Conversion to Jesus Christ (15)

Conversion to Jesus Christ and the Meaning of True Discipleship

Luke 6, please. Luke chapter 6. Thank you, Bita. Well, today we arrive at the last message in this series on conversion to Jesus Christ. In our study of this matter, this important matter of conversion, we've considered God's work in bringing His chosen people to experience salvation.

This is what conversion is, of course. Early in our study, we considered God's prior work of grace, or His grace prior to their conversion. God had caused His people to become dissatisfied with who they were and how they lived.

That was before they were converted. God had revealed to them their estrangement from Him and had brought, that had estrangement from Him would be their eternal ruin if that were not remedied. And so God was preparing them for the day in which He would cause them to be born from above, or born again, regenerated.

Well, after considering this prior work of grace in bringing people to the point of conversion, and we considered or rehearsed the conversion event itself that resulted from their regeneration. God caused them to be born again, and then things really began to happen.

They repented of sin and they believed. And so it was by God's grace that He brought each of us who were true Christians to the time and place that we turned from our sin, believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and our Lord.

And it was at that time that He caused us to be translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son, over which His Son is King. And so we were converted from a life in sin to a life in Jesus Christ.

And so upon our faith in the Savior, we were justified by God. That is, God pardoned us for our sin. He declared us to be righteous due to the righteousness of Jesus Christ being.

Imputed to us. Well, let's turn to Luke 6, please. Luke chapter 6. Thank you, Pater.

Well, today we arrive at the last message in this series on conversion to Jesus Christ. And in our study of this matter, this important matter of conversion, we've considered God's work in bringing His chosen people to experience salvation.

This is what conversion is, of course. Early in our study, we considered God's prior work of grace, or His grace prior to their conversion. God had caused His people to become dissatisfied with who they were and how they lived.

That was before they were converted. God had revealed to them their estrangement from Him that had brought them ruin and that that estrangement from Him would be their eternal ruin if that were not remedied.

And so God was preparing them for the day in which He would cause them to be born from above or born again, regenerated. Well, after considering this prior work of grace in bringing people to the point of conversion, then we considered or rehearsed the conversion event itself that resulted from their regeneration.

God caused them to be born again, and then things really began to happen. They repented of sin and they believed. And so it was by God's grace that He brought each of us who were true Christians to the time and place that we turned from our sin, believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and our Lord.

And it was at that time that He caused us to be translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son, over which His Son is King. And so we were converted from a life in sin to a life in Jesus Christ.

And so upon our faith in the Savior, we were justified by God. That is, God pardoned us for our sin. He declared us to be righteous due to the righteousness of Jesus Christ being imputed to us through faith alone.

Now, since that day, we have peace with God, this state of peace that was declared by God. Some of us might have become justified, however, and not even been aware of it. We didn't enjoy subjective peace immediately.

That came on later for some of us. But that objective peace became a reality when we first believed the gospel. But thankfully, we have this subjective peace also, this sense of peace about us as we realize and trust ourselves wholly and fully to what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

And so we know that we'll not be condemned on a future day of judgment that's coming upon the world at the return of our Savior, Jesus Christ, because we have been justified. We will be vindicated on that day.

Thank the Lord for that. Now, to complete our study of conversion today, I would like us to consider not what we have been converted from, because that's really been our emphasis and focus, but rather to what God has converted us onto.

In other words, what is the nature of the life of the truly converted person? This is an all-important question. We've already shown that in many ways, many people have been deluded that they have been converted to Jesus Christ.

We've been emphasizing that throughout our study, and we have attempted to show how people can undeceive themselves about this matter and seek true salvation in Christ. But I suspect it is here, with this matter today, that true and false conversion can be best discerned and distinguished.

Into what kind of life has your conversion brought you is an important question for each of us to answer. Are you living as a disciple of Jesus Christ? Because every truly converted person does so, and is so, a disciple of Jesus Christ.

And so are we converted? If we go back to the original question that we posed many weeks ago, 15 weeks ago, are we converted? And one way of answering that question is, what have we been converted onto?

