The word disciple means a learner or a student.
Being a disciple or a learner comes with a few responsibilities, two of which I will attempt to explain.
First, being a disciple entails a life of sacrifice, from which we are to learn and become equipped to obey and follow God’s lead.
When we come to Christ the first thing we are asked to do is admit to our mistakes—a nice euphemism for sin—ask for forgiveness and sin no more. In other words, are asked to be holy.
Being holy, however, is generally very costly; in other words, following Christ or bierng obedient to our heavenly Father isn’t easy.
In Luke 9:57-62, Jesus provides three examples of what we may have to sacrifice in order to follow Him: (NKJV)
57 Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.”
58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
59 Then He said to another, “Follow Me.”
But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
61 And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”
62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
59 Then He said to another, “Follow Me.”
But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
61 And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”
62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
1. Verse 58: We must be prepared for possible homelessness, hunger, nakedness and most certainly we can count on losing sleep, being tired and being weary.
2. Verse 59-60: We can also expect to miss out on some important events, and will probably end up disappointing family when we have to choose doing God’s work over some other family/personal engagement.
3. Verse 61-62: You may also lose some friends and family members along the way. Once you chose Christ, there is no looking back.
These things are not new requirements to be holy. They’ve actually been I place since God created man … mind you, it became a much harder after the fall in the Garden of Eden. God has always made it clear to us what His expectations are for us and what His standard of holiness is.
In the Book of Leviticus, chapter 10, we see the consequences of disobeying God when He consumed Aaron’s wayward sons Nadab and Abihu. What we also see in verses 3-7 is the sacrifice Aaron and His remaining sons had to make in order to keep their holiness: (NKJV)
1 Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them.
2 So fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.
3 And Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke, saying:
‘By those who come near Me
I must be regarded as holy;
And before all the people
I must be glorified.’”
‘By those who come near Me
I must be regarded as holy;
And before all the people
I must be glorified.’”
So Aaron held his peace.
4 Then Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, “Come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp.”
4 Then Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, “Come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp.”
5 So they went near and carried them by their tunics out of the camp, as Moses had said.
6 And Moses said to Aaron, and to Elemazar and Ithamar, his sons, “Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, lest you die, and wrath come upon all the people. But let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the LORD has kindled.
6 And Moses said to Aaron, and to Elemazar and Ithamar, his sons, “Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, lest you die, and wrath come upon all the people. But let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the LORD has kindled.
7 You shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die, for the anointing oil of the LORD is upon you.” And they did according to the word of Moses.
God forbade Aaron and his sons to weep over Nadab’s and Abihu’s death. And furthermore, He forbade them even to attend the burial.
God’s anointing is so profound that if they had even stepped out of the tabernacle in the time of mourning, they would have died. Their holiness and obedience was required in order for them to live. Furthermore, their obedience could not be separated from their holiness; to be holy is to be obedient to God.
These examples demonstrate just a few of the sacrifices required to be a follower of Christ. Bust as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:16-17 (NKJV):
16 Therefore, we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
This brings me to my second point. Leviticus 10:8-11 (NKJV):
8 Then the LORD spoke to Aaron, saying:
9 “Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations,
10 that you may distinguish between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean,
11 and that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the LORD has spoken to them by the hand of Moses.”
The reason it was so important for Aaron and his sons to obey God and remain holy is so that they could teach the children of Israel.
To be a disciple of Christ is to be a teacher. Through our sacrifice we learn as disciples, and while we learn we are also expected to teach others.
But, God knows that we’er nto all good teachers like Aaron and his sons, so He’s given us help in the form of Christ our example and the Holy Spirit which is truth, and which resides in us. Then He gave us one simple commandment to follow—this commandment we call the Great Commission. Jesus said in John 14:15 (NKJV): “If you love me, keep my commandments.”
And in Matthew 28:18-20 (NKJV) He gave His disciples one last commandment:
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19 Go therefore[a] and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
This sounds remarkably similar to the commandment God gave Aaron in Leviticus 10:11 to teach Israel the statutes that He gave to Moses. Except here, the commandment from Jesus is not just to teach Israel but to teach the nations what He taught the disciples, and to also baptize the nations in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
But as I said, He didn’t send us out alone. He said, I will be with you, and as Paul wrote, “If God be for us, who can stand against us.” Romans 8:31 (NKJV)
So a couple things I observed. Jesus didn’t tell the disciples:
Jesus didn’t tell the disciples to go and teach the nations the Bible, nor did the Father tell Aaron to teach the children of Israel the things I haven’t told you. He specifically said to tell others what I have commanded you.
As disciples, when we study the words of God, the Holy Spirit gives us interpretations, and understandings of God’s word. Those are the things I believe God wants us to share with others—it is our own personal encounter and experience of God that jesus said to be share. To let others know what Jesus has done for us personally and what we personally know of Him.
Matthew 22:14 says, “Many are called but few are chosen.”
God personally handpicked each of us to follow Him, just as Jesus handpicked His disciples. But, it’s still up to us to choose to obey the commandments of God and follow the instructions He has laid out for us. God doesn’t make mistakes, He’s perfect. He wouldn’t choose anyone that wasn’t capable and able to follow His commandments, including the Great Commission. But God will not force us to follow Him. Like Judas, we all have a choice: he opted to obey his flesh instead of following the example of Christ, and he paid the price in full for his disobedience.
Remember what Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” When we choose not to follow His commandments we are:
1. Not showing God love
2. Being disobedient like Nadab and Abihu
3. We are preventing others from knowing God by not being teachers of Christ.
In John 17:15-18, Jesus prayed for us and said:
15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
The reason God chose us and the reason we’re here is not to collect up as much blessings as we can for ourselves, and live a good and happy life, it’s so we can fulfill God’s commandments; just as Christ came and did exactly as His Father commanded Him, so too are we to do exactly as Christ has commanded us and for that the reward is heaven.
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