The Discipline Of Disciple-making – Christ – The Center Of The Disciple’s Life

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Biblical Exercises for Spiritual Health & Fitness in 2014 Series

The Discipline of Disciple-Making:

“Christ: The Center of a Disciple’s Life”

Matthew 28:18-20

Transcript

Let’s open our Bibles to the Gospel by John chapter 1, and in a few minutes, we’re going to get to the first 4 verses. But as you turn there, what we’re looking at this morning, in our continuing study we started in 1 Timothy 4. We looked at the 10 disciplines that Paul was teaching to Timothy and saying that needed to be the conduit through which he would bless his church with their learning to train, or discipline, themselves for godliness. And we got to the center, and we got to the reflection of the Great Commission. These things, command and teach; and Jesus said, go into all the world and teach them what I’ve commanded. And this concept of discipleship is at the heart of the Church. It is really what all of us are called to be is making disciples. And one facet of that this morning is to understand who a disciple is, and a disciple, succinctly, is one who knows that Christ is the center of their life. See, for a disciple, Christ is the center of the disciple’s life, and all of us the instant of our salvation that was true. Remember, last week we looked at this whole two-part salvation that you get saved and then someday you come to the place where Christ is Lord. No, that’s actually how He does it instantaneously. It’s just we resist and often allow our flesh to make ourselves to be central to our lives, and it’s all about me and not about Christ.

But what I’m talking about this morning, and I was thinking, after the first service, someone was talking to me, and I was. They said, you know what if these things aren’t in my life, does that mean I’m not a Christian? Have you ever been around someone that really knows their electronic device, and they do something with it and you have the same one, and you can’t do that? And you go over to them, and you say, how did you do that? If you have that device, it does all of those things, even if you don’t know how that functionality takes place. Did you know that when we were saved, everything I’m showing you this morning are all elements of what a true disciple of Jesus Christ has within the functionality of the Spirit of God living out through them? So many believers don’t allow Christ at the center to radiate what we’re talking about this morning.

So, let’s go through them. Each of us here today became Christ’s disciple the moment of our salvation. First service they had to go back to nothing on the screen, and people were falling out of their seats asleep all service, so I’m glad we have something to keep everybody, no. Each of us today here became Christ’s disciple the moment of our salvation. This is what God did. Now, when you talk to someone and say, are you saved? If you hear them say, I did this, I did that, they baptized me, I walked forward, I prayed this prayer. What I’m asking if I say, are you saved? Did God do this? Because at the instant of salvation, disciples are Christ’s sheep, disciples hear His voice, disciples follow Him. Followers are disciples. Disciples are believers. Believers are Christians, and Christians have been born again. They were born again the moment that they were saved.

Now, you notice I used all the words. They’re all the same thing. This is a supernatural work God does in me. All I do is I just believe that Jesus Christ really loved me and gave Himself for me, and that I am lost, and hopeless, and a sinner. And God miraculously makes me a new creation, and that new creation is instantaneously that Christ is the center of my life. But my choice following Him is to keep living with Christ at the center of my life.

Now the Apostle Paul put it this way, he said, in fact, Paul was asked to give his testimony once, and he said, Christ is central to everything. And he says, it is no longer I who live but Christ, now that’s Galatians 2:20. But Paul was explaining how he lived, and walked, and served like he did, and he said, it’s this. He says, it’s not me; it’s Christ. When you see what’s happening all over the world, through my preaching, Paul said, it’s not me; it’s Christ. When you see me making it through all those jails, and shipwrecks, and stonings, it’s not me; it’s Christ living in me. It’s not just in Paul Christ wants to live. He wants to live out through each one of us, and that’s why self-centered living is such a horrific area, that it so limits God’s work when we are self-centered instead of Christ-centered. And so, the Apostle Paul explained the result of salvation. He said, it’s not I but Christ.

And then he talked about the method of salvation: He gave Himself for me. And that’s the essence of everything that we’re celebrating at communion. And by the way, when we get to communion at the end of the service and you hold the bread and later you hold the cup, it is a reaffirmation that you and I are Christ’s disciples, that it’s no longer us who are living but Christ. And that process began when He gave Himself for me. Did you know that’s why the early Church celebrated communion so often? Communion was when the early Church gathered as Christ’s body to declare that Christ was the center of their lives and that they were his disciples. And when we celebrate communion, we reaffirm Christ’s death was in our place, His burial was with our sins, and His resurrection produced our endless life. So, communion is when we reaffirm all that. And that’s why the early Church went from house to house, Acts 2 says, breaking bread together. It’s very, very, very possible that those early believers loved to remember Christ’s death in their place so much that they actually made a part of their celebrating and breaking bread together the communion of His body and His blood. And that’s why they were so focused, because every time you celebrate communion, you reaffirm Christ is the center of everything.