What kind of life are we now leading as professing Christians? Let's begin with the reading of our Lord's instruction regarding the responsibility to obey Him in order to experience salvation. Obedience is essential.

Luke 6 .46 -49. Jesus said, Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I tell you? Do not do the things that I say. Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like.

He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, a stream broke against that house and could not shake it because it had been well built. 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. Both men hear, both men understand, one man obeys, one man does not. The one who obeys has salvation, the one who does not will encounter the wrath of God in judgment.

And so here our Lord Jesus put forth the nature of being a true disciple of Jesus Christ. It's characterized by a life of obedience unto Him. When we were converted, we ceased to be governed by our own thoughts and opinions, and we submitted to Jesus Christ as the Lord to govern our lives.

That's what it is to be a disciple. And so we purpose and seek to live holy lives as we are directed by Him, and as we are empowered by Him. And so we do so with view to the final judgment, when our lives will be assessed.

And the outcome of that judgment of works will be either eternal life or eternal damnation. Not because the works in any way merit eternal life, that is heresy. But the works that will be brought forward on that day of judgment will either affirm that we are justified through faith alone in Christ alone, or else they will repudiate our claim.

In reality, we were not believers, and our life demonstrated that we were not. And so this matter of obedience is all important. A true disciple of Jesus Christ is obedient to Jesus Christ. If your life is not characterized, not perfect obedience, but if your life is not characterized as being governed by Jesus Christ, being obedient to Jesus Christ, you're no disciple of Jesus Christ.

You're no Christian, regardless of what you claim to believe. And so this is a very, very important matter. It can't be set forth in any more clear terms than our Lord Jesus did here, can it? You got to hear and you got to do.

Hearing is not enough, you got to obey. It's only that person who is ordering his life in true faith, it's only that person who is secured against an overthrow of himself on that future day of judgment.

And so our Lord Jesus set forth the nature of being a true disciple, a life of obedience to him. Now, the Christian life is one of holiness, and it's set forth in the scriptures in different ways. Frequently, it's of course set forth as a life of faith, that is a life characterized by believing, and that's important, critical.

But this life of holiness is also depicted as a life of obeying, like we have here, or a life of striving, which we talked about recently at the Bolton Conference, striving to enter that door, which is a lifelong struggle in order to enter into that messianic banquet with the patriarchs and with the Lord Jesus.

The Christian life is also described as a life of suffering and enduring and overcoming, as he overcomes, who will inherit salvation. And in the Gospels, the Christian life is set forth in this culmination of everlasting life is that of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

That is the emphasis in the Gospels in particular, and the book of Acts. To be a disciple of Jesus Christ is to be a Christian, a true Christian. A disciple is not a special kind of Christian. A disciple is not a sold-out Christian.

A disciple is a Christian by the biblical definition, for we read in Acts 11 .26 that disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. You cannot be a Christian unless you're a true disciple. There are many who claim to be Christian because they believe the right things, but they're only truly Christians if they're true disciples of Jesus Christ.

This is all important. Only disciples of Jesus Christ will inherit salvation. And of course, therefore, as a church, we are to be in the business of making disciples, aren't we? We're not to be in the business of making believers.

The world knows there's enough believers out there. We need to make some disciples out of those professing believers. We're to make disciples, as our Lord declared, all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth.

And therefore, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. Everywhere you go, you make disciples. You baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. We believe in baptizing disciples only.

You make disciples, you baptize them. And you teach them to observe, that is to obey, to do all things what I have commanded you. And of course, that would include not only the letters in red in your Bibles, but everything from cover to cover.

It's all the Word of God. They all testify of Christ, don't they? And so we are to obey everything that is set before us. And we are to do so even unto the end of the age. And so our Lord did not command us to make believers of everyone, but rather we're to make disciples, which of course are true believers.

Now in order to make a disciple of someone, that one must be taught to embrace and submit to Jesus Christ as Lord, who has authority to instruct. Jesus has the authority to instruct, correct, and direct his people.

