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A Disciple is…
According to the Book of Acts, a disciple is an individual who has placed his faith and trust in Jesus Christ and is following Jesus Christ’s teachings and direction for his life. A disciple is connected with other disciples through the church and participates in Jesus’ mission to spread the good news to the ends of the earth.
A disciple is an individual. While Acts points us to the church’s work as a gathered group of disciples, we do not escape the spiritual reality that God deals with us as individuals. Each person is responsible for their sin, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, and individuals are invited to call on the name of the Lord and be saved (Acts 2:21).
A disciple is an individual who has placed his faith and trust in Jesus Christ. What makes one a disciple is a personal and individual decision to follow Jesus by faith. Peter, who gave the first post-ascension proclamation of the good news about Jesus, had responded in faith to Jesus in Matthew 4:19-20, when Jesus said, “Follow me, and I will make you a fisher of men.”
A disciple is following the teaching of Jesus Christ. Disciples are seen in the book of Acts, acting in obedience to the words of Jesus Christ. They obey his words and pray in an upper room in Jerusalem, waiting on his promise (Acts 1:12-14). They obeyed his words and witnessed about him across the known world (Acts 1:8, Acts 8:1-4). Paul obeyed his words even at significant cost to his reputation, physical body, and life. Disciples are always responsive to the words of Jesus.
A disciple is following the direction of Christ through his Holy Spirit. Not only do we observe the disciples obeying the teaching and commands of Christ, but we also see them being responsive to Christ’s leadership through the Holy Spirit. Cornelius responded when directed to go and seek out Paul after his Damascus Road experience with Jesus. Paul and Barnabas responded when the Holy Spirit directed them not to go in a particular direction on their missionary journey. Disciples listen and obey both the words of Jesus and the direction of his Spirit.
A disciple is connected with other disciples. There are few instances in the Book of Acts of disciples acting alone. Jesus modeled and commissioned his disciples to serve and share the gospel in groups of two or more. Jesus sent his disciples out in pairs. Jesus prayed for a unified mission force in John 17. The only ministry interaction in the Book of Acts that is not done as a team is Phillip’s remarkable evangelistic exchange with the Ethiopian Eunuch. From the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, through the book of Acts, we see that disciples are meant to relate to other disciples in fellowship and in pursuit of Jesus’ mission.
A disciple participates in Jesus’ mission of spreading the good news to the ends of the earth. Throughout the book of Acts we see disciples walking in obedience to Jesus’ commission to be witnesses of him. Peter proclaimed the Gospel everywhere he went, beginning in Jerusalem. Phillip shared the gospel cross-culturally with the Ethiopian Eunuch. Paul proclaimed the gospel everywhere he went and taught others to spread the gospel throughout his three missionary journeys. The most remarkable statement in Acts 19 is that all of Asia heard the word of the Lord. A disciple is obedient and responsive to the words of Jesus and the promptings of the Spirit, and those words and promptings throughout the book of Acts guided them toward gospel proclamation. Disciples will find a way to participate in Jesus’ mission to spread the good news of his death, burial, and resurrection to the ends of the earth.
A Church is…
The book of Acts provides a compelling and comprehensive model for a healthy, evangelistic church. Throughout the book of Acts, we observe God’s activity through his people, which leads to exponential growth in the number of disciples of Jesus and the working out of health in developing a local, regional, and cross-continental first-century evangelistic movement. The foundation for healthy churches that we see in the Book of Acts gives us a clear definition of a healthy church. We also see foundational insights for understanding the identity and role of an individual disciple. We also observe evangelism in its purest form and how evangelism and disciple-making relate. We also get a sense of what the earliest growing churches celebrated as success in evangelism. In the Book of Acts, we can explore these foundational elements of growing healthy, evangelistic churches through the foundational lens of the first churches formed after the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.
So What is a Church?
According to the book of Acts, a church can be defined as a family of baptized believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, on a mission together to spread the good news about Jesus Christ to everyone everywhere by the power of the Holy Spirit.
A family. Acts 2:42-47 describes an overview of the life of the earliest post-ascension church. The descriptions given leave you with a distinct image of family. They ate together, met one another’s needs, and prayed and worshipped together, adding spiritual components to their lives as a family. New Testament writers confirm this distinct practice by calling the church a household, a body, and a family and instructing them to care for each other’s needs as families would.
A family of baptized believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. What made this church a family was their common faith in Jesus Christ and their common initiation into this family, which was believers’ baptism. Through baptism, they identified themselves with this new form of the family of God in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:27). They also identified with his death, burial, and resurrection, perfectly symbolized through the believer’s immersion (Romans 6:3-4). As ancient families had in common their coat of arms and the family inheritance of land and treasure, this family had the common faith in Jesus and experience of baptism into his body.