When I was growing up in a normal, typical little Baptist church here in central Michigan, communion was served quarterly, four times a year, after the service for anybody that wanted to stay around. And I grew up thinking communion was not very important—quarterly, and it was not something to invest your time in—after the service, while most people went to lunch. It was just this small little group that stayed around, and it was truly because they didn’t understand the vital nature of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Anytime that you and I have a chance to reaffirm our commitment to following Christ, being His disciple, reaffirming that He died in our place and He is the center of our life, we should take it. It’s more important than anything else, and that’s what the early Church believed.

One thing that in this week, I spent the week going all the way through the four Gospels. There’s only 89 chapters in them, and I counted and looked at every time Christ talked about Himself. Jesus spoke of Himself as the source of everything very often. In fact, by the way, I didn’t have to count these manually; I have a program that does it. But Christ’s words fill 1,958 verses of the Gospels, and in those 19, almost 2,000 verses which make up the Gospels, Jesus calls Himself by the first-person pronoun 1,400 times. Have you ever met someone, in almost every sentence they talk about themself? That usually is, we don’t like that. Jesus, in almost every sentence, refers to Himself because Jesus is at the center of everything, of the life that He was sharing. And so, Jesus was saying, I want you to listen to Me. I want you to think about My words for you, and that’s why our self-centeredness is so offensive to God. Life is not to be about us; life is to be about Christ, and that’s how Jesus presented it. Sometimes we’ve seen the Me, and Mys, and I’s so much in the Gospels, we don’t, they don’t jump out at us. Everything Christ promised was attached to Himself, and that’s why He said, apart from Me, you can what? Do nothing. And so, we need to affirm today as we search the Scriptures to find out what it really means to be Christ-centered in everything. Jesus is the only Key that unlocks the abundant life. He promised the overflowing life, the satisfied, the endless life. Jesus simply said, all of those things are in Me. He said, I’m the Key to everything. And if we take the time to study what Jesus said in all these personal pronouns, 1,438 times, we can almost summarize the doctrine of the entire New Testament. Because what we see the apostles and those closely associated with the apostles, like James and Jude, and Luke writing for Paul, and Mark writing for Peter. What we find is, they follow, and enlarge, and amplify what Jesus, the Christ-centered life that Christ Himself presented, they just amplify and explain.

John chapter 1, Christ is the Author of life, and Christ is central to our spiritual lives because He’s the one that created and sustains that life. He is the one who in John 1:1-4 says that He through His Word as Jesus Christ is the Source, the Origination, and the only Supplier of life. If you have life today, it’s not because some church baptized you. It’s not because some ceremony was done or you prayed something. It’s because Christ has authored that life, and He is the One that began and completes what He starts. And what He starts us as and what He wants to complete us as His disciples who know and follow Him through life and do what He told us to do as we follow Him through life.

So, John 1:1-4. Let’s stand together for the reading of God’s Word. We’re going to read the first four verses and pray. And listen to what this book opens with: in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And you could read all the way through, and it talks about this life from there on. By the way, the book of John is the most amazing book. It opens with this; Jesus is the life. It closes with John 20:31, these are written that you might believe Jesus is the Christ, and that believing that you have life through His name. Jesus. Jesus, the Author of life.

Let’s fall before Him in prayer. Father, we want to hear Your voice today. We live in a culture that has slowly deadened us to concentration on anything except loud sounds and fast-moving pictures and action. And so, it’s very hard to concentrate and think deeply, but You are the One who wants to bring every one of our thoughts into captivity. And so, I pray that You would amaze us today by reaching down to each heart that is crying out to You and saying, I want to hear, I want to understand, I want to know, I want to follow, I want to grow. That You would captivate our thoughts to Your obedience, and that we would hear Your voice through Your Word, and that we would follow You more closely, more deeply, and find You to be central to everything in our life because we respond in faith to You today. That’s our request. Meet with us we pray, and then may communion be a crescendo of each one of us here that know, and love, and follow You, reaffirming that it’s not about us, it’s about You. It’s not I; it’s Christ. And may we declare and, by Your grace, live Christ-centered lives. In Your precious name, we ask this, amen.

You may be seated. As you’re seated, Christ is truly the center of salvation. Remember I said that what He said in the Gospels just gets multiplied through the epistles? Let me just show you that, as long as I told you that. Look at Romans chapter 11 and look at how the Apostle Paul in this great doxology refers to Christ delivering up all things to the Father. And in Romans 11:36, Paul says this, Jesus Christ is central. Because of Him, Romans 11:36 and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. That is how Paul reflects on Christ making all things centered upon Him, as He delivers them up, as 1 Corinthians 15 says, to the Father. But Christ is a manifestation of the Father to us. If you’ve seen Him, you’ve seen the Father. And so, as we make Christ central in every part of our life, God is glorified. As we, as I said two weeks ago, feel His weight and acknowledge who He is. So, Paul says, Christ is the center of salvation.