He is our prophet. He's our priest. He is our king. And so our Lord told us that we're to teach our converts to obey him, teaching them to observe all things that he commanded them. And so true disciples submit to Jesus Christ as their Lord.

Disciple-makers must press total submission to Jesus Christ as a condition of baptism and church membership, we would argue. Unless one submits to Jesus as Lord, he's not a disciple of Jesus Christ. If one is not a disciple of Jesus Christ, he is not a Christian.

Again, the scriptures declare, and the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. How then do we make disciples of Jesus Christ? Well, one way that we may see how this is done is to trace through the course, I would argue, of the gospel of Luke and see how the Lord Jesus made disciples.

Let's follow his pattern, his way. So as we consider how and what he did, we may learn from his example and from his teaching on how to make disciples. And I would argue that there is a progression of this theme of making disciples through Luke's gospel, Luke's story.

In fact, I would argue that one of the main foci of the third gospel is this. Jesus Christ has been a given authority to bring salvation to people. This places responsibility on all to hear him intently.

But further, it compels all to obey him completely. We are both to hear and heed, hear and obey his word. And so we affirm as disciples of Jesus Christ that every word that the Lord Jesus gave is binding upon us.

And this is again, is included all that's recorded in the Holy Scriptures, either directly in his recorded speech or indirectly through his apostles and through his prophets. And so there needs to be a recognition and acknowledgment of Christ's authority.

This is essential to what it is to be a disciple. But in addition to acknowledge his authority, disciples of Jesus Christ have fully given themselves to learn God's will from and through Jesus Christ.

And so the authority of Christ leads to hearing Jesus Christ. We are to be committed to learn as fully as possible all that God's word has told us, and we are to understand it through Jesus Christ. And so if you're a disciple of Jesus Christ, or if you desire to become a disciple of Jesus Christ, or if you desire to be a disciple maker of Jesus Christ, you must be teachable.

You must learn from him and of him. But not only are we to recognize his authority, and not only are we to hear him, therefore, but we are, and we must, if we're a true disciple, be committed to obey him in all aspects of life.

Let's look at Luke 11, 27 and 28, and let's consider a response that our Lord gave to a woman who just felt compelled to voice out praise to God in a crowd that was observing and listening to the Lord Jesus.

Luke 11, 27, and Jesus said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nourished. Blessed is your mother, basically what she was saying.

But he said, he corrected this woman, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it. And so there you have it, hearing and obeying, hearing and heeding. In this portion of Luke's gospel here in Luke 11, there's a focus on obedience to the words of Jesus Christ as an essential aspect of discipleship.

Here we read that the people recognized he had authority, but our Lord pressed upon them their need therefore both to hear and obey. Blessed are rather, not my mother, but blessed are those who hear the word of God and heed it.

They're the ones who are truly blessed of God. And so our Lord pressed upon them their responsibility. Now actually these few words of our Lord Jesus in this context is really a culmination of what the Holy Spirit had been conveying thus far in the record of his gospel.

And actually Luke had developed this theme in four stages as the story, the gospel story of Luke unfolded. And so I want us to consider this. And I think they're quite clear, clearly distinguish these four stages.

First, Luke established the fact that Jesus Christ had authority. After he did so, Luke then showed that since he had this authority, people have a responsibility to hear him. But he didn't stop there.

Thirdly, since Jesus has authority, people not only have a responsibility to hear him, but they are to obey him. And then fourthly, and finally, lastly, Luke showed that those who refuse to hear him or those who do hear but refuse to obey him will encounter the judgment of God upon them.

And in a number of different ways, Luke, inspired by the Holy Spirit, sets down these principles over and over and over again, building a case that this is the way of discipleship. This is the way of salvation.

And so I want us to consider these and just point these out in order to stand back and see the flow of the story of Luke's gospel and see how these four truths are expressed or set forth before us as readers.

