Essential - Discipleship

John 8:31-38

“Discipleship: The Authority of Jesus is our Remedy and Refuge.”

Intro

Back in 2021, the landscape of college football experienced a monumental change. Out

of nowhere, Oklahoma and Texas announced that they would eventually leave the Big 12

conference and join the SEC. And anytime something like this happens, there is always a domino

effect. In this instance, it's called conference realignment, and once it starts it leads to college

athletic programs moving around, leaving one conference to join another. Why, you may be

thinking, would they do this and who cares?

It’s a fair question, but the simple answer is this: money. College football is a lucrative

business and for many universities and states, it's integral to who they are. Well to guard against

losing their best teams to a rival conference, three conferences came together and formed

something called “The Alliance.” And with how much money is invested in college football, and

the television rights, you’d imagine lawyers were involved to cook up a contract to protect the

parties involved. Well, guess what, there was no contract. Instead, it was described as an

agreement between three gentlemen…where they looked each other in the eye. Well, a year later

the Alliance folded when the Big 10 stole the Pac 12’s four best teams, and now the Pac 12 will

no longer exist in 2024.

Now this story is entertaining on a number of levels, but it’s also insightful because it

reveals something about us as people, doesn’t it? Especially when it comes to relationships and

partnerships, where we are willing to engage and be involved until we decide we no longer want

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to be, or we find that a different relationship or opportunity will be more profitable. Especially

when there is nothing binding or holding a relationship together. This is especially important to

consider when it comes to discipleship in the local church.

This morning, we will be discussing the topic of discipleship from John 8:31-38. In our

passage this morning, Jesus will be walking us through both what discipleship is and isn’t, and

how we can better engage in discipleship with one another. And so to help us explore these ideas,

we will cover two main points. Point number one is that true disciples abide in Jesus and His

Word. And second, true Disciples are free in Christ.

Point #1- True Disciples Abide in Jesus and His Word

Context: Jesus here is well into His earthly ministry. He’s been traveling around teaching about

the kingdom of God and performing miracles and has already begun to gain great interest and

crowds while frustrating the Jewish leaders. Here again, he has a captivated Jewish audience, and

is teaching on what marks real disciples versus someone who thinks they are a disciple but really

are not.

The word disciple means learner, and it is taking up the posture of a student who follows

or entrusts themselves to a particular teacher or a distinguished set of teachers. Learning,

studying, and being instructed had been central tenets for much of Israel's history, going all the

way back to when God gave Moses the Law. Then they had the Levitical holiness code, which

was laws about living holy lives and how to make proper sacrifices to remain in right standing

before the Lord. All of this gave birth to the rabbinic tradition of teachers, such as seen in the

book of Ezra, where we read in Ezra 7:10, that “Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the

Lord, and to do it and to teach his statues and rules in Israel.” Or Malachi 2:7, which says “For

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the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth,

for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.”

The Jewish people were serious about learning the will of God and obeying Him so that

they might be among the righteous with God in the life to come and not amongst the wicked in

judgment. They took seriously their teachers and their authoritative instruction, whether it be the

Rabbinic Pharisees, priests, or prophets, and always, hoped to someday encounter the greatest

teacher and leader of all, the One David promised, the Messiah, the Savior King of God’s people.

And so circling back to our passage, in our first point this morning, starting at verse 31,

Jesus tells us:

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.”

Meaning His disciples are those who hear His Word, trust it, and obey it. To accept it as

the very thing Jesus insists that his Word is, the Word of God and the revealed will of His Father

in Heaven.

To this Jewish audience, Jesus’ Word sometimes conflicted with their understanding of

God’s law and of the expectations for what the Messiah would be like. For so long, the Jewish

people have found more comfort and protection from the authority of numerous men in their

nation’s history or in the power and significance of their neighbors. From kings, priests, and

prophets, both good and wicked. With the good kings being far and few in between, and the good

prophets killed or cast out while false prophets were celebrated and rewarded.

And before Jesus’ ministry had begun, it had been 400 years!!!! since God had spoken

directly to them. So naturally many of these people had drifted from the heart of knowing God

and living for Him, and instead lived according to the traditions and even superstitions of man.

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 So, when Jesus began to teach and teach with the authority of one sent by God, and

interpreted Scripture in such a way that it convicts and exposes the many issues of the present-

day Jewish people; many observers of Jesus began to get upset.