Now, look how he enlarges this a little bit later in Colossians chapter 1. Keep going to the right. Colossians 1, starting in verse 14. Because even more of the centrality of Christ that He is to have in our lives is declared by Paul, and what he says in verse 14, in whom—this is in Christ—we have redemption through His blood—He’s the one that redeemed us by shedding His blood—the forgiveness of sins. So, central to everything is this purchase on the cross where Christ poured out His blood and purchased us by forgiving forever our sins. But look at what continues, verse 15, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. Verse 16, for by Him all things were created that are in Heaven, on Earth, visible, invisible, thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers. All things were created through Him, and look at the end of verse 16, and for Him. You see that of Him, through Him, and to Him from Romans? It’s even being enlarged here: for Him. And look at verse 17, He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. Now He’s applying it. Look at verse 18, and He is the head of the body, the Church—that’s us today—who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. Why? That in all things He might have the preeminence. Christ is central, and that is the essence of salvation. That’s the essence of who is saved. Those to whom God has supernaturally, miraculously placed Christ at the very center of their being, we are new creations in Christ.

That’s why He talked about Himself so much, and that’s why people didn’t take Him up on His salvation. He was too attached to it, and they didn’t like what He was saying, and they didn’t want allegiance to Him, and they didn’t want to follow Him. They didn’t want to sacrifice for Him, they didn’t want to die like He said they had to, and they… Nowadays we distance, a little bit, what Christ said and people kind of interested in salvation, but when you show them Christ and the cost and the demands. Salvation is absolutely free, but the maintenance will cost you everything. Okay? That’s what it’s like. He demands utter centrality in our lives, and that’s the message of salvation.

Let’s go back and see Jesus say this. Starting back in John chapter 1, and I’m going to give you, when I used to be at Grace, I’m going to give you what I used to hear John doing. He used to love doing these jet tours. I can remember his jet tour of Revelation. He did the whole book in one night, and he loved doing jet tours of things. Let’s do an airplane tour of the Gospel by John. We won’t jet all the way through, but in John chapter 1 and verse 18, I want to show you this, what Christ does in the life of a disciple. Remember I said someone can have a digital device that can do stuff yours can’t do? And it’s in yours; you just don’t know, you didn’t know it was in there. Do you know, if you’re truly and if I’m truly born from above, everything I’m talking about is what’s in the operating system. And the more that we desire, and surrender, and invite, and welcome Christ to rule and to, and surrender to His desires in our life, the more He does all of these things.

So, with me, think through how many of these are you really enjoying today in your life? Number one: Christ wants to explain the Father to us. Look at verse 18. Christ explains the Father to us. Jesus Christ is the One who knows, reveals, and explains God the Father to us. He says this in verse 18: no one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father. He has exegeo, He has exegeted, He has explained, New King James says declared. Jesus explains God to us. Jesus takes the unapproachable dwelling, and in all of the fiery, like the writer of Hebrew says, our God is a consuming fire, and no one can come into His presence. We can have Him explain to us and be brought into His presence by Jesus Christ. So, number one, what Christ does in the life of a disciple, He explains the Father to us.

Number two: He brings all of God to us immeasurably. You say, what do you mean by that? Look at chapter 3 of the Gospel by John, and in verse 34. Christ brings all of God immeasurably to us. God does not come in pieces. Christ brings all His fullness to us. John 3:34 says this: for He whom God has sent speaks the Word of God, for God does not give His Spirit by measure. What He’s saying there is it’s not an IV drip, drip, drip. It’s not, by the way, that’s what Roman Catholicism teaches, that every time you come to a means of grace in Roman Catholicism, they infuse and drip another little drip of grace. The Bible says, no, you get Christ, you got it all. You don’t, God does not give His Spirit by measure. He doesn’t say, okay, you get a quarter cup. Come back, I’ll give you a half cup next time. No, you get us teaspoon. He doesn’t give it by measure. Of His fullness, John said in chapter 1, have we all received grace upon grace. We get, in fact, that’s really enlarged in Colossians. Paul says that the fullness of the Godhead bodily is in Christ, and if you have Christ, you have everything. So, disciples have Christ bringing all of God immeasurably to us.

Now, look at this in chapter 6. Turn over 3 chapters to chapter 6 verse 35. Now, this is the one event that’s in all four Gospels, or one of the events. There are a handful of events, about seven of them, that are in all of the Gospels. They’re big events. This is one of them, and it’s the feeding of the 5,000. And look what verse 35 says. Christ offers us an always satisfied life. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. What He said is at the very basic level, one of the things that all of us have experienced is hunger and thirst. And He says, those are things that you feel, and that emptiness and lacking and needing something, He said, if you come to Me, I will give you a never-ending satisfaction in life. Why? Because the wicked are like the restless sea. They’re insatiably never satisfied. They’re going from one thing to another. They always want something else. They always want one more, a bigger, more of this, another experience. They’re restless, they’re not satisfied, they’re not complete. They do not find Christ at the center giving them the ever-satisfied life. Remember when Jesus turned the water into wine and the steward said, you saved the best for the last? Did you know that’s what the life of Christ is like? We have this always satisfied life.

