Character of a disciple

Our mission statement at Bethel is Loving God, Loving People, Called to Serve.  Our vision for Bethel is to be a stable, healthy, Pentecostal church to bring the light of Jesus to our community.  In order to properly understand this we must understand what a disciple of Jesus is like according to the teachings of scriptures.  There are many people who claim to be a Christian, claimed to be born again and on any given Sunday around 20 to 25 % of Americans will go to church.  There is a huge number of people who claim to be a Christian but no longer attend church for a variety of reasons.  What is interesting though according to the latest survey is that among those who claim to be a Christian only 5 to 9% of them have a biblical world view.  This means that over 90% of Christians are making decisions and acting like the culture they are living in rather then making decisions according to the scriptures and acting like Jesus.  For this reason alone it is essential to be able to define the character of a disciple of Jesus.  Whole books have been written on this topic so I am only going to share a few of the major characteristics of a disciple of Jesus.  Before I share the first one we all must understand that the character of a disciple is already defined in scripture and is not up for personal opinion.  The words of Jesus is sufficient to describe the character of a disciple of Jesus.  First, a disciple will follow Jesus as Lord in their lives, Matthew 16:24 "Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."  Second, a disciple will posses the character of love, John 13:34 "A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another."  Third, a disciple will live a life of obedience, John 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command."  Fourth, a disciple have faith and trust, John 14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in Me."  Fifth, a disciple will keep God as priority number one in their lives and especially over the things of life, Matthew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters.  Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve bot God and Money."  This is just a brief understanding of the character of a disciple of Jesus.  In fact one cannot be a true disciple of Jesus unless a person is growing these characteristics in their life.  No one is perfected with the character of Christ yet but a disciple will be eager and willing to learn and apply the teachings of Christ in their lives. 
May the Lord Jesus strengthen us in the inner being to become more like Him.

Pastor John