So upset that in verses 37-38, Jesus tells them:

“I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word

finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have

heard from your father.”

At this point, many are so upset with Jesus and how He challenges their preferences,

biases, and self-righteousness that they have built up for themselves these last 400 years, that

they are beginning to want to kill Him. And what is said next is what everything in this little

section hinges upon, how Jesus as a teacher seeking to make disciples is not teaching His own

opinions or man-made religion. He is not trying to be a celebrity rabbi overtaking the

prominence of other local rabbis. Verse 38 tells us that Jesus speaks to them what He has seen

with His Father.

Friends, this is and should always be our starting point when we talk about discipleship.

That Jesus is the authority for all mankind in every generation. Why? Because His authority is

from God and He Himself is God. And so to abide in Jesus and His Word requires us to have a

posture of humble submission to Jesus and His Word.

In discipleship, one cannot call what we are doing or teaching discipleship if it is not first

in submission to the teachings of Christ and all of Scripture. Here at Mercyview none of you are

my disciples nor am I a disciple of any of you. In fact, oftentimes the reason ministries and

Christian relationships go off the rails is when discipling is too much about particular people. We

are all disciples of Jesus.

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 Our growth and endurance in the Christian life are not going to be attributed to the

personality, gifting, or opinions of any one person or group of people. It is all going to be

attributed to the faithfulness and real presence of Jesus in the life of the Christian as He disciples

us by the power of the Holy Spirit and through the hearing and teaching of His Word. And those

who receive His Word and follow Him on the path of life will experience the Word’s

transformative power and the way it draws us into deep fellowship with God forever.

Now, I know what many of you may be thinking, that Jesus is not here but is said to be at

the right hand of the Father, so how can he help me here in this messy or stressful season of life

I'm in? Well, consider this. Remember when Jesus confronts Saul and rebukes him for

persecuting the early Church, what does he say? Does he say, “Saul why are you persecuting

them?” No, Jesus says “Why are you persecuting ME.” Jesus identifies with the experience of

his people because we are His body, making us intimately connected to Him. Or recall when

Jesus is reconciling with an ashamed Peter who denied Jesus. Jesus tells him that Satan tried to

overcome him, but “I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail.” And even now, as John

17 tells us, Jesus is praying and interceding on your behalf that you might be sustained in your

faith to the very end.

If this is true, that the real presence and authority of Jesus is what discipleship is about,

then we need to recognize the ways in which we give ourselves or other people an unhealthy

amount of authority against the authority of Christ over our lives. For example, our culture

teaches us a worldview called subjectivism, which aims to empower people to be the authority

and arbiter of truth, and that these things are subjective to each person. Where you decide for

yourself what makes you happy and feel better about yourself and how others are at fault for

your unhappiness. And so ethics and decision making is no longer about objective truth, what is

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right or wrong. Instead, decisions are made according to how something makes you feel, either

good or bad.

Now, that isn’t to say that nobody aside from God can have authority, because God has

designed the world in such a way that we have numerous examples of good authorities. Such as

parental figures or church leaders. But all examples of good authorities are either directly or

indirectly good examples because they are mirroring the character and goodness of God. Good

authorities are in fact stewards of God, shepherding under the authority and leadership of God.

That is because, in the end, it is the glory of God that is to be our aim and worship instead

of glorifying ourselves or other men. Do we adorn God or idols? Initially this may rub someone

the wrong way because it makes God sound like an egomaniac. That all things ultimately exist

for the worship of God. But the truth is, as David Foster Wallace famously said, “Everybody

worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.” For the Christian, the goal in discipleship

is to greater know and enjoy God. And to help us in this pursuit of knowing and enjoying God is

another key idea about what it means to abide in Jesus and His Word. That we are to live off of

the Word; that Jesus and His Word are to be our sustenance in this life.

Practically speaking when it comes to discipleship, this looks like stripping it down to the

essentials. There are lots of books, blogs, vlogs, etc, about discipleship and discipleship

strategies; so much so that it has become a bogged-down category. But what Jesus tells us here is

that really all it means to be one of my disciples is to abide in me and my Word.

So, if you want to experience effective discipleship, open up the good book and seek the

Lord’s face. For yourself, make it a commitment to read and study your Bible. And if you’re not

much of a theology person, well I got news for you, that is a theological position. As Thomas

Aquinas put it, everything is theological because theology is all things in relation to God. What

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we think, believe, say, and share with others ought to be informed by God’s Word and done for

His glory.

