In our current sermon series, we are breaking down our definition of a disciple to consider what it really means to be a follower of Jesus.
A disciple is someone who is created by the gospel to learn Christ and lead others to do the same, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Use these sermon summaries and follow-up questions to reflect further and consider how to live in response to the messages over the next four weeks.
Disciples are “created by the gospel”
As we began our series on discipleship, we looked at Ephesians 2:1-10. Out of his mercy and great love for us, God takes the initiative to re-create us as disciples, even when we are spiritually dead. Therefore, because our becoming a disciple is ultimately due to a sovereign and merciful act of God, we should live as disciples with humility and thankfulness. God’s purpose in creating disciples is that they would flood the world with “good works.”
A Disciple is not a decent person who has asked God into their life. A Disciple is a dead person who has received God’s gift of life.
Questions for reflection and application
- Reflect on the characteristics of spiritual deadness in Ephesians 2:1-3. How do you notice these characteristics manifesting themselves in the lives of people you long to see become disciples? How did they manifest themselves in your life before you became a disciple? How, though “spiritually alive,” might you still live as if you’re “spiritually dead?”
- The sermon stressed that it was out of God’s merciful and loving heart that he “made us alive together with Christ,” even when we were at our worst, and that his heart is the same towards us now as it was then. How might this truth help you deal with discouragement in your life as a disciple?
- God created us anew “for good works,” and the sermon defined a “good work” as anything we do “in faith, for God’s glory, and others’ good.” In light of this definition, what good works do you think God has prepared to be a major part of this season of your life?
- How might the truth that “God makes disciples” affect the way you go about trying to make disciples yourself? What would change? What wouldn’t change?
- How might you explain some of the truths of this sermon to a friend who isn’t a Christian?