And it doesn’t end there; keep going to chapter 7 because the way this happens is in chapter 7 verse 38. Christ offers to us a Spirit-overflowing life. When we believe on Him, at that instant, rivers begin to flow from our lives. We aren’t just given drips, or sprays, or puddles, or stagnant pools, or ponds. He offers us a life-giving river that will flow out of our life, and all He leaves us in charge of is making sure there aren’t any obstacles to that river flowing out of our life. Because remember, you meet some people and their life is just spraying, and you look at them, and you say, mine’s not working like that. You know what they say? It’s in there; you’re blocking it. Now, look what Jesus says in verse 38. He who believes in Me—that’s every disciple, every true born-again saved person—as the Scripture has said, out of his heart. Everyone who is saved, born again, a disciple, a follower, a Christian, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. The Spirit’s river of life-giving water flowing from us only can be blocked by sins like our unforgiving spirits, and resentments, and bitterness, and pride, and dishonesty, and sensuality, and uncleanness. If we cling to our pet sins, the river stops flowing from us, and we don’t feel like disciples, and we don’t act like disciples, and no one can tell that we are His followers. But the original edition, and what we can reset to by His grace is Christ offers us a Spirit-overflowing life.

On to chapter 8, look at verse 12. Christ becomes to us a light-filled life. When we follow Him, we’ll never walk in the darkness again and be confused, and lost, and afraid. John 8:12, then Jesus spoke to them and said, I am the light of the world. Now, look at this. He who follows Me. Do you notice how many? Look at all the personal pronouns there. I, you know first it’s Jesus speaking. I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life. Jesus said, if you’re following Me, you’re never in the dark. That comes with being a disciple.

He goes on to say that He is the Sin Purger. John 8:24, just 12 verses down, Christ is central to our sin-purged life. When we believed in Him, He takes all of our sins, so we won’t die with any. Therefore, I say to you that you will die in your sins, Jesus said in verse 24, for if you don’t believe that I am He, you’ll die in your sins. In other words, all who believes that He is who He said He is, who become a believer, a follower, a disciple, a Christian, born again, and saved will never die with any sins on them. You know what sin I think, I have a phonographic mind. Did you know, that means what I think about, I talk about, and I see it in my mind. And when I think about sin, I think of one of the horrors of warfare is when they used to allow the use of phosphorus bombs. Now the United Nations has basically outlawed it, but once phosphorus sprays out, burning, and it touches someone, you can’t put it out. You can get, jump in the water if you want; it keeps burning. You have to cut it out because it’s just penetrating. It’s horrific. You know what? Sin is just like that. If we realized how bad sin was, we wouldn’t expose ourselves so readily to it because Jesus Christ is the key to the sin-purged life. He’s the only One that can scrape away sin because if it’s not scraped away and we die in it, we forever are paying the price and burning. Part of the burning of Hell is the burning fiery wrath of God that is poured out on every sin, and people who die with their sin are covered with it, so God is focusing His wrath on that sin forever. That’s why God is just in sending people to Hell. He says, I’ll take away all your sins. I’ll give you a sin-purged life. They said, nope, nope, want mine. He says, but you know what it’s going to do for you? Doesn’t matter, want it. And they pay forever, absorbing His wrath.

He’s also the start of our truth-following life. If you look at verse 32 of John 8, when we abide in Christ’s truth, the Word of truth, we are His true disciples. We’re truly liberated from lies, from the stranglehold of sin’s enslaving power. This is what a disciple is. You’ll know the truth, and the truth makes you free. Christ is the start of a truth-following life, and a truth-following life is liberated, set free.

It goes on! Boy, you can study the whole book of John. Christ is the center to our abundant life. Look at chapter 10. Turn over two chapters to verse 9. Christ is central; disciples have an abundant life. Jesus said, I’m the door to a life that isn’t just life. It’s more abundant life. Verse 9, I’m the door. If anyone enters by Me. Yeah, I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he’ll be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. Verse 10, the thief doesn’t come except to steal, and kill, and destroy. I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. If you are following, and if you’re a disciple, I am central to you having this abundant life. It’s part of the package. Let Me unleash it into your life. We’re supposed to be going through life with lives that people notice that we’ve been with Jesus. That’s what went on in Acts. People noticed by the way they behaved that they were Christlike, and that’s what the Lord wants going on.

If you look in chapter 11 and verse 25, Christ is the Giver of our endless life. Jesus is the only access to life that is endless. Jesus said to her, in verse 25, I’m the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. But look at verse 26, and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. We have an endless life.

We have a Father-seeing life in chapter 12. Jesus said in verse 26, if anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, the servant will be. And if anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. In John 12:45, he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. Jesus is crucial for us to see the Father. It’s only through Him. Jesus also is the key to experiencing God in John 14. It’s amazing if you look at John 14:23, Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; My Father will love him, We will come to him. And look at this: We’ll make Our home with him.

