suffering brothers and sisters in Christ.

Believing in “Bible Jesus”

You can see, I hope, from these Little Lessons that a lot of people who think that they’re believers in Jesus aren’t really believers in Jesus. They’re believers in some kind of Jesus, but not in “Bible Jesus”. Because if they believed in “Bible Jesus”, they’d be disciples of Jesus, and it’d be reflected by their lives and what they do with their time and their money and so forth.

Thank you so much for joining me. Good things to think about. Take a look yourself at Luke 14:25-35, and our next lesson, we’ll finish this out. God bless.

The post What Do Disciples of Jesus Do With Their Money? appeared first on David Servant.

We’ve been talking on Little Lessons about a very important subject, the subject of discipleship. Because Jesus told His apostles, “Go all the world, make disciples. Teach them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you” (see Matthew 28:19-20).

That’s what Jesus wants. That should be every minister’s goal. That should be every church’s mission statement. That’s what we ought to all personally be pursuing. And we should be evaluating ourselves. Am I truly a disciple of Christ?

The Lie That You Can Be a Believer, but a Not a Disciple of Jesus Christ

If you’ve bought into the lie that you can be a believer in Jesus but not be His disciple, well, that’s a terrible lie to believe. Because it is a lie.

If you’re not a disciple of Christ, you don’t believe in Him. Belief and discipleship are one in the same. True believers are all disciples. All the disciples, they’re the only true believers.

If you said, “I’m a believer, but I’m not a disciple,” you’re not really a believer yet. The preachers and the pastors who are presenting that kind of false dichotomy, they’re doing a huge disservice to their congregations and to their listeners. Because it’s so easy to see from the New Testament that that’s erroneous.

“ If you’re not a disciple of Christ, you don’t believe in Him. —DAVID SERVANT

True Disciples Love Jesus Above All

Well, in our last Little Lesson, we were looking at Luke 14, where Jesus, in front of a huge group of people who are going along with Him, stops and tells them,

“Here’s what you have to do. If you don’t do this, you’re not My disciple.” The first thing, He says, “You’ve got to hate the people you naturally love the most.” We interpret that simply as meaning that my love for my family, in comparison to my love for Jesus, almost has to see like hatred because I love Jesus so much.

I love Jesus with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength because I believe He’s God. And God alone deserves that kind of love. It’s great to ask yourself the question, “Do I love Jesus supremely? Is that reflected in what I do in my life? When I have to make a decision between loving one person or loving another one?”

Again, there’s not always a conflict. I love my wife and my children dearly. Generally, there’s no conflict between my love for my wife and my children and my grandchildren, and my love for Jesus. In fact, I consider my love for my wife as part of an expression of my love for Jesus as well as for my children and my grandchildren.

True Disciples Choose Jesus Over the Approval of Loved Ones

If Jesus is telling me, “David, I want you to spend two months overseas every year. Because of that, you’re going to be apart from your family.” And I said, “No. I love my family too much,” that would be a sign that I don’t love Him enough and that I’m not His disciple.

Glad that in my own life I at least have a chance to evaluate that by some of the things that I sense that God’s calling me to do. We all have those opportunities, don’t we? We have to make a decision. It’s Jesus or this person that I love.

Some families—I’ve heard stories, I’m glad this has never happened to me—where the gauntlet is laid down by Christians’ loved ones. They say, “If you’re going to do that Jesus stuff, you’re no longer a part of our family.”

That happens around the world in places where other religions are very dominant. Those people make the decision to follow Christ. They make it very plain and clear, “We love Jesus the most.” You need to think about that. We all need to think about that. Look at your life. Does it reflect you love Jesus the most?

True Disciples Take Up the Cross

Well, Jesus continued.

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. – Luke 14:27

Who’s going to argue with Jesus? He’s the Lord. He knows what He’s talking about. You can not be His disciple, He says, unless you take up your cross and follow him.

Well, again, this is another verse that is worth our thinking about a little bit. Because it seems unlikely that Jesus meant that we should be literally carrying a wooden cross with us wherever we go. We don’t see that played out in the book of Acts. They weren’t carrying wooden crosses around.

It must be symbolic of something. Well, it’s obviously symbolic of death and hardship and suffering. At bare minimum, it means that we have to be willing to pay a price, to suffer for the sake of Jesus.

