A Disciple Is ...

A person with a new heart

A person with a New Identity

A person with a New Destination

A Warrior for the Kingdom

A Person deeply loved by God

__________________

In my experiences in dealing with people I discover too often that if I subtract their possessions, their job title, and their physical beauty or power; nothing is left! The whole of their lives is built on images and perceptions that are only for looks. Such people are superficial, lacking substance. “Looking good” is, for them, much more important than actually being a person of excellence, accomplishment, or of real character.

Ill. - There is an explosion of so-called diploma mills. For around $200, you receive a degree in the discipline of your choice to frame for your office. Some even take the risk of applying for a job with that degree in hand, and for a few more dollars, many diploma mills will create a transcript for an individual. Not only is this dishonest; it reveals the utter contempt for a love of knowledge that should lie at the heart of education!

Cosmetic surgery is becoming more common for both men and women who feel that they must hold onto

the appearance of youthfulness for as long as possible! The industry is extremely lucrative, a $multi-

billion market in America today. A recent TV documentary told of parents who gave their adolescent

daughters new noses or resculpted bodies for their birthdays! What does such a gift say to that girl about how she gains worth as person?

Jude, the pastor of the church in Jerusalem, wrote of people who live without depth, who are pretenders at spirituality, who lay claim to godly knowledge without really knowing God. He says, {Jude 10-12}

... these people scoff at things they do not understand. Like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and so they bring about their own destruction. What sorrow awaits them! For they follow in the footsteps of Cain, who killed his brother. Like Balaam, they deceive people for money. And like Korah, they perish in their rebellion.

When these people eat with you in your fellowship meals commemorating the Lord’s love, they are like dangerous reefs that can shipwreck you. . . . They are like clouds blowing over the land without giving any rain. They are like trees in autumn that are doubly dead, for they bear no fruit and have been pulled up by the roots.

Believer, there is a new way to live, available to those who are in Christ. We need no longer be enslaved by the opinions of others. We need no longer be driven by insecurity. We need no longer fear aging or the inevitability of death. We can grow deep in God, becoming people of substance. Here’s how!

A Disciple Is... a person given the Spirit!

On the night of the Last Supper, Jesus spent a long time with the men who followed Him closely, who were about to become those to whom Gods’ work on earth was entrusted. They were shallow men who came to that holy meal jockeying with each other over who was most important, who was closest to Jesus! After three years of daily teaching, of seeing the kind of deep and godly life Jesus lived, they still just didn’t get it. They were still more concerned about Self than about Serving. They were looking for personal benefit more than the opportunities to do God’s work with and for others. The whole idea that Jesus would give His life for the world escaped them and they thought He was about to announce Himself as a new King.

Jesus patiently taught them. That evening He washed their feet and told them that true greatness was not found in position, but in serving! He told them of His own death, soon to come, that would be the means of God’s great act of saving the world from her sins. And, He promised them a new way to live. He said, John 14:16-17And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

He went on to explain that His relationship with them was like a Vine with many Branches, that because of the life of the Spirit in them, they would begin to be fruitful. And, the shallowness of their lives would be replaced with insight, with knowing the truth in place of being deceived by mere appearances. John 16:13-14But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.

Many Believers, if asked, “What assures you that you are right with God?” respond by pointing to various things they do. They might mention going to church, or reading the Bible, or that they have said their prayers, or doing some community service, or the contribution they make to their church, or their personal morality. So, those are good things to do, aren’t they? Of course they are!

But, if we center our assurance of being right with God around the things we do, the words we say, or the church we attend, we are placing the emphasis on wrong things and will almost certainly end up like some religious people that Jesus condemned with the harshest words in the Gospels! The Pharisees were very good people - on the outside! They did all the right things, were scrupulously moral about many things, and enjoyed the admiration of the people of their time. But Jesus called them ‘whitewashed tombs, looking good on the outside, but full of dead men’s bones.” They thought they were right with God as long as they looked good. Jesus taught them and us that God wants a genuine righteousness that goes heart deep.

And the Scripture is quite clear that such a righteousness comes only as a gift of God, a work of the Holy Spirit, that starts in our heart, that cannot happen outside in, but only inside out!

Here’s how the Scripture explains it:

Ephesians 2:4-5 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

Ephesians 2:8-10

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The writer of those passages, Paul, acknowledges the importance of God’s work in making him who he was.