A family on a mission together to spread the good news about Jesus Christ. The mission of this family is to expand (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8). Expand the family and expand the kingdom of God by spreading the good news about Jesus’ death for sin, burial, and resurrection, as well as the new life that believing can bring to anyone who puts their faith and trust in him. We see the family breaking out of Jerusalem in Acts 8:1-4, and the gospel’s message and transforming power begins marching across Asia Minor with the disciples scattering in response to persecution.
To everyone everywhere. In Acts 9, God begins breaking down the barriers in the hearts and minds of Jewish believers toward those outside of Judaism. In Acts 10, God revealed to Peter that all races, nationalities, and languages were equal before God and needed salvation through Jesus Christ. With the Apostle Paul’s conversion in Acts 9 and his call to take the gospel to the Gentiles, we see how the message of Jesus Christ broke down the walls of sin, racism, and nationalism and immediately made the disciples cross-cultural missionaries.
A family on a mission together to spread the good news about Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised his Holy Spirit to the disciples in John 14 and 16. In Acts 2, we see the Spirit pouring his power on the disciples. The power behind the church was and is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit transformed their fear into bold faith. The Holy Spirit directed them to the opportunities leading to the fastest spread of the gospel – as in Acts 8, with Philip and the Ethiopian, and in Acts 13:1-4, with the sending out of Barnabas and Saul. The book of Acts is genuinely the Acts of the Holy Spirit as he empowered and directed the mission of God’s people in their world.
A church is a family of baptized believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, on a mission together to spread the good news about Jesus Christ to everyone everywhere by the power of the Holy Spirit.
THIS IS CHURCH: Obedient Hearts Coming Together
Highlights from Bridge Church’s study on the book of Acts
This Fall, our church has been tracking with the first Christians in the book of Acts. The book of Acts tells the story of how an average sized church of 120 changed the world through the power of God’s spirit and their obedience to Him. You can hear the series here or by subscribing to our podcast on Itunes. Here’s a few highlights from the past 8 weeks:
- A church will be Biblical, when the lives of the people in the church are Biblical & their lives line up with the practices & commands of Jesus Christ.
- THIS IS CHURCH: OBEDIENT HEARTS COMING TOGETHER BACKED BY THE POWER OF GOD.
- One of the greatest enemies of life on mission is HURRY. What possibilities might life hold if we slowed down rather than stepping on the gas? What dangers might depths of relationships born over long talks with friends save us from? What strength is missing in my life because of lack of time spent sitting quietly with God & His Word? What opportunities to witness to & serve others fly by me as I hurry to the next big thing? Ministry, growth & maturity, depth of relationships happen in the neutral ground & at the intersections of life. Not at 70 miles per hour.
- The question is not, are you being discipled? but by who or what? Are we being discipled by our screen time & social media, or by Christ & His people?
- The early church prayed 10 days & preached 5 minutes & 3,000 people came to know Christ. Today we do the opposite & get the opposite result.
- The confused, scared people in the upper room, became an unstoppable army of witnesses that spread across the world sharing the message of Christ.
- The Holy Spirit is not a tool for our satisfaction or to puff us up with how great we are or to make us feel better about ourselves. His purpose is to empower us for God’s mission.
- If you say, I’m not experiencing the Spirit’s power – What mission are you on? Have you stepped out of your comfort zone to tell others about Christ lately? Have you took a risky stand for Christ at work?
- We are saved to be sent. We’re washed to be witnesses.
- If I’m believing & looking to be obedient, walking with God. I’ll not lack for opportunity to be a witness.
- Christianity is not a lone ranger affair. To grow, to be obedient, to be on mission, you must be in relationship with others.
- The Holy Spirit will change your priority from personal comfort & safety to selflessness & sacrifice.
- Purpose leads to SELFLESSNESS! We begin to realize that my gifts, my resources, my time is NOT MINE! And it’s NOT ABOUT ME!
- when God gives you purpose, He also gives you the means to accomplish that purpose. GET THIS: It’s HIS WORK through You!
- God’s purpose & the needs of others trumps personal comfort & even safety for those who have aligned their lives with God’s purpose.
- Generosity is not something God wants FROM you, but something God wants FOR you. God doesn’t need your money, He wants your heart.
- It’s dangerous to focus on what we appear to be, instead of what we actually are.
- Preoccupation with appearances is a root that will lead to deception, depression, and possibly disaster. Our preoccupation should be on approval from God. On allowing His grace to shape in us a Godly character. On obeying Him carefully & one step at a time.
We’ll return to this series in 2017, and pick up with the life of Paul the Apostle. November will be Bridge On Mission month. We’ll look at our mission to the least, to the nations, to the next generation, and to our neighbors. In December, we’ll look fresh at the Christmas story in a series called Looking for ADVENTure. If you are in West St. Tammany and you don’t have a church you attend, gather and grow with Bridge Church, 10:30am at the Maritime Museum in Madisonville.
Lane Corley 