Be Like Jesus- Become a Disciple

Pastor Ryan Binkley 

5 minute read

I have good news to share. God loves you and wants to have a relationship with you. There is no crime so heinous nor sin so great that it precludes you from being a disciple of Jesus.

You may be thinking “Great! But how do I be a disciple?” The answer is to die to yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus.

Today we define a disciple as anyone who believes in the ideas and principles of a person of note and tries to live a life modeled after that of the inspiring figure.

In Scripture, Jesus chose 12 men to be His disciples: Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James (the son of Alphaeus), Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot. We can look to these men as examples of how to live (or how not to live, as the case may be) as a disciple of Jesus.

  1. Disciples Come to Jesus

“Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.’”

Luke 9:23-24 NKJV

It’s apparent that Jesus made the first move. He created us. He came down to earth to rescue us. He died for us. He rose again for us. He invited us and made a way for us to be in relationship. The only thing that is left to us is the choice to accept that invitation and come take His outstretched hand. It is this first, pivotal step that begins our journey of discipleship.

  1. Disciples Follow Jesus 

Peter is a particular inspiration of mine when it comes to discipleship because he so often got it wrong. He did not start out as a perfect, or even a good, follower of Jesus. Even as His disciple, Peter had his own agenda of who Jesus should be. He hoped for Jesus to be a political Messiah, willing to kill on behalf of that vision. He cut off Malcus’s ear in the Garden of Gethsemane, and I doubt he was only aiming for his ear. This same man ended up forsaking all else for the Gospel until he was crucified upside down in Rome, following Jesus even unto his own death. The lesson from Peter is not that an effective disciple is perfect and does everything right. An effective disciple is one that continues to follow Christ regardless of past mistakes.

  1. Disciples Labor with Jesus 

The disciple that best exemplifies the virtue of laboring with Jesus to me is Thomas. Thomas is famously known for doubting Jesus’s resurrection until he felt the wounds in His side, but history tells us that Thomas spent the rest of his life spreading Jesus’ good news around the world. By most accounts, he was the second longest living disciple who traveled farther than any other disciple to spread the good news. He spent most of his ministry in India where he was martyred for his faith. His belief in Jesus was more than simple words; he labored with Jesus to see a marvelous harvest.

  1. Disciples Observe the Commands of Jesus

When I consider how best to observe Jesus’ commands, I think of the disciple Judas. Yes, that Judas. Judas was in a prime position to observe the commands of Jesus. As a disciple, Judas was right next to Jesus for His public ministry. He saw Him miraculously feed 5,000 people. He saw Him walk across waves. He saw blind people see. Judas had a front row seat to Jesus performing signs and wonders, and he still betrayed Him. How?

I believe it is because Judas failed to observe the most important command: to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Whatever filled his heart, it was not love. Love is what prompts us to come to the Lord. It encourages us to keep following Him even when we fall short. Love sustains us as we labor with the Lord in our daily lives, and it is love that allows us to keep our perspective and our eyes trained upon Jesus as we observe His commands.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’s most famous teaching, Jesus makes clear the spiritual identity of a disciple. I cover those virtues in the message from this past weekend, which you can catch HERE, but I want to close with this.

There was nothing special about the 12 disciples. They were ordinary men. Anything they did, you can do too through Jesus who gives you strength. All you have to do is take the next step.

Will you do that today?