First, in the earlier chapters of Luke's gospel story, in many different ways, we have revealed and reinforced to us the authority that God had given to Jesus Christ. And so we read, for example, early in the gospel, we read of Jesus' baptism and the voice of the Father regarding him.

That certainly conveyed authority to Jesus. This is a special man. We are to hear him. God the Father has endorsed him. And then immediately thereafter, we read of his victory over the devil's temptation in the wilderness, Luke 4, 1 -13.

And he came forth from that temptation victorious with great power and authority as he began to minister in Galilee. And so as a result of these experiences, we read in Luke 4 -14, then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and news of him went out through all the surrounding region.

And so we see displayed for us in these early chapters, our Lord having authority to teach and to heal as he began to minister there in that region. We read of the gathering in his hometown, Senegal, that established the fact that God had given him authority to teach the people, Luke 4, 14 -30.

There in Nazareth. We then read of the authority of Jesus over the fish of the sea in Luke 5, 4 -11. He commands the fish. He has that authority even over nature. The following account tells of Jesus healing a man of leprosy.

He has authority to even heal disease. Something as dreaded as leprosy. Following that, we have the episode of Jesus healing the paralytic man. And that episode served to show that God had given to Jesus the authority to forgive sins, Luke 4, 17 -26.

And lastly, we may see that God had even given Jesus authority over the Sabbath, Luke 6, verse 5. All of these episodes are reinforcing the Lord Jesus Christ has authority conferred to him by God the Father.

All people everywhere should give their utmost attention and effort to hear his teaching. For God has promised great blessing to them who do. But he also assured them there would be great calamity upon them for those who failed or refused to hear him.

And so with great emphasis in these early chapters of Luke's gospel, God has given Jesus of Nazareth the ability and the authority to communicate his word, his will to his people. And therefore they should be very earnest and very attentive to desire to listen and learn from him as we should also.

We should pour over God's word attentively, scrutinizing it closely, seeking to understand it thoroughly. That's what disciples do. But then secondly, after establishing the fact that Jesus has this authority, Luke begins to make the point, since Jesus has authority, well his word therefore should be heard, given great weight, embraced as truth.

That follows, doesn't it? If he has that kind of authority, he better listen to what he has to say. Because God had sent Jesus Christ, because he had given him, to him such authority, all people everywhere should give their utmost attention and effort to hear his teaching.

God has promised great blessing to them who do, but he's assured there would be great calamity for those who fail or refuse to hear him. And so great emphasis of these early chapters of Luke's gospel is that God has given Jesus of Nazareth the ability and the authority to communicate his word, his will to his people.

And therefore people should be very earnest, attentive, and attentive, to desire to listen and learn from him. Again, as we should also. We should pour over God's word attentively. And so when our Lord went to Capernaum and began to teach in their synagogue, they acknowledged his teaching authority.

They were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority. There you have linking with his word. You ought to hear it then. Everything this guy says is true. He's speaking on behalf of God.

He's revealing God's will to us. Later, the Roman centurion recognized Jesus' authority. He says, I'm also a man set under authority. In other words, with authority, having soldiers under me. I say to you, to one go, he goes, to another come, he comes, to my servant do this, he does it.

And then we read of the crowds in Luke 5 .1. So it was, as the multitude pressed about him to hear the word of God, that he stood by the lake of Nazareth. Another word for the lake of Sea of Galilee. And so you see the people are hearing now.

He has authority. He showed that. He commands fishes to be caught. He commands leprosy to be healed. You know, he teaches in the synagogue with authority and people now are hearing him. They come to hear the word of God.

And what is suggested by this is that all people everywhere should come to Jesus in this manner, as you and I are to do. Is that not right? There's a subtle narrative way in which the Holy Spirit moved Luke to tell his gospel that elicits a response from the reader.

Moving the reader to adopt the values and the behavior of those that are approved in the text and avoid and repudiate those that fail or refuse to do so. That was really the narrative theme of my dissertation many years ago.