This weekend there was a stellar home sale in Los Angeles. This mansion, three billionaires were outbidding each other, and finally one of them coughed up 102 million to buy this Versailles-like mansion. Immediately, down the road someone put theirs up for sale for 135 million because it made the neighborhood price go up, and people are talking now about the new one that’s 135, because that’s where Jacqueline and John Kennedy had their honeymoon. And boy, it’s just really the place to live, and I thought, kind of makes our houses not seem so exciting until you realize, look what it says in verse 23. Christ is our, the key to us experiencing God. He will make His home with us.

Did you know, you can be in a Pakistani jail somewhere for blasphemy charges because you’re a Christian, and you can be more at home than in $135 million monstrosity in Los Angeles and enjoy it more too. Because God, you’re experiencing God at home. Really, the more we experience this, the more we understand what Heaven is like. Heaven is dwelling with God forever, and the reason some people aren’t sure about it is because they’re not experiencing God now! If Heaven seems distant, you don’t have a Christ-centered life. Because if you have a Christ-centered life, you’re experiencing God living with you, and you can’t be the same when you understand what that means.

A Spirit-indwelt life, John 1426. The Father will send the Spirit in My name. Christ is the source in the prayer-powered life. Anything you ask in My name. I didn’t even do that. That’s John 14:13 and 14. I skipped over that. And the love-filled life. By this shall all men know you’re My disciples. And also, John 15:9 and 10 says, you’ll abide in My love. Okay, and there are a lot more. I’m just, those are as many as I had time for.

I wanted to get to this. So, what happens? What does a life look like when Christ isn’t at the center? Really, that’s what we’re supposed to think about at communion. Communion, in 1 Corinthians 11 says, is a time we’re supposed to examine ourselves, and we’re supposed to sit in judgment against ourselves. Hold up the Word of God, look at our life, and say, oh, I’m lacking in these areas. So, just as an example, this morning, when Christ is not the center, what are the symptoms of a self-focused me-but-not-Christ life? A self-centered, self-focused person is saying, it’s about me, not Christ. Paul said, it’s not I but Christ. A self-focused person says, no, it’s not Christ, it’s me, and I’ll give Him a little time now and then, but it’s all about me. And my whole life is geared toward what I can do, where I can go, what I can get, what I can be; and Paul said, that’s not a disciple’s life.

So, what are the symptoms of someone that’s not acting like a disciple, who is self-focused, and me, not Christ, is the center of their life? I’ll just go through these.

If you analyze, remember, the epistles take all these teachings and apply them, and explain them, and illustrate them. If you look at the epistles, what you find is if you have usually only a marginal desire for God’s Word, in fact, you’re virtually biblically illiterate, that’s a sign of a me-but-not-Christ kind of life. Because if Christ is the center of your life, then you want every Word of God, and you feed upon Him, and He’s more necessary than your daily food, and you wouldn’t go anywhere without eating from Him because He’s the bread of God come down from Heaven. Here’s another one. If you often walk in the flesh, and usually you don’t even know the difference between walking in the flesh and walking in the Spirit, that’s an example of a self-focused life. That’s not even on the radar. You don’t even really think about what it means to walk in the Spirit and walk in the flesh. If you have few, if any, works of grace in your life, there’s no evidence of being filled with God’s love to serve others. In fact, others are in the way, and if they’re needy, you don’t want to be around them. You don’t want to give anything up. You worked hard to get that, and it’s very hard, and a self-focused life is just few, if any, works of grace.

And if you’re usually stuck on the basics, and there’s no evident growth. It isn’t every time you come to the Lord, it’s just like there’s more that you want to surrender to Him and more of Him that you’re realizing, and you just get caught up with how great He is. If it’s not that way, then the focus, the lens of your life, is turned around. Have you ever; this happens to me all the time. I try and take a picture, and I’m looking and staring at myself, and I, you have to push that button to turn the camera to look that way. And you don’t like it when it’s like a mirror. You go, oh boy, turn that. That’s why we look in the Bible. We look in the mirror, and if we see ourself, we go, oh, that’s not what we want. We want to see Christ. And that’s an evidence of a self-focused life.

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If you have a limited desire for fellowship with other believers. In other words, you can just take it or leave it. Church, I have enough of that for this month. If you have a strong desire for worldly possessions, you’re just planning, and figuring, and calculating, and protecting, and leveraging, and maximizing. And if you’re driven by selfish ambitions, all of your goals are somehow tied to yourself, and finances, and pleasure. And often you exhibit a spirit of competition. Isn’t that interesting? Christians are mutually submissive, and they walk in love, and they’re not push-people-out-of-the-way kinds. And if they are, that’s a symptom of self-focused living. If you often have great difficulty repenting and forgiving others when they sin against you, you have trouble of repenting of sins, and you have trouble of forgiving people that repent, and you hold, and there’s people that you’ve held things against for days, and weeks, and months, and years, that’s a self-focused life.

If you have a lack of compassion for the lost; you just see them as different or dangerous. You don’t see them as lost and a trophy of God’s grace if the Lord will call them to Himself, and you want to be a tool to extend the Gospel to them.

And if you’re not actively assisting in the spiritual development of others, you have a self-focused life because Jesus just left us with one thing to do, make disciples. He said, I’ll build the Church; you make disciples. And if we are not actively assisting and bringing people to Christ, and teaching them to observe what He wants, we’re not focused on Christ.

If you have a limited sense of God, if His character, His will, is not dominant, if you don’t feel the weight of God, His glory in your life, if you have a life filled with fear, just fear everything, fear everything, and you’re anxious, and there’s an absence of peace. People don’t go up to you and say, oh, you’re just the most peaceful person I’ve ever seen. They go, what are you afraid of? How come you’re so troubled? What are you anxious about? How come you have to take so many pills? What’s up with you? If there’s an absence of peace, that’s a symptom of a self-focused life.

And if you’re often covetous. You know what covetous is? You look over the fence and you go, I want that, I want that, I want that, I want a bigger better, I want that, I want that. And boastful of what you have, and prideful, and manipulative, always working to get something. And if you only have partial victories over sin, it seems like you just can’t overcome those pet sins, they just grow.

And if you have a non-existent or lackluster prayer life and little or no time in sincere, God-centered worship. You like music, you don’t even care about the words, it doesn’t matter. You just, you aren’t God-centered and focused on His character. Sam prayed, reverent in worship. If you’re not really accountable to anyone for anything. They’re not going to tell me what, I’m not going to, my life is an island. And if you have a very small degree of grace and mercy toward others or toward yourself. Those are all symptoms, and there are many more, but those are just some of the symptoms from the epistles of the New Testament of what a self-focused, me-but-not-Christ life looks like.

So, back to why we’re here, what’s communion for? Communion is today for us to renew our pledge that it’s not I but Christ. Look what Paul said in Galatians 2:20, I’ve been crucified with Christ. All that self-centeredness was crucified with Christ, and when that happened, it was no longer I who lived, it was Christ living in me, and the life I want to live from, the instant of my salvation on, while I was in my flesh, was by the faith in the Son of God. The way I want to operate is, the One who loved me and gave Himself for me, I want to live for Him. And the best way to live is let Him live out through me, and the best way that happens is for me to renew. Actually, when you really mess up your electronic devices, they always have this thing, restore to the original settings. When you’ve just done too many things, and it gets all confused, you restart it and reset it. They even have little holes you can poke things in to reset, when you even forget your password and everything.

And did you know, at communion is when we bring our mixed-up lives and we bring them before the Lord and say, I want to reaffirm that You’re, Christ, the center of my life. And with Paul, I want to stay crucified with You, O Christ. No longer do I want to live for me. I don’t want life to revolve around me, so I’m always hurt, and resentful, and dissatisfied, and everything else. I want to renew my surrendered life of following. You see, communion’s where we come back to the beginning and get reset on what the reason is we’re here, and what the operating system is of our life. And the operating system is it’s not me, but I’m living for Christ. So, that’s our assignment as we prepare for communion.

So, let’s all bow our heads, and right where you sit make this a time of surrender. If any of those symptoms of a self-focused life are present, just cry out the Lord, and as the men go to prepare to serve us, let’s just ask the Lord, just say I want to reset back to being crucified with You, and I want to deny myself. I want to follow You, and I want You to live out through me, and I want to celebrate that at this communion. And Father, I pray You’d touch different areas of every heart that is in tune with You today. May each of us identify somewhere the flesh has crept in and I’m more concerned about me than You. And as soon as we identify that spot, we want to ask You to purge us and cleanse us of that sin. We want to confess it to You and forsake it right now because You said we only partake of communion effectively with clean hands and purified hearts. So, right now we confess that area of self-centered, self-focused, me-first in our life. Maybe it robbed You of time in prayer or robbed You of time in the Word or robbed You of us sharing the Gospel this week because we weren’t thinking about You but about ourselves. And we want to repent of that right now, and we want to reaffirm at this communion it’s not I but Christ. Just as a way of sealing that in your hearts with your eyes closed and head bowed, just in this moment, breathe out to the Lord a cry, and from your heart ask Him to help you follow Him throughout this day and this week, and be amazed as He changes your life.

Notes

Each of us here today became Christ’s disciple the moment of our salvation. Disciples are Christ’s sheep, who hear His voice, and follow Him. Followers are disciples, disciples are believers, and believers are Christians, and Christians have been born again at the moment they were saved. So we gather as God’s family, saved by grace, through faith, the moment we called upon the Name of the Lord.

Communion[1] is when we gather as Christ’s Body, to declare that Christ is the center of our lives, and we are His disciples. We celebrate by reaffirming: Christ’s death in our place, His burial with our sins, and His resurrection for our endless life, is the heart of our life here on Earth each day.