What Cross-Carrying Means

I wouldn’t be surprised if that phrase “carry your cross” was not a expression that was even coined by Jesus. But perhaps it was one that would have been fairly commonly used within Jesus’s world and by His contemporaries. Because Jesus and the Jews of his day were all living under the thumb of the Roman Empire.

I don’t know how many days you could have walked outside of the gates of Jerusalem and not seen somebody dying on a cross. And not just in Jerusalem, but any other city where the Romans were in control. If you committed a capital offense, that’s what they did to you. They did it publicly. You can imagine living in a country where at any given time, scores of people were hanging on crosses outside of the gates. It would give you a reason to want to stay home, all those people hanging on crosses.

“ Belief and discipleship are one in the same. True believers are all disciples. —DAVID SERVANT

At some point, a Roman soldier said, “Pick up your cross and follow me.” What that symbolized was this was the beginning of the end. We’re going to go crucify you now. Part of your punishment is, as it was in Christ’s case, you’ve got to carry your cross. Here’s the wooden beam. Let’s lash it on you and you’re going to carry it. Then we’re going to nail you to it.

It’s possible that that became an expression to signify doing what you naturally wouldn’t do. Right? You can imagine wives saying to their husbands, “Dear, I know you hate paying those taxes to the Romans. But the tax collector’s coming down the street right now. Why don’t you go get a little money, take up your cross, and go pay the guy?”

You can imagine dads saying to sons, “Son, I know you hate to go dig out the latrine. It’s a dirty, smelly job. But just take up your cross and do it.” Regardless if it was a common expression or not, it clearly represents an embracing of suffering, rejection.

Are You Willing to Be a True Disciple of Jesus Christ?

Of course, you’re going to get that in some form or fashion when you follow Christ. Count the cost.

Are you His disciple, willing to suffer shame for Him? Are you willing to be ostracized, to be looked at as a weirdo?

Again, the scale of persecution varies from country to country.

Well, we’re out of time for today. Thanks so much for joining me. We’ll continue this discussion on our next Little Lesson. God bless!

The post Are You a True or a False Disciple of Jesus Christ? appeared first on David Servant.

We’ve been talking in our last two previous Little Lessons about the subject of making disciples, and so the question that I posed at the beginning of this Little Lesson is certainly related to that.

What should be the mission statement of every church in the world?

Church Mission Statements I’ve Seen Throughout My Years of Ministry

I’ve traveled a lot. I’ve been a Christian since my teenage years. I’m 59 years old as I’m talking to you right now, so I’ve been a Christian for about four decades. And I’ve been in the ministry almost as long as that.

I’ve traveled in 80 some different countries of the world, spoke in churches and so forth. I’ve spoken to ministers. So I have a little bit of experience interacting with the body of Christ.

I’ve read a lot of books, listened to a lot of sermons, been to a lot of churches, and I’m always a little bit surprised (not always, but often, very often surprised) when I read the mission statement of various ministries and churches.

Because what I’m expecting to find is that their mission statement is going to be the mission statement that Jesus gave to the church (see Matthew 28:19-20), right? You would think that.

But here’s a church that says, “Our mission is to help believers live the abundant life in Jesus Christ, fulfilling their destiny and walking in all the blessings that God has provided for them.”

That’s okay… but it’s actually not okay. Let me just be perfectly honest with you. If that’s the mission of your church, you need to either shut down your church or change the mission.

What the Mission Statement of Every Church Should Be

Because the mission statement of every church and every ministry ought to be to make disciples. And what are disciples?

Well, we’ve already seen initially that a disciple is somebody, according to Jesus in John 8, who continues in the words of Christ as being progressively set free from sin, becoming more holy. And, secondly, that person is a person who is learning to obey all of Christ’s commandments. Because that’s what he said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations… teaching them to observe all that I commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).

I’ll add to that. Honestly, it’s only the disciples who truly believe in Jesus. If you’re not a disciple of Christ, you don’t believe in “Bible Jesus”. You might believe in “American Jesus”, or some other Jesus, but you don’t believe in “Bible Jesus” unless you’re a disciple.

“ Only disciples truly believe in Jesus. —DAVID SERVANT

Jesus’ Definition of Ministry Success

So, Jesus was preaching one time. And we read in Luke 14:25, “Now large crowds were going along with Him.” There you have it.

In some people’s estimation, and many ministers’ and pastors’ estimation, Jesus was successful. The goal had been reached: big crowds. Because that’s how we define success. Look how many people are coming on Sunday morning! Big crowds.

Well, was Jesus happy with those big crowds? Had he reached His goal? Did He lift his hands up to the Father and say, “Father, take a look! Aren’t You proud? I’m a mega-church pastor now, because look at all these people that come to Me once a week for an hour?” That’s not what He did.

… and He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. – vv. 25-27

“If anyone comes to Me…” Now that sounds like He means, you come to Me like you’re interested in Me, and you’re professing that we have some kind of a relationship going on.

But look at this: “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple”

Making Disciples As the Mission Statement of Every Church

So there you have it. Who is going to argue with Jesus about what is the proper definition of a disciple, right? I mean, that’s Jesus. He ought to know. And He said, “Go into all the world and make disciples. Baptize them. Teach them.”

Here’s a characteristic of a disciple. You can’t be my disciple unless you hate the people that you naturally would love the most, your closest relatives. Father, mother, wife, children, brother, sisters, even yourself, yes, even your own life.

Jesus Didn’t Literally Mean We Should Hate Our Family

Now, of course, looking at the rest of Scripture, looking at that statement in context of the rest of the Bible, very few people are coming to the conclusion that Jesus meant literally that we have to hate our loved ones.

Because if you hate your loved ones, then you wouldn’t love them at all anymore, and we know Scripture teaches, for example, husbands love your wives (Ephesians 5:25). We’re supposed to love our children (Ephesians 6:4). We’re supposed to honor our parents (Exodus 20:12). That’s in the Ten Commandments.

So we don’t take Jesus in the strictest literal sense in this requirement to be a disciple.

Jesus Must Come First

But taking this requirement at its bare bones minimum regarding what He must mean by this, at bare bones minimum, He must mean that your love for your loved ones has got to be lesser to a significant degree than your love for Him.

“I become the supreme person whom you love, and if, in fact, your loved ones demand that you give them greater love than love for Me, you tell them ‘no’.”

If God’s telling you to do something, and your mom or your wife says, “Don’t do it,” and you say, “Okay, I won’t do it because I love you…” No, no, no, big mistake! You’re not a disciple.

Jesus becomes the one you love the most, more than anyone, more than anything. And if you don’t have that, you’re not a disciple.

“ If you don’t love Jesus more than anyone and anything, you’re not a disciple.

Only God Deserves Such Devotion

You think about how outrageous that would be for anyone to expect such devotion, except God. Because the Lord said way back in the Old Testament, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength” (see Deuteronomy 6:5).

And so from the beginning, God’s saying, “I deserve your deepest devotion, your highest love more than anybody else.” And when Jesus says this in Luke 14:26, “You can’t be My disciple unless you hate your loved ones,” that’s tantamount to claiming to be God.

The only alternative is that He’s a lunatic. And Jesus did not have the credentials of a lunatic. He had the credentials of God.

All right. Well, we’re out of time for today. I think I’ll talk about this a little bit more in our next Little Lesson as we continue in Luke 14. Thanks for joining me! God bless.

The post What Should Be the Mission Statement of Every Single Church in the World? appeared first on David Servant.

We’re going to kind of pick up where we left off on our previous Little Lesson, as we were talking about the erroneous idea that there are two categories of Christians: those who are believers in Jesus, then the higher class of Christians, the real committed Christians, those who are disciples of Christ.

I began to expose the error in that type of thinking, because it’s just completely unbiblical. Any honest person who studies the Bible is going to come to that conclusion. This is not some difficult thing to figure out from Scripture. It’s just amazing though that more people aren’t talking about this.

The Goal of Every Single Minister in the Entire World

But I’m asking the question on this lesson, what should be the goal of every single minister in the entire world? I think the goal should be whatever Jesus’ goal is, right?

He is the Head of the church, and all of us who are ministers are under-shepherds, under the great Shepherd (see 1 Peter 5:4). We’re supposed to be imitating Him, we’re supposed to be obeying Him, we’re supposed to be pleasing Him.

Surely, our goals should be aligned with whatever His goals are. His goals aren’t difficult to find, and it has relation to this topic that I’ve been talking about previously and now today: the whole idea of being a disciple.

Jesus’ Goal

Listen to what Jesus said and what is so commonly known in the 28th Chapter of the gospel of Matthew. Here’s Jesus’ goal, and this ought to be the goal of every single minister who professes to be a Christian minister in the entire world:

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” – vv. 18-20

What is Jesus saying? He’s saying “I’m the lord, I’m the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. God, the Father, has given me all the authority.”

We know all authority is from God. Paul wrote in Romans 13 that the authorities that exist, exist because they’re established by God. He’s talking about governmental leaders, and that we ought to submit to them for that reason, because they are put in place by God, and they represent authority that God has given to them.

As long as they’re not calling on us to disobey God, we ought to be submitted to the earthly authorities. Because all authority is from God.

The Highest Authority

Did you hear what Jesus just said? “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” “I’m above everybody.” The clear message is everybody ought to be submitted to Him, because He’s the highest authority. He has all authority.

Should you submit to a policeman? Yeah. Should you submit to a judge? Yeah. Should you submit to the President? Yes. All those government leaders, because God is the one who has given them their authority. He can take it away anytime He wants. He gave it to Jesus.

We’re not surprised by the next thing that Christ says in Matthew 28, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”

Did you get the gist of that? “I have all the authority. Let Me start off here by giving a commandment. Go, get out there. Where do I want you to go? All the ethnic groups.” That’s literally what it says if you dig in the Greek just a little bit, “All the ethnic groups of the entire world. Go and make disciples of those people. Make disciples.”

Make Disciples

He begins then to help us understand what a disciple is. No, He didn’t say “Go make believers, go get people to pray the sinner’s prayer. Go get people to say they believe in Me, go get people to sign a statement to join the church.” No, “Go make disciples, baptize them.”

That’s huge in itself. “You baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” As you baptize, you’re confessing over the baptismal, the candidate there, who it is that is the Lord of their lives.

You’re supposed to be submitted. We’re doing this, not in the name of Zeus, not in the name of some organization, some human institution, we’re baptizing you in the name of the Trinity, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We’re putting you down under the water. That has a little bit of symbolism, you’re dying. We’re bringing you out of the water. You’re coming back to life as a new person, because now you’re in Christ. You’ve been washed, cleaned, because the water washed some of that filth off of you, and now you’re resurrected in Christ.

The Goal of Every Minister Should Be to Make Disciples

“Teaching them—teaching those people you baptized—to obey everything I’ve commanded you.” What should be the goal of every minister? The goal of every minister should be to make disciples, wherever you are amongst the nations. Of course, you have to figure out where God sends you.

If God sent you to Winnemucca, Nevada, then you need to be making disciples.

“Well, I’m not a pastor.” Okay, so what are you? “I’m an evangelist.” Then, do your part in making disciples.

You see, if the goal is to make disciples—people who recognize that Jesus is Lord and are endeavoring to obey Him—naturally, evangelism then is very simple. Evangelism is calling people to repent and follow Jesus, because they believe in Jesus.

“ Evangelism is calling people to repent and follow Jesus, because they believe in Jesus. —DAVID SERVANT

You’re getting them set off on the right journey. Maybe a pastor and a teacher can pick up after you’ve left town.

But if you’re just calling people to pray little sinner’s prayers, or calling them to believe that Jesus died for their sins…

The Way the Apostles Preached the Gospel

I recommend that you read through the Book of Acts and look for how many times you find the apostles, when they’re preaching the gospel, mention the fact that Jesus died for the sins of the audience.

You’ll be shocked to find there’s not a single example. They were endeavoring to get people to repent and believe in the King, the Lord, the Messiah, the One who was raised from the dead. The One who was the Judge of the living and the dead.

They were trying to make disciples. That was reflected in the initial message of the evangelists and the apostles.

All right? Your goal, if you’re a minister, should be to make disciples, that is people who obey all that Christ commanded. Well, you can’t make a disciple unless you are one. I’m going to close on that thought! Hope to see you next time. God bless.

The post What Should Be the Goal of Every Single Minister in the Entire World? appeared first on David Servant.

We’re going to talk about the idea that there are two classes of Christians: the believers (that is, all those who believe in Jesus) and then the disciples who are often defined as the really committed believers.

I’m going to just spill the beans right off the bat here. That’s false and unbiblical teaching!

If you read through the New Testament honestly, you could never come to the conclusion that there are two categories of people whom God considers Christians, the believers and then the more committed believers, the disciples. No, no, a thousand times no!

In the book of Acts, everybody who believed in Jesus was a disciple. Jesus expected everyone to repent and believe in Him, thus becoming a disciple.

Where This Separation of Faith and Discipleship Comes From

The reason that some have come up with this erroneous idea is because they’ve read about Jesus’s very stringent requirements to be a disciple.

