For the past nine months two groups of people from Woodbine have been involved in Disciple Bible Study. Disciple is produced by the United Methodist Publishing House and has been in existence for over 15 years.

Disciple I takes the group on a journey through approximately 75% of the Bible in order to take in the broad sweep of Biblical history. Other studies in the series focus on different specific parts of Scripture.

The whole point of Disciple can be summed up in these few verses.

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8:31-32 (ESV)

There are three words I want us to consider as we think about what it means to be a disciple.

Abide
If we abide in Jesus’ word we are his disciples…

To abide means to remain, dwell, continue in the words of Jesus. In other words. We are to establish a permanent relationship with the Word of Christ, a relationship which includes hearing, understanding and obeying.If we abide, continue in Jesus’ word we will be his disciples.

The opposite is also true. If we do not abide, no matter what we think or say we are not disciples — we have no relationship with Christ. The only way to have a relationship with a person is to be engaged with their words, their expressions of themselves. To have a relationship with Jesus is to be engaged with his words. A disciple is one who is learning from the master, seeking to be like the master. That is our goal as disciples: to increasingly become like Jesus in our life situations. In order to do that we must become engaged with the words of our master Jesus the Christ

The Truth
If we abide in Jesus’ word we are his disciples and we will know the truth…

Outside of a relationship with Christ we can only assume the truth about him. As we enter a relationship with Jesus through his word we discover the truth about him and more.
Abiding in the word of Jesus Christ tells us:

  • The truth about God: his nature, will, purpose
  • The truth about Jesus: his identity, mission
  • The truth about ourselves: identity, sins, gifts, mission
  • The truth about the church: identity, mission
  • The truth about the world: their need

When we know the truth it changes every perception we have

Freedom
If we abide in Jesus’ word we are his disciples and we will know the truth and the truth will make us free.

The freedom Jesus brings is the freedom to become who God created us to be. One way to envision this is through the image of the exodus.

In slavery the Jews were the people of God and had a mission to reveal God to the world, but they couldn’t do it in slavery. God sent Moses as their deliverer to bring them our of bondage. At Sinai they got a glimpse of who God is, who they were and what their mission was. It started at Sinai with the Commandments and continued with the wanderings and settlement of Canaan. With every event the people learned more about who God was and who they were are God’s people. Finally they learned about the mission in the world to be a light to the nations.

This is an apt analogy to our life in Christ as well. In Christ we are delivered from slavery to sin. Through God’s word we learn the truth about God, ourselves and the world in which we live. We are then set free to be the people of God in a broken world so others can see and join us in this kingdom life.

That is what Disciple is all about. Disciple helps us to learn about the people of God in the past and how God taught them and lead them to be a light to the world. God did that through their successes and failures. And so God does with us as well.

In Disciple we learn to abiding in God’s Word, become disciples of Jesus Christ, discover the truth, and are set free to live out the mission we have been given.

Maybe you have struggled to do all of this on your own. If so, I invite you to join a Disciple group and see the power and grace of God released in your life in new ways.