1 Corinthians 15:10 By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

The late John Wimber, pastor and founder of the Vineyard Movement, writes:

“Good works are not the means by which we maintain our relationship with God; they are the result of dependence on the Holy Spirit.”

__________________

Let me be direct with you -

Are you a person of depth, filled with the Spirit of God?

Is the grace of God working deep inside of you to produce a real transformation of heart?

Are you living authentically as a follower of Jesus Christ, or are you merely religious?

Jesus used a powerful metaphor to illustrate our empowering encounter with the Holy Spirit. Referring back to the ministry of John, the Baptist, who called people into the Jordan River and plunged them into the water as a baptism of repentance, Jesus said - “John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1.5) What an image! Think of the times you have witnessed baptisms. The person surrenders himself to the one baptizing, and he is plunged into the water. He comes up dripping wet, marked by his experience.

Jesus Christ is our Baptizer in the Spirit. When we surrender to Him, He sends the Holy Spirit to fill us. And from that fullness flows a life that is eternal, deep, rich, and genuine.

In the early Church, the highest compliment that could be paid to any person was that he or she was ‘full of the Spirit!’ In the 6^th chapter of Acts when the apostles were seeking to appoint the first deacons they didn’t find the 7 richest men, or those with the best education, or those with the greatest social prominence. They looked for those who were ‘known to be full of the Spirit.’ {Acts 6.3)

Paul commanded the Ephesian believers to avoid “being drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit!’ (5:19-20)

When we are baptized in the Spirit, our lives are inevitably changed. We gain a new power, a new sense of purpose, and a new desire to live for God at all times in this present world!

Turn with me to one more passage today before I close this message.

Galatians 5: 16-25 PB 1815

This passage sets two ways of life in contrast. Paul says that these two ways of life flow out of whatever, whoever is the master of our being. We are a natural person and a spiritual person. If we are not filled with the Spirit, our natural impulses and appetites are in charge. Those people live for this world only. They are only doing what comes naturally to human beings.

If we are in Christ, and baptized by the Spirit, an entirely different way of life becomes possible. These two ways of living cannot peacefully co-existent. Take a look. (READ vv. 16-18)

So what does a person under the control of his original human nature, his body’s natural desires, live like? It’s not a pretty picture as Paul paints it. (READ vv. 19-21) Yes, many people sense they need to live better than that but lacking the ability to be truly good, they become excellent hypocrites! They create a false front, adopt pretensions, or suppress their baser desires with determination. But, push them far enough, hit them hard enough, and you will see their true colors!

But, when the Holy Spirit is filling us, the sinful nature is defeated by the new Life of our spirit, which is then responsive to God. And here are the kinds of qualities that emerge in the life of the Spirit-filled person.

READ vv. 22-25

Know this! Coming to Christ for forgiveness of our sinfulness and receiving His gift of life is a one-time event. We are saved by grace, when we kneel before Him, and receive Him as Lord. Being filled with the Spirit so that we can live in a way that authentically honors Christ and shows the qualities we just read, is an ongoing experience. When we read in Ephesians, ‘be filled with the Spirit,’ the verb tense is one that indicates an ongoing experience, not a once for all one.

I’ve been asked, “why, Jerry, do I need to filled and filled again?” I wish I had more a sophisticated answer, but the truth is, “we leak!” Rubbing shoulders with a sinful world causes the power of God to flow from us. Doing God’s work depletes us. The work of evil all around us drains us!

Hence we must be filled and filled again, so that we can ‘keep in step with the Spirit.’

_________________

Believer, let’s seek the Spirit.

Let’s ask Him to make superficiality a thing of the past, to drive selfishness, concern with merely looking good far from us.

Let’s ask Him to cause us to truly thirst for the Living Water of the Spirit.

Let’s invite Him to put us into His school of character and holiness so that our righteousness is not like that of the Pharisees, but rather is one that flows from our hearts where Christ is enthroned as King.

I want to leave you today with the words of Jesus, a wonderful promise recorded by John.

John 7:37-39

Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.

Do you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

1. Recognize that the Spirit is given, not demanded, nor earned. Ask God and trust.

2. Be obedient as He leads you through a time of getting cleaned up! The Spirit will not flow into filthy containers. As He prepares us for His fullness, He often leads us to turn from our sins and to understand our desperate need for new power.

3. Work with the Spirit, not against Him. Listen for the whispers of His instructions in your life, and walk them out.

And He will come, with power, to transform you into a person of real spiritual substance, a person of depth, a person of God-honoring character and qualities that glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen