The Path of Discipleship -- Part Four

The Path of Discipleship
Matthew 9:9-13; Mark 1:16-20; John 21:17-22
Theme: Following Christ.
This week’s lessons teach us the cost of being a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

Lesson

The third element in following Christ is submission. In one of Jesus’ most important sayings about discipleship, the Lord pictures discipleship as putting on a yoke. This suggests a number of things, but chiefly it suggests submission to Christ for work assigned. It is the picture of an animal yoked to others as well as to a farm implement for labor.

The Path of Discipleship -- Part Three

The Path of Discipleship
Matthew 9:9-13; Mark 1:16-20; John 21:17-22
Theme: Following Christ.
This week’s lessons teach us the cost of being a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

Lesson

The first element in following Christ is obedience. Obedience is an unpopular concept today, which we betray by our frequent use of a phrase like "blind obedience" meaning mindless adherence to authority. We think of it as enemy soldiers blindly carrying out the inhuman orders of an evil commander. So when we come to a phrase like "follow me," we naturally think of it as an invitation and conform our evangelism to that pattern.

Does God the Father Love You Because of Jesus?

God the Father does not love me because of Jesus. He has loved His elect from before the foundation of the world; therefore, He chose them in Christ. He demonstrated that love by sending His Son to die for them when they were ungodly, without strength, sinful and enemies (Romans 5:6-11).

One of the more spiritually edifying questions that I remember debating with several brothers in seminary (and there were certainly plenty of spiritually unedifying ones!) was, "Does God the Father love us because of Jesus?" It might not seem like an obviously difficult question on the surface. The instinctive answer would seem to be, "Absolutely!" After all, when I think of my sin and what I deserve from the hand of the infinitely righteous and just God, how could He love me apart from a representative who is Himself perfectly holy and lovely?

The Path of Discipleship -- Part Two

The Path of Discipleship
Matthew 9:9-13; Mark 1:16-20; John 21:17-22
Theme: Following Christ.
This week’s lessons teach us the cost of being a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

Lesson

Yesterday we looked at the tendency of many of today’s preachers to preach an "easy" faith - Christianity without the cross. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German churchman of the Nazi era who eventually suffered martyrdom for his opposition to Hitler’s policies, called this erroneous theology "cheap grace." He said, "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate."1

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Why We Still Need Reform Part 2

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Why We (Still) Need Reform: Part 2
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What the gospel does is to bring men and women who “did not know God” (I Cor. 1:21) into a saving knowledge in which they can declare that now they “have come to know God” (Gal. 4:9). They “know him who is from the beginning” (I. Jn. 2:13). The whole purpose of redemption is that we might know God, love him, and serve him. It is, as Packer put it, that we might become God-centered in our thoughts, God-fearing in our hearts.

This article is Part 2 of a 5-part series. Read Part 1 here.

In the Eye of the Storm

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The Path of Discipleship -- Part One

The Path of Discipleship
Matthew 9:9-13; Mark 1:16-20; John 21:17-22
Theme: Following Christ.
This week’s lessons teach us the cost of being a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

Lesson

There is a defect, even a fatal defect, in the life of the church of Christ in our age: a lack of true discipleship. For the genuine Christian, discipleship means forsaking everything to follow Christ. But for many of today’s supposed Christians - perhaps the majority - it is the case that while there is much talk about Christ and even much furious activity that is supposed to be done in his name, there is actually very little following of Christ himself. And that means that in some circles, at least, there is very little genuine Christianity. Many who fervently call him "Lord, Lord" are not Christians (Matt. 7:21).

Jesus and the Empty Waterpot

Everyone is seeking satisfaction in created things or experiences--whether it is a person, a job, money, status, music, family, etc. We are all seeking satisfaction. The reality is that God has created us to find satisfaction in Himself alone--the fountain of living water. In order to cure us of our idolatrous pleasure seeking, God became Man and thirsted under the wrath of God that we deserve so that we might come to Him by faith and drink of the living waters than never run dry. Jesus is an infinite fountain of soul-satisfying grace. We must learn to come to Him--and to that fountain of living water--again and again. It is only as we do so that we will find an "object still more alluring" than that with which we are now seeking to satify ourselves.

John 4 is one of the most wonderful chapters in the Bible. In it we find the account of Jesus’ soul-satisfying offer to the woman at the well--the lengthiest single discourse our Lord has with any one individual in the Gospels. The account provides us with the understanding of the nature of sin as well as the nature of salvation. It gives us a glimpse into the secret of salvation and sanctification in a more illustrative way that almost anywhere else in the Scriptures.

A Disciple After God’s Own Heart -- Part Five

A Disciple After God’s Own Heart
John 21:1-19
Theme: Yes, Lord!
In this week’s lessons, Dr. Philip Ryken teaches us about restoration and obedience.

Lesson

Remember how he taught his disciples: "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:28, 33). That is just what Jesus is enabling Peter to do here - to count the cost of being a disciple after God’s own heart. It will be very costly - costly unto death. At that point Peter had complete autonomy, complete independence. He was his own man. He was able to dress himself and go where he liked.

Overplaying the grace card?

I appreciate David Robertson's review of Tullian Tchividjian's new book One Way Love. Robertson gives voice to many of my own concerns about what I believe is a rising tide of antinomianism within the church, especially among the neo-Reformed.

The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is member supported and operates only by your faithful support. Thank you.

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