Christ is to be the Center of His Disciple’s Life

Christ is the center in the life of those who are saved, who are born-again, and who are believers. That means that for a true disciple of Jesus: Christ is central to everything. We could summarize Christ’s message of salvation to the phrase: “It’s no longer I who live, but Christ”. That is why self-centered living is one of the key areas we are to resist all of our days.

Paul distilled the message of salvation down to phrase when he gave his testimony in Galatians 2:20. Paul explains the result of salvation is: “not I but Christ”; and the method of salvation is: “He gave Himself for me”.

Galatians 2:20 (NKJV) I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Jesus Spoke of Himself as the Source of Everything

Jesus spoke of Himself so often. In Christ’s words that fill 1,958 verses of the Gospels we find Him using the first person pronoun 1,473 times in 773 verses. That is a lot. Jesus was saying I want you to listen to Me, and think about My words for you! That is why our self-centeredness is so offensive to God. Life is not about us, but life is about Christ.

Today we are going to search the Scriptures to find what it really means that Christ is central to everything. Christ is the only key that unlocks abundant, overflowing, satisfied, and endless life. Jesus simply said that “in Me” is the key to everything we will ever need. In fact if we just took the time to study all of these times Jesus used the first person pronouns, we have almost a summary of the doctrine of the rest of the New Testament.

Christ the Author of Life

Christ is central because He is the Creator and Sustainer of Life. He is even called the Author of Life in Acts 3:15 (ESV, NIV, NAS).  Open with me to John 1:1-4, and follow along as we stand and hear this declaration by God, through His Word, that Christ Jesus is the source, the origination, and only supplier of life. If we have eternal life today, Christ is the Author, and thus central to our life.

John 1:1-4 (NKJV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Christ is the Center of Salvation

Christ is central to salvation because, salvation is when we receive Him as our Light & Life (1:1-4), and He makes us children of God. John 1:12 (NKJV) But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.

Paul summed up this centrality of Christ to our salvation in Romans 11:36, and then again in Colossians 1:14-18. The key to understanding the New Testament is the amazing unity. What Jesus said, His Apostles said. What Jesus taught, the Epistles only enlarged and unfolded; but there is never any inconsistency with what Christ taught, and what His Apostles wrote. All were teaching and writing the amazingly unified Word of God.

Look at Romans 11:36 (NKJV) with me: “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.” That is just Paul’s reflection of Christ’s making it clear that to a disciple, it’s all about Christ! Everything in the universe and in my life centers upon Him.

Now, move onward to Col. 1:14-18 and see even more the centrality Christ is to have in our lives. Colossians 1:14-18 (NKJV) in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

Jesus is to be the center of our life. Salvation begins us walking through life seeing everything centered upon Christ. Now back to the Gospel by John, where Jesus talks more about Himself than almost all the other three (Synoptic) Gospels combined[2].

What Christ Does in the Life of a Disciple

1. Christ explains the Father to us. Jesus Christ is the One who knows, reveals, and explains God the Father to us. John 1:18 (NKJV) No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

2. Christ brings all of God, immeasurably to us. God doesn’t come in pieces, Christ brings all His fullness to us. John 3:34 (NKJV) For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure.

3. Christ gives us an always Satisfied-life. John 6:35 (NKJV) And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

4. Christ offers us a Spirit-overflowing life. When we believe in Him, rivers flow from our lives. We are not just given drips, sprays, puddles, stagnant ponds, not He offers us rivers that flow; but we are responsible to clear out any obstacles to His flowing out of us. John 7:38 (NKJV) He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

The Spirit’s river of life-giving water flowing from us gets blocked by sins like an unforgiving spirit, resentment, bitterness, pride, dishonesty, sensuality, and uncleanness. If we cling to our pet sins, He is blocked from freely flowing out of us.

5. Christ becomes to us our Light-filled life. When we follow Him we never walk again in the darkness. John 8:12 (NKJV) Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

6. Christ is central to our Sin-purged life. When we believe in Him He takes all our sins so we won’t die with any. John 8:24 (NKJV) Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

7. Christ is the start of our Truth-following life. When we abide in Christ’s Word the Truth, we are His true disciples, and truly liberated for life from the stranglehold or sin’s enslaving power. John 8:32 (NKJV) And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

8. Christ is central to our Abundant-life. Jesus said he was the door to life, and life more abundant. John 10:9-10 (NKJV) I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

9. Christ is giver of our Endless-life. Jesus is the only access to life that shall endless be. John 11:25-26 (NKJV) Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

10. Christ is crucial to our Father-seeing life. We can only honor the Father through Christ, and Christ is also the only way to seeing the Father. John 12:25-26, 45 (NKJV) He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. 45 And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.

