Jul 26, 2024 Your Discipleship is Bigger than You – Words of Grace Blog – July 26, 2024
We have had a great summer in the Gospel of Mark hearing Jesus tell us about discipleship and call us to faith that leads to following him.
We will bring this sermon series to a close this Sunday, but that doesn’t mean we’ve heard the last word on discipleship. As we read the rest of the New Testament and see what Jesus continued to do through his Spirit after he died and rose again, we are given a vision of our discipleship that is bigger than ourselves.
When we read Mark, we tend to focus on ourselves as individuals standing before Jesus and hearing him address us. This is the proper focus because Jesus did say that if anyone would come after him, he as an individual must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow him. Only the person can hear and respond to the call for himself. Men and women stand before Christ and decide what they will do with him.
Have you become a follower of Jesus Christ?
After the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) comes Acts and the letters to the churches. The message is largely about the spread of the gospel and the growth of the church, with exhortations that are often given to the plural “you”, the congregation.
The emphasis on discipleship did not end, but the vision of discipleship did expand. We come to see that when we respond to the call of Christ as an individual, we then live as disciples in the context of the church. And the church is in the world as a witness to Christ who is calling more individuals to himself.
Our discipleship is bigger than ourselves.
Are you following Jesus Christ with his people?
To follow Jesus in the context of the congregation makes a difference in some very practical ways. Our obedience to Christ is helped by the prayers and encouragement of each other. Our disobedience to Christ is corrected by the help of each other. Together we make up a body of believers that functions to serve the congregation in a way that one or even a few individuals cannot. One evangelist or missionary alone doesn’t give testimony to the grace of Christ to the world and make disciples of the nations, the church and congregations do. We can list numerous ways this expanded vision of discipleship is good and living by it is wise.
This vision of discipleship in the context of the congregation will guide us this fall as we spend our Sunday worship time in the letter of Colossians. We will finish Mark this Sunday, spend a few weeks in Acts traveling toward Colossians and find ourselves as a congregation in the history and mission of the church, walking together in Christ.
This weekend, spend some time reflecting on Mark and the message of discipleship. And pray for Grace Community Church as we enter a new season of church life this fall. May God renew our lives and our church life in Christ.
-Scott