So they say, “Well, wait. That can’t be what is required to be a Christian—a believer—because salvation is a free gift! It’s by grace through faith. It’s not by works. Jesus is saying that unless you do these things and your life is characterized by these things that show that you’re really committed and devoted to Him, you’re not His disciples.”

Therefore, they conclude that a disciple must be a higher category of a Christian.

That’s what you get for thinking instead of just believing what you read in the Bible! Because that idea is not found in the Bible.

Understanding What the Gospel is Really All About

The way that those apparently contradictory facts are harmonized is just simply by understanding really what the gospel is all about. The gospel is a call to repentance.

“ The gospel is a call to repentance. —DAVID SERVANT

Of course if someone repents, they’re going to act differently after they repent than before they repented. Their life is going to be characterized more by obedience and holiness after they repent than prior to their repentance.

Of course, James said faith without works is dead (James 2:14). People who really believe begin to obey.

When you believe in Jesus, the person Jesus, you’re believing that a human being who walked this earth 2,000 years ago is, was, the divine Son of God. If you believe the story, you have to believe the whole story. He ascended to heaven where He’s been ever since, seated at the right hand of God. We’re all going to stand before Him and He’s going to judge us one day.

A Faith That Means Something

This is not a belief you just add to all the other beliefs in your life, like “I believe the sky is blue”. So what? If the sky was green, it wouldn’t make much difference. This is not that kind of belief.

I believe that one plus one is two. Great. That helps you every time that you add one plus one.

But we’re talking about something that is of no comparison to the average things that we might say that we believe and we do believe. You’re believing that Jesus is the Son of God, before whom you will give an account one day.

Of course if you believe that, you’re going to want to study what He has to say and you’re going to want to line up your life with it. That’s why Jesus said,

If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. – John 8:31-32

If you keep reading for context there in John 8, it’s very clear He’s talking about being set free from sin.

“As He Spoke These Things, Many Came to Believe in Him.”

You know, that passage in John chapter eight very interesting. Let’s read it.

In verse 30, Jesus was preaching a sermon as He always was doing.

“As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.” There we go. There are some people who have become believers. They’re not believing a doctrine about Him. They’re not believing a doctrine about the atonement. They’re believing in Him.

This is the Messiah. This is the great One that Moses said was going to come. Everyone who didn’t heed the words of that Prophet, he would be utterly destroyed amongst the people (see Acts 3:23). This is someone to listen to and heed and obey.

A Biblical View of Faith

Now, we keep reading. What did Jesus say to those new believers? Did He say, “Let me assure you now that you’ve believed and prayed the little prayer”—which they hadn’t prayed any prayer. Let’s keep it Biblical here!—”Now that you’ve believed in Me, you’re on the way to heaven, and don’t let anybody talk you out of that. Don’t let anyone persuade you otherwise. If the devil tells you you’re not saved, you just rebuke the devil.”

This is what is commonly done in evangelical circles when someone professes to have faith in Christ or someone makes a “decision for Christ.” Our responsibility supposedly then is to begin to assure them of their salvation because they’ve made a verbal profession. Is that what Christ did? Oh no.

John 8:31, the very next verse, “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him [there’s the second affirmation that they’re believers], “If you continue in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.”

Jesus Felt That a Disciple Was the Same as a Believer

There, that answers our initial question. Does Jesus feel there were two categories of Christians, those who believe and then those who take a second higher step of commitment and become disciples? No. He’s talking to people who have obviously made some kind of verbal profession of their faith.

And He’s using a synonymous term with the word ‘believer’, the word ‘disciples’. He said to those Jews who believed in Him. “So you profess to believe in Me. If you continue,” or in other verses, He says, “If you abide”, live in My word, “then you are truly My disciples.” There you have it. Jesus felt a disciple was the same as a believer.

I should add one little caveat. “If you continue in my Word, then you are truly disciples.” If you don’t abide, if you don’t continue in my Word, you might think you’re a believer, you might think you’re a disciple, but you’re not a true disciple. You’re a false disciple.

One of the Big Problems We Have in the Church

That’s one of the big problems that we’ve got in the church worldwide as a whole. Jesus goes on to tell them, “You’ll know the truth. The truth will make you free.” They begin to argue with him. He says, “Whom the Son has set free is free indeed.”

He’s very clearly, if you keep reading the context in John 8, talking about being set free from sin. A disciple is characterized by continuing or abiding in the word of Christ and being progressively set free from sin.

This is a Little Lesson. We’ll pick up on our next one. Thanks for joining me! God bless.

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