And if you want to know how to disciple your children or a friend, or you yourself

become a more committed follower of Jesus. Begin to memorize verses, learn and sing

theological songs, and incorporate prayer throughout your day and when you are with people. All

of these efforts are rooted in Scripture and clear depictions of people clinging to Jesus and

making it clear who it is they live for and from where they receive the gift of eternal life.

Because try as we may to feel fulfilled and satisfied in ourselves or someone and

something else, peace and joy evade us. Then you lock everyone up inside their home during a

pandemic and what were the results? Things got really existential real quick and the severity of

mental health began to be taken seriously because people were more willing to admit they really

were not doing okay, and that was just from a few months of a lockdown.

And yet, the Son of God in eternity past tells us He was fully and completely satisfied in

the life He enjoyed with The Father and the Spirit. So in our passage, we must ask ourselves

what does it means that the Son taught what He had seen with the Father.

What Jesus says here is a great revelation of grace. Jesus is inviting them, and us this

morning, into what He experienced and enjoyed with the Father in eternity past. In John 17,

Jesus prays to the Father:

Father, nthe hour has come; oglorify your Son that the
Son may pglorify you, 2 since qyou have given him auth
ority over all flesh, rto give eternal life to all swhom y
ou have given him. 3 tAnd this is eternal life, uthat they
know you, vthe only wtrue God, and xJesus Christ who
m you have sent. 4 I yglorified you on earth, zhaving ac
complished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And no
w, Father, aglorify me in your own presence with the g
lory that I had with you cbefore the world existed.
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 We follow the teachings and commands of Jesus and His Word because, yes, His Word is

true, but that’s because his word is truthfully leading us into life that can only be found in

Himself. Because it's only through him that we can come to know and enjoy the Father as he has

for all eternity.

And so for us, the good news of the gospel is not that we get to go to Heaven. The good

news of the gospel is that we get God in the gospel. Because without God there is no Heaven.

Psalm 145:5 puts it this way, “On the glorious splendor of Your majesty and on Your wondrous

works, I will meditate.” It is God who is the most beautiful, the most good, and the most lovely

Being in existence.

And for all eternity the Son was satisfied by the glory of His Father, which is often

described as His perfect love that He shared with His Son through the Holy Spirit. God is

eternally loving and invites us to rest in God’s perfect love for us. And let me tell you friends,

there is truly nothing better than that. And so, if one’s discipleship programming or initiatives are

not about leading people into deeper fellowship with God or holding people to submit to his

authoritative Word in all things, then in good conscience it cannot be called discipleship.

Point #2- True Disciples Are Free in Christ

This brings us to our second point. Which is what life looks like for those who abide in

Jesus and His Word. What distinguishes such people, what is their life characterized by? Well,

we saw already that it brings us into fellowship with God and that we get to enjoy Him and

worship Him forever. But here, in order for us to experience salvation and know God, He first

sets us free.

At the end of verse 32, Jesus says as much, and then the Jewish people appear confused.

They claim that since their father is Abraham, they have never been enslaved. Commentator

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William Hendrickson pointed out that this cannot mean enslaved in a socio-political sense

because they have been enslaved numerous times and currently are subjected to the Roman

Empire. What they are arguing here is in a cosmic, supernatural sense of special standing as the

people of God since they are by blood descendants of Abraham.

But Jesus sees them differently. Picking things back up in verse 34, through verse 37, He

says:

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, gever

Jesus makes two things clear here. That unless you are set free through Jesus, you will

remain enslaved to sin. Some in the crowd may have answered, “Well I do often mess up, but I

really think I can figure out this whole righteous living thing. And at the end of the day, because I

am Jewish, surely I will be received into Heaven.” But that can never be true, because those who

are not free in Christ will remain that way because Christ’s Word has no place in them or in their

hearts. Jesus and his Word are like a black light revealing our sinful condition that is hidden or

not always apparent, but not everyone is receptive to being exposed by the Light.

