Jesus has millions of believers around the world but very few disciples, which are you?

Have you ever sat down and taken stock of your life as a Christian and compared it with that of the disciples as recorded in Acts? Do you see what appears to be an insurmountable gap? It's worth looking at. And then asking yourself, what is wrong?

We all came to the Lord initially through His call to repent and believe the gospel and Matt 4 v 23 sums up our Lord's ministry here on earth; 'Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.'

For most of us, somewhere along the way, we got caught up in church programmes, church activities, rules, regulations and traditions of which some churches have more than others. A kind of confused fog of 'churchiness' descended upon us and we lost our way until like Paul writing to Timothy, we have got to the stage of, 'having a form of godliness but denying its power'.

This is very serious. There are millions of people sitting in churches right around the world caught up in this confusion. They call themselves believers. But Paul goes on in that 2 Tim 3 v 5 quote to say, 'Have nothing to do with them.' Ouch that is painful!

If we look in a little detail as to what is meant by disciple, we shall get to see which camp we are in and perhaps what we need to do.

It is very clear in John 3 v 36 and 1 Thess 5 v 9 that although God loves everyone on the face of this earth, His wrath is on those who choose to ignore the salvation He offers through Jesus Christ. But accepting His salvation is not the end of our walk with Him but the very beginning.

In Phil 2 v 12 Paul writing to the believers says that we are 'to work out our own salvation with fear'. So there is something further and beyond initial salvation that is required of us.

Peter writing in 1 Pet 1 v 8-9 says, 'Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.'

Do you love Him? That is a very important question. Answering that question will probably deeply challenge us all. If we truly love someone we cannot help but talk about that person. Think back to when you perhaps first fell in love. You wanted to tell the world! Are we bursting to tell others of Jesus? How wonderful He is? Do we have a testimony of what He is doing in our lives now? Not a testimony of how we got saved some years ago!

When did you last passionately tell Jesus that you love Him?

Can you love someone you know little or nothing about? Of course not. So we have to develop a relationship with Jesus and that means spending time with Him. Most of us are probably good at talking to Him but listening is another matter! Only when we begin to hear His voice, chat, ask questions and listen for the answers can we really begin to say that we are getting to know Him; and as with any relationship this takes time.

Do we believe in Him is the same as asking do we have faith in Him? For faith you could often substitute the word obedience. There's another challenge. But that great chapter on faith in Heb 11 could be read by substituting the word 'faith' with the word 'obedience'. So 'by obedience Noah built an ark', 'by obedience Abraham left his home country', 'by obedience Abraham offered Isaac'.

Many people say they have faith but are not obedient to the Word. Three times in John ch 14 Jesus says, 'if you love me you will obey me'. Loving Jesus is having faith in Jesus which is being obedient to Jesus.

Peter in the above quote, 1 Pet ch 1 v 8-9, having said, you love Him and you believe in Him, then goes onto say that you are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy! Are we so full of that joy that we walk around with a permanent smile on our faces? Jesus Himself said in John ch 15 v 11, 'I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.' Is His joy in you? Is your joy complete? If not maybe there is some working out of our salvation still to be done and that is done by being obedient to His Word.

The first step here is to know His word. John 8 v 31 says, 'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples'. How much of His teaching in the gospels do we really know? Many of us like to quote, 'ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you', but completely ignore the condition that comes immediately before it, 'If you remain in me and my words remain in you.' John 15 v 7.

What about our love for one another? We cannot love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love our brother whom we have seen, 1 John 4 v 20. Jesus put it this way, 'By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.' John 13 v 35.

How are we doing in producing fruit? Disciples produce fruit. There is a tendency amongst believers to think that God is here for us, to make our life better now. That there is nothing more to be done; being saved is the end. But if that was true, should we not have died then and there and gone to heaven?

But there is a purpose for our still being here and that is to bear fruit, or as Paul says in Eph 2 v 10 to do good works. But the good works are those which were prepared beforehand for us to walk in. Not things that we think are a good idea. In John 15 v 8 Jesus says, 'This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.' Ah there's that challenge about being His disciples again.

By studying the life of Jesus we shall see that He is to be our example for every aspect of our lives and our walk with Him. Please, never compare yourself with someone other than Jesus. Jesus often said He only did what He saw His Father doing and that His Father told Him what to say. We are to do what He did. He said we were to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations teaching them everything He has taught us.

To cross that insurmountable gap mentioned at the beginning, we need to move from being a believer to being a disciple; until then we cannot disciple others and we, ourselves, are in grave danger. We do not wish to be like the five foolish virgins to whom Jesus tragically said, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'