Blue Mountain Baptist Church - Baker City, OR Biblical Discipleship A Life Commitment.

Blue Mountain Baptist Church - Baker City, OR

Biblical Discipleship

A Life Commitment


A Definition of DiscipleshipWebster’s Definition

Discipleship - a pupil or follower of any teacher or school of religion, learning, art, etc.


DISCIPLESHIP

Whose disciple are you?Who are you following?


Whose Disciple are You?

Who do you follow….

MY Opinion MY Experience

OUR General wisdom THE WORLD’S wisdom

GOD’S Word

Is it true and trustworthy?


Who are You following?

• My Opinion - I think, In my opinion, In my view, What do you believe? – I think ……. “I” Are you perfect? Just how smart are you? What makes your opinion more important or better than others? How do you know you are right? No standard of right and wrong or absolute truth.

• My Experience - How trustworthy is experience? Can you have experiences that seem true but aren’t? Have your eyes ever deceived you? Have your experiences ever conflicted with someone else’s? Who was right? Was anyone right? Is there a difference between a functional result and perfection? No standard of right and wrong or absolute truth.



• Our General Wisdom – Is general wisdom always true and correct?

How often do we here that “conventional wisdom says…..but in this case we see it’s better to…” General wisdom changes. It is pragmatic. General wisdom is concerned with ‘what works’, not ‘what is right’.

It does not contain absolute truth. There are no moral absolutes in general wisdom.



• Our Worldly Wisdom - Natural Science, Philosophy, Ethics, Physics, Medicine, Psychology, Politics….

Each of the areas of study has changed over time. They have histories. What was once true is no longer true. They constantly change.

The world sees this as good. They see themselves as ‘smart enough’ to evolve.

Completely based upon Man’s wisdom and insight and the principles of this world. No standard of absolute truth or right and wrong.


Case Study:

Fossils challenge old evolution theoryBy SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Thu Aug 9, 10:33 AM ET

[worldly Wisdom isn’t ‘Flawed’, it ‘Self-Tests’]


Fossils challenge old evolution theory

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Thu Aug 9, 10:33 AM ET

• WASHINGTON - Surprising research based on two African fossils suggests our family tree is more like a wayward bush with stubby branches, challenging what had been common thinking on how early humans evolved.

• The discovery by Meave Leakey, a member of a famous family of paleontologists, shows that two species of early human ancestors lived at the same time in Kenya. That pokes holes in the chief theory of man's early evolution — that one of those species evolved from the other.

• And it further discredits that iconic illustration of human evolution that begins with a knuckle-dragging ape and ends with a briefcase-carrying man.


• That old evolutionary cartoon, while popular with the general public, is just too simple and keeps getting revised, said Bill Kimbel, who praised the latest findings. He is science director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University and wasn't part of the Leakey team.

• “The more we know, the more complex the story gets," he said. Scientists used to think Homo sapiens evolved from Neanderthals, he said. But now we know that both species lived during the same time period and that we did not come from Neanderthals.



• Susan Anton, a New York University anthropologist and co-author of the Leakey work, said she expects anti-evolution proponents to seize on the new research, but said it would be a mistake to try to use the new work to show flaws in evolution theory.

• "This is not questioning the idea at all of evolution; it is refining some of the specific points," Anton said. "This is a great example of what science does and religion doesn't do. It's a continuous self-testing process."




Worldly Wisdom - Analysis

All sciences and pseudo-sciences have a history. They have changed. In the past they claimed they were ‘right’ and ‘true’. When they find new evidence that requires they ‘self-test’, they claim to ‘know more now’ as if they have become even more knowledgeable.

This is ‘double-speak’. The plain simple truth is what they use to ‘know’ was wrong. When they claim to ‘know more now’, they are actually claiming to have a new knowledge of truth and a greater knowledge of what is untrue. (Though they won’t admit they were wrong or that they currently disagree about the new truth.)

Should we believe them now? History says otherwise.Worldly Wisdom constantly changes. Does real Truth?


BIBLICAL DISCIPLESHIP(God’s Word)

Whose disciple are you?Who are you following?Are you learning truth?


Disciples of Christ follow God and His Word

John 8:31

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,

2 Tim 2:15

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

John 15:5

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing..


God’s Inspired Word is Sufficient for Life

2 Tim 3:14-17

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.


God and His Word are True – They’re Life

John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

John 6:68

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life

Heb 4:12

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.


We Follow and Do God’s Word

Luke 6:46-48

46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? 47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like:

48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.


We Follow and Do God’s Word

Luke 6:49

But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

Matt 21:6

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.


Traits of a True Disciple of God1. Believe in Jesus Christ

and μένω in God’s Word. Gk. – abide, dwell, remain, live, continue, stand firm

2. Go and do as Jesus (His Word) directs


We Seek to become like our teacher - God

Luke 6:40

A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.

Matt 16:24

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.


We Renew our Minds in God’s Word

Eph 4:20-2420 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Romans 12:2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.



and μένωin God’s Word. Gk. – abide, dwell, remain, live, continue, stand firm

2. Go and do as Jesus (His Word) directs;

3. Be fully trained to be like Jesus, Being transformed by the renewing of your mind

4. Must deny Himself, Take up his cross, and Follow God


Disciples Speak the Truth

Eph 4:15

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in

every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

Eph 1:13

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,


Truth Produces Fruit & Reproduces Disciples

John 15:8By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples

Acts 6:7And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Matt 28:19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,



and μένω in God’s Word. Gk. – abide, dwell, remain, live, continue, stand firm

2. Go and do as Jesus (His Word) directs

3. Be fully trained to be like Jesus, being transformed by the renewing of your mind

4. Must deny Himself, Take up his cross, and Follow God

5. Speak the Truth in love

6. Produce ‘fruit’, proving your are His disciples

7. Produces other disciples who believe in Jesus through the word of God, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit


True Disciples of God Are Not…• Followers of Man – friends, scholars, pastors, or

anyone else • Self-Reliant – God teaches us to put off the Old

Self and put on the new self which is being renewed in the image and knowledge of God

• Graduates – they never start or stop a course, book, or series of classes

• Bench Warmers – they don’t learn and learn and never do

• Isolated – they never hide from the world & other believers

Blue Mountain Baptist Church - Baker City, OR Biblical Discipleship A Life Commitment.

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