John 8:30-32  Discipleship

As He spoke these words, many believed in Him
Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him,
“If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.

Here we can see Jesus is clearly talking to the believers.
All believers are not disciples. A disciple is one who abides in His word.
Jesus did not say to those believers: You have believed on me, therfore you did everything;
but he said, "Now that you have believed, if you really want to be my disciples, continue to walk in my word.

And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

So when you continuously abide in the word, you will know the truth. Because the word is the truth.
I John 1:8 - If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
We always like to think that we have no sin in us. Are we willing to admit the Truth about ourselves.
If not we are deceiving ourselves, the truth is not in us. The external life should be exactly the same as the inside, our real life.
God desires reality in the innermost being. No difference between outside and inside.
Psalms 51:6 – Thou desires the Truth in the innermost being. Truth and reality in the innermost being.
God desires us to be brutally honest with him and others.

John 1:17: Law came through Moses. Rules and commandments came through Moses.
With law external life was good but Grace and Truth came thru Jesus Christ.
The Truth that Jesus brought is the truth about ourselves. Holy Spirit will lead us to all the truth.

Mathew 5:20
Jesus shows that the law made people clean only externally.
Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees and scribes, you shall by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
What were the Pharisees doing, everything was outward appearance, very religious, pious... Jesus called them "you white washed tombs".
This is the condition most of the time; we seek so much reputation from others and not from God. Jesus is saying do not go by the letter but go by the spirit.
He said, You have heard that you shall not commit murder, but I say to you who ever is angry with your brother without a cause is equal to the act of murder itself..

This life of reality was not possible in old covenant. We have to be real. We need to be genuine. God cannot walk with us if we are not genuine.
Jesus said the spirit of Truth who will lead us into all the truth. Your yes will be yes, no will be no. We need an intense desire for the truth. If you love the truth, God will show you more.

2 Corinthians 3:13: When Moses came down from the presence of the Lord after 40 days, the children of Israel could not look at his face and Moses put a veil on his face.
That was temporary, external which faded away... Even now the evil is on their hearts. But one when comes to Jesus, the veil is taken away.
Now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord, there is liberty.
When people look at us, they should see as in a mirror the Glory of the Lord. We are inwardly transformed to the nature and character of God. Transformed to His image.

John 8: 33 - continued
They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will be made free’?”
Jesus said to them: whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.
And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.
Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
Here Jesus is clearly saying that anyone who commits a sin is a slave.
If you obey the word, the word will make you free, then you shall be free indeed.
Nothing else will make you free.

Sin leads us to death and you will loose the fellowship with the father.
It is not God's will that you be bound by anything or a slave of sin.
The more truth we will know, the more free we will be. When we desire for more and more truth about ourselves, God will lead us into more freedom.
When you become a disciple, you will be totally free.
We can see in Luke what Jesus said about a true disciple:

Luke 14: 25-33

Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them,
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

What Jesus meant by the word "hate" was that we must love Him supremely - more than everything else.

It is impossible for us to be His disciples if we seek to please our SELF or if we want to do our own will.
Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. (Luke 9:23-24)

You cannot be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions (Luke.14:33).

Put God as the center of your life and there is a cost involved in it, hence Jesus elaborated the following:

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?

Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.

So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

You are salt less if you do not fulfill these conditions, which means we are of no use to the society being just a religious christian.

Psalms 41: Blessed is the man who considers the poor

We read in Luke 4, how Jesus started his public ministry, being filled with the Holy Spirit, he came to Nazreth, his home town.  He went to the Synagogue and stood up to read. He opened the book of Isaiah and found where it is written:

Luke 4:18 - "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed MeTo preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the  captives— 

Anointed me – equipped me to preach the gospel to the poor, to the helpless, destitute, powerless or to the one who really acknowledge that I am in need.  This good news was good news only to the poor.  This gospel is not good news to the proud and the self righteous.  You can see in with in the nest few lines of the chapter when Jesus said the Truth that the religious people from the synagogue were furious, they jumped up, they mobbed him and took him to the edge of the city and wanted to push him off the cliff.

 Mark 10:17 - ruler

 We see that when Jesus was in Judea, a rich ruler came to him and asked:

“Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?"

 Jesus told him to obey the commandments and he said, all these I am following from my youth:

Mark 10:21 - Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me."  (Luke 9:23 - If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.)

But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, "How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!"Disciples asked who then can be saved, Jesus said to them"With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."One brother said this man in eternity may really have wished that he listened to Jesus because we realize these things only when we get there.

I would like to share a thought that came to me and also encouraged me to read this psalm.  Picture a fisherman in Kerala carrying a heavy bamboo basket on his head.  He has lot of fishes and ice in the basket. The water from the basket is falling all over his body.  He goes around the street selling fish early in the morning.  You call him to come to your house and buy some fish from him.  Since it is still early in the morning, you offer to make some coffee for him. You ask him to wait outside while you are bringing the coffee, but suppose the man followed you and come inside your house, what will you think?.  You will think why he is coming inside the house with all that stinking fish water on him.  I was thinking would I be happy to call him as my best friend or consider him as my brother in the Lord. 

Now when we really think about it, this is what Jesus did when he came to the earth. Almost all of his disciples were fishermen.  During the time of Jesus, there were many religious spiritual people, rich people, scholars, and people who had very high status in the society, but Jesus did not go to any of them, he chose the smelly, stinky fishermen.  It says in

Mark 1: 14-20

Jesus went to the Sea of Galilee

He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their net, for they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. They immediately left their nets and followed him

Then he saw James and his brother John who were mending their nets and they also immediately followed him leaving their father Zebedde in the boat.

Some of them were even still on the boat fishing with their Dad and he called them right from there.  Do we understand how much Jesus was willing to give up his comfort to choose them as his best friends? Jesus gave up his life for them. In

John 15:13, Jesus said, Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 

Blessed is the man who considers the poor. The person, who is kind to a poor person, is blessed. This should not be the reason for being kind to receive something in return. 

God is just reminding this for our benefit.

Why is he Blessed:  The next few verses shows what our Lord do to such a person.

The Lord will

1)      deliver him in time of trouble

2)      preserve him

3)      keep him alive

4)      bless him on the earth

5)      not deliver him to the will of his enemies

6)      strengthen him on his bed of illness

7)      sustain him on his sickbed

(God becomes our nurse and nurses us back to health)

Matthew 25:34-36

Then the King will say to those on His right hand, "Come you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me." . . . And the King will answer and say to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.",

Let us not be consumed in our own world, or wait there just to be served or always think about taking advantage of somebody.   Let us have Christ’s mind in us, a mind of sacrifice, laying down his life totally for others.