At the end of our passage, Jesus references their father, and if you read further, he is not

condemning them because of their earthly fathers but worst of all, he calls them children of The

Devil. Jesus is pulling no punches with his language. And what Jesus is saying here is not

slanderous, it's revelatory. Similarly, Paul says as much in Ephesians 2, where he teaches:

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 “And you were kdead in the trespasses and sins 2l
in which you

once walked, following the course of this world, following mthe princ

e of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in nthe sons o

f disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in othe passions of

our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body1 and the mind, and pw

ere by nature qchildren of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

And so here again like so many other passages in the Bible, we come face to face with

the reality of two ways of living. The path of life or the path of death, live by the flesh or by the

Spirit, the kingdom of God or the kingdom of man; and here we are told that the life you live is a

reflection of who your father is. Are you carrying out the desires of God the Father and His will

for the world or the desires of the Devil and his schemes to rebel against God’s will and design

for all things? Jesus’ language certainly got the attention of those in the crowd that day, causing

them to think hard about their lives. But we ought to likewise examine our own lives.

And this now brings us to the nitty gritty of discipleship in the local church. We have

preached on the distinction between justification and sanctification before, and here again this

distinction is important to rehearse. Just as we have been justified once and for all through Jesus,

simultaneously we have been set free from our bondage to sin. And yet, just as we are to live out

our sanctification, this looks like choosing to walk in freedom and not returning to our old sinful

patterns and comforts.

Like when Israel was wandering in the wilderness after being rescued by God from

hundreds of years of slavery, they complained about their present circumstances and complained

that they wanted to go back to being slaves because their provision of food and a roof over their

heads was much more predictable back in Egypt.

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 Similarly, from the moment we wake up each morning, we make numerous decisions

throughout the day to choose to walk in the freedom given to us in Christ instead or subjecting

ourselves to the chains of sinful habits and sinful comforts.

Verses 35 and 36 make two clear distinctions of what genuine freedom looks like. In

reference to verse 35, Hendrickson explains how slaves may enjoy the privileges of their master's

home for a time, but it is never meant to be permanent like it would be for the master’s own flesh

and blood family; because the slave could be sold or dismissed at any moment. For the Jewish

people, this gets turned on its head because they are not to assume they are God’s people by

blood alone because God’s people are spiritually born again, circumcised in their hearts, and not

their flesh. Their family tree and their cultural heritage do not make them right with God. Their

reality was a dark one, because they were actually spiritually enslaved, and it's only through

Jesus, that they can be free indeed.

For us today, we too need to combat the draw to be a Christian by reputation but are

actually slaves to sin; rather than actually living as one who is following Jesus in the freedom He

grants us. That we are not to believe that our baptism, participating in an alter call, or the fact

that we go somewhere on Sundays and Wednesdays checks off the boxes. None of those things

matter if we are closed off to Christ’s Word taking root in our hearts while the Lord and His

people call us to follow Him.

Pastor Mark Dever once said that being free in Christ does not mean we are free to self-

govern. That there is a stark contrast between having a personal faith vs. a private faith; where

your faith belongs to you alone and nobody outside you can speak into your life. Dever goes on

to say that if you say you are a Christian but are not actively engaged in evangelism and

disicipling, he does not know what you mean by using that label. Christianity requires us to be

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actively engaged in peoples’ lives and to be open to people being engaged and invested in our

own life.

This resistance to being held accountable or vulnerable is seen here in our passage by the

animosity of the people in the crowd responding to Jesus’ teaching, and this is sadly what you

will sometimes experience as you engage with people in the work of discipling. That same

animosity will arise and distance can be formed by a real resistance to the call to die to oneself.

And yet, friends, we must press further into the tension and resistance we experience with

one another and in our own hearts. Because Christianity, unlike other world religions, does not

require accountability for the sake of performance. We disciple one another, carry each other’s

burdens, show up at the hospital, or celebrate life’s sweeter moments together because we all

belong to Jesus, and in belonging to Him, we belong to one another. We are loved by Him and

ought to love one another. We need Him and certainly need one another.

This is why our church has built-in opportunities to engage in such meaningful and

necessary relationships and accountability for the Christian walk. That is why we weekly meet in

small groups to open up His Word, remind each other of the hope we have in the gospel, and

pray for one another. It is why we encourage discipleship groups of two or three people to fight

sin and be loved and encouraged or why we have mentorship and biblical counseling

opportunities. And it’s especially why the Church throughout history would meet, teaching God’s

Word, baptizing, and taking the Lord’s Supper. And like any healthy church, if we ever have to

pursue the need to discipline a brother or sister in Christ, it is always out of love and full of

grace.

