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.

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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.

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