1 Peter 2:21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
“So, what exactly is a disciple? On one level the answer is simple: a disciple is a follower of Jesus. Now in our culture, the word “follower” is often quite negative: a follower is the opposite of a leader. And we are all called to be leaders, at least according to our culture.
\Leadership is an entire genre for books, for conferences, etc.… If you can still find a brick-and-mortar bookstore, you will find a leadership section. Interestingly though, I’ve never seen a follower section in a bookstore, have you? Now “followers” as a term has gained some popularity in recent years because of social media. Instagram and Twitter enable people both famous and almost famous to try to build their own brand by gaining “Followers”. But again, the whole point is that you need to be a leader, so that other people can follow you.
So isn’t it interesting that the primary word for people who worship Jesus as Lord and Savior is the word “follower”? (disciple) Now in the context of Jesus’ day, a disciple was a follower not just in a general sense, but also in a particular way. A disciple tended to be either a pupil, someone that would sit at the feet of a master or be an apprentice in some sort of trade.
And I think there is something to this, that even for the first disciples, they never graduated into something else. They always remained disciples, that is followers of Jesus. And one of the many reasons for this is that a disciple is always in a position of humility, right? They are never the master with all the answers, but always the ones who sit at the feet of Jesus. So being a disciple is to be a follower, but not just in a casual way. An apprentice or a pupil has essentially given up a whole variety of opportunities to follow the one master. We can follow a lot of things, sports teams, musicians, politicians, etc…but to be a disciple of someone is to turn your life over to them and ask that their wisdom might help direct your life. So that’s discipleship…it’s following Jesus every day, becoming more and more like Him.” By Stuart Strachan Jr., The Art of Followship.
Matthew 4:19 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Jesus provided two main objectives for every disciple. They were to first come to Him then, they were to go for Him. We go to Jesus for salvation, then we go for Jesus in service. There was a saying in the ancient near east that went like this, “May you be covered with the dust of your Rabbi”. This means a disciple would be following their teacher so closely that the dust of the teacher was literally apparent on the disciple.
How closely are you following Jesus Christ? Do you have any dust of the Rabbi covering you? Are you following in your Teacher’s footprints?
- The footprint of Trusting
Jesus always demonstrated a perfect trust and obedience in His Heavenly Father. Every disciple must live a life committed to trusting the one and only true and living God.
John 5:19Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
Proverbs 3:5-6Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall [a]direct your paths.
John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
In an issue of CT magazine contributing editor Susan Wunderink writes:
- The Footprint of Unselfishness
Jesus perfectly displayed unselfishness. He willingly left His heavenly fame for an earthly frame. He did not demand his rights and expect privileges throughout His earthly life. He was willing to die a substitutionary and sacrificial death on the cross. After He rose and ascended, He now continues to make supplications and prayers for us today. If we are following Jesus, He will lead us in attitudes and actions that are not selfish but God and others centric.
Romans 15:3For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.”
Philippians 2:4Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
The following account reflects the way of the world not the way of Christianity.
“In 1976, Richard Dawkins claimed in his bestselling book The Selfish Gene that we can’t expect humans to be anything but selfish: “We are survival machines—robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.”
…One of Dawkins’s fans was Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, who pulled off the largest accounting and corporate fraud ever, resulting in shareholders losing $74 billion. Skilling said his favorite book was Dawkins’s The Selfish Gene, which was in the evolutionary spirit of Darwin’s theory of natural selection.
Even though Darwin was by all accounts a kindhearted man, his theory ultimately inspired some controversial philosophical and political positions, such as social Darwinism and eugenics. Social Darwinism. The late-nineteenth-century English professor Herbert Spencer coined the phrase “survival of the fittest,” because he saw natural selection as “red in tooth and claw,” a brutal description of the competition for scant resources. He didn’t value protecting the weak. If more weak people died, more beautiful, healthy, strong, and smart people could thrive. Spencer believed this would improve the condition of humanity over time.”
Richard Lui, Enough About Me: The Unexpected Power of Selflessness, Zondervan, 2021.
- The Footprint of Humility
Man is never more like the devil than when he is full of pride and man is never more like Christ than when he is walking in humility. Jesus was a perfect picture of humility and if we are to follow Him, we must also nature a heart a humility. Walking around with your shoulder slouching, head down and looking at the ground is not humility… that’s just bad posture… True humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.
Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Micah 6:8He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love [a]mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?
James 4:10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
He that is low, no pride;
He that is humble ever shall
Have God to be his guide. —John Bunyan
- The Footprint of Obedience
When a disciple is following Jesus that disciple is not free to do whatever he/she wants to do but is free to do as the Lord would have him/her to do. Everyone will live in obedience to something… the flesh, the world, the devil… or God. You had better choose wisely because eternity is a very long time to be wrong!
John 6:38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
Hebrews 5:9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.
Archibald Rutledge tells about a man who worked in one of the great forests of the South. His faithful dog burned to death in a great fire that had swept through the forest. Rutledge said the little dog had been left under a tree to guard his master’s dinner pail and wouldn’t leave it even when the flames roared around him. The worker was brokenhearted when he found the charred remains of his little friend. With tears streaming down his face, he said: “I always had to be careful what I told him to do, because I knew he would do it.”
- The Footprint of Love
It has been said that you can give without loving but you can never love without giving. Therefore, there has never been anyone who has ever loved like Jesus because nobody has ever given like Jesus. If a disciple is following Jesus that disciple cannot help but show and share the love of God with others.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Luke 10:27 So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
1 John 4:10-12 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.
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