How does Luke in subtle ways lead the reader to be responsive, to be obedient to Jesus? And this is one of the ways. We read of the people positively responding to the authority of Jesus. They hear attentively and Luke is implying to a story.

The Holy Spirit is impressing upon us. You ought to listen to him intently too. And that's the kind of attitude we ought to have when we come to the scriptures, listening carefully and attentively. And later in his scripture, the Luke provides of the crowd suggests a favorable response to Jesus that all people should render on to him.

And so Luke 6, 17 we read, and he came down with them, stood on a level place with a crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon who came to hear him.

There you have the emphasis. And why? It's because they were convinced he had authority. So they came to hear him. In Luke 9 we read of the God, God, the father commanding Jesus' disciples to hear Jesus.

It was when Jesus was transfigured. Remember there on the holy mountain, Peter, John and James, a cloud came, overshadowed them. They were fearful as they entered the cloud. A voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my beloved son, hear him.

And so there you have that second stage of developing disciples being affirmed. Yes, he has authority. Therefore you ought to hear him. And here you have a divine endorsement, hear him. But thirdly, Luke emphasizes that if he has this authority, then not only should he be heard, but he should be heeded.

He should be obeyed. It's not enough just to hear him. You got to obey him. And so for example, we read in Luke 8, 22 and following, Jesus said to them, let us cross over to the other side of the lake.

They launched out, but as they sailed, he fell asleep. A windstorm came down on the lake. They were filled with, uh, they were filling with water and were in jeopardy. They came to him and awoke him saying, master, master, we're perishing.

Then he arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water and this authority. And they ceased and there was a calm, but he said to them, where's your faith? And they were afraid and marveled saying to one another, who can this be?

For he commands even the winds and water and they obey him. There's a subtle narrative emphasis being carried on here. The winds and obey him. You ought to also, this is what's being suggested. Even the, even the winds and the water obey him.

By the way, notice how the winds and water are personified so that it would seem the Lord commanded them as though they were persons and they obeyed. That is the manner in which Luke is telling the story.

He commanded even the winds and water and they, personal pronoun, they obeyed him as if they were persons, immediately obeyed and being responsive to Jesus's command. It didn't just say he said a word and then there was calmness and the sea was calm and whatnot, but they obeyed him.

There's emphasis there on obedience. And again, this is one of the subtle ways in which Luke shapes his narrative to suggest that people too should obey him. And we also may read similarly earlier in Luke's gospel, this account.

Now he arose from the synagogue, entered Simon's house, but Simon's wife's mother was sick with a fever and they made request of him concerning her. Now notice, read carefully. So he stood over her and rebuked the fever and it left her and immediately she arose and served them.

Notice here we have what's similar from Luke 8. Luke personifies the fever, presenting the fever as if it were a person who obeys Jesus's word to him. The fever obeys, the winds and water obey. Should not people obey him also?

Now if you and I described it, you know, we would say he came in and touched her and all of a sudden her, you know, her temperature began to diminish and it came back to normal. But that's not how it's conveyed.

The fever is personified as if it were a, you know, a person afflicting her. He comes in, rebukes that fever, the fever gets up and leaves in obedience to Jesus. Even fevers obey him. Winds and waves obey him.

Fish obey him. Everybody obeys him. You ought to also, is what's being suggested. Let's look at one plate, one other plate, Luke 8, 26 to 33. They came and sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee.

And when he stepped out on the land, there met him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. He wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs. And when he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before him.

And with a loud voice said, what have I to do with you, Jesus, son of the most high God? I beg you, do not torment me. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles.

He broke the bonds, was driven by the demon into the wilderness. Jesus asked him, saying, what is your name? And he said, legion, because many demons had entered him. There were thousands of them probably.

And he begged him that he would not commend them to go out into the abyss. And now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So they begged him that he would permit them to enter them, and he permitted them.

And then the demons went out of the man, entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned. Notice demons could not but obey Jesus's command. By the way, just as a side note, Luke is building a case against the Jewish leadership in particular, in particular, and the Jewish people who were not obeying Jesus.

