- Are You a Disciple?
- The Key is Surrender
- The Old You vs. The New You
- Time for a Check-Up
- Learning to Float Upriver
- It’s About Time
- The Bible in Your Quiet Time
- Your Daily Quiet Time
- Livin’ On A Prayer
- To Serve Man
- What’s That About Spiritual Gifts?
- Together We Stand…
- Growing Through Giving
- Don’t Be a Dead Sea Christian
- All You Need Is Love
Last week we said that in the New Testament all followers of Jesus began to be called, not “Christians,” but “disciples.” The word “disciple” means a learner, a student, someone who is committed to the teachings of a particular master or rabbi.
I would actually rather be known as a disciple than a Christian. I want to be known as someone who doesn’t just believe in Jesus, but who follows him, learns from him, and becomes more and more like him.
So to keep things simple, let’s go ahead and share a definition of a disciple: “A disciple is a saved person who is committed to learn to live under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.” I actually learned that definition way back in seminary days, so it isn’t original with me, but let’s go with that.
Being a disciple means that I’m learning to live under the Lordship of Jesus. I like that part of the definition because I definitely haven’t arrived yet, but I’m still learning to be under his Lordship.
So what does the “Lordship of Jesus” mean? The Bible teaches that Jesus is Lord. We don’t actually make Jesus Lord, he is Lord whether or not we acknowledge it. The Greek word translated as “Lord” is the word kurios, and this word can mean “one who is supreme in authority,” or “leader.”
Now, there are a lot of Christians who really like all the stuff about Jesus forgiving our sins, we get to go to heaven, and so on. But deep down we don’t really like the idea of Jesus being our “leader.” We still want to be in control of us, and we just want Jesus to help us when we get in over our heads. Lots of people are perfectly fine accepting Jesus as the one who died on the cross to save us but are reluctant to surrender to Jesus as the one in absolute authority over us.
And that’s really the key word: “Surrender.” The call to come to Jesus is more than just accepting his offer of forgiveness. The call to come to Jesus is about surrendering our entire self completely and absolutely to him.
One night our family and another family went to the Stone Mountain Laser Show in Atlanta. We were parked in different parking lots, so after the show everyone piled into the back of my pickup truck and headed to the other car in the next lot. Suddenly, out of nowhere, 5 police cars with lights flashing and sirens blaring surrounded us. Everybody in the cab and in the back of the truck instinctively raised our hands in surrender! “I surrender to you! You’re in authority! I bow to your authority!” Turns out that it is illegal to ride in the bed of a pickup truck at Stone Mountain if you’re underage. Who knew?
But that is exactly what God expects of us when we accept his forgiveness: hands up, “I surrender completely to your authority over my life!”
If you haven’t surrendered to Jesus as Lord, why not? Maybe you’re afraid that if Jesus is your Lord, he’ll ask you to do something that you don’t want to do. Maybe you’re not completely convinced that Jesus has your best interests at heart. Or maybe you actually still think you know what’s best for you.
I think one of the main reasons why people don’t surrender to God is because they just don’t know him well enough. The more we come to know Jesus, the more we love him and the more we trust him.
Maybe what you need to help you surrender to Jesus as your Lord is to know him better. In the weeks ahead we’ll talk about some disciplines we can place in our lives that will help us do just that. We’ll know God better. And to know him is to love him and trust him.