Such as the man in the Corinthian church Paul describes in 1 Corinthians, who was guilty

of having an affair with his mother-in-law. They are instructed to cast him out and hand him over

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to the Devil, having judged his life and character and how he was not repenting of his lifestyle of

sexual immorality. He was actively rebelling against God’s holy standard for what is good and

true. Now it is not confirmed who the person is in Paul’s follow-up letter, in 2 Corinthians 2:6-

11, but whether it is the same man from the first letter or a different discipline issue, regardless

they too were disciplined for their unrepentant sin, and what is so encouraging is how Paul

teaches this community of Believers to treat their repentant brother.

They were to forgive him and reaffirm him of their love, comforting him with the hope of

his sins being forgiven through the gospel. This is a beautiful example of the life-changing

results of engaging in discipleship with others. None of us are going to be perfect. So how

wonderful is it that we have an entire community backing us, in our corner, helping us to identify

and fight sin, helping us to have hope when the world disheartens us and will be there to forgive

us and remind us that they love you and are here to help you?

Pursuing one another and discipling each other is the greatest way to show someone you

really care about them and that you love them. Because you would rather navigate the

awkwardness and tension that sometimes comes with discipleship in order to see someone set

free from sin’s chains than to comfortably keep your distance and leave people alone in the

darkness and captivity of their sin.

Just consider for a moment the lengths that abolitionists went to during the Civil War era.

These people gave everything, putting their lives on the line, hoping to see slaves set free and

truly experience a life of freedom; a life of hope and human dignity. Friends, discipleship seeks

out exactly that for you. The abolitionists understood the severity and urgency to help people

find freedom and have a better quality of life in a temporal sense; we recognize that people are

genuinely in a state of spiritual bondage and the consequences of slavery to sin is an eternity in

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hell, separated from God. That is why in discipleship, Jesus and His people have your best

interest in mind; that you would experience joy, peace, and the fullness of life as God intended it;

not only here and now, but for all eternity.

Gospel

Now, as we begin to bring our time to a close, let us rehearse again how it is we came to

be free. How is it that we have been given such freedom from the tyranny of sin? Unfortunately,

none of us has the ability to rise above our sinful desires, at least not in our own power. This is

why the Lord has not tried to make us slaves to doing what is good and forcing us into a program

of behavior modification. We have seen the rise and fall of so many people to believe that was

possible. No instead as Philippians 2:7-8, tells us that Jesus:

e likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled him

self by vbecoming obedient to the point of death, weven death on a cr

oss.

He did not come as a powerful tyrant or impressive royalty in a local, geographical sense.

He Himself became a servant and for 30-some-odd years was just a guy before He began His

ministry.

And when the perfect time came, His perfect, righteous, sinless life was crucified and

then raised because of our bondage to sin; only He could make things right and He trailblazed

the way forward for us to become holy and once again have a relationship with God. That we

might go from slaves to sin to becoming God’s own children and inheritance.

And if you recall Jesus’ little parable earlier about the differences between the slave and

the son; the gospel has changed our identity, so that we are now a people who are covered by the

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righteousness of Jesus and are one with Him. This means that Jesus shares with us His same

privileges and we too now get to remain in our Father’s house forever.

Conclusion

But sweetest of all for the Christian is not just what we are given in the gospel, but how it

is that we remain in our Father’s house. What will fuel discipleship for you and make you feel

alive and filled up is not how you or those you are discipling are performing; if that were the

case, you would be greatly discouraged. Instead, look to the One who is unchanging and draw

your hope and comfort from Him. From His faithfulness to make you holy and keep you in the

fold of God. I will leave you with these closing lines of my favorite sermon, one preached by

Jonathan Edwards in 1738, where he encouraged his listeners proclaiming:

From the unchangeableness of your Savior, you may be assured of your continuance in

a state of grace. As to yourself, you are so changeable, that, if left to yourself, you

would soon fall utterly away. There is no dependence on your unchangeableness. But

Christ is the same, and therefore, when he has begun a good work in you he will finish

it. As he has been the author, he will be the finisher of your faith. Your love to Christ is in

itself changeable. But his to you is unchangeable, and therefore he will never suffer

your love to him utterly to fail. The apostle gives this reason why the saints’ love to

Christ cannot fail, because his love to them never can fail.

Lets Pray.

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