And in the ordering of events in this portion of Luke's gospel, really what Luke is saying, demons are more responsive to Jesus than those Jewish leaders are. They're hearing and obeying Jesus. But those religious leaders, they're not hearing or obeying Jesus.

Very serious when you consider it. It's quite an indictment. Demons could not but obey Jesus. But then fourthly, there is this fourth stage. Fourthly, later in Luke's gospel, an emphasis is given that those who refuse to hear and obey his word will encounter the wrath of God.

God's judgment is upon those who refuse to submit to Jesus as Lord. And there are many places which this theme is presented. But again, as we look at Luke 27 and following, Jesus said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice, said to him, blessed is the womb that bore you, the breast at which you nursed.

He said, no, no, no. Rather, blessed is the one who hears and keeps the word of God. Hearing and obeying. That one is pronounced to be blessed. Blessedness describes the one who's in a right relationship with God, has God's favor upon him.

He has salvation. But only the one who hears and as a result of believing Jesus's words, who obeys his word, has salvation. He's a blessed man of God. And by definition, that's what a disciple is. A true Christian.

A person who hears the word of God, believes Jesus, has all authority, and he hears the word of God, he's convinced it's true. But if he doesn't obey it, he's no Christian. Now again, don't misunderstand.

None of us obey the word of God completely and fully. But we're describing the tenor of our lives and the commitment. The true Christian, if he had his rather, he would obey Jesus in every way, in every thought, in every action for the rest of his life.

Because God in his grace has put that desire in him. Is that not right? Now again, to underscore this teaching of our Lord, we can turn back to Luke 6, 46 -49, which we read earlier. Jesus asked the question, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I tell you?

And do not do the things that I say. I believe that is how the King James reads. Everyone who comes to me and hears my word and does them, he, I will show you what he is like. He's like a wise man who built his house on a foundation, and it'll endure the flood.

But the one who hears and does not, this person can maybe know biblical doctrine, Christian doctrine thoroughly, can rehearse it, can teach it, preach on it from the pulpit. But if he doesn't do it, he's a lost man.

And there'll be many on that day who said, did we not prophesy in thy name, Lord? Depart from me, you curse, I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness. And that's what we have in Matthew 7. There's a little bit different wording from Luke 6 to Matthew 7, 26 -29, but it's the same idea.

It was given in a different setting. Matthew 7 was in the Sermon on the Mount. This passage in Luke 6 is on what some have called the Sermon on the Plain. It's a different setting, same teaching. But here, the clear teaching is the clear teaching that an evidence of being a true disciple of Jesus Christ and thereby a citizen of the kingdom of God is one who hears the word of the King and acts upon them, who does them.

And that's what a disciple is. That's what a Christian is. And so we're to be in the business of making disciples, not believers. If we just convince people to believe certain truths, that's good, but that's not good enough.

And we leave it at that. All we've succeeded in doing is making a proselyte, a seven-fold more accomplished child of hell than ourselves, as Jesus once described it in one place or another. No, we have to teach them to be disciples, to hear from the Lord Jesus wholly and fully, and then purpose as He enables by giving them the Holy Spirit to do the things that He commanded.

And that's what we are as disciples. The citizen of the kingdom of God is one who hears the words of the King and acts upon them. There is no salvation, there is no benefit that will come to the one who claims to know and believe in Jesus, whose life is unaffected by Him.

For the essence of being a citizen of the kingdom of God is to be governed by the Lord of the kingdom, even Jesus Christ. Now, I think that several points need to be reinforced at this, for a misunderstanding of the implication of this passage for our faith can result in unsettling and troubling, perhaps a timid and insecure child of God.

So, let me say very clearly, the Lord's words recorded here do not explain the basis on which God receives sinful persons. Not because they hear and obey, but rather here He's describing the nature of those persons that are justified before God.

They receive forgiveness of sins, a gift of eternal life through faith. He's contrasting true disciples with false disciples who make claims to believe on Him, but whose manner of living reveals their true condition.