11. Christ is key to our Experiencing God-life. Jesus said that if we love and obey Him, we love the Father, and Christ will open up the Father to us. John 14:21-23 (NKJV) He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

12. Christ is the entrance to our Prayer-powered life. We are to always ask In Jesus’ Name. John 14:13-14 (NKJV) And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. John 15:16 (NKJV) You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. John 16:23-24, 26 (NKJV) “And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. 24 Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. 26 In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you;

13. Christ is the start our Spirit-indwelt life. The Holy Spirit is sent in Christ’s Name. John 14:26 (NKJV) But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

14. Christ is the source of our Love-filled life. Christ is the source of love. John 15:9-10 (NKJV) “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

When Christ is Not the Center

What does a believer look like, that no longer seeks to keep Christ as their central focus of life?

What would someone who is not spiritually maturing look like? These signs of spiritual immaturity are the symptoms of not being engaged in the walk that identifies a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

From Acts to the end of the New Testament the Scriptures were written to help true disciples of Christ know where it is that need a tune-up, and overhaul, and an alignment to get back onto the Way of following Christ as His disciples. That is the “teaching them to observe” portion of the Great Commission.

The Epistles are the practical daily lessons, or doctrines that we are to personally embrace. Then these “teachings” are what we share from our experience, to help other believers know how they are to follow Christ; and what hinders them from pleasing Him.

We can summarize the key elements that Christ left in the New Testament for believers to “observe”, and explain what any neglect of that would look like for a true disciple.  Here is a simple way of showing this analysis. You know you need to be taught how to be Christ-centered:

Symptoms of the Self-Focused: Me But Not Christ  Life

As Christ’s followers or disciples we are to seek Him as our goal, purpose, and direction each day. When we don’t it is no longer Christ who leads, but us.

If you have: Usually only a marginal desire for God’s Word (virtually “Biblically illiterate”).

If you: Often walk in the flesh; and usually do not know the difference between walking in the flesh and walking in the Spirit.

If you have: Few, if any, “works of grace”, i.e., no evidence of being filled with God’s love to serve others, giving, etc.

If you are: Usually stuck in the basics, with no evident growth.

If you have: A limited desire for fellowship with other believers, you can “take it or leave it”.

If you have:  strong desires for worldly possessions; and are driven by selfish ambitions; and often exhibiting a spirit of competition.

If you: Often feel great difficulty in repenting/forgiving others.

If you have: A lack of compassion for the lost.

If you are: Not actively assisting in the spiritual development of others.

If you have: A limited sense of God, His character or His will.

If you have: A life filled with fear, anxiety, and the absence of peace.

If you are: Often covetous, boastful, prideful, manipulative, etc.

If you have: Only partial victories over sin.

If you have: A non-existent or lackluster prayer life.

If you have: Little or no time or sincere interest in God-centered worship.

If you are: Not really accountable to anyone for anything.

If you have: A very small degree of grace and mercy toward others or self.[3]

If any of the above symptoms are in your life today, now is the time to repent. Forsake all areas of selfish living by right here, gathered before Christ:

Today We Renew Our Pledge: Not I but Christ

Make Paul’s distilled down purpose in life your very own again today:

I want the result of my salvation to always be the goal of: “not I but Christ”. He must increase and I want to decrease.

I want to always remember that the method of my salvation: “He gave Himself for me”. I was bought at a great price and now I belong to Him.

Galatians 2:20 (NKJV) I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Re-Affirm Christ As the Center of Your Life

Cry out in faith to Christ and say:

“I want to stay crucified with you oh Christ.

No longer do I want to live for me.

I want to renew my surrendered life of following you”.

Communion is when we all together in the Body, at the same time, declare as we eat these symbols that Christ is the center of our lives as His disciples.

We celebrate by reaffirming: Christ’s death in our place, His burial with our sins, and His resurrection for our endless life, is the heart of our life here on Earth each day.

Christ is always to be the center of  life to us who are saved, who are born-again, and who are believers. As true disciples of Jesus: Christ is central to everything.

[1] Baptism is when we individually affirm that Christ is now the center of our life. Baptism is our declaration that we are now owned by our Triune God: by complete faith in God the Father, complete love for God the Son, and complete hope in God the Spirit. Baptism is the badge of entrance into the Body of those who are followers, believers, and disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[2] Of the 1,473 personal pronouns used by Christ, 698 of them are in the Gospel by John. Also, the names of God used in the Gospels are fascinating. In order of occurrence in the NKJV: God is used most at 1,356x (Gospels 320x/1036 Rest); Jesus is second with 981x (623x/358x); then Lord 696x (212x/484x); Christ is next with 571x (60x/511x); fifth is Jesus Christ with 552x (24x/528x); next is Lord Jesus Christ with 341x (0x/341x); then last is Spirit with 247x (51x/196x plus Holy Spirit 192x). The ratio of “Jesus” to “Jesus Christ and Lord Jesus” is significant. Jesus (623x Gospels/358 rest of N.T.) alone is only three times outside of the Gospels. Jesus Christ is only 24x in the Gospels but 528x in the rest. Also God is 320x in the Gospels and 1,036 in the rest.

[3] Adapted from Doug Morrell, Wesley’s 3-Strand Discipleship, May 18, 2005; http://www.corediscipleship.org/index.html

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